Principles of Management Essay

The fundamental aim of any given business is to make profits and maximize those profits. Organizations therefore in its day to day business activities will always aim at making the maximum profits at a very low cost of production. This basically means that a company wants to make very high profits without incurring a lot of expenses. In minimizing their cost of production while still ensuring that maximum profits are realized, sometimes companies violate regulations and laws governing them. It is therefore of utmost importance that there are other external bodies charged with the function of carrying out checks and balances to ensure that companies, businesses and organizations in general do not violate laid down regulations as they attempt to maximize their profits at very low costs of production and also that the consumers gets the products at very affordable prices and that the environment is not polluted by the by-products of the manufacturing companies. Therefore the first purpose of regulating companies is to ensure that the consumer on the ground is not shortchanged in terms of prices. This basically means that without regulations a company may charge unreasonably high prices for its products to the disadvantage of the customer. The regulatory bodies therefore ensure that a standard price for every particular product is set and companies are given a limit and extent up to which they are not expected to exceed. Should there be a violation by any company the regulatory body always steps in and takes an immediate action and if the company had no justifications whatsoever to go against the laid down regulations, disciplinary measures against the company are the next step. Business regulation is viewed by many as a way of enhancing better business environment. Regulation is also done to ensure that companies give consumers quality products for their money. It has been observed over the past years that failure to keenly monitor a company’s activities leads to recklessness and negligence by manufacturers so that consumers get very lo0w quality products. The laws governing the regulation of a company therefore provide for a regulatory body whose function is basically to check the kind of products a company produces in terms of quality. The issue of quality is almost synonymous to suitability of a product for use by customers in terms of safety. A product could be of low quality in that it is not up to the standards expected of such a product. For instance, if it is a vehicle it would be said to be of low quality if it fails to cover the mileage a car of a similar make would be expected to make. Quality is also looked at in terms of suitability so that it is important for the regulatory board to establish whether a company is making are suitable for use. For instance, if it is a company that manufactures food stuffs, then the regulatory body must ensure that the foods manufactured are actually edible and safe for human consumption. In case of medical products they must ensure chemicals used in the manufacture of medicines have no side effects on the body of a patient. In case of electronic products it is vital to ensure that the are safe so that they don’t blow up on the user of that product. It is for this reason that every country has regulatory bodies known as bureaus of standards of goods and products in general are maintained by the manufacturers. Regulation by external regulatory bodies is also done to ensure do not carelessly dispose off waste products thereby polluting the environment. Most companies if left to go unregulated would cause a l0ot of harm to the environment. This is because of the kind of waste products they produce. Most of the waste products are not only toxic but also poisonous. The regulatory bodies are therefore very instrumental in ensuring that companies treat their waste products prior to releasing them to the outside world. Better still, they ensure that even with the w3aste products being treated, they are disposed in the right place and manner. A case scenario of a company that used to produce to waste products that were toxic and then carelessly release the waste products into the open air. This in turn caused the surrounding residents great suffering as there was an outbreak of diseases. The regulatory body immediately intervened and the company was closed down indefinitely until they found a lasting solution. It has also been observed that most industries would rather drain their waste products in the water . odies notwithstanding their toxic levels so that they cut down expenses of having to dispose the waste products in the right way. This kills the aquatic animals thus destroying the environment. The regulatory bodies in such cases are very quick to ensure that no life both human and that of animals is put in danger. Regulation is also done to ensure prompt payment of taxes by companies. Every company in business in every country is required to pay taxes to the government of that particular country. This forms a source of income for the government. Most companies as discussed earlier are very evasive because their main goal is to make maximum profits. Thus they sometimes attempt to evasion of payment of taxes in order to make as high profits. It is no secret that even the consumers on the ground who are the back bone of the business field are more often than not treated very unfairly by the businessmen as they attempt to achieve their principal of maximum profit at the lowest possible cost. Manufacturers and owners of companies always want to be beneficiaries of their work at no extra cost thus tax evasion and avoidance is very common in the business field. However, they ignore the fact that by engaging in such malpractices of tax evasion and avoidance the government stands s to lose a lot in terms of revenue and as a result the country’s population suffers as the government is no longer able to sustain their needs due to insufficient revenues. Note that the manufacturers have had nothing to lose as their businesses still go on as desired. It is also important to note that failure of companies to pay taxes automatically means that a lot more will be demanded from the individuals thus suppressing the common citizen. Most people don’t find the importance of paying taxes. Tax is an obvious source from which countries can generate cash to fund human development. It is also one of the means by which they can begin to free themselves from dependence on handouts and the punitive conditions often attached to aid. Tax can also help countries determine their own route out of poverty. How Tax Policies Fleece the Poor, Christian Aid, September 2005, page6) Regulatory bodies therefore ensure that companies pay taxes as they should to avoid suppressing the poor people. Research indicates that evasion and avoidance of taxes by companies has led to a considerable increase in Value Added Tax which is the tax imposed on common goods used by ordinary people therefore placing an unfairly heavy burden on poor people. Regulation of companies is also done to ensure that employers respect labor laws put in place to protect rights of employees at the work place. More often than not employers ignore the rights of their employees thus employees are made to work under very poor conditions. Therefore the regulatory bodies in conjunction with non-governmental bodies come together in defending the rights if the workers and ensuring that companies follow the laws governing the rights of the employees to the letter. The regulatory bodies also ensure that workers are not treated unfairly in terms of wages by ensuring that they are paid above the minimum wage. It also ensures that employees are not overworked in term s of work load and the number of hours that they work. The regulatory bodies are also very keen in terms of the age limit so that companies do not employ underage employees in order to have cheap labor. Another major function of the regulatory bodies is to ensure that companies submit annual returns as they should and within the required time. The annual returns and reports contain the activities of the company for a given period usually one year and include income generated, profits made, expenses incurred and losses made. Most companies default in the submission of these annual reports and returns in order to conceal the profits made and consequently evade being taxed. They also default in submission of the reports as a way of covering up for any activity or activities carried out in the year that contravened any laid down rules. The regulatory bodies therefore step in to ensure that all companies submit their annual returns and reports and that they do so within the required time. Regulatory bodies also play a major role in ensuring that companies comply with the general requirements of operating and running of a company. This is in relation to the formation of a company, who makes the board of governors, who constitutes members of a company, shareholders and all other requirements a company is expected to comply with in its operations. The regulatory bodies are always in the frontline in the protection of investors so that companies do not manipulate them as far as investment is concerned. From the roles discussed earlier, it is very clear that a regulatory body is of great importance in the business field as it ensures that companies operate without the slightest form of flaws. From the discussion, it is very clear. From the discussion, it is clearly spelt out that companies cannot by any means regulate themselves. This is for the obvious reasons that regulations of their operations are obviously incompatible with the fundamental principle with their fundamental purpose, goal and objective of making maximum profits at the lowest possible cost. It is unrealistic and almost impossible to expect that companies will regulate themselves while it is very clear that their main objective in business and the task of regulation totally are not synonymous. It is therefore in order to conclude that if companies are left to be in charge of themselves and asked to regulate themselves while it is very clear that their many objectives in business and the task of regulation totally do no rhyme. It is therefore in order to conclude that if companies are left to be in charge of themselves, they would take advantage, exploit people and the consumer on the ground would be on the losing end. It is therefore correct to state that regulation of companies and other business organizations can only be successfully done by external regulatory bodies separate from the company itself who have no interest whatsoever in either the company or activities. Therefore it is only with the right regulatory measures that a fair playground in the business industry can be achieved. This can be achieved by ensuring that regulatory bodies are established for checks and balances of companies and business organizations at large. Regulation by eternal regulatory bodies has also played a major role in establishing fair and healthy competition among businessmen therefore has a level playground to do their business.

