Air pollution economic case for enviromental regulation

IntroductionEconomic development and prosperity takes place, several times, coupled with contamination of the urban environment. This situation is defined in economics as an externality, which is an effect from one activity which has consequences for another activity but is not reflected in market prices. When these consequences are the generation of external costs they are defined as negatives. This is the particular case of air pollution. For example, â€Å"Pollution represents an external cost because damages associated with it are borne by society as a whole and are not reflected in market transactions.†(Koomey and Krause, 1997)  Despite the fact that stricter controls were put into practice in the last years, and the observed reductions in pollution, air pollution remains as a common concern among countries.Externalities correctionsThere are four major measurable examples to correct this problem which are: Property Rights, Regulation, Taxes and subsidies, Marketable Per mits.  Although it works in few cases, small groups, if property rights are correctly defined it may avoid the problem, e.g. if a firm owns the right to clean air and can charge people for using it.  Air pollution regulations were strengthened by enactment of the Air Quality Act in 1967, which introduced a regional approach to air pollution control; and has been has been increasing in the last years, E.g., limits on vehicle emissions, controls on allowable factory emissions, smoking bans. The problem on this measure is that does not encourage change in technology uses or new technology developments.Taxes and subsidies, for example differential taxes on carbon emissions, has the benefit that the company that produces contamination â€Å"pays†, thus encouraging technology change and being more efficient.  At last, marketable permits are a number of permits issued according to a total limit of output pollution. They may be auctioned to the highest bidder, going to companie s that can not reduce pollution easily. The Clean Air Act is a well-known example of the application of the marketable permits technique.ConclusionControlling air pollution is a difficult task, plenty of trade-off decisions. Many measures have been taken to stop the problem, but many of them have proven to be inefficient. It seems that taxes and subsidies are the best measures but this might be introduced slowly into the market, thus giving time to firms to adjust their production methods. Hence is that marketable permits are a validate instrument to go together with taxes in the meanwhile.ReferencesNorberg, Johan. â€Å"In Defense of Global Capitalism†. Publisher: Cato Institute. Place of Publication: Washington, DC. Publication Year: 2003. Page Number: 229.Cherni, Judith A. â€Å"Economic Growth versus the Environment: The Politics of Wealth, Health and Air Pollution†. Publisher: Palgrave. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2002. Page Number: 1.Colls, Jeremy. â€Å"Air Pollution†. Publisher: Spon Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2002. Page Number: 21.Arya, S. Pal. â€Å"Air Pollution, Meteorology and Dispersion†. Publisher: Oxford University Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1999. Page Number: 15.Koomey, Jonathan and Krause, Florentin. â€Å"Introduction to Environmental Externality Costs†. Year: 1997. Published in the CRC Handbook on Energy Efficiency. Energy Analysis Program. Applied Science Division. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.   

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple: Analysis

Alice Walker's The Color Purple From reading the extract from The Color Purple, the reader is shocked almost straight away from how the character/narrator (who in this case is the author Alice Walker) is treated and brought up by her father. The way in which the story is told is in the form of letters and a kind of diary addressed to god as she is told â€Å"You better not tell anybody but god it'll kill your mammy†. The reader can almost sense that this was written and was never expected to be read or seen by anyone else, it feels very personal and private to the young girl just between her and god. The language she uses is appropriate in the way that you can imagine this fourteen year old black girl who is not very well educated, talking and writing this way. Putting her story across in a colloquial manner hammers home in a way the gravity of the young girls plight all the more as it talks to a broad range of readers and is understandable to all. Also the syntax with the short and punchy sentences again hits home and grabs the attention of the reader right away † My mama dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me. She cuss at me. I'm big. I can't move fast enough†. The piece is extremely emotive and graphic with the images it invokes upon the mind of the reader. You can feel the beatings and torment she suffers on an almost daily basis. With this being a true story it feels all the more real to the reader as you can sympathise for this poor girl and the ordeals she is confronted with, it would be hard for a lot of people to empathise with her as it is an extremely harsh and dire time in her life and maybe through this work she has maybe helped people who are in a similar situation, which demonstrates how strong this piece is in creating the character/s. Again you can really feel for her plight throughout the extract it could be argued that writing a personal story is probably easier than that of a work of fiction, as there is no imagination required because the characters and story are already created. This said with the graphic detail in which the author/character/narrator puts her story across it shows a strength and humbles the reader for the way the author has opened herself to the world. This again gives the whole piece a sense of realness, which would be harder to convey if it were a work of purely fiction. The reader feels and cares about the character's well-being right away from the first three or four paragraphs as she endures being raped by her father and the beatings which followed. Alice Walker has created here an extremely emotional piece by the way she has put her own story in to words and by using her own personal experiences of suffering. She has created a very strong character/narrator, so that anyone who reads this piece can visualise and feel as if we the readers are god and she is talking solely to us.

Accepted Accounting Principles related to Health Care Essay

Accepted Accounting Principles related to Health Care - Essay Example These rules were established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The first principle is the entity concept which is the group or organization such as a hospital, medical school, or nursing home. Inother words, it separates the business from its owners and treats it as an economic unit. Only assets, liabilities, and owner's equity related to the group or organization are on one financial statement. If there are sub entities, the financial records of these entities are maintained separately. The second principle is the going - concern concept which is a presumption that the group or organization will be running in the future and will not be liquidated in the next 12 months. It is a very concept in case of healthcare business because hospitals, nursing homes, etc. which do not intend to stay in business the net realizable value of the asset may be not ascertained and could be sold at a much higher price than they worth at the moment of sale. The third principle is the matching principle which is a combination of cash accounting and accrual accounting. The matching principle and cash accounting states that revenue or expenses are recognized only when the organization receives cash or pays cash. For example, medical equipments are recognized in the books of accounts only when the cash is paid out in entirety. The problem therefore is, all transactions that are not done on a cash basis and not done in the same accounting year are not recognized which gives a deceptive pictur e of what actually occurred a respective accounting year. On the other hand, when accrual accounting is done this gives the actual as to what occurred in that year. An example of this is if an organization provides care for a patient but does not receive reimbursement until the following year but the funds will be documented on the year the patient was cared for. The fourth principle is known as the historical cost principle and states that the cost of a resource is what the organization pays to receive the economic need. Historical cost does not reflect the current market valuation of the asset. Therefore the problem with the cost principle for example is if a hospital pays twenty dollars for I.V. tubing in the current accounting year and the following year that same tubing costs thirty dollars. This will not show a real account of the asset because of the variation in price. The fifth principle is called objective evidence. This principle states that evidence can be reported on fi nancial statements that are objective in nature and can be analyzed, measured, observed and verified. An example of this is the cost of an EKG machine but the problem is the amount that it is worth as an asset. Do you use what the organization paid for it, what it is worth, or how much you could sell it for if the hospital did not need it? All of these are subjective views and most accountants use the value of what an asset is at cost. Fair market value is what the GAAP prescribes in recognizing the value of the asset. Materiality is the sixth principle which states that an organization will have accounting errors but the error will not be to an amount that items that would affect the direct value of the organization depending on several factors such as size of the organization It tries to conform to the situation wherein the information that might have been omitted in the financial statements does not bear any influence on the economic decision of the users of these financial state me

Retirement in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Retirement in America - Essay Example 6). The point where an individual discontinues his employment completely, which is called retirement, makes one entitled for private or public pension benefits and the notion of retirement in America has changed over the years. In a historical survey of retirement in America, one comes to recognize that the notion of retirement assumed a great impact on America after World War II and it has undergone essential changes ever since. Unlike the earlier days, there is an emergent notion in America today that "retirement is the beginning of a new and busy chapter of life, a time for continued learning and development, skill building, forming new and purposeful relationships, and giving back to the community Moreover, retirement is 'a time to begin a new chapter' in life and that, just beyond traveling, volunteering is what older adults look forward to most during this new stage of their life" (Johnson, 2003, p. vi). Therefore, the notion of retirement in America has changed over the years and the well-being of individuals after retirement is considered as one of the major responsibilities of the state and the government. Significantly, in the contemporary life of the Americans, retirement in America can effectively offer one of the best periods of life through careful and sensible planning. In this paper, a reflective analysis of retirement in America is offered in order to determine how it has changed from the past, how it will change in the future, which all are the major organizations doing to retirement plans for their employees, and whether employees can retire in America at 62, 67, or will they need to be older etc. Retirement in America In the United States, retirement has been a topic of constant changes over the past several decades - including the consequent attitudes of the people towards retirement, the provisions by the law, Social Security issues, the age of retirement, and other crucial aspects concerning retirement. One of the major responsibilities of the social security programs in America has been to ensure that the individuals who have dedicated their service and potential to the growth of the society are offered the best security programs during their period of old age. Social security has traditionally combined the goals of earnings replacement and income maintenance and the American Social Security system has played a major role in financing retirement. "Despite much criticism, the American Social Security system works fairly well, but only if you consider Social Security payments a handy supplement to other sources of retirement income. Many people who were young when the Social Security system bega n in the 1930's placed too much reliance on it and were forced into difficult financial circumstances in their old age because of inflation. By the 1970's the government began a comprehensive program of tax incentives for various other retirement funds. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's), Keogh Plans, and 401(K) plans are some examples." (Financing Retirement, 2007). Therefore, the American Social Security system has contributed heavily to the great changes that have taken place in retirement in America and it is possible that further changes in retirement take place in the future. In America, the rise of retirement started more than a century ago, unlike the commonly conceived notion that it was with

Asian performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Asian performance - Essay Example The stiffs’ tapes are Puramvaal, Ulluvaal, Pattuval. The Kacha forms the bulky skirt of the artist. Costume of Kathaakali entails colorful and ornate vests, anklets and jewelry completes and mainly preserves the culture. The prominent music played is Manipravalam. Narrations of the story and the conversations amidst two characters of the play are carried out through gestures expression and rhythmic dancing. The songs are sung on the background, usually by two vocalists. Two drums called Chenda and corresponding maddalam are provided for the music, Cymbals and other instruments are associated in the orchestra. Kathakali performances are conducted after dark but sometimes-special plaayya were played in very early morning. The main reason why kathakali was being performed was to entertain people after the long period work. It was also meant to pass the peoples tradition from one generation to the next Before someone acts the Kathakali, he has to go a rigorous training lasting 8-10 years. The long training period ensures that the actors have the full concentration and physical stamina and male actors played the skill to perform. Traditionally, Kathakali used to dress like woman and played the character, but eventually with time, female participation in Kathakali has become very common. Kathakali is a stylish, ancient and classical dancing form well known for its large costumes and elaborate make-ups. It can be described as a powerfully charged drama and a combination of dance, devotion, drama, music, make up’s and costumers which aims in producing the most impressive sacred theatre in the

Implications of Chinas Charm Offensive for the Sino-Venezuelan Research Paper

Implications of Chinas Charm Offensive for the Sino-Venezuelan Relations and the World Powers Energy Security - Research Paper Example From a conservative geopolitical perspective, Latin America and China are isolated from each other and appear improbable allies. After the establishment of New China in 1949, Latin America and China largely engaged in people-to-people transactions without conducting formal diplomatic affairs. Then again, the 1970s is described by reconciliation in Sino-American relations and the re-admission of China into the United Nations, which witnessed China start building diplomatic relations with most nations in Latin America (Locatelli, 2011). Since 1978, China enforced a strategy of opening up and restructuring, which involved the country conducting major policy reforms toward Latin America and stressing trade and economic partnership with this region. In the recent years, the developing economy of China and fast growing power in the global arena has become ever more appealing to countries of Latin America, which view Beijing as a major site for the expansion of their foreign economic and po litical ties. The strategic features of China’s diplomatic relations with Latin America have involved building strategic ties with Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela (Locatelli, 2011). Latin America has a big market and rich resources, and the region has eventually evolved into a foundation for global development. Particularly, Latin American countries have turned out to be strategically vital to China, both in political and economic terms. China’s policy toward Latin America is rooted in the relative advantage theory—its objective is to gain access to natural resources or raw materials for domestic economic development, as well as...Although the emphasis of China’s policies over the recent decades has been on national economic rebuilding and development, China’s foreign policy has fulfilled a considerably vital part in building and sustaining an international setting. China’s ‘charm offensive’ or peaceful and positi ve relations with other nations and its status in the global system are very beneficial for attaining its policy goals. China’s vision of global amity is both an objective in itself and a way to attain its goal of economic progress and nonviolent emergence as a world power. Without a largely harmonious and established global structure, China’s economic growth would have been impossible (Kurlantzick, 2007). Hence, China’s national economic rebuilding and foreign policy are strongly interwoven with each other. Basically, China’s foreign policy is obliged to serve its entire economic program, and its rising economic power has allowed China to become more involved and influential in the arena of international relations. However, China’s relationship with Venezuela and its security policy toward the oil-producing Latin American country are, according to numerous scholars and policymakers, a threat to the United States. China and Venezuela openly declare their ambition of curtailing U.S. hegemony, and has made steps to create a multipolar world where the global power of the United States would be weakened. At this point, even with China’s charm offensive policy, it is very difficult to determine whether or not the other world powers should be wary about China’s growth as an economic, political, and military power.

