Operation Management Exam Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Operation Management Exam Questions - Essay Example In production and operations management, three types of capacity are often referred to: Potential Capacity - The capacity that can be made available to influence the planning of senior management (e.g. in helping them to make decisions about overall business growth, investment etc). This is essentially a long-term decision that does not influence day-to-day production management Capacity, being the ability to produce work in a given time, must be measured in the unit of work. Brooks (1995) writes about a "man hour", the amount of work performed by an average worker in one hour. As Brooks (1995) notes, there is a problem with this capacity that organization, training and co-ordination activities could more than outweigh the potential benefits of having extra staff working on a task. In Capacity Management there are usually two potential constraints - time and capacity. Time may be a constraint where a customer has a particular required delivery date. In this situation, capacity managers often plan backwards, i.e. they allocate the final stage of the production tasks to the period where delivery is required; the penultimate task one period earlier and so on. This process helps identify whether there is sufficient time to meet the production demands and whether capacity needs to be increased, even if temporarily. One of the objectives of capacity management is to deliver best practices that establish a communications framework between IT operations and the business. This is essential for ensuring that the capacity management process works toward meeting the business capacity requirements. The typical problem is that IT operations often work with measures of computer performance, megabytes of storage, or other expressions of capacity or throughput. At the same time, the business is using expressions such as sales effectiveness, market share, time to market, profit, cash flow, and return on investment (ROI). (Microsoft 2006) PART B Discuss the capacity management strategies available to a manufacturing company who produce a range of domestic air conditioning units and experience peaks and troughs in demand in line with summer and winterer seasons. The most durable solutions to manage capacities in manufacturing of domestic air conditioning units come under the category of adjusting capacity correcting measures depending on the season. Of course, implementation and use of these strategies may actually require changing existing management approaches, and this is not necessarily simple to do. Alternative, temporary measure can be implemented, but then consideration must be given to both the near and longer term incentives and impacts that these measures create. Ultimately, the actual adoption of Capacity Management is a political decision and, as such, may not necessarily relate directly to the most technically efficient

Professional development and the role of mentorship Essay

Professional development and the role of mentorship - Essay Example Walsh (2010) asserts that successful mentors are those that foster growth and development in others. Indeed, within the broader precinct of education, mentors can be defined as guides and advisors in the learning process. Various scholars are of the view that mentors provide enabling environment to students in practice setting (Carnwell et al., 2007). Mentoring is core aspect of healthcare profession that serves as critical linkage in forging constructive relationships and developing skills and competencies of individuals to improve and improvise their performance. Department of Health (2001:6) describes it as ‘nurse, midwife or health visitor who facilitates learning, supervises and assesses students in the clinical setting’. As such, mentors identify and evaluate core competencies of students and help exploit them for improved performance. It is especially true for pre-registration of healthcare workers and RNs so that they are better equipped to face the challenges of the times. Hence, effective mentoring guides young nursing professionals to identify and develop their competencies for higher healthcare delivery. Role of mentor is critical aspect in the transition of students into the registered healthcare professional due to huge shift to responsibility and accountability of the changing position. Gopee (2011: 9) claims that role of mentor in nursing education is to ‘direct focus on enabling students to gain safe and effective clinical practice skills during practice placement’. He has broadened the framework of mentorship by not only expanding on the definition of DH and including the mandatory qualification and experience of registered nurses as defined by NMC but also by elaborating on the expected roles of mentors within clinical setting with context specific experience and qualifications. NMC (2008) describes eight major roles of mentors: preceptor; assessor; clinical educator; clinical supervision; clinical supervisor; Practice teacher; registrant, supervisor. Preceptor has basic minimum qualification of twelve months’ experience who facilitates students’ tra nsition to registrant (DH, 2010). These have therefore becomes vital aspects of mentors. The assessor is equipped with essential skills and knowledge to assess students’ competencies. The Clinical educators, clinical supervision and clinical supervisor help the nursing students to enhance their skills in clinical setting through effective feedback. 3. Importance of mentoring Carlisle et al., (2009) emphasize that mentors’ role as practice education facilitator (PEF in short) and personal or link tutor is vital in nursing paradigm. They have described them as teacher in nursing and midwifery who encourage students learning experiences in practice setting by assessing their skills through feedback, guidance and reflective practices. Personal tutor and link tutor are often allocated to individual students to monitor their progress and coordinate with mentors on a regular basis. In healthcare education, link tutors have evolved as essential components of practice sessions. They pace their teaching as per the students’ competencies in terms of their learning experienc

F. R. Leaviss Description of Hard Times as a Moral Fable Essay

F. R. Leaviss Description of Hard Times as a Moral Fable - Essay Example To delve deep into the contention of this great man regarding one of the all time masterpieces in English literature, â€Å"Hard Times† by Charles Dickens and to examine the contention of Leavis regarding â€Å"Hard Times† as a moral fable, it become mandatory at the outset, to analyse and explore the subtle aspects operating through the novel’s scheme of things and the background and social conditions in which it was produced. Since the publication of the novel, it has been widely received and criticised by different critics across the globe and from different age. Apart from Leavis, George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay had criticised the novel on the aspect of Dickens’ delineation of the Utilitarian, trade unions and post-Industrial Revolution which neatly divided the capitalist mill owners and worker class in the British society during Victorian Era. Hard Times as A Moral Fable: Through the Eyes of Leavis ‘Hard Times - For These Times’ o r popularly known by the name of only Hard Times is the tenth novel authored by Charles Dickens and was published in the year 1854. To understand the contention of F.R. Leavis in coining the novel as a moral fable, it becomes essentially important to understand the literary term ‘moral fable’ in the first place. Moral fable is a kind of a story that involves the imagination and logic and combines them at the same platform.

