A few niche Japanese companies have been producing high-performance all-axis servo-driven take-out robots to make an industry smart in its various stages of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling, delivering, etc.
Japan Is Leaping Towards Smart Factory Implementation
Junko Nirmala for | RoboticsTomorrow
According to the Japanese Market reports, the diversification of demands are growing in digitization of products and services, leading to modernization of production processes in domestic market, thus requiring innovation and diffusion of Smart technologies in Manufacturing to achieve a new generation of industrialization with in Japan.
Driven by the modern concept of IOT, Smart Factory , e-factory, industry 4.0 , Japanese companies appear to be dedicated to inventing new technologies and tools to enhance automation to ensure progress in the industrial sector. As the consequence of it, there are numerous ventures popping in IOT sector and as well existing and Technology giants have been showing up with techniques and technologies to enhance the Smart factory operation, support and production process for leaping the factories to fully for complete new smart things.
The decreased cost of sensors ,network connectivity has enabled manufacturers to set up production systems that could see much Cyber-physical systems (CPS) in place among various factories.
While the challenges for Japanese companies would be grasping the customization requirements in real time as not all requirements in japan are being captured to communicated with industrial CPS. Even though Japanese Customers do have a tradition of paying a premium for customized products but given the nature of mass production in Smart Factory concept , customization and premium appears to be not going together well. Manufacturers are seeing significant challenges in this aspect.
Following Japanese companies who are also member of Japan`s Robot Revolution Initiative are also seen introducing many products and services for enabling the trend. Mitsubishi Electric Hitachi, Fujitsu NEC, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,Kawasaki Heavy Industries, IHI, Hitachi Zosen, apart from Automotive OEM`s a wide range of manufacturing-related 75 plus companies various organizations are already gaining the market share. 3D -Additive manufacturing is also embarking in Japanese factories to make complex products directly from 3D models using simple and largely automatic procedures. Additive manufacturing is becoming both cheaper and more effective.
Therefore, it is much expected that these trendsetting Japanese companies will invent cutting-edge robots, state-of-the-art automatic machines and modern dashboard type interface to control the whole automation process of a modern industry in an easiest and quickest way. These robots, technical devices and tools can take a series of actions one after another, making no mistake. The processes that can easily control the automation process in almost all fields can be seen in Arch welding, assembly, clean room, friction spot joining, loading and unloading, handling, polishing, painting, palletizing, seal and application, spot welding, etc. By the grace of these giants companies, more products are being produced and captured quickly in narrow places of a factory. Few niche Japanese companies have been producing high-performance all-axis servo-driven take-out robots to make an industry smart in its various stages of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling, delivering, etc.
Further to speed up the implementation on 8th April 2016, Joint Statement was announced from Platform Industrie 4.0 of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Robot Revolution Initiative of Japan agreeing on cooperation regarding Internet of Things / Industrie 4.0.The statement expresses that both countries will cooperate in the fields of Industrial Cyber Security - International Standardization - International Regulatory Reform - Facilitation for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) - Human Resource Development - Research and Development(R&D) and Others.It is expected that both country industry experts will meet annually, alternating between Japan and Germany, possibly in conjunction with meetings between the governments of both countries, in order to exchange information, present results of the cooperation and discuss; mutually participate in working groups, workshops, or common activities of each party, in line with the respective access regulations to speed up the Smart and Digitization of the complete manufacturing arena.
Junko Nirmala is a Tokyo resident with 17 years of Professional experience in Technology and business consulting services. Her diverse background includes Advisory assignments completed for 70 plus Japanese companies on Globalization, Founder of startup company in Green Technology, conducting Training and seminars for Global Workforce in Japan and so on. Currently she is involved in Promoting Japan Robots Industry. She has authored 3 books and consistently writes for newspapers and magazines in Japan.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow
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