JSPMI-ERI 20-4-1
Overview of the Research Activities of Jpn. Soc. Promot. Mach. Ind. Econ. Res. Inst.

CIs (Connected Industries) Study Group
Overview of FY2020 Activities
1. Intent and Objective of the Research
The exploitation of digital technology in the machinery industry has made rapid progress inmass production processes, routine processes, etc. and has achieved significant benefits, suchas improved productivity and freedom from 3K labor. As the next step, the expansion of the useof digital technology to more advanced application areas has begun in a wide range of fields,
including prototype development, production, and customer services.
The industrial transformation through the exploitation of digital technology has progressed
across many phases, including the market aspects of the creation of new products and services
and the sophistication of existing products, the production aspects of their development,manufacture, and supply, and the management aspects of the advancement of indirectdivisions.
Both information processing and networks support and amplify the characteristics andperformance of digital technology, which excels in the collection, storage, transfer, andprocessing of information. In recent years, these rapid technological advances and theintroduction of infrastructure have brought about a situation in which the exploitation of digitaltechnology extends to a wide range of industrial, economic, and social fields, and which can becalled digitalization.
These changes in technological aspects are not limited to the quantitative expansion ofhigh-speed and large-capacity processing and communication, but are also rapidly accelerating
qualitative advances, such as the successive realization of new functions. In application aspects,
the effect of these changes is expanding to many phases, and it is not an easy task tocomprehensively understand it and apply it to, for example, management strategies or productstrategies. IoT, Industry 4.0, robots, big data, CPS, AI, 5G, DX, and many other topics have alsocome up, and earnest initiatives have been implemented for each of them, but a lot of effort isrequired to merely keep track of them.
Being aware of these new waves, the Study Group continues to collect information about thesituations visible to workplaces on the front lines of the machine industry and the supply chain
from its upstream to clines, problem consciousness occurring to them, many attempts actuallymade, and challenges and hints learned from them, and exchange opinions from different
standpoints, such as the industrial workplaces, policy making and implementation, andacademia.
Rather than rushing to form conclusions or hypotheses, the Study Group is prioritizing finding
something that will trigger the next activities in industry, policy making, and academia.
2. Past activities of the Study Group (Company names are abbreviated.)(FY2015)
Started as an IoT Study Group. Three workshops were held by inviting lecturers. Research-1-trends in related technologies, the state of industrial policy making side, the progress of theimplementation of advance demonstration project policies, etc. were reported, opinions about
them were exchanged, and the operation policy for the Study Group for the next andsubsequent fiscal years was reviewed. Following that, the internal members of the Economic
Research Institute held a Study Group meeting almost every month.
(FY2016)
Six workshops were held by inviting lecturers (Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministryof Economy, Trade and Industry, Fuji Film, Konno Corporation, Daicel, Kojima Press, Regional
Economy Group of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).
(FY2017)
Four workshops were held by inviting lecturers (JTEKT, Okuma, OMRON, Bushu Kogyo).
(FY2018)
Five workshops were held by inviting lecturers (Screen, Tohoku University, Tokyo Electron,
Zeon Corporation, Toshiba Memory = current Kioxia).
The open symposium "Think about Manufacture in the Connected Industry Era - Possibilities
and Challenges for Small and Medium Enterprises to Use IoT" was held (lecturers: Kojima
Press, Bushu Kogyo, KMC).
(FY2019)
The Study Group was renamed the “Connected Industries (Cis) Study Group.” Four workshops
were held by inviting lecturers (Kyoto Kagaku, Kuno Kinzoku Industry, Aster, industria). The
open symposium scheduled for March 20 was postponed.
3. Events held in FY2020
Two workshops were held in the form of a web conference. Preparatory interviews conductedby visiting the lecturer companies in advance and management meetings that were held almost
every month were also held in the form of a web conference. The open symposium wasre-postponed to the subsequent year.
First workshop:Date: November 13, 2020
Lecturer: Mr. Hiroaki Muramatsu (Representative Director, Miruc Optical Co., Ltd.)
Theme: "Combining Analog Optical Technologies and Digital Technologies into a Solution"
Second workshop:
Date: March 18, 2021
Lecturer: Mr. Hisashi Odakura (Representative Director, Hibara Corporation Co., Ltd.)
Theme: “Operation of a Remote Painting Plant Utilizing IoT”

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