The 2017 MMA General Meeting was held at UDX Conference in Akihabara, Tokyo on June 2 (Fri), 2017.

Akira Kumagae, Chairman of the MMA, General Manager of the Motion Control Division, and Corporate Vice President of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, kicked off the proceedings with his opening speech. In the opening speech, Kumagae talked about the measures that the MMA should take in consideration of recent trends in the network market and the Chinese market. Kumagae also explained how to improve the capacity to propose MECHATROLINK solutions for the development of the Smart Factory concept based on cooperation system trends with other companies, as well as in consideration of the expansion of the FA market and the development of networking for high-speed and high-performance systems in China

After the Chairman’s speech, Takuya Miwa, General Secretary of the MMA, delivered a report on activities in FY2016 and plans for FY2017. This was followed by a presentation by the secretariat on the FY2016 financial report and the proposed FY2017 budget. After these reports, the leaders of the marketing sub-committee and the PC tech sub-committee delivered reports on the plans of each group activity.

Two special lectures followed the general meeting. The first lecture, “New Paradigm Offered by IO Link”, was given by Balluff Co., Ltd. The lecture included explanations of the features and latest information on IO Link in conjunction with the globally-trending Industry 4.0. The MECHATROLINK-compliant IO Link gateway that will be soon released was also introduced.

SORACOM, Inc. delivered the second lecture on the “Leading Edge of IoT Business Applications”. During the lecture, actual business examples were given to explain the business activities in which SORACOM is involved. The world is watching the business activities of SORACOM, a recipient of the “Most Innovative Start-up” award, with keen interest.

After the lectures, four MMA member companies introduced their lineups of new MECHATROLINK-compliant products. The MMA then presented SORACOM with a memorial plaque to commemorate the company’s status as the MMA’s 3,000th member. Thus, the 2017 general meeting ended successfully.

This year, 160 people from 86 companies participated in the meeting. In addition to their participation in the meeting, all the participants were able to spend their time efficiently by checking out the displays of new products before and after the meeting and actively exchanging information during the reception held after the meeting.

In May this year, the MMA reached a total of 3,000 member companies including more than 1,500 from China. In January 2018, the MMA will celebrate the 15th anniversary of MECHATROLINK.

The MMA, together with eight board committee companies, will continue conducting activities to further promote MECHATROLINK in collaboration with the MMA members to celebrate the 15th anniversary of MECHATROLINK.