In The Never-ending Search For Energy Sources, The Invention Of The St

"In the never-ending search for energy sources, the invention of the steam engine changed the face of the earth." (Siegel, Preface) The steam engine was the principal power source during the British Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The steam engine opened a whole new world to everyone. The steam engine maximized production, efficiency, reliability, minimized time, the amount of labor, and the usage of animals. The steam engine in all revolutionized the Eastern Hemisphere, mainly European society. What does revolutionize actually mean? It means that something such as the steam engine brought about a radical change in something, and this something is the European Society. The steam engine specifically brought about a radical change in work, transportation of goods, and travel. The invention of the steam engine revolutionized European society by enabling tasks to be done quicker, cheaper, and more dependably. The steam engine use throughout the several professions revolutionized numerous aspects of Western European Society. The first important use of the steam engine came in 1776. The steam engine was used to show the Cornish miners how successful it could be in removing the water from the mineshafts. This proved to be of great importance to the Cornish, because one of their biggest problems was the flooding of the mining shafts. (The Penetration of the Industry by Steam Power) The mine owners "worried...that the mines would have to be shut down unless water could be pumped out of the shafts." "The engine successfully raised water from the bottom of deep mines." (Siegel, 17) This saved the shutting down of the mines, which were essential to further the economy. Not only did the steam engine save the mines, it provided a method of mining that proved to be extremely quicker than the traditional techniques. One of the biggest incomes for the British was found in their textile industry. In th e textile industry, the domestic system presented many problems for merchants. They had difficulty regulating standards of workmanship and maintaining schedules for completing work. Workers sometimes sold some of the yarn or cloth in their own profit. As the demand in cloth increased, merchants often had to compete with one another for the limited amount of workers available in manufacturing, which increased merchants' costs. As a result, merchants turned increasingly to machinery, which was powered by the steam engine, for greater production and also turned to factories for central control over their workers. (Johnson, 30) The steam engine proved to be a reliable investment for merchants of the textile industries not only because it wasn't accident prone like humans and increased production by unimaginable amounts, but it also moved the company into a factory, which helped to urbanize life to the way we live it today. The steam engine was also used on the farm for several purposes. It was used extensively for deep plowing, cultivating, mole draining and ground clearing. "Great advances were also made in agriculture with the engines enabling greater acreage to come under the plough and production increased by the use of machines to do tasks formerly done by hand or by horses." (Johnson, 39) These steam engines allowed farmers to grow crops in abundance with minimal manual labor, which was an increase in quantity and quality productions since a machine and not a human was doing the work. Another great contribution of the steam engine was made in the iron/coal industries. Since iron was starting to be produced so rapidly, more coal was needed to keep the steam engines running. Since the coal mining industry had to keep up, steam power was used for the mining of coal, which proved to be much faster than customary methods. Because the steam engine was used to mine coal, and because "England had large deposits of coal to fuel the new steam engines, it enabled peopl e to use more machines and to build larger factories." (Industrial Revolution. Earth Explorer). More machines and factories using the steam engine meant more production, more reliability, and cheaper prices. The steel industry was also revolutionized through the use of the steam engine. Steel, smelted from iron, was beaten, rolled or shaped on steam-powered machines. This steel became very cheap, and was able to be

Foe or Friend essays

Foe or Friend essays There was onceWhen I first enrolled for this class, I had no idea that we would discuss topics that effect everybody in the class in one way or another. This class is good because it allows each student to debate where he or she stands on a subject. Every aspect that we covered will impact my life. The movies we watched gave us an opportunity to listen, watch, and take in the experiences of others. The journals were windows into the thoughts and feelings of the students that the professor looked into to monitor the students progress. And it was relaxing to sit in a comfortable chair while we learn. For me, the most important subject that we covered was persona that the media gave off as being the ideal girl or the perfect guy. The media portrays them as having a tiny waist and ample breast or six pack with bulging muscles. Like when we discussed what the opposite sex is looking for in each other, I went home and made my own list: and then compared to my girlfriend. ...

