Technology in the Learning Essay Example for Free

Technology in the Learning Essay The teacher knows how to use the materials. The students can relate and understand the lesson because the application or software of that particular topic is found in material. If the teacher did not know how to use material it can cause weakness. The volumes of computers are not sufficient. It helps to the teacher to introduce the lesson for better understanding. The lesson is easily absorbed because they perform activities to apply the lesson. It’s contains information to help them to understand well and instruction and procedure guide them for their activity. Note for reviewing if they will forget. Your Analysis What do you think prompted the teacher to choose the materials/learning resources that she/he used? Computers and hand outs are most appropriate materials for the lesson about MS Visio. Ms Visio is tool in designing charts and creating professional diagrams. Computer is use for their hands-on and to be seen the features of the MS Visio 2010 and for their practical evaluation to known if they understand the lesson. Hand-out is use for information about the topic and guide in doing their activity. Therefore, the instructional materials serve as a clear representation that was capable of giving clear information, through this the student will able understand the lesson and easy to absorb. What difficulties, if any, did the teacher experience? How can this be managed? There was no difficulty that the teacher experience because the students are participates in discussion and activity. They student was listened and performed the activity while the teachers makes sure that the student do the  tasks. Over-all, were the learning resources/materials used effectively? Why? Why not? Yes, the computers and hand outs are effective because teacher keep getting the attention of the students in listening in the discussion and performing the activities until the class end. They got positive result in quiz and practical evaluation so I conclude that the learning materials are appropriate. Your Reflection Put yourself in the place of the teacher. What would you do similarly and what would you do differently if you will teach the same lesson to the same group of students? Why? If I will teach the same lesson to the same group of students I also use computer and hand outs but I will also use PowerPoint presentation in introducing the functions and features of MS Visio 2010 to motivate the students to listen and to view the difference kinds of charts and diagram to understand the topic well. I will give them a more problem situation in creating chart and diagrams to enhance their knowledge in creating charts and diagrams in given scenario and to appreciate the importance of lesson. FS 3 Technology in the Learning Environment FIELD STUDY Give at least three benefits of doing a survey of available materials before making your own materials? Explain each 1. Less difficulty in introducing the lesson-Teaching aid materials are help to motivate students to listen and easily in the part of the teacher to discuss the topic and help the student to understand the lesson well. 2. Doing a survey of materials help me to discover materials that relevant to my topic. Give me a several option and choose materials that more effective and appropriate so that I will achieve the objectives my lesson. Also give me ideas to create new materials. 3. Surveying of available materials are can save time, effort and money. You will not spend time, effort and money because material is already available. You can choose topic that will use the available materials especially in cooking .When you think a menu to cook you should also consider the equipment or tools to use so that can save money to buying those equipments or you will focus on available materials. Your Reflections 1. Which of the materials did you like making the most? Why? Making power point presentation is the most I like because it develops my creativity in designing and animating my slide presentation because of putting pictures, videos, animated pictures and effects in slide and student also like it. It easier to get their attention and they also learned by pictures and videos. 2. What difficulties, if any, did you encounter in making the materials? How did you overcome them? I encounter difficulties in making hand outs and activity sheets. Hand outs should clear and informative so that the lesson will understand by student. And you should make sure that your activity sheet is challenging and have thrilled so that you will evaluate well your student if they absorb the lesson. I base my hand outs and activity sheet to my objectives through this it easier to me to create. 3. What tips can you give teachers regarding preparation of teaching materials In preparation of teaching materials you should consider the availability of materials to avoid creating and purchasing materials. The suitability of materials to the subject matter it also very important. You also consider the skill and knowledge of teacher in using the materials and also the student. FS 3 Technology in the Learning Environment FIELD STUDY PAPER WORKS! (Preparing Hand-outs) HAND-OUT PLAN Subject Matter: Technology and Livelihood Education (Baking and other Kitchen tools and Equipment ) Grade/Year Level: Fourth Year High School Outline: A. Definition of Matter B. Classification of Ovens and other Baking Tools and Equipment 1. Ovens Proportionately 2. Other Baking Equipment 3. Baking Tools and Utensils C. Baking Tools and Equipment and their Uses 1. Spatula 2. Flour Sifter 3. Wooden Spoon 4. Scraper 5. Measuring Cups 6. Measuring Spoons 7. Weighing Scale 8. Electric Mixer 9. Rotary Egg Beater 10. Grater and Shredder 11. Rolling Pin 12. Baking Pans Types of Graphic Organizer/flow chart/schema to use: References: 1. Your Analysis 1. What are the good features of a handout? A good handout must concise information and easy to follow. It’s brief but make sure that it contain important detail of your lesson. Choose simple and readable type of fonts that readers can read because difficult to read is will lose their interest immediately. Bullets, schema, diagram and flow art help your hand out to be organized to avoid confusion. Highlight and bold the important detail so that readers recognized the important information. 2. Which of these features are present in the handout I made? I summarize the topic and I write only important detail so that readers understand the point of my lesson. I use bullets and schema to gives guide to the readers. I use simple fonts in order that they understand the information well. I put also references for clarification or if they need more details. 3. Which features are not present in the handout I made? I present all feature I know even though I didn’t know how to do good handouts but I surely my handout is clear and understandable by the readers. Your Reflection 1. What difficulties, if any, did you encounter in making the handouts? How did you overcome them? The difficulty that I encountered while making my simple handouts is to make it shorten but explainable. I put only the important information should to remember and later I discuss some details for more understanding. I also find difficult in providing schema to my example so I did was explore in the internet and select the best example to my topic. 2. What tips can you give teacher regarding preparation of handouts? Teacher must be resourceful so that the handouts will be informative tools in students learning. Informative because students depend in handouts especially It tackled an ago. They also didn’t remember your explanation so handouts make them recall your lesson. More information is making your reader uninterested to your topic so make it short. FS 3 Technology in the Learning Environment FIELD STUDY Your Analysis 1. What are the features of a good slide presentation? A good slide presentation contains pictures and videos to help you to discuss the topic and to have more understanding in part of student. Pictures and videos let students know what I am talking about. It helps also to get the attention of the students. The slide should follow the 7x 7 rules. Seven words every sentence and seven sentences in every slide. You must remember that your text should Arial font’s style and 24 font’s size. The background color and foreground color are contrast. 2. Which of these features are present in the slide presentation you made? The features I mentioned about are presented in my slide and I follow the 7 x7 rules of power point so that it will make it easier for the audience to read. 3. Which features are not present in the slide presentation you made? I did not put sound effects and music because it will cause distraction to my discussion. I did not use video presentation because it consumes more time but it will depend to your topic if it will be useful to your discussion. Your Reflection 1. What difficulties, if any, did you encounter in making the slide presentation? How did you overcome them? Power point presentation is very interesting to do because it easy to create it. Background and effects are already available. You can put pictures, effects, music and videos that will found in the internet. So far, there were no difficulties that I have encountered. FS 3 Technology in the Learning Brief Description of the material in the Website This site present difference tools and equipment in baking and other tools in kitchen and their uses. Evaluation of Website Strength It is very informative. This site gave a lot of information in my topic. Weaknesses The weakness of this site is you need to become a member to their organization to can access their essays or term papers. Your Reflection This episode tells us the importance roles of internet were you can find a lots of information about in your topic. And also informs us to be aware to the reference of information because website leads to the false information.

