Thursday, October 31, 2019
Persuasive Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Persuasive Speech - Essay Example Body Paragraph 2: Alcohol related road accidents are increasing governmentââ¬â¢s financial burden. According to Blincoe the total economic cost experienced by the nation of America due to drinking and driving incidents is $277 billion and this cost includes expenses in shape of medical bills, expenses paid for repairing damaged property and even legal expenses (Blincoe, 2014). The CDC reports that during the year of 2009, more than 10000 deaths were caused due to vehicles that were being steered by individuals who were drunk (Cdc.gov, 2012). My name is (first & last name) and I am here to persuade you to install breathalyzers in your cars. The term breathalyzer is used to refer to a digital device which has been specifically designed to identify the level of alcohol in an individualââ¬â¢s blood at one point in time. Traditionally these devices have only been used by police officers in order to identify drivers who have consumed alcohol and are driving on the road. These devices come in all shapes and sizes and are available at competitive prices. The issue with drinking and driving is that drinking alcohol results in impairment of various significant driving skills of a drive. Each year a high number of the people who die due to road accidents are involved in a crash where the person sitting behind the wheels is drunk. Due to this the burden on the gov ernment is increasing in shape of safeguarding the lives of their citizens and the financial costs that the government has to pay for each incident. The emotional and financial costs are not only paid by the government, the emotional cost is even bared by the individuals involved in the accident and their families. Breathalyzers should be installed in the car of every individual because drinking and driving reduces the ability to drive, road accidents caused due to driving under influence increases the cost of the government and it even
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Ipplepen Plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Ipplepen Plc - Essay Example The current ratio is a very good 1.82. It shows that the companyââ¬â¢s current assets are nearly two times its current liabilities. This is a good solvency position for any company. The acid test ratio also shows a healthy liquidity position of the company, where its current assets over its stock assets are about 1.19 times its current liabilities. The figures for acid test ratio are not available for 2005. The liquidity position of the company is good, and it reflects good working capital utilization by the company. Apart from the revenue generated from operations, the company indulges in investing and financing activities. In the year 2006, the company invested to the tune of à £636,000 in Internet development, and trademarks to the value of à £30,000. The corresponding investments for 2005 were nil. Ipplepen invests its cash, at bank and in hand, under the bank deposit rates. Short term deposits are also being made at floating rates, after taking into account the meeting of t he cash requirement. The company has a good amount of undrawn committed borrowing facilities also. The bank overdrafts are charged at 5.46% per annum in 2006, which was 5.38% per annum in 2005. A slight increase in average effective interest rate is seen. Overall, the liquidity position of the company is good and the company is solvent.... The company is showing a consistent growth in all profitability measures. It is a profit making company, and there are reasons that it is worth investing in the company. Liquidity assessment The liquidity position of the company in 2006 is strong, as can be seen from the liquidity measures of working capital, current ratio, and acid test ratio. The working capital is positive and has increased from around 29,886,000 to 38,924,000 in 2006. The company has performed well in managing its capital in the previous year and this year it sees an increase in its working capital. The current ratio is a very good 1.82. It shows that the company's current assets are nearly two times its current liabilities. This is a good solvency position for any company. The acid test ratio also shows a healthy liquidity position of the company, where its current assets over its stock assets are about 1.19 times its current liabilities. The figures for acid test ratio are not available for 2005. The liquidity position of the company is good, and it reflects good working capital utilization by the company. Apart from the revenue generated from operations, the company indulges in investing and fina ncing activities. In the year 2006, the company invested to the tune of 636,000 in Internet development, and trademarks to the value of 30,000. The corresponding investments for 2005 were nil. Ipplepen invests its cash, at bank and in hand, under the bank deposit rates. Short term deposits are also being made at floating rates, after taking into account the meeting of the cash requirement. The company has a good amount of undrawn committed borrowing facilities also. The bank overdrafts are charged at 5.46% per annum in 2006, which was 5.38% per annum in 2005. A
Sunday, October 27, 2019
The traditional engineering
The traditional engineering Introduction Traditional engineering relies mainly on a sequential procedure wherein the various tasks involved in the design and manufacturing of a product are performed in a pre defined and set order. This leads to certain drawbacks wherein there is a loss of flexibility in the entire process and this may also lead to severe alterations or even scrap in the later stages of the product development life cycle. Traditionally, the product design has been considered as a cycle of PDCA (plan-do-check-act). However, the advent of Concurrent engineering, which focuses on working interactively between the various processes in the product development, is relatively new. It is a relatively recent process which employs cross functional cooperation to facilitate the creation of products which are cheaper, better and have a reduced time to market. It is not an isolated concept and encompasses almost all the functions like engineering, designing, support, marketing, accounting, and others. Customer satisfaction is a key factor behind this method. The basic premise for concurrent engineering revolves around two concepts. The first is that the entire product life cycle needs to be taken into consideration in the initial stage of the cycle. This would include functionality, producitibility, assembly, testability, maintenance issues, environmental impact and finally disposal and recycling. The second concept talks about the concurrency of the various functions. This flexibility is of immense importance to the success of the process given the fact that it allows for error correction and redesigns to be incorporated in the early design phase without having an adverse effect on the costs, efforts and timelines of the project. In effect, this improves the productivity ,the product quality and offers substantial cost benefits. In a concurrent engineering process, there is no freezing of a particular task and so moving back is not a constraint. It allows design and analysis to take place at the same time and focuses on the collaboration between the teams. The teams are multidisciplinary in approach and composition and allow the employees flexibility to work collaboratively on the various aspects of the project through the life stage of the same. The need for Concurrent Engineering is especially high in todays world. Businesses must be able to react to the changing market needs rapidly, effectively and responsively. They must be able to reduce their time to market and adapt to the changing environments faster than competitors. Decisions must be made quickly and they must be done right the first time out. Corporations can no longer waste time repeating tasks, which increases the time it takes to bring new products to market. Therefore, concurrent engineering has emerged as way of bringing rapid solutions to product design and development process. Concurrent Engineering has many advantages and provides benefits such as a reduction in the product development time and the time to market, reduced design rework, reduced product development cost and improved integration in the teams through efficient and effective communications. There are many companies which employ the Concurrent Engineering techniques in the product development life cycle. These firms have shown a significant increase in overall quality, 30-40% reduction in project times and costs, and around 60-80% reductions in design changes after release. However, there also are times and situations wherein concurrent engineering is not preferred. Some of these can be as stated under: Concurrent engineering practices are not favoured in case of simple products or in cases where there is only an incremantal improvement in margin by the application of the technique. When implementing the Concurrent engineering involves major changes in the company culture and also leads to a significant administrative and/or communication overhead. These are the cases where it becomes difficult to implement the process in the teams. In such cases, unnecessarily and forciably applying these concepts may not yield advantages. Rather, it may prove to be an unsuccessful approach on the part of the management. This emphasises on the fact that it is very necessary to meet certain pre-requisite conditions in order for the concurrent engineering process to give the desired results. In absence of these, there may be confusions and inefficient product development. There are a few measures which companies may initially take in order to be successful with Concurrent Engineering, like Benchmarking: The company should keep a fair check of itself with respect to their best competitors Development of metrics: Proper metrics need to be developed to measure the various parameters to see if right course is being taken Identification of Potential Performance Improvements and Targets: This would help in the continuous improvement and reality check. Development of a clear Vision of the future environment: This would ensure that actions are taken while keeping in mind the long term goals of the organization and to figure out how does Concurrent Engineering fit into the picture. Getting top management support: This becomes very important as a lot depends upon the level of support and confidence shown by the top management for the implementation of a process in a company. Getting cross-functional endorsement: Integrated functionalities and concurrent processing lie at the core of the Concurrent Engineering. Unless there is an acceptance from all the departments and functional units, the chances of success are faint. Developing a clear Strategy to attain the envisioned environment: Without a clear formulation of strategy, it is very difficult to achieve the goals. Developing a detailed implementation plan: Success of Concurrent Engineering would also depend upon how clearly the implementation plan is made. History Concurrent Engineering has been known by various names over the years and across locations. It is known as the iterative development method (or Integrated Product Development, IPD) as it allows for the correction and alteration in the design and other processes through iterations. Continuous feedback mechanism is employed to discover any discrepancy or fault in the model. The rationale behind it is that the sooner the errors are identified, the lesser effort, time and cost is incurred to correct them. The term Simultaneous Engineering has been used since the decade of 1990s. It was based on the idea that the life cycle of the new product must fit in with the pre-existing product program lifecycles. It was in the December 1988 report The Role of Concurrent Engineering in Weapons System Acquisition by the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) that the term Concurrent Engineering was defined . This was an approach which was systematic in nature and focused on the integrated, concurrent design of products and their related processes. This approach is intended to cause the developers, from the outset, to consider all elements of the product life cycle from conception through disposal, including quality, cost, schedule, and user requirements. Need for Integrating Design with Other functions: In early designs and product development, there was a division of labour among individuals who specialized in various functions. There was little opportunity for interaction between the various departmants and functionalities which often lead to confusions and certain discrepancies between the work done. This at times led to customer dissatisfaction. With an increasing level of competition, the role of new manufacturing process and the need to reduce development lead time, concurrent engineering has become more popular. These justifications are discussed below. Increased Competition: This can be quoted as one justification for the rising popularity of concurrent engineering. With the increase in competition, there is all the more a need for competitive advantages and core competencies at firm levels to ensure meeting competition. Concurrent Engineering gives the firms a cost advantage apart from ensuring quality and efficiency in processes. New Production Methods: With the advent of technology, there are various new production methods which