OMRON Corporation (HQ: Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto; President and CEO: Yoshihito Yamada) announced today that it has entered a strategic partnership with Nokia (Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, Nokia Solutions and Networks Japan Corporation, Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO : John Lancaster-Lennox) to participate in the "Nokia Local 5G Technology Partnership", the Finnish telecommunications company's local 5G ecosystem for Japanese enterprises. A collaborative framework among six market leaders in Japan, including Nokia and OMRON, this ecosystem is designed to embrace the move to Industry 4.0 by accelerating the development of 5G solutions in a broad spectrum of industrial sectors. Through participation in this strategic ecosystem partnership, OMRON intends to accelerate the development of 5G solutions to help its customers to address issues on the manufacturing floor.

【OMRON's Role in the partnership】

In the manufacturing industry, efforts are being made to increase productivity by utilizing data acquired by IoT devices in order to deal with the issues they are faced with, such as the shortage of skilled engineers and high-mix low-volume production. This is leading to a growing demand for wireless communication. Because of frequent changes in the operating environment due to movements of people and goods and interference from all sorts of devices and equipment, however, it is necessary to develop solutions that assure stable and reliable connectivity if wireless communication is to be used on the manufacturing floor.

To this ecosystem, OMRON provides robots (industrial and mobile), sensors (vision systems, environmental sensors, etc.), and controllers for the robots and sensors. By drawing on its control technologies cultivated in the development of factory automation and ample experience and knowledge of the manufacturing floor, OMRON will validate and develop 5G solutions to address manufacturing issues, thus catalyzing the move to Industry 4.0.

Guided by the three keywords of "integrated," "intelligent," and "interactive" as laid out in its strategic concept, "innovative-Automation," OMRON is engaged in creating innovations for the manufacturing floor. In 2019, OMRON commenced a joint demonstration of a highly public nature with mobile carriers to evaluate the potential of 5G wireless communications. Currently, OMRON is working on measurement and transmission experiments of 5G radio waves and the development of solutions that increase productivity through harmony between humans and machines. OMRON expects that this ecosystem will accelerate its development of solutions using "local 5G," a private network essential for smart factories, thus advancing manufacturing innovation to enhance productivity and quality on the manufacturing floor through the innovative-Automation strategy.

Shinji Fukui, Executive Officer, concurrently Senior General Manager, Technology Development Division HQ, Industrial Automation Company, OMRON Corporation, commented: "To move to the next dimension of manufacturing innovation, we need to vertically integrate technologies that have hitherto evolved through the horizontal division of labor. The local 5G network and the ecosystem centered on local 5G form the core technologies essential for this technological move. At OMRON, we are determined to contribute to the evolution of this ecosystem by realizing 'applications for manufacturing innovation' using 5G, as well as making a myriad of our control equipment compatible with 5G. Furthermore, through these activities, we will provide an environment where manufacturing businesses in Japan can confidently introduce local 5G."

Product Groups Provided to the Ecosystem by OMRON

About Nokia Local 5G Technology Partnership
Within the collaborative framework among the six leading companies, expert knowledge on industry, devices, applications, cloud services, and 5G are assembled to develop new industry-specific solutions for use cases, including remote control, artificial intelligence, automation, robotics, and automated guided vehicles, with the aim of realizing Industry 4.0.

Function of each company
Nokia（Nokia Solutions and Networks Japan Corporation）：
Nokia provides Nokia Digital Automation Cloud - an industrial-grade digitalization service platform that provides a private 5G wireless network and edge computing capabilities.

CONEXIO Corporation：
CONEXIO not only develop and provide Edge Computing Gateway CONEXIOBlackBear that supports private LTE and local 5G, but also provide IoT system integration services including embedded/cloud software development, and mobile network services.

Sharp Corporation：
Sharp will provide 5G corresponding devices such as LOCAL 5G ROUTER and related expertise.

NS Solutions Corporation：
NSSOL provides a full range of DX solutions and services such as private 5G implementation, safety monitoring, remote operation, and creating a digital twin.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.：
Hitachi Kokusai provide local 5G wireless systems and solutions for smart factories, public and social infrastructure.We also Provide image analysis AI solutions and products such as "AI Camera" and "field edge controller" that combine 5G and AI.

OMRON　Corporation：
OMRON will provide factory automation components such as AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots), sensors and controllers (PLC), control technology, expertise on the manufacturing industry, and the factory site for conducting the trials.

About "innovative-Automation"
Recently, OMRON has developed a manufacturing innovation concept, called "innovative-Automation" With this concept, OMRON is currently committed to bringing innovation to manufacturing sites through three key innovations, or three "i's." Through these innovations in the area of automation, OMRON aims to enable significant productivity improvements in manufacturing sites in order to achieve high-value-added manufacturing. With the first "i," "integrated" (control evolution), OMRON will seek to advance automated control technology so that virtually any operator, even inexperienced operators, can effortlessly perform work that previously required the expert skills of experienced workers. With the second "i," "intelligent" (development of intelligence by ICT), OMRON seeks to create constantly evolving equipment and production lines. By adopting a wide range of control devices and artificial intelligence (AI), machines can learn through experience and maintain themselves in optimal condition. For the third "i," "interactive" (new harmonization between people and machines), OMRON pursues the development of a new harmonious relationship between human operators and machines; as they work together in the same workspace, machines will be able to assist human operators by recognizing human thoughts and behavior in a way that only OMRON, a specialist control equipment manufacturer who knows production floors inside and out, can realize.

About OMRON Corporation
OMRON Corporation is a global leader in the field of automation based on its core technology of "Sensing & Control + Think". OMRON's business fields cover a broad spectrum, ranging from industrial automation and electronic components to social systems, healthcare, and environmental solutions. Established in 1933, OMRON has about 30,000 employees worldwide, working to provide products and services in around 120 countries and regions. For more information, visit OMRON's website: http://www.omron.com/

Contact (media):: Brand Communications Department
OMRON Corporation
TEL: +81-75-344-7175

OMRON Joins "Nokia Local 5G Technology Partnership"