The smart factory that Yamaha Motor is seeking to create is a bit different from the typical idea of a transformation spearheaded by digital technologies. Based on Yamaha’s exclusive “theoretical value-based production” approach, our smart factory incorporates the wealth of experience and keen sense of our craftsmen, i.e., Yamaha Motor Craftsmanship, and cutting-edge DX technologies for manufacturing. It presents a full view of the shape Monozukuri driven and shaped by the Genba will take in the near future.
Positioned as a smart factory done in our own style, the Value Innovation Factory (VIF) puts people center stage. It will not only heighten the reliability and appeal of the products we deliver to customers and improve production efficiency but also contribute to the establishment of safer work environments, motivating work styles, and energy management practices directly connected to environmental preservation.

Our roadmap for making the VIF a reality was designed using our unique “theoretical value” methodology for making improvements. We set the ultimate result as the “theoretical value” and then include things like production preparations and so on as semi-values to arrive at the result we desire to reach. This makes short-term and mid-term goals clear. Also, at the same time, this helps us draw up scenarios for successfully closing the gaps to those results from our current situation, and from there, we deploy and update our equipment and personnel systems for the Genba accordingly.

Theoretical value-based production is a method for raising production efficiency by categorizing all Monozukuri-related tasks into work with value, semi-value, and no value, and then working to increase the ratio of work with value as much as possible. We then accurately ascertain the gaps that exist between the theoretical value, i.e., the end goal, and reality, and then begin working to address the issues causing those gaps while including the positions and perspectives from the Genba. Theoretical value-based approaches rooted in manufacturing and production have already been shared and spread companywide, and are even taking on new forms like a theoretical value-based energy methodology aimed at achieving carbon neutrality.

Including extra touches that add special value to a Yamaha is part of a living tradition of craftsmanship at Yamaha Motor. To deliver the best product possible to our customers, we build the skills, pride, and honed senses and aesthetics of each factory specialist into our work in an illogical yet invaluable approach we call Yamaha Motor Craftsmanship. Each and every one of these craftsmen has hands that make them not only the flagbearers for VIF but also the main characters of its story.

Yamaha Motor views manufacturing DX technologies as a means to make the improvements from theoretical value-based production gain traction with greater efficiency and precision by enabling the quick acquiring of quantitative data relevant to Monozukuri and rapid information sharing. In addition to refining technologies key to this, namely, automation of transport, inspection, and work tasks, and data monitoring and traceability, Yamaha is also dedicated to personnel development and is aiming to create a smart factory that is not only extremely versatile but also emphasizes simplicity and is highly inexpensive to operate.