Human Freedom And The Self By Roderick M. Chisholm

In â€Å"Human Freedom and the Self,† Roderick M. Chisholm takes the libertarian stance, arguing that freedom is incompatible with determinism, that determinism is in fact false, and that humans do posses the kind of freedom required for moral responsibility. Chisholm argues that a deterministic universe, where all events, including human actions, proceed from prior events without the possibility that they would proceed differently than they do prevent the possibility that humans are responsible for their actions. To validate his libertarian beliefs, Chisholm sets out to prove that humans are responsible for their actions and also the thoughts that lead to those actions. In order to answer this problem, Chisholm believes we must make some assumptions about the man who preforms the act. Chisholm begins his argument for the case of free will and it’s incompatibility with determinism by showing that people are responsible for the choices they make. If an agent (person) is responsible for the choices he makes, and has the power to change that choice, then determinism can’t exist. Chisholm uses the scenario of one man shooting another man to prove his point.. The shooter is responsible for his actions, because he had a choice of whether to fire or not to fire the shot. If the shooter has the ability to choose which course of action to take, it means that the man causes action. Having the freedom of choice could not have been caused or determined by any event that was not itselfShow MoreRelatedHuman Freedom And The Self By Roderick M. Chisholm Essay2503 Words   |  11 PagesIn the paper, â€Å"Human Freedom and the Self† Roderick M. Chisholm offers his theory of human freedom and defends it against a couple objections. One of the objections we will talk about which is the second objection is connected to the concept of immanent causation, where causation is by an agent, he argues how the statement â€Å"the prime mover unmoved† (p age 391) has been subject to difficulty. Chisholm explains immanent causation as being an agent causing the event A to happen, but although the agentRead MoreChisholm and Free Will Essay1290 Words   |  6 PagesBefore I begin it is pertinent to note the disparate positions on the problem of human freedom. In Human Freedom and the Self, Roderick M. Chisholm takes the libertarian stance which is contiguous with the doctrine of incompatibility. Libertarians believe in free will and recognize that freedom and determinism are incompatible. The determinist also follow the doctrine of incompatibility, and according to Chisholms formulation, their view is that every event involved in an act is caused byRead More The Free Will Debate Essay2989 Words   |  12 PagesFree will is directly connected to two other vital philosophical issues: freedom of action and moral accountability, which is the main reason why the debate is so vital. Simply stated, a person who has free will refers to a n individual’s ability to choose his or her route of action. However, animals also appear to suit this measure, further adding to the debate because free will is typically thought to only be possessed by human beings (Broad 1990). Over the years, there has been an extended runningRead MoreDecision Theory: a Brief Introduction28334 Words   |  114 Pagesensure that they can reach a conclusion even if they are in disagreement? Almost everything that a human being does involves decisions. Therefore, to theorize about decisions is almost the same as to theorize about human 5 activitities. However, decision theory is not quite as all-embracing as that. It focuses on only some aspects of human activity. In particular, it focuses on how we use our freedom. In the situations treated by decision theorists, there are options to choose between, and we choose

Jack London The Call Of The Wild - 550 Words

Jack London: The Call Of The Wild Well the main character is buck. He was born on a judge’s ranch in Mexico. He was the king of the ranch, everyone loved him. Them one day a gardener took him for a walk, and he was sold. He fought the man that bought him; he was stuffed in a cage. Buck is a huge half breed saint Bernard, and Scottish shepherd. He Is sent to Alaska and sold for a sled dog. He goes through several different owners. The story takes place in the late 1800’s, during the gold rush. During this time one of the only methods of travel was by dog sled. So everyone was sending dogs to the Klondike to sell. Buck was one of many dogs stolen and shipped up to be sold. Many dogs didn’t make it but others did and they were ran to death. Buck learned quickly what was expected of him. He knew that he would be beaten. Not only did he have to worry about his owners beating him but the other dogs. They kept each other in line and moving while in the traces. His first to owners ran him over 2500 mile s. Then the third owner ran him more. The next owners had no idea what they were doing. The dogs would not work for them inspite of severe beatings. Finally john Thornton stepped in and threatened the mans life if he laid another hand on the dog. He then took the dog from him; the rest of the team was drove on by the men just to fall threw a river and die. Buck was aloud to rest and gain his weight back. John Thornton became his best friend. On several occasions buck savedShow MoreRelatedCall Of The Wild By Jack London1448 Words   |  6 PagesCall of the Wild is a novella written by Jack London that is ironic about life and the way we look at it. We look at life as humans and other things are just living in our world, that nothing else has a say in the world because we do not speak the same languages. Example of this is how we â€Å"own† dogs, cats, horses, etc; we do not â€Å"own† them, they are their own being with goals of their own. We may not be able to underst and what they are saying or what they are thinking, but as London explains throughoutRead MoreThe Call Of The Wild By Jack London802 Words   |  4 PagesThe novel The Call of the Wild is written by Jack London. The novel is known as an adventure fiction; it is known as an adventure fiction because it is based on an adventure by London, but is put into a fictional reading. This novel is told about a dog and his life struggles, but it is based on an adventure taken by London. This novel is important to us because it gives us an insight on how important it is to fight for what you want, and defend your place in life. The theme of this novel is to workRead MoreThe Call Of The Wild By Jack London1396 Words   |  6 PagesThe Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London, and is a very interesting fiction novel that contains elements of happiness, sadness, failure, and triumph(with a hint of anger). This book shows the strong bond between man and beast, and helps the reader understand th e strong loves shared(and lost). This book can show how change affects someone, and how it can affect the people around them. This book has a lot of important morals, which can teach the reader patience, sorrow, and true compassion. TheRead MoreJack London and His Call of the Wild1150 Words   |  5 Pagesof the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. - Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Ch. 3 (Jack London Quotes). This quote summarizes the success of Jack London’s writing career in one simple sentence. London’s success and inspiration for his naturalist style can be accredited to the way in which he was raised, and his experiences during his lifetime. Jack London, was born John Griffith Chaney on January 12, 1876 near San Francisco, California. His motherRead MoreCall Of The Wild By Jack London1386 Words   |  6 Pages Two of Jack London’s most famous stories are Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire. Call of the Wild is a novel about a dog named Buck, who is stolen away from his home in California and sold in Canada to become a member in a dog sled team. Then Buck learns the law of club and fang, and he becomes the leader of his team and eventually breaks away from captivity to become a wild dog roaming forest. To Build a Fire, on the other hand, is a short story about a man who is traveling through Canada inRead MoreThe Call of the Wild, by Jack London985 Words   |  4 PagesLondon introduces the only other companion for the man on the trip, the dog—a native husky with a heavy coat of fur, which has adapted to survive the dangers of the cold wilderness. Unlike the man, the dog does not have a â€Å"sharp cons ciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man’s brain,† but instead the â€Å"brute had its instinct† (London 630). London contrasts the man’s intelligence with dog’s instinct, which doesn’t use human measurements to show temperature. The man pities the dogRead MoreThe Call of the Wild by Jack London Essay1143 Words   |  5 PagesThe Call of the Wild by Jack London The title of the book is The Call of the Wild and was written by Jack London in 1903. He was the son of an Irish-American astrologer and his mother was Flora Wellman, the odd one out of a well to do family. They lived a life of poverty in Pennsylvania. Jack read a lot and at the age of fifteen left home and travelled around North America as a tramp. On charges of vagrancy, he spent 30 days in prison. After educating himself he managedRead MoreSummary Of The Call Of The Wild By Jack London1908 Words   |  8 Pages Ms. Stone English 10 H 11 November 2016 Journal Entry #1: The Call Of The Wild, by Jack London 1. Section Summary A large dog, named Buck, lives on a big estate in the heart of Santa Clara Valley. While in the midst a famous gold rush in Klondike, Canada, many men need sled dogs to get around on the snow. Buck does not realize the great fear that he is in while living during this time. Manuel, a gardener on the estate that Buck lives on, gambles Buck to another man and loses. Buck beginsRead MoreAnalysis Of Jack London s The Call Of The Wild 1306 Words   |  6 Pagesdifferent literary movements. Authors choose the writing style they want, and whether or not to be in a movement. Jack London was one of these authors. He chose to be a part of the naturalism movement. Naturalism is a literary movement with the belief that humans and animals being shaped by their environment. He then chose to use indirect discourse in one of his most popular books The Call of the Wild. Free Indirect Discourse is when the reader knows the thoughts of the main character while having a thirdRead MoreWilderness in Ca ll of the Wild by Jack London Essay573 Words   |  3 PagesSymbolism Many of the characters in The Call of the Wild symbolize specific qualities. One example of this is Mercedes. She represents greed and being spoiled. Mercedes enters the wilderness clueless to what toll it will take on her. â€Å"†Undreamed of!† cried Mercedes, throwing up her hands in dainty dismay† (73). This quote shows that she was expecting (and hoping) for a more pampered way of life out in the Klondike. Mercedes could also represent the unpreparedness of most of the people going to

