Suntory’s Kita-Alps Shinano-no-Mori Water Plant, a next-generation smart factory, combines operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT). It adopts an advanced production management system with IoT capabilities and Lumada solutions by Hitachi. The factory focuses on three concepts: Utilization of Data Science, Human-Centric Manufacturing, and Ever-Evolving Factories. The plant enhances product safety with advanced traceability, drives work style reforms with automation, and improves factory management through digitalization.
Hitachi’s expertise in smart manufacturing technologies and co-creation partnership facilitated seamless integration of OT and IT. The success of the Shinano-no-Mori Plant has led Suntory to deploy the next-generation factory model to other facilities, aiming for Digital Transformation (DX) across all production facilities.
Hitachi acted as a bridge to align the OT and IT teams, fostering collaboration and generating synergies.