Warehouse management systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Warehouse management systems - Essay Example The modern warehouse can ill-afford to ignore this important resource. The key focus of SCM is to get the right part to the right place at the right time. WMS facilitates this process by dramatically increasing the accuracy of inventory management, control, and distribution. For example, when parts are received at a warehouse facility, a good WMS can "check the bill of lading against the items actually received, [and] any discrepancies can be noted through the audit trail" thereby allowing management to track items that have been lost in transit (Gladston 40). It goes without saying that it is impossible to ship the right part from the warehouse facility if the item never actually made it to the warehouse. When the system generates an audit trail document, facility employees can quickly and easily identify the problem and resolve it. Thus, system accuracy is greatly enhanced through WMS. If, as in the case study, a facility that is holding more than 85,000 stock keeping units can obtain 99.9% accuracy, the impact of such a system is significant. Another reason why WMS is critical to operations is its ability to allocate storage locations of parts and supplies within the facility itself. Businesses that move a high volume of parts through their supply chain must focus on improving "the efficiency of warehouse management (especially space)" to avoid the logistical difficulties that would be present in a poorly-designed facility (Cortada 292). In the case of Toyota, the ability to allocate warehouse space according to the part's size and frequency of demand was a major contributor to the system's success. For a company like Wal-Mart, which uses centralized distribution centers to serve its many outlets, a WMS that streamlined facility space allocations by creating inventory zones would create a scale of supply chain efficiency that could save the company millions of dollars a year. In the same way that it is impossible to move the right part from the warehouse if it hasn't arrived, it is equally difficult to do so if managemen t knows that it has the part in the warehouse but isn't sure where it is. The organization of storage and product flow throughout a warehouse facility is so important that if a WMS did only that, it would be worth the investment. The advantages of a WMS, however, go beyond the ability to track and store inventory. As the systems become more sophisticated, they are able to increase supply chain efficiency in many other ways. As noted in the case study on Toyota, the WMS not only tracks position within the system, but also produces a tag label giving part details and locations. A dealer direct order capability, when combined with overall supply chain efficiency, leverages warehouse management to a much higher level. As one author notes, "WMS functionality will continue to broaden... with an increasing focus on dynamic optimization" to a point that will "enable the system to ship product without ever actually receiving it" (Hoctor and Thierauf 238). The ability to optimize a company's operations to the point that supply-chain subsystems are integrated across the entire platform is what makes a good WMS more than just a

Book Report The Disciple Making Church Bill Hull author Essay

Book Report The Disciple Making Church Bill Hull author - Essay Example True, with the many religions making up the society right now, there had been a branched out reasoning as to what Christianity actually pertains to. The doctrines that it posses, according to Millard Erickson, author of the book Introducing Christian Doctrine, Christianity could be identified and assessed. In this Chapter Summary Review, the different points presented through the book of Millard shall be noted so as to give a brief overview of the different parts of the author's understanding of Christianity. Theology, as a primary study of God and his ways has actually affected the society for several years of human civilization already. From generation to generation though, the human knowledge about God also changes. With the emergence of philosophical ideas that govern the human society today, the belief about an existing God has been inevitably considered as an important part of the development of the lives of human today. Such belief even assisted the human generations in becoming concerned with their moral standards in life and the way that they follow such guidelines with the things and situations that they are further expected to deal with in life everyday. From this particular part of the discussion featured by the author, he has mentioned that it is indeed necessary that the human society today be able to recognize the major issues with regards the existence of God thus making them realize how much they are supposed to be affected by the said fact about a more superior persona living beyond their understanding. Along with this, understanding about the Bible is actually the main procedure by which a person could learn much about who God is. Certainly, studying and understanding the Bible is the basis of real and trustworthy foundation of theology. Understanding the Bible is not that easy to do. The context of the entire book stresses a certain deepness that is not that easy to comprehend with. Certainly, the procedure in studying the Bible is then perceived to have more complicated vitalities. How then could an individual understand the Bible without actually going to theological institutions and getting a formal education Are individ ual owners of the Bible given the privilege to understand the Bible Certainly! The Bible is made available and understandable to anybody wanting to gain knowledge from it. Furthermore, the author adds the need to create leaders who would be able to naturally increase the possibility of further making a better ministering process of the churches today. Critical Analysis Understanding the Bible is not that easy to do. The context of the entire book stresses a certain deepness that is not that easy to comprehend with. Certainly, the procedure in studying the Bible is then perceived to have more complicated vitalities. How then could an individual understand the Bible without actually going to theological institutions and getting a formal education Are individual owners of the Bible given the privilege to understand the Bible Certainly! The Bible is made available and understandable to anybody wanting to gain knowledge from it. Elements of Scriptural Convincing Before an individual even starts to study the Bible, he must be primarily convinced that he really believes the principles and the laws that are found in the Bible. How does one assure himself of this truth The following elements shall help him have a

