The manufacturing industry is facing an increasingly tough environment, with labor shortages due to a declining birthrate and aging population, intensifying competition, and the difficulty of passing on skilled techniques. In this situation, although mechanization of manufacturing lines is progressing, many production sites still rely on human intuition and experience for production management.
In this article, we will talk about smart factories, which are expected to revolutionize production management in factories. If smart factories are realized, many things will be achieved, such as improving quality, reducing costs, and shortening delivery times by improving productivity.
In this article, we will explain the overview of smart factories, the benefits of working on them, and the key points to succeeding. If you are in charge of production management at a factory, please refer to this article.
What is a smart factory?
A smart factory is a factory that can perform work efficiently and with high productivity by networking the machinery and management systems used within the factory and introducing cutting-edge IT technologies such as AI and IoT.
The background to the birth of smart factories is "Industry 4.0," which was advocated by the German government in 2011. As the fourth industrial revolution following the steam engine, electricity, and digital, smart factories were introduced as a way to quickly reform the manufacturing industry ahead of the rest of the world.
What is production management in a smart factory?
Traditional production management in factories involves monitoring orders and current work-in-progress status, procuring the appropriate materials, and managing manufacturing operations in line with production plans. Many production management tasks, such as order management and material procurement, require intuition based on experience, making them tasks that are prone to becoming personalized.
However, in a smart factory, various data collected during the manufacturing process is analyzed without relying on intuition, and order forecasts and production plans are automatically formulated. This prevents production management from becoming personalized, and is expected to be highly effective in resolving labor shortages.
Benefits of working on a smart factory
The benefits of making your own factory smart include:
Reduce defective products and inventory loss
By automating production management, which has previously been done manually and based on intuition, defects and inventory loss will decrease, making overall operations more efficient and also increasing profits.
Preventing personalization
Production management based on intuition has a major drawback in that the work is dependent on the skills of experienced technicians. However, by working towards smart factories, many tasks can be automated, preventing the dependency on individual skills.
Focus on productive tasks
With more tasks automated and less manual work required, employees will have more time to focus on more productive tasks, which will ultimately lead to increased profits.
Identifying the cause of defects
By incorporating sensors into manufacturing equipment and lines, the cause of defects can be quickly identified, enabling appropriate and rapid improvements. In addition, even if a defective product is discovered after shipment or a malfunction occurs, the cause can be quickly identified. This enables appropriate customer service and the ability to meet the diverse needs of each customer, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
Mechanical equipment failure prediction
During the manufacturing process, data from networked machinery and equipment can be collected, allowing for accurate failure predictions. This allows for early repairs and renovations, minimizing downtime.
Key points for making smart factories successful
There are several points to be considered in successfully making a factory smart. Among them, the most important points are as follows:
Clarifying the purpose of introducing smart factories
It is necessary to clarify the purpose of introducing a smart factory. If the purpose is not clear, it is not possible to calculate the return on investment, and it is not clear where to start. It is important to clarify the purpose of what is important in promoting smartification, such as cost reduction, technology transfer, resolving labor shortages, and responding to diverse needs.
Visualization of business processes
To clarify the purpose of introducing a smart factory, it is necessary to visualize the current business process and clarify the issues. For example, specific issues can be identified, such as the loss of engineers due to retirement, or manual data entry work that is time-consuming and error-prone.
Securing cutting-edge IT talent
The success of smartification requires the use of AI and IoT. Therefore, it is essential to secure personnel who can effectively use AI and IoT and who can properly analyze the collected data.
Sharing of Information
The success of a smart factory requires the understanding and cooperation of employees working on-site. Therefore, the purpose of smartification and the details of the measures must be shared with employees so that they can move forward in the same direction.
Successful examples of smart factories in production management
Smart factories are not yet widely recognized in Japan, but the number of factories that are already achieving results is increasing. Here, we will introduce some successful examples of smart factory implementation from the "Smart Factory Roadmap" announced by the Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in May 2017.
Asahi Iron Works Co., Ltd.
Asahi Iron Works Co., Ltd., which mainly manufactures automotive parts, was faced with an urgent task of improving productivity while suppressing the cost of expanding facilities due to an increase in orders.
In order to improve productivity without expanding facilities, it is essential to accurately grasp the operating status and production time management of each facility. However, since doing this manually is too time-consuming, a system was introduced to manage the operating status and production time of each facility. After the system was introduced, proper operation management of the facilities made it unnecessary to expand facilities as originally planned, resulting in a cost reduction of 140 million yen.
Furthermore, the results of the company's own factory led to the creation of a new business, such as the establishment of a new company for external sales, as it was expected that there would be demand from other companies.
Hanya Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Hantani Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which mainly manufactures automotive parts, was faced with the challenge of developing human resources for the future and speeding up business reforms due to the changes in the nature of its work every year. As a result, the company moved forward with systematizing its work and began developing human resources who will be able to carry out their work independently in 10 years' time. Under the president's orders, employees took the initiative in utilizing the production management system.
By confirming labor productivity goals and results at monthly meetings and sharing opinions, the company was able to achieve speedy management and, thanks to an increase in new orders due to the appropriate operation of manufacturing machines, it has succeeded in increasing sales by approximately 1.1 times and reducing labor costs by approximately 5% over the past four years.
Fujitsu Limited / Shimane Fujitsu Limited
At the factories of Fujitsu Limited and Shimane Fujitsu Limited, which mainly manufacture network products, they have been continuously implementing measures to control product quality and improve work efficiency, but as much of this work is done manually, automation was a major challenge.
Therefore, they installed sensors to grasp the location of products within the work area, predicted where products are likely to stagnate and when work will be completed, and promoted data sharing and collaborative production between people and machines. Not only did they achieve quality improvement, but they also shortened production lead time to one-fifth of the previous time.
Summary: Smart factories are essential for innovation in production management
There have been many obstacles to streamlining production management and increasing productivity in factories. In particular, problems such as losses due to errors in order forecasting and inventory management, which rely heavily on human labor and intuition, and the aging of skilled workers cannot be solved by simply promoting mechanization. In response to this, advanced IT technologies such as AI and IoT, as well as the networking of machinery and systems, have attracted a great deal of attention, and smart factories are now able to collect various data. It is now possible to collect a large amount of data that was previously unavailable and to use AI analysis to document the techniques of skilled workers, enabling efficient and highly productive operations.
If production management can be carried out efficiently by making factories smarter, not only will it be possible to pass on skills that were previously difficult to pass on, but it will also be possible to meet the diverse needs of customers, leading to increased customer satisfaction. Why not start working to realize a smart factory that will bring innovation to production management sites?
