Management Report 3000 words Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Management Report 3000 words - Essay Example 4 Obstacles/ resistance to change†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 Strategic Change & Culture†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 Bottom up / Top down Strategic change †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 Role of Change Agents†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 INTRODUCTION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 SONY: Visionary leadership†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 Pioneer advantage†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 Analysis and Teamwork †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 PART 2: Industry’s growth†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Innovation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 11 External environment†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 Competitive Pressures Exist within the Industry†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 13 Brief Statement of the Current & Future Strategic Issues†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 13 Recuperate Focus†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 14 Promote marketing to the boardroom†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 14 Brand oriented leadership†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. ... 18 Appendix A Supporting Data†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 18 Appendix B Sources†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 20 Part 1: Strategic Management Process & Context: The nature of strategy: Strategy of any organization I build that reveals how to respond to the customers, environments, competitors etc. the strategy of a company also helps in describing what kind of relationships to be made with the dealers, raw material vendors, customers, competitors, business partners, workers and also tells how to survive in the business market( Kazmi , 2008). Viewing strategy from multiple perspectives, different issues this reveals: The process that explains the process and functionality of any organization is strategic management process. This provides a roadmap for an organization to achieve its set goals and objectives( Kazmi , 2008 The influence of culture on strategy: The culture has a g reat influence on strategy. The strategies of a business would be building according to the cultural in order to meet customer’s requirements as culture greatly affects the demands of a nation (Witcher,   Chau 2010) . Strategy Lenses/ Strategy Safari†¦ & other concepts/ models/ theories to understand the significance of perspective: Different models are used to understand the significance of strategy. There are different models used within different organizations (Witcher,   Chau 2010) . Some of the key components are knowledge creation, transfer, utilization, exploration, tacit knowledge. etc. Managing Strategic Change: The need for & process of strategic change: There are no valid theories about business and the failure and success of the organization cannot be considered theoretically (Ungson ,  Wong 2008) .The processes

Importance of Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Importance of Theory - Essay Example Some nursing theories are broad while others are narrow. What is the difference between broad and narrow theories? The difference is that for narrow theories, they have a narrow range, are more real and practical. While for broad theories, they are termed as grand theories. Based on narrow theories, there is the middle – range theory. The middle range theory may be used to refer to narrow theories in particular (Davies, 2005). This paper specifically looks at the transition theory. Section one of this paper has an evaluation of the importance of nursing theory, broadly to nursing practice. Section two summarizes the main concepts and relationships of the chosen nursing theory. The third section avails a discussion of how the chosen nursing theory views nursing leadership, nursing education, nursing informatics or health policy along with 2 real life examples. The final section is the conclusion, whereby the ideas and comprehensions on nursing theory learned from writing this p aper are shared. Nursing theories are vital in nursing practice for various reasons that are not limited to those stated in this paper. As noted earlier, nursing theories avail a structure for critical thinking through which situations encountered in the nursing practice are evaluated. Each day in the nursing practice comes with new experiences. As these new experiences are met, nursing theories provide the structures for preparation, examination, and making decisions. Decision making is one of the most important aspects of nursing practice. A nurse must be accountable for every decision that he or she makes during practice. Nursing theories avail the framework for communication. Communication is key in nursing practice as it enables passing of vital information. Nursing theories facilitate communication among nurses and with other health professionals through the framework. Nursing as a discipline is faced by numerous beliefs, aims, and values. What nursing theories do is

