Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. / Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.

Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. is a company that manages and repairs the equipment used on the aircraft of airlines such as Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.

They have both found it challenging to manage expensive meal carts for many years, but by introducing JPR's "Logiarx", they have achieved significant efficiency and labor savings.

We asked Mr. Ide, Mr. Hirayama, Ms. Ogawa of Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. and Mr. Fujio and Mr. Ogura of Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. about the impact of using Logiarx and their expectations for the future.

From left: Mr. Tomohiro Fujio, Deputy Vice President and Mr. Yoshibumi Ogura, Supply-Chain Management Group, Catering Operations, Products and Services Development, Japan Airlines Co., Ltd.
Mr. Masatoshi Ide, Vice President and Mr. Hisashi Hirayama and Ms. Kanako Ogawa, Maintenance & Engineering Administration Dept, Koukuukizai Co., Ltd.

Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. was originally established as a company responsible for aircraft window repairs. Since then, it has started repairing cabin equipment, and has now been in business for over 50 years.

They are in charge of managing cabin equipment at Narita/Haneda/Kansai International Airport bases and repairing and maintaining meal carts used to provide meals on board for Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. Meal carts vary greatly, and can require a lot of maintenance; for example, some new meal carts may require repair after a months’ use. The role of Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. is to carry out repairs and deliver them to the site without delay.

Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. which has many years of experience, faced a challenge with the complex management of a large number of meal carts. Mr. Ide said, "We receive an order for maintenance of about 600 units per month, and even more during the busy seasons, for example before and after the Bon festival, long holidays, and the summer vacation. We deliver the meal carts before the peak season and at the end of the season all of them return at once. Previously we carried out all operations manually, such as inventory management, repairs, maintenance history management and billing operations. As a result, it took a long time to manage the data, and we could not process it in real time. We were also in a situation where human errors were occurring."

Although management of meal carts has been an issue at Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. for about 20 years, it was not possible to systemize it due to cost issues. Meanwhile, I was introduced to JPR's cloud-based individual management system "Logiarx" in 2016. Logiarx works in the cloud, thus reduces initial costs such as server purchase and construction costs, system development, maintenance costs such as increasing disk and memory, and related labor costs. Status information can be registered and the current status can be viewed on one screen. For example a QR code can be attached to the meal cart and be scanned in any environment with internet access. Mr. Fujio decided to introduce Logiarx because of its effectiveness and cost advantage.

Mr. Ogura describes the benefits of introducing "Logiarx". "Because individual management is now possible, we no longer have to do inventory management and organization, which was a difficult task, and we can now keep track of inventory status in real time. There are now no mistakes or omissions, and this led to saving labor.

It was also a great advantage in maintenance-related work, "By utilizing the data read during the transportation, manual input for billing became unnecessary. I feel that we have been able to devote more time to important work," continued Mr. Hirayama.

Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. is now able to accurately understand the number of meal carts in real time, eliminating excess inventory and the need to purchase additional carts. As a result, the number of meal carts purchased is expected to be reduced by 15%, which is expected to reduce costs.

Koukuukizai Co., Ltd. also said that this new system had an advantage for their customers too. "It is now possible to view the same data on the system, by Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. sharing the permission, for what was being done manually. This provides accurate and timely information which leads use to improve our presence," says Ms. Ogawa.
Currently, the attachment of the QR code has been completed on around 91.5% of the 20,000 meal carts we have (as of the end of January 2020). We are aiming for a complete visualization by attaching the QR code to more than 98% of the meal carts. As a result, work efficiency will be further accelerated. In addition, the whole organization of the inventory is set up twice a year which used to take 2 people for 2 whole days, but now it is possible to check the number of stocks in real time, so we are expecting significantly reduced man-hours.

Finally, Mr. Fujio said of his expectations for JPR. "This time, we solved the problem of managing meal carts, but eventually we want to realize a future in which all equipment, including tableware and blankets, is managed individually. Since it is something that is carried around to foreign countries, it is difficult to know the exact number. We want to solve such problems steadily by horizontally deploying Logiarx. We aim for a "World" pallet rental, not "Japan" pallet rental; we want to be a global company in the future."