Marketing Plan for Triumph Spares Limited Essay

Marketing Plan for Triumph Spares Limited - Essay Example Our market consist of both the final consumers and the b2b selling. However, it is noted that bulk of our sales are done through b2b channel, and only 20% of our sales is made to small customers through the shop. Therefore, we need to plan a strategy that will help us widen the both sectors and will lead to increase in the profits and revenues.The company has divided its market into two segments:Business Buyers: Here the deals are made with the other business and the company keeps a margin of 50%. This is the segment where the company earns the maximum revenue and almost 80% of its sales are made through this segment. Hence, we need to understand that this segment is most important to us in terms of its size and contribution to the profit. Hence, we need to devise a policy that sustains and grows the revenues earned from this segment. In other words, we can conclude that this is a priority segment for us. We need to look after this segment and need to give it much more importance and attention than the other sector. The sales made in this sector are in bulk and hence we can exploit on economies of scale if we continue to give importance to this sector given the size of this sector.General Public: This is the other market segment; we are currently selling our products to. Here the profit margins are high but the sales volume is very low, so we cannot rely just on this segment. We need to make sure that both the segments are sustained are served together if we need to maximize our profits.

Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Management - Research Paper Example In a clinical setting, the scientific organization approach remains founded on the idea of planning of job to attain effectiveness, consistency, specialization, and generalization. The Bureaucratic approach sees the clinic as section of a wider community organized in structure as one unit. Aims at bringing different units under one roof. Administrative theory emphasizes on the management goals and their achievement in a clinic (Ziegenfuss, 2007). Neoclassical theory stresses on a person’s or team trend and human associations in assessing output. It explains how clinic staff coordinates to bring out the desired results in an organization. The modern theory consists of three approaches, the systems approach, the socio-technical, and the contingency or situational approach. The systems approach considers the clinic like a system made up of a set of connected dependent branches. Socio-technical approach recognizes the clinic as made up of social scheme, technical scheme and its su rrounding. This ensures effective mixing with the surrounding to produce the desired results in a clinic. The contingency approach considers a clinic like institutional scheme connected to the surrounding and that various surroundings need varying institutional associations for efficient functioning of the clinic (Ziegenfuss, 2007). ... Mintzberg’s grouping recognizes (Kelly, 2012): Interpersonal role Informational role Decisional role Interpersonal role In this category, there are three types of interpersonal roles, which include: a. Figurehead: all managers, however, mainly senior managers, remain figure leaders since they participate in figurative and official functions like greeting guests and making dialogues at institutional occasions. The challenge that could remain incurred in this situation is communication barrier and the timing of the communication to suit your audience and make them comfortable. b. Liaison: it entails official and informal within and without contacts; the challenge that could prevail here is the ability to maintain all the contacts and be able to reach them evenly. c. Influencer: comprises of tasks intrinsic in the directing activity, the function of which is to encourage and head. The challenge that may prevail here is lack of enough knowledge and expertise to be able to deal wit h all the team members in the organization as well as keep them motivated and ready to work. Informational role The informational roles of a manager comprise of the following: Monitor- The manager has to view and follow the flow of information and the progress of the staff to ensure that they all conform to the set instructions and act to directives accordingly. The challenges the managers can encounter here are the other staff viewing them as dictators and completely following up their affairs and thus develop hatred towards them. This will affect the performance of the subordinate workers as well as that of the managers hence leading to low output. Disseminator- the managers have the role of spreading information to their subordinates when necessary to

