Wednesday, April 15, 2020
AP Style FAQs Part 2 - The Writers For Hire
AP STYLE FAQS: PART 2 Last week, we kicked off a mini-series of Associated Press Stylebook-themed blog posts. This week, we’re sharing a few more gems of wisdom from The AP Stylebook Online. Q: What’s the rule for capitalizing a person’s title? A: It’s complicated, but here are the basics: AP defines a formal title as â€Å"one that denotes a scope of authority, professional activity or academic activity.†When using a formal title, you should capitalize the title if it appears directly before a person’s name. So, you’d write â€Å"President Barack Obama†or â€Å"Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.†However: When you set the person’s name off with commas, you don’t capitalize a formal title – even if the title is before the person’s name. So, you might say, â€Å"The hotel’s general manager, John Smith, donated to the cause.†Or â€Å"The vice president, Joe Biden, appeared at the event.†When using a title alone (without a person’s name), you don’t capitalize. So, you’d write â€Å"the president gave a speech†or â€Å"the congresswoman visited her hometown.†And, don’t confuse a job title or line of work with a formal title. So, you wouldn’t capitalize: teacher, politician, editor, technician, astronaut – no matter where they appear in the sentence. Whew! Confused yet? AP notes that, when in doubt about how to capitalize, the best solution is to rewrite the sentence so that the person’s name is set off in commas. Q: Should â€Å"city hall†be capitalized? A: Well, sometimes: Capitalize â€Å"City Hall†if you’re writing about a specific city hall (like Boston City Hall, Houston City Hall, etc.). This is also the rule in cases where a specific city hall is implied; for example, if you’re writing for a local Houston newsletter, you’d write â€Å"City Hall†(even without â€Å"Houston†– it’s safe to assume that your readers will understand which one you mean). But if you’re writing about ANY city hall – for instance, â€Å"A city hall is a type of . . .†or â€Å"You can’t fight city hall†– leave it lower-cased. Q: When using the acronym â€Å"CEO,†do I have to write out â€Å"Chief Executive Officer (CEO)†on first reference? A: I was sort of surprised by this: No. CEO is so widely used that it’s okay to use on its own. But AP does recommend writing out all other C-level titles, like â€Å"Chief Financial Officer (CFO)†and â€Å"Chief Operating Officer (COO)†Q: So, in your last blog, you said magazine and newspaper titles shouldn’t be italicized, just capitalized. What about book titles? A: Book titles should be capitalized and put in quotation marks. Ditto for almost all composition titles, including video games, films, TV shows – and the titles of lectures, speeches, and works of art. So, you’d write: â€Å"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay†(book); â€Å"Fallout 3†(video game); â€Å"Inglorious Basterds†(movie); â€Å"Annabel Lee†(poem); â€Å"Deadwood†(TV show).
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Converting Cubic Inches to Cubic Centimeters
Converting Cubic Inches to Cubic Centimeters Cubic inches (in3) and cubic centimeters (cc or cm3) are common units of volume. Cubic inches is a unit used primarily in the United States, while cubic centimeters is a metric unit. This example problem demonstrates how to convert cubic inches to cubic centimeters. Cubic Inches to Cubic Centimeters Problem Many small car engines have an engine displacement of 151 cubic inches. What is this volume in cubic centimeters? Solution: Start with the conversion unit between inches and centimeters. 1 inch 2.54 centimetersThat is a linear measurement, but you need a cubic measurement for volume. You cannot simply multiply this number times 3! Instead, you form a cube in three dimensions. You may remember the formula for volume is length x width x height. In this case, length, width, and height are all the same. First, convert to cubic measurements:(1 inch)3 (2.54 cm)31 in3 16.387 cm3Now you have the conversion factor between cubic inches and cubic centimeters, so youre ready to complete the problem.Set up the conversion so the desired unit will be canceled out. In this case, we want cubic centimeters to be the remaining unit.volume in cm3 (volume in in3) x (16.387 cm3/1 in3)volume in cm3 (151 x 16.387) cm​3volume in cm3 2474.44 cm3Answer:A 151 cubic inch engine dispaces 2474.44 cubic centimeters of space. Cubic Centimeters To Cubic Inches You can reverse the direction of the volume conversion easily enough. The only trick is to make sure the correct units cancel out. Lets say you want to convert a 10 cm3 cube into cubic inches. You can use the volume conversion from earlier, where 1 cubic inch 16.387 cubic centimeters volume in cubic inches 10 cubic centimeters x (1 cubic inch / 16.387 cubic centimeters)volume in cubic inches 10 / 16.387 cubic inchesvolume 0.610 cubic inches The other conversion factor you could have used is: 1 cubic centimeter 0.061 cubic inches It does not matter which conversion factor you choose. The answer will come out the same. If youre not sure youre doing the problem correctly, you could work it both ways to check yourself. Check Your Work You should always check your work to make sure the resulting answer makes sense. A centimeter is a smaller length than an inch, so there are many cubic centimeters in a cubic inch. A rough approximation would be to say there are about 15 times more cubic centimeters than cubic inches. A value in cubic inches should be much smaller than its equivalent value in cubic centimeters (or, a number in cc should be over 15 times bigger than the number given in cubic inches). The most common mistake people make doing this conversion is not cubing the value being converted. Dont multiply it by three or add three zeros to it (three factors of ten). Cubing a number is multiplying it by itself three times. The other potential error is in reporting the value. In scientific calculations, its important to watch the number of significant digits in an answer.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
What is a good Parent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
