Analysis Of Financial Fair Play - 1087 Words

With the number of clubs which have participated in the UEFA competition over the past 12 years, a sample size of 6 teams will be selected for this dissertation. These clubs who must abide by Financial Fair Play regulations to participate in their competitions are Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham. It is also important to note that all clubs selected in this analysis has expense greater than â‚ ¬45 million, as UEFA’s break-even rule is subject to an exception of an acceptable deviation up to â‚ ¬45 million if the shortfall is covered by equity investment. As the Financial Fair Play has been in existence since 2010, financial statements and balance sheets for the selected clubs and the league have been†¦show more content†¦3.4.1 Profitability The Financial Fair Play draws attention to the reported losses made in European football over the past fifteen years. As football started to grow at an exponential rate, the losses started to mount also. As far back as the early 2000s, several clubs football clubs went bankrupt and faced administration while dealing with huge substantial losses. Prior to the season before the financial fair play was introduced, it was noted that 12 out of the 20 clubs reported an overall loss. This led to the Premier League pre-tax losses reaching an all-time unwanted record of  £445 million in 2009/10 and a debt around  £3.1 billion in 2008/2009 (Deloitte, 2011). The profitability of the league and its clubs in relation to the Financial Fair Play is determined by the profit and loss accounts (relevant income minus relevant expenses) which aligns with UEFA’s requirement for clubs to break even and improve their profitability. Another two objectives of the regulations mentioned previously also relate to profitability; which are:  ¥ encourage clubs to compete within their revenues  ¥ introduce more discipline and rationality in club football finances Therefore, this dissertation will discuss the following hypothesis below: 1. Hypothesis (H1): The Premier League and its clubs’ overall profitability improved since the arrival of Financial Fair Play. 3.4.2 Negative Equity NegativeShow MoreRelatedResearch On The Financial Performance Of The English Premier League801 Words   |  4 Pagesexamine whether the financial performance of the English Premier League and the sampled clubs improved after UEFA introduced their Financial Fair Play regulations. This led to the comparison of the results for the league in general and individual clubs over a ten-year period (2004 – 2015). 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(2011) analysed benefactors influence on industry competitiveness; then Madden (2012) studied i mplications towards the economic stability of the industry; then Franck Lang (2012) observed growing trend towards riskier strategic investments amongst ‘sugar-daddy’ owned clubs; and finally the possible outcome of new UEFA’s ‘Financial Fair Play’ regime (aimed at reducingRead MoreImpact of the Presence of Sugar Daddies in the European Football Industry950 Words   |  4 Pageshierarchy where national competitions are seen superior over the domestic league competitions; competitiveness in terms of promotion and relegation; lack of entry barriers to the lowest level of competition; competitive and mobile labour market; financial negotiations and transactions between clubs, players and sponsors (Szymanski, 2003; Holt, 2009). Players are seen as the most important asset for the football club in terms of exploiting their playing talent; creating competitive advantage; and achievingRead MoreThe Financial Fair Play ( Ffp )1601 Words   |  7 Pagesse en itself undergoing a paradigm shift in the past decades. As European football grew into the gigantic monolith it is today, an inflow of money found its way into the coffers of the Union des Associations Europà ©ennes de Football (UEFA). The Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations were initiated in principle to create a level playing field between clubs owned by business tycoons and those who are a bit more moderate in comparison. It is a sad sight that today, European club football is in truth, nothingRead MoreFactor Analysis Of Information Risk878 Words   |  4 PagesFactor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) is a framework for understanding, analyzing and measuring information risk (Violino, 2010). 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Jeff Bezos - 2142 Words

12th of May2012 | MBA | | Presented to: Dr. Margaret M. Hopkins Presented by: Mariam Medhat F. Gerguis Email: mariam.medhat@minamark.com | [the Jeff bezos leadership case study] | Implementing the values he holds, his Emotional intelligence competencies, his use of the Mc. Clelland s theory of motivation, his vision and my personal thoughts of him as a leader. | Jeff Bezos case study Jeff Bezos, the leader, had a wide set of values that he obviously followed in all the different decisions he took. The clearest ones are that he is creative, ambitious, broad minded, adventurous, courageous, intellectual and helpful. He has been creative as he thought out of the box and used some statistics about the internet usage rate†¦show more content†¦. . . If you don t have a willingness to be misunderstood for a long time, then you can t have long term orientation. Also in the Inc.com interview he says I am very optimistic. I am generally a very happy person. And you have to be stubborn and focused. And Entrepreneurship is really more about the state of mind that it is about working for yourself. He also showed a great deal of knowing what he really wanted when he was asked in the interview by Kevin Maney if he had a list for his spouse he replied I kind of did. I wanted a woman who could get me out of a third world prison. It was really just visualization for resou rcefulness, because people who are not resourceful drive me bananas. He knew himself, and knew what he wanted in life whether business or personal life, a quality I admire. Also he had a good deal of self assessment. In the Harvard Review page 80 he answered I think most big errors are errors of omission rather than errors of commission when asked about what he believes to be his mistakes. This indicates a wide array of self assessment sessions that he does. Fortune interview showed how Bezos admits wrong decisions, which is a crucial part of self assessment when he said We were investors in every bankrupt. . . . it didn t take us off our mission but it was a waste of capital. Other than being generally clear in all interviews with Bezos, his self-confidenceShow MoreRelatedJeff Bezos1090 Words   |  5 Pageshave attached my CEO Analysis as you requested for Business Rhetoric class. The document provides a biography of Jeffrey Bezos CEO of Amazon, along with an analysis of his vis ionary leadership style. My initial interest in Bezos stemmed from a personal interest in ecommerce business and start-up business leadership. After much research I have concluded that Jeffrey Bezos’ visionary leadership style consists of three main characteristics. 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The efforts used in the production function of the company, the innovation strategies and challenges in safeguarding these ideas along with the new technology tactics that Amazon has introduced into the markets, the increase or decrease of its productRead MoreJeff Bezos : Leadership And Management1848 Words   |  8 Pages1 JEFF BEZOS: GREAT LEADER 2 2 JEFF BEZOS: GREAT LEADER Jeff Bezos: One of The World?s Greatest Leaders SSG Ashley M. Moore University of Louisville Dr. Bradley Carpenter ELFH 490-91: Leadership and Management May 15, 2015 Jeff Bezos: One of the World?s Greatest Leaders I designated Jeff Bezos as my great leader because of how he built his company, Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos captured a passion that he realized he had at a very young Read MoreThe Leadership Qualities Of Jeff Bezos Essay737 Words   |  3 PagesPreston â€Å"Jeff† Bezos born in 1964. He is a founder and CEO of amazon, online products selling business. He started amazon.com in1994. Bezos is also interested in another business like aerospace and newspapers. In 2013, he purchased Washington Post for $250 million (1). He runs his business by accuracy and efficiently with his unique leadership qualities. Every business leader has its own leadership qualities to run the business .This paper shows Jeff Bezos what type of leader he has. So from Jeff BezosRead MoreJeff Bezos: Qualities of an Effective Leader569 Words   |  2 Pagesto lead and have goals that extend further into long-term visions. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon is good example of such Effective Le adership Characteristic. He is a technology entrepreneur who has played a major role in the area of e-commerce, an online merchant of books in the initial stages and later expanded to wide range of products. Under his leadership, Amazon.com became the largest online retailer on the World Wide Web. Jeff Bezos’s secret of Success lies in his passion towards â€Å"Customers andRead MoreBiography Of Jeff Bezos, Founder Of Amazon.com1034 Words   |  5 PagesJeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1964. Her mother, Jackie, is a teenager when ia born ITU Women And he only married his biological father WITH approximately a year. He has been married WITH Mike Bezos if Jeff is four deep. Mike was also a man who fled to Cuba UNITED States when she was fifteen. He put Himself through college in New Mexico and finally Being An engineer at Exxon. Jeff attended Miami Palmetto High School and is a class Valedictorian. He wentRead More Jeff Bezos: The Founder of Amazon.com Essay497 Words   |  2 Pages Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1964. His mother, Jackie, was in her teens when he was born and she was only married to his biological father for about a year. She married Mike Bezos when Jeff was four years old. Mike was a Cuban who escaped to the United States when he was fifteen. He put himself through college in New Mexico and eventually became an engineer at Exxon. Jeff went to Princeton and studied electrical engineering and computer science. HeRead MoreOrganization Overview : Amazon And Jeff Bezos2266 Words   |  10 PagesOrganization Overview Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos are great leaders. Amazon.com is a leader in online retail, but that is not all that they do, which will be expanded later on. Jeff Bezos is one of the top leaders in the world, but that is not the only reason why I chose him for this analysis, it is because he has build Amazon.com from the ground up for 22 years. Organization Description Amazon.com headquarters is based is Seattle, Washington, which Washington was where Amazon was incorparatedRead MoreLeadership in the Organization: Jeff Bezos and Amazon Essay1701 Words   |  7 PagesAmazon the Beginning Jeff Bezo’s began Amazon in his garage in July 1995 with three Sun workstations setting on wooden doors for tables and extension cords running from everywhere (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Right from the beginning he was a visionary leaving his well paying job as a senior vice president with D. E. Shaw to begin Amazon.com (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Being the visionary that he is he saw an opportunity prompted by the huge growth rate of internet use in a single year

