The Strengths That Support Our Value Creation
Creating Value through the Constant Enhancement of Technologies and Understanding of Market Needs
Understanding Market Needs
By effective utilization of the underlying and core technologies we have accumulated over a century,
and a thorough understanding of market needs, we have made further progress in product development,
technological improvement, and market development
Use of our core technologies and our understanding of market needs has enabled our products to continue evolving. As a result of this constant evolution, we have developed new products, improved technologies for our existing products, and developed new peripheral markets.
In April 2021, we consolidated and integrated the operations of the Odawara Research Center and the Chiba Research Center to further generate innovation. We are now working to combine technologies through the Odawara Research Center’s R&D on agrochemicals and the Chiba Research Center’s R&D on chemical products.
For the development of agrochemicals, we have a research structure in place to advance every process from basic research to field trials. One of our major strengths is our ability to carry out highly efficient and swift R&D, and product development that combines research and evaluation. For chemical development, we have created a structure that enables us to undertake everything from the development and commercialization of functional chemical products using our proprietary technologies, to research on improvements and optimizations.
Looking ahead, we will reinforce collaboration between our marketing, technology, service, manufacturing, and other departments to further improve our R&D structure.
Establishing and Strengthening Core Technologies to Bolster Existing Businesses and Create New Businesses
The Nippon Soda Group possesses many excellent core technologies. However, when considering future market needs and changes in the social environment, it is essential to introduce new technologies, as well as to establish and further strengthen core technologies. Therefore, we will strengthen our technology marketing abilities, broaden our assessment and understanding of new needs, and establish a system that can respond more flexibly.
By collecting information from various chemical markets, analyzing technological trends in each field, and examining solutions that cater to needs brought about by social change, we are unearthing new possibilities while staying alert to trends in even more areas. On top of that, we will create new value by improving and increasing the sophistication of our proprietary technologies, and by developing new technologies while cooperating with external parties.
In agrochemical research, I believe it is very important to build an understating of market needs from the research stage and settle on an image for the final product. I therefore prioritize explicit market needs as well as latent needs including those that could arise from changes in the market environment. Specifically, in addition to the explicit needs that are picked up by sales staff from actual production frontlines, we strive to uncover latent needs through participation in academic conferences, lectures, domestic and overseas frontline visits, and discussions with colleagues, for example, and then work to incorporate our findings into development policies. I believe that each Nippon Soda researcher has a great awareness of the importance of these two different types of needs, and that we have developed a research environment in which we can express our different opinions.
Responding to Market Needs
Through improvement of the research and development and production technology capabilities we have accumulated over a century,
we have created a safe, secure, stable production system that is highly efficient
At our production technology research centers, which we have in place at each of our plants, we are engaged in diverse technological development and engineering research. Our strengths lie in our ability to work with our research departments to develop highly productive proprietary manufacturing technologies.
Beginning in 2019, we have been working to build a system that enables efficient use of experimental equipment and allocation of human resources engaged in research. Furthermore, a new research building that consolidates and integrates research facilities at the Takaoka Plant and the Nihongi Plant is scheduled for completion in 2022. The Nippon Soda Group is also accelerating product development by strengthening synergies with manufacturing process expertise and manufacturing know-how, and by improving operational efficiency.
To respond to market needs, it is essential that we combine the research and development capabilities that allow us to continuously improve on our effective products with the production technology capabilities that deliver leading niche products to our customers safely. With safety and security our foremost priority, we are working to make continuous improvements to our production technologies and in turn build an even better production structure.
Accelerating R&D Using External Technologies
In creating new businesses, open innovation is key̶that is, making use of not only internal resources, but also external research resources and technologies. At Nippon Soda, we are promoting open innovation through collaborations with external institutions in industrial and academic circles.
| Themes | Progress, Results and Outlook |
Nippon Soda’s Strengths |
|---|---|---|
| Development of a new porous material with a metalorganic framework (MOF) (An industry-academia collaboration project with Prof. Mao Minoura and his research team from the Chemistry Department of the College of Science at Rikkyo University) |
|
Synthesis technologies accumulated through our development of agrochemicals, and production technologies |
| Development of a platinum-tungsten solid solution alloy nanoparticles (Joint research with Prof. Hiroshi Kitagawa and his research team from the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University) |
|
Processing technologies to particulate and disperse metals |
| Development of a new compound for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material, a next-generation organic electroluminescence material (Joint development with Kyulux, Inc.) |
|
Long-accumulated, advanced organic material development capabilities and synthesis know-how |
| Optimization of manufacturing process through the continuous flow method (Joint development with Active Pharma Co., Ltd. and Prof. Shu Kobayashi and his research team from the Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo) |
|
Manufacturing track record in agrochemical intermediates due to commercialization of flow method at a Group company in 2016 |
The New Business Planning & Development Department is in charge of developing new businesses in the food, healthcare, and advanced materials domains that we have set out in our Brilliance through Chemistry 2030 research and technology strategy. Acquiring new technologies outside our expertise is essential to developing new businesses, and so we are working with partners at universities and startups. The aim is to combine the outstanding technologies of these partners with the synthesis technologies we have accumulated in the manufacture of agrochemicals and materials, our scaling expertise in commercialization, and our various evaluation technologies to develop entirely new technologies. In this way, we are working to respond to changing needs in new markets and commercialize major projects in new business domains.
