#Japan #Tokyo #i-Reporter #Simtops #Kaizen Dashboard

Simtops Introduces a Game-Changing Feature: The Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard

In a significant advancement for the SaaS industry, Simtops Inc., headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, has launched the Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard as part of their field reporting system, i-Reporter. This innovative dashboard provides a centralized platform for visualizing improvement suggestions from the i-Reporter user community, known as the Field Reporting Kaizen Department. With this launch, transparency in product development is finally becoming a reality.

The unique Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard allows users to effortlessly view and search through improvement proposals, track development progress, and prioritize projects based on user feedback. This feature is a pioneering step in the field of SaaS solutions for manufacturing environments, distinguishing itself from the conventional practice of handling customer requests behind closed doors, thereby fostering greater user involvement.

Innovating Product Development with User Suggestions

What sets the Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard apart is its ability to engage all 220,000 users in the development prioritization process through a democratic voting system. Users can express their preferences with a simple 'like', enabling them to influence which features are developed next.

This transparent development model defies the traditional black-box approach commonly seen among SaaS vendors, where customer requests are recorded secretly, making it hard for users to understand how their feedback influences product updates. While the tech industry has seen similar initiatives, the introduction of such a system in the SaaS marketplace specifically tailored for field users is unprecedented.

Key Features of the Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard

1. Suggestion Cards: Each proposal is displayed as a card, complete with category badges, status updates (e.g., Proposal, Under Development, Released), like counts, titles, summaries, expected release dates, and detailed links.
2. Keyword Search: Users can search suggestions by keywords, filtering titles, summaries, and categories in real-time, making it easy to find relevant proposals.
3. Development Status Section: A dedicated area for viewing development statuses allows users to quickly check which proposals are in progress or have been completed.
4. Categorical Display: Suggestions are organized by product and feature areas, allowing for easy navigation and quick access.
5. Like Ranking: The top 30 suggestions are ranked based on popularity, emphasizing user demand over sales prowess in prioritizing development tasks.

Overcoming Challenges in Proposal Visibility

Prior to the dashboard's launch, collecting improvement requests often involved routing feedback through a specific channel, which posed several challenges. The manufacturing context can produce highly diverse user needs, making it challenging to ascertain whether similar requests could be consolidated into a singular feature. This often led to extended timelines for confirming specifications, requiring significant customer interaction.

To tackle this, Simtops introduced the Kaizen Proposal menu on the i-Reporter community site in 2025. This enables users to post their improvement needs while interacting with one another to exchange support and ideas. Remarkably, the launch of this platform garnered over 100 suggestions within just a month, demonstrating the high level of interest and engagement from users.

Anticipated Benefits of the Dashboard

The introduction of the Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard promises several advantages:

• - Enhanced User Satisfaction: Users will feel their voices are reflected in the product, leading to greater engagement and excitement about the platform's features.
• - Transparency in Development Purposes: Users will have clear insight into what features are in development and when they can expect releases, building trust in the development team's efforts.
• - Efficient Prioritization: By utilizing the like count as an objective demand metric, development priorities will align better with user needs rather than sales influences.
• - Enhanced Communication: The dashboard fosters a communication space between users and the development team, encouraging dialogue and community engagement.

Insights from the Development Team

Yasuhiro Maekawa, Team Leader of the Planning and Marketing Group at Simtops, commented on the dashboard's offerings:

“By openly acknowledging the requests from those responsible for Kaizen in the field, we are tapping into significant benefits beyond mere visualization. Understanding the requested functionalities and their importance rapidly accelerates our process of determining democratic development priorities, enabling us to create a product more driven by field needs.”

He further noted, “Suggestions from various users will uncover product needs we weren’t aware of, and upon developing these features, we believe we can enhance usability in ways we haven't previously considered.”

The Kaizen Suggestion Dashboard is available for free to all members of the Field Reporting Kaizen Department community, emphasizing accessibility and user empowerment in product development.

About i-Reporter

i-Reporter is Japan's leading field reporting system, with over 220,000 users across 4,500 companies. It transforms traditional Paper and Excel-based reporting tools into accessible digital formats without requiring programming knowledge, thereby streamlining data collection processes and improving efficiency.

With features such as real-time data sharing, various data input methods, and integration with external devices, i-Reporter enables significant time savings and enhances operational quality.

For detailed information about becoming a part of the Field Reporting Kaizen Department, check out their community site.