Karakuri IoT - The Concept and the Result of Pre-Study

Although scholars and practitioners are actively discussing the potential benefits of introducing Internet of Thing (IoT) in production, IoT is still as an expensive solution in terms of investment and high technological threshold. Manufacturing companies seek a simpler and lower-cost approach to adopting IoT technologies in production, allowing companies to take advantage of the knowledge and innovation capabilities of people close to shop floor operations. This paper introduces the concept of "Karakuri IoT" - simple and low-cost IoT-aided improvements driven by the people close to shop floor operations. A pre-study is conducted to examine the feasibility of the concept. This paper presents the results of the pre-study.