Report for potential investor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Report for potential investor - Essay Example When the market will recover, companies with better fundamental state will be the one to come as market leaders and they will yield better results to the investors. So an investor should analyse any company comparison with the industry standards before taking any major decision. 3 It reflects how much of the company’s total assets are financed by debt or the degree of debt load used by the company. Higher ratio indicates higher riskiness of the company and can disturb company’s profitability when market conditions are unfavourable. The Gearing Ration of M&S for the past five years indicates that though it did not maintain any constant trend, but it was in a range of 25-40 percent. So it was found that the company’s Debt Ratio is not so very high. 17 This ratio measures the company’s ability to bear its financial burden which arises in form of interest to be paid for debt. This ratio is also known as times interest covered ratio. While calculating this ratio, analysts compare the company’s ability to pay the interest with the total interest payable on its debt, so higher ratio is an indicator of more stable state and less risk of default (Peterson & Fabozzi, 1999, p. 94). The Interest Coverage Ratio of M&S indicates it always has an Interest Cover Ratio greater than 1, or it can be expressed that it’s Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) was more than the interest payable. The company’s Interest Cover Ratio was constantly increasing, but due to financial downturn and economic slowdown throughout the world, this ratio declined in 2009 as profitability of the company declined. 18 So after undertaking all the efficiency ratios of M&S it can be said the company is maintaining higher debt structure in its capital and such financial leveraging is reducing company’s ability to retain meet long-term liabilities. But the good aspect is that the company’s Interest Coverage Ratio is at a comfortable state. 18 So it can be concluded that the

Book Report The Disciple Making Church Bill Hull author Essay

Book Report The Disciple Making Church Bill Hull author - Essay Example True, with the many religions making up the society right now, there had been a branched out reasoning as to what Christianity actually pertains to. The doctrines that it posses, according to Millard Erickson, author of the book Introducing Christian Doctrine, Christianity could be identified and assessed. In this Chapter Summary Review, the different points presented through the book of Millard shall be noted so as to give a brief overview of the different parts of the author's understanding of Christianity. Theology, as a primary study of God and his ways has actually affected the society for several years of human civilization already. From generation to generation though, the human knowledge about God also changes. With the emergence of philosophical ideas that govern the human society today, the belief about an existing God has been inevitably considered as an important part of the development of the lives of human today. Such belief even assisted the human generations in becoming concerned with their moral standards in life and the way that they follow such guidelines with the things and situations that they are further expected to deal with in life everyday. From this particular part of the discussion featured by the author, he has mentioned that it is indeed necessary that the human society today be able to recognize the major issues with regards the existence of God thus making them realize how much they are supposed to be affected by the said fact about a more superior persona living beyond their understanding. Along with this, understanding about the Bible is actually the main procedure by which a person could learn much about who God is. Certainly, studying and understanding the Bible is the basis of real and trustworthy foundation of theology. Understanding the Bible is not that easy to do. The context of the entire book stresses a certain deepness that is not that easy to comprehend with. Certainly, the procedure in studying the Bible is then perceived to have more complicated vitalities. How then could an individual understand the Bible without actually going to theological institutions and getting a formal education Are individ ual owners of the Bible given the privilege to understand the Bible Certainly! The Bible is made available and understandable to anybody wanting to gain knowledge from it. Furthermore, the author adds the need to create leaders who would be able to naturally increase the possibility of further making a better ministering process of the churches today. Critical Analysis Understanding the Bible is not that easy to do. The context of the entire book stresses a certain deepness that is not that easy to comprehend with. Certainly, the procedure in studying the Bible is then perceived to have more complicated vitalities. How then could an individual understand the Bible without actually going to theological institutions and getting a formal education Are individual owners of the Bible given the privilege to understand the Bible Certainly! The Bible is made available and understandable to anybody wanting to gain knowledge from it. Elements of Scriptural Convincing Before an individual even starts to study the Bible, he must be primarily convinced that he really believes the principles and the laws that are found in the Bible. How does one assure himself of this truth The following elements shall help him have a

