Cutting Out 45-minute Trips by Performing Gas Meter Inspections Remotely

Interviewees (from right to left):?

Corporation which Adopted LiLz Gauge

Kotaro Tameda (Administrative Division, Yakult Central Institute, Yakult Honsha)

Lilz Gauge Partner

Eiichiro Okamoto (Representative Director, NBK Marketing)

Main Theme:

Making cold evaporator (CE) tank inspections more efficient.

Could you tell us about Yakult Central Institute's mission statement?

Tameda: The Institute itself was built in a way that would allow it to be in harmony with the environment that surrounds it. One of the main concepts behind it was the creation of a laboratory that was surrounded by trees and water. We consider ourselves to be on the cutting-edge of life sciences.

The Yakult Group as a whole tries to be environmentally friendly in its operations, and we at the Central Institute are no exception. One example of this is that all our lights are LEDs, and we have an energy management system that allows us to be more energy efficient. On the whole, we are certainly more efficient in our energy usage than other factories and similar facilities, but we still strive to push our numbers down even lower. I believe that is one of our main goals.

What led to you using LiLz Gauge?

Tameda: Our facility-management staff need to check our boilers and CE tanks three times per day. This had us trying to come up with a more efficient way of working that would allow us to manage facilities with few staff without overburdening them.

Then, we received an e-mail from NBK Marketing, who we'd worked with before, about LiLz Gauge. That was how we first learned of the company.

Okamoto: I decided to tell Yakult about LiLz Gauge as the service has been adopted by many other companies in the beverage industry. It's always been clear to me that LiLz Gauge really makes a difference to its clients' businesses, while also tackling a serious social issue in the process, so I've been very keen to help it succeed. That's why I contacted you. I knew I was right in my beliefs too because LiLz Gauge has countless satisfied customers already.

How did you find using the starter kit?

Tameda: At first, we were going to go ahead and pay for the whole service, but Mr. Okamoto suggested we try it before we bought in, so that's how we ended up picking up the starter kit.

Okamoto: I might not have been doing my job as a salesman properly, but I thought it was important that they really understood how the service works before spending their money; that's why I recommended the starter kit. After all, the kit contains the camera, a tripod, a router, and everything you'd need to test out the service fully.

Tameda: I had a fairly good idea of the quality of the product from our meeting, and the starter kit trial period gave us more time to take care of the admin work in the background.

It became apparent right at the start of our trial that any photos we were able to take with no interference were flawlessly converted into data. That said, because we were using a temporary set-up with the camera on a tripod some distance from its target, the way the light reflected in the evenings caused us to get incorrect readings. This allowed us to realize, before we'd paid for the full service, that we would need to find a better way to place the camera.

(We ultimately discovered that keeping the camera in one fixed location allowed us to consistently get accurate readings.)

How has LiLz Gauge helped?

Tameda: The biggest improvement has been that we're able to save time on checking our CE tanks; they're in out-of-the-way spots and we need to inspect them three times a day.

We also have to replenish our argon gas, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and three-gas mixtures for time to time. We've always had a third-party take care of this, but LiLz Gauge allows us to check exactly when they were last filled up, making the operation that bit more transparent.

In the future, when we need to digitalize certain things, that will require wiring work, I can definitely see us turning to LiLz Gauge again to keep costs low.

Thank you for taking part in this interview!