Patient Billing Software System Information Technology Essay

Patient Billing Software System Information Technology Essay In todays world, the population in various countries is increasing speedily every year, the Medical Billing System has grown-up in importance. The reason for this is that there are far more individuals that have need of some variety of health care, regardless of whether it is physical or mental. In order to receive these services patients need to pay for the services rendered by the hospital. This task requires a billing system that can generate bills of services to patients. Medical professionals are facing problems regarding the billing issue. My project for BSc Computing is to develop a web based patient billing software that is of importance to a hospital. . PHP was selected as the language for implementation and PL/SQL server as the database. The patient information will be stored in the database. Any new patient information can be stored in the database via a patient information input screen. The screen will take as input all the details of the patient, the amount to be paid, etc. The system is designed with the intension of allowing for scalability, portability, and re-use. The design of the system is such that it would permit future integration with other systems like online insurance billing for a patient that has a medical insurance, or even a completely different application. This system is also expected to provide a maximum level of security and reliability. Aim This project is aimed at developing a patient billing software system that is of importance to a hospital. The patient billing system is a local software system. This system can be used to maintain the location and the bed number of each patient either in the ward or the Intensive Care Units (ICU). Information about the patient and the charges to be paid is also stored. OBJECTIVE Research objective To study the feasibility of implementing a practical billing system for a hospital mainly focusing on scalability issues. As the hospital is speedily getting bigger the system should be able support any future expansions such as dealing with patients with health insurance. To conduct series of interviews in order to understand the organisational structure and the existing infrastructure service in the hospital and its problems and develop an alternative scenario for the system. To understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the current infrastructure service and how does the new system will be a benefits to the hospital? To conduct research about how patients billing systems is used in other hospitals? To examine the necessary tools that will be needed for the implementation of the proposed system and also examine whether the proposed system will be compatible with the existing system within the budget. Eg: What type of programming language can be adopted? What type of database would be best suitable for the system? To conduct an interview with the hospital data entry operator and the account department in order to find out the difficulties they are facing when generating bills to their patients. Practical objective The system is developed using PHP as the front end and SQL Server / Oracle as the back end. The following steps will be helpful to start off the project. Study and be comfortable with technologies such as PHP, SQL server / Oracle, Apache and ODBC Connectivity. Decide on the number of wards and the number of beds in each ward. Make a database of all tables and fill some sample data in the tables which can prove helpful for running / testing of the project. Assign a hospital data entry operator who will enter all the patient details, make updating to the table entries via front-end screens as and when a patient is being admitted to the hospital, transferred from a general ward to the ICU and vice versa and discharged from the hospital. Since the real-time project needs to be tested in real-time, you can take hours as days for testing the system. However, the display will still be in days only. Create the front-page of the PBS system giving a brief description about the system and a login box Create the help-pages of the system in the form of QA. This will help you also when implementing the system. Create other sub-systems like screens for various functions (new patient entry, viewing existing patient details, transfer of a patient between ward and ICU, etc). Research about client side and server side programming languages HTML, XHTML, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, ASP Research about web based data base applications like Oracle,Mysql Research about Unified Modelling Language, Activity diagram, Use case diagram, Class diagram, Sequence diagram, Collaboration diagram Rationale of the project: Outsource medical billing system service provider is doing great help in terms of rendering medical billing services that could be of help to the doctors in order to concentrate more on their patients. The idea of medical billing outsourcing initiated from the need to hire experts in order to perform a minor task related to the medical profession. However, the most concerned issues of hiring a third party to manage the medical billing services are because secrete information about the company can be leaked out by outsourcing employees, even to their competitor and also they do not provide good quality services as most of their staff have limited medical background and all these issues can cause serious damage to the medical practice and finance. However with the introduction of my proposed system, it will result in the overall improvement of the medical billing processes. Significance: The proposed project can have great significance on the finance of the hospital and also reduce the work load from the account department. This does not only limit on the users, but will also be of great help to my studies and my career as well, as it would give me exposure needed in order to develop my skill on PL/SQL, PHP, HTML and RDBMS. Overview: My proposed web based application is fully focused is being user friendly, simple, but highly accurate at the same time. My program consists of different stages (pages). These can be described as follows. The project will provide a web-based platform where the hospital data entry operator can Login to the system through the first page of the application Enter the ward number for the patient either in the general ward or the ICU. Settle all bills pending to be paid by a patient before the patients discharge. Keep a track of all beds occupied / free in both the ward and the ICU. View information of all patients details, their admit time and the amount to be paid. Update the table fields (patient details, the amount to be paid / any balance remaining, the ward number, the bed number, the registration number, case number, etc.) as soon as a new patient is being admitted into the hospital or being discharged from the hospital. REQUIREMENTS System requirement The system requirements gives more details and explain how the user requirements should be provided by the system and can be used as part of the contract for the implementation of the system and should therefore be a complete and consistent specification of the system.