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trucks that carry out the dirt, using our expertise in productivity control to support
job execution planning. By now we’ve brought SMARTCONSTRUCTION to more
than a thousand construction sites in Japan. If this pace continues, in the future there
will be fewer machines and fewer workers in Japan than there are today. However,
the productivity of the nation as a whole will increase.
Komiyama By how much?
Sakane For example, 3-D surveying with drones is overwhelmingly the most efficient method, starting with the fact that it requires fewer workers and fewer manhours than traditional 2-D surveying. Plus, the subcontracting structure that
permeates the construction industry becomes irrelevant. When the internet of things
arrives at the construction site, productivity goes up. The contractor and the job
performer become one, which is most efficient. This changes the structure of the
construction industry. It cuts right to the problem that every industry in Japan is facing, which is a war of attrition among a large number of players. By my lights, with
120 million people on our small islands, a labor shortage is something that doesn’t
make sense. The natural way is for someone retired from one business to go into
some other business, but that sort of reform hasn’t happened in Japan, and so we call
it labor shortages.
At Komatsu, we carried out a major structural reform, trimmed the workforce,
pulled out from businesses where we can’t try to be number one or two worldwide,
and now we are moving forward with new business that strongly utilizes the internet
of things. That is how to overcome deflation. No matter how much monetary easing
there is from the government and the Bank of Japan, we can’t overcome deflation
unless the private sector takes an active role through those kinds of initiatives.
Interview
trucks that carry out the dirt, using our expertise in productivity control to support
job execution planning. By now we’ve brought SMARTCONSTRUCTION to more
than a thousand construction sites in Japan. If this pace continues, in the future there
will be fewer machines and fewer workers in Japan than there are today. However,
the productivity of the nation as a whole will increase.
Komiyama By how much?
Sakane For example, 3-D surveying with drones is overwhelmingly the most efficient method, starting with the fact that it requires fewer workers and fewer manhours than traditional 2-D surveying. Plus, the subcontracting structure that
permeates the construction industry becomes irrelevant. When the internet of things
arrives at the construction site, productivity goes up. The contractor and the job
performer become one, which is most efficient. This changes the structure of the
construction industry. It cuts right to the problem that every industry in Japan is facing, which is a war of attrition among a large number of players. By my lights, with
120 million people on our small islands, a labor shortage is something that doesn’t
make sense. The natural way is for someone retired from one business to go into
some other business, but that sort of reform hasn’t happened in Japan, and so we call
it labor shortages.
At Komatsu, we carried out a major structural reform, trimmed the workforce,
pulled out from businesses where we can’t try to be number one or two worldwide,
and now we are moving forward with new business that strongly utilizes the internet
of things. That is how to overcome deflation. No matter how much monetary easing
there is from the government and the Bank of Japan, we can’t overcome deflation
unless the private sector takes an active role through those kinds of initiatives.
Interview