Abstract
In response to changes in recent years to the social environment, many small and medium-sized businesses in the automobile maintenance industry have been forced to reform their profit structure and increase productivity. In this research, we sought resolutions for business challenges faced by existing automobile maintenance companies through utilization of optical technology and we examined the process of innovation creation. Through a series of discussions and experiments, we developed innovations on-site via the application of optical technology in academic-industrial collaborative efforts, and as a result, have been able to indicate that it can aid in resolving the business challenges of companies. In addition, we showed that the viewpoint of “Management-In” is important in the innovation process.
