OMRON jointly launches a demonstration experiment to determine GHG emissions in the supply chain. First Japanese manufacturing company to connect with Catena-X for information sharing between companies

• January 29, 2024

OMRON Corporation (Head Office: Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto; President, and CEO: Junta Tsujinaga; hereinafter referred to as “OMRON”) has conducted a demonstration experiment (hereinafter referred to as "demonstration experiment") to visualize the carbon footprint (hereinafter referred to as "CFP") of its product supply chain to realize a decarbonized society, in cooperation with NTT Communications Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Toru Maruoka; hereinafter “NTT Com”), Cognizant Japan KK (HQ: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Shinji Murakami; hereinafter "Cognizant Japan") and SALTYSTER, Inc. (Head Office: Shiojiri-shi, Nagano; CEO: Shoichi Iwai; hereinafter referred to as "SALTYSTER"). The demonstration experiment will be introduced at the OMRON booth at IIFES 2024, held at TOKYO BIG SIGHT from January 31 to February 2, 2024.

In this demonstration experiment, OMRON’s control technologies deployed at our customers' manufacturing sites and technologies of our partner companies will be leveraged to create a platform that realizes "Energy Productivity^*1 Improvement," which will not only calculate CFP but also reduce energy consumption and improve productivity and quality of manufacturing to yield higher production volume. In anticipation of the growing trend in international standard-compliant inter-company data collaboration, we will be the first Japanese manufacturing company to connect to the global data distribution platform "Catena-X." The demonstration will be conducted to monitor GHG^*2 emissions in the supply chain for each product by managing production site data, including facility operating status and electricity consumption, automatically.

The global effort to achieve a sustainable society is accelerating, and countries worldwide are working to decarbonize their economies and preserve the global environment. In this context, manufacturers face the challenge of reducing GHG emissions throughout their product supply chains to meet the demands of decarbonization while maintaining quality and productivity. To achieve this, it is necessary to monitor not only GHG emissions generated by the company (Scope 1 and Scope 2) but also GHG emissions generated by other companies (Scope 3). However, no effective collection and analysis methods have yet been established, and it often takes up to one year to calculate the GHG emissions of each product, making it a significant challenge for companies to decarbonize their operations.

OMRON has worked for more than a decade to achieve both productivity and quality improvements and environmental preservation to realize sustainable manufacturing sites. Through this demonstration experiment, OMRON aims to automate data collection, standardize GHG emissions calculation methods, and improve the efficiency of on-site improvements that can be applied to various product supply chains by collaborating with partner companies that have strengths in their respective fields. The aim is to create a framework that contributes to promoting carbon neutrality in the manufacturing industry and further enhancing corporate value.

Kenta Yamakawa, General Manager of the i-Automation! Business Development Center, Product Business Division, OMRON Industrial Automation Company, explained:
"To keep improving the CFP of each product, it is important to collect various on-site data safely and securely and to establish an environment that enables integration and analysis of data across companies in the cloud, leading to improvements at each site. With its knowledge of control at production sites and strength in on-site visualization and analysis, OMRON will lead the collaboration with partner companies that are professionals in their respective fields. The goal is to create an innovative ecosystem that integrates the knowledge and expertise of each company toward the realization of a sustainable society."

Akira Sakaino, Manager, Innovation Center, NTT Communications, said:
"Safe and secure IT connectivity is essential for analyzing and utilizing information collected from various devices and other equipment operating in the manufacturing industry, and we are pleased to contribute to this major step toward creating solutions that contribute to a sustainable society by leveraging NTT Communications' extensive expertise in the IT domain. We will continue to work toward the realization of global business-to-business data collaboration that can be used with ease by a wide range of customers."

CEO of Cognizant Japan KK, Shinji Murakami, said:
With the urgent need to address climate change, resource depletion, data, technology, and collaboration, there is a new business imperative to be a "deep green" company with sustainability in its DNA rather than just a “light green” company. Cognizant has a solid global track record and experience in sustainability advisory services and solutions and leveraging a robust partner ecosystem. Together with OMRON's "Energy Productivity Improvement" concept, we will work to provide solutions to the Japanese and global markets from the visualization of CFP.

Shoichi Iwai, CEO of SALTYSTER, noted:
"To build an ecosystem for the manufacturing industry, it is necessary to link various data, such as equipment information, production results, environmental information including CO₂ emissions, and worker-related operations, in a time series. It is then important to perform real-time analysis and control and link the analysis results to a higher-level system. As a vendor with strengths in embedded databases, we will work toward simplifying and standardizing the process so that various on-site data can be collected and analyzed at high speed."

Overall image of the Demonstration Experiment

*1 An indicator that aims not only to reduce energy consumption but also to improve manufacturing productivity and quality and increase production volume
*2 Green House Gas
*3 Human Machine Interface (user interface for machine-operation)
*4 Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (control software for monitoring industrial systems)

About OMRON Corporation

OMRON Corporation is a leading automation company with core competencies in its proprietary Sensing & Control + Think technology and is engaged in a wide range of businesses, including industrial automation, healthcare, social systems, and device & module solutions. Established in 1933, OMRON has about 30,000 employees worldwide, working to provide products and services in more than 130 countries. For more information, please visit
https://www.omron.com/global/en/