International Marketing Approach

The eNotes Blog The Futility Closet

The Futility Closet Like any scholar worth her salt, I spend my time in the following manner: 1/3   = Reseach 1/3 = Writing 1/3 = Looking for cat videos (Seriously, click the link.) Somewhere in pursuit of one of these tasks, I stumbled upon this wonderful site:   The Futility Closet. The entire site contains marvelous historical and literary ephemera, plus games that challenge the mind. Here are just a few of the surprising things I learned this week: Dante Gabriel Rossetti revered his wife, and when she died in 1862 he laid his journal in her coffin. Seven years later he decided he needed the poems, so he had her exhumed. En route to a training camp in Quebec during World War I, Canadian army lieutenant Harry Colebourn bought a bear cub for $20 from a hunter in White River, Ontario. He named her Winnipeg, after his hometown, and smuggled her to England, where â€Å"Winnie† became the mascot of his militia regiment. Eventually he donated her to the London Zoo, where she became a great favorite of Christopher Robin Milne, the son of a local playwright. You know the rest. Sylvia Plath committed suicide in Yeats’ house. She had taken a flat at 23 Fitzroy Road in London, where Yeats had lived from 1867 to 1874. She told her mother that she felt Yeats spirit blessing me. Agonizing over how to put down his ailing cat, Alexander Woollcott consulted Dorothy Parker. She said, Try curiosity.

Discuss the ways in which law is changed and assess whether the law Essay

Discuss the ways in which law is changed and assess whether the law responds adequately to changes in technology and changes in - Essay Example It draws on the dominant morals, ethics and values to establish rules that are consolidated into law. Changes in Common Law comes with changes in the dominant culture of England at any point in time. Equity automatically developed after the Crown appointed a distinct unit of courts to handle cases based on the tradition of pardons that was established by in cases. Equity therefore changes with the changes in the dominance practices in the society. Aside Common Law and Equity which forms the basis of law in the UK, there are statutes that are created by Parliament as well as various units with powers arising from delegated legislation. Statutes are changed as and when a bill is presented before parliament and relevant bodies and changed as appropriate. Aside the British parliament, there are also various statutes that are created from the European Union as well as other international bodies that the country is signatory to like the United Nations. Statutes are interpreted by the Judic iary who are empowered as an autonomous body to do so. This is discharged through the various courts. The decisions of a court serves as precedence for other cases that may be presented to courts at its level or with jurisdictions below it. This is known as judicial precedents. Judicial precedents also change when the case at hand is decided in a manner that is quite different from the previous ruling. It can be pointed out that although the Common Law and Equity forms the broad framework within which the law is applied, Statutes are rules that are made and changed from time to time to ensure that the courts get a specific basis for the handling of cases. Changes in Law Rules are converted to laws when they are written down and backed by authority. Laws are created through bills which are discussed before parliament or an appropriate body, accepted, signed into law and enforced. In the UK today, Law is made by parliament – that is the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This therefore means that if a law is to be changed, it needs to go through the House of Lords and the House of Commons before it can be accepted as changed. A change in law can be prompted by a member of parliament, a Royal Commission set up to examine a certain law or situation in the society, a national emergency, the Law Commission or the party manifesto of the ruling government. All these outlets can potentially cause parliament to consider changing an existing statute to reflect situations that exist in the society at a given point in time. In this sense there are three main types of bills, there are the public bills, which affect the general public, the public members' bill which are put forward by an individual member of parliament. There is also a private bill which is a bill meant to create a law that affects a small interest group in the United Kingdom. After a proposition for a new law is raised before parliament, the relevant government department publishes a Green Pape r that outlines the elements of the Bill and engage various interest groups in a consensus building process. When the inputs for all interest groups are taken, the civil servants in the Government department summarizes the advice and comments and present them to the Minister in question. The Minister examines the comments and publishes a White Paper that contains the main ideas of the

