Executive Insights - ASICS

 00:00:00

Philippe Godbout:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Executive Insights. I'm Philippe Godbout, managing director of Dassault Systèmes' in Japan. I'm joined today with Mr Kenichi Harano, executive officer at ASICS, also senior general manager of ASICS Institute of Sport Science. ASICS is a very successful sports brand from Japan.

Today, I have the pleasure to introduce, how ASICS is actually using the virtual twin in order to develop their new product and become more innovative. Harano-san, thank you for being here.

Kenichi Harano:

Thank you for having me here today. So I have, been working in ASICS for 32 years. Now I currently lead, Institute of Sport Science in ASICS, or ISS. The mission is to provide valuable products and services for all consumers.

Let me introduce our company as well. So, Mr. Kihachirō Onitsuka established our company in 1949, in Kobe, Japan. Our company name is an acronym, for the ancient Latin poetry, Anima Sana in Corpore Sano, ASICS, which means a sound mind in a sound body. This belief fuels Mr. Kihachirō Onitsuka’s passion in creating lifestyle through sports.

Philippe Godbout:

I've read about the story of Onitsuka-san and his very inspiring story of perseverance.

Kenichi Harano:

I'm honored to have worked with him. 

00:01:42

Kenichi Harano:

And ISS focuses on human centric design. We have been providing specific personalized value for top athletes until now.

We would like to expand this value to all consumers. By combining Dassault Systèmes' virtual twin technology with our technologies, experience and knowledge in the product design. Our concept is to produce personalized insoles instantly based on individual foot measurement for each consumer. 

To offer this personalized value, we have designed the first personalization studio.

00:02:25

Philippe Godbout:

And we are very excited to be in partnership with you, for the studio that is established at Dassault Systèmes' Vélizy headquarters, near Paris. So can you tell our viewers, what is this project about?

Kenichi Harano:

Yeah. So our mission is to create quality lifestyles through a sound mind in a sound body. Of course, a sound earth is necessary to keep this value. ASICS Personalization Studio is a new business model. It's a manufacturing laboratory, with a low environmental impact that can be set up anywhere. It's compact and easy to transfer due to its container-based structure.

And, because we are manufacturing on-demand, through the 3D printing process there is less waste compared with the conventional process. 

00:03:19

Philippe Godbout:

Earlier, you mentioned about how virtual twins help in terms of product design. Can you share with us, how Dassault Systèmes' virtual twin as a service has also helped in the designing of your personalization studio?

Kenichi Harano:

Dassault Systèmes' Virtual Twin as a Service provided the necessary technologies, experience and asset to build and operate the virtual twin of our manufacturing laboratory. Designing before physical construction can reduce overall cost. This enables us to focus on our strategy without complex issues and quickly turn our vision into physical laboratory. With Dassault Systèmes' team, we discussed so many scenarios to expand this value to different countries and different consumers. The ASICS Personalization Studio is planned to be easy to disassemble and transport.

Philippe Godbout:

Wow... Is there any other way that the 3DEXPERIENCE platform can be used in order to prepare this very unique offer for your customers?

Kenichi Harano:

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform supports both front-end and back-end processes, and can connect seamlessly different software, such as 3D CAD and visualization tools. It will improve our product functionality, and traceability.

00:04:50

Phlippe Godbout:

I'm looking forward to have my own personalized shoes. Going forward... So can you tell me how Dassault Systèmes, in this partnership, can help you continue to achieve your mission of bringing good lifestyle in sports for your customers?

Kenichi Harano:

We aim to utilize the human virtual twin technologies to meet individual consumers’ needs.

We are considering collecting real-time, human performance data to further improve our personalized product, that enhance athletes’ performance through human-centric science and then we need to predict consumer needs by combining with your virtual twin technologies.

Philippe Godbout:

That's really great. It sounds a little bit like one of our own projects, Emma Twin. Emma Twin is a virtual representation of a real person who can test different scenarios before doing it in the real world. I'm excited to see how we can maybe apply our Virtual Twin as a Service using a virtual human in order to accomplish your projects.

So again, I really appreciate your time today. And of course, the strong collaboration and partnership that we have been having.

Kenichi Harano:

It's my pleasure. I look forward too, to what is to come. Thank you very much, Philippe.

Philippe Godbout:

Thank you very much, Harano-san. It was a pleasure.