A History Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

A History Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Now once you have a Flexible Manufacturing System in place, it cannot function in isolation. The department has to make its other processes and work conditions conducive enough to take full advantage of FMS. There are a lot of other design variables involved in the decision making process. It is very important for every manager in charge of FMS to address the question What are the activities an FMS adopter has to carry out in order not only to implement an FMS but also to realize the requisite organizational conditions; and what are the possibilities for the adopter to organize this manufacturing innovation process effectively? Stating a few examples of the extraneous factors: Maintenance Department Process planning, Production planning, and quality control processes The people carrying out these processes and production resources used to make these processes feasible The organizational arrangements used to divide and coordinate the processes Introduction A Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is a certain degree of flexibility that allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. According to Maleki  [1]  , flexibility is the speed at which a system can react to and accommodate change. To be considered flexible, the flexibility must exist during the entire life cycle of a product, from design to manufacturing to distribution. Flexible Manufacturing System is a computer-controlled system that can produce a variety of parts or products in any order, without the time-consuming task of changing machine setups. The flexibility being talked about is generally considered to fall into two categories, which both contain numerous subcategories  [2]  . The first category, Machine Flexibility, covers the systems ability to be changed to produce new product types, and ability to change the order of operations executed on a part. The second category is called Routing Flexibility, which consists of the ability to use multiple machines to perform the same operation on a part, as well as the systems ability to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume, capacity, or capability. The main advantage of an FMS is its high flexibility in managing manufacturing resources like time and effort in order to manufacture a new product. The best application of an FMS is found in the production of small sets of products like those from a mass production. FM systems are supposed to provide the manufacturer with efficient flexible machines that increase productivity and produce quality parts. However, FM systems are not the answer to all manufacturers problems. The level of flexibility is limited to the technological abilities of the FM systems. FM systems are being used all over the manufacturing world and though out industries. A basic knowledge of this kind of technology is very important because FM systems are involved in almost everything that you come in contact with in todays world. From the coffee maker to your remote control FM systems are used all over. History of Flexible Manufacturing Systems At the turn of the twentieth century, FMS did not exist. There was no pressing need for efficiency because the markets were national and there was no foreign competition. Manufacturers could tell the consumers what to buy. During that period, Henry Ford had been quoted as saying People can order any colour of car as long as it is black. All the power remained in the hands of the manufacturer and the consumers hardly had any choices. However, after the Second World War a new era in manufacturing was to come. The discovery of new materials and production techniques increased quality and productivity. The war led to the emergence of open foreign markets and new competition. The focus of the market shifted from manufacturer to consumer. According to Maleki, the first FM system was patented in 1965 by Theo Williamson who made numerically controlled equipment. Examples of numerically controlled equipment are like CNC lathes or mills which Kusiak says are varying types of FM systems. 1980s 1970s 1960sDuring the 1970s, with the ever-growing developments in the field of technology, manufacturers started facing difficulties and hence, FM systems became main-stream in manufacturing to accommodate new changes whenever required. During the 1980s for the first time manufacturers had to take in consideration efficiency, quality, and flexibility to stay in business. According to Hoeffer, the change in manufacturing over time was due to several factors. (Hoeffer, 1986) Increased international competition, The need to reduce manufacturing cycle time, and Pressure to cut the production cost. Everyday new technologies are being developed and even FM systems are evolving. However, overtime FM systems have worked for many manufacturers and hence will be around for the time to come. The Process of Flexible Manufacturing Systems As has been discussed above the flexible manufacturing system can be broadly classified into two types, depending on the nature of flexibility present in the process, Machine Flexibility and Routing Flexibility FMS systems essentially comprise of three main systems.  [3]   The processing stations: These are essentially automated CNC machines. The automated material handling and storage system: These connect the work machines to optimize the flow of parts. Central control computer: This controls the movement of materials and machine flow. The FMS as a system stands out because it does not follow a fixed set of process steps. The process sequence changes according to requirement to allow maximum efficiency. Sequence of material flow from one tool to another is not fixed nor is the sequence of operations at each tool fixed. Key Features of the Process  [4]   Some characteristics that differentiate FMS from conventional manufacturing systems are their technical flexibility, i.e., the ability to quickly change mix, routing, and sequence of operations within the parts envelope and also complexity resulting from the integration, mechanization, and reprogrammable control of operations i.e., parts machining, material handling, and tool change. Some key features of the process are discussed below. Cell: It consists of several groupings of two or more automated machines within a company. Each grouping is called a cell. All the machines present are controlled by a computer. They are programmed to change quickly from one production run to another. A key feature is the automated flow of materials to the cell and the automated removal of the finish item. Several cells are linked together by means of an automated materials-handling system, and the flow of goods is controlled by a computer. In this manner a computer-integrated manufacturing process is initiated. Random bypass capability: The material handling system has a random bypass capability, i.e. a part can be moved from any tool in the interconnected system to another because the transport system can bypass any tool along the path, on demand. This implies: Each part can traverse a variable route through the system. Again, this flexibility in material handling, in combination with multipurpose tools, makes it possible for a flexible manufacturing system to process a great diversity of parts. Automation: Computers are the heart of automation. They provide the framework for the information systems which direct action and monitor feedback from machine activities. As FMS involve a wide variety of components, each with their own type of computer control, many of these computer components are installed as islands of automation, each with a computer control capable of monitoring and directing the action. Each of the computer controls has its own communication protocol based on the amount of data needed to control the component. Thus, the task of computer integration is to establish interfaces and information flow between a wide range of computer types and models. Computer software provides the ability to transmit timely and accurate status information and to utilize information which has been communicated from other computers in FMS. Component redundancy: In FMS as the equipment is highly integrated, the interruptions of one component affect other components. This results in a greater time to trace the problem when compared with isolated components. In some cases, the interruption might be due to some other integration effect, and greater downtime may result before the actual cause of the problem is found. In this situation, component redundancy provides flexibility with the opportunity for choice, which exists when there are at least two available options. Flexible manufacturing contains functionally equivalent machinery. So in case of failure of one machine the process flow is directed towards a functionally equivalent machine. Multiple Paths: A path in flexible manufacturing represents a part sequence and requisite fixtures to complete its required operations. In a conventional machine environment, only one path exists for a part because a single fixture remains at a single machine. However, this is not the case within flexible manufacturing systems, where there are multiple paths. The number of paths which are present within flexible manufacturing is a measure of the degree of flexibility. Obviously, the higher the number of paths, higher is the degree of flexibility. Flexibility ranks high in Japanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s manufacturing strategy but not in Americaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s. A true flexible factory will not only build different versions of the same car, like a coupà © or a station wagon, on the same production line, but also a completely different car. This is what the Japanese factories are setting out to do. The cost of one factory can be spread across five or ten cars. Apart from lower fixed cost, it is also less painful to stop making one of those cars if it fails to sell. Stand Alone Machine Flexible Manufacturing System Transfer Lines High Medium Low Low Medium High Productivity Volume Part VariationsFMS as a system of manufacturing process can be compared to other processes in terms of the product volume it generates and its capacity for creating part variations. The figure above depicts the position of FMS vis-à  -vis that of stand-alone machine and transfer lines. The horizontal axis represents production volume level and the vertical axis shows the variability of parts. Transfer lines are very efficient when producing parts at a large volume at high output rate, whereas stand-alone machines are ideally suited for variation in workplace configuration and low production rate. In terms of manufacturing efficiency and productivity, a gap exists between the high production rate transfer machines and the highly flexible machines. FMS, has been regarded as a viable solution to bridge the gap and as a gateway to the automated factory of the future. The Process: With Reference to particular companies  [5]   Though the features of this manufacturing innovation process are similar across all types of firms, the manner in which they are adopted and implemented depends on product type, manufacturing, maintenance, process planning and quality control processes. It is also contingent upon the people carrying out these processes; the productive resources being used and the organizational arrangements used to divide and coordinate the processes distinguished. The description of the layout of a company that has adopted the flexible manufacturing system gives a clear idea of how the system works in practical life. It has all the features as mentioned before of a typical FMS. Flexible Manufacturing System at The Hattersley Newman Hender (H.N.H.) This company, located in U.K. manufactures high and low pressure bodies and caps for water, gas and oil valves. These components require a total of 2750 parts for their manufacture. That is why they decided to go for the system of F.M.S. to fulfill their machining requirements in a single system. The process described below shows how FMS is used for efficient production for this company. Their FMS consists of primary and secondary facilities. The primary facilities include 5 universal machining centres and 2 special machining centres. The secondary facilities consist of tool settings and manual workstations. System layout and facilities: Primary facilities: Machining centres: The FMS contains two 5-axis horizontal out-facing machines and five 4-axis machining centres under the host control. All the machines have a rotating pallet changer each with two pallet buffer stations. These stations transfer pallets to and from the transport system which consist of 8 automated guided vehicles. The 5 universal machining centres have 2 magazines with capacity of 40 tools in each magazine. The special purpose out-facing machines (OFM) each have one magazine having a capacity of 40 tools. The tool magazines can be loaded by sending instructions to the tool setting room either from the host computer or the machines numerical controller. Processing centres: The system contains two processing centres a wash machine and two manual workstations. Wash machines: It contains two conveyor belts where one is for input and one for output of pallets, each with a capacity of three pallets to transfer the pallets. The wash booth has a capacity of three pallets. The pallets are washed in the booth and turned upside-down to drain out the water. Then they are dried with blown air. Manual workstations (ring fitting area): The operator fits metal sealing rings into the valve bodies at the manual workstations. He receives work instructions via computer interface with the host. Secondary facilities: Auxiliary stations: Load/unload stations: The FMS has four-piece-part load and unload stations. Loading and unloading is performed at these stations with the instructions again received via computer interface with the host. Fixture-setting station: At these stations the fixtures are readjusted to accommodate different piece parts. Administration of tools: Tools are assembled manually. The tool-setting machine checks the dimensional offsets of the tools and generates a bar code for further identification of the tool that has been set. Auxiliary facilities: Transport system: The transport system consists of a controller and 8 automated guided vehicles (AGV). The system also contains an A.G.V. battery charging area. Buffer stores: The FMS has 20 buffer stores in order to store the empty and loaded pallets while they are waiting to be taken to another transfer station (i.e. a load/unload station or a machine tool etc.). Maintenance Area: This facility caters to pallets that may be damaged or need servicing or for storing scrapped piece-parts. Raw Material Stores: These stores are located in front of the load / unload stations and are used to store the raw materials (like forged valve bodies etc). The store is served by two fork-lift-stacker cranes and motor roller conveyors. It has a capacity of 80 containers. Fixture store: The fixtures that are not stored in FMS are stored here. It has a capacity of storing 120 fixtures. The store is served by a stacker crane and motor roller conveyors. Flexible Manufacturing System at TAMCAM Computer Aided Manufacturing (TAMCAM) Lab. This is an example of flexible manufacturing system that is used to describe the TAMCAM Simulation-Based Control System (TSCS)  [6]  . This system is located within the TAMCAM Computer Aided Manufacturing (TAMCAM) lab. The system consists of three CNC milling machines, one CNC turning centre, two industrial robots, and an automated cart based conveyor system. In addition to the automated equipment, human operators are used to load and unload some machines and perform assembly and inspection tasks. Advantages of Flexible Manufacturing System Why would firms embrace flexible manufacturing systems? What benefits does FMS provide? Answers to these two questions are important to the success of flexible manufacturing systems. It is important to understand the impacts on product life cycle, direct labour input and market characteristics. Various advantages arise from using flexible manufacturing systems.  [7]  Users of these systems enlist many benefits: Less scrap Fewer workstations Quicker changes of tools, dies, and stamping machinery Reduced downtime Improved quality through better control over it Reduced labour costs due to increase in labour productivity Increase in machine efficiency Reduced work-in-process inventories Increased capacity Increased production flexibility Faster production Lower- cost/unit Increased system reliability Adaptability to CAD/CAM operations Since savings from these benefits are sizeable, a plethora of examples from the manufacturing industry are available to illustrate these benefits. A major Japanese manufacturer, by installing a flexible manufacturing system, has reduced the number of machines in one facility from 68 to 18, the number of employees from 215 to 12, space requirements from 103000 square feet to 30000 and processing time from 35 days to a 1.5 days Ford has poured $4,400,000 into overhauling its Torrence Avenue plant in Chicago, giving it flexible manufacturing capability. This will allow the factory to add new models in as little as two weeks instead of two months or longer. The flexible manufacturing systems used in five of Ford Motor Companys plants will yield a $2.5 billion savings. By the year 2010, Ford will have converted 80 percent of its plants to flexible manufacturing. The benefits enlisted above are the operational benefits.  [8]  Flexible Manufacturing Systems also give rise to benefits in terms of strategy for the firm. Operational Benefits Strategic Benefits Lower Costs per unit A source of competitive advantage in present and future. Lesser workstations Less space in plant required. Reduced Inventories Less of Storage Space. Plant Layout gets simplified. The space is freed up for other activities. Increase in labour productivity Lesser workforce required. Operational Flexibility Ability to meet varying customer demands in terms of numbers (seasonality) and choices. Improved Quality Increased customer satisfaction Less inspection costs Lesser lead time Increased Machine Efficiency Less technical workforce for handling maintenance and repair Less Scrap and Rework Consistent Production Process On a macro level, these advantages reduce the risk of investing in the flexible manufacturing system as well as in ongoing projects in such a firm. Let us look at how flexibility helps firms. To maximize production for a given amount of gross capacity, one should minimize the interruptions due to machine breakdowns and the resource should be fully utilized. FMS permits the minimization of stationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ² unavailability, and shorter repair times when stations fail. Preventive maintenance is done to reduce number of breakdowns. Maintenance is done during off hours. This helps to maximize production time. Cost of maintaining spare part inventories is also reduced due to the fact that similar equipment can share components. Hence we can see that higher the degree of flexibility of the workstation, the lower the potential cost of production capacity due to station unavailability. To make a product every day, the trade off between inventory cost and setup cost becomes important. However, each time the workstation changes its function, it incurs a set-up delay. Through flexibility one can reduce this set-up cost.  [9]   CAD/CAM aids in computerized tracking of work flow which is helpful in positioning inspection throughout the process. This helps to minimize the number of parts which require rework or which must be scrapped. FMS changes the outlook of inspection from a post-position to an in-process position. Hence, feedback is available in real time which improves quality and helps product to be within the tolerance level.  [10]   Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) are virtually always used in conjunction with just-in-time (JIT) order systems. This combination increases the throughput and reduces throughput time and the length of time required to turn materials into products. Flexible Manufacturing Systems have a made a huge impact on activity-based costing.  [11]  Using these systems helps firms to switch to process costing instead of job costing. This switching is made possible because of the reduced setup delays. With set-up time only a small fraction of previous levels, companies are able to move between products and jobs with about the same speed as if they were working in continuous, process type environment. To look at another aspect of strategic benefits, enterprise integration can be facilitated by FMS. An agile manufacturer is one who is the fastest to the market, operates with the lowest total cost and has the greatest ability to delight its customers. FMS is simply one way that manufacturers are able to achieve this agility.  [12]  This has also been reported in many studies that FMS makes the transition to agility faster and easier. Over time, FMS use creates a positive attitude towards quality. The quality management practices in organizations using FMS differs from those not using it. The adoption of flexible manufacturing confers advantages that are primarily based upon economies of scope. As a result of aiming simultaneously at flexibility, quality and efficiency, the future manufacturing industry will strive towards: producing to order, virtually no stock, very high quality levels, and high productivity.  [13]   Disadvantages of Flexible Manufacturing System  [14]   Now that we have looked at the multiple advantages flexible manufacturing systems offer, the next obvious question is, if they are so good and so useful then why are they not ubiquitous by now? It is essential to look at the other side, especially the impact these systems have on costing, product mixes decided by the company and the inevitable trade- off between production rates and flexibility. Following are the major disadvantages that have been observed Complexity These sophisticated manufacturing systems are extremely complex and involve a lot of substantial pre planning activity before the jobs are actually processed. A lot of detail has to go into the processing. Often users face technological problems of exact component positioning. Moreover, precise timing is necessary to process a component. Cost of equipment  [15]   Equipment for a flexible manufacturing system will usually initially be more expensive than traditional equipment and the prices normally run into millions of dollars. This cost is popularly known as the Risk of Installation. Maintenance costs are usually higher than traditional manufacturing systems because FMS employs intensive use of preventive maintenance, which by itself is very expensive to implement. Energy costs are likely to be higher despite more efficient use of energy. Increased machine utilization can result in faster deterioration of equipment, providing a shorter than average economic life. Also, personnel training costs may prove to be relatively high. Moreover there is the additional problem of selecting system size, hardware and software tailor made for the FMS. Cost of automation in the form of computer integration is the most significant cost in a flexible manufacturing system. The components require extensive computer control. Also, the costs of operation are high since a machine of this complexity requires equally skilled employees to work or run it. Adaptation Issues There is limited ability to adapt to changes in product or product mix. For example, machines are of limited capacity and the tooling necessary for products, even of the same family, is not always feasible in a given FMS. Moreover, one should keep in mind that these systems do not reduce variability, just enable more effective handling of the variability. Equipment Utilization Equipment utilization for flexible manufacturing systems is sometimes not as high as expected. Example, in USA, the average is ten types of parts per machine. Other latent problems may arise due to lack of technical literacy, management incompetence, and poor implementation of the FMS process. It is very important to differentiate between scenarios where FMS would be beneficial (ex, where fast adaptation is the key) and those where it wouldnt (ex where a firms competency is based on minimizing cost). Product/Job Costing  [16]   Arguably the biggest disadvantage of flexible manufacturing systems is the difficulty faced by the company in allocating overhead costs to jobs. Usually, several products share the same resources with different consumption characteristics. Ideally, the overhead allocation should be directly proportional to the resource consumption. But this becomes complicated in the case of flexible manufacturing systems since it is very difficult to estimate which product used which machine for which purpose and for how long. Often this leads to under costing of some products and consequently over costing of others. In systems that use FMS, usually the fixed costs are quite high due to the following reasons: The machines are costly, material handling is more expensive and the computer controls are state of the art, thereby leading to a higher depreciation than seen in traditional manufacturing systems. A lot of items which are otherwise usually treated as direct costs are counted under indirect costs in case of flexible manufacturing systems. For example, labour is normally attributed to the job directly done, but in FMS, the same workers work on machines that usually run two jobs simultaneously. Hence even labour costs are to be treated as overhead or indirect costs. In order to ensure smooth running of the flexible manufacturing systems, a lot of support activities carried out by engineers and technicians. Keeping the above points in mind, we can infer that in order to cater to these scenarios, Activity Based Costing techniques are used with FMS to reduce distortion of product costs. FMS Adoption in Automobile Industry The Flexible manufacturing system has been adopted extensively in the manufacturing industry in this day and age. It addresses the issue of automation and process technology which is a key area for concern of manufacturing management along with inventory production planning and scheduling and quality. One industry which has extensively adopted this system is the Automobile Industry. Almost all global giants now follow the Flexible Manufacturing system and many have developed their own manufacturing system keeping FMS as an integral part of it. The Big Three of the American Automotive Industry namely General Motors, Ford Motors and Chrysler Motors enjoyed a monopolistic environment for a very long time. This in some way inhibited their innovation capabilities as there was no competition in the market which could drive them to innovate. These companies, therefore, maintained production facilities that were suitable for mass production of any single model, which ensured economies of scale and plant profitability. But gradually as Asian car makers gained prominence in the automotive market, the Big Three of the United States faced huge challenges across all product lines. The main Asian competitors that came into picture were Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi from Japan and Hyundai from South Korea. With these Asian countries exporting vehicles to the United States of America, competition heightened and the profitability of the Big Three decreased. To improve its profitability and maintain its market share Chrysler Corporat ion, General Motors and Ford Motor Company employed Flexible Manufacturing System in their production lines following what had been started in Japan. The essential driving force for adoption of FMS in Automobile industry is The emphasis on increasing product variety and individualization has created a strong need to develop a flexible manufacturing system to respond to small batches of customer demand. Cost savings were required to be more competitive. Newer varieties needed to be introduced in lesser time and at lesser cost. Given below are examples of some companies and their motive for adopting FMS as well as the benefits that they have achieved through it Japanese Companies and Latest FMS Toyota Toyota has been at the forefront of adopting flexible manufacturing system which has been in place since 1985. In 2002, Toyota unveiled its Global Body Line (GBL), a radical, company-wide overhaul of its already much-envied FMS.  [