What is a good Parent - Essay Example The responsibility or duty of parents to build the personality of their child starts from the very first day, they are there when the child takes his or her first step, they are there when the child speaks the first word, when the child goes to school first time, and they are there with their child till the end of their life. Good parents are those who are always there to encourage their children and help them in becoming what they want to be (Gross, 1996). Parents hold the most important place in the lives of their children and in the development of the overall personality of the children, as they are the first source of information and learning. It is a normal phenomenon that most of the children idealize their parents, hence good parents are those who lead by example and teach their children at every step of life. Parents teach their children the norms and values and they teach them love, respect, language, in short parents teach the way to live the life. In order to be a good parent one has to be strict and loving at the same time. Some of the characteristics which help parents in fulfilling their responsibility in an efficient manner are care, love, respect, appreciation, dedication and honesty. It is injustice with the parents to judge them on the basis of the behavior and attributes of their kids. There is a general perception in the society that if a certain kid has bad habits and unpleasant personality then the parents of this kid are not good. Most of the time the case is opposite, there is high possibility that children with bad habits have good parents. But it is the tradition in the society to blame parents for the misbehavior and ill practices of the children. There are two main ingredients required to become a good parent; strong devotion and focus to make the life of a child better. Parents can always become good parents with practice and sincere desire to make an impact on the life of child.
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Accounting and capital markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Accounting and capital markets - Essay Example In the above assessment, the expected value of dividend for 2013 has been measured by taking into account a dividend growth rate that has been proposed by board of each company which is atleast few percentage above the prevailing inflation rate. The expected value has been calculated using Gordon’s formula: D1=D0 (1+g); where g is the dividend growth rate. The dividend growth rates have been sourced from annual report of each company for 2012 (Pennon Group Plc, 2012; Severn Trent, 2012; United Utilities, 2012; National Grid, 2012). The risk free return value has been obtained by taking into account yield on 10 year UK government bonds. It was considered risk free because only government bond investments are considered absolutely safe. The data has been sourced from Open Knowledge (2015) and annual value has been taken into account. The beta represents systematic risk of an organisation. In this paper, the beta value of each company against all FTSE shares has been considered (Caldwell, 2013). The price earnings (P/E) ratio reflects healthy prospects of a company in the stock market. It is calculated as: Market price of share/ Earning per Share. As per instruction of the paper, the market price of share of each company has been calculated on 01 October 2012. However, the EPS value was measured from the respective annual reports. The expected market return has been calculated as reverse of the price earnings ratio. The cost of equity herein has been calculated as: Ke = Rf + ÃŽ ² * (Rm – Rf) and Stock valuation can be largely categorised as absolute valuation model and relative valuation model. For absolute valuation, the paper has considered dividend discount model. One of the important dividend models is Gordon’s dividend growth model. This model is essentially utilised for valuation of equity stocks and is based on the notion that
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Reflective Paper Essay Example for Free
Reflective Paper Essay Introduction            Organization in the business and industrial setting is like a very interesting organism worthy of effort and time for study. The behavior of people and the environments with which they are in constant interaction is a ceaseless source for curiosity and fascinating research. This is so especially during this particular century when technology sparks the many changes that take place. This generation is in the epoch of organizational reform and innovation. The time is marked with rapid changes in the demography of workforce, changing corporate culture, and changing institutions. In the light of the rapid shift in today’s organizations, the skills required of managers, beginners in the profession and even aspiring students in the discipline, rest on the foundation of knowledge on the whole gamut of organizational development. Corporate America is not without its complications. When the company â€Å"succeeds,†there is with it (the success) a corresponding notion of responsibilities and liabilities. Organizations thrive today because of the policies and guidelines they have managed to fixed firmly in their set-up and translated into their day to day affairs. Big businesses have the competitive edge over others – i.e., over small entrepreneurs, because they have arrived at their positions in the market place by securing certain parameters in the many facets that comprise their organizations. This is especially true on government laws and regulations (McKenna, 2000).            It is imperative that organizations in industry and business compete with the changing times. To fail to do so may spell substantial loss in both the financial and human capitals; two major components necessary in an organization. Being competitive in today’s business jargon is not as simple as it sounds; it involves a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the whole gamut of organizational behavior and the complex changes that are dynamic in nature (Mangelsdorff, 2007).            This paper attempts to express in prà ©cis the various facets of the nature of organization with specific intentions to elaborate on the student researcher’s understanding, insights and learnings regarding how quality management and control systems relate with human motivation. It takes into consideration the importance of how all these concepts are of significance in one’s individual relationships as well as their relevance of the person’s (especially the student researcher’s) professional plans and actual work situations.            Organizational change though oftentimes unpredictable and incomprehensible to many, still goes through a cycle; the nature of which makes it possible for concerned people to study with the hopes and intentions of ultimately, implementing revisions or remodeling. These serve to enhance and improve systems and discover excellent procedures of handling things or procedures and people (Mangelsdorff, 2007). Problem Statements            To be specific, the following questions are addressed in this paper: Define what is meant by â€Å"strategic planning.