How Is Design Thinking Applied at R & D Stage in the Japanese Electronics Industry?

Abstract

This paper clarifies how design thinking is applied at the research and development stage in the Japanese electronics industry through the Survey on Research Activities of Private Firms by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Specifically, three questions are explored. Firstly, to what extent are the companies utilizing design thinking at the research and development stage? Secondly, which aspects of design thinking are they focusing on? Thirdly, is there a difference in how design thinking is used in different product fields? The paper concludes that the utilization degree of design thinking is generally not so high. Especially, designer’s role of opinion adjustment by taking advantage of their visualization ability is hardly utilized. In addition, there is a difference in the usage of design thinking based on different product field. Especially, in the electronic parts and devices industry, consciousness to utilize design thinking is relatively high. On the contrary, in precision machinery industry, the priority of design thinking in the use of designers is relatively low.