Strategic Operation Issues Free Essays

string(215) " have they over estimated the man-hours or underestimated the man hours\? This is vital to get right as an overestimation results in an increased cost, making us less competitive, and therefore losing the contract\." STRATEGIC OPERATIONS ISSUES ASSIGNMENT TABLE OF FIGURES ABSTRACT5 PART A6 PART B8 PART C10 PART D11 PART E13 REFERENCE LIST15 ABSTRACT Company A is a global company and within it has several different business units, Company A , is a specialised service provider for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries throughout the world, this report focuses on Company A Tower Field Service Pty Ltd, located in Australia. Operations and process management are vital functions for the effective running of successful businesses, they need to be strategically planned and designed to prevent the loss of vital information, company standards as well as continually improve practises. These processes should be well documented and understood by all employees of the company. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Operation Issues or any similar topic only for you Order Now The loss or relocation of individuals should not have significant impact on company functioning. This report shows how strategic operations functions can be used to improve processes and therefore increase business effectiveness. Key concepts in strategic operations issues, such as process design and analysis, total quality management and resource planning and control need to be well documented for the system to remain effective and to meet long term strategic goals. PART A Describe the organisation and the problem briefly, but well enough for the assignment examiner to understand what the organisation does and its relevance to this assignment; Company A is a global company with many business units located around the world; Company A is itself a division of Company B. Company A have extensive knowledge of all types of vessel and tower internals. Company A are a specialist service provider supporting customer’s needs for all their internal equipment installation, shutdown, maintenance or revamp requirements in the petrochemical, and oil and gas industries all over the world. It is Company A’s strategy to strengthen its ability to supply installation and maintenance services to its customers geographically leading to recent acquisitions, Oceania merging with APA creating APAC. This has resulted in the relocation of key personnel, within the company, to run new locations, consequentially losing experience and day to day operational knowledge. Due to an ill documented management system this knowledge and experience was not captured in processes procedures resulting in a gap in the operations of the business. This assignment focuses on Company A Pty Ltd, Australian Operations. PART B Briefly explain the background to this issue or problem by describing how it fits into the operations of the business. Its impact on the business could be demonstrated using a chart to show the functional relationships, and/or a process flow analysis to show how the operation or process that you are studying is integrated into the organisation; Company A’s work is varied and unpredictable, resulting in fluctuations and depressions in work frequency and volume (Figure 2. 0). Speed, cost and dependability are the important operational factors driving Company A’s market strategy in winning contracts. Whilst each project is different the process for quoting, receiving the contract and executing the job are essentially the same (Figure 3. ) . This process was held by a small number of experienced and long standing employees, when they were reallocated to run other locations, so was the knowledge of project, quoting requirements, Company A capabilities and experience. [pic] Figure 2. 0 – Shows the variation and volume in work load throughout any given year. Reference: Reporting Figures (2009, 2010, 2011) [pic] Figure 3. 0 – Process Flow chart of Company A enquiry through to Project Completion PART C Provide brief specific details of the operational issue, problem or process that needs to be addressed. For example, this might includes: †¢ Key objectives, success factors and performance of the issue in question †¢ Opportunities or implications for changes to the process or techniques being used now †¢ Resource implications or constraints †¢ Technologies and/or manpower issues involved in the process etc. Company A’s core business revolves around winning contracts; these contracts are based upon man-hours that is, the time it would take to complete the scope of work provided by the client. Any deviation from the budgeted man-hours results in reduced profit margins, poor on time delivery, customer dissatisfaction and loss of reputation. Therefore it is vital when quoting for a project all quality, costs, man-hours and materials are factored in. The relocation of personnel and subsequent lose of experience and personnel knowledge outlined a gap between assumed knowledge and documented procedures, as whilst the process to quote and win projects was essentially the same, it was not well documented and new employees were unable to successfully quote for a project. This not only will affect Company A’s bottom line but will result in inconsistent quotations and impact on employee job satisfaction. This has brought forward the need for a documented, maintained and reviewed Quality Management System, whereby, procedures, standard documents and templates can be used which capture all associated costs, project, client and company requirements. PART D Analyse the problem using concepts covered in the appropriate part of this subject (this should be the major part of your work and your report). In analysing the problem, you should consider: the five main objectives of operations management; changes to performance or outcomes (such as quality, productivity etc. ; potential improvements relevant theory calculations where possible; and any information about the costs involved. As speed, cost and on time delivery are the key to being awarded contracts, high importance needs to be placed on these factors and would be where strategic planning would be focused. Whilst quality and flexibility play a significant role in Company A’s application, quality is usually fixed by the client a s they know what they want achieved, as is flexibility, what they want and when they want it is usually not negotiable, especially as they are working to deadlines for their customers. The quotes that are presented to the client not only need to meet the operations objectives of cost and speed, but also dependability that is, is what they have quoted an accurate reflection of what can be practically achieved, have they over estimated the man-hours or underestimated the man hours? This is vital