What’s Stifling Creativity at Coolburst

Everyday the world is changing around us. It is an essential part of growth, maturity and effectiveness. Everything from the change in weather, an age, government, or religion affect the way people view, think and perform in certain situations and as a whole in society. History has proven that creative minds can ultimately change an outcome for the better or even the worst. From telegraphs to cellular phones, McIntosh computers to IPODs and IPADs, it was the organizations of these products that took a major risk in investing into someone’s creative idea that affect our society as a whole. These companies have seen their fair share of profits lows and highs through the toughest economy eras, but they continued to persevere and prosper through such times by thinking out the realm of possibility and making their possibilities into reality. However, what happens when an organization suppresses the thought of reinventing themselves to adapt to changes in society and even the world? Coolburst is experiencing a major organizational struggle between what worked for them to get them where they are today and what it takes to continue to strive in the future. Coolburst is located in Miami, Florida. The drink products that they serve are sold in schools and restaurants. The traditional views of during business have forwarded them much success from their beginnings. They have experience great growth through the years, but recently, they profit margin has remained steadily with no boosting sales. Director of Marketing Sam Jenkins has challenged Coolburst’s view and management on changing their way of thinking and opening their mind to new ideas under former CEO Garth LaRoue. Jenkins’s new ideas of productivity and innovation were considered unorthodox within the organization. Ultimately, Jenkins left the Coolburst to go with a company that was very more innovated and creativity. Witnessing these differences of opinions between Coolburst and Jenkins is new CEO Luisa Roberado. Now, Roberado is facing one of biggest challenges yet for Coolburst, what changes can be made to make Coolburst more profitable and more creativity to keep up or even surpassed the demand of an ever changing society. Was Jenkins’s new idea that far fetched with the organization or was he on to something that can change the way Coolburst does business to compete with potential competitor? This case study will explore why Coolburst had a hard time accepting Jenkins’s idea on making Coolburst better in the future, what the organization can do to keep with social changes, and how Roberado can implement and even changed the current ideology of Coolburst and help the company tapped into their resources and flourish the company to the top in innovation, creativity, and in profit margins.

Evaluation Essay

The internet in the world of today holds a very important place. It offers everything from finding a good college to finding an elegant dress. It can offer good shopping sites, and the most wonderful part is that your order is delivered to your house. Women today prefer online shopping. Websites of different companies offer all the clothes online. When such websites are designed a lot of things are considered, to satisfy users. I will analyze the website of Guess, Express and Charlotte Russe in three ways, which are the websites designs and layout, variety of clothes and ease to zoom each item. The first way of analyzing the website is its design and layout. The design of such websites should be very appealing and actively engaging. Beginning with Guess, it has an extremely appealing layout and design. The best part of this website is the slide show of four slides that runs on the home page. Each model is wearing an attractive outfit with good makeup. It provides very clear options for the buyer. The website of Express is a decent one. All the tabs are labeled very clearly just as Guess, but instead of a slideshow there is picture of four models, and discount coupons. Slide shows grab the attention of buyer and actively engage them, so it was a minus for the express. Charlotte Russe’s website is the worst; there is not a single model on the home page rather it says twenty five percent off. It would have been better if that was written in a corner with some model dressed up nicely in center. The web layout is pretty much same as rest; however there are pull-down menus, neither Guess nor Express has that feature. I believe pull down menus are more comfortable for the buyer because instead of first choosing ‘women’ and then going for ‘jeans’ or any desired option, one can simply place cursor on women and choose the option from pull down menu. After looking at all features Guess is most appealing to me and Charlotte Russe is least, however in the layout Charlotte Russe is pretty good compared to Guess and Express. My second way to analyze is the variety of clothes they had in each section. To begin with Guess, for example if the option of jeans is clicked in women’s section then eighty-seven different denim jeans are displayed. This provides a wide range of options for the buyer to choose from. The website of express has more types of jeans than Guess like capris, shorts, skinnies, etc, but the number of jeans was less. Express offers sixty jeans while Guess offers eighty seven-jeans. On the website of Charlotte Russe, if the option of jeans is clicked then it also shows sixty different jeans just like Express; therefore, in quantity Express and Charlotte Russe are the same. However Charlotte Rusee has the only four types of jeans which are way less than Guess and Express. Therefore in variety Guess was the best while Charlotte Russe was not as good, with Express in between the two. My third way to analyze is the ease of zooming each item. Beginning with Guess, it offers three ways to look at each jeans: front, back, and side. All three options are displayed vertically on the right side. As soon as the cursor is placed on jeans it forms a small square, and the part in square is zoomed and showed. This is a plus point for its website as it was really easy to see the jeans clearly through this feature. Besides this, a detailed description of jeans was provided on the left side, which also told about its finishing, etc. The jeans of Express could also be viewed in three different ways however, the cursor did not form a square, and rather there was the traditional zoom in and out sign on the corner. The zooming of Guess is far better. The description is present, but it is not as detailed as it is at Guess. Charlotte Russe was the same as Express. It had the same traditional zoom in and out system, with much less descriptions. Therefore I think that Guess is far better, and both Express and Charlotte Russe are nearly same. According to these criteria I would say that the website of Guess is best. The designing of website is appealing, has a huge variety and also it is easy to zoom the item. Express and Charlotte Russe are more or less the same. However, the website of express is better in design, while Charlotte Russe has a better layout. So, I think the two are nearly same.