(Sommerville, 2007pg.130) Therefore, Due to the nature of the project, the system is web base application that interacts with the user (hospital data entry operator and the account department) on client side and all the processing will be carried out on the server side. Therefore, both the client and the Server side have to meet the following minimum requirements. Software User is going to open the web page of the company that will contain the actual application form and then they have to fill it to make an application for the services. Internet Explorer or any web browser. Internet Connection. Data Base -MySQL server/Oracle (Optional) Client-side and Server-side scripting technologies PHP, ASP.NET, AJAX, Visual basic 6.0 WAMP. Security SSL, Hardware PC with Hard disk space more than 1 GB free always for database. (Optional) Minimum memory of 1GB (Optional) Back up running. Literature View: New technology creates new opportunities for forward-thinking companies. Higher level of automation, high-speed communications and improved access to information can provide significant benefits to a modern business organisation (Paul Boucij, Andrew Greasley, Simon Hickie 2008). Computer technology has highly transformed peoples lives tremendously. This innovation changes the way of our thinking and the way we perform our day by day activities. Computer-based information systems are now used to carry out all functions and activities of an organisation. Nowadays, improved innovations are being put in place in other to help a modern business organisation to make more efficient and automate business processes. Nevertheless, Medical practices are not left out of this great change. In order to run a medical practice appropriately, medical billing has to be automated. Lets imagine that there is no appropriate medical billing in place. What will happen to the issue of billing in medical pra ctices? Of course, the traditional way of billing will be adopted. Traditional way is doing all the medical billing like sending invoices and generating patients bills manually. This system is good if the medical practice wants to stay small. However, the issue of medical billing is sensitive in hospital management as the hospitals cannot afford losses because of careless billing generated from traditional way of billing. According to Charles Darwin, the prominent scientist of nature, said, It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change (Case, 2006 pg 27) The fact about nature is also true in today medical practice that works in a fast changing environment. The most efficient and successful hospitals run their finances with modern medical billing software. There is an urgent need to have a good way of managing the billing issue in a medical practice and this issue can only be managed with the help of good billing software. A good billing software is expected to make sure that the billing calculation are done efficiently and accurately. In addition, it is expected to be available to the users on internet so that medical practitioners can be able to have full access to their billing system anywhere in the world. Therefore, a web based medical billing is required. A Web application is a software application that is deployed on the web. It allows users to accomplish a task like obtaining information about the outstanding bills of a patient or any of the many activities possible on the web (Susan, Melanie, Solomon, Benjamin, 2003). The user can view, manipulate and control the software application through a Web browser connected to a web server through a network such as World Wide Web. In 1989, CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland) proposed the development of the World Wide Web in order to enable high-energy physicists across the world to collaborate through the easy provision and accessibility of information (Graham Curtis and David Cobham, 2002 pg 128). Another important aspect of web application is that there is a real-time update of generated content/data and they can be universally accessed via internet/web by the user. However, The effectiveness of any computerised system is dependent on the soundness of its design and this is particularly true for the database application. The importance of database system cannot be overlooked in medical billing system. For most business organisations, information held in databases can often be more valuable than tangible forms of asset, which are accounted for in monetary terms. To work most effectively for the organisation or company, data stored electronically must be properly managed and protected. (Domanski, peter, Philip, 2000). Thus, a consistence database must be in place in order to avoid inaccurate analyses of stored information, poor cash flow for the hospital and Patient dissatisfaction with the hospital. A web based billing software component comprises the Database Management system and the application program Methodologies: Different methodologies can be used for a project. However the appropriate one can increase the chances of better results. I have chosen to use the Unified Process approach and the reasons are; It concentrates on detailed documentation It minimises back tracking It maintains a full constant control on each stage of development We have a clear idea of all the problems during each stage thereby eliminating chance of bigger problems after coding I will get to learn useful tools do design Used case diagrams Enhancing my knowledge of class diagrams Strategic Issues Strategic issue can be explained as the organisation planning options in addressing crucial business issue, engaging in collaborative decision making. The strategic issue that the school of Technology and Management will benefit from the new system are; For the organisation Reduce the amount of paper usage e.g. assignment submission forms Reduce the amount of storage usage cost Reduce the number of manpower usage cost It will reduce the stress levels of the staff It save time for staffs For Student It eliminate assignment printing costs It reduce the long queues at the college e.g. during registration or at the registry. It saves time as well for the student Manpower requirements The project can be completed within 3 4 months if i work fulltime on it. Milestones and Timelines Number Milestone Name Milestone Description Timeline Week no. from the start of the project Remarks 1 Requirements Specification Complete specification of the system (with appropriate assumptions) including the framing of transfer policy of the patient between the ward / IBU, the payment / balance to be made by the patient etc constitutes this milestone. A document detailing the same should be written and a presentation on that be made. 2-3 Attempt should be made to add some more relevant functionality other than those that are listed in this document. 3 Database creation A database of atleast 25 entries of patients with some patients admitted in wards and the remaining in IBU should be entered. 5-7 It is important to finalize on the database at this stage itself so that development and testing can proceed with the actual database itself. 4 High-level and Detailed Design Listing down all possible scenarios (like new patient, transfer of a patient between general ward and IBU, some balance remaining to be paid at the time of discharge etc) and then coming up with flow-charts or pseudocode to handle the scenario. 7-9 The scenarios should map to the requirement specification (i.e., for each requirement that is specified, a corresponding scenario should be there). 5 Implementation of the front-end of the system Implementation of the main screen giving the login, screen that follows the login giving various options, screens for each of the options (shifting of patients, usage of beds). 10-12 During this milestone period, it would be a good idea for the team (or one person from the team) to start working on a test-plan for the entire system. This test-plan can be updated as and when new scenarios come to mind. 6 Integrating the front-end with the database The front-end developed in the earlier milestone will now be able to update the database when a patient discharges. In short, the system should be ready for integration testing. 12-13 7 Integration Testing The system should be thoroughly tested by running all the testcases written for the system (from milestone 5). 14-15 Another 2 weeks should be there to handle any issues found during testing of the system. After that, the final demo can be arranged. 8 Final Review Issues found during the previous milestone are fixed and the system is ready for the final review. 16-18 During the final review of the project, it should be checked that all the requirements specified during milestone number 1 are fulfilled (or appropriate reasons given for not fulfilling the same) Project: Internet based admission finder http://www.buzzle.com/articles/medical-billing-outsourcing.html