Information Resource Management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Information Resource Management - Coursework Example Software engineering (SE) refers to the maintaining and developing software systems that perform reliably as well as efficiently. This paradigm develops systems affordable and easy to maintain, as well as satisfy all the requirements that customers want to see in the developed systems. The SDLC (systems development life cycle) the life cycle of software development is employed in systems engineering and software engineering, which is the procedure for modifying and creating systems, methods, and models. In this scenario software engineering is a concept behind the systems development life cycle for different types of software development techniques. These techniques offer a structure for planning as well as monitoring the development of an information system a. Discuss human-computer interfaces. What was the major change from the DOS operating system to the Windows graphical user interface? What likely changes will occur to interfaces in the future? Will virtual reality be a viable means of interfacing with the computer? The human-computer interface is the study of communication among users and computers. It is frequently known as the intersection of behavioral sciences, computer science, design and numerous other fields of study. Interaction among users and computers happens at the user interface that contains both hardware and software. The DOS-based operating system was operational through the command based user interface that was hard to use and complex to maintain. While the development of Windows-based human-computer interfaces offered the graphical user interface (GUI) based interaction that is more interactive and easy to use. In this scenario, virtual reality offers an enhanced means for interaction with the computer that is a most advanced for the human-computer interfaces.  

Market segmentation on event industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Market segmentation on event industry - Essay Example However, it is worth noting that the marketing concept revolves around goal achievement, customer orientation as well as integrated efforts between the various marketing players (Quang, 2013, p. 6). Research studies that have been done in the recent past reveal that majority of modern marketing techniques are used to deal with consumers’ behaviors. The information that marketers get from the consumers is thus seen to be very important while deciding on the appropriate marketing procedures as well as practices in order to achieve efficiency within the market. This describes why majority of modern marketing revolves around consumer behavior while carrying out a market analysis, target market selection, market-mix determination as well as the marketing strategies mostly reliable within a certain market segment (Bello, 2008, p.1-4). This therefore explains the various marketing mechanisms that are in use today, and which are determined by the consumer behaviors exhibited. For inst ance, Singh and partners reason that human behaviors in purchasing as well as consumption are greatly influenced by attitudes or preconceptions about the specific product or service. This imply that consumers are driven by some preconceived ideologies about goods or services and this influences the decision making process by the consumers. Attitude would refer to the ideological conception that exist in one’s mind about the product and which greatly influence the buying habits of the consumer. They sought to study the consumer behavior and the green marketing through special focus on gasoline products. By collecting data through surveys and then analyzing them through regression method, the group found supportive evidence that the consumers’ behaviors have greatly influenced the marketing procedures within the context of gasoline products in that most preference is now banked on the environmental friendly gasoline products. This has therefore the implications that majo rity of suppliers of the energy products such as the gasoline products are driven to market their products in ways that are most appealing in manners of environmental appeal. This explains the modern marketing mechanisms that are adopted by the firms dealing with such products (Singh et al, 2011, p.101). Market segmentation Marketers today have a tendency of responding to the customers’ behaviors through various mechanisms or ways. These ways are however dependent on customers’ behavioral response to the urge to have their needs and wants met. Among the major ways that have in the recent past characterized marketers responses to these behaviors is the market segmentation. This refers to the specialization of marketing approaches to focus to various market groups. This is by taking the consideration that the entire market frame is composes with different categories of people who could be potential customers. However, depending on certain group characteristic, the differ ent groupings require different approaches in marketing in order to be effective in targeting them. For instance, marketing strategies targeting the elderly may not be effective through the digital advertisement and promotions; whereas the technique would be most appropriate for the young generation segment. Marketers are continuously acknowledging the differences

To what extent does leadership research support the idea that there is Essay - 1

To what extent does leadership research support the idea that there is one best way to lead people in organisations - Essay Example This paper touches upon these key areas to establish where leadership reigns supreme, be it a democratic form of leadership or autocratic one, and how that ‘one best way’ to lead the employees within organizations is made proper. Both democratic and autocratic forms of leadership can give rise to motivation which is the basis of knowing that employees will time and again fall down and then get up to make sure that they are positively driven to achieve the organizational objectives through research, analysis and evidence. This is bound to happen because there are times when frustration runs high and people need support from a number of directions. However, on the same token, what is most important is the self-motivation construct that wins many favors for the employees who are looking to solve a problem (Axley, 1996). Motivation is therefore dependent on the people for whom it is coming into play. An employee who is not motivated enough will perform worse off than a person who is motivated to go out there and do something on his own (Fulton, 1998). Under leadership, the seniors also enforce their say through different programs and teamwork exercises. When employees feel that they are being properly led by, jo b satisfaction is bound to happen. When job satisfaction is ensured, leadership comes about in full circle and hence the leaders are able to lead people easily. When employees are satisfied with their jobs, the task of the leader becomes easier. The leadership knows where to instill confidence and in what quantity this has to be done to derive sound results. Also what needs to be understood is the fact that more productivity will be achieved once leaders are able to do their jobs well (Butkus, 1999). Leaders are inclined to exercise restraint over employees who are motivated enough to perform their respective tasks, thus coming directly under the authoritative leadership realms. What this implies is the fact that since they

Property law and trust question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Property law and trust question - Essay Example According to English, C. (2005, 211), â€Å"Personal property includes all property other than freehold estates and interests in land. Personal property was called chattels by the common law and often referred to as movable goods, which included such items as money, debts, clothing, household goods, food, and all other movables and the rights and profits related to them† (Halsbury, Laws of England, 1960) b) The Japanese-style summer house and pagoda Under the law, Sarah has the right to demand for the Japanese style summer house and pagoda  because they are considered as immovable properties and they follow the land. The deed of sale entered by Sarah and the couple, Matt and Jane, has for it object a parcel of land, which is considered a real property or otherwise known as an immovable property. English, C. (2005,211) defined â€Å"real property as land and whatever is attached to the land, fixtures, rights and profits annexed to or issuing out of the land†. Therefore , Sarah is allowed by law to the recover permanent fixtures attached to the land, after purchasing the cottage. Hence, if the structures on the land are by nature, fixed and cannot be moved from one place to another, they are considered part of the property which was newly purchased. ... â€Å"The statutory requirements for a valid contract for the sale and purchase of land are the following: Capacity, Offer and Acceptance, Consideration and Legality† (Cummins, 1997, p. 44). b) Explain whether there is a valid contract between Sarah and Peter for the sale and purchase of the London flat    Yes, there was a valid contract between Sarah and Peter for the sale and purchase of the London flat. All elements for a valid contract of sale are present, namely: Capacity, Offer and Acceptance, Consideration and Legality. In the case at bar, there was a meeting of the minds between Sarah and Peter the moment Peter agreed to sell his flat to Sarah for the consideration of ?180,000. The fact that Peter accepted the offer tendered by Sarah in the amount of ?180,000, there was already a perfected contract as she signed the letter that she is willing to buy the property. To consider an offer to be acknowledged, â€Å"a valid act of acceptance must be made by the offereeâ₠¬  (Gillies, 2004, p. 149). This was further clarified in the case of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co., (1893) 1 QB 256. â€Å"The first requisite of a contract is that both parties have reached an agreement. There are three essential requisites to the creation of a contract, namely: agreement, contractual intention and consideration† (Oughton and Davis, 2000, p. 21). Here, all the essential requisites to make a contract perfected are present. Therefore, there was a valid contract entered by both parties, giving rise to the cause of action by Sarah against Peter for breach of contract and to compel him to fulfill his obligation to deliver the flat. 3.) Explain the nature of the rights if any, which peter has to keep his horse in the paddock Peter has

