In November, 2017, JDES (Japan Development Engineering Society) held 4th Symposium on the theme of “Horizontal Fusion and Co-Creation - Society 5.0 and Human Resources Development -”.

Today, markets’ paradigm is changing in a way that customers’ interests are rapidly shifting to Kotodukuri which requires multiple value provisions. A single organization alone can’t deal with Kotodukuri, and horizontal alliance is required. However, alliances under the conventional condition in which Knowledge remain within each organization, will hardly create a new value for Kotodukuri. This could be created in a new condition that Knowledge actively move around beyond organizations’ borders, and relevant organizations act together in a manner as if they are the same organization. Those are the background that JDES featured Horizontal Fusion and Co-Creation.

In order to pursue the aboves, 3 key notions will be requisite. Firstly, to translate tacit knowledge to explicit one, and to co-share it among relevant organizations. Secondly, to take advantage of ICT such as Big Data, AI and IoT etc. in order to accelerate process of integrated actions for a new value creation. Thirdly, to develop Human Resources’ capabilities for the aboves.

5 speakers address their professional and practical researches on the aboves, and demonstrate invaluable insights. The symposium will surely provide JDES’s members and others with good opportunities to exchange and share heterogeneous knowledge and to recognize meaningful implications.

This document describes the abstract of “Human Resource Development and Promotion on Integration of Knowledge” reported by the Science Council of Japan on September 20^th, 2017. “Integration of Knowledge” is an important research area which connects with the technical and social innovation. In this document we propose 3 topics; the 1st is the development of the human resources which take the integration of knowledge, the 2nd is the evaluation system for such human resources and the 3rd is an organization scheme which promotes the integration of knowledge.

Problems in the Japanese manufacturing industry are commoditization and Galapagos. Comprehensive electronics manufacturers are developing smart infrastructure strategies and customer collaborative creation services · businesses based on services · dominant logic. “Service business creator” is the promoter of this project.

In this paper, I will examine the roles and issues of “Service Business Creator”.

This paper discusses the importance of practical educational methods for training innovators in Japan. Business schools in Japan teach various kinds of management theories and frameworks. However most of them presuppose a stable business environment. On the other hand, innovation theories and frameworks often presuppose experiential learning processes in an uncertain business environment. Therefore, practical educational methods, such as a field work and a case method lecture, are also important to train innovators by business schools. Though the “Design Thinking” framework has been applied to the field work for training innovators, the “Analogical Thinking” framework, which has produced many innovative products in Japan, should also be applied to the methods. Therefore, this paper explain the importance of practical educational methods and the effectiveness of the “Analogical Thinking” framework in the methods.

Digital transformation connects people, organization and society. With this change, values are diversified, new kinds ofvalue is born, and the social structure is beginning to change.

However, in countries that over-adapted to the present industrialized society including Japan, they are confused by the response to this change. This is because “Team” and “Human Resources” to create new kinds of values are different from conventional ones. Development that creates new kinds of value by digital must be advanced mainly for users. Three kinds of personnel “Director”, “Designer” and “Digital Engineer” are required centric for that user. Especially “Designer” is very important for creating competitive advantage.

In November, 2017, JDES (Japanese Development Engineering Society) held the 4th Symposium by a theme of “Horizontal Fusion and Co-Creation - Society 5.0 and Human Resources Development –”. This report will report the argued contents by the panel discussion held in the symposium.

Panel strikes proposed necessity of upbringing of “Talent a business knows”, “Human resources who can work on “Integration of Knowledge””, “Human resources’ upbringing suitable for the next industry” and “Upbringing of a dater scientist” etc..

In the automobile industry, the concept of “mass customization” has become very important in developed markets such as Japan. Nowadays, the customer expects not only quality but also customization. However, the “Lean production system” of manufacturing companies does not yet support the process of customization.

