Bubba Tech Inc Essay Example for Free

Bubba Tech Inc Essay After seven years working, Carson became a certified public accountant and Boone successfully complete a masters egree program in Information System at Southern Methodist University. In 2001, Carson and Boone formed a manufacturing company, Bubba Tech Inc. (BTI) in Austin which is privately owned by them and venture capital firm. Boone becomes chief executive officer (CEO) and Carson become chief financial officer (CFO) in BTI. There was no board of director because the firm has completely confidence in the ability of Carson and Boone. Venture capitalists provide a provision into their agreement where Boone and Carson would received 10% return on their investment for five ears and after company went public they would be repaid the amount of their investment. BTI had hired Randy Burnham ; Co. to audit its financial statement on 31 December 2012 due to their plan to go for public within five years. Burnham completed its audit for that five years in BTI and give unqualified opinion on the audited financial statement. In 2007, BTI decided to go as public. In meeting with Burnhams auditor, Boone ask Clint Strait, the partner who in charge of BTI audit to prepare a list of top operational issues to consider as the company went from being privately held to publicly held corporation. Then, Strait set up a team to proceed. The teams consist of Randy Burnham and Clint Strait itself, Shania Hill (the manager in charge of audit), Faith Twain (who had in charge consulting services engagement for BTI), Garth Chesney (tax department) and Kenny Brook (who responsible for information technology work related to audit of BTI). QUESTION 1 Based on the limited facts of this case, prepare a list of the operational issues to present the top management at BTI. Include in your list any corporate governance issues of importance in relation to the management of BTI after it becomes a public ompany and any issues related to the relationship between BTI and Randy Burnham co. ANSWER: Referring to the case of Bubba Tech, Inc. (BTI), there are several operational issues to be presented to the top management at BTI which concerning the corporate governance and issue related to the relationship between BTI and Randy Burnham Co. The operational issues that can be highlighted are the issue of working with potentially biased audit firm, lack of internal control and lack of corporate governance. The chief financial officer (CFO) of BTI, Willie Carson was once an employee of the Randy Burnham Co. , an accounting tlrm that is currently acting as the auditor tor BTI. The relationship between Carson and the auditors from Randy Burnham Co. may cause a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is a situation in which private interests or personal considerations could affect or to perceived to affect both Carson and the auditors from Randy Burnham Co. Judgements to act in the best interests of BTI. The relationship of Carson and the auditors may influence the Judgement and the decision relevancy that creates many of the conflict of interest problems in the business. For instance, Carson may ask the auditors favour to conceal the material misstatement found in the financial statement from the venture capital firms knowledge. Objectivity and integrity are essential qualities for employees of any organization. The affected result is not only the unqualified opinions rendered for the audited financial statements for previous years are arguable but also the transparency of every future Judgement and decision is doubtful as BTI is working with an audit firm that potentially biased towards BTI. The second issue that can be highlighted is the lacking of internal control in BTI rganization. One of the best defences against business failure, as well as an important driver of business performance, is having an effective internal control system, which manages risk and enables the creation and preservation of value. A system of internal control refers to the process by which organizations maintain environments that encourage incorruptibility and deter fraudulent activities by management and employees. Based on the fact stated in this case, BTI was privately owned by Carson, Boone, and a venture capital firm where Carson has been appointed as CFO, Boone as CEO and there was no board of directors. Obviously all the decision related to operations, management, and financial are decided by either Carson or Boone, or both of them. There is no other party to question, monitor and evaluate their action. This situation is proving the issue of lacking of internal control in BTI organization. If BTI proceeds with the plan to go public, it should establish a well-tailored, govern, and implemented set of internal control in its organization. Corporate governance is the internal structure of a corporation from its lowest level workers all the way up to its executives. Corporate governance has far-reaching ffects not only for the business itself but for the financial market as a whole. In the case of BTI, the CFO management integrity and the external auditor integrity are questionable as the relationship built between them may cause conflict of interests and fraud. Management integrity, or the moral character of persons of authority, sets the overall tone for the organization. However, managements enforcement of policies is the major indicator of an organizations commitment to a successful internal control system. Unfortunately, was not applied by BTI organization. Another issue that can be raised is the segregation of duties. The absent of board of directors fgure in BTI organization causing so many critical issue as there is no stewardship centre that determining the companys approach to corporate governance, including developing a set of corporate governance principles and guidelines that are specifically applicable to the company . Carson and Boone have the freewill to decide on anything related to the company. Segregation of duties is critical to effective internal control because it reduces the risk of mistakes and inappropriate actions.

Effect Of Globalisation: Educational Policy

Effect Of Globalisation: Educational Policy Globalisation is a buzzword nowadays and it is often claimed as a natural process by many views especially from popular media. Globalisation is inevitable to a nation. Different nation may have different response and effect of globalisation. Many sectors are affected either in good or bad ways due to globalisation and one of the examples is in education sector. In this article, I wish to discuss the effect of globalisation on educational policy, especially in Malaysian context. Globalisation is not restricted to a definition; it can be define in many ways depending from which views it is seen. In my point of view, globalisation is a process where the world is shrinking, becoming borderless and viewed as a sense of global wholeness and unity. Globalisation made everything becomes easier and it has led to great changes in many sectors since hundred years ago. However, it has speeded up over the last century due to the presence of advance technology in communication. The usage of emails and internet are the example of globalisation where global communication takes place almost instantneous. According to Bottery (2006), globalisation can be defined as the planet is viewed as a whole and the speed of communication had shrunk it over the last few centuries. Many theorists and authors generally define globalisation a process involving the movement of the worlds people, images, technologies, finance including trade, money, and capital, and ideas, such as practices concerning states and other institutional policies. (http://infonomics-society.org). Globalisation is said to be marked by speedy, free movement of people, services, capital, goods, ideas and knowledge across borders. Some people believed globalisation is a negative phenomenon which affects the world in many ways. One of the common problems that are always associated to globalisation is environmental problems. To name a few, global warming, ozone depletion and imbalance ecology system are the impact of globalisation, specifically environmental globalisation. Another example of destructive globalisation impact; cultural globalisation is seen as the cause of losing ones culture and language since everyone is adapting and practising the dominant culture. McDonald is the example of recent dominant culture as a result of cultural globalisation. Despite the negative affect of globalisation, another group of people agree that globalisation has given advantages to the world, where people get more connected and informed than ever before. Looking from cultural globalisation, Bottery states it provides cultural variety in one location to eat virtually any national dish, attend any religious ceremony, and lis ten to any kind of music. These varieties, as claims by Bottery provide education