President’s Message on Digital Transformation

To realize our corporate philosophy, the Kurita Group has set "Pioneering 'new value for water' to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society" as its corporate vision for 2030.

In order to achieve this vision, our five-year medium-term management plan, "Pioneering Shared Value 2027 (PSV-27)," which was released in April 2023, identifies digital strategy as a critical component in gaining a competitive advantage.

With the rapid advancement of digitalization, AI and IoT have become widespread, significantly impacting society and industry. This trend is expected to accelerate further, increasing the volume of information companies must manage. Given this, we recognize the need to leverage digital technology to aggregate data, extract meaningful insights, and transform them into "water knowledge" that drives extensive and proactive business opportunities.

However, failing to collect and analyze the right information could lead to missed opportunities and overlooked risks. To address this, the Kurita Group is advancing initiatives in both "operational transformation" for internal optimization and "business transformation" to enhance customer value. Through digital technology, we aim to strengthen our competitive edge while delivering broader and higher value to customers and society worldwide.

We will proactively promote DX to continue being a group that delivers broader and higher value to customers and society around the world, helping to realize a better world and, as a result, achieving sustainable corporate growth.

Kurita Water Industries Ltd. President and CEO Hirohiko Ejiri

The Kurita Group's digital strategy, centered around the Digital Strategy Headquarters established in 2020, aims to contribute to establishing a competitive advantage for its customers and the Kurita Group and improving corporate value of the Company through both customer-facing Business Transformation (BX) and internal operational Transformation (OX).

At BX, we are not just adding digital elements to our existing businesses, but are also working to create new businesses driven by digital technology. Through remote management and automatic control of water treatment using Internet of Things (IoT) , such as sensing Technology , we help our customers visualize their issues, perform predictive maintenance, and optimize operations. Furthermore, the Meta-Aqua Project, which was jointly launched with Fracta Leap in 2020 with the aim of digitally change water treatment, has created new solutions, such as automating plant operation and design / engineering using AI and developing Environment friendly anti-corrosion agents using material informatics.

OX is utilizing digital technology to improve the accuracy and speed of management decisions, as well as standardize and streamline operations. In addition to the performance and financial information of the Group, we are also building a platform that integrates management information, which not only aggregates and manages management indicators, including non-financial indicators such as the amount of contribution to water conservation and GHG emission reduction, but also analyzes and utilizes these to obtain leading indicators related to the business Environment.

To make digital a corporate strength, the challenge is how to elevate the tacit knowledge that Kurita has accumulated to date, such as the experience and insights it has accumulated, into explicit knowledge that is verbalized and quantified as objective information and data. To achieve this, shared experiences and discussions between the Digital Strategy Headquarters and the front lines of digital utilization are important, and we place importance on verbalizing and structuring tacit knowledge as information and data through the realizations and empathy gained through these. We believe that repeating this process throughout the organization will further accelerate change through the use of digital.

Digital technology energizes corporate decision-making, value creation, and other activities, acting as the "bloodstream that supports sustainable growth." By connecting the aspirations of management and various frontline employees and creating a more virtuous cycle throughout the organization, we will evolve our digital initiatives as the foundation that supports the challenges of the Kurita Group.

Kurita Water Industries Ltd. Senior General Manager of Digital Strategy Group, Advanced Innovation Division
Yuushi Maeda