HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS

Commencement of services of global logistics management and business analysis that support the global development of HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS Co., Ltd

NTT DATA Corporation (headquartered in Koto Ward, Tokyo; President and Chief Executive Officer: Toshio Iwamoto) (hereinafter referred to as “NTT DATA”) has constructed the “HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS Global Data Base” (hereinafter referred to as “GDB”), which allows HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Osaka City, Osaka; President & Chief Executive Officer: Seisaku Okafuji) (hereinafter referred to as “HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS”) to achieve global logistics management and business analysis. NTT DATA will commence the full-scale operation of GDB at 17 countries of HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS around the globe on April 1, 2016. The provision of global supply chain visibility services utilizing GDB to its client companies as shippers or consignees enables HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS to differentiate itself from logistics competitors. The use of GDB also enables the company to early grasp its global consolidated income and expenditure and analyze such data from various angles for optimal management judgment.

GDB has been constructed by combining multiple solutions including the following: “L-Series”, a logistics solution commercialized by NTT DATA Vietnam Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam; President and CEO: Akira Watanabe) (hereinafter referred to as “NTT DATA Vietnam”); “TradeBook ^®”, a trade-document management solution owned by NTT DATA; “QlikView ^®”, a data discovery platform^{(Note 1)}; and “ASTERIA WARP”, a data coordination solution.

In the future, NTT DATA and NTT DATA Vietnam will support HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS’s further development in its global business and will also help companies as shippers or consignees as well as logistics companies engaging in global business to visualize the information on supply-chain and management.

Background

Globalization of corporate activities has been presenting companies as shippers or consignees with the urgent issue of global supply-chain management. Logistics companies that accept logistics operations outsourced from such shippers or consignees have been facing the increasing importance of meeting global demand to obtain customers. In particular, increasing attention is being paid to the use of IT to establish an advantage over logistics competitors and differentiate a company from others. Although IT had been adopted in the logistics sector before, most of the Japanese logistics companies adopted individual systems in each country to accommodate local needs. This fact forced those companies to engage in hard competition with major overseas logistics companies in terms of providing the information on the global supply chain to client companies as shippers or consignees and of early grasping of global consolidated income and expenditure, because such overseas logistics companies had already made it a rule to use globally-standardized systems.

Since HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS had set up individual systems in each country, the company was unable to meet the needs from client companies as shippers or consignees that asked for the provision of information in a globally-integrated way, nor did it have any other choice but to throw human resources in answering a client’s inquiry so that a staff member on the importing side could check with their counterpart on the exporting side. In addition, although the company’s accounting system had the information on consolidated income and expenditure, making a report for the top management about the accounting status for their understanding required an inquiry with each country to obtain data as well as integration and analysis of large amounts of such data each time.

To solve this problem, GDB collects the data on logistics as well as income and expenditure from 17 countries around the globe including Japan to visualize the overall supply-chain information from order placement from a client company as a shipper or consignee through arrival of the cargo. GDB also makes possible checking and analyzing globally-accumulated track records of past transport operations as well as gross profits in an easy way on a real-time basis. While some Japanese companies in logistics and other sectors are trying to achieve the integration of information by consolidating existing systems set up in each country, GDB adopts a scheme to collect necessary information around the globe with existing systems in each country remaining. This scheme has led to a considerably shortened period of time and significantly reduced costs for installation.

NTT DATA succeeded in constructing a GDB that HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS has desired to obtain in a short period of time by effectively combining multiple solutions. In particular, it was the first time that a project launched in Japan has adopted “L-Series”, a logistics solution developed by NTT DATA Vietnam. This represents one of the cases of reverse innovation, into which NTT DATA has been putting its energy in APAC, a scheme that feeds back the technology developed in emerging countries to developed countries such as Japan.

Overview (Characteristics)

The SAP Global One Team has launched dedicated task forces to best leverage SAP business synergies in the following areas:

The function of supply chain visibility

It has three sub-functions of order management, tracking and delivery instruction, and adopts the “L-Series” of NTT DATA Vietnam to provide flexible functions that can meet the needs of HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS.

(Order management)
With the input of various key information such as order numbers, item codes, clients’ names and delivery dates, this sub-function enables the search for how far an order placed by a buyer to a supplier has been processed from the collection of an item at the supplier’s place until the arrival of the item at the buyer’s place via international transport. Using GDB, HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS will be able to provide client companies as shippers or consignees with high value-added services such as proxy services, including shipping and delivery management operations, in addition to forwarding operations^{(note 2)}.

(Tracking)
With the input of various key information such as transport numbers, order numbers, invoice numbers and item codes, this sub-function enables the search for how far the cargo has been transported from the pickup of the cargo at a shipper’s place until the arrival of the cargo at a consignee’s place. This sub-function allows provision of the status information on transport progress to a client company for which forwarding services are performed, by the unit that the client company needs.

(Delivery instruction)
This sub-function enables client companies as consignees to give instructions for cargo delivery from an airport or seaport on the importing side prior to arrival of the cargo, including the instruction of an urgent cargo delivery or the instruction of storing bonded cargo at a port for divided deliveries afterward by the container or the invoice, adjusted to domestic demand. The delivery status of an instructed cargo can be checked through the function of tracking.

The function of sharing trade documents

The data of waybills (such as Air Waybill), documents for customs clearance, invoices and other related documents received from client companies as shippers will be automatically imported in GDB from operating systems or scanners set up in each country so that the data of such documents can be shared with the staff on the importing side or client companies as shippers or consignees. This function contributes to more efficient operations by simultaneously searching related documents and notifying the importing side when all of the multiple documents are prepared. It also enables easy reference to related documents in coordination with the function of supply chain visibility. By adopting “TradeBook ^®” of NTT DATA and utilizing its function specialized in the document management in the international logistics sector, this function minimizes customization.

The function of analyzing income and expenditure

This function allows the top management and managerial level employees to freely analyze international and domestic sales or gross profits from various angles. By adopting “QlikView ^®” of Qlik Technologies Inc., it realizes users’ intuitive analysis that was not possible with a conventional BI tool.

The function of coordinating platforms

To import the data in GDB sent from independent operating systems set up at the bases in 17 countries around the globe, this function converts data formats or codes, or transfers the data on the exporting side to the importing side. By adopting “ASTERIA WARP” of Infoteria Corporation, GDB can efficiently process the differences among individual systems of the global bases.

In the futher

NTT DATA and NTT DATA Vietnam will support further development of HANKYU HANSHIN EXPRESS’ global business by, for example, adding the inventory management function that visualizes warehouse inventory in each country and in-transit inventory in an integrated way, and will also actively expand the business of NTT DATA and NTT DATA Vietnam in the trading and logistics sectors through visualization of the information on supply-chain and management of companies as shippers or consignees as well as logistics companies engaging in global business and other useful functions.