come into service. This makes it important to transfer and share the knowledge about this new service to the various functions and departments. This is necessary because this would ultimately have an impact on the resulting product design. This knowledge sharing would ensure that the various people involved in the product development are at the same platform when information about these processes is concerned. Therefore, the situation where new production processes are used will often be an important area for ensuring that design engineers work closely with production engineers. Concurrent Engineering can contribute its bit here. Lead Time: Shorter lead time or the time to market is a competitive advantage to the firms. Reduction in the lead time would decrease the length of the development process and would help bring the product to the market sooner. This would also decrease the inventory holding time and would therefore help in cost reduction (or cost advantage). By implementing the concurrent engineering process, the organization can achieve this advantage over the firms employing the traditional methods (sequential process). Process Concurrent engineeringis a workflow that relies on parallel processing by performing multiple tasks simultaneously instead of carrying out the various tasks in sequence as has been the traditional workflow. Concurrent engineering is not just related to engineering processes but rather focuses on the integrated and concurrent design of product and the related processes. This requires the clear identification and description of all the tasks and processes associated with the design, manufacturing, support and other functions by the developers. The developers need to consider the various elements of the product life cycle end to end, varying from the first stage i.e. conception of the product to the last stage i.e. disposal of the product. The various elements which shall be considered will include almost parameters which have an impact on the development of a product and the associated processes, such as quality, cost, scheduling and user requirement. It is worth noticing that the definition encompasses more than just the manufacturing and design of a product. It does not apply only to domains of engineering but is also widely used in the pharmaceutical, paint, food or sneaker industries. Concurrent Engineering is not limited to the products or goods. Even services can employ concurrent engineering for improvement in productivity and reduction in total time to market. Although this may not lead to reduction in number of employees or the work to be done, the adoption of concurrent engineering would lead to a faster lead time. In the services sector, the concurrent engineering concept applies to insurance sector, banking sector and others. The difference between the conventional product design approach (sometimes also called the waterfall model) and the concurrent product design approach (sometimes also called the simultaneous engineering approach) has been explained below with the help of a diagram. It is this deviation from the standard and traditional waterfall model (which employs and focuses on a pre defined sequence of processes and tasks) to the iterative and integrated development method of concurrent engineering, which is responsible for the huge success of this model. In the waterfall model, first of all, all requirements are gathered so as to facilitate clear definition of the problem at hand. This is both a time consuming and effort consuming task. Unless and until the data gathering is done (which in itself is a tedious task given the level of uncertainty associated with it and the dynamic nature of the information requirement), one cant proceed to the next level. This interdependency wastes a lot of time. Followed by this is the design phase wherein based on the requirements, the design of the product is to be agreed upon. The problem here is that in the absence of an option to move back and make changes to the design phase, at times, it becomes difficult to implement the design and subsequently the design may have to be heavily altered or even scrapped. The Concurrent Engineering is better in this case as being cyclic, all the aspects of the product life cycle has already been taken into consideration, thus allowing the design to take a more evolutionary approach. Then there are the implementation, verification and maintenance phases. All of these suffer from similar problems because of the inflexibility involved in the process. Concurrent Engineering overcomes many of these problems through the approach it employs. The cyclicity allows parallel processing and hence offers flexibility to the system as has been shown in the figure below. The various functions like planning, requirement gathering, analysis design, implementation, testing and evaluation are done simultaneously and hence the name simultaneous engineering. The implementation of concurrent engineering requires the combination of people, technology and business methods. It relies on cross-functional working and teamwork rather than the traditional bureaucratic and hierarchical organizations. Collaboration rather than individual effort is standard, and shared information is the key to success. The role of the leader is to supply the basic foundation and support for change, rather than to tell the other team members what to do. Training addressed at getting people to work together in teams plays an important role in the successful implementation of Concurrent Engineering. The Concurrent engineering process mainly focuses on three aspects, viz. people, process and technology. People are given a wider say, a sense of gratification and ownership of their work in the overall design process taking into account the collaborative nature of simultaneous engineering. The success of concurrent engineering depends to a vast extent on the effectiveness and the efficiency of the organizational teams formed. The three basic attributes which a CE team must have been enumerated as under: Ability to deal with inherent uncertainities associated with innovation A wide range of competencies varying from manufacturing to design to sales to financing Presence of professional knowledge worker The teams formed are Cross-functional team. The team is formed to work on a specific project, and stays together throughout the development of the product. The smaller teams comprise of 5 20 people and employ an efficient technical communication. For the implementation of larger projects, a network of teams is formed (a total of 100 to 1000 people). Larger projects are sliced into smaller projects and measures are taken to ensure the integration of separate pieces into a system solution. Presence of Liaison Personnel facilitates timely and proper transfer of information within the team. Apart from this, job rotation is also an inevitable component of the process. The team members are assigned temporarily or permanently outside of their accustomed functional specialty. This ensures the integration of various knowledge bases without making significant structural changes to the organization. There are certain product design methods in Concurrent Engineering: Design for Manufacturing (DFM): Herein, constraints are imposed by performance and functionality and consequently, the manufacturing information content of a product design is minimized. This deals with minimizing the total number of parts. Minimize the total number of parts, simplifying the design of the other parts and to promote standardization. Design for Quality: Care is taken to minimize the impact of variation i.e. tolerance is improved. Design for Cost: It is necessary to have an effective analysis of product and/or project costs based on the understanding of the various cost items involved. Design for Assembly (DFA) DFA aims at minimizing the cost incurred to assemble the product components. Design for Safety The designer must develop the habit of constantly evaluating the design for safety, considering not only the design itself but the personnel involved in fabricating the product, using the procedure, and in maintaining and repairing the product or system as well as the end user or purchaser. Developing the manufacturing processes as well as the maintenance and operating procedures early during the design process will assist in revealing safety problems at a time when corrective action can be taken at minimum cost. Design for Reliability To ensure successful performance over a given range of conditional range, specific environment. Apart from all these, the technology and tools also play an important role in the success of the Concurrent Engineering. Integrated Computer Analysis is used for modelling the steps required for the development of the manufactured product. Although the Concurrent Engineering Strategy does not necessarily reduce the amount of manpower required for a project, it does drastically reduce lead times and thus time to market. This has been illustrated in the diagram shown as under: The better the collaboration between the various phases, shorter is the time to market and higher is the efficiency. Basic Steps as identified through various studies Compare themselves to their best competitors (i.e. Benchmark) Develop metrics Identify potential performance improvements and targets Analyze the market and know your customers. Develop a clear vision of the future environment Get a strong commitment to from senior management. Get cross-functional endorsement Develop a clear strategy to attain the envisioned environment Get top management support Get cross-functional endorsement Develop a detailed implementation plan Collectively work on all parts of project. Reduce costs and time to market. Complete tasks in parallel. Advantages The practice of following concurrent engineering has numerous advantages such as: Helps in shortening the product development lead time Reducing product development costs associated with getting a product to market Improved Communication Increased efficiency and performance Higher reliability in the product development process. Reduced defect rates. Increased effectiveness in transferring technology Improved quality of resulting end products Increased positioning in a highly competitive world market Increased accuracy in predicting and meeting project plans, schedules, timelines, and budgets Employees require less time learning how to produce new or improved products Competitive Advantage and Increased Performances Lower implementation risks. Faster reaction time in responding to the rapidly changing market. Lower product and process design and development costs. Improved inventory control, scheduling and customer relations. It achieves this by various methods including but not limited to: Reducing the number of redesigns done by involving support groups from the start thus reducing the total number of iterations. Reduction is total cycle time help in reducing the overall product cost. As much work that can be done concurrently is done so instead of doing it sequentially. For this purpose teams from different functions are brought together. The use of Concurrent Engineering has resulted in savings and benefits which can be divided into three key areas: Cost Related Savings Manufacturing and Production Costs, Labor costs, Development and Construction Costs Quality Related Savings Defects and Nonconformance, Inspection, Productability and Testability Time Related Savings Development Time, Cycle Time, Lead time etc. Another advantage of Concurrent Engineering is that, while knowledge is being built up about the design of the product, additional knowledge is being acquired about the other aspects of its life-cycle. As the design progresses, the manufacturing expert will learn more about how to manufacture the product, and the packaging expert will know more about how to package it, etc. This accumulation of knowledge will help in speeding the product through the development process and get it out to the customer more quickly. These are not only benefits which the company experiences, but ultimately the end users or customers also reap the benefits by having a quality product which fits their needs and in many cases, costs them less to purchase. Therefore, concurrent engineering produces a profitable corporation and a satisfied consumer. Limitations Concurrent Engineering is not a quick fix for a companys problems and its not just a way to improve performance. Its a business strategy that addresses important company resources. The major objective this business strategy aims to achieve is improved product development performance. It is a long-term strategy, and it should be considered only by organizations willing to make up front investments and then wait several years for long-term benefits as it involves major organizational and cultural change. Some limitations: unwillingness to institutionalize Concurrent Engineering maintenance of traditional functional reward systems maintenance of traditional reporting lines no training in teamwork unrealistic schedules no changes in relationships with vendors a focus on computerization rather than process improvement Examples on application of the process We have covered a number of examples on application of Concurrent Engineering. An example of the use of Concurrent Engineering can be found in General Electrics Aircraft Engines Divisions approach for the development of the engine for the new F/A-18E/F. It used several collocated, multi-functional design and development teams to merge