In the field of new business and value creation, traditional development approaches often struggle to address ambiguous requirements or complex environments. In the development of Meidensha Corporation's (hereafter, Meidensha) Smart Maintenance Service, AsiaQuest didn't just develop according to predefined requirements. Instead, we partnered with Meidensha from the conceptual stage to concretize the requirements and co-create the system.
Founded in 1897, Meidensha is a heavy electrical equipment manufacturer producing electric equipment for power generation, transmission, distribution, and railways, as well as industrial components. They also handle field engineering. When building their Smart Maintenance Service, Meidensha sought a partner to work with from the conceptual stage through to the clarification of requirements. AsiaQuest responded with flexibility to ambiguous requirements and complex environments, partnering with Meidensha from the concept phase. Together, we clarified the requirements and developed the system through co-creation.
The project was initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic when Meidensha began exploring ways to remotely monitor their products. While the monitoring and controlling of electrical equipment are handled by a system known as SCADA*, the inspection and routine maintenance of equipment have traditionally been carried out manually. In the middle of a growing workforce shortage, reducing the burden of human inspections and safeguarding the infrastructure—critical to both industry and society, powered by electricity—emerged as a significant challenge for Meidensha. As part of addressing this challenge, Meidensha took steps to develop a Smart Maintenance Service, encountering issues related to the lightweighting of 3D models and the UI/UX of systems. They reached out to AsiaQuest, with strengths in Web3D development, to assist in overcoming these challenges.
*SCADA: Short for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, it refers to systems that monitor and control infrastructures like substations in real-time from a remote location.
In this project, AsiaQuest participated not as a "mere program implementer," but as a "partner from the conceptual stage, collaboratively organizing challenges, envisioning the ideal product, and implementing it together."
As a member of the scrum team, we adopted a "co-creative development style," working closely with Meidensha. By gathering feedback from those using various products on site, we repeatedly revised system requirements flexibly, recreating the system to ensure it was user-friendly for everyone. In this iterative process, we addressed the "gray areas" in requirements through extensive discussion, striving to create value beyond mere system construction.
This system enables remote monitoring by installing various sensors and cameras on equipment, thereby leveraging IoT technology. By utilizing continuously accumulated data, it reduces the inspection items during inspection work, improving operational efficiency. Additionally, it centralizes and shares maintenance records, schematics, and other related information on the cloud, achieving more efficient and advanced facility maintenance operations.
The system is built on AWS cloud infrastructure. Since Meidensha was already utilizing AWS, AsiaQuest was able to smoothly participate in the development process, given its expertise in AWS. The front-end employs React to create an intuitive and user-friendly UI/UX. Node.js is used in development to achieve fast processing speeds, scalability, and unified development using JavaScript. TypeScript is utilized for APIs to enable early error detection and enhance code readability and maintainability, thereby improving development efficiency and code quality.
The lightweighting of 3D models and the improvement of UI/UX were key aspects of this project. AsiaQuest leveraged its accumulated know-how in 3D model creation to achieve significant improvements in lightweighting and UI/UX. Additionally, a highly versatile system was developed to allow 3D models to be lightweighted with the click of a button, anticipating usage in various scenarios.
As of October 2025
Meidensha's core business encompasses manufacturing that supports social infrastructure and industry, as well as the sales and maintenance of its products. As part of its strategy, the company is accelerating its data utilization business using the solution platform MEIDEN CONNECT. Going forward, AsiaQuest will continue to work closely with Meidensha to create and deliver value that contributes to solving social challenges.
In the early stages of our projects, we found it incredibly helpful that AsiaQuest did not require a clear set of requirements for the system. Even when the requirements were still vague, we were able to consult with them and collaboratively build something as a team, revealing the potential of this new development style. AsiaQuest has been an active part of our team, and the trust we have from knowing they have the support of their organization is significant. Our agile development project is entering a stage where it is expected to deliver business results that contribute to management. Both an increase in initiatives that lead to results and the expansion of profits through commercialization are necessary. We expect not only the former but also support from AsiaQuest in the latter.