Past experience to people Essay

Experience, which is the best teacher in our life to leading our behaviors and changing our mind. Culture, which is also the root for individuals values.Both of them give us lots of influence and changing our life all the times.It is hard to say which changes us the most on such a controversial question.Just like experiences lead us what to think and cultures provide us how we think. They are individually and connecting with each other.Despite our past experiences affecting the way we see the world uniquely, it is more often based on our individual cultural background. Overview Firstly, this essay will discuss the general influence to individuals of past experience Past Experience is a component which helps people gaining experience on every parts during our daily life.In the recreation activity,there is a relation between the preferences and past experience.The experienced level which has a great influence to make the choice.So that unexperienced people who do not know how to choose the suitable for entertainment and their decision will be different and wide.Experienced customers who have more specific need and their decision will be similar which is the most suitable in their past experience. Thus, more experienced people are, more specificity their entertainment chosen will be. For example,high experienced individuals in desert and mountain who has more specificity selection of the site decision than these no experienced individuals. Schreyer(1982) reported that river runners with higher experience levels stated the desired outcomes of their trips more specifically. (Watson et al., 1991) Some studies also shows that psat experience is related with site choice.They found that some more hard but no limited routed were chosen by managed users.The reason is that their experience proved them confidence and easy way to face this area.Past experience not only shown the choice detail for individuals bus also gain the knowledge about arranging their activities. In conclusion, experienced individuals whose choice specificity is stronger ,differentiation on different kinds of situation dimension is higher.The general influence of past experience is also shown in study work and all parts of our  life.Although the exciting and looking forward level is also reduced comparing with the first try.More experience brings us an efficient and suitable daily arrangement. Which is different from the influence of experience, culture is the basic background for individuals to think and control their way to solve the problems. Culture is how individuals life being, its is one of the most basic thing about human beliefï ¼Å'idea and values. Culture is different between different area, its the most important thing to effect our daily life.During the generations, humans communicate entertainment and lifestyle is always changing by the developed technology.But as the root of a nationality, culture always do not change.There is no doubt that everything I’ve talked about, thought with, every decision, belief which is closely related by my own culture. It is also important to be able to recognize and respect other cultures, and not believe one’s own culture is more valuable or superior than the rest. Sometimes issues of racism occur when people are unable to connect culturally with others. Being tolerant and understanding what other cultures value is the key for successful acceptance of one another.

Use Word’s Replace to Transpose a Column of Names

Use Word's Replace to transpose a column of names Available from:http://blogs. techrepublic. com. com/msoffice/? p=4156 Date: November 22nd, 2010 Author: Susan Harkins Category: Microsoft Word You’ll often see a column of names entered in a Word document either as a list or part of a table. Listing the names is no problem, but changing their order after they’re entered could be. For instance, let’s say your document contains a list of names entered in firstname lastname format, but you want them in lastname, firstname format. Do you have to re-enter them?No, there’s a simple wildcard trick you can use with Word’s Replace feature that will take care of the transposing for you. To get Word to transform a list or column of names, do the following: Select the list of names you want to transpose. From the Edit menu, choose Replace. In Word 2010, click Replace in the Editing group on the Home tab. Click the More button and check the Use Wildcards option. This is an important step—if you miss it, this technique won’t work. In the Find What control, enter () (), with a space character between the two sets.In the Replace With control, enter the following characters 2, 1, with a space character before the second slash character. Click Replace All. Word will transpose the first and last names and separate them with a comma character. When Word asks you to expand the search, click No, and then Close to return to the document. Wildcard explanation Once you understand the wildcards, the whole trick is easily exposed: (): The parentheses aren’t true wildcards, not in a matching sense. They allow you to divide a pattern into logical sequences. :The brackets mark the beginning and ending of a word or phrase. : The slash character replaces characters, and is used with a number that specifies a bracketed component (above). In this case, the Find What code splits the two names into two separate sequences. The 2 component in t he Replace What code replaces the contents of the first sequence with the contents of the second sequence. The 1 component replaces the contents of the second sequence with the contents of the first. As you can see, you’re not limited to just transposing first and last names. With these wildcard tools, you can rearrange quite a bit of content!

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

Project Management - Essay Example Besides allotting the tasks unvaryingly among the project team members the project manager has to monitor the progress of the project on a regular basis. The remaining activities have to be scheduled depending on the current progress of the project. Such a thorough supervision will enable the project manager to ensure that the project is finished well before deadline albeit leaving the team with enough time to test the project outcome rigorously (Kerzner, 2013). It is the duty of the project manager to create a robust interconnectivity between the project team members so that information can be channelized effectively between project team members. Effective communication of information will allow the project manager to learn about the issues that arise in between the different assignment levels within the project subsequent to which they can be addressed appropriately. The project manager will also have to have foresightedness about the probable risk exposures of the project. In that way the individual will be able to make sure that proper contingency plans are at place in order to shield the project from such risks (Kelly, et al., 2013). The fundamental trait of a transformational leader is that the individual goes beyond managing just the everyday operations and makes every effort to formulate strategies that are aimed towards taking the organization, functional department and the team members to the furthest level of performance and success. Leaders following this leadership style emphasize a lot on team building, collaboration, motivation and coordination between employees at several levels of the workflow within the organization (Wang, et al., 2011). This enables transformational leaders to bring the best out of their subordinates thereby enabling them to enhance their productivity and efficiency. By doing so they are able to

Product Life Cycle Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Product Life Cycle - Assignment Example They also had to determine the properties of the material required in the construction of the television box. Finally, they had to produce a prototype of the real model for testing. Other processes involved in the production cycle include simulation under software such as Matlab and Auto Desk (Theis, 2013). The second phase is the growth stage. The television industry has registered growth in a number of ways. For example, manufacturers have extended their services to incorporate the production of Blueray Discs and DVRs used to stored data and information. The data may be in the form of sound or videos. The maturity stage of the television industry was characterised by the production of DVDs. DVDs are better than DVRs because they have more storage capacity and store more quality data than the Blueray discs. Precisely, this is the current state of the television industry (Zhu, 2013). The final phase is usually the decline phase marked by reverting to the old processes and technology used by an organization. For the case of the television industry, the use of video cassettes would mark the onset of the decline of the

Children today waste too much time playing video games Essay

Children today waste too much time playing video games - Essay Example Children virtually spend their summer vacations playing these games. About half of all children have a video game player or a computer on which to play the video game and parents do not restrict the types of game the children play. AskDr.Sears.com reports eighty percent of most popular video games feature violence and aggressiveness. Surveys also suggest, by the time a typical American child reaches the age of eighteen, he has seen 200,000 acts of violence and 40,000 murders on screen. According to Maney (2005) video games might be the best things that children can do to ensure their future success. Maney quotes Steve Johnson, who says that at every point while playing the video games one has to make decisions. One has to think about patterns, long-term goals, and resources. These help to take a decision and depending upon the feedback from the game one again has to adjust the decision. Maney confirms that games like Halo 2, EverQuest or the lurid Grand Theft Auto hone the kind of decision-making abilities that define a successful person. Parents often insist that children should spend time reading books rather than playing video games. Johnson disagrees saying whatever the benefits of reading, you are following someone else’s decision. Video games have been linked to violence and aggressive behavior. Others believe that video games provide an outlet for aggression and frustration. According to the journal American Family Physician, studies have not been able to show concrete evidence of behaviour being affected due to violent video games. This argument can be countered by the violence and blood bath that children are exposed to, in books like King Lear and Lord of the Flies. They challenge the belief that books are automatically better than video games. Dr. John C Beck, author of Got Games, believes video games foster team skills (cited by Powell S, 2005). He refutes the view that it

Freedom and Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Freedom and Justice - Essay Example How affordable is higher education for Americans? What sorts of conflicts has higher education produced? These questions and many more will be addressed and applied to a holistic analysis of higher education in the United States. Conflict theory evolved from Marxism and focuses on what it perceives are inherent conflicts within society. Marxists perceive conflict to be endemic when resources are scarce and argue that our social system – capitalism – is the most unequal system when it comes to resource allocation and distribution. Private property, capital and social classes are all important characteristics of an inegalitarian society. An unequal division of labour and class exploitation is said to lead to conflict according to this theory (Wallerstein, 1974). A Conflict Theorist would immediately point out the inequalities surrounding higher education in the United States and would argue that higher education promotes class difference and exploitation of the masses. Seeing higher education as a tool for upward social mobility, Conflict Theorists would assert that the lack of accessibility of higher education in the United States maintains the unequal status between social classes, ensuring tha t the wealthy remain wealthy and the poor in America remain poor. Conflict Theorists point out that exorbitant costs to attend colleges and universities ensure that only the wealthy can access higher education and thus reaps the benefit of having a Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree or PhD. Affordability, or lack thereof, essentially promotes the existing class structure to the detriment of the greater society. The implication is a society stratified by class and educational attainment. Those without access to the elite ivory towers of America’s universities and colleges will forever remain in the bottom rung of society. Conflict will exist between those who have the means to attend university and those who do

Motivating and Supporting Collaboration in Open Innovation Term Paper

Motivating and Supporting Collaboration in Open Innovation - Term Paper Example Retrospectively speaking, the authors say that the new product development has always been a closed loop work. It was initiated and completed by a few chosen people inside the company; but now, the loop has been broken due to this stiff competition in the market. The companies now involve the end users into the new product development. Nonetheless, single customer’s unique needs are not of much use to the company due to economic viability. The company needs to understand large customer product combinations. Hence, the company needs to motivate a collective creativity towards novelty. Past studies have shown that collaboration paves way for better creativity and efficiency in an organization. All the great ideas of the past have been found by individuals who shared their work with others for elaboration.     The consumers’ opinion towards the new product is considered vital in this era; hence, the development of the open-intelligence portals. These portals act as int ermediaries between the different market players – paving way for collective response to innovation. It is now believed that the investment in the OI systems is wastage without the understanding of the motivational factors. The company needs to understand these motivational factors in order to attract the users to the OI portals for their input.Based on their research work, the authors state that one of the most important motivating factors for active participation at online communities is the level of effect that participation has on the surrounding environment.

Business research week 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business research week 3 - Assignment Example paper would confirm that the organizational innovation that would favor the development of technological innovation capabilities that both of the services including the technological and organizational capabilities meant for the processes and products can lead to some superior performance of a firm (Camisà ³n & Villar-Là ³pez, 2014). The research was financially supported by the research funding especially from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. It also gained some funding from the Conselleria de Education in the coast of Generalitat Valenciana. The paper aimed at progressive examination of the firm in question based on the information technology employed within the firm. The two channels of the innovation help in the application of the major themes and try to explain the interrelationship between the two major factors used in the firm. The paper utilized a case study that had multiple methods and then ended up studying the activities related to the innovation process in the firm. It is quite apparent that different aspects of the IT capability to indeed affect an organization’s ability to influence and innovate several processes in the firm (Camisà ³n & Villar-Là ³pez, 2014). It has done this by identifying the exact areas to be studied and offering further recommendation to be carried out in the whole process. This article seeks to underscore the issues linked to the significance of IT in the business setup. IT is the enabler of innovation in most organizations or firms. Most leaders in the innovation sector tend to offer very distinct and separate perspectives employed in the overall use of technology and communication in the final end. Most of the leaders have been battling with the IT organizations in their fixation and the automating services in the entire system of the firm. IT can be seen as the anathema to the act of creativity and the barrier to some form of innovation in the firm (Atashi & Abdolpour, 2012). The paper mainly aims at the

Liberal States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Liberal States - Essay Example Liberalism is a political doctrine that believes protection of freedom of citizens of any country is the main problem of a government and generally advocates for equality among all citizens. In liberal states, the support of ideas such as freedom of religion, freedom of press, fair and transparent elections and other civil rights is usually very common since the people are normally aware of their rights. Liberal states though they exhibit some variations in some political ideologies they usually exhibit a common belief on the fight for freedom and rights of their citizens. Liberalism carries a sense of international sense of prudence, which enables them to restrain from fighting with one another since they have the same system of international relations and ideologies. This kind of self-restriction among the liberal states has enabled many such states not to engage in wars since it does not seem logical for them to engage in any form of fighting and if agitated to do so they have the ability to restrain from the urge (Sandel 175). However, this sense of prudence only seems to be practical among liberal states only since when non-liberal states attack the liberal ones it has usually resulted in war. The reason advocated by the liberal states for their act of intolerance to their non-liberal counterparts is that it is prudent to attack since they are defending themselves.

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary - Assignment Example The authors work with Elizabeth Brainerd is based on two hypotheses. Firstly, competitive industries do not have discrimination, so in case of an exogenous shock (increased trade) the effect of discrimination is negligible. Secondly, in less competitive industries, scope of discrimination is more, so in case of the same exogenous shock narrowing the gender wage gap would be considerable. Since theoretically, the wage differential in competitive industries is nil, by providing for increased trade, the authors could compute the gender wage gap in concentrated industries. The survey covering the period 1977-94 used data from Current Population Survey. The population comprised of individuals aged 18 to 64 and working as full time. First log wage of all individuals was regressed on education, age, agesqaured and nonwhite dummy variable. Then the residual gender wage gap was computed from difference in average residual wages for male and female at industry level. The industry level results were matched to trade level results, with trade measured as import shares. The findings show that an increase in import share leads to reduction in gender wage gap in concentrated industries. However overall increase in trade have a negative impact on relative wages of women. These results can also be factored on decline in unionization and not discrimination impact.

