It’s a tricky job predicting when the inks used to decorate tiles need replenishing – and manually checking stock levels of those inks is time-consuming. Yosuke Yamada, an employee in the Tile Division at LIXIL’s Iga-Ueno plant, could see a better way of working.

He realized that by linking tile production schedules with ink levels, it would be possible to manage stock far more efficiently. And so, using a “no-code” infrastructure, he built an app to do just that. A second app he’s working on will mean ink-tank levels can be managed without the need for visual checks.

Yamada’s app is just one of over 850 developed by LIXIL employees and implemented over the past year. This type of digital empowerment of non-experts, known as citizen app development, is creating practical solutions to everyday issues around the business as it undergoes a digital and cultural transformation.

App Creation for Everybody

Like most of LIXIL’s citizen app developers, Yamada has no formal coding experience or in-depth IT expertise. Instead, he was able to take advantage of a program of digital democratization that LIXIL started rolling out in 2021.

The program empowers employees to tackle the challenges they see within the workplace, solving issues quickly without an overly burdensome process. It provides employees outside of the digital divisions with the tools and support needed for no-code app development, meaning they do not need to know programming languages.

Initiatives to promote homegrown apps are recognized globally as an important way to drive forward digital transformation¹.Research from McKinsey, meanwhile, shows that companies that empower general employees to develop applications – freeing up professional developers to focus on more challenging tasks – score higher on innovation².According to a survey by DreamArts, however, only 19.3% of companies in Japan with digital transformation programs have implemented relevant tools³.

For LIXIL, empowering all employees – not just those in the digital division – to use digital tools to create new value is a key way of ensuring continued sustainable growth. “Experiment and learn” is a central part of LIXIL’s culture – and is crucial to its ability to be agile and entrepreneurial.

More Agile, More Efficient

“Before, when we needed to improve our business systems, we would issue a request to the digital division, sometimes having to wait as long as several months,” she explains. “But by creating our own apps, we can quickly make improvements as needed while reflecting the voices of those on the ground in real time.”

In the year since LIXIL launched its project to promote citizen developers, employees have proposed more than 20,000 business apps, many of which tap into on-the-ground knowledge. Before the apps reach the production phase, they are reviewed by a Center of Excellence team that checks there is no duplication with other apps in process and ensures there are no governance or security risks.

Creating a Culture of Problem-Solving

“When people use the apps I’ve developed and are happy with them, it motivates me,” she says. “I also really enjoy interacting with other people in the company during the development process.”

It is this interaction around the business that is one of the reasons the digital democratization project has got such traction at LIXIL. CEO Kinya Seto and other management have made a concerted effort to create a flat and open corporate culture that is employee-centric, rather than a more top-down, traditional management structure. This includes encouraging interaction between junior employees and management, and ensuring that everyone feels empowered to tackle any challenges their jobs present.

Making Digital Democratization a Reality

One of the first steps LIXIL took to get citizen development to stick was to train all its executives in Google AppSheet, a no-code app development tool. Executives each created their own apps that were shared with all employees.

“The results of this initiative have exceeded our expectations,” says Osamu Iwasaki, Senior Vice President and Leader of the Systems Development and Operations Division in the Digital Function.

It has also had the effect of creating a new sense of company unity, he says. As LIXIL was created through the merger of several companies, a number of silos existed previously. But the common language of no-code has led to spontaneous information-sharing around the business, uniting people however they came to LIXIL.

And when people from other companies ask Iwasaki about digital democratization, he is happy to share LIXIL’ s methodology.

“I’d be happy for this to become an example of how to energize Japanese companies.”