Planning to Work Efficiently Essay Example for Free

Planning to Work Efficiently Essay This activity is concerned with the way that you plan work for your team. You should: * Identify the targets set for your team, including the indicators that will be used to measure these targets * Identify which, if any, of these targets is related to efficiency and/or effectiveness * Use one planning technique to plan a job activity in your workplace and explain how you would monitor the planned job activity. * Explain why the supply chain is so important in delivering results and meeting your customer requirements. Mike Pevitt Bolton College mission statement Bolton College works with a wide range of public and private sector organisations, including the ‘Bolton Family’ of public sector organisations, to meet the education and training needs of Bolton, its geographical, cultural and business communities. The College seeks to contribute to the education and training needs of the region and sub-region and, in relation to some niche markets, it will play a national and international role. We will support social and economic regeneration and contribute to measurable business success and community cohesion through the provision of flexible, innovative and responsive high quality training opportunities, working in partnerships with employers, local communities, key agencies and training providers. We will create a high quality learning organisation which captures outstanding practice including a culture of continuous improvement, by providing inspirational, cutting edge teaching and learning which is responsive to the needs, interests and experience of all learners and leads to success. We will widen participation and increase access to lifelong learning opportunities in education and training at a variety of locations and assist all our learners to reach and maximise their full potential and progress in their learning and employment. Key performance indicators for the college and department are retention, achievement and success of the students, Functional skills feeds into all of these targets for the college as a whole and now also individual department who use the services of the  functional skills area. The current targets are set out below: Ret Ach Success Under19 Long 1 89% 93% 83% Long 2 89% 93% 83% Long 3 87% 93% 81% The above targets are set for all teams within the college, this year the Functional Skills team have similar targets with the added support from other college departments to encourage qualifying students to attend, enrol and work towards passing their Functional Skills exam in Maths and English at the appropriate level for that student ranging from Entry Level 1 to Level 2. The aim of the Scheme of work is to enable the subject to be taught in a logical planned manner, to make the lessons interesting for both the student and the lecturer and to ensure that the correct resources in place to aid teaching and learning. The scheme of work will also assist in the retention of students on the programme by also allowing them access to their planned year of study and regular assessment to measure attainment and learning. So it is essential that as a team we can plan the scheme of work and lesson plans together and allocate various duties to members to gather resources or research new resour ces and report back to the rest of the team at regular monthly meetings. Planning At the start of the college year the Functional Skills team will met before the start of the first term to plan the forthcoming year’s scheme of work and effective lesson plans that all members can follow and be able to deliver the same programme to all learners whatever department they are in or their ability. The process involves the gathering of resources and planning a logical scheme of work which follows a dedicated learning process to enable the team and most importantly its students to achieve at their given ability level. This process can be perfectively demonstrated in the following Gantt chart. Development of Functional Skills maths staff scheme of work and lesson plans. The scheme of work is developed with regards the college targets and the Ofsted new inspection Framework standards so that we can deliver a well-balanced logical course to the college students to enable them to progress to their ability level and obtain the qualification. All targets set are SMART :- S specific, significant, stretching M measurable, meaningful, motivational A agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented R realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented T time-based, timely, tangible, track able A goal would be to hold a weekly project meeting with the key members of the functional skills team or to organise and run a continuous test programme throughout the completion of the general scheme of work. Weekly meetings are monitored and progress is measured against each member of the teams own target areas. The team leader will also monitor on a daily basis using email to ensure that the members are on track and are not falling behind on what they have to do, The scheme of work has to be completed to enable the college supply chain to be maintained for other departments who use the functional skills team to deliver at least two hours a week of functional skills maths to those departments’ learners at the appropriate level. The general scheme of work and lesson plans will enable the other staff members to step in if a colleague is off for any reason they will know exactly what lesson should be delivered that week because they will be delivering the  same one to their usual classes. This means that the learner does not miss out on their lessons and will also enable them to achieve, this will also impact on that department as functional skills now forms part of their own performance criteria so a seamless delivery can only assist in the attainment of the department success.

