The Strategist

Japanese manufacturers are introducing IoT due to corporate scandals



12/06/2017 - 13:25



Increasingly more large corporations are announcing announce introduction of the "Internet of things" (IoT) in their production cycles. Representatives of the Japanese industrial sector, which recently came through several scandals connected with low quality of products and deception of consumers, are no exception. Experts believe that in this way Japanese companies want to improve the current situation and strengthen control over the quality of products.



Phasmatisnox
Phasmatisnox
In early December, Chinese high-tech company Huawei signed an agreement on introduction of the "Internet of things" (IoT) into production management system of Chinese company Wapwag Smart Water Public, which produces "smart" water quality monitoring systems. Huawei believes that the introduction of IoT in industries such as water resources will significantly improve the work of related high-tech companies. "Internet of things" outside the high-tech industry is also unsurprising now. One of the world leaders in this sphere is the Swedish-Swiss company ABB. Together with Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, it produces electrical equipment for databases, and HPE - servers and storage systems that "Internet of things" uses in production. Among them are systems for remote control, storage and transmission of data from robotic production, etc. In October, Toshiba said it agreed with the third-largest Japanese metallurgical company Kobe Steel on implementation of an IoT platform to create a cloud database that will be used in the operation of compressors. The companies believe that this system will allow to remotely monitor this part of the production process and closely monitor the quality of products.

Experts and market participants interviewed by The Financial Times believe that these new technologies should raise the level of quality control of products, especially against the backdrop of the latest corporate scandals in Japan. In early October, Kobe Steel admitted that part of its products did not meet the stated specifications. Knowing this, the company mislead customers. In late November, it was revealed that two divisions of the Japanese Mitsubishi Materials Corp had falsified product data to bring them in line with quality standards and internal specifications, the company said. One of its depertments forged data on the quality of rubber seals, and other - strength indicators of brass strips. "With the introduction of digital solutions, robotics will become a very important component of quality control," said Per Vegard Nerseth, managing director of business robotics for the Swedish company ABB. "Large amounts of data will increase transparency, but manufacturers' problems often lie in the organizational sphere," says Shunsuke Matsubara, executive vice president of Fanuc Japanese industrial company.

source: ft.com