Mr. Sato:

As the Director of Work Style Reform Division in the Civil Engineering Headquarters, I support boosting work efficiency and reforming the way we work in construction sites across Japan.

 

Mr. Miyaji:

I am the Operation Manager of the Yokohama Branch, and I’m in charge of project management on site for the road shield tunnel construction.

Mr. Miyaji:

In constructing a shield tunnel that easily covers several kilometers in length, about 20 employees are stationed on site, and about 50 other contractors work on a site-by-site basis. As the operation manager, I am in charge of overall management—I check up with the people in charge to grasp the progress in field. However, I felt it quite cumbersome to check up on each individual through a phone call or an email, and again deliver the information to other employees. I thought we needed a safe and more convenient tool for communication.

 

Mr. Sato:

With the number of employees decreasing due to a shortage of workers, and with the recent situation of reducing overtime work and providing holiday leaves, the construction industry is striving to reform the way we work. In order to drive for the same results as before, we need to increase work efficiency to improve the overall productivity.

Do you have any tips for using LINE WORKS in construction sites?

How exactly is LINE WORKS being used?

As we can now deliver information through group message rooms at once, I can deliver the project’s progress to the employees or relevant personnel much faster than before. Thankfully, I no longer need to explain the project’s progress in detail during morning and evening assemblies when everyone gets together. Now day time workers transfer their duties to night time workers through LINE WORKS, instead of paper transition documents. LINE WORKS is easier to read than the paper document, and we can also check for the ‘read‘ notification. This has enabled employees to be clearer in the transition process. Furthermore, another big strength of LINE WORKS is that you can gather members and create message rooms to share information with only members who need them. Sparing the cost of delivering information to irrelevant workforce has contributed to improving work efficiency.

 

At sites where various companies work together, each company has to share where and what they are doing everyday with blueprints and progress schedules. Before, these documents were delivered in paper during morning assemblies; yet now, even employees who missed an assembly can access the information because we deliver them to everyone through attached files. It has even become possible to distinguish who has checked the information and who has not, so there is much less anxiety about whether the information is being delivered.

Mr. Sato:

Before, evening assemblies usually took around an hour, but now it only takes five to ten minutes. We estimated that this would enable each employee shorten about one working hour each day. Since one out of eight working hours can now be redistributed to the project, this led to an improvement in construction speed and quality, and a decrease in overtime costs. I believe that this is contributing greatly to the overall improvement in productivity.

 

Mr. Miyaji:

Sometimes scheduled projects suddenly undergo changes due to various circumstances. In these kinds of situations, an unexpected accident might occur if relevant information is not shared to every relevant employee fast and accurately. As we can now make immediate announcements about project schedule changes through LINE WORKS, it also helps strengthening safety measures in the field.

Mr. Miyaji:

Up until now, we have announced the field schedule like safety inspections and meeting dates by writing them on a whiteboard, but now anyone can share their schedule anytime on their phone with the Calendar feature.

 

In addition, we are utilizing Form when nominating a candidate for safety awards or when checking attendance for social gatherings. We just send the information at once to everyone in the field (around 70 people), and in the blink of an eye we get replies back—it’s so convenient.

Mr. Miyaji:

I would like to try its various features and further streamline the entire field communication, improving work efficiency and productivity.

 

Mr. Sato:

In order to utilize LINE WORKS more effectively, I believe that it is important for the headquarters to regularly exchange feedback with each work station, and listen to actual use cases and feedback. After hearing feedback, we will encourage employees to utilize LINE WORKS according to the size and characteristics of each field.

Mr. Kohara：

Our company mainly deals with remodeling and maintenance of the houses. We had converted into a corporation in 2004, and next year will be our 50th anniversary if we sum up the individual business years. We have total of 14 employees, 10 from sales-construction staffs and 4 from office workers. Since we are remodeling company, in which mainly focuses on construction, it is general that employees who form an estimation are also in charge of construction. Although I am the Representative Director of this company, I am also involved in overall working processes, from Sales to Construction works.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

I am in charge of Sales business. Specifically, I am in charge of re-writing the estimates, which are initially written by other Sales employees or writing various documents down on PC.

Mr. Kohara：

Starting from one specific period, the core idea of construction within industry has changed from constructing new building to remodeling. Unlike constructing new building, remodeling requires considerable experience. As major companies are also taking part in remodeling industry, it has become impossible to survive from the industry with its similar tactic. In order to survive under such circumstance, it was important mission for us to enhance our work performance by working efficiently while providing quality service.

