ARUM Inc, a Japanese precision manufacturing software and automation company, is commercialising its ARUMCODE software and TTMC automated milling machines for customers in Japan and overseas.
Founder and chief executive Takayuki Hirayama started the business from his kitchen table in Kanazawa before pivoting away from original design manufacturing, a model where companies produce goods to a client's specification, toward developing proprietary automation systems.
Hirayama says the shift was driven by the 2008 industry shakeout and an ageing skilled workforce.
More than 200 companies in Japan now use ARUMCODE, and dozens of TTMC units have been shipped.
Hirayama says the transition to automation raised profitability "eight- to ten-fold" and transformed ARUM into a fabless company, meaning it designs and develops products without operating its own manufacturing facilities.
For fiscal 2026, ARUM is targeting sales of 7 billion yen ($44.4 million) and net profit of 2 billion yen ($12.7 million), with a headcount of 40 and a stock market listing planned for 2030.
The company intends to link more than 100 TTMCs across Japan under a consolidated procurement network running on Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft.
ARUM plans to integrate GPT-5 via Azure OpenAI to allow operators to control machines using natural-language commands and to provide cross-language translation across the network.
Subject to regulatory approvals, the company expects to export TTMCs to the United States, South Korea and India by August 2027.
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Hirayama framed the product roadmap around scalability and cloud orchestration, and expressed confidence in the commercial proposition in an interview with Lim Ai Leen for Microsoft Source.
"This will sell, we can sell this, we can go with it," he said.
The recap
- ARUM Inc pivots from parts to AI-driven manufacturing systems.
- Targets 7 billion yen revenue and 2 billion yen profit.
- Plans to link 100 TTMCs nationwide and export by August 2027.