Analysing Delegation In Transition To Professional Practice Nursing Essay

Analysing Delegation In Transition To Professional Practice Nursing Essay Newly registered nurses or nurses re-entering the workforce face many challenges. One of these issues is delegation. In this essay you are required to develop an in depth and detailed understanding of delegation and how it apply to you as a newly registered nurse. You will need to critically analyse the literature to: Define delegation and how it applies to the registered nurse in the clinical setting Analyse the role of the registered nurse in relation to the responsibility of delegation Analyse the relationship between accountability and delegation Discuss how delegation is different to patient allocation Analyse how professional competence impacts on delegation with specific reference to clinical effectiveness Discuss the interpersonal relationships of team members when delegating within a team Introduction Being a newly Registered Nurse entails a lot of challenges, how we deal with our clients and effectively communicating what their needs are in a multi-cultural setting gives u s these difficult tasks of rendering proper and appropriate health care. RNs (Registered Nurses) are known to provide care from womb to tomb, without preference to age, gender, race, religion and status. RNs need to understand the importance for them to know by heart, what are the tasks they can delegate to their co-workers because problem could arise if tasks are delegated inappropriately and clients would be the one to suffer the consequences. Delegation of activities will be relied more heavily due to decreasing workforce and increasing workload that’s why nurses should understand fully the different guidelines on how one can appropriately apply delegation in their professional practice. The role of RN in the delegation process takes unprecedented importance. The independent licensee of the RN imposes a legal accountability on the part of the nurse to the patient/recipient of care. This becomes a primary responsibility, with the accountability to other disciplines or the e mployer being secondary. Because the RN is responsible for the practice of other lesser skilled licensed or unlicensed nursing personnel (i.e., Enrolled Nurses and Unlicensed Health Care Worker), it is imperative that registered nurses understand the guidelines and parameters set for delegation and training. All RNs and midwives must be willing to accept accountability and responsibility when undertaking activities within their individual scope of practice after considering: legislation or restriction of practice, professional standards of practice, current evidence for practice, individual knowledge skill and competence and contextual/organizational support for practice [Nursing Board of Victoria (NBV) 2007]. The responsibility of the RN prevails whatever the employment setting or status of employment and that legal accountability cannot be removed or assumed by another individual or by the employer. We can never work alone, thus we are always a part of a multidisciplinary healthca re team and this is where the issues of delegation come into place. I. Definition of delegation and application in clinical setting The Queensland Nursing Council (2005) defined delegation as ‘conferring of authority on a person to a person to perform activities. In the same way, delegation is conferment of authority to an individual who is not authorized to perform a particular task autonomously but can do so under direct or indirect supervision (Nursing & Midwifery Board of South Australia 2005). Direct supervision means that the RN is actually present during performance of the delegated task, observing and guiding the person who is being supervised while indirect supervision is provided when the RN does not directly observe the person performing the delegated task but should be easily contactable by phone or electronic devices when the need arises [Royal College of Nurses, Australia (RCNA) 2005].

Critically analysis an operations problem faced by your team and make Essay

Critically analysis an operations problem faced by your team and make a proposal for its resolution, drawing on the tools and li - Essay Example Identifying and resolving the problems not only involves interaction with the purchase, sales, credit collection or other divisions of the company, but also managing the entire control systems, communication at all levels effectively and efficient planning and forecasting. It is also important to note that profitability to a greater extent hinges on efficiency in working capital management, especially in the retails industry. The empirical findings of the study made by Samiloglu & Demirgones (2008, p. 44) show that account receivables period, inventory period and leverage affect firm profitability negatively. The following proposals outlined for the resolution of the operational problems with reference to cash flow covers comprehensively all the facets of the business which are connected to it directly and indirectly in the company. However, leadership qualities in the organization and the policy of the organization in connection with the development of leadership qualities among the mangers are fundamentally very important for sustainable development. Properly identifying the different styles of leadership in an organization for developing it through motivation is very important for success in any organization. ... signify that the above statement could be true only partially, and the leadership qualities can be acquired through proper training and willingness on the part of the person to learn. For the finance professionals in cash management, honesty and forward looking qualities are very important so that the person can guide his team to achieve the objective by proving intelligent solutions at crucial times thereby inspiring the team members in the achievement of the objectives. According to traits theory, people inherit certain traits and qualities to become leaders. This is at the best a variation of the Greatmen theory. Contrary to this, behavioral theory believes great leaders are made, and this is in line with the strategy to be adopted in an organization for leadership development, because, the usefulness of the former theories are restricted to recruitment level, and persons need to be developed or molded to suit the purpose for which they are selected. According to contingency theor y, a particular style of leadership suits a particular situation based on the variables relating to the environment. Primary finding of a study made by Arbak & Villeval (2007, p. 24) reveals that a large proportion of subjects are willing to lead, though they earn on average considerably less than followers and even less than those in a group with no leader. Participative leadership is essential for success in cash flow management, because without participation and contributions from group members, decision making process goes haywire. The relationship theory is very relevant and important in the day-to-day operations. The connection between the leader and the followers is developed through motivation and inspiration. This is very relevant in the working capital management as it involves

