R&D and Intellectual Property Activities

Research and Development

The Group’s research and development is based on the Kawasaki Group Policy on R&D. Our R&D assumes a role in the creation of new value from the ground up and into the future, and it involves remaining up to speed with changes in the times as well as with market and client needs, to contribute to ambidextrous organization at the Group. Specifically, the Group will promote the development of competitive new products and solutions in cooperation with each business segment based on competitive trends and those in the market as well ongoing business conditions, toward the achievement of sustainable growth. We will meanwhile also reconfigure and enhance our fundamental technologies and develop and enhance our human capital in technical domains linked into respective technologies as means to increase our shared capacities in fundamental technologies, which will constitute the driving force behind value creation. We will also undertake initiatives toward the achievement of this goal, bringing together the collective wealth of technologies which the entire Group has to offer, and mobilizing “synergy of technological and manufacturing capabilities” to their maximum extent. Furthermore, engineers in each business segment and specialists in the Corporate Technology Division with expertise in various fields form project teams to share issues and develop new products and new businesses with the aim of consistent overall optimization. The Corporate Technology Division acts as an intermediary facilitating mutual access to the technological core competencies possessed by each business segment so that they can be applied to products in other segments. This approach enables the multifaceted expansion of technology and realizes major synergistic effects. Thus, by adopting so-called matrix management combining the core technologies of each business segment and the fundamental technologies of the Corporate Technology Division, we aim to create technological synergy throughout the entire Kawasaki Group and to further enhance corporate value.

Each business segment carries out R&D in areas specific to its business, while the Corporate Technology Division handles horizontal or forward-looking R&D on a Company-wide basis, and works together closely with the business segments on each project. In addition, the business segments, Head Office Presidential Project Management Division, Corporate Technology Division, Hydrogen Strategy Division, and DX Strategy Division are collectively endeavoring to bring together the wealth of technologies which the Group has to offer to realize Group Vision 2030; at the same time leveraging the latest system integration and digital technologies in R&D to provide value to our customers into the future.

Director Responsible for Technology: Hiroshi Nakatani, Representative Director, Senior Corporate Executive Officer
Takumi Kawasaki, Managing Executive Officer, General Manager of Corporate Technology Division

The business segments and the Corporate Technology Division meet regularly to share information about the market environment and business strategy and form a consensus regarding development themes. In addition, the Company-wide Technology Committee serves to provide direction for Company-wide responses to new and shared technological challenges and to the development of human capital in technical domains; while inter-company technical exchanges and interactions are deployed to facilitate the horizontal exchange and sharing of technologies and to promote synergistic effects. The Company-wide Technology Committee is composed of representatives from the Corporate Planning Division and the Corporate Technology Division, as well as those from the technical departments of internal companies and major affiliated companies and, in principle, meets six times a year.

R&D Initiatives for the Promotion of Innovation

We will maintain a steady view to the Group’s growth into the future, undertake initiatives to promote various innovations, and further expedite transformations of our business as we aim to continue creating new value by bringing together and making full use of the collective strengths of the Kawasaki Group.

In addition to carrying out R&D within the Group, we will leverage open innovation, and utilize cutting-edge technologies from universities, research institutions, start-ups, and other sources in both Japan and overseas to expedite the pace of our R&D. Furthermore, the Group will proactively promote collaboration with external businesses.

Opening of the social innovation co-creation hub “CO-CREATION PARK - KAWARUBA”

On November 6, 2024, Kawasaki inaugurated a new social innovation co-creation hub called CO-CREATION PARK - KAWARUBA (“KAWARUBA”) in HANEDA INNOVATION CITY (Ota Ward, Tokyo). The Kawasaki Group has set out its Group Vision 2030 as a vision for the Group’s future to work toward by 2030 and is undertaking initiatives for the solution of various societal challenges. As part of these initiatives, we will make KAWARUBA available as a venue at which a diverse range of people who share a common purpose can encounter one another and gather across organizational boundaries to create value and aim for social implementation. We have established the themes on which to engage in challenges at the co-creation hub of: “Realizing a society that unlocks human ingenuity to create robotics that enrich the future” and “Pioneering a new era of green society using hydrogen and carbon-neutral solutions,” and will promote the development of solutions based in the starting point of our business activities while actively utilizing diverse demonstration fields.

