...Reacting to a Process Gone Wrong Cignet Plastics Corporation is a contract plastics die-casting house serving a wide range of clients. Over the years, Cignet has been a favored supplier of precision die castings for a major producer of model airplane kits. In recent days the defect rate of these parts has increased. (Acceptance is based on a visual inspection of the parts for appearance.) After a thorough audit of the process, Quality Assurance has concluded that there has been no change to the process. It claims that the increase in defects must be variation that is related to some assignable cause. The president of Cignet Plastics does not have a clue as to what that means, and he has called you in for an explanation. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Discuss the following questions in class or outside of class with your fellow students: 1. What will you tell the president? 2. He wants you to change the process to reduce the number of defects, but you know that is the wrong approach. How do you talk him out of it? 3. What approach would you use to get the operation back to normal? Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper answering the discussion questions at the end of Discussion Assignment 15-1. Also, address the following and support your thoughts with specific examples: • Why is it important for managers to employ process thinking? identify at least two quality management tools that could be used to present data and persuade the president? Why would you use these tools...
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...to help you find an article for this assignment: * Decision making * Risk taking * Persuasion * Social heuristics Write a 5–6 page paper in Word format that addresses the following: * Describe a decision-making scenario using your business experience, personal decision making or cited journal article; include an example of the decision-making process, why it was a risk, how persuasion was used, and what the social heuristics were. * Explain the incentives that caused others to support the decision and identify why these incentives were selected. * Identify the risks and the potential decision biases in your scenario. Propose the corrective steps that should have been taken to overcome these biases. If a risk assessment was conducted how did this affect the decision-making process? * Analyze your scenario for what happened in terms of social heuristics. Explain how decisions were made and the social factors that shaped the decision-making environment. * Discuss the greatest challenges to sound decision-making in your scenario. * Critique the decision-making process used by the sponsor(s) and leader(s) of the decision. Identify the mistakes made by the sponsor(s), leader(s) and team members or others impacted...
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...The apparel retailing industry is a highly competitive industry. One major challenge most companies face lies in being able to predict and respond swiftly to changing fashion trends. For the purpose of studying the industry model, Gap Inc. business model will be used. Gap Inc. Business Model Gap Inc. is a specialty retailing company which offers clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies under five brand names - Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. Gap Inc. segments its market by income, with Banana Republic serving the high-end market, Old Navy catering to the lower end market by delivering cheaper apparel and Gap lying in between with apparel of moderate prices. Gap Inc. also segments its market by lifestyle, with Banana Republic serving mainly the working population by selling professional attires, Old Navy catering to the young and families while Athleta serves active women inclined towards sports. The range of diversified brands gives Gap Inc. its competitive advantage as it is able to reach out to more customers through the different value propositions that each brand offers. Other than offering trendy designs, Gap Inc. also provides value to customers through its strong brand name established worldwide. Gap Inc. has expanded multiple brands internationally and currently owns 3,000 company-operated stores and 200 franchise stores over 40 countries. Other than opening stores, Gap Inc. also has an e-commerce...
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...All the Wrong Moves Outline of the case A. Introduction Nutrorim was established in 1986 by an organic farmer and his wife. Don Rifkin had taken the charge of CEO in 1989. Its products were gaining national attention. The sales of organic performance enhancing supplement powder ChargeUp, was increasing enormously. It was the best selling product among the category. ChargeUp has undergone an upgrade with the additive Lipitrene. The new ChargeUp has just been released on a limited basis to local area retailers. Company’s expectation with this upgraded product was high. With the end of first quarter, the sales had been increased by 20% in the test market. Don has a way of trying to avoid conflict. When ChargeUp was in the marketing phase, the marketing manager asked the opinion of the entrepreneur Nora. Nora was not keen on the product with the new ingredient. This caused friction between her and the R&D manager Steve. That time Don had tried to restore the peace. But before the state wide launch, an investigator from a state department of health had informed Don that he was investigating 11 individuals from Syd’s Gym who took ChargeUp, who now had gastrointestinal distress. He advised him to recall the product from the market. Don called an emergency meeting with heads of PR, Sales, R&D, and Legal to decide whether to recall the product. CEO Rifkin had always tried to provide an open and democratic environment for company’s decision making process. But this...