Fuge in C Minor- Bach Essay Example for Free

Fuge in C Minor- Bach Essay Johann Sebastian Bach’s was born on the 21st of March 1685 and died in 1750. He was a German composer, during the Baroque period. His Fugue in C minor was written in the middle years of his life, 1722. A fugue is a contrapuntal composition, where a subject is developed. It has 3 main parts an Exposition, Middle section and the Final Section. The exposition is where the subject/theme of the piece is first announced, and is then answered by other voices. In Bach’s Fugue in C minor it is written for three parts, the Soprano, alto and bass. It is the alto who first states the subject in bar 1. The subject is the theme of which the fugue is established. This subject finishes on the first beat of bar 3. After this subject is stated the alto starts with a counter subject (accompanies the subject), while the soprano voice answers the subject with the answer (transposition of the subject). This answer is tonal, because the intervals are not exactly the same and it is in the dominant key of G minor. Between where the final voice, the bass enters with the subject and where the answer finished is a small 2 bar codetta, where both the soprano voice is based on the subject in sequence and the alto voice is based on the counter subject in sequence. Jus before the bass enters there is a false entry in the alto voice. When the Bass enters with the subject at bar 7 in it’s original form and both of the other parts continue with countersubject material. At the first down beat of bar 9 the exposition finishes. The middle section is where subject is developed it is also where episode 1 starts. An episode is a connecting passage, developed from previous material. Episode 1 starts off with the soprano and alto voice in stretto, where one voice comes in before the other has finished, and the bass is accompanying them with scalar passages based on the countersubject material. Bar 11 is the first middle section is heard. It consists of the soprano voice having the subject, but in a different key. The bass with counter subject material accompanies it. Episode 2 where soprano voice has the contrary motion of the counter subject and the lower two parts are in thirds ccompanying. Bar 15 is the 2nd middle entry in G minor, where the subject is heard by the alto with the soprano with counter subject material. The third episode starts in bar 17 where the soprano and bass voices have the subject material in rising sequence. The alto part is based on the counter subject but in contrary motion to the original counter subject. At bar 18 the alto and bass parts swap parts. The final section (where the piece returns to it’s original key) starts at the 3rd middle entry in bars 20. The 3rd middle entry goes from bar 20 to the first downbeat of bar 22. It has the soprano voice with the subject, while the bass and alto hold the countersubject. Episode 4 is the longest as it goes from bar 22 to half way through 26, it is in C minor. At the start of this episode the soprano and alto voices are in stretto like they were in episode 1. The bass part continues with the counter subject material until the end of the episode 4. At bar 25 the soprano has the subject. The soprano and bass swap parts half way through bar 26 and this is the start of the 4th middle entry. The 4th middle entry returns to C minor, here the soprano and bass swap parts and the bass has the subject. In bars 29 to the end we hear a coda. This is where we hear the subject for the last time after a short cadential phrase. This is accompanied by a pedal not in the bass. Overall Bach’s Fugue in C minor is written very similar to what generally a fugue is. Fugue in C minor has an Exposition, middle section and final section. He has also put in four episodes and four middle entries. The four episodes are bars 9-13, 14-17, 18-21, 22-31. The Four middle entries are bars 11-13, 15-17, 19-22, 26-28. This fugue ends like many other fugue’s with the subject heard one last time in the original tonic key.

Understanding Optimized Production Technology

Understanding Optimized Production Technology Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) is the Theory of Constraints (TOC) production planning methodology originated by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in the 1980s. In fact, the concepts of DBR actually preceded the Five-Focusing-Steps and the notion of the throughput world in the development of the TOC paradigm. While the DBR method is much simpler than the older Optimized Production Technology (OPT) algorithm and the recent Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems, for many production environments, especially those not currently- or consistently- dominated by an active internal bottleneck, an even simpler method can be adopted. We call this method S-DBR, to distinguish it from the traditional model, which well refer to as traditional DBR. S-DBR is based on the same concepts as traditional DBR and is certainly in harmony with TOC and the Five Focusing Steps. What distinguishes it from traditional DBR is its assumption of market demand as the major system constraint, even when an internal capacity constraint temporarily emerges. S-DBR can be easily supported by traditional ERP/MRP systems and it is specifically intended to deal with fluctuating market demand. Optimized Production Technology (OPT) 1. What is Optimized Production Technology? 2. What is the aim of Optimized Production Technology? 3. What are the main features of OPT? 4. How OPT can be developed? 5. How OPT is operated? 6. What are the benefits achieved from OPT? DEFINITION Optimized production technology is proprietary scheduling system using, computer software which was originally developed by Dr. Eliyahu Galodratt and colleagues who recognized that one of the most complex problems facing manufacturing organizations was that of shop-floor scheduling. The system is based on the concept that there are two fundamental manufacturing phenomena: Dependent events. All processes rely upon the completion of preceding operations. Statistical fluctuations. Process times fluctuate around an average. The effect of these phenomena is that the capacity of a plant must be unbalanced and therefore bottlenecks are inevitable. As defined by Johnson, the OPT method of scheduling dictates that material should only be launched on to the shopfloor at the rate at which it is consumed by the bottleneck. Furthermore, a time buffer of work should protect the production in the bottleneck. This means, that work scheduled for day three arrives on day one, creating a buffer of two days as protection against disruption in operations before the bottleneck. AIM OF OPT The aim of OPT is to schedule bottleneck capacity in an efficient way. This schedule is the master for the demand placed on other capacities. MAIN FEATURES OF OPT The main features of OPT are described by Fax as follows: Balance flow not capacity. The level of utilization of any part of the system, which is not a bottleneck, is dependent on other constraints in the system, not the potential of the worker. The utilization and activation of a resource are not synonymous. An hour lost at the bottleneck is an hour lost for the total system. An hour saved at a non-bottleneck is just a mirage. