GK had the pleasure of visiting HILLTOP Corporation President Yuuki Yamamoto for a candid and inspiring conversation. At the helm of the company, Mr. Yamamoto is steering HILLTOP into uncharted territory—where digital manufacturing meets creative freedom. With a footprint in the United States, HILLTOP is empowering manufacturers to embrace agility, customization, and a smarter way forward in a rapidly evolving industrial landscape via automated equipment, software, and much more.
To what extent do you think Kyoto has a unique business environment and how has it affected your development over the years?
It is quite notable, even to local people. Companies in Kyoto tend to stay in the city even after making significant growth. Many businesses relocate to Tokyo after becoming bigger, however, here they tend to stay and continue to enjoy the ancient city’s atmosphere. I think that that is why Kyoto has a good metabolism for culture. Throughout Japanese history, there have been various regime changes, and Kyoto was rebuilt from scratch almost every time – as such, Kyoto is very open to new cultures despite outward appearances which is illustrated by Kyoto having the number one consumption of bread and coffee in Japan.
We are open to new business and new culture and the business ecosystem is no different. We also have a generous backup from local banks and the local community here is incredibly supportive, too, meaning the ecosystem more generally is perfect for business development and collaboration.
How else is HILLTOP working to improve operational efficiency in manufacturing?
As you might know, it is imperative for Japanese businesses to tack on automation, otherwise, we simply will not survive in the competitive business landscape. While promoting our COMlogiQto other businesses we have a kind of revelation that there is a huge gap or gulf in IT literacy between manufacturers and IT consulting companies. It doesn’t make sense to simply hand over AI products to manufacturers as they have no luxury or time to take a break and train their personnel or simply do not want to do it at all.
Based on those empirical lessons we learned, we launched “Digital Transformation Services for Manufacturing” as a total consulting service for businesses as of last December. It has been very successful because we tried to align it with the direction of each individual company and we also have our own experience in implementing it.
What does the future look like for your company, and what is your 3–5-year midterm plan?
Including the reason why we chose pink as our corporate color, I myself don’t like manufacturing that much, which is why I have such a strong desire to see transformation in the industry. As a purpose of the company, we want to become the leading manufacturer in the global setting. With the help of DX, we want to make human labor more valuable in working environments and add value to our products. I want to make the manufacturing industry more colorful, rather than just black and grey.
