Category: Uncategorized

United Flight 232-Aircraft Accidents Are Avoidable

Aircraft Accidents Are Avoidable

Aircraft accidents are a tragic thing. However, many people may argue that all are avoidable. When considering that all are avoidable, one must always remember there is an element that is in all accidents, Humans. Humans are involved in every aspect of flight such as, design, maintenance and as mentioned earlier piloted by. As long as humans are in 100% control of an airplane there will be accidents. However, a good side to an accident is it is thoroughly investigated and researched by the NTSB. (National Transportation and Safety Board). From a majority of the accidents, something can benefit aviation in general such as re-design, increased/specialized training, or as in this situation, re-evaluating current limitations to a safer level.

The focus of my project is going to be on a particular accident that took place on July 19, 1989 when a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 (Ref fig 1) aircraft crashed in Sioux City, Iowa. Not only the accident and why it happened but to delve into the root cause of the accident, the failure of the number two engine and why it happened. This particular type of aircraft, at the time of the accident, had been in production for about 18 years. The United Airlines jet was bound for Chicago when the tail-mounted engine a GE CF6-50C (ref figure 4) failed and managed to escape the engine containment case and severed the aircrafts main hydraulic lines. Without hydraulics, the aircraft wouldn’t be able to maneuver and landing would be another difficult task. This meant trouble for United Airlines flight 232 with 285 passengers and 11 crew- members on board.

On July 19,1989 a United Airlines DC-10-10 passenger plane took off Stapleton International Airport in Denver Colorado. The plane was scheduled to make a quick stop in Chicago, Illinois and then continue on to Philadelphia, PA. After an uneventful hour of flight a loud thump was heard, followed by a violent shaking of the aircraft. The flight crew observed the tail-mounted engine was not operating. While performing an engine shutdown procedure, the crew noticed that the fuel lever wouldn’t move to the closed position. They also observed that the hydraulic fluid quantities were all at zero. When the co-pilot tried to maneuver airplane it confirmed the loss of fluid when the airplane did not respond to his commands. The crew then radioed to the air traffic controller that they needed emergency assistance to the nearest airport. Sioux City Iowa was found to be the almost straight-ahead so it was chosen. After the captain briefed the passengers of the up-coming trials, a United Airlines DC-10 pilot instructor asked if he could be of any assistance. The captain asked him to see if there was any damage that he could see. The instructor found that the flight controls on the wings weren’t moving and that the horizontal stabilizer had damage to the left and right side. The horizontal stabilizer is the part of the aircraft that controls elevation and what is known as yaw. (Right and left turning) Without hydraulics the crew was limited on how to control the aircraft so the instructor pilot recommended the use of engine power to maneuver the airplane. The idea appeared to work when tried and being that all other options were few, the crew adopted this plan of action.

When flight 232 was about eight miles from the airport they lowered the landing gear. To their dismay they learned from the air traffic controller that they were lined up on a runway that was closed for repairs. The captain elected to stay on course because of the difficulty to turn the airplane. The air traffic controller said that the runway was 3000 feet shorter but they shouldn’t have any trouble landing due to the repairs. During the final approach the flight crew felt they were on course to make the landing. However they were a little faster than normal, due to not being able to lower the proper flight controls known as the flaps and slats. These two controls allow the airplane to sustain lift and fly at a lower speed. At about a hundred feet above the ground, the pilot reported that the nose dipped considerably and the right wing dropped also. Both pilots called for a reduction of power but the instructor pilot said that he needed to continue using the engine power to try and control the decent.

The airplanes right wing tip was the first to touch the runway, followed by the right main landing gear. Eyewitness accounts said the airplane ignited and cart wheeled upon impact. Figure 1 shows the final resting places of the different aircraft parts. In all, 111 people died. Amazingly, the remaining 155 people escaped with recoverable injuries.

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) now needed to understand why the accident occurred. Since the tail section was the potential cause of the crash, they transported the tail section parts to a nearby hangar and began to reconstruction of the tail. Once the tail section was completed this puzzle was starting to piece together. The left side of the horizontal stabilizer showed no damage that could have cause the crash. (See figure 2-3) However, the right side was a different story. The right side of the stabilizer indicated that approximately seventy pieces of metal had pierced through the skin. When aircraft engines are designed, the design engineers know they must be able to contain a sizable failure. The CF6-50 has what is called a containment case. (Ref figure 4) Like its name, is designed to contain an engine during failure. However, the engine involved in the Sioux City crash exceeded its design capabilities. When the tail mounted engine failed, metal debris violated the containment case and destroyed the number two hydraulic system lines. Metal debris also extended into the aircraft skin and severed the number 1 and 3 hydraulic system lines. Remember, this aircraft has three independent hydraulic systems. In this case, all three systems were damaged.

An uncontained failure was not something that was new to the aviation industry in 1989. In fact, there have been 14 uncontained failures since 1970. That doesn’t say too much when the jet engine was first introduced into commercial aviation in the 1960’s. One of the uncontained failures happened on November 3, 1973. A DC-10, powered by GE CF6-6 engines, had an uncontained failure on one of the wing engines. The fan disk struck a cabin window and a passenger was ejected from the aircraft and the aircraft subsequently decompressed. The fan disk had only 274 flight hours which is remarkable low, since the recommended life on a GE CF6-6 fan disk is 18,000 flight hours. It to say the least, uncontained failures aren’t something new to the aviation industry.

The next phase of the investigation was now focused on why the engine failed. It was known that number two engine had failed but there was a problem. The investigation team couldn’t find the front section of the engine, particular the fan disk. (Ref fig 5) It wasn’t until three months later in a cornfield in Alta, Iowa, the fan disk was found. Reference figure 6 which shows the fan disk and the reconstructed blades attached. The NTSB had now narrowed there root cause to the Stage 1 fan disk. They new that this had cause the uncontained failure, buy why? After evaluation of the pieces of the fan disk, it appeared that a flaw was present in the titanium which was probably had been there since it was originally forged. First, it must be understood that there are three primary steps in manufacturing of titanium alloy fan disks, such as the one on the GE engine. The processes are material processing (making the material) forging (forming the material to a particular shape) and final machining (taking the part to specified measurements.) (Ref figure 7) Titanium alloys are known for their strength and light weight which makes them ideal for use in aircraft engines. However, during the forging process three major types of melt related abnormities occur: Hard Alpha inclusions, high density inclusions and segregation. After extension evaluation of the stage 1 fan disk it was determined that the disk had a “hard alpha inclusion” which in lamens terms is an area of the disk had an enriched are of nitrogen or oxygen. Hard Alpha inclusions have melting point significantly higher than the normal remaining structure does. To help prevent these kinds of inclusions, a process known as triple melt is done. The material is heated to a temperature much higher than required, usually three times to ensure all inclusions are gone. Obviously something went wrong in the forging process of the material of the fan disk. This area, if not corrected, will become very brittle. When a brittle area is continually placed in high pressure situations, will eventually crack or break apart, as did the fan disk in this crash. Typically, records of the manufacturing process are not detailed enough to tell investigators enough about how it happened. The records only record the serial number. When a records search was done at General Electric Aircraft Engines on the fan disk serial number, there was a problem.

The fan disk involved in the accident was listed as S/N MPO 000385. GE records showed two different stories for MPO000385. One of the serial numbers was shown as to have been rejected for abnormalities in the disk. A paper trail shows that the part was set aside and eventually sent to a third party for evaluation and was eventually discarded by GE in November of 1972. GE maintains that the disk was discarded however no record of a credit to GE from the original material vendor existed. The second serial number shows a completely serviceable disk and that is was installed on an engine in January 1972.

Regardless of how the faulty material managed to get passed GE, the Fan disk was subsequently tested at several shop visits by what is known as NDT or Non Destructive Testing. (Ref figure 8) When the engine comes in for heavy maintenance, all life limited parts are tested using a variant of NDT. NDT testing is very important because oftentimes defects are not visible with the naked eye and to make the defects cracks) visible, NDT is required. To better understand how cracks can propagate, you must first understand how the forces are exhibited on them. When disks are rotated at high speed, a centrifugal force produces a stress that results in a strain or growth of the disk. If stressed within in its elastic region, the disk material returns to its natural form when the stress is removed. If the stress was of a sufficient magnitude, a small portion of the tensile strength is lost and the material will eventually fatigue and a crack initiates, propagates, and ultimately burst.

There are many variants of NDT but a process that is known as Florescent Penatrant Inspection is commonly used on LLP’s. (Life limited Parts) The part is dispensed in a florescent fluid and then placed under a ultra-violet light. If a surface or sub surface crack exists, it would be visible. Much of the effort in NDT has gone towards identifying when and where cracks have developed in rotating hardware. In a jet engine, rotating parts are inspected at regular intervals. Another form of NDT crack detection is a process known as eddy current testing. Eddy current testing is a better (safer) process than FPI due to the fact that eddy current can protrude through the entire part unlike FPI which can only do the surface and sub-surface testing. The major drawback to eddy current testing is the testing equipment can only be for a specific or localized area unlike FPI, which doesn’t require special testing equipment.

Finally, something had to be done to assure this type of situation would not happen again. The NTSB determined that United Airlines “had failed in giving adequate consideration to human factors which resulted in the failure to detect the crack.” McDonnell Douglas was asked to come up with a hydraulic system safeguard, given the same circumstances that total hydraulic system depletion wouldn’t occur. McDonnell Douglas designed two new safety guards: One, an electrically operated shutoff valve that would close if fluid levels dropped below a preset limit in the main hydraulic system, also known as a hydraulic fuse. Two, a sensor to detect the fluid loss that would trigger a light in the flight deck alerting the crew of the actuation of the valve. Looking at this accident from a distance it shows many remarkable things. The way the crew pulled together to come up with a plan of how they were going to land is absolutely remarkable. However, there is more to this story if one looks closer. To examine the flight crews’ actions would be unfair. In fact, the exact scenario was given to pilots in a DC-10 simulator and not one of them could come close to landing the airplane. As a result of the research and analysis conducted, the following conclusions were developed. First, if General Electric would have caught the flawed material, none of this would have ever happened. GE should have had safe guards to not allow this type of”quality escape” to occur. Next, is the United Airlines maintenance facility According to the analysis done on the disk, at the time of the last inspection, a crack would have been visible approximately one half of an inch in length. The inspector should have found the crack. Had he done so, the stage 1 fan disk would have not been deemed serviceable. To make sure that the disk had truly be tested using FPI, a chemical analysis was done on the disk. The disk showed residue of the penatrant, which leads one to believe it truly was tested. Finally, McDonnell Douglas should have installed the hydraulic fuses when the aircraft was initially made. An after thought is sometimes not good enough. The possibility of this type of failure was somewhere around a million to one but it happened. However, design engineers cannot predict every mechanical failure possible. If they put extra parts in for possible failures, then the aircraft would have a lot more parts, which means more maintenance and ultimately more cost to the customer.