How to Increase Retail Sales Essay

1 Introduction One of the challenges for companies that have invested heavily in customer data collection is how to extract important information from their vast customer databases and product feature databases, in order to gain competitive advantage. Market basket analysis (also known as association rule mining) is one of the data mining methods (Berry and Linoff, 2004) focusing on discovering purchasing patterns by extracting associations or co-occurrences from a store’s transactional data. Several aspects of market basket analysis have been studied in academic literature, such as using customer interest profile and interests on particular features of the product for the product development and one-to-one marketing (Weng and Liu, 2004), purchasing patterns in a multi-store environment (Chen et al., 2004), or point at certain weaknesses of market basket analysis techniques (e.g. Vindevogel, Van den Poel and Wets, 2005). Market basket analysis has been intensively used in many companies as a means to discover product associations and base a retailer’s promotion strategy on them. When different additional brands are sold together with the basic brands, the revenue from the basic brands is not decreasing, but increasing. â€Å"Buy two, get three†sales promotion campaigns are very successful, if market basket analyses are used in order to determine the right products to be promoted. â€Å"Buy a product, get a gift† sales promotion campaigns are successful, if a basic product and a gift are related and the basic product has high margin rate. Based on market basket analyses, sets of products are defined and sold together with discount. Limitedbrands organizes internal competition in up-selling. Our paper – a case study – presents and analyses the application of market basket analysis in a major trade company in Slovenia. 2 The company Merkur, d. d. Merkur, d. d. is a trading company (Merkur, 2005) that has for years ranked among the top companies in Slovenia dealing in items for home improvement, home services as well as lawn and garden. Merkur, d.d. has recently strengthened its position on the foreign markets through the supplies of goods to industrial enterprises, and by the establishment of its own retail network abroad. Merkur, d.d. is the mother company of Merkur Group. The Group consists of two Slovenian subsidiaries and six subsidiaries abroad (Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Munich, Milan and Warsaw). Besides that, the group also includes two offices (Moscow and Belgrade). Merkur plans to further strengthen its position on the domestic market, spread its sales to the foreign markets, especially to the markets of former Yugoslavia, and develop a high-quality range of products. The company is organised in  several large departments: Wholesale, Retail Sales, Sales to Foreign Markets, Purchasing, Logistics and Supporting Services. Customers include construction companies, trading organisations, installation companies, industrial enterprises, craftsmen and small entrepreneurs, as well as end consumers. The company makes almost 60% of its sales revenues by selling goods wholesale. To make the sales quick and efficient, the Wholesale Department has been divided into four sales sub-divisions. At present, Merkur has 38 retail sales centres in Slovenia. Specialisation increases the effectiveness of sales, so two types of Merkur sales centres were developed: MERKURDOM focusing on ordinary households, and MERKURMOJSTER intended for DIY (do-it-yourself) users. More information about MerkurDom and MerkurMojster is available on Merkur internet site: www.merkur.si. 2.1 Characteristic figures of the company The scope of the company Merkur, d.d. can be shown through the following figures: The sales programme consists of about 200.000 active items (more than 120.000 items on stock), divided into 5 sales programmes, 74 lines of goods, 720 groups of goods and 5.600 basic goods classifications. Around 80% of sales are done with the top 12.000 items and 80% of stock is held on the top 20.000 items. The Purchasing Department issues more than 250.000 purchase orders with 1.200.000 items annually. Merkur purchases goods from more than 2.000 suppliers. About 80% of purchases are done with the top 200 suppliers. Wholesale has business relations with more than 2.500 buyers – organizations. About 80% of wholesale sales are done with the top 800 buyers. Wholesale issues approximately 400.000 invoices with total 2.200.000 items annually. Retail sells goods to 13.000 buyers / organizations and to about 500.000 end consumers. More than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called the â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. Retail issues 6.000.000 invoices with more than 20.000.000 items to end consumers annually. In the period from 1993 to 2004 Merkur achieved 19% average annual growth in revenues, 20% average annual growth in net margin and 27% average annual growth in profit from operations. Today Merkur is the sixth largest Slovenian company in revenues. 3.1 The history of DW&BI in Merkur Merkur started to implement data warehousing and business intelligence (DW&BI) in 1999 with a project called KAS (Commercial Analytical System) (Svetina, 2002). Before 1999, different analyses and reports were performed in Merkur’s transactional information systems, much of the analytical data was held in Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. In the past, Merkur twice attempted to implement DW&BI technology, but failed because proposed technology was still too difficult to use for the majority of the users. In 1999 Merkur started with a major business process reorganization and, therefore, better and new business analyses were needed in order to make better decisions. The need for a DW&BI system emerged, so the KAS project was given high priority. Merkur started to design analytical data models for sales data and succeeded in integrating sales data from wholesale, retail and sales to foreign markets in one unified data model. The IT department proposed Microstrategy DW&BI technology, which was installed and tested in the beginning of the year 2000. The technology was found to be appropriate and the decision was made to implement DW&BI with Microstrategy solutions. The first power users (sales analysts) were educated and the first KAS sales analyses were used in the decision-making process. In the beginning the ETL (extract – transform – load) process was carried out on monthly basis, but by autumn of 2000 the company started to perform ETL process daily. Later in the year 2000 the purchasing analytical system was introduced as well. In 2001, the data warehouse was upgraded with data on Merkur’s business plans. Sales and margins were planned on a very low organizational level. The annual plan fact table has more than 1.000.000 records, so the salespersons’ performance is measured very accurately. Because the technology is easy to use, the number of KAS users increased up to 100. In 2002, the implementation of a very large and complex analytical module followed, containing inventory data. The inventory levels of each item in every warehouse on a monthly basis is stored in KAS and enables detailed inventory analyses and detection of critical items. Also, data on Merkur’s partner’s  debts and liabilities was added to data warehouse, which enables accurate cash flow management. Item price calculation elements and different prices were imported in KAS in 2003, so critical prices can be detected and all inconsistencies eliminated. Many minor additions to the system were also made over the last few years. All the time Merkur tries to use adequate analytical and data mining methodologies in order to improve the whole system of business reporting. From the DW&BI history we can see a controlled step-by-step development of the KAS system. Such way of development gives opportunity for good definition and implementation of analytical contents and enables Merkur to make many better business decisions. The KAS system brings Merkur an important competitive advantage, which enables the growth of the company. Improved decision making can be demonstrated through different measurable key success factors which are improving constantly. Key success factors such as net margin, net margin per item, net margin per customer, number of new customers and others are measured in KAS. These factors are always accessible for KAS users and help them to make better decisions. 3.2 DW&BI technology Since 2000 Merkur has used the Microstrategy DW&BI technology. Microstrategy provides ROLAP solutions, which enable a step-by-step approach in data warehouse development and processing large amounts of data. The data warehouse is implemented in an Oracle relational database. This means that the same database technology is used in both transactional and analytical information systems. Therefore, Merkur’s IT department can focus in one database platform instead of two or even more. Oracle technology was used in Merkur before the implementation data warehouse was started, so the implementation of this technology was fast and smooth. In Merkur the  following Microstrategy tools (Microstrategy, 2005) are used: MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the heart of the BI system and provides reporting and analysis for the whole enterprise. This BI server provides the full range of BI applications through unified metadata and a single integrated server. MicroStrategy Administrator consi sts of a suite of tools that provide the systems management environment for business intelligence. It maximizes uptime of BI applications. Its tools give an environment for developing, deploying, monitoring and maintaining of systems. MicroStrategy Architect is a rapid development tool that maps the physical structure of the database into a logical business model. These mappings are stored in a centralized metadata repository. MicroStrategy Desktop is the business intelligence software component that provides integrated query and reporting, powerful analytics and decision support workflow with a desktop PC. MicroStrategy Desktop provides an arsenal of features for on-line analysis of corporate data. Reports can be viewed in various presentation formats, polished into production reports, distributed to other users and extended through a host of ad hoc features including drilling, pivoting and data slicing. The interface itself is customizable to different users’ skill levels and security profiles. In Merkur, the Desktop solution is used by 13 power users (analysts). MicroStrategy Web provides users a highly interactive environment and low maintenance interface for reporting and analysis. Using this intuitive HTML-only Web solution, users access, analyze and share corporate data through any web browser on any operating system. MicroStrategy Web provides ad hoc querying, quick deployment and rapid customizability, making it even easier for users to make informed business decisions. In Merkur, Microstrategy Web is used by 90 end users of KAS. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a proactive information delivery server that distributes personalized business information to users via email, pagers and cell phones. It includes an intuitive self-subscription interface that enables users to specify what information they want to receive, as well as when and how they want to receive that information. Narrowcast Server is becoming more and more important in Merkur because of its efficiency. 3.3 Merkur’s DW&BI system today Presently, KAS; Merkur’s DW&BI system, is five years old. The development of the system continues constantly and there is still much content throughout the organization which must be implemented in the BI system. The most important content to be implemented in the future are the following: Integral data from Merkur’s finance and accounting system (the finance and accounting analytical system) Relevant business data from Merkur’s subsidiaries Data from Merkur’s human resources analytical system Data from Merkur’s e-business analytical system Data from Merkur’s logistic analytical system Presently in KAS (Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, 2005): †¢ 13 power users (analysts) and 90 end users; of both groups, 50 users have the ability and knowledge to set-up their own reports. †¢ Up to 30.000 reports are run on KAS on monthly basis. †¢ KAS consists of the following objects: o 137 tables o 433 attributes o 1.195 metrics o 5.611 reports †¢ Over 35 automated services are run on the Narrowcast Server The KAS system enables many sophisticated business analyses such as market basket analyses, described later in this paper. 