Management Accounting System Design in Manufacturing Departments Essay Example for Free

Management Accounting System Design in Manufacturing Departments Essay The model was tested by means of empirical data collected from a questionnaire addressed to 160 production managers. The response rate was 82. 5%. The ? ndings provide some support for the notion that organizations adapt their MAS design to the control requirements of the situation. Furthermore, the study o? ers some empirical support for the existence of suboptimal equi? nality. That is, in situations which lack of a single dominant imperative, several alternative, and functionally equivalent management control system (MCS) designs, may arise. O 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Since the mid-eighties, there has been a trend in manufacturing towards customization and novel approaches to organizing production, including JIT/TQM models of control (Schonberger, 1986; Womack, Jones, Roos, 1990). The pursuit of such strategies poses signi? cant challenges for the management since they typically imply intensi? ed interdependencies among functionally di? erentiated departments and new means of managing the work? ow (Bouwens Abernethy, 2000; Kalagnanam Lindsay, 1998). The multiple contingencies model stems from recognition that the demands placed on MAS design by multiple contingencies may con? ict (Fisher, 1995), i. e. , attempts to satisfy one demand may mean that other demands cannot be satis? ed. It is also explicitly assumed that the need for coordination and control can be met by several alternative, and equi? nal, management control system design strategies. The assumption is justi? ed by the long-held view that management control subsystems may not only complement each other but also substitute for each other (Fisher, 1995; Galbraith, 1973; Mintzberg, 1983). The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The following two sections de? ne the constructs, develop the theoretical model, and conclude with a number of exploratory propositions. The process of data collection and data analysis is then detailed in the fourth section. The results of the study are presented and discussed in the ? fth and sixth sections, respectively. The last section contains concluding comments and some suggestions regarding future research. De? nition of constructs For a long time there has been an interest among scholars in documenting ? relationships between features of context in which the organization operates and its management control arrangements.