Culture Day Topic Essay Example for Free

Culture Day Topic Essay History of Judo was created by Jigoro Kano. He was a highly educated man; he was considered the founder of the modern Japanese education system. He wanted to preserve and combine the ancient martial traditions of Japan. One of the most important innovations was the emphasis of â€Å"randori†, or non-cooperative free sparring practice. The majority was based on pre-arranged sequences of attack and defense known as â€Å"kata†. For several years Kodokan Judo reigned supreme. Kudo was challenged by a man named Mataemon Tanabae. Maeda Mitsuyo Maeda became one of the greatest fighters in the history of Judo. Maeda retired without ever losing a fight. The Gracies, Maeda settled in Brazil and created an academy of â€Å"Jiu Jitsu†. One of his students was Carlos Gracie. After studying for several years he opened his own academy. He and Maeda created the â€Å"Gracie Challenge†, all challengers were welcome to compete in the challenge. The Gracie fighters were victorious against all kinds of fighters from different backgrounds. Several members of the Gracie family began to go to the US in the late 1980’s. The Gracies and their particular brand of fighting has had a major impact on martial arts today. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was very similar in many ways with to Judo and other systems of Japanese Jiu Jitsu. Judo was originally designed as a powerful system of self-defense. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is divided into three categories: self-defense, free fighting competition, and sport grappling. The fighting strategy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is to make a physically smaller or weaker person be able to defend from a larger or stronger attacker. When applying BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) techniques leverage is key. As leverage is the secret to the most use of force.

Prices of Petrol and Diesel in Malaysia

Prices of Petrol and Diesel in Malaysia 1.0 Introduction Microeconomics is a branch of economic analysis that are deals with human behavior and the choices of the small units in economics. It is firms in undertakes to understand the decision-making process of firms and households. It is also concerned with the interaction between sellers and individual buyers and all the factors that had influence the choices that are made by buyers and sellers. In particular, microeconomics had focuses on the patterns of supply and demand and also the output in individual markets and the determination of price. There are two different distinct areas in the field of economic will be study that is microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics studies on how the pricing of element services such as profits, interest, wages and rents are all determined in the market. It is also on how scanty resources are distribute for the production of several products. People who have any wish to start their own business or who want to learn the rationale behind the pricing of the particular services and products. On the other hand, macroeconomics analyzes the accumulate behavior of the whole economy. It studies not just only individual economic units but all the arrangement which are deals with accumulates such as trade cycle, inflation, national income, deflation, public finance and others. Demand and supply including all those important concepts and it is a principle of economic of pricing. Demand and supple concept are using to determining all the prices of goods. Demand is the willingness and ability to buy specific quantities of goods in a given period of time at a particular price. The law of demand states that the higher the price of a good, the lower the quantity demands for that good and vice versa. It also states that there is a reverse relationship between quantity demanded and price. A demand schedule for the graphs had also represents a functional relationship between quantity demanded and price. Supply is clarifies as the willingness and the ability to produce or sell particular services and goods in a given period of time at a particular price. (DevigaVengedasalam, KarunagaramMadhavan and RohanaKamaruddin, 2008) The difference between demand and supply is the word of sell and buy. The law of supply states that the higher price of a good is the quantity supplied for that good and vice versa. The supply schedule for the graphs had also represents a functional relationship between the quantities supplied and price when the other determinants are assumed that all constant. Elasticity is an important concept that can be measured by all the students that are majoring in economics. There are four types of elasticity that is income elasticity (YED), cross price elasticity (XED), price elasticity of supply (PED) and price elasticity of demand (PED). It is a measurement of the proportion of responsiveness of any variable to the change in one of the factors of determinants. 2.0 Demand and Supply On October 2, 2014 petrol and diesel price are increased by 20 cent per litre by Malaysia Government as in line with the federal government’s subsidy rationalization policy. The new retail price of RON95 will be RM2.30 and diesel will be RM2.20 per litre. This change had affected the demand and supply for all the Malaysian consumers. For petrol, the determinants of supply for this case that had happen is the government policies. The supply of goods is also influence by the carry out of various government policies such as subsidies and taxes. If the government charges the sales tax on goods, this will result in the higher cost of production and this will also decrease the supply of goods. Then, the proviso of the subsidies will encourage all the sellers to supply more as the subsidy will reduce the cost. For an example, if the government gives subsidies for goods, the supply of goods will increase. Under these circumstances, the supply of petrol will decrease. â€Å"Although fuel prices have increased for March, prices at farmers’ markets will be still be lower as compared to other markets,† (Ismail, 2015). The government reduces the subsidy rate of petrol. (Themalaymailonline, 2014).From this, it can be seen that the future price of petrol will decrease in demand and supply. For additional, income is the determinant of demand. It can be using to influence the consumers making a decision to buy products or goods or services are the income of consumers. The evident for this determinant is the level of income in country under analysis or appropriate region. The goods that are known as normal good are books, cars, shirts and house. In additional, inferior goods are those salted fish, low-grade potatoes and low-grade rice. The higher income of a consumer getting, the higher quantity of the product they will buy. In fact, when the price of petrol had increase, the demand for petrol is decreasing as the price of related goods is cheaper such as bicycle. This is because consumer having the choice of making a decision to make a desire for things. The demand for petrol in Malaysia is decreasing as the income for every consumers in Malaysia is decreasing or even remain constant. For a better know, the labor market in Malaysia also can be concerned. A worker’ s day can be divided into hours of leisure and hours of work. Besides of that, workers are also be assumed that they have the flexibility to choose their hours for working and leisure. After the year 2013, the minimum wage for Malaysian is not increasing. (MOHR- Minimum Wages, 2013). The minimum wage in Peninsular Malaysia is RM 900 for monthly and RM433 for hourly. Besides, the minimum wage in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan is RM 800 for monthly and RM3.85 for hourly. (MOHR- Minimum Wages, 2013). As the demand of petrol is decreasing, the number of public transport in Malaysia is increasing. This will happen because all the Malaysian only willing to use on those transport that will not using up the need of petrol. For diesel, government policies is the determinant of supply that is same with the determinant supply for petrol. The supply of goods is also influenced by the implementation of several government policies such as subsidies and taxes. If the government imposes sales tax on goods, this will result in the increase of cost and this will decrease the supply of goods. Then, the proviso of subsidies will encourage all the sellers to supply more as the subsidy will reduce the cost. For example, if the government provides subsidies for goods, the supply of goods will increase. Under these circumstances, the supply of diesel will decrease. Through all of these, it can be seen that the future price of diesel in demand and supply is decrease. In additional, income is the determinant of demand for diesel. The evident is the level of income country under analysis or in an appropriate region. As all the Malaysian knows that diesel is more expensive than the petrol. In this case, the consumers also have more choice to choose or make a decision in individual. Same as the determinant of demand for petrol, the increase of the income of consumer, the quantity of demand also will increase. The demand of diesel in Malaysia is decrease as the price of diesel had already in a higher price than petrol so that the consumer will be lesser and lesser. And this may lead to the firms because in originally diesel already less people use because of the high price. After the year 2013, the minimum wage for Malaysian is not increasing. (MOHR- Minimum Wages, 2013). The minimum wage in Peninsular Malaysia is RM 900 for monthly and RM433 for hourly. Besides, the minimum wage in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan is RM 800 for monthly and RM3.85 for hourly . (MOHR- Minimum Wages, 2013). This also may increasing the number public transport in Malaysia. 2.1 Graph Demand and Supply of Petrol 2.2 Graph Demand and Supply of Diesel 2.3 Types of Elasticity Price Elasticity of Demand (PED) A measurement of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in price of that good. It shows the relationship between the price and quantity demand and also had provides an accurate to calculate the effect of a change in price on quantity demand. Then, the price elasticity of demand is calculated as the percentage change in quantity demand divide by the percentage change in price. This equation can use to do the calculation that is about the effect of price changes on quantity demand and on the income that received by the company before and after any price change. After that, the value of price elasticity can classify in five types, such as elastic, inelastic, unit elastic, perfectly inelastic and perfect elastic. The level of response of quantity demand to a change in price can be varying considerably. The quantity demanded changes proportionately more than the price, the value of price elasticity of demand is greater than 1 that is elastic. The percentage that changes in quantity of good is greater that the percent change of that goods price such as petrol. When the quantity demand of PED is less than 1, is call inelastic and the quantity demand is move proportionately less that the price of good. Next, when the value is equal to 1 is called as unit elastic, and the quantity of demand is moving about the same amount as the price of good such as insurance package. When the quantity demand of PED is equal to 0 it is a perfectly inelastic, the price of good and the quantity demand is remain same such as coffin. In addition, when the quantity demand of PED is equal to infinity it is perfectly elastic that means has a small change in the price that had lead to huge change in the quantity demand s uch as housing. Cross Price Elasticity of Demand (XED) Cross price elasticity of demand is show the relationship between two services or goods. Cross price elasticity of demand can defined as a measurement responsiveness of the quantity demand of one good to change in the price of another good. In additional, the cross price elasticity of demand can calculate as the percentage change in quality of good1divided by the percentage change in price of good2. Then, cross price elasticity of demand may be negative or positive value, depend on whether the goods are substitutes or complements. While, if the good A is substitute for good B, when the price of good A increase, thus the coefficient value is positive. For example, if the price of coffee increases, the consumer may purchase more tea and less coffee. In opposite, when the price of another good is decrease, the demand of substitute goods will fall. In contrast, if the good C is a complimentary good for good D, demand for good C decline when the price of good D increases. For example, when the quantity demand of car is increase, the quantity demand of fuel also will increase. If the price of complement falls, the quantity of demand of other good rise. So, the complement goods in cross price elasticity of demand will be negative. In summary, when the degree of elasticity for good XY is negative, the types of goods is complimentary; when the degree of elasticity for good XY is positive, the types of goods is substitute goods; when the degree of elasticity for good XY is equal to zero, , the types of goods is no relat ed goods. Income Elasticity of Demand (YED) Income elasticity of demand can defined as a measure the responsiveness of quantity demand for good to change in the consumer income. The income elasticity of demand can be calculates in the equation of the percentage change in quantity demand divide by the percentage change in income. Income elasticity can used to predict the potential of market. The one of the determinants of consumer demand is income. Income elasticity has shown the changes in income are leading to the change in demand. YED also can use to classify the goods such as luxury goods, inferior goods, necessity goods or normal goods. When a high value of income elasticity for one good, the producer of good can predict to increase in sales or decrease when the elasticity coefficient fall. When the income elasticity coefficient is more than 0, its’ degree of elasticity is elastic and had reveals that it is a luxury good. Luxury goods are the product that are highly desire and associate with wealthy people who bought for some reasons such as to support their status. For example, Gucci, Dior, and LV. When the income elasticity is less than 0, it shows it is an inferior good. Its’ degree of elasticity is negative elastic. The demand for the inferior good is go down as the income is increase such as bus. This is because when the income of people decrease, they just can afford to take a ride but not buying a car. The decline of bus is when the income of people increase. When the income elasticity is greater than 0 and less than 1, it is a normal good and that is the one where demand is directly proportional to the income. Normal goods are the items that income and demand will increase at the same time such as Nike shoes and Polo T-shirts. For example, Polo T-shirts having a normal price so that people are going to make more income to buy it. When the income elasticity is equal to 0, it is a necessity good, this is because the change of income did not affect the good. Necessity goods are the goods or service that are consider to be live in living, such as water, food, and medical care. However, if the price of necessity goods is increasing, people are still buying them because it is necessary for them. Price Elasticity of Supply (PES) Price elasticity of supply is a measurement of the responsiveness in the quantity supplied to a change in price of that good. PES can be calculated in the equation of percentage change in quantity supplied divide by the percentage change in price. There are several factors that can affect the elasticity of supply that is the flexibility of seller to produce, perishability, technology improvement, availability and mobility of factors of production and time period. PES is necessary for all the company to know about how quickly and effectively to it that can respond to change all the market condition, especially to the change of price. The price elasticity of supply can be divided into five types of supply curve. When the price of elasticity is greater than 1 it is elastic and that means the quantity supply is moving proportionately more than the price. When the PES is less than 1it is inelastic which means the quantity supply is moving proportionately less than the price. When the PES is equal to 1 it is unit elastic, which means the quantity supply is moving at the same amount as price. When the PES is equal to 0 it is perfectly inelastic which means that regardless of the price and the quantity supply remain the same. When the PES is equal to infinity it is perfectly elastic and it means that a huge change in the quantity demand that is led by a small change in the price. Graph of Price Elasticity of Demand Graph Price Elasticity of Supply 3.0 Conclusion In the future, the price of the petrol and diesel will decrease. Next is the type of the elasticity can help all the people to classify the goods in the market such as necessity goods, luxury goods, normal goods, inferior goods, substitute goods and complimentary goods. And also this concept is important and applicable. After that, the value of PED and PES can be classify as six elasticity, such as perfectly elastic, inelastic, unit elastic, elastic and perfectly elastic. The concept of demand and supply is important because it is the basis of economic of pricing. For the elasticity concept, it is also very important for the business man so that they can change the market or condition for their business. However, if the future price of petrol and diesel is increasing the government should increase the income of consumer, decrease the tax or provide the subsidiaries on the petrol and diesel. So that the consumer can make a better decision for individual.

