In the relentless pursuit of excellence and innovation, NSIDN continues to strengthen its expertise through hands-on learning and global collaboration. As part of our ongoing Factory Visit program, our team of dedicated steelmaking solution engineers and consultants embarked on an insightful journey to Nagoya Works, one of Nippon Steel’s flagship facilities in Japan. This visit was more than just a tour. It was an opportunity to deepen our understanding of quality management, advanced technologies such as AI, and the essence of continuous improvement that defines Japan’s steelmaking industry. 

Nagoya Works factory was established in September 1958 by Tokai Steel Co, Ltd. With its main site encompassing a 6,32 million square meters of area, it houses around 3,150 employees. The factory itself produces a variety of steel products, such as steel plates, steel pipes and cast iron. It is also the only integrated steelworks in the Chubu region that can meet a wide range of industrial needs with its advanced manufacturing technology and capabilities of product development, with multiple ISO certifications. As a part of the international partnership between each Nippon Steel-operated facilities, PT Krakatau Nippon Steel Synergy (KNSS) branch in Indonesia also imports substrate coil materials directly from Nagoya Works.

Following the previous factory visit programs, the purpose of this visit was to learn about quality improvement processes and understanding the usage of advanced technology such as AI when integrated into steelmaking process through direct observation and presentations with both NSC Nagoya Works management and NS Solutions Corp. Nagoya system centre members. Additionally, mutual sharing of information was highly encouraged for all involved parties.

On Thursday, 25 September 2025, NS Solutions Corp. Chubu and Nagoya Works management team welcomed the NSIDN team to the steelworks’ facility area. The activity for the day focused on the tour within the factory area of Nagoya Works facility From their perspective, NSC Nagoya Works management shared the routine of quality management officers, offering a new insight to NSIDN team about the importance of mentorship between senior and junior members within the organization to facilitate knowledge transfer, the challenges that the management faces during the business operation and necessary measures needed for the quality management process (e.g: documentation of various agreements and operation procedures, testing after development, identifying potential issues and its impacts, involving users in the quality management process, etc.).

On the next day, the second half of the activity continued to another session of presentations conducted by all involved parties. The topic covered include current features and quality assurance system, a knowledge collection process that involved various cases and information throughout all NS Solutions Corp. branches in Japan. To accommodate the process, a generative AI (artificial intelligence) is utilized, and directly supported by the NS Solutions Corp. headquarters. The adoption of generative AI marks an important stepping stone within the NSSOL 2030 Vision to become a “social value producer with digital” through proactive value creation and leading the efforts to address various social and corporate challenges with technology.

As for the rest of the trip, the team ventured through various local attractions in Nagoya city, namely the Nagoya Castle, among others.  

Mr. Ali Ramdani, team leader and lead application developer of steelmaking solutions department, shared his thoughts about his experience during the trip, “After going through various sharing sessions during our time here, I learned a lot from our overseas colleagues that critical thinking is deeply important. Critical thinking is deeply essential in our daily work activities, as we think about what we need to do, what is important, and what is the mandatory before we begin our next tasks or activities. This trip has taught us that important message.”

Mr. Rizki Akbari Tamin, system engineer of steelmaking solutions department also shared his thoughts regarding the experience learned during the trip, “It is an honor for us to directly learn and observe from our foreign colleagues in Nagoya Works. They gave us a warm welcome and shared so many interesting and engaging experiences for us to learn from, including the knowledge for the current features and quality assurance process, factory production process, and generative AI applications in our scope of work. We need to keep this important information that we have learned during our trip in mind so that we can develop high-quality deliverables to our clients and increase general quality awareness in our daily operation. Additionally, this trip made me learn too, that other than producing steel products, Nagoya Works also contributes to the environment through recycling agricultural plastic to be produced into asphalt and fertilizer, as well as providing various educational support, sporting events, and cultural supports meant for environmental conservation effort.”

Consequently, this year’s trip to Nagoya Works provided valuable insights to our operational and technological knowledge, further empowering NSIDN to deliver exceptional, high-quality services to our clients. Moving forward, we aim to apply our newly learned knowledge about quality management measures, mentorship program, and generative AI usage to drive innovation and improvement across our businesses.

Stay tuned for more news and updates of our life in NSIDN!