Kubota, a Japanese-based services and technology provider within the agriculture, water and environmental industries, has a keen focus on innovation and sustainability. A few years ago, Kubota aimed to tackle operational efficiency challenges, water and sewage systems maintenance issues, and staff shortages that many local companies faced. Simultaneously, it attempted to commit to its zero carbon city declaration, which aims to virtually eliminate carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Kubota consulted with IBM® to create a system that uses AI and IoT in the field of operations and maintenance to successfully address Kubota’s business challenges.

The result? IBM deployed IBM® Maximo® Application Suite, which runs on Microsoft Cloud. This deployment aimed to support the development of Kubota Smart Infrastructure System (KSIS) BLUE FRONT, a new system improving the operating efficiency and maintenance of water and wastewater facilities. The comprehensive platform links Kubota’s KSIS, an IoT system, with IBM’s facility maintenance and asset management platform.  

By using Microsoft Cloud, the platform can flexibly scale up to accommodate the approximately 100 facilities that Kubota Environmental Engineering Corporation will operate, and handle future increases. 

“With KSIS BLUE FRONT, we want to contribute to solving our customers’ problems by centrally managing data on the operation and maintenance of water and wastewater facilities, improving operational efficiency through information visualization, and reducing quality risks and lifecycle costs,” says Junichi Tanabe from Kubota’s Environmental Business Planning and Sales department.

IBM Consulting® helped Kubota to deliver the entire implementation phase and build out the system. Since its deployment, the field has already seen the amount of time spent on administrative work reduced considerably.  

Kubota plans to reduce not only the amount of electricity, but also the use of various chemicals and consumables used to operate the plant. This will reduce costs by being more efficient on their data. Kubota is also looking to reduce the budgets of municipalities with water supply facilities by using the IoT data that analyzes breakage, trends and past repairs of their equipment and maintenance. 

“It is no exaggeration to say that this initiative has just begun, and with the cooperation of IBM, we hope to develop it into a de facto standard not only in Japan but also globally,” says Tanabe.

Kubota will continue using the dynamic combination of IBM Maximo Application Suite on Microsoft Azure with Red Hat® OpenShift® to support their digital transformation journey. They are working toward the goal of regulating CO₂ emissions and achieving carbon neutrality to redefine their approach to the agriculture industry. 

For more information on IBM Maximo Suite Application, check out the Microsoft Marketplace. Or to learn more about our partnership with Microsoft and Maximo, check out our “Better Together” blog.