Corporate Risk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Corporate Risk Management - Essay Example Unfortunately such high degree of risks can bring negative impact on the profitability as well as to the future success of the organizations. So to protect from such bad consequences it is essential for such organization as soon as possible to find an appropriate solution so that they could handle or manage risks in better way which in otherwise could bring catastrophe to them. So a desirable solution is through applying appropriate sets of procedures or policies at proper intervals. Risk management is one such effective strategy that to a great extent can minimize or reduce various types of risks that an organization has to face while carrying out its operations. By adopting such strategy an organization can ensure its better success and growth in the future. Viewing this importance the paper attempts to describe what is risk management or risk management decisions, the direct and indirect costs and benefits of risk management decisions to an organization and how they can be measure d. Risk management or risk management decisions are a logical process that aims at eliminating or minimizing the level of risk pertained to any business operations. In other words it can be told as a series of process that comprises of identifying, analyzing, and implementing necessary steps so as to minimize or eliminate the exposures to risk of loss that are to be faced by an organization. The practice of risk management makes use of number of tools and techniques, and also the concept of insurance, in order to manage the different types of risks. The duty of carrying out the process of risk management is entrusted to the concerned department of corporate risk management, who firstly identifies what are the various potential sources that cause to trouble, after identifying the corporate risk managers analyzes each of the sources carefully and then finally after analyzing they take precautionary measures or steps to overcome from such exposure of losses. The term risk management is known to be a "relatively a recent evolution of the concept to insurance management" (Sullivan, 2009, P. 452). The concept risk management that comprises of broader scope of activities and responsibilities than what the insurance management actually dealt with. The uses of Risk management was initially applied by the organizations to protect from various physical threats which occurs while carrying out their operations such as theft, fire, flood, legal liability, disability, employee injuries, car accidents, and many which otherwise took number of years to protect themselves from such risks and in turn which would bring barriers to their day-to-day operations and profitability. It was seen as the 20th century ended; the activities of risk management were much more expanded to the areas of financial risks such as interest rates, exchange rates, and now e-Commerce. As mentioned earlier risk management as a process risk management involves several series of steps where the concerned corporate risk management department of an organization identifies, analyzes, treats and monitors the risks which are involved in carry out their any business operations (Culp, 2001). These entire processes were carried out by the organizatio

Components of Qualitative Approaches Assignment

Components of Qualitative Approaches - Assignment Example The three topics all involve the use of qualitative information. To investigate the political opinions of citizens of country A, a researcher has to set interviews that will convert the qualitative attributes into quantitative measures. For example, the interview may have questions like â€Å"Do the candidates you intend to vote for know your economic challenges?† The responses can be assigned numeric indices to measure their level of strength as shown in the example in the table below: While using interviews to gather information from the people, few challenges were met. Some of them were, only a small number of these interviews could take place because they vary in time (University of Portsmouth, 2010). Comparison of in-depth interviews may be difficult since the results may be unique. Due to the size of the sample, in this case, is small, the results are unlikely to be representative of a particular population. The interview process may be time-consuming, in terms of both data collection and analysis. There were many inconsistencies in the results due to bias amongst the people’s tastes and preferences. The following measures were recommended to be more effective in ways of collecting and interpretation of data especially through interviews. To avoid the inconsistencies, the data should be recorded in the agreed upon ways (Phil Rabinowitz, 2013) e.g. if the agreed upon way is using laptops, then laptops should be used to collect all results. Organization of the data is also a very important process that helps during the analysis. For example, the use of Geographical Information Systems is necessary especially when collecting data for investigating the political opinions of citizens based on different regions in that country.   

Creole linguistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Creole linguistics - Essay Example Although there are still many debatable aspects their inclusion into the linguistic arena has motivated scholars to have closer inspections. Unlike languages such as Slavic and Germanic languages Creole languages are different because they have no common ancestor (Baptista 5). All the creole languages put together can never be traced to a particular language or group of languages but what is evident is that there are traces of many different languages within the creoles of different regions. One of the observable features of creole is the use of the double negative or the subject as well as the verb in the negative. This double negative could be influenced by the Romance languages such as Spanish since this is grammatically incorrect in English. The Spanish, â€Å"Yo no voy a ninguna parte,† to Jamaican Creole, â€Å"mi na go no wey,† to the English, â€Å"I am not going anywhere,† is an example of this feature. This is used by the creole speaker to show emphasis and assertiveness. A creole is a restrictive language. Scholars point out that they were developed for communication means. They therefore lack many of the linguistic structures found in other languages. One of the features that point to this restriction is with regard to questions. The structure of the sentence is usually the same as when one makes a statement. The only difference is in the intonation. This could be due to the absence of a written code for the language. A language that is only perpetuated orally will have reduced structures different from those languages that are written. For example, Guyanese Creole â€Å"he gone,† can both mean â€Å"he is gone,† or â€Å"has he gone?† One is just left to the mercy of the speaker’s intonation before being able to decode the message. Apart from questioning there are other areas of creole languages that involves the intonation and emotional involvement

Role of the US Financial System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Role of the US Financial System - Essay Example The financial system consists of two types of markets: the money markets and the capital market. The money markets are financial assets with a maturity date of one year or less. The most influential of all money market instruments which provides liquidity to the system are treasury bills. Treasury bill are 90 day maturity short term bills which pay the investors a modest interest rate for of approximately 4-5% for borrowing money to the government (Jsj, 2007).. Treasury bills are sold in the public market by investors and are considered a risk free proposition for investors since the assets is guaranteed against the US treasury reserves. The government along with the federally issued T-bill also sales other types of financial instruments in the money and capital markets. The government sells a lot of government bonds in order to finance governmental expenses such as making infrastructure improvements, capital projects, and cover emergency expenses among other uses. Bonds are sold by the federal, state, municipal government, and state agencies to acquire funds to finance their operations. The capital market takes place in stock exchanges around the world. The United States has many stock exchanges including the world most powerful exchange called the New York Stock Exchange. Another powerful exchange is the over the counter market of NASDAQ. In the stock market industry there have been a lot of mergers between international exchanges joining forces to gain power. In the floor of the stock exchange the brokers make purchases and sales of common stock, preferred stocks, futures, options, bonds among other types of financial instruments immediately after a client places an order. The stock market and the exchanges in which activity takes place are an economic market structure that is considered a perfect competition. In a perfectly competitive market the market reacts to new information immediately and

Any topic you think is good for my paper Assignment - 2

Any topic you think is good for my paper - Assignment Example For example, late in the review he says, â€Å"The scope here is unashamedly novelistic, and although the plotting of the film’s first act is arguably muddled, Nolan’s sheer formal audacity means the stakes feel skin-pricklingly high at all times†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He is not pulling punches, but is saying that while some aspects of the film may not be so good, these are overwhelmed by the style and talent of the director, Christopher Nolan, who is very good. The reviewer uses lively, exciting language throughout which is good because it reflects the fun aspect of the film. Overall, the author communicates in a way that makes the reader not only want to keep reading, but also rush out to see the film. Generally, this is an effective review. It communicates the ideas behind the movie and the manner in which the reviewer is evaluating it. The reviewer is speaking to a broad audience of film-goers. He wants to show that the movie is a fun film that would appeal to most people. He successfully accomplishes this goal. Collin, Robby. â€Å"Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, first review.† Daily Telegraph. 16 Jul 2012.