†Distinguish this from long-range planning and other forms of planning. Planning can lead to organizational change. What do the text writers feel are the issues that face the managerwho plans to bring about organizational change? How should a planner go about the process of identifying strengths, weaknesses, and distinctive competencies in an organization? What is the impact of the findings on planning? Discuss the relationship between mission statements, planned change, and unplanned change. Use Discussion Define what is meant by â€Å"strategic planning.†Distinguish this from long-range planning and other forms of planning.            Bruffee, author of Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge (1993), explains the need for a more efficient, economical and equitable management of the people in the industry or organization has never been as pronounced as it is today. This need has never been brought about by factors which inevitably affect not only the established structures and ways of doing things within the personnel area but also by the more meaningful and substantial task of managing the organization’s most important asset – the human capital. Among these factors are: stiffer competition in business; rapid changes in technological, competitive and economic environments; the explosion of technical and managerial knowledge; spiraling wage and benefits cost and so many others. These factors have no doubt been responsible for the emergence of the personnel function as a vital area in the implementation of corporate strategy.            Demick and Miller (1993) places in context first what an organization is like and settles how it can affect behavior in general and when that is established, proceeded to explain leadership and management in this context. In organizational behavior which is basic to the management of human resource, it points to the inquiry and application of learning about how people, individuals, and groups perform, operate, and work in organizations. It accomplishes this by means of adopting a system approach. Explicitly, it infers people-organization affairs in terms of the entire person, group totality, complete organization, and total social structure. Its intention is to put up enhance relations by attaining human goals, organizational purposes, and social goals. In such a milieu, the goals to effect change are influenced by several significant factors which are crucial to the overall results. Hence, there are expected leadership behaviors that maintain momentum during the change process.            Effective strategic planning is a process of analyzing an organization’s assets and its needs under changing conditions and developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs. It is essentially a two-step process. The emphasis is on techniques or systems to be applied. The forecasting of needs allows determining of priorities and allocating of resources to where they can do the most good. Analysis of needs leads to program planning. The planning approach defines human resource needs in relation to the organization’s overall needs and defines a strategy to satisfy them. In this way, individual development, training programs, recruitment, compensation and other activities become integral part of a dynamic process. There are different types of planning aside from strategic type of plan. These include the alignment type, the goal-based type, the self-organizing type, and the scenario-based type (McNamara, 2006). The goal-based type of planning is involved with tailoring the process of improving and enhancing the system of operation of an organization with the focus on the organizations’ goals which may be further specialized according to each of that organization’s departments. The alignment type bases its planning strictly on the organization’s mission and tailors all activities according to that specific aspect of organizational flow. In particular, the scenario type of planning, however, makes use of the critical areas of the organization’s set-up which nay be experiencing problems and issues that may emanate from the external environment such as changing laws and problems outside the firm or establishment which may affect the life, continuity and effective productivity of the organization.  Lastly, self-organizing type of planning is centered on the organization’s core of values and that any or all of the various problems or issues encountered have to be evaluated according to the values of great importance to the members of the organization (McNamara, 2006). -Planning can lead to organizational change. What do the text writers feel are the issues that face the manager who plans to bring about organizational change?            Organizational behavior is actually a complex and dynamic mechanism. It includes the application and integration of theoretical perspectives from the social and behavioral sciences to shed light on how and why individuals behave in a variety of ways in organizations. Included in the study are the ways the individuals carry out their tasks, the structure, design and operation of human persons in simple and complex organizational set-ups (Mangelsdorff, 2007).            This is accomplished utilizing the systems approach or systems model. The latter is meant as interpreting people and organizational relationships in reference to the whole individual, â€Å"whole group, whole organization, and whole social system†(Knoster et al., 2000). The objective is developing improved and enhanced relationships by attaining individual aims, organizational goals and social aspirations (Mangelsdorff, 2007).            Specifically, any student who pursues the study of the concepts involved in the matter will examine how individuals work in groups; acquire insights into human strengths and interpersonal relationships. Intertwined in the study is to delve into theories or principles of motivation of personnel, effective leadership with the goal of formulating a sound thinking and values of management and leadership. Moreover, organizational behavior investigates scientific data and utilizes a variety of research traditions to further understand how individuals work and function efficiently in diverse forms of structures (Shortell et al., 2000)            The concepts that are pursued in organizational behavior include the following: the evolution and organizational and management theories; the rich historical background of management, organizational theories and the development of management thought, are adequately covered in this particular aspect (Robbins,1997).            Organizational behavior, when scrutinized closely, thus far covers a lot of topics. It embraces the understanding of structure, design of the organization itself. It also includes the study of the work design, policies and practices of the human resource, job design, and decision making as an organization. Furthermore, it also examines the organizational culture, its dynamics where change is aimed to be implemented (Revans, 1982) How should a planner go about the process of identifying strengths, weaknesses, and distinctive competencies in an organization? What is the impact of the findings on planning?            