Roadmap for Achieving the Company-wide, Connected Manufacturing of the Future

1. The importance of acting as an organization based on a roadmap

Two major goals galvanize Murata's aim of realizing the company-wide, connected manufacturing of the future: achieving dramatic growth in the AI-driven field of electronics and establishing the company's position in growing markets. In addition, Shimoyae explains, "Through interviews and inspections at overseas factories and domestic plants, it became clear that the problem was a lack of a medium- to long-term roadmap related to DX and other issues."

Shimoyae: "Interviews I conducted regarding the development of DX human resources revealed cases that deviated from our objectives, even though various initiatives had been accelerated in those areas . While DX human resources are being developed, the development in and of itself has become the objective, without any roadmap to describe how those human resources will be used or what will be achieved beyond that. That struck me as a major oversight. Murata's employees are extremely improvement-oriented, so I believe that formulating a medium- to long-term roadmap will definitely lead to a transformation of manufacturing."

Of course, many foreign and domestic plants have formulated roadmaps and are progressing smoothly towards their objectives. However, while some departments are learning the skills on their own, improving their mindset, and implementing DX, others have not yet acted to achieve results despite understanding the term "DX." Shimoyae continues by explaining how these differences in the degree of enthusiasm is also an issue.

Shimoyae: "To resolve the differences in the degree of enthusiasm for DX that has emerged amongst the various departments within plants, I believe that it is extremely important to act as an organization based on a roadmap and increase the sense of speed and efficiency of the workplaces. We also need to adopt a broad view of manufacturing, expand our efforts beyond factory-centric SCM (Supply Chain Management) to encompass ECM (Engineering Chain Management) at the development and design stage and DCM (Demand Chain Management) for enhancing connections with customers, and collaborate across all business divisions to transform manufacturing."

2. Building upon small initiatives, experiencing success, and changing the DX mindset

According to Shimoyae, when drawing up an improvement roadmap, it is important to directly link actions to activities such as improving profit and loss and reducing costs that then lead to solving plant management issues in addition to promoting manufacturing DX with an awareness of short, medium, and long-term targets.

Shimoyae: "Manufacturing DX offers various advantages, such as operational efficiency and resolving dependencies on specific people. However, those are merely individual effects, and it is important to remember that the ultimate objective is to improve the profits and losses and reduce costs. I believe that profit and loss improvement should be set as the guiding principle of manufacturing DX to avoid situations where DX is implemented but results are not achieved."

Shimoyae also describes the key points of small digitalization initiatives, otherwise known as small starts, within short-term targets as follows.

Shimoyae: "In recent years, AI has penetrated the business world, and while some may use AI in place of search engines, others use it to create presentation materials and videos. Similarly, different people use DX in vastly different ways and scopes. For that very reason, it is important to start from where you can and formulate small initiatives, experience success, and then change people's mindsets with respect to DX. Beyond that, we need to involve more colleagues in DX and increase the number of human resources who can propose ideas on the future of manufacturing DX."

One key point is keeping costs down by starting small and minimizing risks in the event of failure.

Shimoyae: "We also need to rethink the notion that DX will solve all issues and achieve all objectives. DX is merely one of many available methods. It is important to implement multiple measures in parallel with DX and run a PDCA cycle to build a system that does not retrogress, then expand the effects and gradually connect each process to achieve overall optimization. My aim is to clear short-term targets and achieve company-wide system integration via the medium- and long-term targets."

3. The goal of establishing DX initiatives and human resources as well as growing as an organization

The Manufacturing Management Division that Shimoyae belongs to supports each plant's roadmap while also positioning the use of company-wide standard functions (standard solutions) as a key part of the process. "Standard solutions" refers to daily inspection systems, jig and tool management systems, and worker skill management systems that improve productivity by introducing them in important process locations.

Shimoyae: "Standard solutions provide optimized functions across the company based on years of data accumulated from various plants. At the same time, we do see some inconsistency in the utilization of standard solutions by each product group. That is because some plants have introduced unique solutions based on their product or market. We regard unique solutions as an essential component of producing innovation and many success stories, and we plan to promote the use of standard solutions and MES (Manufacturing Execution System) as the basis for unique solutions."

A major role of the Manufacturing Management Division is to support activities according to each plant's roadmap, including the use of standard solutions and MES.

Shimoyae: "Our role is merely to propose and rationally support the optimal DX for the key themes promoted by plants, such as the pillars of improving quality and productivity. We do not simply deploy standard solutions indiscriminately. We keep two things in mind when we deploy initiatives . First, we make sure that they understand the standard solutions and MES functions—including the ideas and policies behind them—and only utilize them once they are fully convinced. Second, we also support the placement of human resources in the right positions and give them independent decision making to drive DX forward on their own after our support has ended. Our major goals are establishing DX initiatives and human resources as well as growing as an organization."

4. Transforming manufacturing through the appropriate placement of DX human resources and the utilization of accumulated data

In addition to utilizing standard solutions and MES, the company-wide, connected manufacturing of the future will be achieved by promoting the expansion of application areas and the scope of information for digital twins and cyber-physical systems.

Shimoyae: "Our goal is to link cyber systems and physical systems to utilize data generated by business operations and create the company-wide, connected manufacturing of the future. Inter-departmental collaboration is important for achieving this. We aim to achieve speedy company-wide collaboration by coordinating roadmaps with the Monozukuri Support System Department and other related departments and coordinating efforts with the business divisions.
Coordinating the medium- to long-term roadmap with each plant clarifies when and how the Manufacturing Management Division can provide support. In addition, strengthening collaboration with the product divisions allows us to make faster investment decisions. However, instead of dramatically accelerating our pace, we focus on adhering to the plan and fitting the puzzle pieces in the right place."

Shimoyae says that Murata has two strengths for achieving the company-wide, connected manufacturing of the future. The first is human resources.

Shimoyae: "To date, Murata has developed DX human resources through various types of training. Going forward, we see the company entering a phase in which we need to identify what skills are missing in our plants and then assign the appropriate human resources. We want every department and individual to be aware that they play a leading role in driving transformation and accelerating manufacturing DX."

Murata's second strength is its ability to accumulate data.

Shimoyae: "Murata has been using MES since the 1990s and has accumulated a lot of data. In an era when data utilization is essential, this is a huge strength, and we believe that massive amounts of data will provide a springboard for growth. We are now wholly engrossed in the phase of data utilization, and we hope to achieve the company-wide, connected manufacturing of the future so that Murata can make a great leap forward."