Planning and assessing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Planning and assessing - Essay Example tion criteria of the best learners, provide a mechanism of evaluation of learners through a given program and motivate and encourage the learners in their undertaking (Armitage et al, 2012). There has been a rise in debate about the relevance of assessment in education, why can’t students be allowed to handle education matters on their own? It is the question frequently asked by those who propagate against assessment in education. However, assessment can be connected to a wide range of stakeholders. Parents, the government, education institutions and the learners themselves need to know the level and magnitude of their performance. No one will want to incur huge costs on learning and does not feel contented with the resultant service being offered. Thus, teachers and other stakeholders have to come up with techniques which will depict the rate of performance of the learners. According to Tummons, assessment is not only an attribute which is undertaken by the learners, but it is also an approach which boosts the morale of the learners in their studies. For instance, when a learner is able to take, a continuous evaluation test, they will tend to work harder each time another paper comes up. This is more positive as compared to situations where the learners are not subjected to any assessment. The effectiveness of the evaluation process underlies under those who engage in the whole cycle. Individuals who introduce the mechanism have to be properly equipped to handle any challenges that may arise in the process; in addition the process has to be friendly (Tummons, 2007). The assessment encompasses three approaches, it commences with the formative assessment to interim assessment to summative assessment in the whole period of the learners in a particular grade. The main purpose of superimposing all the three in the curriculum is to offer a wide platform of learning. For instance, it will aid the students to have a wide scope of learning; formative and intermediate

Managerial account decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managerial account decision making - Essay Example st 2008 financial crisis, the company began focusing on lean practices reducing time and cost in several of its processes and its outcome, subsequently, reflected in its annual reports right from 2009 through 2013. Starbucks is facing stiff competition from McDonalds Corp and Dunkin’ Brands Inc. The paper aims at exploring how Starbucks has been able to carve a niche through lean approach in the market place. As such, lean production is a new buzz word among companies vying for a place in a highly competitive arena. Toyota, a popular Japanese auto manufacturer, is known to have pioneered the lean approach in their operations successfully. Taking clue from it, Starbuckss management focused on lean approach aiming at not only on waste reduction but also on how to reduce time on several processes. (Yunos, 2013). Carter(2014) argues that lean thinking firm focuses on customer value enhancement through carefully choosing work processes. That means lean thinking takes a diversion from the traditional approach eliminating non-value added activities such as procedures, policies in their work flow. In a lean company, the most important parameter to consider is time. That means the lean organization focuses on time reduction methodologies. Work must flow continuously and uninterruptedly so that the cycle time of the entire value stream is reduced and throughput enhanced. Traditional firms focus only on crucial operations – all hidden or less important operations are neglected. However, in this process, less important operations interrupt the flow of work increasing customer lead time. Not only more time is consumed but cost also increases. Lean organizations create and share information among employees and assess performance by measuring the cycle times and lead times of all activities. Jargon, (2009) argues that Starbucks Corporation began its business as the anti-fast food outlet. Scott Heydon, the Vice President of the company, is a major force behind lean thinking

Business Environment Analysis of British Airways Essay - 1

Business Environment Analysis of British Airways - Essay Example The assessment of the external environment is conducted in reference to its impact on British Airways. For the purpose, the range of strategic management tools has been employed. British Airways (BA) is a private limited company is renowned airline that has recently celebrated 90 years of existence in the year 2009. It is one the leading premium airlines of the world and the largest airline of UK and covers around 400 destinations across the world (British Airways, 2013). The business model of BA is based on the revenue generation from the passenger as well as cargo delivery services. With the long rich history and experience, BA has become one of the leading airlines that have extensive scheduled flights and network of airline. Additionally, it is a comprehensive list of joint agreements, franchise partners and other defined codes that enables it to service wide network of stations (airports). Importantly, in the year 2010, BA merged into Iberia which is the largest airline of Spain (British Airways, n.d.). British Airways generate its revenue from the two basic sources including passenger revenue and the cargo revenue. For the year 2013, BA generated revenue of around  £ 10,129 million from the passenger revenue with the growth of 6.6% while the cargo revenue declined by 6.5% and generated  £ 689 million in 2013 as compared to 2012. The year 2013 was driven by considerable investment in the airline with constant focus on expanding customer base along with the cost reduction measure at effect (British Airways, 2013). This section of the report will produce the information related to the British Airways. The information will be specific to the business direction and future vision of the business along with impact of the external environment on BA and its response. The mission of British Airways, as reported in the marketing in magazine, is â€Å"to serve† (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2011).

