System Siko ga Mono Koto Dukuri wo kaeru (Systems Thinking Transforms Manufacturing and Business - Process for Successful Digital Transformation)

A system is something that provides functions that are larger than its individual elements or different functions. This book focuses primarily on artificial systems. For example, a logistics system comprises vehicles for transportation, warehouses, inventory management, fulfillment, information systems, and humans, to provide humans with the function of transportation services. With increasing benefits, this logistics system is becoming increasingly complex in technical and operational aspects, and this complexity is creating new problems for the system as a whole.
 
In society and business in general, the products and services of multiple companies are combined to achieve larger and more difficult functions. However, it is difficult to manage when the combined systemization does not work effectively.
 
To solve such problems, systems thinking, which involves thinking about the target explicitly as a system, should be extremely effective.
 
This book describes how to effectively use systems thinking based on the results of previous research, focusing on digital transformation (DX) in business. It is extremely difficult to find appropriate solutions to transform and improve a society and business in which multiple elements are closely connected and collaborate=systematized. To address this problem, "systems thinking" breaks down the subject into individual elements, defines the relationships among the elements, and explicitly considers the fact that society and business are established through systemization. In order to understand social issues, "systems thinking" begins with understanding and defining interests, customer needs, and demands, as well as clarifies which functions are realized by what mechanisms in social and business systems. Furthermore, it shows the overall picture of problem solving through "systems thinking" by addressing this mechanism up to the point of supporting decision making through various simulation methods.
 
For businesspersons, this book provides a simple and concrete explanation of "systems thinking," an implementation method that leads to successful DX by capturing and visualizing customer requests and company's core technologies, which are essential elements in the creation of products, services, and experiences, from a bird's view, as well as by considering and creating new ideas. Moreover, this book also simplifies "systems thinking," which is difficult to understand due to its abstract nature, for university students interested in social issues.
 
We hope that it will provide valuable assistance to corporate management, engineers supporting manufacturing sites, and university students who are currently learning various things.
 

(Written by HIEKATA Kazuo, Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences / 2023)