with different windows through which new perspectives are gained. Besides that, cultural globalisation too offers access to different beliefs and approaches to life, and be a real force for spiritual growth (Bottery, 2006). On top of that, globalisation is not solely focuses on the advance of technology, Bottery (2006) in his article claims globalisation includes environmental globalisation, cultural, demographic, political, American and economic globalisation and it is a continuous process whether human being recognised or not. He then added that the process of globalisation affects nation states, generate policy mediations and have direct impact upon educational institutions. To conclude, different types of globalisation put different tensions to the world. However, the different types of globalisation interact and influence one another in diverse ways, creating a more complex and difficult world to live on. Education Education is ranked among the main concern of nation-states as it is playing a remarkable role in shaping and preparing children for the future in an increasingly globalised world. In fact, much money is spent on education as a public service due to its importance. To achieve the aims of education, traditionally, nation-states developed their education policy in regards to what they saw as important to their nation. However, in recent context, education policy is seen beyond the nation-states, it is become internationalised to the dominance of the global economy over the national politics. Within the wider context of globalization, education is now regarded as an international service, playing a remarkable mission in the global economy with investment in people, skills and knowledge. Simply, it argues that education policy nowadays is formed and implemented in a global context. The improvement of education policy recently is also due to global competitiveness, due to invent human cap ital discourse which is economically competitive to other nations. In such global context, improving global competitiveness has been targeted by nation-states education policy. This is due to invent human capital discourse which is economically competitive to other nations. (infonomics-society.org) According to Mundy, many countries have become more competitive by working hard to enhance the productivity of the domestic labour force which can be accomplished by introducing new educational policies, programs and reforms that prepare children to compete in the global labour force. He later added; despite benefitting the education, the competiveness among these nation-states enhancing the production of new education polices with full of value. In fact, many studies have confirmed that there have been new education policies that introduce reforms in curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation, seeking to boost competitiveness among nation-states. Examples of these reforms are engagement in international comparisons of test performance, national curriculum and productive pedagogies Rizvi and Lingard [41] confirm that globalization has reformed and redesigned the educational policy terrain. Effect The process of globalization has deeply shifted and changed the ways in which education policies are developed, implemented and evaluated as globalization has witnessed the reworking of the nation-state; the site at which public policy was most commonly created. Positive effect It is no doubt that globalisation leads to a better education policy. This is due to education is a vital part to help a nation to compete with other nations. The role of education has changed in most common nation-state as they realised the importance of giving proper education to the people which eventually helped the economic growth of the nation. For example, recent finding in India states that Indian Education System has increased fourteen-fold in terms of the number of universities and thirty three-fold in terms of the number of colleges, in comparison to the number at the time of Independence (http://www.aserf.org.in/presentations/globalization.pdf). As a developing country, Malaysia too undergoes changes in education policy to meet the need of this globalised world. The colonisation of British in Malaysia left long lasting effect to the deviations of Malaysian education policy, which is continuously changing until today. Traditionally, education in Tanah Melayu started as a private enterprise which is mainly concerned in producing man with means of knowledge and skills for his well-being and for his salvation in the hereafter. The education system in Tanah Melayu then changed as the British needs skilled people to work for them in order to exploit the economy in Tanah Melayu thus the British colonial provides the school for locals. When the British colonized Malay, they instituted an education system in all of the colonies with the purpose of helping the natives to maintain traditional life and to prevent social unrest through restricted education (Hooker, 2003). In fact, the British limited education to creating better fisherme n and farmers, because the British worried that an over-educated population might rebel against colonial rule (Hashim, 1996).( https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/9167/Tableman_Leslie_Diana_MPA_Win09.pdf?sequence=1) This is the starting point of revolution in education policy in Malaysia, where economic sector is the biggest influence to the change. Education is an important tool in supporting the infrastructure of a country, hence having a reliable education system is critical to the success of developing countries in a global economy (Tableman, 2007). (https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/9167/Tableman_Leslie_Diana_MPA_Win09.pdf?sequence=1) Much said globalization is synonymous with the opening of national borders to the international flow of goods, services, raw materials and resources, information and technology, and human resources. In the last three decades, East Asia has been reported to experience a period of economic development which has been described as unprecedented and miraculous (World Bank, 1994). Economic growth and educational expansion is closely related, and these two aspects are also linked to state formation and developmental state. It is supported by Green (2002), the coincidence in East Asia countries of economic advance with educational expansion clearly suggests a close relationship between the two. For example, it has been reported that in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the economic development grew eight per cent a year, which is way faster than other region on the world (Green, 2002). Generally, the enrolment rates in secondary school were below 50 per cent in each country in th e early 60s, however, these four countries have undergone enormous expansion in education, where each of the countries had quite high levels of basic education. In fact, Taiwan and South Korea now have among the highest rates of upper secondary completion in the world, and a large proportion of those who complete go on to higher education (Green, 2002). (ENGLISH AS DOMINANT LANGUAGE : http://idosi.org/wjihc/wjihc1(1)11/6.pdf) In response to economic recession in 1997 in Malaysia, the Malaysian government took a few drastic actions to reform the economy in Malaysia. The needs for more graduates and k-workers who could speak English well and who are able to work in multinational companies were listed as important strategies. To meet such needs, the government reversed the English language policy in schools. Beginning 2003, the medium of instruction for Math and Science subjects started to be taught in English. Having, at least, a credit in English in the national school examination would be an advantage for students to be accepted at public universities. Now English becomes a second language in Malaysia again. In fact, the last Malaysian Prime Minister revealed that 94% of unemployed graduated in the country are Malays and they are unable to procure jobs because industrial jobs called for a high English language competency. (http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=enlr=id=xzrSYcBxaV4Coi=fndpg=PA123dq=effect+of+g lobalization+on+education+in+malaysiaots=KNH2yfoWDUsig=odAIpeFxJyJmIwMCY1hdrhvx4sc#v=onepageqf=false) Indeed, with the advancement of technology in the classrooms, the way students learn English in Malaysia may not be the same as it was before. (http://cluteonline.com/journals/index.php/CTMS/article/viewFile/5575/5658) However, there is complicated issue regarding the usage of English language to teach Math and Science, the policy is reverted to using Malay and English to teach both subjects. Despite the issue, it is remarkable that English language is an important language for people to compete, as most of the trade commodity use English to communicate. As a developing country, Malaysia needs to focus on the aspect of lifelong learning, which is essential to