Six Sigma for Pizza Free Essays

Hong Kong Baptist University Professional Diploma in Quality Management Six Sigma and Quality Tools Group Assignment Report of Six Sigma Project For Yum Yum Pizza Group Group Members: CHIU Chi Cheong, Ricky CHOI Kam Tong, Danny CHUNG King, Carmen FONG Luk Chi, Brian LEE Lai Fun, Fanny Wong Ming Chung, Victor DQM03I2-004 DQM03I3-004 DQM03I3-021 DQM03I3-008 DQM03I3-022 DQM03I3-018 Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 1 of 23 Contents 1. Introduction 2. Define Phase 3. We will write a custom essay sample on Six Sigma for Pizza or any similar topic only for you Order Now Measure Phase 4. Analysis Phase 5. Improve Phase 6. Control Phase 7. Conclusion Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 2 of 23 Introduction Yum Yum Pizza group comprises of 10 pizza shops scattering in different areas in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territory as shown on the map below. Staff in each shop are basically organized with order receptionist, baker and delivery worker. On top of these 10 pizza shops, the leadership and management works are responsible by a management team. The core business is to produce pizza of various styles and deliver to their customers according to address of the order by phone. Of course, there are also self-pick up pizza available to the customers. However, this is merely involved about 10% of the overall business. Pizza Group Shops Location P P P P P P P P P P P : Shop Location Starting from early 2003, there were occasional customer feedbacks and complaints which were mainly involved unpunctual delivery of pizza. Since 90% of the business required our pizza delivery, the management began to pay attention on these feedbacks. During the half year review in June 2003, it was discovered about 3% loss of customers and about 5% drop in pizza sales in the same period. We immediately communicated the finding with the Management. Subsequently, a project team was set up to investigate the causes and seek for improvement on the situation. After the first Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 3 of 23 project team meeting, it was agreed that the team would adopt Six Sigma strategy to determine the cause of the problem and implement the solution. Purpose of this report is to present the results of the pizza group’s problem-solving process and explain the solution adopted. As Six Sigma problem-solving includes statistical and measurement methods, by using the stools , we focused the efforts on understanding the variations in the business process and the defects that results: Customer satisfaction Revenue Quality Impact to employees Growth of business Competitive advantages. This report also presents a detailed explanation of steps on how we used the six sigma problem-solving strategy ( i. e define, measure analysis, improve and control ) to determine the cause of losing customer , decreasing of pizza sales and to establish method in rectifying the faulty steps in our operation process. Lastly, with implementation of the fine-tuned process, reoccurrence of the defects can be minimized in order to maintain and enhance a sound pizza business operation. Define Phase To the current practice, the time required for delivery of a pizza to customer was one hour on average. With concern on the customer complaints on unpunctual delivery, sales decreasing and number of customers was found reducing in the 6-months financial review in June 2003, undoubtedly, the pizza group had to take action to rectify the situation. At the beginning, we did not know what particular problem being existed in the business. A project team was therefore set up, by using six sigma strategy to tackle and rectify the problem. After the first project team meeting, a project team charter was formulated based on the management concern and displayed as below: Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 4 of 23 Project Team Charter – Delivery performance of pizza Business Case Opportunity Statement Current average delivery time is one hour for each We currently have an average delivery of pizza / pizzas to customer. Management delivery cycle of one hour. requires the pizza to be delivered within one hours as declared by same scales competitors in this trade of Our customers expect the business. pizza can be delivered Yum Yum Pizza group have been losing 3% of punctually within +/- 5 min. customers base per month within the past 6 months variation review, the sales have dropped in 5% (HKD135K per month) for the same period. By improving the accurate delivery time we anticipate loss of customer would be merely 1% drop and the sale would also be return to about 2% drop. With continuous implementation, the pizza sales would have 3% to 5% further increase monthly (i. e. $81K/month – $135K/month increase ) in the coming one or two years. Goal Statement -To deliver pizza from order to customer within one hour punctually – To achieve pizza delivery time within +/- 5 min. – Since this is the first six sigma project in Yum Yum Pizza Group, the current sigma process level is unknown which have to be identified and improved as the target of the project team. Activity Define Measure Analyze Improve Control Track Benefit Project Plan Start End 6/1 6/14 6/10 6/30 7/4 8/1 9/12 10/13 10/13 11/13 11/14 12/15 Project Scope Main objective – to review and improve order processing – Start – Order received from customers – End – Pizza in customer’s hand Team Selection Bob Black Belt Charles Group Manager Apple Order Receptionist Donald Baker Edward Deliveryman The project team charter submitted to management and was approved in mid May 2003. Right immediately, a brainstorming session conducted to review the business Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 5 of 23 rocess on a high level steps. SIPOC diagram was also established with identification on Supplier, Inputs, Process, Outputs Customers for showing the current situation of the business process and is now as below : Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 6 of 23 SIPOC Diagram – Pizza Delivery Company Supplier Inputs Process Outputs Customers Requirements †¢ Ingredients for Pizza †¢ Packaging material supplier †¢ †¢ Supplier for motorcycle †¢ Printing Company Process †¢ Ingredients †¢ Packaging materials †¢ Staff †¢ Motor cycles †¢ Order form See below †¢ †¢ Pizza Office customers Household customers Delicious †¢ Good taste †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Punctual delivery Step 1 Receive Order (by phone) Step 2 Production Packaging Step 3 Motorcycle Delivery Step 4 Park arrive delivery point Step 5 Hand in pizza to Customer receive money Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 7 of 23 Besides, customer surveys was also conducted to collect the impression and feedback from customers. With these â€Å"Voice Of Customers† (VOC ), we firstly developed a list of key customer issues. On the further steps, we also formulated a list of critical customer requirement as listed on the table: Voice of Customer to Critical Customer Requirement ( VOC to CCR ) Critical Customer Requirement maintain pizza at temperature 40 degree C when passing to customer inform arrival time and price in advance Key Customer Issue pizza delivered to customer should be at reasonable temperature on time delivery packing arrangement concern on price Voice of Customer Cool pizza, tasted no good Late delivery Long deliver lead time Poor packaging outlook Poor packaging spoil pizza unexpected high price impolite delivery manner ragged deliver worker – – – keep arrival time variation less than 5 min. tandard pizza package standard greeting and manner delivery worker in uniform need polite manner when passing pizza to customer reasonable worker outlook – Measure Phase To investigate and realize further improvement for fulfilling the most important requirement from customers, it was anticipated operational definition would be essential to clearly point out the criteria to our operational performance. Based on the current operation process and the established operational definition, we conducted surveys and interviews with our customer and staff to collect data on how we performed currently. Below is the table showing our data measurement plan which was designed to collect the feedbacks and opinions. As indicated, the data were collected from various sources, that included the direct feedback from customer, and we anticipated the right moment to collect these data should be right after the telephone order from customers, which was the most simple and direct method to collect the first hand information.. Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 9 of 23 Data Measurement Plan Performance Measure Operational Definition Data Source and Location -measure the failure rate in maintaining pizza temperature not less than 40 degree -maintain pizza in standard cartoon Sample Size Who will collect the Data When will data be collected? How will data be selected? Other data that should be collected at the same time? -feedback from customer,-feedback from delivery worker, 15% of delivered pizza 1June to 30 June Randomly Pizza quality,, Bob, Black Belt -telephone ,survey / questionnaire ox with thermal indicator and ensure the temperature is not less than 40 degree C on the indicator -estimate delivery time and price of pizza, then inform customer on the arrival time right after telephone order -ride motorcycle for pizza delivery and arrive on time -packaging pizza with standard cartoon box -greeting to customer with wording -delivery worker must be wearing clean and tidy uniform standard C when passing to customer -measure the failure rate in informing arrival time an d price in advance to customer -measure the failure rate in keeping arrival time variation less than 5 min. measure the failure rate in packaging pizza in standard package -measure the failure rate of delivery worker greeting to customer by saying standard greeting and manner -measure the failure rate of delivery worker wearing uniform selected Weather situation, Traffic situation Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 10 of 23 Pizza Ordering Sequence ( By Phone ) Customer Order Receptionist Baker Deliver Order by phone standard greeting, listen customer’s order details produce and bake pizza as ordered confirm order details and customer address lan delivery route confirm delivery time, payment package pizza in delivery box collect packaged pizza, or other food items plan for production schedule put pizza and other items into delivery box of motorcycle drive to customer address get to the door of the address, ring the bell and say standard greeting check accept ance and pay confirm delivery of pizza and other food items receive payment and customer signature on receipt, say standard goodbye and leave business case completed Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 11 of 23 According to the established operation definition and sequence above, survey forms and questionnaires were formulated. It was also decided to perform the 500 surveys to customers randomly starting from 1 June. 2003, that involved about 15% of the pizza business during the moment. In addition to the questions devised from operation definitions, some general questions liked â€Å"Do you think choice of the pizzas is sufficient to you â€Å" and â€Å"Can you find your favorite taste among the existing available choice of pizzas â€Å" were also included in the questionnaires and survey questions to customers. Below is the table summarizing the survey results: Summary of operation defects as identified in June 2003 survey Satisfactory Defect item Operation description level Frequency not acceptable 1 maintain pizza not less than 40 degree C not acceptable 2 advise pizza arrival time not acceptable 3 variation of pizza arrival time within 5 min. cceptable 4 acceptable pizza package acceptable 5 delivery worker wearing uniform 6 acceptable greeting words fromdelivery worker acceptable 7 Do you think choice of the pizzas is sufficient to yougood Can you find your favor us taste among the existing 8 available choice of pizzas very good good 9 waiting time during telephone order for pizza 10 clear telephone communication with order receptionivery good 11 overall impression during making telephone order good %in Overall Defect 21 21. 88 18 18. 75 45 46. 88 6 6. 25 3 3. 13 3 3. 13 N. A. N. A. N. A. N. A. N. A. ( Satisfactory Level : very good; good; acceptable; not acceptable; poor ) Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 12 of 23 Before tackling the results, we also formulated the data in Pareto Chart and calculated the process sigma for more understanding on the business situation of the pizza group. Operation Defect Rates in Pareto Chart O cc u ran n a ce F req u e n cy 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 P a re to C h a rt – O p e ra tio n D e fe c t a s id e n tifie d in J u n e 2 0 0 3 % in O v e ra ll D e fe c t 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% s a y i n g st a n d a r d g r e e ti n g k e e p a rri v al ti m e v a riati o n i n f o r m a rri v a l ti m e a n d sta n d ard p a c k a g e aintain te m p erature p a c kin g piz z a in w it h p o lit e m a n n e r p ric e in a d v a n c e w e arin g u nif o r m at 4 0 d e g re e C Calculated Sigma Value of the overall process ( as in June 2003 ) less th a n 5 m in. O p e r a tio nD e fe c ts 1 2 3 4 5 6 O v e ra ll Y e ild = 21 18 45 6 3 3 = U n its 500 500 500 500 500 500 DPU 0 . 0 4 2 0 . 0 3 6 0 . 0 9 0 . 0 1 2 0 . 0 0 6 0 . 0 0 6 T h r o u g h tp u C u m . Y ie ld t Y ie ld 0 . 