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventories. The transfer batch may not, and many times should not be equal to the process batch. The process batch should be variable, not fixed. Schedules should be established by looking at all the constraints simultaneously. Lead times are the results of the schedule and cannot be predetermined. DEVELOPING OPT The steps used to develop OPT consist of the following: Preparation. Measuring performance, project planning and identifying hardware and software requirements. Plant analysis. Analyzing the manufacturing processes and how they are managed. Bottleneck analysis. (A bottleneck is defined as a resource where capacity is equal to or less than the demand being placed upon it.) This is conducted by analyzing work in progress and shortages vs. excesses (potential bottlenecks are those resources which appear on the shortage list but not the excess list). Computer modeling. This is the process of developing the engineering network and instructing the OPT scheduler how to interpret details concerning the manufacture of products such as dependent set-ups, critical material, fixed batch quantities, maximum batch quantities, consumable tools, rework and uninterruptible processes. Data will be fed into the model concerning routines, bills of material and customer demand. Data definition. Establishing what data is required to be fed into the system. Defining outputs. The output will be a master production schedule (MPS), which is achieved by constraint capacity planning. This provides the basis for the process of demand management using the OPT software to carry out the scheduling the OPT identifies the relevant demand and controls the build accordingly. OPERATING OPT OPT is operated through OPT software which has been developed to control complex manufacturing processes. The software will model the process and produce the schedules in the shape ofmaterial and capacity plans using the OPT bottleneck forward-loading techniques. The shopfloor control system will then monitor progress against the schedule and initiate any action to overcome shortfalls. BENEFITS The benefits claimed for OPT are that it will schedule finite resources in order to achieve maximum factory effectiveness. The scheduling system: Addresses the key problem of bottlenecks. Improves profitability by simultaneously increasing throughput. Reduces inventory and operating expenses. Manufacturing Strategy Part 6: Optimised Production Technology (OPT) Introduction OPT is possibly the most radical of the 3 production strategies to be discussed as it requires a new way of thinking, not only about production but also about the basic accounting principles. In many areas this demands radical or revised thinking by our accountants and new approaches to the fundamentals of accounting. OPT begins by stating that the goal of a manufacturing business is to make money both now and in the future. This might seem to be rather simple but it provides a framework for all the other decisions involved in the business. The aim of OPT is to increase throughput (the rate at which the company generates money through sales) whilst simultaneously decreasing inventory and operating expense. If an action does not directly improve one of the three measures then it is irrelevant at best and damaging at worst, do not do it. The traditional approach has been to optimise each sub-system irrespective of its importance (i.e. to improve the output of the welder) but the OPT approach is to optimise the total system to maximise throughput (i.e. if the welder is not limiting your throughput then dont work on it and put your efforts somewhere else). OPT states that the optimum of each sub-system is not necessarily the optimum of the whole system. OPT defines a bottleneck as any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the market demand placed upon it. The bottleneck is thus the constraint that is preventing increased throughput from your factory. Improvements here will tend to optimise the whole system and have an increased payback by directly increasing throughput. Bottlenecks are easy to spot in the average factory they are the operations that have lots of work in progress stacked up in front of them. In this sense a non-bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is greater than the market demand placed on it and improvements here will be irrelevant in terms of increased throughput. Figure 1: Spotting the bottlenecks Operation C is the obvious bottleneck for the factory. Running A at capacity will lead to a build up of inventory in front of B. Running B at capacity will lead to a massive build up in inventory in front of C. Investment or improvement in A, B or D will do nothing to improve throughput, the only meaningful investment area would be C where the ability of the plant to earn money can be rapidly improved. Operation C must be protected from loss of output for any reason. It is the operation that controls the income of the factory. In reality the choice is never this clear and the important thing is to balance the flow and not the capacity. The bottleneck concept is best explained in the hiking analogy from The Goal. The speed of a group of hikers needs to be maximised to get to the campsite by nightfall but the actual speed of the whole group is limited by the speed of the slowest hiker (the bottleneck). Placing the slowest hiker at the front of the group slows down the whole group and increases the time required i.e. reduces the throughput. Placing the slowest hiker anywhere else in the group still slows the whole group and also increases the length of the group (the inventory). Thus the only way to reduce the length (the inventory) and achieve the fastest transit time the throughput) is to find a way of moving the slowest hiker faster i.e. working on the bottleneck. An hour lost at a bottleneck, for any reason is an hour to