Essay --

The assessment framework for children in need and their families consists of gathering information that could potentially be important to look at. Social services would then evaluate the material which has been collected, and discuss whether or not it is valuable. Then decisions would need to be made on how the social services can support the family in need. The assessment needs to be centred on the child, and what is best for them. The assessment should also build on strengths and not focus purely on the negatives. It also needs to be holistic, taking everything into account (where the family lives, what benefits they are getting, what are their neighbours like etc.). It is also a continuing process; the assessment is not a ‘one off’. Social services don't have to help all families with children but they do have a duty to look into your situation to check what help you are entitled to. Social services can provide help for a family, like a placement in a playground or nursery for an infant; they can help with problems with schools or childcare. Social services can also help with a child’s behaviour, and help with any drug or alcohol problems. They can offer friendship and support, and if it is needed, counselling can be offered. A family could be entitled to housing and/or financial support from social services if someone in the family is under the age of 18 and is classed as a ‘child in need’. The child, or children, should be considered as a ‘child in need’ if he or she needs help to manage the things that affect health and development (the Children Act 1989). Examples of which could be lack of money or food, not having accommodation, problems that may affect health or education, or that the child is living with a violent person... ...lves. It is important for children that they are provided with an encouraging and secure environment in both the home and in school. Children need to feel that their parents and teachers value learning. If kids are shown that academic exploration is important, they are likely to develop similar attitudes. Furthermore, it is important to let kids know that failure is often part of the learning process. Kids who are not afraid to fail are more willing to accept scholastic challenges and are less likely to interrupt their own academic efforts. It is also important for kids to have plenty of support at home. The home environment shapes the initial attitudes that children have towards learning. However there are professionals that are available, such as counsellors and psychologists, both in and out of school, paediatricians, and state psychological associations.

What is the narrators and others attitude to `jazz?` How is that attitude modified in the course of the study?

The narrator's attitude toward jazz is one of ambivalence, but the attentive reader will understand that it is a form of wilful ambivalence in that the narrator has seemingly made a quiet but definite break with anything that might be considered â€Å"pop† culture and more specifically, black culture or African American culture. The theme of music is a very important theme in the story because it, loosely, represents the human soul.Sonny, the musician and drug-addict, eventually expresses a deep and personal odyssey through the idiom of jazz and the narrator, during the story's climax is able to embrace this â€Å"new† form of expression, and in doing so, embraces not only the aspects of suffering which his brother painfully reminded him of and from which he tried to hide, but to these same aspects of wounding and â€Å"blues† which exist in the narrator himself.The parallel between the story's theme and the central symbol of music that shapes the story is that t he narrator's awareness that the same racial and cultural aspects of American society that have contributed to Sonny's blues have also inspired, within himself, a blues. This realization becomes clear subtly over the course of the story the same way that a musical theme develops over the course of a song, especially an improvised (or partially improvised) song. The closing lines of the story state the story's theme in nearly explicit terms: Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his life.But that life contained so many others[†¦ ] beautiful because it wasn't hurried and it was no longer a lament† (Sonny's Blues). By embracing jazz, the narrator embraces his brother's soul and his own heritage and finds not only a blues but a repressed joy as well. 2. What role do social mobility and class play in the struggle between the narrator and Sonny? A key role due primarily to the narrator, who teaches math, viewing himself as â€Å"normal† as well-adjusted while all the while experiencing and inner-turmoil of how to relate to his troublesome brother. Social mobility plays the central role of irony in the story.it is a relatively simple premise: that the character who has embraced â€Å"normal† society views the character who has not as â€Å"fringe† as â€Å"affected† and as a troublemaker, but in actuality, it is the â€Å"normal† character who has become troubled and affected. The entire ironic premise of the story is predicated on the idea that the narrator may be an â€Å"Uncle Tom† whereas his brother, Sonny, is an outsider, but it is actually the case that the narrator is not an Uncle Tom, but is simply pursuing his soul just as his brother is not an outsider, by design, but an outsider because he is a true artist.3. What in the family's history act as an ominous prophesy in the futures of the characters? The narrator's father failed to protect his own brother from dying. Because of this, the narrator's mot her instills within the narrator a deep sense of obligation to his younger brother. The idea is that the narrator, even at his most estranged from Sonny, still feels an obligation to him, and to his mother due to the events of his father's past.In this way, the story shows how family history adn oral history can play as large a role in the culturization of African Americans as the so-called establishment. In the long run, the narrator's ties to the establishment give out long before his sense of obligation to his family. 4. How does Harlem-its streets, its people-act as background for this story? Harlem is a microcosm of African American culture and it is portrayed positively in the story although this positivism may not be obvious to some readers on their first reading of the story.The use of the Harlem setting as a counterpoint â€Å"white† society is way of showing the reader that the same divisions between one type of culture and the other exist within the narrator himsel f; that is his crisis. By setting the story in Harlem, it is tantamount to setting the narrator in a direct confrontation with his own culture, a culture which he seemingly does not value or truly understand and one which is in many ways set against the culture he tries to be a part of on a daily basis. 5. The climax of this story involves music and listening to music.How well does Baldwin convey in words what is essentially an aural and non-intellectual experience? Baldwin succeeds with great ability because of his method of venturing into an internal monologue during the climax. By using this technique, he allows the reader to follow thought by thought with the narrator's developing understanding of his brother's â€Å"soul† as it speaks to him through the music. Consequently, the reader reaches the fruition of that understanding and that moment of connection at the same time as the narrator, so the harmony of realization is, in itself, like music.6. In the Bible, Cain asks the Lord, `Am I my brothers keeper? ` How does this story imply an answer? â€Å"Sonny's Blues† makes an ironic turn on this Biblical phrase. In other words, though the narrator believes that he must function as Sonny's â€Å"keeper† because Sonny is troubled and also because of his mother's geas, in actuality, the narrator is no less troubled than Sonny and, in fact, may be less gifted and therefore more prone to losing his own self-identity.Both Sonny's drug and legal problems and the narrator's identity crises present real-world and profound obstacles which have arisen at least partially due to cultural factors of race and social standing. In the final analysis, the story demonstrates that each person is each person's â€Å"keeper† on an equal footing although sometimes immediate circumstances and prejudices allow one person to put himself â€Å"above† another in relation to altruism or helping out one's â€Å"brother. â€Å"

Love at First Sight Essay

Some say that true love is based on physical appearance without a deeper understanding of a person does not exist. Others argue that one may be able to see true love immediately. Shakespeare puts a part of the play to this question. He makes reference to Romeo and Juliet as â€Å"crossed lovers†. In other words, the two lovers are manipulated by their future from the very beginning. Although not meant to be together, they may still love each other. Romeo first sees Juliet during her parents’ banquet. Romeo is completely in love with looks and not personality. His first love, Rosaline, does not return the favor of his love. Romeo becomes entirely depressed and love sick. He still insists that Rosaline is his one true love, even though she does not love him back. Romeo is very stubborn. Romeo is struck by Cupid’s arrow, when by chance, he meets Juliet. Instantly, Romeo and Juliet are attracted to each other, by Romeo’s words, and by Juliet’s looks. When Romeo first sees Juliet, he is completely astounded by her beauty. Without even knowing her name, Romeo’s eyes take complete control of his heart and mind, setting him in a helpless state of love. He questions whether he has loved before, and realizes that his previous loves have never been genuine. Romeo and Juliet did not take the time to get to know each other and form a deep intimate relationship. They rushed into their relationship. They were also very young to be experiencing love. Even people much older than them do not know what love means. It may have really been true love that was mutually felt by both of them though. Many people say that they have had experiences with true love but I do not think that true love exists in the real world, only in fairy tales and fiction stories. I do not think that you can fall in love until you are mature enough to understand what love really is. Many people fall in love to fast and end up being disappointed because of the way their future turns out. My opinion is, if you are going to spend your life with one person, make sure that the person is the only one you love.

