NEXTY Electronics Corporation (President: Atsushi Aoki; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter referred to as “NEXTY Electronics”) invested in and entered into a capital and business alliance on July 29, 2021 with JAPAN SUPPORT SYSTEM.Ltd., (Representative Director and CEO: Shinya Amano; Headquarters: Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki; hereinafter referred to as “JSS”), one of the largest robot system integrators in the northern Kanto region, with a view to entering the robot system integration business.

[Background and Purpose]

The COVID-19 pandemic and other unpredictable environmental changes are a significant challenge for the manufacturing industry. Making rapid decisions in response to such changes has become a necessity. As stated in the White Paper on Manufacturing Industries (Monodzukuri), compiled by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology regarding manufacturing companies and technology trends, there is a pressing need for the “promotion of digital transformation” to strengthen Japanese companies’ ability to innovate.

There is also increasing demand for automation and robotization in order to resolve the social challenges Japan faces with its “super-aged” society and labor shortage. At the same time, it will be vital that companies build a manufacturing infrastructure that can reflect the results of decisions in production activities in real-time to meet the diversification of market demand.

In other words, Japanese companies need to realize mass customization* and increase production flexibility through digital transformation.

As the robot system integration business will play an increasingly important role in the future, NEXTY Electronics has invested in JSS, an engineering firm with a wealth of experience that develops and manufactures automated devices and robot systems, and is the largest robot system integrator in the northern Kanto region.

JSS is also an executive member of Team Cross FA, Japan’s first consortium of robot system integrators that provides customers with a complete range of services and support, from digital simulations and conceptual designs to device development, manufacture and maintenance. Through this alliance, NEXTY Electronics will also join forces with two other Team Cross FA executive members: FA Products Inc., which possesses industry-leading production simulation technologies and plans and produces the digitization of factories; and Office FA.com, Co., Ltd., which offers world-leading control and IT technologies. By combining its global network and portfolio of robotics and digital factory technologies from around the world with JSS and Team Cross FA’s extensive knowledge, NEXTY Electronics will provide flexible system solutions that meet the various needs of customers.

With JSS’s know-how related to building digital factories and NEXTY Electronics’ wide range of electronics technologies, the two companies will contribute to solving the challenges faced by Japanese society by accelerating digital transformations and assisting with improving customers’ productivity and the creation of new business.

*A manufacturing technique that combines mass production with customization. It allows optimized production that meets customers’ requirements for timing, quantity and cost.

[Example Solutions]

Robot systems that greatly reduce time-to-market and improve work efficiency

SCM & logistics improvement solutions utilizing high-precision indoor positioning sensors

[Company Profiles]

■NEXTY Electronics Corporation

Shinagawa Front Bldg., 2-3-13, Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo

NEXTY Electronics, an electronics trading company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan is one of the core members of the Toyota Tsusho Group’s electronics business and boasts top-of-class scale in the automotive electronics sector. With its core strengths of technology and products, NEXTY Electronics meets customer and global needs in a broad range of areas and provides solutions to the challenges faced by society. It achieves this by actively adapting the autonomous driving, connected and other leading-edge technologies it has cultivated in the automotive electronics sector for use in other industries. It offers optimum global solutions that transcend regions and business boundaries by leveraging the Toyota Tsusho Group’s global network and intensifying its discovery of the cutting-edge proprietary technologies of startups from around the world.

Visit the links below for more information.

NEXTY Electronics website: https://www.nexty-ele.com/english/

■Japan Support System Ltd.

2-13-3 Oroshimachi, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki

One of the largest robot system integrators in the northern Kanto region with deliveries of more than 10,000 devices to date, it offers customers a full range of development, manufacturing and maintenance services for automation and robotics systems. It is also a member of Team Cross FA, a consortium of companies building Japan’s first next-generation digital factory. Visit the link below for more information.

Japan Support System Ltd. website: https://jss1.jp/en/

■Team Cross FA

Team Cross FA was formed on August 27, 2019 as Japan’s first integrator-led consortium providing support that encompasses everything from manufacturing DX to the development and implementation of production lines. As a group of engineering companies, it provides customers with comprehensive support based on the know-how of each of its members in areas such as production grand designing, digital simulation and real factories. Visit the link below for more information.

Team Cross FA website: (Japanese only)  https://connected-engineering.com/