Sadayo Hirata

• Professor (Associate) at Shibaura Institute of Technology

The restaurant and service industry is a very important contributor to the global economy and the Thai economy. In particular, small restaurant in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, accounts for 41.78% of the total restaurants in the country. However, these sectors are vulnerable and susceptible to the COVID-19 outbreak. This research aims to r...

The ultimate goal of this study is to propose a methodology of inheriting vernacular technology by letting it co-exist with modern technology. Some vernacular technology is still valuable to keep the identity of a local region even though it is endangered by modern technology. This study tries to manifest rinsho-no-chi, which is hard to be formally...

Knowledge of traditional craft practitioners has been transmitted through demonstration in master-apprentice relations. These rare skills are in danger of being lost due to their low productivity and labor intensiveness in our modern industrialized society. In collaboration with traditional craft practitioners in the metal casting industry, we desi...

The aim of this research is to propose a model of problem based learning to develop service innovators. This model futures empirical finding for problem solving by implementing with enterprises and higher education institutions. This study focuses on craftsmanship in the manufacturing small enterprises in Japan. It is because the management of a sm...

To solve problems underlying design and manufacturing we often rely on methodologies of computational intelligence such as machine learning, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, fuzzy inference systems and smart optimization algorithms. In this Special Issue of the International Journal of Automation Technology, original articles are presented...

It is vital for cultural properties to be passed down between generations. Therefore, this study focuses on conservation techniques and discusses a system that provides appropriate automation to prevent the destruction of the value of cultural properties and conservation techniques. Manufacturing companies have improved productivity by rapidly repl...

Hamamatsu Photonics, an excellent Japanese photonics company which started-up in phototubes business as their original vocation indispensable for light detection (HQ; Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka prefecture Japan) and has been growing while keeping high compatibility between innovations and earnings, so as to having contributed to Nobel Prize wins. We...

Understanding the nature of clients' work is a precondition for helping them to solve challenges posed by their business practices. Fujitsu has been committed to developing and deploying Business Ethnography that merges ethnographic qualitative analysis, frequently used in the areas of marketing and product design, with conventional quantitative an...

This paper focuses on the work style in operation & maintenance (O&M) of information systems and discusses potential problems hard for involved parties themselves to find out. First, this study used ethnography to extract problems and critical factors common to O&M projects. Secondly, the author analyzed the work styles by comparing critical factor...

We propose a new approach for project inspection applying ethnography to identifying IT system project risks. Guideline-based inspection is generally conducted in the IT industry to reduce project risks. Guidelines are created based on analysis of failures in past projects. However, it is difficult to detect new risks that emerged according to chan...