Governance (Sport) Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Governance (Sport) - Literature review Example According to the definition provided by World Bank governance can be defined as â€Å"structures, functions, process and organizational traditions that have been put in place within the context of a program’s authorizing environment† (Du Plessis, Hargovan & Bagaric, 2010). The definition implies that the program must be created in such a manner which ensures that the objectives of the organization are met in an effective and transparent manner. From these above definition it can be summarized that the primary function of governance is to guarantee that every member related to the organization performs their roles and responsibilities in a coordinated manner that maximizes coherence and accomplishes organizational goals. It is also implied that governance aims to achieve ethical implementation of business functions. Governance aims to provide overall direction to the business by overseeing and supervising actions of management. Governance makes sure that expectations of accountability are satisfied and interest beyond the corporate group is regulated. The agency theory of corporate governance emerged in the 1970’s and has been cited as the central theory of management behaviour in a number of scholarly articles. The core agency theory does not consider issues of management, internal and external issues of stakeholders of and the society at large. Agency theory highlights the alignment of interest between the shareholders and board members. According to researchers like Fama and Jensen (1983) there exists asymmetric information between executive management (who are agents) and claimants (who are principals). Therefore the main focus of the agency theory is to minimize the clash between shareholders and governing bodies of organizations. It has been observed that in agency theory directors or executive management tries to appropriate the value for them and it is extremely difficult for the shareholders to examine whether the directors are

Why do language users sometimes use figures of speech Essay

Why do language users sometimes use figures of speech - Essay Example In such cases, figures of speech help avoiding problems or conflicts of various forms. However, the use of figures of speech is not always justified – or desired. Under such terms, their engagement needs to be clearly and adequately explained. In the field of psychology, the science that deals with the evaluation of human behaviour, a series of theoretical models and approaches has been developed in regard to the use of figures of speech in daily human activities. These theories are presented in current paper aiming to explain the reasons for which language users prefer the figures of speech. The psychological and conversation analytic research frameworks are used for developing the above task. It is concluded that the use of speech is often unavoidable; however, the circumstances of their use need to be evaluated each time taking into consideration the actual social conditions but also the personal characteristics and perceptions of the language user. The potential use of fig ures of speech with no particular goal, just as a common practice (habit) should be also taken into consideration when examining their role in conversations developed daily across various human activities. In any case, the use of figures of speech cannot be considered as having the power to cause turbulences or oppositions; on the contrary, it is more likely to have a positive influence in regard to the limitation of social conflicts. This aspect of figures of speech is strongly emphasized in the literature published in the particular field – as these studies are analytically presented below. The findings of empirical research developed in this area have been also employed in this study aiming to offer a clearer view on the issues under discussion. 2. Metaphors – role and forms Theorists and researchers have used different approaches in order to explain the role and the functions of metaphors in everyday language. In order to understand and appropriately evaluate these views, it would be necessary to refer primarily to the context of metaphor in general, i.e. to describe its characteristics as a figure of speech. Lakoff and Johnson note that ‘the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another’ (Lakoff and Johnson 5). The flexibility of metaphors, i.e. their characteristic to be open to different interpretations has been considered as one of the main reasons for their extensive study by theorists and researchers worldwide (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 103). On the other hand, the following question might appear: why metaphors are so important for the academic research? In fact, there are many different figures of speech, which could be available for analysis, but only metaphors have been examined in detailed making also use of concepts applicable on other sciences – such as the cognitive discourse analysis used for the development of academic research. The answer to the above question wo uld be as follows: a metaphor is not a common figure of speech; it can be used ‘both in poetry and the everyday communication’ (Bowdle and Gentner 193); moreover, it can reveal the personal views/ perceptions of the person involved in its interpretation, a fact which is valuable in the psychological research field. In accordance with Kock (2010) metaphors are likely to highly appear in everyday language; moreover, their appearance is related to the need for using ‘a common point of reference’ (Kock 364) in order to indicate the key aspects of a issue to which the