Customer Requirements And Product Characteristics

Customer Requirements And Product Characteristics One of the main roles of any manufacturing plant is to produce product that caters to the demands of the market, and the best way to understand the market needs is to distinguish what is important to the customer/consumer. This understanding of the customer gives the manufacturer a competitive edge, as he knows more or less what the needs of the customer is, when he sells his product in the market. This competitive edge can be distinguished into various factors, for e.g. Quality, Speed, Dependability, Cost, and so on. A particular way of distinguishing which factor gives us more competitive edge is to distinguish between what Prof Terry Hill calls as â€Å"order winners† and â€Å"order qualifiers†. (Pycraft et al 1997) [Online] But before we dive into categorising the various competitive factors into order winners and order qualifiers, it will be helpful if we knew where the products lie in the Puttick Grid. The Puttick Grid, devised by the Warwick Manufacturing Group, defines product market position with respect to the complexity of the product and the level of uncertainty in the market. A point to note about the Puttick Grid is that over a period of time, product tends to move around in the grid and hence may change after a period of time. The Specialist DBPs have a very erratic demand profile, they are basically manufactured either one by one, or if they is more demand they probably in batches of 10. There is a peak in demand during the spring and summer seasons as a lot of people get back to riding their bikes after the winter, and hence become desirable during these seasons amongst the people who own vintage bikes. Also since these are vintage bikes, they dont mind spending a bit for getting replacement parts. The Aftermarket DBPs have a rather subdued demand as compared to the Specialist DBPs. Since these are DBP that are no longer in standard productions, there are a lot of organisations that have come out with their own version of the DBP and hence the customer has more choice. So, in such a case, the customer will go by brand image, price and the quality of the product. The Original Equipment DBPs on the other hand, will have a very stable demand that will be known to Friction Materials well in advance. Quality and price become very important for such a product and hence they become more of a commodity. Hence according to the above discussion, the products have been placed in the Puttick Grid as shown below in Figure 1.1.1 Super Value Product Responsive/Jobbing/Fashion Specialist DBP Consumer Durables Commodities Original Equipment DBP Now that we have an understanding of where the product lies with respect to the Puttick Grid, we can distinguish which competitive factor is an order winner and which is an order qualifier. Characteristic Aftermarket DBP Specialist DBP Design Brand Name 60 60 Price 40 40 Speed (Lead Time) Q Dependability (Availability) QQ Q Quality (Fit to purpose) Q QQ Table 1.1.1: Order Winners and Qualifiers. (Adopted for Hill 2000) [Note: Order Winners are marked out of 100. Q: Order Qualifier; QQ: Order Looser.] Characteristics Original Equipment DBP Design 40 Brand Name 10 Price 40 Speed (Lead Time) 10 Dependability (Availability) QQ Quality (Fit to purpose) QQ Table 1.1.2: Order Winners and Qualifiers. (Adopted for Hill 2000) [Note: Order Winners are marked out of 100. Q: Order Qualifier; QQ: Order Looser.] 1.1.1 Design The links between design, operations and markets are the very essence of the business. The way that these integrate, therefore, is fundamental to sound strategy development and implementation. Both design and operations aim is to provide products according to the technical and business specifications. (Hill Hill 2009) In case of Aftermarket DBPs, the dimensions of the DBP are calculated from the equivalent OE component and then some changes are made so as to avoid patent infringement. So in this case, the design of the DBP is not very important as it is only reverse engineered from an existing product. In case of Specialist DBPs, the dimensions are taken from records if they exist or taken from existing component and then designed as a made-to-order item. So in this case too, not much work goes into the design of the DBP as they are already available to the manufacturer. Hence, design of the DBP does not give the product any competitive edge over other competitor products. In case of Original Equipment Manufacturer, initially specifications will be given by the motorcycle manufacturer. But if Friction is selected as the preferred OE for DBP, it will be expected to design the brakes to meet the requirements given by the manufacturer. Hence, if not initially, over a period of time the designing of brakes for the OE product range will become the one of biggest competitive edge that the company could get in winning the order. 1.1.2 Brand Name Through a variety of activities, companies try to establish a brand name for their products in the market. Where this has been achieved and maintained, companies will win orders partly due to the image that has been created in the market. (Hill Hill 2009) In case of Aftermarket DBPs and the Specialist DBPs, the brand name, â€Å"Stop-Rite†, play a major role in winning orders for the company. Since these parts are no longer in standard production by the OEM, there is a lot of competition in the market to win orders for these products. And hence the brand image, which Friction Materials Ltd has maintained for the last 20 years, becomes the biggest competitive edge in the market to win orders. In case of the OE DBPs, initially Friction Materials is trying to win orders and hence it does not have a brand name in the OE market as of now. But as they start to win orders and establish them in the market, their brand name will start to help them win orders and hence, as time will progress, brand name will become an order winner. 1.1.3 Price In many markets, particularly in the growth, maturity and saturation phases of the product life cycle, price becomes a very important order winner. When there is a range of products to choose from, price comparisons with alternatives becomes an integral part of the customers evaluation of the product and hence price plays a very important part in winning orders. (Hill Hill 2009) In case of the Aftermarket and the Specialist DBPs, since there are a lot of alternatives in the market, price eventually become one of the main reasons why the customer chooses to buy the product, as if there are two products meeting his criteria, they are bound to buy the cheaper product. Hence they become an order winner. In case of the OE DBPs, since the manufacturer is going to buy the product in bulk, he is going to want to buy them from a manufacturer who is able to produce them in the cheapest possible way and who also meets their requirements. Hence price in this case becomes one of the biggest factors for choice. 