How And When Children Acquire Language English Language Essay

How And When Children Acquire Language English Language Essay Introduction: The question to consider is how children acquire language and at which stage they could improve their speaking and listening skills. In particular, syntax and vocabulary are the main concern of the language acquisition domain. The task of psycholinguistics is to discover the relationship between language and the human mind (Field: 2003). Many theories, therefore, have emerged in exploring this relationship, which seek to explain the way in which children understand and acquire language. Over the last five decades these theories have offered various ideas and interpretations of the relationship. For example, in Behaviourist theory, which is associated to skinners research into language, language acquisition is considered a collection of habits. It is thought that children learn how to form correct utterances through positive reinforcement from the people around them (Patten and Benati: 2010). Cognitive theory, which is associated with Piaget, is considered a way of discovering how ind ividuals create and use language in their social context (ibid, p71). Interaction theory, related to Bruner, holds that language comes from the interaction between children and their environment (ibid, p99). There are, however, two theories in the relevant acquisition literature which oppose one another and provoke countless debates: Chomskys theory and Tomasellos theory. In Chomskys theory, children biologically possess an innate ability to acquire their language. This ability is mainly specific to language. Whereas, in Tomasellos theory language is acquired through language use by means of social skills, such as, joint attention and general learning mechanisms (Behrene: 2009). This paper seeks to explore these two theories in order to contrast them. The first and second parts of the paper present an overview of the main ideas in the two theories. The third part focuses on their different aspects, including the: poverty of stimulus argument, linguistic creativity, modularity and language specific domain versus domain- general learning mechanisms. The fourth and final part, discusses some weak points in the two theories. Overview of Chomskys (Innatist) theory: In language acquisition domain, Chomskys theory is called an innatist theory, because he proposed that children biologically possess suitable abstract knowledge for the task of first language learning .This abstract knowledge shapes the linguistic system which they learn. In fact, through this innate knowledge children can discover the rules of their language system and reduce hypothesis formation and guessing. (Patten and Benati: 2010). Chomskys main argument is that all human beings are born with an innate knowledge which is particularly designed for language acquisition (ibid). This argument is indeed, opposed to the one that language is a result of the interaction between human beings and the environment or item-usage learning (e.g. Skinner, 1957; Tomasello, 2003). Furthermore, The term Language Acquisition Device (LAD) was coined by Chomsky in this context to refer to such innate knowledge or the little black box (Patten and Benati: 2010).The (LAD) comprises the universal princi ples of all languages, by which children can be kept on track and not confused by all the complex rules of particular languages. When this (LAD) is activated, the child can discover the structure of the language s/he is to learn by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical relationships to the structures of the special language in the environment (Lightbown and Spada: 1999). However, since the 1960s, instead of (LAD) universal grammar hypothesis (UG) was introduced by Chomsky. It was given much concern by him instead of, the (LAD), because, in Chomskys view this hypothesis means that there is an innate knowledge source which governs the shape of natural language (Patten and Benati: 2010). It should be noted that the first appearance of Chomskys theory was in 1959 in his critical review of Skinners book Verbal Behavior in 1957. Chomsky in his review pointed out many shortcomings in applying Skinners theories to language acquisition. For example, Skinners experiment using rat boxes is not relevant to language because the behaviour of rats is unlike human behaviour. As a result, Skinner has a mistaken understanding of the nature of language. Furthermore, the environment considered solely as learning mechanism can not be the basis of language acquisition and therefore, mans ability to acquire language must be innate (Aitchison, 2007). Overview of Tomasellos theory (usage-based theory): The account of language acquisition provided by Tomasello comes under the umbrella of usage-based theories. Recently, a new view of language and human linguistic competence has emerged (Tomasello: 2003). This view comes from a set of theories usually called cognitive-functional linguistics, and also called usage -based linguistics in order to emphasize their main ideas that language structure is produced or appears from language use (e.g. Langacker, 1987a ; Croft, 1991; Tomasello, 1995, 2003). It is note worthy that this view stands in direct opposition to Chomskys innatist theory. Because, Tomasello in his theory is mainly concerned with the question of how children get from here to there from the constructions of infant level speech to the abstract constructions of adult thought through one set of processes of acquisition (Tomasello: 2003:3). In Tomasellos theory it is impossible that humans can have been born with a specific collection of communicative behaviours only for language . This collection more probably learned by children during their years from the linguistic conventions used around them. They must possess flexibility in order to learn both the different words and the suitable expressions of each language and the different types of abstract constructional pattern which historically these languages have grammaticized (ibid). Tomasello emphasizes, however, four points in his theory: First, the innate skills which people have are not specific to language but can be used as means for language learning. Second, theory of mind is central to symbol use, because humans can understand symbols while nonhuman do not possess this ability, because they use signal system. Thirdly, word-learning skills include: joint attention, which means the ability that children possess in their first year old whereby they can understand other people as intentional agents and interact socially through an object to which both pay attention; children note this attention to both it and themselves; Intention reading, means the ability to understand the social world around them through imitating adult acts; the construction-learning skills encompassing: analogy and pattern-finding. The latter means the distributional analysis based on statistical information in the primary linguistic data and the ability to form perceptual and conceptual figures of similar objects or situations (Tomasello: 2003). The differences between the two theories: It is noteworthy that the accounts provided by Chomsky and Tomasello comprise many opposed aspects, of which the main ones are as follows: 3.1. Poverty of stimulus argument: The basic argument of the nativist theory is based on Chomskys assumption of the poverty of stimulus (1965).This assumption means that the data provided by the input to which people exposed are not rich enough to account for language acquisition (Patten and Benati:2010). In other words, it means that the language to which children are exposed as their input or the primary linguistic data is solely a set of individual utterances yielding some abstract principles of grammar which seem ambiguous for language acquisition .The best solution he can provide is the universal grammar hypothesis (UG), which means that all humans are born with an innate universal language containing a number of abstract principles which can lead the acquisition process (Tomasello: 2003). Despite the fame of the poverty of stimulus argument in the language acquisition domain and childrens language research, it has certain, if we contrast it with the account provided by Tomasellos usage-based theory. We find that the research into the developmental psychology of language acquisition has provided many arguments which support the richness of stimulus in usage-based theories (e.g Clark2003, Tomasello 2003). In fact, the significance of social pragmatic interaction in language acquisition is evidenced by extensive findings in this domain (Tomasello: 2003). To put it more simple, Tomasello in his theory emphasizes that: There is no poverty of the stimulus when a structured inventory of construction is the adult endpoint (Tomasello: 2003:7). He notes that the hypothesis of an innate universal grammar has two major problems, namely, first, the linking problem and the problem of continuity. The first problem is how children can connect their abstract universal grammar with the particular language which they learn. The second problem deals with the developmental changes in childrens language, for example, how people can understand childrens language during their developmental change if we accept that universal grammar is always the same. It, therefore, seems useful to provide a description or explanation of child language acquisition which ignores any hypothesis of universal grammar which creates these problems (Tomasello: 2003). Accordingly, it is important to note that Chomsky and Tomasello are opposed on the argument of the poverty of stimulus. Tomasellos view, however, seems stronger, because nativists provide no support for their claims. As Pullum and Scholz (2002:47) point out, the poverty of stimulus argument still a waits even a single good supporting example. Moreover, Akhtar (2004) seems to agree with this criticism, in that she indicates that this argument was the basis for a number of nativist claims, yet indeed lack supporting empirical evidences. 3.2. Language is creative: Another difference between Chomsky and Tomasello is the formers belief that language is creative. From Chomsky perspective, creativity in language has three- fold support. First, people possess the ability to understand and produce strange sentences which they have never before heard or spoken (Aitchison: 2007). Second, the creative use of language is free from the external and internal affects of the stimulus control (Chomsky: 1968). Third, the way in which people use the language considered to be coherent and appropriate to the situation (Hegde: 1980). By the way of contrast, we can see that Tomasello does not ignore creativity in language, but he has little concern for it. According to him, it results from the attempt of humans to create categories in their own language (Tomasello: 1995). Chomsky asserts that the creativity in language is something which can not be acquired solely through environmental learning methods (Aitchison: 2007). Tomasello contrastingly asserts that, during a period of time, children obtain the communicative conventions are obtained step by step from the people around them. For example, their social cognitive skills and developing cognition are utilised to internalise these conventions. Childrens basic abilities are used to learn their first words. They create concepts so as to understand adult speech and then to produce suitable new words in their communicative contexts (Tomasello: 1995). It is thought, however, from the contrast between the two views that Chomskys view about the creativity of language has some limitations. For one thing, nativists assert that every utterance we hear and say is completely novel and accepted. This assertion seems to be wrong. The reason is that to accept it we would need to assume that each word or sentence has a separate existence. Moreover, we have to assume that our past language experience is sufficient to provide a clear understanding of the present utterances. But, if these assumptions are accepted, the result will be that human communicative behaviour has no continuity (Hegde: 1980). The second point, on the creativity of language free from the control of stimulus, seems to be weak, because, as discussed above in section (3.1) no evidence has been offered in its support. Furthermore, with regard to the third point, in Chomskys view the way that people use language is coherent and appropriate to the situation. It could be argued that this point is somewhat vague, since Chomsky admits that he can give no clear meaning to the terms appropriateness and coherent in this context (ibid). However, he stresses that the creative aspect of language is common. Humans constantly create novel utterances and many who lack this ability might be brain damaged (Aitchison: 2007). This view would be more popular if it took into account the effect of environmental learning methods in producing our utterances, since the one question that needs to be asked here is, how humans can produce them without communication with their input. 3.3. Modularity: In the areas of linguistics and philosophy of mind, the idea of modularity has raised a great deal of concern (Garfield: 1987). There seems to be another difference between Chomsky and Tomasello, about the modularity of mind in language acquisition. To illustrate, the definition of modularity according to Crystal (1998: 246) is: A term used in recent discussion of language in two slightly different ways. On the one hand, it is proposed, especially in J. A. Fodors The Modularity of Mind, that the mind is modular in the sense that it consists of a number of different systems ( modules) each has its own distinctive properties , such as the language system and the vision system. On the other hand, it is suggested, especially in government-binding theory that language system itself is modular in the sense that it consists of a number of different subsystems which interact in specific ways. The concept of modularity is that the brain is divided into separate parts, an idea to which Chomsky gives much attention (1965).He identifies the language area as a separate faculty of mind, in that language is autonomous in the mind and a separate module in the brain (Aitchison: 2007). Furthermore, he goes on to argue that the human mind is, like other complex biological systems, modular in its internal formation (Chomsky: 1984). The main idea of modularity, according to him, is that the modularity of syntax means that the structures of syntax are not the same as the structures exist in other cognitive (Chomsky: 1968 cited in Tomasello: 1995). By the way of contrast, we can see that Tomasello does not agree that language is a separated module in the brain, because, by his reasoning, in order to have a perfect grammatical theory the syntactic abilities should be combined into cognition and not like an autonomous sub-system (Parisse: 2005). To sum up, Chomskys view is a modular view in which there are different sub-parts in the mind each one possessing special characteristics. Tomasello, however, take the non-modular view that there are general principles employed in all cognitive domains which control the mind (Archibald: 1993). However, to return to the account of modularity provided by Chomsky, one of the difficulties with this account is the claim that syntactic structures are not like the structures which exist in other cognitive domains. This seems to be wrong, because it gives the idea that the syntax module is innate, yet if we give the example of the game of chess, we find that it possesses a number of unique structures, such as, the images of a knight fork or queen-a side attack- in human cognition. But there is no need to presume that this uniqueness chess- playing form needs an innate mental form (Bates et al. 1991). Moreover, the structures of cognitive thought which adults utilise in order to play the game of chess come through a process in which people employ general cognitive processes to face their problems in their social interaction which they may have had in learning to play a constructed game (Tomasello:1995). Hence, it is thought that Chomskys view seems to be weak because it is difficult to specify which part of the brain is responsible for language. As Bates asserts, it still far from knowing perfectly which parts of the brain are responsible for language (Bates in press, cited in, Tomasello 1995). 3.4. Language- specific versus domain- general learning mechanisms: Another point of difference between Chomsky and Tomasello concerns the way in which children acquire language. is another different point between Chomsky and Tomasello. The difference lies in the contention over whether language should be a specific domain or a domain general learning mechanism. A specific domain in this context means a domain specific to language, whilst, domain general refers to learning mechanisms which are not specific to language, yet applied generally. From Chomskys perspective, since, human beings are able to learn language and animals are not, this ability is considered genetically inherited (Aitchison: 2007). Nativist theory, in fact, hypothesises that children are born with universal grammar (UG), a set of innate principles and parameters. This possession helps children to learn language without making errors as they learn (Conroy and Thornton: 2005). Therefore, this assumes that children possess a pre- existing domain- specific innate form which specifies the form of their language knowledge. Moreover, in language learning in particular, syntax children obtain ability without exposure to adequate stimulus (Chomsky; 1986, Pinker; 1994). However, Tomasello believes that it is false to suppose that children have genetically endowed grammar (Tomasello: 2003). To his mind, children in order to learn their language employ item-based learning integrated with some general learning mechanisms that are used in other cognitive domains , such as, analogy (Conroy and Thornton: 2005). Moreover, in Tomasellos view the properties of language structure come from joint attention figures and not from innate language specific mechanisms (Segalowitz: 2001). As a result, Tomasello significantly did not ignore language universals; however, to him they not universals of form or a special type of syntax or linguistic symbols but are instead, the universals of human communication and cognition. For example, human beings use language in similar social contexts in order to provide solutions in language for communicative tasks, such as, describing specific entities (Tomasello: 2003). Consequently, Chomskys view that language has a specific-do main is weak , because languages differ in their grammatical relations, of subject and object, for example, Acehnese, an Indonesian language, and Tagalog, a Philippine language, do not possess these grammatical relations ( Tomasello:1995). 4. Some weakness in both theories: Tomasello, then, introduced a new model of usage-based theories in language acquisition in which he paid attention to a main set of skills, namely, intention reading, joint attention and pattern-finding skills. These skills are general skills utilised also in other types of cognition and not in language alone. Furthermore, although they are innate, they are not like the universal grammar (UG) invented by Chomsky, because they are not specific to language (Tomasello, 2003). But Tomasellos account seems to entail some limitations. It is thought that he does not provide a clear explanation for the fact that these skills are sufficient for language acquisition. As Wilson (2006:138) points out: Tomasellos central claim is that joint attention and intention reading are foundational and prerequisite for language acquisition. It does seems reasonable to assume that they are necessary for language development, but the big question is, are they sufficient? Can they entirely account for all of the complexities of language à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ from parsing speech stream to the emergence of complex grammatical structures? Hollich et al. (2000), on the other hand, seems to agree with this criticism, because they assert that Tomasellos theory, which is one of the social constructivist theories, does not possess a complete or sufficient explanation for the fact that children can produce increasingly inserted sentences in their utterances. Moreover, the problem with these theories is that they still offer no clarification of childrens ability to discover the relationships between language units. In contrast to this, Chomskys theory is considered one of the famous theories in the language acquisition domain. It has indeed, affected the entire literature language acquisition, because of the controversy surrounding it. Yet this theory too attracts a number of criticisms. In this section, we focus on four critical points made against this theory. A major criticism concerns the universal grammar hypothesis (UG) which has been discussed above. Although (UG) aroused widespread interest in language acquisition debates, it is thought, that it is based solely on abstract thinking and lacks empirical support. As Kadarisman (2007a) points out, the concept of universal grammar must be without meaning unless it has empirical evidence. But, without adequate explanations, it seems to be more a slogan than a scientific effort. Moreover, due to its abstraction, (UG) neglects the local importance of language used in the cultural context (Becker: 1995). Second, Chomskys theory is criticised for relying on logical arguments only. As Palmer (2000) indicates, Chomskys nativist claims remain are still the same as they have been fir the past two decades. Because his claims are based on logical arguments instead of, direct evidences or reasonable interpretations, his argum ents have no external support. Tomasello seems, agree with Palmer in this criticism because he states that Chomsky in his account relies strongly on logical arguments, not using the scientific study of human behaviour and cognition (Tomasello: 1995). Third, it is criticised because it can not be tested. This creates some contention around Chomskys account. The reason is that his theory has no clear cut procedures which could be examined. To put it more simple, Chomsky considered theory-construction in linguistics as similar to theory- construction in the physical sciences, particular, physics. Yet, there is a deference between these two domains, because, the mathematical model in physics depends on physical phenomena and is testable, whereas, Chomskys model relies on subjective judgments made by individual native speakers who may disagree with each other. Consequently, it can not be tested (Moor and Carling: 1987). Fourth, Chomskys theory is criticised in terms of its ideas, if considered as philosophical ideas, for instance the adoption of such innatist ideas as, the universal grammar (UG) hypothesis which is based on the hypothesis of an innate language faculty. Subsequently, many linguists (e.g. Hegde, 1980; Moore and Claring, 1987) have strongly criticised these ideas. For example, Hegde asserts that the concept of a nativist theory is merely part of an ancient philosophical idea. Furthermore, Moore and carling believe that Chomskian linguistics are linked by these ideas to philosophy, in particular, epistemology, the part of philosophy concerned with knowledge theories. Conclusion: The domain of language acquisition possesses a varied collection of theories. Their main concern is to discover the way in which people, in particular children, can acquire language. The accounts given by Chomsky and Tomasello can be critically contrasted, as seen above. They obviously stand on two opposite sides. In Chomskys theory, children are born with an innate ability by which they acquire their language, whereas, in Tomasellos theory, language is acquired through language use and not by biologically innate ability. Furthermore, the innate abilities which children have are not specific to language. However, the main aspects which have been contrasted in this paper comprised: first, the poverty of stimulus argument, in which, according to Chomsky, the input is not sufficient to acquire language, while, from Tomasellos perspective there is no poverty of stimulus; second, Language to Chomsky is creative, because it is free from the control of stimulus while in Tomasellos view lang uage results from the attempt of humans to create categories in language; third, modularity, Chomskys assertion that the mind is separated into sub-parts, whereas Tomasello believes, that general principles control the mind; and fourth, Language- specific versus domain- general learning mechanisms; either there are universals specific to language, as in (UG) hypothesis of Chomsky or, as Tomasello states universals is not specific to language but apply to all human communication and cognition. Hence, we can conclude that Chomskys account strongly relies on the hypothesis of universal grammar (UG) to support his view on the poverty of stimulus argument, creativity of language, modularity and the language- specific domain. It should be noted that the universal grammar hypothesis (UG) brought a great deal of debate among scholars of language acquisition, even though one of its limitations is that it has no empirical evidence to support it. Tomasellos account, conversely, depends on general skills in language acquisition, such as, joint attention, intention reading and pattern finding skills. Yet he did not provide adequate explanation to convince us that these are sufficient for language acquisition.

