News Release

May 29, 2020

The launch of operation optimization service for industrial facilities

NTT FACILITIES, INC. (Headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Atsushi Ichihoshi, hereinafter called "NTT FACILITIES") announced that it launches the new service which provides an optimal operation for complex manufacturing facilities such as factories and utility facilities.

NTT Facilities has partnered with METRON SAS (Headquartered in France; CEO: Vincent Sciandra, hereinafter called "METRON") who provides "METRON-EVA*¹ Factory" and concluded an exclusive alliance contract in Japan for this service with METRON JAPAN G.K. (Headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Executive Officer: Scott Cerreta, hereinafter "METRON JAPAN"), the Japanese subsidiary of METRON.

1. Background and purpose

Japan's societies and industries are faced with many challenges, including a decline in the working population, addressing the problem of climate change, and transitions in the business environment caused by advanced technology such as AI and IoT, so that we should move forward to these challenges proactively. Moreover, in the industrial sector, while there are growing needs to reduce costs related to production lines in an industrial facilities, there is marked shortage of human resources in specialized occupations who can handle the operation of complex facilities.

In this context, NTT FACILITIES, through business partnerships with METRON, will optimize the operation of industrial customer facilities collaborating with the facility operation technique cultivated in the NTT Group, thereby contributing to the reduction of environmental impact. NTT FACILITIES will also provide work saving by using a variety of data acquired through the use of AI/IoT to determine the threshold (like temperature or humidity which related to quality) set for utility facilities in industrial facilities such as production facilities, cooling facilities, boilers, etc. Which was previously judged individually based on human experiences.

NTT Facilities aims to strengthen and further grow the facility management business for industrial facilities by developing METRON's solutions into the Japanese market.

2. About operation optimization service for industrial facilities

This service is based on a digital twin*² to create a database of external data such as operating conditions, temperatures, humidities, production volumes, and engineer's know-how of all machines in the facilities, and provides one-stop solutions by using the advanced machine learning from analyzing optimal operating scenarios for the entire manufacturing process to proposing solutions. In addition to optimum management from energy supply to consumption in cooling facilities, boilers, compressors, and other utility facilities, this solution enables us to propose optimization of set points used for control in various processes of production facilities such as steel manufacturing, paper manufacturing, glass, and food plants.

Since 2019, NTT Facilities has been working together with METRON to demonstrate this service at several facilities in Japan. As a result, NTT Facilities has confirmed that energy saving can be expected by automatically deriving the optimum operation point of facility equipment without deviating from the thresholds of critical control points.

The distinctive feature of this service is to realize an advanced facility management for large-scale complex production facilities or utility facilities without relying on professional engineers."

Service Overview

3. About METRON

METRON is a French startup company founded in 2013. It has developed and provided "METRON-EVA Factory", a facility operation optimization solution for industrial facilities using AI and big data. Currently, more than 80 energy experts and data scientists out of 120 employees are expanding their service areas in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. METRON established METRON JAPAN in March 2020 to develop its business in Japan.

In order to maximize the value of data and optimize facility operation by customers, METRON's solutions have been introduced in many industries such as automotive, steel manufacturing, chemicals, glass, and foodstuffs, and have been highly evaluated by existing customers.

NTT DoCoMo Ventures*³, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Naoyuki Inagawa) invested, through the funds of the NTT Group it manages, in METRON in June 2019 with the aim of developing METRON's solutions in the Japanese market, strengthening NTT Facilities' facility management business through operation optimization for industrial facilities, etc.

4. Future development

We will actively promote initiatives in SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals) and ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) by collaborating METRON's advanced AI-Based solution with NTT FACILITIES's professional FM engineers to support sophisticating facility operation at manufacturing companies in Japan, thereby contributing to customers' decarbonization management and sustainable urban development.

Reference: Glossary

*¹METRON-EVA
METRON-EVA and METRON are trademarks of METRON.

*²Digital twin
Digital twin is a virtual model that collects a variety of data from facilities and realizes the same conditions of equipments and other facilities as real-world in a digital space.

*³NTT DoCoMo Ventures, Inc.
NTT DoCoMo Ventures is investing in startup companies with various technologies and know-how that are expected to grow in the future, in order to expand the NTT Group's global businesses and B2B2X businesses, and is working to accelerate the innovation and collaboration of NTT Group services and technologies.

Address any inquiries on this matter to:
Attn: NTT FACILITIES, INC. Public Relations Office, Corporate Strategy Division; Tel: +81-3-5444-5112