1.1.4 Speed (Lead Time) and Dependability (Availability) A company may be able to qualify for an order/win an order based on how quickly they are able to supply the product or if the product is already available for delivery/purchasing for the customer. Hence is it very important that the Operations Lead Time must be able to match the Customer Lead Time. (Hill Hill 2009) In case of the Aftermarkets DBPs, the ability to deliver the DBP faster than others may affect the spares stores to make an order to the manufacturer. This is possible if the lead time for the product is less and hence lead time becomes an order qualifier. With respect to the customers, the product being available on the store self become an order qualifier, i.e. they consider the product as a possible buy. But in case the product is not available on the shelf, means that even though their product is better than the competition, they will lose an order and hence this becomes an order looser. Similarly, in case of the Specialist DBPs, since these are mostly made-to-order items, the lead time does not give an influential competitive edge over the competition. But at the same time, availability/delivery of the product has to be on time and this becomes an important factor that the customer will take into consideration when he/she is looking to buy a DBP for his/her Vintage Motorbike. Hence availability of the product on time becomes an order qualifier in this case. In case of the OE products, the motorcycle manufacturer will be looking for a manufacturer who can produce the parts and deliver them in the shortest possible time. Hence speed or lead time becomes an order winner. Also, being a local supplier to the local motorcycle industry will give them a competitive edge over other outside competitors as they will be able to respond to the demand much quicker. But, in addition to this, being able to deliver the products on time is going to be a very important factor. So important that initially, some late deliveries may lead to the manufacturer going to an alternate supplier as you are not able to meet his demands on time. Hence dependability becomes an order looser. 1.1.5 Quality Quality or Quality Conformance can be defined as ability of a manufacturer to manufacture products according to the customers requirements. (Slack et al 2002) In case of the Aftermarkets and Specialist DBPs, no one is going to consider buying the product unless you are certain that the DBP is fit to use on their particular motorcycle model. Hence for both these product ranges, quality becomes an order qualifier. That is, only if the DBP is fit to use on a particular customers motorcycle, they will consider buying that DBP. In case of the OE products, since now they are trying to become suppliers of OE products for the first time, quality has to be bang on target. It has to meet all the customer requirements. Any lapse of quality may lead to a halt in the manufacturers assembly line and this is going to cost them a lot of money. Hence any lapse in quality of the OE suppliers part will give a bad impression and hence may lead to the supplier losing the order. Hence quality for the OE product range becomes an order looser. 1.2 Implications on Operations The Polar diagram (above) shows all the competitive factors for all the product range and their relevant importance for winning orders. Hence, in a way, the diagram also helps understand where Operations should concentrate more so that they will be able to produce more products that will be able to win the orders in the market. From the above diagram, we see that for all the three product ranges, Price, Quality and Dependability are the common performance objective that can help give them competitive edge in the market. Hence operations has to focus more on reducing the cost of the product and at the same time try to keep quality at a good level and always deliver the goods on time. Also, we see Brand Name is very important for the Aftermarket and Specialist market. But if operations is able to maintain price, quality and dependability; it will maintain and perhaps even built up the brand name of the product. Also, by concentrating on dependability, operations is going to keep the lead time (speed) of the product to as low as possible to meet the delivery times and hence speed is also taken care of. Hence by concentrating more on price, quality and dependability, operations will be able to cover all the order qualifier and winner factors of all the 3 product ranges. 2 Manufacturing Strategy for the OE product 2.1 Framework Hill, T. (2009) breaks down the process of developing an operation/manufacturing strategy into 5 simple objectives. 2.1.1 Defining the Corporate Objectives The recent future Corporate Objective of Friction Materials is to try and break into the OE product sector. This will help them isolate the financial burden that they have to carry due to the ever decreasing prices because of cheap Far Eastern Aftermarket DBP available in the market. Hence another Corporate Objective is to make them more stable financially by entering a highly profitable and long term contract product range. Other general corporate objective like Profit and Growth and ROI also apply to Friction Materials Ltd. 2.1.2 Defining the Market Strategies to meet these objectives As said in the Corporate Objectives, Friction Material Ltd. is now trying to enter the Original Equipment product market. Volumes initially (during sampling stage) will be low, to the order of 300. But once their samples get approved, they will start producing these products in very high volumes, to the order of about 3000 DBP/week. Keeping these facts in mind, the Marketing Strategy for the OE product range is to produce and deliver high quality low cost DBP on time, every time. 2.1.3 How do products win orders in the market place? As mentioned in Section 1, the major factors that win orders for the OE product is Price, Quality and Dependability (in terms of delivery). Once Friction Materials becomes the choice for OEM for DBPs, they will have to design the brakes themselves and hence Design also becomes an important order winner. 2.1.4 Establishing the most appropriate mode to manufacture these sets of products Process Choice We are in process of getting samples accepted for the new OE product range. Currently we are manufacturing only the Spares and Specialist product ranges and this is done in a batch process flow layout. This is ok for these ranges as they are in small quantities of about 300 DBP/week. But the new OE product range is going to require about 3000 DBP/week. Hence the Batch layout will not suffice to meet this quantity demand. The most appropriate process choice for such a huge demand is the Mass Layout or the Continuous Layout. But the continuous layout calls for a bigger investment in terms of the money involved. Since Friction Materials is only starting to try to establish itself in the OE market, it would not be wise to tie up a lot of the Companies money into something that might not work out to the magnitude expected. Hence the Mass Layout seems to be a more sensible choice. 