How Shimizu Construction Boosted Efficiency with RPA: A Real‑World Case Study
Shimizu Construction, a century‑old Japanese builder, tackled industry‑wide IT lag by launching a company‑wide RPA initiative that automated labor‑intensive HR tasks, deployed server‑based bots from Hitachi and Automation Anywhere, and established a dedicated RPA promotion team to standardize development and improve operational efficiency.
Founded in 1804, Shimizu Construction operates 89 sites across Japan with over 10,000 employees and recorded ¥1.6982 trillion in sales in 2019.
Amid a company‑wide work‑style reform, the firm launched an “IT‑driven work‑efficiency review.” HR leader Suzuki Kenjin noted that the construction sector lags behind IT firms, with each site having unique operations, making enterprise‑wide IT transformation difficult.
Consequently, HR workloads increased, especially tasks requiring large‑scale data handling, limiting staff time for high‑touch activities such as employee assignment.
To address this, Suzuki introduced robotic process automation (RPA) for automatable processes, citing overtime reporting under the Labor Standards Act as a routine task suitable for automation.
In January 2019, the Tokyo branch adopted RPA, building on the headquarters’ 2018 rollout of NTT Advanced Technology’s WinActor, which Suzuki found adaptable to construction‑specific work habits.
The company also expanded server‑type RPA, deploying Hitachi’s “RPA Operations Support Cloud Service” and Automation Anywhere’s “Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019.” By November, RPA systems were operational company‑wide.
Shimizu aims to automate 15 % of indirect work, such as simple data creation and aggregation, and to extend automation to overseas subsidiaries and group companies.
A dedicated “RPA Promotion Team” was created under the Digital Promotion Strategy Office, establishing separate development and production environments and standardizing the development workflow, including user‑department request handling.
The team also built a portal site via the RPA Operations Support Cloud Service to share development guidelines, robot samples, and FAQs across the organization.
Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019 enables administrators to capture robot execution data, monitor status, and automatically reassign failed bots to idle ones, thereby improving operational efficiency.
Source: https://japan.zdnet.com/article/35164281/
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