Vol.1 No.2 2008

72/85

Interview : The Toyota Motor approach from basic research to product realization−141 Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.2 (2008) conditions for production, so he does not get listened to. If he is told, “Considering the total balance, that’s not necessary,” the researcher will be very discouraged. I have stood between preceding and product development, and worked on incorporating various technologies to seek a specific solution. I have worked on development of hybrid cars with one main motor. If there were two main motors, one motor could be used to run the car and the other to start-up the engine, but that was not possible, so we added a separate starter system for engine start-up. There was a person who was developing stop-and-go engine (idling stop), and when I heard about that, I came to the conclusion that the deficiency in my system could be covered by introducing and combining this technology, and the combination was able to solve the problem. Wide-ranging knowledge for connoisseurs; a story for the narrator (Akamatsu)That is a connoisseur. How does one learn to become a connoisseur, and what do you think is the education of a connoisseur? (Umeyama)I think that a person who knows a lot about diverse area should look at specific technology. In the research report meeting in our company, the researchers are very enthusiastic about talking about their research. People who listen build a story based on what they hear, and think, “This field may become an important focus field for Toyota Motor in the future.” I think this is one kind of connoisseurship. (Akamatsu)Do you think a connoisseur should have research experience? Or do you think someone can become connoisseur without research experience? (Umeyama)Perhaps a connoisseur should have research experience, even in a slightly different field, to understand the behavior and personality of researchers, such as to understand “being totally engrossed in research.” On the other hand, a researcher also must make an effort. For others to understand their research, they must learn to tell the “story” of what is the objective, what kind of approaches they have taken, and the results that were learned. I have researchers do a short presentation with a storyline that can be understood readily, and I think that helps others understand the research. The receiving side must have a wide-range of knowledge to be a connoisseur, while the explaining side must have a story.(Akamatsu)I see. But I think there is a danger of being unable to communicate at all if the researcher fails to make a good story. Things may fall in place if there is story that attracts the connoisseur, but if the researcher writes story with the wrong characters, the storyline may get lost. What do you think about this? (Umeyama)I think it is important that the objective is clear and the direction of approach is told in simple steps. If the story gets lost, the explainer must work harder to promote the understanding of the listener, but I think the gap will narrow if both the explainer and the listener take time to talk with each other patiently and repeatedly. On journal Synthesiology (Akamatsu)To change the subject, who would be the reader of the journal Synthesiology at Toyota? Who would find it most interesting? (Umeyama)First, it will be the connoisseurs. I think it will be useful for people who must have knowledge of a wide-range of fields. The journal presents both objectives and the underlying stories. (Akamatsu)Yes. We call the final goal the “dream,” and how to conduct research to achieve that goal “scenario.” (Umeyama)It will be very useful if the scenarios showing the development process of a research project are presented as in order and discussed systematically. For example, a certain discipline is working on such-and-such, and its objective is so-and-so. If this process is presented visually, I think I will able to read further into it. (Akamatsu)We ask authors to draw diagram of what they want to do, and what are need to accomplish their goals. When people write scenarios, I think they realize where they stand in the process, and the positioning of current results. Interviewer: Motoyuki Akamatsu (69)−

※このページを正しく表示するにはFlashPlayer9以上が必要です