Introduction to Consumer Behavior

Question: Write about theIntroduction to Consumer Behavior. Answer: Introduction The psychological pressures that the consumers go through for satisfying their needs and wants is known as consumer behavior. Under the consumer behavior the consumers firstly recognize their needs and wants and they try to find out the ways to solve the needs and making the purchase decisions. Customer behavior is a wide field of study where al, other aspects and inclinations of markets have disappeared and the consumer behavior has come into force. Over the past years, marketing structure has altered from mere selling to consumer oriented sales and production hence consumer behavior has become the most essential and beneficial study in order to survive in this modern competitive era of selling. Due to these studies and research the prominence of customers has integrated. Consumer behavior is basically the study which provides an insight to how consumers make up their mind or take decision to spend their essential resources like time, money, efforts etc. The marketers then struggled to reach an answer about the way how consumers make a purchase(Stavkova, 2014). Ever since the knowledge of human behavior has come into hands of the sellers and marketers they have developed an in depth behavior detail of consumer behavior which helps them forecast the future purchase of an individual. The consumer behavior is one that has always been on the great interest for the marketers. The marketer having the knowledge about the consumer behaviors is able to understand how the consumers think, select the alternatives and feel about the products of the marketer. There are many factors that influence the buying behavior of the consumer, some of the factors includes: social, political, cultural and psychological factors(Annoynomous., 2007). Not all of these factors can be controlled many of these factors are beyond the control of an individual but they cannot be ignored and hence are required to be considered while trying to understand the behavior of the consumers. The study of various processes that are involved when there is a selection made by the individuals and groups to satisfy the wants and needs. While in the context of marketing the consumer refers to the purchasing activity along with the aggregate buying patterns that includes post purchase and pre purchase activities(Park, 2003). The post purchase activities includes evaluating the purchased item that is in use and reducing the anxiety that comes with the purchase of the expensive item and the items that are not bought on frequent basis. Whereas, the pre-purchase activity consists of the growth in the awareness of the need or want and searching the evaluation of the information that might satisfy the consumers. Consumer Personality Factors The decision making of the consumers is highly influenced by the two factors that is the innovativeness and risk aversion. The risk aversion is a measure is being satisfying the consumer about the item that they are purchasing. The consumers who are high risk adverse they need to be more certain about what is being bought by them. On the other hand the consumers who are less risk adverse can tolerate a little risk on the purchases that are being made by them. And then is the second variable that is the innovativeness that is concerned with capturing the global measures of the willingness of the consumers that are interested in taking chances in new ways(annoynomous, 2016). The Traditional Perspective on the Research of the Consumer Behavior As we have moved to the twentieth century we have come closer to the third millennium , there are various changes and developments taking place around us with the advancements of various industries and other things all over. While studying the consumer behavior according to the traditional perceptive there were various models that were being used for the same that were presented by the economists Some of the models that were being used in the traditional perceptive included trait, cognitive, motivational, situational and trait viewpoints(Gajjar, 2013). Traditionally there were various perceptive that were being used to study the behavior of the consumers some of the perceptive included; the rational perceptive, the behavioral perceptive, the cognitive perspective. Under the rational perceptive, the economists considered the consumer behavior in the terms of single purchase made by them and the post purchase reactions. According to the traditional theory of the economists it was held that the purchasing decisions are the result of conscious and rational decisions of the consumers. Thus according to this approach the goods and items that would provide more utility to the consumer would be having high probability of being purchased by him. Then, moving on to the next model that is the behavioral perspective that emphasized on the role of the external factors that were responsible for the decisions of the consumers. Thus, under this approach it was assumed that the consumer behaves in ascertain manner due to the impact of various external factors. The various external factors were responsible here for influencing, modifying and controlling the behavior of the consumers. Then comes the Cognitive perspective, this approach stresses more on the infor mation processing in the decision making of the consumers(Velayutham, 2016). This perspective often views the people as problem solvers that often use the information for mastering the environment. Factors Affecting the Consumer Behavior There are various factors that affect the behavior of the consumers. Some of the factors affecting the behavior of the consumer are: Social factors: Social factors are the other people or individual that affects the purchasing decisions of the consumers. These factors include the culture and the sub culture, social class, family and friends and reference groups. The effect of the culture on the behavior of the consumers is through the values and norms that are established by the society. This is one of the broadest environmental factors that influence the behavior of the consumer(Karvonene, 2005). Culture sets some of the loose boundaries on the consumers that affect the functioning of the consumers. Roles and Family There is a some positions that are occupied within the groups, organizations and family. The role is referred to as set of functions and the activities that is performed by a particular position. There are several roles and expectations of the individual. All these roles influence the buying behavior of the consumers. Need and Desire Another factor that influences the behavior of the consumer is the need and the demand of the consumers. If there will be need and desire within the consumer than that would directly affect his behavior towards anything(Chand, 2005). Mood Mood is one of the factor that affects the behavior of the consumer. The consumer behaves in a certain manner according to his moods. A sour mood often spoils the desire of the consumer to shop whereas the glum mood cannot be considered as something bad(Wright, 2006). Personal Factors There are various personal factors that affect the behavior of the consumers. Some of the personal factors include the self concept and personality of the individual. Personality is the personal disposition of a person that shows how a person behaves differently. Gender, Stage of Life and Age Though there are various demographic factors such as education, income and marital status that has an influence on the behavior of the consumer. So here the important factors like age, stage of life and gender also plays an important role in affecting the behavior of the consumers(Batra Kazmi, 2009). Lifestyle The kind of lifestyle an individual is living has a great bearing on the behavior of the consumer. If he is leading a good lifestyle than he would spend more as a consumer however if he is leading a mediocre life than he would spend less as a consumer. Traditionally there are three ways which influence a person to purchase something i.e. need, want and desire. Need is the basic necessity of an individual, organization or any other form of customer to live a healthy and good life. Need is basically something required because it is an entity which is very essential or important rather than just fascination. Need is a factor that comes within the purchasing capacity of an individual. It is considered as a psychological factor which motivates or influences an individual to work hard to achieve a goal, target or motive. Want is a desire to possess, wish or do something in order to accomplish a lack or deficiency in life. It is a wish or a craving that can be achieved by hard work or more dedication. It is something not that essential but a person is fascinated towards it. More is something very different from need but influences a customer to think about the purchase. Desire is considered as the most essential pillar of customer behavior. Desire is basically a longing, hop for a product or outcome. Desire in other terms is called craving. Desire inculcates a sense of longing for an object and a person is excited just by imagining the products existence in his or her life. Desire in response provokes a customer to make a purchase but desire is something really weak and out of the purchasing capacity of an individual. According to Thomas Hobbes, human desire is the fundamental motivation of all the human actions. According to the model of communication, marketers set up an image of the product in a consumers mind, the presentation and the definition of the features of the product in return achieve the effective response of the customer. This feeling of building up desire among the customers has lifted the manufacturers and the sellers attention from product to customers and now on the customer behavior. Desire fixes up motive for purchasing a product. According to the definition, motive is a strong feeling, urge, instinct, desire or emotion that makes the buyer to make a decision to buy, induce action or determine choice in the purchase of goods and services. Desire ultimately leads to two types of motives namely- Emotional product motive and, Rational product motive In emotional purchase a customer is influenced through emotions instead of logical and rational analysis. The factors which influence this human behavior are pride satisfaction, sense of ego, urge to initiate others and his desire to be unique. On the other hand, rational analysis comes from logical, rational and proper analysis. In this the customer behavior is influenced by factors like evaluation of purpose, alternates available, cost benefit and other valid aspects. Conclusion In consumer behavior, decision making process plays the final and most vital role. According to the theories available there are series of steps and objectives involved in this stage. The first step is called the Need Recognition where the unmet needs and desires are identified. In this step the intensity of want is directly proportional to the fulfillment of want. The consumer in return starts exploring, analyzing and comparing the information available about the product or entity. The consumers first check the brand which he finds credible. The consumer reaches to various sources for information and suggestions like neighbors, advertisements and family. In the step of information gathering numerous alternatives come into light and factors like brand image, company, distributions etc. are considered. Then these are decided upon and a choice is reached. After everything has been finalized, evaluated and settled the purchase is made. After the purchase has been made the consumer evalu ates the post purchase behavior to know the level of satisfaction. Desire influences a person to make a purchase keeping economic, financial and various other factors aside. Hence desire is one of the most relevant way to understand contemporary customer behavior. Bibliography annoynomous. (2016). Marketing Concept. Researchjournalis Journal of Marketing , 4 ( 2348-0947). Annoynomous. (2007). Factors influencing consumer behaviour. Batra, S., Kazmi, S. (2009). Consumer Behaviour-2nd. New DElhi: Excel Books. Chand, S. (2005). 5 Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour | Explained. Gajjar, N. (2013). Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior. / International Journal of Research In Humanities and Social Sciences . Karvonene, J. (2005). Factors Affecting Consumer Choice of Mobile Phones: Two Studies from Finland. Journal of Euromarketing . Park, H.-C. (2003). Identifying key factors affecting consumer purchase behavior in an online shopping context. International Journal of Retail Distribution Management. Stavkova, J. (2014). Factors influencing consumer behaviour. Faculty of Business and Economics . Velayutham, M. (2016). Consumer Buying Behaviour A Literature Review. Journal of Business and Management , 08-16. Wright, R. (2006). Consumer Behaviour. Canada: Jennifer Pegg.

