This paper addresses information sharing for the purpose of adjusting the product flow with the information flow between a manufacturing company and a sales company in a supply chain. In other words, if demand fluctuates, the issue is what data should be shared by a manufacturing company with a sales company to realize efficient production-sales activities. Supposing a group company continues to produce and sell a product under a pull-type system, and sets the production rate in a unit period at a value fixed according to the estimates of demand. This will inevitably cause overproduction or insufficient production because demand fluctuates, following a probability distribution. Without any production adjustments, when demand fluctuates, either the product will be out-of-stock or the company will be forced to pile up excessive inventory of the product due to overproduction. The inventory or the backlog may increase infinitely over a long period of time. In this paper, a method for making production adjustments to minimize the inventory, as well as the backlog, is derived from the following empirical prescription: the production rate in a unit period should be the estimated demand for the period corrected by the inventory and the backlog piled up in the previous unit periods. This empirical prescription provides the following simple method of applying production adjustments: the production rate in a unit period should be exactly the same as the demand quantity in the previous unit period. This production adjustment method, obtained by mathematical analyses, is shown here. This paper also presents some examples of time-series changes of inventory and backlog data through simulations. One finding is that by treating both inventory and backlog equally, this proposed adjustment method not only decreases the inventory, but also decreases the backlog.

View full abstract

The resolution of environmental problems has received much attention in recent years. In the transportation sector in particular, the need to reduce CO_2 emissions has necessitated changes in manufacturing and distribution infrastructures. The present study considers a transportation scheduling problem in which loads are transported from an overseas production site to three demand centers in Japan. Demand information is presented in the form of an order table that provides information on delivery dates, demand quantity, and order destinations. In addition, the present study addresses three target areas for reducing CO_2 emissions during the distribution process. First, carrier choices must be carefully considered, because the carrier's transportation time, transportation cost, and total CO_2 emissions are different. Second, less-than carrier loads should be minimized; the present study explores the possibility of consolidating more than two orders and reducing the required number of carrier trips. Third, various options for domestic transportation among demand points are explored. The research model was formulated as a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. The objective function was to minimize transportation costs and CO_2 emission penalties incurred during transportation. In addition, parameter analysis was performed by changing the values of several parameters, such as transportation cost, CO_2 emission penalty, and number of orders. However, less-than carrier load problems stemming from a large number of orders could not be solved in a reasonable amount of time by the present research model. To address this issue, the reason that long calculation times are required was also investigated. The results indicate that using the present research model, a substantial amount of time is required to consider the issue of less-than carrier load.

View full abstract

In recent years, technology transfer and its industrial implementation (TTII) based on industry-academia-government (IAG) collaboration have been discussed in various fields. Furthermore, key factors for success of individual cases have been reported. For technology transfer, the coordination function is crucially important to industrial implementation based on IAG collaboration. However, most of the anecdotal reports on this function in the past were descriptive, and systematic and mathematical examinations have not been made. This study analyzes 100 cases of successful TTII, and based on these analyses, the causes of the success were extracted. In addition, the function of coordination and the roles of coordinators is analytically clarified using multivariate analyses, and a model of IAG collaboration is given. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the examination of effective management in IAG, development of human resources for coordination, and the design of a backup system for IAG.

View full abstract

Many corporate managers pay distinct attention to the management indices based on how the profit and loss (P/L) statement is to be improved. However, in a survey of 1,620 listed companies, although the averaged recurring profit margin is improved, the averaged asset efficiency becomes worse. In the case of restaurant chains, both the recurring profit margin and asset efficiency of 83 listed companies became worse on average. This study proposes a method of creating a budget to improve the ordinary profit rate of the sales amount and asset efficiency in the management of a restaurant chain. This method establishes both the corporate goal for the return on assets (ROA), and targets such as the total asset return on equity (ROE) bounds and ordinary profit rate of the sales amount based on the ROA. It also, enables targets for the P/L statements and balance sheet (B/S) to achieve these goals. Next, the investment criterion to achieve the target P/L statements and B/S is proposed. This method is validated through a case-study of a restaurant chain. Investment in the opening of new stores and renovation of existing stores is evaluated.

View full abstract

It is important to know whether or not performance ratings provide an accurate reflection of an individual's performance. Despite the accuracy of performance ratings, it is generally acknowledged that they are too often contaminated by systematic halo rater errors. Rater training is an area that has shown some promise for improving the effectiveness of performance ratings. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effectiveness of rater training measured by halo rater errors as psychometric outcomes for rating and the effect of reducing errors in the rater judgment process by providing feedback for two items: (1) quantitative errors of each rater with factor scores that are estimated by a confirmatory factor analysis model, and (2) whether or not the rater committed errors. The results of the experiment attended by a total of 116 business persons clearly show that the number of raters who committed halo rater errors the first time reduced was lower the second time as the result of the abovementioned feedback. This suggests two things; rater training is effective for reducing halo rater errors, and the training process is effective for reducing halo rater errors.

View full abstract