Five years of Hiroshima Kansei Innovation Council: Local Government Promotion Activities of Kansei Engineering and Ergonomics to Local Industries

Shigekazu Ishihara1,*, Hideki Harada2, Futoshi Idei2, Daisuke Ochi2, Yayoi Watanabe2, Koji Hashimoto3, Noritsune Yokoyama3, Kunihiro Shibata4 Tsukasa Watari5, Akira Maekawa5 and Takahide Nouzawa6

1 Faculty of Rehabilitation, Hiroshima International Univ.,

555-36, Kurose-Gakuendai, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-2695, Japan 2 Innovation Promotion Team, Commerce, Industry and Labor Bureau,

Hiroshima Prefectural Government, Hiroshima. 3 Hiroshima Prefectural Technology Research Institute, Hiroshima.

4 Department of pediatric rehabilitation, Hiroshima Prefectural Rehabilitation Center 5 Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center, Hiroshima.

6 Technical Fellow in MAZDA Technical Research Center, Hiroshima. Graduate School of Biomedical & Health Science in Hiroshima Univ.

National project “Center of Innovation” at the center of Kansei Innovation in Hiroshima Univ.

i-shige@hirokoku-u.ac.jp

Abstract. Hiroshima prefectural government has started a council five years ago, to promoting and educating Kansei engineering and Ergonomic methodol-ogies to product development at Hiroshima local area. In 2018, registered member companies count 188. This unique local-government based endeavors are insightful for promoting both Kansei engineering and Ergonomics to local industries. Its activities have four aspects. 1. Kansei innovation lecture series. Open lectures and hands-on seminars are regularly held in each year. 2. Sup-porting monitor panel and evaluation experiments. This support program helps exchange participants between member companies for product evaluations. 3. Matching with experts. The council makes a match with experts who have enough expertise to solve the problem. 4. Cooperating with organizations. Since this council is run by Hiroshima prefectural office, it is non-profit. Thus, it easily relates to universities, prefecture-run research laboratories, and an ex-tensive area project of Japan government. Activities and newly designed prod-ucts are explained. Keywords: Kansei Engineering · Local Government · Education · Promotion

1 Introduction

Hiroshima Prefecture is located in the western part of Honshu. Manufacturing has a significant part of industries, including metal processing, shipbuilding and automo-tive companies like Mazda.

Kansei engineering was pioneered by Prof. Emeritus Mitsuo Nagamachi, at Hiro-shima University in the 1970s. At the consumer electronics field, from SHARP, Panasonic, SANYO, and at car industries, from NISSAN and MAZDA, its methodol-ogies were spread to the world [1-6]. Many industries like furniture making, shoe-making, garments and service industries have been utilizing Kansei engineering and Ergonomics for their product development under him and his colleagues.

In 2013, the Hiroshima prefectural government had a survey on needs and de-mands on product development to local industries. The result shows the requirement of Kansei Engineering and Ergonomics. Then the prefectural government started Hiroshima Kansei Innovation Council on 22nd April 2014. The council has been promoting and educating Kansei engineering and Ergonomic methodologies to product development at Hiroshima local area. Until 2018, member organization counts 188. Twenty-one of them were joined in 2018. One hundred forty-six of them are companies, and 42 are universities and institutes.

Fig. 1. Constitution of the participating public organizations

From 2011, a public interest incorporated foundation Chugoku Regional Innova-tion Research Center established, “Chugoku Area Color and Quality Feeling Study Group.” The group has company researchers seeking Kansei and Ergonomic solu-tions, and professors of Kansei Engineering, Ergonomics, Optics, Computer science, and Design. Since its start, lots of member companies have developed new products and actively exchanging insights and ideas.

cooporation collaboration

Everyday excellent things project

Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry

Hiroshima Pref. government

Hiroshima Kansei Innovation Council

Hiroshima Prefectural Technology Research Institute

Hiroshima Industrial Promotion Organization

Center of Innovation national program

Hiroshima Univ.

Chugoku Area Color and Quality Feeling Study Group

Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center

In 2013, Hiroshima University assigned as a Center of Innovation national pro-gram of “Brain Emotion Interface,” that aims to visualization of Kansei, biological sensing and brain science to 10 years period.

