SHIBAURA MACHINE CO., LTD. case study

USER PROFILE
■Corporate information: SHIBAURA MACHINE CO., LTD.
■ Business content:
Our corporate philosophy is to contribute to maximizing the value of our customers around the world. To that end, we provide a variety of industrial machinery solutions, including machine tools, by leveraging our technological and development capabilities, QCD, and sales and service capabilities that we have cultivated over the years. We will promote investment mainly in fields such as renewable energy, energy conservation, environmentally friendly new materials, and productivity improvement, and will play a role as a company through our business activities to address the social issues identified in the SDGs, including these. We aim to further contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.

summary

background

Since its founding as a machine tool manufacturer in 1938, SHIBAURA MACHINE CO., LTD., Ltd. has created a wide variety of industrial machines with the technology and development capabilities, QCD, sales and service capabilities cultivated as a group.
We provide various solutions such as injection molding machines, die casting machines, extrusion molding machines, machine tools, ultra-precision processing machines, industrial robots, electronic control devices, etc. We are currently actively promoting investment.

In 2020, when the company name was changed from Toshiba Machine to the current name, based on the medium-term management plan "Management Reform Plan", we abolished the "business division system" and adopted the "company system" in order to further promote overall optimization. , forming machine, machine tool and control machine companies.
In addition, the "R&D Center" and "Production Center" were established in order to consolidate technology development and facilitate production activities, including procurement, which had been separated by business.
We are working to improve management efficiency and profitability through structural improvements while promoting the optimal allocation of human resources as a result of organizational restructuring.
In addition, in the current “New Shibaura Machine” long-term vision 2030, we will shift to high value-added machines at each company and provide solutions that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases, with the company-wide policy of “selling goods + services”. We are working on a new strategy.

In such a company, the "R&D Center" is the core of technological development that drives advanced technological development in both software and hardware.
The Center, which aggregates basic technologies across the company, is promoting the creation of high value-added products by fusing real and digital, and aims to be an organization that can flexibly respond to changes.
We are promoting SHIBAURA DX, which creates new value by adding DX technology to the comprehensive strengths of a machine manufacturer, and we are promoting the creation of an environment that transcends industrial boundaries and contributes to improving the productivity of our customers' workplaces. there is

Task

In particular, the R&D Center R&D Department Digital Twin Development Section, which promotes DX, is adding value to products such as AI, which is important in the process of shifting from “selling things” to “selling things + experiences”. We are developing the element technology to give it.

- Mr. Tominaga
In cooperation with the department that promotes the creation of a foundation for defensive DX for the company, we are conducting elemental research to promote offensive DX related to products.

In particular, the company, which handles everything from the development of machine tools to manufacturing services, has a history of focusing on AI as one of the technologies to compensate for the decrease in the production population amid the declining birthrate and aging population.

- Mr. Tominaga
We have many craftsmanship technologies related to processing and assembly, and we would like to skillfully convert them into formal knowledge, and ultimately promote automation and labor saving with AI. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between the areas that can be digitized and the areas that make the most of craftsmanship, and to promote the transfer of technology.

In order to make use of such AI technology to improve the added value of products, we decided to start by building a track record at our own production sites.
Therefore, it is said that various sensors were attached to the product and data collection was started.

- Mr. Tominaga
We considered the use of AI models in the process of skillfully analyzing information obtained from the field, but while there are many internal mechanical engineers, the number of engineers who are proficient in AI technology is small. Therefore, we initially proceeded with the project together with an AI vendor.

However, because the company handles large machines with product lifespans of 2 to 30 years, there were circumstances in which customers could not accept AI technology that could be applied to consumer products.

- Mr. Tominaga
It is necessary not only to provide products that incorporate AI technology, but also to provide them to customers over the long term, including post-development maintenance. It was essential to have a partner who was well versed in the industrial machinery industry and familiar with AI.

and look back on those days.

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