Findings Analysis Essay Example for Free

Findings Analysis Essay I have found out my primary information about the idea of slim-line kitchen electrical appliances by doing a quota sampling, which meant dividing the population into various age groups and backgrounds and carrying out questionnaires. In my results in source 14, which is my questionnaire, the first question shows the gender of the amount of people that help fill in the questionnaire. Out of 150 people that I questioned only 36.6% were males and females a greater percentage of 63.6(%). This shows that on average most of the people I questioned were females. Source 2 also supports this idea as it states that the majority of people living in England are females at 51%. Also the details in source 6 show the gender of people that purchase brown and white goods, the larger percentage goes towards the women at 54%. Also an evidence of this statement that there are more women than men in GB is illustrated in source 2, it shows that in 2003 there were more women than men- and that I think has increased during recent years because source 2 shows that women are at 51% of the population in UK, then source 6 shows women are at 54 and source 14 [the questionnaire] shows they are at 63 percent (you can see that in the chart below that shows these results), and I predict this is going to escalate far more in a years or so time; which means if S and S plc was to choose their target group then in my opinion women should be targeted not only for their percentage as a whole but as for the person that makes decisions about where the kitchen appliances go and what should be bought. The second question in the questionnaire asks for the age groups of the person that is filling in the questionnaire; the most widely held answer is the 45-54 age group. On a percentage out of 150 people 48% of the people come in that particular age group. Although my source 2 says that the majority of the people living in Great Britain are either between the age group of 35-44 or above 65, however my source is over 3 years old, which could make big difference as related to new market, but maybe the area that I was doing the questionnaire in; the majority of the people were between 45 and 54. The rest of the questionnaire still supports the idea of what S and S plc is trying to introduce. This means they have now got an idea of what the populations wants and needs are. S and S plc need to confirm the target age group and then plan sale strategies. Question 4 asks the people what newspapers they read. Out of a variety of newspapers most of the people wrote their answer as The Daily Telegraph, 62% out of 150 people. This question is not completely pointless as it is a method of advertising for many companies including electrical stores such as Dixons, Comet and Currys. According to my source 12 quite a big percentage of the expenditure that a business is ready to pay for advertising belongs to the press area /newspapers. Out of 10 different electrical stores 76% of the money they spend on advertising is in the press column. Therefore it would be very beneficial for S and S plc to put their ads into the two top particular newspapers Daily Telegraph being the top. Another quite high percentage of the advertising goes into the radio, which is also another method for S and S plc to attain more awareness. The next question asks the people how many people live in their household, majority of the people answered 4 to the question. Out of 150 people 30% said 4. Source 4 of my secondary data illustrates that 13.2% of the people out of 25,220 people have 4 persons living in their household and the majority of the people answered 2 persons out of the same audience 34.9% to be exact, however we know that my secondary information is about 2 years old which only shows me old data that is not accurate but as we know now the majority of the people have 4 persons in their household, because as times go on people make more decisions. This means that there are more people living in a single household now as opposed to 2 years ago, therefore white goods will be necessary for them in their daily life unlike single people living alone dont need as much white goods because they wont use it a lot. So if S and S plc were to get targets then going for the more colonized houses because they will be a god i dea and these will be their ideal customers. Question six asks the people what circumstances will aid them to consider buying slim white goods to replace them with the old. The choices included from new models introduced, moving house, changing their kitchens and/or when their old goods break down. The majority of the people answered as when they move houses, 62.6% out of 150 people agreed to that. This gives S and S plc the opportunity to sell their products, if they know how many people are moving houses on average they can work out the amount of the kitchen electrical appliances that they need to produce, this will maintain the sale of the slim-line white goods as the results in source 5 show the statistics that, there are increasingly more people that either move or as a result separation move to another home alone. If S and S plc want to boost their sales they have to advertise it to the people that are moving houses [as white goods are very important in a household, it is almost a necessity]. Source 3 also shows that the majority of the people in 1 household are 2 persons. And as more people move into the same house there is an even greater need of white goods, and as some houses are quite cramped slim-line white goods is the best option so that sort of people should be target to the S and S plc. Question seven enquires the people how long ago was the last time that they purchased/changed their white good. The majority of the people answered this question as last 5 years which sums up to be 48% out of the total of 150 people. This shows that the majority of people will not spend frequently on white goods as they are only replaced when they are damaged or too much out of date, this is simply because that the people are already used to the way that that particular white good works. Also another reason for people not to change their white goods purchased in last 5 years is that the white goods technology hasnt changed much in the last 5 years so no reason to change their white goods, but as source 8 of my raw information shows that there is an increasing demand of new technology therefore sale for the slim-line white goods will produce profit to S and S plc as the savvy consumers is the prime driver of the market. The pie chart in the same source reveals that the second highest percentage of consumers spending on electricals belongs to the household appliances this is a 23% of the expenditure. Question eight asks the people where they purchase their kitchen appliances; the applicants were given four choices out of which 3 were specialist