Journal of Japan Industrial Management Association
Online ISSN : 2187-9079
Print ISSN : 1342-2618
ISSN-L : 1342-2618
Volume 54, Issue 4
Displaying 1-17 of 17 articles from this issue
  • Article type: Cover
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages Cover7-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Article type: Cover
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages Cover8-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (309K)
  • Article type: Index
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages Toc4-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
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  • Shigenori KOTANI, Katsuhisa OHNO, Takahiro ITO
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 217-228
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper discusses a production planning problem at Toyota Motor Corporation. Car dealerships order cars on the basis of weekly instructions given by Toyota Motor Corporation. A weekly production plan for each type of car is made according to the orders obtained from the car dealerships. If a certain type of car is produced on more than one assembly line, weekly production plans need to be made for those assembly lines. When making a weekly production plan for each assembly line, there are two objectives that must be achieved. One is to minimize the total cost of shipment from the assembly lines to the car dealerships. The other is related to the production constraints on the assembly lines. Factories with assembly lines and suppliers have already finished preparing for production based on monthly production plans. If the difference between the monthly and weekly production plans for each assembly line is minimal, cars and parts can be produced without loss. If the difference is much, however, then the weekly production plan becomes impossible without changing production preparations. Hence, the second objective is to minimize the differences between monthly and weekly production plans. This production planning problem can be formulated as a Hitchcock transportation problem with integer constraints and bundle capacities. The algorithm for this problem has not yet been developed. At first we show that we can convert the problem to a minimum cost flow problem if the bundle constraints satisfy certain conditions. These conditions hold for many practical problems. We also show that the practical problems that do not satisfy the conditions have an integer solution due to the structure of the bundle constraints. Next, linear programming algorithms are applied to the problem, allowing it to be solved efficiently.
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  • Naoto HOSHINO, Mitsuo YAMASHIRO
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 229-235
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    JIS Z 9004 is a single sampling inspection plan having desired operating characteristics as variables with the standard deviation unknown and single limit specified in the case of guaranteeing the lot quality represented as the fraction defective. However, this inspection plan with only a one-sided limit specified cannot be applied to cases when upper limit, lower limit and target value are specified. In addition, when a target value is specified, the lot quality should also be evaluated according to whether the quality characteristics of products in a lot are close to the target. Therefore, it is desirable that a sampling inspection plan rejects even a lot with a small fraction of defects as the lot mean deviates from the target. In this study, we propose a single sampling inspection plan utilizing variables with standard deviation unknown and upper limit, lower limit and target values specified in the case of evaluating the lot quality using both the fraction defective and deviation from the target. For various values of the fraction defective and deviation from the target, sample sizes are decided so as to warrant two types of consumer risk. Furthermore, we show the validity of the proposed inspection plan by investigating its operating characteristics with respect to deviation from the target.
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  • Yasushi YOSHIMURA, Tetsuya TSUBOKURA, Yuuzi MIYAZIMA, Tsuneyoshi HIRAN ...
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 236-244
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Progress control mostly depends on experience in construction projects because there are many factors which affect progress control and relation between factors is very complex. There is a concern that skilled project managers for plant construction will decrease in the future. It's necessary to clarify the factors and compose a standard control method. In this paper the knowledge of project managers in the area of progress control is clarified and a performance prediction method using their knowledge is presented. The construction model, which has the input of "delivery and construction ability" and the output as "accomplishment, labor and cost, " is presented. The performance prediction method using logistic cumulative curves about "accomplishment, labor and cost" is presented. The decision-making model and algorithm, which describe the performance prediction and performance evaluation, is clarified. As a result, the model and algorithm present the performance prediction method using the relation between planned logistic cumulative curves and actual logistic cumulative curves, and the parameter which describes the progress condition.
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  • Jia Hua WENG, Hiroki OKUBO, Hisashi ONARI
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 245-252
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Today an assembly shop has to have the capability to process various products (jobs) in a short lead-time. In order to deal with such a situation, multi-functional work-cells are installed instead of assembly lines, so that jobs which include a large number of operations and the processing precedence relationships among operations are complex can be processed through various alternative process routes. Therefore, in this kind of flexible assembly shop, the scheduling problem (i.e., flexible assembly job-shop scheduling problem) which is to assign job operations to work-cells (routing problem) and determine the processing sequence of operations at each work-cell (sequencing problem), is large-scale and complicated. In this paper, we point out the shortcomings of the traditional method that deals with the routing and sequencing problems separately, and propose an integrated algorithm based on Tabu Search (TS) that can solve these two problems simultaneously. Our aim is to minimize the total delay behind due date. This algorithm is compared with the separated solving method, and is confirmed to be effective for decreasing delay behind due date. The importance of the initial solution on flexible assembly job-shop scheduling based on TS is also clarified. In order to get a good initial solution, a heuristic algorithm of grouping operations for their assignment with the aim of decreasing changeover time is proposed. The effects of grouping operations on decreasing both delay behind due date and lead-time are confirmed.
