Lumada system overview. (Credit: Hitachi)Hitachi, Ltd., is moving forward with its Internet of Things (IoT) platform, Lumada, a name coined from the words “illuminate” and “data.”

Beginning in July 2017, the company will implement a progress and operation monitoring system to visualize work progress at manufacturing sites in real time, and a work improvement support system to support improvement of high-priority bottleneck work. Both systems are industrial-field solution cores for Lumada, designed to enable reduction in production lead time in high-mix low-volume manufacturing plants.

The progress and operation monitoring system utilizes manufacturing performance data, collected and accumulated on the production lines, to unitarily visualize the bottlenecks that cause process delays, excess, lack of working capacity and so on. This enables field leaders to quickly address issues, such as through optimized allocation of production resources. Production performance data is automatically collected utilizing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, reading information through radio waves from media such as tags and cards incorporated in IC chips and small antennas.

The work improvement support system utilizes cameras installed in the work area to automatically extract video images of areas identified for improvement. It uses data collected from the progress and operation monitoring system to generate work instruction drawings for bottlenecks to be prioritized and addressed, based on the difference between actual and target work time.

Hitachi established a high-efficiency production model for designing and manufacturing information control systems and devices in the high-mix low-volume production method at Omika Works in October 2016, reducing production lead time by 50 percent. The company also formed a dedicated consulting team of engineers who have worked on production reform at Omika Works, and a training service for introducing examples of IoT applications.

Hitachi plans to gradually expand its lineup of Production Planning Optimization for Lumada in the industrial field. Hitachi control systems and data management technologies support a wide range of industrial applications, such as manufacturing control systems, algorithms and controllers. Prototyping for the use of customer data and hypothesis verification is possible through its digital solution, cloud-type Collaborative Creation environment "Lumada Competency Center."