Firms' strategies on product portfolio building and sourcing/procurement emerge through interactions with other firms, as well as with the dynamic environment in which the firms are placed. In this study, the resulting inter-firm relationship patterns are conceptualized based on the emergent synthesis perspective. Taking the automobile industry as an example, empirical longitudinal data are investigated with specific focus on the heterogeneous effects of various factors on network formations, providing a better understanding of how and to what extent we can possibly design/control supply networks, and predict potential future risks. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Empirical longitudinal data on supply relationships between car manufacturers (OEMs) and auto-parts suppliers in the Japanese automobile industry are studied systematically. Such supply relationship formations, which will have emerged over time, are likely to reflect various contingent factors such as industrial conditions (which affect OEMs' procurement strategies and resulting product demands). There are other important factors such as the level of standardization of the product, and the skills required for manufacturing the product. Furthermore, the effects of such factors may vary from product to product, and year to year. Heterogeneity between the supply networks of various products is elucidated via characterization with several measures, and also via a visualization of the transitions of the network properties. Our systematic analysis of the data provides profound insight into how product markets may have become stabilized or more competitive, and how the market selection process may affect the evolution of the supply network characteristics. The proposed approach and findings of the study can contribute to supply network modeling, and lead to the prediction of future change

This study aims to investigate the structural heterogeneity of real-life supply networks in the automotive industry, through complex network analysis of large-scale empirical data. The concept of complex adaptive systems, which considers the supply network structures as the result of emergence, has recently been well accepted, and a considerable number of models have been proposed. However, such models fail to capture how supply network structures may reflect the effects of various factors - product characteristics differ in terms of the degree of standardization, modularization and technological advancement, suppliers have different production capabilities, and different car assemblers may have different production strategies. The unique data we collected provides information about "which suppliers supply which auto-parts to which car manufacturers", which allowed us to first confirm the scale-free property of the distribution of suppliers' production capabilities, and to highlight a wide diversity of product characteristics. Furthermore, the bipartite network constructed based on the collected data was projected onto another information space, which resulted in a product network, exhibiting proximity between products. Analysis of this product network elucidated a high degree of structural heterogeneity of the auto-parts supply network, in which various factors may be reflected. The results of this study will contribute to the establishment of more realistic supply network models.

This study quantitatively investigates the heterogeneous nature of the structures and characteristics of real-life auto-parts supply networks, through complex network analysis of large-scale empirical data. Comprehensive data containing "who-supplies-what-to-whom" information successfully highlights the wide diversity of product characteristics, companies' production capabilities, and also their resulting strategies. Furthermore, by using an advanced complex network analysis technique, the supply networks are projected into a different information space, generating another network that elucidates the proximities between product types and between companies' production strategies. Analysis of this network provides profound insights into how supply network structures may emerge reflecting various factors. (C) 2015 CIRP.

This study investigates the temporal structural transitions of automobile supply networks where, under situations with various possible risks such as economic crises and market globalisation, companies must both work together for sustainable production, and also compete with each other for their own survival. The resulting network complexity is captured by large-scale empirical data, and analysed for the first time using concepts and metrics developed in complex network science. We discuss how network structure reflects the effect of several factors including market fluctuation, product standardisation, technological advancement, and financial interdependencies between companies. (C) 2014 CIRP.

This study proposes a design approach for self-organization-based systems by introducing bounded-rational agents. The validity of the proposed model of bounded rationality is validated in comparison to the proposal of information localization, using a simulation of self-organization-based semiconductor manufacturing, which is a typical complex system. The effectiveness of the proposal is demonstrated also under changing situations.

With increasing networking and globalization of the market, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand value in production of goods and services. This paper presents a new methodology for modelling value creation based on the concept of Emergent Synthesis. In consideration of interaction among producers, customers, and the environment, the methodology classifies value creation into three models: Providing Value, Adaptive Value, and Co-creative Value. This paper presents multi-agent system simulations of service market to examine the validity of the proposed models, with discussion of the diffusion of new products/services in a society. (C) 2008 CIRP.

