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Research paper : Introduction to service engineering (H. Yoshikawa)−110 Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.2 (2008) extremely insufficient. As reasons, in response to the current social situation where the professionals become donors, conventional specialized knowledge is employed only for the preparation of providing action and is not considering the receptor. This point must be addressed in the future as a subject about the structure of academic knowledge for service engineering research. For example, although the perspective of accessible design is gaining attention[11], academic maturity of this field is urgently requested..(4) Delivery of serviceA service may be delivered directly from the donor to the receptor in a primitive service, but it is mediated in many cases. It not only travels through the network as information, but it is communicated riding on various objects (products). A service takes on several forms when it rides on objects, and we have no organized knowledge for this. This may be a function of the object, and here again is the relationship of the service and the function.A service that is communicated over network as information characterizes the modern society. There are countless researches and its diffusion as a real technology is dramatic. Its further development is desired, but considering the impact on the society, perhaps we have reached a stage where “information ethics” must be considered from the service viewpoint. On the other hand, the service that rides on the media must be understood in terms of the service amplification of manufacturing industry, which will be discussed later.(5) Ripple effect of serviceSome kind of effect occurs in the external world when the service phenomenon takes place in the real society. Although this can be ignored in case of a primitive service where one person donated a service to another person, it becomes an issue when it involves the industry, and must be dealt as environmental load. This point is not considered sufficiently and left as a future issue.(6) Amplification of serviceA service issue is drawing attention because the influence of the service industry on economy has increased particularly in advanced countries and is increasing in developing countries. In Japan, it has been pointed out that the productivity of service industry is much lower compared to the productivity of manufacturing industry. Actually, except in information field, the service industry has not been able to increase quality and productivity by using the results of rapidly advancing basic scientific research like in the manufacturing industry.In the information field, diverse information technologies are widely available, as symbolized by the term “information society.” These information technologies contribute to the increased productivity of the service industry. As a result, the view became prevalent that the advancement of the service industry is achieved by the advancement of the information industry. However, the service is not only for the information field as shown in the example of the primitive service in Figure 1, Section 2.1. The productivity in wide-ranging service fields can be improved by the combining the knowledge of social sciences with knowledge of diverse science and engineering fields including life sciences, material sciences, environmental science, and physics. However, when considering the productivity of service being affected by those diverse science and technology, it is more convenient to consider the issue of the service amplification before considering the economic issue in order to discuss the service without losing the track of its nature.In modern society productivity of the service industry is important, and thus opinions that service science is necessary for the improvement of the productivity have grown stronger[12]. These discussions start by setting the service as an economic issue and therefore take a different stance from this paper. IBM, where Spohrer works, has triggered the current widespread interest in service, and the service science described there is an integration of several disciplines. In fact, IBM uses the term SSME (Services Science, Management and Engineering). More multi-dimensional discussion is expected in the future.Here, I must address the “mystery” that Japan is currently called a backward country in the information industry and the service productivity. Japan has improved the productivity by introducing information processing into manufacturing such as CAD-CAM (computer assisted design and manufacturing), FMS (flexible manufacturing system), and IMS (intelligent manufacturing system), and succeeded in taking a superior position in the international competition. Then, what is the relationship between this success and the backwardness? First, it should be noted that the information technology never ventured outside the factory. In fact, the informatization in the factory was amplification of the service action within the factory, and this could have been applied to the amplification of service action outside the factory if it was scrutinized in an abstract manner. Unfortunately this did not happen because the evaluation was done only from the economic viewpoint. However, a more fundamental reason is because the isolation of industrial sectors became the barrier.Although the information technology was still in infancy at the factory compared with modern level, it pioneered a new territory by fusing with mechanical, electric, and material technologies, as exemplified by mechatronicsNote), a term coined in Japan. This allowed Japan to become a leader of international manufacturing industry. Japan will now introduce wider-ranging advanced technology into the service industry that is currently dominated by the information technology, hoping to become a good contributor (38)−

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