Service Engineering,which was born as a new research field at The University of Tokyo in 2001,has included and developed AI researches. This paper introduces a history of service engineering and recent researches on “Service Engineering×AI”from the viewpoint of University of Tsukuba.In our experience,there are at least two important issues in developing AI services.One is that the customer value of an AI service may be defined depending on the using context.The other is that it is desirable to consider AI service development not on an individual company level but on the value chain level of the service.This paper concludes that interaction between quality management research and service engineering research is required for attaining Japanese service excellence.

View full abstract

　This report introduces the 3rd research meeting for knowledge sharing of “Service Excellence Division” and “Production Innovation Division”.
　We focus on and discuss Quality management of Internet.
―Difference between Analog telephone line and Internet line
―QoS (Quality of Service) providing Internet service
―SLA (Service Level Agreement) and SLO (Service Level Objective) providing Internet service
―History of Internet network structure

View full abstract

　As one urgent activity of the research group for high reliability and safety in JSQC, proposal on checklists for recent problems concerning misconducts of quality management in manufacturing industry is briefly explained in this report. The research group have been investigating and studying about social infrastructures in terms of quality management as a main topic of fourth period activity. The objective of the topic is to propose original preventive methodology against predictable problems on reliability and safety management in newsy subject fields such as safe driving transport system. Recent quality problems, however, have constrained this report to argue countermeasures to prevent recurrence. The research group provides checklists to confirm and prevent the unfaithful manners inherent in quality management. Short introduction of the proposed checklists is performed in this report.

View full abstract

　From September 2017, injustice has occurred one after another, not only has it become a big social problem, but also it is in a situation of impairing the “Japanese brand of the quality” in the world that had been built over the years.
　In addition, there is no guarantee to be only the organization where detection of the injustice was publicized and there will be still many organizations which are similar to these and cannot deny the possibility to exist.
　Therefore, we would recommend to many organizations that they will try to use the self-check items to prevent these detection of the injustice.
　We would be pleased if this proposal leads to improvement of each organization.

View full abstract

　We report on the activities of the Study Group on Total Quality Management (TQM) of Healthcare. This study group aims to contribute to the improvement of the quality of medical care in Japan, through the mutual communications of medical providers and quality control personnels (both academic and industrial) and top managements in the industry. The 7 tools for Medical TQM are the ones considered, reported and advocated by our study group, and are useful as quality improvement tools in the medical world. Physiologic monitor device alarm system is also an important quality improvement theme from the viewpoint of alarm fatigue in healthcare. By improving the proper use of the monitoring devices and the accuracy of monitoring systems, it becomes possible to reduce the frequency of nuisance and nonactionable alarms and to create an environment in which the occurrence of an alarm immediately leads to nurses’ behavior without causing missed or overlooked events.

View full abstract

　The ISO management system standard is a very good textbook for strengthening management competence for managers.
　The essence is organized into three basics and six management methods.
　The three basics are
1) Purpose and objectives,2) Intended result/result,3) Organizationa competitiveness (Proprietary technology and management technology)
　And six management methods are
1) Standardization,2) PDCA,3) Risks and opportunities,4) Business process,5) Customer satisfaction,6) Communication

View full abstract

　This article describes the main points of human resource development. The structure of the paper is as follows: a) the importance of human resources in organizations, b) identifying divisions/individual ability and planning human resource development, c) the structure of education and training system with hierarchy and field, d) education and training programs, e) evaluation and improvement of human resource development, and e) management of human resource development.
　The main conclusion of the article is that it is important for the sustainable development of a company to create a human resource development plan based on clear policies emphasizing human resources for enhancing the value of the company, to focus on the ability development of divisions and individuals, and to continually improve the human resource development system.

View full abstract

　In Taguchi method, several SN ratios are utilized in order to evaluate the performance of system. In this paper, we discuss binary input-output systems. In this situation, we usually have a 2×2 contingency table of frequency. In section 24.2 of Taguchi (1977), standardized SN ratios are used as measurement of efficiency in binary input-output systems. By contrast, in section 24.4, author discusses the problem of binary input-output systems observed continuous values and compares efficiency of two kinds of systems by using standardized SN ratios. In this paper, we propose statistical tests of the equality of performances by assuming that percentages of response follow the beta distribution. The power of proposed test is shown to be higher than that of two-sample location test. In addition, we discuss the number of repetitions of this experiment if values of contingency table are independent each other.

View full abstract

　Let Cm be a Conference matrix with m rows. Then, a matrix Dm with 2m+1 rows by combining Cm, －Cm and the center point C0 can be constructed. In this paper, we propose a parameter design method using Dm (±1) that is the product array of Dm and a two-level noise factor N (N1, N2), which may reduce the variance of a response and the number of experimental runs compared to the conventional method using L18 and SN ratio. The proposed parameter design has the following properties. 1) In Dm (±1), the best linear unbiased estimators of the linear effects of control factors, the linear effect of the noise factor, and the effects of the products of control and noise factors can be obtained by the regression analysis using a pseudo-inverse matrix without confounding by the effects of the products and the quadratic effects of control factors. 2) The graph of the responses for N1 and N2 is drawn using the estimated regression coefficients, and the levels of control factors are selected so that the responses for N1 and N2 are close to reduce the variance of the response. 3) Although the number of experimental runs of three-level orthogonal arrays increases by every 9, that of Cm increases to 50 by every 2 except for 22, 34, which may enable the construction of the experimental design with smaller experimental runs in the proposed method compared to conventional methods.

View full abstract