Microsoft Versus the Department of Justice Essays -- Computers Microso

Microsoft Versus the Department of Justice In today’s high-tech ultra-fast paced world, there can be no debate as to the importance of personal computers. Personal Computers control virtually every aspect of our daily lives. Businesses, regardless of their size, have local area networks, company Intranets and high-speed wide area networks. Billing, inventory and invoicing would be impossible without help from our Personal Computers. Stocks, bonds and commodities are traded in the markets around the world entirely by computer. The Banking industry relies enormously on Personal Computers for every transaction. Communicating without email, fax transmissions and other forms of computer aided information transfers would be unimaginable. The media would be unable to produce news and information for the masses in the timely manner we know today. Law enforcement agencies, from local police, to field agents of the F.B.I. depend on computer databases for crucial information. Air traffic controllers rely on their computer s to safely land and route thousands of planes into airports around the world everyday. Even the military depends on computers to defend our very own borders and interests. With the important role that Personal Computers serve in society today, is it really a good idea to have one company exclusively control the technology running virtually every aspect of our lives? Ninety percent of all computers sold worldwide are IBM or IBM compatible clones. Microsoft's infamous operating system licensing agreements required all personal computer makers to pay Microsoft a royalty on every computer they manufactured, even when no Microsoft product was loaded on the machine.(Kaphing 1) This forced the Personal Computer makers into only using the Microsoft operating system. They could not choose a different Operating System even if they so desired, because at that time all of the Personal Computer clone manufacturers were small start up companies, having very limited capital. They couldn't afford to pay both Microsoft and another company for a different operating system. In 1994 The United States Justice Department barred Microsoft from engaging in this sort of extortion, but it was already too late, the Operating System monopoly had been realized. After the 1994 decision, Microsoft resorted to a new anti-competitive tactic. Yet another ... ... and largely as a result of that barrier, Microsoft’s customers lack a commercially viable alternative to Windows. Microsoft possesses a dominant, persistent, and increasing share of the world-wide market PC operating systems. Every year for the last decade, Microsoft’s share of the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems has stood above ninety percent. For the last couple of years the figure has been at least ninety-five percent, and analysts project that the share will climb even higher over the next few years. Even if Apple’s Mac Operating System were included in the relevant market, Microsoft’s share would still stand well above eighty percent. It was proven in court that many of the tactics that Microsoft has employed have also harmed consumers indirectly by unjustifiably distorting competition. The actions that Microsoft took against Navigator hobbled a form of innovation that had shown the potential to depress the applications barrier to entry sufficiently to enable other firms to compete effectively against Microsoft in the market for PC operating systems. That competition would have conduced to consumer choice and nurtured innovation.

The Monster

The monster, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is the nameless creature whose physical grotesqueness and murderous deeds label him as the embodiment of evil, when in actuality he is a remarkably sensitive and benevolent being. The monster is Victor Frankenstein’s creation, assembled from old body parts and strange chemicals, brought to life by supernatural means. He enters life with the strength of a giant, yet an infant mind. He is abandoned by his own creator and rejected by society. His feelings are the deepest of any characters in this novel, as well as the most conflicted. He states, â€Å"I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other† (Shelley 104) Mary Shelley aims to portray the monster as more of a human with humane characteristics. Unknown to them, the monster collects firewood for the De Laceys and leaves it at their door. He even saves a girl from drowning, but his good deed is rejected and he is beaten for his outward appearance. The monster is also an extremely intelligent creature. He persuaded Victor to hear his story about how he learned and acquired knowledge through reading and observing the De Laceys. However, his education only made him more aware of his isolation. The monster also desires love and companionship like any human. He ask of Victor, â€Å"I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create† (Shelley 146) It is his loneliness and rejection by society that makes him so malicious but he might have been a different creature if only his desire for a female companion was satisfied. Unfortunately the monster’s mere physical ugliness is the reason society does not accept him. After being so cruelly rejected, he is enthralled with a desire for revenge. He murders Victor’s loved ones because he himself is denied closeness with anyone and wants to make Victor suffer like he did. However, even after his creator’s death, the monster is only somewhat relieved. He had taken full revenge on Victor but had also ruined his only relationship with another person. The monster’s life is intertwined with his creator and he is nothing without Victor. He asserts, â€Å"He is dead who called me into being; and when I shall be no more, the very remembrance of us both will speedily vanish. I shall no longer see the sun or stars, or feel the winds play on my cheeks. Light, feeling, and sense will pass away; and in this condition must I find my happiness† (Shelley 224-225) The monster is as much a part of Frankenstein as he is his own being, so after Victor’s death he seeks to find peace in death.

Behavioral Finance

Behavioral finance is a study which involves the influence of psychology on the attitudes and behavior of investors and its subsequent effects on the markets. Behavioral Studies is still in its development stages, but it is instrumental in determining/ explaining as to why or how markets might be inefficient. The difference between traditional finance and behavioral finance is that traditional finance is based on the following concepts: – Investors have rational behavior – Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) – Markets are efficientBehavioral finance on the other hand says that, the psychological forces interfere with these concepts. It says that there are both internal and external behavioral obstacles towards the value creation of any company. In practical terms it brings forward the errors in judgments made by both individual investors and fund managers and the various biases to which we as humans are prone. Analyzing this will place us in a position to make dec isions which avoid errors/mistakes committed in the past . INVESTORS: Individual investors: An individual investor is a person who purchases small amounts of securities for him/herself.He is not professionally involved in investment services and whatever purchases he/she makes are on an arm’s length basis. Individual investors are highly regulated because they are thought of as amateurs with little or no knowledge. An individual investor is also known as retail investor or small investor . Professional investor: These investors are usually all those businesses which are involved in giving investment services either directly or indirectly for example, investment companies, mutual funds, investment banks, brokerage houses etc.Besides them professional investors could also be individuals which are professionally involved in giving investment services. Professional investors are also known as institutional investors. These investors are subject to fewer regulations probably becau se they are perceived as having superior knowledge to individual investors . Behavioral biases: Individual and Institutional investors are both prone to almost similar biases, because institutional investors are although organizations in their own right but in actual are lead by a handful of managers.Proponents of this study argue that humans are prone to bias in making their judgments no matter how qualified or experienced they may be. They say that humans make frequent use of heuristics, mental shortcuts/rules of thumb to simplify decisions and tasks that are complex. Availability heuristic: With availability heuristic it is believed that for humans the probability of an event occurring is dependent on how easily one can imagine that event happening. The more clear is the image the greater the probability.A related concept is Illusory correlation which describes we imagine and hence interpret evidence. Although this bias is limited for retail investors since not only their investm ents are smaller but they also don’t have various charts, patterns analyzing past year data at their disposal, as for institutional investors this bias is at a much more magnified level because many fund managers use charts and technical analysis which according to them helps in identifying various patterns and price/stock moments . Representativeness heuristic:This concept says that humans are prone making judgments that involve consideration of stereo-types instead of the underlying features. For example, while hiring the selection process takes into consideration the qualifications, relevant experience, personality etc. however this in no way can predict the future job performance of the individual. This also incorporates a related concept called Illusion of validity which puts forward that the confidence in one’s judgment is primarily based on the representation of the situation instead of the characteristics.However, retail investors are more prone to this bias as compared to institutional investors because they have the information that is available to the general public for example, commentaries from financial journalists, analysts which believe that well known companies are good stock-market investment options, but in reality these two factors are largely unrelated . Anchoring and adjustment: This is another important heuristic according to which decisions made by humans are dependent on some key value/number.There is no process or logic behind determination of this value/number it could be any random number. For example, budgeting which involves use of current figures to determine future estimates. Many fund managers use current year figures and current year industry averages to determine future estimates. This bias is a product of our inherent conservatism which leads to our under reaction to new information. Institutional investors are more prone to this bias as compared to small investors. Probably because the managers of investment c ompanies actively use these techniques to draw conclusions.Small investors would hardly be aware so these techniques however those with an accounting background could be an exception . Loss aversion: It is also a key bias. It is based on the concept that humans find it very difficult to accept loss and the state of denial is such that we infact believe that holding onto it for longer periods of time would turnaround things some way or the other. This bias has some major consequences in financial decision-making. For instance, over the years it has been seen that many companies have kept running loss-making units and destroying shareholder wealth to the level at which it was irreparable.The reasons behind the strength of this bias as scholars put it is the shame and regret and feeling the blame for the loss incurred. Individual investors are more prone to this professional investors, a study revealed that individual investors sell those stocks that start to perform well quite soon an d hang on loss-making stocks for longer periods of time hoping that things might take a u-turn. This problem as professional traders put it is named get evenitis. Hindsight bias: It is based on the concept that humans are prone to that feeling â€Å"I knew it all the while† or precisely hindsight bias.To correct this bias is also very difficult because it’s natural for us to make differing conclusions regarding what happened in the past even though those decisions would have been correct according to the data and circumstances at hand then. For example, these days since the global economy is in recession even a layman is heard that this was inevitable. Individual investors are prone to this bias out of human nature, as for institutional investors they are less prone to this because they would be having greater access to information all the time .Over-confidence bias: Humans are naturally over-confident about their abilities normally. This further leads to over optimism i. e. we normally feel that we can be successful in most of our endeavors or do the right thing in most of the situations. However in reality that is not possible. Moreover the more information or data one gathers regarding a task, the more that person feels in greater control this is called Illusion of knowledge. Practically the biggest setback that one has to deal with results unfolds is that they are quite different than what was expected.Individual investors are much less prone to this bias as compared to institutional investors which suffer a lot more, because the over-confidence of a team of managers would prove more lethal financially. For example, 3Com which acquired US Robotics in 2000 made an IPO of its division that made the famous Palm pilots. Although the share prices went as high as $165 making 3Com the fourth largest technology firm then but announcement of a forthcoming product without the infrastructure yet in place saw its share prices dramatically fall to $1. 35 in 2001.This financial blunder was a result of a combined over-optimism of the then senior management. INVESTMENT BELIEFS: Characteristics of the Individual investor’s investment beliefs would be focused on limited aspects probably because they have limited knowledge of the market and they invest smaller amounts as compared to institutional investors. They would probably invest in companies that have good market reputation and which promise a good return within a short span of time. As for institutional investors their investment beliefs would be diverse since they are professionals.It would be important for them to take measures to avoid conflicts of interest. It would also be important for them to develop a clear view of capital markets in order to invest in companies that are expected to yield good returns . CONCLUSION: Behavioral finance has therefore highlighted that financial decision-making of both individual and institutional investors. The errors/mistakes made in yes ter-years both at the individual and organizational level if taken care of in future could result in making sound long-term decisions. WORKS CITED: Blanco. A.Behavioral Finance Possibilities and Limitations of Different Approaches. Wiesbaden, 2003 Fortune. Why CEOs Fail. February 10th 2009 Retrieved from :< http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/>, 1999. Goldberg. J. Behavioral Finance. John Wiley, 2001. Montier. J. Behavioral Finance: Insights into Irrational Minds and Markets. J. Wiley. 2002. Owen. A. S. Behavioral Finance and the Decision to Invest in High Tech Stocks. School of Finance and Economics, University of Technology, 2002 Pompian. M. M. Behavioral Finance and Wealth Management: How to Build Optimal Portfolios That Account for Investor Biases.John Wiley and Sons, 2006. Redhead. K. Personal Finance and Investments: A Behavioral Finance Perspective. Routledge, 2008 Shefrin. H. Behavioral Finance. Edward Elgar Pub, 2001. Shleifer . A. Inefficient Markets: An Introduction to Behavioral Finance. Oxford University Press US, 2000. Stanyer. P, Dimson. E. The Economist Guide to Investment Strategy: How to Understand Markets, Risk, Rewards and Behaviour. Bloomberg Press, 2006. Taffler. J. R. (2001). Management Focus. Thaler. H. R. (1993). Advances in Behavioral Finance. Russell Sage Foundation