Bibliography:

REFERENCES

NTSB. [No date] United Airlines Flt 232 McDonnell Douglas D-10-10 Sioux Gateway Airport Sioux City Iowa. Available: [online] http://amelia.db.erau.edu/reports/ntsb/aar/AAR90-06.pdf [08/15/03]

Religoustolerance.org [no date] Apa Format (American Psychological Association) Available: [online] www.religioustolerance.org/int_cita.htm [8/15/03]

It has been shown that improper personnel selection

Factors Contributing to Employee Violence

It has been shown that improper personnel selection, training and compensation are contributory factors to employee violence. A formal compensation program is a basic management tool to ensure employee satisfaction and maintain internal and external factors that help attract and retain qualified employees. Various establishments are aware that they need to evaluate current and future positions to create a reasonable compensation policy because wages are known to affect job satisfaction and morale. Workers have shown an increase in productivity when they are rewarded for their efforts and contributions to the company.

To ensure that there are no discrimination issues during the application process, test results are maintained confidentially. It has been proven that by using behavioral trait tests, a business can improve their recruitment process by 38% and by 54% if ability or assessment tests are used. Numerous organizations are becoming increasingly responsible with social concerns, and show support by contracting assessment consultants to do most of their human resource management requirements to validate the application process and follow the EEO standard requirements for employment practices (Assessment, 2009).

There are countless litigation cases between an employer and worker concerning unsafe issues on the job daily, and workplace violence is one of them. Gathering background and criminal information is a strategy that can help identify and reduce unqualified applicants before offering them a position. In 2002, it was estimated that the United States prison system reintegrated 630,000 inmates into the communities and workforce. This indicates that it is important for an organization to take responsibility and implement a valid and reliable assessment process to ensure the safety of employees and management (Matejkovic, 2006). There are those that believe it is an invasion of privacy to perform background checks on applicants and certain (i.e. credit report and criminal check) information should not be accessed. Appropriate information is obtained in a confidential manner to safe guard the applicant and employer. Information that is received will help minimize liabilities associated with employee crimes and neglectful hiring practices.

Employees do not quit the businesses that they work for; they quit the supervision they receive. Some employees take advantage of the apparent weakness of others and hinder managements ability to properly supervise personnel. Supervisors who try to deal with this type of issue typically feel demoralized and do not understand how to handle the situation. This can cause co-workers to feel unsafe on the job and lose confidence in the employers willingness or ability to protect them. During a survey conducted by Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, 25% of employees stated there has been some type of threat, assault, harassment, or violence in the workplace over the past year. This amounts to approximately 2,200,000 employees that have been affected by violence directly at work, and countless others that did not complain to management. According to U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, the current evidence indicates that violence should be considered a primary health issue. In terms of litigation however, having a policy for workplace violence does little to convince a jury over employee training programs (Braverman, 1994).

References

Report, H. R. (2012). Fortune 500 Firms Face Unique Pressures Leading to Ethical Lapses, Report Reveals. Retrieved from http://www.bna.com: http://www.bna.com/fortune-500-firms-n12884910891/

UTS Business School

UTS Business School

Management Research Project

Topic: Analysis Of The Challenges Experienced In The Aviation Industry In Australia, In The Automation To E-Commerce Supply Chain

Executive Summary

Aviation Industry is essential to the viability of every country’s economic cycle in terms of supply and demand. It is an industry that deals with the aircraft industry and flight. The management process in the industry in the hands of an e-commerce channel that implements any strategies needed. Serving the customers is an essential rule where the customers expect the costs to be low and the purchases to arrive on time. Several omnichannel practices help in managing supply chain and e-commerce that lead to an unusual growth and outcome. The fulfillment of organizational goals in alignment with the objectives is a strategic measure. Different tactics are taken that involve the assessment of the problems and development of options and sound decisions. However, there are no two companies that can have the same strategies and tactics. It is recommended to have a strategic assessment of the company’s supply chain that fits the industry objectives.

The supply chain is a branch in all businesses that aim at satisfying its customer worldwide in the Aviation Industry. Different stakeholders and customers can learn about the e-commerce supply chain in the industry and identify the diversified that exist, therefore, making them have the option to select the best Aviation Company to work with. Customers and managers interact to discuss the various needs needed in the firm since they can access the information concerning it through Social Media. The discussions have revealed different customer needs, which have become a significant problem in the e-commerce supply chain since one cannot predict the customers’ needs and wants. Therefore, the Aviation Industry ensures that it tries its best to provide services and products according to their customers’ needs.

Employing various tools in the supply chain helps change the customer preference. The tools include agile supply chains, just in time and manufacturing requirement planning and capacity requirement planning (CRP). Different markets have to be weighed by the e-commerce supply chain management to examine the significant problem that makes the customers change their preferences in the market. Aviation Industry is required to invest in the technology to innovate the needs and wants of the customers. The different tools have to be used in the chain to ensure that there a timely production of materials that are only needed at the moment to avoid any wastage that may occur in case of any changes experienced in the manufacturing sector. To avoid any unnecessary delays, there must be a flexible supply chain that orders several materials without any delay at different times. To ensure the optimum capacity required in the e-commerce supply sector, CRP is essential since it ensures that the necessary amount is produced. Building the best brand through the use of the best technology helps Aviation Industry focus on high quality customer service strategy. Market factors favor the initiation of new airlines that meet the demand of industry and help it base its businesses and marketing strategies on achieving high and profitable requirements.

Analysis Of The Challenges Experienced In The Aviation Industry In Australia, In The Automation To E-Commerce Supply Chain

The aviation industry has always been subject to the economic cycle of supply and demand in most countries. The convenience of being able to trade without time constraints or geographical barriers has significantly led to increased use of e-commerce. One sector that has been at the forefront to embrace e-commerce in the supply chain is the Aviation Industry. The availability of low-cost communications that are reliable through the internet has enabled the sector to correctly undertake consumer supply chain cycles (Heartland, 2001). E-commerce is an effective way that helps companies to reduce overall costs and streamline its supply chain services. The supply chain plays a critical role in saving costs of business operations in the aviation industry. The success of any airliner depends more on how well they can adapt to supply chain strategies, especially cost reduction through the adoption of new technology and offering customer-oriented products through pursuant of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Improved technological advancements in the aviation industry have made e-commerce supply chain a game-changer.

Despite the various benefits that have come with the use of the e-commerce supply chain in the aviation industry, there are several challenges airliners face. Mainly, there has been a change in demand, a growing trend of innovation and emerging technologies, and challenges in mitigation of supply interference risks. Such problems have forced airline companies to be more dynamic in their business operations.

Problem Statement

In the aviation industry, the e-commerce supply chain is critical for the survival of all airline companies. However, the ever-changing customer expectations and technological changes have affected the effectiveness of e-commerce applications in the industry. The airline industry is internationally based hence connects various countries in the transportation of goods and humans. Therefore, E-commerce facilitates its operations as transactions can be conducted electronically through the internet. For instance, e-commerce has played a significant role in boosting air cargo traffic in air cargo. E-commerce involvement in the supply chain logistics is also linked to accuracy on inventory management (Qteishat, Alshibly & Al-maiatah, 2014). Through sales and tracking abilities, e-commerce can inform distributors on when to improve on their stock. Furthermore, e-commerce also helps predict future needs so that companies don’t have to contend with the problem of excess products in the supply chain. However, as the aviation industry tries to embrace the benefits of e-commerce, it is also critical to evaluate the existing challenges that e-commerce supply chains face.

Some of the problems that aviation companies have to evaluate include the ever-evolving customer expectations, technological changes, and the change in new business models (Gasson, 2003). According to DHL, it is essential to evaluate the importance of quality customer service within the e-commerce strategy (Jarach, 2001). However, the dynamic changes in consumer needs make it challenging for industry players to meet consumer needs fully. A critical understanding of those challenges will help industry players to institute measures that can meet industry demands and restructure E-commerce application.

Aim of the Research

This report aims to analyze the challenges experienced in the automation of the supply chain for the aviation industry through E-commerce. The report will also evaluate the role that the e-commerce supply chain has played in revolutionizing the aviation industry. Particular emphasis will be in regards to the changes in consumer expectations, the changes in technology as well as the unprecedented changes in business models of different industry players. The study will utilize existing literature to identify the changes in the utility of the use of the e-commerce supply chain in the aviation industry. This report can inform airline companies on possible mitigation measures for them to remain competitive.

Objectives

The study intends to achieve the following objectives.

To elaborate on the significance of automation of the airline industry supply chain through e-commerce.

To identify the challenges airline companies face in incorporating aspects of e-commerce in their supply chain management.

To establish possible mitigation measures that can help airline companies solve the e-commerce supply chain issues, especially the changing demand, dealing with innovation and emerging technologies, and mitigation of supply interference risks.

Research Questions

From the above-highlighted aim and objectives, the following will be the primary questions for the research.

What is the current role and state of the e-commerce supply chain in the airline industry?

What are some of the possible challenges that airlines face as they continue to integrate e-commerce in their supply chain management?

How can airline companies address e-commerce challenges in their supply chain systems?

Limitations of Investigation

The aviation industry is extensive, and issues that the various stakeholders that make up this industry differ from one stakeholder to another. Even so, airline companies are the core stakeholders. Therefore, the study will be limited to the evaluation of how various airline companies have integrated e-commerce into their supply chain, the challenges that they face, and how they are addressed. Secondly, different airline companies have adopted different business models, which imply that they also face different e-commerce challenges. However, the business model adopted by industry players may not be the same. Nonetheless, the study will concentrate on changing demand, dealing with innovation and emerging technologies, and mitigation of supply interference risks because these issues cut across all the airline companies.