Analysis of Global Corporate Strategies: Honda Case Study

Analysis of Global Corporate Strategies: Honda Case Study Introduction Honda may be the worlds leading automobile manufacturer, but the company is far more than cars. Some might assume that part of Hondas success came from its rich Japanese heritage and discipline, some might attribute the companys success to Hondas efficient and manufacturing and unique manufacturing system, which continues to turn out some of the industrys most impressive cars. However, thats only a very small part of the company strength. Managers who hope to emulate Hondas success must look beyond its administration and manufacturing system. The many pieces that comprise Honda from applications to management philosophies to products, combine to create a growth machine that is remarkably consistent. Therefore, this report is carried out to analyze the global corporate strategies adopted by Honda Motors and other world-class automobile makers. A) Compare and contrast the meaning of business level strategy and corporate level strategy in a global context. Business level strategy is a strategy that concerns developing competitive advantage. A firm must be able to supply a product or services more closely fitted to clients needs than rival firm. (De Witt and Meyer, 2004, pg. 667) By integrating and coordinating the sets of commitment and actions, a firm gains competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product market. In the Honda case study, it is clearly shown that Hondas strategy of right-first-time or build in quality give Honda the competitive advantage by going against the theory of the western management model which says that: high quality cost more and took longer, low cost meant low quality; fast delivery cost more and risked low quality. (De Witt and Meyer, 2004, pg. 667) By adopting the right-first-time strategy, Honda saves a lot of money and time due to the reason that less wastage will incur and also the save on the time of testing the product again after it was completed. With the money and time save d, Honda can concentrate on further research and development plans. Corporate Level Strategy on the other hand is mainly is concerned with what type of businesses the company should venture in to compete with the development and coordination of that portfolio of businesses. Corporate Level Strategy is made up of strategic plans at the highest organization and corporate level. It involves portfolio analysis, diversification and primary structure. It is not restricted to one particular area such as marketing, personnel, production/operational or financial implications, all the departments that were mentioned are all taken into consideration. For multi-business firms, corporate level established the allocation of resources such as cash, allocation of staff, equipments and other resources are being distributed. In addition, because market definition is the domain of corporate-level strategists, the responsibility for diversification, or the addition of new products or services to the existing product/service line-up, also falls within the realm of corpor ate-level strategy. The corporate level strategy that Honda adopted to venture in the automotive industry from a motorcycle manufacturer has shown result by being the top manufacturer in the world for economy and midsize cars, compact SUVs and midsize SUV. (http://google.mini20.com) B) Critically evaluate the process of reconciling dichotomies at Honda Motors with reference to the product-related core competencies versus process-related core capabilities dichotomy. The competitive advantage that Honda has over its competitors such as General Motor and Ford is its advanced internal combustion engines which can be found in all the various model of Honda Motors, which is an evident that Honda has successfully reconciled dichotomy. Let us take an example of the Honda case study, when all the players in the automotive industry are doing nothing to reduce pollutants due to the traditional view of pollutant can only be reduced by cleaning up the pollutant after combustion. Honda on the other hand did not believe on that view and after RD, came out with a CVCC (compound vortex controlled combustion) engine which will be able to reduce the pollutant in the internal combustion by lowering the maximum combustion temperature. At the same time, while its competitors do not believe in a car can be both fuel economy and engine power, again Honda do not believe in that and manage to introduce its VTEC (variable valve timing and lift electronic control) engine which in normal mode, the electronic controlled fuel injection system will control the fuel thin mixture which provide economy; while accelerating, the electronic controller will then allow a fuel rich mixture to provide significant more power. On the process related core capabilities, Honda has sought to combine the advantages inherent in what have normally been seen in the West as dichotomous. It is a norm for automotive manufacturer to produce with the traditional chain driven line which is controlled by a centralized system in the assembly line, which need very little skilled workers, what they needed is those workers that can obediently follow the instructions given to do the same job repeatedly to cut down on the cost of production. Honda on the other hand sees things differently. It has experimented on the free flow system which allows the worker to control the unit that is going to be assembled. The worker will confirm that the unit is in satisfactory condition before it will be sent to the next assembly point. That way, the cost of retesting the unit in later part will be eliminated. In addition to that, workers could be given a sense of control over the production process since they could make the decision that th e task has been carried out properly and should be sent to the next assembly point. In this way, efficiency and dignity can be combined. Again Honda has did things differently by over turning the traditional Western thinking that both efficiency and dignity could not exist at the same time. Another example of Hondas success is the production planning. Unlike its competitor which, completely adopting the large lot mass production production line system which, means that the production is organized to produce thousands of identical or virtually identical products in a row or series. In this system, at the expense of the product variety, cost reduction is achieved. Honda on the other hand, planned its production on a batch basis. Even though it is still implementing the large lot mass production, it had developed a small batch production system. With the system implemented, the units are sent down the assembly line in batches in which each vehicle is exactly the same including its colors. Workers therefore execute exactly the same task for each batch. Components are delivered to the assembly line in batches which exactly match the vehicles they will be fitted into. The objective is to combine the advantages of large lot mass production (simpler logistics and quality contro l, less error, and easier to program schedule) and small lot production (ability to offer a wider range of products to customers and greater worker involvement and satisfaction). Question 2 A) Too much Debt and Risk of Bankruptcy Mergers and acquisitions do not always benefits a company that initiates it. It will be very costly for a company if the decision of MA is made wrongly. Lets take Proton in Malaysia and QQ in China as an example; both are vehicle manufacturer in their respective country. QQ is not doing very well in China, but Proton is eyeing on the huge low cost vehicle will have in China market. Proton hopes to get into the huge low cost vehicle market in China by merging or acquiring QQ. The first obstacle could incur is the high legal expenses. Proton paid a huge amount of money for the legal expenses to acquire QQ and right after that the amount of debt that QQ is carrying will be transferred under Protons custody. Investment on RD is the next step in order to produce the right type of vehicle for the low cost vehicle market in China which may take a long time to develop, and then followed by the advertising and promotion. All the steps that were mentioned earlier will require a big amount of f unds that it is impossible