 

Even within the industry, the response rate has become faster than before. Take construction fee as an example, what used to be changed every five-year is now change each year. This indicates that we cannot survive this year with the same way as last year.

 

Meantime, there were issues with sharing information since the salesperson could not stay in the same construction site all day and could only visit maximum of five construction sites if needed. Customers often had to wait for the salesperson, who were not reachable while working at the construction site. Although the customers make phone calls, they still had to wait quite amount of time to be connected to the salesperson. Even with the note like ‘I want someone to come as soon as possible’, there were times when salesperson could not answer the message in a prompt manner. In order to find the salesperson who is available for immediate contact or the salesperson who can visit the place right away, we had to call each of them whenever needed. Because it was impossible to find out where each salesperson was located, we had to call each individual.

Ms. Kunihiro：

The most used situation is when we make responses to emergencies, such as water leakage and drain clogging. Especially, we receive a lot of inquiries about frozen pipes during winter time. Before introducing LINE WORKS, the employee who answered the customer phone call had to desperately find a Salesperson who can solve the emergency. After the introduction, however, we can now send customer address along with detailed situation explanation to the group chatting room, where entire Salesperson have jointed. Just by sending messages like ‘Can anyone go?’, we can immediately find available Salesperson to handle the situation.

 

Mr. Kohara：

Up until now, we have delivered the information such as customer requests, shipping information, and event information through bylaws. After introducing LINE WORKS, however, it became very convenient to notify all the employees. Also, there are employees whom we get to encounter only once a week, but even in such situation, we can communicate with them in detail.

 

We are utilizing Calendar function when writing daily work log. There is no difference in terms of its function to manage overall schedules by posting construction or customer meeting dates in advance. We, furthermore, use to adjust the schedules, such as change the presumably written schedule hours to the hours that actually took, and add types of works that employees have done.

 

That is, what once was pre-conditioned schedule in the morning transformed into employees’ daily work log at night. It is easy to see the works done on that day and it is also convenient for future reference. Hand-written work log was often omitted within the day. But, it is now possible to check the log whenever and wherever needed.

 

Mr. Kohara：

LINE WORKS is very attractive tool in terms of allowing us to check the schedule everywhere. This applies to all the employees, but as we start utilizing LINE WORKS within our workplace, I believe that we all gained notion of time management. Everyone, including myself, can now use time efficiently. Schedule management function as well as Timer function also prevent works from being left out.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

Before LINE WORKS was introduced, I wrote employees’ schedule simply on a paper chart in the office. By introducing LINE WORKS, we are also digitalized. It became possible to reduce the cost of ‘writing’ as well as paper. Also, it is possible to make immediate contact to the specific employee, as we can find out the current location of them in detail.

Mr. Kohara：

What I felt particularly effective in terms of communication is when confirming ‘finishing touches’ of the construction sites. Visiting all the construction sites is nearly impossible to do so. However, since site managers send photos through LINE WORKS chatting, it is now possible to acknowledge the details of the construction sites without making actual visits.

 

There were times when I could not make judgements on the situation and issue the work instructions accordingly if I was not present on the site. But, now I can instantly make judgements on the issue and deliver the instructions. Because I can also issue instructions immediately in case of any emergencies or problems, the overall working process became much favorable than before. It was impossible to do so in the past. As we reduced the amount of time wasted, we can now spend more time focusing on Sales activities, such as prospect customer development, consultation, and post-sales support. We can easily share messages through chatting room, and ‘completed’ message can now be sent after the work has done. We are deeply feeling that the style of work has changed.

 

It may sound exaggerated, but I believe that with the help of LINE WORKS, we could survive from the hardships that we faced at the end of the last year. Starting from the end of the last year, the entire construction industry became relatively busy. Specifically, the work has increased 125% more in December than the last year. Thanks to LINE WORKS, we could successfully handle all the chances given by reducing the wasted time. After the introduction, our achievement record has definitely improved than last year.

Mr. Akimoto：

Our parent company, Daito Kentaku Corp., is offering owners to build a rental apartment using rental consignment management system. Meanwhile, our company is responsible for the overall management and operation of the rental building in exchange for receiving rent in lump-sum of rental buildings from the owners. The buildings in charge of management and operations are 160,000 blocks total, which is more than 1 million rooms.

