Engineering and Manufacturing

Engineering and manufacturing are fields in which Japan once took great pride on the global stage. However, due to the economic stagnation following the high growth period and issues related to the aging population and low birthrate, the succession of technology has stagnated. On the other hand, there has been a growing demand for engineers to address the aging of existing plants and to construct new types of plants aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. For Japan to reach carbon neutrality, addressing this issue is unavoidable.

Our Essential

At BayCurrent, we have many consultants with backgrounds as plant engineers who have also gained extensive experience in areas such as DX and business process reengineering. By integrating their engineering expertise with consulting skills, we not only ensure the successful completion of projects as planned, but also provide comprehensive solutions, including DX and operational excellence.

Featured Cases

Reorganization of Daily Necessities Factories

Factory restructuring was positioned as one of the three pillars of the turnaround strategy for the daily necessities business. First, to determine the product lineup that would serve as the basis for the restructuring, costs were broken down by product, and income and expenditures were quantified for each product. Based on this, products were boldly narrowed down. Subsequently, products were mapped to factories and logistics bases to achieve a positive balance between production and logistics. For factories and logistics bases that had to be closed due to unavoidable circumstances, we supported the search for buyers and facilitated the sale negotiations.

DX and Project Management in Plant Construction

As efforts towards carbon neutrality progress, large-scale plant constructions are occurring in rapid succession. Consequently, a shortage of project managers and engineers for plant construction has become evident. We approached the personnel shortage from two directions. First, it promoted the planning and implementation of DX (digital transformation) for plant construction management operations. For areas where gaps still existed, it supplemented human resources, focusing primarily on progress and cost management. The project was advanced to ensure that it did not fall behind the initial schedule.

Promoting DX in Building Construction

In the construction industry, where labor shortages are becoming increasingly severe, improving work efficiency through DX is urgent. Drawing on the latest examples from industries facing similar challenges, such as oil plants and public infrastructure, as well as trends in building construction, we developed use cases aimed at enhancing work efficiency from a mid-to-long term perspective. Incorporated these use cases into a roadmap, identified tipping points in technological evolution, and defined triggers for implementing these mid-to-long term use cases.

Cases

Promoting Data Leverage as a Key DX Strategy

We made operations that had long relied on "intuition and experience" more efficient by backing them up with past data. We supported the creation of highly "feasible" use cases, their prioritization, and the construction of prototypes.

Transforming Factories into Centers of Excellence

Aiming to promote DX in factories, we formulated an ideal model. Analyzed the gap between the current situation and the ideal, proposed use cases to bridge that gap, and supported the development of methods to measure their effectiveness.

Development of Foreign Object Detection Service Using Image Recognition AI

We planned a service that uses image recognition AI to detect foreign objects mixed in scrap iron. We also managed vendors for system development and launched the service after implementing measures to accelerate AI learning.

View all