meet the changes in the demand for more knowledge workers, especially in producing skilled workers. In the area of higher education, universities have become factors of the competitive advantage of nations (Porter, 1998). To obtain and sustain competitive advantage in various industries, the higher education is the main locus that moves economies forward, and the primary means of educating and generating the talent or human capital. Besides that, due to the same fact to boost world economies, universities have become more self-consciously global, especially universities of the advanced nations, looking for students from around the world who represent the entire spectrum of cultures and values, besides sending their own students abroad in educational exchange programmes to prepare them for global careers. Some of the universities also offering courses of study that address the ch allenges of an interconnected world and collaborative research programs to advance science for the benefit of all mankind. As a consequence, the forces of shaping higher education cause the movement of people across the border. Students travel from one developed nation to another, and from developing or less-developed to the developed countries to seek good education. (http://amrjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/impact-of-globalization-on-malaysias.html) The preamble to the Malaysian Education Act 1996 states that education plays a vital role in achieving the countrys vision of attaining the status of a fully developed nation in terms of economic development, social justice, and spiritual, moral and ethical strength (http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023%2FA%3A1017572119543) The economic globalisation has affected Malaysian higher education policy where in 1995, the Malaysian government reversed its opposition to private universities and encouraged private sector investment in higher education. However, the private sector including foreign providers is strictly regulated. Malaysia instead legislated to maintain governmental control over the emerging private higher education sector in order to make it meet what the government sees as the cultural and economic needs of the nation. According to Ward and Eden (2009), for education, neo-liberal economics means introducing the kind of competition which makes private business success ful. Neo-liberals want a free-market in education, making education as commodity which is bought and sold; schools are the providers and parents and children the consumers or customers. In the 1990s not only private universities and colleges are liberalised, many private schools and international schools are also built. Now, foreign capitals are allowed to hold up to 49% of the shares in any private educational company. Branch campuses of foreign universities are allowed, in fact attracted to set up in Malaysia. (http://www.japss.org/upload/1.%20globalization.pdf By 2000, there were 11 public higher educational institutions, 7 private universities, 3 foreign university branch campuses, and more than 400 private colleges approved by the Malaysian government (Challenger Concept, 2000). Most of the private institutions offer their own diplomas as well as foreign-linked degree programs, some of which require students to complete one or more years of study overseas while others can be completed entirely in Malaysia. Some of these colleges, such as Taylors College, are foreign-owned. With the money flows through this education commodity, the economy of the country will develop greatly. However, one question remain, is this liberalization, globalization and privatization of education good for Malaysians, especially the poor. It is clear that the poor cannot afford to go to private school which requires high fees. For example, one of secondary schools in Malaysia, known as Saad Foundation College, the fees required for a year is about RM 41 000 (equivalent to 8200 GBP). That is a big amount of money compared to average salary of working class people in Malaysia. It is said that private school serves better place to educate the students, for example private schools have much smaller classes, much better student-teacher interaction, excellent extra curricular activities; we take the children out of the school and into the community and we even teach several languages like French, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin. Although private school is good for students lifelong lear ning, it is a disadvantage to the poor, where they have no chance to have the same kind of education and is always lacking. Tooley concludes in his recent report Could Globalization of Education Benefit the Poor? That: The argument began, first by showing that there are private schools available to, and patronized by, the poor in developing countries. Second, there is evidence showing that these schools are offering poor parents and children a better deal, educationally-speaking, than the state alternative. Teachers in the private schools, in particular, the research has suggested, show a much greater commitment to teaching than in the government schools. These two considerations suggest that private education in itself could be beneficial to the poor. (http://www.japss.org/upload/1.%20globalization.pdf) Economic globalisation has affect education greatly. Higher education is swept up in global marketisation. It trains the executives and technicians of global businesses; the main st udent growth is in globally mobile degrees in business studies and computing; the sector is shaped by economic policies undergoing partial global convergence, and the first global university market has emerged. (http://doc.utwente.nl/60264/1/Marginson07globalisation.pdf) Globalization is also affecting methods of educational delivery and support. Traditional classroom delivery is now enhanced with electronic learning support. Online courses, virtual classrooms and Web-based tutorials are some delivery methodologies for distance education across borders as a result of globalization. In fact, using ICT in education is inevitable as ICT has changed the way businesses and industries are conducted and influenced the way people work, interact and function in society (UNESCO, 2002). ICT has become common place at home, at work, and in educational institutions (Kirkup Kirkwood, 2005). The use of ICT, including the Internet at home and work places, has increased exponentially (McGorry, 2002). Explosion of knowledge and information in the era of information technology has somehow helped the globalization of education. The introduction of computers and internet and other technology-mediated learning through the use of VCD, CD-Rom, Email, E-Chat, database, webpage, LMS, digital library, etc have helped in the dissemination of information and knowledge to millions around the world (http://idosi.org/wjihc/wjihc1(1)11/6.pdf). Due to this fact, Malaysia is trying to integrate the use of ICT in education, besides to bridge the gap within the global trend as other countries have long developed the policy of ICT in education. The development of the Policy on ICT in Education in Malaysia is underlying of four major pillars; Human Capital, Budget, Digital Learning Resources and Infrastructure. One of the examples the implementation of ICT in Malaysian Education policy is the launching of Smart school. The objective of the smart school Flagship Application is The Smart School is a learning institution that has been reinvented in terms of teaching and learning methods and school administration system in order to prepare the students for the Information-Based Society. Creativity and better management of information is facilitated through the use of technology where students, teachers, administrators and parents are better prepared for the challenges of the information Age. The Smart School applications brings the benefit of technology to the educators and administrators. These also allow the young to get familiar with the ICT world using tools such as personal computers, scanners, printers, multimedia products, TV/videos, etc. at a much earlier stage in life. They get to appreciate the power of the Internet and multimedia applications, which can make learning more interesti ng and enriching. This will in turn result in them becoming more technology savvy (http://www.mscmalaysia.my/sites/default/files/pdf/publications_references/SMART_SCHOOL_ROADMAP_020506.pdf) Smart School is not just about ICT intervention in teaching and learning. The national curriculum and pedagogy are given the highest importance, with the role of teachers, administrators, parents and the community enhanced in the education of the Malaysian students. Individuality, creativity and initiative amongst the students are prioritised. However, ICT is critical in making the teaching and learning processes easier, more fun and effective, as well as making communication and management among the stakeholders more efficient.