Kawasaki is promoting process innovation, with a focus from the design to the manufacturing stages, throughout the entire value chain, based on our mission of Total Quality Management. Through this process innovation, we are aiming to create a business foundation capable of facilitating flexible and speedy responses to both societal changes and the increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers while providing sustainable value.

• Development and design process innovation
  Kawasaki is promoting Kawasaki Design Process Transformation (K-DPX), which aims to standardize and enhance the development and design process and thereby maximize value and improve efficiency throughout the entire value chain. We are leveraging the wealth of knowledge and experience we have accumulated within the Company and are engaging in digital engineering initiatives to improve the efficiency of development toward the goals of preventing errors and improving development and design productivity.
• Manufacturing process innovation
  Kawasaki is promoting innovation in manufacturing processes based on the Kawasaki Production System (KPS) approach, which seeks to achieve “thorough elimination of waste.” We are promoting the establishment of a system to ensure quality at each stage of the manufacturing process while promoting autonomous improvements. We are also actively undertaking initiatives for the introduction of advanced technologies, such as AI assistance and collaborative robots.
• Comprehensive and concurrent development promotion
  We are promoting “comprehensive and concurrent development” activities, which involve creating both a data integration platform that connects the entire value chain and products and services that precisely capture the needs of society and of our customers from the initial stages of development. Doing so will enable us to realize efficient manufacturing without the need for reworking.

We will develop products and services that precisely capture the needs of society and of our customers from the initial stages of development through process innovation throughout the entire value chain, to thereby realize manufacturing processes without the need for reworking as well as 50% reductions in error and compensation costs.

Kawasaki is aiming to improve environmental performance through measures, such as furthering energy and resource conservation for our products. We are also focusing efforts on lessening our environmental impact by reducing both waste levels and the volumes of chemicals used in the production process. We register products that satisfy these criteria as “Kawasaki Ecological Frontiers” (formerly “Kawasaki-brand Green Products”) based on our proprietary standards. Furthermore, we deliver a lineup of products that will support the transition from environmentally friendly LNG fuel to the clean energy source of hydrogen fuel, toward the provision of sustainable energy solutions. We are also actively undertaking initiatives for the development of hydrogen-compatible products with a view to a future hydrogen-based society. Additionally, we are focusing efforts on the development of technologies for separating and capturing CO₂ from exhaust gases and the air for its effective use, to promote energy transformation toward the realization of a carbon-neutral society.

The society of today is characterized by high uncertainty and constant change. In such an environment, the development of versatile human capital is imperative to facilitate the creation of the sustainable innovation that will support corporate growth. At Kawasaki, we are promoting a Company-wide program for the enhancement of technical human capital with the aim of bolstering our human capital in technical domains. This program is designed to maintain and enhance a broad range of fundamental technologies, including those in mechanical and electrical domains, while also focusing efforts on the development of human capital such as the following:

• Highly skilled technical human capital
  Development of human capital with deep expertise and proficiency in technology in specific domains
• Multi-skilled human capital
  Development of human capital with a comprehensive understanding of multiple technical domains, proficiency in cutting-edge technologies, and who can achieve a panoramic grasp of entire systems
• Human capital with business development skills and entrepreneurial mindsets
  Development of human capital who are experienced in business development and entrepreneurship through on-the-job training (OJT) and who can play a role in the creation of new value

We will actively aim to enhance the human capital who will be decisive in shaping the future of the company through initiatives which leverage both knowledge acquisition and practical experience.