Norwegian International Ship (NIS) Register: Pros and Cons

Norwegian International Ship (NIS) Register: Pros and Cons Introduction The concept of ship registration dates back to the time when vessels started to sail under national flags. Belonging to different countries, the nationality of a ship provides not only protection of the owners rights, support and other advantages, but also responsibilities and certain limitations. Registration means subjecting the ship to the jurisdiction of a country. However, the ways and approaches to ship registration were not rigid and inflexible. Prior to the 1980s, national registers were the only phenomenon in the ship registration practice. But the so-called open registers appeared due to several developing countries, such as Panama, Liberia and the Bahamas. They provided more flexible conditions and lower costs than national registers. Ship owners were attracted by open registers to become more competitive in comparison with their rivals. The response of the developed countries was to introduce international or second registers that gave wider opportunities than national on es, but provided better technical support and service to the member-vessels. The current literature review is aimed at providing the overall classification of ship register types and to concentrate on the four registering companies: NIS, NOR (Norwegian Ship registers), IOM Ship Register (Isle of Man) and UK Ship Register. Definition, Classification and Functions of Ship Registers Rayfuse (2004) argues that according to existing international legislation, ships are allowed to sail under the flag of one country only. Consequently, the concept of a ship register or flag state addresses a vessel to the state, which carries out the regulatory control over this ship (Harwood, 2006). However, this registration will imply further certification and inspection of the ship. Special attention is given by ship registers to the maintenance of environmental regulations and the prevention of pollution (Raikes, 2009). Hinkelman (2005) proposed an overwhelming classification of ship registers types. The researcher argues that all the register types are subdivided into national registers, flags of convenience (FOCs), second registers and bareboat charter registers. In the case of national registers, the direct link between the nationality of the vessels owner and the flag state is implied. National registers are often referred to as closed registers (Hinkelman, 2005). Flags of convenience (FOCs) do not directly link the nationality of the owner with the state flag. On the contrary, they are foreign registers, which provide more convenient conditions for the ship owners. Bareboat charter registers grant the possibility to obtain for vessels a foreign registration for a certain time period. However, they retain their primary registration (Hinkelman, 2005). The current dissertation focuses predominantly on second and national registers. Second registers are often referred to as offshore registers. Their operation is determined by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) (Mulcahy and Tillotson, 2004). This type of register is usually established either by the separate legislation in the country, which already has a national (primary register), or in the offshore territory with the direct legal connection to the host country. The main second registers are the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS) (Norway), Isle of Man (UK), Madeira (Portugal), Kerguelen (France) and Danish International Ship Register (DIS) (Denmark) (Farthing and Brownrigg, 1997). From the standpoint of the world economy, the main function of international ship registers is to assist in global maritime commerce. According to Odeke (1998) this assistance may be seen in eliminating certain restrictions and limitations imposed by primary registers. Besides the implementation of the official control function, international registers protect the rights of the owners of vessels. Furthermore, second registers tend to subscribe certain original regulations for vessels owners. They stipulate definite manning, taxation rules and safety requirements (Chircop and LindÃÆ'Â ©n, 2006). For instance, the nationality requirements for manning are usually relaxed by the international registers. At the same time, the second register country has the right to call all registered vessels in the event of war or other emergencies (DeSombre, 2006). Klikauer and Morris (2002) argue that it is beneficial for countries to have their own second registers. International registers charge registration taxes and fees from the vessels owners. Even providing the above mentioned services to the ships, they remain profitable. International registers attract ship owners, as they ordinary provide more favourable conditions and terms than those of the home states (Raikes, 2009). It may be even stated that the second registers compete against each other in attracting new candidates. Norwegian International Ship (NIS) Register Background The Norwegian International Ship Register was founded in 1987. The second register provides the possibility of the registration and certification for vessels under the flag of Norway, which has been an outstanding nautical nation since the time of the Vikings. The main purpose of the NIS is formulated as the following: to offer a flexible and commercially attractive alternative to open registers while retaining the essential features of quality registers (Branch, 2007, p. 164). The organisation was established to compete against other international registers for the benefit of Norway. The Norwegian International Ship Register allows the certification of the following types of ships: hovercraft, cargo and self-propelled ships, movable platforms and installations. The citizenship of the owner is not limited or restricted by the NIS. The ships sailing under the Norwegian flag have to subject to the jurisdiction of that country. The key differences with the ordinary NOR may be seen in the following. First, according to the NIS, direct certification of foreign companies is allowed which is not possible in case of NOR. Secondly, according to the NIS, the employment of foreign crew with the standard local salary level is allowed. Limitations of the NIS The limitations subscribed by the NIS were originally formulated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of Norway and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The main limitation of the NIS is that the ships under the Norwegian flag are not allowed to carry passengers or cargo from one Norwegian port to another Norwegian port. Furthermore, regular transportation of passengers between foreign and Norwegian ports is not permitted either. It is specified that Norwegian gas and oil installations are considered to be Norwegian ports from the standpoint of this limitation. Despite the fact that the NIS legislation allows foreign ownership of the vessel, owners are obliged to have a Norwegian representative. This requirement may be also interpreted as a limitation for foreign owners. Another limitation may be seen in the fact that a foreign crew of the vessel is not allowed to carry out all the technical and commercial maintenance operations by themselves. Furthermore, their home country cannot be involved in these operations either. The NIS legislation implies the participation of the third party, a Norwegian company, which will accomplish the minimum set of technical and commercial operations for a foreign vessel. Hence, a certain degree of dependence in technical and financial operations for foreign vessels may be classified as a limitation because crew cannot make a choice of their own. At the same time, the NIS legislation does not limit the age of the vessel to be registered. The main requirement is satisfactory technical functioning of the ship. The Number of Registered Ships It is reasonable to trace back the dynamics of the registered quantities of vessels in the NIS. At the beginning of 1999, the number of registered vessels was equal to 705. In forthcoming years it was fluctuating and finally dropped. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the number of the registered vessels constituted 712, 717 and 693 respectively. However, in 2008, this figure constituted only 577 vessels. The NIS registered 358 vessels owned by the Norwegians and 192 owned by foreigners. This illustrates that the general tend in the number of NIS registration was decreasing. To estimate the NIS registration in tonnage, the following indicators can be mentioned. During the period from 1999 to 2005, the tonnage of the NIS registered vessels changed from 19,000 gross tons to around 14,000 gross tons. Again, the overall trend for the NIS registers in tonnage was decreasing. Advantages The following advantages can be attributed to registration in the NIS. Norwegians are universally recognised as a competent and experienced maritime nation. The Norwegian taxation system is relatively mild in comparison with the overall European taxation regulations. The Norwegian judicial system characterises itself as one of the most predictable and sophisticated towards the maritime business. The NIS system has a very good reputation, which eliminates further inspection of the cargo in foreign ports. The registered vessels will reap all the benefits of high-quality tonnage. The implementation by the NIS of other international standards, such as ILO, IMO, ISM, SOLAS, WTO, OECD and MARPOL, increases the universality and uniformity of their legislation, which is advantageous for trade. The NIS provides more than 500 service stations on a global scale, which are easy to apply to for technical and financial management and support. The income of the crews including foreign citizens is not taxed by the Norwegian authorities. Disadvantages It may be argued that the following disadvantages can be found in the NIS. Foreign owners and cargo or passenger transportation companies are not permitted to enter the internal Norwegian market. The NIS legislation does not allow transportation between Norwegian ports for foreign vessels. However, this disadvantage is recognised by foreign owners only. The Norwegian authorities secure themselves against additional competition in the sea transportation market, which is recognised as an advantage for them. Foreign ships have no possibility to turn to their domestic technical and financial support services. Ship owners have to coordinate their payments to the employees within Norwegian legislation. Mandatory participation of the Norwegian representative in the communication with the Norwegian government. Norwegian Ordinary Register (NOR) Background The Norwegian Ordinary Register (NOR) has certain similarities with the NIS, but the main difference may be found in the class of the register. According to the above given classification, the NOR belongs to the national type of registers. It means, that it emphasises the direct link between the nationality of the owner and the host country. The NOR can be considered a closed register. The NOR legislation implies two options upon registration of vessels: mandatory and voluntary registrations. The mandatory registration is necessary for all the Norwegian vessels, which have a length of 15 meters or more. However, if they are already registered in other countries (have international or second registration), the NOR registration is not required. The voluntary option of registration can be applied to the Norwegian vessels, which have a length from 7 to 15 meters. In addition, other vessels, which are not used for commercial purposes may be registered voluntarily according to the NOR. Floating docks and cranes, hovercrafts and installations and moving platforms can be registered on the voluntary basis. In all the other cases, which are prescribed by the Act concerning the Registration and Marking of Fishing Vessels, the registration of vessels is mandatory. Limitations of the NOR According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005), the main limitations of the NOR may be found in its nature of being a national or closed register. In particular, to be registered by the NOR, the shipping company is to be owned by an EEA citizen. Nevertheless, non-EEA ownership is possible too, but the share owned by the EEA citizens must be no less than 60%. If compared with the NIS, such limitation does not exist there. On registration in the NOR, the company that owns a vessels becomes a company with limited liability. The headquarters of a cargo or passenger transporter must be on the territory of the EEA. Similar requirements are attributed to the crew of the vessel registered in accordance with the NOR standards. The prevailing majority of the crew members including the captain itself are to be EEA citizens, who had resided in the EEA area the two preceding years. Another limitation deals with the technical and financial management of the registered vessel. The NOR legislation allows technical support for a vessel from a Norwegian technical servicer only. The maintenance may be given abroad, but this company has to ultimately belong to Norway. The Number of Registered Ships In 2007, the total number of vessels registered in NOR was equal to 749. In 2008, this figure increased by 2.8% and was equal to 770. The NOR registration in tonnage was equal to 2,411 gross tons in 2007. In 2008, this figure decreased and constituted only 2,305 gross tons. It is quite difficult to comment about the tend in the NOR registrations because the two recent years demonstrated a small rise in numbers, but a fall in tonnage. Advantages The following advantages are usually attributed to the NOR. The vessels operating in the inner market reap the benefits of high-quality support and the protection of foreign competitors. Sophisticated and highly experienced maritime tradition contributes greatly to the development of sea transportation businesses for different types of vessels. It is beneficial for ship owners that the country has two types of ship registers: national and international. Disadvantages The following disadvantages may be seen in the NOR registration for vessels. The registration fees are not stable and fluctuate from year to year depending on the prescriptions of the Maritime Act. Opportunities of technical support are limited only to the domestic providers of this service. It may be concluded that as Norwegian International Ship (NIS) Register and Norwegian Ordinary Registers (NOR) belong to one country, they have much in common. However, the main difference between these registers is that they belong to different register groups: national (NOR) and international or second (NIS) registers. The NOR completely binds the registered ships to the host country, Norway. It may be noticed in terms of ownership, cooperation with maintenance and support services and the location of the headquarters. The NIS naturally allows foreign ownership, but the limitation of mandatory service remains. Moreover, companies are obliged to have a Norwegian representative. UK Register Background The UK register is part of the Maritime and Coastal Agency (MCA), which controls and monitors all of the marine activity in the UK. Since the UK is a kingdom, all of the activity is ultimately answerable to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain. The UK register is a closed register. The UK register handles: Merchant ships Fishing vessels Large yachts Pleasure Crafts/ Small ships With 116 (UK Ship Register, 2010) ports around the UK, all of the above vessels can register and receive a UK flag. Although the register provides a list of restrictions on who can be registered, it covers quite a wide range of geographical locations (e.g. British Dependant territories citizens, EEA countries, those that have a registered business in one of the EEA countries). Benefits of having a UK Flag The UK flag is considered to be one of the best performing flags in the world, ranking 3rd (lowest by risk) in the Paris MoU list The UK Flag is one of the top performing Flags on the Paris MoU White List' (UK register, 2010). The register is proud to offer their customers assistance both before and after registration. Financially, it rewards its members with relatively low annual renewal fees and contributes around ÂÂ £1.4 million to a Crew Relief Cost Scheme. Furthermore, UK registered ships are not targeted by Port State Control regimes in the worlds major trading areas ISPS plan approvals and verification audits at no cost to owners and operators An international reputation for expert advice and guidance with a proactive leading role at the IMO, EU and Quality Shipping Committees Worldwide security threat level information provided to UK registered ships with support for British Nationals on board from British Consuls and Royal Navy protection dependent on the availability of assets and exact situation Quality Assurance offering certification to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards with audits being taken in harmonisation with ISM Alternate Compliance Scheme: A voluntary scheme that streamlines the survey and certification process by minimising duplication of effort with Classification Societies. Eligibility is conditional upon certain criteria being met (UK Register, 2010). Disadvantages of the UK Flag The National Audit Office (2009) has reported that the efficiency with which the MAC operates has deteriorated over the years. Until 2000 the agency have managed to carry out all of the required surveys in order to check the quality of the ships that operate under a UK flag. However, by 2007, the targets were not met. Furthermore, it was predicted, that the targets would not be met again in 2008-2009. Failure to meet its targets will increase the risk that UK vessels which do not comply with regulations operate without detection in UK ports and waters (National Audit Office, 2009, p.5). In order to be efficient, the MAC needs more resources However, at the moment, even the cost of surveys are not met by the revenues that are brought in by the owners of the vessels. Another worrying fact, is that the quality of the UK flag, which has been enjoying a very good reputation over the years, is starting to disappear. The audit has found that an increasing number of UK flag holders are being detained overseas due to the inability to pass quality checks. Although relatively this detention number is lower compared to other flags, it has been argued that the difference is getting smaller every year. Partly, because the quality of the other flags is increasing and partly because the quality of the UK flag vessels is deteriorating. Registered Ships In order to increase the growth in registered ships, the Government has introduced a tonnage tax in 2000. In turn, instead of charging vessels on the profits that they make off their activities, they are now charged on the tonnage of their vessels. This regulatory measure has allowed the UK register to see a good increase in the number of vessels. By the end of 2007 the UK registered merchant fleet had grown from 1,050 to 1,518. Of these, 646 vessels were trading vessels compared with 417 vessels in 2000 (National Audit Office, 2009, p.5). The tonnage that was brought in also increased. In 2007, the average tonnage per vessel increased from 11,000 to 19,000. This increase had an interesting effect on the number of overseas surveys that the MCA had to perform in 2007. Nearly a quarter of them had to be done overseas. This is a large increase, considering that in 2000-2001, 5% were performed overseas, while the rest were done domestically (National Audit Office, 2009, p.5). Large increases were also seen in the number of Certificates of Equivalent Competency that were issued, from 3,244 in 2003 to 4,722 in 2007. However, although absolute numbers have increased, the overall rate of growth has declined. In 2007, the fleet grew by 10%, compared to 13.33% average growth from 2001 to 2003. The MAC argues that too many external factors are at play, which do not allow them to enhance the growth with more control. For example, the MAC found that some shipping companies were happy to wait and see whether the EU would bring in a tonnage tax as well, before making the final decision on their flagging. In turn, this shows that although the UK ship register provides a large number of benefits, they are not relatively strong enough to become a deciding factor for the shipping companies. Isle of Man Registry Background Isle of Man Registry (IOM) works closely with the Isle of Man government to provide relevant solutions to its members. Tynwald (the local parliament) is ultimately answerable to the Crown, however, as has long been agreed, the UK government does not legislate the IOM, and therefore, shipping legislation is approved by Tynwald alone. The Isle of Man operates a Category One, Red Ensign Group British Register that provides for the registration of ships of any size or type. The Isle of Man Register is a component part of the British Register (The Red Ensign Group, 2010). IOM registry is relatively new, established only in 1984. Over the years, the IOM has seeked local private solutions for its clients, and today works closely with local marine lawyers, accountants, PI clubs and even banks, bringing a diverse, one-stop-shop solution to anyone who registers. Due to its offshore jurisdiction capabilities and proximity to Europe, IOM can provide a highly competitive solution. The IOM strongly competes on its tax exemption regime, its financial centre capabilities and developed technical solutions whilst on the island. The IOM registers a large number of different vessels, including VLCC, superyachts, fishing boats and pleasure crafts. Advantages of the IOM The Isle of Man Ship Registry has recently been voted best in the world, claiming the top spot in the international shipping industry round table annual flag state performance table (PDMS, 2008). Like the rest of the registrars, IOM conveys that it will provide the ship owners with the cost-efficient and customer-friendly solution. Quality is key to the Isle of Man, where our reputation as a high quality jurisdiction makes us the flag of choice for todays modern maritime business (IOM, 2010). Furthermore, the website states that this registers customer service has a can-do approach. A professional Ship Registry providing a high quality of service available 24/7 with fast response to queries Reasonable costs and no annual tonnage dues A favourable taxation regime designed to encourage business The right to fly the Red Ensign and access the support of British consular services world-wide and British Royal Navy protection Flexibility in the requirements for registered owners The availability of Demise registry both IN and OUT Support for ships treated unfairly by Port State Control Full political support for shipping ISO 9001/2008 Accreditation Not a Flag of Convenience Regular advice bulletins on key issues to help owners respond to them (IOM, 2010). Unlike the rest of the registers, it can be argued that IOM offers a number of unique solutions and help. For example, the Ship Managers and Owner Association (IOMSA) brings together the ship owners with the relevant legal and financial representatives, where they are able to discuss outstanding issues and come up with solutions. A similar association is offered to the superyachts sector (Manx Yacht Forum). In turn, it can be argued, that the register can see the issues quickly and address them, which takes the customer service to a different level. Furthermore, since a large proportion of its business is coming from the private yacht owners, the IOM offers one annual yacht fee, which includes all of the charges and exemptions in it already. This makes it very easy for the owners to delegate all of their paper work to the registers, without getting involved in the complex structure of the system. The Annual Report (2008) puts strong emphases on the quality of the vessels that register with the IOM registry. Consistent quality checks before the registration and during the time that the vessel is under the IOM flag, reflects in the strong decline in the number of accidents that the IOM are subject to. Over 5 years, the number of accidents declined from 53 in 2004 to 35 in 2008 (Annual Report, 2008, p. 20). The Number of Registered Ships The IOM has grown over the years, yet, this growth has never been aggressive. In 2008, its main growth was in the registration of yachts, where the target was to register 1 per month. In 2008, 995 vessels were sailing under the IOM flag. Figure 1. IOM registered vessels by type Source: IOM, Annual Report, 2008, p. 10 It is extremely important for the IOM register to be within the first third on the Paris MOU register. So far, out of 83 members of the Paris MOU, they have managed to stay within the first 11. Figure 2: Paris MOU register and IOM position Source: Annual Report, 2008, p. 21 Conclusion The literature review has shown that there are the second registers have been developed by the countries in order to compete with those that were offered by the developing countries. The closed registers examined still prevail in size (by the number of registered vessels), however, the difference is not very large. Each of the registers offers their members a large number of benefits. However, as the case with NIS has shown, reluctance to be flexible is likely to results in less demand for their services. It was interesting to see the results produced by IOM. The registry has managed to grow steadily, despite having a large amount of competition. The low costs that the IOM offers has not impacted on the quality of the service provided. It has been found that the UK Register is much bigger in size than NOR and enjoys a steady growth. Despite the deteriorating ability to meet its survey targets, it still has the 3rd place in the MOU whitelist (see Appendix). It can be argued that if the vessels are less likely to be detained overseas due to deficiencies, this plays an important part on their ability to make a profit. Therefore, low risk registers, such as the UK Register is likely to be more attractive. Both NIS and NOR has seen a decline in their registered members. It can be argued that unlike the UK register and the IOM, they did not make enough competitive changes to stay attractive. References AppleBy (2009) Brief: Ship registration in the Isle of Man [online]: http://dc.co.im/uploaded/Publication/1362_File_5.pdf [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Branch, A. (2007) Elements of shipping, 7th ed., Taylor Francis, p. 164 Burroughs R (1984) Offshore supply vessels: An emerging maritime industry Maritime Policy Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 269 276 The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (2008) UK Ship Register continues to grow [online]: http://www.ciltuk.org.uk/pages/industry-news/article?EBA1745A-D18A-4443-A2FE-946C24DFD242 [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Chircop, A. and LindÃÆ'Â ©n, O. (2006) Places of refuge for ships: emerging environmental concerns of a maritime custom, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 265 Department of Trade and Industry (2010) Registration of Manx Ships [online]: http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/dti/shipregistry/Registration/rans/ran01registrationofmanxships.pdf [Accessed on 2 March 2010] DeSombre, E. (2006) Flagging standards: globalization and environmental, safety, and labor regulations at sea, MIT Press, p. 83 Farthing, B. and Brownrigg, M. (1997) Farthing on international shipping, 3rd ed., the University of Virginia, p. 187 Harwood, S. (2006) Shipping finance, 3rd ed., Euromoney Books, pp. 200-204 Hinkelman, E. (2005) Dictionary of international trade: handbook of the global trade community includes 21 key appendices, 6th ed., World Trade Press, p. 374 IOM (2008) Annual Report, [online]: http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/dti/shipregistry/formsdocs/reports/iomsr/reportfinalwebsiteonly.pdf [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Isle of Man (2010) Ship registry [online]: http://www.gov.im/dti/shipregistry/ [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Isle of Man Government (2010) Registry: Qualified Owners [online]: http://www.gov.im/dti/shipregistry/registration/qualifiedowners.xml [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Klikauer, T. and Morris, R. (2002) Into murky waters: Globalisation and deregulation in Germanys shipping employee relations, Employee Relations, Vol. 24, Issue: 1, pp. 12-28 Mulcahy, L. and Tillotson, J. (2004) Contract law in perspective, 4th ed., Routledge Cavendish, p. 147 National Audit Office (2009) The Maritime and Coastguard Agencys Response to Growth in the UK Merchant Fleet Great Britain, [online]: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sdq=HYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sUK+Ship+RegisterHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_sHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_slr=HYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navli nks_sHYPERLINK http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n5QIqJW-eVsCdq=UK+Ship+Registerlr=source=gbs_navlinks_ssource=gbs_navlinks_s [Accessed on 2 March 2010] NOR (2010) NOR [online]: http://www.nis-nor.no/NOR.aspx [Accessed on 2 March 2010] NIS (2010) NIS [online]: http://www.nis-nor.no/NHYPERLINK http://www.nis-nor.no/NOR.aspxISHYPERLINK http://www.nis-nor.no/NOR.aspx.aspx [Accessed on 2 March 2010] PDMS (2008) Client: Isle of Man Register [online] http://www.pdms.com/clients/casestudies/marineadmin.xml [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Odeke, A. (1998) Bareboat charter (ship) registration, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, pp. 8-9 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005) National treatment for foreign-controlled enterprises, OECD Publishing, p. 73 Paris MOU (2010) Black Grey White list [online]: http://www.parismou.org/upload/anrep/BGWlist2006-2008.pdf [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Paris MOU (2010) Basic Figures [online]: http://www.parismou.org/ParisMOU/Statistical+information/Basic+figures/xp/menu.4270/default.aspx [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Raikes, F. (2009) The Maritime Codes of Italy, BiblioBazaar, LLC, p. 115 Rayfuse, R. (2004) Non-flag state enforcement in high seas fisheries, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 22 Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students, 5th ed., Pearson Education, pp. 56-66 Ship Management (2010) Isle of Man to introduce annual fee in April [online] http://www.shipmanagementinternational.com/?p=1557 [Accessed on 2 March 2010] Sletmo G. and S. HosteÂÂ  (1993) Shipping and the competitive advantage of nations: the role of international