Flaws of the Death Penalty essays

Flaws of the Death Penalty essays Capital Punishment has been part of the criminal justice system since the earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code(ca. 1700 B.C.) decreed death for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of beer(Flanders 3). Egyptians could be put to death for disclosing the location of sacred burial sites(Flanders 3). However, in recent times opponents have shown the death penalty to be racist, barbaric, and in violation with the United States Constitution as "...cruel and unusual punishment." In this country,although laws governing the application of the death penalty have undergone many changes since biblical times, the punishment endures, and controversy has never been greater. A prisoner's death wish cannot grant a right not otherwise possessed. Abolitionists maintain that the state has no right to kill anyone. The right to reject life imprisonment and choose death should be respected, but it changes nothing for those who oppose the death at The death penalty is irrational- a fact that should carry considerable weight with rationalists. As Albert Camus pointed out, " Capital punishment....has always been a religious punishment and is reconcilable with humanism." In other words, society has long since left behind the archaic and barbous "customs" from the cruel "eye for an eye" anti-human caves of religion- another factor that should raise immediate misgivings for freethinkers. State killings are morally bankrupt. Why do governments kill people to show other people that killing people is wrong? Humanity becomes associated with murderers when it replicate their deeds. Would society allow rape as the penalty for rape or the burning of arsonists' homes as the penalty for arson? The state should never have the power to murder its subjects. To give the state this power eliminates the individual's most effective shield against ...

Write The Topic Here When You Decide What My Proposal Will Be Talking

Write The Topic Here When You Decide What My Proposal Will Be Talking Write The Topic Here When You Decide What My Proposal Will Be Talking About – Research Proposal Example Political Party Identification: Predicting Party Affiliations based on Age and Economic Outlook. My research captures three variables used in determining the performance of the current and past ruling parties. Through the associations determined, I will develop a linear regression model based on the ages of respondents, and economic outlook over the past twelve months to determine the individual’s party affiliation. I will run correlations between each of the independent variables and the dependent to ascertain whether as postulated, older, more conservative Americans are more likely to be associated with the more conservative Republican Party; and whether either Democrats or Republicans have a more biased outlook of the economic situation in the country. Based on the outcome, it will be possible to determine which party has a higher likelihood of winning the 2016 Presidential elections based statistical evidence. The dependent variable for this research is party affiliation ( PID_X). It will be determined using respondents’ perceived economic status of the country between the time of the survey and the previous one year (ECON_ECPAST_X), which is the first independent variable for this study. Age (DEM-AGEGRP_IWDATE), the other independent variable, will serve as a moderating factor for the relationship between party affiliation and economic outlook. Hypothetically, by older people being more conservative and more pro-Republican, age could be a source of unaccounted-for bias, which advised the decision to use it as a moderating factor. This way, the bias will be eliminated, and obtain a fairer prediction of party affiliation based on economic outlook.

Writing Tips Paraphrasing a Source

Writing Tips Paraphrasing a Source Paraphrasing a Source It can be tempting to quote sources at length when writing a college paper. After all, you’re told to reference your sources, and how better to do that than using the actual words you’ve read? However, most of the time there’s a better option: paraphrasing. But what is paraphrasing? How do you paraphrase a source? And what are the advantages? Let us explain. Paraphrasing vs. Quoting Paraphrasing and quoting are both ways of sharing someone else’s ideas in your own work. When you quote a source, you use the exact words of the person you’re quoting (enclosed in â€Å"quote marks†). But when paraphrasing you need to explain the other person’s ideas in your own words. You might want to paraphrase a source in order to: Demonstrate your understanding of the subject matter Avoid using too many quotations in a document Explain a complicated idea (especially if the original text is hard to follow) Focus on one aspect of an idea that is relevant to your own work In fact, the only time you truly need to quote a source instead of paraphrasing is when the exact wording is important (e.g., because you’re drawing on a key piece of terminology or interpreting the specific words used by an author). In most other cases, paraphrasing will work just as well or better. Remember, though, that you still need to cite a source if you paraphrase it. Even if you have rewritten something in your own words, you still need to show where your ideas come from. 5 Tips on Paraphrasing Rewriting something in your own words can be tricky, but we have some tips: Read the original source carefully to make sure you fully understand it Consider whether you need to paraphrase the passage in full (i.e., with all the details contained in the original) or simply summarize it (i.e., picking out key details relevant to your work) Before you begin writing the paraphrased version, consider how you would explain the passage to a friend Write your paraphrased version and compare it to the original passage to make sure you haven’t missed any important information If you have used any exact phrases or key terminology from the original, enclose these in quotation marks and cite the relevant page numbers If you do all of the above, you should be able to communicate your ideas clearly without having to quote your sources at length every time.

Encyclopedia of Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Encyclopedia of Nursing - Essay Example How could you as a nurse assist persons in this experience? What would the nurse use to promote better-coping skills? These questions form the core of nursing in my opinion. All of this can sometimes be difficult for nurses. In the workaday environment of a hospital, practitioners too often â€Å"glaze over† or become somewhat automatic. Everyday routine can sometimes numb them to their surroundings, making it difficult to connect with patients that require special attention. It is not hard to imagine the situation: nurses are human just like the rest of us—the fact that there are terrible suffering and pain all around them is something they will eventually adapt to after a certain amount of time. Patients who come into a hospital have many fears and anxieties about their experience: just how sick are they? What do all these new confusing words mean? How will their problem affect the quality of their lives? It can be very difficult to cope. For nurses who have seen it a ll before it can be difficult for them to be patient and supportive. It is the same basic biological principle as hypostasis. This model argues that it is vital to be mindful and keep in mind the various prejudices and fears all humans harbour—and try to use these feelings to help shape positive relationships with patients under care. The nurse and patient need to come up with what some call a â€Å"shared story.† This is my vision for nursing. This focus on a shared story is very important. The relationship between the patient and the practitioner in a very real sense a developing narrative. In order to live out my philosophy of nursing, every day I must remember this, that a nurse and his or her patient must form a shared story. Those people and professionals who work at a hospital form a family.  

Workplacement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Workplacement - Research Paper Example This phase is seen as the initial step towards career development (Billett, 2009). Considering the fact that work placements provide an avenue for the learners' to get a sense of what they will be facing in the future absent the threat of dismissal or unemployment and with the added incentive of learning for education's sake, work placements appear to be mechanisms aimed at ascertaining the well-being of the students (Neill and Mulholland, 2003). 1.b. Aims of the Report This report aims to: illustrate how students who undertake work placements perform under a setting wherein they are able to put theory into practice show how work placement is able to provide the students with a sense of awareness of the existent culture in their chosen field provide the readers with a glimpse as to how work placement may be considered as a preliminary step in entering the world of work; and, discuss work placement from the point of view of a student undertaking such with concrete and in-depth views o n the matter as to its perceived benefits and possible detriments. 2.a. Researching the Report / The Evidence Base Researching the report has been a challenging task. A lot of works have been written about work placement and there have been several opinions available through the internet. Prior to my engagement, I have done research and read on work placement. I wanted to prepare myself as to what to expect during the conduct of the work placement and what I should bring in order to become an asset to the organization that I will become a part of. Garavan, Hogan and Cahir-O’Donnell (2003) considered learning as a process brought about by the development of a series of actions and events. That is, learning is not to be confused or considered as an outcome of these... Researching the report has been a challenging task. A lot of works have been written about work placement and there have been several opinions available through the internet. Prior to my engagement, I have done research and read on work placement. I wanted to prepare myself as to what to expect during the conduct of the work placement and what I should bring in order to become an asset to the organization that I will become a part of. Garavan, Hogan, and Cahir-O’Donnell (2003) considered learning as a process brought about by the development of a series of actions and events. That is, learning is not to be confused or considered as an outcome of these developments (Garavan, Hogan and Cahir-O’Donnell, 2003). Furthermore, Garavan, Hogan, and Cahir-O’Donnell (2003) maintained that as a process, learning encompasses the following principles: ï‚ § that learning is not just about knowledge as it also about values, beliefs, insights, attitudes, habits, feeling, shared awareness, shared understandings, and skills; ï‚ § that learning outcomes should not be construed as a singular momentous event but rather as an incremental and gradual transformation; ï‚ § that learning as a process is a struggle which necessarily entails conflicts often concerning aims and outcomes; ï‚ § that learning is essentially individual but may likewise be collective in instances where the experience is shared; ï‚ § that there is no singular pattern or behavior in learning; ï‚ § that in order to learn, skills such as questioning, listening, challenging and enquiring are necessary;

John F Kennedy Civil Rights Address Research Paper

John F Kennedy Civil Rights Address - Research Paper Example worldwide struggle towards equal rights and goes on to argue that all Americans irrespective of their color should be offered equal treatment in places of public accommodation. He purports that every American has a moral obligation to be treated equally. It can also be observed that rhetorical devices such as the choice of diction, imageries, statistical data, and tone contribute to the persuasiveness of the speech. For instance, the use of phrases such as â€Å"ought to be possible† and â€Å"ought to have the right† clearly emphasize this sense of moral responsibility towards equal treatment and freedom. This has been aptly suggested by Newman when the author states: â€Å"the repetitive use of "it ought to be possible" is an effective way to point out the different levels of freedom that restricted the average Negro citizen† (Newman). Kennedy also seeks the help of statistical data (such as ‘one-half’, ‘one-third’, ‘twice as muc h’, and ‘half as much’) to convince his audience the white-black disparity that governs the society. Similarly, in his speech, Kennedy offers a number of instances where unequal treatment and discrimination is shown toward the Negros. These instances are capable of creating so many vivid images or mental pictures in the minds of the audience. President Kennedy then directs his audience towards the depth of the issue and leads the audience to think about the possible solutions. He makes it clear that segregation and discrimination is prevalent in almost all states of America and calls for the need to frame new legislations to tackle the issue. However, he warns his white audience that the nation is ‘confronted primarily with a moral issue’ and exhorts everyone to ask their conscience whether they are able to grant ‘equal... The intention of this study is "Civil Rights Address" by John F Kennedy. as a landmark in the nation’s pursuit towards abandoning racial discrimination and segregation. All throughout the speech, Kennedy persuades his listeners/audience to ensure civil rights, racial equality and equal treatment in the nation. The address is quite persuasive in nature and President Kennedy has successfully employed various rhetorical strategies all throughout the speech. No doubt, the speech appeals to the ethos, logos and pathos of the audience; stylistic features such as the use of imagery, appropriate language, and tone enhance the credibility and persuasive nature of the discourse. The speech can also be understood as President Kennedy’s attempt to defend and justify his controversial decision to admit two qualified Negroes into the University of Alabama in Birmingham. One also needs to keep in mind there were ongoing demonstrations, parades and rallies for equal civil rights within the nation. The speech clearly points out two key issues that haunt the American society-racism and prejudice. Thus, the speech offers the audience a thorough understanding of the speaker’s concern over the current issue of segregation in the nation. This paper tries to identify the specific rhetorical aspects of Kennedy’s speech and in doing so the paper seeks to draw evidences from the address as well. Kennedy's â€Å"Civil Rights Address† blends a variety of rhetorical elements and it is this address which paved the way for equal civil rights in America.