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  • Yasuhiko TAKEMOTO, Yuuki KAWAMURA, Tetsuji YAMAGUCHI, Ikuo ARIZONO
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 253-259
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    It is generally assumed that data are distributed as normal random variables. Therefore, the data are analyzed based on normal distribution. However, in practice, there are many situations that data are distributed as non-normal random variables. The data for material destruction phenomenon is one example. In this case, the data for destruction is explained clearer by the extreme value distribution based on the weakest link theory rather than normal distribution. It is illustrated that the various data based on the weakest link theory, such as data for the strength of industrial materials, mechanical and electronic parts and lifetime of products, are distributed as an extreme value distribution. By the way, the control chart is widely known as a statistical process control tools. Until now, there have been many studies about control charts for normal random variables, but few studies for non-normal random variables. Here, Johnson has proposed a method for transforming non-normal random variables into normal random variables. In this study, we consider the control chart for the double exponential random variables by using Johnson's transformation method, propose a design procedure and then verify the property of the proposed control chart.
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  • Toshiko FUKUMA, P.K. JAIN, Masaaki YAMAMOTO
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 260-267
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In MRP priority calculation, a lead time is estimated as an integral multiple of a time bucket. However, real lead-time itself is distributed over a certain range and it is difficult to select the appropriate value. A theoretically calculated value of lead-time (which generally is a lower limit) can be used as a reference with some buffer lead-time value for further estimation in MRP. For a given time bucket length, if the time bucket value is near to the next time bucket value, lead-time value will lead to over-stocking. However, if the estimated lead-time value is near to the first time bucket value it may lead to insufficient stock. This paper analyses the MRP system's behavior in such an environment. It has been assumed that there is always a system inventory, which is known from other data such as demand rate, lead-time length and safety stock. This study focuses on the role of lead-time and safety stock as the parameters for the purpose of reducing on-hand inventory levels under the condition which no shortage of products occurs. Several simulation studies are conducted to find an effective value of lead-time by varying the safety stock value in steps and checking the inventory levels at the end of each time bucket. The results of this study may be useful in controlling the value of lead-time and safety stock, thus maintaining low inventory levels in MRP systems.
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  • Kenji HIRANO, Hiroyuki UMEMURO
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 268-281
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In the process of constructing and operating business systems, information about their rationale of design and modification, along with underlying strategic and environmental information, would significantly support the design or modification of other business systems. This study proposes a business system transformation model (BSTM) as a theoretical framework for acquiring and utilizing information about the transformation process of business systems. In this framework, status, transition process of business systems and their performance evaluations are historically recorded. The model enables designers of other business systems to refer to the records of similar cases in the past and take advantage of them. The proposed BSTM framework is applied to actual cases of logistics business systems, and its utility and operational problems are discussed.
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  • Koichi MIYAZAKI
    Article type: Article
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 282-288
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Today, butterfly trading is a very famous fixed-income trading strategy and is widely utilized by many traders and fund managers around the world. Most of the quantitative fixed-income research papers recommend the butterfly trade based on just the size of the butterfly spread itself. However, there is no information or analysis how to pick up the attractive butterfly trade systematically based on profitability. The attractiveness of the butterfly trade cannot be judged just by the size of the butterfly spread because it only takes care of the capital gain factor. Other than the capital gain factor, profitability depends on many factors such as carry, rate of mean reversion of the butterfly spread, size of necessary balance sheet, risk amount and so on. It is sometimes risky to rely just on the size of the spread. Especially, risk is not negligible when the magnitude of the capital gain factor in profitability is relatively small. We propose practical selection criteria of butterfly trades such as ROA and IR. We also illustrate the magnitude of the factors influencing the criteria adopting actual bond market data. With these criteria, managers in the fixed-income area can not only select attractive butterfly trades, but also judge whether or not they should allocate a firm's balance sheet to the butterfly trade.
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages 289-290
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages App16-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
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    Download PDF (66K)
  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages App17-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (66K)
  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages App18-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (66K)
  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages App19-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (66K)
  • Article type: Appendix
    2003 Volume 54 Issue 4 Pages App20-
    Published: October 15, 2003
    Released on J-STAGE: November 01, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (66K)
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