for Proton to have. The only alternative is to seek back up from finance company. Adding up the debts that QQ is having previously and the exposure of Proton from the finance company, the debts are too much for Proton to handle. If the ROI was not realized as what Proton has forecasted, Proton will have a very high risk of being sued bankruptcy by the finance company or the debtors. B) Potential for Product Synergies It has long been viewed that product market synergies are key drivers of mergers. Mergers are a quick way to potentially increase product offerings if synergies arise from asset complementarities. One important dimension of synergies is the ability of merging firms to create new products and differentiate themselves from rivals when merging firms have complementary assets. Rhodes- Kropf and Robinson (2008) model similarity and asset complementarities as a motive for mergers but do not present direct evidence of their importance. In competitive markets, mergers are a quick way to potentially increase product offerings to increase product differentiation if synergies are important. Thus, firms may have incentives to merge with _firms that have different skills or technologies that increase the ability to introduce new products through synergies. However, because acquirers may be better at managing similar products due to managerial expertise and familiarity, mergers offering greater pr oduct similarity can also add value. There is thus a tension between merging with a firm whose product is very similar, and a firm whose skills or technologies are different enough from rivals to help differentiate the acquirer. C) Access to New Technologies and Emerging Markets Benefits such as access to new technologies and emerging market generate cost efficiency by having economies of scale and gain in market share can be obtained from having MA. For example, Chinas Chery and Japans Mitsubishi. If MA were to happen between this 2 company in 2 different country, it will be a win win situation for both parties. Firstly, Chery as a new player in the automobile industry would not have the technology to manufacture high performance engine, but by having MA Mitsubishis technology is accessible by Chery, in order to make sure that even Chery is a Chinese company but owns Mitsubishi technologies in its engine. It is very crucial to portray the image of Chery as a China product with Japans technology to ensure that a larger market share can be captured in China itself. Secondly, if Mitsubishi wanted to venture into China which is an emerging market it would not be easy due to the cost issue. To set up a manufacturing plan in China is the only way to deliver the v ehicle to the customer in the fastest way, but by doing that if the demand for their vehicle is not what Mitsubishi has forecasted, the will be in the financial upset stage. Therefore, by having MA, Mitsubishi can train the local staff to be more skillful to handle their assembly job. All they have to do is send in the parts for the local employees to assemble. In that way, the cost of operating a manufacturing plant can be eliminated and will be able to meet customer requirement of a shorter time to receive the vehicle that they have ordered. Question 3 A) Using information from relevant literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and appropriate examples from global automotive makers and suppliers; explain the impact of CSR on organizational performance in both financial and non-financial areas. CSR is defined as open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for the community, employees, the environment, shareholders and other stakeholders, in short is a form of corporate regulation integrated into a business model. CSR basically do not take into consideration that how a firm spends it money but what is the way used by the firm to make money. In financial areas for those who are in the automotive industry, the most impact that CSR will create lies within the environmental issue. All of us that are living in todays world are talking about environmental friendly. As all of us know that while fuels are burned to create energy to move a vehicle, it will create pollutant to our environment. Therefore, those who are in the automotive industry must seriously take this factor into account to improve on the technology of the engines to reduce the amount of pollutant being release by vehicles into our environment. In order to do that, it will req uire RD, and that will automatically require a lot of funds to be invested in. To recap on the above phase of what is the way used by the firm to make money, the way used by the firm to make money in this case is environmental friendly by investing in RD so that the engine will release lesser pollutant to be more environmental friendly. In addition to that, for those loyal and skillful staff, the company should send them for training in Head Quarters for their carrier advancement. That will at first cost funds from the company but once they are back from training, their productivity and skill will be improve and in other words will transfer into profit for the company. As for the non-financial areas, those companies which put weight on CSR will have a better reputation among the end user. For example, Honda organizes a one day activity for all his staff to help clean up the city or organize tour to visit old folks home and orphanage. As an end user, I will have a feeling that even t hough Hondas final objective is to make money but it did have the consideration to give it services back to the society. B) Compare and contrast Japanese and Western strategic leadership model by reference to Table 5 in the Honda case study. Explain which of the two model you prefer, and why? There are 2 different kinds of management models in the Honda case study. Let us now compare the 2 models and later part decides on which model is more suitable for todays business. Let us compare the two models by the category. In Western management system, the work process model shows that its employees are categorized in the are those employee who just do their daily job but do not have a thought of how to improve on their job and they poses no skill to do their job. The Japanese on the other hand will have workers that are the thinking type and are multi-tasking. The production organization and logistics in the western management model will produce large lot production and just in case logistics and uses the push system; where as the Japanese will only have small lot production and just in time logistics and uses pull system. In the organization, westerners practice vertical type of management, fragmented duties and individually responsible for the action they have done. Japanese on the other hand practice horizontal type of management, broad duties and the group will be responsible even if the actions are cause by individual doings. As for the labor relations, the westerners will be more on job control focus, cross-company unions and hire and fire. Unlike the westerners, the Japanese emphasize on employment condition focus, enterprise unions and job for life. In the industry organization set up, western management model separates firms and have a distant inter-firm relations. The Japanese on the other hand believe in Keiretsu families and close inter-firm relations. Overall, the western management model is based on mass, standardized and fordist; where as the Japanese is lean, flexible and post-fordist. In my opinion, both of the model has its pros and cons. Therefore, the best thing to do is to integrate both of them. For example, a firm should implement horizontal management style to allow more communication but individual for responsible so that employees will have the motivation to work hard to climb up the corporate ladder which will create value for the firm. For production and logistics, both large lot production and small lot production can be integrated so that no wastage of time if some of the parts are not supplied on time. When comes to labor relations, the firm should also uses both hire and fire and job for life. Hire and fire for those bad workers and job for life for those who is good and loyal. Therefore, no single management style is suitable for all kind of business. The important thing is to customize the theories to the type that best fits the business.