to get right as an overestimation results in an increased cost, making us less competitive, and therefore losing the contract. You read "Strategic Operation Issues" in category "Papers" An underestimate would result in insufficient time to complete the project and the extra cost would be worn by Company A. Not only would cost be an issue, but that would affect our reputation as a specialist provider, decrease customer satisfaction and therefore be less considered by the client when submitting a quote next time. The number and variety of different manpower needed is based on specification of output as well as aggregated capacity that is the number of man hours is then used to calculate how many men/days it would take to complete the job based on a ten hour day. The data for estimating an enquiry has been developed over time, using past experience, company expectations and feedback from the contractors required to do the work. The man-hours required to complete standardised services have been established using the top down and bottom up approach, this knowledge however has not been transcribed to a standard document, in order for consistency in quotations, this should be developed. This will increase productivity, the time taken to complete the quotes and would also facilitate improvement. The structure of Company A having high variation in the demand for services, along with the volume and variety of when and where these services are executed makes capacity management and scheduling difficult, thus reducing capacity (Slack et al, 2010). Being a highly variable business according to Slack et al, 2010, process variability results in simultaneous waiting and resource underutilisations, Company A has managed this capacity demand in off peak times of the year with only hiring a core set of permanent employees, responsible for key operational issues, such as planning, customer liaison and information integration. When a job is awarded short term contracts are issued to trades personnel to complete the core mechanics of the project, once the project is completed the personnel are terminated, thus preventing underutilisation of resources. This however brings with it another problem that is the availability of obtaining the competent personnel for that project and also the lack of consistency with staff working for Company A . The availability of staff, location of the project and type of work, needs to be factored into the resource planning and quoting for the client. As stated in Slack et al, 2010, resource planning, is concerned with managing allocation of resources and activities for process efficiency and effectiveness in satisfying customer demand. The implications are seen in the three main operations objectives that is quality, speed and cost. If there is insufficient man power available to complete the work, the job will run over time, resulting in cost of poor quality, and reputation with the client. This can also affect the quality of work conducted, as personnel could be stretched, or there may be insufficient trades to complete the job to quality requirements. The variety of different staff used, results again in loss of experience and knowledge in the work that we do, being a highly specialised service, it is important to maintain highly skilled individuals. This variety could impact on the man hours budgeted as you would have to account for learning new skills, other variables such as a work ethic, availability of resources etc†¦ The use of detailed work instructions, inductions or retention periods could be a viable solution. PART E Provide brief recommendations for improving the process including comparisons of your recommendations against the current system, and details of changes needed to correct the problem or improve the situation. You should include a rudimentary action plan or relevant time frame for implementation of your recommendations. Bear in mind that your recommendations should be potentially cost effective i. e. you must argue the changes from the point of view of their potential to improve cost, quality, output, productivity etc. In order to overcome the operational issue of loss of resources and valuable information, a well implemented quality management system, based on ISO 9001: 2008 should be implemented, with detailed work instructions, procedures and processes. The current system as it stands is inconsistent, highly variable and not well documented. Creating documented processes and procedures, consistency, application and ease of use will be beneficial to new/old employees with all assumed knowledge being captured and enable with succession planning. The implementation of a quality system would be a time consuming process involving a number of resources as the time to collate, document, review and approve procedures and processes would be lengthy. The application of designated individual would cut down the time needed to complete this project. The impacts of introducing a recognised Quality Management System such as ISO9001:2008 would be far more beneficial than the initial cost/time taken to implement it. Not only would quality of projects be increased, due to standardisation of the processes, but costs would be seen in the reduction of double handling and waste. As all facets of the company would be documented the knowledge of what is presented to the client would increase and therefore cost, time to complete projects, quality of quotations and time to complete these would be reduced. The continuous review process would also enable consistent improvements and company growth. (Figure 5. 0) Having an externally certified system, which is not a prerequisite for winning contracts with clients, would see us as a better candidate against other competitors without certification and could increase our chances of winning contracts. [pic] Figure 5. 0 – Integration of Quality Management System into Business operations. Reference. Company A IMS REFERENCE LIST Slack, N. , Chambers, S. , Johnston, R. and Betts, A. , 2009, Operations and Process Management, 2nd ed, Prentice Hall Company A (2011), http://ctnet. Company A . com/desktopdefault. aspx, International Direct Contact Resources Business Unit Power Point, , April 2011 ———————– OFFER REJECTED – LOSS OF WORK PROJECT PLANNED PROJECT EXECUTED NO QUOTATION? SIGN CONTRACT CONTRACT REVIEW GENERATE PROPOSAL REVIEW OFFER RETURN TO CLIENT WITH A SUITABLE LETTER DECLINING QUOTATION ACCEPTANCE OF OFFER (CONTRACT) ACCEPTED ISSUE TO CLIENT REGISTER ENQUIRY AND QUOTE FOR JOB RECEIVED REQUEST TO BID FOR CONTRACT FROM CLIENT How to cite Strategic Operation Issues, Papers

Loyalty In Book Characters 2 Essay Research free essay sample

