Value creation and decision-making in sustainable society

Manufacturing exists to create value. However, historically, discussion of economic issues in manufacturing primarily emphasizes cost. It is becoming more difficult to understand and control values of products and services in response to rapid globalization and networking. This paper presents a discussion of the nature Of Value considering a history of axiology, design problems of artifacts, social dilemmas, network externalities, and sustainability. Promising academic methodologies are presented herein with emphasis on transdisciplinary and synthetic approaches. Value creation models based on Emergent Synthesis and co-creative decision-making are presented. This paper involves some important Study examples of service and production toward sustainable value creation in society. (C) 2009 CIRP.