Speaking Strategies for English Learners

Speaking Strategies for English Learners Many English students complain that they understand English, but dont feel confident enough to join a conversation. There are a number of reasons for this, which we include here along with possible solutions: Students try to translate from their native language into English. How to Fix  It? Identify the Little Man/Woman in Your Head  -   If you pay attention, youll notice that youve created a little person in your head that translates. By insisting on always translating through this little man or woman, youre introducing a third person into the conversation. Learn to identify this person and ask them nicely to be quiet! Production blocking occurs due to nervousness, lack of confidence, etc. How to Fix  It? Become a Child Again -   Think back to when you were a child learning your first language. Did you make mistakes? Did you understand everything? Allow yourself to be a child again and make as many mistakes as possible. Also accept the fact that you wont understand everything, thats okay! The speaker is looking for a specific word, rather than using simple language to describe what is meant. How to Fix  It? Dont Always Tell the Truth  - Students sometimes limit themselves by trying to find the exact translation of something theyve done. However, if you are learning English, its not necessary to always tell the truth. If you are practicing telling stories in the past, make up a story. Youll find you can speak more easily if you arent trying to find a specific word. There arent enough conversation opportunities in or outside of class. How to Fix  It? Use Your Native Language  - Think about what you like to discuss in your own native language. Find a friend who speaks your language, have a conversation about a topic you both enjoy in your own language. Next, try to reproduce the conversation in English. Dont worry if you cant say everything, just try to repeat the main ideas of your conversation. Students arent able to speak to peers (for example: mixed classes of adults and teenagers). How to Fix  It? Make Speaking Into a Game -   Challenge each other to speak in English for a short period of time. Keep your goals easy. Perhaps you can begin with a short two-minute conversation in English. As practicing becomes more natural, challenge each other for longer periods of time. Another possibility is to collect some money for each time you use your own language with a friend. Use the money to go out for a drink and practice some more English! Exam preparation focuses on grammar, vocabulary, etc. and leaves little time for active use. How to Fix  It? Create a Study Group  - If getting ready for a test is your primary goal for learning English, put together a study group to review and prepare - in English! Make sure your group only discusses in English. Studying and reviewing in English, even if its just grammar, will help you become more comfortable in speaking English.   Speaking Resources Here are a number of resources, lesson plans, suggestion pages, and more which will help you and your students improve English speaking skills in and outside of class. The first rule of improving speaking skills is to speak, converse, talk, gab, etc. as much as you can! However, these strategies can help you - or your students - make the most out of your efforts. American English Usage Tips - Understanding how Americans use English and what they expect to hear can help improve conversations between native and non-native speakers. These next two features help you understand how words stress plays a role in both understanding and being understood: Intonation and Stress: Key to UnderstandingWord Stress - Changes in Meaning Register use refers to the tone of voice and words that you choose when speaking to others. Appropriate register use can help you develop a good rapport with other speakers. Register UsageRegister Use in English Teaching Conversational Skills will help teachers understand specific challenges involved when teaching speaking skills in class. Social English Examples Making sure that your conversation starts well often depends on using social English (standard phrases). These social English examples provide short dialogues and key phases necessary. IntroductionsGreetingsSpecial DaysSpeaking to StrangersTraveling Phrases Dialogues Dialogues are useful in learning standard phrases and vocabulary used in common situations. These situations are some of the most common youll find when practicing your English. A Busy DayWeekend SportsAt a Restaurant Here are a number of dialogues based on level: Beginners DialoguesIntermediate Dialogues Conversation Lesson Plans Here are a number of lesson plans which have proven quite popular in ESL/EFL classrooms around the world. Well start with debates. Debates can be used in class to help motivate students and use phrases and vocabulary that they may not use on an everyday basis. Here are a few to start off with: Men and Women - Equal at Last?Multinationals -   Help or Hindrance? Games are also quite popular in class, and games which encourage to express their point of view are some of the best: Creating a New SocietyGuilty!Lego Blocks This page will lead you to all the conversation plans located on this site: Conversation Lesson Plan Resource

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)- English Literature Essay (100 Level Course)

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)- English Literature Essay (100 Level Course) Free Online Research Papers Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)- English Literature Essay (100 Level Course) Chaucer was born in London, probably about 1340. The son of a well-to-do wine merchant, he had the opportunity of coming into contact with the new merchant class. In 1357 he entered the household of the Duke of Clarence’s wife, thus coming to move in Court circles as well. At the age of nineteen he took part in the Hundred Years’ War, was per haps taken prisoner by the French and then ransomed by King Edward III. Back in England, he returned to service at Court. He was often sent abroad on diplomatic missions and also visited Italy, where he probably met Petrarch and Boccaccio and read some Dante. He sat in Parliament as the representative of Kent. The many ups and downs of his life never prevented him from writing. He died in 1400 and was the first poet to be buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer’s literary production is usually divided into three periods: (in imitation of the French) Le Roman de la Rose, an unfinished translation of the French allegorical poem by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung. The Book of the Duchess, an allegorical lament on the death of John of Gaunt’s first wife. (mostly under Italian and Latin influence) Troilus and Criseyde, from Boccaccio’s Filostrato. - The House of Fame, for which he was partly indebted to Dante and Ovid. The Legend of Good Women, made up of an allegorical prologue and nine stories of women, for which he was indebted to Ovid’s Hero ides. - The Parliament of Fowls, rich in comic spirit. (also called the English Period) The Canterbury Tales, although some of the tales later introduced into the work had been written earlier. Chaucer was certainly the right man at the right time. His contacts at Court, his diplomatic missions abroad, his frequent journeys throughout England, as well as his experience in the newly formed Parliament gave him the opportunity to meet many kinds of people: nobles, churchmen, merchants, students, commoners, each belonging to a precise social class or profession. As for Eng land itself, it had finally developed into a united, self-confident and highly patriotic nation. When he realized that his country was ready for a literature of its own, he decided to write a work in English (that is to say Middle English), which could be understood by anybody, learned or unlettered, who read or heard it.1 His initial idea was certainly to write a collection of tales, as the title suggests. Writing tales, however, was fashionable at the time, especially after the French and Italian models which looked back in turn to ancient Greece and Rome. But Chaucer probably had another purpose in mind: he wanted to give his countrymen a hook that would be a true mirror of England and in which they could really recognize themselves. So when he began his masterpiece (probably in 1387) he turned for inspiration to the many people he had met during his life and whose images he had stored in his memory for years. He nevertheless needed a framework in which to insert them, and once more he turned to his European culture for help. He probably remembered Boccaccio’s Decameron, and found here the idea of a social event as a pretext for bringing various people together. This event, however, was to be typically English, so he thought that the traditional annual pilgrimage to Canterbury would certainly be the best setting for his characters. He therefore imagined that, one April day in the Tabard Inn at Southwark in London, twenty-nine pilgrims met before setting out on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The host of the Inn, Harry Bailly, offered his services as guide and suggested that each pilgrim should tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back. Chaucer himself was invited to join the company, as we learn from the opening lines of the poem. Research Papers on Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)- English Literature Essay (100 Level Course)Quebec and CanadaThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 Europe19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraMind TravelStandardized TestingAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2The Fifth HorsemanPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married Males

