Over the last 18 months, disruptions in trade and logistics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly affected the Japanese manufacturing sector. This fact, coupled with the marked rise in product demand over the course of national lockdowns, has left manufacturing companies struggling to meet the shrinking deadlines while ensuring an operational continuum with a smaller staff. Additionally, the lower operational efficiencies also drove manufacturing firms to find newer ways to cut costs and save resources.

To overcome these hurdles, the manufacturing space witnessed a meteoric rise in the digital transformation (DX) of its operations. In particular, the creation of a manufacturing infrastructure’s digital twin has become a go-to avenue for companies looking to transition their operations to the next generation with assured cost savings. With a digital twin, companies can simulate the effects of replacing a legacy system with a new, state-of-the-art solution on the overall operational efficiency. As a result, manufacturers can make huge savings by making the most data-driven decisions on digitalizing their production line. However, the development of such impactful digital twins is riddled with challenges such as the complexity of optimizing parameters to adjust to real-world factory settings and the highly labor-intensive factory model design processes.

Japan-based BIRD INITIATIVE addresses these issues with its cutting-edge AI—assimee that is developed to simplify the construction of an accurate simulation via intelligent process automation. “assimee helps our customers with its data-driven simulation design, ability to accurately align simulation models with real-world changes using ML algorithms, and optimize simulation parameters,” says Masamitsu KITASE, president and CEO of BIRD INITIATIVE.

Founded in 2020, BIRD INITIATIVE is a six-company cocreation business that is powered by Japan’s NEC Corporation. Since its establishment in 2016, NEC and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have collaboratively established the NEC - AIST AI Cooperative Research Laboratory and have been working toward the integration of AI and simulation for decision-making in unforeseen circumstances. Currently, BIRD INITIATIVE is leveraging the NEC - AIST AI Cooperative Research Laboratory created outcomes to improve synergies between industry and academic institutes, acquire DX business creation capabilities via Open Innovation, and drive promising investment opportunities to help Japan-based startups in bringing their innovations to the global stage.

BIRD INITIATIVE’s business can be categorized into two distinct fronts, namely its AI-driven solutions and consulting services, as well as its monetization through well-informed investments into upcoming startups. With its assimee AI, the company assists manufacturing firms to achieve effective DX by enabling the creation of accurate simulation models that take in real-world scenarios and facilitate better decision-making. Apart from assimee’s automated digital twin construction, the AI also aids users in performing data visualization and analytics to identify bottlenecks and other inefficiencies.

Following this, assimee generates a report with potential suggestions that will ensure appropriate and timely DX of client operations. Concurrently, BIRD INITIATIVE plays a critical role in the Japanese start-up arena as it supports innovative vendors with management and capital resources to attract better investors while expanding the usage of AI in personal and professional spaces.

According to Masamitsu, “In today’s fluctuating market, being agile and aware of market changes is key to survive and grow.” For instance, the recent shortage of semiconductors caused a huge disruption in the automotive industry. As a result, automobile manufacturers had to quickly review their staffing requirements, which traditionally would take a significant amount of time and effort. “But with our assimee technology, we can help manufacturers develop an accurate simulation capable of predicting such disruptions and driving informed decision-making,” adds Masamitsu.

Further discussing the core competencies of assimee, Keiichi KISAMORI, Principal Researcher of BIRD INITIATIVE, mentions the AI’s ability to fuse simulation software and intuitive ML algorithms, which eliminates the need to consolidate data from disparate silos. “While simulation is easier to interpret, it is hard to code in context to realworld scenarios. Machine Learning maintains consistency with real context and data-driven nature but cannot be easily understood. By combining these technologies, we have put into practice, an AI that requires fewer data sets to create a simulation that is consistent with reality,” explains Keiichi.

Highlighting the impact of BIRD INITIATIVE’s assimee technology is a success story where the company helped a semi-conductor manufacturer in developing an accurate simulation of their product line. Initially, the simulation had more than 40,000 parameters, which made it impossible for manual tuning. As a result, the manufacturer’s IT developers overlooked total optimization and, in turn, focused on specific optimization of the simulation using their experience and intuition. With assimee, the customer developed a simulation that is 15 percent more precise than their original, speeding up the delivery of the simulation from 16 weeks to three days, and proposed a factory design for increased production. “The final design assimee generated enabled the client to enhance their production capabilities while shrinking their number of equipment from 130 (by manpower) to 39, leading to a three-fold improvement in ROI,” states Keiichi.

Moving forward, BIRD INITIATIVE aims to expand its footprint outside of the Japanese manufacturing and logistics companies and penetrate additional markets in North America, Europe, and APAC. From a product standpoint, Masamitsu plans for BIRD INITIATIVE to offer AI applications in data connection, visualization, and RPA tools for the supply chain, smart city, and social challenges by helping firms achieve their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To conclude,

Masamitsu reiterates the ethos of BIRD INITIATIVE, “We will continue making digital twins naturally available to solve social issues and accelerate individual, organizational, and societal growth with AI applications.”