IT - Radio Frequency Identification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

IT - Radio Frequency Identification - Essay Example This arises because of the simple reason that an wireless monitoring system is capable of checking the work that a person does or claims to have done in addition to even the personal chores that one might attend to. It is like any other personal monitoring system, like say a video-graphy station in a parking lot. There will of course, be occasions when the monitoring station infringes in to the privacy of the individual. The user of such devices has to exhibit caution and responsibility in addition to technical prowess. RFID comes under two basic technological models. One, we call the passive RFID tag and the other an active RFID tag. While the passive RFID tag has a pretty long life with no supporting batteries inside the tag, the active RFID tag has a battery inside it which makes the life of the tag relatively lesser though the power consumption of such tags are very small1. The corollary of such a limited life is that, the RFID tags cannot be embedded permanently inside any object or an animal body including man. If it has to be done, then it has to be a passive tag. The passive tags have another major limitation being that they cannot be read from a distance that is greater than two feet effectively. There are passive tags that are supposed to read even from greater distances but are not found effective. Technologically this limitation arises because of the fact that the RFID tag uses the induction technology of the radio frequency waves. There is always an RFID reader that is placed at strategic points. These readers emanate radiations all around and get triggered once it senses a response. These readers are generally directed and emit radiations only in one direction. In case of a passive tag, the waves sent out by the reader induces a current in the tag itself. This powers the operation of the tag and it passes to the reader a specific number or identification that forms the basis of communication between the two. However, in case of an active tag, the active tag receives the signal and is able to boost it and send it back to the reader. Since this has an internal source of power, the active tags can respond to even very feeble signals from the readers. This is the reason why while passive tags can be read out of a distance of one and half feet to two feet, that of the active tag is much more. And as we have seen earlier, the same reason also has a disadvantage that of life time limitation. RFID provides its users the facility of storage, retrieval, erase and rewriting of the data in the RFID tags from the remote reader. This makes the RFID immensely powerful and enables it to have details like the entire patient history in case of hospitals, payment histories in case of customers / vendors and production data in case you need to monitor the work in progress. Remote reading and writing of data into the RFID tags also make it the right kind of tool to monitor animals in a farm and assets or library books that are issued and returned or routed to some body else. All these are massive advantages for industries. However, these can also be misused by having and storing data that goes into the

HR Analytics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

HR Analytics - Essay Example Analytics mainly focus on the trend with respect to performance, results, behaviour, growth and development, which further draws management’s attention to specific areas unlike reporting tools that only focus or gather historic data and performance. Contemporary businesses and management lay strong emphasis on measurement of all aspects related to the business and management. Lundgaard (2009) emphasizes the significance of HR analytics in enabling the establishment of HR as a strategic organisational function and credits this to the high competition in business environment which is further pressurizing achievement of greater performance, productivity and profits for business/organisational sustenance. For this, firstly HR initiatives must be made quantifiable through appropriate measures. Lundgaard (2009) suggests a six-domain framework that identifies six key areas for HR: staffing, training/development, appraisal, rewards, organisational governance, and communication. Obtain ing HR analytics based on these six core areas makes measuring HR function feasible. Application of this framework to HR initiatives still depends upon the measurability of these areas, for which Hunter et al (2005) have suggested the Balanced Score Card (BSC) system. First proposed by Kaplan and Norton, this framework allows linking strategy to value creating processes. As stated by Kaplan and Norton (1996; p.2), ‘the BSC translates an organisation’s mission and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures that provides the framework for a strategic measurement and management system.’ The BSC measures organisational performance across four balanced perspectives: financial, customers, internal business processes, and learning and growth. It helps in capturing the critical value-creation activities of skilled and motivated employees. All activities that an organisation needs to perform in order to achieve its goal can be categorized according to these perspectives, which include categorization of all initiatives by the HR department into these four core areas. The BSC helps in assessing the total business value derived from particular department. To assess the total business value of HR initiatives, they must be made or converted to measurable objectives (Hatry, 2006). For measurement, Lawler and Boudreau (2009) advocate the use of efficiency, effectiveness and impact for measuring HR programmes, where efficiency refers to resources used by HR programmes such as cost-per-hire; effectiveness refers to changes produced by HR programmes such as learning from training; and impact refers to business or strategic value created by the programme such as higher sales from better-trained product developers or sales people (p.61). All three, efficiency, effectiveness and impact are equally important to assess the actual weight of any activity/programme. For instance, measuring the monthly/daily sales without measuring customer satisfaction will be of no use for the business in long run. Similarly, paying out more incentives to staff for over performance without assessing employee satisfaction may or may not yield any improvement in employee satisfaction. Efficiency and effectiveness of HR initiatives can be measured by assigning specific measurable objectives to each initiative. Paladino (2007) emphasized Managing by Objectives (MBO) as an effective tool to enhance organisational efficiency at