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...Thesis statement: One of the most debated topics in America today is Global Warming. Regardless of whether or not it is fact or fiction, the American public needs to pay more attention to growing scientific evidence, and make a greater attempt to ensure a prosperous future. I. The Problem A. The Problems Are Just Beginning B. Man Is Having An Affect II. The Ecosystem A. The Domino Affect B. A Few Degrees Of Consequence III. Not Just Hot Air A. Crying Wolf B. Uninformed Public IV. The Real Problems A. Short Term Ideals B. Selfish Americans C. Religion D. Big Bussiness V. What Can Be Done A. Think Long Term Global Warming: Fact or Fiction? Most skeptics of Global Warming have said and will say again, “The earth has taken care of itself for millions of years. It goes through cycles from time to time. It doesn’t matter what humans do, Mother Nature is stronger than us all.” Although these opinions have some truth and relevance in the argument against the reality of Global Warming and its effects on the planet, it also seems incredibly short sighted to not explore the emerging data that has continued to grow in recent years supporting the idea that humans do indeed have an affect on how the planet and her inhabitants will continue to live and grow in the years to come. With advances in technology measuring these effects more accurately...
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...ELECTIONS, ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POST- ELECTION VIOLENCE: PROBLEMS AND WAY FORWARD BY IRABOR PETER ODION DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, IGUEBEN, EDO STATE 07037830536. p24real2000@yahoo.com ABSTRACT In the contemporary world of today, elections have become the most accepted means of changing the government. Although history has shown that it is usually difficult to hold elections that are free and fair. But the importance of a good electoral act cannot be underestimated especially in a developing country like Nigeria where elections were reported to be marred by irregularities by foreign and local observers. It is on this basis that this paper critically observed, even with the electoral reforms carried out, the reasons why there were violence after the 2011 general election and recommended that adopting the basic part of the reforms, devolvement of power at the centre are other plausible way forward to true and sustainable democratic system in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION The electoral system of any given country plays a fundamental role in sustaining and moulding the political behaviour of its citizens (Okolo,2000). The way and manner election is conducted in a country goes a long way to determine the level of poltical culture, political participation and good governance in...
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...Lack of Accountability - Project Management Introduction Over the years, project management has become an integral part of business operations in a wide array of industries. It can be defined as “the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals – and thus, better to compete in their markets” (What is Project Management, n.d.). In order to project managers to meet their projects objectives and goals, accountability and communication is imperative. One of the 10 top reason’s projects fail is due to a lack of accountability, according to Villanova University (n.d.). This paper will go into detail regarding how a lack of accountability and communication can affect a projects overall success. It is important to remember project managers and project team members all need to hold themselves accountable for the success and outcome of project (Mullaly, 2013). Additionally, the project manager is not only responsible for holding themselves accountable but also the whole project team, all on top of their other responsibilities and projects. For this very reason, understanding accountability and creating a system to foster it plays a significant role in the success (Mullaly, 2013). Mullaly (2013) explains that project managers have a set of tools, some more than others, to help in efficiently fulfilling their job and responsibilities...
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...put the seemingly paralyzed man on a wet board and got him out of the water. I began to see the importance in what the guards do. I sent my application in the next morning. I was determined to become a lifeguard and save a life. A couple weeks passed before a formal letter asking for an interview arrived. I was one step closer. Before I knew it, I was four steps closer, sitting in a room, about to begin the lifeguard training process. Little did I know, that would be the second most exhausting weekend of my life. We started out by reading through the lifeguard book. This book was, and still is today, the Lifeguard bible. It covered everything from how to be professional to how to save a victim who has gone unconscious at the bottom of a 12ft pool. The information swirled around in my head as I tried to store it in my long term memory. I was told many times this information must be memorized. The next portion of the lifeguard training was the “in-water” training. I whole-heartedly believed this would be a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong. First, we had to jump into the pool and do eight laps without taking a break. Then, we leaped right into treading. Let me just say, treading without arms is no easy task. After that, the instructors threw these rubber bricks to the bottom of the pool and we each had to swim to the floor of the pool to retrieve the brink and bring it to the surface. These were the prerequisites. Next came the actual skills needed to actually become...
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...|[pic] |Course Design Guide | | |School of Business | | |MGT/449 Version 8 | | |Quality Management and Productivity | Copyright © 2010, 2009, 2005, 2004, 2003 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2009, 2006 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. The Mission of University of Phoenix is to provide access to higher education opportunities that enable students to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their professional goals, improve the productivity of their organizations, and provide leadership and service to their communities. Please print a copy of this syllabus for handy reference. Whenever there is a question about what assignments are due, please remember this Course Design Guide is considered the ruling document. Technical Support: Technical Support is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call 1-877-832-4867, or use the e-mail support form. Answers to the most common issues are found in the Knowledge Base by clicking Help, found at the...