9 5 9 0 . 9 5 9 0 . 9 6 5 0 . 9 2 5 0 . 9 1 4 0 . 8 4 5 0 . 9 8 8 0 . 8 3 5 0 . 9 9 4 0 . 8 3 0 0 . 9 9 4 0 . 8 2 5 ( Y (1 ) x Y (2 ) x Y (3 ) x Y (4 ) x Y (5 ) x Y (6 ) 0 . 8 2 5 a ro u n d 0 . 0 6 sig m a ) Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 13 of 23 Analysis Phase In analysis phase, we had studied why all the pizza delivery to customer could not be achieved steadily within one hour. The failure rates is the highest of 46. 88% among all defects identified and it happened 45 times during the survey period with sample size of 500 survey. With further investigation on the finding, we found the traffic condition, weather condition, and the familiarity of the delivery worker to the customer address would highly affected the overall delivery time and therefore giving an â€Å" Not Punctual Impression† to customer. In addition, such delay would also caused the pizza temperature dropped below the designed 40 degree C. As the result, the number of customer decreased and pizza sales dropped. Below was the Cause-and-Effect diagram utilized for analyzing causes leading to delayed delivery. Cause-and-effect Diagram – Pizza Delivery People poor communication Machines Telephone Traffic Condition Traffic Jam Pizza Oven deliver not familar with customer’s address Road excavation Motorcycle Operation process Not Punctual Pizza Delivery Typhoon kill of baking by Pizza Oven Driving Skill on Motorcycle Raining delivery box on motorcycle Cartoon box for packing pizza Methods Weather Materials For the pizza temperature, we investigated the delivery box on motorcycles and cartoon boxes currently used in packaging pizzas for delivery. No major problem was found in keeping pizza exist oven temperature. Actually, the material for keeping warm, that included delivery boxes on motorcycles and cartoon boxes, all these equipment and facilities were at an acceptable quality standard and in a sound condition. Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 14 of 23 Cause-and-effect Diagram – Pizza Temperature People poor communication Machines Telephone Pizza Oven deliver not familar with customer’s address Motorcycle kill of baking by Pizza Oven driving skill of Motorcycle delivery box on motorcycle Cartoon box for packing pizza Pizza Temperature below 40 degree C Methods Materials Analysis on other issues were also conducted, which mainly carried out with reference on the operation process, starting from customer order to the payment received from customer. Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 15 of 23 In addition to the analysis on the collected data, FMEA was also a tool to study on recommended improvement action. The project team had also formulated a FMEA table below for showing the analyzed risk priority and recommended action. Ite m a n d F u n c tio n p la n d e liv e ry ro u te P o te n ia l F a ilu re M ode p la n b a s e d w ro n g o r o n w ro n g d e la y in fo r m a tio n d e liv e ry P o te n ia l E ffe c t(s ) of F a ilu re F M E A P ro c e ss P o te n tia l C a u se(s) o f F a ilu re A c tio n re s u lts C u rre n t C o n tro ls R e c o m m e n d e d R e s p o n s ib ility A c tio a n d T a rg e t A c tio n n c o m p le tio n D a te Severity e Occurrenc Detection RPN Severity e Detection Occurrenc RPN T aken o lle c t a n d p u t p iz z a in d e liv e ry box of m o to rc y c le d riv e to th e c u s to m e r ad d ress g e t to th e ad d ress an d rin g d o o r b e ll p iz z a d ro p p e d d u rin g c o lle c tio n need re p la c e m e n t, lo s e o f p iz z a 7 w ro n g in fo rm a tio n fro m o rd e r re c e p tio n is t o r w ro n g p la n n in g o f 9 c a re le s s o f d e liv e r 2 p la n b a s e d 5 on m ap and e x p e rie n c e 3 1 ta k e c a re in p u ttin g th e p iz z a 7 0 a s th e re a re to ta lly 1 0 s h o p s , s u g g e s t to s e rv e th e c u s to m e rs based on s p e c ific a re a o f 2 7 ta k e c a re in d e liv e ry o n tin u . b y o rd e r re c e ip tio n is ts , N ov. 03 e ffe c tiv e b y d e liv e ry w o rk e rs, N o v . 0 3 e ffe c tiv e b y d e liv e ry w o rk e rs, N o v . 0 3 e ffe c tiv e b y d e liv e ry w o rk e rs, N o v . 0 3 e ffe c tiv e b y d e liv e ry w o rk e rs, N o v . 0 3 e ffe c tiv e c o n tin u . 4 2 3 24 9 1 3 27 f a ilu re o f d e la y in m o to rc y c le , d e liv e ry tra ffic ja m d e la y d e liv e ry d e liv e r n o t f a m ilia r w ith th e p la c e o f a d d re ss c o n f irm d ro p th e d e liv e ry p iz z a w h ile a n d re c e iv e p a s s in g to paym ent c u s to m e r u n p re d ic te d tra ffic o r w e a th e r s itu a tio n 6 n o t fa m ilia r w ith th e a r e a o f c u s to m e r ad d ress 8 c a re le s s o f b o th c u s to m e r a n d d e liv e r 4 n o s p e c ific c o n tro l 6 1 6 8 lis te n to ro a d re p o rt fro m ra d io 1 0 8 a rra n g e e x p e rie n c e d e liv e r fo r s e rv in g th e a re a 3 2 b e c a re fu ll in h a n d lin g p iz z a c o n tin u . 4 3 4 48 3 n e e d m o re 6 c o n tin u . 2 2 4 16 need re p la c e m e n t, lo s e o f p iz z a tim e to p re p a re d e liv e ry p la n 1 b e c a re fu ll in h a n d lin g p iz z a c o n tin u . 8 1 4 32 T o ta l R is k P rio rity N u m b e r R e s u ltin g R is k P rio rity N u m b e r Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 16 of 23 After analyzing the survey data and cause of operation defects, we had also analysed the relationship of the customer requirement against our group available technical and internal resources , that included analysis on communication tools, listening skill, baking skill, packaging devices, delivery equipment and even the manner of delivery workers etc. The purpose was to had a thorough understanding on the internal strength and weakness of Yum Yum Pizza Group. Below was the quality function deployment matrix utilized for the analysis. As indicated on the diagram, the highest score of 27 was found on â€Å" Keep arrival time variation less than 5 minutes â€Å". That meant it should be the first issue to be resolved for improving the pizza business Quality Function deployment Matrix VS : Very strong relationship w w Thermal sensing tape w w Good knowledge of road condition and driving skill S : Strong relationship W : Weak relationship VS Well equipped pizza bakery Communication tools Manner training Cartoon pizza box Good baking skill Technical requirement Good conditioned motorcycle Accurate watch Tidy uniform CCR Pizza at temperature 40 degree to customer Inform arrival time price in advance Keep arrival time variation less than 5 minutes Standard pizza package Standard greeting and polite manner Proper dressed delivery worker Low pizza price Delicious Score 24 18 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 3 3 27 10 9 9 9 9 1 9 1 1 1 3 1 1 9 1 9 5 22 Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 18 of 23 Improve Phase Based on the analyzed information, the project team understood that the methodology, facilities and including the operation behavior of staff are at acceptable level. The most serious and uncontrollable factor is the traffic or road condition and weather situation, which was mostly serious item affecting the arrival time of pizza to customer. To minimize this factor, the Project Team recommended the entire services areas of the Pizza Group to be separated into 10 services zones. And each shop would response to serve the pizza customers’ within the defined zone. Should there was any order outside the their responsible zone, the order receptionist had to refer the orders to the responsible shop to produce and deliver the pizza by their own resources. However, whenever there was any order outside all the 10 service zone as shown on the map of responsible zone, the receptionist had to estimate the delivery time and immediately explain to the customer for the estimated time required. Even the delivery time would exceed the pre-designed one hour delivery period, with this clarification the customer would understand the situation without wrong expectation on the pizza delivery. As such, complaint on unpunctual pizza delivery should be kept to the minimal. Below were the modified operation process chart with the changes marked in brown and the map showing the responsible service zones of the 10 pizza shop for reference. Responsible Zones of Pizza Shops P Hou se Hou se P P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Hou se P Responsible Service Zone Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 19 of 23 Pizza Ordering Sequence, after process restructuring ( By Phone ) Customer Order Receptionist Order Receptionist of responsible area Baker Deliver Order by phone standard greeting, listen customer’s order details confirm order details and customer address confirm delivery time, payment Plan for production schedule produce and bake pizza as ordered plan delivery route pack pizza in delivery box collect packed pizza, or other food items Review for production area put pizza and other items into delivery box of motorcycle continue pizza production locally drive to customer address get to the door of the address, ring the bell and say standard greeting check acceptance and pay confirm delivery of pizza and other food items receive payment and customer signature on receipt, say standard goodbye and leave business case completed Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 20 of 23 Control Phase For monitoring operation performance, control chart was utilized to collect operation data. The chart could distinguish the process variation resulting from common causes or special causes. It was aware that variation in the pizza operation was unavoidable. Number of factors including material, machines, methods, environment and operators were the major elements causing variation. For easily reflecting and controlling the overall performance of the pizza delivery, X-bar R chart was selected for the monitoring and controlling purpose. Measures Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 No. ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. ) ( min. 1 56 57 58 55 55 60 54 58 54 59 2 59 49 53 52 59 57 52 57 58 56 3 58 57 54 52 49 55 52 54 55 53 4 50 52 49 54 53 68 63 51 56 59 5 52 53 52 52 49 56 52 53 47 52 6 52 54 53 54 59 64 63 53 56 53 7 58 57 48 57 59 57 64 59 51 53 8 56 54 57 59 52 52 55 54 52 59 9 57 51 63 51 51 59 51 59 51 53 10 53 50 50 57 63 53 54 56 54 59 11 49 56 52 53 64 62 48 54 48 54 12 59 49 59 53 56 57 52 58 52 57 13 59 57 62 59 64 52 70 52 53 52 14 52 52 55 54 52 59 54 53 54 53 15 51 59 51 49 51 53 57 57 57 58 16 55 53 54 55 54 60 47 55 54 57 17 57 54 49 56 52 53 47 52 59 57 18 52 49 59 49 49 53 56 53 52 52 19 53 52 59 57 49 59 51 54 53 59 20 54 53 52 52 55 54 52 57 55 53 21 57 57 51 59 51 70 51 52 60 56 22 64 52 64 53 54 69 54 53 53 52 23 65 53 62 54 49 56 52 53 62 53 24 63 54 52 49 59 69 59 53 56 49 25 59 53 50 54 53 54 53 55 57 55 Average Range == X == R __ UCL X __ LCL X 56 16 53. 48 10 54. 72 16 53. 96 10 54. 44 15 58. 44 18 54. 52 23 54. 6 8 54. 36 15 54. 92 10 = 54. 944 ( min. ) = = = 14. 1 ( min. ) 57. 1013 ( min. ) 52. 7867 ( min. ) __ UCLR __ LCLR = = 21. 7281 6. 4719 Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 21 of 23 Average 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 1 2 3 4 5 Day 6 7 Performance Requirement Min. __ UCLX __ X __ LCLX 8 9 10 Range 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 Day 6 7 8 __ R UCL __ R Min. __ LCLR 9 10 Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 22 of 23 The above data was collected within 10 operation days from mid Oct. o mid Nov. It was obvious that the operation on a heavy rainy, day 6 was the worst. There were totally 4 deliveries required more than 65 minutes to complete, which exceeded the operation definition. This was still out of our control. With comparison with the performance before the project improvement, it was found that the defect rate was great ly improved as summarized below : Summary of Operation Defects Comparsion between June 2003 / Dec. 2003 June 2003 Dec. 2003 Frequenc % in Overall Frequenc % in Overall y Defect y Defect 21 21. 88 7 20. 59 18 18. 75 5 14. 71 45 46. 88 10 29. 41 6 6. 25 6 17. 65 3 3. 13 3 8. 82 3 3. 13 3 8. 82 item 1 2 3 4 5 6 Operation description maintain pizza not less than 40 degree C advise pizza arrival time variation of pizza arrival time within 5 min. acceptable pizza package delivery worker wearing uniform acceptable greeting words from delivery worker Conclusion Even though it was not 100% rectified all the operation defects, with the great improvement on the pizza delivery, the defect rate on pizza temperature was also improved. The sigma value on the overall pizza delivery of the group was greatly improved to 1. 5 sigma and the pizza sales as reviewed in end Dec. 2003, 5% increased was identified in comparing with the sales figure six months before. Sigma level after implement of new operation process: OperationDefects Units DPU Throughtpu Cum. Yield t Yield 1 7 500 0. 014 0. 986 0. 986 2 5 500 0. 01 0. 990 0. 976 3 10 500 0. 02 0. 980 0. 957 4 6 500 0. 012 0. 988 0. 946 5 3 500 0. 006 0. 994 0. 940 6 3 500 0. 006 0. 994 0. 934 Overall Yeild = = Y(1) x Y(2) x Y(3) x Y(4) x Y(5) x Y(6) 0. 934 ( around 1. 502 sigma ) It was concluded, implementation of the improved operation process was essential to the business. With the continuation implementation of the improved process and current good taste of pizza with variety choice to customer, the pizza sales was expected gradually increased with number of customer increased as well. Report of SiX Sigma Project, Yum Yum Pizza Group Page 23 of 23 How to cite Six Sigma for Pizza, Papers

