Proposal of manufacturing technology management as a new research framework in technology management

One of the most important issues facing manufacturing industries is the realization of “value innovations”, which create new value for customers by producing new products, systems and services. However, “process innovations”, which improve current activities and business processes, are as important as value innovations because most manufacturing companies depend on current business to earn sales and profits. Manufacturing technology has been playing an essential role in process innovations by producing high-quality, low-cost products with a short lead time. In recent years, manufacturing technology has also become important for achieving value innovations, especially by creating new devices and materials. In spite of the importance of manufacturing technology, management methods and approaches have not been sufficiently discussed from the viewpoints of manufacturing technology. In this paper, manufacturing technology management (MTM) is proposed as a new framework in technology management. Furthermore, research themes and an evaluation method of MTM are discussed.