| • Abstract |
As the 21st century begins, globalization
has become one of the key factors changing every aspect
of the human society including world politics, economies
and even our personal lifestyle.ˇˇManufacturing is not an
exception. Although we have introduced various new technologies
into automation systems, we have been bounded and trapped
by the very traditional IA culture. It is one of the inevitabilities
of history that we should start to enjoy the real benefits
of information technologies, such as internet, world-wide-web
browser and so on.
Ubiquitous computing promises to bring a lot of new benefits
to our society -- in our homes, in our communities, and
even in manufacturing plants. I am confident that ubiquitous
computing is eagerly awaited on the plant floor and in
the production field as well. I think there are a number
of technologies required to make the field ubiquitous
concept a reality. I would like to pick up two of them
which I believe are the most important, and give you some
details about them. These are IP instrumentation and Digital
Plant Operation.
IP instrumentation is indeed the very key platform for
this revolution but it is still just a prerequisite for
a much broader change required. It is very important to
adapt the business models and operational philosophy to
the new platform in order to bring out the effectiveness
of IP instrumentation. The digital plant operation concept
is the key vision that ushers in this broader change.ˇˇI
believe that Field Ubiquitous Innovation will realize
collaborative production over the Internet world and bring
operational efficiency to the next level.ˇˇ
It is my dream to enable such a new style of operations
as centralized plant operation from the skyscrapers.
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