the design and manufacturing process. The teams achieved 20% to 60% reductions in design and procurement cycle times during the full-scale component tests which preceded full engine testing. Problems surfaced earlier and were dealt with more efficiently than they would have been with the traditional development process. Cycle times in the design and fabrication of some components have dropped from an estimated 22 weeks to 3 weeks. Another example concerns Boeings Ballistic Systems Division where Concurrent Engineering was used in 1988 to develop a mobile launcher for the MX missile and was able to reduce design time by 40% and cost by 10% in building the prototype. Polaroid Corp.s Captiva instant camera is also the result of a Concurrent Engineering approach, as a result of which Polaroid was able to make literally hundreds of working prototypes. Throughout the process, development was handled by cross-functional teams. Study 1 Developing CE model for Shipping Industry: Tribon Solutions The design and construction of a ship involves a high degree of concurrent engineering. To cater to such needs companies like Tribon Solutions develops, markets and supports CAD/CAM/CIM software solutions, with the mission of increasing overall efficiency in the maritime industry. Tribon uses a Product Information Model (PIM), which is the central repository and single source of information for designers, planners, administrators of material, manufacturing personnel, and others working on design and construction. Tribon began work on its API in 1995. Two different paths were considered at this stage: Either to publish directly the libraries used by Tribon, or to create a wrapper on top of existing code. The first approach would make all our functionality available to the user, but users would have to use the same development environment as Tribon Solutions, change compiler versions when Tribon Solutions did so, and so forth. This would have been an expensive and complex solution, only usable by the largest shipyards in the world, those that had their own large IT and development departments. The second approach was preferable, as long as a tool could be found or developed that covered most of the given criteria. Tribon already had a geometry macro language that was developed in-house, but to extend it to the desired level of functionality would have been costly to implement and maintain. The remaining option was to find a 3rd party solution that fulfilled the APIs needs. During investigation of options, Python was discovered quite early when a member of the development team read about Python in a computer magazine. After some initial experimentation there were really no other contenders. Python had it all. It was a beautiful programming language that was extensible, embeddable, platform independent, and had no license cost. When it came to incorporate Python into the Tribon software, They found the integration to be quite easy and problem-free, and it was achieved with very little effort. The result of this merger between Tribon and Python was named Tribon Vitesse, and the first version of Python used was 1.2. Today Tribon Solutions has customers that have, by utilizing the power of Tribon Vitesse, been able to reduce design time of certain complex ship structures from four weeks to two days, while improving overall quality. This enormous reduction in design time has been possible by automating more of the design, calculations, information search, and result checking. Study 2 Concurrent Design Facility: European Space Agency European Space Agency (ESA) also uses Concurrent Engineering for Integrated and faster product development. The Concurrent Engineering approach used by ESA is based on the following key elements: The system engineering process A multidisciplinary, product oriented team An information distribution and control environment Supporting tools and facilities. TheConcurrent Design Facility(CDF) is theEuropean Space Agencymain assessment center for futurespace missionsand industrial review. Located atESTEC,ESAs technical center inthe Netherlands, it has been operational since early 2000. As suggested by its name, the CDF usesconcurrent engineeringmethodology to perform effective, fast and cheap space mission studies. Equipped with state of the art network of computers, multimedia devices and software tools, the CDF allow team of experts to perform design studies during working sessions. Activities: The CDF is mainly in charge of performing the assessment studies of future missions for theEuropean Space Agency. These assessment studies are phase 0 or pre-phase A studies where the needs are identified and Mission Analysis is performed. Phase 0 allows the following: Identification and characterisation of the intended mission. Expression in terms of needs, expected performance and dependability and safety goals. Assessment of operating constraints, in particular as regards the physical and operational environment. Identification of possible system concepts, with emphasis on the degree of innovation and any critical aspect. Preliminary assessment of project management data (organisation, costs, schedules). In addition, the CDF often perform reviews of industrial contracts initiated byESA. The spacecraft design is based on mathematical models, which make use of custom software and linked spreadsheets. By this means, a consistent set of design parameters can be defined and exchanged throughout the study, and any changes which may have an impact on other disciplines can immediately be identified and collectively assessed. In this way, a number of design iterations can be performed, and different design options can easily be analysed and compared. CDF activities are conducted in sessions: plenary meetings in which representatives of all space engineering domains participate, from the early phases (requirement analysis) to the end of the design (costing). Even those disciplines that were traditionally involved at a later stage of the process are given the opportunity to participate from the beginning and to identify trends that might later invalidate the design. Facility: The CDF design room has been designed and equipped with all the relevant hardware and software tools, with the aim of creating an effective communication and data interchange environment among team members. The CDF facility contains: an array of design stations, each dedicated to a specific technical discipline data and application servers, providing on-line access to design data and tools a multimedia wall containing three large projector screens (One of them been aSMART Boardfor free hand drawing) video-conferencing equipment that enables concurrent engineering to be carried out in a distributed manner Concurrent Design ModelCDF-IDMwhich will be replaced in the near future by theOpen Concurrent Design Server Open Concurrent Design In the CDF and Path Ahead: ESAs Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) has successfully demonstrated the capability to use Space System Concurrent Engineering to overcome the communication gaps between the designer (who produces design information) and the user (who utilizes the design information) enhancing the in-house capability to perform feasibility studies in a very effective and interdisciplinary manner. Many candidate missions have taken advantage of the new capabilities offered by the CDF, reducing the pre-Phase A (preliminary design) study duration from several months to a few weeks while increasing design quality. This has been in part due to the use of the CDF-IDM, the integrated design model. The Open Concurrent Design Server (OCDS) is the next generation of the CDF design model. The CDF-IDM was built on an experimental basis and makes use of spreadsheet technology, both as data storage and as engineering tool. The OCDS on the other hand makes use of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) using web services, a centralised database and many client tools such as the OCDS Study Manager (OSM) and OCDS enabled spreadsheets. The growing interest of ESA partners, Industry and Academia in the ESA CDF core IDM, standardised data representation and exchange, and common design methodologies is one of the reasons that has motivated the creation of the Open Concurrent Design Serv
Friday, October 25, 2019
Mahfouzs Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth Essay -- Historical Novels Histo
Mahfouz's Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth In the history of literature, perhaps the most explored genre is the historical novel. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the present day, authors have taken historical facts and interpreted them novelistically. When no facts are available, the author may extrapolate missing parts of the story from two sources -- either through the interpretation of the existing scholarly data or through the author's imagination. These two approaches to 'filling in the gaps' of a historical novel can either appease the historian and displease the literary critic or please the literary critic and upset the historian. Very few novelists can produce a historically accurate novel that is also pleasing to a literary critic; to do so would be very difficult because the novelistic plot structure hardly ever follows the structure of truthful historic events. A novelistic writing about a battle in World War Two would be bound to either an accurate portrayal of the events around the main character or a convincing d epiction of the people involved. If the author chose to write about turrets, casualty statistics, and troop movements, he would surely sacrifice much of the artistic content of the novel. If the author chose to focus on character and plot, then the writer couldn't portray the event with the specificity it requires. However, the exception to these guidelines appears when a novelist chooses to write a historical novel about a time or a person when large portions of the historical picture is still either unknown or up for scholarly debate. This condition presents itself infrequently to the historical novelist, in circumstances where few people witnessed or spoke about the event, or through an event so ancient tha... ... with a few authorly embelishments. Despite his lack of glaring inaccuracies, the author does not seem to capture the anthropological, sociological, and political climate of the Amarna period. Having examined Mahfouz's portrayal of the pre-Amarna and Amarna periods, in the context of popular belief and scholarly interpretation, the novel appears as an interesting yet general view of Akhenaten and his times. Despite his writing geared towards a general audience, Mahfouz does not take advantage of his audience by engaging in heresay and confabulation. The novel appears to be thought out on the basis of scholarship, both Egyptian and otherwise, giving the reader a surface glance of the complications of the Amarna period. Works Cited: Brier, R., The Murder of Tutankhamen, 1998. Robbins, Gay. The Art of Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Drawing on your understanding of the theories of motivation Essay
Drawing on your understanding of the theories of motivation and using examples where appropriate, critically assess the role of money as a motivator? The basic outlook on motivation is that needs equal behaviour which in turn equals satisfaction and vice versa. I.e. you have certain needs or wants, and this causes you to do certain things (behaviour), which satisfy those needs (satisfaction), and this can then change where needs/wants are primary. ââ¬ËThe underlying idea is that all human beings are motivated to undertake certain actions ââ¬â including purchasing goods and services and going out to work ââ¬â by certain needs. Various needs come into play as motivators.'