Operations Management Of Customs Molds Commerce Essay

Operations Management Of Customs Molds Commerce Essay Custom Molds, Inc., manufactures custom-designed molds for plastic parts and produces custom-made plastic connectors for the electronics industry. Located in Tucson, Arizona, Custom Molds was founded by the father and son team of Tom and Mason Miller in 1975. Tom Miller, a mechanical engineer, had more than 20 years of experience in the connector industry with AMP, Inc., a large multinational producer of electronic connectors. Mason Miller had graduated from the University of Arizona in 1974 with joint degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. The company was originally formed to provide manufacturers of electronic connectors with a source of high-quality, custom-designed molds for producing plastic parts. The market consisted mainly of the product design and development divisions of those manufacturers. Custom Molds worked closely with each customer to design and develop molds to be used in the customers product development processes. Thus, virtually every mold had to meet exacting standards and was somewhat unique. Orders for multiple molds would arrive when customers moved from the design and pilot-run stage of development to large-scale production of newly designed parts. As the years went by, Custom Molds reputation grew as a designer and fabricator of precision molds. Building on this reputation, the Millers decided to expand into the limited manufacture of plastic parts. Ingredient-mixing facilities and injection-molding equipment were added, and by the mid-1980s Custom Molds developed its reputation to include being a supplier of high-quality plastic parts. Because of limited capacity, the company concentrated its sales efforts on supplying parts that were used in limited quantities for research and development efforts and in pre-production pilot runs. Figure 3.13 Plant Layout PRODUCTION PROCESSES By 1985, operations at Custom Molds involved two distinct processes: one for fabricating molds and one for producing plastic parts. Although different, in many instances these two processes were linked, as when a customer would have Custom Molds both fabricate a mold and produce the necessary parts to support the customers RD efforts. All fabrication and production operations were housed in a single facility. The layout was characteristic of a typical job shop, with like processes and similar equipment grouped in various places in the plant. Figure 3.13 shows a schematic of the plant floor. Multiple pieces of various/ types of high-precision machinery, including milling, turning, cutting, and drilling equipment, were located in the mold-fabrication area. Fabricating molds is a skill-oriented, craftsman-driven process. When an order is received, a design team, comprising a design engineer and one of 13 master machinists, reviews the design specifications. Working closely with the customer, the team establishes the final specifications for the mold and gives them to the master machinist for fabrication. It is always the same machinist who was assigned to the design team. At the same time, the purchasing department is given a copy of the design specifications, from which it orders the appropriate raw materials and special tooling. The time needed to receive the ordered materials is usually three to four weeks. When the materials are received for a particular mold, the plant master scheduler reviews the workload of the assigned master machinist and schedules the mold for fabrication. Fabricating a mold takes from two to four weeks, depending on the amount of work the machinist already has scheduled. The fabrication process itself takes only three to five days. Upon completion, the mold is sent to the testing and inspection area, where it is used to produce a small number of parts on one of the injection molding machines. If the parts meet the design specifications established by the design team, the mold is passed on to be cleaned and polished. It is then packed and shipped to the customer. One day is spent inspecting and testing the mold and a second day cleaning, polishing, packing, and shipping it to the customer. If the parts made by the mold do not meet design specifications, the mold is returned to the master machinist for retooling and the process starts over. Currently, Custom Molds has a published lead time of nine weeks for delivery of custom-fabricated molds. The manufacturing process for plastic parts is somewhat different from that for mold fabrication. An order for parts may be received in conjunction with an order for a mold to be fabricated. ln instances where Custom Molds has previously fabricated the mold and maintains it in inventory, an order may be just for parts. If the mold is already available, the order is reviewed by a design engineer, who verifies the part and raw material specifications. If the design engineer has any questions concerning the specifications, the customer is contacted and any revisions to specifications are mutually worked out and agreed upon. Upon acceptance of the part and raw material specifications, raw material orders are placed and production is scheduled for the order. Chemicals and compounds that support plastic-parts manufacturing are typically ordered and received within one week. Upon receipt, the com- pounds are first dry-mixed and blended to achieve the correct composition. Then the mixture is