Tariffs always cause a net welfare loss :: Economics

Tariffs always cause a net welfare loss Explain and critically evaluate this statement. In this essay, I will be discussing the impact of protectionism, in focus, the impact of tariffs, import duties. As well discussing the overall effect on welfare from the tariff, the gainers and the losers will need to be identified. I will illustrate this diagrammatically. I will then move to discuss the value of the optimal tariff imposition. As well as discussing the first best argument, I will also look at the value of second best arguments, examining whether or not tariffs do always cause a net welfare loss. A tariff requires the importer to pay a given fraction of the world price to the government. This protects domestic producers by raising the world price well above the domestic price; this of course has a downside for the consumers. A tariff works like a tax from the consumer's perspective: there are transfers from the consumers to both the government in the form of revenue and to the producers in the form of higher profits. This can be illustrated effectively by looking at Figure A, it shows the demand and supply curves for the home economy, Pa is the point where there is no trade, where supply meets demand. Pw is the world price for the commodity, the point of free trade and Pw + t is the price plus the tariff. We can see that during free trade, at Pw the home economy should import (Qf - Cf) but when a tariff is implemented this means they will import (Qt - Ct). As we can see from Figure A, the government will gain the revenue from the tariff, area B. The price rise in imports means that there is a reduced demand for them and increased demand for domestic producers. This results in a gain for the producer, area E. The loss for the consumer, area C, this is where consumption is cut when Cf moves to Ct. Area A, is also a loss area, as when production increases from Qf to Qt production is inefficient, over the world price so this area is the extra cost that the economy pay for producing the good at home. We can summarize these gains and losses we can see that there is indeed a net loss for welfare: B - (E+A+B+C) + E = - (A-C). So are there any valid 'justifications' for the imposition of tariffs. The strongest argument (some would say the only) in favour of a tariff comes with the recognition that a domestic economy imports such a significant supply of the world market for a commodity that an