Management R&D

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Tokyo (April 21, 2017) - Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) has been applying Digital Manufacturing—ICT- and IoT-based solutions for new manufacturing systems independent of people, place, country and fluctuations—to its global business operations.

As part of efforts to drive Digital Manufacturing, Konica Minolta will exhibit the solutions at Hannover Messe 2017 (Monday, April 24 to Friday, April 28), which is the world’s largest B2B exhibition specializing in industrial technologies and held at Hannover Exhibition Grounds in Germany. Following last year’s exhibition, Konica Minolta will again exhibit new solutions for the manufacturing industry.

Konica Minolta’s Digital Manufacturing

Konica Minolta has been transforming itself into a problem-solving digital company.

At Hannover Messe 2017, Konica Minolta will showcase solutions that dramatically increase the efficiency of business operations and improve quality in the manufacturing process throughout the supply chain, based on the trade fair’s theme of “Integrated Industry - Creating Value.”

Specifically, Konica Minolta’s solutions automatically collect, analyze, and process information in quality control, logistics, assembly, and process control at manufacturing plants and throughout the supply chain by combining Workplace Hub (a new innovative Edge IoT platform for collecting, analyzing, and sharing data at manufacturing plants) with devices that take full advantage of the company’s core technologies in optical and image processing to capture the actual status and movement of people and goods.

These solutions help visualize the true challenges at manufacturing plants, solve issues in the manufacturing industry, and thereby contribute to society.

Solutions to be exhibited

1. Workplace Hub
   An innovative Edge IoT platform for collecting, analyzing, and sharing data
2. Quality control
   Increase the efficiency and accuracy of quality control throughout the supply chain by automating the visual inspection of vehicles, ensuring color management including highly accurate inspections of color and gloss on interiors and exteriors, and employing new technologies for non-destructive inspections
3. Integrated quality control by automating the inspection process and data management
   Ensure safety and transparency based on the tracking of goods throughout the logistics process and reduce human error in shipping operations, which have not been completely automated, by combining license number authentication using cameras with RFID parcel data linkage from receipt to shipping.
4. Optimization of the assembly process
   Offer new value that innovates the manufacturing process (e.g., collaboration between robots and people; work support, data collection and analysis using wearable devices)
5. Process optimization based on condition monitoring and remote sensing
   A condition monitoring system that (1) ensures safety at manufacturing plants by collecting and visualizing group attribute information and the movement data of workers and (2) optimizes the layout and process design to improve the operating rate

Technologies to be exhibited

1. Newly developed 3D AR Head-Up Display (Advanced Driver Assistance System)
   World’s first automotive 3D augmented reality HUD
2. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) lighting
   A new light that is as thin as a sheet of paper, lightweight, and more flexible than ever before

Konica Minolta booth: Hall 8, Stand C05

for illustrative purposes only