Loyalty In Book Characters 2 Essay, Research Paper Loyalty in book Fictional characters Can the perfect ideal of trueness of all time be achieved? What is trueness, how can you go loyal individual? How make the people of today compare to the heroes in the narratives that we read Beowulf Sir Gawin and the Green Knight and Camelot. When do you cognize you are a loyal individual, is it something that you are born with or make you larn to go loyal? Is trueness a valuable human feature? How does person go a loyal individual? In Sir Gawin he proved to be loyal when he showed up to a challenge that no normal adult male could of all time win, but he did he went to acquire his chopped off he was really loyal to his word. Today if you want to go loyal you do non necessitate to make some heroic. That is non good the word trueness today is used to slackly. If you do something every bit small as traveling to work everyday and you are loyal. That is non loyalty that is doing money so you can eat. A really good illustration of trueness is functioning your state at any cost, if you go to war there is a good opportunity that you will non come back, but you put that aside merely to maintain the remainder of the state safe. That is the ultimate mark of trueness when you have to confront decease. So I think that people of today need to do certain that a word is non used merely for simple thing, but the right thing so immature people can understand what the word means. Can the perfect ideal of trueness of all time be achieved? In our times I think that trueness is about neer achieved, why do I believe this? The people of today don # 8217 ; t cognize the proper nomenclature of a word. Another ground that I think this people in today # 8217 ; s society Don # 8217 ; t care if they are considered loyal or non. In the yearss of Beowulf the lone ground for life was to be a loyal individual even if it meant decease. In this narrative if you were non a loyal individual you had no ground to unrecorded people would non believe of you as a individual but as that work forces who is non loyal to anyone. For this ground people were ever seeking to be loyal cause they knew what would go on if they were non they might even hold to confront decease. If we thought like this our state would be a better topographic point, even the president of the united provinces is non a loyal individual, he lied to the whole state he did non care if he was considered to be a ind ividual that was non loyal. See even the adult male who runs a state can acquire off with non being loyal. For all of these grounds I believe that known one in our times can even see that they are traveling to be loyal to anyone non even to there self’s. What is trueness, is it something that you are born with? I think that people learn to be loyal to each other, but they do non make a good occupation of it they act a certain manner but deep down in side they don’t like to snog another individuals butt so they are non being loyal, non even to there self’s. What is trueness it is a characteristic that shows how much you will make to assist person else you seldom do it to profit yourself. You will give up anything to function another individual even if you don’t cognize them like the national guard they are ever traveling into catastrophe zones to assist people, giving the people that need assist what of all time they want. That is being loyal to your state. How do we as a society comparison to the people in Beowulf and Sir Gawin? In no sentiment we can # 8217 ; t even come near to them. In Camelot the male monarch wanted to make nil more so construct the best metropolis of all time made, but was he making it for the people or was he making it for his ego so he would be considered the wealthiest male monarch about. Even in those times if you were a male monarch you could acquire away with non being loyal, and if anyone objected the male monarch would hold there head cut off. Some people would wish to believe that everyone is loyal, but we are non. In my sentiment the lone people in our society that are loyal are instructors because they put up with pupils every twenty-four hours. Why do they make this so the pupils can larn the instructors are non in it for there self # 8217 ; s they are in it to assist other people. The other sort of people who are loyal are voluntaries or people who serve there state. Is trueness a valuable human feature? In my sentiment it is non a valuable 1. Why do I believe this, because people don # 8217 ; t attention any longer. If it was something of value we as a people would be seeking to maintain trueness alive, by learning immature people that you will ever be respected if you are loyal to everyone. Some people are brought up like that and some are non, what happens to those persons who are non tough to be loyal. In composing this essay I have came to many decisions, one is that trueness does non hold the same significance as it did long ago and it is about dead now. Just sit back and expression at our society and see how many people are being loyal. Another is that today there is still merely a few people that are loyal to them self # 8217 ; s and those people that they help. My last decision is that the perfect ideal of loyal is merely achieved be those who will make anything to make at that place ain personal end # 8217 ; s, and will ever be at th at place to assist another individual at any cost. 340

I believe the government should fund people who ar Essays (285 words)

I believe the government should fund people who are interested and involved in the arts. That shouldn't be taken out of our tax dollars. I think that if they are legit about their interest in the arts, they should be allowed the equal financial aid as anything else would. At the same time I don't agree that the government or taxpayers should be forced to support the music or visual arts. It should be an option. People have to pay taxes for everything else already, even things they aren't supportive of them. In perspective one I partially agree. They are already involved in many areas of funding and they choose who it goes to. The government is the one who decided what to tax and how much. They may not decide when certain groups get funding. In perspective two I agree that government funding is a big contributor for the arts. I do not believe that it is essential. Government funding has not always been around and there are many man made works of art that are famous. There are many other things the funds could go to like homeless shelters or other important places they could use the money to help people. The money for the arts is not very essential. I completely agree with perspective three because it's true that if your work isn't very good that people won't buy it. That is just how it is and you don't need to give thousands of dollars to fund some artists who really aren't that good. Famous artists from long ago who are famous today became famous by having good skills, not by the funding from the government.

