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.