Examination and evaluation of supplier partnerships and strategic Essay

Examination and evaluation of supplier partnerships and strategic alliances in the development and management of the supply chain - Essay Example It is also essential that barriers are removed. The factors again vary across industries. There are gaps in the literature and hence it is proposed to undertake a study to determine the variables and form a well planned supply chain to suit individual needs. In order to conduct this research, it is proposed to use the qualitative method of research employing the focus group interviews followed by a detailed case study. The participants would be selected based on their involvement in the supply chain formation process. Focus groups interviews would be better than individual interviews as it is usually a team of members that are responsible for such decisions. Besides, in a group, the members are more expressive than in individual interviews. This data would then help to study it through the case study approach which is essential to have a deeper insight. The ethical issues would be taken into account and it is expected that this research would benefit the future managers responsible i n the forming strategic alliances and partnerships in the supply chain process. Supply chain represents the sequence of process involved in the complete manufacturing and distribution cycle of any product. Globalization, increased price war, changes in technology and the ever increasing-demands of the customer has made the manufacturing companies conscious of these constant changes taking place. To survive in this competitive market strategic alliances and partnerships become inevitable. It became necessary to manage all aspects of the supply chain; they need to cut costs without compromising on quality of product or service. The objective of this paper is to explore and evaluate that strategic alliances and partnerships in the supply chain management have to be well planned to suit individual needs. While a lot of literature is available on how firms have benefited from supply chain management, knowledge is

LEGAL ASPECT OF NURSING Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

LEGAL ASPECT OF NURSING - Case Study Example Therefore, the law of nursing is meant to aide nurses in making decisions in order to prevent incidences that can course legal suits. In addition, law of nursing streamlines the services provided by nurses so that nurses can take liability for malpractices. The law is postulated to protect patients and nurses in delivering nursing care services (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). It is advisable that nurses to familiarize with the Tort Law. Tort law chiefly deals with, negligence, and malpractice cases in the healthcare world. Nurses should be concerned with profound of accepting Tort Law because it creates one of the biggest panics in the medical world. Tort Law defines liabilities and responsibilities of nurses when providing nursing care to the patient. Tort is the wrongful act that generates harm intentionally or unintentionally. Malpractices in nursing are, therefore, a Tort in which nursing principals are not accomplished (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). Hence, Tort Law is the common and known law that all healthcare practitioners are required to adhere to in order to prevent circumstances that may be observed as medical malpractices. (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). ... In the course of their education, nurses are made to comprehend that patient care is not only making decisions right, but also, organizing and maintaining accurate medical reports and records for the patients. A nurse who does not offer written evidence of the verdict made showing how the decision was attained at should be charged with negligence. Negligence is the failure of nurses to offer care that a sound nurse would use in a similar incidence (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). In this case study, the hospital had enough evidence of suspending the nurse from her duties. By her diverting narcotic drugs, she posed substantial threats to her patient safety and this became a liability to the facility and the acute care department. However, the facility should consider humanistic, regulatory, legal, practical, and ethical considerations in solving the incidence. In addition, the discrepancies between the nurse’s patient electronic data on narcotics and the hand written notation on the paper record, was enough evidence for the nurse to be suspended for incompetence (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). In the court, the plaintiff will be the nurse and the defendant will be the hospital. Before making a verdict whether the nurse’s grievances should be upheld in this case scenario, it is necessary first to look at the nursing ethics that was involved. Ethics is the principals of conduct and moral judgment. There are three key standards of healthcare ethics that was involved in this case scenario; justice, nonmaleficence, and beneficence. Beneficence is the act of promoting and doing well. For the purpose of the healthcare industry, healthcare providers work to stimulate their client’s best interest and struggle to attain best results. In the case study given, with the

Philosophy of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Philosophy of Education - Essay Example The teacher develops a philosophy of education from both the theoretical sources of historical philosophies which discuss the idealism that underlies the teaching process and also from practical experience by testing these theories in classroom instructional practice. From philosophers such as Rousseau, Piaget, Thoreau, and Montessori, the teacher may learn about human nature and the stages of childhood development, as well as the goal of education. The teacher needs to build practical strategies for teaching on the foundation of the idealism of human nature, focusing on social skills growth, mental patterns of learning, physical training, and personality development. From the foundation of openness and the exchange of information through communication, the teacher must also implement a broader teaching structure in a Third Grade class that will lead to well-rounded development of students in all subjects of science, reading, writing, research, recreation, and physical growth. Becaus e of this, I have decided to adopt what is called an â€Å"essentialist† theory of education that believes that the teacher should prepare according to a path of gradual development of the childhood subject, where a wide variety of course materials and instruction leads to the broad development of minds and character through the classroom activities. (Phillips, 2008) 1. Curricular and Instructional Practice For curriculum development in the Third Grade, the teacher will be following a broad curriculum in general education focusing on the development of fundamental learning skills for further progression in education. This curriculum is based upon reading and writing most importantly at this stage, with also basic mathematics being important. The students should improve in reading skills across all subjects, as well as using their writing skills in all classes for essays, tests, note-taking, etc. Math is integrated into science and arithmetic classes to impart basic skills thr ough repetition of practice and homework. Oral communication will be an integral part of the students’ in-class responsibilities. The teacher will be implementing Ohio Teaching Standards and preparing students for the display of knowledge apprehension in standardized tests that will assess cumulative knowledge. The classroom will be on a â€Å"one-room† standard, with both male and female students mixed in the class, and uniforms will not be used as part of the dress codes. My teaching will take place in a Public School district, and as such there will be further responsibilities in the application of the teaching method with regard to keeping the parents as part of the process, engaged and informed in the child’s development, as well as satisfying administrative responsibilities at the local school and district levels. In this environment, the teacher must be well-rounded in knowledge, and prepared in advance for lessons in order to anticipate problems or issue s and have adequate response techniques available for implementation in the lesson. (Atherton, 2011) 2. Diversity of Learners Multiculturalism is the basis for the current paradigm in public education where the students come from a wide range of backgrounds both culturally and socio-economically. Part of the teacher’s responsibility is to provide the students with the basic of good citizenship, which includes tolerance for others, respect for views, openness, helpfulness, etc. Because of this the teacher should always make sure to maintain fairness in teaching methods, recognizing that girls and boys must be taught equally, and that the student’s must learn to understand and appreciate each other’s own cultural diversity and heritage. While the history classes allow for cultural dimensions to be discussed, holidays, class parties, special events, and seminars can be implemented by the teacher and organized in a way that they promote multiculturalism. The teacher should assist the students in building cultural identity and individual awareness within the

LEGAL ASPECT OF NURSING Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

LEGAL ASPECT OF NURSING - Case Study Example Therefore, the law of nursing is meant to aide nurses in making decisions in order to prevent incidences that can course legal suits. In addition, law of nursing streamlines the services provided by nurses so that nurses can take liability for malpractices. The law is postulated to protect patients and nurses in delivering nursing care services (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). It is advisable that nurses to familiarize with the Tort Law. Tort law chiefly deals with, negligence, and malpractice cases in the healthcare world. Nurses should be concerned with profound of accepting Tort Law because it creates one of the biggest panics in the medical world. Tort Law defines liabilities and responsibilities of nurses when providing nursing care to the patient. Tort is the wrongful act that generates harm intentionally or unintentionally. Malpractices in nursing are, therefore, a Tort in which nursing principals are not accomplished (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). Hence, Tort Law is the common and known law that all healthcare practitioners are required to adhere to in order to prevent circumstances that may be observed as medical malpractices. (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). ... In the course of their education, nurses are made to comprehend that patient care is not only making decisions right, but also, organizing and maintaining accurate medical reports and records for the patients. A nurse who does not offer written evidence of the verdict made showing how the decision was attained at should be charged with negligence. Negligence is the failure of nurses to offer care that a sound nurse would use in a similar incidence (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). In this case study, the hospital had enough evidence of suspending the nurse from her duties. By her diverting narcotic drugs, she posed substantial threats to her patient safety and this became a liability to the facility and the acute care department. However, the facility should consider humanistic, regulatory, legal, practical, and ethical considerations in solving the incidence. In addition, the discrepancies between the nurse’s patient electronic data on narcotics and the hand written notation on the paper record, was enough evidence for the nurse to be suspended for incompetence (Barbara, and Phillips, 2013). In the court, the plaintiff will be the nurse and the defendant will be the hospital. Before making a verdict whether the nurse’s grievances should be upheld in this case scenario, it is necessary first to look at the nursing ethics that was involved. Ethics is the principals of conduct and moral judgment. There are three key standards of healthcare ethics that was involved in this case scenario; justice, nonmaleficence, and beneficence. Beneficence is the act of promoting and doing well. For the purpose of the healthcare industry, healthcare providers work to stimulate their client’s best interest and struggle to attain best results. In the case study given, with the

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Influence on Hitler Essay Example for Free

