Product Planning and Innovative Developments from the Perspective of Anticipated Market Trends in the Coming Years: An Analytical Approach based on Machine Tools Developed for Auto Manufacturers

摘要

Each year Japanese product manufacturers face a growing number of challenges in the field of product planning and development. These challenges include the shrinking domestic market as a result of the aging population and declining birth rates, as well as intensifying cost competition from emerging economies. There are a number of potential initiatives for arriving at solutions to overcome these challenges. Reinforcing capabilities to provide value-added products and services to customers is one. Other initiatives include planning and developing highly competitive products, and enhancing cost competitiveness to keep pace with emerging economies. In this paper, I will discuss one industrial approach for planning and developing competitive products, as well as how to intensify capabilities for making proactive proposals to customers. The discussion of this approach will be based on case studies regarding machine tools developed for the auto industry in Japan.