retailers and one non-specialist. However you would expect a specialist such as Curry or Dixons to rule this sort of market, but the majority of the peoples answer was other specialist retailer as these two retailers I mentioned are not experts and do not sell all brands that the people might be looking for. Some people have had good experiences with some brands that they wish to keep with. I predicted the majority of the shares should be owned by Dixons; this is also what my sources show namely source 11; it shows that the majority of the shares in the market belonged to these retailers in 2004. Source 9 of my raw information states that non-specialist such as ASDA and Tesco have a more constant product offering which is a step beyond WIGIG [when its gone its gone offer] that specialist retailers use as their sale strategies. These non-specialists sell varieties of brands and at a low cost too, thus increasing their sales. Source 9 also shows the statistics in the electrical retail market that this has caused. It has attracted customers from other markets such as PC and Audio-Visual markets because people would rather buy the same thing cheaper. This means that S and S plc should also increase and expand the variety of electrical goods the sell and do not necessarily have to be a specialist retailer for white/slim-line goods. This will increase their sales and give the m a higher reputation in the electrical retail market. The ninth question in the questionnaire enquires if changes in the circumstances were to occur; [including those mentioned in question six], would they consider buying i.e. replacing them with slim-line versions of the goods. The majority of the people out of 150 answered Yes, this concluded to 86% the rest 14% answered No. People dont find the urge to replace their existing electrical appliances as quick as any other item in the household, this is because these can be shared and it is only going to be a waste if you used it once and then dispose of it especially when it costs a lot. So as seen in question 6, most people will only replace their kitchen electrical goods when they move house. The idea of slim line appliances in kitchen is new so many people will not be too comfortable with using these, therefore sales for these will not increase soon after the promotion. According to the results I for this question it looks like quite a high percentage of people want to try it out and have a vision of what they will be when they buy them, because they know this will save space in their house no matter what the amount of people in the household. There are a number of reasons why people would want to purchase slim-line kitchen electrical goods. One that I think is different than any other is efficiency of the goods. If it saves the customers money, they will defiantly choose this item to last for a long time. Source 7 states The largest amounts of customer spending go on housing/electricity/gas other fuels, so slim-line kitchen electrical goods were to decrease the money spent they would be able to buy more goods as they get more disposable income SAY SOME STUFF ABOUT THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE !!. What S and S plc needs to do is to advertise their product so that it illustrates that it is efficient and takes less space they need to take this measurement in the plotting of the sale strategy, this could be S and S plcs unique selling point, something that distinguishes S and S plc from other retailers. In source 7 [i.e. fig.11] you can see the statistics as to how much people spend on the mentioned factors. From the graph above you can see that even though the expenditures are increasing slowly if not very swiftly. This you can see in the tale where in the %change column you can see that even though expenditures were increasing as a percentage in midyear intervals for many years, it is slowly levelling out/decreasing. Question 10 asks the people if they were given a choice to own a slim-line kitchen electrical good would the replace it with their existing ones. 59.3% of the people answered yes. As I said, for replacement of kitchen electrical goods slim-line kitchen electrical appliances are best suited as they as well as being efficient this will also be more modern and will take less space, so this offers the customers an opportunity to work more efficiently and in a better/ bigger space. HELP!!! Question eleven is entitled to find out what the motivation is that leads the sales of kitchen electrical appliances in the market. The question was What motivates you to buy a new kitchen electrical appliance? We provided them with four possible answers these included the price, its capacity, brand name or energy efficient. A high percentage of people were motivated by looking at the appliances capacity, which is vital because if it has to be shared it must be sufficiently big. This added up to 21.3% of the people out of 150 that help fill the questionnaire. The higher percentage [48%] of the people said they were motivated by the price, so if it was cheap and had a big capacity more customers would purchase the product. Not much of the credit went to the brand name, although I would have guessed this would be a bigger motivation to the people because when many people have had experience with one brand they stick to it and pass on their reviews, then again it isnt very often that p eople buy kitchen electrical appliances and its models changes from year to year. This means that when S and S plc rules the JnK plc companies in Asia, they wont have much difficulty with introducing new products into the market and sell as much as possible. However more credibility goes to energy efficiency, so some people are interested in saving money per annual rather than once, at the purchase time, this answer was chosen by 12% of the total. This question too links to source 7 as it shows that more people are decreasing the amount of money spent on electricity, gas, water etc. It shows that less people are ready to pay a lot of money for these appliances. The last question finishes off the questionnaire with asking the people if slim-line kitchen electrical appliances were in the market would the people buy them. The majority of the people chose to buy their goods only if their circumstances were to change. This means that even though slim-line kitchen electrical goods are a big success they will only be purchased when they need to replace them because people dont want to change their kitchen appliances too frequently, only when they move or if the old one is broken. 42.3% of people chose this for an answer. This means that people are not desperate to own one but they reckon it is a good idea to own one Well this questionnaire gave S and S plc a good guidance on what the market is like and if slim-line kitchen electrical appliances would sell in that market and to choose their target and unique selling point.