How to Conduct Market Research

How to Conduct Market Research Free Online Research Papers How to Conduct Market Research Definition: Marketing research is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing. Research carried out in order to understand customer/consumer interest in a particular product or service. Marketing research, or market research, is a form of business research and is generally divided into two categories: consumer market research; Consumer marketing research studies the buying habits of individual people Business-to-business (B2B) market research, which was previously known as industrial marketing research; it investigates the markets for products sold by one business to another. Importance Marketing research provides information regarding consumer needs to the marketing managers, so that they can be able to implement marketing strategies and programs intended to satisfy those needs. Marketing research enables a firm to spot and identify the size of potential markets that are abroad. This therefore enables the firm to export the right amount of its products: not so much and at the same time not so little. This increases the chances of a firm succeeding in international markets. With respect to existing products in the market, marketing research enables a company to know if it has been able to satisfy customer needs and whether any changes regarding the product are necessary. Steps in Market research 1. Defining market problems 2. Set objectives, budget and timetables 3. Select research types, methods and techniques 4. Design research instruments 5. Collect data 6. Organize and analyze data 7. Presentation and reporting of findings 1. Defining market problems: The first step is being able to identify and define the problems and opportunities ahead. The issue will likely be recognized by one or more management Examples of problems might be poor company image, lack of awareness of the company and its products or services or even a bad reputation of the company. 2. Set objectives, budget and timetables: This involves being able to come up with a defined set of objectives that have been based on facts collected in the previous step. It also entails being able to determine the amount of resources that would be needed for the market research and a comprehensive, reasonable time frame for the whole research process. 3. Select research types, methods and techniques: This step Involves choosing between two types of research schemes i.e. primary research or secondary research. Primary research is based on information that had not existed before i.e. original information, whereas secondary research involves the usage of already existing information. Secondary research is faster and less expensive. These methods and techniques may include Based on questioning: ââ€" ª Qualitative marketing research generally used for exploratory purposes small number of respondents not standardized to the whole population statistical significance and confidence not calculated examples include focus groups, in-depth interviews, and projective techniques ââ€" ª Quantitative marketing research generally used to draw conclusions tests a specific hypothesis uses random sampling techniques so as to infer from the sample to the population involves a large number of respondents examples include surveys and questionnaires. Techniques include choice modeling, maximum difference preference scaling, and covariance analysis. Based on observations: ââ€" ª Ethnographic studies -, by nature qualitative, the researcher observes social phenomena in their natural setting observations can occur cross-sectionally (observations made at one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-periods) examples include product-use analysis and computer cookie traces. See also Ethnography and Observational techniques. ââ€" ª Experimental techniques , by nature quantitative, the researcher creates a quasi-artificial environment to try to control spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables examples include purchase laboratories and test markets Marketing research techniques come in many forms, including: ââ€" ª Ad Tracking periodic or continuous in-market research to monitor a brand’s performance using measures such as brand awareness, brand preference, and product usage. (Young, 2005) ââ€" ª Advertising Research used to predict copy testing or track the efficacy of advertisements for any medium, measured by the ad’s ability to get attention, communicate the message, build the brand’s image, and motivate the consumer to purchase the product or service. (Young, 2005) ââ€" ª Brand equity research how favorably do consumers view the brand? ââ€" ª Brand name testing what do consumers feel about the names of the products? ââ€" ª Commercial eye tracking research examine advertisements, package designs, websites, etc by analyzing visual behavior of the consumer ââ€" ª Concept testing to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers ââ€" ª Coolhunting to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends in areas such as fashion, music, films, television, youth culture and lifestyle ââ€" ª Buyer decision processes research to determine what motivates people to buy and what decision-making process they use ââ€" ª Copy testing predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ad’s flow of attention and