Challenges
Selection of optimal solutions in the sales logistics field
Implemented Products/Solutions
Business Consulting
Project Background
Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic, Inc, a Konica Minolta Group company operating in the medical and printing fields, provides new solutions based on digitalization and networking.
With production and sales expanding globally and competition intensifying, it was essential to further reduce product inventory and shorten delivery lead times.
To achieve this goal, they were considering which system would be most suitable for the sales and logistics field. B-EN-G was selected as a partner for this IT planning and solution selection.
Reason for Choosing B-EN-G
Hiroshi Takamukai, Manager of the Business Management Center, who was the leader of this project, explains the reason for choosing B-EN-G as follows:
"What we were looking for in this project was to gradually solidify our company's requirements, have management and on-site perspectives, understand business/technology/corporate culture, and come up with a reasonable solution. We also considered other consulting companies, but B-EN-G was the best at coordinating on-site factors while understanding the technology and manufacturing aspects, and gauging the atmosphere of the worksite." He further revealed, "The deciding factor was that they had a reputation not only for IT planning and selection, but also for building complex solutions including SAP ERP.''
B-EN-G's consulting is characterized by its ability to present the business knowledge and engineering capabilities of the manufacturing industry that it has cultivated since its days at Toyo Engineering Corporation, as well as cutting-edge IT as realistic solutions based on the client's actual situation, and to make proposals that enable decision making with a sense of security. These characteristics matched Konica Minolta-MG's needs.
Project Outline
The IT planning project took two months. The project consisted of three major phases: confirmation of SCM goals, current status survey, and solution selection, followed by problem analysis, system architecture consideration, and final solution selection.
In this project, we conducted a SCOT (Skills, Contents, Organization, Tools) analysis and identified issues based on on-site interviews with more than 10 departments, from overseas sales staff to the production management department. Furthermore, while considering it from an architectural perspective, we extracted requirements such as serial management and order progress management, and derived the optimal IT configuration.
In addition, B-EN-G is characterized by planning and evaluation from the customer's perspective without being tied to a single package, but in this project as well, we focused on not only cost and business requirement compliance, but also future system development. We comprehensively evaluated multiple solutions, taking into consideration collaboration with companies and 3PL companies.
B-EN-G as a Partner
"B-EN-G's consulting style was evident everywhere," says Takamukai.
"Generally, at the time of IT concept and planning, we do not conduct interviews at the level of personnel in charge. By visiting the site, B-EN-G can understand business issues and corporate culture that go beyond the system. I liked the style of each consultant. Unlike other consulting companies that use a top-down approach and impose their management perspective, they first listen to what the person in charge on-site has to say, and then adapt to the situation. I felt that the customer's perspective was taken into consideration by the session-based approach of explaining policies and analysis results."
Mr. Takamukai talks about his expectations for B-EN-G in the future as follows. "The strength of Japan's manufacturing industry is the work process at the site. For example, at the logistics site, the logistics staff has product knowledge, monitors customer order trends, thinks about how to move inventory, and uses RFID and barcodes. We need an IT company that is knowledgeable about this process. We expect them to engineer solutions while understanding the context of the supply chain and engineering chain."
*Please note that organization names, positions, numerical data, etc. in the article are based on the time of the interview and may have changed by current viewing.
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