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Activity of a ‘Soft Science Group’ in Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Author(s) -
Yanagishita Kazuo,
Tanimitsu Taro,
Kobayashi Tetsuo
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1979.tb00146.x
Subject(s) - corporation , agency (philosophy) , engineering , government (linguistics) , product (mathematics) , work (physics) , engineering management , plan (archaeology) , group (periodic table) , management , operations management , business , mechanical engineering , sociology , mathematics , economics , philosophy , chemistry , geometry , finance , organic chemistry , history , social science , linguistics , archaeology
‘Soft Science’ is defined by the Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese Government as a new methodology to forecast, plan. control and evaluate. This paper describes the activities of the Soft Science Group (SSG) which has been established in the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. SSG presently consists of 13 members and has issued in excess of 300 reports in 5 years. Its basic activities are concerned with setting new research themes, information exchange meetings, and work on specific projects involving also engineers seconded from operating divisions. The paper summarizes these activities and presents a case example of planning a new product which has already been developed and commercialized.