Environment surrounding enterprises has become extremely complicated these days. The conventional way of analysis can no longer contribute to solving any problem arising from the fast diversifying industries. This report was designed to clarify the basic concept of the creative-target-setting theory, by seeking relationship between business operation systems and environment in terms of natural law. It also deals with systematization of ideas, definitions of the concept of the causal way of thinking, grasping the target as an object, search for multiple targets with maximum effects and the process of thinking in creative-target-setting for the feasible and simple present-day engineering.

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This article proves the truth of the author's I/O Formula for the determination of the number of clerical personnel needed in the parallel-compound-type office. The I/O Formula shows that the mean of the output interval of the clerical unit depends on the larger variable between the mean of the input interval or that of the "service interval" of the clerical unit of the office. This mean of the "service interval" is the mean of the output interval of the clerical unit when the input interval is zero.

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This paper presents a method for applying 0-1 integer programming to large assembly line balancing problems. The method is composed of the following two steps. Firstly, "the possibilities about the assignment of each work element to each station" are analyzed considering the precedence relationships among the elements, their operation times and the cycle time. Secondly, a subproblem whose number of 0-1 variables does not exceed an assigned value is formulated, based on the result of previous analysis. Then, an optimal solution of the subproblem is obtained by 0-1 integer programming. By applying the same procedure to the residual problem, the formulation and solution of a subproblem are repeated until obtaining a feasible solution of the original problem. An optimal or near-optimal solution of the original problem is mostly obtained. The computation time is reasonable even for a large scale problem because the size of each subproblem is limited.

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In many statistical investigations, the problem of determining sample size is of importance. A two-stage sample size determination method of C.Stein is frequently used. This paper proposes a method of determination of the first stage sample size in terms of sampling cost. The influence of non-normality in the population and dependence between observations on the sample size of Stein's method is also discussed.

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This article examines the relation between marketing and a way of urban life from the following three points of view;namely, (1) an organic combination among consumer goods which support the urban life, (2) metabolism of goods, and (3) environmental pollution caused by daily consumption on a large scale.

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The method of estimating three points used in PERT is based on the condition of the standard deviation of Beta-distribution as one-sixth of the difference between the pessimistic and optimistic estimates because PERT is prepared for the specific project. However, for the purpose of setting the department goal and selecting the plans of systems improvement in a business firm, a generalized method, proposed in Journal of JIMA, Vol.26,No.1,1975 by KOGURE and AKIBA, is suited in which the variance is also estimated by estimator's degree of confidence. In the presence paper, the quantitative relations between the standard deviation of Beta-distribution and estimator's degree of confidence are revealed by experimental research.

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The precision (relative value) is commonly used in determining the sample size which should be observed to establish the time standard. In this paper, the relationship between the sample size and the precision is examined, on the assumption that the population is normally distributed with unknown variance. Comparing the precision of Niebel's method with the proposed method, it becomes apparent that Niebel provides smaller precision value, depending on the initial sample size, than the required one. On the contrary, the proposed method presents much the same as the required one.

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Management of workshops is now faced with a need for the sweeping review as a result of a strong demand from workers for participation in management, a higher educational background of workers and an introduction of computer terminals in their work. This study is designed to prove the truth of our hypothesis that the "autonomous work group system" is an effective way of management and that the best way to realize it is to develop and nurture small-group activities. Our effort was supported by a survey involving 66 corporations, to which the questionaires were distributed. It was disclosed that some of the important industries-electricity, machinery and steel-showed little resistance in accepting our hypothesis and that development and fostering of small-group is the most effective way to achieve it.

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