Minerva Mirabal Essay Example

Minerva Mirabal Paper In The Time of Minerva Malabar In my tenth grade literature class this year I had the opportunity to read a book that I had never thought about reading. To my surprise, once I started reading I couldnt stop. The book was titled, In The Time of The Butterflies. This book spoke of four sisters who were just trying to survive. One of the sisters, however, decided she wouldnt Just survive, she would fight. This young woman was known as Minerva Miramar, the outspoken butterfly. How would you treat your half sisters and your fathers mistress? With hatred and anger Sibyl, or would you give them love like Minerva Miramar did? It takes a strong person like Minerva to do something as astonishing as this. A strong person that Is destined to change the world one life at a time, and she did Just that. Minerva Malabar Is the name of a woman that will always live on. She went through many different hardships and roadblocks, but she never stopped persevering. She was one of the people, who even dur ing Truffles reign of terror never gave up hope. Throughout Minerals time of rebelling people often forgot to look at Minerals life as a whole. Minerva Miramar was the daughter of a man named Unripe Miramar. She had three sisters, or so she thought. Half way through Minerals short life she found out about her fathers mistress and Minerals other four sisters. At first sight Minerva was outraged. She did not think that anything like this was possible. She even went as far as crashing her car into her fathers while he was at his mistress house. What she did next was even more astonishing. Minerva forgave her father. Forgiving her father was Just a little of what we know about Minerva Miramar. However, this Is enough to let us know what type of person she was. Minerva was the type of person that cared more for others than herself. We will write a custom essay sample on Minerva Mirabal specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Minerva Mirabal specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Minerva Mirabal specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Even when she was In Jail she made sure that all the woman had what they needed. Minerva constantly put others before herself. Once Minerva started to realize the predicament her father got himself in she started to help. If Unripe Miramar wasnt able to bring the girls money or other items Minerva would. Once Unripe died Minerva decided to enroll her younger sisters into school. Minerva wanted to make everything possible for the girls that was possible for her. She felt that it was her duty to make sure that the girls grew up right. It is amazing to think that even while Minerva was fighting Trujillo regime she would not give up on her family. She showed this by taking care of her sisters. Not Just the ones that she grew up with, but also the ones she barely found out about. This shows everyone how good of a person Minerva was inside and out. She was as gentle as a butterfly and Just as determined. I know that this essay does not do Minerva Malabar Justice. I Just hope that It gets people to start to understand. I want this essay to be the start of peoples understanding of the Marsupials. Once this essay is read I wish that the reader becomes as intrigued in the peoples minds every now and again.

Trayvon Martin Essays

Trayvon Martin Essays Trayvon Martin Essay Trayvon Martin Essay Essay Topic: Turtle Island On Friday, March 11, Japan was rocked by an earthquake. People were displaced, a nuclear reactor was in trouble, and the world watched as a tsunami flooded Japan, threatened the islands of the Pacific, and ultimately hit the western coasts of North and South America. Very little of the devastation resulting from this earthquake was from the initial shaking. But mainly because any damage from the seismic waves that was dwarfed by the impact of the 10 metre tsunami that hit the Japanese coast less than an hour later. Most of the reporting (both good and bad) that has been done on the earthquake, the tsunami, and the resulting fallout from both has focused on their effects on humans. But humans are just one species affected by these sorts of disasters. Slowly, a bit of information about various scaley, furry, or feathered critters has begun to trickle out of the affected areas. Kazutoshi Takami, a veterinarian at the Osaka Municipal Tennoji Zoological Gardens, reported last week that several zoos and aquariums were suffering shortages of gas, heater fuel, and food and drinkable water for humans as well as for animals.Also, according to Takami, the Fukushima Aquarium made plans to move their sea mammals and birds to Kamogawa Sea World. On Saturday, March 12, Pete Leary, a wildlife biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service who is stationed at Midway, blogged extensively on the tsunami and subsequent animal rescue operations: We had all 67 island employees/visitors up here watching the news on BBC and watching our tide gauge data over the internet. We saw that we had about a 5 foot rise in the tide gauge level, but were glad that we couldn’t see any water when we looked out the windows.After looking at a bit of the washover on Sand Island, and setting a crew to work on digging albatross chicks and petrels out of the debris, Greg and I took the boat over to Eastern Island. On the way, we passed thousands of albatross adults and petrels that had been washed into the water and lost their ability to stay dry. Their feathers weelfuelte re messed up by being tumbled over the island and through the vegetation. We pulled some into the boat, but needed to get to Eastern Island, so we had to hope that most of them would paddle to shore. Eastern Island was mostly washed over, so 10? s of thousands of chicks were washed away.I’ll have to look at our count numbers from Dec. to figure out how many chicks were in the affected areas. There were dead fish by the hundreds up in t he middle of the island. The short-tailed albatross chick must really be wondering what kind of place it lives in because it was washed away from the nest for the second time this year already. This time, it was about 40 yards away from the original nest. It was easy to spot because all the other chicks were washed away in a previous storm. I didn’t want to pick the chick up, because it was already stressed and upset, but the parents may not have found it that far from the nest.I put out a sheet of plastic and when it stepped onto it, I gave it a sled ride the 40 yards back to its nest. I hope that’s all the excitement that it has for the rest of the season. There were a lot of chicks and adults buried in debris (mostly dead vegetation). Greg and I were digging out stuck birds all day. We took our volunteers and some people from the visitors group over yesterday and dug out another hundred or so birds. We also found 2 turtles that were washed quite a way up onto the is land, which were then carried back to the beach and seemed glad to get back in the water.At least we didn’t find any injured Hawaiian monk seals or Laysan ducks. The seals were back resting on the beaches on Friday. What Can We Expect? While some of the reports are heartening, and many are devasting, more in-depth research into the short- and long-term effects of the tsunami on marine and coastal ecosystems will take much longer. But the 2004 magnitude 9. 15 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, and the resulting tsunami that rippled across the Indian Ocean have been extensively studied, and allow us to speculate regarding possible outcomes of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.The Wildlife Trust of India, along with the International Fund for Animal Welfare initiated several investigations[-gt;0] following the earthquake and tsunami to assess their impact on wildlife. Overall, they found that damage to wildlife populations was generally limited on the mainland, and slightly worse on the islands. Particularly hard-hit, however, were coral reef systems. Several beaches were washed away, and freshwater habitats were inundated with saltwater. While most of these ecosystems were eventually able to rebound, problems did occur.For example, one mainland wildlife sanctuary became flooded with saltwater and covered with sand, making is impossible for the various plant-eating ungulates (hoofed animals) to graze. Even worse, with seawater comes toxic pollution. According to the Wildlife Trust report: Other grave problems stem from the onslaught of seawater laden with sediments and toxins. Aquifers, the primary source of drinking water, have been contaminated by saltwater, raw sewage, oil, and other pollutants. On the coasts of Indonesia and Sri Lanka, paddies and farm fields are smothered under a crust of salt and silt.Some areas may never recover, for others irrigation and one or more rainy seasons may be enough to flush out the soil. For now farmers are being en couraged to plant salt-tolerant crops, like pumpkins and kale. In other areas, rather than covering plants with saltwater, the tsunami simply washed all plants away, making it possible for invasive species to take root, quite literally. The change in plant life wasn’t problematic for some species, such as the fan-throated lizard (Sitana ponticeriana), which were able to survive in the new ecosystem.Other species, surely, were not so lucky, but little information is available. And there were probably other invaders, as well. Furry ones. Large dead trees from distant islands were found washed up on mainland beaches. While there was no danger to beach ecosystems from the trees themselves, since they were dead, they may have carried some critters with them that would eventually colonize mainland coasts. It is well-known that rodents, reptiles, and insects are quite capable of setting up camp in new environments after rafting across the sea. [-gt;0] wildlifetrustofindia. org/pub lications/reports. htm

John Grisham - His Most Recent Releases

John Grisham - His Most Recent Releases Although  John Grisham gained popularity through legal thrillers, he has successfully branched out these past few  years. For a more up-to-date taste of his work, here is a short list of John Grishams most recent releases.   Gray Mountain Published on October 21, 2014, Gray Mountain  is about a Manhattan lawyer who spends a year in Appalachia after losing her job during the 2008 financial crisis. In the process, she learns a lot about small town culture. Eventually, she enters the courtroom for the first time in her legal career and has a  run in  with big coal that becomes dangerous. The Whistler Grishams most recent book, The Whistler was published on October 25, 2016. While judges are expected to be models of intelligence, honor, and impartiality, The Whistler tells the story of a corrupt judge who bends the law. With a plot that involves the mafia, whistleblowers, hidden identities, and danger, this book has all the ingredients to make a page-turning thriller.   Camino Island The prolific John Grisham will publish his 30th book in 2017, titled Camino Island. The story revolves around a set of handwritten F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts that get stolen and sold into the black market. The FBI, a secret agency, and a young writer all get involved in the investigation of these missing documents.   Fans will be excited to hear that Camino Island will be released on June 6, 2017. Dont want to wait? Check out this complete list of Grisham books  and see if you missed one of his earlier novels.

Global Enterprise and Innovation (in China) Essay

Global Enterprise and Innovation (in China) - Essay Example The legal condition of the country is extremely crucial factor which decides the foreign investment. For making a good investment situation there must be a reliable and efficient legal system and the system must be transparent. This will help the investors to perform their business activity without any concern. Despite the above factor several legal problems have been encountered in China which affects the foreign investment and business enterprises (Bulcke & Beule, 2010). The Legal Environment Affecting Business of China China has a good and established legal condition that encourages the foreign investment of different companies and protects their interest to invest in their country. By various rules, regulation, legislation and joint agreement the country has strengthened their legal systems. In order to spread their business in the whole world China is taking part in many global trade activities. For maintaining a good legal environment condition for business, China has repeatedl y modified the existing law and conducted new laws. Moreover, 30 government departments have changed their regulation towards law in approximately 2300 files. By these changes in law and policies on foreign investment activities China has steadily developed a legal environment which is convenient for foreign business interests. For implementing the law there has been a series of actions and procedures regarding the management, establishment, purchase, investment, reinvestment, liquidation, reform and termination of foreign company. By the help of those policies and guidelines, China seeks to attempt the foreign capital entry. In the year 2002 China established ‘Directory of Guidelines for Foreign – Capital Investment’ for motivating foreign company to invest in their construction industry, agriculture industry and technology industry and resource development sector. China also provided permit to the telecommunication industry, insurance industry, financial indust ry, service industry and foreign trade sectors. ‘The General Agreement of Science and Trade’ showed 142 services and business enterprises which are grouped under 11 activities. Foreign investors always want a sound legal condition because it allows high return on investment and they want a system which allows them to withdraw their investment capital according to their strategic plan. There are various methods by which the investor can withdraw their capital investment which are: initial public offer, equity transfer, management takeover, liquidation and purchase share back (Feng, 2010). The Political Environment Affecting Business of China Any country’s political condition has a significant impact on business. There are several factors which a country must consider if it wants to expand the business and investment of foreign companies because a political environment of a country is unstable and can change rapidly. The power of political party and government repr esent the opinion of the country’s citizen. The rules and regulations created by politician have great impact on business. Political condition creates advantages and also disadvantages for certain companies. For example, the policies of Chinese government drove out few U.S. technology

