Three misconceptions about product development and increased recalls

For the last few years, with a considerable number for recalls of automobiles, durable consumer goods, etc., It could be said that there have been an unprecedented product development crisis in a sense. It is believed that many of them caused by their low quality. Furthermore, It might also be true that concealment work overlaps and it is developing into double and triple damage. It seems that the fierce competition under the cause of cost reduction has been making them misplace what is essential for managers and development engineers. I have been pointing out that many of the problems in product development are occurring by misunderstandings in the development system, scheduling, and research & development. Of these three misunderstandings, I have been telling that the misconceptions of research & development are becoming more common.
In other words, it can be said that it is the selection of the starting point.  That starting point is to decide to rely on either “basic research” or “applied research” in R & D to start development.  In other words, despite the number of developments that rely on primary research is increasing, developments that depend on applied research are rampant because they want plausible answers anyway. From these reasons, for those surveys for the prior research, they mainly collect literature which results have been shown in advance and use them without being able to judge whether the paper is correct or not. Therefore, they would notice that the document is not useful for the first time when they put it into practice. However, I don’t think it would be improving if we discuss only these issues. And, From the perspective of the concealment of issue, I don’t think we can put the whole responsible only to the development engineer alone.

Recalls on a global scale

It’s a bit old news, but it’s a well-known fact that the US Senate hearing pointed out that Takata’s airbag recall in the United States that the company itself concealed it for quite some time. Although It must have a lot to do with the corporate philosophy and research philosophy, we Japanese do not explore the philosophy so deeply and maybe recognizing it is different from putting it with logical thinking. Therefore, when an unforeseen situation arises, it seems that the majority of people have such a low way of thinking as” it will be ok somehow ” instead of returning to the corporate philosophy or research philosophy, I must say.

Reconstruction of corporate and research philosophy

For those point of view, to eliminate misimplement of the development system, schedule creation, and research and development that occur in the process of product development, I think it is becoming crucial to reconstruct the corporate philosophy and research philosophy.  For those point of view, to eliminate misunderstanding of the development system, schedule creation, and research and development that occur in the process of product development, I think it is becoming crucial to reconstruct the corporate philosophy and research philosophy.
However, if you look at the corporate philosophy posted on their homepage, most companies except some companies are written with an enlightenment idea. Besides, most companies do not even describe the contents of their R & D philosophy.
Here, let me list below for the corporate philosophy and R & D philosophy of Japan’s representative material manufacturer X.

<Corporate Philosophy>
 [Company X is conducting research and development intending to become a unique specialist company, based on the management philosophy of “pursuing the highest quality and contributing to the prosperous future of people.”]

<R&D philosophy>
【Our R & D philosophy is “to contribute to society by pursuing “high quality” and “high functionality” of materials. And to provide products and services with uniqueness, superiority, and sociality. ” 】

What can be created from what we call the corporate philosophy and R & D philosophy excerpted above? Also, when an engineer is suffering outrageously, can the above-mentioned corporate philosophy and research philosophy push the back of development engineers? Both answers can only be said to be no.
In the future, as the effects of the new coronavirus cause significant changes in consumer needs and social structures, it will be necessary to establish a corporate philosophy and R & D philosophy that can directly be linked to the product development process.