From 2014, Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (Ministry of Econ-omy, Trade and Industry) started “Kawaii (cute) goods study program.” The program was expanded from 2017, to “Everyday excellent things project” which seeks fun and spice to everyday products.

We have regular coordinating meetings between projects and councils. In 2018, four meeting was held. Participating public organizations are; Hiroshima University Center of Innovation, Chugoku Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry “Everyday excellent things project”, Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center “Chugoku Area Color and Quality Feeling Study Group”, Hiroshima Industrial Promotion Or-ganization, Hiroshima Prefectural Technology Research Institute (HiTRI), HiTRI Food technology research center, HiTRI production technology academy.

2 Activities

2.1 Kansei innovation lecture series and publications

Open lectures and hands-on seminars are regularly held in each year from the be-ginning of this project. Leading researchers and practitioners are giving open lectures. Open lectures held once or twice, annually. Each time, around 100 participants at-tended for a half day lectures. On 28 June 2017, Prof. Hisao Shiizuka, ex. president of Japan Society for Kansei Engineering gave his lecture design management. Dr. Takahide Nouzawa (who is among the authors of this paper) gave general R&D pro-cedure with Kansei Engineering. Mr. Kazumi Kobayashi of TouPre Co. Ltd pre-sented an attempt incorporating Kansei Engineering and marketing research efforts to development plastics products. Unfortunately, the lecture was not held in 2018, due to natural disasters in Hiroshima, caused landslides by heavy rain.

Hands-on seminars are the series of seminars on Kansei engineering and ergonom-ic methodologies. It had held 4 or 5 times each year. Different Kansei engineering methodologies are taught and experienced, such as making a questionnaire, multivari-ate analysis, physiological methods, and basic ergonomics.

In 2018, Hands-on seminars held in 4 days, between August to November. At the 1st lecture, Prof. Hirohiko Asano of Tokyo Metropolitan Univ. gave his long-term expertise on measurement methods in marketing research. Katsuo Inoue, ex-professor of Kansei design department at Hiroshima International University gave a general concept of Kansei engineering and simple Kansei evaluation experiment. Miho To-mimura delivered her experience at SONY interactive entertainment co. Ltd. At the 2nd lecture, Shigekazu Ishihara (an author of this paper) made an introduction to mul-tivariate analysis techniques in Kansei engineering and had a workshop of analysis using R scripts. Participants made principal component analysis with PC and inter-preted the analysis result. At the 3rd lecture, Prof. Toshiki Yamamoto of Kyoto women’s university lectured on user interfaces and human behavior analysis. Dr. Noritsune Yokoyama (an author of this paper) explained human motion analysis tech-niques. At the 4th lecture, Mr. Michihiro Koyanagi, Director of Taste & Aroma Stra-

tegic research institute provided cases of Kansei on taste and smell on food products. Original smell measurement devices were demonstrated. At the last of the lecture, Dr. Takahide Nouzawa (an author of this paper) featured Kansei and neuropsychological research results of Mazda Motor Corporation and Hiroshima University.

In 2018, we had an advanced lecture on ergonomic anthropometric measurements and application by inviting Research Inst. of Human Engineering for Quality Life (Osaka, Japan).

Fig. 2. The hands-on lecture at September, 2018

Along with the kinds of lectures, publications have been achieved. In June 2013, the Bulletin of Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center (vol.17, no.2) had a special issue contains review papers on Kansei engineering methodologies and appli-cations. Authors of this paper mainly write reviews. KIG, Kansei innovation guide-book was published in 2015. It was written for the newly enrolled companies to pre-ceding methods of Kansei engineering and Ergonomics in this council. The third e-book was published in 2017. It contains successful implementations of Kansei engi-neering in leading companies.