A Critique of A Good Man is Hard to Find good hard Essay Example For Students

A Critique of A Good Man is Hard to Find good hard Essay A Critiqueof A Good Man is Hard to Find She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest. Flannery OConnors A Good Man is Hard to Find is the story of a familys vacation tragically ended by a murderer and his gang. After a meddlesome Mother/Mother-In-Law/Grandmother tries to insist that the family go to Tennessee instead of Florida, it was in fact through her own insistence that prompted the family stray from the main path in search of some false, lost treasure. This deadly decision caused the family to fall prey to the Misfit. Foreshadowing at the beginning of the story hints to the reader that while on their trip to Florida, this family is destined to cross paths with the Misfit. For example, Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. Through OConnors use of characterization, symbolism and the theme that A Good Man is Hard to Find, OConnors point that societys morals and faith has crumbled is conveyed. OConnors use of characterization shows the breaking down of respect and discipline in American society. From past generations to present generations, this message can be understood. Grandma represents the past with her strong Southern Hospitality heritage. For instance, The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. Her collar and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. Later on she even states, In my timechildren were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. The grandchildren, however, are a product of where this gap between social courtesy and lack of discipline apply. In the beginning of the story June Star rudely comments to her grandmother, She wouldnt stay home for a million bucks, afraid shed miss something. She has to go everywhere we go. When John Wesley was asked by the grandmother what he would do if confronted by the Misfit his reply was, Id smack his face. In the end we found this to be very untrue. The Misfits character is again the result of the breakdown in humanity, family values and all of the values that have been lost in todays culture. The Misfit may have some social graces because he says politely, Yes mam, No mam, I pre-chate that lady, and apologizes to the grandmother for Baileys harsh comment, but there is some uneasiness about the morals his own father had as a role model. There is an undertone that the Misfits father had a darker side and had some run-ins with the Authorities. The Misfit explained to the grandmother, Daddy was a card himself. You could never put anything over on him. He never got in trouble with the Authorities though. Just had the knack of handling them. OConnors symbolism throughout the story represents faith (or lack of), and death. The fact that the family had strayed from the main path onto an unimportant side road, where they were killed, symbolizes how people often stray from Jesus and follow the wrong path spiritually. Even the towns name Toombsboro is a symbol of death. It was in this town that the grandmother thought the old plantation was. This was where she became sidetracked, again like her faith in Jesus. In the car, John Wesley and June Star were playing a game by guessing the shape of the clouds in the sky. .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .postImageUrl , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:hover , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:visited , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:active { border:0!important; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:active , .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26 .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ub5a0b34277d566ec72abc5ddbf45ef26:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Salem Witch Trials Essay The clouds represent the grandmothers superficial faith. She dressed herself with the purple spray of flowers just in case she died. It was as if she were taking death lightly. It was when .

Hodgkins Disease Essays - Anatomical Pathology, RTT,

Hodgkin's Disease Hodgkins Disease Cancers arising from the lymph nodes or other sites of lymphoid tissue are broadly termed lymphomas. This group of diseases is divided into Hodgkins disease and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In both conditions, there is a replacement of normal lymphatic tissue by collections of abnormal lymphoma cells. The lymphatic system are a complex network of specialised cells and organs that defend the body against infection. Lymphatic organs include the bone marrow, spleen, thymus gland, lymph nodes, tonsils, adenoids, appendix and clumps of tissue in the small bowel. A function of the lymphatic system is to nurture and mature the B and T-lymphocytes (white blood cells vital to immune function). Cancerous changes can take place when mutation leads to failure of the cells maturing of the lymphoid cells. Lymphomas are regarded as cancers of lymphocytes. The process which lymphoma occurs consists of a series of events where normal lymphocyte cells cease to mature and develop in an orderly fashion. The genetic make-up of the lymphocyte is altered, resulting in the formation of altered lymph tissue (tumours) or altered lymphocyte secretions. Typically, patients present with a painless swelling of lymph node, with or without fever and night sweats and weight loss. How Hodgkins Is Caused. The exact cause of Hodgkins disease isnt known. However, different of how it is caused. 1. Viruses The Epstein-Barr virus is a herpes virus that causes infectious mononucleosis (also known as glandular fever). Epstein-Barr virus genes have been identified in tissue samples of approximately 20-50% of individuals with Hodgkins disease. However, it is yet to be established whether the Epstein-Barr virus can cause Hodgkins disease. The most of people who develop glandular fever will not develop Hodgkins disease. 2. Genetics Hodgkins disease is associated with a number of rare immune disorders. Chronic inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematous have also been associated with Hodgkins disease. Further, the recipients of heart, kidney and other organ transplant have been found to be at an increased risk of developing the illness. There is some evidence suggesting that first degree relatives of individuals with Hodgkins disease is at a small, but increased risk of developing the disease. However, Hodgkins disease is not directly heritable. Involved nodes in the neck, groin and armpits tend to be painless, firm, and rubbery. In some instances, the nodes may spontaneously increase and decrease in size. Because Hodgkins disease is associated with a defect in the maturation of the lymphocyte, the immune system may be impaired. As such repeated infections may occur. Symptoms The symptoms of Hodgkins disease frequently depend upon the stage of disease. Staging defines the extent to which the disease has spread throughout the body. Moreover, it often determines which treatment(s) will be required. Hodkins has 4 distinct stages of Hodgkins disease, these being stages 1-4. Each stage is further defined as exhibiting either A or B symptoms. These symptoms refer to either the absence of A or presence of B unexplained weight loss in the preceding 6 months, fever greater than 38?C, and or night sweats. Tumour suppressor genes: In health this family of genes usually act as a counter balance for oncogenesis. It is thought that they may be responsible for repairing gene damage in cells, or are growth inhibitor genes. In Hodgkins disease, there are often evidences of mutation in tumour suppressor genes as well as other genes. Stage 1. Stage 1 Hodgkins disease affects a single lymph node or lymph node region. The lymph nodes most commonly affected are the nodes in the neck, armpits or groin. Stage 2. Stage 2 disease is associated with lymph node involvement in 2 or more regions. However, the nodes must be involved in only one side of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle lying beneath the lungs. It moves up and down allowing air to move in and out of the lungs. Stage 3. Stage 3 disease is associated with lymphoma involvement on both sides of the diaphragm. The spleen is frequently involved at this stage. If the spleen is involved the abdomen may become tender or enlarged, with or without symptoms of abdominal fullness and distension. Stage 4. When Hodgkins disease enters stage 4, disease can spread through the body to area outside of the lymphatic system.

