ACE Co., Ltd.

Feelings for i-OTA

Participation in the Shimo-cho Bobsleigh Project allowed me to get to know many of the manufacturing companies in the district. I realized that there are so many factories in the city that specialize in various technologies, and at the same time, I was able to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of their companies. Since I was also in charge of coordinating production for this project, I visited companies in Ota Ward for about six years and showed them the inside of their factories.

What we have realized is that we can handle projects from clients that we cannot handle on our own, if we collaborate with our fellow companies in the district. We can also solve problems in fields in which we are not good at. Furthermore, we can take on the challenge of entering new fields. I was thinking about this every day, but I was unable to do it. In the midst of this situation, I received a request from the government to consult with the president of two other companies in Ota Ward about the current situation at the time, and I was the target of a hearing for companies in the ward. One of those two companies was Mr. Kunihiro, the current president of I-OTA.

Mr. Kunihiro and I first became acquainted through the Shimo-cho Bobsleigh Project, and we have been most trusted colleagues over the years, with Mr. Kunihiro serving as the committee chairman and me as vice-chairman. At the time, we both had a sense of crisis about the future, and during the course of weekly administrative hearings, we came to believe that the first priority should be how to increase the volume of orders and strengthen the ties between companies in the ward before thinking about the use of IT. I came to think that the first priority should be how to increase the volume of orders and strengthen the ties among companies in the district before thinking about using IT. Therefore, we decided to establish I-OTA LLC, believing that we would be able to receive and respond to orders in a completely different way if we started a company with the three of us, all of whom have completely different areas of expertise. Each of us has our own company. It was not always smooth. Nevertheless, little by little, we began to receive inquiries from major companies and to make inroads into the agricultural field, and at the same time, we began to see the challenges we faced.

I have long thought, "Cooperation with companies in the district and with manufacturing companies across the country, and the gathering together of each company's areas of expertise will enable each company to take on the challenge of new fields and grow further. I have felt this kind of response. We do not know what the right answer is, but we will continue to do our best so that our customers will think, "If you have a manufacturing problem, consult I-OTA and we will solve it through the cooperation of many of our fellow companies. Through I-OTA, we have been able to facilitate horizontal cooperation. We were able to take on challenges in new fields. We will do our best to make them feel that we are now able to proactively take on projects that they cannot handle themselves.