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Innovative R&D Report 2016 www.hitachi.com/rev Innovative R&D Report 2016 Volume 65 Number 9 November 2016 Hitachi Review Vol. 65 No. 9 November 2016 Innovative R&D Report 2016 Innovative R&D Report 2016 Contents Preface 4 R&D Leading Social Innovation through Global Collaborative Creation with Customers Norihiro Suzuki Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO and General Manager of Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd. Technotalk 6 The Role of R&D Focusing on Open Innovation and Collaborative Creation The True Innovation that Digitalization Enables Alan Richardson, Norihiro Suzuki Overview 12 Hitachi Group’s R&D Strategy Yoshitaka Nishino “Collaborative Creation with Customers” Category Overview 19 Achieving Innovation through Global Collaborative Creation with Customers —Global Center for Social Innovation— Yuichiro Nakaya Featured Articles 22 Global Collaborative Creation with Customers on Energy Solutions Yasuo Sato, Tohru Watanabe, Hiroto Sasaki, Jun Yamazaki, Tatsuya Yamada 28 Care Cycle Optimization Using Digital Solutions Toru Hisamitsu, Michio Oikawa, Kunihiko Kido 33 Collaborative Creation with Customers for Predictive Maintenance Solutions on Hitachi IoT Platform Chetan Gupta, Ahmed Farahat, Tomoaki Hiruta, Kosta Ristovski, Umeshwar Dayal “Technology Innovation” Category Overview 40 Groundbreaking Technologies Underpinning the Social Innovation Business —Center for Technology Innovation— Masahiro Aoki, Yuichi Yagawa Featured Articles 43 Research and Development Driving Innovations in Global Railway Systems/ Services Osamu Suzuki, Yutaka Sato, Nobuo Nukaga, Shuichiro Sakikawa, Keiichi Katsuta, Kiyoshi Morita 50 Modular Power Conversion Technology for Global Manufacturing and Operations Yuichi Mabuchi, Daisuke Matsumoto, Hiroshi Kamizuma, Yukio Hattori, Tomonori Ichikawa, Ryohei Miyagawa 56 Fundamental Technologies Driving the Evolution of Autonomous Driving Takeshi Shima, Takeshi Nagasaki, Akira Kuriyama, Kentaro Yoshimura, Tsuneo Sobue 63 Robotics Solutions Opening Up New Service Markets Atsushi Baba, Tatsuhiko Kagehiro, Hisahiro Koshizuka, Masahito Togami, Hideya Yoshiuchi 68 IoT Platform that Expands the Social Innovation Business Seishi Hanaoka, Yuichi Taguchi, Tomohiro Nakamura, Hiromitsu Kato, Tadashi Kaji, Hironori Komi, Norihiko Moriwaki, Nobuaki Kohinata, Ken Wood, Tetsuya Hashimoto, Yuuji Takamura 75 Digital Sensing Technology for Visualizing Sites Takashi Oshima, Tsukasa Fujimori, Hisanori Matsumoto, Akira Kuriyama, Hideaki Kurata 80 Using Operation Information in Reliability Design and Maintenance: Analytics for the IoT Era Norio Takeda, Yasuki Kita, Hiromitsu Nakagawa, Hideaki Suzuki “Exploratory Research” Category Overview 86 Challenging Future Societal Issues through Open Innovation —Center for Exploratory Research— Shinji Yamada Featured Articles 89 Innovative Functional Materials for Green Innovation Jun Hayakawa, Yosuke Kurosaki, Masakuni Okamoto, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Tadashi Fujieda 95 Innovative Technology for Using Bioethanol to Achieve a Low-carbon Society Atsushi Shimada, Yuzo Shirakawa, Takao Ishikawa 100 Realizing the Future that Regenerative Medicine Will Open Shizu Takeda Special Contributions 105 R&D That Contributes to Human Beings and Society Creating New Ethics Hideaki Koizumi 374 Hitachi Review Vol. 65 (2016), No. 9 Preface R&D Leading Social Innovation through Global Collaborative Creation with Customers Norihiro Suzuki Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO and General Manager of Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd. In this age of uncertainty that we are living in, the linear model whereby technology is developed at a research center and commercialized by operational divisions for delivery to customers is becoming less and less viable. Research and development is one of the areas where there is a strong need to proceed with innovation in a timely manner by pivoting as the circumstances demand while adopting unique design concepts that derive from the challenges facing customers, coming up with new insights or ideas, then working with customers to develop hypotheses and build actual prototypes of products or services while testing the market’s reaction. To meet the needs of this era, Hitachi undertook a major reorganization of its research and development (R&D) organization in April 2015, targeting collaborative creation with customers, technology-driven innovation, and exploratory research as the three pillars of its research strategy, and establishing its Global Center for Social Innovation to take a leadership role in working closely with customers; its Center for Technology Innovation to work on technological innovations in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, security, and sensing in particular; and its Center for