Manufacturing ICT environment targets human-robot co-operation

Fujitsu can also monitor manufacturing facilities using IoT technology and predict manufacturing quality based on factors that include characteristics of components and humidity. Using its own in-house implementation as a reference model, Fujitsu will begin rolling out solutions starting in October 2015.

Fujitsu is working with robot manufacturers to support the deployment of robots, previously used mainly by large-scale business, to small and mid-sized customers as well. To promote these activities, the company is setting up a specialised internal group, the Manufacturing Solution Operations Promotion Office, both to enhance its own manufacturing capabilities and to promote these developments to customers in the manufacturing industry.

With this initiative, Fujitsu will promote ICT, automation, and networking among customers in Japan's manufacturing industry to realise continuity of know-how, appropriate quality and shortened development and manufacturing lead times, through which it aims to create value. Fujitsu will work with numerous companies involved in domestic manufacturing, and will support them by using ICT to realise globally competitive manufacturing.

The German concept of Industrie 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, promotes automated and networked production, and by linking various manufacturing-related information and production facilities, shows promise in improving manufacturing and the ability to significantly reduce manufacturing costs.

However, to achieve a sustainable recovery to production in Japan's manufacturing sector, it will be necessary to respond quickly to fluctuations in supply and demand, to cut lead times from development and design to manufacture, to maintain and improve quality, and to bolster Japanese manufacturing to realise international competitiveness. This will require pressing forward on systems that can collect and analyse manufacturing-related data, and that realise collaborative production, at a high-level, between humans and machines. In short, it will be essential to build an era of next-gen manufacturing.

While the Japanese government is studying programmes to boost Japan's economy and manufacturing competitiveness in ways such as its ‘New Robot Strategy,’ Fujitsu is launching its own initiative to help its customers achieve next-gen manufacturing.

To provide its customers worldwide with a broad range of high-quality products on a tight schedule, Fujitsu has undertaken efforts to further raise the level of its development environment and production techniques. In addition, the company has offered customers the group's products and services since 2013, in a systematic approach called ‘Monozukuri Solutions,’ in reference to solutions for manufacturing.

To further strengthen Japanese manufacturing, Fujitsu is now advancing into the next generation of manufacturing, increasingly using the IoT at manufacturing sites and moving forward on linking manufacturing-related data and analysis.

Fujitsu has already put into practice smart manufacturing technologies at its own development and production sites, and is taking the next step with several development technologies. At production plants undergoing changes, Fujitsu is bringing autonomous and co-operative-control technologies to robots that learn tasks and make appropriate movements. Using Fujitsu's platform for IoT technology enables predictions of manufacturing quality and performance of real-time tuning of production equipment for predictable quality.

Dynamic manufacturing allocation allows reallocation of production plans without stopping production lines. The integration of a variety of manufacturing-related data, regardless of it being real (assembly) or virtual (design simulations), using "virtual large-room technology" or other techniques allows manufacturers to realise remote communication between people and data.

By using these technologies, Fujitsu aims to achieve efficient manufacturing while controlling quality appropriately. The know-how, tools, and techniques gained in the process will be made steadily available to customers starting in October 2015.

The benefits of robotic automation have been held back by the need for specialised technicians, incompatibilities and different standards in the control programming languages used by different robot manufacturers.

Fujitsu is strengthening its alliances throughout the range of robot manufacturers so that different robot control languages will be the same from the perspective of users. This will benefit small and mid-sized businesses as well as large ones by making it easier to deploy robots and automation equipment. Fujitsu will also be offering system-integration subcontracting services for robot deployments as well as promoting robot deployments.

On 1^st April, 2015, Fujitsu will establish a Manufacturing Solution Operations Promotion Office to support the creation of a next-gen manufacturing environment. This organisation will develop the company's internal practices into a reference model, smooth the way toward tailoring the reference model into solutions, and provide solutions that will help customers build their own next-gen manufacturing environments.