The Mexican U.s. Connection Essay -- essays research papers

The Mexican U.S. Connection Mexico and the United States have been close together, at the same time being so far apart. Mexico and the U.S. have maintained a healthy neighbor to neighbor relationship over the centuries. There have been disputes of course, but for the most part we are working together. When striving to maintain a healthy relationship between neighboring countries, certain problems arise. When the countries don't have the same standard of living, people might try and migrate illegally to the better country. When one country has more illegal drugs than the other, people might try smuggling the drugs. Also, trade between the countries is always a factor in keeping a healthy connection. The first issue to deal with is illegal immigration. Doris Meissner, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner, announced the INS would pump 185 more agents and an array of equipment, including two new helicopters, seven more infrared scopes, eight miles of fencing and 172 additional sensors to detect and deter illegal immigration traffic along a 16-mile stretch between Otay Mountain and the Tecate Port of Entry. The area has been inundated by immigrant smugglers who have been forced east because of increased Border Patrol activity along the 14-mile corridor from the Pacific Ocean and Imperial Beach to Otay Mesa. The effort, known as Operation Gatekeeper, was launched in October 1994. Meissner said the latest effort, an extension of Operation Gatekeeper, would add five Border Patrol agents on horseback to patrol the back country and three dog teams to be assigned to checkpoints along rural roads. Meissner also announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would join the operation to break up illegal smuggling rings at the border. She said the Border Patrol would step up the use of checkpoints in the Temecula area, where smugglers usually end up trying to evade the Border Patrol checkpoint. In March, a van carrying illegal immigrants overturned near there as its driver tried to avoid agents; eight illegal immigrants were killed and 18 others injured. In Los Angeles, an alleged smuggler of illegal immigrants who police say was at the wheel of a pickup truck during a chase in April which ended with the televised police beatings of two undocumented aliens from Mexico, pleaded not guilty to f... ... added that the challenges that the Mexican economy faces have not changed with the passage of the NAFTA and that its effects will not be immediate. The Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) asked the government to open spaces for public consultation and participation to deal with the repercussions of the NAFTA. RMALC representatives announced that if the NAFTA is ratified by the Mexican Senate, they will mobilize to obtain a profound re- negotiation of the NAFTA which benefits the majority of the population. According to RMALC members, the re-negotiation should include the recognition of asymmetries between the participating countries' economies and aspects of the social agenda which have been left out of the agreement. Said RMALC Director Bertha Lujan, "We still don't know the popular vote on the NAFTA." Thus, all the factors in keeping good connections between neighboring countries have been discussed. Some out there might argue that there is more to it. This is my argument and I stand firm in the belief that Mexico and the U.S. have a steady connection and have many things that interact between them. That is what makes the Mexican-U.S. connection so beautiful.

