Fujitsu Delivers Smart Factory Transformation for Ricoh’s Numazu Plant in Japan with New Remote Factory Management Solution

Fujitsu Limited announced the development and deployment of a factory-wide production status visualization system in cooperation with Ricoh Co., Ltd. Ricoh has started full-scale operations of the system in June 2021 at its Numazu Plant, which manufactures polymerized toner

The new system leverages Fujitsu’s plant visualization solution, FUJITSU Manufacturing Industry Solution COLMINA Intelligent Dashboard(2), to collect and process production information from Ricoh’s chemical plant in Numazu, Japan, offering a comprehensive view of the entire plant’s production status in real-time. Connecting the system with smartphones, tablets, and other devices makes it possible to visualize the status of plant operations and changes in product quality anytime and anywhere, empowering management with the ability to remotely manage factories and quickly intervene to prevent potential disruptions to smooth operations, including facility anomalies and quality defects.

Going forward, Fujitsu will play an active role in supporting Ricoh’s plans to expand the system to other locations and will continue to support digital transformation (DX) initiatives at its various production sites.

Ricoh’s Numazu Office serves as its base for research, development, and production of chemical products. The office carries out R&D and production of image forming supplies such as polymerized toner and ink, thermal products(3), and new business development for areas including next-generation solar cells and new materials. At the chemical plant, a large-scale facility producing polymerized toner, products flow through tanks, pipes, and processing equipment and the condition of the products cannot be confirmed from the outside. Instead, product condition is determined through information from facility sensors and sampling inspections. To enable a small number of on-site workers to safely manage and respond to information drawn from a massive number of facility sensors, it’s imperative to provide operation status reports from the plant quickly and intuitively to field workers to ensure safe operations and quality assurance. With COVID-19 preventing site managers from visiting sites at times, Ricoh has also been exploring new working styles for the “New Normal”.

Under these circumstances, Ricoh and Fujitsu embarked on the joint development and deployment of a system for visualizing the entire plant’s production status in September 2020, which supports speedy and safe remote plant management, guided by the chemical plant’s theme of “Helping People Work Smarter“.