Azbil announced that it completed construction in April of a production building at its main factory near the city of Shonan (Kanagawa prefecture, Japan) and held a ceremony on May 24 to mark the event. The new building, which is part of a “mother factory” framework of leading the azbil Group’s production, is scheduled to start operating immediately. This production building is part of the Group’s plans to consolidate domestic factories in order to create an advanced production network and further optimize overall production. With the addition of an administrative building built in June 2018 and the new production building, the Shonan factory will be the primary base of the Group’s global production network.

The mother factory, a factory whose processes can be applied as best practices to other factories, will include not only the Shonan factory but also the Fujisawa Technology Center, Azbil’s R&D facility located in the nearby city of Fujisawa. According to Azbil, the mother factory is expected to advance innovation for next-generation production that brings together humans, machines and processes.

Azbil’s mother factory is designed to perform three functions: create, verify and lead.

• Create: While pursuing the latest technologies and developing MEMS*1 sensor package technology, the mother factory will create new high value-added products and advanced production processes through leveraging automatic microassembly/microprocessing, AI, and ICT*2 technologies during production.
• Verify: The mother factory will support high-mix low-volume as well as customized production and, through the development of advanced automated production lines where humans and machines work together, will be a place that will allow verification of production that is competitive, flexible and resilient.
• Lead: The Shonan factory will lead the azbil Group’s efforts in production, logistics and procurement, standardizing various processes for global production and applying those practices to Group factories worldwide. The factory will also facilitate training of employees around the world in production and management.

Since 2013, the azbil Group has been reorganizing its production bases worldwide. In addition to completing the new administrative and production buildings, Azbil is also consolidating their nearby Isehara factory with the Shonan factory to improve the Group’s overall production efficiency.