3. New Challenges
2017-2024
(2) Transformation through Reborn21
- 2020
- Facing significant quality issues and the COVID-19 pandemic, we committed to thoroughly strengthening our corporate structure. In 2020, we launched the “Reborn21” initiative. We designated a “Transformation Day” for discussions across all workplaces, urging all employees to take swift action towards transformation.
Under our 2030 Long-Term Policy, we have boldly promoted management to survive this once-in-a-century period of major transformation by making proactive investments in new growth areas such as electrification. However, the largest quality issue in our history occurred, compounded by the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an unforeseen deterioration in the business environment.
Our business struggled to balance “expansion in quantity” with “improvement in quality,” resulting in an increase in fixed costs. Strengthening the corporate structure became a matter of urgency.
To recover trust, our “Quality Rebuild” needed to be more robust to absolutely prevent recurrence. This necessitated a thorough Transformation of our corporate structure to become a company capable of consistently providing high-quality, valuable products and services, regardless of the environment.
As a master plan for Transformation, President Koji Arima announced “Reborn21” in 2020. The three pillars of this reform were “Knowledge,” “Awareness,” and “Organization Culture.” We aimed to achieve “Quality Rebuild” and “Transformation into a Lean and Resilient Organization” within two years. President Arima's strong will was evident in his commitment to restart with a customer-first attitude in the newly transformed DENSO in the fiscal year 2021.
Reference：Overview of Reborn21
The first step was to ensure that employees had a strong sense of urgency and a foundation to unite collective wisdom and effort. The “DENSO's Purpose”—our commitment to “Green and Peace of Mind”—is our raison d'être, and gaining “Empathy” from society through this mission was crucial. We began by re-emphasizing this recognition among employees. Subsequently, we laid the groundwork for the company's rebirth through extensive initiatives, including rebuilding our quality foundation, strengthening our profitability, and transforming our work processes.
Particularly regarding quality, we reignited “Quality Awareness.” An “Open Workplace Culture” where anomalies are promptly reported was indispensable. With this perspective, we worked on building a corporate structure that could firmly reestablish quality. Our efforts to strengthen the corporate structure focused broadly on three areas: “Strategy,” “Work Processes,” and “People and Organization,” all aimed at enhancing the company's “quality.”
- Deep DiveStrategies to Enhance Company Quality
- Our challenge was to construct concrete business models in the “green and peace of mind” sectors, which had remained at the vision level. Key activities to achieve this included:
- We aimed to further define our mission by considering unresolved societal issues, making it more explicit.
- We focused on developing mechanical, electronic, and software solutions in an integrated manner to address societal challenges.
- Beyond products and services, we sought to build sustainable business models that not only generate profits but also contribute to societal well-being.
- Deep DiveStrategies to Enhance Work Processes
- Our challenge was to transform our work processes to deliver the best products and services to our customers swiftly. Key activities to achieve this included:
- Standardizing work through a core and customization strategy, and using the time saved to focus on creating new value.
- By digitalizing work, tasks that can be handled by machines are delegated to them, allowing people to concentrate on high-value-added work.
- These efforts were aimed at enhancing efficiency, increasing speed, and improving quality and competitiveness.
- Deep DiveStrategies to Enhance People and Organization Quality
- Our challenge was to change the mindset that the current state is sufficient and to strengthen the ability of people and organizations to adapt to change. Key activities to achieve this included:
- Identifying what tasks truly need to be performed by humans and stopping, reducing, or rethinking the conventional ways of doing things.
- Encouraging continuous learning to build unique career paths and fostering the ability for individuals to innovate their own careers.
To achieve the necessary transformation, each employee needed to fully embrace the awareness of transportation. Once this was achieved, we needed to unite individual transformation mindsets into a strong collective sense of unity within the company.
To ensure this, we decided on August 31, 2020, as the “Transformation Day.” On this day, each workplace dedicated a full day to thoroughly discuss challenges and actions towards Transformation.
The discussions were to be concrete, with conclusions that could be immediately implemented, and each person taking ownership. Therefore, the selection of discussion themes was left to each workplace, allowing them to choose topics necessary for corporate structure transformation, such as “Work Processes” and “Quality Reboot,” based on their specific circumstances and awareness of issues. As expected, grounded discussions took place on the “Transformation Day.”
This day significantly heightened employees' sense of urgency and ownership. More employees felt they could grow at DENSO and were needed in their workplaces, leading to increased motivation. Frank opinions on barriers to transformation were exchanged, and more employees could envision specific actions towards future transformation.