(Abraham Maslow.) Abraham Maslow suggested that we are motivated to satisfy our needs hierarchically: first is the desire to satisfy physiological needs, then the desire for security, the desire for companionship and a sense of belonging, the desire for self-esteem, and the desire for self-actualization, doing what one most wants and is best suited to do. As peopleââ¬â¢s lower or basic needs are met, broader more in depth issues motivate them. A person needs to feel as if his/her needs have been met on previous level(s) before moving upward. A person will not be motivated by love until he/she has had both his/her physiological and security needs met. For example babiesââ¬â¢ needs are as basic as they come. All they wants is food, sleep, and a clean nappy, and not necessarily in that order. As they continue to get their survival needs met, they eventually request that their safety needs be addressed. At this time, their motivations are based purely on basic, survival needs. In all five cases of Maslowââ¬â¢s model, money to some extent plays a vital role in satisfying such needs one way or another. Money is often talked about as the ultimate motivator. It is the basic reason why most of us go to work everyday. It provides us with numerous freedoms. It allows us a variety of choices. If one has no money, or insufficient funds for basic needs, then one will do almost anything to get some. Money is a motivator at this basic level. However, as one begins to have enough to satisfy basic needs, it has less and less effect. People will generally choose to do things they like, prefer or which meets their values and aspirations, rather than seek money for its own sake. Of course, if they are in, or join a reference group whose members have more money than they do, then money may enter the motivational equation again. Equally, if they see other people, especially those within their own company or profession, earning more than they do for the same work (relative deprivation), then they may well be motivated to either complain about money or indeed seek a similar job elsewhere that pays better. However, people in general seem to reach a balance between money and effort, between money and the calls of family and interests. For instance, commission schemes are supposed to motivate increased effort in sales people. The truth of the matter is that for most sales people, they do not. The sales person works as hard as they need in order to get to a level of income that they require. At this point they are said to have ââ¬Å"satisficedâ⬠and their needs and income are in balance. Offering more money will not necessarily increase effort beyond this point. Successful organizations use motivational techniques in order for its workforce to be highly efficient and effective. However on the contrary donââ¬â¢t essentially offer monetary rewards in every situation. There are drawbacks of using cash as the only motivator. Though it can motivate employees to be a good workforce, it can make them dishonest. Moreover, there are other ways to motivate people at very low cost, which give the same or even better results as using money. As mentioned above, money can buy almost everything people want, but only almost. There are many things that can not be traded for money. Due to these weak points, money is not as good motivator as it is viewed. First and foremost, money could lead to bad or unlawful performance. Money can really motivate people because, as it is well documented, money can buy satisfaction. Theoretically, workforces will perform better as they know that they will get more money from bonus or a raise. The problem is that in the real world, they do not perform ââ¬Å"betterâ⬠but perform to ââ¬Å"look betterâ⬠in their bossesââ¬â¢ eyes. For example, some might try to give an image of high workload by sitting in front of the computer and typing all the time, though they have nothing to type. In some case, they might stagger around the office, especially in front of the bossesââ¬â¢ rooms, so that they will be seen as busy and diligent. The worst case scenario is that they will try to serve their bosses the best, not the company. These are absolutely not the results the company expected from the motivation program. Moreover, if the company implements this program for some time, it may become company culture: money-oriented. Employees will only be concerned about how much money they make and not motivated by the job itself. They might excel as that can generate more earning but they will do something to get more money also. In a company that uses a stock option policy, managers get stocks as their bonus, and this policy can lead to illegal performance and inappropriate actions as Ivan F. Boesky found out to his disadvantage. He was accused of insider trading that led to huge personal profits and eventually a $100 million fine. This scandal was described as one of the worst on Wall Street history, and unsettled public confidence with the fear that stock trading may be fixed. ââ¬ËMoney is often used for motivating, but it also addresses itself to human greed, which dulls the conscience and may lead to unethical and illegal behaviour.ââ¬â¢ (Weihrich and Koontz, 1988) Secondly, companies can use other low cost motivators to motivate their workforces to perform better. ââ¬Å"A personal organiser, complete with a leather case, is one of the gifts being offered to British Telecom employees as part of BTââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Living Our Valuesâ⬠initiative. BT is using non-cash benefits to reward exemplary behaviour. The BT initiative is an example of an employer using gift items to enable managers to show gratitude to employees for such things as continuous improvement and teamwork.â⬠(Rue and Byars, 1977) If the company use bonusââ¬â¢s as motivation, it will face a problem if it does not have good strategies to execute it with. For example, if the company gives a bonus every month, this bonus will do no good as a motivator. The reason for this is that if the company gives a bonus to employees every month, employees will feel that the bonus is what they must have as part of their salary, not as a reward for good performance and also the company will not make much profit and in the long run will eventually get rid of some staff. Therefore, if the company really wants employees to work better and better, it has to raise the bonus again and again. In addition to this, there are many utensils that can motivate workforces better than money. In fact, studies have found that non-monetary compensation is an even more vital factor many people. According to Hagemann, ââ¬Ëthe motivation factors ranked with importance by Japanese, American and German companies in the first, second and third places were clearer strategic directives, more information about work and more participation in the job while money was ranked in the ninth place.ââ¬â¢ Money can be better motivator as it can indicate the status of the person. This statement is true but not for all situations. There are many people who gain respect from other people because of their good and honest habit though they earn little money. In the meantime, some who are rich but have bad reputation might be considered as dirty people or of a very low status. Nonetheless, there is another argument that an increasing salary is an indicator of success. It might be true but there are many things that can also show success such as more participation and more responsibility, for instance the Prime Minister of Great Britain is not that greatly paid when comparing him with CEOââ¬â¢s of major corporations, lawyers, barristers, footballersâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦. The list goes on, yet the PMââ¬â¢s position is one of the most important and prestigious position in the country. Thirdly, money can not satisfy all needs of people. In reference to Maslowââ¬â¢s theory on motivation ââ¬Ëmoney can satisfy only the needs at the lower level.ââ¬â¢ According to Plunkett and Attner, ââ¬Å"the physical needs can be satisfied by increasing pay, safety needs can be satisfied by reassuring that jobs will not be eliminated.â⬠For social needs, there are many ways to cope with such as letting the new employee interact in recreational activities of the firm. In these levels of needs, money can be best used only at the lowest level. For example, money cannot buy the sense of belonging in the society, social need. There are many people who are extremely wealthy but canââ¬â¢t interact on a professional and social level with their fellow workmates in the organization well and have to quit their jobs. Some people do not want more money as they are satisfied with their current status or they are more concerned with other things more. For example, some wealthy and successful CEOââ¬â¢s whose needs are in the top levels like self-esteem or self-actualization may not necessarily be motivated by money. To motivate these people, the company might try to make them feel that the job is challenging or make them realise that this is another goal of their lives. The company might provide more opportunities in other fields of the job and send them to some training course to make their job more challenging. Changing the structure of the job is another way to motivate workforces, as it will make them feel that they have more challenge than their routine work. As seen, money is not a good motivator for everybody, as each employee will have dissimilar needs in the hierarchy. Although money is not always seen as a reliable motivator by a number of critics, it does possess its advantages in terms of it leads people towards a goal, it gives them direction and clarification. If there are no bonuses or low wages, where would the motivation be for a worker to work to his/her best ability? If there is a limited reward for your efforts then where will the incentive be to do well? Such questions are always raised in board meetings and meetings between employees and management. Management tend to use money as armour in their toolbox and release their ââ¬Ëweapon of extra incentiveââ¬â¢ when required. On the whole money is not always top employee priority although it is important, because ââ¬Ëthe money that you bring home buys the bread.ââ¬â¢ People are also motivated by variety of items and using money as the only motivator is not as good a strategy as it should be. It can motivate people to perform better but only as the external motivator. People do not feel that they really want to work because of ââ¬Å"intrinsic interest in a taskâ⬠(Kohn, 1998) but they work just for money. This can lead to inefficiency and illusion of performance and also cause corruption and illegality in work. In fact there are many motivators that can bring about the same or even better result as money. Furthermore, using these motivators can reduce the cost of the company also. Last but not least, although money can buy many things, it cannot buy satisfaction and not all employeesââ¬â¢ needs can be satisfied by money. Therefore, monetary motivators can not motivate everybody. As seen in this essay, motivating people by money can create some disadvantages and money is not the ââ¬Ëbe all and end all of motivation,ââ¬â¢ so the company has to be very wary when using it.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
A Case Analysis: Integra and Intexââ¬â¢s Problem Project
Marketing and promoting new technology has always been undemanding due to the growing trend in business and commerce of going electronic. However, not all technology is successful in their entry into the world of business.One very good example of this incident is that of Integra and Intexââ¬â¢s Banking and Loan Insurance Software System (BLISS) project. Although the software was completed, it was never introduced to credit unions. What happened then? How come such a very innovative project became a wasted product? à What were the mistakes made? Most significantly, what can the two businesses do to cope with the damaging effects the project has brought about?Case BackgroundThe BLISS project was spearheaded by two firms, namely, Integra Financial Corporation and Intex Consulting. Integra Financial Corporation, a life insurance company based in Quebec, Canada, is active in insurance, trust services, securities brokerage and asset and portfolio management (Roy, 2003, p. 445). The co rporation is responsible for approximately 8 billion dollars of assets while the work force consists of more than 2,200 permanent employees (Roy, 2003, p. 445).On the other hand, the partner company, Intex Consulting is a firm that specializes in the installation and design of information systems. It is actually a Canadian branch of a large international information system integration firm who wishes to gain its prominent place in Canadian banking business (Roy, 2003, p. 445). The firm is widely known for its expertise in the U.S. banking industry concerning system integration and development (Roy, 2003, p. 447).Although Integra has a competitive share in the insurance banking business, it does not have the whole of Canada. The company only emerges in Quebec due to one of its unique insurance plan. This plan is the Loan and Mortgage Insurance plan, also called the corporationââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"cash cowâ⬠(Roy, 2003, p. 446).What makes it different from plans of other insurance co rporations is its special software that enables a customized calculation of the expenses per client and directly links Integraââ¬â¢s database with the participating banking institutions. However, the software is limited for use only in Quebec where the banking institutions have somewhat similar structures. When it comes to the national market, Integra cannot venture into it since the different banking structures and institutions are diverging and dissimilar. Thus, the loan insurance plan was inapplicable.This very challenge has allowed the search for a way to penetrate the loan insurance business in the national network. It is in this situation that contact was made with Intex Consulting regarding Integraââ¬â¢s dream software. Thus, after the meeting of the two business establishments, the BLISS project was born and launched in the beginning of 1996 (Roy, 2003, p. 448).The primary goal of the joint project was to develop an appropriate technology solution to connect Integraâ⠬â¢s loan insurance systems with its prospective clientsââ¬â¢ banking and loan systems, particularly, a software system that can bridge the differences of the different structures of the diverse banking institutions and loan systems (Roy, 2003, p. 447).Key persons in both companies were then appointed for the projectââ¬â¢s completion. Everyone was eager to see the results and was very optimistic because at that time, the project was a major endeavor and a promising success.Everyone saw the proposal as a means to expand the company. In addition, everyone was confident with the decision of pursuing the project. One would actually ask why but why not? Everyone believed that Integra is capable of doing so, due to its very long and successful experience in loan insurance business and that Intex has the guts of designing and developing an error-free software system since the firm is known for its competitiveness (Roy, 2003, p. 448).
