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The opening of the 17th annual ARC Tokyo Forum is approaching in less than three weeks. Industry in Transition, Information-driven Enterprise, and Connected World are the three key themes of the Forum. More than 230 attendees are expected to attend the one-day event this year, on July 14. The pace of attendee registration is increasing faster than ever, mainly because the Forum will focus on IoT/Industrie 4.0 in the process industry, in addition to the discrete industry. Also, the number of attendees from utilities are showing a significant increase this year, reflecting a newly established law that allows competition in electricity and gas production and distribution for the first time in 70 years. Utilities that used to enjoy a regional monopoly are going to face global competition in the near future, so they are starting to prepare.
Keynote: IoT/Industrie 4.0 in the Process Industry
When it comes to operating and producing scenarios, we all live in a very fast-changing world. Even in our private lives, we are feeling the effects of these high-speed changes, where speed is defined by the newest technology: the world is becoming smarter. Many terms are used to describe these changes in the market. In Europe, Germans are using the term " Industrie 4.0;" France has begun calling it "l'Industrie du Futur;" and the US calls this trend "IoT (Internet of Things)", as well as "Smart Manufacturing" or "Industrial Internet," and so on. You may or may not be aware of this, but Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), also recently made a move to categorize the trend, and is starting to say, "The industrial initiative of our next generation is CPS (Cyber Physical Systems)."
In the keynote speech of the Tokyo Forum, Uwe Groundmann, ARC Advisory Group, GM European Operation, will ask and answer tough questions, including: What is the meaning of all this for our process-oriented industries, and is there a difference between Industrie 4.0 and IoT? A report from the recently held Achema 2015 will be included from the viewpoint of the same aspect. The objective is to get an idea of our future manufacturing landscape and how it will develop, in ARC's view.
Digital Enterprise and Connected Enterprise
Every year, Siemens speakers reveal innovative vision and technologies at the Tokyo Forum. Michael Thomas, Siemens Japan's Senior Executive Operating Officer, Division Lead of Digital Factory/Process Ind. & Drives Division, who introduced Industrie 4.0 to Japanese industries at the Tokyo Forum a year ago, will focus on "Digital Enterprise" this year. The solution Siemens offers allows for significant reduction in time to market, massively improved flexibility, as well as efficiency of operation and service. Thomas will address the concept as well as talk about software tools and platforms for the Digital Enterprise.
To correspond with consumer spending from newly middle-class consumers, manufacturers today must leverage their automation investment for optimization. Mukund Mukund, Software Business Manager - Asia Pacific, Rockwell Automation, will provide an overview of the current situation, the approach by other countries to it, and expected tasks using IoT technology with case studies.
IoT Use-cases in the Semiconductor Factory
It is clear that IoT is one of the biggest industry trends driving revolution in several industry segments, especially manufacturing. Intel has been pioneering usage of big data in its own semiconductor factory, to maximize throughput, while minimizing related cost to optimize manufacturing line performance. In the current "IoT era," the performance of devices to connect things, gather and transfer data, and analyze and consume business intelligence (BI) increased drastically, while cost has been decreasing year after year. This trend enables new approaches that didn't make sense before. From this viewpoint, Takaaki Anzai, Intel's Business Development Senior Manager, will discuss how IoT will affect manufacturing, explaining his ideas based on actual projects in Intel factories.
The result of the Intel project was that the performance-life of the key components in the testing stations could be mapped and predicted based on the real operating conditions of the units, allowing maintenance to be scheduled and downtime avoided. Intel estimates that the result of utilizing IoT, driven by Mitsubishi Electric and their e-F@ctory and e-F@ctory Alliance concepts, have contributed to savings of around US$9 million. So, in a very real way, this was the price of failure of a $0.90 cent component. Seiichiro Oka, Mitsubishi Electric's Manager, e-F@ctory Promotion Group e-F@ctory Strategic Planning Project, will reveal Mitsubishi's participation in the Intel project and discuss future manufacturing and FA integrated solutions.
Cyber Security for Critical Systems
With the sophistication of today's malware and increased targeting of critical infrastructure, it is vital to have adequate security measures in place to protect the safety and reliability of critical systems. The key points to be covered in this session by Danny Berko, Waterfall Security Solutions, Sales Director - Asia Pacific, include:
- Differences between IT and OT security
- Why IT security best practices are not strong enough for CNI protection
- How enforcing security through a hardware-based solution allows for absolute protection against online network-based attacks
- Case studies including the Japanese utilities deployment scenario of the Waterfall Unidirectional Security Gateway.
Keywords: IoT/Industrie 4.0, Process Industry, Internet of Things, (IoT), Smart Manufacturing, Cyber Security, Factory Automation, ARC Advisory Group.