Analysis Of A Leader Management Essay

Analysis Of A Leader Management Essay Isadore Sharp is the Founder of The Four Seasons Hotels Resort. Currently he is serving as the Chairman and CEO of The Four Seasons Hotels Resort. He was born in Ontario, Canada in October 8, 1931. Sharp is one of Canadas most successful businessmen. He completed his graduation in architecture from Torontos Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. After working in real states for five years, he decided to take a new direction and pondered the idea to build a hotel on his own. He was just 29 years old when he opened his first 125 room motor hotel (motel) in Toronto which was profitable and popular (Martin R, 2009). Mr. Sharp has build and managing a chain of 83 hotels that includes some of the worlds most impressive properties across 35 countries in 5 continents. Doing thing in own way Sharp has transformed the idea of service and quality of hotel industry. Mr. Sharp was not interested in following his competitors path; he developed his own management techniques and style which facilitated him to build the worlds largest chain of luxury hotels. Sharp was mainly focused on quality not the quantity. He believed in building medium sized hotel with excellent service and quality. In 2009, he authored a book name Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy, which gives an insight of the story of his successful five star Four Season Hotel chain (Morassutti W,2009). Mr. Sharp has obtained and earned so many achievements and awards in his field till now which includes Order of Canada, the second highest honor for merit and many more Lifetime Achievement Award .He is Honorary Director of Scotia bank, Clairvest Group Inc., Canadian Unity Council, Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and Mount Sinai Hospital. Mr. sharp has given Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from University of Guelph, 1992, University of Toronto, 1994 and York University, 2009 (Businessweek, 2012). Leadership makes and allows a viewpoint for what must be done, why it is important, and how it can be achieved. It is someone who is aware of current government and company circumstances, possibilities, and issues. Leadership needs therefore having the right mind-set along with the right viewpoint. Leadership is an important function of control which allows to improve performance and to accomplish company objectives. Leadership is very important in taking effort, motivating, offering support, creating assurance, creating relaxation, creating fantastic office, and co-ordination. Leadership is important in every organization at every level to improve their growth win the competitors. Organizations want leaders, who are value inspired individualities, who can control the circumstances by making the surprising happens ,develop organizations, win the employees commitment with the DNA i.e. purpose, viewpoint and ethical concepts, create better design with proper work way of life and lead the individuals towards the success of company objectives and objectives (Saxena S, 2010). Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence and zeal. Leadership is the potential to influence behavior of others. It is also defined as the capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required to develop future visions and to motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the visions (Anonymous, 2009). According to Keith Davis, Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and motivates it towards goals.(asiahotelier, 2010) Leadership and management are often considered to be the similar term. Leadership is very important in order to have effective management. Leadership focuses on building an environment in which each and every employee should be able to develop and excel. Leadership is basically influencing and driving the group efforts towards achieving the goals. A manager should have certain leadership qualities. Leaders formulate strategies that are competitive and which can give them a competitive advantage in the present as well as in the future. Therefore it is necessary for Organizations to have strong leadership and strong management for maintaining organizational efficiency (md, 2012). All the good leaders are good mangers but not all the good managers are good leader, its not necessary that an effective manger can be a good leader. Many Administrators, supervisors and executives are performing their duties and responsibilities in effective way without being a good leader. Managers follow what has been told by their leader, they think about their department where as a leaders thinks about the whole organization. Managers deals with ongoing, day to day challenges and complexities of organizations. Managing requires costing and planning and leading requires creating a mission and vision for the organization. Good leaders lead their people towards ultimate vision and help as well as motivates them in obstacles whatever come in the way (Coleman P, 2007). Good leaders are able to develop their work as a team. The first and most important function of a leader is to create and maintain that he and a pleasant working environment by needs a close look at his subordinates abilities, needs and potential capabilities. The second function of a leader is to serve as a labor representative. The head of a working group to work as a liaison and coordination between the group members and senior management. The desired condition, a leader is expected to communicate problems and complaints with their subordinates to senior management. The third function of leaders is to act as a consultant to help in the work for his people. Here are a leading company expects will accompany and advise his subordinates who face problems in terms of their performance in the workplace problem are not necessarily technical, but may also contain naturally emotional. The fourth important function leader manages time effectively (Anonymous, 2010). The function of leader is to check whether the employees are completing their work within the give time frame and also need to check if the work groups are providing quality and efficiency in their work. The fifth most important function of a leader is using his power in the right way. A leader should be a good observer. A leader should reward his subordinates so that they get motivated towards doing the job which in turn can create a positive and livelier working environment (Malhotra J, 2009). Different leaders have different leadership styles which differ in the manner and approach in which they provide direction to the people, and how they implement the plans and how they motivate the people. The three old approaches of leadership are Authoritarian or Autocratic, Participative or Democratic, Delegative or Free Reign. Leader who informs his employees about what needs to be done and how it needs to be done is an Authoritarian and Autocratic type of leader. Such a leader never takes advice and suggestions from others. This style of leadership is useful in situations when the leader has all the information and resources to solve the problem efficiently and only needs the work to be done by his employees. This style of leadership helps in saving time. This style is successful only