How Toyota Boshoku Unified Digital Transformation Initiatives Through the Human Factor

Challenges in Implementing New Systems

Yoko Inaba (hereafter referred to as Ms. Inaba): How does Toyota Boshoku approach digital transformation, and what specific steps have you taken?

Yoko Inaba
Vice President,Head of Innovation Technology Department Technology and Innovation General Headquarters,NTT DATA Group

After initially working in R&D, focusing on data science, AI, quantum computing, and data analysis consulting, in 2021 Ms. Inaba shifted toward business development aimed at addressing social issues such as disaster prevention and regional revitalization. Since 2024, she has been leading innovation activities leveraging advanced technologies.

Takahiro Shibata (hereafter referred to as Mr. Shibata) : While digital transformation usually means transforming businesses with digital tools, we see "Transformation with Digital" (XD) as a more fitting model for manufacturing companies like ours. Initially, my focus was standardizing key metrics like material and man-hour requirements, which is an essential process even without taking digital tools into account. Our DX initiatives accelerated this standardization by increasing stakeholder awareness. Next, we organized our information. We had many data sets that looked similar but served different purposes. So, our response was to centralize our data management processes.

Takahiro Shibata
Chief Digital Officer and Segment Chief, DX & IT PROMOTION SEGMENT, Toyota Boshoku Corporation

Mr. Shibata is responsible for developing business systems, building IT infrastructure, and implementing digital tools. To drive overall optimization within the Toyota Boshoku Group, he leads system development and standardization efforts, collaborating closely with each department at global headquarters, as well as domestic and international affiliates.

Ms. Inaba : Toyota Boshoku has laid a solid foundation for success, but transforming employee mindsets is another crucial success factor for DX/XD initiatives. Do you agree?

Mr. Shibata : Changing awareness across all levels, from executives to managers and front-line workers, is essential. Many employees still see digitalization as the IT department's responsibility, not something central to their roles. They often remark that "our core business lies elsewhere." Supervisors must understand digitalization, clearly articulate its importance, and allocate the necessary resources to execute it. We need digital leaders at every level, though finding enough of these individuals remains challenging.

Ms. Inaba : Reducing working hours is a major theme in manufacturing, and managers are struggling with this issue daily. Is this an area where digitalization has entered the conversation?

Mr. Shibata : It is. In fact, digitalization has begun to permeate at all levels. Our policy is to digitalize operations with the aim of improved efficiency and staffing plans. This has been communicated with the entire company, and implementation plans are well underway. However, I feel proactivity, autonomy, and awareness could be improved. The mindset of, "We must drive this ourselves," is still lacking.

Ms. Inaba : At the ground level, what is the main barrier for DX initiatives? Is it the time taken for employees to become proficient with new tools?

Mr. Shibata : Proficiency matters, but first employees need to simply start using new tools. For instance, we provided everyone access to the generative AI tool Microsoft Copilot and ensured everybody was made aware of this change. Despite that, not everybody is using it. Employees recognize that it is effective once they start using it, but many hesitate to take that first step. Generative AI is a tool that improves the more you use it.

Ms. Inaba : In the IT industry, we are relatively familiar with new applications and tools. The difficult part is making sure everybody uses them. Simply informing people isn't enough; we need to provide training and create opportunities for practical application to gradually build proficiency. When someone becomes proficient, they can then teach others, steadily expanding the usage of each tool or application. Even externally, when we deliver systems to our customers, there are cases where utilization stalls after the implementation phase. Mr. Arai, what are your thoughts on this?

Takahiro Arai (hereafter referred to as Mr. Arai) : Our first priority is contributing to our clients' management goals and addressing their challenges. To achieve this, we select and propose appropriate solutions and tools. However, I also recognize that it is very difficult to ensure teams on the ground can use them efficiently or increase internal adoption rates.

For example, NTT DATA has been providing the RPA tool "WinActor" for over ten years, but we've found that even with help desk support, adoption remains challenging. One effective solution we implemented was creating user communities: a platform where customer users can participate and share tips. Through these communities, clients can solve their own issues and actively promote product use.

Takahiro Arai
Executive Manager, Asset Business Section, Social Innovation Division, Social Infrastructure Solution Sector, NTTDATA

Mr. Arai has extensive experience driving business initiatives in medical and healthcare fields, serving variously as planner, salesperson, and project manager. He has contributed extensively to formulating, communicating, and implementing corporate management strategies. Currently, he leads strategic planning and promotion of asset-related business in public and social infrastructure sectors.

How Internal Exhibitions Can Ignite Change in Employee Awareness

Mr. Shibata : Introducing new tools and ensuring their effective use is never simple, but generative AI could serve as a crucial catalyst. When employees see generative AI in action, they realize, "We can actually do this in our work." This insight can motivate departments to engage more seriously with digital transformation.

One initiative designed to spark this awareness was our internal exhibition, DX EXPO. With your support, our first exhibition featured our DX Promotion Office Manager, Yoshida, whom we transformed into a Digital Human AI agent. The presentation was innovative and memorable. In the second exhibition, renamed DX&AI EXPO, we took this concept further, showcasing actual cases of workplace improvements using generative AI. Although there is still progress to be made in fully realizing generative AI's potential, even these initial improvements have had a significant impact on our organization.