Esterline Technologies and Lean Manufacturing Case Study

Esterline Technologies and Lean Manufacturing - Case Study Example Tier-1 supplier status puts the business organization into a more advantageous situation, which gives it a higher bargaining leverage. On the other hand, it also highlights the company's current performance. Cremin notes that, Tier-1 status "means that you can handle the next biggest thing; you can be trusted, you're reliable, and you have financial strength." Lean manufacturing has been instrumental in the deployment and success of the strategy. Esterline recognizes that lean manufacturing is a system which helps it achieve its manufacturing goals of "lower cost, improve quality, and build competitive barriers to entry." 3. What are the key components of a lean system and how do they compare with components of traditional systems As you prepare your answers consider dimensions such as: supply chain management, process architecture (layout), metrics, material flow discipline, inventory management, key performance metrics, use of IT, employee involvement, quality systems, equipment maintenance, scheduling, links between product design and manufacturing, and other factors that come to mind. Lean system is a quest in maximizing the efficiency through the elimination of wastage in the manufacturing process in a business organization. ... supply chain management, process architecture (layout), metrics, material flow discipline, inventory management, key performance metrics, use of IT, employee involvement, quality systems, equipment maintenance, scheduling, links between product design and manufacturing, and other factors that come to mind. Lean system is a quest in maximizing the efficiency through the elimination of wastage in the manufacturing process in a business organization. The key components of a lean system are often in contrast in a lean manufacturing system. In a lean system, supply chain management is very much important as the flow of goods within the organization is highly organized. Close collaboration with suppliers through the use of IT is emphasized in a lean system. In a traditional system, this is not practiced. In a lean system, plant and equipment layout is by product flow using cels or lines for product families. In traditional system, plant and equipment layout is by department function. Inventory levels and turnaround are closely monitored in a lean system where inventory levels are kept as low as possible while turnaround is high. The contrast is applicable to traditional system. In a traditional system, employee input into how operation is performed is low. In a lean system, employee empowerment is high as they are given the responsibility for identifying and implementing improvements. In the traditional system, there is no flexibility in the manufacturing schedule as manufacturing is difficult to handle and hard to adjust. Traditionally, production schedules are based on forecast. In the lean system, production is scheduled by customer orders which mean that product is pulled through the facility. In a traditional manufacturing system, quality is assured through lot

Learning Community Essay Example for Free

Learning Community Essay Nowadays the popularity of online learning is swiftly increasing and more students prefer distance learning to traditional as it offers certain benefits. Walden University offers students opportunities to receive highly-qualified education and to save time on other important things as job, families, etc. What is Walden University? Walden University is an accredited institution which provides engaging learning experience both for professionals and non-professionals. The mission of the University learning community is to attract extraordinary students and to make positive social impact. Learning Community is represented by diverse and vibrant faculty and dedicated students. Faculty members are able to enrich online learning community offering wide range of experiential and educational backgrounds. All members are gifted mentors and highly-talented teachers who are fully committed to University’s core values and mission – to provide educational accesses, social change and professional excellence. Moreover, members of learning community teach the values of integrity and quality. Students of learning community are mid-career professionals who are willing to gain professional achievement and to remain dedicated to lifelong learning. All students are allowed to exchange their ideas and to share diverse perspectives with other faculty members, as well as with fellow students nationwide. It becomes apparent that relationships within community are professional and, at the same time, friendly-oriented. Further, faculty and staff at Walden University will help to balance education with professional and personal commitments. Essential resources are available for mastering skills: Writing Center, world-class library, tutoring, etc. Scholar-practitioners develop all degree programs and they continually visit courses to make sure they possess all modern updates relevant to profession chosen. Learning community offers also international perspective. Every student becomes a member of international community with more than 270,000 members online. More than 50 campuses are in 16 countries. Every student may enter the Laureate International Network and to be provided with excellent opportunity to expand international viewpoint and to apply obtained knowledge to professional life. The most important moment to admit is that Walden University learning community strongly believes that knowledge is the most valuable as it is the most effective way work for greater good. In other words, Walden University calls for social changes. Students and faculty members are willing to improve social and human conditions. They create ideas how to promote individual development, as well as development of organizations, communities and society as a whole. The goal of learning community is to help students to become scholar-practitioners and to conduct scholarly researches in the chosen field. The mission is to provide diverse learning community with friendly-oriented relations and with the opportunity to become scholar-practitioners. It is necessary to underline that learning community of Walden University has influenced both my professional life and the life of the whole society as Walden University promotes the values of knowledge, integrity, quality, honesty and fairness which are the most important in contemporary world. I can apply knowledge not only to critical societal challenges, but also to advance the greater good and social relations. I really appreciate the Walden University offers entirely online courses as it offers certain benefits for me. To be a member of society means being concerned with everyday human relations, emotions and interpersonal skills and Walden learning community gives such a chance. Financial benefits of online courses are ability to save money spent on housing, transportation and food and ability to keep part-time as well as full-time job at the same time. Walden University gives and excellent opportunity to be involved into interactive teamwork between students’ groups i. e. ability to correspond with other students from different parts of the world. Walden University offers modern way of learning which gives an opportunity to master skills and to save time on family, friends and job. References Online Degree: About Walden University. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from http://info. waldenu. edu/aboutwalden. php Walden University: Official Website. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from http://www. waldenu. edu/ Walden University: Online Degree Programs. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from http://www. worldwidelearn. com/waldenu/index. php

Vagueness and Identity :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Vagueness and Identity ABSTRACT: The view that identity can be vague holds that there are statements of identity which are neither true nor false. The view that composition can be vague holds that unities can have borderline constituents — that is, elements that are neither parts nor non-parts of some larger unity. The case for vague identity is typically made by way of an argument for the vagueness of composition. In this paper, however, I argue that the thesis that composition can be vague is actually incompatible with the thesis of vague identity. The argument for the incompatibility of these two views arises out of a demonstration of the way in which constituency facts (even vague constituency facts) are grounded in the other facts about how a larger unity is configured. Thus, I show that composites that are allegedly vaguely identical are actually different configurations. Hence, the alliance of vague composition with vague identity is taken to be all that is needed in order to show that compos itional vagueness is indefensible. I It is sometimes held that, like other things, identity can be vague.But care should be taken about what this means. The claim that identity can be vague is best understood as the claim that there can be statements of identity which are indeterminate in truth value. This view gains in attractiveness when the precision of the concept of identity is contrasted with the lack of precision endemic to various criteria of identity. As Sainsbury notes, diachronic artifact identity must surely be governed by principles such as this: "Replacing some, but not too many, parts of an artifact does not destroy it, but leaves the very same artifact". Such principles are vague. How could the identity relation, which they determine, be precise? Considerations like these extend to members of natural kinds like mountains and cows as well. What's consistent throughout these views is that identity requires enough of the appropriate sort of continuity. This reliance on continuity goes for not only the way w e re-identify things over time, but for the way we individuate objects at a time as well. So for example, spatio-temporal continuity at least partially explains how it is that at Broadway and 42nd I am standing on the same road I stood on when I was at Broadway and 41st. Since identity deciding conditions like continuity and contiguousness can be weak or strong or more or less, it appears the vagueness of those concepts has a limiting effect on how precise identity claims can be.

