In considering cost reductions, it is natural to postpone equipment replacement until innovative equipment is made available, if it will appear in the near future. On the other hand, if new equipment with these characteristics is not made available in the near term, existing equipment is upgraded with similar products. This study discusses equipment replacement where innovative technological advances occur together with gradual technoiogical advances. It aims to clarify theoretically and experimentally the above equipmellt replacement behavior by using "Control Limit Policy". Next, we give apractical replaK:ement decision method using centro} Iimit policy when the appearance time of innovative equipment is forecasted. This study is significant in the sense of being able to show that control limit policy can propose not only a convenient metho d in actual replacement decisions, but also an effective method to explain the qualitative aspects of equipment replacement behavior.

Under the situation of the furious competition among the leasing companie$, the irnportant problem for a leasing companyis management is to determine a lease charge on each Lease contract suitabty from the management viewpoint, A lea$e charge is considered to be suitable when the leasing company can get an appropriate profit through the contract, But quite a lot of leasing coriLpanies adopt a full payout method for the lease charge determination. It may not be a desirable method in the above mentioned situation because the comparative high lease chaTge makes its competit･ive power down. Se, it is important fdr a leasing compuny to determine suitable lease charges which satisfy both the teasing companyis need and its client requiremenLs. This paper proposes a Iease charge determination method for a Ieasing compally based on the risk analysis. The method which we propose in this paper has two eminent charact･eristics. One of them is that the risk can be treated probabilisLica]ly. The other is that the concept of two profit levels (the "necessary profit level " as minimum necessary profit and the C`suficient profit level " as maximum obtainable profit) is introduced as the lease charge determination criterion. The advantages of this method are as fo11ows: (1) the lease charge whieh satisfies given risk conditions can be dete:mined by using the disposal price d}stributlon of the lease object, (2) the suitable lease charge can be given in the form of "a certain range" which makes the lease charge negotiation with its client flexible. In this paper, firstly, we explain t,he lease charge determination rnethod, secondly, we give the lease charge determination proeedures, thirdly, we discuss some characteristics.of this method and finally, we show numerica] examples.

Changes in technologies and markets are issues for all global companies. Japanese companies also face difficulties in eras of change. There is a need for paradigm shifts in management style. This paper will look at four case studies of major global companies and analyze the concept of the hybrid approach. It looks at how western and Japanese ways of thinking and methods can be combined to create a new model. The new Japanese model proposes a basic framework on which customization and improvement can be carried out.

Absttuct Suppose a problem of determining whether the replacement of old equipment is economical or not when new equipment with technological adyances is expected to appear at each period of the equipment planning interval, Since equipment always keeps in danger of obsolescence under technelogical advances, the d¢ cision rnaker needs grasp the state of obsolescence constantly to reflect it adaptively in the present and future decisions. Especially the decision to replace now or not becomes urgent in most cases and he is rnuch concerned with the present decision. At this time he must also consider the fact that the present decision depends on the subsequent future decisions. This paper deriyes a simple criterion by which it becomes easily possible in some circumstances to decid'e whether irnmediate replacement is economical or not without determining the subsequent sequence of replacernent times for the planning interval. Some informations on next replacement time are presented by parametric analysis of the criterion and the upper bound number of replacement times is given for the interval, These wil! become a guideline for the decision rnaker to plan futuTe equipment replacement.The proposed method is applied to a practical case and some characteristics are examined by sensitivity analysis. It is clarified that the method is relatively insensitive to changes ef parameters at the present decision,

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