flow of emotion. (Young, p 213) ââ€" ª Customer satisfaction research quantitative or qualitative studies that yields an understanding of a customers of satisfaction with a product or service. ââ€" ª Demand estimation to determine the approximate level of demand for the product ââ€" ª Distribution channel audits to assess distributors’ and retailers’ attitudes toward a product, brand, or company ââ€" ª Internet strategic intelligence searching for customer opinions in the Internet: chats, forums, web pages, blogs where people express freely about their experiences with products, becoming strong opinion formers ââ€" ª Marketing effectiveness and analytics Building models and measuring results to determine the effectiveness of individual marketing activities. ââ€" ª Mystery Consumer or Mystery shopping An employee or representative of the market research firm anonymously contacts a salesperson and indicates he or she is shopping for a product. The shopper then records the entire experience. This method is often used for quality control or for researching competitors products. ââ€" ª Positioning research how does the target market see the brand relative to competitors? What does the brand stand for? ââ€" ª Price elasticity testing to determine how sensitive customers are to price changes ââ€" ª Sales forecasting to determine the expected level of sales given the level of demand. With respect to other factors like Advertising expenditure, sales promotion etc. ââ€" ª Segmentation research to determine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics of potential buyers ââ€" ª Online panel a group of individual who accepted to respond to marketing research online ââ€" ª Store audit to measure the sales of a product or product line at a statistically selected store sample in order to determine market share, or to determine whether a retail store provides adequate service ââ€" ª Test marketing a small-scale product launch used to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced into a wider market ââ€" ª Viral Marketing Research refers to marketing research designed to estimate the probability that specific communications will be transmitted throughout an individual’s Social Network. Estimates of Social Networking Potential (SNP) are combined with estimates of selling effectiveness to estimate ROI on specific combinations of messages and media. 4. Design research instruments: A basic type of a research instrument is a questionnaire. A good market research questionnaire should be kept simple, beginning with general questions and moving towards more specific questions. 5. Collect data: Collection of data is an important activity and should be done by experienced researchers. In most cases untrained researchers may be biased towards interviewers. Common data collection methods include computer assisted telephone interviewing, mail surveys, internet surveys and the like. 6. Organize and analyze data: Analysis of data includes the editing, coding and tabulation of the responses. This is normally done with the help of office suite tools or specific research analysis programs. 7. Presentation and reporting if findings: Once the information has been analyzed, it should be presented in an organized manner to the business decision makers especially in the sales and marketing departments. All of these forms of marketing research can be classified as either problem-identification research or as problem-solving research. A company collects primary research by gathering original data. Secondary research is conducted on data published previously and usually by someone else. Secondary research costs far less than primary research, but seldom comes in a form that exactly meets the needs of the researcher. A similar distinction exists between exploratory research and conclusive research. Exploratory research provides insights into and comprehension of an issue or situation. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution. Conclusive research draws conclusions: the results of the study can be generalized to the whole population. Exploratory research is conducted to explore a problem to get some basic idea about the solution at the preliminary stages of research. It may serve as the input to conclusive research. Exploratory research information is collected by focus group interviews, reviewing literature or books, discussing with experts, etc. This is unstructured and qualitative in nature. If a secondary source of data is unable to serve the purpose, a convenience sample of small size can be collected. Conclusive research is conducted to draw some conclusion about the problem. It is essentially, structured and quantitative research, and the output of this research is the input to management information systems (MIS). REFERENCES: (2008). Retrieved 2008, from Wikipedia: www.wikipedia.com/market research Etzel/Walker/stanton. (2007). Marketing (14th ed.). New York: Mcgraw-Hill Irwin. Kress, G. (1988). Mraketing research . New Jersey: Preita hall. McNeil, R. (1998). Business to business market research. London: kogan page ltd. Research Papers on How to Conduct Market ResearchAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaResearch Process Part OneInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Project Managment Office SystemOpen Architechture a white paperIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfDefinition of Export QuotasMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New Employees