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
3 Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation
3 Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation 3 Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation 3 Cases of Unnecessary Punctuation By Mark Nichol In each of the sentences below, superfluous punctuation interrupts the flow of the sentence. Discussion and revision of each example indicates the correct treatment of the statements. 1. Smith said she regrets using the term, low-lifes, to characterize Jonesââ¬â¢s supporters. Setting low-lifes off from the sentence implies that it is the only term in existence and, because it is equivalent to ââ¬Å"the term,â⬠is nonessential. (Presumably, because ââ¬Å"the termâ⬠provides context, the sentence could stand with low-lifes omitted.) However, lowlifes is essential- Smith is explicitly mentioning the term she regrets using (ââ¬Å"the termâ⬠cannot stand in for low-lifes; it merely describes what type of thing low-lifes is)- so no punctuation should frame the specific term: ââ¬Å"Smith said she regrets using the term low-lifes to characterize Jonesââ¬â¢s supporters.â⬠2. Consider the effect of: significant demographic changes arising from aging populations and concentrations of people in resource-stressed regions, intensifying fiscal pressures on the viabilityà of affected regions, political and social instability in emerging economies, scarcity of natural resources, and regulatory changes. When a list in a sentence is syntactically integrated within that sentence, do not set the list off from a lead-in phrase with a colon: ââ¬Å"Consider the effect of significant demographic changes arising from aging populations and concentrations of people in resource-stressed regions, intensifying fiscal pressures on the viabilityà of affected regions, political and social instability in emerging economies, scarcity of natural resources, and regulatory changes.â⬠(A colon is appropriate only if the lead-in phrase is an independent clause such as ââ¬Å"Consider the effect of the following factors.â⬠) 3. This person is authorized to evaluate the state of compliance; quality of compliance risk assessments; design and implementation of risk mitigation plans; and operating effectiveness of those plans, all in coordination with internal audit and other evaluators. In this case, some punctuation is required, but the form of punctuation used is excessive. Semicolons serve as superpowered commas when one or more items in a list is further subdivided by commas, but this sentence does not have this characteristic. A comma does occur near the end of the sentence, but it separates from the entire sentence a dependent clause pertaining to that sentence, not just the last item in the sentence: ââ¬Å"This person is authorized to do evaluate the state of compliance, quality of compliance risk assessments, design and implementation of risk mitigation plans, and operating effectiveness of those plans, all in coordination with internal audit and other evaluators.â⬠(Even if the dependent clause did apply only to the final item, that relationship would likely be obvious, so there would be no need to use stronger punctuation throughout the sentence.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Farther vs. Further"Confused With" and "Confused About"50 Synonyms for ââ¬Å"Villainââ¬
Monday, October 21, 2019
An Action Plan for Settling Homeless People in Seattle
An Action Plan for Settling Homeless People in Seattle It is evident that Seattle is one of the places with the highest number of homeless people. The government has used a large amount of money in trying to deal with this problem, but no significant changes are yet to be seen.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on An Action Plan for Settling Homeless People in Seattle specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the problem of homelessness in Seattle can effectively be addressed through two major steps. This proposal addresses the steps that can be taken to solve the problem of homelessness in Seattle. What the mayor of Seattle needs to do is increase the supported housing programs that are already going on in the city. This can be done through a number of ways. Firstly, the housing programs can be improved by adding supportive services, which should be done on a long-term basis. Secondly, the office of the mayor should avail comprehensive services that cater for special gr oups such as the poor families with physically challenged members and young children. Thirdly, the community partners who are interested in taking part in reducing homelessness in Seattle should be encouraged to team up. Fourthly, the cost of renting houses in Seattle should be reduced through vouchers and other ways that can allow the poor families to secure rental space (Cnare, 2005).Advertising Looking for case study on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More An alternative to the program of increasing supportive housing is to enhance the supply of cheap and affordable shelter in Seattle. The problem of homelessness in Seattle is worsened by the lack of affordable housing units for the poor citizens in the city. The supply of affordable housing can be increased through a number ways. Firstly, this can be achieved through the creation of opportunities for building affordable housing units. Secondly, the currently available affordable housing units should be expanded to accommodate more homeless households. Thirdly, the office of the mayor should work toward ensuring that affordable houses are built and sold to homeless individuals who have access to some money. Fourthly, the existing housing market prices should be subsidized to enable these people to acquire houses (Calavita, 2011). The second way that the problem of homelessness in Seattle can be solved is through the removal of barriers that hinder people from acquiring residential houses.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on An Action Plan for Settling Homeless People in Seattle specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Firstly, the barriers can be reduced by enacting regulations that will prevent unnecessary evictions resulting from defaults in rental fees or mortgage repayments. Secondly, the people should be educated and counseled on financial matters to avoid ca ses of defaults in mortgage payments. Thirdly, the people of Seattle should be supported and assisted socially for them to lead a stable life. This may help them to view life positively and start working harder to make their lives better (Cnare, 2005). An alternative to the program involving the removal of the barriers that hinder the poor from accessing affordable housing is the creation of more job opportunities in Seattle. Unemployment is one of the major causes of homelessness in Seattle. Many people in the city are homeless because they do not have sufficient money to buy or rent a house. In this regard, the office of the mayor needs to create as many job opportunities as possible. These opportunities can be created by reducing the current recommended wage-rate to enable companies and organizations to employ more people to do the same amount of work that they normally do (Calavita, 2011). In conclusion, this action plan proposes a number of strategies that can be used to addres s the problem of homelessness in Seattle. The strategies proposed include job creation, the removal of barriers that hinder people from buying or renting houses and increasing the supply of affordable houses in the city.Advertising Looking for case study on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References Calavita, N. (2011). A review of how to house the homeless. Journal of the American Planning Association, 77(3), 298-299. Cnare, N. (2005). United ways three strategies for reducing homelessness in our community. Web.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Understanding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Understanding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) were chartered by Congress to create a secondary market for residential mortgage loans. They are considered government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) because Congress authorized their creation and established their public purposes. Together, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the largest sources of housing finance in the United States. Heres how it works: You secure a mortgage to buy a home.Your lender probably resells that mortgage to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either hold these mortgages in their portfolios or package the loans into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that they then sell to the public. The theory is that by providing this service, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac attract investors who might not otherwise invest funds in the mortgage market. This, theoretically, increases the pool of money available to potential homeowners.By the third quarter ââ¬â¹of 2007, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held mortgages valued at $4.7 billion- about the size of the total publicly-held debt of the U.S. Treasury. By July 2008, their portfolio was called a $5 trillion mess. History of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Even though Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were Congressionally-chartered, they are also private, shareholder-owned corporations. They have been regulated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development since 1968 and 1989, respectively.However, Fannie Mae is more than 40 years old. President Franklin Delano Roosevelts New Deal created Fannie Mae in 1938 to help jump-start the national housing market after the Great Depression. And Freddie Mac was born in 1970.In 2007, EconoBrowser noted that today there is no explicit government guarantee of their debt. In September 2008, the US government seized both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Other GSEs Federal Farm Credit Banks (1916)Federal Home Loan Banks (1932)Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) (1968)Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) (1988) Contemporary Congressional Action Regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac In 2007, the House passed H.R. 1427, a GSE regulatory reform package. Then-Comptroller General David Walker stated in Senate testimony that ââ¬Å"[A] single housing GSE regulator could be more independent, objective, efficient and effective than separate regulatory bodies and could be more prominent than either one alone. We believe that valuable synergies could be achieved and expertise in evaluating GSE risk management could be shared more easily within one agency.â⬠Subprime Mortgage Crisis A subprime mortgage crisis occurred in the United States between 2007ââ¬â2010, in part as a result of a weakening economy but also as a housing bubble which had pushed housing prices higher and higher collapsed. Houses were large, their price tags steep, but mortgages were inexpensive and easy to get, and the prevailing real estate theory was that it was smart to buy (much) more house than you needed because it was a solid investment. If they wanted, buyers could refinance or sell the house because the price would be higher than when it was purchased.à Fannie and Freddies concentrated exposure to US residential mortgages, coupled with their high leverage, turned out to be a recipe for disaster. When the inevitable crash in home prices occurred, it created an associated spike in mortgage defaults, and Fannie and Freddie were holding hundreds of thousands of underwater home mortgages- people owed more, in some cases far more, on their houses than the houses were worth. That situation contributed greatly to the 2008 recession.à Collapse and Bailout By mid-2008, the two firms had expanded to almost $1.8 trillion in combined assets and $3.7 trillion in combined net off-balance sheet credit guarantees. Over the same period, however, they posted $14.2 billion in losses and their combined capital only amounted to about 1 percent of their exposure to mortgage risks. Despite efforts in the summer of 2008 to prop up the failing GSEs (the Housing and Economic Recovery Act on July 30 temporarily gave the US Treasury unlimited investment authority), by Sept. 6, 2008, the GSEs held or guaranteed $5.2 trillion dollars in home mortgage debt.à On Sept. 6, the Federal Housing Finance Agency placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, taking control of the two firms, and entering into senior preferred stock purchase agreements with each institution. The U.S. taxpayer ultimately paid a $187 billion bailout to the two GSEs.