Morality Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Morality - Assignment Example Morals became so obscured in this day and age that people does not only neglect to practice it but also not sure of what it means. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defined it as â€Å"some codes of conduct put forward by a society† and these rules are central in formulating ethical theories (2011). We now often hear ethics in class and to put it in proper perspective it was defined by Kant’s deontology that posits that the best way to act morally to act from duty with the consideration of the highest good, that is, acting through the moral determination of the will. Kant’s acting through the moral determination of will meant that the motivation of one’s action must be pursue the good without condition which is intrinsically good by itself (Kant 30). He formulated his deontological ethics in a categorical imperative of doing good for the sake of good regardless of its consequence (Kant’s Ethics). Considering the number of corporate scandals from Enron to WorldCom that helped slid this country in financial crisis, I am more inclined to believe that it is still better to be moral or ethical. Many people may disagree with my position as impractical that will make me finish last but I prefer to be moral and ethical. I can however rebut that as what we can see in the experience, the gains that were garnered with the lack of morals or ethics are short lived and temporary. We all see it on national TV where corporate executives were arrested for fraud. Criminals also lack morals and while they can get away with their crimes, it is again temporary and sooner or later, they too will be arrested. On a personal level, I believe nobody would disagree that we all want to deal with the people we trust. And earning trust requires a great deal of integrity and honesty such as keeping one’s words, not taking advantage of others etch all of which are the realms of morals and ethics. In the same vein, we also avoid dealing with people who

Renewable Energy in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Renewable Energy in Canada - Essay Example The second largest renewable source is wind that generates 1.6 percent of Canadian electricity. The third largest source is biomass with 1.4 percent share. Moreover, wind and photovoltaic energies are rapidly growing renewable sources in Canada. This paper briefly explores renewable energy and its contributions in Canada (NRCAN). Renewable energy is a kind of energy obtained from natural resources which can be renewed and regained within human lifespan, for instance, moving wind and sunshine. Numerous technologies and equipment are developed in order to exploit the potential natural resources. These equipments produce energy in the form of electricity, thermal energy, industrial heat, and transportation fuels (NRCAN). Canada's leading energy (renewable and other) resource is hydroelectric power. Most of this power is generated in water-rich and less populated Northern Canada in order to provide for urbanized South, for instance, Quebec's export to the U.S. Rapidly growing form of ren ewable energies are wind , solar, geothermal, and biomass. In 2009, Canada's generating capacity was 125,485 MW with 60 percent generated from renewable resources. Hydro power generation meets 90 percent of electricity demand in British Columbia and Quebec. However, British Columbia is a net importer while Quebec is a net exporter. Oil and natural gas resources are plentiful in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Manitoba and Northern Ontario is rich in coal. On a national level, 20 percent generation is from nuclear source, 15 percent coal, and 5 percent is from natural gas source. Wind and solar energy are also gaining popularity through feed-in tariff (FIT). Enacted in 2009, FIT forced Ontario to trailing in North American market activity.FIT is supported by investor due to the money that flows upfront into the project (Wagman, 2011). It is estimated that Canada's generating capacity of 19,000 MW will retire by 2050.In addition, 45,000 MW generating capacity is required to meet the exi sting growth projects. Federal government's goal is to generate 90 percent of Canada's energy through non-emitting resources by the year 2020(Wagman, 2011). Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has signed 40 large-scale renewable energy projects under the province FIT program. These new projects include, solar, water, and wind projects which are expected to attract $3.04 billion in private sector investment. It will generate over 872MW renewable power, of which, 357MW is from 35 solar projects, 500KM from water project, and 615MW from four wind projects. It is claimed that these projects will produce 240 wind turbines and one million solar panels in Ontario. Canada's wind capacity is 3,549MW in 2011, and Ontario is the leading provider with1, 248MW or one third of the total wind energy production. Moreover, another one third is generated by Quebec (663MW) and Alberta (656 MW). Seven other provinces generate the final one-third of total energy. According to CanWEA, there is tenfold increase in wind energy production over the last six years (Wagman, 2011). Another comparatively untapped renewable technology is geothermal energy. Canada shares the same continental shelf and geology as Latin America, Mexico, and United States, and has other undeveloped 200 hot springs. However, federal government and provinces have failed to implement policies and regulations for further development of geothermal energy (Wagman, 2011). According to

English law is too generous to secured creditors. Discuss Essay