the whole system and cannot be recovered. Dont think you can get it back later because the way we defined a bottleneck means that you cannot. The cost for this lost hour is the total cost of running the whole factory for one hour, after all the bottleneck is governing the throughput. Factory scheduling is at the heart of OPT and a critical factor in this is the location and elimination or management of bottlenecks, a fact which is not explicitly dealt with by JIT. The set up time reduction techniques of JIT appear again but are not formally recognised by OPT. An hour saved in the set-up time of a bottleneck is an hour saved for the whole system. OPT goes on to say that an hour saved on a non-bottleneck machine simply increases inventory and does nothing to improve throughput. It is wasted effort, so dont do it. In a sense OPT shares a lot of philosophy with JIT and both concentrate on quality, lead times, lot sizes and machine set-up times. A major difference is that OPT regards the river and rocks analogy of JIT as being fundamentally flawed. In OPT terms the river is not the flat evenly flowing stream that JIT assumes but has waves on inventory moving through it depending on the order situation in the factory. All can be fine until the inventory is at the trough of a wave. If you hit a problem then it is likely to rip the bottom out of the boat and sink the business! The OPT approach is much more like reality than the JIT approach in this situation, in other words dont take any analogy too far. An underlying rule forgotten at your peril. Figure 2: The OPT view of rocks in the river In the same way OPT shares a computer based approach with MRPII and both require a large complex database of product and machine information for schedule calculation. OPT also requires information on how the product is made, the route through the factory and both set-up and run times. OPT can generally pirate a lot of this information from an existing MRPII system. One problem with MRPII is that it ignores the in-build variation of any machine and assumes that a machine will work at capacity at all times. OPT is more realistic in accepting that the actual capacity is affected by statistical fluctuations and a dependence on previous operations to supply product for processing. In many cases this makes MRPII scheduling unrealistic and time buffers are built in to cater for this. OPT can be more realistic in scheduling than MRPII by taking this into account and also allowing for improvement in times and routing. OPT is based on a set of rules which need to be adopted completely by management and basic statements are incorporated into these rules. The OPT rules Balance the flow, not the capacity. Let bottlenecks determine usage of the non-bottlenecks and do not seek machine utilisation. If a resource is activated when output cannot get through the constraint then all it produces is inventory. Utilisation and activation of a resource are not the same thing. Activation is when a resource is working but utilisation is when it is working and doing useful work. Producing stock for inventory is not useful work. An hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour lost for the whole system and cannot be recovered. An hour saved at a non-bottleneck is a mirage. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory. A transfer batch is not necessarily equal to a process batch i.e. just because you have to cut 20 frames at a time on the optimiser saw it does not mean that you have to push them all on to the welder at one time. You can break the process batch (20 frames) down into small transfer batches (1 order). Process batches should be variable and not fixed. Later work shows that the best results are achieved by using a drum-buffer-rope technique to control the system. You must first find the true bottlenecks that govern the factory throughput. The bottlenecks that beat out the pace like a drum for the whole factory should be kept fully scheduled and working at all times. The bottlenecks must be protected against any interruption caused by breakdowns, quality, set-up times, labour concerns or any other variation. This protection is achieved by building in time buffers. These are a focus for process improvements. All other operations are then synchronised to the bottleneck operation and work is pulled through as if it were on a rope. Without computers the drum-buffer-rope concept works very well for limited variety production. The introduction of variety leads to shifting bottlenecks and the need for complex computer software to run the system. OPT requires maximising the flow of materials and rarely requires large investment in machinery or restructuring of the plant. By improving the flow of the product OPT seeks to get inventory moving and can make an immediate financial impact. OPT needs to be carried through to the whole company and encourages the view of the production area as a real profit maker for the company. For and Against For Quickly targets areas of concern (bottlenecks, quality set up times, high inventories). Incorporates some production and MRP. Quick results. Gives financial feedback. Suitable for discrete, batch and process industries. Possible to grow into via partial implementation at a practical level. Easily understood by the shop floor. Against Challenges traditional cost accounting. Requires simulation modelling of the process. Needs good database. Must go via one consultancy company. Summary OPT is relatively new in terms of production management systems and is an overall philosophy for running the business rather than simply being about production management. OPT starts by assuming that manufacturing is all about making money and looks at optimising the complete system to achieve this rather than just optimising individual operations on a piecemeal basis. OPT is a proprietary system in the full version (rather than just the philosophy) owned by a software and consultancy company. This does not prevent the adoption of some of the excellent ideas it contains and generates. OPT is a trademark of the Scheduling Technology Group. The only, but excellent, book on the subject is The Goal by E Goldratt and J Cox. In the previous pages we have looked at 3 different methods of production management and have reviewed the significant areas for improvement and change. As an overall summary MRPII does not seek to change anything whereas JIT actually forces a fundamental but painful search for excellence. OPT is probably even more powerful because it uses many of the JIT ideas and also follows through into the overall system. The