A tariff war on goods from mainland China as well as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have pushed Taiwanese companies in the mainland to look for alternative manufacturing options. These trends reflected the environment at Smart Manufacturing Taiwan 2021, in which trends of automation, virtualization and artificial intelligence (AI) integration drew attention of visitors. 

Smart Manufacturing Taiwan was held from April 21 to 23 at the 4th floor of Nangang Exhibition Center Hall. 

Exhibitor in Focus

NTT DATA Taiwan has been deeply involved in serving customers in various industries in Greater China and in assisting many companies to introduce SAP ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning software of SAP SE over the past 20 years. They also provide different levels of integration of Equipment Automation Program (EAP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and ERP from bottom to top since various industries are in different stages of digital transformation. 

At the show, NTT DATA Taiwan highlighted MES and machine learning.

EXC-MES as Core of Smart Factory

In a sample case with traditional-process industries, NTT DATA shared its partnership with Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF), an organization under the guidance of the government in assisting the development of Taiwan textile industry market. It has provided the production needs of a small number of manufacturers and service for diverse order for brand and personal designs. 

After implementing MES developed by NTT DATA, the textile production process of the trial workshop becomes transparent; thus, the management level can instantly understand the fabric inventory, production progress, quality and completed date order. 

“Equipment examination for data acquisition of key factors affecting their production process is the first step for digital transformation of traditional process companies,” said Dan Chiou, Smart Manufacturing Development Center Sales Executive of NTT DATA Taiwan. 

NTT DATA’s MES and consulting service in Taiwan target not only textile and shoes upstream material industry but also injection molding, printed circuit board (PCB), surface-mount device (SMD)/surface-mount technology (SMT), semiconductor and automotive lighting. Recently, the company also received inquiries for scheduling optimization due to shortage of material in the semiconductor industry. NTT DATA can also integrate ERP to MES that will fit needs including real-time production adjustments, more efficient scheduling, change order efficiency, and accurate demand forecasts.

Deep Learning Speeds up Digital Transformation

NTT DATA also provided some deep learning application cases. For example, IC Foundry utilized image labeling to replace human inspectors to determine defective wafers from 8 classifications to 44 classifications with shorter working time. In the case of a salad wrap maker, it was able to forecast the life cycle of filters used in the factory and extend filter use time, which translates into 20 percent cost savings per year. An SMT light bulb maker was able to develop its own quality inspection standard on defect classifications of automated optical inspection (AOI) that do not cause overkill problem and results in cost savings of 80 percent per month. The previous method of accessing machines, which needs to rely on the experience of senior employees, was transformed into adaptive adjustment because of AI system. 

This is the future NTT DATA hopes to immediately bring to help customers during manufacturing upgrades in various industries in Taiwan.