Moby Dick, Sophies World, East of Eden Essay Example for Free

Moby Dick, Sophies World, East of Eden Essay In today’s society, the issues of fate and free will are hotly debated, drawing in heated discussions of religion, chance, and the extent of free will. While some believe we have a significant amount of control over our lives exercised through free will in our choices, others believe an entirely different power is at hand in controlling our lives. These issues often find themselves associated in literature, with examples such as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. Among these books, there are different interpretations on the role of fate and free will in human life. In particular, these three different works of literature express varying shows of balance between fate and free will, and how easily that balance can be changed. Ultimately, it is the decisions made by the different characters, the reasons behind their choices, and the respective consequences that ensue that lead understanding of the different demonstrations of the authors’ interpretations of free will and fate. Free will and fate are often regarded in terms of a balance, in that there is some of life that is controllable by using choice, represented as our free will, while there is still another portion where there is little to no control, something we call fate. This observation of a balance between free will and fate is especially seen in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In Moby Dick, Ishmael, our protagonist, finds himself in the company of Queequeg, the chief harpooner aboard the Pequod. While together, Ishmael and Queequeg weave a mat, with Ishmael passing the shuttle through the threads on the loom while Queequeg strikes the woof with his sword, to tamp down the threads. During their weaving, Ishmael makes an observation in that their current activity was like how fate, free will, and chance worked, thinking, â€Å"it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the fates†. Ishmael compares fate to the â€Å"fixed threads of warped of the warp subject to but one unchanging vibration† on the loom. He then connects free will to his actions, â€Å"with my own hand, I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads†. He puts t he final pieces together by saying that chance is like when Queequeg strikes the woof, being he was â€Å"sometimes hitting the woof slantingly, or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly† that led to â€Å"producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric†. His connection with the mat making and fate demonstrated his perspective of the balance between fate and free will, and perhaps brings to light one of the more major themes of Moby Dick. He believes that free will is bound by fixed limitations we perceive as fate, and that our choices are limited to what we can weave around our limitations, with the exception of random occurrences called chance, which can alter the limitations fate puts on our expressed free will. In Moby Dick, different motive often leads to different choices, which overall comes together to establish various consequences. Queequeg, one of the crewmembers under Captain Ahab, had fallen ill while aboard the Pequod. In absence of proper medicine and medical attention, the most obvious conclusion was that Queequeg was going to die aboard the ship. He had even prepared for death by having a coffin made for him. At the end of it all, when it had seemed that fate had established his end, Queequeg simply claimed that he re membered he had some duties left to do ashore, and that he still had responsibilities. With his own will, he tried defy fate by recovering from his illness, attempting to give himself time to do his business ashore. The fact that the motive behind his prolonging of death was due to his responsibilities, one could easily interpret his decisions as noble and respectable. However, Queequeg was but one of the two members of the Pequod who attempted to defy fate, the other of which being none other than the captain himself, Captain Ahab. After losing his leg in an encounter with Moby Dick, Captain Ahab had grown rather obsessed with capturing Moby Dick, much to the point of giving up his sanity. However with all the stories of the great sperm whale, and even now knowing how destructive the whale could be, it was safe to say his search for the whale was ill-fated. However, even with fate clearly saying that his trip would lead to his own demise and possibly more, he was determined to capture Moby Dick purely out of spite and vengeance, two reasons that are often seen in negative light. What it all came down to was Queequeg’s noble intentions in trying to defy fate allowed him to recover from his illness and gave him more time, while Captain Ahab’s bitter motives ultimately led to not only the demise of the Pequod and its crew (excluding Ishmael), but also that of his own. Perhaps this brings to light another major theme of Moby Dick, in that it is ultimately our decisions in life and the reasons behind them that shape up how fate operates in our individual lives. This, along with the idea of the existence of human free will limited by fate yet alterable by chance, establishes the general idea of fate and free will have a crucial roles in making it possible to understand and comprehend Moby Dick and all of its themes. Just as fate and free will have important roles in determining how life is experienced by an individual, they also have key roles and determining of how an individual behaves. In a sense, it’s almost as if the decision of how a human is natured is a determinant in establishing the line between good vs. evil in a person. This good vs. evil concept could especially be seen in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Caleb Trask, the protagonist, struggles throughout the book while in a fight where he tries to suppress and overcome his inner demons. Caleb, son of Adam and Cathy, had lived his life in the shadow of his brother Aron, who was obviously in better light with his father. While Aron symbolically was the embodiment of all that was good, Caleb was the opposite, having had embodied evil, like his mothe r. However, Caleb demonstrates the usage of free will in the struggle of overcoming evil. This is clearly shown during the confrontation of him and his mother, and his realization that Cathy is a prostitute. When Caleb meets with Cathy, Cathy tries to convince Caleb that in addition to her being evil herself, he also has the same evil within himself, and that he is more like her than he knows. However, he realizes otherwise, that he has choice in whether or not he would be evil. At the end of their conversation, Caleb reminisces on what Lee said, saying that, â€Å"I was afraid I had you in me†¦ [But] I’m my own. I don’t have to be you†. At this part of the story, Caleb demonstrates understanding of one of the major themes of the story, simply known as Timshel. Caleb realizes that it is his choice, his own free will to overcome evil. He establishes that while there is evil in all of us, we are all capable of overcoming that evil, and choosing whatever path we wish to walk, all by using free will. While Caleb had ultimately come to the conclusion that morality is a free choice, other characters of East of Eden had other interpretations of morality. Aron, Caleb’s brother, for example had a problem with the overcoming of evil. His world had been neatly put together for him so that he only had to face good in life, to the point where his mother’s evil proved too much for him. Cathy, had been convinced that world was nothing but evil, and therefore accepted it and settled for using deception in order to advance in life. In the end, however, the evil she had spent her life embodying herself in proved to be just as overwhelming to her as it was to her son Aron, and she ultimately commits suicide. Caleb, standing at the crossroads of good and evil, successfully applies Lee’s advice and realizes morality is free choice, and that free will and determination are enough to overcome evil and lead a life of righteousness. By accepting that humans are imperfect and sinful, Caleb was able to realize that humans don’t need to be perfect to be good, and that true goodness comes after overcoming evil. Because he had applied Timshel in his life he became capable of living a controllable life, one with a moral destiny that truly belonged to him. John Steinbeck’s in-depth coverage of the story of Caleb and his choices truly make Timshel, or â€Å"thou mayest†, a very powerful and key theme in East of Eden. The role of free will in this story establishes the fact that e vil can be overcome by human, regardless of fate, and all up to moral decision. Just as previously stated and seen in books like Moby Dick and East of Eden, free will and fate are often seen as in a balance, sometimes with the weight over on fate’s side or vice versa. However, there are instances where free will can completely overcome fate in cases where it doesn’t seem to the slightest bit possible. Such an example of impossible overcoming of fate with free will can be seen in Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. In Sophie’s World, the story of Sophie, a 14 year old girl who undergoes philosophy lessons, is followed. Sophie, who consistently receives notes not addressed to her but with ponderous questions such as â€Å"Who are you†, believes that her life is practical, and that she is living her own life. However though a complicated turn of events, it is shown that Sophie, along with her philosophy teacher Alberto, are both part of another man’s imagination, characters of his mind. Albert Knag, the man behind it a ll, can be seen as fate, in that he controls what happens to Sophie and Alberto showing that they do not truly have a choice, and that their sense of free will was but an illusion. Though the odds against them are tremendous, being they are characters in Knag’s book and in his mind, Sophie shows a giant show of free will and escape, using the help of Alberto. Using nothing but free will, Sophie does the impossible and escapes the book and becomes a spirit, able to roam the world but fated to have limited interaction with the world. However, it is shown that Sophie plans on attempting on have more and more influence in the real world and that she is not content with being an invisible person forever. Gaarder demonstrates a theme of how limitless free will truly is, and how fate can be overcome regardless of how the odds are stacked. With all three of these literary pieces, there is a similarity in that all three books cover the topic of fate and free will. However, these three books show different interpretations of the extent of the two factors, and what is and isn’t possible when interacting with the two. Such as in the case of Moby Dick, free will and fate are shown to be in a balance, with the two working around each other nicely. It is also seen that fate cannot be overcome, in that the demise of the entire crew was inevitable. In East of Eden, fate and free will were shown to have impact on how a person is perceived as good or evil, and how free will can potential allow one to completely overcome evil. In the case of fate, free will is shown to be able to overcome it, however only with tremendous effort and understanding. Similarly, in Sophie’s World, fate was able to be overcome, but again, only with a tremendous amount of effort and understanding. These three books together and their respec tive morals and themes can be directly applied to daily life. Free will and fate do have roles in human life, in that misfortunes can often be presented and perceived as fate, and naturally actions in the form of free will can additionally play in overcoming those misfortunes. By utilizing and exercising free will in daily life, the perception of fate as being something completely uncontrollable can easily be brought down to a more containable entity. Moreover, with the understanding of free will and fate that these three books offer, the opportunity for a life with a controllable moral future becomes available. In these three novels, the overall theme of a relation between free will and fate is existent. Respectively, the three authors of these books show their own interpretations of how fate and free will coincide, and how much control humans have on their own fate, or just how much free will they can exercise. However it is seen in all three books that with enough exercise of free will in the right light, positive events may occur, such as East of Eden’s Caleb overcoming evil, Moby Dick’s Queequeg recovery from his almost certain fatal illness, and Sophie’s World’s Sophie, who escaped her confinements of being a controlled character in another man’s mind. Though the authors may have had their own unique interpretation of fate and free will, with their respective limits, the overall message that all three authors would most likely agree on would be humans are given a tremendous amount of free will and are presented with different kinds of fate, and that what they choose to do with that free will ultimately decides how much fate will control their life.

Boutique Hotel And Tourism In Mexico Tourism Essay

Boutique Hotel And Tourism In Mexico Tourism Essay Introduction This report conducts the feasibility study to invest a boutique hotel in Mexico. It illustrates the structure of Mexico economic system, tourism industry, and the situation analysis. In order to evaluate the potential business, marketing mix is carefully analysis. Since the product is already chosen as boutique hotel, we must define boutique hotel and where is the location to be investing in. A boutique hotel is a small to medium size usually with no more than 150 rooms; provide personalized service and distinction design to attract the niche market. Boutique hotel is attracting the niche of customers looking for individual and special needs different than other property can offer. The investing boutique hotel will be located in Cancun Island, which is well known by its sea resort, and wide variety of activities can be done; it is voted one of the best tourism destinations. Mexico United Mexican States, which is commonly known as Mexico; it is located in the central of Americas. Mexico is the 14th largest nation in the world with estimated population 112 millions. Before Mexico declared independence in 1821, it was Spain colony for three hundred years. The most spoken language in Mexico is Spanish. The GDP by country in 2009 is 1.017 trillion. Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa is the current president in Mexico. Cancun Cancun is located in the east part of Mexico, in the state of Quintana Roo alone with the Caribbean Sea. Cancun is famous by the beautiful nature, beach, and the ancient Mayan archaeological sites. There are about 140 hotels in Cancun with 24000 rooms (Cancun Tourism Center); the occupancy focus in 2010 is 80% during the high season in July to the end of August. The weather of the city is sunny 70% the time during the year, and the temperatures are between 26C to 36C all year around. There are plenty of activities to enjoy in Cancun city with the water activities in the beach, nightlife in the downtown, and also the well famous heritage, the Mayan ruins. Yucatan General Information State name: Yacatan Capital: Merida White City (955,000 population) Population: 1,945,840 Area: 39,612 square kilometers Currency: Peso (1 Peso = 100 Centavos) Language: Spanish Religion: Roman Catholic 76.5%, Protestant 6%, other 0.3%, unspecified 13.8%, none 3.1% Cancun population is 542,043 people. Tourism industry in Mexico Tourism is a very large industry in Mexico; it is rank as 2nd foreign destination within Latin America, 1st in Spanish speaking country, and 10th place in term of international tourists arrival (World Tourist Organization), figure 1 shows the international tourist travel around the world. Tourism sector 8% of the total GDP in Mexico. Mexico has one of the largest tourism industries in the world; in 2008, it had total 22.6 million tourists, with 13 billion generated by tourism industry. However, due to the economic crisis and swine flu H1N1 in 2009, new visa regulation and drug dealer violence act; Mexicans tourism industry had a large drawback, which causes the tourism visit Mexico drop by 16% in the 2nd quarter of 2009. The year 2009 was rather difficult for Mexicos travel and tourism industry. The situation expects to change in 2010 with 5% annual growth for the next decade. Experts of the AMHM are looking forward to 2010 are forecast this year will become an eventful year for Mexico with the upcoming bicentennial and action plans for extensive program of events. The tourism and hospitality industries are counting down on these events as a lot of tourists are expected to come to Mexico, which will become the first step to recover from the recession. The tourists will be able to learn more about Mexican culture, history, and the people. International tourist arrival Tourist (Stop-over) Arrivals in by Year Destination 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Bahamas 1450043 1514532 1491663 1527726 1462404 1326722 Cancun 2331362 2134180 1586942 2022302 2165320 1434416 Jamaica 1414786 1478663 1678905 1700785 1767271 1837091 Tourist Attraction An amazing fusion of European and especially Spanish and Meso-American cultures, which make up a unique culture, plus the coastal climate make Mexico even more attractive. The peak seasons in the country are during the month of December and the months of July and August. Cultural event in Mexico are mainly focused on: An amazing fusion of European and especially Spanish and Meso-American cultures, which make up a unique culture, plus the coastal climate make Mexico even more attractive. The peak seasons in the country are during the month of December and the months of July and August. Cultural event in Mexico are mainly focused on: Religion Art Literature National holidays Music Dancing Cuisine Cinema Sport There are three categories of event in Mexico: Catholic religious events, national events cultural events. El Dà ­a de Los Reyes which is the Three Kings Day is the traditional gift giving day. Carnaval (Mardi Gras) festivities take place from February to March with parades, dancing, fireworks and music. From 10-13 May, the Cancà ºn Jazz Festival takes place, featuring top musicians. The nation celebrates Independence Day on 15 and 16 September with fireworks and parties. The International Caribbean Festival is celebrated in November which is followed by the Fiesta of Isla Majors that honours the patron saint and the Cancun Fair in early December. Potential Problem in Mexico tourism industry Passport Visa requirement Start from June 2009, all the U.S. travelers returning/entering to the United States from Mexico must present a valid passport or other WHTI documentation, such as passport card, birth certificate or enhanced drivers license. Hurricane impact the coast Since our hotel is located in at the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Cancun, the area can be affect by the hurricane season. Hurricane season in Mexico last from June to November, in 2009, the hurricane season was relatively mild in comparison with the few previous years, but the heavy storms had affected the tourists come to visit the country. Economic in Mexico The economy of Mexico is rank at the 14th largest in the world, and place 11th by the purchasing power parity. Since the year 1994, when the most severe crisis in the whole history of Mexico, Mexican peso suddenly suffered devaluation due to the high inflation rate, nearly 50% of the population suffered due to the no value in the currency. However, the country has made an impressive recovery, building a modern and diversified economy, and financial support from the U.S. government; even the 2002 South America economy crisis, it didnt influence much of the countrys economy as the government did everything possible in order to improve countrys economic fundament. Mexico is characterized by macroeconomic stability, by reducing inflation and interest rates to increase per capita income; however, enormous gap remain between the urban and the rural area, which only the rich and poor people remain, the middle class is almost disappearing. The Mexican government is facing the challenges include the upgrade of infrastructure, the modernization of tax system and labor laws, and the reduction of income inequality. Mexico has a strong business relation with the U.S., it suffered from the economic slowdown and economic recession by -6.8% in GDP in 2009. In 2010, Mexico is expecting a 3% growth and 2-3% growth for the next decade. Economic system Free Trade ActMexico is a free-market based economy, by signing up free trade agreements (FTAs) with more than 40 countries, which including the European Union, Japan, Israel, and much of Central and America. More than a quarter of the countrys GDP are generated from the export goods to the U.S. Mexican government are welcome for business to enter. Mexican economy is depending on the following: agriculture and food production, industry natural resource and services. Figure 2.2 shows the GDP sector. Taxation In order to open and develop a business in Mexico, there are some factors that should be taking into consideration before planning the correct strategy of investments. The political situation of the country, economical situation and demand that will help to build a marketing plan directed to making high revenue. Federal tax in Mexico may vary from 10% to 28% despite to the income. Corporations are been charge for 30% tax rate; however, for foreign private investors, the tax rate is set at 25%, which is slightly lower than the residents. This has a positive effect on the development of business in Mexico and attracts entrepreneurs to invest their money. The value-added tax (VAT) on the sale of goods, rendering of services, granting the use or enjoyment of goods and importation of goods or services is normally set at 16% in Mexico. In the border areas (international land border areas) is at 10%. (www.taxrates.cc) The concept of capital gains in Mexico does not exist. The earning that one gains from the sale of a product is treated as normal income. S.W.O.T. analysis of Mexico Strengths: Location is good because it is the major connection between North and South America. Tropical climate two main seasons (rainy and dry) Beautiful nature and rich culture with a lot of history Weaknesses: Economy is closely related with export to USA around 70% is export. Swine flu that hit very badly the whole country and they need to close it to stop the spread of the flu Big problem is drugs (selling and transport to USA) Natural disasters tsunami, earthquakes and hurricanes Split oil in the Gulf of Mexico related with tourism Treats: Economy depends too much on USA economy High violence because of drug traffic and cartels related with it Opportunities: Reducing dependence of USA economy and increase independency of the economy Development of the economy S.W.O.T. analysis of Cancun Strengths: Good location Very good known like tourist destination world wide Popular with Mesoamericans history and Maya`s ancient buildings Big variety if worldwide well known hotels A lot of options to explorer Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico also regions around Cancun (scuba diving, fishing, jeep trips, Mayan ruins, parks, museums) also there are 475 bird species, over hundreds different mammals and twelve hundred plants. Accessible (airport 10 km) Weaknesses: Too crowded because of the many tourists Hurricane ( Dean 2009) Treats: Depend too much on the tourism and hospitality industry Opportunities: Encourage people to invest and extend the agriculture (support and subsidize the sector) Develop green sites of the city Foreign investors in infrastructure Conclusion Investment Three quarter of the hotels in Cancun city are rated as 5 star luxury hotels. The average room rate is $80-200 according to dealbase.com, which is relevantly cheaper than Miami resort, start from $119 and go up. Cancun city became a favorite tourists destination by the U.S. and European. The occupancy rate is consistently stayed above 70% in the regular bases (Latin American Berald Tribune), which provide large clienteles to make profit. Cancun city has 140 hotels with very few boutique hotels in the area, by the research on escapio unique hotels web site, there are only 2 unique hotels can be fit into the boutique hotels categories. They are Hotel Villas HM Paraiso Del Mar and Las Nubes de Holbox. These hotels have standalone building for each room and only 20 rooms and 26 rooms each. This creates a huge demand of boutique hotels once the concept and advertising are spread in the area. Since there are only few unique style hotels in Cancun, the sustainability is low, it create inela stic of demand. This is why we think it is a good idea to invest boutique hotel in Cancun. From the customers side of view, the VAT is Cancun is at 10% rate, which is 6% lower than other inner states, because it is on the border of Mexico, this will attract more potential customers to Cancun. As we mention earlier, the taxation is set at 30% to corporation in Mexico, 33.3% in Jamaica, 20% in Belize. From an entrepreneur point of view, the taxation is quite high compare to the neighbor country Belize. To start the business, we must look at the factor of production: capital, labor, entrepreneurs, and land. The capital will be the most important factor to invest due to the high startup capital. However, our aim is to open a boutique hotel with 40 rooms, this can be an advantage to enter the business with lower initial investment. The labor cost is cheap in Mexico; the average minimum wage is at $4.5-6 per day. To maximize the profit, the operational expense will be the key to success, which the salary will be limit to the bottom to maximize the profit.

