FAILURE BREEDS SUCCESS: Businesses and Society Learn from Mistakes September 4, 2001 People in Japanese business circles these days are looking on the old proverb, "Failure is the mother of success," with renewed appreciation. Examples of companies putting into practice the idea of learning from mistakes are too numerous to mention. Following the lead of the private sector, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology has begun work creating a database of failures that have occurred in cutting-edge research and development. The objective is to create a new field of study that can help prevent mistakes from reoccurring and allow technological lessons to be gleaned from them. A book titled Shippaigaku no Susume (Invitation to the Science of Failure), by Yotaro Hatamura, a professor at Kogakuin University, was published last fall and has become this movement's bible. Industry Learns from Errors Last summer an event held by Yamaha Motor Co. called First Yamaha Challenge Exhibition attracted considerable attention. On display were products whose development fell through or that otherwise never made it to market. Among them was a 100-million-yen (833,000 U.S. dollars at 120 yen to the dollar) super car that was developed in 1992. Although the bubble economy of the late 1980s had already ended, the company worked on the car with the expectation that there would still be demand for it. This turned out to be wishful thinking, however, and the car was never sold. A representative of Yamaha Motor explained that the purpose of the exhibition was to "encourage the spirit of learning from past failures and applying that knowledge to future challenges." There are many other examples of businesses putting this idea into practice. At Toyota Motor Corp., inspectors monitor production every day. When they come across an error they team up with the workers involved to thoroughly investigate why it happened, and the information that is obtained becomes part of the company's know-how. This process has polished Toyota's production methods. Electric appliance maker Toshiba Corp. makes an effort to learn from others' mistakes. In summer 2000 a food-poisoning incident came to light involving dairy products manufactured by a major food company, which was apparently caused by insufficient quality control at its plants. Following this incident, Toshiba undertook a companywide inspection to make sure that all of its plants had copies of company manuals on the work floor and that the workers were following the procedures properly. Although the two companies' products are completely different, Toshiba judged that, as a fellow manufacturer, there was a lesson to be learned from the food maker's experience. Government Creates Failure Database The Japanese government has also begun taking an academic approach to the study of failures. During fiscal 2001 (April 2001 to March 2002) the Education Ministry plans to start creating a database of past defeats in advanced research. The ministry intends to launch a research project that will build on this database to give birth to a new field of study. Following a criticality accident in September 1999 at a uranium-processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, and consecutive rocket launch failures in 1998 and 1999, the ministry in summer 2000 organized a council with the purpose of researching such failures and putting to use the knowledge gained. Professor Hatamura, who had long advocated creating such a field of study, is a member of the council.   Your Name Send this article to a friend The council found that the majority of setbacks suffered in the world of science and technology have similar causes regardless of the field. It reached the conclusion that if the process, background, and other aspects of certain representative failures were analyzed from various perspectives and probed for the subtly intertwined causes, a database might be created that could be used to both prevent mistakes from reoccurring and lead to new developments. Beginning in fiscal 2001 the first batch of data will be collected on past errors made in four areas, including machines and materials. With cooperation from the corporate, academic, and research fields, the Education Ministry will compile a database of the causes and contents of errors and the responses of those involved. The database will continue to be enriched in subsequent years. In his book Professor Hatamura says, "Failures will cause us momentary anguish, but they always provide substantial hints that aid future development. I would hope that we will never lose sight of the fact that mistakes at the start of true creation are inevitable." A good example of this philosophy is the research by Professor Hideki Shirakawa, one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2000. Professor Shirakawa's discovery would not have taken place had he overlooked the unexpected result of a botched experiment. Copyright (c) 2001 Japan Information Network. Edited by Japan Echo Inc. based on domestic Japanese news sources. Articles presented here are offered for reference purposes and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.