English law is too generous to secured creditors. Discuss - Essay Example For clarity, a definition of secured and unsecured creditors will first be established. Then, the discussion will proceed to the various laws and case laws proving that indeed, the laws of UK favours secured creditors. Likewise, the newer laws that are supposed to reform these unfair legislations favouring secured creditors will be addressed. Finally, a conclusion will be formed on the basis of the laws presented whether or not the adage is true. Secured and Unsecured Creditors To define well what secured creditors are, it would be best to first define its anti-thesis, the unsecured creditors. Unsecured creditors are individuals or companies owed money by other individuals or companies which have no recourse for an asset, collateral or fund for repayment in cases wherein default of debtor's payment occurs. On the other hand, secured creditors are generally those that have the benefit of having a security interest over the debtor’s assets. With regards to the English law, parti cularly in relation to the administration of liquidation of companies, insolvency and bankruptcy, the creditors that claims share in the asset are classified into two, i.e., the unsecured and the secured creditors. The former stands pari passu to the later in the event of insolvency or administrative receivership or liquidation. Simply put, secured creditors are treated favourably over unsecured ones in terms of recourse against debtor assets including employees ((Rapalje & Lawrence, 1997). Pertinent Laws on Secured Creditors English law referred to secured creditors numerous times since time immemorial. Most of these references showed favour towards them as opposed to unsecured creditors. The United Kingdom’s security law for instance, has weighed heavily in secured creditors’ favour. Likewise, in cases of insolvency, unsecured creditors rank behind the secured ones. Additionally, secured creditors having qualifying floating charge may have control over the manner of security to be enforced. Moreover, the English law allows secured lenders to enforce said security and step in via a business take over and run the debtor’s business in accordance to their preferences without any due notice given to other unsecured creditors. With these few examples alone, the adage â€Å"English law is too generous to secured creditors† is already being justified. In legislation, secured creditors are given the right to appoint their own â€Å"administrative receiver† in the same manner that they could also block an administrator should they find it necessary (Insolvency Act, 1986). As such, it becomes impossible for them to acquire the business without the intervention of 3rd parties. To prove further that the â€Å"English law is too generous to secured creditors†, several case laws will be discussed as evidence of this adage. All these cases basically revolves around the pursuit of one party to disregard the pari passu law that favors secured creditors over unsecured one, all to no avail. First case in point is the British Eagle International Air Lines Ltd v Cie Nationale Air France (1975). This is a case of English insolvency law that involves a company that winded up and disputes among creditors ensued. This judgment for this case decided it against public policy to vary insolvent estate’s claims and declare unlawful to contract against Insolvency Act of 1986. Thus, the sum due to Air

Public Relation Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Public Relation Research - Essay Example Consequently, the basis of defining media issues should and will always revolve around conveyance of vital, lifesaving information to the general populace in a responsible, fact-based manner which is not just strong enough but also convincing enough to motivate them to take appropriate action without subjecting them to risks. Way back in in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew paid a visit to south Florida, the residents in awe as miles and miles of traffic evacuated the people. Nonetheless, persons who missed the media report, had no information as to who was evacuating who and where. Such underlies the importance of the media and highlights what constitutes a media issue. The article â€Å"Boral demolishes another 700 jobs† highlights a major societal issues and as qualifies as a media issue. It looks at two major public interest areas hit by crisis, thanks to economic recession. These include the employment and the housing development sector. More often than not, every member of the public has interest in knowing the changing employment trends as well as the changes affecting the housing sector. These are both areas which directly touch on the day to day life of the citizens. What makes these issues of interests to the media is the public interest they elicit. The report for the case witnessed in Boral and the possibility of job losses, it is indicative of the hard economic times and spells a possibility of other related or even unrelated industries follow trend to salvage themselves. It reveals information which could have a rippling effect across the local divide. In a related piece, Wheeldon (2012) highlights not just Boral but also brings in Fletcher, both of which are construction related industry. This is a warning to the public of negative effects within the industry and the need to take contingency measures. Public relations have a lot to do with communication of occurrence to the general public. It helps the public get a clear picture of some special o ccurrence within an organization and in most cases attempt to justify the actions. This is summarized in the statement, â€Å"When a company spends hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to sponsor an event, it seems rather foolish to me not to spend the additional relatively small amount required to tell people you're doing so. Public relations are the final ingredient required to ensure the success of the buy; to fail to use PR seems kind of like buying a car without the engine; it still looks pretty but it won't go very far (Cox & Avila, 2008).