Economic Conditions And Effect To Airlines Industry Tourism Essay

Economic Conditions And Effect To Airlines Industry Tourism Essay Airlines industry is a huge and growing industry. It is known as a services provider industry. Airline is not just only the airplane; it includes many elements like business aircraft, military program, and recreational aircraft and it provides services to passenger or cargos. The outcome of growing and the working of airlines industry are always unexpected because it is full of challenge and variables conditions. Air travel industry is a special industry to the global, because it is always grow along with the economics. Somebody describes the importance of airlines industry as no airlines, no globalization, and no new era, this has showed how much is the importance airline industry to us. Airlines industry is a complicated industry; we briefly say that airlines industry is under an oligopoly market structure. The explanation of oligopoly is an economic condition that only few service or product suppliers in the market and one of the supplier actions can perceive significant impact from its competitor in the same market. Thus, since a firm of carriers provides a new action and it will always taken by competitors, and soon affect the outcomes of whole market, therefore, firms in this industry are interdependent and airlines industry is a high competition market. It is also one of the most fragile industry, many things can affect their performance from SARS, 911, economic crisis and even weather conditions. The airlines industry has seen some positive effect currently which resulted in them forecasting a better forecast. Many factors could have affected the changes; we will discuss some of it below Changes in economic conditions and effect to airlines industry. As the world pick up from the economic crisis the traffic increases significantly. The demands for business travelers to individual travelers went up. During the economic crisis most carriers gone through restructuring and implement cost cutting measures so when the business pick up they will see that their profit margin is better than what they use to have before the crisis. Currently, the economy is expected to post up a profit of 2.5 billion for 2010 as it is recovering from the two years of ailing business. This is due to the increase of passengers, increase of cargo trade and effective cost measures taken my responsible parties to encounter the problem. Which means there is an increase in peoples standard of living as they can afford to travel; therefore there is a tremendous increase in the tourism industry which positively affects the air travel demand. Previously, industry prediction predicted that the economy would encounter a loss of 2.8 billion because assumption made that in 2009 and 2008 which was during the year of economic downturn, there was a loss of 9.9 billion and 16 billion respectively. However, the result was a positive one in 2010 for the airline industry. Passengers traffic has actually increased up to 7.1 % when it was predicted only an increase of 5.6% and that the demand grew twice as the supply. For example, a venture of C$1,805 million at Vancouver airport was approximate to have led to a 5.4% boost in connection with Canada as a whole. Therefore, airline deregulation can help sustain an increase in air transport connectivity as it is spread to industrialize world affecting domestic air travel. The increase in airline operation and services provides a growth of 5 % per year and also an increase of GDP twice as much. Moreover, its also expected to grow for the next ten to fifteen years. It also provides the flexibility for airlines to adjust capacity properly to meet changes in the market demand. By way of example, the expansion in a ir services between Poland and the UK since 2003 has increased connectivity as a percentage of GDP by 27% for Poland, whereas the increase in the UK was a much smaller 0.5%. This shows that there is a long term boost of 634 billion and 45 billion for both countries respectively. Another positive factor which affected the changes in airline industry is the price of fuel. Although there is an increase in fuel price, several airlines such as the southern west airline company does not seem to allow this worldwide issue to affect its company profit and revenue. As the tourism industry is starting to boom and growing faster, travelers and passengers are using flight services very often and if they raise the price of the air ticket, passengers will have to look for another cheaper transportation mode. Therefore, the airline company choose to dissolve their problem by minify the loss through management reinforcement, cost lowering and efficiency improving, but not simply raise the price. Airlines also took the approach differently by looking at similar measures to solve the problem of the increase of price fuel. Todays collection of aircraft is nearly three times more fuel-efficient than the olden days aircraft we were operating at the time of the first OPEC fuel cr isis. In fact, our fuel conservation efforts have resulted in most fuel-efficient automobiles. Therefore, there were changes in cruise speed, use of flight simulators, complicated flight planning systems, increasing load factors and the introduction of newer, more aerodynamic aircraft designs combined with modern engine technology as alternative measurements. With the high technology the world has created, this problem could be solved in different ways and means. Another good example is China encounter the problem of increase of fuel price by reducing domestic fuel price as 80% of their flights are domestic flying. This results in a lower profit and also a lower operating cost and also helps boost the nation airlines. Changes in Government Policies and effect to Airlines Industry Worldwide deregulations and liberalization In the past of the era, air travel industry is strictly controlled by government. No matters what the country is, government always involved in this industry, airlines almost operates and owns by government.Government used to decide how much is the airfares, control the route networks, and other requirements for each airlines company in the country. Now the time goes by, JAPAN, UK, US government start to deregulation their airlines to make the airlines market negotiate the price of ticket and operational requirements as a large free and manage these according to the demand of market. For example, united stated of American has hundred new airline firms enter the market due to result of deregulation. Hawaiian airlines, Delta Airlines, Alaska airlines and Frontier airlines are the airlines available in American State of America. The global deregulation policy to the airlines industry has because the barriers to this industry become lower and make more qualified air travel company to ent er the market. The competition in this market has increased and pricing freedom. Therefore, the supply has increase, will cause the price decrease and demand will increase, because the firms in airlines industry provide better service and incentive to attract the consumer choose airlines service to increase their profit. Despite the deregulation, global government has a trend to [open skies] agreement. These agreement is talking about between the country has a concord that air travel has the rights to fly over the country intermediate and beyond point. From the 1990s, this agreement has become more common. At the April of 2007, United State of American has open skies agreement with European Union and this agreement have provided the right to transport passengers to a foreign country or international, under USA and EU open skies agreement, any airlines from EU and USA will be allow to fly from any city point within the European to any city in United State of American. This agreement has grounds the maximum flying flexibility to the airlines firm that has relevant and alliances because they can cut down their flying cost that include fuel fare, service cost and other opportunity cost. Demand and Supply curveUntitled.png Changes in technology and effects to airlines industry. The changes in technology are provides a obvious effect in airlines industry, the common of internet use has help the airlines company to promote their service and make their air ticket selling become easier to air travelers. In the 80s till 90s, the revenue of Airlines Company was depending on travel agent. Consumers no need to go to airlines company agent to buy ticket, in the past, customers are expected to wait at least three days to get the proceed of air ticket. In this era, they can make the booking on airlines company internet, the only they need to do is print out a page and pass to counter at airport. The buying processes can be done in an hour. Airlines Company can save the operation cost in selling ticket. Despite the internet convenience, the technology in design and aero plane engineering has been improved, more safety in flying. To this result, air travelers do prefer to take a fly as because it is more safety than past. Due to the convenience and safety in flying, con sumers has bigger willing to choose air travel as their transport. Demand and Supply curve: show the improvement in technology has increase the demand for airlines service. Untitled.png

Multiple Sclerosis Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Multiple Sclerosis    You pick up the telephone to call your best friend. You dial a number which will, in effect, let the phone know where to send the signals. But unbeknownst to you, something has worn away the rubber which covers and protects the wires within your phone. Some signals cannot get through, and the ones that do are ambiguous. As a result your important information does not get conveyed to your friend. This is a circumstance similar to the process that occurs within the body of a person with Multiple Sclerosis, a disease of the spinal cord and brain which affects over 300,000 Americans. The onset of Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, usually occurs between the ages of 22 to 33 years of age and most frequently affects women between the ages of 30 and 50.(1) Yet Multiple Sclerosis is one of the few neurological diseases which is characterized by remission (the disappearance of symptoms for an extended period of time.) As a result, it is likely that scientists will be able to discover therapies for the disease because if they are able to figure out how and why the remission of Multiple Sclerosis occurs, they might be able to force the body into a state of constant remission.       Transmitting Signals: A Look at the Nervous System Before taking a closer look at Multiple Sclerosis, it is important to understand the body's nervous system, which is composed of the central and peripheral nervous systems. The central nervous system, which is made of the brain and the spinal cord, is responsible for the integration of information. The peripheral nervous system, which is constituted by all additional nerve cells not in the central nervous system, is responsible for conveying information to and away from the central nervous... ...ut Volume 12, Number 1. Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 1997. 11 Christenson, Lisa. "National Multiple Sclerosis Society Funds Projects by Connecticut Researchers." Highlights of Science and Technology in Connecticut Volume 12, Number 1. Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, 1997. 12 Betaseron Information (http://www.betaseron.com) 13 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/info_meds.html) 14 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/info_meds.html) 15 Biogen Homepage (http://www.biogen.com) 16 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/info_meds.html) 17 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/info_meds.html) 18 Corticosteroids Information (http://www.njc.org) 19 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/info_meds.html)

Friedrich Engels Essays -- Biography Communism engels Essays

Friedrich Engels During the time of the industrial era, there were many people upset over the manner in which the nations were being run. They were upset with the idea of capitol gain and how it was affecting people’s actions. They saw this era causing people to exploit each other with the intent of monetary gain. Those that were already part of the higher ranking class, the richer, would see reason to force the lower class, the working man, to spend his life in the new factories. He would be bullied into risking life and limb at the monstrous machines while hardly earning a penny. The working man suffered because the richer man owned the factory and consumed all the profits himself. Some men, however, saw a solution as well as the problem. They thought that if the power could be taken out of the hands of the strong and power hungry, then the working class would realize the rights they had all along. The constant struggle for power would be eliminated and so society would become better . Two of these men were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marx had received all the recognition while Engels has been shunted off the pages of history. He did, however, still have an impact on the development of communism. Friedrich Engels was born on November 28, 1820 in Barmen, Germany. Engels began to learn the family business rather early, being the oldest son of an auspicious industrialist.1 Engels studied commerce and worked for his father as an office clerk from 1837 to 1841. But this was not his only focus. He also tried his hand at poetry as did his future friend Marx. Like Marx, his attempts did not gain him any recognition in the literary world. By his eighteenth year he had sworn off poetry all together. This was... ...e story of his life. Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1962. 3. Mehring, Franz. Karl Marx: The story of his life. Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1962. 4. Modern History Sourcebook: Friederich Engels: Industrial Manchester, 1844 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1844engels.html 5. Anderson, Thornton. Masters of Russian Marxism. New York: Appelton-Century- Crofts, 1963. 6. BIOGRAPHICAL ARTICLE ON ENGELS, Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. Vol. 6, 14th ed., Leipzig and Vienna, 1893. Translated into English by Progress Publishers 7. BIOGRAPHICAL ARTICLE ON ENGELS, Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon. Vol. 6, 14th ed., Leipzig and Vienna, 1893. Translated into English by Progress Publishers 8. Marx and Engels. Reminiscences of Marx and Engels. Moscow: Foreign Lauguages Publishing House.