Famous people under 30, who have achieved a lot in advertising sphere

Famous people under 30, who have achieved a lot in advertising sphere Creative people under 30 in Advertising It happens very often that a person devotes all his or her time, efforts and abilities to one certain sphere, which becomes his/her lifework. Lots of such professionals gain their experience during the whole life and establish their own contributions or ideas within the dozens of years. We got adjusted to the fact that only skilled and practiced people understand the core points and able to astonish with creative ideas. Perhaps, it is really so in most cases, when we speak about scientific field or other resource-consuming areas, which require custom approach. When it refers to modern business forms or such highly developed world of advertisements, the standard rules do not work here. We have thousands of examples when young even not very skilled but amazingly creative people make a real breakthrough in a certain sphere. It proves the fact the new generation possesses modern and progressive way of thinking and understands up to date trends, which can caught attention of millions of people. So we selected a number of outstanding people within the advertisement sphere, who even have not reached their thirty, but already are famous for their achievements. Chelsea Cumings She is only 28 and occupies the position of the freelance art director. So what is her work significant for? The previous year several of her works were awarded for brilliant performance. Thus, 2016 she became an owner of the Gold Clio, One Club â€Å"One to Watch†, two DAD Pencils, four Cannes Lion Bronzes. She has experience of work with such brands as Traget, Adidas, HP.   One of her most outstanding works was executed for Expedia. It was devoted to the story of children’s dreams coming true due to cooperation of St Jude Children's Research Hospital and travel company, which embodied children’s dreams by means of the VR room. Daniel Barak Daniel is VP and creative director at Saatchi Saatchi Los Angeles at the age of 28.2016 was for Barak rich for awards. His work for Volkswagen's Golf R "Unleash Your Rrr." launch campaign was honored by Cannes Lions, ANDYs and One show Pencils. Due to pioneering of the AI use in the advertising, this campaign is archived by New York MoMa. Rohan Cooke and Laura Petruccelli They are 27 and 26 correspondingly and already are hired as associate creative directors at Goodby Silverstein Partners. This Australian duo became real headliners in the advertisement field in the past few months. They are famous for their campaign called â€Å"Unacceptable Letters†, which tells about sexual violation, from which suffer a lot of women in college. One more of their campaign was designed for Instagram. It was a square milkshake designed for the app's square format. For these campaigns Rohan and Laura were awarded by a number of awards, comprising Cannes Lions. This pair is also included in the number of global top lists of the creative people in advertisements. Andrew Kong and Curtis Petraglia Andrew deals with copywriting and Curtis works as an art director at Deutsch. They both are at the age of 29 and are known as â€Å"Curtis and Kong†. This duo joined the Deutsch team two years ago and already managed to work over the campaigns for such famous brands as Snapple, Pizza Hut, Dr Pepper, Taco Bell, and Nintendo. According to the information, provided by their agency, developed by guys campaign â€Å"Make time for Snapple† resulted in the highest return on investment, achieved by the brand campaign. Curtis and Kong were the participants in the first YouTube Creative Hack, held in Singapore. They needed to produce an advertisement with six-second duration for Singapore tourism board and were awarded a first place for their videos. Florian Marquardt Florian is employed as a senior creative at Goodby Silverstein Partners. Marquardt is only 28, but he worked on a number of famous campaigns and achieved great results in it. Among these campaigns are the following: Doritos â€Å"No choice†, NYPD’s â€Å"Invisible faces†. He has already made a strong contribution to Goodby Silverstein achievements. Except his day job Florian has a lot of ideas, interesting undertakings and number of creative projects, one of the most famous of them is the â€Å"#Help50Cent† tongue-in-cheek Kickstarter campaign. So follow the example of this people and do not take your age into account. It does not matter who and how old you are, the things that really matter is your creative mind and endless fresh ideas, which can excite the curiosity of the required audience.

Population growth and the degradation of the environment Essay

Population growth and the degradation of the environment - Essay Example In our case this is because the relationship between human population growth and wildlife extinctions is not always direct. We are a species with an insatiable appetite for resources, and we sometimes use them irresponsibly. Thus, it could be argued, what we do and how we survive may be more important to our impact on other species than the simple effect of our great numbers. Thus we need solid evidence to establish that, over the broad sweep of time, there is a close tie between the simple count of people on the planet and the diminishing count of other species. In other words, the impact of our large population would be great even if we were to behave differently. If there is such a link, then it is particularly frightening, for there are now over six billion people on the planet. Nature has been "comparatively sparing" in the space and resources necessary to support both wildlife and a human population. Malthus was the economist who warned us in 1798 that the human population would grow more quickly than the resources necessary to sustain it. Now I know that Malthus and his ideas have been much maligned over the years by optimists who see no problem with human population growth. Thus in 1998, the two hundredth anniversary of his publication went almost without notice. The following year, the milestone number of A.D. 2000 got much more press than another milestone number: six billion, the number the human population reached sometime midway through the year. Granted, both are arbitrary numbers. But to a few of us concerned scientists, the population milestone was far more frightening than the computer glitches predicted for "Y2K." Y2K had almost no effect; the six billion figure has a lasting and growing impact. Yet few people noticed the milestone, and even f ewer cared. Human population growth is outstripping resources, especially as it relates to the sustainability of earth's biodiversity. As Ohio novelist and conservationist Louis Bromfield put it in 1947, "The bitter truth is that we are having our noses rubbed in Malthusian theory." It is even truer today than it was then, for our population Human population growth is outstripping resources, especially as it relates to the sustainability of earth's biodiversity. As Ohio novelist and conservationist Louis Bromfield put it in 1947, "The bitter truth is that we are having our noses rubbed in Malthusian theory". It is even truer today than it was then, for our population size has since doubled. Many of the world's population live in poor countries already strained by food insecurity; inadequate sanitation, water supplies and housing; and an inability to meet the basic needs of the current population. These same countries are also among the fastest growing places in the world. A large proportion of these populations are supported through subsistence agriculture. As populations grow, competition for fertile land and the use of limited resources increases. The people living in these countries are also moving toward a greater standard of living, perhaps matching the lifestyles of the more developed countries whose current consumption patterns and resource use are not necessarily sustainable. Quite simply, if we want to conserve biodiversity on earth, the most important conservation measure we can take is to slow or halt the growth of the human population. Frankly, a reduction in numbers from six billion may even be desirable. Now

Change & Change Management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Change & Change Management - Term Paper Example This is a fiction with an artistic approach Cheese as a word. Cheese has been used in the text to mean something that the company or organization holds dear (Spencer 14), hence why I chose this fictional text for analysis. The Cheese in this case refers to the livelihood, status and way of life that the four characters had in their environment (Spencer 14). For a company, the Cheese would be the status in the industry, the market size, the customers as well as the profits that they earn from their operations. When the Cheese is exhausted in the original station the four characters have to look for other ways to survive, just like how it happens when change occurs in any company. The mice are able to detect change before it happens and find ways to deal with it, while the little people wait for the change to happen before they can find ways to deal with it (Spencer 36). The intention of Spencer is to teach managers and anybody else interested in moving well with changes in an organiza tion. Most of the time, individuals would want to maintain the status quo because they are very comfortable with the current situations and would not like to put in more efforts to have a different status. Change is simply the alteration of the status quo or making things look differently from their original look. In organizations, change refers to the alteration of the overall work environment. Change can occur due to external or internal forces which disturb or force the status quo to be disturbed. Change caused by internal forces is called proactive change while that which is caused by external forces such as competition is referred to as reactive change. In Who Moved My Cheese, the writer uses four characters to describe how people react to change. Sniff and Scurry the mice are non judgmental and non-analytical. All they needed was cheese and were willing to do whatever it takes to get it. For the two little humans; Haw and Hem, cheese has a different meaning. It is a means of l ivelihood and helps them attain some sense of worth. When change occurs, a reaction to the change is in most cases involuntary and unplanned because most people fear change because they lack control over it. Change happens either to the individual or by the individual (Moris & Neering 76). It is because of this reason that Spencer shows us that what really matters the most, when it comes to change, is the attitude. It is important for an organisation to find ways of adopting to change. For example, big companies like IBM and Microsoft must craft ways of maintaining a competitive edge in the market and for them to do so they must embrace change in and outside (Moris & Neering 769). Introducing change is difficult and the process leaves different individuals with emotions and hatred for their managers and change agents. The best way of introducing change is aligning the company’s objectives with those of individuals (Yongmei & Pamela 265). Spencer’s allegory in Who Moved My Cheese, in this case is seen when the cheese is exhausted in one station and the two little people had to adopt a change; they had to craft other means of getting their daily bread (Spencer 36). As their way of adopting to change, Sniff and Scurry used try and error tactics. They searched one corridor after the other without assuming those corridors where they had never found cheese. Sniff, who is gifted with the skill of finding the direction of cheese, does so and scurry, goes ahead. Like managers in a company that is looking up for a positive change, they sometimes got lost but they retrace their direction and find their way (Spencer 34). This is not true for the mice alone; Denial in the process of adopting change is common in organizations.

Outline why can change be a problem for organisations Essay

Outline why can change be a problem for organisations - Essay Example rganizations’ strategies as well as structures guarantee that the company is present and willing to do more than just provide products and services to the end consumers. It wants to make the people realize that the company is there and wants to do its very best by tailoring its strategies in such a manner that can only benefit them nonetheless. A company or an organization without the target people is nothing more than an office set up with employees and employers working for no one, at the end of the day. Also the fact that organizations need to evolve over a period of time is testimony enough for them to grow within themselves and thus adopt and hold on to a new path altogether, one that will be their torchbearer as well as reap rich dividends for them not only in the present times but also in the future. These strategies are so much in alignment with the future goals and tactical perspectives that they fulfill what is really expected of them, both in terms of short term expectations as well as the long run. Planning is thus the key word here and for any multinational to succeed in the long run, it is of paramount significance to have a safe and sound plan ready and not only that but also be proactive in its approach towards the accomplishment of the plan nonetheless. (Shiplett, 2000) The basis of all strategies and structural changes that usually happen from time to time is on the shoulders of the top management where they have to decide whether or not the adopted strategy be the source of light in the coming quarters or years for that matter. It is only upon their insistence to have the same within their ranks that the new strategic planning is done in the first place. If the top management is not ready, it is very difficult for the knowledge organization, which really is the middle management of present times, to do even an iota of struggle. The multinationals for that matter depend a lot on the parental concerns, which at times, might be located off