Historical Background of Significant Events

The rise in the demand for aircraft has forced the modernization of the supply chain in the aviation industry. In her article, Tieman (2016) indicates that the pursuant of cost-reduction, emerging new technologies, and the continually changing customer demands have forced a supply chain hitch among various airlines across the world. Initially, aircraft manufacturers operated as artisans, but the new challenges have forced them to turn out as a manufacturing industry, with a greater focus on robotics, automation, and standardization. These changes have had a more significant impact on the supply chain strategies of many airline companies.

Preliminary Literature review

According to Bourlakis, Julien, and Ali (2018), the e-commerce supply chain involves purchasing goods and services. DHL, which is one of the notable airline industry players, has shown that the e-commerce supply chain is useful both for B2B and B2C markets (Dhar, 2018). However, the challenges of changing demand, dealing with innovation and emerging technologies, and mitigation of supply interference risks, will make it necessary for airline companies to re-strategize on how to optimize the e-commerce within their supply chains. The study’s findings help airline companies to undertake the required plans and strategies that improve the e-commerce supply chain in the industry. The conclusions shall help the Airline Company managers have effective e-commerce supply chains that satisfy employee expectations. The study could also lead to provoking more participation of the companies’ managers on getting solutions to the problems the airline faces and challenges faced by e-commerce supply chains.

Methodology

The above research will be conducted using secondary research methodology. The method is through an analysis of the existing literature in the research. The paper’s primary objective is to find data on the problems affecting automation of the aviation industry supply chain. Also, it aims to find the challenges faced by airline employees and the stakeholders in e-commerce supply chains in the industry. The methodology is useful in assessing the state of e-commerce in the industry and determine the challenges that have affected the industry over time. Using the literature, the research aims to find the challenges affecting the industry E-Commerce supply chain, and based on the identified challenges, suggest solutions that can help streamline the system according to consumers’ expectations.

The literature analyzed will involve past experiences in the industry and the methods in which the companies in the airline industry have acted to prevent risks caused by the changing expectations. Through the methods they have used, the research aims to find other suggestions that would help to solve the issues of e-commerce and provide a practical means to make operations effective. The data shall be analyzed thematically using different themes and critical topics such as the current role and state of the e-commerce supply chain in the airline industry. Also, challenges that airlines face as they continue to integrate e-commerce in their supply chain management and how airline companies address e-commerce challenges in their supply chain systems. Thematic analysis is used because it will provide insightful research findings by giving a summary of the most critical data set, such as the employee in airline companies.

Findings and Discussion

Significance Of E-Commerce In Airline Supply Chains

After analyzing the literature in the research, different data were presented concerning the importance of the e-commerce supply chain and how it helps the industry achieve its strategies for a competitive advantage in the market. The industry uses the fulfillment process to exchange documents electronically and improve the accuracy of data and reduce any high costs; hence, streamlining the chain of supply and enhancing services to the customers. The buyer and the seller distance is shortened by providing them with benefits of low costs and at any place (Kolhe, 2016). E-commerce supply chain management strives to help the industry to benefit from the increasing customers. E-commerce connects various stakeholders in various countries, as well as customers who need services from the companies in the aviation industry. Also, it is easier for companies to structure their supply chain for effective operations, which enhances their performance. The challenge that affects the automation process is the changing needs of consumers, which are also influenced by the changing technologies and systems, which consumers apply.

To begin with, e-commerce helps in cost reduction by allowing transportation companies to exchange documents electronically. The airline industries handle their materials from one sector to another without wastage of money and also saves on time. Data accuracy is improved through, and the company’s business cycle is enhanced through the supply chain. The company enjoys reduced costs and enhanced customer service through the managers’ excellent management of the supply chain. Second, e-commerce impacts demand patterns through the incorporation of globalization and technology. The aviation industry takes this opportunity to improve their networks with other companies and increases the speed of conducting any transaction son sales. The improvement of technology has helped the enterprise communicate with their customers and provide for their needs while they understand their shopping interests.

Third, e-commerce creates room for logistics such as buffer stocks, returned items, and individual picking and packing. Third-party logistics helps the industry benefit through digital marketing campaigns and different warehouse services. Adequate space for warehousing responsibilities helps the airline Companies focus on their marketing and sales activities. Fourth, through the digital revolution and the introduction of e-commerce, there has been a balanced relationship between the customers and the sellers since before the development, businesses had more power on their customers, making them change their perception of the company’s ethical and services. Today the power is on a vice versa take where the customers have more control over the industry that directs how the businesses should operate to meet their needs. Consumers are used to using the internet to find information, make orders and bookings, as well as communicating with the stakeholders of the company. Therefore, as the consumers’ expectations change, the companies in the industry also need to change their system to incorporate the new factors, which the consumers require to improve their experiences. Also, a change in technological advancement affects the experience of consumers. The trends in technological advancements need to be incorporated in the automation process of the companies to improve operations of the company. A change in the delivery of substances has been detected where customers receive their orders the same day they make the orders.

Fifth, the traditional roles that governed the Aviation Industry have changed, and now they are working on tasks that rhyme with the modern world. The functions of stores, distribution centers, and transport providers have changed due to the introduction of e-commerce supply chains. The current retail stores operate as centers of product fulfillment, where the packaging and picking of online orders from the customers take place (Kolhe, 2016). Lastly, changes in the distribution systems are made by the e-commerce chain, making it easier for the industry to more flexible in managing the movements that keep on the increase each day. The activities to be maintained in the distribution system include; moving of products from one place to another, and taking information from one business to another, and to the customers, as well as suppliers. Through the development of e-commerce, links between the customers and the distribution center of different products were closed since operations were done through technology. Through the supply chains, customers can manage their movements of products and able to receive their information without struggles. E-commerce is an essential link in the transportation sector for both internal and external customers. Excellent services are delivered to their customers, which boosts the growth of the industry. Shareholders’ value is built through the arrangement of transportation services, which helps strengthen the company. Aviation Industry has made their websites a place where customers can get detailed information concerning the services offered by the industry and how they can conduct business with it. Customers can establish an account through e-commerce where they can place shipment orders, submit any claims, and carry out different activities through the account (Kolhe, 2016). Through shipment, the industry’s e-commerce automates the receiving process of goods through transmitting a packing list ahead of the delivery. Shipping documentation and labelling are done through e-commerce supply chains where human power is replaced. Through the shipment processes, things have been made easier in the airline industry.

The Current State Of The E-Commerce Supply Chain In The Aviation Industry

The rapid growth of e-commerce is bringing a lot of changes to the airline industry by increasing excellent delivery services and tightening up trucking capacity. It has made the chain management leverage diverse systems making the process to be more efficient. E-commerce has created satisfaction to customers in terms of excellent delivery and a transparent supply chain, which has also become essential to the retailers and other brands. Through the research done, customers want their goods delivered on time, and they are always eager to know when their products will arrive. E-commerce has changed the way shoppers approach their carrier relationship leading to significant and more essential partnerships. The ability to serve customers with the speed they want through delivering their errands is necessary. Any information collected through e-commerce is necessary since it helps retailers plan their supply chain and also customers to arrange for the request of their goods. It is also necessary for supply management to accurately organize their extra resources and inventories. The technology concerned with e-commerce in the aviation industry is rapidly growing. It pushes other partners to work together to ensure that it works on different platforms. E-commerce is changing the way shippers find the labor they need and a challenge to the retailers since there is a fear of unemployment as the time progresses.

Challenges That Aviation Industry in Australia Faces In The E-Commerce Supply

E-commerce faces a lot of problems, especially with the financial services where the industry has to accept all the effects accompanied by the e-commerce supply chain. One of the challenges is with the customers where there is a lack of transparent verification of the specific good they want. Their genuineness becomes a significant problem through the industry’s websites and portals, whereby the managers have got the phone number and the address and no more details that can help them trace the clients. A considerable loss is experienced by the industry if a customer orders for goods and insists on cash on delivery. The person to deliver comes across with a fake address without their knowledge (Arawwawala & Gunawardana, 2017). It becomes a challenge to the management since they have to ensure that they have maintained the customer’s loyalty. It becomes a total disappointment if the industry sends orders that are not relevant to the intended customer. Most customers quit the industry if their store is not familiar with the customer’s needs and wants. There is no visibility of the buyer and the seller, which leads to no trust, unlike in physical shopping, where the seller and the buyer see each other.

The absence of an online verification code makes the customers lack trust in the goods to be delivered. Aviation Industry has to ensure that it has an omnichannel where they can reach all their customers through different websites, numbers, and agents (Casey, 2017). It faces the challenge of finding the right product that it can sell to its customers. A lot of struggle has faced the management and retailers in providing a unique product to its customers through several platforms that compete with the industry. For instance, shopping cart platforms and Amazon have taken over the e-commerce world where they have massive product catalog making it hard for the Aviation industry to penetrate the products to the market peacefully.

It has been a challenge for the airline industry to attract perfect customers, especially in online shopping, where shoppers have to search for products using Amazon and not just Google. Most of them ask for recommendations through social media and use their smartphones to request for the good-paying their cash through the specific company’s account. It becomes challenging to convince them and buy the industry’s products since they get distracted with products from other companies. Retailers understand the most challenging duty of figuring out where to get the customers and how to attract them efficiently without interfering with their needs. Different digital marketing channels have developed, which makes the supply management and retailers not to depend on one way of communicating their products and services. They have to establish other forms of communication, for instance, the emails, shopping engines, advertisements, among others, and be available where most of their customers’ flood.

Aviation Industry spends a lot of money while capturing the quality leads to get most of its marketing efforts appreciated by the consumers. To achieve the leads, the e-commerce supply chain management has to build their communication platform and request subscribers to communicate their messages and prospects better for long-term success. Retailers must draft the right letter, which will be delivered to the customers, which helps change them into leads and like the Aviation products. It becomes a challenge for the industry to nurture the ideal prospects since there is no perfect engagement with subscribers of different communication platforms. It forces the retailers to deliver the valued message in the various platforms to reveal their marketing efforts and attract the customers. By advertising them on different entertainment platforms, managers have to actively participate in the promotion of their products, thus adding value to their products.

The management of the aviation industry has to struggle in converting online shoppers into paying customers through having quality traffics and nurtured leads. To pay for any marketing campaigns for their products, they have to turn the leads. It forces the retailer and managers to convert the email leads and any other platform subscribers into customers through an optimized conversation. Retaining customers is another struggle, and it is more expensive. What matters in an organization is long-term profit and growth. However, it is a sweat of the day to accomplish this strategy sine the management has to ensure that their customers are given their goods on time and at low cost to maintain them for profitability to be detected at the end of the day. The challenges that the retailers face is the limited technology or hiring the wrong agencies that fail to assist them in marketing the products of the industry. To achieve growth and profit, the company must have good technology and choose the right social platforms for marketing their products. The growth of the company can be limited by hiring the wrong group to help in implementing marketing campaigns and projects, which becomes a significant challenge to the Aviation Industry management.