Climate change system

What is Climate Change?The clime is a complex and dynamic system. Throughout the Earth ‘s being, it has changed many times in response to natural procedures. However within the last 50 old ages, the composing of the planetary ambiance has significantly altered. The bulk of scientists now believe this recent clime alteration can be attributed to human activities. Since the industrial revolution, nursery gas degrees in the ambiance have considerably risen bring forthing an enhanced nursery consequence ( UKCIP 2005 ) . The nursery consequence is a natural procedure ; where a per centum of the thermal infrared radiation emitted by Earth is absorbed by a bed of natural nursery gases which reduces the chilling consequence of the Earth ( Met Office 2009 ) . It is widely accepted that, human activity has led to an addition in the concentration of these nursery gases in the ambiance, doing an enhanced nursery consequence. The increased temperatures produced, as a consequence of greater infrared opacity, are referred to as planetary heating. Current grounds of planetary warming comes from increasing ocean temperatures, lifting sea degrees, runing polar ice caps and decreasing snow screen in the Northern Hemisphere ( IPCC 2007 ) . Climate alteration projections suggest that these will go on to take topographic point and that there will be additions in the frequence and strength of utmost conditions events, such as drouths, inundations and tropical storms. Within the last hundred old ages, the planetary mean temperature of the Earth ‘s surface has risen, with 11 of the warmest old ages on record happening during the past 12 old ages ( IPCC 2007 ) . If the planetary heating continues at the present rate, it is predicted that mean planetary temperatures could lift by up to six grades Celsius by the terminal of this century ( DECC 2009b ) .Carbon DioxideThe chief nursery gas responsible for anthropogenetic ( human-made ) clime alteration is carbon dioxide, accounting for about 85 per cent of entire United Kingdom Ã¢â‚¬Ë œs nursery gas emanations ( Defra 2008 ) . The United Kingdom entirely emits about 555 million metric tons of C dioxide per twelvemonth. The largest known part of C dioxide emanations comes from the combustion of fossil fuels ; coal, oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels has provided the chief energy beginning for all industries since the industrial revolution. Even with current raising fuel monetary values, it is still considered to be an economical method of bring forthing big measures of energy. The C dioxide is released as a bi-product into the ambiance, when the C nowadays in the dodo fuel reacts with O in the air, as the dodo fuel Burnss. The industrial sector bring forthing largest volume of C dioxide emanations is the energy supply sector. Three quarters of the United Kingdom ‘s electricity comes from coal and gas ( DECC 2009b ) . The largest manufacturer of electric within the United Kingdom is DRAX coal fired power station. It generates about 7 % of the United Kingdom ‘s electricity supply, with its operation bring forthing about 23 million metric tons of C dioxide each twelvemonth.Government TargetsThe Governments worldwide have appreciated the demand to cut down nursery gas emanations to forestall farther anthropogenetic clime alteration. The United Kingdom has a figure of aims, both international and domestic, for cut downing nursery gas emanations. The Climate Change Act became jurisprudence on 26 November 2008. The Act sets out the passage program for the United Kingdom to go a low-carbon economic system ( DECC 2009b ) . It gives curates the powers to present new steps necessary to accomplish the nursery gas decrease marks. Under the Climate Change Act the Government is lawfully required to cut emanations by 80 % of the 1990 degree by 2050 ( DECC 2009a ) . In order to accomplish this several intermediate C budgets have been set. Each C budget covers a five twelvemonth period and provides the maximal degrees of nursery gases that can be emitted into the ambiance during the period. Internationally, the United Kingdom has signed up to the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol commits 37 industrialised states, which have signed up, to undertake the issues of planetary heating and nursery gas emanations. The protocol sets lawfully binding marks for the decrease of nursery gases. The cardinal aim of the Kyoto Protocol is to cut down worldwide nursery gas emanations to 5.2 per centum below 1990 degrees, during the five-year period, between 2008 and 2012. The United Kingdom has agreed to cut down its nursery gas emanations by 12.5 per centum.Renewable Energy ProductionThe debut of Government marks creates a demand for alternate emanation free agencies of energy production. In add-on to undertaking clime alteration, the addition of renewable electric coevals reduces the United Kingdom ‘s dependance on non-renewable beginnings for future coevalss. This has led to a recent addition in the development of renewable energy engineerings. Renewable electricity coevals extracts energy from natural resources. It can be considered as emanation free power coevals. The most prevailing methods are solar energy, hydropower, geothermic energy, air current power, wave power, and tidal power. Presently, renewable energy coevals jointly provides about 5 % of the United Kingdom ‘s one-year electricity demand. The Government intends to bring forth around 30 % of our electricity from renewable beginnings by 2020.