2.1.5 Provide the manufacturing infrastructure required to support production Providing the infrastructure to support production of the new OE product is going to involve some amount of trade off in the sense of a balance between the various competitive factors that will affect the ability of the product to win orders. For instance, from the polar diagram (Sector 1.2) we see that dependability and cost of product play a very important role in helping the product win orders. In order to always deliver the product on time, we must always have enough stock with us to meet the demand. This can mean that we make-to-stock the product. But if we have a lot of inventory, it means that we have a lot of money held up as inventory and this may lead to increase in the price of the product to help insulate this cost. But this increase of cost may lead to loss of an order. Hence what amount of inventory would be sufficient to always meet customer demands and not hold a lot of money in inventory would be the trade off that we will be keen to look for. This process of trade o ff balance will help the manufacturing/operations to align itself with the corporate strategy. (Slack et al 2002) 2.2 Analysis of Current Operations System Before we can start formulating and making changes to the production system, we must first define what the current system is. We can do this with the help of various tools. We are going to use the SWOT analysis tool to do the same. Once we know where the current production capabilities are, we will be able to make decision taking into account the current scenario. 2.2.1 SWOT Analysis Strengths Weakness The brand name â€Å"Stop Rite† Established producer of aftermarket DBPs in the UK and Western Europe Competency in making the brake pad mixture * Good liquidity and turnover * Bad production planning system even though a MRP system is in place for the same Opportunities Threats OE market will lead to more opportunity in the EU market. OE market will help insulate the competition and market share because of the Far Eastern Competition * Growing to a medium scale company will help in being capable of handling more customers * Competition for cheaper Far Eastern Competition Table 2.2.1: SWOT Analysis Tool The brand name â€Å"Stop-Rite† is one of the main strengths of Friction Materials Ltd. This is what is helping them win orders in the Specialist market and the aftermarket market. This brand name that they have, they have been able to establish it because of being one of the main trusted DBP manufacturer in the UK and Western Europe market. This is also one of the strengths that they should exploit. They have a competency in creating their own mixture for the DBPs, which helps keep the cost of the product down. Also, as we can see from the financials, their Quick Ratio is about 1.03 and their Current Ratio is about 1.8, both of which are very near the acceptable values and hence the company is doing very well financially. And as they say â€Å"Cash is King†, this is their main strength. But even though they are strong in these areas, their production planning system is not very good, or up to industry standards. Even though they have a MRP II system in place, the Planning Controller has to fire fight situation that should not arise because of the system. This shows one of the two situations, either the Planning Controller is not familiar with the system or there is something wrong with their planning system. This can cause a lot of problems if they are to start production for about 3000DBP/week for the OE product. Opportunity wise, the OE product can help gain more market share in the Western European market and hence improve their brand name even further. Also, since this will be a more steady market, this will help insulate some of the market share loss due to the cheaper Far Eastern Competitor products in the Spares market. This will help the company grow financially which is always the main aim of any organisation. Once the organisation has more market share and money, they can easily transition to a medium scale company and hence cater to more customers. The only threat that the company faces is due to the Far Eastern products. They are almost as good as their DBPs, but they are far cheaper than Frictions DBPs and hence this sometimes leads to loss of market share. Entry to the OE product market will help them to insulate this loss. Now that we are clear on where the organisation current strengths and weakness lie, we can develop our manufacturing strategy to complement the strengths and negate the weakness of the organisation. 2.3 Elements of Manufacturing Strategy Miltenburg (2005) divides manufacturing strategy in six main sub-systems and terms them as Manufacturing Levers to reflect the concept that each sub-system can be adjusted to align according to market demands and corporate mission. 2.3.1 Sourcing Current list of all the suppliers to Friction Materials Ltd. are largely UK based. This is good as this help in decreasing the manufacturing lead time of the component. Since currently, their production demands are very low, to the order of 300DBPs/week; they were unable to convince their suppliers to deliver Just-in-Time. But now since they are looking to produce to the order of about 3000DBPs/week; they should be able to convince the suppliers to deliver Just-in-Time. Along with this, they should bring the list down in number and probably sign long term contracts with their most reliable supplier as the demand for the OE market is very stable and this long term contracts will help with the demand and also improve relations with their suppliers. But care should be taken when such contracts are framed, so that if the supplier does not make the delivery, then Friction Materials is free to buy that demand from another supplier. (Quinn and Hilmer 1995) In terms of the product range, since making DBPs is their main expertise, I feel that they should continue to produce all their existing product range so that they do not lose their current market share and customer base. The level of vertical integration should be kept to a minimum and Friction Materials should concentrate on its main competency of making the DBPs. Smaller parts of the product like the packing materials should be bought from an external vendor. 2.3.2 Process Technology Hill (2009) uses a profiling method to help decide what kind of production process is good for a particular type of product depend on the profile of the product. We will use this profiling approach to decide the type of process that we will implement for the OE range of product. Relevant Aspects Characteristics of Process Choice Product Job Batch Line Type Special Standard Range Wide Narrow Order Size Small Large Level of Change High Low Rate of NPD High Low Order-Winner Del. Speed Price Process Technology G.P. Dedicated Flexibility High Low Volumes Low High Key Tasks Meet Spec. Cost Investment Low High Table 2.3.2.1: Hills Profiling Approach (Source: Hill and Hill 2009) For the OE product range, we know the following: The order volume is going to be very high; hence the product is going to be standardised. Since the product is standardised, it is logical to have machinery dedicated to the product so that it can churn out more product and help meet the high demand. This in turn will decrease the flexibility of the process, but that is a trade-off that has to be taken to meet the high demand. We are going to produce only a certain types of DBPs, hence range is very narrow. The variations in the design of the DBPs are going to be minimal. New designs will only be developed when there is a requirement for it, hence the rate for new product development is also low. Order-winner for the OE product as discussed above is a balance between delivery speed and cost. Hence the key task for the process