Working relationships are a central portion of a person’s life. Motivation and dedication to any endeavor (e.g. work) and the pleasure from it are collective concerns of the organization and the individual. There are definite factors that generate satisfaction, the so-called â€Å"motivator†factors according to Herzberg. These factors push the worker to the highest levels of accomplishment possible. They are an inherent part of the work itself and consist of the nature of the work, the person’s sense of achievement, level of responsibility, and individual development and improvement. These motivator needs can only be rewarded by stimulating, challenging, and absorbing work. Consequently, the goal of motivation should be to enhance individual growth and advancement, develop sense of accomplishment and liability, and provide recognition (Franken, 1994).            Psychology recognizes different perspectives of motivation. One of these viewpoints pertains to the idea of â€Å"motivational inducements,†otherwise known as incentives. Incentives are referenced from either the vantage point of internal, or that of external motivation. An inducement coming from within the individual is called intrinsic or internal motivation. It is, according to Morris and Maisto, about the â€Å". . . desire to perform a behavior that originates within the individual.†An inducement coming from outside the individual is called external or extrinsic motivation. It is the aspiration to do or achieve a goal in order to acquire a type of incentives or escape or steer clear of punishment (Morris and Maisto, 1999, p.316). People are often induced by the presence of external incentives to perform expected tasks or avoid incurring punishment. For motivation experts, however, a person developing the internal type of motivation will reap more lasting and beneficial effects compared with external motivation (Morris and Maisto, 1999).            For instance, in taking care of a medical surgical unit and handling newly hired nurses with a few years of experience only, myriads of problems are not remote possibilities. From issues of tardiness during call of duty, in irresponsibility in dispensing of medicines and relational clashes, to grave misconduct within the workplace such as sexual harassment between employees, these are all stark realities that are potential complex problems. Initiating the Herzberg idea can probably be useful. I will groom first the few expert nurses and those who will be directly supervising others that they practice and execute specific agenda for increasing motivation, one of which is Management by Objectives (MBO). It entails having faith in involving the employees in goal-setting and in decision-making. MBO works by integrating goal-setting into individual participation in decision-making in order to establish individual work goals to which the employee feels reasonably committed. At the motivational level, it is theorized that resistance to change is decreased if individuals participate in decisions regarding change and that individuals accept and are more committed to decisions in which they have participated in making. To further encourage and increase involvement, the hospital provides suggestion boxes and hold monthly contests where they give monetary rewards for the best three suggestions. These give the employee a sense of achievement and responsibility for its success. For this workplace in particular, the employees receive incentives in the form of Ladder promotion, general salary increase annually plus performance rating salary increases, CBA – employees can expect a minimum of 15% increase in salary annually within three years; and welfare benefits which include group insurances, medical insurance, accident benefits among others (Baron, 1983). A set-up like this goes to such great lengths at least to assure that it does something for sustaining employees’ morale and motivation. -Discuss the relationship between mission statements, planned change, and unplanned change. Use illustrations.            The elements of organizational behavior lean upon management’s plan and philosophy, vision and objectives. Basing on this foundation springs the organizational culture where the formal and informal types of organization and the social environment are best understood (Knoster et al., 2000).            Every person in direct supervision of employees or workers knows the intricacies of leadership and management of people under his/her care. Whenever possible, it is to the best interest of the organization and employer in general that the workers perform their respective jobs efficiently and on a continuous or consistent manner. This is the aspiration of every owner of a company or those delegated to deliver their/his/her goals. However, this will only work so long as the individuals in their various places or positions know and understand what they want and where they want to go in the context of the overall goals of their organization. Intertwined in this idea is the fact that individuals are motivated to work not only for them but that the vision and mission, goals of the corporate world where they belong must be their own also. Ownership as a motivational factor is critical for the survival and sustainability of both the individual worker and the organization as a whole. Studies reveal that how an organization runs depends upon every human person within the workplace functioning as he/she should be in order that productivity is achieved. This is actually a cyclical picture; both the organization or employer level and the rank and file levels must understand the team and group dynamics that must work to achieve their own objectives. However this seemed to be easy to understand, the applications of which are complex involving multiple disciplines (Mangelsdorff, 2007). Conclusion            The problem of employee motivation is critical in all kinds of organizations today and is responsible for the shoddy products we buy and the careless service we receive. It was thought that all that was necessary to produce high motivation in workers was to pay them more; this idea may no longer be valid for a large portion of the work force (Adams, 1965). Modern workers demand jobs that satisfy their inner needs for fulfillment, expression, and self-actualization. Traditional values involved loyalty to the company and a strong drive for money, status, promotion and security. The new breed of workers focuses on self-fulfillment and self-actualization and demands jobs that are challenging and that allow participation in decision-making (McClelland, 1976). They have little loyalty to the organization and less concern with money, status and security.            