Mr.Tomohisa Yamazaki, the president of Yamazaki Mazak gave an interview about an investment of more than 10 billion yen in Japanese factories and about the strategic plans for the IoT.

Q: How do you plan to improve your factories?

A: “Now our factories perform a full capacity with an investment of more than 10 billion yen in improving the first and second factory in Minokamo for digital manufacturing and it is expected that the 2019 production volume will be maximized. Nonetheless, our factory at Inabe is under construction, yet the factory will be designed with a high ceiling to facilitate the production of large-sized machines, which is expected to start this fall.” 

Q: As the business is growing, how important is provision for production?

A: “Not only does supply and demand of machine production seem unbalanced, but our biggest concern is a political risk. A political conflict dramatically results in a decline in demands. In the past, for example, we encountered such challenge during the political unrest. We should therefore worry about this risk. With a strong determination to increase our production capacity, we can produce more, produce faster and lower such risk.”

Q: In the industry now, a shortage of supply of basic parts such as linear guides is an issue, isn’t it?

A: “Despite this problem belonging to the procurement section, the delivery date of the machine has been postponed. We don’t have any problem with Ball Screw production as we can produce it at our own factory, yet linear motion guide and rubber hose are still insufficient.”

Q: How do you increase productivity with IOT?

A: “Our missions are to change the factories to be more digitalized, by having digital data analyzed with artificial intelligence (AI) to shorten the lead time and to turn experts’ know how into useful data for new beginners.” 

Q: How do you use IoT for service?

A: “IoT can improve services and supports, such as gear processing software; however, IoT is merely a tool, so its purpose is to minimize the down time of the machine tool. A major issue of the IoT use is security in the production industry. Cyber-attack isn’t a new concept, so we’re planning to install smart boxes which are the security tools co-developed by Cisco Systems in the future.”