RYOSHOKU LIMITED

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Developing an Informational Management System as a Competitive Advantage

This is a translation of an article that originally appeared in Japanese on Fujitsu’s web site.

Ryoshoku is a major distributor of foods, beverages and luxury grocery items with over 40 million transactions a month. An early innovator, Ryoshoku developed a distribution/logistics information network. This Total Management System, (TOMAS), is a key component of the company’s competitive advantage. In 1994, Ryoshoku sought to expand into new business areas, consolidate its accounting and business systems and enhance its sophisticated distribution/logistics service. They turned to Fujitsu and Symfoware Servers to support this critical information network. The results were impressive, dramatically decreasing processing time, expanding the network and providing solid reliability and support.

Establishing a New Total Management System

Ryoshoku’s aim was a synergistic effect on its business by connecting food product makers, and retailers using this advanced network. Ryoshoku Business & Systems Headquarters Systems Department Manager Toshio Inagaki sums up the corporate philosophy as follows: ”The concept of this company is ‘A valuable go-between that connects consumption and production’. We don’t just sell a product, we seek to offer a high level of service that comes complete with added value.” To add this value, the company decided to build an informational system that could analyze market trends, track costs and manage logistics around-the-clock. This “New TOMAS”, is composed of systems called “New Business, “New Management” and “New Distribution/Logistics”.

Using Symfoware to Run Business, Management and Logistical Systems

“New Business” is a system enabling flexible business activities based on analysis of buying and selling data. In addition to providing business information to valued customers in real time, it can also be used to analyze market trends according to product category. This information is used to create planograms, or shelf space planning, and promotional ideas according to the customer outlet strategy. Ryoshoku’s expansion into the areas of alcoholic beverages and fresh produce are part of its aim of achieving the “full-line of food”. Mr. Inagaki explains: “In addition to evolving our customer-oriented business, we realized that we also had to integrate business and management information. To this end, we re-created the system.”

“New Management” is a laborsaving system for accounting and business information. It allows for an accurate grasp of financial data information such as the profit and loss, cash flow, and return on equity. It can also be used to consolidate profit and loss management, and for forecast and management of business partners. The number of Ryoshoku transactions often exceeds 40 million a month, and is at least 450 million a year. This transaction data must be studied in great detail for a precise exploitation of information. Mr. Inagaki explains: "There are cases where the cost of a product is different depending on when it is purchased. This means that an enormous amount of data has to be processed so that these kinds of differences in individual prime cost can all be controlled". Another requirement is highly efficient logistical management.

“New Distribution/Logistics” is a high quality, low cost distribution/logistics service. The large Logistics Center allows product division and distributive processing to meet a multitude of distribution/logistical needs. Mr. Inagaki explains: "Fresh produce and catering cannot be handled in the same way as processed food. This means that we can't start batching them in the evening." As part of the business for one catering enterprise, an order is placed at 11am, and the product is shipped at 5am the next morning. To complete processing, from receipt of an order to shipment, in an extremely short time, operational requirements are virtually round-the-clock. With the previous system, night batching processing often used to take all night.

Symfoware's Processing Speed Dramatically Improved Performance

The high-performance Symfoware Servers were used to eliminate processing performance problems. Processing 5 million daily business data items can now be executed in just 15 minutes using Symfoware Server. Mr. Inagaki says with satisfaction: "We have been able to speed up our online business and batching business considerably". The Symfoware Servers have proven to be extremely reliable. Mr. Inagaki says: "Our impression is one of a database whose quality can be relied upon, and that can be used with complete peace of mind. Besides, even if trouble does occur, Symfoware can localize the trouble range, so there is no need to worry about the whole database coming to a halt. This is the wonderful thing about the DSI segmentation function. You can also use this function to handle only necessary data. As far as we're concerned, this makes it extremely easy-to-use". Mr. Inagaki continues: “When we evaluated the collective strength of Fujitsu, we found that they offer enhanced customer support through their division responsible for backend product development, and that their footwork is great.”

Future Plans

Mr. Inagaki expresses his hopes as follows: "As one of our future plans, we are investigating the integration of our servers that are distributed throughout Japan. The more we integrate, the greater our need will be for superior hard and software, but we are confident that this process will be successful because of the high-performance of Symfoware. With the development of large-scale systems firmly in mind, Symfoware with its superior scalability is perfect for the requirements of this company. In the future, we hope to expand various OLAP tools that are supported in Symfoware and the Third Party software lineup, and also expand our target from not just Solaris, but also to OS of other companies such as AIX so that we can grow into a global database. Additionally, we want to venture into new lines to a great extent".

Mr. Inagaki is confident in Fujitsu and Symfoware Servers: ”As well as the great enthusiasm and commitment towards the establishment of New TOMAS shown by Fujitsu, Symfoware itself has easily satisfied the requests made by this company for efficiency and reliability. For this reason, we decided that we could establish this system with complete peace of mind.”

Company Overview

RYOSHOKU LIMITED
Established: March 1925
Capital: 10.63 billion yen
Number of employees: 1876 (as of Dec 2001)
Sales amount: 676.2 billion yen (2001 results)
Consolidated sales volume: 846.1 billion yen (2001 results)
URL: http://www.ryoshoku.co.jp/
Overview of operations: Ryoshoku Limited is a food product wholesaler. It handles products such as processed food, canned food, noodles, dry goods, and beverages. In 1979, 4 companies amalgamated to form what is now Ryoshoku Limited. Since the company’s founding, it mottos has been "Making the consumer the starting point for our distribution system". In 1997, it became the first company in its industry to be listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).