Exploratory Research to deal with R&D that can help solve the future challenges facing society. Now, as we enter the second year of this customer-driven approach to R&D, the benefits are starting to emerge. Examples of collaborative creation with customers include the use of AI for demand prediction in retailing and the automation of warehouse operations using Racrew driverless vehicles, as well as helping to win an order for a railway traffic management system in the UK. Technology-driven innovations include the installation of the world’s fastest elevators in an ultra-high-rise building in Guangzhou, China, and the supply of high-speed rolling stock to the UK, which has also become a major talking point. In the area of exploratory research, Hitachi has successfully built the world’s highest performance electron microscope, and we also won a Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Best 10 New Products Award for the analysis of human big data collected using wearable nametag sensors. We are also actively participating in open innovation to resolve the challenges facing society, including the establishment of embedded laboratories at universities and other research institutions in Japan and elsewhere, starting with the “Hitachi The University of Tokyo Laboratory,” which is working toward the creation of a “Super Smart Society.” - 4 - Hitachi Review Vol. 65 (2016), No. 9 375 Preface Hitachi is currently tackling the challenge of developing Social Innovation Businesses that make use of digital technology focusing on the four categories of Power/Energy, Industry/Distribution/Water, Urban, and Finance/Public/Healthcare, with an organizational structure based on 12 “front” (customer-facing) business units. Supporting these initiatives is the Lumada IoT platform announced in May 2016. We are delivering new value by using Lumada to link together existing customer systems and data as well as value chains. What makes this possible is none other than the extensive experience and know-how that Hitachi has built up in the field of social infrastructure. This issue of Hitachi Review presents recent R&D work together with examples of solutions resulting from collaborative creation with customers, and also covers the ethos that researchers have handed down from the past in an unbroken chain and that serves as the source of this success. I hope that this issue helps readers to appreciate the new challenges Hitachi is taking on as it takes the lead in the era of the IoT, the frontline of its R&D efforts, and the immutable spirit that underpins these. - 5 - 376 Hitachi Review Vol. 65 (2016), No. 9 Technotalk The Role of R&D Focusing on Open Innovation and Collaborative Creation The True Innovation that Digitalization Enables Alan Richardson CEO, Cambridge Consultants Norihiro Suzuki Vice President and Executive Officer, CTO and General Manager of Research & Development Group, Hitachi, Ltd. The Hitachi Group undertook a major transformation in its research and development style in 2015, moving its focus to customer-driven collaborative research where researchers work in collaboration with customers to gain insight into issues and create solutions. Today, with the wave of digitalization transforming the role of business and society in significant ways, solving the myriad of complex issues facing customers and society demands new ideas and innovations that diverge from the path followed to date. What, then, is needed to give rise to those ideas and innovations? We welcomed CEO Alan Richardson of Cambridge Consultants, a company that has supported a multitude of innovative endeavors as a leading technology consulting firm with a history in the UK and elsewhere, to talk with Norihiro Suzuki, who heads up Hitachi’s 2,700-strong global Research & Development Group. The Changing Style of Innovation Suzuki: Yes, Hitachi realized this and transformed its global research organization. We have the Suzuki: Today, we are facing a wave of digitalization. Global Center for Social Innovation (CSI) which Every day, we are hearing about new developments conducts collaborative work with customers using the in the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence technology developed in the Center for Technology (AI), and robotics. Hitachi is utilizing its knowledge and Innovation (CTI) to resolve customers’ problems as expertise in operational technology and information well as challenges in society, and the Center for technology (IT), to apply such new technologies to Exploratory Research to investigate solutions to future resolving various challenges in society, such as aging societal issues. Cambridge Consultants has a unique infrastructure and diminishing workforces. Would you business model of producing “radical innovation” share your insights on this new digitalization wave, through
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