Shared-Use OT Cloud Service in the Manufacturing Industry to be Developed by Yokogawa and NTT Communications

Yokogawa Electric Corporation and NTT Communications Corporation announced they have signed a business partnership agreement for the joint development and provision of a shared-use operational technology (OT) cloud service that will support digital transformation (DX) in the manufacturing industry through the fusion of Yokogawa and NTT Com's respective strengths in OT and IT.

Based on this partnership, the two companies aim to adapt production control systems and manufacturing execution systems for use in cloud-based services, and then evolve these through the development of a shared-use OT cloud service.

Adaption of production control systems and manufacturing execution systems for cloud services

The two companies will migrate specific OT systems, such as production control systems and manufacturing execution systems, into the cloud so they can be provided as a service.

Yokogawa already offers services, including Yokogawa Cloud, which analyzes facility data in the cloud and streamlines maintenance work. Through this partnership, specific OT systems will be adapted for use with NTT Com's Smart Data Platform, which provides a one-stop solution for functions that are required to utilize a company's data and maintain a high-security environment, and enables the swift handling of tasks, such as system renewal, function expansion, and control-setting modification.

Development and provision of shared-use OT cloud service

By adding OT-IT orchestration functions to the aforementioned cloud services for production-control and manufacturing-execution systems, the two companies aim to develop and provide a shared-use OT cloud service for collaboration between the production-control and manufacturing-execution systems of each user company. Not only will this make swift system renewals and on-demand functional enhancements a reality, but it will also enable data sharing between users and lead to the optimization of manufacturers’ entire supply chains.

For instance, by analyzing data, manufacturing techniques can be identified that will help to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions not only for individual businesses, but also across entire supply chains.

Expansion of partner network and user base of the shared-use OT cloud service

The two companies also aim to bring in additional partners who can make functional enhancements to the shared-use OT cloud service and increase the number of users.

Role of each company

While Yokogawa will be in charge of system development for a shared-use OT cloud service that utilizes the company's OT-domain knowledge of control and manufacturing management, NTT Com will be in charge of platform development for the provision of a shared-use OT cloud service utilizing the company's IT-domain knowledge of security and the cloud.

Development Plans

Based on this alliance, the two companies will commence an experiment in February 2022 to demonstrate the migration of production-control and manufacturing-execution systems to a cloud service and aim to launch this service by the end of FY2022 (March 2023). Regarding the next-stage shared-use OT cloud service, joint experiments will commence in FY2022, with the aim of launching this service in FY2024.