Comparing/Contrasting throughput with manufacturing cycle time

            Throughput is the required time for moving orders through production process, from receipt to delivery. It is a required focus for just-in-time(JIT) process and it is a requirement for good production systems. Manufacturing cycle time is a subset of throughput and estimates the time between the arrival of raw materials and the shipping of finished products.

            In order to create and maintain a good production system, operation managers would need to address three pervasive and fundamental issues: Eliminate waste, remove variability, and improve throughput. Therefore operation managers would also need to focus on manufacturing cycle time in order to improve throughput.

            Throughput can be improved by lowering manufacturing cycle time. For example a company that changes its method and pulls its materials directly from qualified suppliers to the assembly line, can drastically reduce its manufacturing cycle time, incoming inspection staff, and problems on the shop floor caused by defective materials which would lead to throughput improvement.

Manufacturing cycle time is one of throughput’s major concerns. Reducing manufacturing cycle time would improve throughput but throughput also involves administrative activities of receiving orders, ordering raw materials from suppliers, and the time it takes for raw materials to arrive to assembly lines. Manufacturing cycle time and throughput can improve using the pull system. Pull system is a technique that pulls a unit to where it is needed just as it is needed.

Throughput is directly related to manufacturing cycle time which is its subset. Improvement in manufacturing cycle time would improve throughput. However they are different in their activity size. Manufacturing cycle time estimates the time between the arrival of raw materials and the shipping of finished product. Throughput should also estimate its administrative time and the awaiting time of receiving raw materials from suppliers. Throughput improvement is a required focus of just-in-time (JIT) process and lean operations.           

           

Resource:

Heizer Jay, Render Barry; Operations Management, Prentice Hall: 10^th Edition.  

The Role of commercial banks as source of debt capital for small businesses

Commercial banks are the biggest source of debt capital for small businesses, providing them the greatest number and variety of loans. Commercial banks often lend short-term loans which may include commercial loans, lines of credit, or floor planning. Although they sometimes lend intermediate and long-term loans which may include term loans, installment loans, discounted installment contracts, or character loans.

According to small business administration commercial banks provide %64.7 of all traditional debt to small businesses, %86 of which less than $100,000. However banks are conservative in their practices and prefer to make loans to established small businesses rather than to high-risk start-ups.

The most common type of loans banks make to small companies are the short-term loans which are extended for less than one year. Commercial loans are unsecured short-term loans (three to six months) that expect the owner to repay the total amount at maturity. Lines of credit are the most common type of short-term loans which provide short-term cash flow for day-to-day operations. Floor planning is a form of financing frequently used by retailers of ‘big ticket items”. In this form of financing suppliers loan the big ticket items in a form of consignment with a set interest rate and collect the money after the items are purchased by consumers.

Banks make intermediate and long-term loans in certain cases. These loans are extended for one year or longer. These loans are usually made for the purpose of starting a business, constructing a plant, purchasing real estate and equipment, or other long term investment. Term loans, installment loans, discounted installment contracts, and character loans are the common types of intermediate and long-term loans.  

Commercial banks constantly change their policies and requirements due to changes in economy, risk assessment, government regulations, opportunity costs, and budget; yet they remain the major source of debt capital for small businesses. It is recommended that entrepreneurs maintain a positive relationship with their bankers and put together presentable portfolio, financial statements, and business plan prior to applying for loans.  

Resource:

Scarborough M. Norman, Wilson L. Douglas, Zimmerer W. Thomas; Effective Small Business Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River New Jersey: 9^th Edition.  

Aggregate planning in services vs aggregate planning in manufacturing

Aggregate planning is an approach to determine the quantity and timing of production for the intermediate future which is usually between 3 to 18 months. While the strategic goals of manufacturing firms are more focused on production plans, service organizations focus their strategic goals more toward workforce schedules. Both service and manufacturing firms can employ capacity and demand options to generate their aggregate planning strategies.

In order to generate aggregate planning strategies, operations managers review five capacity and three demand options. Capacity options include: changing inventory levels, varying workforce size by hiring or layoffs, varying production rates through over time or idle time, subcontracting, and using part time workers. The demand options include: influencing demand, back ordering during high-demand periods, and counter-seasonal product and service mixing. Operation managers must assess and choose the best option or a combination of options in order to satisfy demand in the intermediate future.

 In manufacturing firms, operations managers usually focus more on capacity options. They may use graphical or mathematical methods to compare the different options. After comparing the options operation managers choose the approach with the least total cost. However it is suggested that operations managers take into account the ethical consequences of each approach as well.

In service sector, demand management takes a more active role as it is often necessary for services to pursue a combination of capacity and demand options. Service organizations also use graphical or mathematical method to determine the most efficient approach. However in service sector, the focus is primarily on work force schedules rather than production plans.      

When generating an aggregate plan, it is the job of operations managers whether in manufacturing or service sector to look through alternatives and select the appropriate approach. Manufacturing firms aim at production plans therefore capacity options have more usage. For service organizations workforce schedules are more important so demand options are equally important. In service sector depending on the industry, operation managers usually consider combinations of capacity and demand options.     

Resource:

Heizer Jay, Render Barry; Operations Management, Prentice Hall: 10^th Edition.  