Critical Thinking Questions - Week 4 (675) Assignment

Critical Thinking Questions - Week 4 (675) - Assignment Example Alterations in the material that a particular student learns may differ with that of another learner in a different content area. Every learner is unique. They vary in numerous ways such as physical traits, cognitive aptitudes, experiences, social settings, backgrounds and personalities. Teaching experience and contemporary research postulates that every brain has a distinct state and experiences impact from previous experiences. With such knowledge, success-oriented teachers understand that students cannot go through the same education plan. Research and experience ensues to present insights regarding the human brain. Every learner is unique and has exclusive opportunities. It is, thus, reasonable that every learner learns differently and has different preferences, wants, interests and likes. This addresses the need for differentiated instruction in learning institutions (Tomlinson, 2001). It is pertinent to consider a learner’s background when examining and designing a lesso n framework. The cultural orientation of learners differ with the nature of learning that the culture values and the way the culture understands the learning concept. When structuring the lesson, it is paramount to determine how different students’ backgrounds may implicate on dynamics and learning in the classroom. It is also important for instructors to overlook the possible assessment when designing a lesson structure (Gregory & Chapman, 2013). Determining the method of assessment is essential to knowing the method that would elicit positive feedback in terms of excellence in the classroom. Determining the learner’s background in lesson framework design ensures that the instructor designs a framework that that benefits all students at every level. The best lesson framework is that which aids in the collection of accurate data regarding every student in the classroom, which meets the learning needs of all the learners. The teacher should concentrate on areas where th eir students are not performing as anticipated. Instructors should further emphasize on driving positive improvement in such weak areas to meet the learning needs of each and every learner in the classroom (Gregory, 2008). Through differentiated instruction, the student can perform exemplarily because with the assessment intelligence, the instructor is able to monitor their performance and assess their achievement. Instructors can differentiate product, content and process for learners. Content differentiation refers to an alteration in the material that the student learns. For instance, if the classroom goal is for students to draft persuasive essays, some are learning how to write topic sentences and support sentences, while the others learn how to utilize outside sources and defend their views. Process differentiation inculcates the differentiation of how the learner accesses the learning material. One learner in the classroom may explore a learning centre as the other gathers in formation from the internet. Product differentiation concerns the modification of how the learner depicts what they have learned (Tomlinson, 2001). For instance, in demonstrating a comprehension of a narrative\s plot, one learner may compile a play when the other drafts an account of an event. Teachers should choose differentiation approaches rooted in the proper prospectus and learners’

Skill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Skill - Essay Example Due to the word limit with the essay, I will look into some of the aspects that have been taking place during the therapeutic process. I will also look at the components that have been fundamental for my growth both at a clinical and a personal level. I will highlight and concentrate on the humanistic concepts, tools, and skills that I have learned, experienced, and used during the sessions. I will also refer to some past notions that are now part of my way of being in the therapeutic room. These are embedded in the psychodynamic and existential modalities. I have realized that a very individual a personal approach has been germinating in me. Moreover, I will take into account the important and essential feedback that I have received both from my colleagues and my tutors. I will concentrate on two of the many sessions that I have played the role of the therapist—in both sessions the client was the same. The client was a well-educated English man in his late twenties who had recently broken up with his girlfriend of five years. Moreover, his father died of cancer two years ago and he was still battling to come to terms with his death. He said he felt overwhelmed by daily responsibilities and called himself a â€Å"fixer.† The relationship between a client and a therapist is for me at the core of the therapeutic process. Carl Rogers, in this Humanistic trimester, has elucidated the importance of the former. From the classical psychoanalysis in which the therapist was seen as the expert in a kind of doctor/patient relationship, one of the Rogerian revolutions was to bring a collaborative and equalitarian rapport that replaced the earlier idea into the therapeutic room. In addition, Rogers’s view on the therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist was as follows: â€Å"If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within himself or herself the

Child development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Child development - Essay Example In 1901, England and Wales agreed to enroll the child who become half of three years old (OECD 2000). In the subsequent pages of this document, we will discuss and compare the education systems of two countries a) Australia and b) Italy with the Educational System of England. We will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Italian Early Childhood Education and Care System along with Australian style of early education. Education System of England The prime areas of EFYS of 2012 comprise a) Physical Development b) Personal, Social and Emotional Development c) Communication, Language and Literacy e) Mathematics f) Expressive Art and Design and g) Understanding the World (Department of Education 2012b). In the initial periods, practitioners have to play an important role in working with parents to support their young kids. It includes identifying learning needs for a quick response of the problem. When need arises, practitioners have to work with professionals of other agencies in the areas of community health and social services in order to provide exemplary learning opportunities for children. In special circumstances Partnership working is beneficial. It is important to provide necessary information about the on going activities of children on a regular basis through different modes like wall displays, photographs to the parents or children’s work. ... t b) Communication, language, and literacy c) Mathematical development d) Knowledge and understanding of the world e ) Physical development and f) Creative development (Walker 2005). Further, All educational institutions in England have to abide by the National Curriculum comprising twelve subjects. Out of which English,  Math  and  Science are compulsory subjects for all students. Below mentioned subjects are compulsory at a later stage: a) Physical Education b) Music c) Information and Communication Technology d) Foreign languages e) History and Geography f) Art and Design and g) Citizenship (Walker 2005). With regard to higher education, it requires a three-year  bachelor's degree. Students may have the postgraduate degree in two ways, either by taught or by research. The doctorate degree usually spans up to three years (Kubow and Fossum 2006). Apart from the above, non-statutory programs are also taught which includes Religious, Sex, Career and work related education in d ifferent phases. However, parents may withdraw their kids from the lessons of Religious and Sex education (Moyles 2007). It is agreed by all walks of life that the transitory period of a child in terms of early childhood education and onward schooling are important chapter for self and family. This opens up the door for a child for long term educational and occupational achievement (Alexander 1964). The successful completion of transitory period in a child’s life is heavily dependent on his or her personal / community characteristics, parents’ attitude and maternal education. In the initial period of child’s schooling, it is necessary for a child to understand the routines and practices. (Moyles 2007). For the last three years, government is putting in valuable efforts to improve, enhance and

Skill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Skill - Essay Example Due to the word limit with the essay, I will look into some of the aspects that have been taking place during the therapeutic process. I will also look at the components that have been fundamental for my growth both at a clinical and a personal level. I will highlight and concentrate on the humanistic concepts, tools, and skills that I have learned, experienced, and used during the sessions. I will also refer to some past notions that are now part of my way of being in the therapeutic room. These are embedded in the psychodynamic and existential modalities. I have realized that a very individual a personal approach has been germinating in me. Moreover, I will take into account the important and essential feedback that I have received both from my colleagues and my tutors. I will concentrate on two of the many sessions that I have played the role of the therapist—in both sessions the client was the same. The client was a well-educated English man in his late twenties who had recently broken up with his girlfriend of five years. Moreover, his father died of cancer two years ago and he was still battling to come to terms with his death. He said he felt overwhelmed by daily responsibilities and called himself a â€Å"fixer.† The relationship between a client and a therapist is for me at the core of the therapeutic process. Carl Rogers, in this Humanistic trimester, has elucidated the importance of the former. From the classical psychoanalysis in which the therapist was seen as the expert in a kind of doctor/patient relationship, one of the Rogerian revolutions was to bring a collaborative and equalitarian rapport that replaced the earlier idea into the therapeutic room. In addition, Rogers’s view on the therapeutic relationship between the client and the therapist was as follows: â€Å"If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within himself or herself the

Eating with Your Hands Essay Example for Free

Eating with Your Hands Essay Society today is one big melting pot. People bring their customs and cultural traditions and it conglomerates with others creating these norms we follow. We live by, what time has created over time, a status quo, or social rights and wrongs. In the passage, Eating with Your Hands, the author opens the topic about etiquette, one of the major social controversies. She talks about why some foods are only acceptable to be eaten with proper utensils while others can be â€Å"finger food†. It’s true—but why is that a known rule? And why is it frowned upon? The passage has some background history of people groups within certain countries eating food with their hands, and how it almost gives an individual a better sense of what he or she is eating. The author brings up how it’s the meeting of the soul and the skin; whereas silverware places a distance between you and your food. She compares it to that of two people making love—giving food and yourself an intimate relationship. I got the sense that society has changed the soul and feeling behind food and meals due to the kosher norms of modern day etiquette. Personally I have never given thought to how I eat my food in comparison with other cultures. Growing up in twenty-first century America I have always eaten the way Im â€Å"supposed† to; I never gave it a second thought. My culture has almost given me tunnel vision, letting me focus only on what I know as acceptable or natural. This topic opens my mind to what else I might be blinded to. I have never explored what other cultures grow accustomed to like religion, style, relationships, family dynamics or even school. I have always considered myself incredibly fortunate for the life I live, and therefore I never examined the varying cultural aspects of differing nations or people groups. As far as the message of society erasing the intimacy of our meals to ourselves, I can absolutely sympathize with the author’s thoughts. In retrospect, the singular thing that could most certainly bring my family together was the warm meal that awaited us. The physicality of sharing a meal together provided each of us the opportunities to engage, with every member of my family, our singular experiences. Food is a social activity! Assuredly, eating is an activity. When an individual goes out with his or her friends, more often than not they all get dinner together. When one throws a birthday party, a favorite restaurant or catering or favorite home-cooked meal is involved. Social interactions like dating usually incorporate food of some sort. In the generation of everything digital, it is common to take a picture of a meal and post it to a social media. Food has always been a part of social interaction. I do think that society has put a strain on the comfort of eating how we desire, without our conscious recognition. Perhaps because we grew up learning that we couldnt eat spaghetti with both hands.