How To Address The Challenges In The E-Commerce Supply Chain

The management of the supply chain has to be creative to manage the challenges the aviation industry faces. The business strategy should ensure that it covers the problems that may meet the industry and provide solutions. It is not possible to solve all the issues at once. However, planning can help in conquering some of the challenges face by the e-commerce supply chain. E-commerce can be sustained if it adapts to the changes that affect technology.

Moreover, it is always difficult to forget the high technology-based systems, but the management has to consider the great benefits of moving to another new technology. Applying the latest tool in the industry will help to stay in the current and relevant field to give the best value of the industry. Determining the right device and analyzing what the business requires helps ensure that the technology installed is agile and dependable (Kayikci, 2019). There should be flexible technology to respond to market trends quicker and easier.

The management has to should ensure that the industry maintains a global presence. Dwelling on the local presence supports the industry to local businesses where the growth and development are slow. A tremendous robust economy can be created by identifying the industry’s goals on sales targets. The new online shoppers provide great opportunities; therefore, the management has to look at their planning list of all sales done in the company and, at the same time, check at the rising economy that dominates the supply chain market. Following the steps of giant corporations like Amazon and Walmart gives a challenge to the management system to ensure that they follow the same steps to raise the online businesses across borders and worldwide to obtain the targeted profit.

Most customers use their mobile phones since they are comfortable engaging with online businesses and place their demand for different goods. The management should ensure that they adopt a mobile-first approach for the primary online shopping portal. Online transactions are mostly done through mobile stores optimized by different companies (Thöni & Tjoa, 2017). Due to oversight, the industry might lose a lot of customers; therefore, a mobile platform should be developed. The company’s retailers and managers should know using a mobile-first design approach, which provides an excellent opportunity for understanding the customers’ experience. The design approach can capture the imagination and attention of different customers through a unique mobile user interface. The portable design approach helps to make the store responsive and fast, making it reliable for the customers (Laudon & Traver, 2016). E-commerce supply chain management should ensure that they keep the customers engaged with good mobile designs that make them feel comfortable with the different transaction s they engage in.

The management system should ensure that there is an uninterrupted experience in the brand industry since creating trust is the most significant core of determining its position in the market. Through all platforms and channels, managers and retailers should be consistent in communicating with their clients, which creates loyalty. A branding identity should be formed by integrating information to all communication platforms, and one should ensure that all the promises to the customers are delivered to build the trust. These efforts help the industry to grow according to the needs of the customer leading to evolutionary growth. A comfort zone is created for the customers since they will be pulled by the positive connectivity making the brand grow organically. Inconsistency creates mistrust for the customers; thus, it is essential to consider every detail presented in the communication platform to ensure that it gives a seamless experience.

Conclusion

Based on the findings presented and discussed in this report, the following conclusions have been drawn to layout a practical path that explains the challenges that face the e-commerce supply chain for the Aviation Industry. According to the responses given by the available interviewees, it is possible to conclude that e-co

The world societies have been transforming since the beginning of history

A COMPLEX AND A CLASSICAL SOCIETY AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE WORLD

The world societies have been transforming since the beginning of history. The earliest forms of societies were of a rather complex nature. These eventually gave way to more classical societies that later paved way for the current modern societies. Several factors which included in most cases political and economic contributed to the transition inherent in these societies. The complete change of government structures from the complex to the classical societies could not go unnoticed. This change had a rather significant transformation to the human society as a whole.

This paper will analyze two ancient societies, Mesopotamia a complex society and the Roman Empire a classical society. It is imperative first to understand what these two different societies entailed. Complex societies entailed social formation that was complex in all its forms (Charvat, 2002). A complex society had members of the society specialized to specific activities. There was a high form of division of labor which had people depend entirely on each other. Complex societies were characterized by chiefdoms mostly kingship based societies. They kept on revising and re-revising their legislations to maintain their supremacy and rule of the people. They thus became very complex due to existence of very many laws, political leaders and legislations. No one was above the other as every member depended on the other (Charvat, 2002). This complexity was made even more complex as the population grew bigger. Complexity was also inherent in these societies political sphere. There was a complicated form of hierarchy of the ruling elite. This complexity was what led to the collapse of most of the complex societies including Mesopotamia. This is because there existed a number of rulers who all wanted to gain power thus leading to brutal wars that accelerated the collapse of this societies (Postgate, 1994). The structure of a complex society collapses entirely when one part of this structure is interfered with. The collapse is not only inherent in the political structure of the complex society but also in the economic sector. As the population increases, the sources of livelihood are depleted as competition for the diminishing resources increases. This means that the members of such a society might result in armed struggle as they compete for the scarce resources.

Mesopotamia is considered not only as one of the complex ancient societies, but also the cradle of civilization. Bronze Age is accredited to have had its origins in this ancient empire (Postgate, 1994). This age include Assyrian, Akkadian and the Sumer empires and later the Iron Age which was under the control of Neo Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian empires. These economic activities have had a great significance to the modern world. A lot of developments emerged from the Mesopotamian economic activities and have continued to have a significant contribution to the modern world.

In terms of the legal system, Mesopotamia was a highly complex society. Basing our argument on the code of Hammurabi it is evident that this ancient society was dominated by too many laws that were conflicting in themselves (Horne, 1915). This code for instance had 282 laws that helped govern the people of Mesopotamia. Some of these laws were very brutal as the major punishment for breaking them was death. Law number six in this code which states that “if a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be put to death; and he that has received the stolen property from him shall be put to death” (Horne, 1915). This law was rather brutal to the person receiving the stolen goods since he would have no idea whether the goods were legitimate or not. Another law in contention in this code is law number nine 11 “if on the other hand, the claimant of the lost property has not brought the witnesses that know his lost property, he has been guilty of slander, he has stirred up strife, he shall be put to death” (Horne, 1915). It was not really easy to get a person who had a full knowledge of your property. Further still, the person with the stolen goods could also bring his own witnesses for the claimed property. It would be difficult therefore to determine the actual ownership of the goods. This could in most cases lead to the innocent person being killed to rush conclusions. Eight out of the first ten laws of this code hade the guilty person being punished by death. The brutality of this judicial system probably was one of the causes of aggression that led to the collapse of this society. These laws though have had a great significance in the development of the modern judicial system as well as in the classical period. The laws though have been revised putting more consideration to the respect of human life.

The religious sphere of Mesopotamia has also contributed a lot to the practices of the modern world. This society was a rather polytheistic. It is acclaimed that the Mesopotamian worshipped over 2000 gods. Having been the origin of the writing system, the Mesopotamian religion is believed to be the oldest religion in written history (Postgate, 1994). The religion has had a great impact in the modern world religion especially the myths inherent in the modern religion. It is for instance associated with Christianity as most of the myths that were identified in the ancient religion share some similarities with the Old Testament part of the Christian Bible.

The Mesopotamian religion was mostly ascribed to the forces of nature. Inanna for instance was the goddess of the store houses. She was also considered as the queen of heaven and was highly revered. A lot of hymns were written to praise her. For instance in the ‘incarnation to Ishtar as she was later known, she is described as “o heroic one, Ishtar, the immaculate one of the goddesses” (Postgate, 1994). She was considered to be the giver of life as she was associated with the whole aspects of life. This can be compared to the modern world where most religion ascribe the quality and sustenance of life to supernatural beings or being depending on the religion. The Mesopotamian religion can thus be said to be the mother of all other religions.

Mesopotamia intellectual capabilities are inherent in the modern world not only in agriculture but also in education. It is widely believed that the earliest forms of writing were discovered in areas around Mesopotamia (Charvat, 2002). This shows that this society was also highly complex in terms of education. This has been passed down from generation to the next and has contributed a lot to the development of the modern world.

Most of the complex societies later collapsed paving way to simpler and modern societies. The classical societies emerged after the collapse of the complex societies. These societies simplified the concepts they acquired from the complex societies in a bid to maintain the political as well as the social and economic structures that had collapsed under the complex societies. Among the most successful classical societies was the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was established after the collapse of ancient roman civilization. This was after a streak of civil wars that eventually weakened the preceding empire. It was largely an autocratic system of government and controlled a very large area well over 6.5 million square kilometers (Mackay, 2004). This kingdom was more stable than the earlier complex system of government as it had a central ruling authority. No wonder it lasted for several centuries capturing more kingdoms and expanding its territory as well as its doctrines and values. The Roman Empire authority was secured by a well standing army that paid allegiance to the emperor.

This army therefore enabled the spread of education, religion and other roman practices to the conquered lands and territories (Mackay, 2004). A key point to note here is that the emperor who was the overall leader tolerated people to practice their own religions as a long as they did not threaten the empires security. There were some persecutions though notably among the Christians as they tried to spread the doctrines of Christianity. The empire in the whole though was a polytheist society. The world’s religions today have been mostly influenced by the religions in the Roman Empire. Christianity especially was later to be adopted as the most dominant religion in the empire (Dubois, 2011). Considering its stability, the religion was spread in the whole region gaining popularity with time. The center of Christianity is even established to date in Rome which was the capital of the empire.

The dominant language in this empire was Latin. It was to be the official language in this empire and spread to other regions that were under the Roman Empire. Latin was used in the empire’s law courts, education, business and religion (Dubois, 2011). As the language evolved, it developed into two registers; the high classical Latin which was the language of the elite in this society and the low Vulgar Latin that developed as the lingua franca among the majority non elites. It was this low Vulgar Latin that would later have a significant influence in the language system of Western Europe. The low Vulgar Latin later emerged into the Romance languages which include Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, French and Italian that are now the modern and dominant languages. Since the Roman Empire never intended to erode its religions vernacular or cultural languages, the east of the empire retained their languages with Greek emerging as the dominant language. Greek is still spoken in its modern form to date but Latin become extinct with time.

