In accordance with an "e-Japan strategy," the public and private sectors in Japan have been working to transform Japan into the world's most advanced IT nation. In 2006, as a continuation of this e-Japan strategy, a "New IT Reform Strategy" was designed to realize ubiquitous access to the Internet for all members of society. Fuji Electric is developing information solutions to help realize this goal by focusing on manufacturing solutions, such as MES (manufacturing execution systems) that aim to optimize manufacturing site systems, and on e-government solutions such as solutions that improve residential services and the operating efficiency of local governments.

In the discrete manufacturing industry, as typified by the manufacture of automotive and household products, competition for development is becoming increasingly severe due to a diversifying range of market needs, and the industry faces challenges in order to shorten the time needed for development, improve the product quality, and acquire technical know-how. Solutions require a multi-pronged approach to problem solving logic, and a solution that combines PLM and MES frameworks has been proposed. This paper describes the system functions to be provided in accordance with that concept and the implementation of such a solution.

With the acceleration in trends toward more diverse customer needs and shorter product lifespans, companies are being required further to work hard to control quality, protect the environment, and conserve resources and energy. Under these conditions, the establishment of a flexible manufacturing system, thorough quality control, the pursuit of resource-saving manufacturing and the eradication of lossrelated costs, and the visualization of manufacturing-relating information are essential for manufacturing sites that play a vital role in goods manufacturing. This paper introduces plant system manufacturing solutions that aggregate and integrate information control technology cultivated over many years in batch and continuous plant manufacturing businesses, such as in the food and chemical industries.

The manufacturing industry in Japan is boosting domestic manufacturing capability in response to the recent increased competition from overseas (especially Asia), and also to produce distinctive products with high quality. This paper describes the general concepts of new FA technology that emphasizes quality, and presents examples of applications (quality management, inspection, environmental monitoring) for the pharmaceutical industry where high quality is especially critical. Additionally, solutions that use wireless tags (RF-ID) are introduced as a mean for applying ubiquitous sensor network technology to ensure high quality and to provide safety and security at a field site.

In accordance with the "IT Policy Package 2005" adopted in February 2005, the Japanese government is advancing the adoption of e-government with the goal of promoting the online utilization of government services, and to standardize and share duties and systems among local governments. This paper describes Fuji Electric's entire range of services from consulting, to system configuration, installation support and operations management for "e-Government Solutions" while focusing on the document management systems, general affairs office work systems and the combinations thereof that Fuji Electric has successfully delivered as integrated business systems.

In recent years, with the ongoing aging of public infrastructures and degradation due to operation in excess of design tolerances, the costs and technologies involved in maintaining and managing such infrastructures are becoming a concern. Under these circumstances, in order to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of road maintenance and management, a mechanism is needed for inheriting the data generated at the survey, design and construction stages, and for sharing and acquiring lifecycle data, which includes maintenance and management data. This paper describes the use of a product model as a technique for efficiently integrating information and coordinating operation in a road maintenance and management business.

In response to abrupt changes in business environments as typified by the frequent merger and acquisition activity and company integration of recent years, the construction of an information system capable of responding flexibly to those changes is desired. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is attracting attention as architecture capable of realizing such a system. This paper describes the functions of " BizUSE," developed as a platform for realizing SOA, and the functions of "ExchangeUSE," a workflow product that supplements SOA. An example of a system that applies both BizUSE and ExchangeUSE is also presented.

When considering the protection of information, security measures for the facility and hardware, software, data and the like (i.e., physical and technical control measures) come to mind first, however, the guidelines for implementing such measures, in other words, the establishment of a privacy policy (systematic safety control measures) is also important. Moreover, in order to implement such measures in an ongoing manner, expert consultations and employee training (personnel safety control measures) are also necessary. This paper introduces the total security solution provided by Fuji Electric in accordance with the Japanese government's "Committee for Promoting Information Security Measures."

The J2EE framework product "Web@Attach" was developed using the latest Web technology such as JSF (Java Server Faces) and object relation mapping. This framework provides a method for splitting application programs, which have previously been created integrally, into a 3-layer structure. Programs having this structure will be used suitable for asset utilization in the future. Moreover, automated generation of the presentation layer and persistent layer is being promoted as much as possible, and compared to development with JSP/Servlets and the like, a decrease in the amount of manually entered statements can be achieved.