current strategy of many companies uses a blend of these three main methods at various points in the company to achieve the right blend of success. The Manufacturing Strategy Series The Manufacturing Strategy series is designed to give production managers and their staff some insights into new manufacturing methods and to prompt the industry into considering the benefits of alternative approaches to manufacturing. The series is: Part 1: Setting the strategy Part 2: The systems and MRP II Part 3: Just in time (1) Part 4: Just in time (2) Part 5: Just in time (3) Part 6: Optimised Production Technology (OPT) (This section) Part 7: A fundamental quality Part 8: Quality management techniques tools Part 9: Theres no accounting for manufacturing strategy Part 10: Performance measurement Part 11: Changing roles and things to do NOW! Last edited: 29/03/04 Â © Tangram Technology Ltd. 2001 Our standard disclaimer regarding Internet data applies. dvanced planning and scheduling Clients in the consumer products manufacturing and process industry have revealed that many are interested in knowing more about how advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems can support them in making the right decisions to drive supply chain benefits. More and more companies are in the process of implementing such a system to further optimize their planning processes. To learn more, read the following book exerpt: How to Get the Most Out of Your Supply Chain An overview of Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems in the consumer products manufacturing and process industry by Deloittes Rhiannon Davies, Nadine Diepeveen, Erik Diks and Vincent Vloemans. Published December 2002. Requirements driving APS Pressure on performance has been steadily increasing over the last decade, and it does not appear to be abating. But where can a company still squeeze out performance improvement? According to Gartner, a leading technology research and advisory firm, supply chain management is one of the key differentiators for the future. Gartner researchers predict that: By 2004, 90 per cent of companies that fail to apply supply chain management technology and processes to increase their flexibility will lose their status as preferred suppliers (0.8 probability). Through 2005, organizations that implement supply chain planning applications with a continuous improvement program will increase ROI by 40% during a 5 year lifecycle (0.7 probability). Changing business requirements and markets are making effective supply chain management and the resulting competitiveness and flexibility more important. Customers are demanding more flexibility, more visibility of availability, more speed and highly customized products. To provide this information, more and more emphasis is put on the supply chain planning capabilities to allow the visibility along the supply chain to react quickly to changing customer demand in a cost competitive way. The alternative to reliable planning is a fully flexible supply chain. Some companies have made good headway in this area, but for many, the cost of this full flexibility is till too high. At Deloitte, we recommend balancing planning improvements with increasing flexibility in the supply chain and continuous development of supply chain professionals. Discussions with our clients in the consumer products manufacturing and process industry have revealed that many are interested in knowing more about how APS systems can support them in making the right decisions to drive supply chain benefits. More and more companies are in the process of implementing such a system to further optimize their planning processes. This book will help our clients to answer the following questions: What is an APS system and what role do they play in supply chain optimization? How APS is different from ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)? To what businesses could it apply? Will it apply to my business? How? What are the benefits that could be gained from such a system? Who are the key vendors of APS systems? How can I choose which vendor to use for my organization? How are APS packages implemented and how can I apply this methodology to my own organization? The book is written in cooperation with the 10 major APS vendors in consumer products manufacturing and process industry. As sort of an APS primer, the book includes profiles of each vendor, listing the company, its strategy, product technology, functionality and other important information. But the book also is appropriate for readers with a strong knowledge of APS, providing them with up-to-date knowledge of technology and vendors. The APS vendor assessment APS applications cover various domains in supply chain management. To structure the discussion on APS, we introduce our APS reference model. This model serves as a guideline for the general building blocks of an APS system, and allows for a level comparison of the functionality of the various vendors. Furthermore, we discuss the most common models and techniques used by APS packages and assess the level of sophistication of the functionality provided by each vendor in each of the areas outlined in the APS reference model. Each industry has its own specific business issues and these must be addressed during the definition of the requirements that need to be met by an APS package. For example, in the process industry tank planning and dealing with shelf life are usually required, whereas in the high tech industry, complex capacity planning with many constraints. We concentrate on APS packages that cover most requirements in the consumer business and process industry. We provide a classification of consumer business manufacturers to explain the different requirements that need to be addressed by an APS package. We also describe how major changes in the business environment, as well as process and technology innovations impact the requirements on APS software. To provide an up-to-date overview of the software capabilities offered by major APS vendors in the consumer products manufacturing and process industry arena, we performed a large survey among the largest APS vendors within the consumer business and process arena, including Adexa, Agilisys, Aspen Tech, Baan, i2, Logility, Manugistics, Oracle and SAP. We took a two-stage approach to the survey process. First, each vendor filled out a questionnaire that gave insight into the company, its strategy, its product and footprint, product strategy and development plans to allow us to better understand and position their capabilities. Second, we visited each vendor to discuss