Building Seamless Supply Chains: TDK’s Path from Legacy Systems to Modern SCM

Yoshihiro Saito has a rare vantage point: he’s worked at TDK in new product development, sales, purchasing, and now as a manager deeply involved in connecting factories, business groups, and suppliers. “I can talk about it now because I have experienced everything,” he said. That breadth of experience is helping TDK tackle one of the most pressing challenges in today’s industrial world: how to modernize supply chain planning in a fragmented, volatile environment.

In his presentation, Saito laid out both the external pressures (wars, pandemics, global trade shifts) and the internal obstacles: legacy systems, disconnected data, and islands of Excel sheets. But more importantly, he shared the path TDK is taking to build what he calls a “seamless SCM” project: connecting people, processes, and platforms for better speed, clarity, and adaptability.

The urgency of change: external shocks and internal inertia

“It's become a complex and uncertain era with various corona and war,” Saito reflected. Those global disruptions make the old way of planning untenable. But even as the world shifts, TDK found itself hemmed in by internal legacy: old systems, separate factories, disconnected data flows.

Saito described the core tension: while many OEMs and manufacturers have global customer bases, their internal tools and workflows often remain rooted in past decades. “Businesses, factories, suppliers, and supply chains are connected. However, they are now in a fragmented state,” he said. The problem is not just external volatility, but internal resistance to changing how work is done.

He pushed on this problem with a metaphor.

For TDK, that meant recognizing that without cleaning up the base, capitalizing master data, standardizing systems, consolidating platforms, new SCM initiatives will always be limited.

From fragmentation to platform: creating a single source of truth

Saito’s playbook for modernization starts with platform thinking. He explained that TDK is pushing ahead with a “seamless SCM project”, one that connects business, accounting, finance, manufacturing and other teams, so all stakeholders can see the same data, same dashboards, same forecast.

One early and visible step is addressing master data. As Saito put it: “If one of the masters is wrong, the wrong supply chain planning will go wrong.” To counter that, TDK is building a master data task force, ensuring consistency and accuracy, so that downstream processes don’t break.

Part of the platform approach also involves standardizing systems. TDK still has many legacy MES systems and various execution systems with varying data flows and accuracy. Saito argued that simply overlaying a new SCM package on top of old, misaligned systems won’t succeed. You have to unify the foundation, or insights and forecasts will always be noisy.

Working with data, not just Excel

Saito acknowledged the role Excel plays, that there’s nothing wrong with it, but warned that when every department works from their own spreadsheet “tribe,” it creates misalignment.

“I don’t think Excel is bad. I always say that we should stop working only on Excel,” he said. He emphasized that when everyone uses their own model, you never arrive at one shared answer; you remain in tribes. Moving to a platform where planning, prediction, and scenario tools are centralized helps bring everyone onto the same page.

In this shift, speed matters enormously. Saito pointed out that Japan is facing a shrinking labor force, aging population, and with only five years left before the labor population wall becomes urgent. He framed the next five years as “very important to me.” To act fast, you need both data accuracy and agility.

Progress so far: 70% good, aiming for better

Saito was pragmatic. He’s not chasing perfection. He shared that TDK has set a target of 70 points rather than waiting for 100%. With 23 production sites and 10 companies under the TDK umbrella, the goal is to get a platform that everyone can use in common—even if it’s not perfect in every dimension.

The goal is to reduce friction, accelerate decision cycles, and make incremental improvements. “If we listen to all the good points, we can optimize individually. But sharing a common foundation gives you speed,” he said.

Mindset, not just tools: cultural readiness and shared trust

Many of the technical problems can be solved, but Saito stressed that culture is equally critical. New tools and platforms require openness, trust, and willingness to change norms. “We are in the middle of promoting the project. In order to seek understanding from various departments, we are doing various activities every day and sending out messages,” he said.

He also tied digital behavior to customer trust: “What we talk about on a daily basis is to gain the trust of customers first. … If we don't get orders from customers, we can't do business.” That customer focus forces an internal discipline: data integrity, responsiveness, accountability.

Finally, Saito spoke about the urgency imposed by demographic trends—labour population decline in Japan. His view: failure to prepare for these shifts means losing ground.

Pressing forward with AI, prediction, and partners

Looking forward, TDK is considering integrating more predictive tools. Saito mentioned leveraging AI, both for demand planning and for prediction tools, for example, anticipating changes in market demand or supply risk.

He also emphasized the importance of ensuring mechanisms work: “If one of the masters is wrong… planning will go wrong.” And ensuring that the masters (master data definitions, data flows, connectivity) are kept clean and agreed across functions.

Additionally, TDK is aiming to make its SCM system more seamless with fewer handoffs and islands. The vision is one platform, shared dashboards, shared priorities, and faster decision-making cycles.

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