Driving Manufacturing Reform to Enhance Production Productivity

Building Shared Understanding Through Open Dialogue

Daifuku’s manufacturing has long achieved high quality and stable productivity by leveraging well-established equipment alongside accumulated experience and expertise. However, looking ahead, it became clear that fundamental changes were necessary—not only to equipment, but also to workflows and the overall production structure. Pursuing this transformation required aligning perspectives across teams and strengthening collaboration. To that end, Ueshima and his colleagues took care to repeatedly explain their understanding of the challenges and their vision for the future, gradually building a shared understanding.

“In order to ensure a common and accurate understanding of Daifuku’s current manufacturing practices, future vision, and the latest technologies, we held daily study sessions with members from engineering, design, and manufacturing. Previously, there had been no opportunities for people across departments to gather in one place, but these sessions allowed us to exchange opinions from our respective perspectives. As a result, everyone involved was able to push forward based on the same knowledge and understanding,” says Ueshima.

Applying Manufacturing Floor Insights to System Design

Yuto Kawai

A defining feature of Daifuku’s manufacturing reform is that it extends beyond production lines to include a fundamental review of design processes. As part of this effort, Kawai was responsible for introducing new equipment aimed at the in-house production and automation of sheet metal components.

“Previously, sheet metal components were procured externally, so we had no experience in designing them or in any of the processing involved—such as cutting and bending steel sheets. While starting from scratch presented challenges, handling everything from design to processing ourselves allowed us to gain insights we could not have obtained otherwise,” shares Kawai.

Such insights gained on the manufacturing floor are then regularly shared with the design department. These accumulated learnings provide a foundation for designers to take a more holistic view of manufacturing and to incorporate considerations of cost and productivity from the upstream stages, contributing to further improvements in productivity.

A system that automates the entire process of sheet metal processing, storage, and transfer to the next stage of production

Striving for Further Improvement

As reform progresses, individual roles have also begun to evolve. After completing the initial phase of equipment implementation, Kawai transitioned to overseeing the development of production support systems.

“We used to manually create production schedules daily. However, as design methods shifted from 2D to 3D, processing information became embedded within the 3D data. We leveraged this information to build a database to quantify the production capacity at each process. Based on order details, we can now generate production plans—such as what to produce, in what quantities, and on what timeline—almost automatically,” Kawai explains.

Makoto Naya

Makoto Naya, a younger employee who was assigned to the manufacturing reform team soon after joining the company, is involved in programming for machining processes.

“Current CAM^* software can automatically generate machining programs by reading 3D data. However, more nuanced decisions, such as determining which part to machine first, still require human judgment based on experience. Even as automation advances, there are still processes where human involvement remains essential. I hope to help build automation systems that contribute to even higher-quality manufacturing,” says Naya.

• ※CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing): Software used to create programs required for machining operations on machine tools.

Ueshima also gained many new insights through this process. Previously, he had viewed components simply as finished parts, but as he worked to advance manufacturing reform, his perspective broadened. He came to better understand the intent behind how each component is designed and processed, as well as the multiple stages involved in bringing them to completion.

“There are opportunities for cost reduction at every stage of the manufacturing process. Going forward, I would like to leverage an on-the-floor perspective to propose improvements, such as how changes in design could help lower costs,” says Ueshima.

Daifuku will continue to accelerate its efforts to improve productivity. Kawai notes, “While automation has progressed compared to the past, there is still more to be done. We want to build a factory that truly lives up to Daifuku’s reputation as a leader in automation.” Naya is also looking ahead, saying, “By further advancing automation, I hope to reduce the burden on the manufacturing floor while achieving an even higher level of production.”

While automation and digitalization are advancing through manufacturing reform, the impact extends beyond physical changes alone. The mindset of employees involved in the reform—including Ueshima, Kawai, and Naya—has evolved, and collaboration across departments continues to strengthen. In this sense, manufacturing reform is also simultaneously providing valuable talent development.