Energy Essay Essay Example for Free

Energy Essay Essay However out of this whole trouble taken from these processes only 30%-35% of the potential energy stored is actually transformed to electricity. And if we sum up the advantages and disadvantages, we see the following: Advantage: Disadvantage: Produces a lot of energy Expensive to build Does not pollute the environment Expensive to maintain 2. Fossil Fuels: Fossil fuels are a type of power that has also caused a lot of controversy, because of the negative effects they have on the environment (e. g. global warming and green-house effect). Fossil fuel actually comes from the remains of Dead Sea animals that died millions of years ago. And actually what happened to them, is that their bones were crushed with each other and pressured by several of the earth piling on top of them until they finally formed fossil fuel but also the heat of the earths core, played a vital factor. The basic energy transformation that takes place in fossil fuel is that the potential energy stored, breaks down through to give heat energy, and that heat energy is transferred to kinetic energy, which drives a steam turbine that will generate electricity. The two very known fossil fuels are coal and oil. However out of this energy transformation process, only 40-45% of the potential energy stored is actually transferred to electricity. And if sum up the advantages and disadvantages, we see the following: Advantage: Disadvantage: Cheap to produce Not good for environment Is not hazardous to peoples health We are running out of them After discussing the non-renewable sources, I am now going to talk about the renewable sources, and to be exact I am going to talk about the following 3 sources: 1. Hydroelectric power: The main energy transformation that takes place in hydroelectric power is that the kinetic energy of the waves, forces generators, which function like a pendulum, swing to vibrate and once they vibrate, they generate electric energy. Out of this small process, the efficiency is only 35% out of the whole energy conversion. But this also however will depend on the wave velocity, because if it is greater, then more kinetic energy will be supplied, if we sum up the advantages and disadvantages, we see the following: Advantage: Disadvantage: Cheap to maintain Expensive to build Delivers a lot of energy. Changes the ecology of the area 2. Solar Power: We can use the power of sun in 2 ways. The first way is by using the sunlight itself into making electrical energy; this is done by the help of photovoltaic cells. And basically what happens is that the sunlight hits the cells which convert these light signals into electrical signals. The second type is done by using the heat of the sun to heat the water which can be used to heat up houses directly or to drive steam turbines which will generate electricity. Also one thing that must be taken into account, in this whole solar power issue. And that thing is the solar constant. The solar constant is the power collected at the top of the atmosphere by a unit area. But basically this can be summed up by saying that it describes the solar radiation, that falls on an area above the atmosphere at a certain angle. This constant, isnt much of a constant because it actually varies on earth with the time of day and year, as well as with the latitude and weather. The maximum values vary between 0. 8 and 1. 0 KW/m2. As for the efficiency of solar power, well it is disappointing to know that it is only 30% of the suns energy is actually transferred to electricity. And if we sum up the advantages and disadvantages, we see the following: Advantage: Disadvantage: Renewable The photovoltaic cells are very fragile Can supply the whole world on its own Useless if used in a place where there is no sun 3. Wind power: A wind generator works by having the blades rotated by the wind, which causes a dynamo (which is like a generator) to spin and then electric energy is produced. The power delivered by a wind generator, varies on the area with the rotor length being the diameter. This is given by the following formula: P=Ek/t And the efficiency of this wind generator is only 25% which is quiet poor really. And of we sum up the advantages and disadvantages, we see the following: Advantage: Disadvantage: Provides all the energy the world needs Expensive to maintain Renewable Rotor blades are extremely fragile After summarising, both renewable and non-renewable sources, it is time for me to chose the best type of energy resources to use for our homes. The energy resources I suggest are more than 1. First of all the energy resources should be renewable, so that we dont have to worry about the environment and peoples health (unlike fossil fuels and nuclear power). The second thing is that this renewable source, should not affect our environment or ecology (which means hydropower is dropped out! ). Also the energy resource should be efficient, so that we can meet our basic demands for energy, (which means that wind energy also drops out! ). After mentioning these three requirements (which seem essential in my own personal view), it is quiet obvious that the only energy source that I am talking about is Solar!. But however to improve this even more, would be if we insulate our homes well and do not waste our energy for no apparent reason(e. g.like leaving the lights of a room turned on, when no one is in the room. And also buying energy saving equipment). Because like I said at the beginning of this essay, without light we will become extinct. And we all know that we dont want to become extinct, so lets do something about it and try and save our planet. 1 U= Uranium N=Neutron X+Y= Elements Z= Number of Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our  GCSE Electricity and Magnetism  section. Download this essay Print Save Not the one?