Lean Manufacturing In Automobile Industry Of Pakistan Commerce Essay

Lean Manufacturing In Automobile Industry Of Pakistan Commerce Essay The objective of the lean manufacturing is to reduce the lead time and cost of production. In competitive markets, the issue of lead-time is of great importance, it is the main driving factor for business profitability but people are less aware of the lean manufacturing its importance that can bring drastic improvement in Automobile industry of Pakistan. Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything compared to mass production. It focuses on less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools, and less engineering time to develop a new product. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the (Toyota Production, 1991) Toyota Production System (TPS) Womack, James P., Jones, Daniel T., and Roos, Daniel (1991). In the simplest form, lean manufacturing means producing goods with less; it applies fewer resources without affecting the quantity or quality of the goods produced. Toyotas purpose in developing the system was the elimination of waste, and TPS is focused on seven sources of it: over-production caused by emphasis on supply rather than demand; wasted motion due to poor processes; waiting time generated by tuning the production system to the fastest rather than the slowest process; conveyance waste caused by poorly designed supply systems that delay the transit of goods; processing waste from badly designed systems; raw material waste from inefficient design or ineffective supply strategies; correction waste caused by reworking badly made products. (Toyota Production, 1991) Toyota Production System (TPS) Womack, James P., Jones, Daniel T., and Roos, Daniel (1991). The results of TPS have included enormous advances in robotic manufacturing systems and factory design, just-in-time inventory management, the kanban system of visual inventory replacement cues, demand-pull management of manufacturing planning and others. But lean manufacturing also has evolved into a business philosophy based on a unique set of practices, and the resulting business culture demonstrates how to use these to create a lean approach to other aspects of business; one area ripe for this lesson is supply chain management. Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from all aspects of an organizations operations, where waste is viewed as any use or loss of resources that does not lead directly to creating the product or service a customer wants when they want it. In many industrial processes, such non-value added activity can comprise more than 90 percent of a factorys total activity (Simon Caulkin, 2002). The supply chain permeates every face of the enterprise, and if a lean approach to managing it is to succeed, the entire organization has to focus on removing waste and adding value. As a part of this change it requires everyone to involve for looking beyond the boundaries of the company to relationships with customers and suppliers at all levels. The change in focus is essential, but implementing it can be difficult in todays international supply chain environment. Nevertheless, the principles of lean business are straightforward and can form the foundation for an organizations new approach to its supply chain. (Ventana Research , Europe). First, product value has to be defined from the customers point of view, not the companys. This seemingly simple principle is the key to eliminating waste caused by such things as making the wrong product (one that nobody wants), making the product at an unsuitable quality level, making too much or too little of it, or delivering it too slowly or through the wrong channel. A second principle is that the supply chain should flow continuously, and so should the information that supports it. Delays and discontinuities in the supply chain process are often caused by starting and ending processes or information streams that could smooth things out if they were operated continuously. Product should be pulled by the customer, not pushed by the company. That is, no part of any supply chain process should be started without a complete understanding of the demand destination of the final product that will complete the cycle. Finally, the entire organization needs to continue to manage toward perfection, concentrating on the elimination of waste and the addition of value in all of its supply chain processes. This is a continuous process that starts with the launch of a lean supply chain management strategy and it continues. Purpose:- The main purpose of this thesis is to determine the importance of lean manufacturing and create its awareness amongst the automobile industry of Pakistan, which then can be applied by the whole manufacturing sector of Pakistan to make them more competitive in terms of price as well as in speeding the delivery time. The thesis is to draw together the evidence about the benefits of lean manufacturing in automobile industry of Pakistan. It has been noticed that automobile industry is concerned about the cost delivery time, which are the key success factors for this industry. At present, the whole automobile sector is suffering from losses, which has led many businesses to shutdown. Problem discussion: Pakistans automobile industry is losing its competitiveness in the market due to the intense competition faced from world markets in terms of cost delivery time. Buyers get low quality products which reduces their confidence in Pakistani products. Up till now Pakistan automobile industry has been unable to meet the lead time demanded by highly profitable automobiles and is also unable to fulfill the low price expectations of western markets. Until and unless any initiative to reduce the cost and delivery time of product will not be taken, any improvement in the industry would not take place. In order to bring improvements in this industry, it is important to direct this industrys attention towards lean manufacturing. This thesis has been done to focus in this area to check that why lean manufacturing has not yet been implemented in the automobile industry of Pakistan. De limitation of the study:- There are some limitations of this thesis. The work focuses on Manufacturers and assemblers of Automobiles industry located in Pakistan and which has the sales volume more than 10 million. Due to the limited time only top few Manufacturers are included in the research work, which are Indus Motor Company -Toyota Motor Co Pak Suzuki Motors. Al-Ghazi Tractors Further the work doesnt include interview with supplier customer which requires detail research so it is limited to the organizations internal boundary only. Research Question:- This thesis is an attempt to answer the following question:- Q: What is the knowledge level of production people about the lean manufacturing? Q: Are the production manager of automobile industry aware of lean tools? Q: Are the production manager of automobile industry aware of lean manufacturing benefits? Q: To understand the issues of adoption of lean manufacturing in automobile industry in Pakistan? Implication of the study: The purpose of this thesis is to find how much the management of this industry in Pakistan is aware of lean manufacturing and then highlight the obstacles that exist in its implementation. This thesis also provides the benefits of lean manufacturing to the automobile industry of Pakistan, which is facing troubles in these days due to higher cost of production delay in delivery dates. Hence, this thesis is beneficial for the automobile manufacturers so that they can realize the importance of lean manufacturing and then implement it to gain the competitive advantage in terms of lower costs and on time deliveries. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Lean manufacturing is a technique that allows companies to be more responsive to quickly changing markets and more sophisticated demanding customers. (Dohse, JurgensMalsh,1985,p.118). History of Lean Manufacturing Toyota is often considered one of the most efficient manufacturing companies in the world and the company that sets the standard for best practices in Lean Manufacturing. (James Womack Daniel Roos, 1992). Lean Manufacturing has increasingly been applied by leading manufacturing companies throughout the world, lead by the major automobile manufactures and their equipment suppliers. Lean Manufacturing is becoming an increasingly important topic for manufacturing companies in developed countries as they try to find ways to compete more effectively against competition from developing countrie. Starting about 1910, Ford and his right-hand-man, Charles E. Sorensen, fashioned the first comprehensive Manufacturing Strategy. They took all the elements of a manufacturing system people, machines, tooling, and products and arranged them in a continuous system for manufacturing the Model T automobile. Ford was so incredibly successful he quickly became one of the worlds richest men and put the world on wheels. Ford is considered by many to be the first practitioner of Just in Time and Lean Manufacturing. Beyond large scale production 7 categories of muda or waste:- Overproduction producing more unit than customers are demanding or producing them earlier than customer order them. (Taiichi Ohno, 1988) Waiting people waiting for machine or process; product waiting for people, machines or processes. Transportation moving product from one place to another. Inventory Raw material, work in process (WIP), finished goods in excess of direct customer requirement. Motion: Any movement people or machines that does not actually transform product from one state to another. Over processing Performing operation that are unnecessary. Defect creating or passing along product which contains error in material or processing. Definition of lean manufacturing Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from all aspects of an organizations operations, where waste is viewed as any use or loss of resources that does not lead directly to creating the product or service