Terumo, a global leader in medical technology and innovation, began their low-code adventure by reimagining the Japanese business practice of ringi in the digital era. From there we moved to manufacturing, using Mendix to stream-line their shop floor in Leuven and beyond.
If you’ve ever done business with Japanese organisations you may have heard of ringi - a bottom-up approach to corporate decision making designed to encourage input and communication across all levels of management.
At Terumo EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Asia), ringi involves informal meetings, emails and calls to discuss and validate internal proposals that require investment capital. But when you’re spending millions on those proposals, you might want something a little more ‘official’ to keep track. With this in mind they first turned to traditional development, but found the process too slow. Then, who would have guessed, they discovered the magic of low code.
The major benefits Mendix brought to this project were speed, agility and easy iteration for future updates, which is further aided by an intuitive feedback system allowing users to leave comments on specific components throughout the development process. The track took 6 weeks from start to finish and the resulting CAS (corporate authorisation system) mobile app has already helped improve communication and consolidate the company’s decision-making flow.
We chose Mendix not only for its speed but also its agile methodology. While we’re definitely learning more about low-code ourselves, what’s most valuable to us is the guidance and expertise Apvine continues to offer as we grow together.Sigurd Segers - ICT Director Terumo EMEA
With the CAS app successful, Terumo plans on integrating it into their existing budget approval system and cost centres, which means migrating it from the Mendix Cloud to SAP Business Technology Platform - no small feat, but one we look forward to completing.
Meanwhile, we’ve already started a potentially much more significant project with Terumo to integrate low-code solutions into their manufacturing process. Starting with their production plant in Leuven, we’re co-creating an app to log all activities and information from the moment materials arrive in the loading bay to the day they’re packed up and shipped off as products.
Sigurd Segers, ICT Director at Terumo Europe, also hopes low-code can bring the company closer to their customers - medical professionals around the world who rely on Terumo’s products to save lives. “We’re always trying to improve our customer contact points, so we can gather more feedback and make better solutions. We believe low-code can definitely help with this goal.”