Mr. Akimoto：

Our company has 179 offices nationwide. Management, office, and rental marketing employees are working everyday in each office.

 

Characteristic of our company is that we contact a lot not only within interoffice but also with our owners, residents and other enterprises. Especially, the number of affiliated companies such as electric, interior design, construction, etc. are more than 10,000. Therefore, it is important that employees should be able to exchange multiple opinions with multiple companies simultaneously.

 

That is, it is an industry in which established based on communication. However, the biggest challenge was that phone and e-mail were very complex and inconvenient when employees contact with other related people. E-mail that can only be seen in office computer was rarely used and verbal contact with company’s mobile phone became center of communication.

 

Mr. Funamoto：

First, we reviewed based on opinion of the field employee and suggested the necessity to the superior office for approval. We also reviewed other tools, but other tools besides LINE WORKS required license fee or needed extra installation process in order to communicate with clients. The most critical reason for adopting LINE WORKS was that individuals are able to contact on his or her usual LINE account. Furthermore, we sometimes deal with personal information and LINE WORKS provides excellent security system. This is also crucial reason why we choose LINE WORKS.

Mr. Kakinuma：

Business Planning and Strategy Office manages introduction of LINE WORKS. However, I, General Affairs Dept., am currently in charge of LINE WORKS. LINE WORKS is easier to understand than other tool’s admin screen, which used in other task. Also it can batch processing the data you want with CSV so it lessens burden on management. When other tools were introduced, employees have inquiry regarding operation method. However, no inquiry was made about LINE WORKS even though we only provided simple manual with log-in process at the earlier stage of introduction.

Mr. Akimoto：

Currently, 2,900 full-time employees are using LINE WORKS with company provided smartphones. Specifically, management and rental marketing employees are using it. Also starting from last quarter, as part of work method reformation, our company changed the operating system from management employee working on individual to a “team system” in which 3 to 4 people are in charge of one specific zone. Because communication within the team is important in ‘team system’, LINE WORKS is very convenient because it allows team members to actively share information and make quick decisions and responses. LINE WORKS’s unique attraction is that it easily allows to exchange information with remote sales offices.

 

Mr. Ushio：

Currently, each sales office creates group chatting room and business contacts are mostly occurred in LINE WORKS chatting room. During the company-wide campaign period, we immediately share contract with LINE WORKS in order to raise morale of entire group. In some cases, in order to raise morale of the field, if someone signs up a contract, the manager of sales office delivers that message to LINE WORKS chatting room. I think fostering motivation field-wide is really important and LINE WORKS makes huge contributions.

Mr. Akimoto：

Field employees praise on LINE WORKS because ‘LINE WORKS made smooth link between our business partners, since we can take photos right out of the field.’ When requesting repair, by using LINE WORKS, it is clearer to send a picture of the area to be repaired than to deliver in words. For example, if you want to exchange a ventilator installed in your room, verbal delivery of color or size may not match with what you prepared for. However, sending a picture of ventilator using ruler can deliver clear depiction of color or size of ventilator.

Mr. Ushio：

In the past, strong winds in one area have caused problems to the buildings we manage, such as falling roofs and fences. We could prevent further incident from happening by immediately sending photos of building condition to the repair company and receiving emergency treatment. I think that the biggest advantage is that we can reduce the unnecessary hassles of having to go through two or three times just by exchanging photos. Even if the number of visits to the site is reduced once, it is still a very large workload savings for the company if we think about the changes made company-wide.

 

Mr. Funamoto：

I think that the time taken for instructing and reporting has shortened. Like we can report the situation and send instruction even in the middle of experiencing natural disaster, the information sharing which aimed at many employees is faster than ever. Originally, this tool was introduced for effective communication with the partner companies outside. But, going beyond our expectation, it is well utilized within the office and therefore, made our work much convenient. There were opinions from the on-site employees, mentioning that group chatting room with LINE has enabled them to have communication much lively.

 

Mr. Akimoto：

Changed from phone-oriented to chatting-oriented style, we can now share and check information regardless of time. And we think that our working style has changed effectively due to this. Generally, our employees and business partners can meet each other once a month. For this, we are planning to use LINE WORKS as a tool which supports our communication.