Psychologists have proposed several theories of motivation. The need for achievement by McClelland posits the existence to be the best in whatever they undertake. Studies show that good executives are higher in Ach than poor ones. High in ability and take calculated risks and set moderate achievement goals. These individuals constantly need feedback on their progress (Halonen Santrock, 1996).            These theories deal with content of motivation, with internal needs that arouse and guide behavior. Process theories of motivation focus on the psychological processes involved in making decisions and choices about work. This is illustrated in the goal-setting theory, which argues that employee motivation is defined by our intention to achieve a particular goal; and equity theory, which deals with our perceived ratio or outcome to input and how equitably that ratio compares with those co-workers (Halonen Santrock, 1996).            The workplace today considers any of the perspectives mentioned in this paper. However, what are more reflective at many organizations are their strategies in enhancing the life of the average worker. The understanding of the needs or drives that motivate people is therefore critical in the choice of what â€Å"motivator variables†that the management may employ to encourage their people to do or sustain an excellent job or an efficient performance.            Mentoring and its application is very much the vogue today in corporate America. It is a strategy employed by companies or institutions to enhance professionalism and the increased transfer of learning and building of skills from the more adept and/or experienced to the junior or neophyte employee. It is also a way of improved retention rate within a company. Reference: Baron, R. 1983. Behavior in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work, Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Bruffee, Kenneth A. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993. Demick, J. and Miller, P., Development in the Workplace, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, New Jersey, 1993. Druckman, Daniel, Jerome E. Singer, and Harold Van Cott (Editors) (1997). Enhancing Organizational Performance. National Academy Press: Washington, D.C. (optional) Franken, R.E. 1994, Human Motivation (Belmont, CA, Wadsworth). Halonen, JS and JW Santrock, 1996. Psychology: Contexts of Behavior, Dubuque, IA: Brown  and Benchmark, p.810. Knoster, T., Villa, R., Thousand, J. (2000). A framework for thinking about systems change. In R. Villa J. Thousand (Eds.), Restructuring for caring and effective education: Piecing the puzzle together (pp. 93-128). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Landy, F.J. 1985. Psychology of Work behavior. 3rd Ed. Dorsey Press. Mangelsdorff, David A.2001. â€Å"Organizational Behavior and Theory. Accessed August 19, 2008 http://users.idworld.net/dmangels/orgbeh.htm McClelland, D. C., Burnham, D. H. 1976. Power is the great motivator. Harvard Business Review, 54(2), 100-110. McKenna, Eugene, 2000. Business Psychology and Organizational Behavior: A Student’s Handbook. 3rd Ed. Psychology press: Taylor and Francis Group. McNamara, Carter. 2006. â€Å"Basic Overview of Various Strategic planning models.†Retrieved August 19, 2008. http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/models.htm Morris, Charles G., Maisto, Albert A., 1999. Understanding Psychology.4th ed., Prentice Hall: New Jersey, pp.315-316. Revans, R. W. 1982. The Origin and Growth of Action Learning. Hunt, England: Chatwell-Bratt, Bickley Robbins, Stephen P. 1997. Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications, Eighth Edition, Prentice Hall. Shortell, Stephen M. and Arnold D. Kaluzny. 2000. Health Care Management: Organization Design and Behavior, Fourth Edition, Delmar Publishers Inc. Revans, R. W. 1982. The Origin and Growth of Action Learning. Hunt, England: Chatwell-Bratt, Bickley Robbins, Stephen P. 1997. Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications, Eighth Edition, Prentice Hall.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Environmental Apocalypse :: Environment Consumerism Population Essays
Environmental Apocalypse The environment is in a terrible condition and although an environmental apocalypse is not imminent we are definitely headed down that road. Some of the reasons for our Earth’s trouble are overpopulation, consumerism, and overconsumption. The earth’s population is ever increasing; it is only a matter of time before there are not enough resources to support life on the planet and the population begins to die off due to lack of food, water, and other resources. With our current population increase rates the population will double within the next century. â€Å"Indeed, the world population did double in thirty-seven years from 1950 to 1987.'; (Ehrlich, 1990) The problem with overpopulation is that even if we all reduce our impact on the environment, when the population doubles, so will the total impact on the earth will be doubled. Consumerism is another thing that is threatening our planet. Everyone who wants to be anyone â€Å"must have'; whatever is cool at the time. This usually means the biggest, meanest, least efficient car or the fanciest toys, generally leading to wasteful packaging and harmful chemicals or other bad stuff. â€Å"In short, Impact = Population * Affluence * Technology.'; (Ehrlich, 1990) The problem is that everyone cares too much about societies image of them that they don’t think about the results of their actions. We also have a problem with the consumption of our resources. Many of the resources that we rely like fossil fuels, forests, and water are non-renewable. We are rapidly depleting these and have nothing to use when they are gone. Our society will have a lot of trouble turning around their habits until we are desperately low on them and it will be too late. It will be difficult to develop alternative technologies because of a lack of government funding, and the people who have the money (oil companies) do not want their income taken away by a different resource.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Beer Game Analysis Essay