when the employees are thoroughly motivated to do the work. A good leader knows when he needs to use this style and when not to (Cherry K, 2000). Leader who involves his employee in the process of decision making by taking their opinions and suggestions in how to do the work, uses the Participative style of leadership. Although he takes the opinions, the final decision remains with the leader and he can chose not use the suggestions if he thinks that it doesnt help the cause (Cherry K, 2000). Mr. Sharp believed that in order to achieve significant productivity gains, he needs to empower his employees to a certain extent. One of the first tasks that he did was to create a united purpose amongst his workers. Sharp knew that neither he nor anyone else could command the dedication of his employees. Leader who uses this style should not be considered a weak leader but on the contrary its a sign of strength. Using this style, a leader gains the respect of his employees. This style is used when the leader doesnt have complete information and other employees have some information which will be useful for achieving the goal. A leader s hould always employ employees who are knowledgeable and skillful as the leader is not expected to know each and everything. This style helps the leader to become a part of the team and it helps in getting towards a better decision (Lewin K., 1939). A leader who allows the decisions to be made by his employees uses the Delegative style of leadership. Although the decisions are made by the employee(s), the responsibility of the decisions rests with the leader since he is the person in-charge. This style should be used by a leader only when he can completely trust the decision making capabilities of his employees and has confidence in their knowledge and skills (U.S. Army Handbbok, 1973). Mr. Sharp believes that in order to gain the success one needs support. Mr. Sharp, the leading luxury hotelier in the world, didnt become so all by himself. In the 50 years of service in the hotel industry, he has developed a leadership style for himself which is unique and has encouraged his employees the world over to completely devote themselves for the betterment of the company in all regards. He has created a working environment which has been built on trust, credibility and integrity. This has inspired his team to work with more dedication to cater to the needs of the guests in all of his hotels across the world. Mr. Sharpe realized very quickly that this is the secret which will help him to get the best results for his company . New approaches of leadership are Transformational Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Transactional Leadership, People Oriented Leadership. Leaders can posses all of this styles in some manner. Transformational leadership style is very inspiring. This type of leaders expects best from all employees as well as themselves which will lead to a good productivity and involvement of everyone as a team. Transformational leadership is very useful in the organization to take initiatives and add new values. Transformational leader needs support from their people or employess. This type of leaders uses other leadership styles as well depending on the situation and the people (Johnson R, 2010). Charismatic leadership style is one of the modest approaches of leaders to his employees. Charismatic leader shows enthusiasm towards his employees and motivates them to move forward. The only difference between charismatic leaders and transformational leaders is their intention. Transformational leaders wants to transform their teams and organizations where as Charismatic leaders are regularly focused on employees and do not want to change anything. The tsunami crisis in Southeast Asia in 2004 was a good example of Sharps commitment towards his team. Waves pounded the Four Seasons hotel in the Maldives and within 24 hours, all employees and guests were safely evacuated from the island. But, the damage didnt stop there. Resort went to shutdown and hundreds of employees were out of work all of a sudden. Sharp subsequently sent all his employees to other Four Seasons hotels around the world in order to keep them employed (Sharp I, 2008). Transactional leader work through such a structure in which it is clear what is to be done by his employees and what reward they will get after completion of the given task. This leadership style starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader when they accept a job. This leadership style clears employees roles and responsibilities (Tegborg M, 2010). In this leadership style employees are given rewards after achieving the goal and same way employees fail to achieve the given task, then they are fully responsible for the failure not the leader. This type of style focuses on short term tasks. The downside of this leadership style is that team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction. It can feel stifling, and it can lead to high staff turnover (mindtools, 2010). People-oriented leader completely focuses on organizing, supporting, and developing the people on their teams. People oriented leader treat every employee equally in a friendly and approachable manner which tends to encourage good teamwork and creative collaboration. Team members of a people oriented leader are often more productive because they know that the leader will provide support if they need it (mindtools, 2010). Same way Sharp has showed his people oriented leadership at the time recession. At that time other organization were downsizing the labor cost to recover the loss and unpressurized the situation, Sharp maximized employees value to show him commitment toward his people (Isadore Sharp, 2009).

international trade Essay -- essays research papers

Privatization of social security Today, United State is on the edge for a huge change, President George W. Bush second term agenda to reform the Social Security has left us to think about a question that will have a huge impact on the future of United State, Should Social Security be privatized? Enacted in 1935, under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and modified many times since-including major change in 1983-Social Security provides benefits to workers and their family members upon retirement, disability, or death. Since the program's origin, the size of those benefits always has depended on the earnings of workers. If the social security is privatized the amount that’s collected from each worker’s pay check as a Social Security tax upon retirement instead would depend on the size of investments in his or her own personal account. Under the current recession period, privatizing Social Security will increase the federal deficits and debt significantly hence the national savings will decline and of all it could reduce long-term economic growth and the size of the economic pie available to pay for the retirement of the baby boom generation. After privatization for every dollar of national savings that it injects into the economy, the government will have to take another dollar out of the national savings market in the form of Treasury Bonds, thus negating the effect of privatization on the supply of private capital. Therefore interest rates are likely to...