- About the Japan 300 High-Service Award
Objective: To promote innovation and productivity improvement in the service industry by recognizing best-practices, encouraging other companies to emulate success and sharing the best practices.
Award recipients: The award will be given mostly to small and medium sized service companies. Large companies may be awarded when their practice is particularly advanced and applicable to other companies. The "service companies" may include companies in industries as distribution (retail), logistics, medical care, insurance, telecommunication, broadcasting, transportation, finance, personal services (restaurants, lodging facilities, etc.), office services (information service, leasing, etc.)
Organizer: SPRING will award companies as Japan 300 High-Service Award recipients.
Selection process: About 20 to 25 companies will be awarded and publicized every quarter until 300 companies are awarded in 3 years. The Award Committee will select the award recipients by screening companies with innovative or high-productivity practices based on recommendations from relevant organizations.
Criteria of selection: The following 6 criteria listed in the Report on Innovation and Productivity Improvement in Service Industry will be used to identify best practices that contribute to innovation and productivity improvement. A. Scientific/Engineering approach B. Improvement of service process C. Increasing value added of service D. Human resource development E. Internationalization F. Contribution to local community.
- Japan 300 High-Service Award Recipients
| Istyle | Tokyo | Information service/consulting |
| Akan Grand Hotel | Hokkaido | Hotel |
| Asahikawa City Asahiyama Zoo | Hokkaido | Zoo |
| Asukanet | Hiroshima | Photo imaging |
| Urban Funes | Tokyo | Ceremonial service |
| Ideshita Clinic | Hiroshima | Medical care |
| Wellnet | Hokkaido | System development |
| Oisix | Tokyo | Food sales |
| Kagaya | Ishikawa | Hotel |
| Kanachu Hire | Kanagawa | Taxi/limousine service |
| Kura | Osaka | Restaurant/bar |
| Kumon Educational Japan | Tokyo | Education |
| Toward Logistics | Saga | Logistics |
| Pacific Software Development | Kochi | Information service |
| Herstory | Hiroshima | Information service/consulting |
| Hello Tokyo | Tokyo | Taxi |
| Fidic | Tokyo | Office service (Outsourcing/finance) |
| Meiho Facility Works | Tokyo | Architectural design |
| Mediva | Tokyo | Consulting |
| Ryohin Keikaku | Tokyo | Retail |
| Rock Field | Hyogo | Food |
- Examples of Best Practices
| General approach | Actual examples |
|---|---|
| Scientific/engineering approach | -Innovate the process that was handled by people with technology. (Using robotic suit, service design CAD, etc.) -Analyze human activities in scientific way to provide high quality service. (Analyze perspective of customers.) -Standardize and optimize the services that relied on hunch and experience in the past. (Optimizing airline boarding time.) -Adopt commercialized technology or technique used in other industry into existing service. (Activity analysis of taxi operator with GPS.) -Other scientific/engineering approach to service that improves productivity. |
| Improvement of service process | -Apply management technique as IE (industrial engineering), kanban, robot, QC to improve efficiency (Shorten traffic line or eliminate repetitive work through work analysis.) |
| Increasing value added of service | -Measure the customer satisfaction or quality of service and identify unaddressed needs to improve service. -Utilize website, etc. to provide information about the service or engage in active communication to address the customer demand. -Establish dedicated section and staff to answer customer inquiries and complains. |
| Human resource development | -Establish personnel system (recruitment, assignment, training, promotion) that leads to increased motivation, customer satisfaction or productivity improvement. |
| Internationalization | -Develop core competency to use them in international context. |
| Contribution to local community | "-Address local demand and stimulate demand to invigorate local economy. -Utilize local characteristics by establishing local brand, etc." |
- Japan 300 High-Service Award Committee Members
| (Chairman) | |
| Mr. Teruyasu Murakami | Chief Counselor, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. |
| (Members) | |
| Mr. Motoshige Ito | Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo |
| Ms. Eiko Kono | Special Advisor, Recruit Co., Ltd. |
| Mr. Hidetoshi Kobayashi | Managing Director, Japan Travel Bureau Foundation |
| Ms. Sawako Nohara | President, IPSe Marketing, Inc. |
| Mr. Kazuhito Hashimoto | Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo |
| Mr. Yoshinori Fujikawa | Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University |
| Ms. Kumi Fujisawa | Vice President, SophiaBank |