* Introduction: The beer game is a simulation first developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management in the 1960s. This game was made in other to experiment how real organisations functions, where the consequences of every decisions play out as clearly as possible in the game as they would in a real organisation (Senge, 1990). Narayanan Arunachalam (2006) described the game as a popular classroom exercise for business schools conceived at MIT with the primary purpose of demonstrating industrial dynamics. The beer game is a â€Å"laboratory replica†of a real organisational setting, helps to highlight the possible disabilities and their causes of an organisation. The beer game however in this case was created to fail and highlight possible problems which an organisation may face in its supply chain which is the bullwhip effect. The game includes four players which include the retailer, the wholesaler, the distributor and the factory which is in an upli nk setting. After playing the game, below we will be giving a detailed report of the events that took place at the course of the game. * Data analysis: The objective of the beer game is to minimize the total cost for everyone in the supply chain by maintaining low stocks and managing to deliver all orders (http://supplychain.mit.edu/games/beer-game, 2011). However, the game was created to fail and below is a summary of events that took place during the game. Figure 1: Inventory/Backorder of the supply chain During the course of playing the game, we followed the zero strategy which stated that â€Å"place zero orders upstream when your individual inventory is higher than demand†. This rule was largely what shaped the game and influenced the results in terms of inventory and backorders. The retailer had a considerable good start in the game with a good record in inventories of 12 units till week 5 when demand rose from customers and this caused the inventory rate to fall. In week 6, due to no shipments and the bullwhip effect, the retailer started having back orders from the customers. Although the demand stayed the same from week 6, the retailer continued to experience backorders till week 21 when the wholesaler sent a lot of supplies at once; this made the inventories to rise to a peak of 113 units in week 24. The wholesaler started with an inventory of 12 units which remained the same in week 2. However, due to incoming shipments from the distributor and a lack of demand from the retailer, the inventory rose to 16 units in week three and 20 units in week 4 and remained the same till week 6. Due to an increase in demand from the retailer and a lack of shipments from the distributor, the inventories fell to 6 units and in week 7 and at week 8, the wholesaler was having back orders. Backorders keep reoccurring and fluctuating until week 21 when it rose to 16 units of inventory and reached a peak of 136 units in week 25. The distributor during the game had the same inventory rate for the first two weeks. The distributor maintained similar inventory rates till week 9 when the distributor started recording backorders this was due to the inability of the distributor to meet the orders of the wholesaler. The distributor continued to experience fluctuations in backorders until week 25 when it got a lot of supplies from the factory the inventories at the end of this week was at 40. The factory had started the game with an inventory of 12 units which remained the same till week 10. This was largely due to a lack of huge demands from the distributor. The factory however started experiencing backorders at week11. Backorder rates kept fluctuating during the weeks due to the inability of the factory to meet the needs of the factory on time. At week 25, the factory got a huge sum of supplies from the brewery which made its inventory to reach a peak of units. The high rate of back orders was caused by long lead times, the bullwhip effect and the effects of the zero strategy. This made backorders to be on the rise for all the supply chain operators. Increase in demand also played a great role in causing the high number of backorders which in turn made the total cost to rise at a higher pace th an it should. Figure 2: Order chart Above is a chart showing the order levels of the Retailer, wholesaler, distributor, factory and customer. At the course of the game, due to the zero strategy, all supply chain operators had to make zero orders from week one to week 4, because demand was less than the inventory. The customer demand remained the same at 4 units until week 5. In week 5, demand from the retailer’s order rate had increased from zero to 16 while demand rose to 8 units compared to previous weeks. The orders of the wholesaler, distributor and factory remained zero in this week because they had high inventories. The decrease in inventories of the retailer resulted in the increase in order rates which was caused by a decrease in shipment which is a bullwhip effect. By week 11, all the supply chain operators had increased their order rate because their inventory levels were down. And back orders followed alongside changes in order changes which are all caused by the bullwhip effect. In week 21, the bullwhip effect were decreased which resulted to increased inventories and the zero rule coming in. * Issues that you encountered using the zero strategy: * Increase in Backorders: The biggest challenge we faced during the beer game was the challenge of constantly increasing backorders which can be seen in figure1. The retailer had a peak backorder rate of 49, the wholesaler 90, the distributor 85 and the factory 72 backorders. Backorder means a distribution term that refers to the status of items on a purchase order in the event that some or the entire inventory required to fulfill the order is insufficient to satisfy demand leading to a waiting period for the organisation to meet this demand (Donovan, 2010). After using the zero strategy for a few weeks, we found the backorder like a chain reaction star from retailer up to the factory. * Zero inventory and Safety stock: We know that in the real business, zero inventories and stock means that the company’s ability of resisting the risk of backorders and shortage of supply is reduced. But this is the case in the beer game where we went on with zero inventory and safety stock for weeks. This showed that the company was incompetent in meeting its own standards. * High rise of cost: Cost control is very important for a company, high cost operation is unacceptable. During the beer game, due to the high cost of back orders, we were running on an outrageous cost per week. This was either due to enormous inventory or massive backorders. The cost of the backorders $1.00 and inventory cost $0.60. After we finish this game, we found that the cost of each supply chain operator was high and a total cost of $2, 862. At the initial stage, the increase in cost was little and similar when back orders rose, the cost became tremendous. * Delay in shipment (Long lead time): During the game, it took two weeks for the retailer to get supplies from the wholesaler and twice as