National research and development programmes, public projects

We are implementing various process projects to extend our technological development capabilities and contribute to society. Here are a few of those projects.

NEDO AI　

Development of Integration Technologies as the Core of Next Generation Artificial Intelligence”, 2021″Building a design and operational infrastructure for competitive next-generation production systems using AI technology as a platform.”

As customer needs diversify and the future direction of production systems is toward single-product production and mass customization, the important point is to break through the conventional wisdom in production system engineering that costs increase when the number of products is small and the variety of products is high. This is the focus of technological development centered on production system structures, robots, and the IoT, which are the focus of research institutes in many countries. Therefore, in this development, we consider the development of technology to maximize the value (i.e., minimize losses) of production systems, especially single-piece flow automation systems, which is the goal of Industry 4.0, to be the direction of problem solving.

It is desired to develop “AI that supports the derivation of high-quality hypotheses” to enhance human decision-making for the design and operation of next-generation production systems. To this end, it is essential to (a) make appropriate use of simulation technology that can accurately reproduce system behavior as the basis for hypothesis generation, which is necessary for human decision making. In addition, (b) it is essential to develop AI algorithms that can successfully map diverse small amounts of data to each other. In other words, this project aims to develop “AI that supports the derivation of high-quality hypotheses,” which will enhance the decision-making process of skilled workers in order to design and operate competitive next-generation production systems.

In order to handle a variety of small amounts of data, the project will develop an AI algorithm that combines “production system simulation technology” and “hypothesis derivation inference technology that can appropriately map relationships among the relevant data,” and configure an AI platform that implements such functions. This will be verified for assembly production systems and mold production systems.

NEDO SC

Digital Technologies for Rapid and Flexible Supply Chain Reconfiguration,” 2020.System construction and operation of “Simulation Integrated Production SIM

The background of this project lies in the fact that today, as we enter an era of change, we are faced with the need to review the methods that Japan has excelled at and promote DX. In the Japanese way of rubbing together, the complexity of the production site has been handled by human activities, and in principle, mass production start-up and kaizen activities take a long time and cause rework. As a result, there is a lack of flexibility in dealing with market fluctuations, and the supply chain cannot be restructured quickly. The problem here is that human-based activities are black boxed and transparency is not achieved, and information and knowledge are not mutually available among the various organizations.

This project aims to establish a data-sharing infrastructure in the supply chain and to promote the coordination of a wide range of organizational activities. Production process information will be adopted as the key for coordination, and a common data model will be shared to synchronize the activities of each organization, as well as an approach to make ambiguous on-site activities transparent through production simulation. The reason for this is that since all upstream activities are related to production activities with non-deterministic and complex behaviors, the entire organizational activities from upstream to downstream can be smoothly promoted by using production process information as the key.

The model has a structure that can be decomposed into the elemental components of the production process, so that each organization can define a hypothesis for conceptual design by partially utilizing the model they have created. This functionality enables the evaluation of interferences and performance impacts in supply chain operations at the planning stage to address issues. Furthermore, a platform for handling common data models will be developed to create an environment for cross-referencing and utilization of each organization and strategic integrated management. This will contribute to strengthening organizational capacity to respond to unforeseen situations such as the Corona disaster (i.e., to acquire dynamic capability).

Furthermore, this platform will be made open, and engineering tools and platforms will be interconnected through a collaborative API. By providing a DX network to support the restructuring of Japan’s supply chain, we will take on the challenge of regaining global competitiveness once again.

JICA Dissemination Demonstration Project

Dissemination, Demonstration, and Business Development Project to Promote Human Resource Development for Digital Engineering and Manufacturing, Indonesia, 2021-22

This is a dissemination, demonstration, and business development project related to the development of engineering human resources in the manufacturing domain in the manufacturing industry. After this project, business development of a digital engineering tool (Lexar Research’s software product GD.findi) for the manufacturing production sector will be developed, aiming to contribute to the improvement of industrial productivity in the country of Indonesia.

GD.findi (Lexar Research’s production simulator), a digital engineering tool for lean manufacturing, will be deployed in the market. These products are effective technologies for lean production, but engineers need skills to realize lean production. For this reason, the company will develop human resources with the Ministry of Industry of Indonesia as a counterpart, and through this, promote market development. At the same time, we will appoint a sales agent and establish an engineering support system to support the introduction of the technology to the market, thereby establishing a firm foothold in the market.

Cloud Business in BW, Germany

Cloud Mall Demonstration Project, 2021

The project is a project of the German BW state government and is aimed at accelerating the diffusion of cloud computing, managed by the Fraunhofer Foundation. Approximately 20 projects operated from July 2020 to October 2020. Each project is presented in the BW show window on the Internet after its completion and is the target of promotion of cloud technology diffusion for companies in the state of BW.

Here, the technologies of the cloud platform VFK, developed by Lexar Research and Fraunhofer Institute, will be integrated in the cloud. This will demonstrate that real-time control of production systems will be possible in the future.