Structuring Supply Chains Based On Product Segmentation Commerce Essay

Structuring Supply Chains Based On Product Segmentation Commerce Essay The world has just gone through one of the worse crisis since the Second World War. In order to reduce the negative impact, companies have tried to reduce cost by any ways, by freezing all expansion, by reducing the number of employees, by launching quick wins project in order to free-up cashà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦to summarize nothing sustainable. In order to catch a sustainable growth that will reduce the impact of any future crisis, to obtain a competitive advantage, companies need to design an optimized supply chain. This optimization will lead to a supply chain that are no more a cost but an competitive advantage, a supply chain that brings value, a supply chain that become strategic. The time and the cash spend to source; to produce and to distribute product and services are so huge that companies cant afford to ignore it. When designing its supply chain, companies need to keep in mind that ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL, meaning that one supply chain configuration cant fulfil each customers requirements. Indeed, each customer has different needs which cant be fulfil in the same way. One customer may seek for a company able to provide reactive supplies, while another company is seeking for minimum purchasing costà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Providing different product/service implies having different supply chain configuration. The objective then is to provide different global services which go far beyond the product itself. Nowadays, companies cant provide a product only. They need to provide a global service meaning that they have to provide quality service which goes with the product. The level of quality that needs to be reached is then determined by the customers requirement and willingness to pay a certain price. Customers may want seek for a good quality/price product, some other may want to have a extremely high quality and innovative product, some other are looking to receive the product at their place the next day they purchased it,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ And in order to be able to provide this global service that includes the product, companies need to design their supply chain accordingly. This thesis is focusing on understanding the different choice that a company can make when designing its tailored supply chain. Each product is designed differently, and each product (or service) is meant to be for one specific customer. The time when Ford was making one single car for everyone is over. We will focus on how to design its supply chain based on product segmentation. We will first identify the different type of supply chain configuration a company can choose based on its corporate strategy. We will then try to define the meaning of the segmentation and what are the main criteria to perform it. This will lead us to identify the different models that currently exist, models that will help companies to segment, categorize and design tailored supply chains. Then we will try to apply the models on a real case and try to redesign the company supply chains going from an AS IS statement to a TO BE ideal situation. Product Segmentation and Supply Chain Segmentation Segmentation Definition Segmentation can be defined as: Process of defining and sub-dividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. [http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market-segmentation.html]. The main purpose of segmentation is to help to decide what configuration of the business is the most suitable for what customer. The concept of one size does not fit all has for meaning that each customer has a different need and this need cannot be fulfilled in the same way the other customers need are fulfilled. In supply chain the purpose of segmentation is to configure the processes in a way that will lead to a competitive advantage and then to profit. However, we cannot fulfill in a different way each single customer as this will increase the cost so much that the company wont survive. Thus, it is important to build groups that have similar needs and provide one single service for this group. Different type of Supply Chain Functional Product VS Innovative Product The idea of categorizing product in order to identify the most suitable supply chain is not new. In 1997, Fisher introduced a new concept in order to better serve the customers. Fisher said that the first step in devising an effective supply chain strategy is therefore to consider the nature of the demand for the product ones company supplies, [Fisher]. He identified several factors that will influence the design of the most suitable Supply Chain, factors such as Product life cycle, demand predictability, Product variety and market standards for lead times and services. Thus, he started by categorizing product based on theirs characteristics. He identified two types of products: Functional Product and Innovative Product. The main difference of these two types of product influence the type of supply chain needed to optimize the supply of these products. Fisher defines Functional Products are products with long life cycles and with low demand uncertainty. Conversely, innovative product s are products having a short life cycle with high demand uncertainty. Fisher went event further as you can see on the Table 1 below in the distinction between Functional and Innovative Products: Figure 2: Matching supply chains with product characteristics (Source: Fisher, 1997) Hau L. Lee also developed Fishers idea on the distinction between Innovative and Functional Products as you can see on the table below: Table 1: Demand Characteristics  [1]   The impact of this distinction on the Supply Chain type is tremendous. The choose to develop a Lean Supply Chain or an Agile Supply Chain is easier thanks to this new distinction as we will see on the next part. Lean, Agile, Leagile Supply Chain Based on the functional and innovative products concept, we are now able to introduce different supply chain strategy. Each companies objectives are different, thus when designing its supply chain, the aim of this new organization will be different. We are introducing here different strategy when designing its supply chain: The Lean Supply Chain aims to reduce the waste and thus the cost while providing high quality products/services. The Agile supply chains objective is the flexibility to fulfill the customer demand while this ones predictability can be very low. The Leagile strategy is a hybrid solution, combining the Lean and Agile strategy in one. The first time we heard about Lean Manufacturing was in 1988 by John Krafcik in a article he wrote in the Sloan Management Review: Triumph of the Lean Production System  [2]  when he was describing the Japanese production model which is essentially the elimination of waste. Naylor et al provided with a interesting definition: Leanness means developing a value stream to eliminate all waste including time, and to enable a level schedule [Naylor et al.]