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis The efficient markets hypothesis has historically been one of the main cornerstones of academic finance research. Proposed by the University of Chicagos Eugene Fama in the 1960s, the general concept of the efficient markets hypothesis is that financial markets are informationally efficient- in other words, that asset prices in financial markets reflect all relevant information about an asset. One implication of this hypothesis is that, since there is no persistent mispricing of assets, it is virtually impossible to consistently predict asset prices in order to beat the market- i.e. generate returns that are higher than the overall market on average without incurring more risk than the market. The intuition behind the efficient markets hypothesis is pretty straightforward- if the market price of a stock or bond was lower than what available information would suggest it should be, investors could (and would) profit (generally via arbitrage strategies) by buying the asset. This increase in demand, however, would push up the price of the asset until it was no longer underpriced. Conversely, if the market price of a stock or bond was higher than what available information would suggest it should be, investors could (and would) profit by selling the asset (either selling the asset outright or short selling an asset that they dont own). In this case, the increase in the supply of the asset would push down the price of the asset until it was no longer overpriced. In either case, the profit motive of investors in these markets would lead to correct pricing of assets and no consistent opportunities for excess profit left on the table. Technically speaking, the efficient markets hypothesis comes in three forms. The first form, known as the weak form (or weak-form efficiency), postulates that future stock prices cannot be predicted from historical information about prices and returns. In other words, the weak form of the efficient markets hypothesis suggests that asset prices follow a random walk and that any information that could be used to predict future prices is independent of past prices. The second form, known as the semi-strong form (or semi-strong efficiency), suggests that stock prices react almost immediately to any new public information about an asset. In addition, the semi-strong form of the efficient markets hypothesis claims that markets dont overreact or underreact to new information. The third form, known as the strong form (or strong-form efficiency), states that asset prices adjust almost instantaneously not only to new public information but also to new private information. Put more simply, the weak form of the efficient markets hypothesis implies that an investor cant consistently beat the market with a model that only uses historical prices and returns as inputs, the semi-strong form of the efficient markets hypothesis implies that an investor cant consistently beat the market with a model that incorporates all publicly available information, and the strong form of the efficient markets hypothesis implies that an investor cant consistently beat the market even if his model incorporates private information about an asset. One thing to keep in mind regarding the efficient markets hypothesis is that it doesnt imply that no one ever profits from adjustments in asset prices. By the logic stated above, profits go to those investors whose actions move the assets to their correct prices. Under the assumption that different investors get to the market first in each of these cases, however, no single investor is consistently able to profit from these price adjustments. (Those investors who were able to always get in on the action first would be doing so not because asset prices were predictable but because they had an informational or execution advantage, which is not really inconsistent with the concept of market efficiency.) The empirical evidence for the efficient markets hypothesis is somewhat mixed, though the strong-form hypothesis has pretty consistently been refuted. In particular, behavioral finance researchers aim to document ways in which financial markets are inefficient and situations in which asset prices are at least partially predictable. In addition, behavioral finance researchers challenge the efficient markets hypothesis on theoretical grounds by documenting both cognitive biases that drive investors behavior away from rationality and limits to arbitrage that prevent others from taking advantage of the cognitive biases (and, by doing so, keeping markets efficient).

Vertical Structure and Horizontal Structure of Organizations Assignment

Vertical Structure and Horizontal Structure of Organizations - Assignment Example Horizontal structures involve lateral relations, such as liaison functions, task forces, frequent unplanned meetings, and the use of formalized integrator roles. The advantage of a horizontal structure is a possibility of liberal and informal communication. The disadvantage is that this structure is effective and possible only in small organizations. The decentralized decision-making process allows employees greater involvement and fast decision-making. The advantage of vertical structure is greater control and delegation of authority. The disadvantages are lack of flexibility, decision-making from the top, centralization of authority and bureaucratic control of all activities. The examples of a vertical structure are Ford Motor Company, Toyota and Microsoft. These organizations have centralization of all management functions and require a high level of lateral interdepartmental coordination and communication involving unplanned face-to-face meetings and mutual adaptation. Coordination of sequential technologies is best accomplished through plans and schedules, whereas coordination of pooled technologies can be accomplished by the use of stan dard operating procedures (Mullins 304).

Evaluation report of NLA and Work Based Learning Essay

Evaluation report of NLA and Work Based Learning - Essay Example I believe it is very essential and undeniable for everyone as well as for me that educational qualifications and continuous self-assessments help in grooming and developing ones perspective as well as refining his/her understanding regarding the possessed potentials when defining their career plan. Undoubtedly, this course has played a pivotal role in structuring and polishing my knowledge substantially, helping me to redefine my career goals and plans further. Overall, it guided me to have a great career ahead. In context to the above-mentioned points, the main objective of this essay is to evaluate the importance of the Negotiated Learning Agreement (NLA), contributing to my abilities and critical understanding. The essay also emphasises the value and the importance of the work base knowledge in my career. It also reflects the way the education and the career goals have changed my viewpoints towards life in the competitive job market environment as well as in the employer organisation as well. Ultimately, it can be asserted that the course has helped me to review and access my performance throughout the NLA process and during my placement process. To be noted in this regards, the work-based learning program, in lieu of the placement process has helped me to overcome many problems and issues about which I lacked previous understanding, further helping me to clear the interview mitigating the gaps between the requirements of the employer and my competencies. Nevertheless, it has helped me t o notify the gaps, which may arise in the future related to my career and take preventive measures accordingly. It also clarifies my doubt of how to develop my CV and to build a better career. I am a marketing management student. It was owing to my passion towards organisational management that I ultimately decided to select this management course. I believe that it will help me to meet the criteria that are needed to build a strong career in the field of

Fiat. A troubled European Giant. Answer 4 questions+Introduction and Coursework

Fiat. A troubled European Giant. Answer 4 questions+Introduction and Summary - Coursework Example The company fell because of embezzlement of funds by the Agnelli family, which owns about 34% of the normal shares through the holding companies Ifi and Ifil. The Agnelli Family control maintenance has been a priority hence making it hard for Fiat to enter into treacheries and joint businesses that are common among its rivals. Fiat has been investing slowly in the quality improvements and other innovations placing itself at a weak position of quality guarantees when competition was opened in the market. The company had many debts that amounted to 6bn, with its falling selling that fetched it losses. Still in this state about 6000 job were lost and production was stopped in 18 plants. The company offset some ventures such as insurance and aero- engines operations. Even though Mr. Berlusconi had promised to improve economy, cut taxes, and reforms in the structure, he faced troubles to accomplish them as he faced public rejection to the unpalatable changes. Intense competition and a declining market share is the main problem, which causes the following; as domestic brands tend to dominate home market, Fiat’s proportion of sales in Italy is high. Still, this dominance is on decline, as in 2004 domestic brands had fallen approximately for 30% of sales. Fiat’s business face generational turnover and increased overseas competition. Initially, Fiat was closely allied with the government which was instrumental to its post-war economic recovery and which enabled Fiat to shelter from international competition. In addition, the company concentrates on the compact market in European countries whereby with a small company they can continue to pay more attention to the quality of their products. Fiat’s vehicles have been enhanced greatly which made the company get over $ 70 million Euros as the demand of their cars increased. The company needs to turn around the business so that it would be attractive enough for General Motors to its shares. In