is bringing the cost of the product down. Hence we see from the above table, most of the profile of the OE product fits the Line Process choice. Hence in our case, for the OE product range, it is advisable that we go for a Line process. Currently, the Spares and Vintage DBPs are being produced in a Batch Equipment Paced Line Flow. They are currently running operations with 3 machining centres, each consisting of a pair of inter linked CNC machines with magazine feed. But even with a demand of only 300 DBPs/week compared to a demand of 3000 DBPs/week, the 3 machining centres are running at full capacity and often require overtime to meet the demand. Hence it is only logical for Friction Materials to in some new machining centres for the new OE production line that will be mainly be used for OE production, as they will find it very difficult to cope up with the demand with the existing infrastructure available. In fact, Friction Materials should look to start to invest into some of the other machines that they require for the production of DBPs to help cope up with this new OE demand. It is also advisable to make this new investments into the shop floor as the OE market is a profitable market which has a very stable demand and this demand will be there for quite a few years and hence this investment can be easi ly recovered during the life cycles of not OE product, but probably two or three OE products. The current manufacturing process layout should be adopted for the OE production also. The process has been setup taking into consideration the capacity of the mixer, setup time on the presses and stock levels and hence they are designed to give the whole process a flow. But setting up a completely new production line demands a lot of capital being invested and it will take quite some time before you will be able to break even for this investment. Hence the logical thing to do for Friction would be to invest in some new machining centres, so that they would be able to able to cope with the demand. But these new machining centres should be dedicated to only for the OE products. And over time, with increasing profits from the OE business, they can keep adding more machining centres to create a separate line for the OE product. 2.3.3 Production Planning and Control The production of DBPs has been broken down majorly into two process; namely Pressing and Finishing. The Pressing team takes care of making the brake pads; the Finishing team takes care of machining the DBPs to ensure consistency of the physical dimensions of the pad. Since both these processes are independent of each other, they are connected to each other with some decoupling or WIP inventory (Miltenburg). In our case, the baking process is the decoupling process. The two bin system can be used for inventory control for raw materials. In this system, the buffer stock in kept in the second bin and the current stock in kept in the first bin. Once the first bin is emptied and the buffer stock is brought into use, the purchase team should place orders to the respective material supplier for replenishing the material. For quality control, the organisation is already running on Statistical Process Control charts for the Spares and Specialist market. But this is acceptable for these products as their production volumes are not very large. The OE volumes are going to be very huge and hence SPC may not be the right choice for quality control. SPC looks at maintaining the quality of the products that the processes inside the organisation. Since OE is such a big market and where it is always important to â€Å"get things right the first time, every time†; it is better that Friction Materials looks into implementing Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM not only looks into the quality of parts being produced inside the organisation, but it takes the whole supply chain into account and sees to it that not only are the part being produced are up to quality standards, but also parts entering into the system are of optimum quality as it is unlikely to product good quality parts out of sub-standard part s. (GE Systems). Also in TQM, each worker becomes responsible for keeping the quality of their output up to standard. Hence this virtually removes the requirement of a quality control team in the organisation. 2.3.4 Human Resources The major machines, that require training in the whole manufacturing process at Friction Materials, are the press machines and the machining centres. The current workforce employed at Friction Materials is very well trained and are flexible enough to work on any process within their block. But we see that there is considerable time that goes into the setup of the presses when there is a need to change the design of the pad. So the employees can be further trained in how they can reduce the set up time for the presses. Regular maintenance is being carried out at Friction Materials by the current

Bare Bones Essay examples -- Poetry Analysis

The poem â€Å"Sometimes the Words Are So Close,†(963) written by Julia Alvarez, discusses how words like a person can be stripped down and made uncomplicated. People are full of layers that surround them everyday. Each layer can be discarded one at a time, down to the bare essentials and in that space, people can be who they truly are. This is also where she explores her voice as a woman. Andrea Schaefer said, in reference to the â€Å"33† Sonnet collection, â€Å"...Alvarez further explores the themes of her voice taking flight and the powers of language to effect personal and political change. These poems more explicitly address her Dominican roots and her 'childhood in a dictatorship/ when real talk was punishable by death'...† During another interview, Alvarez stated; â€Å"...The page is where I learned to put together my different worlds, where I've put down the deepest roots...† Although born in New York, Alvarez lived in the Dominican Republic wi th her family for her first ten years. Unfortunately, they had to flee back to the United States as political exiles in 1960. On writing, Alvarez stated, â€Å"...Not understanding the language, I had to pay close attention to each word -- great training for a writer. I also discovered the welcoming world of the imagination and books...† Alvarez's poem addresses the two worlds she grew up in, the Dominican Republic and the United States and the differences of language in each. Through an implied metaphor, the speaker of the poem unveils herself, a line at a time, while simultaneously building upon the â€Å"figure†(7) of the poem to reveal at its core, a woman. â€Å"Words†(1) are often difficult to form into speech, especially when there is a barrier of translating what they mean as opposed to what they say.... ...Sienna M Potts: Siennese.com. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. . Alvarez, Julia. Andrea Schaefer. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 7. Ed. Jay Parini. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. From Scribner Writers Series. 26 Mar. 2012. Alvarez, Julia. â€Å"Sometimes the Words Are So Close.† Meyers 963. Kevane, Bridget and Juanita Heredia. 'Julia Alvarez and Juanita Heredia. Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers.† Ed. Citizen of the World: An Interview with Julia Alvarez. Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 2000. p19-32. Rpt. In Hunter, Jeffrey W. â€Å"Contemporary Literary Criticism.† 274. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. 26 Mar. 2012 Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 9th Ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2012. print.