4 Market basket analysis and the used methodology Market basket analyses are an important component of analytical system in retail organizations. There are several definitions of market basket analysis. In a broader meaning, market basket analysis targets customer baskets in order to monitor buying patterns and improve customer satisfaction (Microstrategy, 2003). The following analytics can be used: attachment rates, demographic baskets, brand switching, customer loyalty, core items, items per basket, in-basket price, revenue contribution, shopper penetration and others. In a narrower meaning, market basket analysis gives  us the answer to the following question: which goods are sold together within the same transaction or to the same customer? By analysing this information, we try to find out recurring patterns in order to offer related goods together and therefore increase the sales. We can track related sales on different levels of goods classifications or on different customer segments. In this paper, the narrower meaning of market basket analysis will be taken into consideration, focusing on the use of these analyses in Merkur. It has to be noted that several other terms are also used to describe market basket analysis: related sales, cross-sell, up-sell. The distinction between these terms is very unclear and the same terms are often used in different meanings. What can we gain from market basket analysis (Limitedbrands, 2004)We get the ability to learn more about customer behaviour. We can make more informed decisions about product placement, pricing, promotion and profitability. We can find out which products perform similarly to each other. We can determine which products should be placed near each other. We can find out which products should be cross-sold. We can find out if there are any successful products that have no significant related elements. 1. Discover the selling documents (transactions) with the item, for which we want to perform market basket analysis. This logic is valid, if we want to carry out item-related market basket analysis. We can also perform good classification or even loyalty card holder-related market basket analyses, which will be shown later in this paper. 2. Discover all the items in relevant selling documents and their selling quantities, prices, number of transactions and other relevant data. As an example, an item related market basket analysis will be presented. We want to analyse sales related to item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’. In the first step we determine the selling documents with this item. The partial result is shown in the table 1. Further, the result of the first step is used as a filter in the second step, which results in a table with items, sold together with item 209525. 5 Areas of market basket analyses In Merkur different kind of market basket analyses are done. Analyses are adapted to various business needs, and some of them are discussed in the following sections. In every section, the relevant examples of analyses are presented and opportunities for business action discussed. 5.1 Marketing and sales promotion campaigns When sales campaigns are prepared, promoted items must be chosen very carefully. The main goal of a campaign is to entice customers to visit Merkur’s retail centre and buy more than they usually do. Therefore, we must choose the right items and offer the right prices or other conditions. Margins on promoted items are usually cut, therefore, additional non-promoted items with higher margins should be sold together with promoted items. As we could see from the example in Section 3, item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’ is quite adequate to be included in a promotion. Together with it many other items are sold, so we can allow a lower margin of promoted item. Of course, there are some other criteria for an item to be included in a campaign, such as: †¢ Where on the item life cycle curve is the item situated? †¢ What is our brand promotion policy? †¢ Can we reach an agreement with the supplier (producer) to assure larger quantities and better prices? Table 4. Sales promotion market basket analysis In table 4, data from a New Year’s promotion campaign is shown. The: campaign was done through public advertising. Paper catalogues of promoted items were sent to households, there were also commercial spots on TV and radio, and advertisements in newspapers. Because of advertising a certain number of customers came in Merkur retail centres in order to buy the promoted items. Additionally, they also bought many non-promoted items (70% opposed to 30% of revenues and 75%  opposed to 25% of margins) with much higher % of margin (29,08% opposed to 21,81%). This means that promoted items generated sales of non-promoted items. There are also many possible ways for organizing campaigns using direct marketing tools for the interaction with Merkur loyalty card holder. This issue will be discussed in Section 5.5. 5.2. System solutions offering Market basket analyses are also used to combine more items in a set or a system, because the majority of customers are interested in buying and using them at a time or in a short period of time after the purchase of a particular item. By designing sets and systems of related items a company can increase sales and also cut down costs of sales transactions, so that various discounts can be offered to customers. This results in a typical win-win situation. A retailer must know the needs of customers and adapt to them. Market basket analysis is one possible way to find out which items can be put together in sets and systems. Table 5. Classification Group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’ market basket analysis In Table 5 we can see groups of goods which were sold together with the group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’. In the related groups are also different kitchen appliances like refrigerators, dish washers, kitchen-ranges, taps, dishes etc. This means that Merkur should design and offer the customers different kitchen systems. These systems should include kitchen furniture,  major and small kitchen appliances and kitchen utensils. Such a system should be displayed in one place in a retail centre where customers could choose from whole system solutions to just several parts (items) of these solutions. 5.3. Placement of goods in retail stores Market basket analyses give retailer good information about related sales on group of goods basis. As we can see in Table 5, the majority of kitchen appliances groups are related. Customers who buy a kitchen appliance often also buy several other kitchen appliances. It makes sense that these groups are placed side by side in a retail centre so that customers can access them quickly. Such related groups of goods also must be located side-by-side in order to remind customers of related items and to lead them through the centre in a logical manner. In Merkur, two basic concepts of retail centres are used: MerkurDom specialises in high-quality items for home improvement and garden, MerkurMojster specialises in high-quality products aimed at DIY users, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs. Centres are also classified by size as small and large centres. For each of these concepts, standardized placement plans were developed. Market basket analyses represent one segment of tools for decision making considering placement of goods. It can show us where we should change the placement of goods. After the change we can measure the business effects of the change. 5.4. Education of salespeople The interesting results of market basket analyses must be presented to the salespeople in retail centres, because the employees must be aware of them and they should use them in the process of selling. Every salesperson has some knowledge about related items from his or her experience. With market  basket analyses we can structure this knowledge and use it to teach less experienced personnel. Merkur invests a lot in education of salespeople through both internal and external sources. Knowledge from market basket analyses is widely used in internal education. 5.5. Segmentation of customers As mentioned in Section 1.1., more than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. This data enables us to answer the following question: What did consumers who bought item (group) X in period 1, buy in period 2? If we identify customers who bought item X today, we can anticipate what they will buy, for instance, in next three months, and we can advertise them the right products. A typical example is shown in Table 6. We analysed loyalty card holders who bought ceramic tiles in the period from April to June 2004. In Table 6 we can see product groups which were bought by the same card holders in the period from July to November 2004. They bought different bathroom and kitchen accessories and central heating elements. It would be very useful, if Merkur organized a targeted marketing campaign for this specific group of customers in July 2004 and promoted these products. There are many other possibilities and opportunities in Merkur to use loyalty card-based market basket analyses as a support tool for direct marketing campaigns. Merkur usually organizes non-targeted common campaigns, in which the majority of Slovenian households are included. But lately Merkur also started to implement direct marketing methods and therefore an effective data warehouse and business intelligence system is essential. This helps many interesting marketing ideas to be implemented. 6 Conclusion The practice in Merkur proves that market basket analysis is a very useful for marketing campaigns, good placement definition and education of sales personnel. Merkur uses market basket analysis throughout the promotion campaign process. When a sales promotion is prepared, market basket analysis is used to define the right products and the right prices for the campaign. Related non-promoted items are also defined in order to place them in the vicinity of promoted items and therefore increase sales. When sales promotion finishes, its results are carefully analysed in order to discover opportunities for next promotions. Merkur widely uses market basket analyses to manage the placement of goods in retail centres. Related products and product groups are placed together in such a manner that customer can logically find items he/she might buy. The findings of market basket analyses are an important part of the process of teaching the salespeople of Merkur. Sales personnel must be aware of related products in order to increase satisfaction of customers and intensify sales. Market basket analyses are just a part in the holistic approach to the execution of marketing development strategy in Retail in Merkur. The analytical process is integrated in other marketing activities and analysts are an important part of Merkur marketing development team. Team work is crucial for successful use of such analyses. Beside of the organization of the Merkur marketing process, a capable DW&BI system is needed. The BI system must have good performances when processing large amount of data. It also has to be scalable and flexible, but, above all, the BI system must be user-friendly so that different marketing specialists can use it without any problems.  Fortunately, Merkur’s KAS is such a system. But there is still much work to be done. We demonstrated that market basket analysis in Merkur can be done and that it brings useful results. In the future a working direct marketing strategy must be developed based on data already available in KAS. Then an organization and information systems for efficient execution of this strategy have to be established. 7 References Berry, M.J.A., Linoff, G.S.: Data Mining Techniques: for Marketing, Sales and Customer Relationship Management (second edition), Hungry Minds Inc., 2004  Chen, Y.-L., Tang, K., Shen, R.-J., Hu, Y.-H.: â€Å"Market basket analysis in a multiple store environment†, Decision Support Systems (article in press), 2004, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Limitedbrands: Achieving Greater Efficiencies with Market Basket Analysis, Microstrategy World 2004 Conference, Miami, 2004 Microstrategy: Business Intelligence in the Retail Industry, Microstrategy World 2003 Conference, Las Vegas, 2003 Microstrategy Web Site: http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/, Microstrategy, 2005 Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, internal document, Merkur, 2005 Merkur Web Site: http://www.merkur.si/ang/podj.html, Merkur, 2005 Svetina, Marko: Izdelava in uporaba market basket analiz, http://www.muson.net/Konferenca_login.asp?mni=12, Konferenca MUS 2004, Ljubljana, 2004 Svetina, Marko: Kome rcialni analitski sistem v podjetju Merkur d.d., Konferenca Poslovna inteligenca in upravljanje odnosov s strankami, Ljubljana, 2002 Vindevogel, B., Van den Poel, D., Wets, G.: â€Å"Why promotion strategies based on market basket analysis do not work† (article in press), Expert Systems with Applications, 2005, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Weng, S.-S., Liu, J.-L.: â€Å"Feature-based recommendations for one-to-one marketing†, Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 26, 2004, pp. 493-508.