Poultry Farm: Internal and External Analysis

Poultry Farm: Internal and External Analysis Contents (Jump to) Introduction History of Poultry Farm Vision and Mission of Poultry Farm Porters Five Forces Analysis of Poultry Farm PESTLE Analysis of Poultry Farm SWOT Analysis of Poultry Farm Strategic Objectives of Poultry Farm Implementations and Control Conclusion and Recommendations References Executive Summary: Al-Ain Poultry Farm was formed in 1981 and at present it is United Arab Emirates number 1 chicken supplying company. The headquarters of the company is situated in Al-Ain while shops that sell their product are spread all over the country. Other main offices are in Abu-Dhabi and in Dubai.the company deals in chicken and egg products and the consumption of chicken products and other poultry products are very high in urban areas. In external environment, the service of the supplier is quite satisfactory. There are various competitors presents for the Al Ain poultry farm. The names of competitor are like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. There is also big threat of new entrant in the industry. Sometimes the customers try to do bargaining but the Al Ain poultry farm mostly prefer fixed pricing method so there is no chances for doing bargaining. There is huge impact of the political, legal, and economic, social, ethical and technological issued on the company. Internally, there is a facility for communication with the customer like getting information about the quality of the product; packing information etc. The leadership is managed by the general management in the Al Ain poultry farm company. The image and reputation of the Al Ain poultry farm among the customers is good. So the customers are widely attached with this farm company. If there are any new entrances then it is not severely affected. There is lesser impact of the import product on this company. The company faces a throat cut competition. There are two kinds of risk which is faced by the poultry farm: Production risk and price risk. The strategic objective of the company comprises of deciding the scope of the farm, and gives the knowledge to the members of the farm Talking about the grand strategy, the Company wants to make stability in its growth and profits and thus the company adopts stability strategy. Also For making growth, the company has diversified itself. Introduction: Strategic management is nothing but drafting, implementing and cross checking of various decisions which shall help the company in achieving its long term goals. It specifies the aims and objectives of the organization. It helps in formulating various policies for achieving the companys objectives. Strategic Management is an ongoing process. It is used to evaluate the business as a whole and to assess its various individual processes. Strategic management includes assessing processes on a regular basis. Al-Ain Poultry Farm- History Development Growth: Al-Ain Poultry Farm was formed in 1981 and at present it is United Arab Emirates number 1 chicken supplying company. It is famous for providing the highest quality meat and eggs in the United Arab Emirates as of now. It strives to provide the best and the most healthy chicken at the best possible price to the people of United Arab Emirates. The company has always been committed to this cause and they will always continue to be committed to it. Al-Ain Poultry Farms many types of chicken and they are also providing various varieties of eggs. The headquarters of the company is situated in Al-Ain while shops that sell their product are spread all over the country. Other main offices are in Abu-Dhabi and in Dubai. All key issues are decided upon by the chairman and by the board. Operational issues, managerial works and financial issues are take care by the general manager. A lot of technical machines are being used in the poultry farms for the best results. All such machines come under th e head technical manager. Moreover there are many individual departments which take care of topics like sales and maintenance etc. There is a separate consumer care department which is also basically responsible for the sales and sales related issues. Financial departments are divided region wise throughout the country. The general manager is basically responsible for day to day working of the company. (farm A. A., 2010) In the last two decades there has been tremendous growth and development in the United Arab Emirates. Due to this there has been tremendous growth in the poultry sector of United Arab Emirates. The eating habit has changed a lot in United Arab Emirates. More than 3/4th population of United Arab Emirates is currently residing in urban areas. The consumption of chicken products and other poultry products is very high in such urban areas. There was a time when most eggs and chicken products were imported in the United Arab Emirates. It was somewhere in the mid 90s that local producers of United Arab Emirates were finally able to meet the chicken and poultry requirements of the country. At present there is hardly any import of eggs or any other poultry products. Al Ain poultry aims to be the leading poultry product suppliers in the United Arab Emirates; they aim at increasing their shareholders worth and serving the society by providing high quality chicken and related products. People a t Al Ain have made public health their first priority. At Al-Ain it is believed that success can be achieved through innovation and by maintaining quality of products. Al Ain has a highly trained inspection force which ensures the quality of the product is maintained while production. (2010) Vision and Mission The Al Ain poultry Farm Company the number one company in UAE. It is located in Dubai, Al Ain and Abu Dhabi. Before the establishment of any poultry farms in UAE all frozen chickens and eggs were imported. Then number of poultry farm came into the market. This makes UAE self dependence country and it is estimated that the value of eggs and the fresh chickens consumed in the year 2003 were stood at 400 million circa Dhs. During 1996 the Al Ain took an importance place among the poultry farm market in above mentioned location. It has various competitors like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. (farm A. A., 2010) Their main mission is supply of the best quality and service with the growth of the shareholder value. But with this they serve the best quality of chickens to the customer because they do not want to play with the health of the customer. Their mission is also to bring satisfaction among the workers. For this purpose, the leadership in the company is held by the Mr. Abdullah Khamis Amer (general manager) he has the quality of dealing with looses and success and also the ability to motivate the employees. To provide best quality of food, the appointed a technical manager named as Dr. Khalid Mohd Abd El Monem. He is responsible for the developing and maintenance of the technology for example the freezer facility for the storage etc. Companys mission is also to earn more profit on lesser cost, to provide all necessary information to the customer, and also take their feedback. This is done by sales and marketing team whose responsibility is given to Mr. Fathi Belail. Thus they want to achieve the belief of the customer with superior quality, product innovation and operation and service efficiency. Their mission and vision are:- Public health on their first preference High inspection in the company Give assurance about their working policy to the customer Make relationship between the Al Ain poultry farm and their customer Maintaining and developing the relation with their processors Supply of only superior quality of product Giving the facility of education, training and development to all employees. A good leader who can develop motivation and can give support to the employees so they can achieve their potential. The employees who can make coordination with the ethical standard and can take responsibility for their work. (AlA101) External environmental analysis The growth of Al Ain poultry farm depends heavily on the external environment in the last two decades. The five force model of the company is as given below:- Porters five force model: Bargaining power of suppliers: The service of the supplier is quite satisfactory. They do not import any chickens from out of the country. So its give benefits in getting discount due to be domestic suppliers. Delivery on time, good quality of chicks and eggs, helps the Al Ain poultry farm company in winning the trust of the customer. Competitor There are various competitors presents for the Al Ain poultry farm. The names of competitor are like al Rawdah, al Khazana, and Tasil etc. Not only the domestic competitors but the company also faces competition from the abroad. Brazil is the aggressive player in UAE chicken markets. The main markets of Brazil are Yemen, UAE, and Saudi Arabia etc. All competitors have adopted approximately same price policy and quality of product so to compete with them is todays time has become more difficult. Threat of new entrants As we see that there is a lot of scope for growing poultry Farm Company. So there is also big threat of new entrant in the industry. The recent new entrances in market are Ain Quide, Al Surk etc. There business is also expended and they are also keen to establish themselves as the best company. Threat of substitute product It is not compulsory that the customer will only prefer chickens in their food, there are lots of substitute for the products of the company. If people are conscious about their health and they can choose vegetarian food and in non vegetarian then can prefer fish, mutton or any others. Bargaining power of customers The customers are also main factor in the external environment. They are educated, so they want to take all information before getting the delivery. In Al Ain poultry farm there is communication network so that they can communicate with the customers. Sometimes the customers try to do bargaining but the Al Ain poultry farm mostly prefer fixed pricing method so there is no chances for doing bargaining. PESTLE analysis: (P)olitical environment The political system is prevailing in a countrys policies and control of business. An honest, efficient and stable political system is become essential factor for the development of any country. In UAE there are three main vital institutions: executive or government, legislature and judiciary. Among the there the legislature is the most crucial political factor which impacts the al ain poultry farm because it includes powers such as policy-making, law making, budget approving mirror of public opinion. (E)conomic environment The three economic factors which effect al ain poultry farm are capitalism, socialism and communism widely. The al ain poultry always want to be in competition with others. Their profit and wages system are based on the ability and willingness to work. There is also a policy so that any owners can divest his capital form the profits. The workers are also free to select an employer and site. Like workers al ain poultry farm select the managers on the basis of their ability. They are also free to make any decision. There are also a limited competition and profits, wages etc fairly in relation to efforts. The company also encourages workers for employment. Generally economic environment consist those factor which bear the functioning of a business. In case of al ain poultry farm the economic system comprise price and distribution controls, per capita and national income, population, financial and fiscal sectors, infrastructure etc (S)ocio-cultural environment There are certain social factors which are beyond the companys gate. These factors include attitude to exalt, family, marriage religion, education attitude to people toward the work and ethics. Some time due to this factors the demand of the al ain poultry farm grew and sometime its falls. (T)echnological environment Technology environment exerts significant influence on business. The impact of technology on the business can be seen as companys product, services, markets, suppliers, competitors, distributors, manufacture etc. Due to technology environment the al ain poultry farm got the continuous growth from last few years. It is also helpful in increasing quality products. The al ain poultry farm has more capital demand, rise of productivity, more emphasis on R&D, and pressure to become more professional etc. (L)egal: The company is also largely affected by industrial and animal related laws. The company is also prone to any sue in commercial court regarding quality of food material. (E)thical: Ethical factors are concerned with the social responsibility part of the company. The poultry farm has some ethical rules to follow regarding maintenance of animals. For example, the company has to maintain proper safety and neatness level in farm etc. Value chain: The value chain consists of the process of value addition in the products of the company. In Al Ain poultry, the value is been added at every stage of production. The company has large farms and number of hens producing eggs. The company maintains large farms and thus feed the animals so that they can produce eggs and meet which are the key products of the company. The company also adds quality to its products by the mean of proper and regular quality check of the products produced by the farm. At each stage of production, proper documentation is done in order to maintain proper accountability of the system. The company is also planning to go for ISO 9001 implementation to increase the quality of the products and to add more value in it. Internal analysis The internal factors consists the factors which are inside the company. The internal factors of the Al Ain poultry farm are:- Products and service This includes inventory management, product modification, and product transportation of Al Ain poultry Farm Company according to the customer needs. Not only the products, this also includes the Al Ain poultry farm companys sales services, promotional for the product, packing, handling of return product and customization. Communication flow There is a facility for communication with the customer like getting information about the quality of the product, packing information etc. Payments system This includes billing for the customer, caring of special customer orders, order frequency, credit cheques and others. Leadership The leadership is managed by the general management in the Al Ain poultry farm company. The general manager looks for various operations like: general, technical, marketing and financial management performance etc. Employees The employees are the backbone of the company and so only skilled labors work here. A satisfactory environment for the working, facility for the coach, support and motivation, giving education to employees, co-operation between