. Since then, the concept becomes much broader. Indeed, Christopher and Towill highlighted the fact that the Lean Supply Chain works better with a stable demand and where variety is low  [3]  : which correspond to the functional products. From this statement we can already start to have a clearer view on what supply chain for what products; thus, functional products need Lean Supply Chain. The lean supply chain will focus on cost reduction for standardized mass-products [Volker Stich, Jan Christoph Meyer]  [4]  . The origin of agile concept lie partially in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) [M. Chritopher, D. Towill]. The Agile Supply Chain allows using a highly flexible supply chain in order to better serve the customer. As for the Lean definition, Naylor et al. introduce a definition for agility concept: Agility means using market knowledge and a virtual corporation to exploit profitable opportunities in a volatile marketplace [Naylor et al.]. With an Agile Supply Chain it is much more efficient and effective for product with high volatility in the demand and high variety which correspond to the innovative products. In the table below, Chritopher and Towill went even further in the difference between a Lean and an Agile Supply Chain: Table 3: Comparison of Lean Supply with Agile Supply: The distinguishing Attributes  [5]   Distinguishing Attributes Lean Supply Agile Supply Typical Products Commodities/Functional Fashion Goods/Innovative Marketplace Demand Predictable Volatile Product Variety Low High Product Life Cycle Long Short Customer Drivers Cost Availability Profit Margin Low High Dominant Costs Physical Costs* Marketability Costs** Stockout Penalties Long Term Contractual Immediate and Volatile Purchasing Policy Buy Materials Assign Capacity Information Enrichment Highly Desirable Obligatory Forecasting Mechanism Algorithmic Consultative *Physical Costs: All Production costs, distribution costs and storage costs **Marketability Costs: All obsolescence costs and stockout costs If only, both agile supply chain advantages and Lean Supply Chain advantages could be put together to build a perfect supply chain, it would be the best of both world. Coming from this pursuit of perfection, the concept of Leagile [Naylor et al] supply chain appeared. This concept suggests using lean supply chain for the upstream flows and the agile supply chain for the downstream flows. In practice, this strategy is using what is called The decoupling point or Postponement. This concept principle is to keep sub assembly inventory and to produce finished goods only when the order is know. Chritopher and Towill pointed out one important fact is the information de-coupling point: they argue that the furthest point upstream to which information on real demand flows i.e. information which has not been distorted by inventory policies such as re-order points and re-order quantities contributes to the Agility of a company. Figure 1: The decoupling point  [6]   Stable and Evolving Supply Chain As pointed out Volker Stich and Jan Christoph Meyer, all the approach discussed earlier are focusing on the demand side. Hau L. Lee introduced a new concept called Stable and Evolving supply processes. This concept is focusing on the supply side of the supply chain. Hau L. Lee provided a useful definition as follows: A stable supply process is one where manufacturing process and the underlying technology are mature and the supply base well established. [Hau L. Lee] An evolving supply process is where the manufacturing process and the underlying technology are still under early development and are rapidly changing, and as a result the supply base may be limited in both size and experience. [Hau L. Lee] There is more difference between stable supply processes and evolving supply processes, the figure 2 is summarizing some of these differences. The link should be made with Fishers Functional and Innovative products: Functional products tend to use a more mature and stable supply process but this is not always the true. Hau L. Lee provides several example summarized in the figure 3. Figure 2: Supply Characteristics. (Source: Hau L. Lee) Figure 3: The uncertainty Framework: Examples. (Source: Hau L. Lee) Segmentation Factors Determining the Customers Needs: Order Winner and Market Qualifier The definitions of Order Winner and Order Qualifier found in the APICS dictionary are quite interesting: Order winners are those competitive characteristics that cause a firms customers to choose that firms goods and services over those of its competitors. Order winners can be considered to be competitive advantages for the firm. Order winners usually focus on one rarely more than two) of the following strategic initiatives: price/cost, quality, delivery speed, delivery reliability, product design, flexibility, after-market service, and image. [APICS Dictionary 2008]  [7]   Order qualifiers are those competitive characteristics that a firm must exhibit to be a viable competitor in the marketplace. [APICS Dictionary 2008]  [8]   When Terry Hill invented this new concept of Order Winner and Order Qualifier, he aimed to linked operations objectives with Marketings one. The operations people were then in charge of managing the supply chain in a way that the company will obtain a competitive advantage and win the market. As you can see on the APICS definition, several strategic initiatives have been identified: price/cost, quality, delivery speed, delivery reliability, product design, flexibility, after-market service, and image. Based on that, R. Mason-Jones et al. combined the Fisher concept with Hill concept as you can see on the figure 2. The key information is that companies need to excel and focus on the Market Winners factors while being highly competitive on the Market Qualifiers. The figure 3 shows that the company is focusing on Cost and obtained a competitive advantage on the price. The important point is that this company is not neglected the others key competitive factors and its performance is always above the critical minimum performance which if it would have