iXacs Production Line Monitoring

i Smart Technologies Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company based in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture. Its IoT system and know-how come from Asahi Tekko, an automotive parts maker, where shop-floor monitoring was developed and used to drive kaizen, and it now offers them to other manufacturers together with kaizen consulting, factory tours, seminars and training.

iXacs is a shop-floor visualization system that is retrofitted onto existing production lines. It records equipment stop time and stop causes, operating rate, production volume and power consumption, and can also measure labor hours in manual processes such as inspection. Results are viewed on tablets and used in daily dialogue between managers and operators. Users include small and mid-sized Japanese manufacturers such as BEMAC and Autek, and the system is used at Siam Asahi Manufacturing in Thailand.

• Retrofit monitoring: adds line monitoring to existing equipment without replacing machines.
• Stop analysis: records stop time and causes for each piece of equipment.
• Operating rate and output: tracks availability and production volume by line.
• Power monitoring: measures electricity use to cut waste and CO2.
• Manual work tracking: measures labor hours in processes such as inspection.
• Kaizen support: consulting, factory tours, seminars and training on using the data.

A Japanese-invested parts supplier in Vietnam could retrofit older presses and lathes to find stop causes. A Vietnamese metal or casting SME supplying Japanese customers could track operating rate and power use to support cost-down requests. An inspection area could measure labor hours to rebalance staffing.

Retrofitting avoids replacing older machines, which keeps cost and disruption low for small factories. Case studies on the site describe shorter stop times, higher operating rates, abolished night shifts and less overtime after problems became visible. Power data supports both energy savings and CO2 reduction alongside productivity gains.

Small suppliers to Japanese automakers face pressure to raise productivity and cut CO2 without large capital budgets. Low-cost retrofit IoT combined with kaizen coaching fits this group better than full MES projects. Japanese supplier networks in Thailand and Vietnam are adopting the same practices as their parent plants.

i Smart Technologies is located at 7-26 Nakayama-cho, Hekinan, Aichi, Japan, and builds on the IoT track record of Asahi Tekko. A case on its site covers IoT-based improvement at the Thailand factory of Siam Asahi Manufacturing. Several projects were run with regional programs in Nishio, Akita, Ishikawa and Hyogo.