TOKYO, Oct 5, 2016 – (JCN Newswire) – Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu
(China) Holdings Co., Ltd., and INESA (Group) Co., Ltd.(1), a large-scale,
state-owned company in China that provides smart city solutions, today
announced that they are collaborating on a Smart Manufacturing Project known as
“Made in China 2025,”(2) a strategic framework which aims to
strengthen competitiveness in manufacturing.In response to the rapid changes in corporate
business models and the market environment, the government of China has set
forth “Made in China 2025”, which aims to combine cutting-edge ICT
with manufacturing, shifting China from a manufacturing giant that
mass-produces products to a manufacturing powerhouse that focuses on production
quality. In the midst of this effort, using their abundant experience in the
ICT and manufacturing fields, Fujitsu and INESA Group are jointly promoting
their Smart Manufacturing Project, contributing to realizing the “Made in
China 2025” plan.

As a member of a group of large-scale, state-run
companies under the jurisdiction of the State-owned Assets Supervision and
Administration Commission of Shanghai Municipal Government, INESA Group has a
history in the electronics manufacturing industry of more than fifty years. In
order to adapt to the innovations of recent years, INESA Group, while
manufacturing, is driving the development of the information industry, and has
established the strategic goal of contributing to the building of smart cities
as its business model, working to create a new industry that fuses ICT and
manufacturing.

At a color-filter manufacturing plant of INESA
Display Materials Co., Ltd., an INESA Group company, Fujitsu established a plan
to turn the plant into a smart factory suited to current operations, by
studying current processes and issues. Based on information from existing
automated production lines and manufacturing management systems, Fujitsu is
connecting the entire manufacturing process, including product manufacturing
processes and production line placement, with technologies, such as big data
and IoT. This is to achieve digital transformation, building a system that
visualizes the efficiency of the factory with the use of tools such as
Fujitsu’s sensors, network technologies, a dashboard solution, and a big data
analysis platform, to advance INESA Group’s move toward smart manufacturing.

The three companies began this project in January
of 2016, and aim to complete it in 2018. In the first stage of this project,
Fujitsu organized and improved INESA Group’s existing information systems,
advanced the deployment of IoT in the factory, and built a big data analysis
platform. As a result, it has become possible to share data within the factory
and visualize operations in real time. The constructed platform will support
higher levels of factory intelligence in the future.

The specific initiatives implemented under the
current project are as follows:

Figure: Overview of smart manufacturing project

– Building IoT platforms that utilize data in the
factory
Using Fujitsu’s unique intelligent network
communications technologies, the companies have improved the slow and unstable
communication in the existing large-scale network, building a low-cost system
to automatically collect energy consumption data, including for electricity,
water and gas. In addition, by collecting and managing data through the IoT
platform, energy consumption has been reduced, supporting the realization of a
green factory.

– Building a big data analysis platform
This system aggregates and centralizes the
manufacturing progress data collected through the IoT platform, such as from
sensors. This aggregated big data is processed and analyzed in real time under
advanced security, enabling the detection of warning signs of problems in
manufacturing equipment.

– Building a system for visualizing efficiencies
throughout the factory
Using FUJITSU Enterprise Application Intelligent
Dashboard, Fujitsu Limited’s solution that supports the overall optimization of
factories, with the big data analysis platform, this system displays important
key performance indicators, such as manufacturing, energy consumption, quality,
facilities status, and expenses, in an integrated fashion. At the same time, it
monitors the status of the production lines in real time, visualizing the
efficiency of the factory as a whole.

– Establishing standards for evaluating the degree
of maturity of the smart factory
Fujitsu assisted in formulating standards and an
evaluation model for the degree of maturity of INESA Group’s smart factory
using the three criteria of technology, implementation, and integration, based
on INESA Group’s definitions and goals for smart manufacturing. In addition,
during this smart manufacturing model factory project with INESA Group, the
companies are carrying out studies and evaluations, extracting content and
technology common across the industry and standardizing it, aiming to
popularize a shared INESA Group standard within the industry.

Figure: The Intelligent Dashboard visualizing the
operational status of production lines for the entire factory (Location:
Central monitoring room in INESA Display Materials Co., Ltd.’s color-filter
manufacturing plant).

Using the Fujitsu Limited Intelligent Dashboard to
visualize efficiency for the factory as a whole, managers can control the
operational status of the manufacturing lines across the entire factory from
the factory’s central monitoring room. The project’s first stage of development
has now gone online, and is already producing results in actual production
management. For example, a great deal of time used to be spent on such tasks as
collecting production status and statistical data, but with Fujitsu’s
Intelligent Dashboard, it has become possible to intuitively grasp the
situation. This can be expected to play a significant role in improvements in
productivity and management going forward.

Owing to its cutting-edge technologies and as a
model initiative for the industry, this project was chosen as a Smart Factory
Model Project for 2016 in an evaluation by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology. Fujitsu and INESA Group will continue to contribute to
the digital transformation in China’s manufacturing industry going forward.

In addition, the three companies, as strategic
partners, will spread this successful model to more manufacturing companies in
China, working together to achieve the goals of “Made in China 2025.”

Comment from Cai Xiaoqing, President of INESA Group

INESA Group is focusing its efforts on creating
smart factories, positioning this business as a core infrastructure business
supporting INESA Group’s smart cities, while also advancing initiatives in our
factories.

Through this project, by working with Fujitsu, I
believe we will meet the business transformation needs of our many customers in
the manufacturing industry, and contribute to transforming the manufacturing
industry of China.

(1) INESA (Group) Co., Ltd.

Official Website: http://www.inesa.com/index.html

(2) Made in China 2025

On May 8, 2015, China’s State Council unveiled its
first 10-year national plan for transforming China’s manufacturing, entitled
“Made in China 2025.” The plan is designed to put China on a new path
to industrialization, with greater emphasis on innovation, expanded use of
new-generation information technology, intelligent manufacturing, consolidation
of the industrial base, integration of industrial processes and systems, and a
robust multilayer talent development structure. Measures taken in this respect
will facilitate China’s transformation from a manufacturing giant with a focus
on quantity to one with a qualitative edge.