The principles of Quick Response Manufacturing

The principles of Quick Response Manufacturing Abstract Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) is a strategy which needs to applied throughout the company and whose primary goal is the reduction of lead-time in each and every operation of the company while simultaneously reducing costs and improving quality.  [1]  QRM can be defined in two contexts: (i) Externally (Customers point of view): QRM means quickly responding to customer needs by designing and producing goods customized to cater those needs. (ii) Internally, QRM stresses on reducing the lead times throughout the organization, leading to lower inventory, better quality, reduced cost, and greater responsiveness. QRM uses Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT) as the metric for measuring the success of QRM processes. MCT is an extension of the concept of lead-time, which is the time from the receipt of order from the customer till the product is delivered to the customer. There are 2 ways of implementing QRM: one is using large breakthrough improvements and the other is through continuous improvements. QRM was developed by Rajan Suri, a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is famous for his works on continuous improvement programs. He not only gave the theory but also the practical ways by which QRM could be successfully applied and integrated in the operations of the company. QRM is basically an extension of Time based Competition (TBC), which was a strategy used by Japanese firms in the 1980s. TBCs philosophy is to use speed to gain competitive advantage. QRM is more particular as it is restricted to manufacturing firms only. QRM finds its first foray in history in 1993 with the foundation of the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  [2]  In 1995, Rajan Suri published the article Slaying the Beast which put forth some bad policies which were prevalent in manufacturing companies and also offered explanations for the same. This helped QRM gain a lot of recognition and importance.1 The positive response spurred Dr. Suri to continue working on this subject and this further led to his consulting businesses in implementing QRM and successfully applying the same in many companies. Since then, the Center for QRM has helped in applying QRM in nearly 180 companies resulting in reduced lead times and increased market shares.2 QRM Principles Its not necessary to work harder, faster and longer hours to complete job earlier. One can focus on finding new ways to complete a job that takes lower time. Most of the time a job spends in a queue instead of in process and traditional approach only look to reduce processing time (touch time) and in QRM focus is on lead-time (total elapsed time) and not just processing time. Out of total lead-time 34 days only 19.5 hours is a touch time so it makes sense that we should focus on whole 34 days. But generally organizations are not designed to focus on lead-time. Mainly because organizations dont recognize the cost of waiting they mainly focus on processing time like one need to reduce batch sizes to reduce waiting time but it will increase number of setups that will increase their processing time which is mostly opposing to company goals. So, Companies need to change their accounting systems and reward systems so that benefits of reduction in lead-time can be measured and rewarded appropriately. Table 1: Examples of Organizational Waste Due to Long Lead Times Expediting of hot jobs or late orders: Requires Systems, Air Freight, People, even Top Management time à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Production Meetings required to change and update priorities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Overtime costs for trying to speed up late jobs à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Time spent by Sales, Planning, and other Departments to develop and update forecasts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ WIP and Finished Goods holding costs, including space à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Obsolescence of parts made to forecast but not used à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Quality problems not detected till much later; lots of rework or scrap à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Opportunity for: Order changes or even cancellations Feature and scope creep Loss of sales to competition à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sales time devoted to expediting and explaining delays to customer à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Complex systems required to manage the dynamic environment There is one major problem with cost based systems that hinders QRM implementation that is functional structure of an organization. Looking the figure one can see how organizations fell into vicious circle by delaying regular jobs because of hot jobs and then again increase in hot jobs due to insertion of safety time due to delay in regular jobs. This is also called response time spiral. And so the spiral grows. QRM focus on reducing system in time like we do in service industry but this will require substantial reorganization of most of the processes. Basically, we will end up with cellular organizations in shop floor and also in offices and each cell will focus on its customers. The POLCA material control system helps coordinate production across multiple cells. Also, new operating methods such as time slicing are described, to help cells share non-cell resources. This principle is hard to digest as we believe that we should utilize capacity to its maximum possible value. Any reduction in the same would mean losing out on productive opportunities, resulting in increasing costs. However, by keeping all the machines busy at tall times does not necessarily transform into higher output or higher productivity. We frequently encounter the problems of growing queues due to the presence of a few bottleneck machines and jobs spending a lot of time waiting for resources due to mismanagement. All this ultimately results in increasing the lead time of the jobs which culminates in the increase of the organizational costs, which have been enlisted in the previous table. In the long run, these costs actually prove to be greater than the opportunity costs of not utilizing the spare capacity. Hence, the spare capacity should be considered as a strategic investment that will pay for itself many times over in increased sales, higher quality, and lower total cost s. This is again a measure which is very hard to digest. We always measure the usefulness of any process through its efficiency and utilization. However, the problem with the traditional belief is not that efficiency is not an important measure, but that most measures of efficiency result in increased lead time which ultimately harms the organization. Large batches are used in a lot of companies in a bid to reduce the setup costs. However this very measure results in increasing the lead time which can culminate in the same problems as enlisted in the previous principle. There are numerous examples to show the scope of reduction of lead time in organizations, a prominent one being the case study in Becker (2001) which showed how lead time for a line of spare parts for the oil drilling industry dropped from 40 days to 5 days using reduction of lead time as the main performance measure in a manufacturing cell. QRM says that the quantities as calculated by EOQ are not appropriate and consistent with the goal of reducing lead time as EOQ doesnt consider many costs of large lots like expediting of late orders, overtime cost for trying to speed up late jobs, WIP holding costs including space. Also quality problems are detected much later than with small lots and the amount of rework and scrap generated is also much larger. At the same time, another important point which is missed in EOQ is the lack of responsiveness which occurs when the process is carried out with large lots. Large lots and planning for the same makes it difficult for the organization to respond quickly to change in customer needs. Nor can good lot sizes for QRM be predicted by the MRP system, since it assumes fixed queue times regardless of workload. Hence, in order to reduce the lead times throughout the organization, it is important for everyone in a manufacturing firm, and especially for senior managers, to understand the dynamics of factory operations. The senior managers need to have a broad outlook and decide on the policies of manufacturing and performance measures only after fully understanding the effects of capacity utilization, efficiency measures, and lot sizing policies on lead time. Figure 3. Traditional Versus QRM Views of Capacity and Lot Sizing Source: QRM and POLCA:A Winning Combination forManufacturing Enterprises in the 21st Century Rajan Suri The differences between the traditional and QRM views can be observed from the figure given above. Traditional performance measures of utilization and efficiency encourage managers to exploit their resources to the maximum possible value. Production is considered infeasible only when the capacity utilization exceeds their maximize resource utilization, and only think about their capacity limit as a boundary between feasible and infeasible production targets. Also the perception is that larger lot sizes lead to increase in efficiency. However, QRMs focus is solely on reducing lead time, and hence the impact of utilization and lot size on the same is studied. Higher utilization leads to increase in lead time, whereas lead time first decreases and then increases with increase in lot size. It is essential to consider all such manufacturing dynamics in order to come up with a process that minimizes the lead time and thereby costs. According to QRM on-time performance is an outcome not a performance measure. Because if on time is considered as performance measure departments will quote longer lead-time to match up with on-time delivery. Again this will result in Response time spiral and results in poor performance of organization. But with QRM, organization will focus on shortening lead-time as a performance measure. In QRM its called QRM Number (measure of lead time reduction). This will eliminates Response Time Spiral and performance of organization will improve. For example see Table 2. MRP systems are of great help in managing material supply and ordering but lead-time cannot be reduced using MRP. MRP should be used on high level planning and coordination not on cell level in a cellular structure implemented by QRM, whereas POLCO can be used to manage material between cells and inside cells. POLCO basically a hybrid of push and pull systems using benefits of both. This phenomena can be again seen as entering in Response Time Spiral in which if company buys in large batches this makes supplier to have longer lead time and company to order even larger batches. Internal and external incentives like discounts motivate ordering in large batches. The results this can be verified in John Deere where implementation of QRM with suppliers reduced cost and also improved quality with shorter lead-time and batches. Not only at the supply side, the small lot concept needs to be applied at the distribution end too. Normally it is the tendency of the sales force to get higher orders by offering quantity discounts. This will again lead to the spiral of increasing lot sizes, both during the process as well as on the procurement side, ultimately leading to lowering of delivery performance. By implementing QRM, a company can reduce its costs manifold which can then be passed on to the customers. There is a need to demonstrate to the customer that the company can deliver high quality at low prices even for small lots, which would be more beneficial both to the company as well as the customer. Thus, the idea of small lots percolates throughout the organization, from top to bottom, as well as throughout the supply chain, from supplier to customer. The traditional approach might result in local quality improvements in the respective departments. However, QRM is more concerned with the overall organization than just one department. The requirement is to cut the overall lead time for manufacturing as well as office operations for which Q-ROCs are more appropriate. Such Q-ROCs result in significant reduction of lead times for jobs such as cost estimating, quoting, and order processing. Closed-loop implies that the team would be self-sufficient in dealing with all the problems related to reducing lead time. This implies cutting across functional boundaries and changing the reporting structures to ensure the success of the process. Needless to say, this team needs to be given power in order to make the decisions as reducing lead time is the primary goal of the organization. The best example would be that of Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company, in Rockford, which reduced its engineering and order processing time for customized cutters fro m 10 days to half a day after implementing QRM principles. However, QRM should not be considered as an application of Reengineering as by using principles of system dynamics in the design of Q-ROCs, providing specific engineering and management principles for manufacturing organizations, plus by changing management principles and performance measures and adopting a company-wide approach, QRM goes much deeper than Reengineering. Charging more for speedy response is sustainable only in the short-term. In the long run, it is quality which differentiates a product from its competitors, and the same purpose is served by QRM. Searching for ways of squeezing time out uncovers quality problems and wasted efforts. Changing policies and adopting measures to rectify the same results in higher quality, lower WIP, less overhead, lower operating costs, and greater sales. The QRM Approach yields even better results than Lean Manufacturing as it ignores the wastes caused by long lead times. QRM takes the goal of waste reduction to the next level, creating an even leaner enterprise that will remain a formidable competitor for years to come. As we have seen in many quality improving methodologies like Six Sigma, House of Quality the most important factor in the success of these initiatives is their acceptance by all the members of the organization; and QRM is no different. Realigning of all employees, from the shop floor to the boardroom, from desk workers to senior managers, to the QRM principles is a pre-requisite for the success of QRM, and hence training gains significance. Normally, performance measurement is tied to the cost accounting system which is an impediment to the successful implementation of QRM. Performance measurement must be aligned with the principles of QRM if the company has to benefit from the same. In a nutshell, the following points can be summarized about Quick Response Manufacturing: It requires measurement and efforts to minimize the metric, Manufacturing Critical-path Time (MCT), which is defined as the typical amount of calendar time from when a customer creates an order, through the critical-path, until the first piece of that order is delivered to the customer. This can be measured using the QRM number. Some changes in the structure of the organization are necessary to ensure the success of QRM. It basically requires the strategy of the organization to change from cost-based to entirely time-based with full emphasis on lead time minimization. Functional to Cellular:  Cellular manufacturing is a pre-requisite of QRM as the cells yield greater flexibility in manufacturing Top-down Control to Team Ownership:  QRM requires the formation of closed-loop, cross-functional teams which need to be given complete power for monitoring the processes. Specialized Workers to a Cross-trained Workforce:  Since the success of the process requires reduction in lead times across all the departments, there is a need to provide proper training to the workers so that they can perform multiple tasks and have a broader outlook. Efficiency/Utilization Goals to Lead Time Reduction:  The evaluation parameters, performance measures have to shift from the traditional accounting measures to the goal of lead time reduction. The following steps need to be implemented in the organization so that QRM is a success: 1. Creating a QRM mindset: The most important part is to make people realise the advantages of QRM over the previous measures i.e. the wastes created due to long lead time which are even ignored in Lean Manufacturing. Thereafter, a high-level QRM Steering Committee needs to be formed to oversee the QRM efforts. Also, like Six Sigma,by providing QRM training, some employees can be made QRM champions who can then be entrusted with the responsibility of the projects on a daily basis. 