The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom Research Paper

The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom - Research Paper Example The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom, with the assistance of Elizabeth and John Sherrill is a story of fear, faith, and miracles set within the truthful remembrance of World War II. In Haarlem, Holland, the ten Boom family is put into the position of occupation by the Germans in which they see the tragedy of their Jewish friends herded onto trucks and feel the need to act. Their father sets up a hidden room in their house in which they can help those who come to them to hide from being taken. Several emotional levels of experience are explored within the novel. The fear of being taken, the reaction to adjusting to terrifying living circumstances, and the fear that is ultimately a part of their lives after incarceration is explored through the events that take place. The faith of Corrie ten Boom that would go on to inspire others after her release is explored as she goes through horrific events and survives. As well, she tells the story of a series of miracles that helped her to live, despite the horrors that she witnessed. The story of Corrie ten Boom is defined by the belief in God that inspires her father to act in support of the Jewish members of his community that were in trouble and continues after they are captured and she experiences both loss and hope through the events that she attributes to miracles from God. The story begins in 1937 with the event of a celebration. Corrie is forty-five at the time, she and her sister having never married and living at home with their father who is a watchmaker. Corrie spends a good deal of time discussing her childhood and all the ways in which it summed up to her adult existence. Holland falls to the German invasion and her father, herself and her sister must make the choice as to whether or not to act in tandem with the resistance, or to ignore the plight of their fellow countrymen. They choose to act by hiding Jewish member of the community in a room that could be hidden. Eventually they are betrayed and incarcera ted, their father, who is in his eighties, dying within ten days of having been arrested. Corrie is ill when she is arrested and is put into solitary for an unknown period of time which might have been a month or more, isolated except for the hand that gives her food everyday. She finds ways to hold onto her faith, something coming to her aide whenever she felt that she could not withstand her circumstances for any longer. She writes in regard to the ‘company’ that she found â€Å"And I was not alone much longer: into my solitary cell came a small, busy black ant† (Ten Boom, Sherrill, & Sherrill, 2009, p. 165). The ant symbolizes provision, the creature a survivor through its ability to provide for its colony, just as Corrie finds in her faith a way to provide for her survival. Corrie and Betsie, her sister, are eventually reunited as they are sent to Vught Prison and the two are eventually sent to Ravensbruck. Ravensbruck was a concentration camp which was housi ng anywhere from 45,000 to 60,000 female prisoners in 1944 who were mostly political prisoners who had defied the Nazis during World War II (Albert-Lake & Litoff, 2006, p. xxi). In these walls, Corrie and Betsy faced horrors of the concentration camps, Betsie finally dying from her weakened condition from heart problems that had always plagued her. Corrie records many small miracles that helped her to survive during incarceration. There was a small vitamin bottle that was sneaked in to help to keep Betsy strong and the bottle never seemed to run out of pills. They had obtained a copy of the gospels, and while religious material was routinely confiscated, theirs was never taken

Argumentative paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argumentative - Research Paper Example Carefully chosen elements not only help the author create the ambiance needed to pacify the audience, but are also necessary for giving the events and happenings that form part of the story, the meaning that is consistent with the theme of the novel. Every description of the winter season in Narnia has a special purpose of giving meaning to the scenes of the story in addition to the ordinary purpose of telling which weather the various incidents in the story happened in. The eternal winter season which the Witch uses to blanket Narnia is the symbol of a time that is dead and stagnant and has lost the ability to move on. Nothing in the world of Narnia grows while the season remains. Animals sleep through winter. People duck around fires instead of moving out of their homes. There is no element of joy whatsoever in the world that is under the influence of the magic cast by the Witch. Almost every human being who lives in the world of Narnia cultivates a primitive abhorrence for the win ter season even in moths when it is normal for winter to be. Through this, the author has tried to make the audience realize that although winter seems the most pleasant and beautiful of all the seasons of a year particularly when it is accompanied with snowfall, yet if this season ever attained eternity, it would become intolerable for all mankind.

