Koiwai Co., Ltd. case study
USER PROFILE
■Company information: Koiwai Co., Ltd.
■ Business content:
Based on the philosophy of "strive to pass on and develop casting technology, contribute to society through high-quality manufacturing, and make history as a valuable company," we have expanded our business by flexibly incorporating new technologies while adhering to the basics. Acquired various support/promotion business certifications from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Manufactures and sells prototypes, mass-produced castings, and metal powder laminated parts.
background
-
Prototyping, research and development, mass production casting business and machining business
-
Actively take on challenges that lead to DX, such as being the first in the industry to reduce man-hours by prototyping with 3D printers.
Task
-
Shortage of young talent and succession of skills of skilled workers
-
Improve quote creation speed and accuracy
-
Quotation creation that meets a wide variety of customer requirements
selection
-
Development of AI that can search past similar 3D data with high accuracy
-
Construction of a system that enables the creation of quotations in consideration of casting plans
-
Short-term maintenance
Attempt
-
Constructed a system that can search for similarities from 3D data at the time of prototyping with a total of over 10,000 points
-
Create an environment where anyone can quickly and accurately create quotations
from now on
-
全体工数の削減による案件獲得キャパシティの増加
-
Eliminate variations in accuracy due to years of experience, improve soundness, and make overall sales activities transparent
-
Utilization of AI and digital technology to create an environment related to SDGs, such as reducing environmental impact
Participating members of this project
Koiwai Co., Ltd.
Mr. Toyomi Koiwai, Representative Board Director
Sales Department Manager Daisuke Kobayashi
Engineering Department Hisao Terazono
Macnica
Takahiro Kusunoki, Osamu Mori, Taiko Haga, Mary Grace Malana, Jerelyn Co, Shinichiro Fukunaga, Hirofumi Saruki, Rei Sakakibara
background
Proactive investment in advanced initiatives such as 3D printer utilization
Koiwai Co., Ltd. manufactures and sells prototypes, mass-produced castings, and metal powder laminated parts.
At the beginning of the business, the business was centered on prototypes and one-off castings for research and development, but now it is expanding into the field of mass production castings and machining with capital investment.
In particular, in the casting business, we were the first in the industry to use a 3D printer to manufacture prototype castings, and we were able to omit the wooden mold production process that had been required in the past. We are actively taking on innovative challenges that lead to DX.
Since the previous founder was in the automobile industry, the company's customers are still mainly manufacturers that handle automobiles and their parts. We are planning to expand sales channels to
In the prototype business handled by such a company, there was a history of creating about 40 to 50 items as prototypes every month before the corona crisis, and it is said that the inquiry base boasts twice that scale.
- Mr. Koiwai
Prototypes may vary greatly depending on the customer's project, such as 1 piece or 100 pieces. We have worked on many prototypes with a different approach from mass production, such as delivery times as short as one week and delivery times of several months, including machining.
Task
類似データを参考とする見積作成に時間がかかる
The foundry industry, where the company works, is facing a shortage of young talent, as is the case with the Japanese industry as a whole.
Mr. Koiwai explains that in order to inherit the advanced technology that has been cultivated over many years in the field, there has long been a need to break away from outdated analog methods and create an environment that is easy to work in.
What he thought was necessary was the promotion of DX, which realizes the transformation of the business model by promoting the digitization of the workplace.
- Mr. Koiwai
The workplace was centered on experienced professionals, and the environment for newcomers to learn was not sufficiently developed. From a management point of view, it was an urgent task to acquire new human resources and create an environment that included the succession of technology.
At that time, in order to support the DX transformation of companies led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Kanagawa Prefecture is working to support the DX transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises through a DX project that creates a business model that uses data and digital technology to generate profits. is started.
It is said that the company, which has been promoting advanced initiatives using digital data, such as incorporating 3D printers that create prototypes into its own business, has decided to participate.
After deciding to participate in the project, Mr. Koiwai's first task was to improve the efficiency of the estimate work in the prototype business, which is the point of contact with customers.
- Mr. Koiwai
It takes time and effort to create quotations after receiving inquiries, and there are cases where the opportunity to receive an order is missed due to the low accuracy of the quotation. After consulting with the person in charge of the prefectural government, who was leading the project, we decided to start with efforts to improve the speed and accuracy of estimate creation.
Especially in the trial production business, which deals with trial production before mass production, there are a wide variety of requests from customers, and when creating an estimate, it is necessary to calculate the estimated amount based on past knowledge and past achievements. is required.
- Mr. Kobayashi
Normally, we submit an estimate based on factors such as the number of molds required for the prototype, the plan for casting, and the production period. However, in the case of a new employee or a member with little experience, there is no choice but to interview all related departments to derive a sense of the amount, which takes time to create an estimate. Therefore, we searched for the 3D data of a similar product with the most similar shape from past prototypes, and used that estimate as a reference to estimate the price. Even so, veterans can create it in 1-2 hours, but inexperienced members sometimes took a day.
:
For those who want to read more
Download the PDF document here
Latest Information
Case Study
Blog
Document List