Management of Technology and Innovation in Japan

102 S. J. Harryson
naka stated that ”as the computer company is the potential customer of newly developed
displays, it will know of any improvement or problem that a manufacturer
like Sharp and Matsushita may have.“ Mrs. Akiko Tanaka also mentioned the importance
of scanning patent-applications, research reports and press releases and
going to fairs. As an example, Canon takes part in the Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal
Symposium of Chalmers University of Technology.
Transferring Critical Knowledge to the Manufacturing Floor Through
Increasingly Empowered Project Leaders
In the early 1990s, as the project progressed towards production, the formal project
leadership role was handed over from Dr. Kanbe to Mr. Hirokuni Kawashima.
He also headed the Display Business Operations Centre in which the FLCD project
was hosted. A large part of the R&D activities also took place outside the centre.
Research on liquid crystal materials was pursued in the Canon Research Centre
in Atsugi, initially involving approximately ten researchers. As the project
advanced, most of these researchers were transferred into the Display Business
Operations Centre, where more applied and strongly production-oriented development
activities were required.
Figure 4 depicts the most important units that contributed to the project. In
1993, as the project advanced further towards final production, Mr. Toru Takahashi,
the former head of Component Business Operations, took over the formal project
responsibility – in addition to his function as head of one of Canon's six business
areas, Office Imaging Operations.
Chalmers
University
of Colorado
Tokyo University
R&D HQ
Office Imaging
Operations
Visions
Corporate
Strategy &
Saitama
University
Original
Invention
Financial
Resources
Patenting
Development
HQ
Corporate
Intellectual
and Research
on Materials
Display
Business Operation Centre
& Legal HQ
Research Centre:
Products
Technology
Development HQ
Mechanics Electronics Physics Chemistry
Dev Proj . A: Materials
Dev Proj . B: Production Technology
Liquid Crystal
Materials
Supplier: LC
Materials
Software
Business
Dev Proj . C: Interface
Suppliers: Production
Equipment
Operations HQ
Suppliers:
Canon Info.
Interface Software R&D
Syst ., Sydney:
Software
Cost Engineering HQ
Quality Management HQ
Planning and
Marketing HQ
Production
Management HQ
Fig. 4. Main contributors to Canon’s development of FLCDs