Introduction To The Activity Based Costing Accounting Essay

Introduction To The Activity Based Costing Accounting Essay Traditional managerial accounting is at best useless, and at worst dysfunctional and misleading. (Shank, 1994) The Relevance Lost: The rise and fall of Management Accounting published by Theodore Johnson and Robert Kaplan in 1987 marked as the revolutionary criticism of the traditional costing system. Traditional Costing System was developed in early 20s when companies were almost 99% labour intensive (Kidd, 1994), no automation (Jan Emblemsvag, 2008) and production processes were austere. Significant changes in most manufacturers product market and production technology demand more accurate cost allocations (Krumwiede and Roth 1997) and focusing more on labour productivity may not be the best solution for the present day manufacturing and service organizations (Gunasekaran et al, 1999). It was hailed as the beginning of change for the better in the world of accounting (Sharman, 2003). In the notoriety book, their disparagement was centred on the passà © cost allocation technique that distorts production cost for decision-making purposes. Instead of providing solutions to management, traditional costing system had failed in predictable ways (Daly, 2010). Activity Based Costing In 1988, Cooper and Kaplan disseminated the Activity Based Costing (ABC) system to overcome hindrances and the peanut-butter spreading cost allocation of traditional costing system. Gunasekaran and Sarhadi (1996) (Vol 1_1_4) found that the development and endorsement of ABC had been stimulated and largely persuaded by Cooper and Kaplan especially in the manufacturing sector. It is arduous to find an academic or practitioner journal that does not talk about ABC in the accounting world and it soon it began to widely spread to the non-manufacturing sector. It was perceived to be the solution to the management accounting needs of organizations (Sharman, 2003). It was also said that Activity-Based Costing is clearly the most significant managerial accounting development (Harrison Sullivan, 1996). In fact some have portrayed it as cure-all for all kinds of problems (Doost, 1997). Since then ABC plays a significant role as a management tools and gained its popularity to the academicians, practitioners and industries. ABC was initially designed by George Staubus in the United States during the 80s. ABC was promoted as a system that would reduce the level of arbitrary cost allocations associated with traditional costing systems and result in more accurate product costs (Baird et al, 2004). Many authors often depicted ABC to one simple and powerful word which is accurate (Cooper and Kaplan 1988; Dugdale, 1990; Innes and Mitchell 1991; Morrow, 1992; Bhimani and Piggott, 1992; Turney 1996; Krumwiede and Roth 1997). Accuracy in product costing is vital particularly in making decision and also in alleviating organization in cost reduction and profitability purposes. Inaccuracies created by improper allocation of costs can lead disastrous pricing, product profitability and customer profitability management decisions (Hardy et al, 2002). (Working paper series 2004) The core of ABC is the activity concept (Turney 1991). According to Turney (1996), ABC is a process which assigns costs to product according to the activities and resources consumed or generally a method of allocating indirect costs to cost objects. Cost drivers and cost activities are the terms synonymous to ABC. ABC enhances cost allocation by using smaller cost pools called activities (Wegmann, 2010) and costs are then traced to these activities by keys called cost drivers (Cooper, 1990). Gunasekaran et al (1999) stated that the ultimate goal of ABC as a cost allocation system is to trace the production costs generated by the production of a good or service, as accurate as desired, to the causing activities. ABC is not only basis for computing accurate product costing, but it plays a vital role in management in managing costs. The 1980s is seen as the advent and widespread use of management philosophies such as Just-in-Time (JIT), Balanced Scorecard, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Theory of Constraint (TOC). Huczynski (1993) described it as the age of the management guru. The appetite for new forms of managing is strong and ABC is quickly recruited to feed it and soon after, ABC evolved from a cost allocation method to a management philosophy (Jones and Dugdale, 2002). Two reputable systems which was derived from ABC philosophy was Activity-Based Management (ABM) and Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) (Cooper and Kaplan, 1998). Second Phase of ABC: Activity-Based Management Johnson (1988) argued that companies should manage activities alongside with the costs based on the relying principle of activities consume resources and products consume activities and this was supported by Ostrenga (1990). As discussed, ABC system was initially presented as new way to establish more accurate product costs compared to the traditional costing system. However, ABC soon began to enter its second phase, in which it became known as Activity-Based Management (ABM). The second phase of ABC is perceived to be the rational development of ABC, in which it focuses on the management of indirect activities, at various levels beyond direct productions and activities where it still continues to draw its back on the existing ABC. This development is regarded as an improvement to the value received by customer and the profit achieved. Johnson (1988) still maintained and applies the existing ABC rules where the activity-based information would focus managers attention on underlying cost drivers and profit unlike the distorted cost provided by traditional costing system. This influenced Turney (1992) where he voiced a similar opinion and suggested that ABM system seek two goals, which are common to organizations which can be reached by focusing on managing activities. The first is to improve the value received by customers and the second is to improve profits by providing this value. Activity-Based Budgeting In todays arduous economic environment