Due to empires relative peace and stability for an extended period of time, the Roman Empire was able to instigate a lot of industrial and economic endeavors, significantly improving the economic situation of the empire. Its military which was well trained and very disciplined ensured that there was no uprising in any of the empire’s regions. A point to note here is that at the very core of the ruling elite were well trained soldiers who possessed unique fighting abilities. It was rather an empire made up of soldiers in different hierarchies. The army was divided into legions of 480 men each and was deployed to the various regions far and wide to maintain allegiance to the emperor and maintain peace and stability (Mackay, 2004). There was a promise of a piece of land for any soldier after serving for the time set which was usually 20 years. This organization of the Roman Empire has been largely borrowed by the modern armies who also instill the same discipline inherent in the Roman Empire’s soldiers. The training and fighting mechanisms have also been borrowed though modern armies now use sophisticated weapons.

As whole, the modern society has had a lot to borrow from both the classical and the complex societies. The modern society has galvanized what has been borrowed from the two ancient societies to come up with what is evident today in most governments around the world. It is not only in government but in the modern society as a whole; the social structures of the modern societies have a lot in common with the ancient societies. A lot of industrial as well as agricultural and educational developments have a lot in common with the ancient societies.

References

Charvat, P. (2002). Mesopotamia before history. London: Rout ledge publishers.

Dubois, L. M. (20110. Ancient Rome: A Mighty Empire. Minnesota: Capstone Press.

Horne, F. C. (1915). The code of Hammurabi.USA: Forgotten Books.

Mackay, S. C. (2004). Ancient Rome: A military and political history. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.

Postgate, J.N. (1994). Early Mesopotamia: Society and economy at the dawn of history. London: Rout ledge publishers.

New York Times, “NAFTA Talks’ Extension May Make for Slow, Painful Demise”, by Ana Swanson

New York Times, “NAFTA Talks’ Extension May Make for Slow, Painful Demise”, by Ana Swanson

Since the new presidency, politics have been the highlight of the news with new changes wanting to be made. One of these recent changes being the negotiation over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). United States, Canada, and Mexico have differing views on whether or not to keep the pact. They must decide and vote by weighing out the benefits but also the negativities of keeping NAFTA. Rewriting the agreement takes time and consideration. In the end, not everyone will get the benefits they were hoping for.

Trump’s take on the debate is to get rid of NAFTA because it does not benefit American workers. Although important to American commerce and the economy, the workers lose their jobs and opportunities. One of the aspects being talked over is what percentage of an American companies’ product needs to be made in the USA. This is the policy of local content requirements that requires a domestic market to supply a specific amount of a product in its domestic country. This is exactly what Trump is trying to do so it keeps more jobs in the United States. Although, withdrawing from the trade agreement will make the U.S. lose approximately 265,000 jobs. This goes completely against what Trump is trying to do.

The upcoming election in Mexico will slow down the process of the negotiation. Voters will not want to take a stand on the new propositions that Trump is suggesting. With the way Trump is clashing with Mexico’s and Canada’s leaders will lead to a lengthy revisal of the trade agreement. Getting rid of NAFTA will tear these three countries apart from a long-lasting relationship. The motivation to fight other issues such as terrorism, drugs, immigration, and money laundering will lessen. Without NAFTA to hold these countries as a team, they will lack their cooperation with one another.

The NAFTA changing will bring about economy instability. There will no longer be as much international trade. International trade is the purchase, sale, or exchange of goods and services across national borders. Mexico, US, and Canada will lose their ability to trade as freely which discourages trade because they no longer have the trading advantage they used to have. Costs of trading across borders will become more expensive if another one of Trumps suggestions is set into NAFTA. It will raise the prices of dairy products in Canadian. Also, a sunset clause was proposed so that every five years NAFTA will expire unless Mexico, U.S., and Canada agree to reissue it. This gives the side who would not support it an advantage. The lack of political teamwork will cause more arguments and disagreements between political officials.

In my opinion, the modification or extinguishing of NAFTA will have more negative outcomes that it will beneficial ones. One being the amount of jobs that will be lost. All three countries lose jobs even though Trump is trying to help American workers. NAFTA alteration, the proposal of a sunset clause, will make NAFTA more successful because it will allow time for revisions. It gives us a time frame for correcting policies that were not benefiting the countries and can be replaced with better functioning ones. Allowing NAFTA to carry on will not be as bad as it will be taking it away. It has been in place since 1994 and has worked well for all three economies involved. It promotes trade, increases economic activity, and lets business’s work more effectively. With America’s new president, it is suddenly only about the benefit of America. By allowing NAFTA to run as it has been, America would be helping Canada’s and Mexico’s economies continue to grow. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/us/politics/nafta-negotiators-extend-talks-delaying- its-expected-demise.html

Reducing Gun Violence in America

Policy Brief: Reducing Gun Violence in America

Audience

The US state governments and bullet manufacturers.

Key messages

There are increased incidences of gun violence in the US, which puts people’s lives and families in danger. However, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant. This policy brief presents means of reducing cases of gun violence.

Policy options

The US state government to restrict the gun purchases within a month to one gun per person.

Bullet manufacturers to put unique serial numbers on all bullets.

Executive Summary

School shootings, mass murders, and other gun-related crimes are becoming more prevalent in the US. Individuals are faced with the impending question of how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from these senseless crimes. This is because efforts by the US government have failed to prevent gun violence. Gun violence is more widespread in the Americas because of the ease with which weapons may be obtained and the lack of control or enforcement of firearms regulations. This policy brief presents ways of reducing cases of gun violence. Gun violence in the US may be reduced by the US state government restricting gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This will help reduce the illegal gun trade. Also, gun violence can be reduced by bullet manufacturers putting unique serial numbers on all bullets, making it easy to identify the perpetrators of gun violence.

Context and Scope of the Problem

Gun violence and mass shootings in the US are on the rise, with more than 30,000 Americans being killed each year (Cornell & Cornell, 2018). The increased rates of gun violence have put people’s lives and families in danger, with Latino and Black populations being the most affected populations. As a result, gun violence has been considered a public health crisis in America (Maa & Darzi, 2018). For all Americans, firearm-related injuries are one of the leading causes of mortality (CDC, 2019). Although gun violence’s widespread, destructive, and inequitable effects have been recognized, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant (Dorris & Murphy, 2021).

Policy Alternatives

Current Policy

In the United States, most gun regulations target the person who will be using the weapon, regulating who may own, buy, or possess a gun. Current Gun control policies also restrict carrying concealed guns and firearms outside the homestead. For instance, the Gun Control Act (1968), which controls the use of firearms at the federal level, mandates that US legal residents and citizens must be at least 18 years old to acquire rifles and ammunition or shotguns. People under the age of 21 are not allowed to purchase other firearms such as handguns. The Act permits the local or state officials to implement high age restrictions, but they cannot lower the federal minimum age. Patients in mental hospitals and fugitives are among those who are prohibited from purchasing weapons. Also forbidden from obtaining weapons are those who have previously served time in jail for felonies or misdemeanors that entail sentences of more than two years. Federal law also bans gun sales to those convicted of illegally having or using drugs such as Marijuana in the previous year. The benefit of the current policy is that the gun control laws may help in reducing gun possession by harmful people. Contrary, broad limits on gun access, such as the restrictions on the purchase or ownership of weapons for those with mental sickness, may not promote the FHIA concept of family diversity because they unjustly stigmatize individuals and families who fall into limited categories (Schroeder et al., 2018).

Proposed Options

One of the proposed options is that the US state governments restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. The benefit of this policy is that it will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence. However, this policy option has a disadvantage since the policy will only prevent law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns.

The second policy option is that policymakers ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. This policy option has the benefit of making it easier to trace perpetrators of gun violence. Once the criminals are identified, this will help minimize gun violence. However, criminals may delete the serial numbers, thus making it difficult to trace them even when bullets are found on the crime scene.

Policy Recommendations

The state governments in the US should ensure that they restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This is because most illegal gun trade is conducted by middle persons who purchase guns from licensed sellers in bulk and resell them to criminals and juveniles. Therefore, restricting the number of firearms one can purchase in a month will stop the illegal gun trade. Consequently, this will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence.

The state governments in the US should also ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. Sellers should then be advised to keep the record of the buyers along with the serial numbers. Since bullets are often recovered at the scene of a crime, the records kept by the sellers will be used to trace the crime perpetrators once bullets are discovered. These criminals will be punished according to the law and will instill fear in other criminals, thus reducing cases of gun violence.

Limitations

The implementation of the proposed policy may be affected by the firearms sellers who do not abide by the law. This is because these sellers might sell more than one firearm to the same person in a month.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019). Fast Facts: Firearm Violence Prevention. Retrieved 24 June 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html.

Cornell, S., & Cornell, E. (2018). The Second Amendment and firearms regulation: A venerable tradition regulating liberty while securing public safety. American journal of public health, 108(7), 867-868

Dorris, L., & Murphy, A. L. (2021). No more politics over people: The role of helping professions in the prevention of mass shootings and gun-related violence. Traumatology. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/trm0000350Maa, J., & Darzi, A. (2018). Firearm injuries and violence prevention—the potential power of a surgeon general’s report. New England journal of medicine, 379(5), 408-410. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1803295Schroeder, A., Quinn, D., Allen, S., & Anderson, E. (2018). The intersection of mental illness and gun violence: Examining the evidence to guide sound public policy. NCFR Report: Family Focus, 78, F4-F6.

Statement of Purpose – Doctor of Liberal Arts degree at Georgetown University (SOP).

Statement of Purpose – Doctor of Liberal Arts degree at Georgetown University (SOP).

I hereby apply for admission to pursue a Doctor of Liberal Arts degree in the department of Government in international relations at Georgetown University. I believe that the Doctor of Liberal Arts degree at Georgetown University is designed for individuals like me who have the motivation and potential to excel in their careers. It is in my opinion that this program is designed for individuals who hold the background as well as analytical skills requisite for managerial and administrative decision-making in the public and private sectors. It is in my opinion that the Doctor of Liberal Arts degree at Georgetown University provides the opportunity I require to develop my competencies in administration and management. I am aware that the objective of Georgetown education is to create exceptional creative thinkers, and problem-solvers.

In this paper I have provided an overview of my scholarly as well as professional. I have also provided an overview of my career objectives as well as the inspiration to pursue the Doctor of Liberal Arts degree at Georgetown University. I am presently a working as a Supervisor for the Immigration Analyst unit at the Arlington Asylum Office.  I have an Associate and a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. I also hold a Masters degree in Public Administration from Strayer University, Washington, DC. In the course of my previous studies, I have developed a keen interest in pursuing international relations to the PHD level. It is in light of this that I find international relations in the department’s graduate program the most appropriate channel to prepare for a successful career, since it introduces scholars to cutting-edge research across the field and trains them to become productive global citizens.