This paper describes the multi-agent modeling of a service market which consists of a service provider and various types of consumers. The difficulty in determining, and thus reacting to, the needs of markets, lies in the fact that consumers have diverse value concepts, which can differ through interaction with others. This study conducts a questionnaire on consumer lifestyles, and constructs models for the several types of consumers, based on the survey results. It also clarifies characteristics of a service market. The multi-agent simulations of this service market are executed to verify the validity of the proposed model.

This paper presents bounded rationality as a characteristic of agents to develop their behavior in Biological Manufacturing Systems (BMS) that can deal with the complexity of the manufacturing environment using the ideas of self-organization, evolution and learning. Clarifying the definition and description of bounded rationality, the approach is implemented in an Ant System model. The purpose of the model is to handle the uncertainty in the perception, action and inner structure of agents by introducing bounded rationality in their characteristics. Computer simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach by indicating significant improvement in the performance of the modeled BMS.

Environmental support is one of the effective approaches for robots to do tasks efficiently in office and home environments. In order to accomplish robust and rapid task realization of robots, both the environmental support and robot motion should be designed carefully. Authors have proposed the integrated methodology of designing two factors by using reliability theory. In this paper, we realize environmental support by attaching "artificial marks with memory" to all the objects in the working environments. We take the following steps : (a) preparing four motion primitives for robot motion generation. (b) Classifying "task realization method" into four from the viewpoint of environmental support and robot motion generation. (c) Programming motion sequence for each class by combining the four primitives in (a), after getting task specification. (d) Evaluating four classes by using reliability theory. We show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology through realizing a sliding door-closing task and a faucet-closing task(see video) with a real robot system.

To achieve smooth motion of car-like robots, it is necessary to generate paths that satisfy the following conditions : maximum curvature, maximum curvature derivative, and curvature continuity. Another requirement is that human operators can manipulate the paths with ease. In this paper, a path expression methodology consisting of line segments, circular arcs, and clothoid arcs are presented. In addition, a method of global path generation with a visibility graph is proposed. To establish this method, the following steps are proposed : (a) the arrangement of subgoals (middle points) and (b) the construction of the graph for path generation. By using the proposed method, the paths were shortened by an averaee of 14%.

A design for an artificial mark attached to small objects is presented in this paper. Three conditions are required for the design of the marks:(1) short calculation time, (2) easy attachment, and (3) individual calculation for each item. The marks are obtained by using three different extraction methods. The experiments determine the best mark. The mark using the method that extract colors and calculated them gravity has good results. We analyze the errors of the mark that has best experiment. The appropriateness of the experimental results is then confirmed. We have the experiment that the manipulator handles the objects with the best marks. The experiment is successful. Therefore, the usability of the mark is verified.

To achieve smooth motion of car-like robots, it is necessary to generate paths that satisfy the following conditions: maximum curvature, maximum curvature derivative, and curvature continuity. Another requirement is that human operators can manipulate the robots with ease.
In this paper, a path expression methodology consisting of line segments, circular arcs and clothoid arcs is presented. In addition, a method of global path generation with a visibility graph is proposed. To establish this method, the following steps are proposed: (a) the arrangement of sub-goals (middle points) and (b) the construction of the graph for path generation.
By using the proposed method, the paths were shortened 14% on average.

This paper presents a robot system for handling various objects in home or office environments (see video). A fixed manipulator utilizes marks on objects for handling and motion planning. A mark consists of two parts. One is the outer part, which indicates its pose (In this paper, "pose" denotes 3D position and orientation), and the other is a QR code, which is a kind of 2D barcode. A QR code is stored information of an object (e.g. its name). A user attaches several marks on each object. The manipulator accesses the information using a camera in its hand. The robot can decide its complex handling motion based on the information in QR codes, pose of the objects, which are estimated from pose of marks, and signals from proximity sensors. Experiments are conducted to verify the whole system.

This paper proposes AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) navigation methodology by using two cameras and artificial landmarks. This method doesn't need high cost sensors and doesn't have to model motion errors of AGV. It is proposed that (a) a landmark arrangement planning algorithm in a given working environment of the AGV, and (b) a landmark observation planning algorithm along a given path of the AGV. Navigation experiments with a real AGV show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.