Three companies (hereinafter referred to as the 'three partners'), namely Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (President: Takeshi Kunibe; hereinafter 'SMFG'), Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshinori Kawamura; hereinafter 'SMFL'), and Sumitomo Corporation (President and CEO: Kuniharu Nakamura; hereinafter 'SC') have begun investigating the possibility of developing an IoT-based equipment operation visualization service and utilizing equipment operation data in the financial field.
The equipment operation visualization service makes it possible to provide detailed information of equipment which have already been installed in a company by attaching additional sensors to those equipment, which would contribute to management of asset of the company in a more sophisticated way, such as grasping efficiency in equipment operation, optimization of owned equipment and enhancing procurement method.
The three partners have already conducted empirical testing with forklift trucks and measurement instruments based on a preliminary survey. By analyzing the data obtained from the sensors, it was confirmed that it would be possible to remotely monitor the operating/non-operating time of equipment, to detect irregularities, etc. The sensors utilized for the empirical testing were developed utilizing a secure communications module and IoT platform supplied by a Silicon Valley startup, Afero, Inc. (in which Presidio Ventures, Inc., a U.S. investment subsidiary of SC, holds a stake).
SMFG led the design of the IoT-based business model and the analysis of data obtained from the sensors, while SMFL and SC selected/developed the IoT devices, selected the target equipment, and performed the empirical testing.
The three partners will proceed to develop the equipment operation visualization service with making specific proposals to customers and expanding the number of companies involved in the project as well as the range of target equipment. Furthermore, the three partners will be engaged in developing IoT based FinTech service such as sharing business, the new leasing scheme and advanced credit scoring, etc. with sophisticating IoT utilization and expanding applications of equipment operation data.
Empirical testing site
・Forklift trucks: Logistics Center, Sumisho Global Logistics Co., Ltd. (President: Yuichi Hibio)
・Measurement instruments: Technical Center, SMFL Rental Co., Ltd. (President: Koichi Kato)
Sharing business
Business where individuals/companies that possess goods or knowledge share them with other individuals/companies that require them via the internet etc.
Sumitomo Corporation published this content on 12 April 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 April 2017 07:05:18 UTC.
Original documenthttp://www.sumitomocorp.co.jp/english/news/detail/id=29822
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Sumitomo Corporation is a diversified group organized around 7 areas of activity:
- retail distribution of consumer goods (24.4% of net sales): food products, apparel and accessories, pharmaceuticals, building materials, household and decorative items, etc. The group is also developing a real estate business;
- trading of hydrocarbon, mining, chemicals and electronics products (24%): oil, natural gas, copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead, nickel, coal, iron ore, resins, pesticides, petrochemical products, etc.;
- trading of steel products and non ferrous metals (20%): flat and long steel products, tubular products, aluminum products, titanium, etc.;
- distribution of transportation and construction systems and equipments (15.1%): spatial equipments, landing fields, forest machines, motorcycles, mining operating vehicles, etc.;
- telecommunications and multimedia products and services supplies (8.8%): TV wiring, data communication solutions, film distribution services, mobile telephony, Internet access and computing services;
- development and implementation of civil engineering infrastructures (7.6%): power plants, wastewater treatment units, industrial plants, telecommunications centers, etc. The group is also providing logistics services;
- other (0.1%).