Fig. 3 Publications: Bulletin of Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center, Kansei Innova-

tion Guidebook and Successful Cases Book

2.2 Supporting monitor panel and evaluation experiments

Kansei evaluation requires participants. If the participants are limited within a company, the evaluation results tend to distort to own products. This support program helps exchange participants between member companies for product evaluations. The support program has begun in November 2017. 110 participants from 13 companies have registered and two development programs used it in 2017. In 2018, registered participants grow to 130 from 18 companies. Seven projects were used this monitor panel in 2018. Many participating companies are developing different supply prod-ucts. These products are consumed by other companies. Mutual assistance relations are useful for testing their products and prototypes. Improvement of hygiene white cap was a representative case, that is mentioned later.

2.3 Matching with experts

Most of the companies require help from experts for Kansei evaluation, analysis and sometimes, product development strategies. The council makes a match with experts who have enough expertise to solve the problem. Since 2017, the matching events have been held. More than 30 companies have participated in the events and matching between experts have established. In 2018, ten companies were successful-ly asked outside experts.

2.4 Cooperating with different organizations.

Since this council is run by Hiroshima prefectural office, it is non-profit. Thus, it easily relates to universities, prefecture-run research laboratories, and an extensive area project of Japan government. Figure 1 shows the organizations closely related to the council. Exchanging meetings between organizations representatives have been held four times per year.

Development of pedestrian-friendly bollards is fully utilized this collaborative net-work, that will be shown in section 3.1.

3 Product Development Cases

In this section, we describe 3 cases of product development with Kansei engi-neering and/or Ergonomic methods.

3.1 Hand grip poles from Sunpole co. ltd.

Sunpole co. Ltd. (http://www.sunpole.co.jp) was founded in 1970. The company has been producing metal pipe finishing products such as flag poles, metal exteriors, and bollards. Their new product plan is developing handgrip poles for standup and waking aid, utilizing bollard making methods. Their initial idea is to placing aid in public places like bus stops and stairs. They asked the council to confirm its effec-tiveness for the elderly.

Fig. 4 Hand grip poles by Sunpole co. Ltd. (lower left) Placed at bus stop (lower right) measurement site at the elder care facility

The council asked researchers, as physical therapist and ergonomists. Prototypes were placed at an elder care facility by researchers connection. Gait patterns, duration, participants’ physical strength, waking times, comments from participants and care-givers were gathered. Gait patterns were made more stable, and the duration was shortening with handgrips.

Participants mentioned that brighter colors are preferable — caregivers mentioned the possibility to contribute positive attitude to gait training and independence.

In May 2015, the product came to market with six color variations (http://www.sunpole.co.jp/products/ksyosai.php?no=281392000).

3.2 Food packaging development at Hirotsuku co. ltd.

Hirotsuku co. ltd. was established in 1941, to make and sell tsukudani, preserved small fish, boiled down in soy sauce and sugar. Before of WWII, Hiroshima has many food industries by inland sea fishery. Hirotsuku is one of the oldest sustaining compa-ny, because many of them were destroyed and closed down because of the atomic bomb (http://www.hirotuku.co.jp, https://www.hirotuku-shop.com) .

Fig. 5 Package sample and popular color table of Lactobachillus added food packages

Hirotsuku asked the council to acquire Kansei engineering methods. Their attempt was to utilizing Kansei engineering to new package design. In 2017, Chugoku Re-gional Innovation Research Center conducted Kansei evaluation experiment of print-

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1. 調査概要

1.1 目的 ぜんざいのパッケージデザインについて，感性評価を通じて商品イメージを調査する。

複数の既存商品間で商品イメージを比較することで，ぜんざいのパッケージデザインがど

のような商品イメージを与えているか検討する。

1.2 調査対象 ぜんざいのパッケージデザイン 8 種を対象とする（図 1-1）。これらの中には，株式会社

ヒロツク製「シールド乳酸菌配合ぜんざい」の現行商品パッケージ，架空のパッケージや

市販されている他社のぜんざいのパッケージを含む。

図 1-1：調査対象のぜんざいのパッケージデザイン

1.3 調査方法 1.3.1 モニター参加者

ひろしま感性モニター参加登録者の中から参加希望のあった 61 名を選定した。モニター

参加者には参加へのインセンティブとして，回答を提出してもらった後に株式会社ヒロツ

クのぜんざい商品を提供した。

サンプル 1 サンプル 2 サンプル 3 サンプル 4

サンプル 5 サンプル 6 サンプル 7 サンプル 8

ed design on pouch packaging for Zenzai, Japanese famous sweet dessert made from red beans. In this case, the new package is required which utilizing Lactobacillus paracasei (Shield lactobacillus), which known as its immunostimulating effect.