The investment climate for industrial systems is improving as a result of increased private demand for capital investment. The recent evolution of IT and personal computer technology is driving plans to merge measurement and control systems with backbone systems and intelligent field devices. There is need for a totally optimal system configuration based on a vertically and horizontally integrated solution that seamlessly links various components and solutions required at a manufacturing site across the range of layers from the field to the manufacturing management and administration layers. This paper describes the present status and Fuji Electric's approach to vertically and horizontally integrated solutions.

The steel industry is predicting record profits due to demand from a healthy automobile manufacturing industry. Steel plants consist of several facilities that operate continuously 24-hours a day and require a highly reliable control system, multiple vendors, and effective utilization and long-term maintenance of existing resources. As a control system that seek to achieve these steel plant characteristics, an application of Fuji Electric's information and control system "MICREX-NX" to a rotary converter process for the expansion and renewal of a steel control system is presented in this paper.

In the energy sector (at thermal power plants, geothermal power plants, and the like), a surge of activity is observed due to the expanded deregulation of electric utilities, enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, and the like. In conjunction with these activities, information control systems are also advancing toward higher cost performance, higher reliability, increased globalization, and the support of open protocols and standards. This paper discusses recent trends of information control systems, and as examples of actual applications of Fuji's MICREX-NX information distributed control system, presents overviews of an IPP boiler control system and a geothermal power control system for Iceland.

Because spare parts are no longer available for a type of DCS Fuji Electric had originally delivered in 1989 to an oil plant, Fuji has initiated a project for upgrading existing such systems with the MICREXNS, an information control system for extending the service life and improving productivity in existing systems. At each facility, the upgrade is performed in stages whereby a gateway server (GW) is installed between the MICREX-NX and the existing DCS so that the entire system can be monitored and controlled throughout the migration of the existing system to the MICREX-NX.

In the food industry, in order to establish flexible manufacturing systems, measurement control systems and production control systems are increasingly being installed to implement production planning, production, business performance management, and quality control in conjunction with a production management system. In response to such needs, Fuji Electric supplies various systems for increasing production efficiency and product quality in this field. This paper introduces the concept of "optimized product quality and production efficiency" and presents an example application to a batch manufacturing process in the food industry.

As solution packages for the MICREX-NX information control system, the plant management package PDM (Process Device Manager), Web client, operator support and simulator expand the functionality of the MICREX-NX system, and examples of their application to a plant are described. These packages provide solutions for realizing vertical and horizontal integration in a unified engineering environment.

Engineering works and services are applicable throughout the entire lifecycle of a control system. In the initial requirements analysis and requirements definition phases, it is crucial that requirements (functional requirements and non-functional requirements) be described as clearly and accurately as possible without exception. This paper discusses the present status and issues concerning engineering services, and describes Fuji Electric's efforts in positioning software as an industrial product similar to hardware and in developing an integrated support system for all phases of engineering work.

This paper presents an on-line optimization system enabled by Fuji Electric's proprietary forecasting techniques, nonlinear optimization techniques, and decoupling control techniques applied to a utility plant. Structured neural networks as a forecasting technique for realizing on-line optimization, particle swarm optimization as a nonlinear optimization technique, and multivariable model predictive control as a decoupling control technique are explained, and the FeTOP, providing expanded functionality, is introduced as a platform for realizing on-line optimization.

The measurement of natural gas production at a gas well has traditionally and most commonly been measured using a mechanical chart recorder, but a joint effort by Fuji Electric and zed. i solutions, Inc. has recently resulted in the completion of a network sensor for wireless remote monitoring. This network sensor utilizes public wireless networks and satellite communication to connect to zed. i solutions' server, enabling an end user to monitor the operating status of a gas well over the Internet, and is becoming a useful business tool for directly linking operation, finance and management programs in the natural gas production industry.

With the completion of the PXG, the latest high-function temperature controller, Fuji Electric has completed its low-end to high-end lineup of temperature controllers. This paper focuses on new functions such as the new control algorithm, soft start function, load short-circuit sensing function, etc. of the latest model of temperature controllers, the PXG, and additionally presents an overview of the PXH and PXR models that also constitute Fuji's lineup, and describes example applications of these models.

Since the 1980's, Fuji Electric has developed and manufactured MEMS devices such as pressure sensors, inkjet heads, and so on.
MEMS devices have the potential for playing a significant role in new measurement technology, and Fuji has recently been collaborating with universities and research institutes to advance and commercialize new MEMS devices. This paper describes features of MEMS technology and examples of their applications to new fields.