in more detail their answers to the survey, to view demonstrations of how their product functionality really answers supply chain planning requirements, and to get an impression of their product and company. The vendor analysis in the book is structured to allow easy comparison of vendor capabilities. First, we inventarize the capabilities of each of the vendors per functional area as outlined in the aforementioned APS reference model. Second, we compare the vendors by their industry focus and their technology capabilities. Finally, per vendor we give an overview of their user interface functionality and development areas. Selection and implementation methodology One of the objectives of the book is to serve as a guide to support the initial selection of the APS application/vendor that best meets the business needs of our clients. As such, in addition to providing a vendor selection methodology, we explain Our proven five step methodology to implement an APS system. We explain each step in detail, as well as our methods and the tools we use during an APS implementation. Finally, we provide some lessons learned (secrets of our success) based on our practical implementation experience at numerous customers. Advanced Planning Scheduling (APS) For complex planning scheduling activities especially those that are heavily constrained or require multi-stage scheduling and frequent re-scheduling our experience is that off-the-shelf software packages just dont work. Because of the many differences between problem types and industries, you often end up with a rigid system with preset objectives, logic, and scope, which doesnt quite fit your core operation. Because our Advanced Planning Scheduling (APS) system is tailored to your unique business rules, constraints, and processes, it can be used to optimise a wide variety of planning scheduling activities, including Production-line planning, scheduling, and sequencing Labour planning and timetabling Maintenance planning scheduling Equipment planning scheduling Media planning Features and benefits of our APS system include: Creating schedules that are optimised for cost, profit, or client-defined objectives (service levels, utilization, etc.) Increased delivery on time and in full (DIFOT) Reduced work-in-progress and finished goods inventory Reduced planning time Dynamically re-optimising around unexpected changes in demand and other events Conducting financial what-if analysis and scenario comparison Setting more than one objective/goal and analysing the trade-offs Centralising the planning and scheduling function across multiple plants Optimising across multiple production stages or steps Evaluating the impact of your business rules, processes, and constraints Seamless connection with your existing databases, MRP/ERP systems, and other enterprise software HOT NEWS March 2010 Â » ORDINA signs partner agreement with ICRON. HomeSolutions Advanced Planning and Scheduling Planning and scheduling has never been easy, but today it is far more challenging than it was a decade ago. Planners are feeling more and more pressure to generate accurate and timely plans by considering complex production and supply chain environment, ever changing demand, heavy constraints, conflicting business objectives and processes. And to make things worse, traditional tools at hand are becoming obsolete: spreadsheet based manual planning and scheduling cannot cope with the complexity, your ERP system hardly helps and there is no off the shelf product which can address your unique production environment and supply chain network. What you need is a flexible and reliable Advanced Planning and Scheduling solutions which is tailored for your unique requirements. With 15+ years of experience in Supply Chain Optimization, ICRON Technologies provides ICRON Advanced Planning and Scheduling (ICRON APS) solution to revolutionize your planning and scheduling activities by its mature, cutting-edge technology, and innovative modeling and implementation practices. ICRON APS provides optimized, automatically generated plans and schedules while simultaneously considering demand, resource and material constraints and business objectives. Benefits and features of ICRON APS are: ICRON APS provides significant cost and waste reduction by optimization based on user defined objectives (reduced cost of early/late job completion, inventory, overtime, transportation, reduced WIP times, etc.). ICRON APS greatly improves available-to-promise and capable-to-promise capabilities by generating realistic completion times for individual operations and jobs on entire supply chain network. This quickly translates into increased customer satisfaction. ICRON APS provides feasible, finite capacity schedules which can be readily published to the shop floor. ICRON APS significantly reduces the planning time. ICRON automatically performs most of the schedule generation activities and produces schedules in minutes rather than hours or days. ICRON APS provides tremendous what-if analysis capability. With its speed, accuracy easily generates as many scenarios as user requires and provides user friendly, efficiently tools for planner and management to selects the best scenario to be used as the official plan. ICRON APS maximizes the resource utilization by reducing the setup times by better sequencing, especially when sequence dependent setups exist. ICRON APS provides you fast rescheduling capability to respond to frequent changes. With ICRON, the production planning shifts from reactive, fire fighting planning to proactive, strategic planning. ICRON APS integrates and centralizes the planning and scheduling along the entire supply chain network. Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) -Techniques that deal with analysis and planning of logistics and manufacturing during short, intermediate and long-term time periods. APS describes any computer program that uses advanced mathematical algorithms or logic to perform optimization or simulation on finite capacity scheduling, sourcing, capital planning, resource planning, forecasting, demand management, and others. These techniques simultaneously consider a range of constraints and business rules to provide real-time planning and scheduling, decision support, available-to-promise, and capable-to-promise capabilities. APS often generates and evaluates multiple scenarios. Management then selects one scenario to use as the official plan. The five main components of APS systems are Demand Planning, Production Planning, Production Scheduling, Distribution Planning, and Transportation Planning.