In this project, candidate colors are proposed from Principal component analysis of existing packages. Also, the color analysis was done on a wide range of food pack-ages utilizing Shield Lactobacillus. Health food category and processed-grain cate-gory preferred silver and light-gray. Noodles select vivid colors in its tradition. Alt-hough there are differences between food categories, light-gray and silver are more preferred.

3.3 Hygiene white cap improvement at Shigemori Co. Ltd.

Shigemori co. ltd was established in 1971. The company has been making hygiene white caps for food industries and precision mechanics. They joined and begun ex-tensive Ergonomic & Kansei Engineering research from 2012.

Hygiene white cap has been widely used in many industries. Its main function is to avoiding fall hair and scalp particles to products. The common problem is heat and perspiring. Although thick materials are good for protecting and avoiding fall hair, they cause more heating and perspiring. Seeking comfortableness is a hard problem.

Their improvement takes three stages. At the first stage, subjective evaluation was done, utilizing our monitor panel system. One hundred twenty participants from 3 different companies have evaluated functionalities of sample products. They also had detailed interviews. At the second stage, they have experiments in thermal and humid-ity conditioned experiment room at Hiroshima Prefectural Technology Research Insti-tute. Realistic manual movement and works were asked to participants. Heat and humidity distribution inside the cap was recorded with both sensors and thermal cam-era. Kansei & subjective evaluations were also recorded. They found back neck is one of the key elements to comfort. Comfortableness of the newly developed cap was confirmed through experiments. Then they have improved the cap with the latest materials.

Through this project, Shigemori established Research division (https://www.shigemori.co.jp/product_lab/). They also established a tailor-made cap system to make hygiene caps those will be used under different environmental condi-tions.

Fig. 6 Hygiene cap thermal & humidity experiment (Shigemori Co.ltd)

4 Conclusion

Five years of achievements of Hiroshima Kansei Innovation Council are intro-duced. Although some precedents [8,9] existing, we regard such large and inclusive local government approaches are unique.

Through 5 years of practice, enough numbers of companies have completed the basic course of Kansei engineering and Ergonomics measurements. From 2019, we begin advanced courses. Several products are on the stage of final development and they will out to the market within this year.

References

1. Nagamachi,M., Senuma, I., Iwashige, R.,: A Study of Emotional Engineering, Japanese J. of Ergonomics, 10 (2), 121-130 (1974) (in Japanese)

2. Nagamachi, M. et al.: An Analysis of Emotion upon Room Atmosphere, Japanese J. of Ergonomics, 13(1), 7--14 (1977). (in Japanese)

3. Nagamachi, M.: An Image Technology Expert System and its Application to Design Con-sultation, Int. J. of Human-Computer Interaction, 3(3) 267--279 (1991)

4. Nagamachi, M.: Kansei engineering; A new ergonomic consumer-oriented technology for product development, Intl. J. of Industtisl Ergonomics, 15 (1), 3-11. (1995)

5. Nagamachi, M.(Ed): Kansei/Affective Engineering, CRC Press, Daton, USA (2010) 6. Nagamachi, M.,and Lokman, A. M.: Kansei Innovation, CRC Press, Daton, USA (2015) 7. Ishihara, S. and Nagamachi, M.: Evolution of Product Development and Kansei Engineer-

ing, Bulletin of Chugoku Regional Innovation Research Center, 17(2), 1-19, (2013) (in Jap-anese)

8. Tsuchiya, T.: Kansei Engineering Study for Streetscape Zoning using Self Organizing Maps, International Journal of Affective Engineering, 12(3), 365-373 (2013)

9. Marco-Algagro, L. & Scütte, S.: Development of an Affective Sensorial Analysis Method for the Food Industry, Proc. of Int. Conf. on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research KEER 2014 (2014).