been below, it would have eliminated the benefice acquired from the competitive advantage. Figure 2: An example of using the classification matrix based on market winners and market qualifiers [Source: R. Mason-Jones et al.] Figure 3: The performance matrix [Source: Nabil Montassir] Another concept that needs to be took into account is the difference with Importance and Performance BLABLABLABLABLABLA Corporate Strategy (Operation Excellence, Customer Intimacy, Innovation Excellence) When designing a new Supply Chain or even redesigning an existing one, it is important to be consistent with the corporate strategy. The supply chain needs to be aligned with the overall company strategy. We can summarize nowadays strategies by three main one: Operation Excellence, Customer Intimacy and Innovation Excellence. The operation excellence meant to provide the best quality/price ratio. The objective is to decrease the cost in order to sell it at the most competitive price without reducing the quality. The market winner is definitely the price. This strategy is likely to suit a Lean Supply Chain which aims to reduce the waste and therefore the cost. The Customer intimacy is focusing on providing the highest service level to its customers. Agility, flexibility, reactivity are suitable adjective to describe the aim of this strategy. The price is no more the market winner but the Service level is. Agile and Leagile Supply Chain is likely to be the best strategy to compete on this market. Innovation Excellence as the name indicates has to be at the cutting edge of innovation. The company wants to provide always the most advance product. The cost is higher than the other product and the company aim to touch the Early Adopters who are willing to pay a higher price to get an advanced product, thus the market winner is Innovation. The forecast for these kinds of products are difficult and the stockout as well as the obsolescence can be very high. Therefore it requires a rapid time-to-market if the product knows a rapid growth. Supply Chain Key Classification Variables From the table 2, A. Lovell, R. Saw and J. Stimson identified key cost drivers of the supply chain. They conclude that all costs apart from manufacturing there is a small set of drivers: throughput level and variability; product size and weight; value and the demand variability/service factor [A. Lovell, R. Saw and J. Stimson]. They even go further by reducing this number to three by combining the value with size and weight to form product value density [A. Lovell, R. Saw and J. Stimson]. Using these three key cost drivers, supply chain segmentation can be done. Each group of products resulting from this segmentation will share common characteristics. Table 2: Principal Cost Drivers in the Supply Chain [Source: A. Lovell, R. Saw and J. Stimson] In the same spirits, J. Aitken, P. Childerhouse, M. Christopher and D. Towill identidfied five key market characteristics that will be use to design Supply Chains. They use the term DWV [Christopher and Towill (2005)]: Duration of life cycle, Time Window for delivery, Volume, Variety and Variability  [9]  . They argue that for Short life cycles products, the end-to-end supply chain lead time needs to be reduced and optimized which will allows a higher flexibility and a faster time-to-market. Volume and Variability are similar to Lovell et al throughput level and demand variability. However, variety has been taken into account in Lovell concept: Higher the variety is lower the average demand by SKUs will be as the demand will be spread across a greater number of SKUs. It will require a higher flexibility to produce the right product at the right moment. A postponement strategy is well adapted to this kind of environment. Before going further, the table below summarized the key factors that will influence supply chain segmentation: Table 2: Factors influencing Supply Chain Segmentation [Source: A. Lovell, R. Saw and J. Stimson] Segmentation Methods and Model: Choose your supply chain strategy From the previous part on the segmentation factors, we have found different criteria: From these different criteria, many people developed different model and matrix to help them in segmenting the supply chain. In this part we will introduce those models, try to explain their advantage and disadvantages. At the end, we will choose the one we think the most complete and use it during the practical part of this thesis. Many of the models we will introduce use the same concept Volkers 4 folds model: The criteria used by Volker are the Demand predictability and the customer needs. The demand is either easy to predict or non-predictable. The customers require low cost or high flexibility. From this matrix, we can obtain 4 different type of Supply Chain: the Accurate SC, the Agile SC, The Cost-Efficient SC and the Responsive SC. The cost-efficiency represent to the Lean Supply Chain we introduced before. A predictable demand which allows high planning accuracy and therefore enables the most efficient design of the involved processes [Volker] combines with the cost as the order WINNER in clearly indicates that a Lean SC (or Cost-efficient SC) as the best fit. At the opposite, when the demand is non-predictable and the order WINNER is the service level (through the high flexibility) the most suitable Supply Chain will be the agile one. When the demand is predictable and the customer requires high flexibility, it requires the highest accuracy in the planning processes, to guarantee th e required availability and flexibility. The last part is the responsive one the Supply Chain needs to be cost effective while the demand is unpredictable which suggest that a Leagile Supply Chain is the most suitable one. Figure 5: Supply Chain segments and Supply Chain phenotypes [Volker] Advantage: The main advantage is its simplicity, easy to understand and to use. It includes the customers needs. Disadvantages: From the table Factors influencing Supply Chain Segmentation, we can see that this model is using only Markets criteria. It doesnt include any product criteria or source criteria. The throughput level is also missing which makes difficult to determine the importance of the product and the manufacturing strategy that we will use. Therefore, this model is missing key decision factors. This model is limited to the strategy level and doesnt go on the operational level which makes difficult to configure the supply chain. Hau L. Lees model: Same type as the Volkers model, Lees model is using one same criterion: the demand predictability (or the demand certainty). The other criterion is the Supply