Overview of KITZ Corporation

KITZ holds the top market share in Japan for valve manufacturing and sales, and ranks within the top 10 globally. With a 72-year history, the company has 5,352 consolidated employees. It reported sales of 159.9 billion yen in fiscal year 2022 and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market.
Leveraging its expertise in fluid control for liquids and gases, KITZ maintains a high market share in piping valves for residential homes, condominiums, commercial buildings, factories, and oil refineries.
Learn more here: https://www.kitz.co.jp/who/

Background of KITZ's Implementation of uSonar: Accelerating Growth Market Expansion Through the Medium-Term Management Plan

In its current medium-term management plan, KITZ has established a policy to accelerate the expansion of growth markets. This includes not only its traditional core markets, such as general construction and industrial plants, but also digital markets—such as data centers and semiconductor manufacturing equipment—and green markets, including next-generation energy sources like hydrogen and fine chemicals.

Determining That uSonar Implementation Is Essential for DX Promotion

To advance into these growth markets swiftly and reliably, the IT Control Center (Information Systems Department) is promoting digital transformation (DX) to evolve the group's overall information infrastructure. In particular, to effectively gather information for growth markets, the company identified a critical need for comprehensive research capabilities covering both corporate customer demand (for sales) and parts manufacturing outsourcing partners (for procurement). This led to the decision to implement uSonar products (see the figure below).

Usage Scenarios and Benefits of Implementation at KITZ

In terms of sales, we previously researched and collected corporate information for new business development through personal referrals, internet searches, and visits to libraries. Since we began using the combination of Salesforce and uSonar, we have been able to instantly create targeted company lists, significantly reducing the man-hours required for new prospect research and improving overall efficiency.
Furthermore, in terms of procurement, since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an increase in incidents such as the sudden bankruptcy of parts manufacturing partners and delivery delays. Previously, we relied on internet searches and word-of-mouth evaluations to find alternative parts manufacturing partners or those matching new market needs. By using uSonar, we have drastically reduced the time spent on research and expanded the comprehensiveness of our candidate list.

Comments from Takashi Ishijima, Executive Officer and General Manager of the IT Control Center, KITZ Corporation

In our current medium-term management plan, we have set goals for the expansion of both our traditional core markets and growth markets. We are building a track record of expanding demand in the digital and green markets, including air conditioning equipment for data centers, valves used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, filtration systems for ultra-pure water used in computer processing, and equipment for hydrogen stations, which are considered next-generation energy sources. To realize the expansion of these growth markets, we need to develop marketing strategies that more broadly identify and approach customers with demand in each market. However, the challenge was that corporate information is not only difficult to collect but also constantly changes and becomes outdated. Since introducing uSonar, we have felt the effects of DX promotion so dramatically that staff members have remarked, 'What were we struggling with all this time?' We have high expectations for uSonar, which provides comprehensive, constantly updated corporate information and allows us to efficiently narrow down our target prospects.

uSonar: Driving Salesforce Adoption in the Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing companies advancing their digital transformation (DX) aim to improve their new business development capabilities and order win rates by thoroughly accumulating and analyzing customer information, such as sales negotiation data, through the introduction of SFA/CRM systems like Salesforce. On the other hand, a new task accompanying the introduction of Salesforce is the need to accumulate and update information, which increases the data entry burden on the sales team.
In other words, a requirement arises to 'automate and streamline the accumulation and updating of information as much as possible to reduce the burden on the front lines.' This is where the customer data integration solution 'uSonar' proves its value.
Learn more here: URL https://usonar.co.jp/service/usonar/

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