The Olfactory Process and its Effect on Human Behavior :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The Olfactory Process and its Effect on Human Behavior Early childhood memories can be evoked by many triggers, of which one of the most powerful is a particular smell. A couple of years ago, I was unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations from the attic. One of the boxes contained old, partially melted candles that were to be put on the fireplace mantle and lit on Christmas Eve. Unrolling each uniquely fragrant candle from the yellowed newspaper, I suddenly had a vivid recollection of a childhood experience. I was between the ages of two and three, wandering through a candle store with my parents in the Greek section of Detroit, Michigan. I gazed wide-eyed at the seemingly endless shelves of wax figurines, reaching through the restraining arms of my father in attempts to feel their smooth contours. After slowly returning to reality, I realized that the smell of the candles being used to decorate for the holidays triggered my earliest memory of childhood. I thought about the memory frequently after that, and longed to return to the store to see if my physical presence there would evoke other memories. When I visited Detroit a few months ago, I was disappointed to discover that the store had long been out of business and only my new memory would remain. I found it somewhat disturbing that my earliest memory was of an insignificant retail store that would have no bearing on my adult life. Why did I not remember a more significant event, such as an early Christmas, or my second birthday? The answer is that the sense of smell, that is, olfaction, has a powerful command over many behaviors, including memory. Intrigued with this connection as an example of sensory input influencing behavior, it is my goal to examine the neurobiology of the olfaction process in humans and to investigate the ways in which odors elicit particular behaviors. For humans, olfaction is a primitive sense, whereas other mammals, birds and insects rely predominately on their sense of smell for survival. The approach of a charging bear would be recognized by a human within seconds of its attack, while a dog would have certainly caught his scent long before the human companion had any knowledge of the bear's presence. Although smell seems far less meaningful to humans, there is an important link between olfaction and behavior. For example, in my memory described above, the simple visual cues provided by the sight of any ordinary candle does not evoke my memory of the sweet smelling store.

Tirant lo Blanc :: Essays Papers

Tirant lo Blanc Tirant lo Blanc is considered to be the best novel of its kind. A chivalric romance filled with the usual hunts, battles, banquets, romantic conquests, duels, and knights. Tirant lo Blanc started a flood of chivalric tales after its publication. The stories that followed, however, were full of fantasy, filled with enchantments, dragons, sorcerers and the like. Tirant greatly differed from these books that followed it. Its highly praised for its realistic, down to earth story line, and characters similar to real Catalans in the late 15th century. It is a satirical look at chivalric doings of the time. Another novel of this kind would not follow for another hundred years, when Miguel de Cervantes would write Don Quixote. While Don Quixote has been praised for its literary excellence, Cervantes himself claims that "it's the best book of its kind in the world," and goes so far as to mention that fact in his own satirical comedy. Despite its literary value, the book has remained relatively unknown. This has been attributed to many factors, from controversy over the author(s) to passages that were considered to be racy during the time it was published. It is generally held that Joanot Martorell wrote most, if not all, of Tirant lo Blanc. Martorell was the son of the kings chamberlain in Valencia. He started Tirant in 1460, and the controversy ensues over whether he was able to finish the unpublished work upon his death in 1468. Little is known about Marti Joan de Galba, who claims to have written the last fourth of the novel. He also dies before the book the book is finally published in the 1490s, and the matter is still debated today. The main argument against the idea that de Galba wrote the latter portion of the novel is that there is no substantial difference in either vocabulary and style through out the novel. This implies it is the work of solely one author. Another controversy surrounding the authors of the book deals with the fact that Martorell calls his story a translation, first from English, then to Portuguese, and finally into Catalan. Many problems surround this statement. The first being that no earlier manuscripts or even references to these supposed earlier translations can be found.

Revealing Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

Revealing And oh ye high flown quills that soar the skies, And ever with your prey still catch your praise, If e'er you deign these lowly lines your eyes, Give thyme or Parsley wreath, I ask no Bays. This mean and unrefined ore of mine Will make your glist'ring gold but more to shine. -Anne Bradstreet, from Prologue â€Å"Honey, if you ever get yourself pregnant, you always have a home†. My mother’s most memorable words of advice on sex were doled out to me at the tender age of six. Her prematurely passed on advice lost its sentiment for a couple of reasons. In spite of my kindergarten experiences, I had no idea how to â€Å"get† myself pregnant, (the phraseology obviously conveying that it only takes one to tango). After too many conversations carried on within my earshot about labor pains, forceps, episiotomies, and pre-labor enemas by the late-teen to early twenty something army of military mothers that hung out at our house in a cloud of cigarette smoke and swearing, the thought of pregnancy terrified me. My mother parented primarily through scare tactics hoping to control my behavior through fear. She warned me of many taboos including the lewd act of †¦.writing. Before being forced to drop out of high school due to her pregnancy with me, she decided to bring a diary to school. Somehow, she lost it. The book fell into the hands of the adminis tration after being passed around the school population. My mother ended up on suspension for the detailed diary entries regarding her hellish home life and promiscuity. In today’s world, a teen bringing her book of confessions to school desperately cries for a sch... ... enjoy each diverse personality from Doug, the humorous cynic penning his sunny sarcasm to mysterious well-spoken, well-written Wendy describing her diverse interests to caring Camille finding the courage to write it all down to our fearless leader who kept reminding us that he was the teacher. However, due to the small class size, he willingly began to streak around in his shorts, too, so to speak, sharing his own penned thoughts. The experience undressed my fears, opening my once-hidden self like a centerfold. I revealed myself unashamed to this gracious group of fellow writers, inviting critique and learning to accept all my scars and scabs. I have now succumbed to the suggestion of seeking publication for some of my more shapely work. I’m dropping the seventh veil, a come-on for the general public. I’m writing it all down and I want the whole world to know!