Uncertainty. The segmentation possibilities: Efficient, Risk-hedging, responsive and agile corresponds at the same concept we introduced before. Advantage: Simple and take into account the supply side. Disadvantage: As for Volkers model, it doesnt include any product factors. And it doesnt include the throughput level. This model is limited to the strategy level and doesnt go on the operational level which makes difficult to configure the supply chain. RELs 9Box: This model use two factors: the Throughput level (in value) and the demand variability It divides the products in three major groups and three different supply chain strategies: Green group: The characteristics of this group are a high throughput level and a low variability in the demand. Easily to forecast using statistical methods, the accuracy needs to be very high as the service level should be high. The value of those product are high so the DIO Days of Inventory Outstanding needs to be low in order to avoid to have too much cash tied up in the supply chain. This group is the major group and needs to get the full attention and the priority from the business. Orange group: As for the green group, MTS Make-to-Stock strategy will be privileged with an average or medium customer service level. The priority is given to the green group. The forecasting method used would be a statistical method or a smoothing average. The forecast accuracy needs to be high and the days of inventory target should be put on average: again the priority is given to the green group. This groups demand certainty is in overall lower than green groups and the throughput level is lower as well. Red group: This groups main characteristic is the low demand certainty that make difficult to drive the supply chain. Thus the manufacturing strategy privileged is the MTO Make-to-Order strategy. As it the fluctuation in demand is too high, the forecast become highly challenging and the accuracy target should be Medium/Low and the DIO target near none. Advantages: Much more operational than the other model we have viewed so far. It goes in a much deeper level than the other model. It is as well simple to use and easy to communicate. Disadvantages: It doesnt include product characteristics into account. It doesnt include the supply side factors and doesnt include customers needs. In addition, it gives us information on the supply chain configuration but forget to identify the supply chain strategy: Lean, Agile, Leagileà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Product Value Density Model: The main difference of this model with the others is that this one is using three segmentation factors while the other methods were using only two. Indeed, this model is using the Product Value Density, the throughput level and the demand-service factor (variability of the demand). From the table showing the supply chain cost (see chapter Supply Chain Key Classification Variables, table XXX), Lowell identified four major factors that impact cost all along the Supply Chain: the Throughput level, the product size and weight, the product value and the demand variability. These four factors become three by combining product size and weight and the product value forming the Product Value Density (PVD). This model can be representing in a three dimensional graph but for ease of comprehension only two dimensional graph will be used (see Figure XXX). Thus, we will consider: the demand variability-service and the throughput; the PVD (product value density) and the throughput; the PVD and the demand variability-service. When introducing his model, Lowell concentrates on the inventory and the transportation side of the supply chain as you can see o n the figure XXX below. Advantages: Take into account product and market factors. Disadvantages: Mainly focus on operational level and focuses on the inventory and transportation part of the supply chain. DWVs model: This model is the one I chose for the practical part. This model is more a guide than a matrix. By the letters DWV, we always take into account all the main factors when determining the supply chain design and configuration. Duration of life cycle, Time Window for delivery, Volume, Variety and Variability Variety = postponement The chosen model: The model chose for the practical part is the first one we have shown, the Volkers model. But we will change it a little so it can include the throughput level (in value) as well as the variety level. So this new model is using four different factors: The customers need, the demand Uncertainty (or variability), the throughput level and the variety level. The throughput level helps us to prioritize the resources through an ABC analysis of the value per product or family of product (ex; Do we really need to build an agile supply chain for a C class product?). It is important to understand the customer needs but business is business and if one customer is not really profitable then the importance for us decrease as much as the throughput level decrease. The variety level helps us to identify the product that may need a postponement strategy. Key Performance Indicators Before to go forward, it is important to introduce the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that we could/should/will use to keep visibility on the supply chains. KPIs are like a speedometer on a car that helps us to know at what speed we are driving. When dealing with an Agile Supply Chain, the performances that we need to keep a close eye on them are: OTIF (On Time In Full): Companies set up Agile strategy to fulfill a specific needs for their customers. They need to get a product when they want, where they want and at the right quantity. And these customers are willing to pay a higher price to get their suppliers that flexible. So any companies setting up an agile supply chain need to make sure that the OTIF performance are extremely high to not disappoint their customers. Forecast Accuracy: If our purpose is to have a Lean strategy, then the forecast accuracy needs to be high. In general, when having a lean supply chain, companies have a make-to-stock production configuration which is equivalent to a forecast-to-stock. Having a bad forecast accuracy will lead to mismatch between demand and supply. Either the company will end up having excess inventory or not lost sales. This KPIs analysis can be done for each of them. Each time we will introduce a new KPI, we will try to explain how important it is for one or another supply chain configuration. Supply Chain Design Practical Example The supply chain design consists on how to structure its supply chain. It involve the configuration