The Taguchi Methods for Quality Improvement

The Taguchi Methods for Quality Improvement INTRODUCTION: Taguchi methods are statistical methods developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods, and more recently also applied to, engineering, biotechnology, marketing and advertising. Professional statisticians have welcomed the goals and improvements brought about by Taguchi methods, particularly by Taguchis development of designs for studying variation, but have criticized the inefficiency of some of Taguchis proposals. Taguchis work includes three principal contributions to statistics: A specific loss function see Taguchi loss function; The philosophy of off-line quality control; and Innovations in the design of experiments. Loss functions Loss functions in statistical theory Traditionally, statistical methods have relied on mean-unbiased estimators of treatment effects: Under the conditions of the Gauss-Markov theorem, least squares estimators have minimum variance among all mean-unbiased estimators. The emphasis on comparisons of means also draws (limiting) comfort from the law of large numbers, according to which the sample means converge to the true mean. Fishers textbook on the design of experiments emphasized comparisons of treatment means. Gauss proved that the sample-mean minimizes the expected squared-error loss-function (while Laplace proved that a median-unbiased estimator minimizes the absolute-error loss function). In statistical theory, the central role of the loss function was renewed by the statistical decision theory of Abraham Wald. However, loss functions were avoided by Ronald A. Fisher.[6] Taguchis use of loss functions Taguchi knew statistical theory mainly from the followers of Ronald A. Fisher, who also avoided loss functions. Reacting to Fishers methods in the design of experiments, Taguchi interpreted Fishers methods as being adapted for seeking to improve the mean outcome of a process. Indeed, Fishers work had been largely motivated by programmes to compare agricultural yields under different treatments and blocks, and such experiments were done as part of a long-term programme to improve harvests. However, Taguchi realised that in much industrial production, there is a need to produce an outcome on target, for example, to machine a hole to a specified diameter, or to manufacture a cell to produce a given voltage. He also realised, as had Walter A. Shewhart and others before him, that excessive variation lay at the root of poor manufactured quality and that reacting to individual items inside and outside specification was counterproductive. He therefore argued that quality engineering should start with an understanding of quality costs in various situations. In much conventional industrial engineering, the quality costs are simply represented by the number of items outside specification multiplied by the cost of rework or scrap. However, Taguchi insisted that manufacturers broaden their horizons to consider cost to society. Though the short-term costs may simply be those of non-conformance, any item manufactured away from nominal would result in some loss to the customer or the wider community through early wear-out; difficulties in interfacing with other parts, themselves probably wide of nominal; or the need to build in safety margins. These losses are externalities and are usually ignored by manufacturers, which are more interested in their private costs than social costs. Such externalities prevent markets from operating efficiently, according to analyses of public economics. Taguchi argued that such losses would in evitably find their way back to the originating corporation (in an effect similar to the tragedy of the commons), and that by working to minimise them, manufacturers would enhance brand reputation, win markets and generate profits. Such losses are, of course, very small when an item is near to negligible. Donald J. Wheeler characterised the region within specification limits as where we deny that losses exist. As we diverge from nominal, losses grow until the point where losses are too great to deny and the specification limit is drawn. All these losses are, as W. Edwards Deming would describe them, unknown and unknowable, but Taguchi wanted to find a useful way of representing them statistically. Taguchi specified three situations: Larger the better (for example, agricultural yield); Smaller the better (for example, carbon dioxide emissions); and On-target, minimum-variation (for example, a mating part in an assembly). The first two cases are represented by simple monotonic loss functions. In the third case, Taguchi adopted a squared-error loss function for several reasons: It is the first symmetric term in the Taylor series expansion of real analytic loss-functions. Total loss is measured by the variance. As variance is additive (for uncorrelated random variables), the total loss is an additive measurement of cost (for uncorrelated random variables). The squared-error loss function is widely used in statistics, following Gausss use of the squared-error loss function in justifying the method of least squares. Reception of Taguchis ideas by statisticians Though many of Taguchis concerns and conclusions are welcomed by statisticians and economists, some ideas have been especially criticized. For example, Taguchis recommendation that industrial experiments maximise some signal-to-noise ratio (representing the magnitude of the mean of a process compared to its variation) has been criticized widely. Off-line quality control Taguchis rule for manufacturing Taguchi realized that the best opportunity to eliminate variation is during the design of a product and its manufacturing process. Consequently, he developed a strategy for quality engineering that can be used in both contexts. The process has three stages: System design Parameter design Tolerance design System design This is design at the conceptual level, involving creativity and innovation. Parameter design Once the concept is established, the nominal values of the various dimensions and design parameters need to be set, the detail design phase of conventional engineering. Taguchis radical insight was that the exact choice of values required is under-specified by the performance requirements of the system. In many circumstances, this allows the parameters to be chosen so as to minimise the effects on performance arising from variation in manufacture, environment and cumulative damage. This is sometimes called robustification. Tolerance design With a successfully completed parameter design, and an understanding of the effect that the various parameters have on performance, resources can be focused on reducing and controlling variation in the critical few dimensions (see Pareto principle). Design of experiments Taguchi developed his experimental theories independently. Taguchi read works following R. A. Fisher only in 1954. Taguchis framework for design of experiments is idiosyncratic and often flawed, but contains much that is of enormous value. He made a number of innovations. Outer arrays Taguchis designs aimed to allow greater understanding of variation than did many of the traditional designs from the analysis of variance (following Fisher). Taguchi contended that conventional sampling is inadequate here as there is no way of obtaining a random sample of future conditions.