Case Study:Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

History

Considering the "Want To-Be State” of the plant by all members

Field Innovators (FIers) in charge of this project conducted their Factory Assessment using a unique tool developed by Fujitsu as the first step. The plant level was assessed in 6 stages from 0 to 5 for 16 assessment items, and 5 challenge themes were presented. Based on the results, the members held a workshop to tackle the challenge themes, and all members identified 7 important actual challenges.

In the following step, activity targets were set, and specific measures were considered. Based on the "Level-5 plant" proposals presented by FIers, the Want To-Be State of the optical cable plant was discussed repeatedly.

"What surprised me was that FIers asked me to think about the 'Want To-Be State' first. I was surprised because I thought they’d introduce their IoT solutions to us," Kazuyuki Iburi recalls.

In fact, this was an important point for later activities. "Because I was asked to think about the ‘Want To-Be State’, I was able to reconsider the mission of my section. In addition, we were able to understand each other's expectations through discussions that went beyond the boundaries of each section. This has deepened mutual understanding within the division,” says Yutaka Hoshino.

At present, "The status of products in production is not immediately known" and "Operations information of equipment is managed on paper" were regarded as major problems. However, they defined "MONOZUKURI that automatically adjusts conditions by predicting the status of equipment, materials, and product quality" as the Want To-Be State of the plant. Then a Goal and Measure System Diagram with 4 challenges to "Realize clear production plans and optimal input plans", "Improve line operations efficiency", "Improve indirect works efficiency" and "Improve quality" were established.

"We discussed repeatedly creating the Goal and Measure System Diagram. Thanks to this process, we found a solid common understanding. Since MONOZUKURI is done by connecting all sections, having an image of everyone’s common goal played a great role," says Shusaku Matsumoto.

Shusaku Matsumoto
Manager
Production Engineering Sec.
Optical Cable Production Dept.
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Yoshiyuki Kanezaki
RP Team
Optical Cable Productions Dept.
Optical Fiber & Cable Products Div.
Communications Solutions Div.
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Takashi Omori
Workstream Leader
RTF Global Fibercable Mie Workstream
Optical Fiber & Cable Div.
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Outlook for the future

Promoting smart manufacturing to realize TSUNAGERU MONOZUKURI

The actual use of IoT has already started in various ways. One of them is "Visualization of equipment operation time". Operation information for all manufacturing equipment is collected, and then this information is displayed on a monitor so that the operating status of the previous and current days can be seen at a glance. "When I first undertook the Factory Assessment, I didn't understand why data visualization would lead to improvement. However, when I tried it, I found that the equipment was not fully working, which I had thought was operating at full capacity. So, once we know this, we can get a perspective as to why it’s not working and how to increase the operation rate. It's a start for improvement," says Takashi Omori. In addition, he says that by seeing the same facts through visualization, discussions can proceed constructively and creatively.

They also conducted a trial to visualize the movement of workers in the plant. "We encouraged our plant workers to be multifunctional. One person could engage with multiple pieces of equipment. Beacons were fitted to operators to visualize their movements to see if it worked well. As a result, we were able to confirm that the workers were handling the equipment equally," Mr. Iburi says.

Still, the realization of a Smart Factory has only just gotten started. Mr. Okada says, “We hope to progress with the road map sequentially and spread the results to other divisions and plants. We have production plants overseas as well, so we’re hoping to play a leading role as the mother plant."

<Slide contents>
<Top>
The realization of a Goal and Measure System Diagram was divided into four steps and the implementation timing of each step was identified.

<Left>
STEP 1: "Create Foundation"
STEP 2: "Brush Up"
STEP 3: "Enhance"
STEP 4: "Master"

<Right>
Create Foundation / Requirement identification and systematization of new MONOZUKURI (TSUNAGERU MONOZUKURI)
Brush Up / Transition and trial of new MONOZUKURI
Enhance / Make new MONOZUKURI more effective
Master / Prediction and automatization

［ September, 2021］