ROBOT RECKONING
The Japanese firm is moving to quell fears that human beings will become obsolete, writes Chatrudee Theparat
Amid mounting concerns about the impact of robotics, Denso remains unfazed.
Amid mounting concerns about the deep impact on the labour market from robots and artificial intelligence (AI), due to their rapidly expanding ability to perform human tasks and the declining cost of implementing them, Denso Corporation remains unfazed. The Japanese firm insists that robots or even AI will not supersede people, as it is people who order robots to do work and improve the company’s performance.
“Most workers may feel afraid that robots will result in companies laying off workers, but employees here have no such worries, they instead help improve the performance of robots,” said Kutsuhiko Sugito, executive director of Aichi-based Denso Corporation, citing the company’s long-established denso monozukuri concept that focuses first on human resources and helps enhance the working spirit at Denso.
In Japanese, monozukuri is a compound word comprising “mono”, which means “products” (literally, “thing”), and zukuri, which means “process of making or creation”.
The concept embraces more than the literal translation, emphasising the “spirit to produce excellent products and the ability to constantly improve a production system and process”.
The concept carries “overtones of excellence, skill, spirit, zest and pride in the ability to make good things very well. Monozukuri is not mindless repetition; it requires creative minds and is often related to craftsmanship, which can be earned through lengthy apprenticeships rather than structured curricula taught at traditional schools”.
In that sense, monozukuri is an art rather than a science. In the modern sense, the monozukuri approach can optimise the entire value chain to improve quality and reduce costs: from the design of the products to what the customer really needs, detailing each component, up to delivery to the final customer, suppliers, packaging of components, transport, stock supply and on the production line, and so on.
Monozukuri is, therefore, a complete approach seeking to reduce the total cost of the product with irreproachable quality and customer value.
“Normally, people may think that only engineers handle the design of the robots, but here in Denso factories in Japan, workers who know the best working process in factories help engineers design robots with more efficient capabilities.”
He said robots can reduce costs and increase production. However, humans still play a significant part in controlling production and helping robots to work more efficiently.
According to Mr Sugito, Denso’s manufacturing process covers three steps: the manual line, semi-automation, and full automation.
He said the company has already started implementing full automation at Denso’s factory in Bang Pakong district, Chachoengsao province, which has rendered seven workers unnecessary. Denso president Koji Arima (centre) speaks with Mr Somkid during the latter’s visit to Denso’s factory in Aichi prefecture.
Founded in 1972, Denso Thailand operates three factories at Samrong in Samut Prakan; Bang Pakong in Chachoengsao; and Wellgrow Industrial Estate in Chachoengsao.
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said he was quite impressed by the way that Denso’s workers work alongside robots to improve the factory’s efficiency.
He also lauded Denso’s ongoing efforts in helping support Thai companies, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises to improve their production process by using more automation to reduce costs and increase productivity.
Denso established in May this year the Lean Automation System Integrator (LASI) project to support automation and robotics systems for Thai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to improve their manufacturing efficiency.
The LASI project is located at the industry transformation centre (ITC), in which the Japanese government has invested 30 million baht.
The government plans to expand the ITC to cover 76 provinces this year, up from 11 at present.
The centre is envisioned as a showcase for innovation and manufacturing improvements for SMEs that use automation. The ITC was unofficially established last August, before the partnership with Japan.
According to Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana, 10 large companies support the ITC.
The government expects the ITC to help more SMEs to transform their production process to use automation.
Mr Uttama said eight universities, including Chulalongkorn and Khon Kaen, have already established the Center of Excellence for Robotics (CORE).
Thai-German Institute is the core agency coordinating the universities to drive the roadmap and strategy for the robot and automation industry’s development.
The “roadmap” and “measurements” for robot and automation industry development were approved by the cabinet in August last year. They focus on enhancing production and services that will enable the country to achieve Thailand 4.0.
The roadmap and measurements will integrate the private, public and education sectors.
They include support for production and service industries to use more robots and automation to enhance their performance.
The industry is expected to have 12 billion baht worth of robot investment in the first year and will expand to 200 billion baht within five years.
The roadmap also aims to increase the capability of robots and automation, especially the System Integrator (SI), which will become a creator of robots and automation in the future.
Mr Uttama said Thailand has 400 SIs. The government aims to increase the number to 1,200 SIs within three years.
The state aims to develop personnel and upgrade robot and automation technology to accomplish complex robot production by establishing CORE, which will be an eight-part pilot cooperation network in Bangkok and other provinces, together with leading private agencies from abroad.
Within five years, the government aims to develop at least 150 prototype robots, pass on knowledge of robotics high technology to 200 entrepreneurs and train at least 25,000 people.
The robot and automation industry will enhance production capability, mainly by encouraging national development in various aspects, such as agriculture, medical, logistics and tourism. It will also solve the labour shortage problem, which is expected to be severe in the future.
CORE will be responsible for developing and retraining labour in order to be ready for Industry 4.0.
Robotics is one of the 10 targeted industries that the government plans to develop, especially in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
Mr Uttama said the EEC is required to have a development team in order to have a more proactive role in attracting investors to invest in the EEC, while the EEC Office is required to work closely with the Board of Investment.