Mcdonalds

Introduction The organisation we are going to look in this assignment is McDonalds. McDonald’s is the leading global foodservice outlet with more than 33,500 local restaurants serving approximately 69 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and  women. http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/mcd/investors/company_profile. html McDonalds has developed its operation to a very high level of efficiency over years it has been operation.One main reason is that McDonalds keeps innovating its current process design, flows, data capture, and interactions between sections, resource allocation, process technologies and its supply chain. By looking at McDonalds, we have witnessed a culture of change due to the innovative ideas McDonalds has been coming up all the time. This company not only innovate in its operation and food production process, but it innovate every single aspect of the bu siness from physical evidence, management to the customer service.McDonalds has been working for ages on its QSC, that is quality, service and cleanliness, but they have even changed this to QSC&V where V stands for value which once again shows they do not hesitate to change. Current Process Design – Batch Processes The current process design at McDonalds would be Batch Processes McDonald's uses a batch process to cook its burgers. Adopting batch process means that the speed of delivery relies on the speed and experience of the staff working at the moment. Burgers at McDonalds are cooked on a large platen, in batches of 8 for Hamburgers, 6 for Quarter Cheese and 4 for Big Macs.Two or more batches may be cooked at one time and they can happen on various stages of cooking. This makes it important that a crew of McDonalds is required to manage the grill solely during busy time. The burgers are hand dressed which again need one crew to work on that station on busy times. When the re are two batches being done in different stages of cooking, the speed is vital to keep the production moving. Interaction between departments At McDonalds, the restaurant is divided between different sections which ould Kitchen area, indoor service area, drive thru and the dining area known as the lobby. By observing the day to day activity at a McDonald’s restaurant, you would notice that every most of the sections are related to each other, which means one section rely on the second section. For example, the service area can not finish an order until kitchen supply service with a burger. The interaction between areas (departments) could be better understood when we look at the layout observation that would follow. At McDonalds there is no individual department by its own that we can do an observation on.As service and kitchen area closely related in McDonalds, we would like to concentrate on the Service and Kitchen area as an observation. Areas at McDonalds chosen for obs ervation †¢ Kitchen †¢ Indoor Service Area In McDonalds Restaurant the layout in the kitchen has been designed in other to ensure speedy preparation of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety, increased visibility by customers, minimised supervision. Another factor that is considered is the cost of production which also depends on the layout.McDonalds Layout – these are the main areas at McDonalds Kitchen – McDonalds restaurant Layout – Product Layout McDonalds have a product layout as we can see they have a standardise operation and repetitive  assembly  of their  products. With this layout design they are able to have a better synchronization even on the different activity line, have a better control and product planning become easier. In this type of layout, even less skill level staff can work where one particular person who will be performing the operation. There are only few changes done r arely due to standard production line up.In this layout the flow of material take place smooth and continuously. Kitchen Layout – Product Layout Steps of production – Division of Labour At McDonalds, there is a high degree of division of labour. In order to produce one hamburger, 4 staff will be required based on a McDonalds kitchen layout, where each staff will perform a particular task in making the burger as mentioned below. If we look at the production of a Hamburger based from the above diagram, its production would starts at point 1 which is the Toaster, where the buns are toasted for 35 seconds by one person working only at the toaster.During quite time they may perform two or more tasks, but at busy period, they would perform one task. After the buns have been toasted, it goes to the next level of production which is point 2 at the Dressing Table where a second person would dressed the toasted buns from the condiments already stocked up on the dressing table wh ich would take 45 seconds. At the same time the dressing starts, the person at the grill at point 3 place the frozen burger patty on the grill which is automatically set for 45 seconds. By the time the meat is ready after the 45 seconds on the grill, the dressing would be finished as well.Then the dressed toasted buns is moved from point 2 to point 3, that’s mean from the dressing table to the side of the grill where the cooked meat patty will be placed on the dressed buns. The Hamburger will then be moved to point 4 which is the production display cabinet, where the person working at the production control at point 4 will wrap the hamburger after having check for quality standards. Staff working on the service area at point 5 will then take the hamburger from the production display cabinet at point 4 to complete their order to give to the customers.Please note that other burger will also follow the same process going from point 1 to point 5. Also McDonalds has been separated in two sections which are the Beef products cooking area and Chicken products cooking area, where the process is almost the same on both side. Production on chicken side also starts at point 1. At point 1A, frozen chicken are cooked at stored directly at point 3 for assembly, this step can also take place in between production. At point 1B the buns are toasted and dressed at point 2 and the same flow continues. The Precedence diagram for the production of a hamburgerThe total production time would be 1 minutes 30 seconds for a burger to reach service. Volume variety The epitome of high volume variety hamburger production is MacDonald’s, serving more that 52million customers in more than 100contries counties round the world each day. The volume variety dimension is at the heart of its service and thus has very important implications for the way MacDonald’s operations are organized. MacDonald’s has instinctively grasped the underlying idea of through put time and thus, applied it in its Speedee Service System.The restaurant operating scheme they developed has been widely adopted and refined over the past half century. The ethos of the assembly line remains at its core. The grills at McDonald's have big steel hoods that swing down and grill hamburgers on both sides at once. The burgers, chicken, French fries, and buns are frozen when they arrive at a McDonald's. Service – At MacDonald’s the customer maximum waiting time is usually three minutes and thirty seconds and staff are advised to alert the manger for assistance if there are three or more customers per line.The new process demands that customer’s maximum line time should be 2minutes Thus, using Little’s law, Through put time = WIP x Cycle time Cycle time = Throughput time WIP Cycle time for the process = 3. 5 =1. 2 minute 3 Thus a customer should emerge from the process every 1. 2 minute on average. On the other hand, given that management requires every cu stomer to be served in every two minute, Thus the number of servers required = 2 = 2 1. 2 Hence, 2 server would be needed to serve three customers in two minutes. Every second counts.Each delay, bottleneck and unnecessary step reduces output and highlights the need for efficient workflow processes. McDonald’s has embraced the importance of managing processes, by ensuring that every second is accounted for in the making of each product. Service time is critical to McDonald’s success, as McDonald’s tries to increase customer satisfaction within the competitive fastfood industry. The plan to get food to customers quicker, and keep increasing the market share that McDonald’s won in the recession, means that each second really does matter. Process Mapping Ordering a meal at MacDonald’sTo order a meal at MacDonald’s usually it takes six service steps. (1) Greet the customer (2) Take the order (3) Receive payment (4) Assemble the order (5) Present the order (6) Thank the customer and invite them to return On the other hand work flow process will take the following shape Take order Take payment Preparation begins Customer waits Packaging and inspects If the right items are placed Customer takes food Technologies at McDonalds Today various organization are using technology is the main tool through which not only increased the efficiency level but also increase their profit and growth.In current scenario various innovative companies are thanking that how we will improve our speed and efficiency level to satisfy the customer demands. Due to market changing trends and new innovation in market, compel the operations of the organization to reshape their layout process and strategy to overcome the 21th century demand and challenges. MacDonald is the world leading innovator organization in current scenario. But there is no doubt that currently McDonald faces various challenges and problems.Today McDonald have the huge challenge that h ow to increase the speed to deliver quick food. And how McDonald will beat the queue? There are various organizations which are currently using different methods and equipment to deliver excellent service. [pic] As part of McDonald’s ever-increasing process development, the company is testing a self-serve kiosk in Europe, which may prove popular with diners seeking to customize meals and limit their time in queues. The downside may be the time needed to read the screens of choices.McDonald’s Director of operations and POS technology, Laurie Gilbert, said that the system is easy to learn and may cut as much as 10 seconds off the current workflow. Approximately 5,000 restaurants out of the company’s 32,000 locations are trialling the new software. McDonald’s currently aims to serve most customers within 90 seconds of taking their order. In order to speed up times at drive-through windows, staff at the McDonald’s Innovation Centre spent years incorpor ating an automated soda fountain that fills cups as soon as an order is placed into the workflow.When this same crew discovered that hot drinks needed more milk, they added refrigerated storage below the McCafe coffee makers to speed up efficiency. These two improved services have led to the processing of as many as five extra cars per hour in the drive-through queue. Cooking instructions are not only printed in the manual, they are often designed into the machines. A McDonald's kitchen is full of buzzers and flashing lights that tell employees what to do. At the front counter, computerized cash registers issue their own commands.Once an order has been placed, buttons light up and suggest other menu items that can be added. Workers at the counter are told to increase the size of an order by recommending special promotions, pushing dessert, pointing out the financial logic behind the purchase of a larger drink. While doing so, they are instructed to be up -beat and Recommendations Th ree improvements that can be introduced in McDonalds Even though McDonalds has always looked forward towards innovation, there are still some areas of improvement on which I would like to discuss below.McDonalds has two main channel of delivering food to its customers. One is from counter and the second one is Drive Thru. The always busy counters and a huge number of cars spending around 3 to 5 minutes in the drive thru has forced a part of the fast food market not to eat in McDonalds. McDonalds should be coming with concrete solution to get people serve quicker than before. Front Counter Service – Self Ordering kiosk – In every McDonalds outlet In every restaurant the self ordering kiosk should be introduced.Here customers can save the queue and instead order their food from self-ordering boots, that is they enter which ever food they like from the menu and pay to the machine and obtain an ordering number and wait for their number to be called at a collection point. T he advantage from this method would saving the decision and ordering time people take at the till and making people wait behind. Even having 4 kiosks would be quicker than 4 tills as ordering time will be save, and the staff who was suppose to take an order, can actually assemble the order in the meantime customers are ordering by themselves.The factors that would make this happened would be a high investment from McDonalds. Whereas there will the issue of staff retraining, time for customers getting used to it and more importantly, the McDonalds staff to be able to make this system possible in much quicker way compared to till system. – Online ordering This method is can work with conjunction with the 1st system discussed above. Customers can place an order online and they can spend as long as they wish in selecting the right food they wish to buy and they can just bring the order number at the restaurant to pay for their order.They only need to go to a counter or self-servi ce kiosk to pay using the code. Yet again, customer do not need to queue for long as the decision time and ordering time no more exist at the restaurant. So the 2 minutes in line time will be eliminated. From ordering online, I have not recommended that people can the facility to pay for their food online and receive a code which can be presented at a counter of kiosk. Reason behind that would be, if customers pay online, McDonalds would not know what time the foods will be collected.This will result into cold food being left waiting and as per the policy of McDonalds, the food should be wasted after 10 minutes holding time. This would also increase the food waste, thus increase cost. This can only happen if McDonalds adopt this process in all its outlets which in return will allow customers to see this as an standard and get used to it. Drive Thru – Fast lane and Online ordering Drive Thru at McDonalds is another main area of the restaurants from which McDonalds is making mo re than 50% of its sales per day.The main problem in the drive thru is that more and more people are driving in the McDonalds drive thru per hour to buy their fast food. This is resulting in longer service time because every extra second a car has to wait for the next cars to get served; in return it is increasing the queuing time, thus creating a bottle neck. As suggested above for eat in customers that can order online and use their order number to pay at counters or use in a self-service kiosk, the same method could be applied for drive thru customers.Instead of ordering on the arrival to the drive thru, customers can present their order number and pay at the cashier on drive thru. This will certainly reduce the total experience time. Even customers have order online they will still need to wait in the queue together with those cars that have ordered place their order on drive thru. In this situation, to keep the online customers move quicker, a fast lane can be introduced. Actua lly in the all the new drives thru at McDonalds, there are two lanes which allow customers to place order in any lane of their choice.But by introducing the fast lane, one of the lanes can be used for online customers, which would definitely make the process quicker. Kitchen Kitchen is one of the important parts of McDonalds that have a direct impact on the quality and speed. The longer kitchen takes to get a burger to service, the longer it takes a customer to get served. To have fresh food served all day long, it depends on the way dressing condiments and other raw food are used and stored. At McDonalds, the shelves lives of products are vital.That’s means, the holding time of raw products. For example, cheese is kept on the dressing table for only 2hours and fresh onions are kept for 1 hour. After the holding time of the condiments has elapse, kitchen staffs have to restock the kitchen with fresh stock. This process is a time consuming process and during busy time it becom e very difficult and complex. Kitchen staff could have used that time in producing burgers at the busy times. – Automated stocking up of dressing tableOur proposal to that situation would be to have automated stocking up of the dressing table by having the containers of condiments to automatically flip upside down discarding the out of holding time condiments under the dressing table bins. On the other hand fresh condiments could be automatically poured on dressing table containers. The condiments to go on the dressing table can be kept in a built-in cooler over the dressing table. This proposed system would eliminate the whole hourly stocking up; in fact just few heavy stock-up of the dressing table built cooler can maintain stock for the whole day. Automated dressing In the current situation, crew in McDonalds normally dress each burger manually even though a maximum of 8 burger buns can be toasted at the same time in one toaster. Here I would suggest special trays with 8 s mall holes that can keep the buns in one place until the final process. As the buns has been toasted, they should be taken out and place in an automated condiment dispenser, for example for a Ham Burger, the automated condiment dispenser will dispense ketchup, mustard, onion and pickle, all one by one.This saves someone from dressing each and every burger manually. Moreover all the burgers will be dress to the same standard and with exact amount of condiments. Here the food coast can be easily managed and even labour cost. Factors that would make this happen would be a good planning from the McDonalds managements. This will cost very high as completely new equipment should be introduced. The factor that could hinder this project would be a high maintenance cost, as they should be calibrated regularly in order to have proper amount of condiment dispensed. Training cost would also be high.And the most important would be to decrease the number of staff as work will be automated. Refere nces: http://www. mcdonalds. com/us/en/food/food_quality/trends_innovation. html http://www. forbes. com/2007/08/31/christensen-innovation-mcdonalds-pf-guru_in_cc_0904christensen_inl. html http://www. financetwitter. com/2011/05/mcdonalds-new-buying-experience-touch-screen-kiosk. html http://foodbelfast. com/2011/05/mci-robot/#. UKVlpocz35S http://alison. com/topic/learn/1312/24838/operations-management-strategies/operations-management-strategies-facilities-layout-planning http://www. llfreepapers. com/print/McDonalds–Burger-King/3827. html ———————– Office Toaster For Ham Burger Buns Toaster QtrCheese Dressing Table Ham Burger /QtrChesse Grill Ham Burger Grill Quarter Cheese 1 2[pic] 3 Product Display Cabinet 4 Service DriveThru 5A 5B Dressing/ Assembling Table Toaster Chicken Buns Chicken Products Fryers 1B 2[pic] Cooked Chicken Holding Cabinet 3 4 1A Toaster 1 35 secs Dressing2 45 secs Display 4 10 secs Grill 3 45 secs 1 35 Seconds 2+3 45 Seconds 4 10 Seconds