of your sourcing (Source) strategy, the production (Make) strategy and the distribution (Deliver) strategy. All these strategy together represent the Supply Chain Configuration or design. Electrolux Make configuration In this part, we have to take different decision, like the production configuration MTS, MTO, ETO, Batch Size, Prioritization, Temporal Physical Postponementà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) SOURCE Strategy (Suppliers Partnerships, Suppliers Selection, Suppliers Performance Service Levelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) DELIVERY Strategy (Delivery Lead Time, Transportation Modes, Service Levelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Inventory Strategy (Safety Stock Level, Inventory Level, Inventory Location, Physical Spatial Postponement) Segmentation Model (Nine Box, Product Value-Density Model, Agile Lean Matrixà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Nous effectuerons  : Case study Ce que je pense faire, cest en effet dutiliser les matrices prà ©sentà ©s dans la deuxià ¨me partie et les appliquà ©es a cette entreprises pour restructurer sa supply chain. Les indicateurs de performances seront à ©galement intà ©grer. Ce cas doit à ªtre lillustration des choix faits en fonction de ce que vous avez trouvà © en II ( la fameuse matrice de dà ©cision) SNECMA Presentation Industry Specification SNECMA current strategy SNECMA TO-BE Supply Chain based on product Segmentation Model Case Study Conclusion

Essay --

Curating has a traditional meaning and context of collection, preservation and presentation. The word curate is derived from the Latin verb curare, to care or to cure. A curator is tasked to organize, filter, preserve, store and occasionally present art and artifacts in a gallery, museum or library. Historically, curators were not seen as creators of content, but simply as keepers of important objects. In the remix culture of creative commons, fair use and copyleft, the concept of a creator has expanded to include those who reasonably transform and present existing content as something educational, interesting, new or satirical (Cariou v. Prince, Universal City Studios v. Sony Corp., Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music). Curating is the greatest example of remixing content. While designing the presentation of objects by making strategic choices considering audience and understanding goals, a curator gathers pieces that already exist in order to provide an interesting or new perspective on a subject. A curator is creating a sensory learning experience to aid in understanding and conversation. A curator is not simply a collector and preservationist, but rather a contributor to the story and plays an important role in learning and understanding. Albert Einstein recognized the traditional concept of the collection and cultivation of established theories in science by practicing recombination of knowledge to enlighten new ideas. In a letter to colleague Jacques S. Hadamard in 1945, Einstein wrote: The desire to arrive finally at logically connected concepts is the emotional basis of this rather vague play†¦ taken from a psychological viewpoint, this combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought ¬Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬â€ before there is... ...logy supports the notion that understanding involves creating links in the mind and that making sense of something depends on these links. Isolated pieces of information do not have links to existing mental frameworks and so are not easily retained. The identification and creation of links to existing frameworks depends on the active participation of the learner and on the familiarity of the context of the material to be learned. (James) Rearranging the objects through significance and meaning and creating tags, that can be arranged themselves to tell a story, which begins to emerge almost naturally from the new interaction. These core concepts emerge fluidly and motivations come out of assessing one's body of learning objects in a way for the student to find their interests and understand their entire learning experience through their intrinsic motivation (Pink).

Computational Linguistics :: Essays Papers

Computational Linguistics Computational linguistics is a discipline between linguistics and computer science which is concerned with the computational aspects of the human language. This area of computer science overlaps with the field of Artificial Intelligence. Basically, computational linguistics is a series of programs that interprets human speech into words and actions. There are a couple of different areas of computational linguistics and those areas are theoretical computational linguistics and applied computational linguistics. Each one of those areas are divided up into more areas. Theoretical computational linguistics is composed of theoretical linguistics and cognitive science. This particular area deals with formal theories about the linguistic knowledge that a human needs for generating and understanding language. This area has advanced so much, and has become so complex that it can only be managed by using computers. With these computers computational linguists develop formal models simulating aspects of the human language and then incorporates that into programs. These programs that they write constitute the basis for the evaluation and further development of their theories. Along with these theories there is another part that plays a big role in theoretical computational linguistics and that part is cognitive sciences. What I mean by that is that part of these programs interprets what is being said and then it matches it up to what is in its programming. The other part of computational linguistics is called applied computational linguistics which focuses on the practical outcome of modeling human language use. The methods, techniques, tools, and applications in this area are often subsumed under the term language engineering or (human language technology. The current computational linguistic systems are far from achieving human ability of communicating they have numerous applications. The goal for this is to eventually have a computer program that will have the same communication skills as a human being. Once this is achieved it will open doors never thought possible in computing. After all the major problem today with computing is communication with the computer. Today’s computers don’t really understand our language and it is very difficult to learn computer language, plus computer language doesn’t correspond to the structure of human thought.

