IT-Enabled Services - IT Enabled Services - page 8

The tabulating machine operated on a simple principle. Using a hole on a paper
card, the machine detected whether or not an electric current exists; if there is a
hole, the machine answered “yes.” This principle has been subsequently developed
in the punch-card system for use in programming digital computers (Pugh 1995 ).
1.3.2 Digitization and Its Social Implications
As mentioned above, there are fundamental differences between analog and digital
technologies. Whereas analog needs refinements of skills, digital does not. For a
long time, a source of competitive advantage of the Japanese production industry is
considered to be rooted in its capacity to finetune (“Suri-awase”). Originally, “Suri-
awase” meant “rubbing each other,” then it became “bouncing ideas off each other
to come up with a precise finished product.”
In the following section, the social implications of digitization are reviewed.
First, the physical production process aspect is presented. Second, the production
process of information is observed. Third, the development from IT to ICT and its
implication is discussed.
1.3.2.1 Physical Production Process Aspect of Digitization
The Japanese “Suri-awase” process is one of the major sources of competitive
power of Japanese production industries. This process requires substantial expe-
rience from skilled workers, because it demands certain levels of understanding of
the tacit knowledge between production processes. Digitization, however,
quantizes the processes so that even unskilled laborers can also perform the
tasks involved. Hence, it is considered as a threat to Japanese competitive
advantage.
This situation is characterized by the generalization of production processes.
Digitization combined with the module-production system, and then enhanced by
the communication system (i.e., an advanced ICT), is applied to a wide scope of
physical production processes. It transforms the production process that is previ-
ously considered impossible to realize without workers' long experience, into one
that is easy to replicate. This is the process of “ Mieru-ka ” or “visualization.” Know-
how and tacit knowledge are visualized, and the visualized knowledge is digitized
and transferred to the production process. This development has also changed the
way value is added on to the product. In this sense, the sources of values are now
revealed as part of a visualization process.