Innovation through ‘Meta-Engineering’ - Mining - Exploring - Converging - Implementing process

The authors propose the new creative concept of “Meta-Engineering” as a radical engineering approach that is critical for breakthrough innovation. Conventional engineering is defined to design a solution to a given issue optimally using technologies under given constraints. However, confronting increasingly diverse and complicated issues, the authors find limitations in this approach. Meta-Engineering, a spiral process for innovation and for solutions to challenges confronting the world, includes “mining potential issues from a bird´s eye view (M),” “exploring and strengthening of the necessary science and technologies by thinking outside the box (E),” “converging these science and technologies to generate solutions (C),” and “implementing the solutions into challenges creating social added value (I).” This process is designated as a MECI cycle. The authors studied Meta-Engineering in several cases of pursued innovation. The first was the on-demand bus (ODB) services. The authors describe that analysis of R&D and social implementation of ODB by the Meta-Engineering methodologies suggests further progress of ODB services. Meta-Engineering is evident in historical innovations such as blue LEDs and LED lamps, and the WALKMAN. Those observations suggest the importance of a Meta-Engineering approach in the pursuit of breakthrough innovation.