Friedrich Nietzsche’s Influence on Hitler Essay Friedrich Nietzsche had broached the idea of Ubermensch (translated as Superman) as one of the core features of his philosophy. This idea which set the stage for individualism by touching on concepts of self-surpassing and self-mastery is explicitly propounded in his most famous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra where the protagonist, Zarathustra said: I teach you the superman. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have you done to surpass man? The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman shall be the meaning of the earth! I conjure you, my brethren, remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are thy, whether they now it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! (Nietzsche, 1999: 3) This, together with another concept introduced by Nietzsche, the will to power had triggered in Hitler a narcissistic interpretation of Nietzsches philosophy where Hitler most certainly identified himself, and served as his justification for his concept of racial superiority. Although Nietzsche may not have intended to influence Hitler towards anti-Semitism, it was in his language to which Hitlers distortion could be attributed. His use of the concepts whole-man and half-man as well as master morality and slave morality as means towards the achievement of a new order gave Hitler a ground for his Anti-Semitic ideas. Nietzsche believed that noble morality, in contrast to slave morality, contributed towards the improvement of the race. Nietzsche describes the nobles as people who see themselves as creators of civilization, saviors of the all and protectors of everyone from everything contemptible (Nietzsche, 1999). Meanwhile, the slaves are those who see the nobles as oppressive and themselves, the oppressed, being incapable of production and giving rise to their resentment towards creativity. As Hitler sees them, through their inherently oppressed status, they induce in the nobles a feeling of guilt and resentment towards their own superhuman status, hindering their own productivity and thus, serve as a bar against the realization of their full potential. To him, the salvation of humanity dwells only in the hands of the nobility and definitely not in the slaves. In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes: A human community appears well organized only if it facilitates the labors of these creative forces in the most helpful way and applies them in a manner beneficial to all†¦ In this it must proceed from the principle that the salvation of mankind has never lain in the masses, but in its creative minds, which must therefore really be regarded as benefactors of the human race (Hitler, 1971: 367). Compounded by Hitlers narcissistic interpretation, his identification with the Superman, and his anti-Semitic philosophy, it is not surprising that Hitler would identify himself with the nobles who, applying Nietzsches concept of will to power and Nietzsche’s affirmation of the existence of destroyers of the earth who must be eliminated: â€Å"Poisoners are thy, whether they now it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! (Nietzsche, 1999: 3) must have felt the urge to cleanse the race from such impurities as the slaves who prevent the human race from reaching the zenith of civilization and whom he most likely associated with the Jews. His determination of the nobles and slaves in the real world can be best demonstrated in Mein Kampf: The most unbeautiful thing there can be in human life is and remains the yoke of slavery. Or do these schwabing [? ] decadents view the present lot of the German people as aesthetic? Certainly we dont have to discuss these matters with the Jews, the most modern inventors of this cultural perfume. Their whole existence is an embodied protest against the aesthetics of the lords image (Hitler, 1971; 154). In Hitlers mind, this facilitation of the labor of creative forces involves mass killings to an end of racial extinction. For Nietzsche, it is the Superman who would create a new morality in order to harness the will to power and destroy slave moralities. He believes that with an increase in greatness in a man, there is a contemporaneous increase in his wickedness and terribleness. This is justified because such increase in wickedness and terribleness are the only means to bring the status of humanity to a higher state; a means to surpass himself; to move away from the lesser creature that he was; as consistent with the purpose of the Superman. In Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche, through his protagonist said: Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have you done to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than surpass man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame (Nietzsche, 1999: 3). If it is true that Hitler was influenced by Nietzsche’s writings, Hitler read Nietzsche’s â€Å"terribleness† to mean the need for brutality and destruction in order to refine humanity and remove all traces of imperfection to achieve a race of Superhumans. Humanity can only be cleansed of imperfection if such lesser human beings are prevented from interbreeding, propagating their genes to allow further continuance of the slave line, To Hitler, this is the only means to which a Superman, that is, referring to himself, can rule the world. In Mein Kampf, he says: †¦when the highest type of man has previously conquered and subjected the world to an extent that makes him the sole ruler of the earth (Hitler, 1971: 288). Extermination, then, becomes an essential element for the realization of Hitler’s utopia. He, in his own hands sought the application of Darwin’s evolution by ruthlessly eliminating his â€Å"weaker† and â€Å"lower† human beings. According to him: â€Å"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live (Hitler, 1971: 289). † That said, for Hitler, mass killings and the use of violence can be justified if only for the purpose of saving mankind from the slaves who are the sole source of its degeneration, that is, those who lack the motivation for self-preservation and those who impose guilt on the nobles by perpetually seeking others help. His resolve was characterized by alienating any manifestation of slavery by exterminating them. It cannot be gainsaid that Hitler used Nietzsche’s philosophy to justify his own. What Hitler had done however, cannot in any way be imputed to Nietzsche. Reading all of Nietzsche’s works as a whole, one cannot help but doubt whether Nietzsche truly shared whatever anti-Semitic sentiments that prevailed during their time. At most, the resultant justification that Hitler was able to get hold of from Nietzsche was merely a product of his megalomaniacal search for an intelligent bearing to support his propaganda and to further cultivate his delusions of grandeur and personal hatred against specific races, accepting what phrases that apply to his vision and rejecting those that did not. Works Cited Hitler, A. (1924). Mein Kampf (James Murphy, Trans. ): NL: Fredonia Books. (Original work published 1927-1927). Nietzsche, F. (1999). Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Thomas Common, Trans. ): New York: Dover Publications. (Original Work published 1883-1885).