a customer wants when they want it. In many industrial processes, such non-value added activity can comprise more than 90 percent of a factorys total activity. (Simon Caulkin. Waste Not, Want Not, The Observer (September 2002). Many of the concepts in Lean Manufacturing originate from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and have been implemented gradually throughout Toyotas operations beginning in the 1950s. By the 1980s Toyota had increasingly become known for the effectiveness with which it had implemented Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing systems. The brainpower that businesses bring to bear to eliminate wasted assets, materials, and time in production should  equally be deployed to improve the processes of consumption that customers follow. Like their earlier work, this is both a landmark synthesis of ideas whose implications havent been fully understood and a breakthrough to new territory. (Thomas A.Stewart, 2000) Main Kinds of Waste Originally 7- 9 main types of waste were identified as part of the Toyota Production System. However, this list has been modified and expanded by various practitioners of lean manufacturing and generally includes the following: 1. Over-production Over-production is unnecessarily producing more than demanded or producing it too early before it is needed. This increases the risk of obsolescence, increases the risk of producing the wrong thing and increases the possibility of having to sell those items at a discount or discard them as scrap. However, there are some cases when an extra supply of semi-finished or finished products is intentionally maintained, even by lean manufacturers. 2. Defects In addition to physical defects which directly add to the costs of goods sold, this may include errors in paperwork, provision of incorrect information about the product, late delivery, production to incorrect specifications, use of too much raw materials or generation of unnecessary scrap. 3. Inventory Inventory waste means having unnecessarily high levels of raw materials, works-in-progress and finished products. Extra inventory leads to higher inventory financing costs, higher storage costs and higher defect rates. For more on this, please see section 2.5 below. 4. Transportation Transportation includes any movement of materials that does not add any value to the product, such as moving materials between workstations. The idea is that transportation of materials between production stages should aim for the ideal, that the output of one process is immediately used as the input for the next process. Transportation between processing stages results in prolonging production cycle times, the inefficient use of labor and space and can also be a source of minor production stoppages. 5. Waiting Waiting is idle time for workers or machines due to bottlenecks or inefficient production flow on the factory floor. Waiting also includes small delays between processing of units. Waiting results in a significant cost insofar as it increases labor costs and depreciation costs per unit of output. 6. Motion Motion includes any unnecessary physical motions or walking by workers which diverts them from actual processing work. For example, this might include walking around the factory floor to look for a tool, or even unnecessary or difficult physical movements, due to poorly designed ergonomics, which slow down the workers. 7. Correction Correction, or reprocessing, is when something has to be re-done because it wasnt done correctly the first time. This not only results in inefficient use of labor and equipment but the act of re-processing often causes disruptions to the smooth flow of production and therefore generates bottlenecks and stoppages. Also, issues associated with reworking typically consume a significant amount of management time and therefore add to factory overhead costs. 8. Over-processing Over-processing is unintentionally doing more processing work than the customer requires in terms of product quality or features such as polishing or applying finishing on some areas of a product that wont be seen by the customer. 9. Knowledge Disconnection This is when information or knowledge isnt available where or when it is needed. This might include information on correct procedures, specifications, ways to solve problems, etc. Lack of correct information often leads to defects and bottlenecks. For example, unavailability of a mixing formula may potentially suspend the entire process or create defective items due to time-consuming trial-and-error tests. What kinds of companies benefit most from lean? Lean is most widely used in industries that are assembly-oriented or have a high amount of repetitive human processes. These are typically industries for which productivity is highly influenced by the efficiency and attention to detail of the people who are working manually with tools or operating equipment. For these kinds of companies, improved systems can eliminate significant levels of waste or inefficiency. Examples of these companies include wood-processing, garment manufacturing, automobile assembly, electronic assembly and equipment manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing is also appropriate in industries for which it is a strategic priority to shorten the production cycle time to the absolute minimum as a source of competitive advantage for the company. Recently, some companies in Vietnam have actively conducted training and implemented lean methods to eliminate process inefficiencies. This resulted in an improvement to their production and service lead times. For example, Toyota Ben Thanh, a service center of Toyota in Vietnam, has implemented lean methods to significantly reduce the process time for its automobile maintenance service from 240 minutes to 45-50 minutes per car, and as a result, increased the total number of cars processed at each service center from 4-6 cars up to 16 cars per day. Toyota Ben Thanh achieved significant reductions in the process lead time by successfully eliminating unnecessary waiting time, inefficiencies of physical motions and process flow. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon, 2004) Objectives of Lean Manufacturing Lean Manufacturing, also called Lean Production, is a set of tools and methodologies that aims for the continuous elimination of all waste in the production process. The main benefits of this are lower production costs, increased output and shorter production lead times. More specifically, some of the goals include: 1. Defects and wastage Reduce defects and unnecessary physical wastage, including excess use of raw material inputs, preventable defects, costs associated with reprocessing defective items, and unnecessary product characteristics which are not required by customers. 2. Cycle Times Reduce manufacturing lead times and production cycle times by reducing waiting times between processing stages, as well as process preparation times and product/model conversion times. 3. Inventory levels Minimize inventory levels at all stages of production, particularly works-in-progress between production stages. Lower inventories also mean lower working capital requirements. 4. Labor productivity Improve labor productivity, both by reducing the idle time of workers and ensuring that when workers are working, they are using their effort as productively as possible (including not doing unnecessary tasks or unnecessary motions). 5. Utilization of equipment and space Use equipment and manufacturing space more efficiently by eliminating bottlenecks and maximizing the rate of production though existing equipment, while minimizing machine downtime. 6. Flexibility Have the ability to produce a more flexible range of products with minimum changeover costs and changeover time. 7. Output Insofar as reduced cycle times, increased labor productivity and elimination of bottlenecks and machine downtime can be achieved, companies can generally significantly increased output from their existing facilities. In a 2004 survey by Industry Week Magazine, U.S. companies implementing lean manufacturing reported a median savings of 7% of Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) as a result of implementing lean (George Taninecz, 2004). We believe that the savings actually are higher for companies in Vietnam considering the higher levels of waste which they typically have compared to U.S. based manufacturers. Another way of looking at Lean Manufacturing is that it aims to achieve the same output with less input less time, less space, less human effort, less machinery, less material, less cost. When a U.S. equipment manufacturing company, Lantech, completed the implementation of lean in 1995, they reported the following improvements compared to their batch-based system in 1991: (James P. Womack; Daniel T. Jones, 1996) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Manufacturing space per machine was reduced by 45%; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Defects were reduced by 90% à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Production cycle time was reduced from 16 weeks to 14 hours 5 days; and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Product delivery lead time was reduced from 4-20 weeks to 1-4 weeks. Why Lean Consumption Now? While lean consumption would be a sensible idea in any era, we see several convergent trends that we think make it inevitable and indeed, a competitive necessity now. With the regulated economy steadily contracting, consumers have a broader range of decisions to make, from how to invest retirement funds, to what telecommunications provider to use, to what airline to fly at what price. The mass-producer uses narrowly skilled professionals to design products make by unskilled or semiskilled workers tending expensive, single-purpose machines. These churn out standardized products at high volume. Because the machinery costs so much and is so intolerant of disruption, the mass-producer adds many buffers extra supplies, extra workers, and extra space to assure smooth productionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. The result: The customer gets lower costs but at the expense of variety and by means of work methods that most employees find boring and dispiriting. (Womack, 1990 p 13). While on a tour of a large customer, Michael Dell saw technicians customizing new Dell computers with their companys standard hardware and software. Do you think you guys could do this for me? his host asked. Without missing a beat, Dell replied, Absolutely, wed love to do that.4 Within a couple of weeks, Dell was shipping computers with factory-installed, customer specific hardware and software. What took the customer an hour could be done in the factory in minutes, and furthermore, computers could be shipped directly to end-users rather than making a stop in the corporate IT department. This shortening of the value chain is the essence of lean thinking. Direct from Dell, (Catherine Fredman, 1999) Basic Principles of Lean Add Nothing But Value (Eliminate Waste) The first step in lean thinking is to understand what value is and what activities and resources are absolutely necessary to create that value. Once this is understood, everything else is waste. Since no one wants to consider what they do as waste, the job of determining what value is and what adds value is something that needs to be done at a fairly high level. Lets say you are developing order tracking software. It seems like it would be very important for a customer to know the status of their order, so this would certainly add customer value. But actually, if the order is in house for less than 24 hours, the only order status that is necessary is to inform the customer that the order was received, and then that it has shipped, and let them know the shipping tracking number. Better yet, if the order can be fulfilled by downloading it on the Web, there really isnt any order status necessary at all. To develop breakthroughs with lean thinking, the first step is learning to see waste . If something does not directly add value, it is waste. If there is a way to do without it, it is waste. Taiichi Ohno, the mastermind of the Toyota Production System, identified seven types of manufacturing waste, (2002 Poppendieck.LLC) Do It Right The First Time It is instructive to explore the origins of the slogan Do It Right the First Time. In the 1980s it was very difficult to change a mass-production plant to lean production, because in mass production, workers were not expected to take responsibility for the quality of the product. To change this, the management structure of the plant had to change. Workers respond only when there exists some sense of reciprocal obligation, a sense that management actually values skilled workers, and is willing to delegate responsibility to [them]. The slogan Do It Right the First Time encouraged workers to feel responsible for the products moving down the line, and encourage them to stop the line and troubleshoot problems when and where they occurred. ( Womack ,1990 p 99). A more appropriate translation of such slogans as Zero Defects and Do It Right the First Time would be Test First. In other words, dont code unless you understand what the code is supposed to do and have a way to determine whether the code works. A good knowledge of the domain coupled with short build cycles and automated testing constitute the proper way for software developers to Do It Right the First Time. (2002 Poppendieck.LLC) Center On The People Who Add Value Almost every organization claims its people are important, but if they truly center on those who add value, they would be able to say: The people doing the work are the center of:- Resources Information Process Design Authority Decision Making Authority Organizational Energy In mass-production, tasks are structured so that low skilled or unskilled workers can easily do the repetitive work, but engineers and managers are responsible for production. Workers are not allowed to modify or stop the line, because the focus is to maintain volume. One of the results of mass-production is that unskilled workers have no incentive to volunteer information about problems with the manufacturing line or ways to improve the process. Maladjusted parts get fixed at the end of the line; a poor die or improperly maintained tool is managements problem. Workers are neither trained nor encouraged to worry about such things. The truly lean plant has two key organizational features: It transfers the maximum number of tasks and responsibilities to those workers actually adding value to the car on the line, and it has in place a system for detecting defects that quickly traces every problem, once discovered, to its ultimate cause.9 Similarly in any lean enterprise, the focus is on the people who add value. In lean enterprises, traditional organizational structures give way to new team-oriented organizations which are centered on the flow of value, not on functional expertise. The first experiment Taiichi Ohno undertook in developing lean production was to figure out a way to allow massive, single-purpose stamping machines to stamp out multiple parts. Formerly, it took skilled machinists hours, if not days, to change dies from one part to another. Therefore, mass production plants had many single purpose stamping machines in which the dies were almost never changed. Volume, space, and financing were not available in Japan to support such massive machines, so Ohno set about devising simple methods to change the stamping dies in minutes instead of hours. This would allow many parts of a car to be made on the same line with the same equipment. Since the workers had nothing else to do while the die was being changed, they also did the die changing, and in fact, the stamping room workers were involved in developing the methods of rapid die changeover. Ohno transferred most of the work being done by engineers and managers in mass-production plants to the production workers. He grouped workers in small teams and trained the teams to do their own industrial engineering. Workers were encouraged to stop the line if anything went wrong, (a management job in mass production).Before the line was re-started, the workers were expected to search for the root cause of the problem and resolve it. At first the line was stopped often, which would have been a disaster at a mass production plant. But eventually the line ran with very few problems, because the assembly workers felt responsible to find, expose, and resolve problems as they occurred. Flow Value from Demand The idea of flow is fundamental to lean production. If you do nothing but add value, then you should add the value in as rapid a flow as possible. If this is not the case, then waste builds up in the form of inventory or transportation or extra steps or wasted motion. The idea that flow should be pulled from demand is also fundamental to lean production. Pull means that nothing is done unless and until a downstream process requires it. The effect of pull is that production is not based on forecast; commitment is delayed until demand is present to indicate what the customer really wants. Pulling from demand can be one of the easiest ways to implement lean principles, as LL Bean and Lens Crafters and Dell found out. The idea is to fill each customer order immediately. In mass-production days, filling orders immediately meant building up lots of inventory in anticipation of customer orders. Lean production changes that. The idea is to be able to make the product so fast that it can be m ade to order. True, Dell and Lens Crafters and LL Bean and Toyota have to have some inventory of sub-assemblies waiting to be turned into a finished product at a moments notice. But its amazing how little inventory is necessary, if the process to replenish the inventory is also lean. A truly lean distribution channel only works with a really lean supply chain coupled to very lean manufacturing. In addition to rapid, Just-in-Time information flow, Lean Software Development means rapid, Just-in-Time delivery of value. In manufacturing, the key to achieving rapid delivery is to manufacture in small batches pulled by a customer order. Similarly in software development, the key to rapid delivery is to divide the problem into small batches (increments) pulled by a customer story and customer test. The single most effective mechanism for implementing lean production is adopting Just-in-Time, pull-from-demand flow. Similarly, the single most effective mechanism for implementing Lean Development is delivering increments of real business value in short time-boxes. 2002 Poppendieck.LLC Optimize across Organizations Quite often, the biggest barrier to adopting lean practices is organizational. As products move from one department to another, a big gap often develops, especially if each department has its own set of performance measurements that are unrelated to the performance measurements of neighboring departments. For example, lets say that the performance measurement of a stamping room is machine productivity. This measurement motivates the stamping room to build up mounds of inventory to keep the machines running at top productivity. It does not matter that the inventory has been shown to degrade the overall performance of the organization. As long as the stamping room is measured primarily on machine productivity, it will build inventory. This is what is known as a sub-optimizing measurement, because it creates behavior which creates local optimization at the expense of overall optimization. (2002 Poppendieck.LLC) Lean manufacturing Automobile Industry Lean manufacturing is applicable to almost every industry and it is known that the initiators of this technique is TOYOTA by the name Toyota Production System, than this techniques became generalize and open for all with some modifications and named as Lean. We fully expect that lean manufacturing will give a competitive advantage to this industry. Automobile Industry of Pakistan Pakistan is a rising market for automobiles offers massive business and investment opportunities. The total involvement of Auto industry to GDP in 2007 was 2.8% which was expected to increase up to 5.6% in 5 years. Total gross sales of automobiles in Pakistan were Rs.214 billion in 2006-07 or $2.67 billion. The industry tax accumulated to Rs.63 billion in 2007-08 that the government has imposed on automobiles. There are 500 auto-parts producers in the country that supply parts to original equipment manufacturers. Auto sector presently, contributes 16% to the manufacturing sector which also is projected to increase 25% in the next 7 years, compared to 6.7% during 2001-02. Vehicles manufacturers directly employ over 192,000 people with a entire investment of more than $ 1.5 billion. At present, there are about 82 vehicles assemblers in the industry producing passengers cars, light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses, tractors and 2/3 wheelers. The auto policy is geared up to make an inv estment of $ 4.09 billion in the next five years thus, making a target of half a million cars per annum achievable. Pakistan has the highest number of CNG-powered vehicles in the world with more than 1.55 million cars and passenger buses, constituting 24% of total vehicles in Pakistan with improved fuel efficiency and conforming to the l

