An Open Innovation by a Small-scale Firm in the Service Robot Industry

A Case Study of “tmsuk” as a Forerunner of the Industry

Abstract

This is a case study of a service robot maker, “tmsuk co., ltd.”. “tmsuk” shows the excellent product development capability by making full use of open innovation, and is seen as a forerunner of the industry. The core competence of “tmsuk” is the capability of integration and practicalization. The capability is based on its superior mechatronics technology, with which the company is attracting a lot of partners (mainly, university researchers) and is constructing a large-scale innovation network. Based on the innovation network, the company is also receiving a lot of product development orders from many clients/users including famous large companies and public organizations. In other words, the innovation network becomes a matching place between technological seeds from universities and needs from various users, then, enables the company to develop many different types of robots in spite of its limitation as a small-scale enterprise. Their human resource development seems, at first glance, less systematic and of the self-made manner, but in reality, it effectively nurtures “producer-type” talents who are able to manage a complicated robot development project including different types of expertise.