Technology for IHI

Under one of its management philosophies that IHI aims to “Contribute to the development of society through technology”, IHI has kept on challenging to pursue cutting-edge technology since its establishment. We have advanced step by step through a trial and error process. The following introduces our approaches to technology development, such as how to confront hard-to-solve social challenges, how to identify required technologies, how to integrate these technologies and how to provide new value to society.

Retrospective technology development

Since its establishment in 1853, IHI has developed and delivered products and services required in the society of the moment with the then state-of-the-art technology to make people's lives comfortable and productive. When the black ships of Commodore Perry arrived at the end of the Edo period, we started to build steamships. During the period of rapid economic growth, we constructed power plants to generate electricity enough to meet growing demand and bridges to allow people to move more easily. In recent years, we manufacture aeroengines for the world where globalization advances. Behind these products developed, there have been engineers challenging the then state-of-the-art technology. Such type of development has focused on manufacturing what society requires and improving their performance or efficiency as high as possible.

Prospective technology development

Currently, the social environment changes more and more severely and rapidly. In addition, social challenges to be solved have become significantly sophisticated, complex and large-scaled.
Under this situation, it is difficult to identify "what society requires" and these challenges cannot be addressed with only a single product. It has become necessary for us to propose new value being far from our past experience by working as one value chain in collaboration with other companies, universities, and organizations.
In consideration of the necessity, IHI will identify technologies that present and future society requires and that become a source of new value by seriously thinking about society, sometimes combine them, and develop them.

Development Process

IHI approaches challenges to successively create new businesses in cooperation of its three divisions: Corporate Research & Development Division in charge of technology development, Business Development Division with the mission of creating new growth businesses, and Strategic Technologies Division with the objective to acquire far-sighted strategic technologies. In particular, technology development that Corporate Research & Development Division conducts can be classified into three types. For example, it fosters the candidate technologies identified to be strategically core by the other two divisions, develop these technologies to reach commercial levels, and develop imaginative technologies capable of realizing an unexpected vision or scenario.

Collaboration base

We have been working to create new value and provide the value to society. For this purpose, we have established two facilities at the IHI Yokohama Works, where Corporate Research & Development Division is located. One is “Tsunagu Lab.” to encourage visitors to understand and sympathize with IHI’s businesses and technologies. The other is “Ignition Base (commonly called i-Base)” where we confront, consider and aim to solve ever-more complex social issues in collaboration with multiple players including those outside the IHI Group. We also focus on having interactive dialogues with various stakeholders. For example, at Soma IHI Green Energy Center, located in Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture, we have been conducting a sustainable, local production and consumption-type smart community project as a model case of a recycling-oriented local community.

Introducing our initiatives