Ataturk Reforms Possible

Ataturk Reforms Possible Abstract: Most studies on Ataturk Reforms focus on the intentions of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Yet, the intentions alone do not explain how the reforms became possible. This paper rather looks at the conditions prevailing at the time of the reforms. It shows that due to a variety of factors, both domestic and international, the state and the society stood in opposite relations in Turkey: the former was exceptionally strong while the latter was seriously weakened and fragmented. The contingent nature of these conditions throws doubt on the re-doability of Ataturk reforms elsewhere. Extremely impressed and overly excited, Bryan Woodman speaks to his wife on the phone. The topic is an Arab Prince, Nasir, he recently met for a business purpose. Having a PhD in economics from Cambridge, young, ambitious, and reformist, Nasir could be like Ataturk. So Bryan Woodman told her wife, the most he could say in expressing his admiration for the Prince charming, Nasir. What does this symbolize, the mention of the name, Ataturk, in the mouth of an unlikely figure, an energy specialist in a Geneva-based investment company, in a movie like Syriana? No one probably wonders and questions the appropriateness of the name chosen to describe Nasir. For many Ataturk seems the perfect match for our problems in the Middle East. He was well mannered, well dressed, and well educated, could speak French and knew the Western philosophy and lifestyle very well. He could dance in the private gatherings and was a true gentleman to women, marrying only once. His political actions even testify better. Ataturk is an icon of everything the West has wanted to export to the rest of the world: nation building, state building, republicanism, liberation of women. More importantly, he is the champion of secularization. Therefore, in the post 9/11 world, the name, Ataturk, probably arouses even more admiration for he did what is now even unimaginable to many today. He abolished the caliphate, the symbol of political Islam, closed down the madrasahs and Sharia courts, banned the Sufi brotherhoods, changed the Islamic law to a Western law, so and so forth. For many all other modernizers in the Middle East, from Gemal Abdel Naser of Egypt to Reza Shah of Iran failed simply because they could not become Ataturk enough in one way or another. Mustafa Kemal, or famously known as Ataturk, was an Ottoman general, who became a war hero as a commander in the Dardanelles in the First World War. The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side when the war ended and signed the treaty of Sevr, according to which the Turks were left with a small piece of territory in Anatolia, all the former extensive Ottoman lands being divided among various Allied countries. Therefore, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk landed in Samsun in May of 1919, the country was under foreign occupation. In the following three years under his leadership what is now Turkey (except Hatay province) was cleared off from foreign forces through a combination of war and diplomacy. Starting with the abolition of the sultanate in 1922, Ataturk then led a series of reforms, an important part of which was to rewrite the Turkish history. According to this, the new Republic of Turkey was truly like a phoenix, a legendary bird coming into being from the ashes. This official attitude h ad three mutually reinforcing historical assertions. First, the new republic was a radical break from the past, a novel and original state on its own. Second, the republic owed its existence to the genius of one-man, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Third, and more importantly, the new republic denied any credit to the Ottoman period, claiming that she inherited nothing, but an extremely backward society from the past, implying furthermore whatever good contemporary Turkey now enjoys was all product of the new republic. And, it worked quite successfully. This new image of Turkey was well accepted at home, understandably because the new state propagated its official history with all means available: state rituals, school textbooks, national monuments, which were constructed to serve the myth of Mustafa Kemal as the sole prophet of the Turkish nation and national holidays, such as 19 May or 30 August, which ritualized the celebration and commemoration of important events. More surprisingly perhaps, this new image of Turkey was wholeheartedly accepted abroad. It was probably best reflected in the image of Ataturk himself. Academicians and journalists alike have this image of Ataturk all over as a stubborn idealist, driven only by ideas and ideals with no practical concern at all in other realities all around, a dedicated missionary, who followed not his self-interest, but what he thought as good for his country, a miracle maker turning an Islamic country into a Western society, an extremely magnetic pe rson, whose mystical aura, under which a whole nation united, still has an enduring effect over the central Turkish state institutions, especially, the army, an unbelievably and absolutely powerful figure, nothing but whose likes and dislikes determined the whole historical course of a nation. Thus in every comparison we, as scholars, intellectuals and journalists, made we created an Ataturk, a sort of a Feurbachian figure, who has all attributes we think our hopeless Middle East needs. No question Ataturk was a phenomenal transmitter between the West and Turkey of the formers institutions, lifestyle, and philosophy into the latter. And, he was quite successful in that. His legacy clearly marks Turkey off from the rest of the Islamic world. Without taking into account his reforms, it is almost impossible to explain and understand, for example, the process and associated problems of democratization in Turkey, contemporary Turkish-Kurdish problems, contemporary issues of religion and politics in Turkey, and Turkeys drive toward European Union. Having said that, all forms of unchecked nostalgic and romantic ideas about him will not help us to understand and, if possible, derive lessons from his example for our contemporary world. This paper is an attempt to bring Ataturk from the Olympus Mountain back on the ground, addressing more specifically the following question: what made Ataturk reforms, apparently so radical, possible in the early 20th century Turkey? This has at least two immediate payoffs. First, academically, we will have a much clearer understanding of an important historical period in the history of the Middle East. Second, practically, we will be much more realistic about the do-ability of similar reforms elsewhere. The paper is organized as follows. In the coming section I visit the explanations proposed to account for Ataturk reforms. The underlying logic in these explanations is to show the possible intentions could motivate the reforms. The objection I raise in this paper is that understanding the intentio ns is not enough to explain the reforms. Rather we need analyze how conducive the conditions were to undertake the reforms. Then, I discuss two conditions that were present in Turkey during the time of Ataturk reforms: a strong state and an extremely weakened society and religious community. What Has Been Proposed? The following Ataturk reforms have been generally considered as touching religion and religious institutions in Turkey and as secularizing the Turkish state and society. Historically first introduced, major reforms came in March of 1924: the caliphate was abolished, (3 March), the madrasahs (3 March), the office of Sheikh al Islam (3 March), the ministry of religious affairs and pious foundations (3 March), and the sharia courts (8 March) closed down. A second major set of reforms came in November of 1925: hat reform and dress code were introduced (25 November), Sufi orders closed down and their activities banned (30 November). In October of 1926, the Swiss civil and the Italian penal codes were adopted. In November of 1928, the new Turkish alphabet, adopted from Latin alphabet, was introduced, replacing the Arabic one. And, finally, in November of 1934, religious nicknames and titles, such as, haci (one who went to pilgrimage), hafiz (one who memorized the Quran), hoca (religious te acher), molla (religious student), were banned. As to why Ataturk undertook these reforms, most explanations put forward the following simple story. Because he was extremely impressed by the West, Ataturk wanted to transform the Turkish state and society into something they had never been: western, or modern or secular. For this to happen, he had to cut the ties to the Ottoman past, which had been Islamic. With this master project in mind, Ataturk introduced his reforms. Then, the whole explanation discusses how the aforementioned reforms contributed to the master project guiding Ataturks actions. Bernard Lewis The Emergence of Modern Turkey is probably the best study to be shown as exemplifying the explanations of this sort. Lewis signals this right at the beginning, in Preface saying the theme of this book is the emergence of a new Turkey from the decay of the old. Only in Chapter VIII of the book, titled the Kemalist Republic, he sets out to explain the logic of Ataturk reforms, each reform being an attempt to break the ties with the past. For him, for example, transferring the capital from Istanbul to Ankara was an act against the new Turkeys past. For nearly five centuries Istanbul had been the capital of an Islamic empire†¦ Turkish Istanbul, with its mosques and palaces, its divines and courtiers; Pera, the Levantine suburb†¦ these were intimately associated with the past†¦ And so a new capital was chosen, symbolizing and accentuating the changes that were taking place. Likewise, the caliphate was the link with the past and with Islam. It was precisely for that reason that he [Ataturk] was determined to break it. Hat reform, banning the tall, red, challenging fez proclaiming at once his refusal to conform to the West and his readiness to abase his unimpeded brow before God, was vivid and profound, the forcible transference of a whole nation from one civilization to another. The alphabet reform, with which Mustafa Kemal†¦ was slamming a door to the past as well as opening a door to the future, destroyed the last symbol that bound her [Turkey] to the Orient and set her apart from the Western community of nations -the Arabic script. The Emergence of Modern Turkey was first published in 1961, in the heyday of modernization school. More than forty years later, two Turkish scholars would still speak in the same language. Mustafa Kemal and his supporters imagined a new state modeled on the basic principles and outlines of the European style national state. For them this required a cognitive and political negation of the old regime and an establishment of a new era. There have been fancier attempts in the same spirit. For example, Serif Mardin (1991), a famous Turkish sociologist-historian, argues that Ataturk disliked the Ottoman street, Mahalle, so much that his reforms eliminated the components of the Ottoman street in the new Turkish society. Likewise, Volkan and Itzkowitz (1984) claim, for example, that the alphabet reform reflected Ataturks psychological urge to liberate her mother, who was equated with the Turkish nation in his mind, from the forces of oppression, obscurantism, and superstition. Hence, the ref orm saved the nation, replacing the dead mother now, from the same devils. In contrast to this dominant, excessively idealistic view of Ataturk reforms, there have been, however sporadically attempted, studies proposing alternative explanations grounded more in rationalism or in strategic circumstances of the period. Unlike the idealistic views approach of one-overarching explanation for all reforms, these studies analyze each reform on its own. A discussion of a few examples will suffice for our purpose here. Behind the adoption of the Swiss Civil code in 1926, for example, Dora G. Nadolski sees Turkeys desire to establish full control over its own legal system by destroying the last vestiges of the capitulatory system. Under this system, as G.L. Lewis puts it, foreigners were not subject to Turkish laws; they paid no taxes, their houses and business premises were inviolable, and they could be arrested or deported only by order of their own Ambassadors. This system not only let foreign powers to intervene in internal affairs of Turkey, thus challenging her sovereignty, but also privileged foreigners and non-Muslim Ottoman citizens, who took foreign passports, in the commercial life of Turkey. The capitulations were first abrogated in 1914 unilaterally. However, they were re-imposed again after the First World War to be re-abrogated in the treaty of Lausanne, now recognized by France and Britain. Nadolski (1977) argues that the abrogation was still not complete. It was because the Mecelle, codification of the Sharia based on the Hanefite fiqh and replaced by the Swiss Civil code in 1926, was not itself a complete civil code for it did not contain that portion of the Sharia which treats procedures of family, marriage and inheritance. As a result, secular court systems would not be able to deal with cases related to these issues. This would remain as a possible venue for the foreign power to intervene in lawsuits involving non-Muslim foreigners in Turkey. In any case, Turkey was obliged to adopt a Western law system for its minorities according to the treaty of Lausanne. Rather than keep a dual system, the new regime preferred a unitary legal system within its territories. In short, the adoption of Swiss Civil code meant the abandonment of the dual court system, religious and secular, final abrogation of the remaining vestiges of the capitulatory system, and the abolition of the Mecelle. How well did Turkey in implementing the Swiss Civil Code? The International Association of Legal Sciences met in 1955 to discuss this issue, and Hilmi Ziya Ulken summarizes the finding: of the 937 articles of the Swiss Civil Code, only 335 by 1955 have been used effectively, that in the case of two-thirds of the articles no circumstances to which they are applicable have emerged. Surprisingly, the Swiss Civil Code, was hardly implemented in two areas: family law and land laws, two areas which almost all scholars single out as the Code turning the country truly into a Western or secular one. Why is there a discrepancy between the declared objective and the realized outcome? Here is not the place to speculate on the reasons. However, it is an important question to answer because Turkeys performance in fact may indicate the pragmatism, not idealism, of Turkish rulers in adopting the Swiss Code. It should be also noted that there were minor changes introduced into the Swiss Code before a dopted in Turkey. As noted by Gotthand Jaschke, one change is a telling one. The Code banned marriages between couples if they were milk-bred by the same woman (in Turkish, sut kardesleri), which was clearly from the Islamic law. For the alphabet reform, not only the Turkish reformers themselves but also a few scholars like Uriel Heyd (1954) and Frank Tachau (1977) noted the inefficiency and the inability of the Arabic script to render Turkish words and expressions as correctly as possible. There are a few inefficiencies to be noted. First, there are no letters in Arabic script for certain sounds of Turkish, like p as p in put, j as g in mortgage, à § as ch in chat and ÄŸ. This problem was easy to solve for some other symbols, like Ù ¾ for p, Ú˜ for j, Ú†, for à § stood for them. More serious problem was with the Turkish vowels. In Arabic vowels are not written. Even for a native Arab speaker this may pose a trouble in cases where the endings of words change in accordance with grammatical functions they have in a specific sentence. Two factors alleviate the problem for native Arab speakers. First, Arabic is an extremely structured language. Second, there are basically three vowel sounds in Arabic. T urkish does not enjoy the same advantages. For