Acct 542 Audit Proposal

Audit Proposal Audit Proposal Kudler Fine Foods has many different types of audit to consider that could be used for each functional areas of AP, AR, inventory management and payroll. This brief has the purpose to distinguish among the types of audits that could be used for each process; to recommend the audit most appropriate for each process; to explain how the audits will be conducted; and to identify events that could prevent reliance on auditing through the computer. Types of AuditDue to increasing economic and financial growth, many types of audit have been incorporated throughout the development process of internal activities. Audits can be performed manually or they can incorporate technology. According to Hunton and Bagranoff (2004), there are four main types of audit: 1) Attestation; 2) Findings and Recommendations; 3) SAS 70; and 4) SAS 94. Each type brings something unique to the table and can be used in different situations. Attestation. The Attestation audit present rep orts on examinations reviews or agreed-upon procedures.The auditor provides assurance on something for which the client is responsible. Findings and Recommendations. Findings and Recommendations is an audit that summarizes the audit work for each of the systems, which does not include an opinion. It could be considered â€Å"consulting† services. SAS 70 Audit. The SAS 70 is an auditing standard created by the AICPA and has two report types – Type I, which the auditor reports an opinion about the operating controls and Type II, that meets the objectives of the Type I additionally includes a detailed test of the effectiveness of the controls.SAS 94 Audit. SAS 94 audit deals with electronic records and have the purpose to guide and extend the auditor responsibilities in reference to internal controls knowledge as a part of a regular financial audit. Appropriate Audit Recommendations and Steps for each Process Accounts Payable. The appropriate IT audit for accounts payable (A/P) is the SAS 94 Audit. The steps that are taken for the SAS 94 Audit and ones that Kudler will use is the application software review. The steps are to do a limit, range, validity and completeness check. Accounts Receivable.The appropriate IT audit for accounts receivable (A/R) is also the SAS 94 Audit. This is for the same reasons. Kudler will check different areas to see how to handle different errors as they arise and to be sure that the system is checking for the errors within a timely manner by using software review. Inventory. The appropriate IT audit for inventory is also SAS 94 audit. SAS 94 audit uses administration review to determine how accurate the inventory is and how accurate the transactions for inventory are. The steps that are taken for this is to identify any areas that may have fraudulent information.According to COSO (2010), Inventory is the most misstated asset in an IT audit, pg 18. Para 14. Payroll. The appropriate IT audit for payroll is also SAS 94 aud it. SAS 94 audit software review uses the steps to test payroll in the same ways that it will test A/R and A/P. Kudler will have the ability to test payroll, A/R, and A/P in the same audit test and possibly at the same time. Events that could Prevent Reliance on Auditing through the Computer Since we have discussed what types of audits we recommended for each accounting process.We would now like to focus on certain events that can assist Kudler’s Fine Foods on the events that could prevent the reliance on auditing through a computer. The events that must happen involve testing the data, validate computer programs, review the system software, validate user accounts and access privileges, and embed modules to achieve continuous auditing. Testing the data. The first event that has to happen is gathering data that can be tested and see how the data is processed . In more complex systems the data have to be put through an integrated test facility in order to audit the operational settings.Data sometimes will go through a parallel simulation which is time consuming but will audit the processes to see if they are functioning according to company policies. Validate Computer Programs. The Next event deals with using audit techniques to validate new computer programs that upgrade or enhance the software by installing the internal controls to protect against unauthorized changes and it will also help develop better company software. This event also compare the new or enhanced program with the old software to see what processes or improved or useless. Review of System Software.The third event actually reviews the systems software controls of the operating system and its utility programs that perform the housekeeping. It also reviews the program library controls, monitors storage programs, and accesses control software. The event is do in order make sure all the controls are in place and functioning and to ensure all controls we approved the documentation or by usin g the software tools. Validate User Accounts and Access Privileges. The fourth event that is validating user accounts and access privileges that will ensure who has access to what data and what account have to be set up to ensure security and accuracy.The auditor needs to verify that the software parameters are there but make sure that the IT staff is using them correctly in or for this event to happen. Continuous Auditing. The last event is continuous auditing in which all the data will be audited as it is processed to ensure real time assurance and to provide faster financial reporting that is accurate. This process is done by embedded audit modules which capture the audit data, exception reporting that reject data that fall outside the predetermined specifications, transaction logging tag certain transaction so they can be reviewed to see f the controls in place are working, snapshot techniques examine the way special transactions are processed, and continuous simulation is invol ved in collecting data and comparing it to data in a database management system to look for discrepancies. These tools are designed to audit controls and procedures when no auditor is present. Conclusion In conclusion we feel that this audit proposal will effectively help the Kudler’s Fine Foods organization determine what type of audit to use for each accounting process. The recommendations will help this organization achieve the structural controls needed in order to function in the modern world.We will be pleased the help this organization in achieve continuous auditing which will help with getting away from auditing through a computer. By going through the various processes of auditing Kudler's Fine Foods will have success and continues to gain market share in its industry. References Bagranoff, N. A. , Simkin, M. G. , & Strand Norman (2008). Core Concepts of Accounting Information Systems (10th ed. ). New York: NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Galvenston (2012). How to Create Flowcharts for an Accounting Information System, eHow, Demand Media, Inc. , retrieved online July 8, 2012 from http://www. how. com/how_6827920_create-flowcharts-accounting-information-system. html. Grocery Store POS Software Solutions. (2010). Retrieved online July 8, 2012 from http://comcash. com/grocery. php Hunton, J. A. , Bryant, S. M. , & Bagranoff, N. A. (2004). Core Concepts of Information Technology Auditing. New York, New York: Wiley & Sons. O’Brien, J. A. , & Marakas, G. M. (2008). Management Information Systems (8th ed. ). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. COSO. (2010). Fraudulent Financial Reporting  . Retrieved from http://www. coso. org/documents/COSOFRAUDSTUDY2010_001. pdf

How to Find an Earth Fault on Board Ships? Essay

Earth fault is considered very critical on board a ship. Some ships which operate at 440 V do not have any trip devices attached for a single earth fault. However when the operating voltage exceeds 3000V, it is mandatory to have a protection system which isolates when a machinery suffers an earth fault. How to find out an Earth Fault? The seriousness of the action to be taken on an Earth Fault depends on the part of the electrical system it affects. Conventional ships which operate on 3 Phase, 440V, have earth fault indicators installed on all three phases. Any earth fault on a 440V system is considered to be a serious trouble and immediate action is required to identify the faulty circuit. Any earth fault on 220V or any low voltage lighting circuit can be considered as important but need not require immediate attention. However, attention should be paid at the next earliest opportunity. Finding Earth Fault on 440V circuit Whenever there is an earth fault alarm, immediately inform to electrical officer (if he is on board). First action is to check the trueness of the alarm. Usually there will be a test button which when pressed, resets the alarm and rechecks the condition of the earth fault. If the ship is having IAS (Integrated Automation System), check on the computer in the list of events after which the alarm has activated. If IAS facility is not available, there is only one option of isolating each and every machinery in the 440 V circuit and check whether the earth fault indication returns back to normal. Isolation of all machinery, which operates on 440V, is not always possible. Certain critical equipment like steering gear and lubricating oil pumps cannot be isolated for when the ship is underway. However changeover can be done from running machinery to the standby one and thus the earth fault can be found. Finding Earth Fault on 220V Circuit Finding an Earth Fault on a 220V circuit is comparatively difficult than a 440V circuit. The main reason being the lighting circuits found all round the vessel. However, any earth fault alarm with respect to a 220V circuit is usually treated as important but not an emergency. When a 220V earth fault alarm sounds, as said earlier, the trueness of the alarm is checked by pressing the test button and then investigation can be started on each and every 220V circuit. Example: Earth Fault alarm sounds on a 220V panel 1. Check the trueness of the alarm. 2. Isolate the complete Group start panel for a lighting division one by one. 3. Check the Earth Fault indicator for status (still faulty or normal). 4. If faulty, then put on the breaker which is put off earlier and isolate other group start panel for lighting circuit. 5. Once the group start panel is identified, then individual lighting switches are turned off one by one and checked for the alarm condition. 6. When any switch when turned off and thus the condition becomes normal, then this lighting circuit is marked and then inspection is done on the particular light for abnormalities. Ingress of moisture is most common reason for an earth fault. Alternate Idea: Instead of turning off breakers one by one for the lighting circuit, I followed a method where I turned off all lighting circuit of a particular doubted area. This method helps usually when there are two or more earth faults in 220V lighting circuit. By turning off all the breakers of a particular area, then switching on the breaker one by one will eliminate multiple earth faults. When I turned off lighting switches one by one, it was difficult for me to identify multiple earth faults. Once the particular faulty circuit is spotted, then we have to further break them into individual dividable pieces and check them for earth faults. For this as usual, we use megger against earth. By removing fuse of the two phase lines, each line can be tested and the fault pinned down

Age of innocence close reading essays

Age of innocence close reading essays Hypothesis: Scorceses selection of artwork serves to not only act as a separate narrative that mirrors the development of the themes and characters but also, in some instances, actually foreshadows the fate of the characters. As a Martin Scorsese film, The Age of Innocence, stands apart from the mobster movies typically associated with this acclaimed director. Scorsese uses deliberate camera techniques and subtle mise-en-scene to tell the story visually. These elements all working together assist in the development of the narrative as well as the characters, themes, and ideas, particularly his use of artwork that not only assists the narrative, but occasionally forshadows the fate of the characters. This use of artwork can be found in the extract which involves some of the first scenes of this film. It takes place at the Beauforts ball as the camera tracks Newland Archer through the various drawing rooms pausing occasionally to notice various works of art. The camera movement of this scene is crucial to unlocking the meaning behind the artwork of the Beauforts home. The camera glides to the non-diegetic classical music following Archer from room to room. The camera movement pulls the audience in making them feel like another guest at the party. The perpetual motion of the camera is only broken in a few key areas, pausing and focusing on various pieces of art. By slowing down the camera and pausing, Scorsese is telling the audience to pay close attention to what is in that particular frame before being swept away again with Archer. The first painting the camera stops to admire is a disturbing scene that foreshadows Archers impending emotional death. The colors in the piece, like the film, are very bleak except for Ellen who is represented in the painting by the lady dressed in red. The lady in red is kneeling next to a man dressed in white who moments before was slain in a sword fight. It is logical to ...

The Difference Between a Commonwealth and a State

The Difference Between a Commonwealth and a State Have you ever wondered why some states have the word commonwealth in their name? Some people believe there is a distinction between states and states that are also commonwealths but this is a misconception. When used in reference to one of the fifty states there is no difference between a commonwealth and a state. There are four states which are officially known as commonwealths: Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts. The word appears in their full state name and in documents like the state constitution. Some places, like Puerto Rico, are also referred to as a Commonwealth, where the term means a location that is voluntarily united with the U.S. Why Are Some States Commonwealths? To Locke, Hobbes, and other 17th-century writers, the term commonwealth meant an organized political community, what we today call a state. Officially Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts are all commonwealths. This means that their full state names are actually The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and so on. When Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts became part of the United States, they merely took the old form of state in their title. Each of these states was also a former British Colony. After the Revolutionary War, having Commonwealth in the state name was a sign that the former colony was now ruled by a collection of its citizens. Vermont and Delaware both use the term commonwealth and state interchangeably in their constitutions. The Commonwealth of Virginia will also sometimes use the term State in an official capacity. This is why there is both a Virginia State University and a Virginia Commonwealth University. Much of the confusion surrounding the term commonwealth probably comes from the fact that a commonwealth has a different meaning when its not applied to a state. Today, Commonwealth also means a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the United States. While the US has many territories there are only two commonwealths;  Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, a group of 22 islands in the Western Pacific ocean. Americans who travel between the continental U.S. and its commonwealths do not need a passport. However, if you have a layover that stops in any other nation, you will be asked for a passport even if you do not leave the airport. Differences Between Puerto Rico and the States While residents of Puerto Rico are  American citizens they have no voting representatives in Congress or the Senate. They are also not allowed to vote in the Presidential elections. While Puerto Ricans do not have to pay income tax they do pay many other taxes. Which means that, like the residents of Washington D.C., many Puerto Ricans feel they suffer from taxation without representation because while they do send representatives to both Houses, their reps cannot vote. Puerto Rico is also not eligible for federal budget money allocated to the States. There is much debate around whether  Puerto Rico should become a state or not.