The Creator Who Started the Trend of Vampire Essay -- Literary Analysi

The Creator Who Started the Trend of Vampire Bram Stoker was the author of the world-wide famous novel, Dracula (1897). He was born on November 8, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland. His full name was Abraham, but was called Bram for short. Unlike today’s families, he grew up living with seven siblings. When he was young, he was an enfeebled child bedridden for his first 8 years. His father, Abraham Stoker (1799-1876), was a civil servant – someone who works for the government – and his mother was Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818-1901). He married actress Florence Baleombe (1858-1937) in 1878. Stoker and Florence had one son named Irving Noel Thornley Stoker (1879-1961). (Merriman, 1) Even though Stoker was a sallow child, he eventually recovered and was able to attend Trinity College to study a variety of subjects. He studied mathematics, participated in sports, and was designated a spot on the school council as president of the Philosophical Society. He graduated with honors in 1870. (Merriman, 1) Due to his father’s occupation, Bram Stoker himself became a civil servant while reviewing dramatic theater. Stoker quit being a civil servant to pursue his career as a writer through the meeting of Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), an actor for William Shakespeare’s plays and manager of the Lyceum Theater in London. With Sir Henry Irving, being one of Stoker’s reliable friends, he offered him the job of becoming co-manager of Lyceum Theater in London, where he continued to delve into the writing world. (Weinfeld, 365) From there on, he wrote many books, one of which he created the masterpiece Dracula (1897). Dracula Stoker’s first copy of Dracula (1897) was published in the year 1887, starting the trend of vampires. It underwent numero... ...tinue to live on to this day. He based Count Dracula on two historical people – Vlad Tepes and Elisabeth Bathory. Using mainly these two characters, Stoker created a book on which it would be the founder of vampire books. Without the existence of Bram Stoker, vampires might not have been as popular as they are today. For instance, in today’s world, vampire books such as Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and Vampire Academy have become world famous through vampirism. Movies have even been based on Dracula (1897), similarly close to the original, using special effects on how to kill a vampire. Without the publication of Dracula (1897), there would not have been dark, gory, or evil stories to set off the advances using a new essence of writing. With Stoker’s great mind and ability to create Dracula (1897), it changed the thought of many writers throughout the world. The Creator Who Started the Trend of Vampire Essay -- Literary Analysi The Creator Who Started the Trend of Vampire Bram Stoker was the author of the world-wide famous novel, Dracula (1897). He was born on November 8, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland. His full name was Abraham, but was called Bram for short. Unlike today’s families, he grew up living with seven siblings. When he was young, he was an enfeebled child bedridden for his first 8 years. His father, Abraham Stoker (1799-1876), was a civil servant – someone who works for the government – and his mother was Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818-1901). He married actress Florence Baleombe (1858-1937) in 1878. Stoker and Florence had one son named Irving Noel Thornley Stoker (1879-1961). (Merriman, 1) Even though Stoker was a sallow child, he eventually recovered and was able to attend Trinity College to study a variety of subjects. He studied mathematics, participated in sports, and was designated a spot on the school council as president of the Philosophical Society. He graduated with honors in 1870. (Merriman, 1) Due to his father’s occupation, Bram Stoker himself became a civil servant while reviewing dramatic theater. Stoker quit being a civil servant to pursue his career as a writer through the meeting of Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), an actor for William Shakespeare’s plays and manager of the Lyceum Theater in London. With Sir Henry Irving, being one of Stoker’s reliable friends, he offered him the job of becoming co-manager of Lyceum Theater in London, where he continued to delve into the writing world. (Weinfeld, 365) From there on, he wrote many books, one of which he created the masterpiece Dracula (1897). Dracula Stoker’s first copy of Dracula (1897) was published in the year 1887, starting the trend of vampires. It underwent numero... ...tinue to live on to this day. He based Count Dracula on two historical people – Vlad Tepes and Elisabeth Bathory. Using mainly these two characters, Stoker created a book on which it would be the founder of vampire books. Without the existence of Bram Stoker, vampires might not have been as popular as they are today. For instance, in today’s world, vampire books such as Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and Vampire Academy have become world famous through vampirism. Movies have even been based on Dracula (1897), similarly close to the original, using special effects on how to kill a vampire. Without the publication of Dracula (1897), there would not have been dark, gory, or evil stories to set off the advances using a new essence of writing. With Stoker’s great mind and ability to create Dracula (1897), it changed the thought of many writers throughout the world.