Mr. Akimoto：

It is affiliation of LINE WORKS and the customer management tool. Today, office employees receive phone calls from the customers and submit an itinerary with the building information on the system. Then, the system automatically sends emails to one of the building managers. Using LINE WORKS, however, we are planning to send notifications to all the building managers in order to shorten the response time and ultimately, foster the customer satisfaction rate.

Mr. Shinya：

It is primarily construction. We are a housing construction corporation that guides customers who visit our exhibits, and eventually build ideal houses. In addition, other sub-companies within the group are in businesses fields of housing sales and nursing care as well. We are founded upon the custom home business and we are definitely a one-stop solution company that seeks happiness of people from the perspective of living.

 

Mr. Shigekazu：

I listen to the opinions and wishes from visiting customers and actually guide them through our exhibition. I also offer a variety of suggestions regarding housing.

Mr. Shinya：

In the past, we normally communicated with customers by phone or email. But contacting with customers often preceded in a rigid manner, which evoked feelings of distance with the customers. As communication was delayed due to missed calls, losses in work were also created. That is why we looked out for a new tool. It all started from employees. Employees began to talk about using LINE for its sales business. They added to say LINE enables intuitive reaction and increase the communication speed, which will eventually contribute to speed up management of Hinokiya Group. Following such idea, we implemented LINE’s corporate version, LINE WORKS.

Mr. Shinya：

Many employees stated their opinions on “Connect with LINE” feature on LINE WORKS. They mentioned that it has made customer communication extremely convenient than ever before. Notable comments, such as “The feature enabled us to drive good impressions from the clients by allowing us to quickly reply and respond to clients’ requests”, and “As LINE WORKS is compatible with LINE, we can not only browse and archive all the conversations made in between the two services, but also can easily follow up for the communication histories.” were also mentioned from the employees.

The sales division also gave positive feedback, mentioning that as LINE WORKS became the company’s communication tool, communicating with the clients, those who are using LINE, got much easier.

 

Also, sharing information as well as communicating among employees in the field, including the sales division, on-site supervisors, and members in exhibits, became much more convenient. The “Read Confirmation” feature is also useful whether to find out if others have read messages. The app is actively used for communication among executives in different sub-companies of the group. For phone calls or emails, communication cannot be made if you do not know the contact information of the other party. However, LINE enables you to search all the registered users, meaning that contacts and calls can be conveniently made with members although the contacts have not been available to your mobile devices. LINE WORKS has made communication and information sharing with those outside the company much smoother.

Mr. Shigekazu：

We use LINE WORKS when communicating with customers who visit the exhibition. When the customer visit and begin conversation, we normally ask for their email address. However, there were issues such as having trouble with writing down the email promptly or asking for their email later when the customer don’t know their email at the moment they visited. With LINE WORKS, however, it allows both us and the customers to start communication smoothly. The customer can use his or her own smartphone to scan the QR code and immediately connect and start conversation with us via LINE’s “Add Friends” feature.

For communication afterwards, I believe that loss of opportunities due to time differences must be eliminated. With LINE WORKS, we may read messages and emails and reply in a timely manner. When we communicate via LINE WORKS, we think thoroughly before writing the sentences. When comparing with emails, however, messages can be sent in a more frankly manner and customers can also respond easily to them. Compared to the days when email addresses were exchanged for customer communication, the likelihood of acquiring contacts has doubled, and the amount of conversations after beginning communication has tripled.

 

I think when communication has carried out, quick response to the customer requests will help us build trustworthiness with the clients, and eventually lead us to acquire more chances to work with them.

 

In addition, utilization of LINE WORKS is not limited to the process up to acquisition of deals. Even in housing design and the construction phase after order acquisition, on-site supervisors are connected to customers’ LINE via LINE WORKS to share the current progress and status of the construction sites with photos, which helps in construction completion as well as the after-case process. In case something happens, LINE WORKS allows us to receive a related contact and respond immediately or ask for assistance to other teams. Customers who have eventually selected our company instead of other competitors are primarily satisfied with “quick replies” and “fast responses”. Thanks to the remarkable advantages of LINE WORKS, we believe that we could be different from our competitors in these areas.

 

Also, communication and sharing of information between headquarters and the exhibit halls located far away became much easier. For example, there was a housing event in which I was stationed in headquarters. To proceed a project, we had to communicate with a construction supervisor, employees at other exhibits, in other divisions, as well as other companies. Because it was extremely difficult for everyone involved to gather for a meeting and communicate via email, LINE WORKS came to be perfect solution for such circumstances.