COVID-19 and other threats are bringing supply-chain disruptions and worldwide economic stagnation and creating a rapid rise in demand for automated, remote, and contact-free interactions. Hitachi is responding to this demand by using digital technologies. This issue looks at Hitachi technologies and initiatives assisting industry in the new normal.
COVID-19 has greatly altered the values of people and society at large. Digital transformation is making rapid strides in the industrial sector. Masakazu Aoki, Hitachi's Executive Vice President talks about what sort of management approaches companies should be using in this new normal.
Looking to recover from earnings that were hit hard by the effects of COVID-19, companies around the world are moving briskly to boost the pace of digitalization. Mr. Koichi Iwamoto, Research Associate at The Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, discusses how Japanese manufacturing should handle this situation.
It is not uncommon to hear people talking as if manufacturing is finished in Japan. Not so, according to Professor Takahiro Fujimoto of the University of Tokyo. He talks about how manufacturing should adapt to the new normal, including where the strengths of Japanese manufacturing are to be found and what business strategies should be pursued.
Diversifying customer needs and the spread of COVID-19 are making “boundary” issues more apparent than ever. This article presents Hitachi's total seamless solutions for optimizing entire value chains and creating new business value in resolving these issues using digital technologies. It also presents the associated collaborative creation.
Automation and robotics touch every aspect of people's lives. In December 2019, JR Automation, a robotic systems integration business in the USA, joined Hitachi Group. This article describes the work that JR Automation is doing on innovation in industry and presents examples of collaborative creation prompted by the spread of COVID-19.
The novel coronavirus pandemic is confronting the world with the difficult task of maintaining economic activity while preventing the spread of infection. This section describes work to establish new value chains including technology for supply chains that places an emphasis on being non-contact and reducing the number of people involved, technology for regenerative medicine, and collaborative creation programs that deliver the maximum possible value to customers.
Problems such as global warming and shrinking workforces are becoming increasingly apparent throughout the world. This section looks at Hitachi’s solutions that focus on technologies for automation, remote work, and contact-free interactions, including solutions for manufacturing workplaces using video processing technologies and AI technologies, design assistance solutions for collaborative work in remote environments, and traceability management solutions to coordinate value chains.
