Fujitsu Supply Chain Data Service streamlines Valor Holdings operations in Tokai region

Revamping data platform with business partners to optimize entire supply chain

Fujitsu Limited

Kawasaki, Japan, March 4, 2025

Fujitsu today announced the deployment of its Fujitsu Supply Chain Data Service⁽¹⁾ for Valor Holdings Co., Ltd. (Valor Holdings), a company that operates a variety of businesses centered on supermarkets in the Tokai region, including logistics and food manufacturing. The service enables various data linkages, accumulation, and utilization in the supply chain. The core of this offering, the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) service, went live on February 10, 2025, at Chubu Meat Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Valor Holdings. The service will be rolled out sequentially to eight core companies within the Valor Holdings group, including Valor Co., Ltd., Chubu Yakuhin Co., Ltd., and Alleanza Holdings Co., Ltd.

Background

Several factors are complicating Japan's distribution industry, including increased inventory and logistics management information, a growing number of affiliated companies, the logistics crisis, and the impact of natural disasters. Traditional siloed data management and industry-specific data linkages are proving inadequate to maintain a stable supply chain. To address this challenge, there is a growing need to share and link commercial transaction data between orders and shipping data, logistics data, across industries and companies, in order to optimize the entire supply chain.

Valor Holdings has sought to be a Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel (SPA) and is working to deepen collaboration between its approximately 60 companies, which are responsible for manufacturing, logistics, and retail functions within the group, to transform logistics, reduce costs, and improve competitiveness. As part of this effort, a decision was made to renew the EDI system. Fujitsu, with its track record of implementing existing EDI systems, participation in the development of the Logistics Information Standard Guidelines⁽²⁾, involvement in standardization studies for data distribution, possession of logistics and standardization know-how and offerings, was selected as a partner.

Overview

Valor Holdings operates various business formats, including supermarkets, drugstores, and home centers, handling a wide range of products such as food, daily necessities, pharmaceuticals, and materials. Previously, it had multiple data linkage systems depending on the data handled, such as orders, sales results, and inventory information. By utilizing Fujitsu Supply Chain Data Service, it is now possible to consolidate these systems, leading to a reduction in system costs. In addition to data specific to ordering operations, it also enables the linkage, accumulation, and use of various data, including inventory and logistics, between companies, as well as business partners.

Fujitsu has provided EDI systems and services for various industries, including food, pharmaceuticals, books, and materials, and has been adopted by more than 50,000 companies and organizations (as of December 2024). Fujitsu has also been working with the government and over 25 industry organizations that promote standardization to standardize and promote commercial transaction data. This offering was developed utilizing this expertise and has the following features:

• Improved accuracy of data utilization and analysis through conversion and cleansing of data with different definitions, such as Distribution BMS (Business Message Standards) and EDI for various industries.
• Accumulation of commercial transactions and logistics data from over 1,000 business partners, which previously only passed through EDI, in a data lake, and the ability to utilize it via API.
• Scalability that considers linkage with data spaces that share data across companies and organizations.

Future Plans

Fujitsu will continue to support the expansion of this service to Valor Holdings' group companies. Manufacturers and wholesalers in the supply chain will be able to refer to Valor Holdings' data in real-time and reflect it in their production and inventory plans. Furthermore, by linking logistics data from warehouse management systems in logistics centers and business partner systems via API, data on commercial transactions and logistics can be shared in real-time, contributing to the efficiency of the supply chain.

Figure 1: Overview of Fujitsu Supply Chain Data Service utilization

Fujitsu will also continuously strengthen this offering as a common supply chain platform that can share and utilize information on sales, inventory, transportation, and production in real-time across industries, under the business model Fujitsu Uvance, which is based on solving social issues.

This offering leverages commercial and logistics data combined with technology to optimize distribution inventory and improve transportation efficiency, addressing a long-standing social issue. Using advanced algorithms for demand forecasting, it calculates ideal inventory levels for each location, minimizing overstock and stockouts, boosting cash flow and reducing loss of future sales opportunity. Real-time data analysis and predictive models also detect and visualize supply chain bottlenecks early on, supporting faster, more effective decision-making.

Fujitsu will continue to advance the optimization of the entire supply chain through co-creation with customers and utilization of the latest technology.

• [1]
  Fujitsu Supply Chain Data Service:
  Data linkage platform designed to address supply chain issues by connecting, integrating, and leveraging data from across the entire supply chain. It builds on Fujitsu's over 40 years extensive experience in Electronic Data Interchange.
• [2]
  Logistics Information Standard Guidelines:
  Formulated by the Japan Cabinet Office's Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) Phase 2 Smart Logistics Service project. Fujitsu participated in research on elemental technologies.

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