Spatial association in manufacturing industries is a key factor as we consider industrial location and agglomeration. In this paper, we propose a method to verify and analyze two types of spatial associations. One is spatical association between industries, other is spatial association within industry. Then, this method is applied with actual data of industrial estates in Kitakanto area. The results of the analysis are summarized as follows. (1) Some pairs of industires have tendency to associate and form spatial clump whether mutual tarnsaction exists or not. (2) Certain kinds of industries gather themselves in specified area because of spatial association within industry, and the others locate at random. (3) Industries are classified into four groups based on the degree of two types of spatial association .

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In order to suppress the variances of the produciton and inventory levels of the multi-stage production inventory system, this paper analyzes the influnces of the autocorrelation coefficient of demand, the produciton capacity, and the standard deviation of down time upon the amplificxations of the produciton and inventory levels. Where the production ordering systems dealt in this paper are two types proposed by the previous paper[7]. As a result, it was clear an effective produciton ordering system according to the levels of the autocorrelation coefficient of demand, the production capacity, and the standard deviationof down time.

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An optimal scheduling meodel for bus driversi s presented. Recently, cost reduction is the most improtant demand for bus management because of the degeneration of bus transit. One of the ways to deal with it is to effectively schedule bus drivers under labor agreements and management requests so as to increase productivity. The model established is of a 0-1 type goal programming model, in which labor agreements and management requests are considered as goals. An example of the decision-making process for this model is demonstrated and the effectiveness is verified by numerical experiments.

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This paper proposes a multi-stage distribution/invenory modelin which a planned backorder is permitted at every stages. Customer demand is assumed to be known completely at the starting point of planning horizon. The concept of one source network is used to get some properties of optimal soluiton nunder general cost condition. Using these properties, we can derive a dynamic programming algorithm to solve the model.

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One of the types of grasp occuring with high frequency on the small parts assembly work is a pinch grasp.In this paper it is assumed that some of the factors influencing the pinch grasp time are a diameter of object and a way of feeding object. An experiment was conducted using four levels of the diameter of cylindrical object (2,4,6,and 8 mm) and two levels of the feeding way (vertically and horizontally). The high velocity period of the moving hand preceding and following the pinch grasp was distinguished from the low velocity period to make the pinch grasp and then pinch grasp time was measured. As the result, on the both efeeding ways the pinch grasp time are shown as a log-linear experinental equations. Therefore teh pinch grasp time is possible to be estimated using the diameter of object as a variable.

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It is well known that there exist efficient algorithms for the ordinary shortest path problem. In this study, we discuss a class of shortest path problems with task precedence constraings. Suppose that we use a vehicle to deliver some parcles from nodes u_1 and u_2 to nodes u_1 and u_2 respectively. THe node u_1 must be servcied before u_1 and the nodeu_2 before u_2,Nomura-Nakai[7]〜[9]ave discussed various types of vehicle routing problems Their problems are regarded as special cases of our shortest path problem. Finally, it is shown that the problem is NP-complete.

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A shortest path problem with taks preedence constrains tis discussed in [13]. Suppose that we use a vehicle to deliver some parcels from nodes u_1 and u_2 to nodes v_1 and v_2 respectively. The node u_1 must be serviced before v_1 and the node u_2 before v_2. In principle, the shortest paht satisfying these m prcedence relationships can be founde by solving (2m)! / (2!)^m different ordinary shortest paht problems. However , it becomes impossible to solve all these problems when m≧10. In this study, we introduce some relaxations for this problem and propose two branch and bound algorithms. Finally, some computational experiences are illustrated.

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This paper proposes a multidimensional scaling method of rating categories and rated objects, bsed on a model which represents these elemens as points in a latent rating space. In this paper, a method is proposed which improves maps of rating space, and gives a simultanesou quantification of these elements utilizing similarities between rating categroies and rated objects. For the purpose of validating this method, we use it to estimate a rating space by which average man rates brand names in term of various questions. As a result, we obtain three dimensional interpretable configuration of rating categories and teh brand names.

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The activity of production engineering in produce design system is expected that it should not be limited to detail design stage but should play more active part in winder areas, especially in upper process stage. This paper clears teh background where new funcitons of production engineering are expected and explains the meaning and method of planning of fundamental produciton conditions and evaluation of producibility at intial design. As a result, it is important that production engineering in design should cover not only pusure of cost minimization but also management strategy.

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