In the course of my career in the public sector, I have had the opportunity to serve in many different details in offices around the United States, as well as abroad. As a Supervisory Immigration Analyst I supervise a group of Immigration Analysts responsible for directing, implementing, coordinating, and overseeing a major department-wide mission or administrative program requiring application of a wide range of qualitative systems and support principles, processes and systems. I research and conduct studies which involve the search and examination of CIS records and databases to obtain pertinent information on cases, policies, procedures, trends, evaluation, and other similar matters to make determinations on case specific problems. I respond to case specific and general filing inquiries from internal and external customers, including various USCIS offices, and other government agencies. I research, prepare and provide verbal or written technical guidance, information and support to various USCIS office management staff in the application of management systems and/or programs. I conduct data queries, and validate and analyze data and create reports for management on program elements.

As an Immigration Analyst (Asylum), between 1/04/2009 to 11/20/2010, my core duties and responsibilities were to search applicants’ background checks. The most important tool within the USCIS data systems, is RAPS and CIS, also CLAIMS, TECS IBIS, other lookout databases, commercial databases, and various open sources to determine if information relates to a subject and the extend of derogatory information. I would verify information through system checks, electronic inquiries and in contact with the Asylum Officers, Asylum Supervisors and other Immigration Offices. I ensured that applicants complied with all relevant background check and fingerprints (biometric) check procedures. I would also serve as an assistant to the Director, Deputy Director, and Supervisors in gathering data, preparing documentation, creating reports, organizing records, and assembling files. I entered the selected information into various databases and automated tracking system; performing a variety of assignments, such as assembling and summarizing incoming background check information, and other materials. I determined whether the background check results present a possible bar to the Grant of Asylum or require notification of law enforcement personnel. I also determined through consultations with the Deputy Director or other Authority Personnel whether a case must be forwarded for adjudication or taken off the production schedule for further examination of the background check results.  I determined if the Asylum Office has jurisdiction over an Asylum case, a Nacara case; a credible and reasonable fear case by analyzing facts, examining any available documents and researching and analyzing appropriate information. I would personally issue cases decision and deportation or exclusion charging documents. I prepared charging documents and review them and their attachments against the information in the file to ensure completeness and accuracy of charges as well as compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and procedures.  I reviewed the applicant decision and made sure that the applicant understood the content of each document in the decision packet.  I conducted face-to-face prescreening interviews with applicant and elicit sufficient information from the applicant through questioning and reviewing a variety of documents to determine the prima facie eligibility of benefits under special program settlements and regulations and prepared reports on suspected fraudulent intent by applicants.

As a Immigration Officer/Contact Office Representative between 2/28/1999 to 1/4/2009, I had the opportunity to serve in many different details in offices around the United States (Atlanta District Office and Los Angeles District Office among others,) as a Representative of the Arlington Asylum Office, (Arlington, VA,), as part of my job, I would assist the Asylum Officers with the administrative duties that comes with the preparation of the interviews.  I would deliver grants to applicants and provide advice and guidance to applicants concerning the full-range of grant and agreement determinations and cooperative agreements with Federal, state and local agencies, memoranda of understanding, and relevant laws and immigration regulations. I created award and court packages and ensured all the necessary documentation was included.  Prior to delivering or giving an applicant his/hers Grant, I would review grant benefits for clarity and completeness and provide advice and assistance in the development of criteria and standards for the planning, implementation and evaluation of grant applications. I reviewed and processed award amendments, including, but not limited to: removal of special conditions/holds; changes in authorized representatives/points of contact, and sole source justifications, and changes in scope. Between Jan 3, 2005 and March 5, 2005, I served in Kenya (Africa), as an Immigration/Administrator officer for the Immigration and Citizenship Office at the US embassy in Nairobi. In this assignment I was able to process over 1,000 cases in two months, optimally using my many different skills while making sure that all DHS/CIS Regulations were followed. My duties included many aspects of the immigration process, at various levels of responsibility. These included processing many of the Refugees applications and adjudicating applications (and associated benefits) for refugee settlement in the United States. I executed facts review and analysis upon examining applicants’ documents for authenticity. I also carried out research on the laws and country conditions, with the help of the OIC (Officer in charge.) I also reviewed case files and decisions to ensure that quality standards were met.  I collected and evaluated intelligence information, and brought refugee fraud leads to the OIC’s attention. I carried out screening of affidavits to determine eligibility of family reunification refugee cases. I reviewed biometric data clearance for refugee entry into the United States. I checked for Holds to be lifted, and lifted them if all corrections were made.  I would check the applicants and dependents’ pictures for fraud, and poison pen letters, verify their class clearances and RAVU letters. Between 1999 and Jan 3, 2005, I served as a Contact Representative, in the Department of Justice, Arlington Asylum Office, Arlington, VA. While between 5/1990 to 1999, I served as an US Army Legislative Liaison, attached to the Pentagon, Arlington, VA.

It would be a privilege to me to secure admittance to pursue a Doctor of Liberal Arts degree in the department of Government in international relations at Georgetown University. I am resolved to match the excellence standards laid down by Georgetown University.

Sixties Liberalism Article Review

Sixties Liberalism Article Review

Many years may have passed, but our actions today, just like in the earlier days, are governed by statutes which are upheld and articulated in the amendments that make up the bill of rights. The laws enacted, regardless of the provision, are bound to receive resistance and critics; they are various movements that come up to resist or support their enacting, example the call of the planet protection can be credited to the discussion on how to protect our planet better. The focus below will be on a review of an article by summarizing and highlighting the author’s opinion while offering my insights.

Summary

To begin with, the author sheds light on the civility that was enacted in 1942 and still upheld in the 60s; it accommodated uncivility in some aspects. As asserted by the author, the uncivility resistances stemmed from the civil rights movements that employed direct non-violent actions. Also, people used the Mahatma Gandhi lack of violent conflict in the 1906 campaigns and relied on the Gospel notion that one should love their enemies. Additionally, the author talks of the various forms that the protest took, which challenged both the civility complexity and the caste system. Unfortunately, while the non-violent protest was said to yield results, the whites claimed that they were attacking civility; the need to protect themselves shifted the peaceful protest to becoming violent ones. The author also talks of the counterculture movement whose advocates attacked the compromises and restraints of the civil society by valuing authenticity and not civility. During this period, as stated by the author, the lifestyle changed the lifestyle from the way of clothing to the use of drugs; it tried to enact new civility. Lastly, the author asserts that the issue of order and freedom has been handled today as a result of the institutional decorum, which is said to be problematic when there is a universal, equal rights commitment.

Critiques

The author has undoubtedly articulated his views on the 1960s, and the change that happened and its effects on today’s society. I agree with him on various points; first, the author has highlighted the reasons that direct non-violent actions shifted to violence was by the oppressors viewing them as brutal. The evidence of this is depicted by the unrest that law enforcers employ when they feel threatened. Also, the author states that the counterculture that ended in the 1970s was a period that challenged the civility, and the use of drugs was enhanced; this is true since people termed the drugs as substances to free themselves from the civility upheld. Additionally, it was during this period was associated with the hippie lifestyle not only in the dressings and use of drugs but in the general outlook. The need to redefine sexual codes is also related to this movement. Lastly, the changes evident today, just as claimed by the author, were attributed by the decorum by the Supreme Court.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, the 1960 changes contributed to the American culture shift today, while some words were considered inappropriate today we hear them across the various media platforms. Also, the critics of the way of life then termed the adoption of a different way of life as immoral this is also evident in our society today. The author has also emphasized the shift of the non-violent protest to the violent ones; in today’s society, people are resolving to peaceful protest, but just like back then in the event the oppressors feel threatened, everything turns to the worse.

Bibliography

Farber, David R. 1994. The Sixties. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Theology is a complex idea that refers to different things to distinct individual.

What is Theology?

Theology is a complex idea that refers to different things to distinct individual. However, the basic meaning of theology is that this discipline is the study of, or the discipline that involves discourse about, God. The word comes from two words with a Greek origin: theos, which means the word about God, or talking of God for the purposes of understanding what can be comprehended of who God is. One essential explanation of theology is that it is equal to the practice of contemplation of or thinking of God. As it follows, people know and study God through meditation, and through their inner experiences that only occur during sessions of deep prayers that helps one comprehend of God and how he is involved with creation. When knowledge of who God is and what God can do is gained through this way, those involved in the study and prayer of God are said to be involved in mystical theology.

This kind of theology is culturally conditioned, highly personal and idiosyncratic. The most common and most popular understanding of theology is one that refers to theology as the ‘study of God and religious beliefs about God’ (Flynn 2).theology has developed into a number of things. For instance, it developed into an answer to a religious position that conflicts with the proposed guidelines and doctrines implemented and practiced by a church. In the Roman Catholicism’s context, theology is a statement of belief that conflicts or is at considerable variance with the teachings of the hierarchy in Roman Catholic. There are other developments as well, that are owed to the shaping of theology that has occurred over the years. However, of theology one can conclude that every instance of theology is an activity of seeking understanding about God.

What is Faith?

Religious faith can be described as one’s choice to live life in a relationship or in association to God or one’s choice to believe firmly in God. In Isaiah 49: 15 and Mathew 6: 11, faith is described as ‘one’s choice to believe in God and to live life in relationship to God; God, our Mother and Father who cannot be without tenderness for the child of the womb and who provides our daily bread’ (Flynn 49). Faith is unique and intangible in the heart of every believer, it is complex and challenging to fashion a precise description that describes it best. For some individuals, faith is usually a dominant force in that determines and rules their life; to others it is not so significant. It is easy for people to misunderstand and confuse faith with superstition and take one for another. Others confuse it with the resignation of personal responsibilities. Faith is a complex phenomenon, but this is not to mean that it is a reality whose certain elements cannot be understood.

Faith has a number of characteristics, five to be specific. For instance, faith is a gift. Those whose believe is in God know and acknowledge that faith is a gift. God is the provider of the gift of faith and believers can chose or not chose to accept this gift. Another characteristic of faith is that it is obscure. This characteristic is well understood after reading the book of Mark. The obscurity characteristic of faith is located in one’s psychological reality, and not in the element of faith. Other characteristics of faith include that faith is stained by certitude, faith involves risk and that it is and must be rooted deeply.

Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ is a critical foundation to Christianity, as without Jesus, there would be no Christian theology or Christianity. Jesus is the son of God who lived on this earth two thousand years ago. He came to earth after being sent by God, his father, to come save the world. There is enough evidence that shows that Jesus Christ was a person. A number of epistles in the New Testament and in the four Gospels have Jesus as their key subject. These bible books cite different sayings of Jesus, his anecdotes about his message and life, and recollections of his messages and life from eyewitnesses. Jesus is also mentioned in other books other than the Christian bible. For example, he is mentioned in apocryphal gospels and Talmud, as well as, by a number of secular historians.

Therefore, one can say that Jesus existed as a man during this period and that his influence and life accounted for his being the topic of religious teachings. Jesus was also mentioned in secular treatises after he died. This fact leads to one to conclude that Jesus was a significant person whose life and teachings continue to make numerous, critical impressions on Christians and other individuals even after centuries after his death. Jesus Christ was involved in different events during his life, which when carefully analyzed provide a foundation for an outline of his life and the major events he was involved in during his life on earth.

Work cited

Flynn, Eileen Patricia. Why Believe? Foundations of Catholic Theology. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Print.

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness

Operational Analysis and Effectiveness

Elements such as customers’ vision, value and mission of a firm, its core capabilities and strategic frameworks are what create the general production strategy and operations systems. The implementation of the lean production system and the JIT was meant to decrease inventory waste, which in the past resulted to a considerable amount of expenses and costs. However, in the case of Leagile manufacturing, the intended effect failed to take place and instead all areas of production and operations were affected negatively. The main areas of operations that were exceedingly affected by the new lean production system included production, sales and customer relations, transportation and supplies and procurement. Initially the company’s vice president of operations implemented MRP or manufacturing resource planning for the whole system. His implementation was only based on what he read in the different books something, which led to failure (Bruce, Daly and Towers 151-70).

In order for one to understand appropriately the concepts that led to the failure of the lean production system in the company, he or she has to be familiar with concepts in operational management. Operations management is an area of study that is concerned with designing, overseeing and redesigning of operations in business in the manufacture of goods and services. This area of management involves itself with the responsibility of making sure that operations in business are running efficiently when it comes to the utilization of a number of resources accordingly, and effective when it comes to satisfying the suppliers and meeting the requirements of the customers (Bruce, Daly and Towers 151-70).

This paper will discuss a number of concepts in operations management, theories, models and principles in the analysis of the current application of operation management concepts in Leagile Manufacturing. Essentially, the paper will also show some of the weaknesses and mistakes the company made while implementing the lean manufacturing concept in its operations, in areas of customers and sales, strategy, production, transport and suppliers and procurement. In addition to this, the paper will also give a number of recommendations to the company, as to how it can correct these mistakes and turn the operation and production processes profitable.

A majority of companies today are increasingly getting aware of the fact that gains in competitive advantage are not limited to improvements in their internal operational systems, but also, as well as, in their external supply chains. A wide range of potential improvement strategies is available for shaping both the external and internal processes. Lean practices, among other initiatives such as supplier rationalization and logistic integration are some of the examples of such strategies. Lean practice is the main initiative that Leagile manufacturing used, but implemented wrongly to result to numerous disadvantages and great losses. Lean practice is an example of an improvement strategy for internal processes, while supplier rationalization and logistics integration are examples of initiatives oriented towards the external processes. Such programs and practices are usually taken as beneficial and profitable to any kind of manufacturing firm, while a number of researchers argue that some improvement strategies are more applicable in specific manufacturing environments. Therefore, there are a number of disagreements on the applicability of these initiatives in manufacturing firms (Krishnamurthy and Yauch 588- 604).

Lean production is typically considered as an essential process for any organization that needs to improve its operations in manufacturing like in the creation of a smooth production flow and for removing waste. However, a number of researchers on leagility, that compares agile with lean strategies suggest that lean production is more applicable to operations that are more- to- order and increase the decoupling point in material flow in supply chains, while agility is more suitable for firms that are more- to- order and decrease the decoupling point (Bruce, Daly and Towers 151-70).

Furthermore, logistics integration is a significant part of any organization in the context of supply chains. In order to establish a well-built chain of supply, the logistics between consecutive associates have to be integrated. Numerous researchers regard this as essential for all operations involved in supply chains. However, some point out that is especially true for more- to- order firms that depend on the support of their suppliers for providing components that create variety and for delivering products that are customized on time. On the other hand, more- to- stock organizations buy standard components and at times prefer distant relationships with their suppliers, and consequently do not need the integration of logistics with suppliers (Flynn, Huo and Zhao 58- 71).

Thus, logistics integration may be more appropriate for more- to- order operations and lean production may be more applicable to more- to- stock firms. Before coming up with the appropriate recommendations for Leagile Manufacturing, it is essential to first explore and explain the notion of internal lean practices, business performance, supplier rationalization, and logistics integration. After this then the paper can discuss more specifically some of the recommendations that can offer the company in question more competitive advantage by improving its operations (Flynn, Huo and Zhao 58- 71).

One can trace the use of the term lean production to the Internal Motor Vehicle Program. The term was offered as a synonym for the practices in production, which Toyota pioneered. However, the techniques and concepts under the lean tag were the generally similar to these of JIT or just- in- time a decade before. There are different kinds of lean principles, which vary according to researchers. Some of the most common principles are flow, value, the value stream, perfection, and pull. Many researchers point out the ultimate customer is the one who defines value. On the other hand, the value stream is the series of all the specific activities needed to bring a certain product through a firm’s internal value chain. Flow is defined as making the steps used for creating value flow. Pull is the utilization of a pull schedule and perfection is making improvements a constant and continuous effort. Other essential principles critical in lean practices include waste minimization, visual control, continuous improvement, striving to establish a permanent relationship with suppliers and load leveling (Gonzalez-Benito 901- 17).

Following the principles defined above, internal lean practices include reduction of set- up, small lot sizes; pull production system, and smoothening the layout through concepts of focused factory or cellular manufacturing. More appropriately, these are operational measures related to internal operations, rather than supplier related or customer related. According to this statement, one can see that Leagile manufacturing made a mistake by using lean practices to improve all of its operations including those related to customers and supply chains. A number of researchers have come up with evidence supporting the finding that business performance and thus profitability improved with the utilization of lean and just- in- time practices. Gains and improvements in both market performance and financial performance were observed after firms implemented and made use of these practices as expected (Gonzalez-Benito 901- 17).

The utilization of performance of businesses as a measure is common for understanding the long- term behavior and practices of an organization. Generally, return on investment, market share, sales, assets or other similar measures like changes occurring in these measures are essential in helping managers understand the performance of their businesses, a reason for making use of business performance in the place of operational performance is that more to stock and more to order organizations may as well concentrate in different performance outcomes and competitive priorities. For instance, cost flexibility and efficiency are typically trade- offs, in a way that more to stock firms concentrate in cost efficiency while their counterparts focus more on flexibility. Therefore, more to order and more to stock companies may make use of distinct paths or practices to attain high levels of performance in business. As it follows, business performance is not related to certain kinds of decoupling point, and can, thus, be utilized to gauge how well certain practices are utilized in manufacturing companies despite decoupling points (Rosenzweig, Roth and Dean 437- 56).

The other issues that this paper has to address have to do with the relations businesses have with their suppliers. The increasing competition has made firms to not only improve their internal process but also to put more emphasis on incorporating their suppliers into the general process of value chain. The contribution suppliers make to firms in delivering value to consumers, therefore, creating competitive capabilities through delivery, quality, cost and flexibility has been widely acknowledged. Improved integration of logistics between partners and the supply chain lead to a number of operational advantages including the improvement of sales and customer service. Plants that perform better show a higher level of logistical interactions, and that the widest integration arcs were found to lead to the most beneficial association with improvement of performance. Integration of supply chains was found to considerably relate to performance of businesses. As it follows, one can conclude that external logistics integration leads to an improved relationship with the performance of a company’s business (Gonzalez-Benito 901- 17).

Rationalization of suppliers is also another critical component in the strategic partnership with suppliers, and it is the practice of limiting the supply chain base to limited strategic suppliers who can provide the business with dependability and considerable high quality. In a number of studies examining the effects of selection and assessment of suppliers in a buying organization’s business performance, researchers found that strategic commitment to the buyer by the suppliers has an essential influence on the performance of a firm’s business. In addition to this, it was found that supplier rationalization has a crucial influence on the growth of businesses (Kannan and Tan 11-20).

According to the critical analysis carried out of the challenges affecting the proper implementation of lean practices in Leagile Manufacturing, several issues were recognized, that are probable causes of the losses the company experienced in profits. One of the mistakes that the analysis identified was the mistake of thinking that the use of tools to come up with processes for reducing waste are what the firm should adopt instead of adopting and using the tools to get rid of the waste. According to the analysis, there were five different challenges affecting the five different areas of operation in the company.

For instance, in the procurement and supplier operational area, the problem seemed to be the increase in operational costs, as a result, of an increase in the made purchases, since the decrease in the raw materials inventory, the analysis found that it seems to lead to an increase in purchases, which led to more repercussions that are negative. The issues appeared to branch from the incapacity of the vice president to balance the intake of stock, which led to the failures in the reduction of raw material inventory.

The other operational area that was seriously affected is the sales and customers operational area. The company has been making numerous late deliveries; as a result, of the increase in the quantity of times they have to move for supplies. Because of this, the production process has been slowed down, leading to late deliveries. The change in inventory has also cause issues in the production area because of the changes in the inventory, which have led to increases in measures for quality control. This is to mean that workers have to apply more caution, and the equipment in use in the factory is not according to standards. The production areas are among the most influenced locales in the company since most of the complaints have to do with delayed deliveries. The main challenge seems to be a result of the whole plan of implementation that did not provide the company with enough time for adaption.

The transport operational area also has numerous issues; the main challenge in the area has to do with decrease in inventory. Since decreasing inventory of raw material so as to improve efficiency is one of the main advantages of lean practices. The strategy the company makes use of to implement lean practices also has issues. Looking at the whole process, one cannot help but find numerous gaps that exist within the process of implementation. The strategy that the company used to implement its lean practices was adopted from other companies, and the vice president asked his management team to implement the plan as these companies had. What the vice president did not realize is that different companies have different operations and activities that might affect a number of strategic processes. This is to mean that a plan drawn or designed for a certain company will not work for another company.

