What is a "Lighthouse"? There are currently 2 bases in Japan, a benchmark factory for the 4th Industrial Revolution Series: Business Practices for the 4th Industrial Revolution

By uavtechnology
07 Feb 23

Solve business issues by integrating IT and management

What is Business + IT?

Newsletter Registration

What is Business + IT?

Sales Strategy

Cost Reduction

Organizational Reform

Production and Manufacturing

Crisis Management

Compliance

Energy-saving/environmental response

By industry/scale

Core system

Information system

Operation management< /li>

Security

Network

Mobile

Hardware

Development

Related genres

What is a "Lighthouse"? There are currently two bases in Japan, a benchmark factory for the 4th Industrial Revolution

Series: Business Practices for the 4th Industrial Revolution

Have you heard of the "lighthouse" that serves as an indicator of the 4th Industrial Revolution? A benchmark factory selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) together with the consulting firm McKinsey. In addition to the introduction of digital technologies such as digitization, predictive analysis, AR/VR, and industrial IoT, productivity improvement through automation, human resource development and work styles, sustainability of companies and industries, impact on society and the environment 69 factories around the world have been selected by June 2021. This time, I will consider the issues in Japan that I have seen from this light house.

Written by Isao Fukumoto, Toshiba

Toshiba Digital Innovation Technology Center Chief Evangelist Alpha Compass Representative SME Management Consultant, PMP (Project Management Professional) March 1990 Graduate School Master's Course (Mechanical Engineering) from Waseda University. After joining Toshiba in 1990, he was involved in the launch and marketing of solution businesses such as SCM, ERP, and CRM for the manufacturing industry. DiGiTAL CONVENTiON" editor-in-chief. Major publications include "Digital Platform Kaitai Shinsho" and "Digital First Society" (both co-authors). In addition, there are many other writings such as web columns and lectures. In addition, he is an advisor to Core Concept Technology, which supports and promotes digitalization (DX) of companies, and Wing Arc 1st, a report and BI software vendor with the top share in Japan.

Benchmark Factory “Lighthouse” as an Indicator of the 4th Industrial Revolution
What are the 69 Lighthouse Selected Factories?
Characteristics of Lighthouse Selected Companies
Issues in the Domestic Manufacturing Industry as Seen from Lighthouse Examples

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

WEF and McKinsey formed the "Global Lighthouse Network" in 2017 to create a community ( community). The aim of Lighthouse, a benchmark factory for the 4th Industrial Revolution, is to overcome the "Pilot purgatory". Behind this is the recognition that there is a gap between the manufacturing industry that is advancing advanced initiatives and many other manufacturing industries that are not making progress. By showing and sharing the lighthouse as the direction of the manufacturing industry's efforts, it is believed that they are trying to encourage many companies to make changes for the sustainable development of the industry as a whole. In many manufacturing industries, not only in Japan, efforts are limited to proof of concept (PoC), and it is difficult to transition to production or use in business. This is a phenomenon that tends to fall into efforts such as smart factories, and the Lighthouse report shows that many manufacturing industries around the world commonly suffer from overcoming the barriers of pilot projects. I understand.

What are the 69 factories selected by Lighthouse? (As of June 2021)

By June 2021, 69 factories around the world and 35 factories in Asia have been selected as lighthouses and are members of the Global Lighthouse Network. From China (including Taiwan), 21 factories, which is the majority of Asian factories, were selected, while only two factories were selected from Japan. [next page] Characteristics of the selected companies, issues facing the domestic manufacturing industry seen from the perspective of the light house