Author: IVI Secretariat

  We are pleased to announce that the presentation documents of IVI Regional Seminar Results Report Meeting held on the web on April 16 (Thursday) are available now.

Continue reading “IVI Regional Seminar, Presentation documents available on the web (First published in Japanese in June, 2020)”

  Industrial Value Chain Initiative (IVI, Prof. Yasuyuki Nishioka, President) announced the award winner of IVI Connected Manufacturing Award 2020 at Startup Seminar on May 14, 2020.  “Visualization/analysis of people and things’ operation and its optimization, Part II (Pursuit of IE for the next generation), Mazda Motor Corporation” won the award among eighteen business scenario WGs active in 2019. The year of 2019 has become a milestone year, because over one hundred business scenarios have been completed until 2019 since 2015, the year of IVI’s launch. The themes of business scenarios have been categorized into three forms, “PoC type”,  “Steadily implemented type” and “CIOF (Connected Industries Open Framework )”.

  “PoC type”scenarios, which have fields of proof experiments to try advanced methods and technologies, do not require rigid feasibility for TO-BE scenarios as general business scenarios do. On the other hand, “Solid implementation type”scenarios, which try tools that can be implemented with low cost, have focuses on process for implementation, how easy and with low cost. As for “CIOF” scenarios, with which data distribution among enterprises by using plug-in introduced by CIOF, we have been working to realize business processes and business models with CIOF which have previously been impossible.

 

＜IVI Connected Manufacturing Award 2020, selection results＞

【Award of the year】 5C03
Visualization, analysis and optimization for records of human and things II (pursuit of next-generation IE)
Demonstrated by Mazda et al.

Review: This is an example of improvement in quantification at a production site where forklifts move around. They achieved both quantification of movements of human and things (data collected automatically) and “loss analysis using IE method”, and then built standardized operations to maximize efficiency in organizing transportations, which had been done by human operations. It led to quantified movements by using patterned movements and success in defining and visualizing the rules of loss. It will be possible to develop the system not only for forklifts’ movement but also for human and robot cooperation at a production site in the future.

 

【Award of excellence】 5A03： PoC type scenario
Quality improvement of a material production line – Casting of cylinder heads
Demonstrated by Mitsubishi Electric et al.

Review: The theme of the WG is quality improvement at a cylinder head casting line of an automobile engine factory. Though human skills and experiences kept at production sites controlled the quality before, the WG investigated the causal relationship to the quality by using sensors and analysis newly applied and focusing on molten metal components. They verified that the content of specific component affected the quality which had not been thought as a quality factor by researchers. They verified that individual differences of cooling plates of the products caused variations of the products’ quality. This was a great example that a scientific analysis required quantification.

 

【Award of excellence】 5E02： CIOF scenario
Secure data distribution service – AI implementation at edges to make a production site intelligent
Demonstrated by Toshiba et al.

Review: The WG aimed to create a mechanism for in-process judging quality by data with deep meaning corrected by edge computers for manufacturing processes ranging from a few seconds to less than one second, while IoT / M2M, high-performance sensors, edge computers and practical applications of AI are being put to practical uses. They also aimed at international standardization of machine sensor data, distribution of CIOF data and establishment of the environment for Loosely Connected Manufacturing. In addition to making the model for them, they made a system which worked on-site and used it for trend analysis by each lot and discovery of predictive information.

 

【Award of excellence】 5B02： Solid implementation type scenario
Visualizing information about equipment maintenance
Demonstrated by CKD et al.

Review: This theme was selected when considering to avoid long time stop of a production line, even if peripheral equipment, as it was not a main equipment, got abnormal, it would be often the case that it was not a matter of daily maintenance because it could be replaced by a human or be first-aided. They dealt with fan failures of servo amplifiers of machine tools, tried a simple and easy sensor and worked with offline verifications. Though this was not an outstanding theme, it was an activity that was familiar and easy to understand for everybody.

 

【Award of recognition】 5C06： PoC type scenario
Efficient collaboration between design and manufacturing
Demonstrated by NIKON et al.

Review:  This WG is a new WG, of which five members among seven are new members who have joined IVI in these two years. The machining time (processing cost) and optimized delivery time are calculated with 3D models, while adding on-site knowledge to a system drawn by TO-BE method, with speeding up and improvement of estimation works for delivery time and cost in a prototype department. Though it was planned as a goal for one year (a CAN-BE goal), the target (a TO-BE goal) would be expected to produce a great result, if with use of CIOF in future.

