“Lagging behind in virtual engineering environment could be the Achilles’ heel of Japan’s manufacturing industry,” METI, Japan
The White Paper on Monodzukuri, Japan 2020
The “FY 2019 White Paper on Promotion of Fundamental Manufacturing Technology(2020 Monozukuri white paper” is a report on measures the government has taken to promote core manufacturing technology. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology worked together to prepare the white paper, which was approved by the Japan Cabinet on May 29th and made available on the website afterwards. (English Summary)
In this white paper, they present a new strategy for Japan’s manufacturing industry in the midst of uncertainty, such as the spread of a new coronavirus infection, trade friction between the United States and China, and rising geopolitical risks, as well as the pressure for major changes, including the restructuring of the supply chain.
Specifically, the report makes it clear that the ability of companies to respond quickly and flexibly to unpredictable environmental upheaval, or “dynamic capability,” will be critically important in the future.
On top of that, in order to increase this “dynamic capability, we need,
- Promoting digital transformation
- Strengthen design capabilities
- Strengthening human resources
The book demonstrates the need for a “new” approach, and discusses concrete measures to achieve this, along with many examples.
In the following, I would like to summarize “Chapter 1: Challenges and Prospects Facing Japan’s Manufacturing Industry,” in which “Promotion of Digital Transformation” and “Enhancement of Design Capability” are discussed.
Promoting Digital Transformation
The latest digital technologies, including the IoT, have the potential to bring breakthroughs to manufacturing by providing superior solutions to leverage data at every point in the chain, both the engineering and supply chains shown above.
In addition, it is also important to seamlessly connect the engineering chain to the supply chain.
Engineering Chain = Enhanced Design Capability
In this context, we must first reconfirm the importance of the engineering chain.
In the manufacturing industry, it is said that 80% of the quality and cost of a product is determined at the design stage. In recent years, globalization, the increasing sophistication of functional requirements, and the increasing complexity of software have made this even more important, and it is the engineering capabilities that determine the competitiveness of a manufacturer.
Uncertainty requires a high level of engineering capability, including both product and process design, to enable products to be specified and manufactured in response to unexpected and abrupt environmental changes. Engineering competence is at the core of the dynamic capability for manufacturing to respond to uncertainty.
In Japan, however, there is a major problem of lagging behind in the virtual engineering environment.
Virtual engineering creates a collaborative environment where experts in planning, design, manufacturing, sales, quality, certification, etc., as well as suppliers and some customers, can participate in product development synchronously and in an integrated manner using 3D drawings. In addition, the use of virtual engineering enables detailed design, including verification, at the conceptual design stage and enables all specifications to be determined before real prototyping, significantly reducing the lead time for product development.
In line with dynamic capability theory, virtual engineering significantly increases the ability to “capture” opportunities and reconfigure existing assets, knowledge, and technologies inside and outside the organization to gain a competitive advantage, thereby minimizing development lead times. In this way, virtual engineering significantly increases dynamic capability, the ability to respond quickly to unforeseen events.
However, an analysis of the current situation shows that 3D design, the key component of virtual engineering, is not yet deployed enough in the Japanese manufacturing industry to make it a reality. It is no exaggeration to say that this lagging virtual engineering environment could be the Achilles’ heel of Japan’s manufacturing industry in a time of increasing uncertainty and the increasing importance of dynamic capability in the manufacturing industry.
Connect the Engineering Chain and Supply Chain
On the other hand, the first step in linking the engineering chain to the supply chain is to link the design bill of materials (E-BOM), which is used by the design department, the manufacturing bill of materials (M-BOM), which is used by the manufacturing department, and the process bill of materials (BOP), which is a compilation of process design information, and for each department to share it.
Achieving a “flexible organization” requires a high degree of dynamic capability by facilitating better coordination and communication across authorities and departments. The development of bills of materials and process charts facilitates such cross-departmental data coordination, making the organization more flexible and increasing its dynamic capability.
Moreover, this data collaboration and two-way communication will be even more powerful not only between the design and manufacturing departments, but also across the enterprise, and even beyond the organization to suppliers, customers and others.
For example, if a production site in one country has to be shut down, a supply disruption can be avoided if production can be quickly replaced in another plant.
The spread of the new coronavirus infection has reaffirmed the need to strengthen the global supply chain, and it is essential to strengthen the engineering chain by preparing bills of materials and process charts to build a strong supply chain.