Ted Hughes’ Ideas about Poetry :: Ted Hughes The Jaguar The Thought Fox Essays

Ted Hughes’ Ideas about Poetry Ted Hughes, was born in 1939 and died in 1989, he wrote two poems, The Jaguar and The Thought-Fox. These are the poems that I am discussing in my essay and also what his ideas are on the poems. He also specialises in nature poems and these are what we have also been studying. The Thought-Fox is quite a different poem. It wasn’t written about the fox it was written about him writing about the fox (confusing I Know!!!). The Jaguar on the other hand, was about the animal and it was describing the animal, can you tell the difference and how he likes to differ his poems â€Å"You don’t have to bother about commas or full stops or that sort of thing† to Ted punctuation is not important, but the senses are: â€Å" Just look at it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, turn yourself into it† as he believes senses are there to help you. If you write a poem completely different to another poet and you are worried about your work,/ Ted believes that you should not care about what other people have written it is your own work that matters and how you find it â€Å" Do not care how other people have written about this thing, this is the way you find it†. With ‘The Thought-Fox’ he thinks that a fox comes and walks in front of him and sits down, so he gets this image in his head and it creates things he can write down in a poem. At the start, he cannot think of anything to write but at the end he has created a poem. He also believes that a poem and an animal are one and the same, â€Å"A fox that is both a fox and not a fox†. Another quote â€Å"The words have a body for it and the poem has give the fox somewhere to walk† in other words the poem has brought the fox to life. ‘The Jaguar’ however, is very much different. He is actually writing about the animal in the poem and not how he thought of what to write about the subject. With the structure, ‘The Jaguar’ has five verses, four lines in each verse and around nine words in each line. ‘The Thought-Fox’ has around the same, six verses, four lines in each verse and about four to eight words in each verse. Alliteration, similes and metaphors are also common in most of his poems and as I have said he uses a lot of the senses. For example â€Å"A fox’s nose touches† and â€Å"Two

Barbados Essay -- Geography History Island Barbados Essays

Barbados GEOGRAPHY Barbados is the eastern most island of the Caribbean, located in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela (13 10 N, 59 32 W). It is considered a â€Å"Coral Island† due to its vast coral shore beaches that surround the perimeter of the island. Overall, Barbados is 430 square kilometers, with 97 kilometers being coastline area. The circumference is approximately 55 miles around, and has a pear-like shape to it. Length and width wise, Barbados is 21 miles and 13 miles respectively. In Comparatively speaking, Barbados is 2.5 times the size of Washington D.C. Geologically, Barbados is actually 2 large masses of build up of coral on sedimentary rocks, that have formed the island over thousands of years. The terrain is relatively flat, but rises gently to the central highland region of the island. Along the coastline, the elevation is at it’s lowest (zero meters). Mount Hillaby is the highest peak on Barbados at 336 meters above sea level (1,147 feet). The climate in Barbados is tropical. It is often sunny, and there is about 3,000 sun hours annually. Trade winds constantly sweep across the island, keeping the temperature rather comfortable. Temperatures are very stable throughout the entire year. In January, the average high temperature is 83 °F, and the average low is 70 °. In July, the average high temperature is 86 °F, while the average low is 74 °F. Despite the constant winds, hurricanes infrequently hit Barbados. Occasional landslides are the only natural disasters that plaque the island. The west coast of Barbados is often referred to as the â€Å"Platinum Coast†. It is renowned for the clear warm waters that lap gently on the beach’s gold and white sands and massive coral reefs. The... ...p Over a Centerpiece of Barbados Culture. The Toronto Sun. p. T6 King, John. (2003, August 8). Melody: A festival to fight for, guys. Retrieved on April 13, 2004. from [www.barbadian.com]. Norton, Graham, (February 2002). Barbados: British empire in the miniature. History Today. 52 (2), 52. Retrieved March 2, 2004, from Expanded Academic Database. Parliament of Barbados. (April 30, 2004). Retrieved March, 30, 2004, from www.parliamentbarbados.gov.bb The Abbreviated History of Barbados. Retrieved March 2, 2004, from http://www.barbados.org/history1.htm U.S. Department of State. (August 2002). Background Notes: Barbados. Retrieved March 2, 2004, from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26507.htm World Fact Book, (December 18, 2003). Barbados. Retrieved on April 13, 2004, from [http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bb.html].

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

This book report is written in fulfillment of the requirements for (class subject e. g. Hist. 108) under Professor (professor’s name). Band of Brothers is a novel based on the events of World War II, emphasizing more on the lives of the soldiers, particularly the paratroopers of Easy company, 506 regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. Paratroopers are trained soldiers launched into battle by parachute into areas inaccessible by aerial bombing.Written by Stephen Ambrose and published by Simon and Schuster in 2001, Band of Brothers, has been an all time best seller which was made into a mini series by HBO in association with Dreamworks, edited by Billy Fox and directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Life in the military has always been a fascination of many young men. All the amazing weapons and gears that they use in battle, the handsome uniforms, not to mention the recognition and accolade that one can receive sounds like a promising career. A priceless ho nor which brings pride that lasts beyond your lifetime.If one decides to pursue a career in the armed forces, one must be ready to make all the adjustments and face the challenges, not only that of a rigorous training, but a life in the battle field. A soldier’s life, activity and relationships literally changes the moment training commences. The armed forces is a stratified society full of rigidity. A soldier has to understand the hierarchy and chain of command and must learn to obey first before complaining (not that one is allowed to complain). The inability to perform a particular duty, due to whatever reason, is inexcusable, therefore punishable. A soldier’s life is full of misconceptions.Civilians mostly view them as fortunate individuals who enjoy a lot of privileges both from the government and the private sector. Stephen Ambrose used a lot of characters to portray the lives of soldiers in Easy company. Captain Herbert M. Sobel was the commanding officer of Eas y company in the 2nd battalion 506th parachute infantry regiment of the 101st airborne division. He was very strict and usually rude, squeezing the energy of his soldiers during training. He doesn’t tolerate anything that he feels like not tolerating to the point of just simply finding errors on his soldiers just for the heck of it.Although disliked by most of his soldiers, his attitude towards training and his ways of implementing training schedule and activities helped in the honing of his soldiers’ skills and intelligence. In the mini series, David Schwimmer played the role of Captain Sobel. Lt. Richard D. Winters, played by actor Damian Lewis, was the second in command of Captain Sobel. Lt. Winters outdo Captain Sobel in the field. Although a Jew, he was respected and well-liked by the soldiers. Scott Grimes played the role of technical sergeant Donald Malarkey who was refused admission to the Marines due to dental issues.He also tried Army Air Corps, but due to ma th requirements, still he was not admitted. He only became a member of E company (Easy company) when he volunteered to be a part of the paratroops of the United States Army. He was awarded the Bronze star medal for his participation on D-Day’s Brecourt Manor Assault in Normandy. Captain Ronald Speirs was initially company D’s (Dog company) platoon leader. During the end of the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, Captain Speirs was reassigned to command Easy company. 2nd Lt. Clifford Carwood Lipton a. k. a Lip, joined E company in 1942.From Private he was promoted to company first sergeant, then to second lieutenant. Band of Brothers is a historical documentary novel telling the story of the lives and experiences of airborne soldiers during World War II. 1942 marked the year when the United States Army Airborne Division formed the second battalion of the 506th parachute infantry regiment in Toccoa, Georgia (Ambrose 2001). The story began in Toccoa, Georgia when the U. S. a rmy is preparing for battle against the Germans. Under the command and rigid training of Captain Herbert M.Sobel, the soldiers of E company endured rigorous and severe training. Their company was known to be the best in the regiment and Captain Sobel prided himself on that; and because of their reputation, they were always given the toughest assignments. E company trained for ninety days which included lectures, physical exercises, obstacle courses and field simulations after which, they were deployed to England on board a ship in preparation for the invasion of Hitler’s Third Reich. Their task is to penetrate enemy lines and subjugate German Artillery.On June 6, 1944 in Normandy, the soldiers had their first jump which did not go as planned. Due to heavy firing on the ground, planes carrying the paratroopers flew at high speeds with only a short distance from the ground (Ambrose 2001). One of the planes got hit, went on fire and crash to the ground. Nevertheless, the troop w as able to arrive at Carentan, gained control of the area then they flew back to Aldbourne. On September 17, 1944, the troops made their second jump in Holland which was executed perfectly. After completing their mission in the area, they also fought in the Battle of the Bulge.The paratroopers arrived in Germany on the second day of April, 1945 where the enemies finally surrendered. They celebrated their victory in Austria where they drank alcohol and took a lot of things from the Germans like jewelry and lugers. When the war was over, they parted ways and took different paths. As often as possible, a reunion is made in New Orleans where they all could catch up while remembering the years they spent at war. My impression on the book is positive. Stephen Ambrose was able to make World War II a more relatable event to ordinary people.He was able to show two perspectives of the story – officers’ point of view and the soldiers’ point of view. The story was able to s how that an army officer is not perfect. He might be very good at one thing, but he still has his flaws, like Captain Sobel who was very good at training men but performs poorly on the field. Soldiers are also human beings who feel fear, stress, anxiety and bleeds inside out; but the important thing is ones ability to endure whatever hardships that one has to face in carrying out his duty to the country and the people. They are always together and yet, they feel alone in the battle field.War means death, and these men had to psyche themselves up to be ready in all aspects – physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. Focusing on one particular battalion like Easy company, the author was able to present the lives of soldiers in the battlefield. Their ‘humanness’ were more felt and their bond as brothers in their cause was strongly established. However, Ambrose’s exposure of their ‘humanness’ can be a downside as this could lead to debate s and issues regarding the deployment of soldiers to war in support of allied nations under fire.But then again, the personal approach employed by Ambrose in writing the story made the events of World War II more relevant in the lives of people. Band of Brothers enabled us to understand, at a deeper level, the struggles and hardships that soldiers face. True, recognitions and accolades are given, but such can only be enjoyed by them if they are lucky to be alive. Bibliography Stephen Ambrose (2008). â€Å"Band of Brothers. † 123 Helpme. com. 04 January 2006. 05 January 2008. . Stephen E. Ambrose (2001). â€Å"Band of Brothers. † Simon and Schuters. ISBN: 0743216385 Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose Airborne Division of the United States Army was formed in Toccoa, Georgia. They were trained under Capt. Sorbel.. Members of the battalion voluntered for the job for the money, thrill, honor and to be the best among the ordinary infantry men. Because the Band of Brothers was narrated from the points of view of the soldiers of Company E or the Easy Company, the story is unique for the narration was so vivid that a reader would feel that he is there fighting with the band of brothers. Because of the physical requirements during the training only few made it to their graduation day.Here the story is significant for a soldier because the story is about the everyday life of a soldier in the boot camp and in the field—not a story about generals and admirals usually made by most movie companies. It tells a soldier that even how much he has suffered while training it doesn’t guarantee that he would survive in war. From Toccoa the company was sent to Fort Benning for their jumpi ng course. Their earlier training at the boot camp hardened them physically that they even outlasted the physical fitness trainers at the fort.This is the reality about soldiery. There are soldiers who are better than the trainers themselves. After only five jumps, ironically they were made as parachutists, and after nine months of training were sent to England on board a transport ship to prepare themselves for the invasion against the Third Reich of Hitler. The writer narrates the daily regimen of the company while in training in England. The narration was from the points of view from both the officers and men of the Easy Company.Both the movie and the book depict the confusion, heroism and struggle during the time the company jumped into the countryside where they were separated from each other. Many landed on buildings, trees, farm houses, fences, carts, houses, rafters and in the middle of enemies since they jumped behind enemy lines at dawn. There was chaos all around but many maintain their composure as hardened soldiers of Easy Company. Their job was to silence the German artillery and neutralize the enemy soldiers guarding the guns. They effectively put their hard training into practice.The highlight of the Band of Brothers is how Lt. Richard Winters achieved the mission. The book narrates: â€Å" By this time, about 0700, E company consisted of two light machine guns, one bazooka (no ammunition), one 60 mm†¦. † But with less than 100 men from the original 139 jumpers, Lt. Winters’s men were able to accomplish the mission. The mission was done without heroic deeds of a few. They fought as a team and with the right maneuvers attacked the German platoon guarding the battery emplacement. This is also about the best aspect on soldiery.As a soldier, you have also to protect not your life but also your brothers in arms. In this kind of situation, a soldier usually has to consider that everyone in his group as his brother. Why? Because the y shed blood and tears together or suffer pain together. They are blood brothers, so to speak. The book quotes one of the men: â€Å" We fought as a team†¦we were like machine†¦We knocked it out or made it withdraw by maneuver and teamwork†¦We were smart†¦we had learned that heroics was the way to get killed without getting the job done†¦.† Easy Company continued to fight in Normandy until it was pulled out and deployed to Utah beach. They were about 139 when they exited from the plane’s door. And ended the battle with only 79 remaining men. In the movie, you can feel the struggle of private Albert Blithe. He has to overcome fear, as every soldier has experienced fear. Winters, on his part, has suffered anguish after he shot a German teenage soldier. The company jumped into Holland under Operation: Market Garden and fought until November 1944.The company also heroically defended Bastogne almost to the last man. . In the movie, the German Army s ent couriers to relay offer the message of the German commander of Bastogne for them to surrender or perish. Winters made a succinct reply: â€Å"Nuts. † They held their trenches until reinforcements arrived. Then the men of Company E fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge, which marked the defeat of the German Panzer division. Winters’ men continued fighting and were the first to occupy Hitler’s mountain retreat known as the Eagle’s Nest.From Austria the battalion was redeployed to a town near Paris and on November 30, 1945, the 101st Airborne Battalion was deactivated. What’s the significance of the story to a plain infantry man? I can say that the Band of Brothers is one of the few stories written from the testimonies of actual combatants without fanfare or garnishment for use in movies. The book tells the story of leadership amid blood, guts and tears and about overcoming fear by soldiers and officers alike. It tells the credo of an American general who says â€Å" The more you sweat in peace and less you bleed in war. † But many die in war.