Daffodil by Ted Hughes and I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud in contrast Essay

Daffodil by Ted Hughes and I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud in contrast - Essay Example Poetry connects beyond any particular framework of time period. Certain critics comment upon this connects as influence and others quote it as inspiring. William Wordsworth, the great pantheist and romantic poet wrote the poem, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ in the year 1804. The poem popularly came to be known as ‘The Daffodils’. In the year 1986, the very modern poet Ted Hughes inspired by the poem of Wordsworth had drawn allusion from the poem of Wordsworth and included the poem bearing the title, ‘Daffodils’ in his collection of poems entitled, ‘Flowers and Insects’. In the sleek edition by Ted Hughes when other poems could not become quite popular, very intriguingly the poem which eluded its title from the Romantic era of English literature drew considerable attention. Both the poems, written age apart, very interestingly pondered upon the impact of memories captivated by both the romantic and the modern poet, which essentially builds the matrix upon which the similarities between the poems can be evaluated and the difference in the perspective upon the same subject could be analysed. Thesis Statement The essay intends to discuss critically the essential similarities and differences inherent within the poem which evolves out on the context of the same subject. Contrast: I wandered Lonely as a Cloud and Daffodils At the outset, a thorough introspection through the poem by Wordsworth, ‘I wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ enables the readers to come to terms with the exclusive order well organised within the poetic scheme by Wordsworth. The narrator of Wordsworth’s poem is reminiscing upon the private moment encountered by him and evocation of his feelings on seeing the beautiful sight of daffodils on a field. The influence of the memory is so powerful for the narrator of Wordsworth’s poem that it is capable of making the ‘pensive’ mood of the narrator elevated. Taking the q ueue of a sombre simile, the poem begins ‘I wander’d lonely as a cloud’. The metaphor of the poem is so strong that the field of dancing daffodils is assumed as the dancers on a dancing floor. The poet plays with the words to the extent within the poem that it seems the rhyming and the choice of words together are so much intended to make the lines of the poem dance together with the daffodils thereby evoking a strong imagery before the eyes of the readers (Woof, 2011). The main intention of the poem by Wordsworth is to make the readers feel the joy the narrator received on seeing the field of dancing daffodils. The surprise of the narrator is also being communicated by him when he comments upon his surprise at the ‘wealth the show to me had brought’. The poem closes with the trip of the narrator down his memory lane and aptly with a rejuvenating metaphor, ‘and then my hear with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils’ (The Wordswo rth Trust, 2012). The poem by Wordsworth focuses on the beauty and bounty the nature captivates and its ability to balm the bruises of a tired heart and elevate the pensive mood of a man. The poem by Ted Hughes is a seminal work. It is inspired by the poem of Wordsworth which captivates the daffodil flowers central to both the text. Hughes’ ‘Daffodil’ also narrates the memory of the narrator and his encounters with the flower daffodil. However, very contrastingly the berating of the narrator’s dead wife amid the reminiscence of daffodils builds a morbid tone of the poem quite contrasting to the poem of Wordsworth. The allusion of the title thus appears evidently ironic and a reader coming across the poem by Hughes for the first time will be misled because they won’t find the familiarity of context and intonation with the

Discuss the definition and the sources of Christian theology, and how Essay

Discuss the definition and the sources of Christian theology, and how is systematic theology related to biblical theology and Christian ethics - Essay Example Theology is the fruit of the reflection of the truth revealed in the Word of God.† (Louis Berkhof, 1996) Theologians have found several sources from which they develop the ideas of God. The firs source is Reason, it is defined narrowly as the logical deduction from stated premises, or broadly to include ones feelings, intuition, and experience. This point out that one can find his way to God through his own thought, reasoning, contemplation etc. the best example of such a source is though St. Anselm, who developed the ontological argument for the existence of God. Church authority can also be a source of Christian theology, to give a an example the roman Catholic Church gives teaches that God reveals his truth to the church in some collective way, the church also claims that god can manifest himself directly through the leaders of the church. The third source can be through General Revelation, it is said by many that God’s person and character is revealed in nature. When man contemplates about nature it is with no doubt that he is having a true knowledge of God. Evidentialist ap ologists of England can epitomize this source. The fourth source through which source of theology can manifest itself is by Special revelation, the Bible claims to be a direct revelation to man from God. The belief of Christianity is that the Bible should help them to acquire and organize the teachings found there. The other source of Christian theology can be from the postmodern theology’s sources of theology. Therefore the sources of theology to summarize are through God himself. God should be the only source of knowledge in regard to his own being and relations. This makes theology to be a summary and explanations of the content of God’s revelations. These are; the revelation of God in nature, supremely and the revelation of God in the scriptures. Earlier we have defined theology as â€Å"the study of god† the term Systematic is taken from the Greek word

Human Resource Information Systems Assignment (Please answer the

Human Resource Information Systems (Please answer the following 11questions) - Assignment Example SAP R/3 costs are associated with a number of variables. The timeframe will determine the total costs of maintaining, implementing and training procedures. Another variable is the number of people and hardware which will be required for the entire project. 2. Describe how existing history is extracted and imported to your system at conversion. Batch input is a major method to ensure the extraction and import of existing history. It is instrumental for transferring huge amounts of data (Rebstock & Knut, 45). The primary feature of this method is that it does not require maximum attention. Direct input is another method which is a modification of the batch input process. It helps to ensure efficient extraction and import of history. There are no additional fees related to the process of converting history in the SAP R/3 HR Module. The costs are included in the standard package that includes installation, configuration, and maintenance of the system. 4. Define the historical information your system maintains and how long it is available to your customers. Historical information is maintained in an efficient and effective manner by SAP R/3. This is done by integration with specific databases in the system. It can be used to ensure availability of data to clients for a long period. SAP R/3 has a dynamic employee self-service functionality system. It improves productivity and output while creating a responsive system. Information accessibility has been significantly enhanced through this feature. The organization can reduce costs through the display of relevant and appropriate information. This creates a true paperless environment that eliminates the costs associated with paper (Hernandez, Martinez & Keogh, 56). Personal information about remunerations and bonuses can be accessed by employees. Finally the system helps to streamline and automate the HR systems. SAP R/3 HR Module can

Comparison of the Happiness Concept of Young and Elderly Person Essay

Comparison of the Happiness Concept of Young and Elderly Person - Essay Example Happiness baffles definition. Each one sees the new horizon. Happiness is also related to time and circumstances and the level of spiritual progression of an individual. Spiritual giants, philosophers, and intellectuals have written millions of pages on the subjects of ‘joy’ and ‘happiness’ that have eluded the humankind in the known history. In the final analysis, the happiness of each individual is within and one has to achieve the state of happiness for oneself and it varies from individual to individual. The wise saying goes, ‘there is a beauty in the sunrise and also in the sunset’. The concept of happiness of a young man (Sunrise) discussed in the above interview differs much from the senior citizen mentioned in the second interview (Sunset). The young man is clear about the type of happiness that he is going to pursue and he is interested in long-term happiness. This means he has a vision in life and would like to remain away from negativities and gives importance to ethical values in life. He has secular ambitions; desires to earn money taking up the career of his choice, and as such, this young man is going to shape into a balanced personality and will be happy in life in the real sense of the term. According to Janaro and Altshuler (2011), this youth is given to â€Å"Critical Thinking† (the faculty of rational and logical analysis; looking at subjects objectively, gathering all information, and the opposite of jumping to hasty conclusions based upon a purely emotional response) in taking decisions in life. In the case of the senior citizen, he has c ome to terms with his life after a fairly long inning and has firmed up with his concept of happiness. He seems to be an introvert personality; the divorce might have contributed to his staying away from the society and not mixing freely with the people.     

Hierarchy vs Heterarchy in Organizational Structures Research Paper - 1

Hierarchy vs Heterarchy in Organizational Structures - Research Paper Example Conversely, a heterarchical structure supports the autonomy of the workers from the various departments of an organization. In essence, this structure advocates for horizontal management of the affairs of an organization, as opposed to a vertical management, embraced by a hierarchical organizational structure. The management of an organization can take either a centralized control of operations or decentralized control of operations. Depending on the structure that an organization adopts, both structures have their merits and demerits in terms of improving the operations of an organization. In some organizations, the management often prefers controlling every aspect of operations under their supervision. This calls for a situation where employees work according to the management’s preference. On the other hand, there are organizations that prefer giving employees space to undertake their own initiatives within the work environment so long as these initiatives can improve the o rganization’s performance (Diefenbach and Sillince 1518). In this paper, I will examine the debate that surrounds hierarchy versus heterarchy in organizational structures and their successes and limitations in an organization’s setting. Having a command center in any organization is essential because of those under the top management work according to orders from the management. This is a key feature of organizations based on a hierarchy structure. Organizations operating in this line often embrace a vertical line of authority where there are levels and each level has an authority figure. In essence, this involves embracing an office cadre where authority starts with CEO moving to the bottom level of the organization. At each level, there is an authority figure with employees under him or her. This organization helps to simplify the chain of command, but the overall authority lies with the CEO of the organization.