Simply questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Simply questions - Essay Example On the other hand, ‘tragic flaw’ describes an error that occurs due to human frailty. 3. The attitude taken by Euripides towards women was sympathetic and considerate in that they were depicted as powerful and capable of doing anything irrespective of whether bad or good. Their course of action was directed by the society’s antagonism and whether they had clean conscience. This attitude was not a misogynist one because it was due to the depicted nature of women during that time. 4. Banaustic stereotype prescribed to artists in classical Greece is quite instrumental in that it forms an awkward subversive engagement which is unsettling with regards to issues related to gender and power. While it was favourable to men in epics, it was discriminating against women in the same genre. 5. St. Augustine’s chief complaint against the classical pagan world was the inability of Christians converted from the pagan world to embrace the concept of reality. This concept according to him was the ability to become incorporeal from corporeal. With regards to time, St. Augustine was of the view that ideals that differ in the past usually become historical realities after a passage of

Religions Life of Planet Earth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religions Life of Planet Earth - Essay Example For instance, if an individual considers himself of the Jewish faith, then that individual must abstain from pork, perform ablution before prayer, and strive to follow the religion as much as possible. One can argue that having the basic creed that God exists can be the basic starting point. Thus, a person can be considered if they believe in a supreme being, worship supreme being, and trying to make others also believe in that supreme being. In today’s era, it is clear that atheism dominates because of the lack of miracles that occur. For instance, during the Abrahamic era, many prophets were notorious for conducting miracles. Jesus had an amazing ability to heal people. Moses was known to split the river with his staff and lead his people to promise land (â€Å"The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants†). However, these miracles do not occur because faith itself has been relinquished from the heart of a true believer. Religion has become a sacred myth in which practice and i mplementation are almost invisible. Even though the channel for gaining religious knowledge is abundant, it does not interest. The younger generation especially acknowledges sin but is not afraid of any type of punishment from a higher being. Needless to say, most people are not afraid of the wrath of a superior being. The three examples of behaviors or beliefs that must meet the criteria can consist of three crucial factors. For example, if a Muslim boy has the fundamental belief that â€Å"God is one, and Muhammad is the prophet,† then he is only considered a Muslim (Armstrong7). However, if that same body prays 5 times a day, abstains from lust, does not drink alcohol, gives charity, performs hajj, reads the Quran; then clearly he is considered a pious Muslim being. There is a huge difference between a believer and being a good believer. Another example is perfectly depicted through this scenario. If a priest, who is extremely pious as he never misses a service can be deem ed as a religious person. However, if that same priest is engaged in lust and adultery, then he is clearly not religious. Although he might be perfect in every aspect of his piety, if he lacks a certain piece or is indulging in a sin that is considered to be heinous, then clearly he lacks piety (Eliade 15). The third example of piety can be illustrated perfectly through the story of Joseph. However, here his exceptional faith is a final testament towards his piety. Joseph was not only abandoned by his brothers, but he was also tried in court for committing adultery. Scholars say that Joseph as a pious human being never did that as his charm and masculinity was super appealing to the King’s wife, who tried to seduce him. At the end, Joseph’s patience was the hallmark of his prophecy. The moral is the fact that piety is within an individual granted he or she is steadfast and passes through all trials and tribulations (Farid 32). The function of religion is to guide human ity from ignorance towards truth and give them a better understanding of what life is. Religion is supposed to give individuals hope that there is more to life than just existence. It

Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Management - Essay Example Innovation and its implementation is what made Barnes & Noble and Amazon more successful. Before e-readers were introduced to the market, everyone was competing on rather equal terms: both Barnes & Noble and Borders Books were selling their products in own superstores, so the major source of income was always coming from physical in-store sales. The process got somewhat changed when Amazon developed as an online book store. First of all, it became a strong competitor because offered people an alternative to going to a superstore – online shopping for books. Secondly, it gave such companies as Barnes & Noble and Borders Books to enter the online marketplace as well. However, the progress didn’t stop at that stage. Technologies gave publishers such e-book reading applications as Kindle of Amazon and the Nook of Barnes & Noble. That was the point when Borders Books got behind. Case Analysis: the Publishing Market Thought the physical book sales of Barnes & Noble were going down, the company managed to raise them by 80 percent compared to the last year, with the help of the developed by them e-book reader – the Nook. ... Retail numbers, according to the International Digital Publishing Forum (2011) might be as much as two times above the presented figures because of the industry wholesale discounts. This means that the e-book industry is still growing and developing. Furthermore, more and more companies are working on the development of their own e-book readers with the purpose of taking some share of this market. However, Apple's iPad has made it nearly impossible for some organizations: Plastic Logic Que, a businees-oriented device, Bookeen Orizon, the Skiff for reading magazines and newspapers (Neary 2011, 3)– these devices never got popular in the market due to the already existing competition from Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble the Nook. Key Problems of the Industry It can be seen that both, Borders Books and Barnes & Noble, have taken some steps to adjust to the new market conditions: both have some online presence. Nevertheless, both companies still heavi ly rely on physical sales in their stores. Borders Books has not even gone further than letting Amazon manage all of the company’s online sales - Borders Books failed to invest into entering the emerging at that time online book market (Neary 2011, 4). This may have been caused by an assumption that, according to Henderson (1993, 248), many companies fail to adequately respond to market innovations because of the security they had enjoyed for many years’ stable presence in the market. Such companies then get used to continuous change process, if any, and do not make any attempts to introduce some radical changes, even if such are crucial for survival (Chandy, Prabhu, and Antia 2003, 1). So Borders Books, having felt well in

Population in India Essay Example for Free

Population in India Essay India is an extremely large country which is sometimes referred to as a subcontinent. The enormity of the population of India has been of great apprehension and concern since the 1940s. There are many reasons for this serious dilemma in India, however, many initiatives have been implemented to resolve the crisis. In the following essay I will investigate and discuss the situation.  Firstly, a significant cause of overpopulation in India is the massive death toll. In one year in India, 5 million children die and approximately half the total deaths every year are of infants under five. This horrific reality is due to disease, malnutrition and diarrhoea. Dysentery is caused by bad diets and unfit drinking water, resulting in the loss and reduction of fluid needed in the body and consequent dehydration. A large majority of children die from acute cases of diarrhoea, despite the fact that there is an injection to cure it which costs 1p. Demise because of this relatively curable illness must cease. In addition, another widespread fatal disease is T.B. which numerous children die of. The disease occurs in the lungs and consists of the sufferer loosing blood through coughing. Moreover, a major reason for the high numbers of infant mortality in India is not simply sickness of the child, but of the pregnant mother as well. If the parent is unhealthy, it is very probable that the child they produce will also have contracted illness. The monthly increase in population is 1 million. This overwhelming figure is because large families are needed to work on farms and in other jobs. However, the Indians have more offspring than they actually want or need because they realise some may not live long and ,therefore, wont have the skills to assist and help in the fields. For example, a couple may want 6 children but have 8 for good measure and in case some die. This only resolution to this problem is to reduce the death of children so that parents can feel positive that their children will not die. Subsequently to having more children than needed, many do not die as expected, accordingly, the population increases. In the 1950s the Indian population was a mere 350 million, since then, it has increased to 750 million. The population in India is so immense that for every 1 person in UK there are 12 people in India! Furthermore, another cause of the high population is the requirement of more children as labourers in the country than in the town. There are larger families in the country, because, with more people to help an increased yield is produced, ensuring a larger income, prosperity and affluence. However, if a family has less children, labourers have to be hired which costs money and therefore a reduced surplus. 300 million people dont have an education or enough to eat in India. In the countryside every man woman and child works and all the jobs are manual, because suitable and affordable implements have not yet been introduced. Because of this, boys are seen as more useful than girls because they can partake in the heavy labour. If a family does not get a boy the first time, they have more children until they get one. When a marriage happens the girl goes and lives with her in-laws which provide extra help in the fields. The more sons a family has the more successful it will be. There are also a wide variety of differences between the country and town environment. In the Indian countryside, children are a vital requirement, whereas, in towns children are not needed to do manual labour so the families are smaller. Besides this, in towns medicinal cures are available so fewer children die and parents have an improved chance of keeping themselves and their children healthy. There is a higher infant mortality in the countryside because cures are not available, although, larger families mean more money. If a family has a son they very often move to the cities and send the money they earn to their families in the country. In the city it is harder to afford so many children because food has to be purchased unlike in the countryside. There is however a much decreased infant mortality in the city as a result of accessible remedies. Ghandhigram is a charity established to help children and young mothers in the countryside. 75% of Indias population live in the countryside, where the health service is basically nonexistent. Ghandigram has presented the solution of looking after and concentrating on the health of very young children. A dramatic improvement has been seen already and the situation of children is gradually recovering. As well as health in the countryside, the organisation is also persuading many more mothers to send their children to school. Children are being educated with the incentive of free school meals provided. As a result of this a large proportion of the future generation will be healthy and educated, consequently, good jobs will be obtainable to them. In the villages where the scheme is operating feedback is very positive and Ghandhigram will hopefully create further alterations and enhanced conditions.

