Digital Transformation (DX)
Driving Business Model and Portfolio Transformation
Goals and Achievements of Major Initiatives
Promote DX.
| Goals for fiscal year 2023 | Steadily advance DX initiatives across an increasing number of business units/ functional departments. |
|---|---|
| Achievements in fiscal year 2023 | The following key DX initiatives were advanced across multiple business units:
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| Evaluation | ★★ |
| Goals for fiscal year 2024 | Create processes and guidelines for confirming/verifying effectiveness and work with business units to prioritize and implement key DX initiatives. |
| Goals for fiscal year 2023 | Introduce digital initiatives that support the exploration of business model transformation. |
|---|---|
| Achievements in fiscal year 2023 | A variety of key initiatives were advanced in relation to, among others, digital marketing, smart production facilities, the use of MI* and AI in product development, and the realization of recycling processes for plastics. |
| Evaluation | ★★★ |
| Goals for fiscal year 2024 | Continue to explore and implement digital initiatives crucial to business model transformation and thus to achieving the targets of DIC Vision 2030. |
Foster human resources.
| Goals for fiscal year 2023 | Further strengthen the framework for promoting DX in terms of human resources, skills and expertise. |
|---|---|
| Achievements in fiscal year 2023 | In addition to training for individuals in all departments whose jobs require the use of data, practical training was provided for midcareer and young employees aimed at equipping them to lead DX initiatives for a second consecutive year. Significant synergies with measures to improve the digital literacy of all employees are anticipated. |
| Evaluation | ★★★ |
| Goals for fiscal year 2024 | Advance awareness of the need for and importance of realizing datadriven management and data-driven operations (cultivate a corporate culture in which these concepts are firmly established) and continue strengthening efforts to foster human resources with advanced digital capabilities. |
- Evaluations are based on self-evaluations of current progress.
Key:★★★ = Excellent;★★ = Satisfactory;★ = Still needs work
- MI applies statistical analysis and other informatics techniques to search large amounts of data for new materials.
Basic Policy
The DIC Group promotes DX with the objective of providing new value and reinforcing its corporate structure and competitive advantages through the use of digital technologies and data. The Group is advancing initiatives Groupwide, beginning with measures to expedite the growth strategies outlined in the DIC Vision 2030 long-term management plan in four key areas: Market,* production, technology and supply chain management (SCM). The Group is also working to realize a next-generation digital integrated platform and securing and training human resources to establish the infrastructure necessary to advance DX.
- “Market” is used here in the sense of sales and marketing functions.
Framework for Promotion
The IT Strategy Unit’s Information Systems Department and DX Promotion Department capitalize on data and digital technologies, eliminating boundaries between IT and DX, to promote process optimization, work style reforms and the innovation of business models over the short term, as well as the medium to long term. Looking ahead, DIC expects to see an increase in the promotion of independent DX initiatives by individual business units and functional departments. Accordingly, the IT Strategy Unit traces, provides support for and conducts post-implementation monitoring of such initiatives to ensure optimization from a Groupwide perspective. Efforts to develop a Groupwide IT governance scheme, including the formulation of guidelines for promotion and the establishment of a management system, are also underway.
Market
Through DX, DIC seeks to enhance brand strength by creating highlevel customer experiences, as well as to achieve business model transformation. Thanks to digitalization, information on, for example, customer needs that was previously under the jurisdiction of individual departments can be shared across organizational boundaries, facilitating the provision of proposals for products and solutions that incorporate the customer’s perspective, thereby improving customer experiences. The Company is also leveraging digital marketing to expand its sales channels, enabling it to extend a variety of proposals to customers who may not be familiar with DIC Group offerings and generating new business opportunities. In fiscal year 2024, DIC will continue working to increase the effectiveness of its digital marketing initiatives with the goal of providing new and better customer experiences.
Production
In the area of production, DIC is capitalizing on accumulated expertise to develop AI technologies that optimize the DIC Group’s proprietary batch reaction*1 production system. As part of this effort, in fiscal year 2023 the Company obtained two patents in Japan for an AI engine capable of creating highly accurate models even for complex processes such as chemical reactions. Looking ahead, the Company will continue to deploy related primary technologies in the area of process informatics (PI)*2 with the aim of achieving higher levels of reliability— in terms of safety, quality and environmental performance—and productivity. DIC is also making use of its exclusive AI technologies, as well as diverse product-specific digital tools, to realize low-cost, distinctively DIC smart factories.
- Batch reaction is a production method whereby all reactants (raw materials) are added to a reactor at the start of the reaction and products are removed at the end once the reaction is complete.
- PI is defined as an approach to exploring processes for synthesizing target materials that leverages a combination of conventional experimental, theoretical and computational science, as well as data science, which has seen remarkable advances in recent years, to analyze data in an efficient and integrated manner.