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein as a Portrait of Evil Essay -- Frankenstei

Frankenstein as a Portrait of Evil   Ã‚  Ã‚   Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is more than just a story of a creation gone bad; it is rather a story of evil that compares Victor Frankenstein to Prometheus and his monster as a God-like figure. Mary was able to do this by all of the influences that she had. These influences made her able to write a new, "modern", Prometheus that did not directly call upon God, but, however, it did directly call on evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The influences that Mary Shelley had were enormous. They were her husband, her parents, her friends, and her mind. Her husband, Percy Shelley, was also a great writer. To her he personified the genius and dedication to human betterment that she had admired her whole life (G.E.W.). And it was probably for this reason why Mary let him watch so closely over her while she wrote Frankenstein (Levine, 4) and why she gave him carte blanche to revise the book (5).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Her parents were also a big influence on her. Her father was William Godwin and her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft. William Godwin was a philosopher and a novelist. Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist. From an early age she was subjected to famous philosophers, poets, and writers. She was always treated as if she was a unique individual and her parents put high expectations on her and her potential (G.E.W.). Because of all this she had a lot of her mother's and father's political ideas go   into her book (Levine, xiii).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was probably because of her friends that she wrote Frankenstein. They were all at a party at Lord Byron's villa when the played the famous game that motivated her to write Frankenstein (Patterson). Supposedly she was the only one that took the game seriously (Levine, xi... ...eing an excellent example of the portrayal of evil writing that is often found in the writing of the Romantic Period in Europe.    Works Cited and Consulted Bloom, Harold. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. New York: Chelsea, 1987. G.E.W. Biographical Sketch.   Ã‚   Http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/shelley/shel110.html Levine, George. The Endurance of Frankenstein. Los Angeles: Moers, 1974. Patterson, Arthur Paul. A Frankenstein Study. http://www.watershed.winnipeg.mb.ca/Frankenstein.html Smith, Christopher. Frankenstein as Prometheus. http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/class/sf/books/frank/papers/FrankCS.html Spark, Muriel. Mary Shelly. New York: Dutton, 1987. Spark and Stanford. My Best Mary. New York: Roy,1944. Williams, Bill. On Shelley's Use of Nature Imagery. http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/class/sf/books/frank/papers/FrankWJW.html

Reading and Censorship of the Harry Potter Novels Essay -- Argumentati

Reading and Censorship of the Harry Potter Novels J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which have reached worldwide popularity have an effect on children has not been matched by any other book. The novels have encouraged children to read for entertainment instead of turning to television or video games. When a piece of literature inspires children as the Harry Potter novels do, limiting a child’s access to the novels seems ridiculous. Unfortunately, this is what is happening with Harry Potter. The books are challenged and banned in schools and libraries all over the world because parents contend that the content is unsuitable. The content, which revolves around a world full of wizardry and witchcraft, has some parents actively lobbying against the books. These parents believe the books encourage children to practice witchcraft. Additionally, some parents do not believe that the novels are an asset to the learning development of their children. For most children, Rowling’s Harry Potter novels encourage reading. N ot only do children read the massive novels in the series, but also they use the Harry Potter series as conduits to other types of literature because their minds are opened to the wonder of the written word. The novels do not advocate witchcraft or evil, which are often the grounds for censoring the novels from children. Different features of the Harry Potter series can influence children with both good and bad consequences. The most popular reasons for censoring Harry Potter is that the books are centered around a magical community. The plot revolves around Harry and his friends as they learn how to become wizards and witches at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Through Harry’s adventures, there are allu... ...ult.asp?Page=9-11-2003/FullStory/9_11_03.1st.8.htm.> Monk, John. â€Å"In Defense of Harry Potter.† 22 Oct. 1999. Kidspeak Online. 28 Oct. 2003. <http://www.kidspeakonline.org/fighthp_defense_A001.html>. Rosen, Judith. "Booksellers Help Harry Potter." Publishers Weekly. 12 May 2003. 250.19. Ebsco Academic Search Premier. 5 Sept 2003. <http://web25.epnet.com>. Routledge, Christopher. â€Å"Harry Potter and the Mystery of Ordinary Life.† Mystery in Children’s Literature: From the Rational to the Supernatural. Adrienne E. Gavin and Christopher Routledge, Eds. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Scholastic, 1999. "'The Chocolate War' Tops 2004 Most Challenged Book List." American Library Association. 2005. 29 March 2005. <http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2005/februarya/2004mostchallengedbook.htm>.

My Graduation Plan at IUBAT

Every student should have a graduation plan on their mind. A student couldn’t progress without his graduation plan. Such as, a boat without boatman or a computer without processor. Graduation plan refers to what we will do in our future, our educational plan at the organization and what we want to be just like the aim in our life. It’s very important to every student. I’ve also my graduation plan. I’m Shantanu Sarkar.I’m a student of BCSE at IUBAT. IUBAT- International University Of Business Agriculture & Technology. It’s the first non-government university established in Bangladesh. The initial planning began in 1989 and the university established in 1991. Degree programs started in 1992 with agreement with assumption university of Bangkok, Thailand. IUBAT strongly lobbied forth creation of non –government universities and supported the initiative of the government of Bangladesh in passing legislation for formal establishment of non-g overnment universities in the country. IUBAT now operates as a Non-government university Act of 1992. I’ve a graduation plan at IUBAT.I’m a student of BCSE (Bachelor Of Computer Science & Engineering). And I want to be a software engineer. So, the BCSE degree will be conferred only to the student who has fully complied with the graduation plans and has applied for it. The plans are:†¢I’ve to complete all the prescribed courses with a minimum of 141 credit hours plus such courses recommended by the department after reviewing individual background. †¢I’ve to earn ‘A’ grades in each of the core, specialization courses, and English courses. †¢I’ve to achieve the fulfillment of English language requirement, when relevant. †¢I’ve to earn a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 3.8. †¢I’ve to earn at least ‘A’ or ‘A-’ grade in the practicum. †¢I’ve to earn at leas t ‘A’ or ‘A-’ grade in the comprehensive examination. †¢I’ve to satisfactory behavior and discipline.So, this is my graduation plan at IUBAT. And I’ve to follow this plan. If I follow this plan carefully and sincerely, I’ll be succeed.