Maintworld 3/2018

Market review
An Overview of the Current
Status of the Japanese
Maintenance Market
The Japanese plant maintenance
industry supports the domestic
manufacturing industry, which has
over 500 billion euro of GDP. The
plant maintenance industry has been
growing steadily for years, as has the
domestic manufacturing industries as
result of the economic growth in China
and South East Asia.
IIoT for Asset-Maintenance and Predictive
Analysis
Recent developments in smart sensors and the processing of big
data have increased the need for integration of new technology
and existing operational and maintenance tasks. This area supported
by advanced computer science is actively ongoing and
rapidly developing in the Plant Maintenance sector in Japan.
For example, in the last Plant Maintenance Show in Tokyo held
in July 2018, it could be seen that major vendors are concentrating
on IIoT for predictive-maintenance. It is obvious that more
attention has recently been paid to IIoT technology from their
customers, particularly in the management level of the plant
operation as shown in a survey summarized in Figure 2.
Akio Yamamoto,
D.Sc. (Tech.), LignoGate
Author of this article: Akio Yamamoto,
D.Sc. (Tech.), Specialist in Forest products
technology at LignoGate
Dr. Yamamoto has more than 10 years’ experience in Chemical
engineering and Forest products technology. His career started
in pulp and paper R&D as a Chemical research engineer, where
he was involved in the development of an on-line chemical
analyzer for pulp and paper plants. His expertise includes Pulp
and Paper technology, Process technologies, equipment and
systems and IPRs in these fields. Recently he has primarily
supported SMEs and large enterprises on market analysis for
the Japanese market and consulting on finding their potential
business partners in Japan.
Figure 1. Ratio of the JIPM company members expanding their
business in the other geographical locations (JIPM 2018)
According to a recent report from the Japanese Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Japanese manufacturing
industry is expected to grow for the coming three years.
The Japanese maintenance market stands at about 91 billion
Euros and 70 percent of the maintenance costs are spent on
the production assets as reported by the Japanese Institute of
Plant Maintenance (JIPM). Japanese manufacturers requiring
maintenance service for their plants are spread around the
world. According to a survey done by JIPM, they particularly
concentrate in South East Asia and China, followed by North
America and Europe (Figure 1).
Like other developed countries, the main issues in the Japanese
plant maintenance sector these days are as follows: 1. Integration
with the latest technology, 2. Aeging assets, 3. Shortage
of skillful workers. In this article, Finland-based LignoGate
summarizes the status of the plant maintenance sector in Japan
based on public reports and government announcements.
Figure 2. Change in attitude of the decision makers towards to
IIoT investments for maintenance of assets (JIPM 2018)
In the survey, the interests are focused on wearable devices,
network systems and AI technology rather than Robotics and
Drone technology, which means that the technology that can
be easily integrated to current operation and maintenance is
more favoured (Figure 3).
44 maintworld 3/2018