wet-mixed to the desired consistency (called slurry) for injection into molding machines. When ready, the slurry is transferred to the injection molding area by an overhead pipeline and deposited in holding tanks adjacent to the injection machines. The entire mixing process takes only one day. When the slurry is staged and ready, the proper molds are secured from inventory or from the clean and polish operation if new molds were fabricated for the order and the parts are manufactured. Although different parts require different temperature and pressure settings, the time to produce a part is relatively constant. Custom Molds has the capacity to produce 5,000 parts per day in the injection-molding department; historically, however, the lead time for handling orders in this department has averaged one week. Upon completion of molding, the parts are taken to the cut and trim operation, where they are disconnected and leftover flashing is removed. After being inspected, the parts may be taken to assembly or transferred to the packing and shipping area for shipment to the customer. If assembly of the final parts is not required, the parts can be on their way to the customer two days after being molded. Sometimes the final product requires some assembly. Typically, this entails attaching metal leads to plastic connectors. If assembly is necessary, an additional three days is needed before the order can be shipped. Custom Molds is currently quoting a three-week lead time for parts not requiring fabricated molds. THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT ln early 1991, Tom and Mason Miller began to realize that the electronics industry they supplied, along with their own business, was changing. Electronics manufacturers had traditionally used vertical integration into component-parts manufacturing to reduce costs and ensure a timely supply of parts. By the late 1980s, this trend had changed. Manufacturers were developing strategic partnerships with parts suppliers to ensure the timely delivery of high-quality, cost-effective parts. This approach allowed funds to be diverted to other uses that could provide a larger return on investment. The impact on Custom Molds could be seen in sales figures over the past three years. The sales mix was changing. Although the number of orders per year for mold fabrication remained virtually constant, orders for multiple, molds were declining, as shown in the following table: Number of orders Order size Molds 1988 Molds 1989 Molds 1990 1 80 74 72 2 60 70 75 3 40 51 55 4 5 6 5 5 3 5 4 6 4 8 5 7 2 0 1 8 10 6 4 9 11 8 5 10 15 10 5 TOTAL ORDERS 230 238 231 The reverse was true for plastic parts, for which the number of orders per year had declined but for which the order sizes were becoming larger, as illustrated in the following table: Number of orders Order size Parts 1988 Parts 1989 Parts 1990 50 100 93 70 100 70 72 65 150 40 30 35 200 36 34 38 250 25 27 25 500 10 12 14 750 1 3 5 1000 2 2 8 3000 1 4 9 5000 1 3 8 TOTAL ORDERS 286 280 277 During this same period Custom Molds began having delivery problems. Customers were complaining that parts orders were taking four to five weeks instead of the stated three weeks and that the delays were disrupting production schedules. When asked about the situation, the master scheduler said that determining when a particular order could be promised for delivery was very difficult. Bottlenecks were occurring during the production process, but where or when they would occur could not be predicted. They always seemed to be moving from one operation to another. Tom Miller thought that he had excess labor capacity in the mold-fabrication area. So, to help push through those orders that were behind schedule, he assigned one of the master machinists the job of identifying and expediting those late orders. However, that tactic did not seem to help much. Complaints about late deliveries were still being received. To add to the problems, two orders had been returned recently because of the number of defective parts. The Millers knew that something had to be done. The question was What? Questions 1. What are the major issues facing Tom and Mason Miller? 2. Identify the individual processes on a flow diagram. What are the competitive priorities for these processes and the changing nature of the industry? 3. What alternatives might the Millers pursue? What key factors should they consider as they evaluate these alternatives? Source: Krajewski Ritzman, Operations Management, 6th Edition Summary Custom Molds was founded by a father and son team in 1987 to provide high quality, custom-designed molds for manufacturers of electronic connectors, but later expanded into the production of plastic parts for the industry. In recent years, the changing environment of the electronics industry had a profound impact on the way Custom Molds conducts its business and manufacturing processes. The changing sales mix, coupled with delivery and quality problems, prompted the company to revise its business strategies to address the following issues: 1) Changing trends in the electronics manufacturing industry that caused changes in customer order needs 2) Unpredictable bottlenecks in the production environment 3) Quality issues resulting in defective parts 4) Delivery times 1. Major Issues Question 1 What are the major issues facing Tom and Mason Miller? 