long if the wholesaler has not enough resources for the retailer. That means that it took two weeks to receive from the wholesaler, when the wholesaler is out of stock, it takes four weeks, and when the distributor is out of stock it takes six weeks for the distributor to get stock from the factory and finally, when the factory is out of stock, it takes seven weeks for the retailer to receive supplies. This shipment delay makes it difficult to meet customer demands and causes high cost due to backorders. * Lack of communication: During the beer game there was no communication of any sort between the supply chain operators and this led to so many misjudgements. The lack of communication led to the bullwhip effect which cost us a lot by resulting in back orders, and high costs. * Challenges encountered in beer game: * Bullwhip Effect: The â€Å"bullwhip†effect was coined in by Proctor and Gamble (P&G) when the company experienced extensive demand amplification for their diaper products (Lee et .al, 1997). The bullwhip effect is a phenomenon in the supply chain whereby unpredictable elements introduced by human behaviour in the lower part of the chain becomes more pronounced the higher up the chain they move (Baugher, 2012). By synchronizing the supply chain the bullwhip effect can be eliminated. The bullwhip effect describes how inaccurate information, and a disconnection between production and real-time supply chain information result in loss of revenue bad customer service, high inventory levels and unrealised profits (Agarwal, 2009). With reference to figure 1 above, we can observe that the bullwhip effect did occur during the beer game simulation. An example of such a situation is in week 5 when the consumer demand increased from 4 units to 8 units. The retailer then made an order of 16 units upstream in week 5, when the wholesaler got the figures the wholesaler then made an order of 20 units in week 7. This continued with the distributor, who ordered 25 units upstream in week 9, the reaction of the factory was similar with an order of 26 units in week 11. This shows a spike in demand upstream as illustrated in figure 3. The major cause of the bullwhip effect was the increase in consumer demand in week 5 and 6. Which later came to a normal state in week 7 at 8 units as illustrated in figure 2? The individual demand forecasts from the supply chain operators also caused the bullwhip effect. Lack of communication is also very common when the supply chain operators may not provide sufficient or accurate information up the supply chain on the subject of current market conditions causing improper levels of inventory (Coyle et.al, 2003). This was the case during the beer game which can be seen that with time, the demand was interpreted differently as it went upstream. This the entire supply chain faced backorders due to the bullwhip effect from week 6 onwards even though the demand remained the same from week 8 onwards. The implications of the bullwhip effect includes excess inventories which was the case at the closing weeks of the game, problems with quality, increased raw materials costs, overtime expenses, increased inventory costs, increased backorder costs and increased shipping costs (Bowersox, D.J, 2007). * Long lead time: Lead time delay occurs when the time it takes to obtain, make and deliver the finished goods to a customer takes longer than the time the customer is prepared to wait for it to reach them (Fawcett et.al, 1992). During the beer game, it takes 2weeks for the wholesaler to get information from the retailer and vice versa. It takes the distributor two weeks to get information from the wholesaler and it takes two weeks for the wholesaler to get information from the distributor. It also takes two weeks for the factory to get information from the distributor and two weeks for the distributor to get supplies from the factory. It takes the brewery one week to get information from the factory and one week for the factory to get information from the brewery. So like it was experienced in the beer game, when all the supply chain operators are dried out, doing the math, it takes seven weeks for supplies to go from the brewery down to the consumer, and six weeks for information to go from the retailer to the factory. The longer the lead time, it creates negative impact on the firm as it reduces the customer’s responsiveness and reactions (Stock, J.R and Lambert, D.S, 2001). * Zero strategy: The zero strategy which is a rule for playing the game clearly states that we as the operators place zero orders uplink if demand is less than inventory. This went along way to cause a lot of delays in shipments because of long lead times. This is because when the inventory of the retailer as seen in figure 1 becomes less than demand, it took 5 weeks for the factory to have such an effect. This made the lead time even longer and caused the bullwhip effect as well as enormous back orders. * Neglect orders to reduce inventory: During the course of the game, we had to neglect backorders in order to reduce inventory and save costs. This can be seen in figure 3 below where the retailer did not dramatically increase demand to meet back orders but did this on a gradual basis in order to reduce inventory and holding cost. However when the supplies finally came, the effects were just as bad with inventory rates skyrocketing overnight. Figure 3: Inventory and Demand of retailer * Ways to improve the zero strategy: * Improve communication: By improving communication levels among the supply chain operators will help to solve the problem of assumptions, inappropriate decisions and reduce the bullwhip effect. In both actual supply chains and supply chain simulation, we can cut supply chain fluctuations by 80% by cutting order-to-delivery time by half (Simchi et.al, 2003). Improvement in communication will help to improve the efficiency of the system by eliminating assumptions and stimulating a synchronized supply chain which will help in getting all the partners to operate in a way that is mutually supportive, corporative and transparent (Gà ©rard P. Cacho et al.) * Point of Sale (POS) system: Point of Sale system is a means or can be referred to as a system which is meant to deal with the sales of goods. Point of sale system is software that works with hardware in order to inspect and monitor sales in order to give accurate demand and sales information (http://www.gofrugal.com/pos/ point-of-sale.html?gclid=CPyHobrW-q4CFQ8b6wodkDXwwg,2004). By implementing this system, the company can be able to get accurate demand which will help the company in eliminating sudden demand spikes like seen in the beer game. An example of a company which uses such a system is Wal-Mart and the system works well for the company