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Promote new business development
through open innovation and
digital transformation in research
Technology Unit
General Manager of
R&D Planning Division
Dairi Kubo
Nippon Kayaku Group has defined four target areas for research and development, aiming to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. While addressing themes directly linked to business at laboratories within each business domain, we are also conducting company-wide R&D activities with an eye toward entering new fields.
R&D Planning Division is further accelerating its open innovation initiatives, which have been strengthened in recent years, to create new businesses in the “Environmental & Energy Field.” Through cross-departmental collaboration, we are working to create new businesses that generate unique value only possible at our company.
Furthermore, to enhance the efficiency and sophistication of R&D, we are advancing R&D DX utilizing machine learning and data science. While strengthening our foundation—including improvements in both hardware and software, as well as human resource development—we aim to achieve highly effective research and development.
Vision of R&D
Increase our corporate value
by creating new businesses and products through R&D
The role of the R&D division is to create new businesses and
products through R&D activities and increase
our corporate value. We want to be an R&D division
that can create and increase corporate value.
R&D activities that simultaneously
expand existing core businesses and
develop new businesses to
continuously increase corporate value
R&D to put
“ambidextrous management” into practice
Nippon Kayaku’s R&D system has established the Technology Unit to oversee the entire company’s technology divisions in order to respond to new business development and rapid technological innovation. In addition, in each business units, we have an R&D structure tailored to the R&D target fields where future growth can be expected. The R&D system collaborates with the Technology and R&D divisions to develop new products and businesses, introduce innovative technologies, and support commercialization efforts.
Aero Business Development Division is co-located with Research&Development Division of Safety Systems Group and shares pyrotechnic safety technology.
R&D Planning Division and Intellectual Property Division are located in the Integrated Research Laboratories, consolidating the company’s R&D organization.
Nippon Kayaku’s R&D Vision aims to “Increase our corporate value by creating new businesses and products through R&D”
By aggressively introducing various technologies in addition to the technologies we have cultivated to date, we have provided various products to society while deepening our core technologies. In addition, by continuously creating and utilizing intellectual property, we have expanded our business while expanding our core technologies and increase our intellectual assets.
Going forward, we will continue to strengthen and expand our core technologies while actively introducing new technologies through open innovation and utilizing research DX, and create new businesses and products in four target fields (mobility, environment & energy, electronics, and life sciences) where significant growth can be expected in the future, thereby contributing to society.
As a result of research DX efforts, there have been more and more cases of digital tools being deployed and verified.
However, we often hear that the complex functions offered by existing tools are difficult to understand, and the tools present a high barrier to entry to beginners.
Thatʼs why Nippon Kayaku developed KUMA*, a data analysis support tool with the aim of making it easy for anyone to try out. KUMA is an intranet tool that works in the browser and requires neither special preparations nor the submission of usage applications. KUMA offers functions for visualizing data in graph form and for performing basic statistical analysis, such as identifying correlated parameters, easily and without the need for specialized knowledge. It is limited to basic functions, so it works fast. This means that even for researchers who are already using full-fledged machine learning and statistical analysis for applications, it can serve as another useful tool for applications it is better suited for.
KUMA has proven popular since it was made available, and weʼve received requests for function additions. We plan to continue updating it on a regular basis to make it an even easier-to-use internal application software.
* An easy-to-use in-house application server that is operated via a web interface. It offers a select set of functions such as statistical processing functions that are frequently used within the company.
KUMAʼs developers:
the Research Strategy Group,
R&D Planning Division,
Technology Unit
Masayoshi Kaneko (left)
Fumio Kurihara (middle)
Yamato Osaki (right)
Examples of KUMA’s statistical analysis output