Manufacturing, where borders are disappearing

Mr.Fujita: Another key point is that the gap between emerging and developed countries in the manufacturing industry is narrowing.Before digitalization, for example, an order was placed in New Delhi, India. In the past, the local sales company would consolidate the order, which would then be consolidated again at the global headquarters, and then production orders would be sent to the factories in each country and sent to ……, which took a very long time. IoT has changed marketing strategies.

Dr.Mitchell: Just to add a little from an electronics perspective, Japan was the world leader in PCB production from 1989-2005, wasn’t it? The quality of the products was outstanding, and initially costs were kept low. But gradually, the demand for even lower costs led everyone to China. But what about recent years?

According to a survey we conducted last year, the fastest-growing countries are no longer China, but countries like Vietnam and Thailand. Global companies have begun to look to Asian countries where they can produce at lower costs than in China. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing PCB producing countries. And most of the factories producing PCBs in Vietnam are owned by Japanese companies. Thus, as much as 60% of PCB production by Japanese companies is done overseas; in 2016, only 9% of the world’s PCBs were produced in Japan, but Japanese companies still account for 26% of the global PCB market.

Already 85% of the world’s electronics are IPC compliant

So what is needed for Japan’s manufacturing industry to once again become active in the world?

Dr. Mitchell: IPC is promoting the IPC Standards globally, which are international standards for the electronics industry. Japan will have its own standards. For example, if you go to France and say, “We manufacture to Japanese standard XX,” they will say, “So what?” and even if the quality is actually better than our competitors, they will not understand because they do not know.

The IPC has already been adopted by the electronics industry worldwide. In fact, 85% of the electrical appliances made in the world are manufactured in accordance with IPC. If we can demonstrate this in an international standard, we will be able to understand the global market, which will make it easier to sell our products and greatly expand our business opportunities.

It is not the IPC that determines the standard content. It is companies from all over the world, including Siemens, GE, Boeing, IBM, Bosch, and other companies with significant influence in the global marketplace, as well as smaller companies. In standardization, we always reach consensus. For example, companies such as Samsung and Apple sit at the same table and discuss, but they all have different ways of doing the same job and different opinions. Large companies cannot impose unreasonable demands based on the logic of scale. Because we open our doors to all companies, anyone can make a suggestion if they don’t like something.

Of course, we also provide extensive training programs to ensure that our standards are properly understood and utilized.In Japan, we have launched the world’s first online training program in collaboration with Japan Unix, a leading global manufacturer of soldering robots. The multi-device system makes it easy to learn international standards = global common sense at any time during your commute, lunch hour, or any other gap in your schedule.To be flexible and fast in the global market, we need to invest in technology, but we also need trained personnel who are adaptable.