the outsiders :: essays research papers

"The Outsiders" is a story that deals with a conflict between two gangs, the "Greasers" from the East Side of town and the "Socs" from the West-side of town. This is a story that is told in the first person. This book took place in the early 1960’s.The mood of the story, in my point of view, was pretty misfortunate and is a tragedy, because when you think that it couldn’t get worse, it just did. Ponyboy Curtis is the one telling the story. The novel starts off, one day, as Ponyboy is walking home from a movie, he was about to get jumped and beaten by a gang of Socs, but at the last minute, his gang of greasers that includes his brothers Darry and Sodapop, who raise Ponyboy now that their parents have past away, the big tuff Dally Winston, innocent Johnny, and the loud and wise-cracking Two-Bit, show up to save him. The night after Jonny and Ponyboy went to the movies with Dally. They sat behind a pair of attractive Soc girls, whom Dally hits on very obnoxiously. After Johnny tells him to stop, Johnny and Ponyboy sit with the girls, Cherry and Marcia, and Ponyboy and Cherry finds out that they both have a lot in common. Ponyboy and Jonny sees Two-Bit there so they all sat together. As they are walking back to Two-Bit’s house so he could drive the girls home, they run into the girls’ drunk boyfriends. Cherry and Marcia agree to leave and go home with their boyfriends to prevent a big fight. Ponyboy got home very late, which made Darry very angry, but most of all worried. So sick and tired of having his brother critisizing and inspecting every little thing that he does, Ponyboy yells at Darry, which caused them to get in a bad argument. Being so furious Darry slaps Ponyboy across the face! In shock that his brother had slapped him, he ran out the door and meet up with Jonny, they left for the park. At the park Ponyboy and Jonny sees Bob and Randy, Cherry and Marcia’s boyfriends, with some of their Soc friends. One of the Socs held Ponyboy's head under the water of the fountain, and Ponyboy blacks out. When Ponyboy finally woke up he was lying next to Jonny. He looks to the side and sees a bloody corpse, it was Bob. To save Ponyboy, Johnny had to killed Bob. In the second third of the novel, so terrified, the only person that they thought that could help them was Dallas Winston.

Self-Concept Essay -- Self Concept

The Self-Concept is a complicated process of gaining self-awareness. It consists of mental images an individual has of oneself: physical appearance, health, accomplishments, skills, social talents, roles, intellectual traits, and emotional states and more –all make up our self-concept.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The development process begins at about six or seven months of age. The child begins to recognize â€Å"self† as distinct from surroundings. They stare at anything they see, including their own body parts; hands, feet, toes, and fingers. As they grow, their sense of identity expands through interactions with others –creating self-esteem levels that become the â€Å"booster† for the ability to interact. There are two theories that describe how interactions shape our self-views. One defines perceptions of the judgments of others called Reflected Appraisal. It is the notion of receiving supportive and nonsupportive messages. It states that positive appreciation and a high level of self-value is gain when supportive messages are received. In contrast, receiving nonsupportive messages leads to feeling less valuable, lovable, and capable. Everyone that you and I interact with influences these self-evaluations. Either from your past or from present –all shapes how you view yourself, especially from our significant others. The strength of messages from significant others become stronger and eventually affect the health, when they are nonsupportive; depression, for instance, leads to less physical activities that are necessary for a healthy body. However, the foremost important influences are our parents. Supportive parents raise children with healthy self-concepts. While nonsupporti ve parents raise an unhappy child who view his/her self in negative ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The other theory defines evaluation of ourselves in terms of how we compare with others, called Social Comparison. There are two types, superior or inferior comparison and same as or different from others. We compare by attractiveness, success or failures, intelligence, and it all depends on whom we are comparing ourselves with. For instance, an individual might feel inferior when compared with an inappropriate reference group. Therefore, he or she might feel inferior because she feels less of everything from the reference. Similarly, the opposite occurs when compared with an appropriate reference group.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In addition, we a... ... behavior. This means that self-awareness must also come into play. I will have to be concerned about the way I present my ideas, as well as my behavior; otherwise, it will be perceived negatively.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So far, my self-concept has changed positively and in time, it will improve (optimists). The only difficulty that I have been facing is the ability to defend myself against negative comments from others. Because of my thinking process speed, it takes time for me to acquire comments and how to say them immediately. In addition, I found that it is not necessary to give a response back to negative comments in order to defend yourself, except in courtrooms. Nonverbal expressions are also as powerful. For example, ignoring critical comments create a serious climate between you and the speaker –sending a message that the comment was unnecessary and offensive. But in some cases, verbal messages are necessary, such as that in debates over issues. In conclusion, I would have to say that what has been written are only a scratch on a big surface of interpersonal communication skills that I have learned from this class. This concept just happened to be the most important for improvement.

Ethics, values, and social responsibility Essay

In the finance field there are a number of ethical issues although many issues in this field are governed by law. Ethical issues in finance include individual conduct, financial institution operations and financial markets operations. In this field people are trained to perform different duties and thus finance ethics is diversified. However, the top five issues in this field include honesty and fairness, fraud, conflicts of interest, discrimination and information technology. Honesty and fairness in this field has raised much dispute. Because of the intense competition in the world, many people view the conditions in a business to be similar to those in a game of sport or war and thus anything is considered to be fair. On the other hand there are those who argue that not everything is considered to be honest and fair. This has therefore led to ethical issues in this field regarding what is ‘honest and fair’ and what is not. Conflicts of interest is mainly observed in situations where an individual is placed in a position of making a decision on whether to pursue personal interests or the interests of other individuals or business. Similar, it can involve an organization making a choice on whether to pursue own interests or the interest of the society. The issue concerning fraud primarily entails the disclosure of valuable information which is vitally important for security. It also involves misrepresentation of material evidence intentionally. There are several types of fraud and this may include; accounting, marketing and consumer fraud. Discrimination is an ethical issue which can involve an individual or a business. Some individuals or businesses abuse others by enticing them and exploiting them. In addition to that it may include issues regarding race, gender among others. To add to that there are some cases which involve price discrimination. In information technology, the issue entails the privacy and confidentiality of information on matters concerning the employees and consumers. Privacy and confidentiality is essential in this field however there may be some cases where it is not ensured. This has therefore led to ethical issues concerning what is privacy. In addition to that there are ethical issues which involve protection of intellectual property. Ranking The top five issues can be arranged in descending order as honest and fairness, conflict of interest, fraud, discrimination and information technology (College of Micronesia, n. d. ). Honesty and fairness are major issues since they affect all levels of an organization, and are much experienced by society. Furthermore, controlling