2. Changing of organizational structure Cross-functional planning team are formed to study feasible projects to which QRM can be applied. This would require the management to indulge in a detailed analysis of various consideration like Manufacturing Critical PathTime, product volumes, needs relating to strategy and other factors. Thereafter, QRM cells are formed and training and cross-training is provided to the operators in these cells by an implementation team which consists of members in the new cell as well as planning team members. Measurement of MCT is done to monitor lead time 3. Including of system dynamics QRM requires going through the policies on utilization and efficiency in order to determine the proper loading of the cells. It also calls for making provisions for spare capacities and reduction in the batch sizes in order to reduce the lead time. 4. Enterprisewide expansion of QRM The process would typically begin with a single project. If the project is a success, its results need to be conveyed to all the members of the organization and more projects need to be undertaken based on QRM principles. QRM should not be restricted to the organization alone but should be extended through the entire supply chain. E.g. the suppliers should also be motivated to inculcate and apply the principles of QRM which would have mutual benefits for both parties POLCA: The Material Control System for QRM POLCO is Paired-cell Overlapping Loops of Cards. To implement this system the company need to create cells of the production process focusing on subsets for similar parts and then it processes a given customer order through differing cells depending on the needs of that order. High Level MRP is used to provide high level planning and coordination of materials from external suppliers and across these internal cells. But cells are managed individually. To explain POLCO we can take an example of a shop floor shown in below figure. Assume P1 focuses on color printing and P2 on black white printing after which we have three Formatting Cells, F1, F2 and F3, which convert the printed sheets into reports with the desired pages. After formatting comes binding operation, which include punching holes and notches, cutting the sheets, and bending, A1 to A4. Finally, all orders go to the Shipping Cell S1, where the packaged plates are placed in shipping containers and then loaded onto carts. The material control system used is POLCA where High Level MRP and a cellular organization is a prerequisite. In this case all Release times are created with the help of High Level MRP. But even after authorization of POLCO work will not begin until all conditions are met. POLCO cards are used to communicate and control the material movement between cells. As Figure shows the POLCA card flows for a particular order at any organization based on initial design. This orders routing takes it from P1 to F2, then to A4 for binding, and finally to S1 to be shipped. This order will therefore proceed through the POLCA card loops with the pairs P1/F2, F2/A4 and A4/S1, as shown in the figure. If cell P1 has a job authorized that is going to F3 next, then a P1/F3 card must be available at P1 in order for it to begin that job. If a P1/F3 card is not available, that means that there is a bottleneck at F3 and working on that job will only add to the work-in-process at F3. Instead, it would be better for P1 to put its resources into a job that is needed by another cell that is not backlogged. So the cell team at P1 skips the P1/F3 job for now, and looks at the next authorized job to see if a card is available for that job, and so on. Differences from KANBAN POLCO cards only control flow between cells not within POLCA cards are not product specific but they are specific to particular pair of cells. POLCO cards are used as capacity signal whereas Kanban is used as inventory signal. As return of POLCA card from a downstream cell signals that the cell has available capacity. Benefits yielded by POLCA: POLCA helps in managing short-term fluctuations in capacity and also assists in reducing congestion on the shop floor. If a POLCA card from a downstream cell is not available, it means that that cell or some other cell further downstream is backlogged with work. Hence it does not make sense allocating further work to that particular job, without replanning of resources, as this will only increase inventory in the system since somewhere downstream there is a lack of capacity to work on this job. A better alternative would be to use this cell for some other job during the time being. POLCA cards flow in longer loops which allows the production to respond to changes in demand or differences in the complexities of jobs. The additional jobs in the loop can act as a buffer to absorb variations in demand and product mix which makes it highly suitable to meet the needs of responsiveness. On the contrary, the pull system stresses on achieving constant takt times throughout the organization, ignoring the fact that a variety of products will require different manufacturing times. Benefits of Quick Response Manufacturing Product Leadership: The main objective of QRM is to minimize lead times. By implementing QRM, a company attains many beneficial and competitive advantages. Benefits of Quick Response Manufacturing Product Leadership: QRM enables a firm to have shorter time to market. Thus a firm can reach out to customers with the latest technology while competitors play catch-up. There are two ways of looking at it. The first is that a given point of time a firms product would be superior to that of its competitor. Another point of view is that since a firm has shorter lead time it can deliver technology that is openly available to the market much earlier. Thus, the firm can skim the market due to its superior product. This can be depicted on a time line as shown below. FIRM USING QRM FIRM NOT USING QRM 2007 2009 2010 FIRM USING QRM FIRM NOT USING QRM 2007 2009 2010 Lower working capital: Lower lead times permit companies to have lower raw material and finished goods inventory. As a result the working capital requirement is decreased. This places the firm in a better strategic position to utilise their resources and capital. Better position to increase market share: The lower lead times increase the firms responsiveness to opportunities in the environment. This increased responsiveness helps the firm attract customers and increase its market share. Increased inventory turns: Since the production system is triggered by demand, smaller batches are produced, inventory decreases, and the number of inventory turns increases. Many inefficient producers have substantial amounts of capital tied up in inventory; therefore, their inventory turns are low. Reducing the cost of quality by minimising rework Cellular manufacturing places more responsibility and accountability on specific production teams. This results in specialization which inherently increases the quality of the product. It is much easier to pinpoint defects since the problems are directly traceable to certain teams or members. This has a positive impact on the quality of products. Cost Reduction: QRM aims at finding opportunities to improve the existing process. This results in lower operating costs. Using QRM, companies are able to save, in some cases, up to 25% of total operating costs by solving problems before they happen. Increasing Long Term competitiveness QRM ultimately aims at enhancing the long term competitiveness of the team. The above mentioned benefits are only the stepping stones in the right direction. The enhanced competitiveness of the firm ensures that is objective of enhancing shareholder value is fulfilled. Issues of Quick Response Manufacturing Increased reliance on suppliers QRM requires a strong relationship with ones raw material suppliers and partners. To react to demand, a manufacturing firm must closely partner with suppliers that will quickly accommodate the firms production schedule. However, if the supplier cannot provide raw materials due to problems such as quality assurance/control, equipment repair or union labour, the manufacturing firm may not be able to meet customer requirements. This could result in stock outs and backorders. Change Management It can be very difficult to implement QRM in a manufacturing environment. QRM is a business enabling philosophy that works top-down and therefore, changes the roles and responsibilities of the employees. Traditional roles, from lower levels through upper management, are drastically modified and the corporate infrastructure is typically altered. Employees can be extremely apathetic to these changes, which is a barrier that could significantly hinder the implementation process and the success of QRM. To implement QRM, companies must have representation from all functions i.e line and support functions (production, planning, purchasing, engineering, manufacturing, quality, finance and human resources) to facilitate the implementation. All functional areas need to buy-in to QRM philosophy to successfully implement such a major change in the way the firm does business. What Differentiates QRM from Lean? First and foremost is the QRM mindset: the driver for all the principles and strategies in QRM is reduction of lead time. This time-based mindset results in many operating policies that are different from traditional ones. In contrast the driver in JIT/Lean is waste reduction. Although the business press has been talking about the importance of lead time reduction, or speed, for over a decade, we find that most companies still lack the knowledge and the tools to effectively reduce their lead times. Worse still, policies are in place that are lengthening, rather than shortening, lead times. QRM devotes a substantial amount of effort in educating management and workers on why these traditional policies result in long lead times, and in showing them the QRM principles that must be put in place instead. QRM is a companywide strategy. While the original implementation of JIT/Lean at Toyota may well have encompassed the whole company, most Western implementations of JIT/Lean have focused on manufacturing and materials management. In many cases, JIT/Lean has been interpreted even more narrowly as merely implementing a pull system with kanban cards. In contrast, QRM clarifies at the outset that it is a companywide strategy with implications far beyond the shop floor, and principles for other company areas, such as, office operations, are clearly presented as part of the QRM philosophy. QRM provides rational principles and tools for lead time reduction. QRM uses an understanding of system dynamics, and exploits this understanding to define the best structures and policies that will reduce lead times. QRM begins by educating employees and giving them insight into these system dynamics. This then helps justify, to management and workers, the need for changes in policies. State-of-the-art analysis tools such as the MPX software package incorporate this analysis of system dynamics and help to derive the specific changes needed and to quantify the benefits that would be achieved. For companies making a large variety of products with variable demand, as well as for companies making highly engineered products, the JIT/Lean strategy of pull is either wasteful or breaks down altogether. For such companies, QRM provides an alternative strategy called POLCA which combines the best features of push and pull without their drawbacks. While the JIT/Lean approach tries to eliminate variability, QRM recognizes that in certain markets responding to this variability may provide competitive advantage. Instead of eliminating variability, QRM creates an effective organization structure to cope with it and serve the market. QRM does this by exploiting its understanding of system dynamics. A specific example of the difference between JIT/Lean and QRM is the issue of delivery of material or components. On-time delivery is a cornerstone of JIT/Lean is implementation. And yet QRM understands of organizational dynamics shows that promoting on-time delivery results in dysfunctional dynamics with longer lead times and higher costs. QRM provides alternative metrics based on lead time reduction that promise greater improvement in the long run. The QRM approach extends to supply management as well, and is called time-based supply management (Ericksen, 2000). Companies such as John Deere are finding that, particularly for smaller suppliers, the time based mindset and QRM principles offer an effective approach to target improvements at the suppliers operation. In addition, rapid results can be achieved, with significant improvements in supplier deliveries and quality, and reduction in supplier cost and lead time (Golden, 1999; Ericksen, 2000; Nelson, 2000). To summarize, QRM pursues the relentless reduction of lead time all QRM principles stem from this singular driving concern. Instead of management announcing dozens of programs and acronyms, QRM enables management to present one unified message to the organization, and all policies follow from this one driving strategy. Examples of implementation of Quick Response Manufacturing: Trans-Coil Inc. The Milwaukee Company is a manufacturer of equipment that supports variable-speed electric drives. Problem: Trans-Coil Inc.s process sometimes dragged longer than couple of weeks they promised to the customers. Improving its record for production time and meeting deadlines was the only way not to risk losing business. Had Trans-Coil built large numbers of components in advance, ready for shipping, it would mean spending loads of money on raw materials, production and handling, without assurances of turnover of the warehoused products. The company would be stuck then with unused, obsolete components in situations when customers made even minor changes to their specifications. Solution: Having quick-response manufacturing, companies can minimize the time it takes for products to flow via their operations. It makes companies nimble, responsive, and lower costs. For changing operations, Trans-Coil commenced with its factory. Production workers were cross-trained to learn all jobs in the plant. That was a huge change from days when employees occasionally stepped out of their work areas. Trans-Coil employees are now separated into work cells which focus on smaller order sizes which includes custom work, with teams responsible for getting products out o