Today, the general assembly concerning the foundation of this Initiative and the first management meeting were held as described below. The framework for the Initiative was determined and the Initiative was launched.
1. Foundation General Assembly
Date and time: 4:30 to 5:15 pm, May 15 (Friday) (Including the First Management Meeting)
Location: Hotel Okura Annex
2. Background and Intent
- Japan has been called a robotic giant, but the United States has announced its National Robot Initiative to strengthen its research and development, and more American companies are becoming involved in advanced research. Developments in Europe and China are also becoming more active. In addition, as the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) in the United States and Industry 4.0 in Germany indicate, governments and private sectors are working together to develop new production processes and optimize the entire supply chain in order facilitate the Internet of Things (IoT) age.
- Because of these circumstances, on January 23 the Robot Revolution Realization Committee (Chairperson: Mr. Nomaguchi, senior advisor, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) proposed “Japan’s Robot Strategy: Vision, Strategy, Action Plan” and on February 10 the Japan Economic Revitalization Headquarters decided to make this official government policy.
- This Robot Strategy comprehensively positions all systems that utilize digital and network technologies together with advanced sensors and artificial intelligence as the new concept for what a “robot” is. On top of that foundation, the Strategy aims to do the following: 1) Make Japan the world’s center of robot innovation by basically reinforcing Japan’s ability to create robots; 2) make Japan the world leader in utilizing robots in society; and 3) demonstrate Japan’s initiative to the world by leading the new era of robots that includes the coming of IoT. The founding of the Robot Revolution Initiative was proposed as the organizational platform on which all of the aforementioned would be conducted.
- The Japan Machinery Federation has been following the paradigm shift occurring in the manufacturing industries in the U.S. and Europe since last year. It has a profound understanding that specific measures to cope with the changing times described in (1) above are urgent for Japan’s machinery industry. Because of that understanding, as the industry-wide organization for the machinery industry it has proactively accepted the importance of establishing this Robot Revolution Initiative. The Federation has shown its willingness to play the role of the “organizing secretariat” for the establishment and future management of the Initiative with the cooperation of other parties involved. As such, it has cooperated with the government in making preparations.
3. Major Decisions Made at the Foundation General Assembly (Including the 1st Management Meeting)
(1) Goals of the Initiative
① Matching parties that will contribute to the solving of problems in robot innovation and the promoting of robot utilization, and promoting the sharing and spreading of best practices.
② Sharing information to promote international standardization activities, organizing common issues, and planning measures for those issues.
③ Planning measures to assure information security.
④ Planning international projects, etc.
⑤ Preparing an environment for verification testing.
⑥ Planning the development of human resources.
⑦ Promoting R&D, regulatory reform and other matters with cooperating organizations.
⑧ Collecting and outputting related information, including that involving international cooperation, and promoting expansion and enlightenment projects.
⑨ Others
(2) Organization of the Initiative
① Members: Related business organizations, companies, academic societies, laboratories, etc.
(226 initial members)
② Board of Directors:
a.Chairperson: Tadashi Okamura (chairperson of the Japan Machinery Federation, senior advisor to Toshiba)
b. Vice chairperson: Masami Yamamoto (chairperson of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, CEO of Fujitsu)
Hiroaki Nakanishi (chairperson of the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association, chairperson of Hitachi)
Junji Tsuda (chairperson of the Japan Robot Association, chairperson and CEO of Yaskawa Electric)
c. Auditor: Shuzo Kaihori (chairperson of the Japan Electric Measuring Instruments Manufacturers’ Association, chairperon of Yokogawa Electric)
d. Operations Managers: Operations managers will be assigned as the executive body of the Initiative. There will be a total of 21 operations managers.
e. Councilors: 32
f. Advisors: 17 (Members of the Robot Revolution Realization Committee)
③ Working Groups: “Production system reform,” “robot utilization promotion,” “robot innovation promotion” and other working groups will be set up within the Initiative. These working groups will include participants from related companies, academic societies, laboratories and other organizations and will work on specific issues. The “production system reform” working group is the first to be set up.
④ Secretariat: The secretariat for the Initiative will be set up within the Japan Machinery Federation.
(Note: Initially, the secretariat will be made up of four dedicated staff members, including the secretary general. The Secretariat will become active from June 1.)