Ms. Inaba : When we provide new systems, we always aim to capture employees' interest. It's impressive that employees themselves came up with ideas and created practical examples to be showcased at DX&AI EXPO. Were there any particular examples that stood out strongly for you?

Mr. Shibata : We're putting substantial focus on internal inquiries from various departments. For instance, our OA Help Desk consumes considerable resources, but by integrating AI, we anticipate reducing its workload by approximately 20-30%. Another compelling example comes from our production plants. We recorded manual assembly tasks on video and then used AI to analyze this footage. The AI identifies specific actions likely to cause quality problems, right down to individual finger movements. Previously, identifying areas for improvement depended entirely on human intuition and experience. Now, AI provides us with concrete suggestions, which has drawn significant attention internally.

Ms. Inaba : That final case is a particularly strong example of how these technologies benefit the manufacturing industry. Beyond real-time anomaly detection, it seems like this could be particularly helpful for training. However, after DX&AI EXPO, what challenges are you currently facing?

Mr. Shibata : Initially, there was a widespread feeling that digitalization was not part of our core business, causing fragmentation and a lack of unity. However, after the DX&AI EXPO, I've noticed a significant increase in proactivity across the teams. It became clear how important it is to accumulate successful cases. Without sufficient real-world examples, scaling these improvements company-wide becomes challenging, and tackling transformation department-by-department isn't effective. We're now actively encouraging multiple departments to drive these initiatives forward.

Ms. Inaba : Field teams often hold practical insights, making prototyping and iteration an essential part of the process. However, finding the resources to create and test prototypes might be difficult. Mr. Arai, what are your views?

Mr. Arai : At the DX&AI EXPO, we introduced "Tsunagi AI," our AI agent platform. It is a low-code tool designed specifically to enable easy AI adoption, even by employees without extensive IT backgrounds. We presented our world view: each employee has an AI assistant close to hand, acting like a digital secretary. Even with such user-friendly tools, we recognize there are still outstanding challenges. How do we lower barriers for field employees, minimize resource needs, and actively support ongoing usage? These are critical questions we're aware of and actively addressing in our ongoing service development.

Driving Real-World Improvements with Advanced Technologies

Ms. Inaba : Business improvement isn't just about how efficiently humans complete tasks. In manufacturing, the concept of a "smart factory" is gaining momentum, combining advanced technologies such as optimization through simulation, robotic transportation, and anomaly detection. These are all areas regularly handled by NTT DATA. How do these technologies align with Toyota Boshoku's priorities?

Mr. Shibata : We're actively pursuing "factory DX," with a particular focus on logistics. Internal logistics are a critical factor in reducing our overall processing costs. Currently, we're visualizing the flow of materials within our factories and have observed that the transportation processes take significantly longer than production itself. Since transportation doesn't add direct value to our products, we're now considering ways to streamline and enhance this stage.

Ms. Inaba : Traditionally, optimizing logistics has relied heavily on human intuition and past experience. However, given the increasing complexity involved, would there be cases where using mathematical optimization and simulation tools would be preferable?

Mr. Shibata : Yes. Our products involve intricate conditions, numerous parts and complex production processes, that make traditional optimization very challenging. Using computational methods to tackle these complexities would certainly deliver significant benefits.

Why Partnerships Are Becoming Essential

Mr. Shibata : Generative AI will, no doubt, gain more capabilities and greater competency as time goes on. Many tasks currently performed by humans will increasingly be automated. This creates a new challenge: how do we effectively redeploy the human resources freed up by these efficiencies? Reskilling is an obvious solution, but there will inevitably be scenarios where reskilling proves difficult. Do you have thoughts or suggestions on how we might best approach this?

Mr. Arai : I think pairing employees with an AI agent when they move to a new role could significantly ease the transition. That will eliminate the need to start from scratch. Generative AI promises to greatly support reskilling and help expand employees' capabilities into new areas. Indeed, we've heard from customers that they anticipate a future in which generative AI actively supports human training and facilitates knowledge transfer, a vision we find particularly resonant.

Mr. Shibata : I agree. We're likely to see generative AI increasingly involved in reskilling initiatives. Ultimately, whether involving humans or generative AI, what matters most is achieving a genuine sense of "partnership." The definition of "partnership," however, will vary by each industry and individual company. We aim to fine-tune the AI models ourselves, believing that offering a flexible, varied range of partnership options will significantly facilitate collaboration.

Mr. Arai : As AI becomes more democratized, customers will increasingly internalize AI use. Therefore, it's crucial to provide a menu of partnership services that fit each organization's unique needs. It is valuable to hear about the specific challenges Toyota Boshoku faces with internalizing and embedding AI, especially given your integrated approach from strategic planning down to employee engagement. Today's discussion certainly clarifies our role in supporting this process.

Ms. Inaba : Finally, could you share your outlook on how Toyota Boshoku plans to progress DX/XD initiatives, considering your achievements to date?

Mr. Shibata : Our efforts to standardize, digitalize, and remove legacy systems over the past five years are nearing completion. Going forward, our goal is to fully leverage our integrated information infrastructure. Enhancing business efficiency isn't the goal. It is the means to an end. Ultimately, we aim to double the speed of our business operations by 2030, which will be made possible through smarter, fully interconnected data.

Ms. Inaba & Mr. Arai : Thank you very much for sharing your insights today. We at NTT DATA will continue to provide strong partnership support and look forward to furthering our collaboration.