Children Charged as Adults

Children Charged as Adults†¦How Young is too Young? Ralonda Ross Post University 1. In the article â€Å"Adult Time for Adult Crime? † Nathaniel Abraham is a perfect example of how young is too young. He is an adolescent who committed a crime at a considerably young age and got charged as an adult. Nathaniel has not been sentenced yet because it is unclear as to whether he has the intellect to understand the nature of his crime of not. 2. Punishing Juvenile Offenders as Adults: An Analysis of the Social and Political Determinants of Juvenile Prison Admissions across the United States† is an article that focus on how there is a difference between the states. The number of juveniles that get sentenced to adult prison differs because of the minority committing the crimes. In addition, is explains how the juveniles who go to juvenile have a less chance to be assaulted than the ones in prison with adults. . The website with the article â€Å"Adult Time for Adult Crimesà ¢â‚¬  is a good reference because it gives me in site on different ways to view whether it is fair to charge children as adults. It also helps me to understand the mindset of the juveniles at different ages. Overall it is a good website to assist me with my paper. References Adult time for adult crime?. (2000). Current Events, 99(16), 2a.Carmichael, J. T. (2011). Punishing Juvenile Offenders as Adults: An Analysis of the Social and Political Determinants of Juvenile Prison Admissions across the United States. Sociological Focus, 44(2), 102-123. Hudson, D. L. , Jr. (2009) ABA Journal. How to retrieve internet information. Retrieve from http://www. abajournal. com/magazine/article/adult_time_for_adult_crimes/

Public Displays of Affection Essay

Have you ever walked down the hallways of our school and seen so momentous that all public displays of affection should be banned? As a student I walk through these halls every day and the gravest thing I have seen is a kiss that lasted a bit too long. That doesn’t seem enough to grant banning all forms of public displays of affection (PDA). I believe that it should not be banned. Hugging is not just a way to show affection, high school is supposed to get us ready for our life beyond BHHS, and finally PDA keeps people in line, no fights etc., and banning it would lead to student’s unhappiness and therefore our enthusiasm to work would diminish. First, hugging is not just a way to show affection but also a form of greeting. Hugging is a way of greeting much like how the French kiss your cheek when meeting you. In America we often shake hands to greet someone but in France they kiss you on your cheek. This is not a way of showing how you love that person but more like saying hello. Just the other day a friend and I were at the mall and I happened upon an old friend that I hadn’t seen a long time. When we recognized each other we said hello and also gave each other a hug. It was a short hug and just served the purpose of a greeting between to friends. I have no feeling of love toward her so although it was public it was not an affectionate hug. Not all hugs are used to show affection toward a loved one. Second, high school is supposed to get us ready for our life beyond BHHS; in that life I hope to have a girlfriend but how am I supposed learn to keep that girl if I cannot show affection toward her? For starters I would like to learn how to hold a girls hand. By holding her hand I am telling her that I don’t want to be away from her. Unfortunately holding hands is a form of PDA and so I could not do that. Also it is said that a first kiss is very important. By kissing her it shows that I have feeling for her. I do not want to get out of high school and, because I had never done it before, mess up the first kiss with someone I liked and lose her. Learning these things in high school is central to you living a good and happy life outside of BHHS. PDA keeps people in line, no fights etc., and banning it would lead to student’s unhappiness and therefore our enthusiasm  to work would diminish. If you want to kiss your girlfriend during lunch then you must be at lunch. Getting detention would keep you from being there. If PDA was allowed kids would not do anything that might lead to detention. Furthermore, PDA ties almost directly into having a girlfriend. Everyone wants to have the one they like think that they are worthy to go out with, put simply they want to impress them. Getting good grades is a way to impress and show that you are smart. By banning PDA grades would be expected to drop and such things as fights may occur. In conclusion, Hugging is not just a way to show affection, high school is supposed to get us ready for our life beyond BHHS, and finally PDA keeps people in line, no fights etc., and banning it would lead to student’s unhappiness and therefore our enthusiasm to work would diminish. This is why I say that public displays of affection should not be banned. It would do more harm than good and not all of it is even relevant to showing that you love someone.

