3. Creating a New Kind of Interaction Between People and Machines
Meeting the Needs of the Advanced Information Age (1970-present)

In the late 1960s, OMRON began to focus on the future development of society, science and technology. Company founder Kazuma Tateisi had a strong belief that the company must have foresight in addition to technological prowess in order to continue assessing and meeting the needs of society, and in order for Japan to become on the world's advanced nations. A study group was formed in 1967 to research future prediction techniques, giving rise to the SINIC (Seed-Innovation to Need-Impetus Cyclic Evolution) theory. The theory was presented at the International Future Research Conference in 1970, where it was enthusiastically accepted.

In the 1970s and 80s, the manufacturing industry saw a shift from mass production of a single product to high-mix, low-volume production. OMRON was quick to detect the emerging need for programmable controllers with a fast processing speed, initiating the development of a sequence programmer for machine tools in 1968, followed by successful development of a programmable sequence controller called "SYSMAC." OMRON programmable sequence controllers not only established a new style of programmable control, but also drove the penetration of factory automation and improved productivity in Japan's manufacturing industry.

In the 1990s, the merger of fuzzy logic and control technology spurred the advancement of factory automation. OMRON promoted a shift from manual inspection at the final stage of production to automated in-line inspection by combining sensing and information processing technologies. In 1990, OMRON developed the F300 Vision System, a general-purpose system, which was followed six years later by the development of the VT-WIN, a versatile solder inspection system for use in printed circuit board packaging lines.

Considering China as a crucial strategic partner that is enjoying rapid economic growth, OMRON has attempted to speed up its business expansion in the Chinese market. Accordingly, OMRON upgraded the status of its regional management center for Greater China to the regional head office in 2002. Based on OMRON's strategy to strengthen its production bases in China, a core electronic components production facility was also set up in Shenzhen in the same year, followed by the establishment of a global production center for control devices in Shanghai in 2006. In 2007, OMRON established a new R&D center in China to promote "collaborative innovation" with local partners.

As the concern for climate change and other environmental issues rises globally, OMRON set up the Environmental Solutions Business Headquarters in 2009 to make a full-scale entry into the environmental business, with increasing expectations of growth. Along with the supply of individual energy-saving products, such as power monitoring devices, power sensors and DC relays, OMRON also strived to promote solutions intended to conserve and generate energy. As part of this drive, OMRON introduced the "e-watching" CO2 visualization system and consultation service by combining a range of OMRON's environmental devices. In 2010, OMRON also developed a new "ene-brain" CO2 visualization system capable of automatically analyzing areas for potential energy consumption reduction, the first of its kind in the world.