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Forewold
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III, Results of Research
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(2) Prediction of promising fields for the prototyping industry
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2. Outlook for Outsourcing
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2,Predicted contents of outsourcing
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It is expected that the outsourcing of technologies not available in-house, as well as peripheral technologies, will be used more frequently. There is more need to
contract out the work for product or materials development using technologies
not available in-house, or to use peripheral technologies for testing, inspection,
analysis or measurement.
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In this environment of global competition, when companies form their
strategies for technological development, we can see a trend in which they are
increasingly using more outside expertise to provide technologies that are not
available in-house or are peripheral technologies, while making the core
technologies in-house.
Large companies are using more "testing, inspection, analysis and
measurement" services, followed by "research," "product development" and
"development of software for information systems." The food-product
manufacturers that expect to increase outsourcing answered that, after "testing,
inspection, analysis and measurement" and "production," they would increase
outsourcing of "research," "product development," "development and
improvement of manufacturing methods and equipment," and "development of
software for information systems." The chemical industry will use "testing,
inspection, analysis and measurement" services, and then "research" and
"production." Manufacturers of machines and devices will outsource "research"
and "development of software for information systems," followed by "testing,
inspection, analysis and measurement."
The companies that selected "product development" as being among the
services outsourced at a ratio of less than 10%, approximately one-third of them
are selecting it as a field to be added to their outsourcing in the future.
Given the above fact, we can see that companies want to develop competitive
products with maximum efficiency, and that they want their development
departments to use highly specialized outside resources. Particularly, they are
focusing on such important cutting-edge technologies as nanotechnology,
micro-processing, development of metal and resin materials, environmental
technologies such as reduced energy consumption, etc.
Among research centers, we could not see much difference between the content of current outsourcing activities and the fields where future expansion is expected.
However, in the expanded fields, the need is high for "testing, inspection, analysis
and measurement" and "development of materials" services. Among the
manufacturers of food products and chemicals that are predicting expanded
outsourcing, "development of materials," which was not high in the outsourcing
rate, is rising to a higher ranking. Thus we can say it will be needed in the future.
The materials industry lists "production," "design and engineering" and
"processing." It has a particular need to use them in regard to raw materials such
as organic and metallic materials, development of materials and the
development-related technology, such as micro-processing. Additionally, the need
is high for development skills and technical skills that are not available in-house,
and the requirement level is getting higher and more specialized. Furthermore, the
ability to handle areas of composite technologies is required, and it is considered a
necessity for the outsourcing contractors to collaborate in order for their core
technologies to be used.
Approximately one-half the venture companies listed "processing" and
"development of manufacturing process and equipment." The manufacturers of
machines and devices listed "processing," "design and engineering," "prototypes
of new products and new parts," and "development of software for information
systems." Since there are many "prototypes" in the current outsourcing, we can
say these are considered to be future needs in the production phase. Venture
companies say there will be increases in design work for production, processing to
supplement their own production capacity and development of manufacturing
equipment. These represent the characteristics of the corporate growth process,
and we believe the needs of venture companies will be centered on the production
of prototypes.
More than one-half the universities are listing "prototypes for R&D divisions,"
followed by "development" and "improvement" of manufacturing methods and
equipment. Thus it appears that the prototypes of research and experiment devices
or research results continue to be the main items outsourced in the future as well.
Among them, they are listing new needs to manufacture devices, including the
design of electronic circuits, and they will require outside contractors to provide
such composite technologies that combine mechanical technologies and electronic
technologies with software development.
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