Ops Presentation

BGMT 20010 Operations and Supply Chain Management Report December 2011 ————————————————- ————————————————- ————————————————- DANKERS FUNITUTE LTD ————————————————- ————————————————- THE NEW BUSINESS PLANNING CASE ————————————————- ——————————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- â€Å"If You Are Not Measuring, You Are Not Managing† CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 2. Overview of the Organisation 3.Description of the main issues raised in the case 4. Problem One; Breakdown in Organisational Relationships * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively 5. Problem Two; Short-term actions regarding the new product development process * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively . Problem Three; Long-term developments regarding the new product development process * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively 7. Conclusion 8. References 1. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide Rolf Danker and Danker’s Furniture Ltd with some short-term and long-term suggestions on how to successfully implement their new business venture into timber framed conservatories.This report offers advice on how to successfully incorporate this new venture into the existing processes within the company as well as recommendations on short-term establishment and long-term expansion. Some of the problems that were encountered at the onset of the venture included communication breakdowns between company departments, quality concerns in the two existing Strategic Business Units, and resource constraints. This report suggests that Danker’s adopt a swim lane process map to help with the communications failures as well as improvements in the internal and external supply chains. 2.Overview of the organisation During the 1800â⠂¬â„¢s, a Danker family from Norway moved to County Meath, Ireland. The family was associated with a tradition of high quality furniture design, and high-class customary made furniture. The Danker family discovered that there was a market for their furniture in Meath, enclosed by rich middle class estates. During the next few generations, the Danker’s family continued the family tradition of making furniture and at the end of the 20th Century, ‘Danker’ was renowned for its ability to produce customised hardwood design based on clients specific requirements and specifications.The company became known as Danker’s Furniture Ltd and was well established in the manufacturing markets. The company had been very profitable and had obtained a great reputation. But in the late 1990’s the company experienced problems and the newly appointed Managing Director Rolf Danker appointed me as operations manager, which quickly resolved the underlying difficulties in t he business at the time. Currently under the management of newly appointed Managing Director Rolf Danker, the business’ strategic focus is to grow and expand through the production of new goods and services.The massive economic growth in the 1990’s resulted in a huge development in the construction area, Rolf Danker, successfully discovered an opportunity to enter into the standard cabinetry market. The company started making kitchen cabinets and wardrobes to exploit the rapid increase in the number of houses being built which required reasonable priced furniture. Danker’s believed that their established reputation in the customised furniture making industry accompanying the standard cabinets would increase their market share.Rolf believed that this would be a quick way to increase profits instead of continuing exclusively with the previous business model. But by the 2000’s Rolf’s new initiative caused problems in the company’s business foun dations. Fortunately, Rolf appointed me as Operations Manager at Danker’s, which helped to quickly resolve the underlying difficulties in the business at the time. Now in 2002, the company has two independently operated strategic business unites (SBUs), the craft purpose-made and the standard cabinet, the business is performing well again and enjoying good profit margins. 3.Description of the main issues in the case The division was completely financed from the company’s reserves, and in 2002, the company’s balance sheet was very strong with no long-term loans or debt equity. Bankers to the company were very willing towards them and the company were constantly being encouraged by the bankers to take up the finance being offered to them and further expand their business. Following a new product concept generation process involving external consultants, a gap has been identified in the market and the Danker’s Board has agreed to enter the timber conservator y market.The Irish market for conservatories is constantly growing but there is not a huge demand in the home market for hardwood timber framed. But it has been recognised that the UK market is around 20 times the size of the Irish one with a 50% share being for timber framed conservatories. It has been explained that due to the foregoing and rising interest in ‘sustainable construction’, which has been evident in the growth of timber-framed windows, due to improvements in technology and conveniently meets revised Irish Building Regulations.There is no dedicated manufacturer for timber conservatory in the Irish market and this is where Danker’s have seen the opportunity, coupled with the attraction of the large, growing UK market. Rolf feels before focusing on the export opportunity, the company should focus on the home market first and gain experience, amend any defects in their product and then look to expand into the huge UK market. This will be Danker’ s third SBU. Rolf has asked me as Operations manager to plan this new business venture for the company.Duty as operation manager is the planning, scheduling and control of the activities that transform inputs into finished goods and services. For the new venture to succeed it is important that there is close co-operation between marketing, operations and engineering. * The company already has got expertise knowledge and skills in the marketing and operations areas; was short on engineering skills. * Production Engineer, John Brady was appointed by Danker’s. * He is appointed to provide the initial engineering aspects for the conservatory line and then also provide production-engineering support to all the SBU’s. The sales manager drew up a report on the market characteristics for hardwood conservatories to begin the process of conservatory design and to decide on product specifications for the new product line. * The engineering manager drew up a Technical Specificatio n Report (TSR) to develop a bill of materials (BOM) with a detailed analysis of dimensions and specifications for all the items on the BOM. * TSR contained a great deal of * Development costs * Product costs * Schedules * Materials technical specifications. * New product development planning schedule was also developed This plan was presented to the management team meeting and was approved. * The plan approved is to have the third SBU first production lot produced in 11/12 months time. * In order for the development plan to be a success, need to strictly adhere to the planning schedule, as any delay will result in extra costs. * This is when some problems began to arise. * Jack, the sales manager, did not see the need to have weekly product design meetings with John because he felt that the marketing and production teams already had enough to worry about with their existing products. In this report, we address this breakdown in communication as well as potential problems that will a rise within the short-term and long-term operations and supply chains of the company from implementing their new timber conservatory SBU. 4. The first problem identified was what could be done to clarify the organizational relationships between marketing, production, and engineering. The issue that arose with the introduction of the third SBU was the smooth functioning of the interdepartmental relationships within the company.To create a successful new product it involved more work than the primary sourcing of materials and construction of the conservatories. There needs to be a cohesive and common effort made by all departments to achieve success for this new product. We see this problem arising with Jack, sales manager who was slow to hand in the report on the market characteristics of hardwood conservatoires and declined to attend the weekly product design meetings, claiming the marketing department had too much on its plate.A problem is created in the intrinsic makeup of the pro duct, as now market research is not being contributed to the production of the new product. This could be a fatal flaw for Danker’s as they could be producing something that is not exactly what the customer wants. This increases the riskiness of this new venture. As well as this problem the breakdown in the relationships can result in delays and process breakdown as well as distracting from the two other S. B. U’s of the business.The approach management took to address the issues raised was to focus on improving the relationship between the departments. This was done with a focus being placed on department approval. This system was going to be implemented at the weekly product meetings. Here the department heads could input on resources available, capacity and ability of their department to input on the production process. Jack would be able to have an input into important feedback in relation to aiming and promoting the product to the right customers.A recommendation that could effectively deal with the issue is to implement swim lane process maps. The implementation of swim-lane process maps by the management at Danker’s will help to clarify the organisational relationships between marketing, production and engineering and combat the breakdown in their relationships. The swim lane process maps allowed each department to determine exactly what was required of them throughout the new product design process and prevented situations occurring where marketing refused to attend weekly product design meetings because they felt they were being overworked.Each department was required to attend the weekly product design meetings; this was the first stage of the swim-lane process maps, the second stage involved finalising the product design and this was successfully carried out by the three departments and the third strategic business unit is now ready for launch into the Irish market. There was no ambiguity in relation to what was required from ea ch department and if they were unsure of their role in the development process they re-analysed the swim-lane process map and took corrective action. 5.The second problem that we focused on was to look at what short-term actions could be done to improve the new product development process. For the new venture to succeed it is important that there is close cooperation between marketing, operations and engineering. * The company already has got expertise knowledge and skills in the marketing and operations areas; was short on engineering skills. * Production Engineer, John Brady was appointed by Danker’s. * He is appointed to provide the initial engineering aspects for the conservatory line and then also provide production-engineering support to all SBU’s. The sales manager drew up a report on the market characteristics for hardwood conservatories to begin the process of conservatory design and to decide on product specifications for the new product line. * The engineeri ng manager drew up a Technical Specification Report (TSR) to develop a bill of materials (BOM) with a detailed analysis of dimensions and specifications for all the items on the BOM. * TSR contained a great deal of * Development costs * Product costs New product development planning schedule was also developed New Product Development Planning Schedule – 2003| Jan| Feb| Mar| Apr| May| Jun| Jul| Aug| Sep| Oct| Nov| Dec| Jan| Establish Project Team|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Define Marketing Need|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Concept Cost Estimate|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Technical Specs Complete|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | First Model Complete|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | First Model Testing|   |   |   |   |   |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Design Review Meeting|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Hazard Analysis|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Field Test Model Tests|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Production cost Estimate| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tooling / Process Design| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Release to Production| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Order Parts| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Production of Lot 1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | This plan was presented to the management team meeting and was approved. The plan approved is to have the third SBU first production lot produced in 11/12 months time.This approach adopted by management could be successful, but they need to strictly adhere to the planning schedule, as any delay will result in extra costs. The hiring of an engineering production manager was very valuable as he created a TSR which would aid the BOM ensuring the correct materials would be ordered, avoiding a potential loss of earnings. Recommendations which could provide additional help to Danker’s would be for each individual sector to improve their own areas which would impact on the overall development process in the short term. For engineering department important aspects they could focus on would be concept development and design. In the marketing area, it is critical that planning improves as well as commercial preparation.By encouraging Jack attendance at the weekly meetings, he will have detailed knowledge of the other two departments, which will aid him in designing the marketing strategy for the SBU. In the production sector, it is vital that process for the supply chain is efficient. By implementing a detailed process map, this will ensure that there is an efficient process layout selected. The layout can then be measured using takt time, theoretical minimum and line balancing so that the amo unt of time idle at the workstation is minimised and the Danker’s can maximise their capacity. This process can then be evaluated at the end of the first year to identify any areas for improvement and opportunity to improve efficiency. The operations manager also needs to ensure that there is good, quality control.All products produced need to adhere to the ISO 9000 and ensure that all products are inspected before they leave the production’s premises. In order to gain a competitive share of the Irish timber conservatory market, Danker’s must develop a competitive strategy. A business strategy can be defined as the identification of the market(s) in which the business will participate and how the business will gain a competitive advantage in those markets. A strategy is a pattern that integrates an organisation’s major goals, policies and actions into a cohesive goal in order to gain a competitive advantage. There are two main types of strategy; 1) Cost L eadership FocusThis strategy involves company managing their costs better than their competitors, so that they can offer a lower cost to their consumers. 2) Differentiation focus The product produced is unique. Customers are willing to pay premium price for it. Having seen already by the work done by the operations manager, Danker’s imposes two different strategies for its two SBU’s; 1) Cost leadership focus implemented for the standard cabinet 2) Differentiate focus for the custom made furniture. Now that Danker’s are producing their third SBU, it is important they distinguish what strategy they are going to implement with it. As operations manager, we recommend that we implement a cost leadership strategy with the production of timber conservatory market.If we succeed in managing our costs better than other competitors in the fragmented home industry, this will enable us to offer a lower price to our consumers and enable us to gain a competitive advantage in t he market and contribute towards the goal of becoming the market leader in the Irish Market. As operations Manager, my job is to make sure that * The business strategy gets translated into operational terms. * Assure the co-ordination with marketing and engineering. * Provide direction and guidance for operation decisions. The operations strategy is a pattern of structural and infrastructural operations decisions that configure the shape and design of the operations function and constitutes the operations strategy.Currently Danker’s had two production lines, one for craft purpose-made and one for the standard cabinetry. We propose as operations manager that Danker’s changes its operations to three production lines, which would incorporate its new business products production process. In the short-term, we would advise Danker’s to use its retained earnings to fund the creation of the third product, as unknown whether its going to be a success, so should start out small to minimise costs. If Danker’s were having difficulties with three production processes or were struggling to fulfil capacity requirement, we recommend that Danker’s could subcontract out the work.There would be no production costs involved. They would have to pay the company but if successful they could expand and develop the company. We propose that Danker’s outsource their distribution costs which are not close to their production premises and engage in distribution contracts with company’s in the North, South, West and deliver to companies in the East of Ireland. 6. The third point recognised was the long-term developments of the new product development at Danker’s. Apart from this new product development opportunity on the home market, Rolf and the Danker’s Board were also attracted towards the larger, growing market for timber framed conservatories in the UK.However Rolf felt that before focusing on this export opportunity, the company should first gain experience in the market / industry sector on the home market first, modify any shortcomings in the product-offer, and then look at how he might make in-roads in the UK. Rolf reckoned that the introduction phase of timber conservatories in the Irish market would need to have 2/3 years experience in Ireland to confirm its viability, before entering the UK market. The UK market is 20 times the size of the home market and up until now it has been described as a fragmented joinery industry. There is great potential to break into the UK market and establish as a leader in the market. This would generate huge profits for Danker’s. It is important to note that Danker’s Balance Sheet has been very strong, with no debt equity, long-term loans, or overdraft.Bankers to the company were very favourably disposed towards them. Rolf Danker and his accountant brother Erik were constantly being encouraged by their bankers to take up the finance being offered t o them and expand their business further. This approach taken by management to gain experience in the Irish market first, evaluate the product, and adjust any shortcomings they may experience before attempting to break into the UK market is crucial. 2-3 year’s experience in the home market would be essential before expanding. Before expansion of the product it is vital that our strategy in the short term is achieved and we successfully become a market leader in the home market first.This will enable us to establish a reputation while creating a loyal customer base giving us a competitive advantage against competitors in the market. Furthermore, this would provide Danker’s with experience of the market before attempting to make in-roads in the UK. Provided we are successful in the home market, there are a number of tasks that would need to be in place for expanding our product. We would need to expand the business by purchasing a larger warehouse to produce the goods in order to facilitate production in the wider UK market as well as maintaining production in the home market and our other SBU’s. To aid expansion, we recommend on taking up on the Bank’s offer providing us with a loan.By increasing capacity this will enable Danker’s to avail of a number of capacity considerations. There include economies of scale, technology/labour mix, and learning curves. With economies of scale the average unit cost decreases as output increases. It is essential that Danker’s are able to obtain lower costs by expanding their business. The technology/labour mix means that Danker’s can improve capacity by introducing new technologies, which will increase fixed costs but reduce their variable labour costs. The phenomenon of learning curves results in increasing output overtime, without an increase in resources. The external supply chain would also need to be developed to penetrate the UK market.The existing supply chain used in the home market would be a template and then extend and adopt it to make it suitable for the UK market. An effective recommendation could be to design a detailed process map. This would allow all staff to ascertain what was required at each stage and the time constraints that would need to be adhered to. As operation manager, it is in imperative to ensure that the process is efficient. However, if Danker’s are finding it difficult to break into the UK market, they could create Strategic Alliance with suppliers from the UK. Distribution costs and warehouse costs will be a major contribution to costs as the firm breaks into the UK market. There needs to be smart decisions made by the operations manager in regards to logistics management.This involves the planning, implementation, and control of the effective flow and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. An effective recommendation for Danker’s would be to outsource their transport requireme nts, this will provide more control, improve customer service, and would be less expensive for the business. With the money from the loan, Danker’s could look to develop a production center in the UK to cut costs. They should then set up distribution centers close to the market in the UK, which would reduce transportation costs. Danker’s then should evaluate their performance on their third SBU to ensure that they are achieving their goals. A method of performance, which could be used is benchmarking.This involves comparing the business to others in the industry to gauge where they stand and steps they may need to identify in order to become more successful. 7. Conclusion Once Danker’s have their third SBU up and running, they will be able to develop sales and operations plans and forecast for the business by looking at previous sales, which will help them to determine the levels of capacity required, both strategically and tactically. They will also be able to plan for future materials required and gauge what inventory levels are required for their business. This will facilitate them to be able to develop a master production schedule. This will drive the supply chain and set precise production levels.We believe that once Danker’s follows the short-term objectives and implements our recommendations, they will generate profits from their new product development and facilitate them in becoming a market leader in the home market. As a result, this will enable them to penetrate the wider UK market in the long run and alongside our advice compete with their product on a large scale. By expanding their business and creating a third SBU we believe that they can generate massive profits and become a leader in the timber conservatory market. 