TOKYO, June 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hitachi, Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. on
Thursday announced a multiyear strategic alliance to accelerate the
digital transformation of the manufacturing and logistics
industries across Southeast Asia,
North America and Japan. The first solutions will be available
in Thailand in July 2020.
The two companies will work together to meet the growing demand
for predictive maintenance and process automation in remote areas
and support enterprises as they tackle the challenges infused by
the COVID-19 pandemic. Hitachi will integrate its industry-leading
solutions, such as Lumada, and its IoT-ready industrial
controllers HX Series, with the Microsoft cloud platform,
leveraging Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 to help businesses
increase their workforce productivity and operational efficiency.
Lumada provides advanced digital solutions, services
and technologies to turn data into insights to drive
digital innovation.
Hitachi and Microsoft will also work together to support
skilling initiatives that empower businesses to grow their digital
capabilities and unlock new business opportunities.
Through this collaboration, Hitachi will provide solutions in
the following three areas:
- Increase manufacturing productivity: Using Hitachi Digital
Supply Chain as well as Azure IoT to analyze 4M data collected
from manufacturing sites for the visualization and analysis of
production processes to optimize factory operations and increase
productivity.
- Optimize logistics with data analytics: Increasing the
logistics efficiency and reducing operational costs by analyzing
traffic congestion, storage locations and delivery locations, and
enabling smart routing to save miles and deliver faster through
advanced digital technologies such as Azure Maps and Hitachi
Digital Solution for Logistics/Delivery Optimization
Service.
- Predictive maintenance and remote assist: Enabling predictive
maintenance, real-time remote assistance and remote training
scenarios for first-line workers, leveraging HoloLens 2 and
Dynamics 365 Remote Assist as well as other smart devices.
Going forward, Hitachi intends to extend the rollout to
North America and Japan. Microsoft and Hitachi plan to expand
the scope of the collaboration to additional industries. Hitachi
and Microsoft will also explore options to integrate Lumada
and Azure into an industry data platform to deliver added value to
mutual customers.
"We are delighted to expand our partnership with Microsoft and
combine our OT, IT and products excellence to provide manufacturing
and logistics companies with digital solutions. We use Lumada to
provide total seamless solutions to solve challenges by connecting
cyberspaces with physical spaces. Through this collaboration with
Microsoft, we will be able to accelerate our customers' digital
transformation and continue to deliver social, environmental and
economic value," said Jun Abe, Vice
President and Executive Officer, CEO of Industry & Distribution
Business Unit, Hitachi Ltd.
"Building resilient and flexible digital supply chains is
critical to grow a business and meet customer needs in today's
fast-changing environments. By expanding our collaboration with
Hitachi, we'll unlock new opportunities for manufacturing and
logistics companies as they strive to lead in their industries and
pioneer with a data-driven mindset and digital capabilities," said
Çağlayan Arkan, Vice President Manufacturing at Microsoft.
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is focused on its Social
Innovation Business that combines information technology (IT),
operational technology (OT) and products. The company's
consolidated revenues for fiscal year 2019 (ended March 31, 2020) totaled 8,767.2 billion yen ($80.4
billion), and it employed approximately 301,000 people
worldwide. Hitachi drives digital innovation across five sectors –
Mobility, Smart Life, Industry, Energy and IT – through Lumada,
Hitachi's advanced digital solutions, services, and technologies
for turning data into insights to drive digital
innovation. Its purpose is to deliver solutions that increase
social, environmental and economic value for its
customers. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the
company's website at https://www.hitachi.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
All other company names and product names in the above are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corporation