Technology
On the technology side, DIC continues seeking to accelerate the creation of new value and products by shifting the focus of its efforts to computational and data science, which use AI and MI. In fiscal year 2021, the Company established the Data Science Center, a specialized AI organization, through which it is working to halve the development stage for new products and double the number of development themes in play. In fiscal year 2023, approximately 60% of technological themes explored by DIC were done so in collaboration with the Data Science Center. In addition to leveraging predictive analysis of performance using AI and MI, these included using AI to determine experiment parameters, which succeeded in reducing work hours used in conducting experiments. In fiscal year 2024, the Company will work to further expand its use of AI and MI in the creation and collection of data, as well as to expand the range of areas in which it uses AI.
SCM
In addition to improving the visibility of the flow of goods and information through its supply chains, the DIC Group is promoting related reforms designed to optimize supply chains spanning multiple regions, businesses and organizational constituents. To this end, the Group has made use of digital technologies that can be automatically linked Groupwide to build a digital SCM platform that facilitates planning online and in real time based on up-to-date demand data, which it began full-scale operation of in the color materials and performance materials businesses in fiscal year 2023. Going forward, the Group will continue to expand deployment of this platform in additional regions and businesses as part of its effort to achieve supply chain reform.
Updating Core Business Systems and Establishing a Global Digital Integration Platform
The DIC Group plans to update its core business systems in fiscal year 2024. To this end, the Group has built a global digital platform and operating configuration that will still be capable of evolving with speed and agility 10 years down the road. The Group also plans to establish a next-generation digital integrated platform that will make extensive use of digital technologies and data, as well as adapt to changes in its operating environment and advances in digital technologies.
Securing and Fostering Human Resources
DIC is also focusing on taking advantage of digital technologies and data to create a foundation for analyzing, evaluating and executing problem-solving measures and business reforms in its various businesses. In addition to training for individuals whose jobs require the use of data, practical training was provided for mid-career and young employees aimed to foster human resources who grasp both business strategy and frontline challenges and equipping them to lead DX initiatives. Initiatives were also implemented to improve the digital literacy of all employees. In addition, as part of its effort to reinforce its framework for swiftly implementing measures that fully leverage digital technologies, the Group is actively recruiting new graduates and midcareer hires in the areas of IT and DX.
TOPICS
Digital Marketing Initiatives Continue to Advance
The promotion of multifaceted digital marketing initiatives is leading to business talks between DIC and a broad range of new customers with which it did not previously have any direct point of contact. These efforts have enabled the Company to quantitively analyze what product features particularly appealed to customer needs, an achievement made possible by the use of digital technologies. The Company is also capitalizing on digital marketing to maintain and/or enhance relations with existing customers through the timely provision of useful information.
In fiscal year 2023, DIC held the Smart Living Online Exhibition, a virtual trade show that introduced cross-business DIC Group products and solutions in the smart living business area created to address customer needs in two categories, dubbed Innovation and Sustainability. More than 5,000 individuals visited the exhibition, while document viewings exceeded 1,000. Many downloaded documents from multiple departments, underscoring the appeal of the smart living theme in attracting visitors and encouraging them to take an interest in DIC’s broad, diverse product lineup, rather than focusing on specific products of interest. DIC will continue to further advance its digital marketing initiatives with the aim of building deeper relationships with customers.
Smart Living Online Exhibition
TOPICS
Digital Marketing Initiatives Are Advancing
Four years have passed since DIC introduced Salesforce cloud-based services and marketing automation, during which digital marketing has become firmly cemented in all pertinent departments. Beginning with point-of-sales digital marketing, individual departments have stepped up efforts to include conducting quantitative analyses of outcomes before determining subsequent actions. The entrenchment of digital marketing has also spurred individual departments to build a framework for these activities. Owing to the greater prevalence of offl ine marketing initiatives compared with fiscal year 2021, the Company promoted “hybrid” activities, which incorporate digital marketing into participation in trade shows, in fiscal year 2022. One example was the use of email marketing in conjunction with its trade show participation with the purpose of gaining promising leads, which succeeded in increasing the number of business cards received and creating a new point of contact with customers.
Digital marketing is not something that can be completed on a computer. Maintaining a Companywide perspective, DIC will continue striving to communicate the appeal of its products by capitalizing on the expertise and experience accumulated by sales and technical teams, thereby further enhancing customer value.
Trade show participation incorporating digital marketing
TOPICS
Efforts to Promote Digital Marketing Are Progressing.
Three years have passed since DIC introduced Salesforce cloud-based services and marketing automation. In fiscal year 2021, the Company held a website content creation support workshop, an initiative that has accelerated the use of these services Companywide. Workshop participants are asked to envision what sorts of solutions DIC can offer its customers and beyond that to its customers’ customers, and to create websites from two perspectives: Products and customer value. Using digital means, the Company then conducted surveys via these websites. Participating departments have succeeded in making contact with a steady stream of customers they would not otherwise have access to in the course of normal sales activities. One advantage of digital technology is that results are quantifiable and timely. Increased visibility means that the individuals in charge in any given business unit will be able to see and understand the numbers, encouraging them to think spontaneously about what can be done next or how can this be followed-up effectively. DIC will continue working to communicate the appeal of its products by encouraging market-driven thinking across the Company
- Marketing innovation uses tools and software to support marketing efforts, including the securing of new customers and cultivation of prospective customers.
Content creation support workshop
