In order to improve or reconstruct office work processes, not only modeling methods to describe the current ("as-is") status of work process, but also analysis methods to evaluate efficiency of the process and to give guidelines toward the desirable ("to-be") process are important. This paper proposes a method to quantify the relationship between functions in a process described by IDEF0 and to find function groups with low coupling and high cohesion. In office works, a function can be characterized by information contents on its inputs and outputs. Therefore similarity of functions can be defined by categolizing information on I, C and O of each activity. Then relation of functions can be quantified based on the similarity using Hayashi's quantification method of the third type. The proposed method is applied to a practical logistics process of manufacturing company to validate the method.

This paper discusses how computer networks provide channels for customer-to-customer (C-to-C) communication and how such interaction changes the dynamics of the marketplace.

The author identifies three primary patterns of communication involving sellers and customers in the market. First is the traditional mass marketing communication employing one-way media from the seller to the customers. Second is "one-to-one" marketing based on two-way interactive communication between the seller and the customers. Third is the C-to-C interaction, in which customers directly communicate with one another.

A case research describes how users of Hewlett-Packard miniature computers voluntarily organized themselves on an electronic bulletin board to make the machine accommodate Japanese. A quantitative research on the nature of C-to-C interaction on electronic bulletin boards indicates the importance of "heavy users" -users of products who take initiatives in forming and operating user groups- in the creation of active C-to-C interaction. The research also suggests that the over-presence of sellers tends to weaken C-to-C interaction.

Information system, such as POP or MRP, is essential to manufacturing industry in order to increase productivity. Conventionally current data based manufacturing system management with human experiences is quite common. A new practical manufacturing system management methodology, which handles future estimation data, is proposed to facilitate higher productivity and punctual operation. Precise future estimation enables shop floor level staffs to make higher level decisions on the system management, and to improve the concealed manufacturing line drawbacks. Finally the effectiveness of the methodology is presented through a simulation-based case study.

From the decrease of the workforce of family for care and the growth of aged population, the senior housing business has been growing as important service business in the aging society.

The main functions of this business are the supply of house, the support of keeping independent lifestyle of the elderly residents, and the supply of nursing care for the weak elderly residents. The most important factor deciding the success of this business is the quality of service. This business is risky for both company and residents because of having the special characteristics as follows: 1. the service needs of residents change along with their age. 2.the social evaluation changes to be more paternalistic. 3. the family members evaluate the services instead of the residents.

This paper shows the management system for operation with risk management, and the information management system senior housing business from the study of the actual facility.

The agency model has been employed for discussing how to design incentive systems. In this paper, we introduce a model containing intrinsic motivation which has been given little attention in the former models, and discuss how to design incentive systems considering the traits of jobs. We discuss this problem with a model including parameters which represent motivating potential, productivity, and uncertainty of output of jobs, and obtain the following results: when 1) motivating potential is low 2) productivity is high, 3) uncertainty of output is low, the introduction of incentive payment is apt to be effective.

BPR ( Business Process Reengineering ) in American style often goes with a personnel cut, and reflection on making light of human being arise. Then more gentle improvement of business process that takes advantage of existing organization and human resources is desirable. In this paper, we try to recognize a business process as a line of some activities. Order Fulfillment Process ( OFP) is defined as the common business process in many kinds of organizations. OFP means a process that starts at the order from customer and terminates at the distribution of products or services. We assume the key factor of improvement of OFP is speed, and eight patterns of improvement are described. We propose user-participated modeling method that defines business process clearly using gaming simulation. In addition, OFP support tool is described.

"Knowledge Society" stated by Drucker has become realistic because of the recent advance of information networks such as the Internet systems. In business organizations, "Knowledge Management" has also become important issues to cope with. Based on these, this paper first addresses knowledge management in knowledge intensive business organizations referring to the literature of knowledge management, and discuss the applicability of models that represent dynamics of organizations. By the term "knowledge intensive business organization," we mean that members must utilize their knowledge to solve their problems and / or to achieve their goals. We characterize the concepts of knowledge management as their domains, goals, and study approaches. Then, we propose models of distributed intelligence for represent intelligent dynamics of knowledge intensive business organizations, using Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) techniques. Our models especially focus on the design and analysis problems of dynamic behaviors of knowledge management in business organizations. Finally, we discuss administrative problems and application technologies for knowledge intensive business organizations, from the viewpoint of the models of distributed intelligence.

In this paper we discuss the relation between a few cooperation forms and an amount of task processing in terms of efficiency, focusing on relationship among personnel with respect to division of labor in organization. We define the cooperation forms that consist of a horizontal division of labor and of a vertical division of labor, and develope an operational organization model employing agents. Concerning researches of computational organization theory, the horizontal division of labor among autonomous agents is considerably discussed. However, the vertical division of labor is not included in the researches. Therefore the cooperation form is not sufficiently discussed in the researches in spite of its importance in organizing.

In order to discuss the cooperation forms based on horizontal and vertical division of labor, we develop our model based on our observation of cooperation among cooks in a family restaurant. In this model, the cooperation forms are classified into three types in terms of the horizontal and vertical division of labor; i. e., the segmented form, the decentralized form, and the integrated form. According to our results of simulation, the segmented form is the best one in the light load, the decentralized form in the middle load, and the integrated form in the heavy load. The load is an amount of tasks which should be processed by agents. Therefore it can be operationally explained that cooks in a kitchen of family restaurant effectively select the best one from cooperation forms that are generated by the cooks.

The model may describe the cooperation forms that consists of the horizontal and vertical division of labor with regard to a coordination between the task decomposition and its performance by agents. Organizations create and change an appropriate cooperation form to coordinate the decomposition and performance, depending on changes in environmental conditions. The creation and change are a primary theme in an organization design. Consequently the operational organization model can contribute an operational discussion concerning generation and reformation of an organization, and can be a basic model for an operational organization design.

This paper is concerned with an empirical study on business strategy and information systems strategy of Japanese companies. Based on a systematic survey of the companies via questionnaires, we empirically examine the state-of-the-art of these strategies and proposes a conceptual model to explain them. We expand the conceptual model of Yolande[Yolande 1992], which intended to uncover the relations between business and information strategies in companies. The model is expanded by including both the concepts of the commitments of executives to information systems and the ones of the conditions of information systems. The questionnaires study and the corresponding statistical data analysis are conducted to find the characteristics of the model. The main results of this study are as follows: of the business strategic orientations, "long-term innovativeness" is a key factor which directly affects the business performance, the business performance is proportional with the effective use of information systems when not only executives but middle class managers utilize available information systems.