Mcdonalds Introduction The organisation we are going to look in this assignment is McDonalds. McDonald’s is the leading global foodservice outlet with more than 33,500 local restaurants serving approximately 69 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and  women. http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/mcd/investors/company_profile. html McDonalds has developed its operation to a very high level of efficiency over years it has been operation.One main reason is that McDonalds keeps innovating its current process design, flows, data capture, and interactions between sections, resource allocation, process technologies and its supply chain. By looking at McDonalds, we have witnessed a culture of change due to the innovative ideas McDonalds has been coming up all the time. This company not only innovate in its operation and food production process, but it innovate every single aspect of the bu siness from physical evidence, management to the customer service.McDonalds has been working for ages on its QSC, that is quality, service and cleanliness, but they have even changed this to QSC&V where V stands for value which once again shows they do not hesitate to change. Current Process Design – Batch Processes The current process design at McDonalds would be Batch Processes McDonald's uses a batch process to cook its burgers. Adopting batch process means that the speed of delivery relies on the speed and experience of the staff working at the moment. Burgers at McDonalds are cooked on a large platen, in batches of 8 for Hamburgers, 6 for Quarter Cheese and 4 for Big Macs.Two or more batches may be cooked at one time and they can happen on various stages of cooking. This makes it important that a crew of McDonalds is required to manage the grill solely during busy time. The burgers are hand dressed which again need one crew to work on that station on busy times. When the re are two batches being done in different stages of cooking, the speed is vital to keep the production moving. Interaction between departments At McDonalds, the restaurant is divided between different sections which ould Kitchen area, indoor service area, drive thru and the dining area known as the lobby. By observing the day to day activity at a McDonald’s restaurant, you would notice that every most of the sections are related to each other, which means one section rely on the second section. For example, the service area can not finish an order until kitchen supply service with a burger. The interaction between areas (departments) could be better understood when we look at the layout observation that would follow. At McDonalds there is no individual department by its own that we can do an observation on.As service and kitchen area closely related in McDonalds, we would like to concentrate on the Service and Kitchen area as an observation. Areas at McDonalds chosen for obs ervation †¢ Kitchen †¢ Indoor Service Area In McDonalds Restaurant the layout in the kitchen has been designed in other to ensure speedy preparation of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety, increased visibility by customers, minimised supervision. Another factor that is considered is the cost of production which also depends on the layout.McDonalds Layout – these are the main areas at McDonalds Kitchen – McDonalds restaurant Layout – Product Layout McDonalds have a product layout as we can see they have a standardise operation and repetitive  assembly  of their  products. With this layout design they are able to have a better synchronization even on the different activity line, have a better control and product planning become easier. In this type of layout, even less skill level staff can work where one particular person who will be performing the operation. There are only few changes done r arely due to standard production line up.In this layout the flow of material take place smooth and continuously. Kitchen Layout – Product Layout Steps of production – Division of Labour At McDonalds, there is a high degree of division of labour. In order to produce one hamburger, 4 staff will be required based on a McDonalds kitchen layout, where each staff will perform a particular task in making the burger as mentioned below. If we look at the production of a Hamburger based from the above diagram, its production would starts at point 1 which is the Toaster, where the buns are toasted for 35 seconds by one person working only at the toaster.During quite time they may perform two or more tasks, but at busy period, they would perform one task. After the buns have been toasted, it goes to the next level of production which is point 2 at the Dressing Table where a second person would dressed the toasted buns from the condiments already stocked up on the dressing table wh ich would take 45 seconds. At the same time the dressing starts, the person at the grill at point 3 place the frozen burger patty on the grill which is automatically set for 45 seconds. By the time the meat is ready after the 45 seconds on the grill, the dressing would be finished as well.Then the dressed toasted buns is moved from point 2 to point 3, that’s mean from the dressing table to the side of the grill where the cooked meat patty will be placed on the dressed buns. The Hamburger will then be moved to point 4 which is the production display cabinet, where the person working at the production control at point 4 will wrap the hamburger after having check for quality standards. Staff working on the service area at point 5 will then take the hamburger from the production display cabinet at point 4 to complete their order to give to the customers.Please note that other burger will also follow the same process going from point 1 to point 5. Also McDonalds has been separated in two sections which are the Beef products cooking area and Chicken products cooking area, where the process is almost the same on both side. Production on chicken side also starts at point 1. At point 1A, frozen chicken are cooked at stored directly at point 3 for assembly, this step can also take place in between production. At point 1B the buns are toasted and dressed at point 2 and the same flow continues. The Precedence diagram for the production of a hamburgerThe total production time would be 1 minutes 30 seconds for a burger to reach service. Volume variety The epitome of high volume variety hamburger production is MacDonald’s, serving more that 52million customers in more than 100contries counties round the world each day. The volume variety dimension is at the heart of its service and thus has very important implications for the way MacDonald’s operations are organized. MacDonald’s has instinctively grasped the underlying idea of through put time and thus, applied it in its Speedee Service System.The restaurant operating scheme they developed has been widely adopted and refined over the past half century. The ethos of the assembly line remains at its core. The grills at McDonald's have big steel hoods that swing down and grill hamburgers on both sides at once. The burgers, chicken, French fries, and buns are frozen when they arrive at a McDonald's. Service – At MacDonald’s the customer maximum waiting time is usually three minutes and thirty seconds and staff are advised to alert the manger for assistance if there are three or more customers per line.The new process demands that customer’s maximum line time should be 2minutes Thus, using Little’s law, Through put time = WIP x Cycle time Cycle time = Throughput time WIP Cycle time for the process = 3. 5 =1. 2 minute 3 Thus a customer should emerge from the process every 1. 2 minute on average. On the other hand, given that management requires every cu stomer to be served in every two minute, Thus the number of servers required = 2 = 2 1. 2 Hence, 2 server would be needed to serve three customers in two minutes. Every second counts.Each delay, bottleneck and unnecessary step reduces output and highlights the need for efficient workflow processes. McDonald’s has embraced the importance of managing processes, by ensuring that every second is accounted for in the making of each product. Service time is critical to McDonald’s success, as McDonald’s tries to increase customer satisfaction within the competitive fastfood industry. The plan to get food to customers quicker, and keep increasing the market share that McDonald’s won in the recession, means that each second really does matter. Process Mapping Ordering a meal at MacDonald’sTo order a meal at MacDonald’s usually it takes six service steps. (1) Greet the customer (2) Take the order (3) Receive payment (4) Assemble the order (5) Present the order (6) Thank the customer and invite them to return On the other hand work flow process will take the following shape Take order Take payment Preparation begins Customer waits Packaging and inspects If the right items are placed Customer takes food Technologies at McDonalds Today various organization are using technology is the main tool through which not only increased the efficiency level but also increase their profit and growth.In current scenario various innovative companies are thanking that how we will improve our speed and efficiency level to satisfy the customer demands. Due to market changing trends and new innovation in market, compel the operations of the organization to reshape their layout process and strategy to overcome the 21th century demand and challenges. MacDonald is the world leading innovator organization in current scenario. But there is no doubt that currently McDonald faces various challenges and problems.Today McDonald have the huge challenge that h ow to increase the speed to deliver quick food. And how McDonald will beat the queue? There are various organizations which are currently using different methods and equipment to deliver excellent service. [pic] As part of McDonald’s ever-increasing process development, the company is testing a self-serve kiosk in Europe, which may prove popular with diners seeking to customize meals and limit their time in queues. The downside may be the time needed to read the screens of choices.McDonald’s Director of operations and POS technology, Laurie Gilbert, said that the system is easy to learn and may cut as much as 10 seconds off the current workflow. Approximately 5,000 restaurants out of the company’s 32,000 locations are trialling the new software. McDonald’s currently aims to serve most customers within 90 seconds of taking their order. In order to speed up times at drive-through windows, staff at the McDonald’s Innovation Centre spent years incorpor ating an automated soda fountain that fills cups as soon as an order is placed into the workflow.When this same crew discovered that hot drinks needed more milk, they added refrigerated storage below the McCafe coffee makers to speed up efficiency. These two improved services have led to the processing of as many as five extra cars per hour in the drive-through queue. Cooking instructions are not only printed in the manual, they are often designed into the machines. A McDonald's kitchen is full of buzzers and flashing lights that tell employees what to do. At the front counter, computerized cash registers issue their own commands.Once an order has been placed, buttons light up and suggest other menu items that can be added. Workers at the counter are told to increase the size of an order by recommending special promotions, pushing dessert, pointing out the financial logic behind the purchase of a larger drink. While doing so, they are instructed to be up -beat and Recommendations Th ree improvements that can be introduced in McDonalds Even though McDonalds has always looked forward towards innovation, there are still some areas of improvement on which I would like to discuss below.McDonalds has two main channel of delivering food to its customers. One is from counter and the second one is Drive Thru. The always busy counters and a huge number of cars spending around 3 to 5 minutes in the drive thru has forced a part of the fast food market not to eat in McDonalds. McDonalds should be coming with concrete solution to get people serve quicker than before. Front Counter Service – Self Ordering kiosk – In every McDonalds outlet In every restaurant the self ordering kiosk should be introduced.Here customers can save the queue and instead order their food from self-ordering boots, that is they enter which ever food they like from the menu and pay to the machine and obtain an ordering number and wait for their number to be called at a collection point. T he advantage from this method would saving the decision and ordering time people take at the till and making people wait behind. Even having 4 kiosks would be quicker than 4 tills as ordering time will be save, and the staff who was suppose to take an order, can actually assemble the order in the meantime customers are ordering by themselves.The factors that would make this happened would be a high investment from McDonalds. Whereas there will the issue of staff retraining, time for customers getting used to it and more importantly, the McDonalds staff to be able to make this system possible in much quicker way compared to till system. – Online ordering This method is can work with conjunction with the 1st system discussed above. Customers can place an order online and they can spend as long as they wish in selecting the right food they wish to buy and they can just bring the order number at the restaurant to pay for their order.They only need to go to a counter or self-servi ce kiosk to pay using the code. Yet again, customer do not need to queue for long as the decision time and ordering time no more exist at the restaurant. So the 2 minutes in line time will be eliminated. From ordering online, I have not recommended that people can the facility to pay for their food online and receive a code which can be presented at a counter of kiosk. Reason behind that would be, if customers pay online, McDonalds would not know what time the foods will be collected.This will result into cold food being left waiting and as per the policy of McDonalds, the food should be wasted after 10 minutes holding time. This would also increase the food waste, thus increase cost. This can only happen if McDonalds adopt this process in all its outlets which in return will allow customers to see this as an standard and get used to it. Drive Thru – Fast lane and Online ordering Drive Thru at McDonalds is another main area of the restaurants from which McDonalds is making mo re than 50% of its sales per day.The main problem in the drive thru is that more and more people are driving in the McDonalds drive thru per hour to buy their fast food. This is resulting in longer service time because every extra second a car has to wait for the next cars to get served; in return it is increasing the queuing time, thus creating a bottle neck. As suggested above for eat in customers that can order online and use their order number to pay at counters or use in a self-service kiosk, the same method could be applied for drive thru customers.Instead of ordering on the arrival to the drive thru, customers can present their order number and pay at the cashier on drive thru. This will certainly reduce the total experience time. Even customers have order online they will still need to wait in the queue together with those cars that have ordered place their order on drive thru. In this situation, to keep the online customers move quicker, a fast lane can be introduced. Actua lly in the all the new drives thru at McDonalds, there are two lanes which allow customers to place order in any lane of their choice.But by introducing the fast lane, one of the lanes can be used for online customers, which would definitely make the process quicker. Kitchen Kitchen is one of the important parts of McDonalds that have a direct impact on the quality and speed. The longer kitchen takes to get a burger to service, the longer it takes a customer to get served. To have fresh food served all day long, it depends on the way dressing condiments and other raw food are used and stored. At McDonalds, the shelves lives of products are vital.That’s means, the holding time of raw products. For example, cheese is kept on the dressing table for only 2hours and fresh onions are kept for 1 hour. After the holding time of the condiments has elapse, kitchen staffs have to restock the kitchen with fresh stock. This process is a time consuming process and during busy time it becom e very difficult and complex. Kitchen staff could have used that time in producing burgers at the busy times. – Automated stocking up of dressing tableOur proposal to that situation would be to have automated stocking up of the dressing table by having the containers of condiments to automatically flip upside down discarding the out of holding time condiments under the dressing table bins. On the other hand fresh condiments could be automatically poured on dressing table containers. The condiments to go on the dressing table can be kept in a built-in cooler over the dressing table. This proposed system would eliminate the whole hourly stocking up; in fact just few heavy stock-up of the dressing table built cooler can maintain stock for the whole day. Automated dressing In the current situation, crew in McDonalds normally dress each burger manually even though a maximum of 8 burger buns can be toasted at the same time in one toaster. Here I would suggest special trays with 8 s mall holes that can keep the buns in one place until the final process. As the buns has been toasted, they should be taken out and place in an automated condiment dispenser, for example for a Ham Burger, the automated condiment dispenser will dispense ketchup, mustard, onion and pickle, all one by one.This saves someone from dressing each and every burger manually. Moreover all the burgers will be dress to the same standard and with exact amount of condiments. Here the food coast can be easily managed and even labour cost. Factors that would make this happen would be a good planning from the McDonalds managements. This will cost very high as completely new equipment should be introduced. The factor that could hinder this project would be a high maintenance cost, as they should be calibrated regularly in order to have proper amount of condiment dispensed. Training cost would also be high.And the most important would be to decrease the number of staff as work will be automated. Refere nces: http://www. mcdonalds. com/us/en/food/food_quality/trends_innovation. html http://www. forbes. com/2007/08/31/christensen-innovation-mcdonalds-pf-guru_in_cc_0904christensen_inl. html http://www. financetwitter. com/2011/05/mcdonalds-new-buying-experience-touch-screen-kiosk. html http://foodbelfast. com/2011/05/mci-robot/#. UKVlpocz35S http://alison. com/topic/learn/1312/24838/operations-management-strategies/operations-management-strategies-facilities-layout-planning http://www. llfreepapers. com/print/McDonalds–Burger-King/3827. html ———————– Office Toaster For Ham Burger Buns Toaster QtrCheese Dressing Table Ham Burger /QtrChesse Grill Ham Burger Grill Quarter Cheese 1 2[pic] 3 Product Display Cabinet 4 Service DriveThru 5A 5B Dressing/ Assembling Table Toaster Chicken Buns Chicken Products Fryers 1B 2[pic] Cooked Chicken Holding Cabinet 3 4 1A Toaster 1 35 secs Dressing2 45 secs Display 4 10 secs Grill 3 45 secs 1 35 Seconds 2+3 45 Seconds 4 10 Seconds Mcdonalds