à à One stipulation to the bailout was that going forward the quality of housing loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to improve. Investigations by economists Dongshin Kim and Abraham Park reported in 2017 indicate that the quality of post-crisis loans is indeed higher, particularly in the requirements on the levels of debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, and credit scores (FICO). At the same time, loan-to-value (LTV) requirements had been loosened since 2008, allowing a steady increase in the number of first-time home buyer loans.à Recovery By 2017, Fannie and Freddie had paid back $266 billion to the US Treasury, making their bailout a tremendous success; and the housing market has recovered. However, Kim and Park suggest that continued monitoring of the quality of the mortgages would be prudent. While FICO and DTI are indicators of the borrowers ability to pay their mortgages on time, the LTV is an indication of the borrowers willingness to pay. When the house value falls below the loan balance, people are less likely to pay on their mortgages.à Sources Boyd, Richard. Bringing the GSEs Back In? Bailouts, U.S. Housing Policy, and the Moral Case for Fannie Mae. Journal of Affordable Housing Community Development Law 23.1 (2014): 11ââ¬â36. Print.Ducas, John V. Subprime Mortgage Crisis 2007ââ¬â2010. Federal Reserve History. November 22, 2013.Frame, W. Scott, et al. The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Journal of Economic Perspectives 29.2 (2015): 25ââ¬â52. Print.Kim, Dongshin, and Abraham Park. How Sound Are the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Recoveries? Are There Vulnerabilities for History to Repeat? Graziadio Business Review 20 (2017). Print.Agency/Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Product Overview 200What Are the Origins of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Effective Spring Constant Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Effective Spring Constant - Lab Report Example We calculate the percentage error to find out how similar our predictions were to our experimental results. It can be assumed that the percentage errors are very less and thus, it proves that the experiment was conducted with lot of precision and care. These errors are less if you consider the fact that an error of 5 cm in measuring the displacement would have changed the error percentage drastically i.e. 35.71% from 10.00% The relatively less percentage error can be accounted to systematic error or aberration in springs. Also, we must not forget that the experimental value of kââ¬â¢ and kâ⬠is obtained from the values of k1 and k2 from the previous lab experimentââ¬â¢s results so if there was an error in the results of the experiement it would have carried over into this lab. Our predicted results would have changed slightly due to the error and our experimental data would be off by even more. Another source of error could have been in measuring the relative displacement of the spring after the masses have been hung. A change in the angle or the stick not being held vertical could have resulted in a large deviation from predicted values. Taking into account all of these possible sources of error, we can safely assume that our percentage errors were sufficiently small. Conclusion The objective of this lab experiment was to calculate the effective spring constants of two different configurations. We obtained the effective spring constants using the equations from the predictions section.... (N) Initial h (m) Final h (m) Displacement (x) 0.05 0.49 0 10 10 0.07 0.686 0 10 10 0.09 0.882 0 12 12 0.11 1.078 0 15 15 0.13 1.274 0 20 20 The slope of the graph obtained is . Table-4 kâ⬠(End-To-End) Mass (kg) Weight (N) Initial h (m) Final h (m) Displacement (x) 0.05 0.49 0 29 29 0.07 0.686 0 42 42 0.09 0.882 0 54 54 0.11 1.078 0 67 67 0.13 1.274 0 80 80 The slope of the graph obtained is . We calculate the percentage error to find out how similar our predictions were to our experimental results. It can be assumed that the percentage errors are very less and thus, it proves that the experiment was conducted with lot of precision and care. These errors are less if you consider the fact that an error of 5 cm in measuring the displacement would have changed the error percentage drastically i.e. 35.71% from 10.00% The relatively less percentage error can be accounted to systematic error or aberration in springs. Also, we must not forget that the experimental value of kââ¬â ¢ and kâ⬠is obtained from the values of k1 and k2 from the previous lab experimentââ¬â¢s results so if there was an error in the results of the experiement it would have carried over into this lab. Our predicted results would have changed slightly due to the error and our experimental data would be off by even more. Another source of error could have been in measuring the relative displacement of the spring after the masses have been hung. A change in the angle or the stick not being held vertical could have resulted in a large deviation from predicted values. Taking into account all of these possible sources of error, we can safely assume that our percentage errors were sufficiently small. Conclusion The objective of this lab experiment was to calculate the effective spring constants of two
Friday, October 18, 2019
Human Rights Movements in International Politics and its Effect on Research Paper
Human Rights Movements in International Politics and its Effect on State Behaviour - Research Paper Example The issue that will be tackled in this paper is the role of human rights movements in international politics and its impact on state behaviourââ¬âthus it shall be resolved whether the protestations and vigorous representations in international bodies which has jurisdiction over these acts of violence and other human rights transgressions eliminate or eradicate the occurrence of assault or attack against individual human rights. However, this paper shall limit its analysis on human trafficking which assaults the basic rights of individuals to life and liberty and whether the response of states towards its eradication is sufficient. According the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), 2.5-million of the global population are in this predicament which includes forced labour and sexual exploitation. Majority of the victims or 1.4 million (56%) originate from Asia and the Pacific while the rest come from Latin America and the Carribean (10%), Middle East and North Africa (9.2%) and other sub-Saharan countries (5.2%), including industrialized countries (10.8%) and transition economies (8%). The tentacles of human trafficking can be felt in 161 countries either as source, route or destination countries. The recruitment occurs in 127 countries where these individuals will be sent or distributed against their will to 137 countries thus exploitation reportedly affects every continent and every type of economy.
Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 125
Assignment Example Therefore, the participation of these different groups makes procurement a cross-disciplinary process. Public beheading means killing a supplier in public when they do not meet the supply requirements. Such an action invokes efficiency in supply, given that non-performance leads to death. Consequently, most suppliers at this time ensured that they fulfilled the requirement of the king by all means, which promoted operations in the kingdom. However, the lack of power in the hands of the suppliers led to their oppression, given that the market at times faces uncertainties that could affect supply. Following the establishment of the law of contract, an organization can choose to sue a supplier who does not abide by the contract terms of delivery. In other cases, an organization can work with multiple suppliers, to, maintain continuity of operations when one supplier fails. I believe in the power of negotiations. Interacting with suppliers can enhance this skill as relations can be built between the organization and the suppliers. Consequently, an organization can bargain for better prices, thus leading to low cost of purchasing. The low cost translates into low product prices, thus increasing the competitive edge of the organization. Alternatively, the organization can negotiate for suitable credit terms that allow it to operate normally in cases of reduced cash flow. Technical skills also play a major role in procurement. They ensure the purchase of technologically viable products. This leads to the proper integration of technology with the existing business structures, thus promoting the ability of the organization to develop innovative strategies that lead to success. Computer proficiency continues to rank as one of the most important skills in an organization. The use of computers leads to the standardization of various processes in the organization, thus enhancing uniformity. Computer applications also make work easier, and allow the organization to
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Operations management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words
Operations management - Essay Example which attempted to retain market leadership by focussing solely on improvement of operational effectiveness without paying adequate attention to the overall business strategy of brand positioning and other very important human resource issues as job satisfaction, aggressiveness, motivation, performance, trust and commitment. Both made the same mistake of forgetting the broader perspective and tried to tackle an economic and marketing issue in isolation. It was only natural that both the attempts ended in failure. There were several different types of issues that had to be resolved as the project developed. At one end was the difficulty in transposing the theoretical knowledge acquired from study modules to the practical context of the project. At the other end was the lack of skill in identifying broad trends that generally tend to affect business mandarins all over the world. There surely is a trend-setter like Toyota, but it requires the experience of a veteran researcher to be able to identify a new trend and forecast a phenomenon that will sweep the world in days to come even when it is in its nascent stage and is being experimented and fine tuned by the trend setter. This ability to immediately spot an idea that would shape tomorrowââ¬â¢s business and commerce can only be acquired through years of patient research and, quite obviously, is not visible in the current project. At this stage, it must be admitted that the in-depth graphical analysis of the operational wheel of Tesco or a thorough examination of the technology and production processes adopted by Morgan car manufacturing company helped the researcher to attain that analytical frame of mind. The extensive knowledge (albeit theoretical) about not only lean but also agile supply chains that the researcher obtained by undertaking several projects on this topic made him fully realise the necessity of the decoupling point
The adverse medical, social, and spiritual consequences of marijuana Research Paper
The adverse medical, social, and spiritual consequences of marijuana and opiod addictions on the indiviual nd society - Research Paper Example The Sumerians of 4000BC and Egyptions of 2000BC were the first to experience their pain relieving and euphoric effects. International awareness on the issue of opioid abuse started when President T. Roosevelt convened the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909. The commission was to assist the Chinese empire stamp out opioid addiction (Preda, 2012). Marijuana is illegal as a substance of abuse. In spite of this, physicians have produced evidence suggesting that marijuana, or some of its components can play an important role in treating some of the diseases that affect mankind. Statistically, marijuana is the most abused illicit substance in the world (Doweiko, 2009). It is estimated that about 166 million persons above 15yrs use this substance on a regular basis. It is the most abuse substance in the United States. About 43% of persons over 18yrs abuse marijuana daily in America. Marijuana abuse produces very strong effects. Users of the substance experience a mild feeling of relaxation, euphoria, sensory distortions and alteration of an individualââ¬â¢s perception of usual activities such as watching television, eating and having sex (Doweiko, 2009). Others may have enhanced perceptions of sounds and colors. In social environments, marijuana smokers may talk excessively and display infectious laughter. High potency marijuana causes a synesthesia like experience and enhanced tactile sensations. Research shows that very low use of marijuana seems to stimulate the brain to release serotonin which causes antidepressant effects that help reduce depression (Doweiko, 2009). Opioids bind to opioid receptors found on neurons that exist in nervous and immune system. There are four major types of opioid receptors. These are mu, delta, kappa and OFQ/N. These receptors act as binding sites for endogenous peptides, such as enkephalins, endorphins and dynorphins (Doweiko, 2009) . These peptides perform regulatory and modulating functions, including