 

【Review for all demonstrations】 Hiroyuki Mizuno, Chairman of Business Cooperation Committee 2019, CKD

  Looking back on the activities of the Business Scenario Working Group in 2019, I thought it was a year in which the ability to effectively use the collected data was tested. Starting from selection of components which matched production sites, collecting data and analyzing the problems, we were able to successfully realize the world of TO-BE, which we drew in the scenarios. For all of IVI members, it was a year that everyone could power up, leaving from the study mode where we had been up to now, changing from PoC to solid implementations and from proof experiments to productions.

 

■What is Industrial Value Chain Initiative (IVI)?
  IVI is a forum, which is located in the field of manufacturing industries, established on March 18, 2015. The purpose of IVI is to realize Connected Manufacturing that is possible through integration of manufacturing and IT in the IoT era based on the concept of “Loose Standard”. 739 members from 240 companies and 16 organizations are participating in events both inside and outside Japan. The members are IHI, OMRON, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kobe Steel, Konno Works, CKD, JTEKT, Toshiba, Toyota, Nikon, NEC, Panasonic, Hitachi, Brother, Busu, Fujitsu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Yaskawa, etc. (Regular members: 81 large companies and 75 SMEs. Support members: 29 large companies and 48 SMEs. Implementation members: One large company and 6 SMEs. Supporting members: 16organizations. April 22, 2020)

For inquiries, contact:

    Secretariat, Industrial Value Chain Initiative

    Email:  office@ iv-i.org

    person in charge: Takashi Sugano

    TEL：03-5644-7140
    FAX：03-5644-7209
     14-1 Nihonbashi Koamicho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8548, Japan

    Internet website:  http://iv-i.org/

For press inquiries, contact:

    Secretariat, Industrial Value Chain Initiative

    Email:  office@ iv-i.org

    person in charge: Takashi Sugano

Press release (PDF document)

   We are pleased to notice that the presentation documents of the Startup Seminar, held with live streaming on May 14, are available on the web.

(Click the names of the PDF files to see them.)

Content	Speaker
Opening	Yuji Watanabe, IVI Director of Secratariat
Present and future of IVI	Yasuyuki Nishioka, IVI President
Business Scenario Digest, IVI award and Report of Business Corporation Committee	Hiroyuki Mizuno, Chairman of Business Cooperation Committee
Report of Education Promotion Committee	Yoshihiko Watanabe, Chairman of Education Promotion Committee
Report of General Planning Committee	Koji Tomita, Chairman of General Planning Committee
How to proceed with Smart Thinking	Hideaki Nishimura, IVI Chief Organizer
Data transaction using CIOF	Yasuyuki Nishioka, IVI President

  We are pleased to publish the first newsletter in 2020. Thank you for waiting.
  The world has changed completely over the last few months. With understanding that it is indispensable to adapt to the big changes to survive, IVI does not stop progressing. That was what Prof. Nishioka, IVI President, and Mr. Nishimura, IVI Chief Organizer, said as described below.

  We will hold Startup Seminar using live streaming. Stay tuned.

« Prospect of IVI, by IVI President »

  With the spread of coronavirus infections, the world is about to change. As we know from history, this is not the first time of the battles between human beings and virus, and we are now struggling in the midst of such history. This is a reality, so new decisions and actions are always required. In the modern age of globalization of people, things and information, how does the society change, or have to change, if movement of people, which is essential for sustainability of the society, and contacts between people are restricted to the utmost limit? You have to think by yourself about new solutions to this situation, which you have never thought, depending on your own situations.

  It has been a long time since shift to an information society took place, but the information around us, the information available and able to use, seems to be missing something important for a society, where we have to live with the coronavirus for the next few years. I don’t think so-called Digital Transformation (DX) is the answer to the problem. The essence of human-to-human communications, which are the basis of a society, seems to have remained unchanged from ancient times to the present, and Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 can be established with the basis of human-to-human connections.

  If this is true, I would like to think once again, returning to the starting point, about what a society should be, where humans play an important role, and what companies and organizations can do. What do people learn from information and how do they interact with information as living people (consumers) and as producers (workers)? After that, what can be done with the digital and what the digital can do? Thinking the things in this order, we can see what the digital cannot do on the contrary. And I found that I was noticed it was almost the same with what was revealed by the pandemic.

  Based on the assumption that the battle with the coronavirus should be a long-term one, IVI aims the realization of “Connected Manufacturing” in the same way as before, separating the digital and the analog, and providing techniques and mechanisms for separation of cooperation areas and competition areas. While many service providers which are supporting communities are in a critical situation, it is the role of manufacturing to produce necessary products and deliver them to the providers and consumers together with information. The thoughts and messages added to the products by the producers are carried to consumers through supply chains and value chains. IVI, who proposes ” Connected Manufacturing”, should try its best on this point. Now activities of 2020, fiscal year, will start.

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Continue reading “IVI Newsletter No.32 (May 7, 2020)”