Like many small and mid-sized businesses, Echigo Kotsu faced the challenge of handling a growing workload with limited staff resources. To improve efficiency and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, the company turned to Robotic Process Automation (RPA). After evaluating their options, they chose WinActor, Japan’s leading RPA solution from NTT Data Group, as the foundation for their automation journey.
1. Company Overview: Echigo Transportation Iron Works
Echigo Kotsu, based in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, is a construction company specializing in the design, fabrication, and assembly of steel structures, including bridges, culverts, and incinerators. With a strong reputation built on decades of technical expertise and close community ties, the company has continuously sought ways to improve operational efficiency while maintaining high quality.
2. Challenges
Before introducing WinActor, the company struggled with several operational issues of different departments, such as sales, design, construction, and quality control:
Heavy Transcription Workload
The company’s back-office operations were burdened with massive amounts of manual transcription. Staff had to manually process large volumes of construction data, bidding-related information, and project records.
Time Consumed by Secondary Tasks
Much of the workday was spent on supplementary tasks, leaving employees with only enough time to complete their core responsibilities at the end of the day.
Frequent Errors and Re-Checks
Because input relied on visual checking and manual entry, transcription errors were common. These mistakes required additional review and correction, consuming even more time and effort.
These challenges significantly reduced efficiency and increased the burden on employees across departments. The result was inefficiency, wasted hours, and an increasing workload that put pressure on employees across multiple departments.
Concerns About Adoption
Beyond the burden of manual transcription, the company also faced uncertainties typical of first-time RPA users. Employees questioned whether they would be able to operate the tool effectively, and whether automation could truly solve their pressing business problems. These concerns were addressed through structured training sessions and the provision of sample scenarios by BSN iNet, which made RPA usage clearer and easier to adopt.
3. Solutions Implemented
Establishing an Internal RPA Project Team
To tackle these challenges, the company created a dedicated RPA promotion committee. This team, composed of representatives from multiple departments, was responsible for identifying suitable processes, creating automation scenarios, and managing RPA operations company-wide.
WinActor Deployment
Echigo Kōtsū Tekkō-sho adopted three full-function WinActor licenses and two runtime licenses to run automation scenarios. Since then, the company has developed and deployed approximately 80 automation scenarios, encompassing a broad range of business operations.
Through this initiative, RPA was no longer confined to a single department but became a shared resource across the organization, unlocking efficiency in many different workflows.
4. Implementation Process
The automation journey began by identifying the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks. Once these were defined, the RPA team designed WinActor scenarios to automate data entry, system searches, and routine reporting.
Close collaboration between departments was critical. With strong internal communication and visible results from early automations, more teams quickly recognized the benefits of RPA and requested support for their own operations.
With a simple and user-friendly interface and under the guidance and support of the RPA Promotion Team, first-time RPA users quickly became familiar with and were able to easily operate scenarios running on WinActor.
5. Results and Performance
| No | Department | Category | Overview | No. of Scenarios | Effect (hrs/month) | Total Reduction (hrs/month) |
| 1 | Sales | Sales Operations | Creation and management of sales documents | 2 | 4.9 | 46.2 |
| 2 | Sales | Survey / Estimates | Estimate-related tasks | 3 | 7.7 | |
| 3 | Sales | Bidding / Orders | Bid information management | 13 | 33.6 | |
| 4 | Construction | Planning / Prep | Creation of construction plans | 9 | 32 | 84 |
| 5 | Construction | Estimates | Transcription of actual costs | 2 | 12 | |
| 6 | Construction | Administrative Work | Transcription of construction information | 7 | 40 | |
| 7 | Design | Orders | Printing of contract documents | 4 | 4.2 | 9.5 |
| 8 | Design | Design-related | CAD data conversion | 3 | 5.3 | |
| 9 | Quality Control | Document Management | Distribution of engineering tables | 18 | 5.4 | 5.4 |
| 10 | General Affairs | Sales Management | Creation of payment lists | 6 | 5.5 | 21.4 |
| 11 | General Affairs | Payroll / Accounting | Payroll confirmation | 5 | 4.3 | |
| 12 | General Affairs | Administrative Work | Automatic internal document distribution | 4 | 11.6 |
After implementing and applying WinActor, the record shows that:
- 80 scenarios automated across departments.
- 166 hours saved per month through automation.
- Targeting further expansion, with an expected 340 hours saved per month once additional processes are automated.
These achievements clearly demonstrate that RPA has reduced the burden of repetitive work, improved accuracy, and enabled employees to allocate more time to higher-value tasks.
Here are what Echigo’s employees shared after using WinActor:
“Really helpful that it finishes the tasks overnight!”
“I’m so glad we adopted it—work has become so much easier!”
“Six months since joining the project… I’m already able to use RPA smoothly!”
Conclusion
Echigo Kotsu’s story highlights how even a regional construction company with deep roots in traditional industries can harness RPA to transform its operations. By choosing WinActor and building a strong internal RPA team, the company has already reclaimed hundreds of work hours each month, and the potential is still growing.
For organizations still weighed down by repetitive manual tasks, Echigo Kotsu proves that with the right tools and clear teamwork, automation can unlock significant value.
Contact our specialists today to get a free trial with WinActor or book a call with our experts to explore how your business can become the next automation success story.
