In a report titled "DX Report: Overcoming the '2025 Cliff' and Full-Scale Development of DX", the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) sounded the following alarm. In the report, the METI warned, "All industries are required to create new business models using new digital technologies and to achieve a state in which they can be modified flexibly. However, existing systems that have become complex, outdated, and black boxed hold them back. If complex, aging, and black-boxed existing systems remain in place, the economic loss expected by 2025 could reach up to 12 trillion yen/year (about three times the current amount) after 2025." As of 2023, after experiencing three years of rapid social penetration of digital technology due to COVID-19, we are already on the edge of a cliff, and if we do not move now, we may indeed be tipping over the cliff. In this section, I will introduce the areas of DX promotion where precedents in the printing industry are emerging, and discuss three recommendations to prevent us from falling off the "2025 cliff".

Historically, the printing industry has been instrumental in conveying information to Japanese businesses. However, the recent shift towards digital communication, accelerated by the pandemic, has led to complexities. Many companies are struggling to effectively reach customers through digital and physical platforms. Marketing strategies that focus solely on digital tactics yield low satisfaction with regards to sales. However, when combined with traditional physical strategies, they result in higher satisfaction. Considering these changes, printing companies are expected to understand and implement Digital Transformation (DX) at customer touchpoints. By doing so, they can enhance their value and aid the overall DX of Japanese businesses. Marketing automation (MA) is a promising tool that allows businesses to understand customers and automatically execute marketing scenarios across digital and physical platforms. This lecture addresses the challenges faced by many Japanese companies at customer touchpoints, features of marketing automation, and evolving demands of the printing industry.

OMRON aims to innovate its manufacturing sites and create factories that can provide QCD, safety, and peace of mind from a global perspective. To achieve this, OMRON advocates "i-Automation!" The basis for this is the three "i's" of technological innovation. (1) "integrated": Control innovations that automate the skills of master craftsmen (2) "intelligent": Machine learning and AI in digital technology (3) "interactive": Flexible production lines where humans and machines cooperate with each other. We aim for automation that surpasses human labor by using cooperative robots, autonomous mobile robots, and safety technology, and will support and innovate manufacturing sites by using cooperative robots, autonomous mobile robots, and safety technology, aiming for automation that goes beyond people. DX requires the construction of an elaborate information infrastructure. This sophisticated information infrastructure can virtually reproduce operating conditions. It is a digital twin that uses equipment simulations that are fully synchronized with the on-site equipment. This will lead to innovations in remote maintenance. Even if the equipment is not in front of the operator, the response can be completed as if the operator was on site. Simulator reproduction allows the occurrence and causes of problems to be understood. In this way, we will continue to consider the challenge of playing a role in the realization of smart factories.

The trend of digital transformation has rapidly accelerated “work-style reforms” after the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend has significantly affected the printing industry, which is a classic labor-intensive industry. Although companies in the printing industry are required to change and improve their working practices for continuous growth, reinforcement of the production infrastructure should be highly prioritized to ensure profit. Fujifilm has proposed to “Create optimized production environment with Smart Factory” as a solution for printing companies to achieve sustainable growth in the rapidly changing market. Various automation technologies can lead to the effective use of human resources, facilities, and time. Thus, this solution allows open resources to be used for new investments in future strategies. This article discusses how Fujifilm interprets “Smart Factory”, explains details of the integrated workflow software “Revoria One Production Cockpit”, which takes an essential role in the Smart Factory, and introduces automation ideas Fujifilm proposed to achieve Smart Factory.

Compared with RGB, CMYK has a limited range of colors that can be expressed. Therefore, color information is lost during printing. Therefore, printers and other companies are currently manually correcting color tones before printing. Because this process is based on empirical know-how and human sensitivity, it has not yet been automated. Therefore, the objective of this research is to automate color tone correction in the color space conversion from RGB to CMYK. Specifically, machine learning is performed using a large color-conversion database owned by a printing company to learn the color-correction techniques of skilled workers. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

An Emerging interest for curved displays and touch panels has been demanding a new technology that enables to print on curved surface more than ever. We have developed a novel screen-printing technology based on a reverse transfer mechanism to print on curved surfaces with a small radius of curvature. We have proved that this new screen-printing technology can print on S-shape curved surface which has a concave of R20mm. We also found out our technology could provide even higher thickness of printed pattern than normal screen-printing method by optimized transfer speed.

CuNi resistive film was formed by screen printing on four types of ceramic substrates with different coefficient of thermal expansion, and the effect of thermal expansion coefficient and cooling rate on resistivity was investigated. The investigation revealed that the resistivity of the resistive film increases as the difference between the coefficient of thermal expansion of the resistive film and that of the substrate becomes greater. In addition, faster the cooling rate in the film forming process is, higher the resistivity is. It is assumed that these changes are caused by changes in the microphysical structure and crystal structure of the resistive film that is provoked by the tension applied by the substrate during the cooling process of the resistive film. Regarding the change in the resistivity of the resistor film, the relationship between the film thickness reduction rate of pre- and post- firing and the change in the lattice constant obtained by XRD analysis was examined. The result demonstrated that the change in resistivity has correlation with the change in film thickness reduction rate and lattice constant. The relationship between the amount of changes in the film thickness reduction rate and the lattice constant with respect to the amount of change in resistivity suggests that the change in resistivity is mostly due to the change in the microphysical structure, and the effect of the change in the crystal structure is negligible.