Criteria for choosing an ideal domain name

Choosing an ideal domain name is one of the most important elements of any website. It is the key identifier of the website and it can contribute to the website exposure and popularity. It is recommended that entrepreneurs choose short, memorable, relevant, and simple domain names. However most of short and simple domain names have been taken so options remain buying them from their owners or choosing a different domain type such as “.biz” or “.info”.

Choosing a short and memorable domain names increase the chance of exposure and visit.  Short names/URLs are easier to remember therefore costumers can recall them easier, but being short is not enough. The domain name has to be memorable. For example a company’s initial might be short but it may not necessarily be memorable. Amazon.com and Pandora.com are two good examples of short memorable domain names.

       An effective domain name must indicate company’s business or business name. The best domain name for a company’s website is perhaps its business name which can be easily recognized by customers; for example Walmart.com. Also an online business must choose a name that affiliates the most to the business type; for example bodybuilding.com which sales verity of bodybuilding supplies.    

In order to avoid customers to go to wrong websites, it is recommended that we choose a simple domain name which is easy to spell. It is also recommended to buy several variations of correct spelling in case costumers misspell the name. For example gogle.com and gooogle.com have been purchase by Google Corp in order to redirect them to the main website (google.com)

Choosing an effective domain name is not the end of the line. The chosen name might have been taken and the early bird might have gotten the worm. In fact 98 percent of the words in Webster’s English Dictionary have been registered already. So in this case the entrepreneur must look for a different combination of words or enter into negotiations with the domain’s owner. Another alternative is to take advantage of new top-level domain names such as .aero(airlines), .biz( any business site), .coop(business cooperatives), and .info(any site).

               

           

Resource:

Scarborough M. Norman, Wilson L. Douglas, Zimmerer W. Thomas; Effective Small Business Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River New Jersey: 9^th Edition.  

China's influences on Japan

Japan has never been conquered by China but it has frequently borrowed Chinese social, political, and religious characteristics due to Chinese cultural hegemony. Even though archaeological findings have discovered Japanese societies as early as 10,000 B.C.E, their recorded history begins only in the eight century C.E. written in Chinese. Japanese leader Fujiwara extensively adopted Chinese culture, religion, and government in the seventh century C.E in an attempt to unify Japan and in order to reinforce his own control.   

Japanese rice agriculture was introduced from South China about 300 B.C.E. Chinese also brought bronze tools and weapons to Japan about the first century B.C.E and the technology for making iron tools around first century C.E. By 500 C.E about one-third of Japanese populations were of Chinese or Korean decent. It was about that time that Japanese started to learn Chinese script which led to their written history a few centuries later.

China influenced Japan politically. Japanese tried to replicate Chinese successful political model of Sui and Tang dynasties along with Chinese calendar and many methods of government which led to Japanese 17-point constitution. This document was modeled on Chinese practice and revered Confucianism and Buddhism.   

In order to enrich their national religion (Shinto Faith), Japanese employed Chinese written characters and accepted elements of both Confucianism and Buddhism. Shinto Faith could be practiced anywhere but Buddhism provided a more centralized form of organization, through monasteries and temples. Shinto Faith and Buddhism have coexisted in Japan for many centuries now.   

Japan’s social, political, and religious foundations have been laid by observing the hegemonic examples of China, but as centuries passed by, it became more politically and culturally independent. Today Japan is one of the most important poles of global economy and industry and their GDP Per Capita is almost eight times greater than China!   

     Resource:

Spodek Howard; The World’s History, Volume One: Prehistory to 1500.Prentice Hall .4^th Edition. 

Purposes of Project Scheduling

In order to sequence time and allocate resources to a project, project managers use project scheduling which serves several purposes. It illustrates the relationship of activities with each other and to the whole project, it identifies the precedence relationship between activities, it demonstrate the realistic time and cost estimates for each activity, and it optimize labor and material resources by identifying project’s critical barriers.

Project Scheduling shows the relationship of each activity to others and to the whole project. For example a multi-million dollar movie project consists of many interrelated activities such as A:screen writing, B:story boarding: C:casting, D:Makeup, decoration, costume design, and cinematography E:video shooting, F:audio recording, G:music scoring, H:creating visual and special effects, I:dubbing, and J:mixing, and editing. Project scheduling can demonstrate the relationship between these activities leading to the final product in a timely manner. Figure 1-1 shows these relationships.

In the movie production some activities precede others. For example activity A has to finish prior to B and C and activity B and C has to finish before activity D can start. Project managers can use project scheduling to identify the precedence relationship between these activities.

Each activity in the production or post production requires its time margin and relative cost. Project scheduling serve to demonstrate the realistic time and cost estimates for each activity. In each activity we can determine the earliest time of start and finish as well as the latest time of start and finish. If we change the time on one activity, this will affect the start and finish time of all the dependent activities within the chain.

             At last, project managers use project scheduling to optimize labor and material resources by identifying critical barriers in the project. For example they find the critical path in order to remove critical bottlenecks and they analyze the project schedule in order to expedite the project using the crash time and cost.

 Nowadays computer software ease and excel the process of project scheduling. It is very difficult or maybe impossible for a project manager to meet his/her deadlines without having a proper project schedule.

Figure 1-1 

1.       K is the final Product

2.       Red arrows show the critical path considering the time duration of G is greater than F,H, and I and the time duration of C is greater than B.

A

B

D

E

F

G

J

Kinal Product

 

H

C

           

I

 

Resource:

Heizer Jay, Render Barry; Operations Management, Prentice Hall: 10^th Edition.