The Elegant Universe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Elegant Universe - Essay Example forms that may have developed in the presence of water and in the earth-like conditions but there is every possibility that life forms may exist in conditions that we may discard as being unsuitable for life since those are not the conditions for life as we know it (Greene). It, therefore, seems very unlikely that we are alone in this universe and somewhere out there may be species waiting to be contacted.  According to almost all of the scientific community, the universe was formed about 13.6 billion years ago and it has been expanding since its conception. There had been quite some debates regarding the shape and nature of the universe in the scientific literature. There were many hits regarding the expansion of the universe including the famous Doppler effect on the electromagnetic spectrum where the radiations are red shifted. However, the most startling fact about our expanding universe is that the expansion is accelerating and the regions that are farthest away from us are mo ving the fastest. Moreover, there is no hint whether this acceleration would ever hint and therefore all the clues point towards the fact that the universe is infinite or if it has an end, it is almost at an infinite distance from us.  Even though the universe is so vast that our existence seems puny and negligible, I feel a deep connection to the universe. All the atoms in our body as well as in everything that we use, are born in the hearts of the stars. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that we are an embodiment of the universe trying to understand ourselves. The universe and its vastness is also a source of calmness and serenity; it is always there whether we try to observe it or not and hence its presence casts a shadow over us all the time. The stars, the sky as well as all the galaxies and the planets have aroused the curiosity of humans for generations and have played a vital role in laying down the foundations of science.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Assignment Example Another instance that people make decisions for others is Demetrius wants to marry Helena but since his father has asked him to marry Hermia then he has to obey. Another situation is where the decision to love is placed on a cupid. In the play there is a quote â€Å"Cupid painted blind. Nor hath loves mind of any judgment taste†¦ Because of the choice, he is so oft beguiled. The writer of the play has bestowed the decision to love or not to love on Cupid. This might not be a person making a decision for another but rather leaving this to fate. Theseus makes a comment in the last scene that says that people let fear distort people’s senses and make people see things that do not exist. In a literal sense allowing fear make decisions for you is a sense of control. This quotes shows it â€Å"Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear?†.

Housing Markets in the Financial Crisis of 2008 Essay

Housing Markets in the Financial Crisis of 2008 - Essay Example The origin of the housing market boom The boom in the housing market started growing as the stock bubble grew up in the last decade of the 20th century. In simple terms, the logic governing the growth of the housing bubble was one such that the wealthy were spending the money they had accumulated from the favorable stock markets (Baker, 2008, 73). The stock prices had run up in a manner extraordinary and many people had not anticipated. The wealthy therefore started spending at a rate similar to the rate of wealth accumulation. The increased wealth resulted in an increase in the average consumption and it was noted that the savings rate sourced out of every individual’s disposable income experienced a fall from 5% in 1995 to about 2% in the year 2000. The wealth gained from the favorable stock markets led to massive investments in the housing industry as people strived to buy bigger houses and to make better homes. The supply of housing is, of course, fixed so this therefore m eant that the sudden increase in demand was likely to cause the housing bubble effect (Baker, 2008, 73). This caused a chain of events starting by an increase in demand which automatically resulted in the house prices to rise. As the prices started rising in some of the areas affected there was a unique phenomenon such that the prices started being incorporated into expectations and these made the buyers of houses and homes to start paying more than they would otherwise have done. This had a tendency of making the expectations self fulfilling and more convincing. Research together with the data from the government’s documents pointed to a very slight change in the house prices for over 100 years before the beginning of the house bubble. Even as the price of the houses rose, the rent did not increase in a similar manner but it in fact remained trailing behind in a modest manner a clear indication that the price of the houses was as a result of the housing bubble (Baker, 2008, 74). The instantaneous increase in the price of the houses both for buyers and those renting them started creating a substantial effect on the supply side as a result of the rise in price from around 1995 towards 2000. The house prices rose up to about 25% in the year 2002. This was above the average rate of the three years from 1993 to 1995. This then resulted in to an effect that appeared as an oversupply in the number of rental housing sector for it caused the vacancy rate to rise to about 9% in the year 2002 which was 1.5% increase to that of around 1990 that stood at about 7.5%.

Contemporary Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Contemporary Ethics - Essay Example Internet and cell phone communications have been cited as tools for Cyber bullying. According to Hopline, what appalls even more is that Cyber bullying occurs during kids’ class time. Hopline cites that cyber bullying has far reaching implications on kids, so that the victims (kids) of cyber bullying only feel safe when in their bedrooms. According to Hopline, it does not under all circumstances hold that cyber bullying causes physical harm. However, cyber bullying is mostly associated with causation of harmful emotional fallout which may cumulate to other gar reaching consequences. Hopeline cites an example of Megan Meier; the girl aged 13 who committed suicide after belittlement by a hacker (her mother’s friend) that posed on MySpace as a boy aged 16 years. Hopline acknowledges that peer to peer cyber bullying is the most rampant, but its implications are not so severe. Effective curbing of cyber bullying would entail instilling of ethical morals among the youth, whic h will help them suit to information technologies. Hopline argues that there can be no an over-reactive approach as parents barring their kids from accessing technology in attempt to curb cyber bullying. Hopline suggests that an appropriate ramification procedure would entail the parents convening to open meetings, where then the parents can share and appropriately advice their kids on cyber bullying. Parents should be tactical so to dispel rebellion from their kids. Parents should not ignore the fact that all have under high risks of cyber bullying; terms such as ‘some kids are immune’ should not exist since all are sensitive to belittlement. Other intervention techniques should encompass teaching the kids on the importance of respect. In the case where kids are cyber-bullied, appropriate intervention procedures should be followed before the situation gets out of hand. It is factual that