The Kawasaki Group has positioned intellectual property (IP) as an important management resource supporting our efforts to develop businesses and brands with competitive advantages by leveraging creative and innovative solutions and taking full advantage of our core competencies. These assets are therefore essential to achieving ongoing improvement in corporate value. On the basis of this recognition, and in accordance with the Kawasaki Group Policy on Intellectual Property, we endeavor to ensure and utilize the IP rights of the Group and strive to respect and prevent violation of the valid IP rights of third parties by promoting three-pronged activities with IP added to business and R&D.

To promote strategic intellectual property activities, we maintain a structure whereby the Intellectual Property Department in the Corporate Technology Division drafts and implements corporate measures and works with the intellectual property supervisor and the intellectual property management departments of each business segment to carry out intellectual property activities in line with each segment's business.

Director in charge of intellectual property: Hiroshi Nakatani, Representative Director, Senior Corporate Executive Officer

The Intellectual Property Committee formulates operating and basic policies regarding Company-wide intellectual property activities, and holds committee meetings as it deems necessary. Additionally, an intellectual property supervisors’ meeting and intellectual property management department managers’ meeting both convene twice a year to promote information sharing and cooperation between the Head Office and business segments.

The Group sets forth the three pillars of “deliberating on and formulating intellectual property strategies aligned to business strategies”; “securing intellectual property to serve as a source of non-price competitive power”; and “ensuring scrupulous and thorough intellectual property risk management,” through which intellectual property should contribute to our business, toward the aim of realizing continuous growth and discontinuous innovation. To achieve this, we strive to implement IP activities in coordination with management and the business strategy by taking part in business planning from the earliest stages; providing information useful for developing a business strategy that leverages IP information; making suggestions regarding strategy; and developing and promoting an IP strategy that will strengthen the business strategy.

In 2009, Kawasaki began taking full-scale action to build a liquefied hydrogen supply chain. We have made substantial investments into R&D on core hydrogen-related technologies with government support. The fruits of those investments have translated into the below examples of system development and technology demonstrations, which represent “Production,” “Utilization,” and “Transportation” technologies.

• “Production” technology: The development of hydrogen liquefaction systems using purely-domestic proprietary technology, a first for industrial use (2014)
• “Utilization” technology: Verification of hydrogen power generation in an urban area, a world’s first (2018)
• “Transportation” technology: A technology demonstration of marine transportation and loading/unloading using the SUISO FRONTIER, the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier (2022)

Thus far, we have established at an early stage the core technologies that will be necessary for creating a hydrogen society and have pursued the acquisition of patents for supply chain-related products. Furthermore, through establishing international standards from the technology development stage, we are pushing forward with initiatives aimed at creating a new market for hydrogen supply chain-related equipment for which Japan has an advantage while endeavoring to differentiate our products from those of other countries.

We have in place appropriate countermeasures based on trademark and other rights for dealing with commercial activities that make unauthorized use of Kawasaki Group brands, the manufacture and sale of counterfeit products, the use and application for registration of trademarks similar to those of the Kawasaki Group, and related issues. By further developing such activities, we are committed to contributing to the protection and further enhancement of market confidence in our brands.

Based on the Patent Law regulation pertaining to inventions by employees, Kawasaki has established a provision in its internal rules regarding inventions by employees to reward employees at specific milestones, such as the filing of a patent application (application reward), patent registration (registration reward), and practical application (performance-based reward). The Company faithfully adheres to this provision. In addition, the same reward system is applied even when the invention is not made public for strategic reasons. Of note, the performance-based reward is fairly awarded after duly taking into consideration how the Company has benefited from the invention, using an evaluation standard based on comparisons with other companies in the same industry as well as trends in society.

Intellectual property is an important management resource for increasing our business competitiveness. As such, Kawasaki’s basic policy is to secure and effectively utilize its own intellectual property while respecting the valid intellectual property rights of third parties. In line with this policy, we carry out grade-specific activities to foster correct awareness of intellectual property.

*1 Numbers are as of the end of each calendar year

*2 Numbers of patents granted by EPOs with ongoing patent rights