COSMOS MORE CO., LTD.

COSMOS MORE CO., LTD., which is engaged in a wide range of businesses such as design and construction in fields of housing and office areas, was contracted for the relocation of JPR's head office, and introduced JPR’s “Logiarx” for the purpose of managing office relocation operations. We asked Mr. Atsushi Taguchi and Mr. Masanori Nakamura of the facility division of the company and Mr. Hajime Okada of the management department who was in charge of the introduction of Logiarx about the company's business and their experience using Logiarx.

From left: Mr. Atsushi Taguchi, General Manager, Facility Business Department
Mr. Hajime Okada, Manager, Administration Section, Administration Department
Mr. Masanori Nakamura, Manager, Facility Section 2, Facility Business Department
COSMOS MORE CO., LTD.

COSMOS MORE CO., LTD. was established in 1990 as a construction business company, in charge of office renovation business for Recruit Group. In 1996, they entered the show room and office business. In 2001, they began a nationwide expansion of office business. In 2005, COSMOS Initia Co., Ltd. (at the time Recruit Cosmos Co., Ltd.) became independent from the Recruit Group. In 2013, COSMOS Initia Co., Ltd. signed a capital and business alliance agreement with Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd., and is now a member of the Daiwa House Group.
The company currently operates in the residential and office area of business.

Mr. Taguchi, General Manager of Facility Business Department, said, "In the housing area, we are developing businesses such as condominium sales support, apartment construction, and senior facility construction. In the office area, we are engaged in a wide range of office design, design/construction, and planning activities." Mr. Nakamura, Manager, Facility Section 2, Facility Business Department, adds as follows:
"In the housing area, we are mainly consulting with land owners on land utilization, and constructing nursing homes for the elderly, shared houses, etc. The number of jobs related to the construction of facilities for the elderly is increasing. In addition, we are also engaged in interior sales of condominiums. In the office area, we mainly focus on office planning, layout changes, and related relocations."

The government has been advocating "work style reform" initiatives since 2016, and the company has carried out consultation work in its office business. Mr. Nakamura continues, "For example, a company has an offer to change or relocate an office, and when have the meeting, the person tells me that his boss is telling him, 'We will reform our working style, so think of an office that suits it.' And sometimes I noticed that the person doesn't know what to do. At that time, our service comes to life."

Mr. Nakamura says that they will plan the most suitable layout of the office by consulting and understanding their corporate atmosphere and business.

"Recently, some companies say it's more efficient to have offices that don't have fixed desks. However, if it's an office with a lot of inside office work, I'm wondering if this would increase productivity. Maybe introducing high functional chairs with fixed desks might work better for the employees, and as I am making my case, even with a single layout, we will make suggestions from the perspective of the employees."

Office of COSMOS MORE CO., LTD. Promoting "work style reform" initiatives with an office design that matches the corporate atmosphere and work content

Having 2,000 cases per year from the delivery of a piece of furniture to relocation of thousands of square meters, the company's corporate vision is "to propose and realize additional value to design in craftmanship." We aim to create a design that excels in functionality and is both fun and surprising, both in the residential and office fields, and in the form of expressing the wishes of everyone involved.

"I think it is meaningful if the employers are more satisfied and more motivated through office design. Our strength is that we can design something that brings fun and surprise while pursuing ease of working." says Mr. Nakamura.

It is said that there are many companies that have been attracted by the design handled by the company, and in fact JPR also requested the company to move the office in 2012, creating the relationship between the two companies. Mr. Taguchi talks about the background.
"After receiving the order for relocation from JPR and the work was over, the person in charge of our company regularly visited the office for meetings. Then we found out about JPR's Logiarx. I thought it could be applied to our relocation business."

"Logiarx" is a cloud-based individual management service provided by JPR. By utilizing automatic identification technology such as RFID, it will realize smooth management and loss prevention of logistics containers (such as pallets, basket cars, plastic containers) owned by the company.

Office relocation involves transporting a large amount of luggage. When they dealt with relocation operations in various places during vacation time in 2016, they handled a total of 110,000 boxes. Reading and managing the barcodes attached to cardboard were previously done one-by-one. Mr. Okada, Manager of the Administration Section, Administration Department, who was involved in the introduction of Logiarx, said the following.

"The bigger it gets, the longer it will take. The risk of lost luggage is not zero. I wanted to improve the management quality. When I wanted to manage it more speedily and carefully, I learnt about Logiarx resulting us collaborating to reform operations."

The company and JPR started testing at the end of last year. The RF tag was attached to the box, read with an HHT (reading device), and checked with Logiarx then fully introduced during the busy season of this year's vacation time in April-May.

"We attached RF tags to approximately 3,000 boxes that were loaded with secure products to be tracked. Before, when managing with a bar code, we read each box one by one to check, but with RFID, we were able to read all the trolleys at once, so managed to reduce the work time to about one-fifth," says Mr. Okada. Since then, the company has used Logiarx in its office relocation business.

(Top) Handy terminal and mobile printer adopted with Logiarx
(bottom) Management screen of Logiarx

If you use Logiarx, you can see the overall progress from the computer without being on site. This is also a big advantage.

"You can see information in real time even when you are not in the field. In some cases, you can give the customer a screenshot to confirm that there is no problem on the spot." Mr. Okada says. "The work could be visualized by collecting the transportation history for each point in the transportation of luggage. Being able to check in real time not only with computers but on mobile devices, reduces worries against work progress and the risk of loss should lead to a sense of trust built towards the company."

Mr. Taguchi adds as follows, "During operation, JPR saw the situation remotely. It was helpful because they let us know immediately if there were any mistakes. I felt that JPR is a company that is close to customers and supportive. In addition, it resulted as an added value for us making our customers aware that we are a company that uses cutting edge technologies."

The impact due to Logiarx is greater than expected. The relationship between the company and JPR is not limited to Logiarx, but continuing to discuss the procurement of logistics containers (RTI). Finally, we asked Mr. Taguchi about his expectations and requests for JPR.

"I think Logiarx was developed as an individual management system for distribution containers, but it could also be used in office relocation operations like our company. I think it can be applied to other applications. For example, I feel that we can use Logiarx to manage the assets of a customer's office. You may have some ideas in-house, but I'd be happy if you could consider working with us to find new opportunities."

*RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) is an epoch-making information technology that uses the Internet to enable people and things to be identified and managed with a small wireless chip. IC cards such as Suica and Edy (contactless payment cards) are examples of high-profile RFID applications.