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The purpose of this paper is to clarify analytically the relation between the characteristics and the pricing of the products of individual manufacturers, so we can offer beneficial information for designing and developing products. Light trucs of 1 ton to 4 ton have been taken up as examples. We carried out analyses based on the information on the evaluation of the functional characteristics by surveying the specifications obtained from light truck catalogues.

Care to an older person is provided based on the care plan that was made by a care manager. Therefore, to improve the quality of elderly care, the quality of the care plan must first be improved. Care managers make care plans considering the physical and mental attributes of the elderly. But, as matters stand, these plans are based on the experience of care managers. Therefore, a framework that can support making appropriate care plans is called for. In order to m ake appropriate care plans, it is neccessary to clarify the relation between the attributes of the elderly and the care that should be provided. In this paper, data from a large‐scale investigation of the actual elderly care are analyzed and a process model for deciding the care is proposed. The model provides the necessary basis for what factors must be considered and how the care should be determined.

Economic value added (EVA) is introduced on two levels: as index for evaluation of corporation and as index for evaluation of business unit. In the latter case, application of one and the same cost of capital to all business units of a business corporation may be possible, but it is a fundamental policy for EVA to apply different cost of capital to business units with different risks. Estimate of cost of capital of business units is a problem to be resolved. The author, focusing on the question of the estimate of cost of capital of business units, has conducted a demonstrative study on risk structure of cost of capital estimates by using financial indices of Japanese manufacturers (37 automotive industries, 141 electrical and electronic machinery industries, 63 food processing industries, 98 chemical industries, 125 general machinery industries) for a period of 5 years from 1995 to 1999. The author presumes that β is explained by a regression formula β = B₀ + ΣB_i Y_i + α (Y_i: financial indices) and selects 40 explanatory variables from financial statements as risk components. Using their financial indices, the author concludes through a series statistical analyses that there is a good likelihood of estimating cost of capital for Japanese industries and is convinced that it will lead to more reliable and practical results by assigning averages and variances to 40 primary financial indices for a period of 3 to 5 years selected in this demonstrative study.

This paper aims to clarify adequate control characteristics for using a control chart on the basis of a case study of the low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process, which is one of the semiconductor manufacturing processes.

The paper opted for a simulation study using the data generated by EWMA model and the real data obtained from the LPCVD process.

The paper provides adequate control characteristics for control charts. It suggests that it is desirable to employ both the quality characteristic and the process rate for monitoring when the process was modeled by the EWMA model. Furthermore, if only one control characteristic is employed, then the process rate is the most adequate characteristic.

This paper newly proposes the process rate as a control characteristic for control charts.