1.1 Changing Trends There were several issues facing the owners of the company. Firstly, the major issue is the electronics industry was changing in that manufacturers were developing strategic partnerships that allowed the delivery of high quality and cost effective parts. Also, the nature of their business had shifted in that the mix of sales had changed with the number of multiple orders declining and the demand for plastic parts increasing (Krajewski Ritzman, 2007). In comparing with mold fabrication and plastic part (see appendix), it is clear that plastic parts has a higher potential sales than mold fabrication on a larger order size. This will allow Tom and Mason to think whether it is best to eliminate mold fabrication and focus on more towards plastic parts because of the changing environment. 1.2 Production Process Issues faced by Custom Molds Inc.: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The delivery times on parts order were taking four to five weeks instead of the stated three weeks. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Number of defective products was on the rise. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Bottlenecks increased in the production process. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Changing strategies within their clients business needs changed order needs in an unexpected way. There are two distinct processes taking place in the same facility and each process serves different customer needs. Below is the analysis of each the processes (Mold Fabrication and Parts Manufacturing) along with recommendations for the same. 1. MOLD FABRICATION PROCESS: Mold fabrication is the core business of Custom Mold Inc., and the recommended process is shown in Exhibit 1. Mold Fabrication requires flexibility and quality; hence concept of Job Shop must be applied to streamline the process. Following are the Recommendations to do the same. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ LAYOUT: Similar equipment or function must be grouped together and the layout of the equipment must be designed so as to minimize the material handling, cost and work in process inventories. Digital numerically controlled equipment should be used as it gives flexibility to change set-ups on the various machines quickly. This will allow Custom Mold Inc. to compete on quality, speed, customization and new product introduction. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ STANDARDIZATION: To identify and eliminate bottlenecks, Custom Mold Inc must standardize all processes. This means that every task, every job, every event must be approached the same way each time it occurs. This includes a standard way of engineering, workholding, manufacturing and shipping. With standard processes, it will become easier to identify which areas are profitable and which are not. This will enable Custom Molds Inc to look t areas, which have the most variables and make them less variables. For example Fixturing / Workinholding is one of the biggest variables in every shop. In a year that has 8,760 hours, we spend 2,200 to provide high quality, custom-designed molds for manufacturers of electronic connectors, but later expanded into the production of plastic parts for the industry. In recent years, the changing environment of the electronics industry had a profound impact on the way Custom Molds conducts its business and manufacturing processes. The changing sales mix, coupled with delivery and quality problems, prompted the company to revise its business strategies to address to following issues: Custom Molds, Inc. was founded by a father and son team in 1987 to provide high à Ã‚ µÃƒâ€˜Ã¢â‚¬ ° to provide quality, custom-designed molds for manufacturers of electronic connectors, but later expanded into the production of plastic parts for the industry. In recent years, the changing environment of the electronics industry had a profound impact on the way Custom Molds conducts its business and manufacturing processes. The changing sales mix, coupled with delivery and quality problems, prompted the company to revise its business strategies to address to following issues: 1) Changing trends in the electronics manufacturing industry that caused changes in clients order needs 2) Unpredictable bottlenecks in the production environment 3) Quality issues resulting in defective parts 4) Delivery times promised to clients were not met Analysis 1) Process Inefficiencies Some of the issues presented above resulted from inefficiencies in the two distinct processes taking place in the same production facility at Custom Molds, namely the Molds Fabrication process and the Parts Production process (Exhibit 1a and b). The two processes serve different customer needs. Mold fabrication, a skill oriented and craftsman-driven process, requires flexibility and quality. Parts manufacturing, on the other hand, involves a more standardized process that competes on delivery and low cost. The margin for parts is also much smaller. In the mold fabrication process, the time needed to receive the ordered materials for each fabrication is usually 3-4 weeks. Only after the materials are received does the plant master scheduler review the workload of the assigned master machinist and schedule the mold for fabrication. The idle time between these two steps in the process significantly affects the lead time for delivery of custom-fabricated molds. The fabrication of a mold takes two to four weeks, depending on the amount of work the machinist already has scheduled,

