Recently, GK had the privilege of welcoming Logicom Co., Ltd. President Masato Oue to our office for an in-depth discussion. With a wealth of expertise in logistics and automation, he has played a pivotal role in transforming the industry. Under his leadership, Logicom continues to push the boundaries of efficiency and innovation, helping businesses optimize their supply chains in an increasingly complex world.
In your opinion, what is the secret behind Japan’s logistics, and broader service industry’s, success?
I think everything stems from our overall manufacturing quality and requirements from customers. Manufacturers want to reduce their costs but at the same time want to improve their supply chain – these kinds of requirements were left on the doorstep of logistics companies and it was our responsibility to adapt to them and overcome any challenges.
How have you customized your WMS and operations to address specific challenges unique to the automotive industry, given your long history with this sector?
We have our own in-house IT department that was established way back in the 1970s. There are around 10 people in that department right now and they each possess a sophisticated knowledge of logistics, automotive parts manufacturing, and information technology. They each had to spend several years working in our warehouse before joining the IT team full-time – this allowed them to gain a truly thorough understanding of warehouse operations and the specific needs of our customers. Even our salespeople must experience 3-4 years of work within our warehouse.
Big companies and Japanese logistics giants can boast diverse personnel from many famous universities, so in order to compete with them, our strength is our employees possess first-hand, practical experience within the industry.
In the food industry, B2C, and e-commerce we can already see many successful examples of warehouse automation, though as far as I am aware, nobody has yet succeeded in the automotive parts logistics industry. We established a new department to research automation back in July of this year.
Can you share insights into any technological advancements throughout your operations, such as automation or ‘smart’ IoT features, that have improved efficiency or accuracy?
There are so many different requests from each customer, meaning we ended up developing a unique system for each individual client. We have developed so many systems, often more than one per client, and it is a very complex web. Requirements from car makers are different from parts suppliers and vice versa, so we have had to adapt to both.
Now, we are developing a unique cloud-based system that includes the basic, key features from all of the thousands of systems. We felt that we had to establish a common platform that is available and useful to the majority of our clients. We started to implement this system, named L-Station, back in April 2024. I think it will take 2-3 years to implement it across our entire network since the transfer of data is so huge. This might be another example of the omotenashi culture in Japan.
Autonomous warehouse racking is likely not going to be used in automotive logistics. For us, the most important thing is Just-in-Time delivery (JIT), so should something go wrong, we need to have an alternative way or failsafe to ensure we can complete picking and preparing parts. Warehouses with autonomous racking tend to completely stop during power outages, typhoons, or mechanical failures – we cannot afford to stop the manufacturing line of our clients and lose their trust. Now, I am looking for a way to automate our bases in a flexible way so that humans can still step in and complete the tasks.
