Die and mold is tool, equipment or machine which is indispensable for manufacturing parts. Japan has the largest output in the world which has been declining with the breakdown of the bubble economy as a turning point though. Consequently the most of the firms in the industry have fallen in their income. However the growing firms are observed even in such circumstance. One is the type of flexible specialization by high value-added products and intends to execute “product integration”, the other narrows the business domain and intends to execute “process integration” by dispatching engineers to the clients. Though the resource of competence of both finns seems high grade equipment and high-end CAD system apparently, the capability of designing, engineering or the combination between engineering and marketing is quite important substantially. It is the key factor SMEs get opportunities in outsourcing from big finns strategically.

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The cost management of Japan started from “cost control” taught by United States and European countries. Based on that, it has evolved into “cost management” responding to the needs of times and taking technical development into the system. Then, it has been further developed into the “new cost management” that includes “cost planning”, and to the “life cycle cost management”. Currently, it has reached to the stage of “IT applied life cycle cost management”. The paper predicts that the age of “value-creative life cycle cost management” will arrive in future. The paper also explains the recent features of cost management.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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