example, there are eight vowels in Turkish, a as in a in father, e as e in red, Ä ± as e in open, i as ee in beet, o as o in no, à ¶ as e in her, u as oo in pool, and à ¼ as u in nude. There were some introductions into the Ottoman script to represent the Turkish vowels, Ùˆ, Ù‰, and Ø § used in the place of vowels. However, the solution was not complete; for example, Ù„Ø ¤ could be pronounced as either lu, là ¼, lo or là ¶, Finally, لى as li or lÄ ±. In addition to the confusions that may arise with the vowels, there are not only letters in Arabic script that have no corresponding sound in Turkish, like Ø ¹ and Ù‚, but also quite a number of letters that are close enough that will sound like one sound to a native Turkish ear. For the example of this latter group, Ø ¶, Ø ², Ø °, and Ø ¸, all sound very close to the Turkish letter z as z in zip; Ø · and Ø ªvery close to the Turkish letter t as t in top; à ™â€¡ , Ø ®, and Ø ­, very close to the Turkish letter h as h in hot; Ø ³ and Ø µ very close to the Turkish letter s as s in sand. Therefore, in an age of the modern states educating their citizens en masse, the alphabet reform seems quite efficient step to take. In fact, literacy level rapidly increased in Turkey, which can be attributed in part to the alphabet reform. When we analyze each reform within its own particular context, paying particular attention to domestic and international factors involved at the time of the reform, we face a rather different picture of Ataturk reforms, a different set of factors at work. For many this is not surprising because different paradigms, grounding the motivations of actors in different factors, be it idealistic or materialistic or individual-psychological or structural, are at work in different analyses. In this paper I neither offer another explanation, challenging the existing explanations of Ataturk reforms, nor visit the old debates among various paradigms. In fact, I firmly believe that this debate has been a healthy one for our understanding of politics, therefore, should continue. Rather I want to offer here a complimentary analysis, focusing instead on the factors that affected the reformers opportunities, making the reforms possible. Why is this latter analysis important? Any analysis, just focusing on the motivations of Turkish rulers in introducing the reforms, suffers from at least two weaknesses. First, such an analysis portrays, either implicitly or explicitly, an image of Ataturk who was absolutely powerful and extremely magical. His personal wishes, likes and dislikes will matter more than any other reason. Not only logically, but also historically this is unacceptable if we are not a sort of a Carlylian hero-worshipper. Any reading of his long speech, called Nutuk, delivered in 15-20 October 1927, will show conclusively that his authority was not well established up until 1927. His speech later became the official Turkish historiography, in which Mustafa Kemal discredited not only the sultan in Istanbul, but also his former colleagues, who actually fought in the independence war, and emphasized his own role and the novelty and originality of the national movement he had led. Second, and more importantly, such an analysis will invite us to make more speculations on why some other reform suggestions, as logical as those already introduced and implemented, were not implemented or never introduced in the first place. The most notable example was Ataturks personal initiative to turkify the language of basic Islamic rituals, like adhan, preaching in the Friday prayer and the Quran recitation. In this vein, in the month of Ramadan in 1932, he visited Istanbul to promote the recitation of the Quran in Turkish. He personally participated in the programs held in 22 January 1932 in Yerebatan Mosque, then in the Sultanahmet Mosque on 29 January of 1932. The most impressive program was held in Ayasofya mosque on 3 February 1932. Not only the Quran, but also the adhan was recited in Turkish, the whole program being aired in the radio. The final novelty was introduced on 5 February 1932, Ataturk personally asking Hafiz Sadettin Kaynak, who later became a famous compose r, to deliver the Friday prayer preaching in Turkish, Kaynak wearing western clothes rather than traditional religious garbs. The adhan in Turkish had been successfully implemented until 1950 when the Democrat Party lifted the ban on the adhan in Arabic. In Turkey, preaching in the Friday prayers is still held in Turkish except for the final parts which are in Arabic. But, for reasons unknown to us, Ataturk simply did not pursue the idea of the Quran recitation further, devoting his time to the purification of Turkish language from Persian and Arabic from then on. There were other reform potentials in Turkey. For example, the language of Islamic prayer, namaz, could also be turkified for there were suggestions along this line. In fact, in 1926 a certain imam of Goztepe Mosque in Istanbul, Celalettin Efendi, led the prayer in Turkish, upon which he was fired from the Directorate of Religious Affairs. But, apparently, Ataturk was not interested in the idea for we do not know any attempt on his side to promote the prayer in Turkish. Ataturk also did not pursue the idea of banning the veil for women, which Reza Shah of Iran and King Emanullah of Afghanistan, both being contemporary of Ataturk, pursued in their countries. In fact when King Emanullah was overthrown, Ataturk was reported to say I warned him to proceed slowly on the issue of womens veil. What Made Reforms Possible? Unlikely Conditions Like any other politician, whose authority was not inherited, but obtained, Ataturk faced opposition at every stage from his landing in Samsun on. He was not alone in the leadership cadre of the independence movement. This can readily be seen through a comparative reading of memoirs, written by individuals like Kazim Karabekir, Halide Edip Adivar, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Riza Nur, Rauf Orbay, who wrote their own narratives of the independence war in response to Ataturks Nutuk. In contrast to one-man leadership of Nutuk, these narratives show the agency and significance of a plurality of leaders and common people who took part in the Independence Struggle and the process of nation building in the twenties. Ataturk and his clique, therefore, competed with other political rivals both during and after the war of independence. During the war, for example, some former Unionists attempted to replace Mustafa Kemal with Enver Pasha, Ottoman minister of war during the First World War. Only Ataturks successful command of the Turkish forces in the war of Sakarya killed the dreams of Enver Pasha. There was even more serious challenge to Mustafa Kemal and his clique in the Turkish parliament. There emerged a group in the parliament, consisting of 118 deputies opposing Mustafa Kemal, the remaining 197 deputies supporting him. After the war, Mustafa Kemal organized his supporters into a political party, the Peoples Party, and called for an election. The opponents could not organize into a single party and lost the elections. Out of 118 deputies only 3 could get into the second parliament. It was this second parliament, which declared Turkey as a republic and elected Mustafa Kemal as its president. Opposition to Mustafa Kemal even continued in the second parliament, now led by much more formidable opponents. In November of 1924, the first leaders of the independence war, Rauf Orbay, Refet Bele, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, and Kazim Karabekir, commanding great reputation and respect both in the army and among the masses, formed an opposition party in the parliament. The party was joined by others, who resigned from Ataturks party. According to a calculation, the percentage of military officials in this party was 44 percent, in contrast to just 18 percent in Ataturks party. Especially, the Istanbul bureaucracy, who was not happy to lose their privileges with the shift of capital to Ankara, was behind Rauf Orbay, himself a war hero during the First World War. In the memoirs of these individuals one strongly feels how marginalized they saw themselves in the post-Ottoman Turkey by those, who joined the war of independence late yet were close to Ataturk. In the meantime, a massive Kurdish rebe llion broke out in the Eastern Anatolia in February of 1925, giving Ataturk and his clique, controlling the government and the parliament, an opportunity to accuse the opposition party of inspiring the rebellion. The party was closed in June of 1925. One year later an assassination attempt on the life of Mustafa Kemal was thwarted in Izmir. An extra-ordinary court was formed, entirely run by the deputies of Ataturks party. The court ruled the execution of 19 former Unionists and jailed Rauf Orbay. Partly due to public outcry, Ali Fuat Cebesoy and Kazim Karabekir were released. Only after the trials ended, resulting in the complete exile from active political life of all possible political rivals, Ataturk and his clique could feel secure in their positions. As a side note, it is rumored that toward the end of his life, Ataturk wanted to heal the broken-hearts of his friends, but no meeting between him and his former colleagues and then rivals materialized as far as we know. An interesting anecdote is illustrative of his approach toward dealing with the opposition. It was during the committee meetings in the Turkish parliament in 1922. The issue was whether to abolish the Sultanate or not. The ulama members of the committee engaged in a hot scholarly debate about whether the caliphate and the sultanate could be separated. Enraged by these never ending debates, Mustafa Kemal interrupted the committee meeting and asked for permission to speak up. Granted, he bluntly said: Sovereignty and Sultanate are not given to anyone by anyone because scholarship proves that they should be; or through discussion or debate. Sovereignty and Sultanate are taken by strength, by power and by force. It was by force that the sons of Osman seized sovereignty and Sultanate of the Turkish nation; they have maintained this usurpation for six centuries. Now the Turkish nation has rebelled, has put a stop to these usurpers, and has effectively taken sovereignty and Sultanate into i ts own hands. This is an accomplished fact -the question is merely how to give expression to it. This will happen in any case. If those gathered here, the assembly and everyone else could look at this question in a natural way, I think they would agree. Even if they do not, the truth will still find expression, but some heads may roll in the process, in the final sentence, waving his hand toward the members around their necks. Ataturk was indeed a man of his word, not failing to resort to force if his authority was challenged. And, as I briefly described above, his authority did not go unchallenged. Yet, there is a feature common to all opponents of Ataturk. They had no societal power base, their influence coming mostly from their positions in the state apparatus. The elimination of none of the potential rivals in fact led to massive protests from the society. Only Seyh Said rebellion, which broke out in 1925 in Eastern Anatolia, does not fit into this category. It was a massive rebellion, led by a Kurdish Nakshi Seyh. Yet, it is better to consider this rebellion not as a domestic opposition to Ataturk, but to the whole idea of Turkish state by the Kurdish populations in Eastern Anatolia. In this nature of the opposition we can clearly see two important mutually reinforcing conditions, which, in my opinion, made the Turkish reforms possible. First, by the time Ataturk came to power, the Turkish state had already eliminated all possible societal power bases, thanks to the Ottoman modernization. The Ottoman modernization had been driven by the necessities of the international military environment. With Russia alone, the Ottomans fought four major wars in the 19th century in 1806-1811, 1828-1829, 1853-1856, and 1877-1878. Internal rebellions especially in the Balkans paralyzed the Empire throughout the same century. The Ottomans survival as an independent political entity depended among other things on the intricate working of balance of power. Territorial losses and commercial concessions followed up every defeat in the field, the magnitude of which ultimately depended on the will of other powers involved. Though severely shaken by the tidal waves of every international military confrontation and internal problem, the Ottomans survived the 19th century. Against this background of ever-increasingly hostile international environment, uninterruptedly from the period of Mahmud II (1808-1839) on, the Ottomans tenaciously pursued reforms by all available means in the military, the administration, state finance, education and the legal system. After abolishing the Janissaries in 1826, Mahmud II established a new army upon European model. The successive Ottoman statesmen later expanded the army in size and updated it with the newest technology. In this vein, the Empire heavily imported arms supplies from Germany, Britain and France. Thus, the Ottoman Empire became â€Å"one of the most important markets for armaments in the world.† The Ottoman statesmen also hired foreign military personnel in the army, opened new military colleges, modernized the new reforms, and introduced conscription. If exhausted all domestic resources, the Ottoman statesmen sought for external financial resources from foreign governments and international finan cial institutions to continue the reforms. Eventually, the Ottoman government became so indebted that it declared bankruptcy in 1878, and deferred the collection of certain revenues to a European controlled institution, the Ottoman Public Debt Administration, in 1881. The success of the Ottoman modernization can be best seen in her performance in the First World War. The Ottoman Empire entered the war in November of 1914 on the side of the Central Powers. The Empire was the least populous and the most economically backward among the major powers of the war. In the words of a military historian, â€Å"By 1914, the Ottoman Empire had fallen far behind the European Great Powers in every category of resources necessary for the conduct of modern war.† Yet, the Empire fought in the war quite impressively. By far superior, Russia could not finish the war and succumbed into a revolution in 1917. Only when it became evident that the Germans lost the war, the Ottomans stopped fighting. As late as 1917 in the war, the Ottomans were still holding the southern frontiers against the British and the French. During the World War, the Ottoman Empire could mobilize more than two million troops, and could fight in five frontiers spreading over a vast area. Th e state could mobilize all resources of the country for the war efforts, not only through forceful means, but also through voluntary organizations. The strengthening of the state went in tandem with the weakening of other societal institutions. In fact, the Ottoman modernization truly started after Mahmud II eliminated two powerful groups in the Ottoman society: the janissaries and the local strong families, or the ayans. The bloody suppression of Seyh Said rebellion in 1925 was a part of this process of demilitarizing the society, by and large completed among the Turkish populations by the 1920s and was to be completed among the Kurdish populations by the end of the 1930s. Religious institutions also weakened in the face of ever-strengthening Turkish state. This was natural because the Ottoman modernization did not remain within the field of military, but spilled out into education and legal system, two strongholds of religious institutions. Neither Mahmud IIs reforms nor later reforms in fact meant a frontal attack on the privileges of the religious institutions. The Ottoman reforms did not eradicate all livelihoods of the Sun ni Ulema; instead they created a new space for the newly educated classes in parallel existence with the one existing for the Ulema. Religious courts and schools continued to work alo