Merchant Of Venice :: Free Merchant of Venice Essays

The Storytellers in The Merchant of Venice In this play two characters have a bigger role than one might imagine. Salerio and Solanio are the storytellers in The Merchant of Venice. They fill in important information that the audience needs to full understand the play. First, the two names differ by only a few letters, they are so close that one might confuse the two and think that they are the same person. I feel that this is Shakespeare's intention in this play. He makes the two similar so that they are not very important to the plot of the play. At the same time they are two different people, not just a narrator. I feel that Shakespeare does this so that he can have the two characters speaking to each other. It is through their, Salerio and Solanio, interactions that the audience learns important information to the plot of the play. At the opening of the play three characters are on stage, Antonio, Salerio, and Solanio. Through the dialogue, Salerio informs the audience of Antonio's ships: "Your mind is tossing on the ocean/There where your argosies [ i.e., great merchant ships] with portly [i.e., stately] sail (I.i. 8-9). While in the same scene Solanio helps the audience establish that Antonio has no major love interest: "Why then you are in love," to which Antonio replies, "Fie, fie!" (I.i. 46-47). Through their conversations, the two have given the audience a basis for the play: that Antonio is a merchant and that he is not concerned about being in love. An entire scene (viii) in Act II is given completely to a conversation between Solanio and Salerio. Here they tell of many events that have happened: Bassanio's ship setting off and Gratiano going with him; Shylock's reaction to Jessica and his ducats being gone; a Venetian ship that is wrecked in the English Channel; and also the parting between Antonio and Bassanio. Here, through the conversation of Solanio and Salerio the audience is told what has happened. Thus they have only one way to obtain the information. They all have the same thoughts about what has happened since they did not see the scenes and were only told about them. Solanio and Salerio are the storytellers in the play but they are only used for about two thirds of the play. The scene that either one of them is in is scene ii of Act III.