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3
Proposal - Essay Example It discussed the timing and frequency, as well as tools and sources of information. Forecasting methodologies were also explained with a brief discourse on how to interpret the forecasted data. The goal of the authors in this book is to present accounting as an essential part of the decision making process of various users such as the voter, the taxpayer, the government official, the business manager, and the investor. It discussed relevant issues on the analysis and preparation of financial statements and their utilization to achieve a companyââ¬â¢s objectives. Viscione aims to teach the student or the manager to use financial analysis in the decision making process. The book covers topics such as evaluating financial performance, tools for financial planning, cost of capital and capital budgeting techniques, among others. Abstract: The research aims to determine the rationale for managers opting to pad their budgets to address contingencies. It would discuss implications of padding the budget and find out alternative methods to meet financial challenges given the uncertainties in the competitive environment. This chapter clearly showed alternative options available to managers to avoid padding the budget. It also presented concepts in budgeting which would help a decision maker in making plans and strategies for control. The authors presented a concise section on capital budgeting techniques and other aids to managerial decisions. Theories on capital budgets are clearly explained and practical applications are explored through demonstration problems and exercises. Capital budgeting techniques were clearly presented through a discussion of measuring the rate of return of an investment. Topics on the determination of cash flows and other additional considerations to aid in the decision making process are also
The adverse medical, social, and spiritual consequences of marijuana Research Paper
The adverse medical, social, and spiritual consequences of marijuana and opiod addictions on the indiviual nd society - Research Paper Example The Sumerians of 4000BC and Egyptions of 2000BC were the first to experience their pain relieving and euphoric effects. International awareness on the issue of opioid abuse started when President T. Roosevelt convened the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909. The commission was to assist the Chinese empire stamp out opioid addiction (Preda, 2012). Marijuana is illegal as a substance of abuse. In spite of this, physicians have produced evidence suggesting that marijuana, or some of its components can play an important role in treating some of the diseases that affect mankind. Statistically, marijuana is the most abused illicit substance in the world (Doweiko, 2009). It is estimated that about 166 million persons above 15yrs use this substance on a regular basis. It is the most abuse substance in the United States. About 43% of persons over 18yrs abuse marijuana daily in America. Marijuana abuse produces very strong effects. Users of the substance experience a mild feeling of relaxation, euphoria, sensory distortions and alteration of an individualââ¬â¢s perception of usual activities such as watching television, eating and having sex (Doweiko, 2009). Others may have enhanced perceptions of sounds and colors. In social environments, marijuana smokers may talk excessively and display infectious laughter. High potency marijuana causes a synesthesia like experience and enhanced tactile sensations. Research shows that very low use of marijuana seems to stimulate the brain to release serotonin which causes antidepressant effects that help reduce depression (Doweiko, 2009). Opioids bind to opioid receptors found on neurons that exist in nervous and immune system. There are four major types of opioid receptors. These are mu, delta, kappa and OFQ/N. These receptors act as binding sites for endogenous peptides, such as enkephalins, endorphins and dynorphins (Doweiko, 2009) . These peptides perform regulatory and modulating functions, including
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Annotated Bibliography Essay Example for Free
Annotated Bibliography Essay In order for NHS to satisfy its requirement to transmit large medical imaging files in a timely and secure manner, they must be able to subscribe to circuits of the appropriate bandwidth at each remote office to address the local needs. Unfortunately, the remoteness of some of these locations have resulted in the limitation of network connectivity options. Therefore, the cost-effective alternative to expensive, high-bandwidth internet circuits is to use a WAN optimization solution. A WAN optimization solution consists of a network appliance at each location that focuses on increasing network performance. It accomplishes this through the use of a combination of data compression, content and object-caching, data deduplication and protocol optimization. A WAN optimization appliance works in conjunction with the available bandwidth at a location. The host site would have an appliance that would build ââ¬Ëacceleration tunnelsââ¬â¢ to each of the appliances located at the remote sites. The appliances at the remote sites would be sized based upon the number of users and the available bandwidth at that location. This solution has a number of advantages. It is a very cost-effective approach. Higher bandwidth circuits in remote areas tend to be expensive. The purchase of network appliances are normally a capital expenditure that can be amortized over the life of the product. This timeframe is normally 3 to 5 years. On the other hand, the addition of larger circuits is an operational expenditure that incurs a higher recurring cost on a monthly basis. Secondly, these appliances are transparent to the end user. They do not require additional software on the usersââ¬â¢ computers, or require any special setup on a per-user basis. NHS would very likely fall into the Early Adopters category in the Technological Acceptance Curve for this solution (Rogers, 2003). These individuals quickly buy into an idea when the possibility of real benefits have been established. They are primarily concerned with finding a strong match between their needs and the expected benefits (Moore, 1999). The useà of WAN optimization appliances would be an excellent fit for NHS and would be easily accepted by NHS management due to the ability to provide an optimal, technical and cost-effective resolution to the issue they are facing at the remote locations. This solution would allow them the means to meet their requirement to transmit large data files. References Rogers, Everett (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th Edition). New York, NY: Free Press Moore, Geoffrey (1999). Crossing the Chasm. United States: Harper Business Essentials
Monday, October 14, 2019
Erp implementation and change management
Erp implementation and change management ERP Implementation and Change Management Abstract In this research paper, we will analyse the problems and issues faced by a business / enterprise during the ERP project implementation project. And why is there a need for a proper change management as part of their ERP project implementation. As businesses are reengineering their business processes, they are expected to readjust their business methodology to suit the need or demands of market. Business will need a highly reliable management system to support their daily business processes, to reduce inefficiency and inaccuracy within the organisation business process. During the project implementation process, organization will commonly faces unwanted resist from the potential users. The study wills reveals what are the pitfalls and approach needed when organisation are facing resistance to ERP, which could lead to implementation failures. INTRODUCTION As business getting more competitive in today world, it is not enough for business to get content with producing only better and more reliable product and services. In order to provide better customer service internal or external, minimise or reduce overhead, daily production and operation costs, they need the assistance of a better, highly reliable information system to provide a more efficient management over the business processes. ERP Systems are introduced to handle more complex transactions as a highly dependable system. (Lukman Susanto, 2003) The enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a set of integrated Business Applications that provides support for core business process activities such as Manufacturing Production and Logistics, Finance and Accounting, Sales and Marketing, and Human resources. An ERP system integrated and helps the different departmental units of the organization to share data and knowledge, reduce costs, and improve management of the business Processes. (Adel M. Aladwani, 2001) Despite of having so many benefits, lot of ERP projects still fail (Stratman and Roth, 1999). Most of the ERP system implementation that fail are due to workers resistance. A good and careful change management strategies are requires facilitating a successful ERP implementation. (Adel M. Aladwani, 2001) The goal of the this paper is to show how ââ¬Å"change managementâ⬠could play a significant roles, how to market the ERP within the organization and what are strategies available that are useful to overcome workers resistance to ERP implementation. What is change management? Change Management is a planned change approach within an organization. The goal of Change Management is to maximize the benefits and lower the potential risk for the organization related to changes due to ERP implementation. In any ERP implementation undertaken by a business, Change management is one of the biggest tasks are heavily involved by the organization. Not only that this require a significant amount of funding from the organization but also require a high level of commitment throughout the whole organization. It is a deliberate approach to ensure a change in peoples expectations towards the major changes in the work process bring about by the implementation of ERP to move the business forward smoothly. (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). An effective change management must touches on all aspects of psychological reaction, such as resistance within an organization, which the potential users are going through. Measuring attitudinal changes are part of the key process in Change Management in the ERP implementation to record how people feel and their expectation towards the anticipated changes in the technology implementation. This will definitely help the organization to know how to manage the shift. Huge amount of communication, and training for the users are needed. WHY IS IT CRUCIAL TO AN ERP IMPLEMENTATION? The whole concept of change management involvement in ERP implementation is building mutual trust and understanding between the organization and its employees throughout the business component, during the implementation phase. The focus of change management in the business should be customer oriented managing expectation of the potential end user rather than technology or product oriented. End user will not be amazed with the state-of-the-art equipment, if the new ERP system or business process failed to fulfil peoples expectation. While ERP implementation requires the business to standardise its business processes, change management will be needed to make sure the damages can be avoided / minimised that are caused by transformation. With proper change management strategy in place, businesses can minimise costs involve due to rapid changes to bring in new system within the organization, while trying to maintain the consistency and existences of its employees. Change management can also help the company to deal with future changes with increase in the business flexibility, thus increase the business productivity as well. (Mark Schweiker Jeff Beatty) REASONS FOR RESISTANCE TO CHANGE This is part of the human nature to resist. According to Bonnie Mincuà ââ¬Å"resistant to have their expectation disruptedâ⬠(Bonnie Mincu, 1999). How the top management handle and deal with the resistance is important. Resistance are unavoidable but can be manage. The two basic reasons why people are resisting change are(Bonnie Mincu, 1999): ÃË Lack of motivation If the employee are not well informed on the purpose of the change and how it may beneficial for them, people will not feel motivated to change and support the new system. A good communication and vision sharing are needed to resolve these issues. ÃË Lack of ability People may understand and agree on the reasons on why there is a need for change, but if they do not have the needed ability, this will add unnecessary resistance and anxiety to all the mist of changes around them. Good proper structure job base training is needed for individual who will be operating the business on the ground within the organization. ÃË Change in Habit People who are so used to do their daily job in a familiar business process, will find it a hesitant and hard to break out of it and need some time to adjust to the new system and business process. Majority of people by default would prefer to do their jobs in ways they used to, instead of being innovative or to find a better way to get things done. (Adel Aladwani, 2001).