Japan’s heavy manufacturing conglomerate Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., through its Precision Machinery Business Division, has partnered with the Intellectual Capital Management Group (ICMG) Co., Ltd. to hold the Co-Creation Challenge, a competition that calls upon innovators to collaborate on solving four pressing sustainability challenges faced by the world today.
Since its establishment in 1896, Kawasaki has positioned innovation front and foremost, captured by its “Global Kawasaki” value centred on advocating for environmental sustainability in creating a brighter future for generations to come. This value carries over to the Precision Machinery Business Division, Kawasaki’s hydraulic components and systems maker founded in 1968 that has adhered to its principal creeds of “consideration for the global environment” and “safety and security”.
ICMG, as a partner in the competition, shares the same spirit of leveraging Asia’s innovation ecosystem to address social issues, with the aim of “creating purposeful and impactful innovation to the world”.
The DNA of innovation
Through the competition, Kawasaki and ICMG call upon innovators, or co-creators, who are also pursuing “the DNA of Innovation” to put their best ideas related to four distinct challenges on the table, with the end mission of delivering “abundance” and an “enjoyable daily life” to those coming into contact with the resulting products.
The theme of the first challenge is creating a sustainable housing development ecosystem, which falls under the Challenge Statement for Housing. This challenge correlates to providing a safe, secure, and comfortable living environment for the global population, estimated by the United Nations to hit 9.7 billion, of which 72% will live in urban areas, by 2050. Here, Kawasaki looks forward to collaborating with co-creators to reduce the negative environmental impact of housing developments by optimising construction processes as well as utilising sustainable natural materials and manufacturing equipment.
Moreover, Kawasaki aims to boost the energy efficiency of the construction process to attain carbon neutrality from upstream to downstream, with smart construction as one of the potential solutions. Given the focus on sustainable construction, co-creators that KHI seek include those with the expertise to develop new housing development materials, especially natural, and technologies as well as those that have automation, mechanisation, and digitalisation solutions for the safety and security of construction sites. To facilitate co-creators, Kawasaki will provide working assets, from hydraulic technology to teams of experts knowledgeable in mechanical technology.
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The second challenge adopts the theme of creating a sustainable energy ecosystem with hydrogen energy as it is linked to the Challenge Statement for Energy. The challenge is a response to escalating climate issues and the falling behind of sustainability goals outlined in the Paris Agreement by the United Nations. Kawasaki intends to accelerate the implementation of sustainability measures by promoting decarbonisation through the heightened use of hydrogen-related technologies for producing, transporting, and utilising hydrogen which is a clean and readily available source of energy.
Therefore, co-creators that KHI seek include those that intend to leverage hydrogen, including using hydrogen to replace fossil-fuel-powered equipment, to forge a sustainable energy society. Co-creators will have at their disposal Kawasaki’s invaluable assets, such as high-precision control technology for hydrogen gas and wave power generation systems producing clean energy, to design and deploy the solutions.
The third challenge marked by Kawasaki is creating sustainable smart ports, which slips under the Challenge Statement for Logistics. As the world economy becomes more enmeshed with one another through the global division of labour, cargo volume has shot upwards as local producers spread across continents export their products. Kawasaki observes the need for marine logistics to maintain agile supply chains, especially at a time when COVID-19 has forced ports to curtail their activities. Congruently, the exposure of port workers towards risks, including physical injuries due to their heavy nature of work, requires significant reductions for the safety of all. Here, technology can offer breakthroughs via sophisticated port operating systems embedded with Internet of Things (IoT) and digital transformations (DX) that enable the realisation of sustainable “smart ports”.
These technologies must also enhance workplace safety and operational efficiency, allowing ports to run smoothly even when human resources are deficient. Communities surrounding the port need to feel the positive impact for these technologies as well, considering that a win-win solution contributes positively to the working environment. The considerable focus on logistics necessitates co-creators to be fluent with smart port systems and technologies, encompassing freight management, port equipment manufacturing, and automation solution providers. Co-creators have the freedom to access Kawasaki’s assets, which also comprises software and IoT-compatible control technologies, besides the company’s worldwide production and sales bases.
The last challenge has direct implications for daily life since it borrows the Challenge Statement for Food Security, which is creating a sustainable ecosystem promoting food circulation. The first challenge has already raised the issue related to the global population explosion, which will potentially trigger a food crisis due to various causes, notably climate change and the decreasing number of workers in primary industry. All this raises the world’s susceptibility to food crises induced by inadequate food production. Kawasaki sees the urgency in tackling this issue by advancing sustainable food production via sensing technologies, digitalisation, and robotics.
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These innovations will digitally transform agriculture, producing machinery and systems that can withstand harsh environments, maintain yields amid labour shortages, and ensure safety for the present workers. More than possessing a deep understanding of food production and consumption, co-creators must have the know-how of inserting technology such as software into food production machines.
Co-creators with the capacity of designing technologies to transform waste into valuable consumption will be at an advantage as well. These co-creators will gain access to Kawasaki’s range of agricultural assets, also comprised of Hydro Static Transmission (HTS) systems that can act as human limbs and Camera Stabiliser that will benefit automation to reduce workload and promote workplace safety.
Submit your entries today
Co-creators keen to spell out their solutions to the above challenges can submit their entries up to the deadline of 15 October 2021.
Upon the receiving of proposals, Kawasaki will announce on 12 November the selected applicants who will move to the next stage, namely the Co-Creation Session which will be held up to 27 January 2022 to further delve into the business opportunities of the solution with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Precision Machinery Business Division and ICMG.
Kawasaki’s internal panel will finally organise the judgement for the continuation of the next steps as a co-creation partner on 28 January 2022. Interested co-creators can check out further details and send in their entry here.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by ICMG
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