This study suggests a new “Kanban” method which covers the customization process in the Lean production system. According to previous research, Kanban is necessary for the Lean production system which includes “Levelization” of production and “Just In Time” production system and so on. Therefore, we suggest a new Kanban method for customized items in mixed-model assembly lines and checked the methodology by an experiment with a simple process model.

Chapter 2 of “Engineering Brands” series is “Engineering Supports Business Management.”

This chapter explains the role of engineering in business management, which is a root of the “Engineering Brands” concept. Engineering is critical when communicating benefits of products and services to customers.

Corporations should consider employee development in their long-term management strategy, and engineering shall establish before they invest goods and money. Employees, or people, are the ones who develop engineering and turn it into corporate strength. Engineering is a way for corporations to integrate “people, goods, and money” rationally.

This paper reports how engineering supports business management: it discusses what “engineering” is, what “business management” is, and a relationship between them.

From the ancient times, mankind has developed trade among regions of different cultures and business customs. The effort of cross-border trade across regions remains unchanged even today. Fundamentals of business is universal. It is all about, “providing what the customer wants”, “at the price meeting mutual agreement”, and “generating profit as a result”. However, cross-border trade also includes different customer needs, business manners or unexpected rules due to cultural difference.

This article “Basic Knowledge of Overseas Transactions for Corporate Executives” is written for corporate executives starting overseas transactions. It is based on the author’s experiences of a general trading company over the decades. The article consists of two parts, and in the first part the basic form, the important points, the mechanisms and rules of overseas transactions are discussed. The latter part addresses to how foreign transactions are carried out as actual practice.

The author wishes to the readers to grasp the basic flow of overseas transactions from with a “bird's-eye view” and a broad perspective. With the overall understanding, the reader should be able to direct and manage staffs handling the actual details of overseas transactions.

Products planning and development is very important function for products creation, which contains a lot of basic lessons for business management. This research was done to show what top management, especially little experienced management should learn about products planning and development. This paper discusses the basic process of products planning & development first.

Especially in order to create competitive products and to succeed in the market, there are important basic lessons to learn.

For product planning, after market study, study of products idea, target market segmentation, product concept & positioning are important. For development, organization for development, management of progress, especially how to develop effectively will be discussed as well as intellectual property. There is no 100% perfect way that leads to success, however, there are important lessons that increase the possibility of success and reduce the possibility of failure.

A series of liberalization of energy market entails new entrants, users’ freedom of choice, and lowering energy prices. This will result in attrition war and rip the industries’ added values. Therefore, energy industries should create new sources of added values.

Today, consumers’ interests are shifting from values of goods and services to those of “Kotozukuri”. Energy industries should take advantages of this value shift.

The essential for energy industries is to aggressively collaborate with different industries, especially with ICT industries that excel in Society 5.0 for building basic models of “Energy Kotozukuri” by integrating energy supplies and users’ individual lives of energy consumptions. This could be diffused to a variety of other energy systems, and energy industries could ensure new values in the integration of energy supply and consumption.

Another essential is to take advantage of Japan’s energy model. This represents world’s highest energy intensity as well as hydrocarbons’ dominance. The Japan’s model surely best fit to Asian countries.

The viable strategy will be promoting the fusion of energy values, and at the same time, aggressively investing in oil’s down streams, city gas logistics, and power generation businesses in Asian arena.

Without knowing engineering, business cannot be managed. MOT (Management of Technology) is obviously a key fundamental knowledge for CEO. Through introducing “Nishikawa MOT program” organized by Ernest Upbringing Foundation, the author wishes to attract broad recognition on MOT and how important it is to master MOT.

Through the program, the author joined several CEOs and reconfirmed the fact that CEOs define “engineering” as critical issue for management. A source of core competence comes from engineering capability. Without correct understanding of proprietary technology within the company, management cannot create new values.

MOT should be systematic and practical for who confronts management at the site. The author is reporting the summary of “Nishikawa MOT program” which was delivered with such aim.