à If businesses fail to handle such conditions, this might upset the employees and valued employees might leave the company. Thus a good project leader must be able to carry a good change management to avoid this unfortunate scenario. Change management Strategy Just like other system implementation, the role of change management is to build trust and understanding throughout the organization, so that the potential users in different separate functional area, where the change will be applied, such as finance, human resources and manufacturing, will understand the benefits and are well prepared to accept the change will be applied. (Island Consulting, 2000). Problems will surface the moment when the actual implementation of the system started, and for a successful implementation its use would require a lot of communication and collaboration within the well-established departmental organization. Although they maybe aware that the purpose of implementing the ERP system was to eliminate unnecessary double or redundant operationally work within whole organizational structure. (Kemppainen, Ilkka, 2000) Most of the project implementation potential risks related to the company are connected with the factors like the level of acceptance or support from company personnel and the top management. Factors like working skills, knowledge, and experience will also affect the outcome of the ERP project implementation. One typical potential risk factor is the resistance to change. People who are going to run the business or potential user may not see how the benefits of the system will help in their own work and, may not be fully committed to the new business model. With the mindset of resistance to change in place, people will not be using the system in a disciplined manner. Normal daily business activities also disturbs the ERP implementation, and people working on the ground may not be willing to put time or effort to assist the development work due to busy schedule. Without strong top management support for the ERP project, the project is set for failure. Beside those factors having a good project manager is also critical for ERP project implementation success. (Pà ¤ivi Iskanius, 2009) In change management things like synchronisation or communication between management and operation level with the project team are very important. The management need to focus and prepare a proper appropriate strategies, communication channels or plan to gather feedback and market the new ERP system that is going to be implement and a proper structure training program or schedule for the potential users to ensure the daily business activities are not being disrupt and able to achieve the desire expected outcomes / results. The organization needs to make sure that the employees are carefully instructed to help them overcome all the challenges during the mist of changes during the ERP project implementation. Effective change management strategies are (Island Consulting, 2000): ÃË Communications Strategy Constant communication is a need between the key person in the management and those in working in the daily business operation. The organization needs to ensure a thorough approach in their project strategy such as preparing for their project plans, project costs analysis, project progress reports as well as employees training to prepare the workers for the new system. Good working collaboration will help in resulting a better outcome of the project. The purpose of communicating is not to make everyone happy and it is not possible to make everyone happy, but to deliver the message and request for possible cooperation within the organization. Constant communication can effectively help in reducing the worries and anxiety on the management and the people on the ground on the changes. ÃË Impact Analysis Impact Analysis is a method to determine the impact on the current business system and how the business environment will be affect by the new ERP system. Data flow / work flow diagram will be included as part of those formal and informal information to show how business flows and tasks are being run and carried out within the organization. Information like job description and history are being documented will help the project team to make comparison on how the actual business processes to what has been documented (Island Consulting, 2000). With all the information gather above, the project team can analyse the impact the ERP implementation may bring, who are the personnel that will be affected by the implementation and the sort of training are required to ensure a smooth transition to the new system that is being implemented. ÃË Skill Analysis Proper training program and schedule are very important in ERP implementation as well. With the implementation of a new system, majority of the operator / end user will need to go for specific job training to get them ready to work on the new system. In order to find who are the individuals need to be train, the project team need to work with all stake holders, usually departmental head to perform skills analysis. Those employees who might need to work with the new ERP system will be audited by their qualification, skills and experiences to allocate the most suitable and best position for each of them. And at the same time, to ensure the business process operates adequately, the company might need to hire new staff or external consultants. The analysis will produce a list of detailed results on appropriate personnel for each position, training required and the cost in training.à CASE STUDY Case Study 1 Marine Cargo Specialist (Kemppainen, Ilkka, 2000) Marine Cargo Specialist is a relatively small global company, which provides marine cargo flow handling solutions and products. Their customer base mainly consists of companies like shipyards that provide services such as building of new ship, modernisation or upgrading and conversation of older ships for the ship owners or ship operators. All the old existing operational IT systems were deliver, maintained or supported by the local IT departments and their local suppliers. No common standards were established for such systems, thus the decentralised information systems architecture made it very difficult to share information on a global basis. Global business activities are often delays due to unavailability of quality, accurate and timely information. Due to the complexity of the new ERP system, problems started to surface gradually. The ERP project team did not place too much attention to these problems initially, as they are considered not critical. Instead, the main focus was on getting the system configuration completed and the system up as soon as possible. But to their dismay, for the potential users of the new ERP system, proper coordination and communication were fundamental. Soon frustration between the project and reference teams start to surface. With the numbers of unsolved issues keep increasing; mistrust and frustration start to grow among the project team and reference team. And project team find it harder to get approvals from the reference teams for crucial design due to other outstanding unaddressed issues. Eventually the system configuration was not being able to be completed, due to inadequate information and resources. And there was a clear indication that the consultants hire did not had a true knowledge and understanding of the system. Majority of the external consultant were kicked out of the ERP project in the process. The level of commitment and support for the project from the top management, started to diminish ad the project was clearly running into problems. CFO of the company as example, who used to be the true sponsor or supporter of the ERP implementation project, seem to be trying to move away from the project involvement. In 1997, due to the result of ownership change in the company, a new board of directors together with a new company CEO was appointed. The new CEO evaluated all the projects carefully and appointed an external consultant to assist him. The new CEO clearly demonstrated and shows his commitment towards the ERP implementation. And with the CEO support, the ERP project was back on the agendas of the senior management. The new CEO even made it clear on his vision of having a more integrated business system with a common, shared values and culture. He even initiated a management development program to address all openly cultural and trust related problems. Thus after the adjustment of implementation methodology result in better match for the changed circumstances. After so many struggles in the project, the implementation was now considered successfully amazingly, by not just the organization itself, but by other external parties from consulting companies as well as SAP. Case Study 2 WZM Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH (Benjamin R. Hoetzel, 2005) WZM Wekzeugmaschinen GmbH (pseudonym name) is a German manufacturing company that specialise in producing tools for presses in the automotive sector. It has two production sites in Germany, which employs 120 people. In 2004, driven by the fast expanding business growth and second plant being set-up. The company faced additional pressure to expand its production. But the growth also mean there was a need to redesign their business process with the implementation of a new ERP system in order improves control over the processes, and the need to reduce costs. Resistance started to evolve as the project advanced. Especially from the key administration users, who were not willing to do their daily work with the ERP system. Reasons for the resistance were clear: ÃË The computer experience of some of these employees who 50 years old and above were limited. ÃË Due refusal to abandon old habits, some employees are not ready to accept the change of their processes. Due to changes in the workflow, there was strong resistance during the post-implementation phrase from the finance department, including the financial director.à Some employees for example are not willing to accept the new screen layout of the ERP software and it will be difficult to let those employees to abandon their old habits and adapt to the new system. Without realizing the importance of this change, WZM Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, started the project without a full time project leader to lead the project. Instead, tasks were divided to some of the employees on top of their daily operational work. Beside that, they engage the services of two consultants to assist and lead the project in the integration of the new ERP into the company workflow. To make things worse, the employees were also not convinced that the consultants were competent. WZM Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH fail to identify what are the problems and evaluate actual needs, and be attentive to people and their social behavior before implementing and adapting a technical solution. The company also fails to provide proper support, education or training to its employees in the ERP modules. The finance department of WZM Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH for example, opposed the change heavily due the very fact that they lack the necessary skills for using the new ERP system. In the case of WZM Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, People focus was missing, which explain why their ERP projects fail. Conclusion This research paper has show that in order for any ERP system implementation to be successfully, good fully functional change management must be establish within the organization or company. Strong and committed support from the management, and a good change management strategy and plans are required for preparation of any existing businesss resources such as human resources and infrastructure to match ERP system needs and requirement. There are various aspects that need to be considered when establishing change management. For example the nature or type of the business, size of the company and the geographical area of the business. Rush implementation of ERP is not recommend as ERP itself is a complex system, which requires a lot of careful analysis or study as well as depth understanding before proceeding to implement. Without a proper change management planning in place, ERP implementation will cause disaster and big lost for the company.
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