Digital Transformation Strategy

Business Transformation with Digital
～Transforming Our Business
with Digital Technology～

Since launching the DX Promotion Office in April 2022, we have accelerated efforts to transform our business, to drive growth in specialty chemicals, and to contribute to global environment. We advance initiatives across 10 domains, with executives leading operations and managing them from a strategic perspective.

Digitizing our business processes should boost annual financial benefits from ¥1.5 billion in fiscal 2024 to ¥8.9 billion in fiscal 2027 and reach ¥30 billion by fiscal 2030.

We have committed to embedding digital processes into our corporate culture, and working on everything needed to realize our vision as a specialty chemicals company.

Representative Director
Senior Managing Executive Officer
Assistant to the President,
General Manager of DX Promotion Office,
with responsibility for Information Systems Dept.
and C1 Chemicals Project

Yuki Nishida

Board of Directors

Vision
Strategy
Column

Driving a Companywide DX

The DX Promotion Office spearheads our DX initiatives.
We set it up in April 2022. It has nearly 70 members.
These professionals participating concurrently, mostly in their 20s to 40s,
bring expertise from the IT Department, business units, plants, research laboratories, and headquarters.
As part of measures to improve effectiveness,
UBE appointed executives to oversee each DX domain,
directly tying their compensation to the progress of these initiatives.

UBE’s DX Mission

UBE views DX as a catalyst for overhauling business processes, approaches, models, and mindsets. It goes beyond simply applying digital tools; it involves every employee and touches all business areas. Digital transformation plays a crucial role in accelerating our specialty chemicals growth and contributing to global environment.

We will boost labor productivity through digitization, leverage accumulated data in more advanced ways, and cultivate digital talent. Simultaneously, we will strengthen customer solutions by harnessing data and digital technologies. Our goal is to create new value by reforming business processes through co-creation with customers.

When we established the DX Promotion Office in 2022, it focused on four domains. This expanded to eight in 2023 and to 10 in 2024, with each domain gaining depth in focus. Under the current three-year management plan through fiscal 2024, we are investing approximately ¥10 billion in capital expenditures. Cumulative spending should reach around ¥22 billion by fiscal 2030, generating return on investment of ¥30 billion by that year.

DX Capital Expenditures and Estimated Return on Investment

DX themes in 10 domains

Strategy

We are undertaking integrated DX efforts with a focus on optimizing visions of each domain while ensuring seamless data collaboration among domains to maximize both customer and corporate value.

Management Digital transformation governance (Value Realization Office*) We manage measures and reallocate people, goods, and funds to optimize earnings. Benefits Overall resource reallocation Planning and performance management (including sustainability) Data-driven management that generates actionable insights through accurate and streamlined budgeting and performance oversight Branding CRM R&D R&D SCM DataAnalytics&AI Back Office DX business systems and data infrastructure HR talent management

Initiatives to Attract and Develop Digital Talent

We implemented a strategy based on innovator theory to equip all employees with digital proficiency.This approach spreads DX from innovators within the DX Promotion Office to early-adopting evangelists.

We expanded the scope of citizen development※ beyond applications to include the utilization of generative AI and the creation of digital education content. In fiscal 2023, members of the DX Promotion Office began educating the broader workforce—the practitioners—by using e-learning and practical training programs they developed.
To motivate learning, we award digital badges to those who pass final exams.

※Citizen development: This refers to employees in business units using specialized tools to develop systems without requiring advanced programming knowledge.

Digital Talent Development (Workforce percentages)

Cultivating Talent Strategy with DX

In the Digital HR domain, we defined 10 specialized talent profiles and outlined the roles, behaviors, specialized and common skills, knowledge, and mindsets for each. Our goal is to foster an environment where employees take ownership of their career paths, while the Company works on building an environment where talent are developed as planned (a talent pipeline).
To achieve this, we are enhancing our human resources systems and educational framework. We are implementing a Groupwide talent management structure to efficiently cultivate talent and support career growth.