the employees and the Al Ain poultry farm company, giving promotion for their work etc are also available in the company. SWOT analysis If we want to analysis any company then the simplest method will be the SWOT analysis. This stood for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. The information provided by the SWOT is helpful in matching the resource and capability of the firm in the todays competitive advantages. The Al Ain poultry farms SWOT analysis is as following:- (S)trengths The strength part shows that how the company is capable in using its resource as per their capability. The strength of Al Ain poultry farm is: The Al Ain poultry farm company is the 1st poultry farm company in the whole UAE. The image and reputation of the Al Ain poultry farm among the customers is good. So the customers are widely attached with this farm company. If there are any new entrances then it is not severely affected. They used different cost for the different products so that every kind of customer is attached with the company. They have used versatile technology. They used new technologys freezer for the storage of the chickens, water resource, method of disposal for the dead birds, preventing them from the dieses and their communication network is so strong so that they can communicate with the customer in easy way. There is lesser impact of the import product on this company. (W)eakness Every company is not capable to its goals because there always remains some weakness in the company. The weaknesses of Al Ain poultry farm are:- They faced a throat cut competition. Its true that they are the 1st poultry farm company in whole UAE but due the competitive environment any little mistake can bring a big problem. The whole business depends only on the chicken products. There is a little bit work in egg products but more than 80 part deals in chickens. The distribution channels are also weak. Sometimes its happened that the delivery of chickens did not reach at the right time and the company bears both cost and morale loses. (O)pportunities In simple language the opportunities shows the future, means what will be condition of future for our company. It answers that is there any chances for getting profit or losses. The opportunities for the Al Ain poultry farm are:- The main reason for growth of any poultry farm is because chickens are considered to be healthy protein diet. There is an increment in the standard of living of the customer and if we look the environment of the UAE then there is also growth in non vegetarian people day to day. As a result the demand of chickens is also increased. Day to day new technology is developed, so now they can store more and more chickens, can bring new quality of food with taste. Competition is increased and so the company has became more conscious about the quality and will try to reduce the cost. This will be beneficial for the both Al Ain poultry farm and the customers. They can get more skilled labor that will create a good environment within the company and can make cooperation with their leaders. (T)hreats The threats refer to the current problem which they are facing. The Al Ain poultrys farm threats are:- There are two kinds of risk which is faced by the poultry farm: Production risk and price risk. Now a days bird flu is spread in the birds, so in this kind of environment it is more difficult to make a quality product. There are lots of competitors, both domestic and foreign; they are facing competition from the other country also. There are lots of substitutes. Due to the substitutes the competition has increased. Thus the SWOT analysis shows the positive and negative side of the Al Ain poultry farm. Strategic objectives Strategy means making long term direction, taking decision, and allocation of resource. Basically we take three kinds of decision in strategic objectives. What, for whom and how can we do so the companys objectives are decided in strategy. Practically speaking, now days the poultry farming has became successful in global market. Thats why the Al Ain poultry farm access to market and specialized inputs with the financial support. So the key strategy of the company is to maintain the supply and ownership of the birds, the whole processing and wholesaling should be the as per the meat hygiene act. The standard of this act are: The transport of meat as per the human consumption Hygienic production Premises processing meat according to the human consumption As we know that this farm also deals with eggs so it operates it under the regulated system and it is the responsibility of managers for the finding markets for their food. The strategic objectives are:- To decide the scope of the farm, and give the knowledge to the members of the farm. All practices are done after the considerations of birds welfare. The poultry covers the topic like lighting, ventilation, health, food protection and management practices. To give assurance about the safety of managers, workers and visitors. Monitoring of various nutrient, impact problems and after that remedial action is taken. Possible business model of the company with the consideration of neighborhood competitors. Effect of the import of chickens on the domestic production. Increasement in the value of domestic product and reduce the import dependency. The poultry farms importance in the customers with more diversified and reasonable price. Knowing the link between productivity and income generation. To reduce impact of the uses of meat and to insure that there is no impact on the natural cycle. (Hill, 2009) Generic strategic There are three kinds of generic strategies for the maintenance and achievement of competitive advantages: Cost leadership, differentiation, focuses strategy. If we see at the Al Ain poultry farm then conclusion is that Al Ain poultry farm has adopted a differentiation strategy. Because as we know the Al Ain poultry farm focuses on the different kinds of chickens product and each products has its attribute so it charge the price according to the products feature. The reasons for adapting to this strategy are By this they make brand loyalty among the customer form the rivals. There are all kinds of products according to the customer need so every customer is attached with the particular product. Not only for the feature there is also differentiating in the pricing so that every level of the customers is attached. For managing the supplier also. Why? Because if any supplier charges higher value for the material then it can be managed in any other product and this is possible only when the farm is diversified in chicken products. There is also a benefit from the side of the customers. There will be large number of buyers and we know that if there is large number of buyers then their power for negotiation will be low due to price fixation and low alternatives. If there is any new entry then there will be negligible impact on the customer loyalty. Thus for all above the reason the company has adopted the differentiate strategy. But the company also deals in eggs with the chickens so for that company follows the cost leadership strategy which brings the ability to compete with competitors and bring attraction of the customers and reduces the defect rate. (farm A. A., 2010) Grand strategic A record production in poultry and meat industry last year shows that various poultry farms have work harder for the growing consumption need. For the production of chickens the poultry farm has adopted grand strategy by the trade organization. A grand strategy involves the essential action for the long term plan and to achieve its major objectives. So we will analyze the Al Ain poultry farm companys grand strategy on the bases of market, diversification, product, organizational development, strategic etc. After the analysis of its corporate and generic strategies, we will discuss the grand strategy on the three levels Growth strategy Retrenchment strategic Stability strategy For making growth, the company has diversified itself. For that it does innovation, changes its received and takes the feedback of the customer and also they provide different variety of chickens. If there is any failure in the receipt then they adopt accordingly. This strategy built willingness in the company to try new things. The company is also trying for the new market for its product. (farm A. A., 2010) The company wants to make stability in its growth and profits and thus the company adopts stability strategy. The Al Ain poultry farm company do the research only on the new product. The research is done on the quality and the price. They do not change the existing products and price policy. There is no retrenchment strategy followed by the farm company because they do not want to make any reduction in their business activity. Implementation and control After all this analysis about the external and internal environment and the various strategies, objectives of the Al Ain poultry farm in UAE we can say that the poultry farms in UAE are growing day by day. The company has implanted all those objectives and strategy, keeping in mind things like the impact on the environment, what is the government strategy for the poultry farm, the customer view and the cooperation of the staff and top management. Thats why the production increased by 25 % in comparison to last year and the market share of Al Ain poultry farm is also increased by 20 % in UAE. The various implementations and way they are controlled by the both management and government are mentioned in following:- Water supply The chickens are preceded in adequate water supply, clean and cool with the better quality. The water is needed in the farm for fire protection and shed cooling. Except this the hatched chicks should also access water within the 72 hour. The Al Ain poultry farm has a reserve capacity minimum of one day. Vehicular access The transportation policy of the farm is made after the consideration of traffic, delivery vehicles, road works etc. The funding of transportation needs the negotiation of developer, local council and transport development. Noise, electricity supply The supply of the electricity is at minimum cost and as per the requirement. But due to the large level of a poultry farm they get three phase of electricity supply. There is noise when the farm is established and due the various birds and this is controlled by the environment protection policy. Buffer distances Sometimes it happens that due to water quality, dust and noise, odor and management policies, some places are affected. So there should be a buffer distances maintained between the farm and impact area. All activity is done for the omission of this kind of practices and dourness. The control on the disease is also an issue. So there is a distance between every poultry farm which is approx 100 meter. Site selection and development They have selected the site after the consideration of distance of the market, environment and the government regulation. Water management Water management includes Disposal of dead birds: there is an arrangement of disposal of dead birds without any harm to the natural environment. Sometime they face the problem of contamination of surface water and ground, odour problems and fly infestation. But they follow the EPA recommendations like freezing of dead birds so that ordure problem can be reduced, and the disposal is done in the licensed water etc. Disposal of waste eggs: the eggs are disposal by the composting, rendering the byproduct plan which are environmentally sound. Recommendations and conclusion After the analysis about the various parts of the Al Ain poultry farms we can be say that no one is perfect and neither the farm under consideration. In SWOT analysis we have discussed the problem faced by the company. So there should be actions against them. According to us the following action should be taken by the Al Ain poultry farm:- As we see that the company mostly deals in cash, so there can be credit facility available to the customers. The company should allow the credit card etc for the payment. The Al Ain poultry farm company deals only in two products Chickens and eggs. So the company needs to diversify itself. It can diversify by the two ways: expansion and launching new products. As we see that the business of the Al Ain is only in the three major cities of the UAE so it should established its business in more cities and it should also launch vegetarian food along with this chickens and eggs. As many times its been seen that due to lack of inspection and monitoring the birds gets spoil, and they used them without checking them. So there should be regular and proper inspection. It will be good if there is a monitoring system on daily bases. The Al Ain poultry farm disposes the dead bird in the nearest places, which is also harmful so the disposal of dead bird should be approx 1000 meter far from the company sites. The quality of chickens should be checked. The uncooked chicken should be store in the refrigerators. There should be prevention action from the various dieses like the flu etc. References: Al Ain farm. 2010. Welcome to Al Ain poultry farm. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/ [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Al Ain farm. 2010. Mission and Values. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/main.asp?id=3 [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Al Ain farm. 2010. Shops and maps. [Online](Updated on Jan 2010) Available at http://www.alainpoultry.com/main.asp?id=5 [Accessed on April 30th, 2010]. Hill, Charles Jones, Gareth. 2009. Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. 