this issue other issues will be taken care of. For instance, an organization which is honest and fair, issues concerning fraud, discrimination, conflict of interest and information technology are minimal. Analysis Honesty and fairness In the financial market fairness is taken to mean a level playing field for everyone. However, in most cases the playing field is unleveled and this can be attributed to issues concerning inequalities in the bargaining power, possession of information, resources available, among others. Inequalities in the bargaining power and resources are considered to be ethical only when used coercively and violate rights and obligations (Frederick, 2002). This implies that individuals or organization are only allowed to use their advantages in ways that are considered fair to others. Additionally, individuals can use their resources to acquire information which they are entitled to exploit to their advantage. This has made access to information an issue of investment thereby leading to inaccessibility to critical information by some individuals. To acquire information individual must invest adequate resources. Ethical issues arise over accessibility of information, how the information should be distributed to ensure equality. Fraud In sales concerning financial products like insurance policies, loans, mutual funds among others, application of ethical standards is a requirement. Hence businesses are given the mandate to ensure adequate material information is available. There are regulatory agencies which monitor prospectus for mutual funds, however, personal sales and advertisements can contain false or misleading information (Frederick, 2002). Additionally, this is an issue which has been observed in the stock market and in many businesses. Some individuals conceal valuable information to lure more customers to their businesses. For instance, in the stock market assets of a particular organization may be inflated or some of its liabilities may be concealed. This issue has led to large losses in many investment companies and to individuals (Frederick, 2002). Since assessing the risk and suitability for an investment has been made difficult with inadequate material information. Conflict of interest This is issue which is primarily observed in agents, fiduciaries and financial managers, in which the personal interest interferes with the interests of the organization or society. Agents and fiduciaries are given the mandate to act on behalf of others in exercising judgment, however, in cases where they stand to gain personally their judgments may be compromised. Additionally, financial managers are given the mandate to manage assets prudently and thus avoid using them for personal gains however, in some cases conflict of interest might occur. For instance, management buyouts whereby a group of managers take a public organization to be private are an ethical issue. This issue occurs mainly since the actions to be performed by an individual are not fully specified before the transaction and thus an individual is given a wide range of options. In addition to that they are not closely monitored and evaluated. This has led to huge losses being incurred by individuals and companies. For instance, some banks have collapse and this was attributed to rogue traders (Frederick, 2002). Discrimination This issue observed mainly in financial products and it involves abusive practices of selling such as flipping and twisting. In flipping one loan is replaced by another for generation of additional fees. While in twisting, insurance agents persuade their clients to replace the existing policy in order to get commission (Frederick, 2002). Some financial institution abuse poor individuals by offering them loans of high interest and by adding little values to lure them. Furthermore, in some institutions there are cases of discrimination in employment on matters concerning race and gender. Information technology Maintaining privacy and confidentiality of information in many business has been difficult because of the cost of technology. As technology advances it becomes more expensive to ensure privacy of employees’ and clients’ information. Furthermore, with the increase in number of people of accessing the internet maintaining privacy and confidentiality has become difficult. This has therefore led to loss of confident by the public since they cannot trust some organizations to protect their personal information. Solutions and recommendations The issue of conflict of interests can be addressed by closely monitoring individuals and by changing the structure of the relationship. For instance, the commissions can be focused mainly on performance of the client’s portfolios and not on the volumes of sales. Additionally, professionalism, trust and codes of ethics should be strongly emphasized in relationships in order to guarantee the confidence from the society. Fraud and discrimination issues can be solved in courts. There are laws which were put in place in place to protect people against abuse or discrimination. For instance, the Employment Act protects employees against discrimination and harassment. Furthermore, the pre-dispute arbitration agreement should be amended or individuals should avoid it. This agreement may have several advantages but denies adequate protection to investors. Maintaining privacy and confidentiality of clients’ and employees’ information require much funding. It is essential for organizations to invest more funds in acquiring knowledge and skills concerning privacy and confidentiality in the information technology. By ensuring privacy and confidentiality, public confidence will be build. Social responsibility is essential for ensuring ethical standards are maintained in the society. When making decisions, people should consider their effects to the society and to themselves. This will ensure that ethical issues are maintained. Additionally, since businesses cannot be trusted to maintain ethical standards, some laws have been passed to ensure social responsibility. For instance there are laws concerning consumer safety and environment protection. This is a step forward in ensuring ethical standards. Furthermore, there are some financial institutions which have developed and implemented strict policies that ensure ethical standards are adhered. For instance there are policies concerning privacy and confidentiality of employees’ and customers’ information. In conclusion, maintenance of ethical standards should not be the responsibility of an individual or an organization but should involve the whole society. By maintaining ethical standards the society and organizations will be protected from any harm and at the same time eliminate conflict. Even though ethical standards vary from one society to another, they should be understood and maintained adequately. Reference list College of Micronesia, (n. d. ). Code of Ethics. Retrieved June 18, 2009 from http://www. comfsm. fm/~dleeling/alo/personnel/code_of_ethics. html Frederick R. (2002). A companion to business ethics. Edition: 1. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 154-59.

Realism: “To Build a Fire” by Jack London

â€Å"To Build a Fire† by Jack London is the tragic tale of a man who becomes a victim of the relentless and unforgiving power of nature. Mirroring life as most people experience it, realistic fiction includes the daily challenges and tribulations of being human. Throughout the story, London creates irony through the main character, which adds to the bleakness that is realism. The main character in this story is a newcomer to the land who is oblivious to nature’s abilities. With little knowledge of what it’s like to be where he is, the man is practically clueless about what he is getting into.His eventual undoing is the result of using the little knowledge he has and overestimating his abilities, causing him to make foolish decisions. For example, an old-timer on Sulfur Creek had once cautioned him about how extremely cold it was; yet the man ignores the warning. Irony comes into play when the man walks along a creek trail, mindful of the dangerous, hidden spring s, and falls through a â€Å"safe† spot in the snow. The man knows to watch for concealed water spots, yet he steps in one unexpectedly, getting wet up to his shins.This incident is the first stumbling block in the road, which adds to the realistic feel of the story. Following the man’s every footstep is his loyal companion, a Husky dog. The dog is depressed by the extreme cold and knows that it is no time for traveling. The dog’s knowledge brings us to another ironic situation. The man carries on his way, disregarding the serious warning signs such as his frozen cheekbones, numbness, and pain. We expect a man to be smarter than a dog, but ironically the dog is the one who understands the severity of the temperature.The dog had learned at an early age that men make fire and seek shelter to survive. The fact that this man doesn’t do so is realistic in that it shows how humans don’t always make the best decisions. Most of the ironic situations in thi s story come from nature. The man gets a dose of the capricious nature of the universe when, after starting a fire, the life-sustaining fire is ironically put out by falling snow. The man starts another fire, but it too gets put out. In a desperate attempt to keep himself warm, he starts to run to heat up his body. However, he has no strength, and soon he stops to sit down.The man has done everything he can to survive, but it is to no avail. Nature takes control, causing him to fall into a deep, relaxing, deadly sleep. Nature contributes to the irony because even with all of the man’s knowledge, he is still helpless to natural forces. By accenting the essential parts of his story with irony, London directs the reader’s attention to the heartless indifference of nature. He illustrates and emphasizes realistic qualities through his clever placement of irony. To the reader, this helps to communicate a straight-forward example of human life as it really is.