helping to monitor all sales and demand, reduce the risk of inventory shrinkage, manage special demands, maintain control, improve efficiency and help the company make timely and accurate reports (http://www.carolinabarcode. com/run-my-store-a-36.html, 2012). * Just in time inventory system: Just in time (JIT) also known as just in time inventory system manages the inventory and lessens the costs of inventory control and the cost of maintaining the inventory of a business. This helps the company to reduce a substantial amount of its inventories, reduce ordering and save warehousing costs (Bowersox, D.J, 2007). A real life example of a company using the Just in time inventory system is Dell computer corporation which uses the just –in –time system so that an order for a customized personal computer that comes in over the internet at 9am can be delivered by truck to the customer by 9pm. This system allows dell to save costs and with this, the company under prices its products compared to its rivals by about 10% to 15% (McWilliams, 1997)(Source: Gray McWilliams, â€Å"Whirlwind on the web, â€Å"Business Week, April 7, 1997.). This system would lead to more efficiency of the bear game eliminating backorders and keeping just enough stock for the company to produce when needed. This strategy will by many supply chain operators such as the distributor and the wholesaler leaving just the factory and the retailer making products available quickly and almost eliminating the bullwhip effect. * Push and Pull Boundary: The push boundary process is a forecast and execution driven in anticipation for demand, while the pull process is demand driven and is initiated in response to real demand (Chopra and Meindl, 2001). The present trend around the world is a swing from a push system to a pull system this is because the pull system helps in reducing inventory levels. Push and pull boundary occurs when the demand intersects expectation of future demand. Pull systems are based on real demands and production and manufacturing of goods done in relationship with the demands of the consumers (Bowersox, D.J, 2007). Figure 3: Push/pull boundary in Dell’s supply chain The above diagram shows the push and pull boundary of Dell’s supply chain. The company combines both push and pulls boundary systems in running its operations. The company by-passes a lot of areas in the supply chain by manufacturing and selling directly to its customers. The process starts with consumer ordering and then the manufacturing cycle which are known as pull boundary systems. The inventory of the company will be stocked up following the demand of customers in order for the product to be made. All the processes included in the procurement of a product is implemented by Dell and this is regarded as a push approach primarily because it reacts to future demands effectively making products available in time and keeping low inventories. This system will be of great help to the beer game helping in making raw materials readily available for production and keeping inventories and costs low. * Eliminate gaming in shortage situations: During the beer game, the gaming shortage situation was experienced when there was a shortage in raw materials and inventories for the manufacturing of these products. When shortages occur, instead of allocating products based on orders, it is allocated in a proportion to past sales record. This will make customers have no need to exaggerate their demands because it will cause them negative results. General motors’ has used this method for a long time in the allocation of its supply. This will help to make the beer game have more reliable demand data. * Continuous system (fixed –order-quantity): In the beer game, order time is the same which is once a week. This makes it easier for the retailers to make quick orders for products required. However, the quantity of the product differs and it would be easier if the demand rate was fixed with adjustments made to make the order rate cater for inventory, buffer stock and demand. This will go a long way in making things easier and decreasing the bullwhip effect which can be seen to be predominant in the game. * Adopt the Vendor Managed Inventory Strategy: The vendor managed inventory strategy is a strategy which manages the quantity of goods produced by a manufacturer allowing the manufacturer to decide the quantity to keep and how much to ship to the retailer. This is a strategic move for manufacturers in order for them to be able to increase profitability by eliminating stock while improving on sales and overall performance. * Avoid multiple demand forecast updates: As can be noted in the beer game, the bullwhip effect causes the demand forecast to be multiplied as it goes uplink. Instead, making same orders from downstream been the retailer to the supplier to be the same will make things much easier eliminating high inventories and the bullwhip effect. * Reasons for Changes made to the Zero Strategy: The zero strategy is considered as a bad strategy due to its failure during the simulation test. While we obeyed the zero rule of the zero strategy while playing the game, we noticed that the game started to fail with a dramatic fall in inventory rate, lack of buffer stock, increase in backorders and a rise in the total operations cost. This led to the total failure of the game because the zero strategy did not allow us to meet the needs of consumers because of too many uplinks in the supply chain and long lead time. The bullwhip effect also posed a great disadvantage to the strategy because it contributed greatly to the failure of the game. * Impact on the outcome of the game: * Decrease in cost as a result of little inventories and no backorders. * Elimination of some supply chain operators which will reduce lead time and results in quick flow of information and supplies. * Decrease or eliminate the bullwhip effect. * Decrease lead times and make delivery quicker. * Have safety stock for risky situations. * Conclusion: Having conducted the above analysis on the zero strategy, it is important that I stress that the bullwhip effect can take a high toll on a company with reference to the game. The game however was a tremendous failure with poor results which includes increase in backorder rates, lack of inventories, rise in cost and long lead time. These issues can however be overcome by using the POS system, just in time inventory system (JIT), improve communication among supply chain operators and the push and pull boundary system. With example of success from companies that have tried these systems and its success in the beer game, I think these changes will go a long way in making the beer game simulation a success.
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