Introduction The organisation we are going to look in this assignment is McDonalds. McDonald’s is the leading global foodservice outlet with more than 33,500 local restaurants serving approximately 69 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and  women. http://www. aboutmcdonalds. com/mcd/investors/company_profile. html McDonalds has developed its operation to a very high level of efficiency over years it has been operation.One main reason is that McDonalds keeps innovating its current process design, flows, data capture, and interactions between sections, resource allocation, process technologies and its supply chain. By looking at McDonalds, we have witnessed a culture of change due to the innovative ideas McDonalds has been coming up all the time. This company not only innovate in its operation and food production process, but it innovate every single aspect of the bu siness from physical evidence, management to the customer service.McDonalds has been working for ages on its QSC, that is quality, service and cleanliness, but they have even changed this to QSC&V where V stands for value which once again shows they do not hesitate to change. Current Process Design – Batch Processes The current process design at McDonalds would be Batch Processes McDonald's uses a batch process to cook its burgers. Adopting batch process means that the speed of delivery relies on the speed and experience of the staff working at the moment. Burgers at McDonalds are cooked on a large platen, in batches of 8 for Hamburgers, 6 for Quarter Cheese and 4 for Big Macs.Two or more batches may be cooked at one time and they can happen on various stages of cooking. This makes it important that a crew of McDonalds is required to manage the grill solely during busy time. The burgers are hand dressed which again need one crew to work on that station on busy times. When the re are two batches being done in different stages of cooking, the speed is vital to keep the production moving. Interaction between departments At McDonalds, the restaurant is divided between different sections which ould Kitchen area, indoor service area, drive thru and the dining area known as the lobby. By observing the day to day activity at a McDonald’s restaurant, you would notice that every most of the sections are related to each other, which means one section rely on the second section. For example, the service area can not finish an order until kitchen supply service with a burger. The interaction between areas (departments) could be better understood when we look at the layout observation that would follow. At McDonalds there is no individual department by its own that we can do an observation on.As service and kitchen area closely related in McDonalds, we would like to concentrate on the Service and Kitchen area as an observation. Areas at McDonalds chosen for obs ervation †¢ Kitchen †¢ Indoor Service Area In McDonalds Restaurant the layout in the kitchen has been designed in other to ensure speedy preparation of quality food in less time. It also designs its layout keeping in mind the health and safety, increased visibility by customers, minimised supervision. Another factor that is considered is the cost of production which also depends on the layout.McDonalds Layout – these are the main areas at McDonalds Kitchen – McDonalds restaurant Layout – Product Layout McDonalds have a product layout as we can see they have a standardise operation and repetitive  assembly  of their  products. With this layout design they are able to have a better synchronization even on the different activity line, have a better control and product planning become easier. In this type of layout, even less skill level staff can work where one particular person who will be performing the operation. There are only few changes done r arely due to standard production line up.In this layout the flow of material take place smooth and continuously. Kitchen Layout – Product Layout Steps of production – Division of Labour At McDonalds, there is a high degree of division of labour. In order to produce one hamburger, 4 staff will be required based on a McDonalds kitchen layout, where each staff will perform a particular task in making the burger as mentioned below. If we look at the production of a Hamburger based from the above diagram, its production would starts at point 1 which is the Toaster, where the buns are toasted for 35 seconds by one person working only at the toaster.During quite time they may perform two or more tasks, but at busy period, they would perform one task. After the buns have been toasted, it goes to the next level of production which is point 2 at the Dressing Table where a second person would dressed the toasted buns from the condiments already stocked up on the dressing table wh ich would take 45 seconds. At the same time the dressing starts, the person at the grill at point 3 place the frozen burger patty on the grill which is automatically set for 45 seconds. By the time the meat is ready after the 45 seconds on the grill, the dressing would be finished as well.Then the dressed toasted buns is moved from point 2 to point 3, that’s mean from the dressing table to the side of the grill where the cooked meat patty will be placed on the dressed buns. The Hamburger will then be moved to point 4 which is the production display cabinet, where the person working at the production control at point 4 will wrap the hamburger after having check for quality standards. Staff working on the service area at point 5 will then take the hamburger from the production display cabinet at point 4 to complete their order to give to the customers.Please note that other burger will also follow the same process going from point 1 to point 5. Also McDonalds has been separated in two sections which are the Beef products cooking area and Chicken products cooking area, where the process is almost the same on both side. Production on chicken side also starts at point 1. At point 1A, frozen chicken are cooked at stored directly at point 3 for assembly, this step can also take place in between production. At point 1B the buns are toasted and dressed at point 2 and the same flow continues. The Precedence diagram for the production of a hamburgerThe total production time would be 1 minutes 30 seconds for a burger to reach service. Volume variety The epitome of high volume variety hamburger production is MacDonald’s, serving more that 52million customers in more than 100contries counties round the world each day. The volume variety dimension is at the heart of its service and thus has very important implications for the way MacDonald’s operations are organized. MacDonald’s has instinctively grasped the underlying idea of through put time and thus, applied it in its Speedee Service System.The restaurant operating scheme they developed has been widely adopted and refined over the past half century. The ethos of the assembly line remains at its core. The grills at McDonald's have big steel hoods that swing down and grill hamburgers on both sides at once. The burgers, chicken, French fries, and buns are frozen when they arrive at a McDonald's. Service – At MacDonald’s the customer maximum waiting time is usually three minutes and thirty seconds and staff are advised to alert the manger for assistance if there are three or more customers per line.The new process demands that customer’s maximum line time should be 2minutes Thus, using Little’s law, Through put time = WIP x Cycle time Cycle time = Throughput time WIP Cycle time for the process = 3. 5 =1. 2 minute 3 Thus a customer should emerge from the process every 1. 2 minute on average. On the other hand, given that management requires every cu stomer to be served in every two minute, Thus the number of servers required = 2 = 2 1. 2 Hence, 2 server would be needed to serve three customers in two minutes. Every second counts.Each delay, bottleneck and unnecessary step reduces output and highlights the need for efficient workflow processes. McDonald’s has embraced the importance of managing processes, by ensuring that every second is accounted for in the making of each product. Service time is critical to McDonald’s success, as McDonald’s tries to increase customer satisfaction within the competitive fastfood industry. The plan to get food to customers quicker, and keep increasing the market share that McDonald’s won in the recession, means that each second really does matter. Process Mapping Ordering a meal at MacDonald’sTo order a meal at MacDonald’s usually it takes six service steps. (1) Greet the customer (2) Take the order (3) Receive payment (4) Assemble the order (5) Present the order (6) Thank the customer and invite them to return On the other hand work flow process will take the following shape Take order Take payment Preparation begins Customer waits Packaging and inspects If the right items are placed Customer takes food Technologies at McDonalds Today various organization are using technology is the main tool through which not only increased the efficiency level but also increase their profit and growth.In current scenario various innovative companies are thanking that how we will improve our speed and efficiency level to satisfy the customer demands. Due to market changing trends and new innovation in market, compel the operations of the organization to reshape their layout process and strategy to overcome the 21th century demand and challenges. MacDonald is the world leading innovator organization in current scenario. But there is no doubt that currently McDonald faces various challenges and problems.Today McDonald have the huge challenge that h ow to increase the speed to deliver quick food. And how McDonald will beat the queue? There are various organizations which are currently using different methods and equipment to deliver excellent service. [pic] As part of McDonald’s ever-increasing process development, the company is testing a self-serve kiosk in Europe, which may prove popular with diners seeking to customize meals and limit their time in queues. The downside may be the time needed to read the screens of choices.McDonald’s Director of operations and POS technology, Laurie Gilbert, said that the system is easy to learn and may cut as much as 10 seconds off the current workflow. Approximately 5,000 restaurants out of the company’s 32,000 locations are trialling the new software. McDonald’s currently aims to serve most customers within 90 seconds of taking their order. In order to speed up times at drive-through windows, staff at the McDonald’s Innovation Centre spent years incorpor ating an automated soda fountain that fills cups as soon as an order is placed into the workflow.When this same crew discovered that hot drinks needed more milk, they added refrigerated storage below the McCafe coffee makers to speed up efficiency. These two improved services have led to the processing of as many as five extra cars per hour in the drive-through queue. Cooking instructions are not only printed in the manual, they are often designed into the machines. A McDonald's kitchen is full of buzzers and flashing lights that tell employees what to do. At the front counter, computerized cash registers issue their own commands.Once an order has been placed, buttons light up and suggest other menu items that can be added. Workers at the counter are told to increase the size of an order by recommending special promotions, pushing dessert, pointing out the financial logic behind the purchase of a larger drink. While doing so, they are instructed to be up -beat and Recommendations Th ree improvements that can be introduced in McDonalds Even though McDonalds has always looked forward towards innovation, there are still some areas of improvement on which I would like to discuss below.McDonalds has two main channel of delivering food to its customers. One is from counter and the second one is Drive Thru. The always busy counters and a huge number of cars spending around 3 to 5 minutes in the drive thru has forced a part of the fast food market not to eat in McDonalds. McDonalds should be coming with concrete solution to get people serve quicker than before. Front Counter Service – Self Ordering kiosk – In every McDonalds outlet In every restaurant the self ordering kiosk should be introduced.Here customers can save the queue and instead order their food from self-ordering boots, that is they enter which ever food they like from the menu and pay to the machine and obtain an ordering number and wait for their number to be called at a collection point. T he advantage from this method would saving the decision and ordering time people take at the till and making people wait behind. Even having 4 kiosks would be quicker than 4 tills as ordering time will be save, and the staff who was suppose to take an order, can actually assemble the order in the meantime customers are ordering by themselves.The factors that would make this happened would be a high investment from McDonalds. Whereas there will the issue of staff retraining, time for customers getting used to it and more importantly, the McDonalds staff to be able to make this system possible in much quicker way compared to till system. – Online ordering This method is can work with conjunction with the 1st system discussed above. Customers can place an order online and they can spend as long as they wish in selecting the right food they wish to buy and they can just bring the order number at the restaurant to pay for their order.They only need to go to a counter or self-servi ce kiosk to pay using the code. Yet again, customer do not need to queue for long as the decision time and ordering time no more exist at the restaurant. So the 2 minutes in line time will be eliminated. From ordering online, I have not recommended that people can the facility to pay for their food online and receive a code which can be presented at a counter of kiosk. Reason behind that would be, if customers pay online, McDonalds would not know what time the foods will be collected.This will result into cold food being left waiting and as per the policy of McDonalds, the food should be wasted after 10 minutes holding time. This would also increase the food waste, thus increase cost. This can only happen if McDonalds adopt this process in all its outlets which in return will allow customers to see this as an standard and get used to it. Drive Thru – Fast lane and Online ordering Drive Thru at McDonalds is another main area of the restaurants from which McDonalds is making mo re than 50% of its sales per day.The main problem in the drive thru is that more and more people are driving in the McDonalds drive thru per hour to buy their fast food. This is resulting in longer service time because every extra second a car has to wait for the next cars to get served; in return it is increasing the queuing time, thus creating a bottle neck. As suggested above for eat in customers that can order online and use their order number to pay at counters or use in a self-service kiosk, the same method could be applied for drive thru customers.Instead of ordering on the arrival to the drive thru, customers can present their order number and pay at the cashier on drive thru. This will certainly reduce the total experience time. Even customers have order online they will still need to wait in the queue together with those cars that have ordered place their order on drive thru. In this situation, to keep the online customers move quicker, a fast lane can be introduced. Actua lly in the all the new drives thru at McDonalds, there are two lanes which allow customers to place order in any lane of their choice.But by introducing the fast lane, one of the lanes can be used for online customers, which would definitely make the process quicker. Kitchen Kitchen is one of the important parts of McDonalds that have a direct impact on the quality and speed. The longer kitchen takes to get a burger to service, the longer it takes a customer to get served. To have fresh food served all day long, it depends on the way dressing condiments and other raw food are used and stored. At McDonalds, the shelves lives of products are vital.That’s means, the holding time of raw products. For example, cheese is kept on the dressing table for only 2hours and fresh onions are kept for 1 hour. After the holding time of the condiments has elapse, kitchen staffs have to restock the kitchen with fresh stock. This process is a time consuming process and during busy time it becom e very difficult and complex. Kitchen staff could have used that time in producing burgers at the busy times. – Automated stocking up of dressing tableOur proposal to that situation would be to have automated stocking up of the dressing table by having the containers of condiments to automatically flip upside down discarding the out of holding time condiments under the dressing table bins. On the other hand fresh condiments could be automatically poured on dressing table containers. The condiments to go on the dressing table can be kept in a built-in cooler over the dressing table. This proposed system would eliminate the whole hourly stocking up; in fact just few heavy stock-up of the dressing table built cooler can maintain stock for the whole day. Automated dressing In the current situation, crew in McDonalds normally dress each burger manually even though a maximum of 8 burger buns can be toasted at the same time in one toaster. Here I would suggest special trays with 8 s mall holes that can keep the buns in one place until the final process. As the buns has been toasted, they should be taken out and place in an automated condiment dispenser, for example for a Ham Burger, the automated condiment dispenser will dispense ketchup, mustard, onion and pickle, all one by one.This saves someone from dressing each and every burger manually. Moreover all the burgers will be dress to the same standard and with exact amount of condiments. Here the food coast can be easily managed and even labour cost. Factors that would make this happen would be a good planning from the McDonalds managements. This will cost very high as completely new equipment should be introduced. The factor that could hinder this project would be a high maintenance cost, as they should be calibrated regularly in order to have proper amount of condiment dispensed. Training cost would also be high.And the most important would be to decrease the number of staff as work will be automated. Refere nces: http://www. mcdonalds. com/us/en/food/food_quality/trends_innovation. html http://www. forbes. com/2007/08/31/christensen-innovation-mcdonalds-pf-guru_in_cc_0904christensen_inl. html http://www. financetwitter. com/2011/05/mcdonalds-new-buying-experience-touch-screen-kiosk. html http://foodbelfast. com/2011/05/mci-robot/#. UKVlpocz35S http://alison. com/topic/learn/1312/24838/operations-management-strategies/operations-management-strategies-facilities-layout-planning http://www. llfreepapers. com/print/McDonalds–Burger-King/3827. html ———————– Office Toaster For Ham Burger Buns Toaster QtrCheese Dressing Table Ham Burger /QtrChesse Grill Ham Burger Grill Quarter Cheese 1 2[pic] 3 Product Display Cabinet 4 Service DriveThru 5A 5B Dressing/ Assembling Table Toaster Chicken Buns Chicken Products Fryers 1B 2[pic] Cooked Chicken Holding Cabinet 3 4 1A Toaster 1 35 secs Dressing2 45 secs Display 4 10 secs Grill 3 45 secs 1 35 Seconds 2+3 45 Seconds 4 10 Seconds