Hitachi Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 Transformation

As we embark on the next frontier of industrial digitalization, Hitachi Smart Factory, powered by Hitachi Digital Services, is poised to revolutionize manufacturing through seamless integration with Microsoft Azure's cutting-edge services. Leveraging the power of native Azure services, our forward-looking solution accelerates the journey toward Manufacturing 4.0 by addressing critical pain points in the manufacturing ecosystem.

Azure Messaging Services and Azure Data Factory enable a swift and efficient connection, collection, storage, and analysis of sensor data from Operational Technology (OT) systems. This empowers manufacturers to make near-real-time operational decisions, breaking down information silos and automating data collection from (wo)Men, Machines, Methods, and Materials.

Our commitment to automation extends to the very infrastructure that supports these operations. Through Azure DevOps pipelines, we facilitate the rapid creation of robust and scalable infrastructure, ensuring a seamless deployment of Hitachi Smart Factory. This enhances operational efficiency and streamlines our solution's scalability as the number of assets and production facilities grow.

Security is at the core of our offering, and with Azure's comprehensive suite of security services, including Identity Management, Network security, and Data Protection through Azure Active Directory, RBAC, VNets, and Firewalls, manufacturers can trust that their data is safeguarded at every step.

Hitachi Smart Factory, seamlessly integrated with Azure, empowers manufacturers to achieve new levels of efficiency and responsiveness. Leveraging Azure's native services, including but not limited to Azure IoT Hub, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Stream Analytics, our solution delivers:

1. Machine Productivity Optimization: Harness the power of Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics, and PowerBI for real-time granular visualization of equipment effectiveness (OEE). Quickly identify and rectify issues affecting productivity, ensuring uninterrupted production.
2. Operational Threshold Monitoring and Alerting: Azure Stream Analytics, Logic Apps, and Azure Digital Twin facilitate the timely detection of actionable events, allowing rapid reaction to performance, quality, and availability-impacting events.
3. Maximize First-Pass Yield: Utilize Azure Machine Learning to forecast impending quality issues, enabling proactive quality kaizen to minimize scrap, rework, and returns.
4. Anomaly Detection: Leverage Azure's advanced analytics capabilities using Azure Synapse and Databricks to proactively detect unseen equipment degradation, ensuring a predictive approach to maintenance.
5. Edge Data Collection and Processing: Connect seamlessly with Azure IoT Edge, enabling data collection and analysis even in environments with intermittent connectivity and running machine learning models on the Edge for taking low latency decisions.
6. Production Scheduling Optimization, Powered by AI: Azure's machine learning models, integrated with Hitachi Smart Factory, optimize production scheduling to fulfill customer orders despite changing conditions, minimizing changeover time.
7. Enhance and Ensure Worker Health and Safety: Azure's comprehensive data analytics solutions, combined with Hitachi's 3D Lidar technology, provide granular, continuous intelligence, ensuring a safer working environment.
8. Manage Energy Usage: Employ Azure services like Azure IoT Hub, Stream Analytics, Synapse, and Logic Apps to manage and optimize energy usage across manufacturing facilities effectively.”