Brownie: White American and Octavia Essay

The short story â€Å"Brownies† written by Z. Z. Packer is told in first person by a young introverted African American girl named Laurel, known as â€Å"Snot† to her friends from school. The story reflects back during a summer camp outing at Camp Crescendo that involves a small group of young African American fourth grade girls from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. In this story the author provides countless details of how the effects of social segregation and racism can have a negative impact on our children and our entire society. Arnetta, the leader of the Brownie pack disliked sharing the summer camp with the young girls of Troop 909 from day one because they were white. Referring to them as â€Å"Invaders†, because in the suburbs of Atlanta they were rarely seen or even thought about(358). While riding in their bus on their way to the cabin and after they had already passed the Troop 909 girls at the front gate, Arnetta asked, â€Å"Did you smell that? † Trying to make fun of the girls she threw her head up and with her nose pointed to the sky she said they smell like â€Å"wet Chihuahuas†. By the end of the day and with a plan to entice her Brownie troops to start a fight with the Troop 909 girls, Arnetta stated that she heard one of them call Daphne a nigger and that they couldn’t let them get away with that. When asked to confirm that one of the white girls said it, Daphne was hesitant to answer until Arnetta gave her an elbow followed with a mean stair down. Daphne was not the type of girl that would stand up for oneself and was too scared to speak up. Even at their Woodrow Wilson Elementary school, if someone doesn’t fit into their little group or doesn’t land a perfect ten after jumping off the swing at the playground, Arnetta and Octavia would reply using the word â€Å"Caucasian†. This was just another way in belittling other people and displaying that Caucasian race was below that of the African Americans. Octavia was considered to be Arnetta’s right hand woman. Octavia was quick to tell anybody to shut up and readily made fun of even her Brownie troop friends. Janice, the muscle of the group and maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed had a country accent that came along with an bubbly personality was even referred to as â€Å"Miss Caucasian† when she wouldn’t leave Arnetta and Octavia alone. One day during lunch time while Janice was standing alongside the water’s edge, Octavia had the temptation but not necessarily the courage to push her into the water. Octavia even disliked Daphne for beating her out in the school poem contest and even referred to Mrs. Margolin, the Brownie troop chaperone as â€Å"Big Fat Momma†. Once they decided that the bathroom would be where the fight takes place, all they needed was to hope they could catch them their alone without their troop leader. As they walked through the woods on their way to the bathroom Janice spoke out, â€Å"this smells like my mother’s air freshener†, than one of the other girls stated the trees in the woods are Pine trees. Janice was shocked to hear that they could get the smell of trees onto an air freshener. As they approached the bathroom they could hear the Troop 909 girls talking. Arnetta suggested that Octavia, Janice and herself would go in first while the rest of them wait outside. After minutes of waiting outside Elise, Drema, Dephne, and Laurel went inside to see what was happening. Octavia looked over at Elise and said, â€Å"I think they’re retarded†. One of the white girls replied, â€Å"We ARE NOT retarded(366-367)! † Once Arnetta and Octavia came to the realization that these girls were mentally challenged, they felt remorseful from their actions and wished to leave without being caught teasing the white girls. Octavia tried to scare the girls by mentioning to them, that if they told on them they would be considered tattletales. As one of the white girls replied, I like tattletale, the Troop 909 leader walked in. Minutes later both Mrs. Margolin and Mrs. Hayes were at the center of the debate. The lady that ran Troop 909 never got mad or raised her voice and always kept a smile on her face as she talked. She said she wasn’t going to blame anybody for their actions or their behavior and cited that maybe what caused this incident actually could of happened. The troop leader clarified that her girls were not retarded but considered slow learners. That they might not have the best of parents and could of possibly heard a bad word or two from their parents. Even after the situation was over and things had calmed down, Arnetta pointed to a small girl and insisted that she heard her say the word. After the white troop leader made the statement that it was impossible because she doesn’t speak, Arnetta made another acquisition that it then came from the girl wearing the complete Brownie uniform. At that point nobody was believing in Arnetta’s story. On the bus ride home Elisa and Arnetta still felt it necessary to continue to make fun of the white girls from Troop 909. When Daphne gave Laurel her prized journal, Daphne could not think of anything to write in it. Than Laurel remembered a time when she and her father were at the mall and they came across some Mennonites who her father insisted that they would do anything you asked of them. Nobody on the bus besides Daphne believed in her story even after she told them that they had actually painted there front porch. until she told them that they sat on the bus and as they return home on the bus, Laurel tells them of an incident in her family involving a white Mennonite family. As she tells the story, she comes to an unsettling realization about racism and the nature of human life.