Two Approaches to Relieving Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two Approaches to Relieving Poverty - Essay Example To eliminate poverty Grameen Bank has bought a solution which they call banking for the poor. Grameen Bank is founded by Muhammad Younus who won the Noble Peace prize for his Bank. It is a community development bank which is based on microfinance credits. The idea behind the system of this bank is that the poor people have many skills which are not being utilized. The bank gives small loans without the requirement of collateral. It also accepts deposits and runs many businesses including telephone and fabric business. The most remarkable point about the credit program of this bank is that the majority of the loan takers are women. Grameen Bank has changed the behavior towards women in an orthodox Muslim society where women are subjugated to many social vices. (Younus, 80) In Bangladesh the total women labor force is only 9%. But Grameen Bank is the most successful in engaging women in economic activities. Women participation in Bank's activities is constantly on the rise. If this con tinues to happen the bank will become exclusive for women. There are many success stories of women like Ammajan Amina and sufiya begum who started bamboo business successfully. The Grameen bank model has pro

International Migration and Ethnic Relations Coursework

International Migration and Ethnic Relations - Coursework Example Racism is a product of stigma. Stigma changes the way people relate to one another, it may also reflect the way the whole society relates with the stigmatised person or group. The difference has cause from the different races or tribes and social classes. This process is all around the way they have exclusion from the social activities and interaction. These activities include games like football, hanging out in public places together or even dating. This exclusion is discrimination, prejudice or a process mediated institutionally. Racism in the western culture has a long history and it dates back in time memorial. Designation of racial i.e. terms have been used to disseminate power and in the oppression of people. The designation ‘Negro’ was one of the terms used to describe the black Americans. These designations collect a baggage to become terms of discrimination and abuse or one that would otherwise be offensive to the people or person with such reference. In Britain ‘coloured’ is a term used to refer to disparagement of some kind, in Canada, the term ‘people of colour’ is an accepted term to describe certain groups of persons. The designation term ‘black’ used to be a stigma term until the movement of the black power reversed it in the 1960s. People belonging to racial groups or the racial groups themselves are not stigmatised at all, the terms used to describe them is what makes it so stigmatising. The context in which the terms are used is even more discriminating than the term itself. When the term white and non-white are used, the latter term describes something that the former lack. White implies purity in the genetic makeup, with no contamination of the black. Racial difference stigmatisation also has use in other contexts. The term ‘Turk’ also has explanation twice in the English language, a group of turkey or national turkey. Equally, it means someone who is very hard to manage. Our t hought may not be as conscious as the dictionary but woven for easy assumption of the meaning of words to refer to one thing to express how we feel about people. Sometimes referring to people as Turk is discriminatory and causes stigma. Racism and discrimination is not hard to identify, it is something that comes up in those who express it as soon as they contact those discriminated against. Something like skin colour e.g. the black and the whites, the black has identification by the eye, not much investigation need implementation to identify the excluded group. This is the reason why racial discrimination is an instant thing. The group of persons discriminated usually do not have a chance to express themselves among other people who do not belong to their own group. They are perceived to be less of importance. Therefore, they do not enjoy opportunities in the current competitive world. Their issues will lack quantification for quality by people who discriminate against them without looking at the fact that they come from a discriminated group (Goffman, 1968). Attributes of stigma, is discrediting and very extensive in nature that it sometimes referred to as a handicap or a shortcoming. It makes up a society that identifies itself socially without giving preference to the virtues of its members ( (Goffman, 1990), pg 11-12). Bibliography Goffman, E. (1990). Management of Spoilt Identity. London: Penguin Books. Goffman, E. (1968). Stigma:Notes on The Management of Spoiled Identity. London: Penguine Publishers. Question two Lentin and historicization of the race Racism dates back from the

Body Diversity and Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Body Diversity and Media - Essay Example Body diversity is a crucial component that the society needs to address not only in America, but also across the globe. It ought to be so because some sections of the society have developed stereotypes about certain body formations. More often than not, such stereotypes border on unfairness, especially the ones that have discriminatory elements. For example, fatness was considered a sign of fortune and fertility in the 20th century but currently it is a sign of poor health and selfishness. It may not necessarily be so because the degree of fatness differs across individuals and the causes are widespread. For instance, a person may become fat because he/she has peace of mind while another may be so because of engaging in unhealthy lifestyles. Racism has been ailing the world, particularly the United States, for centuries now. It is simply discrimination based on skin color. Despite frantic efforts by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King jnr. to bring civil revolution in their times, racism continues to be a major challenge to national cohesion in America and many countries. The evidence of racism in the United States is depicted by the voting trends during election times. It means that a nation can be liberal and democratic yet racist. People are different in skin color, eye color, body shape, and hair texture, but they are all humans who deserve equal treatment. All sectors of the society must come into play in order to condemn the evil of discrimination based on body diversity. Perhaps a critical tool that a nation can either use to fun or shun discrimination based on body diversity is the media. Indeed, the media plays a critical media can provide a platform for dissuading citizens from all forms of bodily discrimination. Besides skin color and hair texture, most American with disability have also had to cope with high levels of discrimination. Since it is

