Search results

Savage concentrated on building a small world, which is not a probabilistic, but the definite world, in which sure‐thing principle works. He reached Kullback‐Leibler’s information through Bayes’ theorem, in which he intends to improve personal probability as the a posteriori probability. However, he stopped his thinking there. Akaike obtained Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) by starting from the K‐L information. AIC enables us to evaluate which model is the closest to the true value which we cannot recognise. If we call the context of sure‐thing principle personal probability, Bayes’ theorem and AIC the logical structure of information, the author thinks we have the same structure in relation to the Japanese production and distribution system.

Attempts to examine the roles and purposes of manufacturers' sales subsidiaries by means of a survey carried out in the UK, the USA, Canada and Japan. Suggests that, in the UK and the USA, these subsidiaries have room for improvement.

New information technology has the effect of increasing retailer information power. Under decreasing sales growth and produce‐line proliferation, retailers (with electronic point‐of‐sale systems) place small orders. However, the small order placed by retailers makes the difference between the sale to retailers and the sale to consumers (the retail) trivial. Hence, sellers (manufacturers or wholesalers) wish to receive retailer information of the sale to consumers. On the other hand, the small order increases physical distribution costs. In an attempt to avoid these increased distribution costs, manufacturers use wholesalers who deal with many kinds of commodities. In this case, manufacturers, who still expect to have retailer information, should also be connected on‐line by electronic computer systems with the wholesalers, who record sales of commodity items to each and every individual retailer. This is the practice of a Japanese butter‐processing manufacturer.

A comparison between production and distribution practices in the two countries, and the effects of these elements on costs.