Initiatives for SDGs Industrial Solutions Company

(This article is as of September 2021)

Photo: Shinji Sakamoto, CEO, Industrial Solutions Company, Panasonic Corporation / Title: Partnering with customers to realize their future vision has positive social impacts

The Industrial Solutions Company provides devices that help solve social challenges based on a vision of the future our customers share with us. We work primarily in the fields of information and communication infrastructure, automotive CASE,* and smart factories.
Our customers’ top concern is how to respond to megatrends such as climate change and labor force decline. By developing hypotheses and roadmaps and engaging them in discussions, we are carrying out various initiatives in our role as a device manufacturer to help realize the sustainable society outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
*CASE: Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared, Electric

Embracing the development of ICT infrastructure through energy conservation

Information infrastructure — which includes cellular base stations and data centers — accounts for around 1 to 2% of global electricity consumption. Some say that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies will raise this figure to as much as 10%. In reality, however, data centers are using the same amount of electricity today as they were several years ago, despite a four to five-fold increase in their data processing capacity. Our customers want to expand their infrastructure without increasing environmental impact. We help them solve this problem with energy-saving technologies, such as high-performance capacitors and MEGTRON, a series of circuit board materials that deliver high energy efficiency, high capacity, and high-speed transmission.

Contributing to better energy-saving and safety performance of EVs

Electrification and electronification of the automobile is dramatically increasing the number of drivetrain motors, control motors (such as those for power windows) and onboard electronic components. Energy use and weight are major obstacles to achieving longer cruising ranges, and we assist in this area with our compact, high-efficiency devices. Our customers’ top priority, however, is safety. Our brake backup modules and battery disconnection units, which activate in emergencies, make an important contribution to improved automotive safety.

Providing networking devices that reduce factory labor

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought manufacturing to a stall, dealing a heavy blow to device and industrial equipment manufacturers. During the prolonged recovery period, manufacturing will continue to become more distributed, labor-saving, and smart. Even small and medium-sized enterprises must respond to these megatrends despite the technical and financial hurdles of networking their infrastructure. As factories, production lines, and machines become more connected, we address these customer challenges by incorporating software technologies into key devices such as compact servo motors and factory automation (FA) sensors.

Figure Title: The Industrial Solutions Company's areas of key initiatives. For the Automotive CASE, photos of electric double layer capacitor brake backup modules, film capacitors, and battery disconnection units are shown. For the Information/Communication infrastructure, photos of conductive polymer capacitors SP-Cap, circuit board materials MEGTRON, and lithium-ion storage battery modules are shown. And for Labor-saving in factories, device packages for FA equipment which includes PLCs, motors, cameras, sensors, and laser markers are shown.

Breaking down the SDGs for customers

Photo: A shot of Shinji Sakamoto, CEO, Industrial Solutions Company, speaking.

Developing a shared vision of the future with our end customers, such as data centers and automakers, is our starting point for delivering devices to manufacturers of printed circuit boards, automotive parts, and FA equipment. By helping our customers translate the SDGs into an organizational mission, we facilitate behavioral transformation and progress toward the sustainable future and society our customers dream of.