Remote Monitoring and Control System Essay Example for Free

Remote Monitoring and Control System Essay Remote Monitoring and Controlling System Based on ZigBee Networks Soyoung Hwang and Donghui Yu* Department of Multimedia Engineering, Catholic University of Pusan, South Korea {soyoung, dhyu}@cup.ac.kr Abstract Thanks to the rapid development of information technology and the growth of the Internet through high speed networks, network environments have even been changed from office oriented environments based on business industries and public institutions to the interconnection of digital electronics in home networks. Home network based applications are very diverse and the remote monitoring and control areas have been studied. Recently, ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases are utilized as a terminal device. In this paper, we propose the design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system using ZigBee networks. This system targets a home network. Web services and a smartphone are used for the client system to monitor and control the home. Keywords: remote monitoring, ZigBee networks, remote control, smartphone, web service 1. Introduction Thanks to the rapid development of information technology and growth of the Internet through high speed networks, network environments have even been changed from office oriented environments based on business industries and public institutions to the interconnection of digital electronics in the home networks. Home network based applications are very diverse and the remote monitoring and control areas have been studied. Recently, ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. There have been various studies on ZigBee based home networks. To realize remote home automation based on ZigBee, implementation issues of home gateway and device nodes are proposed in [1]. It presents hardware platform consideration and software implementation for each of them. Similarly, hardware design issues are discussed for various home devices such as wireless communications transceiver modules base, USB expansion base and control switches for electrical appliances in a room [2]. Also, an effective architecture for dynamic integration of ad hoc ZigBee home network devices into OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative)-based home gateways is discussed. An ad hoc ZigBee home network device is represented by a device proxy service in the proposed architecture so that it can be dynamically registered, discovered, accessed and unregistered just like a common OSGi service [3]. [4] gives a way to construct ZigBee wireless sensor networks and implement remote monitoring and control by a GSM module. [5] describes the structure composition of the smar t home system based on ZigBee and gives a system design concept and implementation approach. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases they are utilized as a terminal device. In this paper, we propose design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system using ZigBee networks. This system is targeting the home network. Web service and a smartphone are used for the client system to monitor and control the home. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee specifications are discussed as background technologies. Section 3 describes design issues of remote monitoring and controlling systems. Next, implementation results are included in Section 4. Finally, we conclude this paper in Section 5. 2. Background Technologies 2.1. IEEE 802.15.4 IEEE 802.15 is a working group for the standardization of WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network). IEEE 802.15.4 is one of the seven task groups which are included in it. The first edition of the 802.15.4 standard was released in May 2003. IEEE 802.15.4 specifies the physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) for low-rate WPAN. WPANs are used to convey information over relatively short distances. It focuses on low-cost, low-speed ubiquitous communication between devices. Unlike wireless local area networks (WLANs), connections effected via WPANs involve little or no infrastructure. This feature allows small, power-efficient, inexpensive solutions to be implemented for a wide range of devices. The basic framework conceives a 10-meter communication range with a transfer rate of 250 kbit/s. Important features include real-time suitability by reservation of guaranteed time slots, collision avoidance through CSMA/CA and integrated support for secure communications. Devices also include power management functions such as link quality and energy detection [6]. Several standardized and proprietary network layer protocols run over 802.15.4-based networks, including IEEE 802.15.5, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, Wireless HART, and ISA100.11a. Potential application areas include the following: sensors, actuators, interactive toys, remote control, industry networks, home automation and so on. 2.2. ZigBee ZigBee is a standards-based technology that addresses the unique requirements of most remote monitoring and control and sensory network applications. ZigBee builds upon the physical layer and medium access control defined in IEEE 802.15.4 for low-rate WPANs. The specification goes on to complete the standard by adding four main components: network layer, application layer, ZigBee device objects (ZDOs) and manufacturer defined application objects which allow for customization and favor total integration. The initial markets for ZigBee included Consumer Electronics, Energy Management and Efficiency, Health Care, Home Automation, Telecommunication Services, Building Automation, and Industrial Automation. The core ZigBee specifications define smart, costeffective and energy-efficient mesh networks. It is a self-configuring, self-healing system of redundant, low-cost, very low-power nodes. ZigBee is available as two feature sets, ZigBee PRO and ZigBee. Both feature sets define how the ZigBee mesh networks operate [7]. 2.3. Home Network Technologies A home network is a residential local area network (LAN) for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, mobile computing devices, mobile phones, digital TVs, PDAs and so on. An important function is the sharing of Internet access, often a broadband service provisioned by fiber-to-the-home or via Cable Internet access, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or mobile broadband by Internet service providers (ISPs). In a broader sense, it includes software and services for integration and operation of information appliances in addition to wired or wireless network devices. Home networking technologies can be classified into two kinds: wired and wireless. The telephone, power-line, Ethernet and IEEE 1394 exist as wired home network technologies. As wireless home network technologies, wireless LAN, HomeRF, HyperLAN, Bluetooth, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and ZigBee are representative. Since wireless networking solutions based on the spread of mobile devices have emerged they can be applied to home networks also. 3. Design of Remote Monitoring and Controlling System This section deals with the design of remote monitoring and controlling systems. To design a system, we considered a home automation network. The system architecture is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1. System Architecture The system consists of a real-time home monitoring sub-system and a light control subsystem. A home server with a home camera caters for home status through video to client. It also works as a home gateway to provide interoperability between the heterogeneous ZigBee and Internet and local and remote control over the home’s light devices through the light control sub-system. A client can access the home server through a web service or smartphone. The client can monitor home status through a real-time monitoring sub-system and control the lights through the 3.1. Real-time Monitoring Sub-system The real-time monitoring sub-system captures images of the area of the home to be monitored and serves the client who accesses the server through the web or a smartphone. Figure 2. Operation Processes of Real-time Monitoring Sub-system Figure 2 shows the operation process of the real-time monitoring sub-system. The server finds a video device and captures images. Then, it generates captured data and transforms the data format for RTP communication. After that, it generates the session manager and streams media data to the client. A client using the web or a smartphone generates the session manager and connects to the server. Then, it receives media data and displays the video. In this way, the client can monitor the in-home status in real-time. 3.2. Light Control Sub-system Light control sub-system is composed of a server which works as a gateway, ZigBee coordinator, end-device, switch node and a light as shown in Figure 3. The operation of the sub-system is as follows. ï‚Ÿ A client program maintains a user interface which contains an on/off control panel. ï‚Ÿ A server which works as a gateway receives control commands from the client and relays the command to the ZigBee coordinator through the RS-232C serial communication. ï‚Ÿ The coordinator relays the control command which is received form the server to the end device through RF communication. ï‚Ÿ The end device receives the command from the coordinator and controls the port of the switch node. The switch node controls the switch of the light. ZigBee based remote controlling can be applied in several ways. In this paper, we considered a simple light control and adopted it for a remote control sub-system. 4. Implementation Results In this section we discuss implementation results of a real-time remote monitoring and controlling system. The server contains a web-cam and the monitoring and controlling programs are implemented using Java. Web-based remote monitoring with video capture, data encoding and RTP communication are implemented using JMF (Java Media Framework) which is a multimedia extension API of Java. A client using web service can access the server after user authentication. Of the ZigBee networks, we use two Chipcon CC2420DB evaluation boards with CC2420s (IEEE 802.15.4 radios) accompanying Z-Stack [8, 9, 10]. One is configured as a coordinator and the other is configured as an end-device. When the coordinator starts, it initializes all internal ports and waits for control commands from the home server. If the home server sends a control command to the coordinator through the serial communication, the coordinator receives the command and sends it directly to the end-device through RF communication. The end device receives the control command from the coordinator and controls the switch node. Figure 4. Implementation Result using Web Service Figure 4 shows the implementation results using web service. A client can access the server after user log-in. The client can monitor the rooms status and control the lights. In the figure, the client turns off the light. The implementation results using a smartphone are shown in figure 5. The client program is implemented on the android platform. Figure 5. Implementation Result using Smartphone As shown in the results, a client can monitor the in-home status in real-time and send light control commands using the control button on the smartphone. 5. Concluding Remarks Recently, the home environment has seen a rapid introduction of networked digital technology. This technology offers new and exciting opportunities to increase the connectivity of devices within the home for the purpose of home automation. Moreover, with the rapid expansion of the Internet, there is the added potential for the remote control and monitoring of such networked devices. ZigBee has become one of the most promising technologies for home networks. ZigBee is a specification for a suite of networking, security and application software layers using small, low-power, low data rate communication technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for personal area networks. Moreover, owing to the rapid growth of mobile technology, highperformance smartphones are widespread and in increasing cases they are being utilized as a terminal device. This paper proposes design and implementation of a remote monitoring and controlling system based on ZigBee networks. Real-time remote monitoring is implemented with JMF which is a multimedia extension API of Java. The remote controlling is implemented using ZigBee networks. The client program in a smartphone is implemented on the android platform. Clients can monitor their homes and send light control commands using the web or a smartphone. This system can be applied in many areas such as elderly protecting systems, cultural heritage or forest fire monitoring systems, managing systems for agricultural cultivation and so on. As a future work, we consider expansion of the system using various sensors and actuators. References [1] Z. Shunyang X. Du, J. Yongping and W. Riming, â€Å"Realization of Home Remote Control Network Based on ZigBee†, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments, (2007), August 16-18, Xian, China. [2] A Fang, X. Xu, W. Yang and L. Zhang, â€Å"The Realization of Intelligent Home by ZigBee Wireless Network Technology†, Proceedings of the 2009 Pacific-Asia Conference on Circuit, Communications and System, (2009), May 16-17, Chengdu, China. [3] Y. Ha, â€Å"Dynamic Integration of Zigbee Home Networks into Home Gateways Using OSGi Service Registry†, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, vol. 55, no. 2, (2009). [4] J. W. H. Qin, â€Å"The Design of Wireless Intelligent Home System Base on ZigBee†, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Communication Technology, (2008), November 10-12, Hangzhou, China. [5] D. Yan and Z. Dan, â€Å"ZigBee-based Smart Home System Design†, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering, (2010), August 20-22, Chengdu, China. [6] IEEE 802.15.4: Wireless medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY)specification for low-rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs), (2006). [7] ZigBee Specification,(2008), Document 053474r17,ZigBee Alliance. [8] Figure 8 Wireless, ZigBee Implementer’s Guide, (2005). [9] Figure 8 Wireless, Z-Stack User’s Guide for the CC2420DB Board, (2005). [10] Figure 8 Wireless, Z-Stack/Z-Tool Serial Port Interface, (2005).