with the growing inflation rates, shrinking sales volumes and rocketing business expenses, the Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) system could be a safeguard in stabilizing and strengthening an organizations operation (Pockevi iÃ…Â «tÄ-, 2008). Countries worldwide then began to practice and implement such strategy into their organizations. ABB is developed based on the management philosophy of activity-based costing (ABC), which is considered to be similar to zero-based budgeting (Shane, 2005) and it measures how members of an organization allocate their effort among activities performed and effortless to design. Pockevi iÃ…Â «tÄ- (2008) conducted a study and tested ABB on the agricultural sector in Lithuania. With an ABB system in place, major constraints can be identified while maintaining the future operations of the organizations. It can measure the efficiency within an organization process with a clear picture and understanding by linking all the individual budgets and the department in the organization. ABB is also known for its exposure of non value costs where waste can then be eliminated to reduce cost. ABCs pitfall and Time-Driven ABC: A new ABC development? Despite much attention on the ABC model since the appearance in the 1980s, interest gradually decreased during the 90s (Gosselin, 2006). ABC slowly began to experience its pitfall. As the global competition increases, the need of efficient and effective tools to fit business strategy are greatly in demand and ABC gradually went into the accounting worlds slump. Gosselin (2006) argued that ABC failed to succeed in practical use in todays management practices; this was also supported by few authors such as ÃÆ'-ker and Adigà ¼zel (2010) and Velmurugan (2010). Gosselin (1997) began to argue that a so-called ABC-paradox existed. Despite the various articles published in journals, books, and its involvement in the academic world and also being endorsed by consulting companies, it is quite ironic of how implementation of ABC is still relatively low. Innes and Mitchell was the first few to conduct surveys on the implementation of ABC in companies in 1995, their studies showed that only 21% adopted ABC in the UK. Bjornenak (1997) followed their footstep by conducting surveys in Norway and found that 40% implemented ABC in their companies whereas in the other part of the world such as the Australia, Ireland, the US, Dutch and Italy reportedly to have 12.5%, 11.8%, 17.7%, 12%, 10% respectively (Nguyen and Brooks, 1997; Clark et al, 1999; Groot, 1999; Cinquini et al, 1999). Many large companies, which tried to implement ABC in the 90s, abandoned it due to change in competitive circumstances and the birth of new and develop management tools. Many of those who argued that ABC, although effective in allocating cost, it does not necessarily contribute to the overall effective of business decisions (Fladkjà ¦r and Jensen, 2011). The information provided by ABC may be extraneous and not as accurate as most users believe. ABC is also regarded as not necessary for most companies systems (Fladkjà ¦r and Jensen, 2011). Kaplan and Anderson (2007) brought up the case of Hendee Enterprises which is a Houston-based manufacturer of awnings where they argued that the ABC software took three days to calculate costs for the companys 150 activities, 10,000 orders and 45,000 line items (Wegmann, 2010). In 2003, Kaplan started to redesign the ABC system when many argued that it is too complex and time intensive to implement. This has led to the much anticipated new approach of ABC, the Time-Driven ABC (TD-ABC). He claims that the new ABC development, TD-ABC, reveals excess capacity, processes faster, able to provide high accuracy and can be well supplied from existing IT-systems, such as ERP (Kaplan and Anderson, 2007). Kaplan (2007) went again to argue that TD-ABC skips the activity-definition stage and hence the allocation of costs to multiple performed activities. They also argued that TD-ABC is a simplified version of the current ABC system at that time (Everaert Bruggeman, 2007; Everaert et al, 2008; Kaplan Anderson, 2004; Max, 2007; ÃÆ'-ker Adigà ¼zel, 2010). This was also supported by Demeere et al (2009) and Wegmann (2010) where TD-ABC is hail to be an improved activity-based costing system compared to its previous development. TD-ABC differs from the existing ABC system where the time estimates require to calculate driver rates can be obtained by direct observation or by surveying managers (Kaplan and Anderson, 2010). This saves time and is able to reduce the cost of implementation and updating the system. He further argued that managers are considered the more reliable source concerning accuracy of information on time consumption and activities compared to existing ABC system where information are derived from employees who tend to be bias. Consequently, with TD-ABC, managers are able to generate accurate information and encounter fewer blunders. Impact of the new ideas on both companies and consultant Soon after its establishment, TD-ABC began to receive a growing interest among academicians and a growing number from 9 to 67 in the period of 2003 to 2009. This was presented by Google Scholar and since then TD-ABC has shown a positive trend in the online world (Alsamawi, 2010). Demeree et al (2009) also began to notice the story behind TD-ABC and tested TD-ABC at an outpatient clinic. For instance, Demeree et al. (2009) implemented TD-ABC at an outpatient clinic. They have gathered data through direct observations and interviews with department heads and outpatient clinic managers. To register different time consumptions for relevant activities a stopwatch was utilized. This process was repeated 3 months later to ensure that consistent results were obtained. This data gathering method was recorded as a success. Other authors point out that TD-ABC brings conceptual shortcomings connected to the use of time estimates (Cardinaels Labro, 2007). Gosselin (2007, p.649) concluded that TD-ABC is the most recent development in the field of activity-based costing methods, but does not solve the conceptual problems inherent to ABC. Conclusion