Group 3 of the Working-use Products Category consists mostly of industrial machines and facilities, but since this is a broad field, it draws a wide variety of entries in most years. This year, there was a marked increase in the industrial vehicles such as construction machinery, perhaps because of the slight recovery in the economy. In addition, types of equipment that had disappeared for a while, especially machine tools and wire discharge machining equipment, appeared to have returned to the competition.
The screening took place in two stages, the first round of screening (document screening) and the second round of screening (examination of the actual object). As an experiment in the first round, we allowed entrants to copy the information for the screening to a CD-ROM and send it to each judge for so-called "electronic document screening." The second round of screening took place over two days at Tokyo Big Site. Screening for the Working-use Products Category was conducted on the basis of consultations among the three Groups, and screening for the Gold Prizes, which took place on the third day, was based on testimony from participants in general.
The entries selected for the Gold Prizes in Group 3 were Mitutoyo's manual 3D measuring device and Dynapack Hitachi Construction Machinery's Road Roller. Dynapack Hitachi Construction Machinery also exhibited its Road Roller, and its driver's seat was superior in ease of getting on and off, but the commanding sense of presence offered by the Road Roller won out and made it the candidate for the Gold Prize. However, its undeniable lack of consideration for ergonomics (human engineering) led to the determination that it had not achieved the level required for the prize. This decision gave the manual 3D measuring device the Gold Prize for Group 3. The candidates for the Small and Medium Enterprises Prize were the Tube Cutter from Rex Industries and eyeglasses from Enjoy Eyewear Co. After consultations among Judges, we determined that the Tube Cutter merited the Small and Medium Enterprises Prize due to the completeness of the product and its easy operability.

 
EVALUATION OF DESIGN

The Good Design Gold Prize (the MITI Minister's Prize): Offering a high degree of precision relative to its low price of 2.7 million yen, the manual 3D measuring device is a high-performance flexible gauge for on-the-job measurements. Extruded aluminum molded parts are used on the three-axis cantilever-structured guide, and it achieves low cost, light weight, and smooth operability. Since one side is open, it can be mounted on objects that are larger than its measurement range, which increases its range of applications, and the manufacturer has skillfully maintained the devices' image of sophistication and high quality while striving to simplify its elements and giving full consideration to operability. In addition, the 200 operational modes displayed on its LCD screen are all represented by icons, and not only beginners, but also any person, regardless of language, can intuitively manipulate its graphical user interface.
The biggest point in favor of this product is that it sells for an unexpectedly low price for this kind of device while maintaining a complete set of high-level features and offering superb operability. The designer's intention of considering ways to help workers at manufacturing sites work with pride and pleasure were acknowledged in all quarters, which led to high marks from all Judges. It left us with a strong impression of a supremely high-quality product that presages a new revival of Japan's currently sluggish manufacturing industries.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Prize: The Tube Cutter is a tool for cutting copper tubing and stainless steel tubing used in repairing air conditioning and hot water supply systems. The use of ball bearings in the rotating parts reduces the torque by half, making it easy for people without much strength in their hands to cut pipes, and the aluminum die-cast body with its round form eliminates sharp edges, so that you can easily grip it with your bare hands, and care has been taken so that wearing work gloves does not hinder operation. The molded plastic protector and non-sliding parts succeed in giving the device a pleasant, easy grip. For a hand tool, it is intuitive and easy to understand, and designed to be easy for anyone to use. The overall sense of completeness, including the selection of materials and the machining and finishing were given high marks.

 
FUTURE CHALLENGES

As mentioned at the outset, industrial vehicles such as construction machinery showed some signs of revival, however slight. But regrettably, no matter how you looked at them they seemed to be fraught with dangers that could lead to accidents, like a certain industrial vehicle for work in high places. Consideration for safety is the minimum condition for industrial devices, and it may even take precedence over design. Devices that cannot meet these standards are actually defective goods, and after all, they cannot be put on the market as "merchandise." Manufacturers of such products should recognize that they are fated to disappear if they do not pay attention to such matters.
Moreover, even though ergonomics has long been a concern in the industrial sector, most products showed little regard for improving the working environment for operators and drivers. Skillfully incorporating ergonomics into design is an important element that raises the quality of the product to another level. In other words, it is a point that can differentiate your products from those of other companies while maintaining profitability and allow you to win out over fierce competition. Recently, women, elderly people, and foreigners have been moving into difficult working environments in factories, and there are strong demands for universal design, which can meet the needs of people in wide variety of circumstances. Therefore, design should not be thought of merely as a superficial means of beautifying a product's outward appearance. Instead, we need to fundamentally reconsider design from the beginning of planning for a product, so that it can be a good product (good design) that satisfies both clients and users.
Incidentally, the products that passed the first round of screening and proceeded to the main screening included a forklift with a unique mechanism and superior maneuverability, but there were difficulties with the comprehensiveness of its design, and the finishing was noticeably crude, which made us wonder whether the manufacturer hadn't been careless with the details throughout. After exhaustive consideration, we felt that we had to eliminate it from the competition, but simply because it was such an exciting product, we wondered with frustration why the manufacturer couldn't have taken a bit more care with design. The people in charge of development, or else the top management, needed to develop a sincere interest in design.
None of the entries recommended by our group qualified for any of the special prizes, such as the Universal Design Prize or the Ecology Design Prize. The reason is that the criteria for receiving these prizes have risen year by year, making it difficult for any product to be selected, but besides that, we think that design concepts still are not being built up at the planning and development stage. The expectations placed on industrial machines and facilities, such as increased usability for inexperienced workers or consideration for the burden on the global environment have risen to unprecedented levels, and these concerns are by no means unrelated to design.