[7] In Fishers design of experiments and analysis of variance, experiments aim to reduce the influence of nuisance factors to allow comparisons of the mean treatment-effects. Variation becomes even more central in Taguchis thinking. Taguchi proposed extending each experiment with an outer array (possibly an orthogonal array); the outer array should simulate the random environment in which the product would function. This is an example of judgmental sampling. Many quality specialists have been using outer arrays. Later innovations in outer arrays resulted in compounded noise. This involves combining a few noise factors to create two levels in the outer array: First, noise factors that drive output lower, and second, noise factors that drive output higher. Compounded noise simulates the extremes of noise variation but uses fewer experimental runs than would previous Taguchi designs. Management of interactions Interactions, as treated by Taguchi Many of the orthogonal arrays that Taguchi has advocated are saturated arrays, allowing no scope for estimation of interactions. This is a continuing topic of controversy. However, this is only true for control factors or factors in the inner array. By combining an inner array of control factors with an outer array of noise factors, Taguchis approach provides full information on control-by-noise interactions, it is claimed. Taguchi argues that such interactions have the greatest importance in achieving a design that is robust to noise factor variation. The Taguchi approach provides more complete interaction information than typical fractional factorial designs, its adherents claim. * Followers of Taguchi argue that the designs offer rapid results and that interactions can be eliminated by proper choice of quality characteristics. That notwithstanding, a confirmation experiment offers protection against any residual interactions. If the quality characteristic represents the energy transformation of the system, then the likelihood of control factor-by-control factor interactions is greatly reduced, since energy is additive. Inefficencies of Taguchis designs * Interactions are part of the real world. In Taguchis arrays, interactions are confounded and difficult to resolve. Statisticians in response surface methodology (RSM) advocate the sequential assembly of designs: In the RSM approach, a screening design is followed by a follow-up design that resolves only the confounded interactions that are judged to merit resolution. A second follow-up design may be added, time and resources allowing, to explore possible high-order univariate effects of the remaining variables, as high-order univariate effects are less likely in variables already eliminated for having no linear effect. With the economy of screening designs and the flexibility of follow-up designs, sequential designs have great statistical efficiency. The sequential designs of response surface methodology require far fewer experimental runs than would a sequence of Taguchis designs.[ TAGUCHI METHODS There has been a great deal of controversy about Genichi Taguchis methodology since it was first introduced in the United States. This controversy has lessened considerably in recent years due to modifications and extensions of his methodology. The main controversy, however, is still about Taguchis statistical methods, not about his philosophical concepts concerning quality or robust design. Furthermore, it is generally accepted that Taguchis philosophy has promoted, on a worldwide scale, the design of experiments for quality improvement upstream, or at the product and process design stage. Taguchis philosophy and methods support, and are consistent with, the Japanese quality control approach that asserts that higher quality generally results in lower cost. This is in contrast to the widely prevailing view in the United States that asserts that quality improvement is associated with higher cost. Furthermore, Taguchis philosophy and methods support the Japanese approach to move quality improvement upstream. Taguchis methods help design engineers build quality into products and processes. As George Box, Soren Bisgaard, and Conrad Fung observed: Today the ultimate goal of quality improvement is to design quality into every product and process and to follow up at every stage from design to final manufacture and sale. An important element is the extensive and innovative use of statistically designed experiments. TAGUCHIS DEFINITION OF QUALITY The old traditional definition of quality states quality is conformance to specifications. This definition was expanded by Joseph M. Juran (1904-) in 1974 and then by the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) in 1983. Juran observed that quality is fitness for use. The ASQC defined quality as the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy given needs. Taguchi presented another definition of quality. His definition stressed the losses associated with a product. Taguchi stated that quality is the loss a product causes to society after being shipped, other than losses caused by its intrinsic functions. Taguchi asserted that losses in his definition should be restricted to two categories: (1) loss caused by variability of function, and (2) loss caused by harmful side effects. Taguchi is saying that a product or service has good quality if it performs its intended functions without variability, and causes little loss through harmful side effects, including the cost of using it. It must be kept in mind here that society includes both the manufacturer and the customer. Loss associated with function variability includes, for example, energy and time (problem fixing), and money (replacement cost of parts). Losses associated with harmful side effects could be market shares for the manufacturer and/or the physical effects, such as of the drug thalidomide, for the consumer. Consequently, a company should provide products and services such that possible losses to society are minimized, or, the purpose of quality improvement is to discover innovative ways of designing products and processes that will save society more than they cost in the long run. The concept of reliability is appropriate here. The next section will clearly show that Taguchis loss function yields an operational definition of the term loss to society in his definition of quality. TAGUCHIS LOSS FUNCTION We have seen that Taguchis quality philosophy strongly emphasizes losses or costs. W. H. Moore asserted that this is an enlightened approach that embodies three important premises: for every product quality characteristic there is a target value which results in the smallest loss; deviations from target value always results in increased loss to society; [and] loss should be measured in monetary units (dollars, pesos, francs, etc.). Figure I depicts Taguchis typically loss function. The figure also contrasts Taguchis function with the traditional view that states there are no losses if specifications are met. Taguchis Loss Function It can be seen that small deviations from the target value result in small losses. These losses, however, increase in a nonlinear fashion as deviations from the target value increase. The function shown above is a simple quadratic equation that compares the measured value of a unit of output Y to the target T.: Essentially, this equation states that the loss is proportional to the square of the deviation of the measured value, Y, from the target value, T. This implies that any deviation from the target (based on customers desires and needs) will diminish customer satisfaction. This is in contrast to the traditional definition of quality that states that quality is conformance to specifications. It should be recognized that the constant k can be determined if the value of L(Y) associated with some Y value are both known. Of course, under many circumstances a quadratic function is only an approximation. Since Taguchis loss function is presented in monetary terms, it provides a common language for all the departments or components within a company. Finally, the loss function can be used to define performance measures of a quality characteristic of a product or service. This property of Taguchis loss function will be taken up in the next section. But to anticipate the discussion of this property, Taguchis quadratic function can be converted to: This can be accomplished by assuming Y has some probability distribution with mean, a and variance o.2 This second mathematical expression states that average or expected loss is due either to process variation or to being off target (called bias), or both. TAGUCHI, ROBUST DESIGN, AND THEÂ  DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS Taguchi asserted that the development of his methods of experimental design started in Japan about 1948. These methods were then refined over the next several decades. They were introduced in the United States around 1980. Although, Taguchis approach was built on traditional concepts of design of experiments (DOE), such as factorial and fractional factorial designs and orthogonal