Having seen where the Leagile Manufacturing went wrong, it is possible to use a number of concepts and principles in operations management to draw up a plan with a number of recommendations that the company can make use of to address its challenges, and, as a result, improve its performance, competitive advantage, and, thus, profitability. In the previous paragraphs, we had seen that the business performance of a company could be improved by making use of three principles or concepts in operations management. The combined utilization of these three concepts can improve the performance of Leagile Manufacturing if well implemented. These three concepts include internal lean practices for more to order and more- to- stock businesses, external logistics integration of more to stock and more to order firms and supplier rationalization for more to stock and more to order firms (Zailani and Rajagopa 379- 93).

Lean companies have faced numerous challenges when faced with a lot of varieties of products, offering more than one option or choices for consumers leading to increasingly small and exceedingly rare orders too often. This variety requires often kanban exchanges and equipment set ups, in addition to, numerous deliveries of small lots of products. As a solution to such challenges, a number of researchers have come up with a number of proposals. One of these is that lean firms should decrease variety and make use of more standardization of parts instead. A huge variety of products is a typical characteristic of firms that are more to order, while standardization of parts is a general characteristic of more to stock firms. Just as well, other researchers support the argument that lean is more relevant for those firms that make use of more to stock operations than those that make use of more to order operations (Zailani and Rajagopa 379- 93).

Advocators of Leagility, which the utilization of both agile and lean practices, argue that leanness should be more emphasized for operations that are more to stock, while agility is more crucial when used for operations that are more to order. The acknowledgement that more- to- stock firms are faced with different challenges from more to order firms has had a significant influence on the establishment of control mechanisms for production for production systems that make use of lean practices. Such researchers point out that Kanban is more specified for more- to- stock firms as opposed to more- to- order firms that have such principles as POLCA and COWIP working for them. As it follows, Leagile Manufacturing should follow these guidelines to streamline its internal operations such as inventory, transport and delivery of products to consumers so as to become more efficient, and, therefore, more profitable (Krishnamurthy and Yauch 588- 604).

Other recommendations have to do with the supply chain, which as we saw in the paragraphs above, cannot be improved efficiently using lean practices alone, but with combination with external logistics integration. Integration of supply chains that is tighter in supply chains that are make- to- order through coordination of physical flow and sharing of information provides firms with considerable opportunities for improving their performance in business, and, thus, economic performance. While sharing of information reduces production costs, the main economic advantage comes form decision making that is coordinated, companies that make use of customer service, delivery, flexibility and quality as winners of order present differences in the level to which they incorporate their external supply chain (Narasimhan, Talluri and Mendez 28- 37).

Just as well, companies that choose to make use of price strategies as a winner of order do not represent any considerable difference in the extent of external incorporation of supply chain. Firms with a higher degree of external integration are those that take a leading role in customer service, delivery, flexibility and quality when contrasted with those companies that adopt little or limited integration. Companies looking for customer service, delivery, flexibility and quality as winners of order should put more of their emphasis on ways to integrate externally with both their suppliers and customers (Quesada et al (296- 303).

There are numerous studies that provide businesses with evidence that higher integrations of external supply chains lead to higher levels of improvement on lead- time of deliveries, as well as, on- time deliveries. A number of researcher have also shown how companies looking for flexibility are concentrating or focusing on strategic integration with their suppliers. These studies indicate and show findings whereby flexibility is improved after companies integrated their external supply chain. This is to mean that Leagile Manufacturing can combine its lean practices with logistics integration to improve its supply chain and to address its issues with the suppliers and deliveries (Quesada et al (296- 303).

Supplier rationalization is also another operational management concept that the company can make use of to improve its performance. Make- to- order firms need suppliers who are reliable and items of high quality especially with reliable and short high design flexibility and delivery lead times to support the logistic incorporation between the supplier and the customer. On the other hand, make- to- order companies require suppliers who are reliable and items of high qualities, at prices that are affordable, to support the internal lean practices that they establish. Therefore, researchers have indicated that the influence on the performance of business of rationalization of suppliers is positive for both kinds of firms. Since Leagile Manufacturing is both a make- to- order and make- to- stock company, it can benefit from the concept of supplier rationalization when used together with lean practices (Sahin and Robinson 579- 98).

As the above recommendations on how to do away with the challenges affecting the Leagile Manufacturing operations suggest that one of the most effective strategy to do away with these challenges is the utilization of the appropriate lean practices designed for this particular company. As the architect of the lean concept believed, the most basic function of lean practices is the elimination of wastes experienced in a company to improve its performance and profitability. According to the developers of the concept, there are different kinds of wastes, which a company can experience. These wastes include defects in inventories, overproduction, and defects in production, unnecessary movement of individuals, unnecessary processing, and waiting by the workers and the unnecessary transport of products. All these challenges seem to be affecting Leagile Manufacturing one way or the other (Sahin and Robinson 579- 98).

The word lean applies because a lean company usually makes use of less or everything from raw materials to costs as compared to production of mass products. Therefore, a company that makes use of the lean principles makes use of less of human efforts in the production process, makes use of less of investment in tools, makes use of less of manufacturing space and makes use of less of the time required for engineering of a new product. As it follows, a lean company requires for fewer inventories and incurs limited defects or challenges while providing a larger product variety. The potential offered by lean practices has been acknowledged and embraced by researchers and practitioners alike. A survey carried out on a number of industries found that a majority of the plants that adapted lean practices improved their performance considerably. Beyond production and manufacturing, lean practices have also found numerous applications in logistics and product development and launching and accounting. Leagile Manufacturing can, therefore, make use of lean practices to identify the value present in certain products, the value stream for all of its products, support value flow, and allow the customer pull value and increase perfection. It is through this enterprise- wide strategy and approach to lean practices implementation that the concept extends further beyond functional strategy to a wider strategy in supply chain employed by the firm (Shah and Ward 129- 149a).

It is also fundamental to remember that while replenishment of pull is a concept of the lean approach, a company has to ask itself where it is pulling from. It is obvious that lean systems never pull away from the ultimate consumer. Rather, production responds to the signal of demand produced by the consumer next- stage, which is in most cases not the end- consumer. Many theorists assume that many end- users or consumers are ‘I- want- it- now’ kind of consumers. Consumers would rather purchase what they find on offer than wait for something else that will only be available to them ten days away. This concept leads a lot of firms to manufacture their products in advance on a basis of make- to- stock so as to solve this challenge (Shah and Ward 129- 149a).

However, one might worry about inequalities and differences between demand and supply, but theorists have suggested that at times companies have to speculate about the final customer demand of their product. Thus, while lean practices look to reduce waste in its numerous forms, the planning basis essential for satisfying and serving end consumers with immediate availability of products means that the inventory will be manufactured before hand, as same as it happens in mass production. The difference between mass production and lean production us that lean production usually depends more on a shorter horizon of demand forecasting and the ability to adapt should schedules in production need to be altered. The most common challenge with such systems has to do with the accurate anticipation of quantities, allocation of products that match the demand of customers and quality of products. Improvement in performance in such a case requires the improvement in focus on the consumer. The strategy that applies the effort to react and gratify the demands of the end- consumer on the basis of real time is described as agility of supply chains (Shah and Ward 785- 805b).

This paper is an examination of several recommendations that Leagile Manufacturing can use to get out of the problems caused by improper implementation of lean practices into its operational areas. As a result, of a deep analysis, it was found that improvements in both external and internal process in general could lead to an improvement of business performance. The other thing that was realized was that there is a big difference between different kinds of businesses and companies, with respect to how their performance in business is affected. Therefore, the most basic mistake that Leagile Manufacturing made, and which can never be repeated is adapting another company’s implementation strategy of lean practices. Another thing that was realized during the study was that supplier rationalization and internal lean practices significantly affect and influence business performance of companies.

In addition, it was found that integration of external logistics could have a positive effect on business performance, especially if the company is a make- to- stock. The overall findings of the analysis is that supply chain and manufacturing improvement strategies can have considerably essential influences on the performance of Leagile Manufacturing and other companies in the same position. Such operational areas like production, strategy, customers, suppliers and procurement and inventory can be improved by the use of a combination of three main operations management concepts. These concepts include lean practices, integration of supply chains and rationalization of suppliers. If Leagile Manufacturing makes use of these concepts, then it is possible that its challenges can be solved.

Work cited

Bruce, M., Daly, L. and Towers, N. ‘Lean or agile: a solution for supply chain management in the textiles and clothing industry?’ International Journal of Operations and Productions Management 24. 2 (2004) 151-70. Print.

Flynn, B., Huo, B. and Zhao, X. ‘The impact of supply chain integration on performance: A contingency and configuration approach.’ Journal of Operations Management 28. 1 (2010) 58–71. Print.

Gonzalez-Benito, J. ‘A theory of purchasing’s contribution to business performance. Journal of Operations Management 25. 4 (2007): 901–917. Print.

Kannan, R. and Tan, C. ‘Supplier selection and assessment: Their impact on business performance’. Journal of Supply Chain Management 35. 4 (2002): 11-2. Print.

Krishnamurthy, R. and Yauch, A. ‘Leagile manufacturing: a proposed corporate Infrastructure’. International Journal of Operations and Productions Management 27. 6 (2007): 588-604. Print.

Narasimhan, R, Talluri, S. and Mendez, D.’ Supplier evaluation and rationalization via dataenvelopment analysis: an empirical examination’. Journal of Supply Chain Management 37. 3 (2001): 28-37. Print.

Quesada, G., et al. ‘Linking order winning and external supply chain integration strategies’. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 13. 4 (2008): 296–303. Print.

Rosenzweig, D., Roth, V. and Dean, W. ‘The influence of an integration strategy on competitive capabilities and business performance: An exploratory study of consumer products manufacturers’. Journal of Operations Management 2. 4 (2003), 437-456. Print.

Sahin, F. and Robinson, P. ‘Information sharing and coordination in make-to order supply chains’. Journal of Operations Management 23(2005): 579-598. Print.

Shah, R. and Ward, T. ‘Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and Performance’. Journal of Operations Management 21.2 (2003): 129-149. Print.

Shah, R. and Ward, T. ‘Defining and developing measures of lean production’. Journal of Operations Management 25 (2007): 785-805. Print.

Zailani, S. and Rajagopal, P. ‘Supply chain integration and performance: US versus East Asian companies.’ Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 10. 5 (2005): 379-393. Print.