Logistical and Value Chain Strategies at Philips

Logistical and Value Chain Strategies at Philips 1.1 Introduction Philips is the multinational enterprise that I have chosen for this assignment. Philips is a company originated from Eindhoven, the Netherlands and was founded in year 1891 by Anton and Gerard Philips (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V, 2004-2010). Philips begun manufacturing carbon-filament lamps and by the turn of the century, had become one of the largest producers in Europe (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V, 2004-2010). In year 1914 to 1945, the incandescent lamp, and gas discharge lamps proved more efficient in generating light after the improvements were made, so it has comes out new products there are X-ray tube and radio valve (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V, 2004-2010). Start from 1970 until today, the revolutionary developments such like the introduction of CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc show that Philips research has been tied much more closely to industrial and business activities (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V, 2004-2010). Philips also continue innovating new products such as Ambilight which can brought a new dimension to TV viewing and developed Lumiramic which is a groundbreaking new phosphor technology for energy efficient white LEDs (Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V, 2004-2010). Based on Mapsofworld.com (2008), Philips is one of the biggest electronics companies in the world and known as market leader in energy saving lighting solutions, medical diagnostic imaging, consumer electronic and others. Although Philips have comes out many types of electronic products, such like television, radio, MP3 player but their core product are lamps. Which means Philips is more expertise or profession in making lamps. 1.2 Philips is a Multinational Corporate (MNC) MNC is a company that has headquarters in one country has operations in other countries (Wall, Minocha and Rees, 2010, pg28). Besides, company that place their manufacturing, sales, or service subsidiaries in more than one foreign country are known as MNC too (Farlex, Inc., 2010). Normally MNC will develop new products in home country after that manufactures those products in foreign country such as Third World country in order to gain the trade advantages and economies of labour and materials (Farlex, Inc., 2010). By operate business at foreign country, MNC also help in develop that particular country through create wealth, job opportunities, and improve technologies (Farlex, Inc., 2010). Philips is one of the Multinational Corporate (MNC) too. There are more than 60 countries all over the world are the branches of Philips, including Brazil which is the place that produced equipment (Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com). The branches of Philips are located in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Korea and others country. In addition, Philips maintains the research centre at home country, Netherland because they have the technology and are more expert in innovating and design new products. Philips placed their manufacturer in host country such as China and Thailand, to gain economies of scale by having a cheaper labour cost. 1.3 Definition of Logistics Chain and Value Chain At first I will define what is mean by logistics chain and value chain. Logistics chain is parts of the supply chain process such as transportation and inventory control. The logistics activities are repeated many times throughout the channel through which raw materials are transforming into finished goods and consumer value is added (Ballou, R. H., 2004, pg7). Besides, logistic chain defines as the successive steps comprising a logistic-process in a particular industry (WebFinance, Inc., 2010). Whereas, the value chain is the activities that convert raw materials into finished goods and creating value at each of the making process (Farlex, Inc., 2010). The primary activities that included in the value chain are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and services (QuickMBA.com, 1999-2010). The secondary activities included in the value chain are firm infrastructure, human resource management, technological development and purchasing (QuickMBA.com, 1999-2010). The primary activities of value chain play an important role in the whole value chain, because the activities are start from getting raw materials and then through manufacture and process it to become a finished goods, then prepare to sell to customer and the last step is after sales service such like warranty. The secondary activities are supporting the primary activities, such as procurement means purchase raw materials to run the inbound logistics. Besides, logistics chain is the process that control the flow of stocks and storage of finished products, and also sent the finished products from point of origin to the point of consumption to meet customer requirements (Ballou, R. H., 2004, pg4). Thus the logistic chain and value chain are so important for a company. 2. Logistical and Value Chain Strategies 2.1 Logistical Strategies Logistics are the activities that including materials management and distribution. The materials management activity help Philips plan how to control their inventory level in the most effective ways and do not keep too many inventories which can add cost to the logistics activity. The example of logistical strategy that can manage the inventory of a company is Inventory Management Software (SAP). For the distribution activity, Philips can choose what transportation modes that is most suitable use in deliver the finished products from warehouse to distribution centres and lastly to customer. The example of logistic strategy that can help to manage the distribution activity is by outsourcing to the third party logistics. Logistics strategy of a company is to define the most cost effective of the service levels that perform by the logistics organization of the company (About.com, a part of The New York Times Company, 2010). Besides, the logistic strategies can give competitive advantage and help to specific product lines, specific countries or specific customers (About.com, a part of The New York Times Company, 2010). By the way, Philips does have implemented few logistic strategies in its overseas operations. For example, the host country of Philips which is Philips Malaysia has implemented few logistical strategies, there are outsource logistics to third party logistics and adopt Inventory Management software. The reason that Philips Malaysia implements logistic strategy is to adapt to the flexibility of supply chain by make changes to organization to provide a best service levels (About. com, a part of The New York Times Company, 2010). 2.2 Value Chain Strategies Value chain is same as value-adding activities which are transform inputs into outputs, then add to the bottom line and leading to competitive advantage (WebFinance, Inc., 2010). The inbound logistics activities are materials handling, warehousing and inventory control of raw materials, operations are the processes such as packaging, assembly and machining, outbound logistics activities are delivery vehicle operation, scheduling and order processing (QuickMBA.com, 1999-2010). Besides, the secondary activities of value chain such as technology is an important source of competitive advantage, because company need to innovate to reduce costs and sustain competitive advantage , technology that were include are production technology, internet marketing activities, customer relationship management and so on (Marketing Teacher Ltd., 2010). The value chain strategy can bring many benefits to a company. Those benefits are gain economies of scale, improved information, reduce cost of production and so on (Government of Alberta, 2008-2010). The value chain strategies implemented by Philips on its overseas operations are outsourcing value chain activity to China, joint venture with China and move all factories to Thailand. 3. Philips Logistical and Value Chain Strategies 3.1 Logistic strategies that implemented by Philips Malaysia company 3.1.1 Outsource logistics activity to third party logistics: The third party logistics defined as the activity of outsourcing activities which related to Logistics and Distribution (Logistics List, 2005-2010). From the logistic view, third party acts as the parties that help other company to transport products to retailers (Logistics List, 2005-2010). Philips in Malaysia does have outsourced their distribution activities to third party logistic, such as NST Logistic Company. Thats mean Philips Malaysia do not have to take part in the process which is sending products to retailers from their manufacture factory. NST Logistic Company job is getting the products from manufacture factory of Philips Malaysia and deliver those products to retailers and customers of Philips Malaysia. The reason that Philips Malaysia decided to outsource logistics activities to third party logistic is to reduce capital, which mean minimizing the level of investment in the logistics system and maximizing the return on logistics assets (Ballou, R. H., 2004, pg36). For example, by outsourcing logistics activities, Philips Malaysia do not have to own or rent a warehouse to store finish products that prepare deliver to customers because NST Logistic Company will help to store finish products and deliver to customer of Philips Malaysia. Another reason is Philips Malaysia found that NST Logistics Company is more expert in logistic activities. For example, NST Logistics Company manages more than 100,000 sq ft of warehouse space through its subsidiary Smart Warehousing Service and also sub contracted trucks ranging from 1 ton box trucks to 20 tons containers (NST LOGISTICS SDN BHD, 2008).With the expertise, Philips Malaysia can ensure their customers have receive a best logistic services. 3.1.2 Adopt the SAP Inventory Management Software: SAP is known as System Application Products, which creates a common centralised database for all the applications running in a company (EzineArticles.com, 2010). Philips Malaysia is adopting SAP Inventory Management software helps in manage their inventories such as raw materials and finished products. The functions of SAP Inventory Management software are record and track materials on the basis of both quantity and value (SAP). With the software, the warehouse workers can track the quantity and value of materials, perform physical inventory, and optimize warehouse resources (SAP). For example, the warehouse workers can plan, enter, and document warehouse and internal stock movements by managing goods receipts and issues, storage, physical stock transfers and so on (SAP). Philips Malaysia implement the inventory management software is because they found that their warehouse management are not efficient. For instance, the inventory holding cost is high. Those inventory holding cost are capital cost, service cost and storage cost (WebFinance, Inc., 2010). Philips Malaysia needs to pay the costs of stock management, the raw materials, and insurance. 3.2 Value chain strategies that implemented by Philips Company 3.2.1 Outsourcing: Outsourcing means subcontracting a part of activity to a third party company to perform, although that activity could otherwise be performed by in-house workers (Hinzie Media Inc., 2008-2010). Normally a company decided to outsource some of the production activity is due to some reason such like lack of expertise, cost effectiveness and competitive advantage. Philips does have outsourced their value chain activity to China. Philips decided to not make the gear lamps by themselves and choose to buy the gear lamps components from China. This is because Philips found that if make the gear lamps by themselves, it would more costly. For example, in the inbound logistic activity of Philips, Philips buys components which are known as gear lamps from China and use on assemble process and finally comes out a finished product such like lamps. The reasons that Philips outsources gear lamps to China are due to the political environment, economic environment and technological environment. For the political environment, because there is no political risk in China such as inflation, so the operating cost wont be high (Wall, Minocha and Rees, 2010, pg134). In the economic aspect, due to the large population in China, Philips believed that the consumer purchasing power over there will be high. Besides, on the technological aspect China are more expert in making gear lamps compare to others country. 3.2.2 Joint- Venture with China: Philips joint venture in China since 1985 and now Philips hold 23 joint ventures and wholly owned enterprise with employing 14000 people nationwide (Hangzhou Jiaoyu science and Technology Co., Ltd, 2005-2009). For example, Philips-Shanghai Yaming Lighting Co., Ltd in China is a joint-venture with Philips Lighting, Netherlands (Focus Technology Co., Ltd., 2010). The Energy Saving Lamp is manufacture by the joint venture corporate between Philips, Netherlands and China. The reason that Philips joint venture with China is because in China their labour cost will be lower than in Netherlands. This is because China has a large population, so there are many people can work, and the salary of worker will be cheaper. Whereas, in Netherlands, the population are much lesser than China, and people over there are not willing to work in factory some more they require a high paid salary. Another reason is build a factory in Netherlands was too costly compare to China. Other than that, the infrastructure in China is so convenient. So that, Philips decided to joint venture with China, by operate their manufacturing with China corporate. 3.2.3 Move all factories to Thailand: Philips decided close all the lamps manufacturing factory in Malaysia and Singapore, and shift to Thailand. Philips Thailand is the corporate that supplying lighting to Asia Pacific, such as Philips Malaysia and Philips Singapore (SIAM FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLC., 1999-2004). Philips Thailand core activity is focusing in manufacturing and selling lamps (SIAM FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLC., 1999-2004). The reason that Philips moves all lamps manufacturing factory to Thailand is due to the geographical location of Thailand. Since that Thailand is situated in a good location, which is nearby to Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and others Asia Pacific. So, its very convenient for Malaysia and Singapore to order inventory from Philips Thailand. For instance, Philips Thailand can deliver inventory to Philips Malaysia by using truck or ship. Another reason is, by centralize all the lamps manufacturing factory to Thailand, it can help Philips to gain the economies of scale. The economies of scale define as the increasing efficiencies of the production of goods as the number of goods being produced increases and the average costs of producing a good will lower as each additional good is produced (Learnthat.com, 1998-2004). Other advantages that can obtain after centralize lamps production in Thailand are maximizing production capacity, improvement to a constant product quality, and improve o rder and delivery lead time to the respective country. 4. Recommendations After found out all the logistical and value chain strategies that implemented by Philips on its overseas operations currently, I would like to suggest some changes that might be require to its logistical and value chain strategies over the next few years. Firstly, the value chain strategies used by Philips are outsourcing and joint venture with China companies. In view of economic issue nowadays, Chinas economy environment keep on improving at a very fast pace and also getting more and more vibrant. So that, in the next few coming years you will realize that the cost of operation will be getting more and more expensive. For instance, workers demand for higher wages and more benefits. Other than that, the values of properties in China also keep on rising and double up, such as the prices of land and factories. In order to solve this problem, I would like to recommend Philips to reduce the number of production centres in China, which means reduce the number of manufacturing factories in China. By this way, Philips can cut down the cost of operating and achieving the economies of scale in production. With the reducing numbers of operating factories, automatically the cost of workers and costs of management will be decrease too. Besides, Philips can also think of manufacturing more high-end products in China, such as the Philips LED lamps. With this high value products, it can helps to cover the rising workers costs that would going to be happen in years to come. Moving the operations to another country is not a good solution, because China has a large domestic market, moving out meaning losing that market. Actually there is a risk to centralize all the factories in Thailand. As we know, Thailand is facing an unstable political environment now. It is forecast that the unstable political environment of Thailand would prolong and it will affect the operation of Philips Thailand in the next few coming years. Hence, Philips can think of shift the manufacturing factories in Thailand to either Vietnam or Myanmar. The reason is because Myanmar and Vietnam are neighbor countries of Thailand. Both the countries are just situated nearby Thailand. It would not be a big impact in terms of geographical location. Firstly we talk about Vietnam, for the past ten years, Vietnam has an open trade policy which encouraged foreign direct investment (FDI) to their country. At the same time, infrastructures in Vietnam are keeping on improving too. Vietnam is not lacking of human resources as well such as technical workers, management teams and etc. The political situation in Myanmar is continues to improve and investment environment also getting better and better, so Philips can consider to move manufacturing branch to Myanmar as well. 5. Conclusion In conclusion, Philips as a multinational corporate realizes that the logistics chain and value chain activities are so important for the whole logistic and supply chain management. The logistic and value chain activities are the whole processes of transform raw materials into finished goods then distribute to warehouses and finally deliver the finished products from the point of origin to the point of consumption. For example, from all the small component parts such as gear lamps go through the manufacturing process and finally become finished goods known as lamp. In order to let the logistic and value chain activities run smoothly, Philips have implemented few logistical strategy and value chain strategy in the host country such as Philips Malaysia, Philips Thailand, and China. Philips Malaysia has outsourced the logistics activities to third party logistics which provide the transportation and warehouse services. Besides, Philips Malaysia are using SAP inventory management software to management their warehouse activities. Other than that, Philips had decided to buy the components parts from China rather than make it by own. Other than outsourcing to China, Philips does have joint venture with China corporate. Philips also centralized all the lamps manufacturing factories in Thailand. Although Philips had implemented the logistical and value chain strategies in the overseas operations, but there are some external factors that can affect the operations of Philips corporate. Those external factors are such like political issue, economy issue, technological issue and etc. So, Philips need to have some changes on the current logistical and value chain strategies. Lastly, Philips should always get ready to face the changes that might affect the current logistical and value chain strategies by find out the most suitable ways to overcome the problem.