arrays, he created and promoted some new DOE techniques such as signal-to-noise ratios, robust designs, and parameter and tolerance designs. Some experts in the field have shown that some of these techniques, especially signal-to-noise ratios, are not optimal under certain conditions. Nonetheless, Taguchis ideas concerning robust design and the design of experiments will now be discussed. DOE is a body of statistical techniques for the effective and efficient collection of data for a number of purposes. Two significant ones are the investigation of research hypotheses and the accurate determination of the relative effects of the many different factors that influence the quality of a product or process. DOE can be employed in both the product design phase and production phase. A crucial component of quality is a products ability to perform its tasks under a variety of conditions. Furthermore, the operating environmental conditions are usually beyond the control of the product designers, and, therefore robust designs are essential. Robust designs are based on the use of DOE techniques for finding product parameter settings (e.g., temperature settings or drill speeds), which enable products to be resilient to changes and variations in working environments. It is generally recognized that Taguchi deserves much of the credit for introducing the statistical study of robust design. We have seen how Taguchis loss function sets variation reduction as a primary goal for quality improvement. Taguchis DOE techniques employ the loss function concept to investigate both product parameters and key environmental factors. His DOE techniques are part of his philosophy of achieving economical quality design. To achieve economical product quality design, Taguchi proposed three phases: system design, parameter design, and tolerance design. In the first phase, system design, design engineers use their practical experience, along with scientific and engineering principles, to create a viably functional design. To elaborate, system design uses current technology, processes, materials, and engineering methods to define and construct a new system. The system can be a new product or process, or an improved modification of an existing product or process. The parameter design phase determines the optimal settings for the product or process parameters. These parameters have been identified during the system design phase. DOE methods are applied here to determine the optimal parameter settings. Taguchi constructed a limited number of experimental designs, from which U.S. engineers have found it easy to select and apply in their manufacturing environments. The goal of the parameter design is to design a robust product or process, which, as a result of minimizing performance variation, minimizes manufacturing and product lifetime costs. Robust design means that the performance of the product or process is insensitive to noise factors such as variation in environmental conditions, machine wear, or product to-product variation due to raw material differences. Taguchis DOE parameter design techniques are used to determine which controllable factors and which noise factors are the significant variables. The aim is to set the controllable factors at those levels that will result in a product or process being robust with respect to the noise factors. In our previous discussion of Taguchis loss function, two equations were discussed. It was observed that the second equation could be used to establish quality performance measures that permit the optimization of a given products quality characteristic. In improving quality, both the average response of a quality and its variation are important. The second equation suggests that it may be advantageous to combine both the average response and variation into a single measure. And Taguchi did this with his signal-to-noise ratios (S/N). Consequently, Taguchis approach is to select design parameter levels that will maximize the appropriate S/N ratio. These S/N ratios can be used to get closer to a given target value (such as tensile strength or baked tile dimensions), or to reduce variation in the products quality characteristic(s). For example, one S/N ratio corresponds to what Taguchi called nominal is best. Such a ratio is selected when a specific target value, such as tensile strength, is the design goal. For the nominal is best case, Taguchi recommended finding an adjustment factor (some parameter setting) that will eliminate the bias discussed in the second equation. Sometimes a factor can be found that will control the average response without affecting the variance. If this is the case, our second equation tells us that the expected loss becomes: Consequently, the aim now is to reduce the variation. Therefore, Taguchis S/N ratio is: where S 2 is the samples standard deviation. In this formula, by minimizing S 2 , 10 log 10 S 2 , is maximized. Recall that all of Taguchis S/N ratios are to be maximized. Finally, a few brief comments concerning the tolerance design phase. This phase establishes tolerances, or specification limits, for either the product or process parameters that have been identified as critical during the second phase, the parameter design phase. The goal here is to establish tolerances wide enough to reduce manufacturing costs, while at the same time assuring that the product or process characteristics are within certain bounds. EXAMPLES AND CONCLUSIONS As Thomas P. Ryan has stated, Taguchi at the very least, has focused our attention on new objectives in achieving quality improvement. The statistical tools for accomplishing these objectives will likely continue to be developed. Quality management gurus, such as W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) and Kaoru Ishikawa (1915-), have stressed the importance of continuous quality improvement by concentrating on processes upstream. This is a fundamental break with the traditional practice of relying on inspection downstream. Taguchi emphasized the importance of DOE in improving the quality of the engineering design of products and processes. As previously mentioned, however, his methods are frequently statistically inefficient and cumbersome. Nonetheless, Taguchis design of experiments have been widely applied and theoretically refined and extended. Two application cases and one refinement example will now be discussed. K. N. Anand, in an article in Quality Engineering, discussed a welding problem. Welding was performed to repair cracks and blown holes on the cast-iron housing of an assembled electrical machine. Customers wanted a defect-free quality weld, however the welding process had resulted in a fairly high percentage of welding defects. Management and welders identified five variables and two interactions that were considered the key factors in improving quality. A Taguchi orthogonal design was performed resulting in the identification of two highly significant interactions and a defect-free welding process. The second application, presented by M. W. Sonius and B. W. Tew in a Quality Engineering article, involved reducing stress components in the connection between a composite component and a metallic end fitting for a composite structure. Bonding, pinning, or riveting the fitting in place traditionally made the connections. Nine significant variables that could affect the performance of the entrapped fiber connections were identified and a Taguchi experimental design was performed. The experiment identified two of the nine factors and their respective optimal settings. Therefore, stress levels were significantly reduced. The theoretical refinement example involves Taguchi robust designs. We have seen where such a design can result in products and processes that are insensitive to noise factors. Using Taguchis quadratic loss function, however, may provide a poor approximation of true loss and suboptimal product or process quality. John F. Kros and Christina M. Mastrangelo established relationships between nonquadratic loss functions and Taguchis signal-to-noise ratios. Applying these relationships in an experimental design can change the recommended selection of the respective settings of the key parameters and result in smaller losses.