8. References We got our information for our report from the following; * Introduction to Operations & Supply Chain Management; Bozarth & Handfield, 2nd Edition (2008); Pearson International Edition. * B GMT 20010 Operational and Supply Chain Management 2011 Lecture Material, University College Dublin. Ops Presentation BGMT 20010 Operations and Supply Chain Management Report December 2011 ————————————————- ————————————————- ————————————————- DANKERS FUNITUTE LTD ————————————————- ————————————————- THE NEW BUSINESS PLANNING CASE ————————————————- ——————————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- â€Å"If You Are Not Measuring, You Are Not Managing† CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 2. Overview of the Organisation 3.Description of the main issues raised in the case 4. Problem One; Breakdown in Organisational Relationships * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively 5. Problem Two; Short-term actions regarding the new product development process * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively . Problem Three; Long-term developments regarding the new product development process * Main issue raised in the case * Steps management adopted to address the issue raised * Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing approach * Recommendations on how it could be addressed more effectively 7. Conclusion 8. References 1. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide Rolf Danker and Danker’s Furniture Ltd with some short-term and long-term suggestions on how to successfully implement their new business venture into timber framed conservatories.This report offers advice on how to successfully incorporate this new venture into the existing processes within the company as well as recommendations on short-term establishment and long-term expansion. Some of the problems that were encountered at the onset of the venture included communication breakdowns between company departments, quality concerns in the two existing Strategic Business Units, and resource constraints. This report suggests that Danker’s adopt a swim lane process map to help with the communications failures as well as improvements in the internal and external supply chains. 2.Overview of the organisation During the 1800â⠂¬â„¢s, a Danker family from Norway moved to County Meath, Ireland. The family was associated with a tradition of high quality furniture design, and high-class customary made furniture. The Danker family discovered that there was a market for their furniture in Meath, enclosed by rich middle class estates. During the next few generations, the Danker’s family continued the family tradition of making furniture and at the end of the 20th Century, ‘Danker’ was renowned for its ability to produce customised hardwood design based on clients specific requirements and specifications.The company became known as Danker’s Furniture Ltd and was well established in the manufacturing markets. The company had been very profitable and had obtained a great reputation. But in the late 1990’s the company experienced problems and the newly appointed Managing Director Rolf Danker appointed me as operations manager, which quickly resolved the underlying difficulties in t he business at the time. Currently under the management of newly appointed Managing Director Rolf Danker, the business’ strategic focus is to grow and expand through the production of new goods and services.The massive economic growth in the 1990’s resulted in a huge development in the construction area, Rolf Danker, successfully discovered an opportunity to enter into the standard cabinetry market. The company started making kitchen cabinets and wardrobes to exploit the rapid increase in the number of houses being built which required reasonable priced furniture. Danker’s believed that their established reputation in the customised furniture making industry accompanying the standard cabinets would increase their market share.Rolf believed that this would be a quick way to increase profits instead of continuing exclusively with the previous business model. But by the 2000’s Rolf’s new initiative caused problems in the company’s business foun dations. Fortunately, Rolf appointed me as Operations Manager at Danker’s, which helped to quickly resolve the underlying difficulties in the business at the time. Now in 2002, the company has two independently operated strategic business unites (SBUs), the craft purpose-made and the standard cabinet, the business is performing well again and enjoying good profit margins. 3.Description of the main issues in the case The division was completely financed from the company’s reserves, and in 2002, the company’s balance sheet was very strong with no long-term loans or debt equity. Bankers to the company were very willing towards them and the company were constantly being encouraged by the bankers to take up the finance being offered to them and further expand their business. Following a new product concept generation process involving external consultants, a gap has been identified in the market and the Danker’s Board has agreed to enter the timber conservator y market.The Irish market for conservatories is constantly growing but there is not a huge demand in the home market for hardwood timber framed. But it has been recognised that the UK market is around 20 times the size of the Irish one with a 50% share being for timber framed conservatories. It has been explained that due to the foregoing and rising interest in ‘sustainable construction’, which has been evident in the growth of timber-framed windows, due to improvements in technology and conveniently meets revised Irish Building Regulations.There is no dedicated manufacturer for timber conservatory in the Irish market and this is where Danker’s have seen the opportunity, coupled with the attraction of the large, growing UK market. Rolf feels before focusing on the export opportunity, the company should focus on the home market first and gain experience, amend any defects in their product and then look to expand into the huge UK market. This will be Danker’ s third SBU. Rolf has asked me as Operations manager to plan this new business venture for the company.Duty as operation manager is the planning, scheduling and control of the activities that transform inputs into finished goods and services. For the new venture to succeed it is important that there is close co-operation between marketing, operations and engineering. * The company already has got expertise knowledge and skills in the marketing and operations areas; was short on engineering skills. * Production Engineer, John Brady was appointed by Danker’s. * He is appointed to provide the initial engineering aspects for the conservatory line and then also provide production-engineering support to all the SBU’s. The sales manager drew up a report on the market characteristics for hardwood conservatories to begin the process of conservatory design and to decide on product specifications for the new product line. * The engineering manager drew up a Technical Specificatio n Report (TSR) to develop a bill of materials (BOM) with a detailed analysis of dimensions and specifications for all the items on the BOM. * TSR contained a great deal of * Development costs * Product costs * Schedules * Materials technical specifications. * New product development planning schedule was also developed This plan was presented to the management team meeting and was approved. * The plan approved is to have the third SBU first production lot produced in 11/12 months time. * In order for the development plan to be a success, need to strictly adhere to the planning schedule, as any delay will result in extra costs. * This is when some problems began to arise. * Jack, the sales manager, did not see the need to have weekly product design meetings with John because he felt that the marketing and production teams already had enough to worry about with their existing products. In this report, we address this breakdown in communication as well as potential problems that will a rise within the short-term and long-term operations and supply chains of the company from implementing their new timber conservatory SBU. 4. The first problem identified was what could be done to clarify the organizational relationships between marketing, production, and engineering. The issue that arose with the introduction of the third SBU was the smooth functioning of the interdepartmental relationships within the company.To create a successful new product it involved more work than the primary sourcing of materials and construction of the conservatories. There needs to be a cohesive and common effort made by all departments to achieve success for this new product. We see this problem arising with Jack, sales manager who was slow to hand in the report on the market characteristics of hardwood conservatoires and declined to attend the weekly product design meetings, claiming the marketing department had too much on its plate.A problem is created in the intrinsic makeup of the pro duct, as now market research is not being contributed to the production of the new product. This could be a fatal flaw for Danker’s as they could be producing something that is not exactly what the customer wants. This increases the riskiness of this new venture. As well as this problem the breakdown in the relationships can result in delays and process breakdown as well as distracting from the two other S. B. U’s of the business.The approach management took to address the issues raised was to focus on improving the relationship between the departments. This was done with a focus being placed on department approval. This system was going to be implemented at the weekly product meetings. Here the department heads could input on resources available, capacity and ability of their department to input on the production process. Jack would be able to have an input into important feedback in relation to aiming and promoting the product to the right customers.A recommendation that could effectively deal with the issue is to implement swim lane process maps. The implementation of swim-lane process maps by the management at Danker’s will help to clarify the organisational relationships between marketing, production and engineering and combat the breakdown in their relationships. The swim lane process maps allowed each department to determine exactly what was required of them throughout the new product design process and prevented situations occurring where marketing refused to attend weekly product design meetings because they felt they were being overworked.Each department was required to attend the weekly product design meetings; this was the first stage of the swim-lane process maps, the second stage involved finalising the product design and this was successfully carried out by the three departments and the third strategic business unit is now ready for launch into the Irish market. There was no ambiguity in relation to what was required from ea ch department and if they were unsure of their role in the development process they re-analysed the swim-lane process map and took corrective action. 5.The second problem that we focused on was to look at what short-term actions could be done to improve the new product development process. For the new venture to succeed it is important that there is close cooperation between marketing, operations and engineering. * The company already has got expertise knowledge and skills in the marketing and operations areas; was short on engineering skills. * Production Engineer, John Brady was appointed by Danker’s. * He is appointed to provide the initial engineering aspects for the conservatory line and then also provide production-engineering support to all SBU’s. The sales manager drew up a report on the market characteristics for hardwood conservatories to begin the process of conservatory design and to decide on product specifications for the new product line. * The engineeri ng manager drew up a Technical Specification Report (TSR) to develop a bill of materials (BOM) with a detailed analysis of dimensions and specifications for all the items on the BOM. * TSR contained a great deal of * Development costs * Product costs New product development planning schedule was also developed New Product Development Planning Schedule – 2003| Jan| Feb| Mar| Apr| May| Jun| Jul| Aug| Sep| Oct| Nov| Dec| Jan| Establish Project Team|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Define Marketing Need|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Concept Cost Estimate|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Technical Specs Complete|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | First Model Complete|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | First Model Testing|   |   |   |   |   |    |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Design Review Meeting|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Hazard Analysis|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Field Test Model Tests|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | Production cost Estimate| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Tooling / Process Design| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Release to Production| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Order Parts| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Production of Lot 1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | This plan was presented to the management team meeting and was approved. The plan approved is to have the third SBU first production lot produced in 11/12 months time.This approach adopted by management could be successful, but they need to strictly adhere to the planning schedule, as any delay will result in extra costs. The hiring of an engineering production manager was very valuable as he created a TSR which would aid the BOM ensuring the correct materials would be ordered, avoiding a potential loss of earnings. Recommendations which could provide additional help to Danker’s would be for each individual sector to improve their own areas which would impact on the overall development process in the short term. For engineering department important aspects they could focus on would be concept development and design. In the marketing area, it is critical that planning improves as well as commercial preparation.By encouraging Jack attendance at the weekly meetings, he will have detailed knowledge of the other two departments, which will aid him in designing the marketing strategy for the SBU. In the production sector, it is vital that process for the supply chain is efficient. By implementing a detailed process map, this will ensure that there is an efficient process layout selected. The layout can then be measured using takt time, theoretical minimum and line balancing so that the amo unt of time idle at the workstation is minimised and the Danker’s can maximise their capacity. This process can then be evaluated at the end of the first year to identify any areas for improvement and opportunity to improve efficiency. The operations manager also needs to ensure that there is good, quality control.All products produced need to adhere to the ISO 9000 and ensure that all products are inspected before they leave the production’s premises. In order to gain a competitive share of the Irish timber conservatory market, Danker’s must develop a competitive strategy. A business strategy can be defined as the identification of the market(s) in which the business will participate and how the business will gain a competitive advantage in those markets. A strategy is a pattern that integrates an organisation’s major goals, policies and actions into a cohesive goal in order to gain a competitive advantage. There are two main types of strategy; 1) Cost L eadership FocusThis strategy involves company managing their costs better than their competitors, so that they can offer a lower cost to their consumers. 2) Differentiation focus The product produced is unique. Customers are willing to pay premium price for it. Having seen already by the work done by the operations manager, Danker’s imposes two different strategies for its two SBU’s; 1) Cost leadership focus implemented for the standard cabinet 2) Differentiate focus for the custom made furniture. Now that Danker’s are producing their third SBU, it is important they distinguish what strategy they are going to implement with it. As operations manager, we recommend that we implement a cost leadership strategy with the production of timber conservatory market.If we succeed in managing our costs better than other competitors in the fragmented home industry, this will enable us to offer a lower price to our consumers and enable us to gain a competitive advantage in t he market and contribute towards the goal of becoming the market leader in the Irish Market. As operations Manager, my job is to make sure that * The business strategy gets translated into operational terms. * Assure the co-ordination with marketing and engineering. * Provide direction and guidance for operation decisions. The operations strategy is a pattern of structural and infrastructural operations decisions that configure the shape and design of the operations function and constitutes the operations strategy.Currently Danker’s had two production lines, one for craft purpose-made and one for the standard cabinetry. We propose as operations manager that Danker’s changes its operations to three production lines, which would incorporate its new business products production process. In the short-term, we would advise Danker’s to use its retained earnings to fund the creation of the third product, as unknown whether its going to be a success, so should start out small to minimise costs. If Danker’s were having difficulties with three production processes or were struggling to fulfil capacity requirement, we recommend that Danker’s could subcontract out the work.There would be no production costs involved. They would have to pay the company but if successful they could expand and develop the company. We propose that Danker’s outsource their distribution costs which are not close to their production premises and engage in distribution contracts with company’s in the North, South, West and deliver to companies in the East of Ireland. 6. The third point recognised was the long-term developments of the new product development at Danker’s. Apart from this new product development opportunity on the home market, Rolf and the Danker’s Board were also attracted towards the larger, growing market for timber framed conservatories in the UK.However Rolf felt that before focusing on this export opportunity, the company should first gain experience in the market / industry sector on the home market first, modify any shortcomings in the product-offer, and then look at how he might make in-roads in the UK. Rolf reckoned that the introduction phase of timber conservatories in the Irish market would need to have 2/3 years experience in Ireland to confirm its viability, before entering the UK market. The UK market is 20 times the size of the home market and up until now it has been described as a fragmented joinery industry. There is great potential to break into the UK market and establish as a leader in the market. This would generate huge profits for Danker’s. It is important to note that Danker’s Balance Sheet has been very strong, with no debt equity, long-term loans, or overdraft.Bankers to the company were very favourably disposed towards them. Rolf Danker and his accountant brother Erik were constantly being encouraged by their bankers to take up the finance being offered t o them and expand their business further. This approach taken by management to gain experience in the Irish market first, evaluate the product, and adjust any shortcomings they may experience before attempting to break into the UK market is crucial. 2-3 year’s experience in the home market would be essential before expanding. Before expansion of the product it is vital that our strategy in the short term is achieved and we successfully become a market leader in the home market first.This will enable us to establish a reputation while creating a loyal customer base giving us a competitive advantage against competitors in the market. Furthermore, this would provide Danker’s with experience of the market before attempting to make in-roads in the UK. Provided we are successful in the home market, there are a number of tasks that would need to be in place for expanding our product. We would need to expand the business by purchasing a larger warehouse to produce the goods in order to facilitate production in the wider UK market as well as maintaining production in the home market and our other SBU’s. To aid expansion, we recommend on taking up on the Bank’s offer providing us with a loan.By increasing capacity this will enable Danker’s to avail of a number of capacity considerations. There include economies of scale, technology/labour mix, and learning curves. With economies of scale the average unit cost decreases as output increases. It is essential that Danker’s are able to obtain lower costs by expanding their business. The technology/labour mix means that Danker’s can improve capacity by introducing new technologies, which will increase fixed costs but reduce their variable labour costs. The phenomenon of learning curves results in increasing output overtime, without an increase in resources. The external supply chain would also need to be developed to penetrate the UK market.The existing supply chain used in the home market would be a template and then extend and adopt it to make it suitable for the UK market. An effective recommendation could be to design a detailed process map. This would allow all staff to ascertain what was required at each stage and the time constraints that would need to be adhered to. As operation manager, it is in imperative to ensure that the process is efficient. However, if Danker’s are finding it difficult to break into the UK market, they could create Strategic Alliance with suppliers from the UK. Distribution costs and warehouse costs will be a major contribution to costs as the firm breaks into the UK market. There needs to be smart decisions made by the operations manager in regards to logistics management.This involves the planning, implementation, and control of the effective flow and storage of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. An effective recommendation for Danker’s would be to outsource their transport requireme nts, this will provide more control, improve customer service, and would be less expensive for the business. With the money from the loan, Danker’s could look to develop a production center in the UK to cut costs. They should then set up distribution centers close to the market in the UK, which would reduce transportation costs. Danker’s then should evaluate their performance on their third SBU to ensure that they are achieving their goals. A method of performance, which could be used is benchmarking.This involves comparing the business to others in the industry to gauge where they stand and steps they may need to identify in order to become more successful. 7. Conclusion Once Danker’s have their third SBU up and running, they will be able to develop sales and operations plans and forecast for the business by looking at previous sales, which will help them to determine the levels of capacity required, both strategically and tactically. They will also be able to plan for future materials required and gauge what inventory levels are required for their business. This will facilitate them to be able to develop a master production schedule. This will drive the supply chain and set precise production levels.We believe that once Danker’s follows the short-term objectives and implements our recommendations, they will generate profits from their new product development and facilitate them in becoming a market leader in the home market. As a result, this will enable them to penetrate the wider UK market in the long run and alongside our advice compete with their product on a large scale. By expanding their business and creating a third SBU we believe that they can generate massive profits and become a leader in the timber conservatory market. 8. References We got our information for our report from the following; * Introduction to Operations & Supply Chain Management; Bozarth & Handfield, 2nd Edition (2008); Pearson International Edition. * B GMT 20010 Operational and Supply Chain Management 2011 Lecture Material, University College Dublin.