9th Edition : Cengage Learning Hemodynamics: Blood Flow Hemodynamics: Blood Flow Introduction Hemodynamics is the study of blood flow across the body and forces affecting it, often measured using various methods that are either invasive or noninvasive. Hemodynamic monitoring is necessary for making timely patient assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment decisions in case of cardiovascular malfunctions and imbalances caused in the amount of blood ejected by the heart. There are several invasive methods for monitoring blood flow like Thermodilution, Dye dilution and Fick methods. These methods are usually confined to hospitals and clinics with people having specific skills perform, also, these methods are associated with complications like infections, hemorrhage, arrhythmia etc. Impedance Plethysmography techniques which use the changes in electrical impedance over body surface for measurement of changes in the tissue volumes can be used to study hemodynamics. Impedance Cardiography (ICG) is a noninvasive and flexible method of calculating cardiac stroke volume providing information that is similar to invasive monitoring at low cost and risk. While invasive monitoring is done in pre-operative situations on patients already suffering from cardiovascular problems which involves catheter insertion, ICG can be performed on people any time for monitoring hemodynamic parameters that will help in diagnosis of problems occurring in near future. There are multiple ways of monitoring hemodynamics through ICG of which Thoracic Electrical Bioimpedance (TEB) is a basic variant that involves placement of electrodes on the root of the neck and at the cartilaginous section at the lower end of the sternum which is not attached to any ribs. The volume of blood flow varies during every cardiac cycle almost periodically. This changes the electrical impedance in thorax region. Negative time derivative of the measured impedance is called impedance cardiogram. Research in the field of Impedance Cardiography started with the study of flow of fluids in body, especially in cardiac area using Impedace Plethysmography techniques since 1940s [1Bonjer]. By early 1970s Using ICG for calculation of cardiac parameters like cardiac stroke volume came on track [2Cooley]. Several comparative studies are done in the field between non-invasive ICG and invasive methods like Thermodilution which shown promising results in favour of ICG [3 Nechwatal, 4Denniston].In [5Quesnay] they discussed the implementation of ICG on subjects with heart diseases and while they were performing exercise. Results have shown that cardiac parameters measured during these tests are reliable and mostly accurate. With improvement in technology in ICG, wearable devices or garments are being designed for facilitating long term recordings and provide comfort to the patients or test subjects [6JUAN]. Since the inception of impedance cardiography there has been an increase in the reli ability of the technique and improvement in measurement of cardiac parameters [7Greenfield 13Dilek]. Measurement of ICG requires the subjects to lay in a supine position without any movement to cancel out the artifacts that are caused due to other body signals which lead to unwanted changes of the signal recorded and make the patient uncomfortable. Presence of these artifacts makes it difficult for the people reading the signals and also affect the diagnosis leading to results that are inaccurate. These artifacts have to be removed before monitoring the signals to take correct decisions through filtering. Most of these artifacts are non-stationary in nature and cannot be predicted. Artifacts that are prominent in TEB include those varying with the changes that occur in surroundings like power line interference which makes base line of the original signal to change and with the movement of patient. Some artifacts occur from inside our body like Respiratory artifact that is prominent in ICG .Often patients are required to hold their breath to cancel out this artifact, but it is shown in [5Quesnay] that this may affect the stroke volume parameter. There are also others like Motion artifacts and Electrode artifacts which bring changes to the signals that are unwanted. Filtering methods for processing the artifacts are either adaptive or non-adaptive. Since the artifacts that are to be processed in the signals obtained are ever changing in nature, non-adaptive filters that have linear transfer functions doesn’t provide good results in the process. Whereas time varying potentials can be detected using adaptive filtering techniques whose filter specifications change at every step. In [14Huang] they used LMS algorithm based adaptive filter for cancellation fo motion artifacts and got satisfactory results. In [15Allan] Allan et.al used a scaled fourier linear combined (SFLC) technique is proposed for filtering noncorrelated noise in ICG. They have succeeded in proving that their proposed method could remove noises that are not in synchronization with heart rate. In [16Dormer] used SFLC-RLS filter which shows improvement in performance compared to SFLC-LMS filter used in [15Allan]. [17Pandey] used LMS based adaptive filtering to remove respirator y artifacts in Impedance cardiogram signal. In this paper we discussed application of Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm and its variants Normalized LMS (NLMS), Time varying step size (TVSLMS) Adaptive step size (ASLMS) and Constrained stability LMS (CSLMS) in ICG signals for artifact removal. Along with these algorithms, signed regressor form of these variants which decreases the number of computations are also used. The artifacts that are considered in this paper are Power Line Interference (PLI), Respiratory artifacts, Motion artifacts (MA), Muscle artifacts. Section II describes the filtering techniques that are used on ICG signals in brief. Section III provides the information on data acquisition using VU-AMS device. The results and discussions of the techniques used are given in section IV followed by conclusions. Adaptive Filtering Techniques LMS Invented by Widrow and Hoff in 1960, Least mean squares algorithm is a category of adaptive filters that adapt based on current value of error signal. Input to the LMS algorithm is a signal that needs filtering and a desired signal as reference, LMS is an iterative technique that minimizes the Mean Square Error (MSE) between these two signals. Low complexity is a significant feature of LMS algorithm which made it as a benchmark for other adaptive filtering algorithms. The process of filtering using LMS involves the following steps, Compute the output from the filter using inputs. Estimating the error between the output signal and desired signal. Changing the tap weights of the filter according to the error obtained above and a constant step size. The above steps are executed iteratively to reduce the error between filter output and desired signal. Filter will be of length L, each time L samples from the input signal will be processed at a time in each step until entire samples are processed. Let x(n) be the input of the filter and d(n) be the reference signal. Input is taken from a sliding window over the input. For every step the window slides over required number of samples. Let y(n) be the output from the filter and w(n) is the weights of the taps, these weights can be different for every tap. u is the step size which is a constant. LMS algorithm can be summarized in the equations below that are in accordance with the steps above, For the first iteration arbitrary tap weights are assumed and filtering is started. After a few iterations the weights adapt in accordance with the error signal to give desired signal as output. Step size is a main factor that influences weight update equation. If the step size is too small, the convergence of the signal will be too slow and filter requires more memory. If the step size is too high, convergence rate will be faster but there will be information loss. NLMS The convergence of output towards desired signal depends on weight update equation. Tap weights that are updated are directly proportional to the present inputs. If the future inputs to the filter vary greatly with the present inputs of the filter, there will be an increase in the error signal. To solve this problem the step size in weight update equation is normalized with squared Euclidian form of input vector. The weight update equation of NLMS technique is written as, Here b is a small constant added to avoid difficulties in case of small x(n) values. NLMS method can achieve faster convergence when compared to LMS. Since the step size of these filters does not change much, these are considered as linear filters which give linear output for linear input. CSLMS This method is an improvement of NLMS algorithm to achieve faster stability conditions. Constrained Stability LMS method is described by the equations that follow, Where and . A positive constant of small value in the denominator helps preventing problems when value of x(n) is too small. Here the value of error and input in weight update equation not only depend on present value but also previous value, unlike LMS and NLMS where the dependency of weight update equation is more on present values than all the past values combined. TVSLMS Step size in the weight update equation decides the convergence rate of the filter. It is fixed for the filter depending on the input signal, desired signal and required convergence rate. If the input signal is varying with time in an undetermined way, it is difficult to set the value of step size. So, time varying step size method of LMS is proposed. The time variance of step size is determined by a decaying factor. TVSLMS method is described by the following equations, The step size at each step can be varied according to the following function, Where is the decaying factor and C, a and b are positive constants that will determine the value of decaying factor. At each step the decaying factor is multiplied with initial step size. This method can achieve faster convergence rate compared to LMS algorithm with constant step size and also can remove the artifacts effectively. ASLMS In an environment that is not stationary a gradient noise is added to the signal. In such case the value of tap weights change in random fashion instead of terminating on Weiner solution. To overcome this problem Adaptive step size algorithm is proposed where a fourth step is added to the LMS method which resembles the weight update equation. Step size of the filter is updated at each step as, Here is a small positive constant and y(n) is defined as the partial derivative of tap weight vector with respect to step size parameter at a sample or iteration. ASLMS attains faster convergence rate since the step size of next iteration depends on the input and error at current iteration, unlike TVSLMS algorithm where step size of present iteration depends on the initial step size. Signed Regressor form In the methods discussed in this section, from LMS to ASLMS the performance of filters increased with decrease in convergence rate but the computational complexity increased gradually. This will result in delay of attaining desired results. To regulate the problem we use signum function to find the polarity of input signal in weight update equation [21Eweda]. By using signum function to input signal we take into consideration only the sign of input signal as shown below, The signum function is given as, The methods discussed above in their signed regressor form have slightly inferior convergence rate and steady state error. But as the mean square error drops the filter speeds up with reduced computations. Simulation and results ICG signals are acquired through VU-AMS (Vrije Universiteit Ambulatory Monitoring System) device under supervision of expert handlers. This device is used for recording ICG signals many a times and provided reliable outputs [18Gonneke- 20Annebet]. Signals are acquired from 19 subjects for a period of 30 minutes. Digitized signals are recorded at 360 samples per second. First 4000 samples of each ICG recording are used for simulation. References Bonjer FH, van den Berg JW, Dirken MNJ. The origin of the variations of body impedance occurring during the cardiac cycle. Circulation. 1952; 6:415-420. Cooley WL, The calculation of cardiac stroke volume from variations in transthoracic electrical impedance. Biomed Eng 1972; 19:316-319. Nechwatal W, Bier P, Eversmann A, Kà ¶nig E, The noninvasive determination of cardiac output by means of impedance cardiography: Comparative evaluation with a thermal dilution technique. Basic Res Cardiol 1976; 71:542-552. Denniston JC, Maher JT, Reeves JT, Cruz JC, Cymerman A, Grover RF, â€Å"Measurement of cardiac output by electrical impedance at rest and during exercise†. J Appl Physiol 1976;40:91-95. M.C. Du Quesnay, G.J. Stoute, and R.L. Hughson, â€Å"Cardiac output in exercise by impedance cardiography during breath holding and normal breathing,† J. Appl. Physiol., vol. 62(1), pp 101-107, 1987. Juan Carlos Mà ¡rquez Ruiz, â€Å"Sensor-Based Garments that Enable the Use of Bioimpedance Technology: Towards Personalized Healthcare Monitoring†, Doctoral Thesis, Stockholm, Sweden, January 2013, ISBN 978-91-7501-603-0 Harley A, Greenfield JC Jr. â€Å"Determination of cardiac output in man by means of impedance plethysmography†, Aerosp Med. 1968 Mar; 39(3): 248-52. R.P. Patterson, â€Å"Fundamentals of impedance cardiography,† IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Mag., vol. 8(1), pp 35-38, 1989. Major M J World, â€Å"Estimation of Cardiac Output by Bioimpedance Cardiography†, J R Army Med Corps 1990; 136: 92-99 Nancy M. Albert, â€Å"Bioimpedance Cardiography Measurements of Cardiac Output and Other Cardiovascular Parameters†, Crit Care Nurs Clin N Am 18 (2006) 195 – 202 Chintan V Parmar, Divyesh L Prajapati, Pradnya A Gokhale, Hemant B Mehta, Chinmay J Shah, â€Å"Study of cardiac output based on non – invasive impedance plethysmography in healthy volunteers†, 2: 5 Sep – Oct (2012) 104 – 108. E.Pinheiro, O.Postolache, P.Girà £o, â€Å"Contactless Impedance Cardiography Using Embedded Sensors†, Measurement science review, Volume 13, No. 3, 2013 Dilek Cicek Yilmaz, Belgin Buyukakilli, Serkan Gurgul and Ibrahim Rencuzogullari Mersin, â€Å"Adaptation of heart to training: A comparative study using echocardiography impedance cardiography in male female athletes†, Indian J Med Res 137, June 2013, pp 1111-1120 Zhili Huang, Zhenshen Zheng, Yutian Wu, â€Å"Monitoring Impedance Cardiography By Adaptive Method During External Counterpulsation†, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Vol. 13. No. 2, 1991. Allan Kardec Barros, Makoto Yoshizawa, and Yoshifumi Yasuda, â€Å"Filtering Noncorrelated Noise in Impedance Cardiography†, IEEE Transactions on biomedical engineering, VOL. 42, NO. 3, March 1995 O. Dromer, O. Alata and O. Bernard, â€Å"Impedance Cardiography Filtering using Scale Fourier Linear Combiner based on RLS algorithm†, IEEE EMBS, Sep 2009. Vinod K. Pandey, Prem C. Pandey, â€Å"Cancellation of Respiratory Artifact in Impedance Cardiography†, EMBS, 27th Annual Conference, IEEE, 2005. Gonneke H. M. Willemsen, Eco J. C. De Geus, Coert H. A. M. Klaver, Lorenz J. P. Van Doornen, Douglas Carroll, â€Å"Ambulatory monitoring of the impedance cardiogram†, Psychophys;o/ogy, 33 (1996), 184- 193 . Cambridge University Press. Harrià «tte Riese, Paul F. C. Groot, Mireille Van Den Berg, Nina H. M. Kupper, Ellis H. B. Magnee, Ellen J. Rohaan â€Å"Large-scale ensemble averaging of ambulatory impedance cardiograms†, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, Computers 2003. Annebet D. Goedhart *, Nina Kupper, Gonneke Willemsen, Dorret I. Boomsma, Eco J.C. de Geus, â€Å"Temporal stability of ambulatory stroke volume and cardiac output measured by impedance cardiography†, Biological Psychology 72, Elsevier(2006) E. Eweda, â€Å"Analysis and design of a signed regressor LMS algorithm for stationary and nonstationary adaptive filtering with correlated Gaussian data,† IEEE Transactions. Circuits Systems., vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 1367–1374, Nov. 1990.