Gay marriages :: essays research papers

Part I: Throughout the contents of this paper, I will discuss the article dealing with the legalization of gay marriages in Massachusetts by Richard Cohen. I will begin my discussion by analyzing the article and providing a brief summary of the factual information presented in the text. In addition, I will present my opinion on the article along with corresponding information regarding this particular issue. In turn, I will present my personal beliefs on this topic and support them with other additional information to support my opinions. I will also present more details on the Massachusetts case that legalized gay marriages. This topic is important because this piece of legislation will effect every person and generation in the United States, homosexual or not. Part II: In this portion of my paper, I will summarize the article by Richard Cohen regarding the state of Massachusetts legalizing gay and lesbian marriages. Recently, the state of Massachusetts announced that the band on gay marriages would be lifted. Despite the fact that the majority leader of the House of Representatives Tom Delay is strongly against gay marriages, he may want to stand aside on this issue. Delay, who is known for his adamant concern regarding traditional marriage, needs to understand that not only is the institution of marriage wobbling and wheezing, it is desperately on the rocks. According to statistical research, twenty percent of first marriages do last more than five years, and if the marriage lasts a decade, one third end up in divorce. Married couples, who once dominated both life and television, have gone from a high 80 percent in the 1950?s to only half of American households today. If you look into an average home in the United States today, only one i n four of those households are married with children, and a reported 86 million adults living in the country are unmarried. It is easy to see from these statistics that traditional marriage is in trouble.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gay and lesbian marriages may be the key component to rescue marriages from this social and economic relevance. Not only do homosexual couples seek marriage for the pecuniary reasons such as taxes and estate purposes, they also seek the bond of long term commitment based on love and romance. If people like Tom Delay would stop and look at the issue without such bigotry and fear, he might understand that these couples provide the best argument in their defense, love and commitment. Gay marriages :: essays research papers Part I: Throughout the contents of this paper, I will discuss the article dealing with the legalization of gay marriages in Massachusetts by Richard Cohen. I will begin my discussion by analyzing the article and providing a brief summary of the factual information presented in the text. In addition, I will present my opinion on the article along with corresponding information regarding this particular issue. In turn, I will present my personal beliefs on this topic and support them with other additional information to support my opinions. I will also present more details on the Massachusetts case that legalized gay marriages. This topic is important because this piece of legislation will effect every person and generation in the United States, homosexual or not. Part II: In this portion of my paper, I will summarize the article by Richard Cohen regarding the state of Massachusetts legalizing gay and lesbian marriages. Recently, the state of Massachusetts announced that the band on gay marriages would be lifted. Despite the fact that the majority leader of the House of Representatives Tom Delay is strongly against gay marriages, he may want to stand aside on this issue. Delay, who is known for his adamant concern regarding traditional marriage, needs to understand that not only is the institution of marriage wobbling and wheezing, it is desperately on the rocks. According to statistical research, twenty percent of first marriages do last more than five years, and if the marriage lasts a decade, one third end up in divorce. Married couples, who once dominated both life and television, have gone from a high 80 percent in the 1950?s to only half of American households today. If you look into an average home in the United States today, only one i n four of those households are married with children, and a reported 86 million adults living in the country are unmarried. It is easy to see from these statistics that traditional marriage is in trouble.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gay and lesbian marriages may be the key component to rescue marriages from this social and economic relevance. Not only do homosexual couples seek marriage for the pecuniary reasons such as taxes and estate purposes, they also seek the bond of long term commitment based on love and romance. If people like Tom Delay would stop and look at the issue without such bigotry and fear, he might understand that these couples provide the best argument in their defense, love and commitment.