Determining Justification for Rfid Technology

Running Head: DETERMINING JUSTIFICATION FOR RFID TECHNOLOGY Determining Justification for RFID Technology Bahram Izadi, Master Student of Business Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran and John Boyd, BASc, Computer Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Abstract â€Å"What are  the  benefits? † is a  common question for any organization considering implementing a new  technology. This is an especially  important question  for small or developing companies, where an error in  investment could  result in unrecoverable  operating capital loss. As Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems are making  deep and impressive  improvements in manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain management and military logistics, it is time to consider  the  quantifiable financial and operational benefits  of RFID in  an organization's competitive strategic plans. This article will review the benefits of RFID implementation against its costs, and demonstrate  how the introduction of an RFID system can reduce production, distribution, and warehousing costs, while increasing  the operational efficiency of an organization. Through financial metrics, value equations, and numerical  analysis this article  will demonstrate  how  RFID implementation  can improve not only an  organizations bottom line, but also  intangible benefits such as internal focus, industry  leadership, and differentiation from its competitors. A sample business case study will be presented to demonstrate to the reader valuable insight to both real-world advantages and limitations associated with RFID adoption. 1. Introduction The focus of this paper is how to develop an RFID strategic plan to quantify RFID justification through return on investment (ROI). RFID offers strategic advantages for businesses, private or state organizations because it can improve efficiency, cost savings, and yield greater returns  in virtually all areas of business processes and operations. However due to the complexity associated with an RFID system, its uncertain proven capabilities, and high costs of implementation, it is crucial to create solid a business case and justification in terms of ROI, either quantifiable or intangible, which offer the greatest benefit to the company. 2. Background – What is RFID? Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a wireless automatic data collection technology which uses electronic tags for data storage. An RFID system consists of an RFID tag, a reader/writer unit with antenna, and a computer, as shown in Figure 1. [pic] Figure 1 RFID System The reader/writer emits radio signals from its antenna to power the tag, and can read or write data to the tag without a direct line of site. Reader/writer units are available in various shapes and sizes depending on requirement or application. Similarly RFID tags are available to suit most any application or environment from unobtrusive paper thin tags suitable for traditional barcode applications, to large heavy-duty brick sized tags to track heavy machinery. The computer or middleware allows communication between the RFID hardware and system applications. 3. RFID Benefits and Costs RFID offers strategic advantages for businesses because it can improve productivity, efficiency, cost savings, and yield greater returns in virtually all areas of business operations. As an example, Air Canada was losing $2 million USD worth of food carts per year. This initial problem of asset tracking resulted in the deployment of RFID systems which yielded a 2% reduction in total inventory, 5% reduction in maintenance costs, 20% to 50% in trucking charges, 80% reduction in shrinkage, 100% reduction in costs for auditing yearly inventory counts and ROI within 18 months. [Internet, 4] In general some of the main advantages of RFID usage are: †¢ Reduced warehouse and distribution labor costs due to increased data automation †¢ Reduced inventory by omitting inventory errors Improved forecasting and planning due to improvements in visibility of supply chain †¢ Reduced theft by tracking the products point to pint †¢ Reduced out-of stock conditions via better RFID product tracking RFID is used for everything from tracking cows and pets to triggering equipment down oil wells. The most common applications are payment systems, toll collection systems, access control, track people, assets and products without the need for human intervention or direct line of site. [Internet, 5] All of the applications listed have been deployed because they haven proven ROI. . RFID Costs When considering RFID costs a company must consider the total cost of ownership rather than just the initial RFID hardware and tags costs. A complete RFID system includes not only hardware infrastructure, but also service such as design, development, deployment, maintenance, ongoing support, and training. Also to consider are the future costs as the system is scaled beyond its initial pilot or trial phase. Costs should also be associated with restructuring or introducing new business practices. 5. Creating Justification for RFID The potential applications and benefits of RFID are only constrained by a company’s level of innovation. However, before rushing to adopt RFID technology a company can ensure the greatest rate of return and success by having in place a comprehensive strategic plan which quantifies all encompassing aspects of RFID including technology and business processes in order to deliver its benefits for maximum value. In order to justify the costs of an RFID system it is vital a companies RFID strategic plan contains quantifiable  metrics assigned to values of each area which RFID impacts. Therefore when a company does decide to implement RFID, such a strategic plan will allow them to proceed confidently to their strategic objective while ensuring the maximum potential value areas are achieved. By contrast a poor RFID strategic plan without careful and insightful study, risks to dilute the focus and resources of the business and may prove to be detrimental and wasteful, instead of beneficial. Each RFID deployment will have its unique application varying with the application of the company and the company’s goals so there is no single ROI or total cost of ownership criteria for RFID. On the other hand, ROI in many cases is not only found financially but also in intangible factors. For example a distribution center may place value on increasing efficiency throughput in order to save money on labor and reduced shipping errors, where a hospital or healthcare center would place value on increasing visibility of surgical equipment so to have a better chance to save a persons life due to increased response time – economic cost would not be so much as a constraint in this case, but rather the service is of more importance than straight financial justification. . Creating a RFID Strategic plan to determine ROI justification As previously mentioned, there are often uncertainties and reservations when an organization first considers introducing RFID, such as concern of high price or hesitation at the risks of being an early adopter and risking mistakes and learning costs. This is usual behavior in small companies and especially in developing countries where  an er ror in  investment could  result in  unrecoverable  operating capital loss. To overcome this uncertainty and to proceed confidently with the company-wide acceptance of RFID deployment, a plan must include strategic thinking and financial justification. [Sweeney, Patrick J II, Chapter 16] By thinking strategically, we uncover the hard data and information that enables members of organization to make informed decisions and to communicate the rationale of RFID deployment effectively. Performing an ROI study on RFID will allow a company to become reacquainted with current business processes and to identify opportunities for optimization (if RFID is decided to be used or not. Through analysis and calculations, in this process we examine every RFID affected area and assign to them associated value metrics in terms of quantifiable or intangible returns. However in order to obtain the information and data necessary to perform ROI calculations and value equations it is necessary to create a solid and detailed rich strategic plan comprised of but not limited to the fo llowing sections, Figure 2. [pic] Figure 2 Involved Steps of an RFID Strategic Plan 6. 1 Form Business Team Since an RFID implementation will affect business process as well as technological change, it is beneficial that the business team includes internal management personnel capable of RFID analysis from all related functional departments. Internal team members, working closely together with external experts and consultants, will be able to offer valuable procedural insight to the development and design of an RFID system. 6. 2 Define Scope and Assumptions A strategic plan should clearly define how RFID will affect the business and define key elements of RFID operation. A clear understanding of affected processes, departments, and areas of coverage, is essential. Assumptions are necessary to ensure a common understanding of how the RFID system will be implemented and what processes will be affected. 6. 3 Identify Strategic and Economic Benefits Benefits represent one of the most important factors in building an RFID business case. To determine justification and feasibility of an RFID system a company must summarize its expected strategic impacts and quantifiable benefits obtained through more efficient RFID enabled processes. Since strategic or intangible benefits can not be easily quantified, it is important for the company to articulate why an RFID introduction is important to business and have a clear understanding of its associated value. This is especially important for companies which place value on product or data visibility. Examples of strategic benefits include internal focus, industry  leadership, and differentiation from its competitors, and product visibility. Quantifiable economical benefits can be tested through metrics and measured with calculations. Quantifiable benefits will vary with industry and RFID application but will generally be attributed to time or process improvements through automation and improved efficiency. 6. 4 Develop Business Process Models Process modeling consists of creating business-flow diagrams and use-cases to determine and quantify how RFID will impact those processes and associated applications. Adoption of RFID technology will most likely create new additional processing steps, and therefore modified business use cases will be introduced to reflect optimized RFID use. Some sub processes might get streamlined and thus provide efficiency gains, whereas some other sub processes might need to include additional processing steps, which might impact their efficiency rates. The use cases associated with the impacted and newly introduced processes can then be analyzed for benefit [Lahiri, Sandip, Chapter 8]. 6. 5 Determine Costs When considering ROI, one must consider the total cost of ownership rather than just the initial RFID hardware and tags costs. A complete RFID system includes not only hardware infrastructure, but also service such as design, development, deployment, maintenance, ongoing support, and training. Also to consider are the future costs as the system is scaled beyond its initial pilot or trial phase. Costs should also be associated with restructuring or introducing new business practices. 6. 6 Create an Implementation Road Map An implementation roadmap breaks up the complete RFID solution into a series of objective milestones within set time-frames. The main tasks involved in completing this step are developing a scale of implementation from trial or pilot stages to full deployment, and assigning associated metrics of costs and benefits with each stage of milestone. 6. 7 Create Business Case Finally all information should be compiled to form a business case. Each benefit should be associated with a level of impact and time to realization. The level of impact takes three factors into account: whether a benefit generates revenue, mitigates risk, or reduces cost. We may assign low-impact to benefits that meet one factor and high-impact to benefits that meet two or more factors. Time frame is a time period in which the business will see benefit. Short term could be one to two years and long term three to five years. It is difficult to forecast beyond five years. 7. Criteria and Justification Metrics to Justify ROI In order to justify the costs an RFID system it is vital a company complete RFID strategic plan contains quantifiable  metrics assigned to values of each area RFID impacts on including procedures and personnel to ensure  RFID investments yield the greatest  rate of return. Through study numerical analysis value equations and modeling, the  value of various RFID systems can be made apparent and determined to be financially feasible or  cost prohibitive. It is important to present a cost benefit analysis in order to justify the investment in an RFID system and establish a clear ROI. Upon the completion of the strategic plan, the quantified figures and resultant findings can be processed through value equations to justify and determine feasibility of an RFID system. However, ROI in many cases is not only found financially but also through intangible factors. In this case, VOI (Value of Investment) should also be considered. Value of Investment is much more holistic approach to the benefits delivered and includes, next to the hard costs figures, the soft and difficult to measure benefits such as improved quality, staff moral and service perception, and customer loyalty. 8. Sample of RFID Justification through Case Study 8. 1 Introduction This example will show the Return on Investment (ROI) of an RFID solution for a company which sends shipments from its manufacturing plant to its distribution center. The system will be closed loop which means that the tags and their data will be limited to internal company use and will not be used beyond the limited area of distribution center. RFID technology will be used to help automate the transfer process. The overall objectives are: †¢ Demonstrate how RFID technology may be utilized to improve the efficiency of the transfer of shipments. Demonstrate a case which is justifiable in cost due to positive ROI analysis. 8. 2 Background A company’s distribution center is plagued by errors and inefficiencies when receiving shipments from the manufacturing plant. Especially problematic areas are delay in receiving pallets and loss of pallets to be returned. 8. 3 Assigning Metrics to Processes Estimation time to completion (ETC) of items entering the distribution center, wit hout and with RFID is described as in Table1. |No. Process |ETC |Process with RFID |ETC with RFID | |- |- |- |Precondition – RFID tags are|0 sec | | | | |affixed to pallets and | | | | | |individual items at the | | | | | |manufacturing plant. | |1 |Personnel scans barcode on pallet|30 sec |Pallet is placed in RFID |5 sec | | |to validate order and manually | |reader portal and scanned | | | |compares to expected manifest | |along with all contained | | | |list. | |items. Order is checked | | | | | |automatically. | | |2 |If pallet is valid expected |3 min |If pallet is valid but found|3 min | | |personnel enters pallet as | |to have exception it is | | | |received and breaks open the | |broken own, all items are | | | |pallet | |automatically scanned and | | | | | |noted, and extra item is | | | | | |brought to return area. | | |3 |Else pallet is invalid it is |4 min |Else pallet is invalid it is|4 min | | |moved to return area. | |moved to return area. | |4 |Personnel scans all individual |6 min |- |- | | |bar-coded items to validate the | | | | | |pallet contains all ordered items| | | | |5 |If item is invalid personnel |2 min per item |- |- | | |manually notes this and places | | | | | |item in return section. | | | | |6 |Else item is valid and is placed |6 seconds per item|Else pallet valid and all |1 min | | |into received area to be moved | |contained items are present,| | | |into inventory section. (Pallet | |entire pallet is placed in | | | | contains 20 individual items. ) | |received area to be moved to| | | | | |inventory. | | |Time to unload a pallet with no |11min, 30sec |- |1min, 5sec | | |invalid items | | | | Table 1 Estimated time to completion to process pallet at distribution center From Table 1, the estimated completion times (ETC) of Time to unload a pallet with no invalid items is 11min, 30sec without RFID, compared to 1min, 5sec with an RFID system. 8. 4 RFID Solution and Process Detail Placing RFID reader portals at the distribution centers dockside gate allows for automatic identification of all pallets and included pallet items to be scanned upon arrival. This would eliminate the manual steps of unpacking and checking each individual item separately before adding to inventory. An additional processing step of placing RFID labeling on items and pallets before them leave the manufacturing plant would be occurred; however this would not affect distribution center processing time. 8. 5 RFID Benefits Incorporating RFID into the distribution center process provides the following quantifiable and intangible benefits: †¢ Quantifiable benefits include: Pallet processing time increased of 90%, Reduction of loss as all pallets due to total visibility, Labor savings, and Reduced keyboard entry errors †¢ Intangible benefits: Neater docking area, Improved work atmosphere 8. 6 Risks and complexity Potential risks and complexity associated with RFID implementation may include Tag Misread due to damaged tag, moisture on the pallet tag, or proximity to metal surfaces. Site evaluation and proper RFID technology can minimize this risk as well as running barcodes in parallel with the RFID tags. 8. 7 RFID Components and System Costs The proposed RFID system will require estimated infrastructure and services consisting of the following: |Description |Costs Low $ |Costs High $ | |Hardware/Software | | | |RFID gate portal reader (4) |28,000 40,000 | |RFID handheld readers (4) |6,000 |8,000 | |Accessories: Cables, etc |1,000 |1,000 | |Servers and Accessories (5) |10,000 |15,000 | |Software |30,000 |50,000 | |RFID tags (10,000) – Closed loop system, tags can be recycled |2,000 |5,000 | | | | | |Integration | | | |Engineering, Installation and Integration services, training, |60,000 |100,000 | |maintenance (60 person days) | | | | | | | |Business Process Modification | | | |RFID tag application retooling at the manufacturing plant |35,000 |55,000 | | | | | |Total |172,000 |274,000 | Table 2 Estimated RFID Costs 8. 8 Summary of Results Through RFID implementation if you compare the pallet processing times of Table 1, you can see that a savings of 10min, 25secs can be realized per pallet. This is equivalent to a 90% increase in processing throughput times with the condition of a valid pallet and items. If the distribution center receives 500 pallets per day it can realize investment between 10 and 16 months depending on RFID costs, with assumed personnel costs of $10 hour and a 261 working-day per year calendar. If the distribution center is free of invalid pallets 95% of the time return on investment can be seen as in Table 3, as follows: Pallets received per|Savings per day |Savings per day |Savings per year |ROI with low RFID costs|ROI with high RFID costs | |day | |(in $USD) |(in $USD) |(in months) |(in months) | | |(in hours) | | | | | |300 |49. 5 |495 |129,140 |16 |26 | |500 |82. 5 |824 |215,234 |10 |16 | |700 |115. 5 |1155 |301,328 |7 |11 | Table 3 Time to ROI Sample calculations are as follows for 500 pallets received per day: 11min,30sec * 500 pallets = 690sec * 500 = 345000sec. 1min,30sec * 25 pallets = 690sec * 25 = 17250sec. 1min, 5sec * 475 pallets = 65sec * 475 = 30875sec 17250+30875 = 48125sec 345000sec – 48125sec = 296875sec 296875sec/3600 = 82. 46hr, round to 82. 5hours 82. 46hr*$10=$824. 65/day , round to $824 824. 65*261=$215,233. 65/year 215,234. 38/172,000=1. 27 0. 79*12=9. 58, round to 10months 215,234. 38/$274,000=0. 799 1. 27*12=15. 27, round to 16months Once RFID familiarity has been gained and estimated metrics have been realized, RFID may be moved to other areas of the company such as the picking from inventory at the distribution center, or some other RFID application at manufacturing center itself. However, the processes, equipment, results, and lessons learned will be applicable to other distribution centers, and acquired knowledge may be applied to other potential cost saving areas. 9 Conclusion The capabilities and limitations of RFID much be understood on a technical level, but also on a business procedural level to determine how RFID will ultimately impact on business. The decision to implement an RFID system must be carried out diligently with ROI equations. Also important to consider is intangible value which may not be apparent on a balance sheet. RFID is ultimately a business tool like many other IT options and to access its maximum capability, a company must have solid business procedures and plans in place. References Lahiri, Sandip (2005, August). RFID Sourcebook. Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN: 0-13-185137-3 Larsson, Bjorn & Qviberg, Ola (2004, December). Evaluation and Justification of an RFID Implementation Pilot at IKEA Customer Distribution Centre. Master thesis LiTH-EKI-EX—04/083—SE Institute of technology – Linkoping University Department of Management and Economics Industrial Engineering and Management Sweeney, Patrick J. II (2005). RFID for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc. ISBN: 0-7645-7910-X Ustundag, A. Cevikcan, E. (2007, October). Return on Investment Analysis for Evaluation of RFID Implementation on Cargo Operations, Istanbul Tech. Univ. , Istanbul; Appears in: RFID Eurasia, 2007 1st Annual Publication Date: 5-6 Sept. 007 ISBN: 978-975-01566-0-1 INSPEC Accession Number: 9777002 Digital Object Identifier: 0. 1109/RFIDEURASIA. 2007. 4368145 Date Published in Issue: 2007-10-29 Internet 1 Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility. What is RFID? Retrieved September 2, 2008 from http://www. aimglobal. org/technologies/RFID/what_i s_rfid. asp 2 Axios Systems. (2007, March) Return on Investment: Fact or Fairy Tale? White Paper. Version 1. 1. 0 Retrieved September 5, 2008 from http://www. axiossystems. com/six/shared/downloads/pdf/ROI_fact_or_fairy_tale. pdf 3 Miles Technologies. Common Applications Using RFID for Asset Tracking and Other Applications. Retrieved September 5, 2008 from