JFE Engineering established a Digital Transformation Headquarters in April 2022 to consolidate its DX related human resource, which it defines as: (1) DX promotion staff who are able to transform existing businesses and create new businesses; (2) IT engineers who develop and operate digital platforms (cloud platforms, data analysis, systems and application development, etc.); and (3) control engineers who implement control systems and collect data from construction sites and plants.

DX promotion staff, who have a high level of interest in digital technology and are familiar with business operations, use things like open innovation to enhance technological strengths and business sense. The company is actively hiring mid-career IT engineers as core DX resource who are skillful at cutting-edge digital technologies and data analysis, and roughly 80% of those engineers are mid-career hires. DX promotion also includes proactive activities to raise the overall IT literacy. The number of users of the Pla’cello® data analytics platform has surpassed 1,800, and more than 1,000 people on a cumulative basis have taken classes from the Data Scientist Training program (an educational program comprising 17 classes over 120 hours).

The company also has an internal AI/IoT Technical Group, with 265 members, to raise the overall level of information and communications technology (ICT) capabilities and train experts. In addition to raising the skill levels of both beginners and mid-level staff, they are striving to strengthen the company’s OT-related* ICT.

* OT: Operational Technology