Toyota Tsusho Group‘s electronics trading company, NEXTY Electronics Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yasuhiro Kakihara; hereinafter referred to as “NEXTY Electronics”), signed a distribution agreement on October 1, 2023, with T Project Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Koto-ku, Tokyo; President: Shigenobu Araya; hereinafter referred to as “T Project”), which sells and provides support for TULIP, a digital transformation (DX) platform. This agreement will contribute to the realization of DX for factories in Japan by accelerating the deployment of TULIP, a low-code (*1) platform designed to realize DX not only for factories but also for virtually any workplace environment.

1. Background

The trend toward creating new value through digital transformation (DX) is accelerating in the manufacturing industry and a variety of other work environments. However, DX tools face a number of challenges, including the inability to deploy tools on the factory floor due to a lack of digitally savvy employees, or conversely, having digitally savvy employees who lack a full understanding of the actual situation on the factory floor. A similar situation exists in the operation and maintenance phases where improvements must be implemented after adoption.

In response, NEXTY Electronics and T Project have entered into a distribution agreement to promote DX in the Japanese manufacturing industry by expanding sales channels for TULIP.

2. Service Details

TULIP is a platform developed by Tulip Interfaces Inc. (“Tulip”) that helps improve factory productivity by digitalizing the wide range of types of issues that occur in a production environment. The platform is able to improve quality and processes by digitalizing a wide range of functions, including work processes, quality control, and equipment monitoring, collecting this data, and converting it to a visually understandable format. TULIP uses a low-code development method for creating applications, which minimizes hand coding when creating tools for the production floor. TULIP’s entry into the Japanese market has already resulted in a 59% decrease in defect rates (*2), a 67% decrease in training time (*3), and an 18% increase in productivity (*4).

3. Future Development

NEXTY Electronics will strengthen the sales and support structure for TULIP. NEXTY Electronics will also leverage TULIP’s smooth integration with external systems to integrate TULIP with the wide range of software and IoT devices that NEXTY Electronics sells in the market. For example, TULIP can be combined with ZEROKEY, a high-precision indoor positioning system for which NEXTY Electronics is the official distributor, to achieve traceability with sub-centimeter class (*5) positioning data and improve work quality.

NEXTY Electronics has set up a showroom in Fushimi, Nagoya, to allow visitors to experience its use firsthand, while T Project has similarly opened “TULIP Experience Center” showrooms in Tokyo, Nagoya, Hamamatsu, Kanazawa, Sendai, and Nara.

NEXTY Electronics and T Project will synergize their respective strengths by leveraging the sales network that NEXTY Electronics has built over the years and the technical expertise of T Project. This will not only accelerate the adoption of TULIP but also promote factory DX while contributing to the efficiency of the manufacturing industry and a more prosperous society.

* 1: Low code: A method for creating applications with minimal hand coding.

* 2, 3, 4: Based on research by TULIP/T Project. From examples of companies that have implemented the technology.

* 5: Able to measure at precisions within 1 centimeter.

【COMPANY OVERVIEW】　

■ About T Project

Company name: T Project Co., Ltd.

Address: DMG MORI Tokyo Digital Innovation Center, 3–1-4 Edagawa Koto-ku, Tokyo

Since its establishment in September 2020, T Project Inc. has been providing sales services in Japan for TULIP, a cloud-based manufacturing support platform for creating applications that were developed by U.S.-based Tulip Interfaces, Inc.

As a low-code platform, TULIP enables the development and operation of applications without the need to outsource programming to an IT engineer. It can also be easily integrated with production equipment, external systems, and services to improve the efficiency and quality of operations, especially in a factory setting. The TULIP platform is aimed at application development in the manufacturing industry but is not limited to that industry. Because it requires less training and provides excellent reporting documentation, and traceability capabilities, its use has expanded well beyond the manufacturing industry. Visit the link below for more information.

T Project HP: https://tprj.co.jp/ (Japanese only)

■ Showrooms: TULIP Experience Center (Japanese only)

(Tokyo, Nagoya, Hamamatsu, Kanazawa, Sendai, Nara)

TULIP Experience Centers provide a hands-on experience for people to try out the TULIP manufacturing platform.

■About NEXTY Electronics

Company: NEXTY Electronics Corporation

Location: Shinagawa Front Building, 2-3-13, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo

NEXTY Electronics is one of the core members of the Toyota Tsusho Group’s electronics business and boasts top-of-class scale in the automotive electronics sector. With its core strengths of technology and products, NEXTY Electronics meets customer and global needs in a broad range of areas and provides solutions to the challenges faced by society. It achieves this by actively adapting the autonomous driving, connected, and other leading-edge technologies it has cultivated in the automotive electronics sector for use in other industries. It offers optimum solutions that transcend regions and business sectors by leveraging the Toyota Tsusho Group’s global network.

Visit the link below for more information.

NEXTY Electronics website: https://www.nexty-ele.com/english/

■ Showroom: Fushimi, Nagoya City

The NEXTY Electronics showroom also provides a hands-on experience with TULIP.

■ For inquiries:

NEXTY Electronics Corporation

Strategic Planning Department, Corporate Communication Group

Phone: 03-5462-9666