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...My Realization This semester my goal in school was to stay on top of things. Every semester, I manage to stay caught up for the first week or two but then I end up falling behind. Thus far, I’ve managed to keep up with my homework, hand in my assignments on time and keep up with all my readings, not only in my accounting classes, but this class as well. I had from Thursday to Sunday off this week dedicated to writing my essay for this class. So I sat down Thursday with a hot cup of tea and flipped through the notes that I had made in Freedom from the Known. They weren’t in-depth notes, but just smaller sentences and keywords that came to my mind while reading the book for the past three weeks. Thursday, Friday and Saturday rolled out and I found myself struggling hard to write this essay – I hadn’t even written a paragraph. I just didn’t know where to begin. I felt like the pages I had made notes on were a foreign language and all of a sudden nothing made sense. I left my printed out version of Freedom from the Known and thought I’d tackle it later, that maybe something miracle would send me into some writing spree. For the next hour, I kept passing by the book and something just didn’t feel write. Why couldn’t I think of anything to write? Did I just spend hours for the past few weeks reading a book that didn’t even make any sense? What was the point on the notes? i took a deep breath of air and slowly just flipped through the first few pages of the book and saw a highlighted...
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...Life Purpose and Life Intentions Ideas on How to Find Your Life Purpose and Life Intentions Finding and clarifying your life purpose and core life intentions can help you to move with greater focus and clarity every day of your life. Especially in these challenging times, setting clear intentions and developing and refining our life purpose can make it much easier to navigate stormy waters. There are many ways to both find and develop your life purpose and intentions. Below are a number of useful resources to help you on this path of discovery. This information is provided to inspire you to be all that you can be and to lead an ever richer, fuller life. A great way to start exploring your life purpose and intentions is to stop for a moment and ask yourself these two key questions: What is most important to me in my life? What are my deepest values and beliefs? Give yourself time to explore these important questions and notice what touches and inspires you most deeply. Write down any answers or thoughts that come to you as you ponder these questions. Then use what you've written as a basis upon which to craft your life purpose and intentions. Consider also inviting divine guidance and your own inner wisdom to help you with this. Below are some inspiring examples of life purpose, intentions, and mission statements. You can use one or more of these examples as a template or model for developing your own. My Reason for Being My Life Purpose & Intentions...
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...‘England was never well governed in the reign of Edward 6th’ How far do you agree with this? Edward VI inherited the throne in 1547 at the infant age of 9. Because of his youth, he had two advisors. The first was his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, who became Lord Protector, and for the first two and a half years of Edward’s reign, Somerset advised and guided the young king. Somerset was replaced by the Duke of Northumberland. Edward was a mere figurehead, the Lord Protector controlled the majority of his government but how well was England governed during the reign of Edward VI for the mere 6 six years he was in power? During the years of 1547-1553 England experienced a handful of serious rebellions during the six-year reign of Edward. Here were three major rebellions the Western Rebellion 1549, Kett's rebellion 1549 and Wyatt's rebellion, not to mention other uprisings. Most of these rebellions were in the South of England near to the capital, the heart of Tudor power, making them even more worrying to the monarchy. In addition the impact of the first two was magnified by their occurrence at a time of war with Scotland and France. Furthermore these rebellions changed Somerset's foreign policy as he withdrew troops from Scotland needed to suppress uprising, scaled down favored policy of garrisoning Scotland and all these gave the advantage to French who in order took Boulogne in summer 1549. Rebellions are not started for small matters; people only rebel if they fear...
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...physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice. Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The...
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...Just in Time for the Holidays * Eric J. McNulty FROM THE DECEMBER 2005 ISSUE * SAVE * SHARE * COMMENT * TEXT SIZE * PRINT * 8.95 BUY COPIES Just in Time for the Holidays VIEW MORE FROM THE December 2005 Issue EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE RECOMMENDED * ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Just in Time for the Holidays (HBR Case Study and Commentary) ------------------------------------------------- TECHNOLOGY & OPERATIONSHBR CASE AND COMMENTARY * ------------------------------------------------- Eric McNulty, M. Eric Johnson, Horst Brandstatter, Warren H. Hausman, Anne Omrod ------------------------------------------------- 8.95 ADD TO CART * ------------------------------------------------- SAVE ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- SHARE * ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Just in Time for the Holidays (HBR Case Study) ------------------------------------------------- STRATEGY & EXECUTION HBR CASE * ------------------------------------------------- Eric McNulty ------------------------------------------------- 8.95 ADD TO CART * ------------------------------------------------- SAVE ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- ...
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...were conducted, netting Rs 1 lakh crore for the government and there has been no controversy over that. When Centaur hotel was sold in auction by Arun Shourie, the buyer resold it subsequently at a huge profit. Therefore, just the fact that there was no auction or that it got resold at a higher price may not be due to corruption, but inefficiency. To make a mistake is not criminal. Otherwise the executive can't function. However, actions with the mala fide intention of gaining pecuniary advantage is a criminal act. This has to be established. But in the present surcharged atmosphere, fixed-price supporters are seen as abettors of corruption and auction-wallahs as honest and patriotic. Trai has been affected by this syndrome and is reacting to it. In 2003, there was no problem and in its recommendations on how to add new players, Trai said that subject to spectrum availability, the...
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