Moral Panics And Create Folk Devils

Moral Panics And Create Folk Devils There are many ways in which the media can incite moral panics and produce folk devils and one way in which this is possible is through labelling. Moral entrepreneurs, who dislike some particular behaviour such as drug takings, may use the media to put pressure on the authorities to do something. This is an important element in the process in creating moral panic. This refers to an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem- usually fuelled or inspired by the media. The media also help to make the problem bigger and blow it out of proportion. There are many ways in which the media can stimulate this. In a moral panic, the media identify a group as a folk devil. Folk devil can be identified as a threat to societys values. The media also present the group in a negative stereotypical fashion and again exaggerate the scale of the problem. Also the respectable people of the society such as, bishops, politicians and police chiefs condemn the group and its behaviour. Usually this would lead to a crackdown on the threatening groups. In spite of this, it may result in creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that amplifies the very problem that caused the panic in the first place. This could be seen in the instance with cases of drugs. As a result police set up drugs squads and in turn find out more drugs and the crackdown identifies more deviants, which then calls for even tougher action creating a deviance amplification spiral. The most influential study was by Stanley Cohen, which was featured in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics. He examined the role of the media and the medias response to disturbances between 2 groups of teenagers. The Mods and the Rockers were two groups of largely working class teenagers, at English seaside resorts from 1964-1966, and Cohen examined the way in which this created a moral panic. The mods were distinguished as wearing smart clothes and rode scooters and listened to pop and soul, whilst rockers wore leather jackets and rode motorbikes and listened to rock and roll. Although in the early stages, distinctions were not very clear. On the Easter weekend 1964 there were a few scuffles and broken windows and some beach huts were destroyed. Although the disorder was minimal, the media over reacted. In Cohens analysis, he uses the analogy of a disaster, where the media produce an inventory or stocktaking of what happened. This inventory contained three things. Exaggeration and distortion are one of them. This is where the media exaggerate the numbers involved and the extent of the violence and damage, and distort the picture through the dramatic reporting and sensational headlines. Second, is prediction and this were the media regularly predict and assume further conflict and violence will take place. Lastly, symbolisation, and this is where the mods and rockers symbols such as- their clothes, bikes, scooters and hairstyles- are negatively labelled and associated with deviance. Cohen goes further and argues that the medias portrayal of events produces a deviance amplification spiral by making it seem as if the problem was spreading and getting out of hand. This then led to an increased control response from the police and also courts. This then in turn produced further marginalisation and stigmatisation of the Mods and Rockers as deviants and less tolerance. The media further amplified the deviance by defining the two groups and their sub cultural styles. By emphasising their supposed differences, the media made clear the two distinct identities and transformed loose-knit grouping into two tight knit gangs. This encouraged polarisation and helped create a self- fulfilling prophecy of escalating conflict as youths acted out roles the media had assigned them. Cohen also observed that the medias definition of the situation are crucial in creating a moral panic, because in large-scale modern societies, most people have no direct experience of the events themselves and therefore have to rely on the media for information about them. In the case of the Mods and Rockers, this allowed the media to portray them as folk devil. However it could be said that the notion described by Cohen are outdated. Fashion and music have become more diverse, and young people rarely identify themselves with one particular style. Subsequently, society has become more complex, fragmented and liberal and its less clear what constitutes deviant behaviour. Thirdly, politicians are cautious when trying to create a moral panic over, for example, teenage mums, in case they are seen as old-fashioned bullies. McRobbie and Thornton argue that society and the media have moved on and new concepts and ideas. They also point out that early versions of the moral panic model saw society as one influenced by postmodernism, would take a more differentiated approach. It has been widely accepted that this is the age of moral panics. From the Bulger case to mad cow disease, newspaper headlines continually warn of some new danger and television programmes  echo the theme with sensational documentaries. Although todays media audiences are accustomed to shock stories. So it could be said that they do not react to manic to media exaggerations. Finally it has been said that the media create moral panic to preserve ruling class hegemony. This was seen in the 1970s mugging, which were sensationalised by the elite to divert the attention from the crisis of the Britain capitalism. In conclusion many of the dramatized stories illustrate many aspects of moral panic and highlight the way such issues are portrayed and orchestrated by the media. As it is the case with many moral panics become deviants such as the Mods and Rockers, and are deemed threatening to our society as a result of the medias reporting of their views and actions.

Genetic Essentialism :: Science Scientific Papers

Coming to live in a new country offers the unique opportunity to look at life from a profoundly different vantage-point. So, during my first two years as a scientist in the United States I’ve often found myself reflecting on how societies differ in fundamental ways in their basic orientation toward life. Many experiences and impressions during this time have dramatically increased my awareness how much all bodies of knowledge — about the ways the world works and the way the world, and we ourselves, are — need to be understood as ‘local knowledge systems’. The concept of local knowledge systems has been developed in post-colonial studies of science, and has been applied in assertions that ‘indigenous’, i.e., non-western, and western ways of knowing are both local in the sense that both are culture-dependent and neither has a claim to universality. (1) From that one could conclude that western science at least functions as a more or less monolithic enterprise. However, although western science as a whole is based on a shared methodology and epistemology, distinct preoccupations of the cultures in different regions of the western world exert powerful influences over the construction of scientific discourses. In the United States, there appears to be a strong need in middle class culture to define oneself through ‘one’s biology’. This ‘biology’ however does not signify the body itself, but a metaphorical, linguistic construction of the self around which many aspects of contemporary life are becoming organized. (2) The central metaphor of one’s biology is one’s genes, and ‘one’s genes’ are seen as the essence of the person. For complex historical, political and cultural reasons, the human genome is increasingly equated with the ‘essence’ of human-ness. Com ing from New Zealand, this definition of identity through a genetically oriented ‘biological’ discourse is anything but self-evident, in fact, it seems deeply culturally determined. Within the scope of this paper, I will not attempt to identify what drives the need for this view of the self, but would like to stress the importance of seeking answers to this question. It seems to me to be a central concern in any critique of the contemporary gene cult(ure) in American society. The growth of a biotechnological economy and the promotion of matching societal attitudes are obviously contributing to this phenomenon, but they alone do not explain the deep resonance a genetically defined construction of human-ness appears to invoke in people’s psyches.