† In general, it focuses on justifying an action taken by an organization more especially if the action taken touches on the lives of the public. In this case, the reported incident reports loss of employment to hundreds of employs and probably other many who directly relay on the ones who lose their employment. Other than the loss of employment, it justifies its position and explains that the cut will not affect its produ ction as it will focus on areas where redundancy has been recorded in the past (Kylie, 2013). This is what makes it public relations. It explains a situation, justifies the situation and explains the possible impact of the situation. A number of public concern issues are raised in the article. Primary ‘publics’ concerned with the issue A number of stakeholders are will find interest in the communications made in the article. The first groups of interested parties are the employees. The employees are

Us War Against Iraq Essay Example for Free

Us War Against Iraq Essay The Bush Administration in June of 2003 first attacked but than later withdrew its troops from Syria. There was no significant explanation for this act by the United States. This was a pure and simple aggression. Than later in August of 2003 George Bush told his people that he is going to launch a more destructive attack on his arch rivals around the world. Than George Bush was approving Israel’s leader Ariel Sharon act of aggression against the Lebanon’s, Palestine’s and Syrians. The World War 3 was not far away at this point. In the beginning of 2004, in the presidential campaign George Bush clearly pointed out the clear picture of the prospect on more aggression on different countries. Was this extra aggression a way for George Bush to win his first Election? Or he wanted to steal the Presidency of United States from the people of America like he did in 2000? When the Bush Jr. administrations aggression against Iraq was over, the United States and the United Kingdom became the â€Å"belligerent occupants† of Iraq in accordance with, and subject to the requirements of, the laws of war. Bush Jr. s May 1, 2003 â€Å"end of major combat operations† speech on the deck of a U. S. aircraft carrier was nothing more than a cheap campaign and legally deceptive propaganda stunt. Succinctly put, these legal rules of war can be found in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, its Additional Protocol One of 1977, the Hague Regulations of 1907, and U. S. Army Field Manual 27–10 (1956), which require, inter alia, the preservation of Iraqs constitutional and domestic legal order. Nevertheless, the Bush Jr. administration made it crystal clear that they were going to remake Iraq in their own image and thus not pay the least bit of attention to the laws of war. This has entailed a range of policies which would further U. S. /U. K. interests while seeking to drastically curtail future Iraqi options, e. g. , â€Å"privatization† of the Iraqi economy, including and especially its oil industry; drafting a new constitution for Iraq to determine the nature and extent of its democracy; re-writing Iraqs laws; establishing ad hoc war crimes tribunals along the lines of the Bush Jr. kangaroo courts in Guantanamo; de-Baathification; indoctrinating Iraqi schoolchildren with American propaganda through extensive â€Å"reform† of its education system; etc. All of this serves to put the future of Iraq up for sale to the lowest American (and then British and Israeli) bidders. Such violations of the laws of war are war crimes, establishing the legal predicate for a legitimate Iraqi government in the future to repudiate them all. Oil and Gas as the Key to Global Dominance There is no denying that oil was at the top of the Bush Jr. / Sr. hit-list and the fact that Iraq possesses about 11% of the worlds oil reserves. Indeed, prior thereto it was the thirst and lust for oil and natural gas by the American power elite that really propelled the Bush Jr. administrations aggression against Afghanistan: the need to gain direct access to the rich oil and natural gas fields of Central Asia, which marked the first exploitation of the terrible tragedy of September 11 as public justification for a pre-planned war of aggression under the pretext of â€Å"combating international terrorism. Though according to the Bush Jr. administrations version of events, 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were from Saudi Arabia, for some mysterious reason America had to attack, invade, and occupy Afghanistan. Bush administration functionaries continue to lie, cover up, and obstruct investigations into who was ultimately responsible for the terrible tragedy of September 11, and why no one in the Bush Jr. administration acted to prevent it despite numerous, repeated, and widespread warnings beforehand from American as well as European diplomats and agencies. We are witnessing a Pearl Harbor cover-up all over again. The Bush Jr. Wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq must be understood as part of a major grab by the United States government for global energy resources and the attendant power to be derived from controlling about two-thirds of the worlds oil and natural gas supplies located around this Eurasian heartland. Such an assault had been contemplated and planned by the U. S. power elite for quite some time, dating back to the Kissinger threat and plan to steal the Arab oil fields in reaction to the 1973 Arab oil embargo of the West for assisting Israel in its war to hold on to the Arab lands Israel had illegally stolen in its 1967 aggressions against the surrounding Arab states and peoples. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the disintegration of the Soviet Union provided the U. S. power elite with the opportunity to put their Machiavellian scheme for world economic hegemony into operation. But the Bush Jr. Wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq must be seen as more than the seizure of oil for domestic consumption. Rather, they are components of a longstanding American plan to control and dominate the oil and natural gas supplies for Europe, Japan, and Asia, and thus the future of the worlds economy—a project my teacher, mentor, and later friend, the late and great Professor Hans Morgenthau once denominated as â€Å"unlimited imperialism† in his classic work Politics Among Nations. Tied into this was the subsidiary objective of making sure that oil continues to be paid for in dollars instead of Euros on the open market. The Bush Sr. 1991 war against Iraq for oil was the first battle in the U. S. quest for world economic hegemony. These subsequent events must be viewed in the same light: the Bush Sr. invasion of Somalia; the Clinton/ Bush Jr. military intervention into Colombia; Bush Jr. s support for the anti Chavez failed coup in oil-rich Venezuela; the post-9/11 U. S. military intervention into and occupation of Djibouti in order to control the Suez Canal/ Persian Gulf oil route to Europe, and also to obtain direct military access to the oil and natural gas resources around the Horn of Africa; the August 2003 U. S. military intervention into Liberia, once again to grab direct military access to the oil and natural gas resources located off and on the West Coast of Africa; etc. Whatever the public rhetoric or justification might be, the fact of the matter is that if the reader looks at a map of the world, the United States government has its military, paramilitary, and covert forces converging upon and/or threatening almost every country in the world that possesses significant quantities of oil or natural gas, as well as their transportation supply-lines and the latters choke-points. Many of these energy-resource-rich countries just happen to be Muslim. That reveals what Huntingtons infamous â€Å"Clash of Civilizations† was really all about. Our clash is their civilization. After September 11, Bush Jr. himself proudly boasted that he was going on a Crusade. Certainly that is the way the Muslim world sees it: an American fundamentalist mission to remake â€Å"world order† in Americas imperialist image—not as democracies, but as client or even failed states—while fomenting world disorder in the process. In this relentless quest and insatiable lust for oil and gas around the world, the United States power elite is now in the process of destroying the entirety of the international legal order that had been established by a predecessor elitist generation running the United States government in the aftermath of and in reaction to the genocidal horrors of the Second World War. Most particularly and especially, this includes, inter alia, the United Nations Charter, as well as the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles, all of which had heretofore been the bedrock upon which the entirety of the post-World War II international legal order rested. Preventive Warfare: The Nazi Precedent Iraq had been continuously and illegally bombed by the United States and the United Kingdom since the end of the Bush Sr. Gulf War in 1991 under the pretext of enforcing unauthorized and clearly illegal no-fly zones. But in order to accomplish their objective of seizing Iraq outright, the Bush Jr. warmongers had to articulate another operational rationale for a war of aggression that they could then sell to the American people and Congress that was separate and apart from their fatuous â€Å"war against international terrorism. † So they resurrected the long-ago discredited Nazi doctrine of â€Å"preventive warfare,† once again using the terrible tragedy of 11 September 2001 as a pretext for doing so. The first overt step in their plan was the Bush Jr. aggressive threat to Iraq uttered during the course of his State of the Union Address to the United States Congress on 29 January 2002, in which he branded Iraq as part of a so-called â€Å"axis of evil† along with Iran and North Korea. By means of employing this provocative language harkening back to the World War II â€Å"axis† of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, the Bush Jr. administration was deliberately preparing the ground for bogus claims to launch preventive wars against all three of these U. N. member states. Iraq was at the top of the Bush Jr. hit list. Having been materially and psychologically debilitated by over a decade of genocidal economic sanctions imposed upon its people by the United Nations Security Council acting at the behest of the United States and the United Kingdom, Iraq and its oil fields were finally ripe for the imperial picking by Bush Jr. and his right-hand henchman, Tony Blair. By contrast, North Korea and Iran could be expected to defend themselves by inflicting enormous casualties against an aggressor. As on the Southside of Chicago, bullies prefer to pick upon hapless victims. The Nazi doctrine of preventive warfare was publicly articulated by President Bush Jr. in his 1 June 2002 commencement address at the West Point Military Academy. Then in late August of 2002, Vice President Cheney signaled the formal commencement of the Bush Jr. war of aggression against Iraq by giving two public speeches before the Veterans of Foreign Wars (Aug. 26) and the Korean War Veterans (Aug. 29) in which he too publicly touted the Nazi doctrine of preventive warfare against Iraq. The U. S. news media were too obeisant to observe that though warmongering for a war against Iraq before these former soldiers who had actually gone to war, Cheney had ducked out of the Vietnam War, as had Bush, Jr. Wolfowitz and the rest of the Bush Jr. administrations Straussian Neo-Con cabal were too busy studying Machiavelli and Nietzsche with Strauss, Bloom, and their acolytes from the University of Chicago. Unlike the WWII American power elite, many of whose sons actually fought in combat (e. g. , Bush Sr. ), the contemporary American power elite prefers to send the children of poor blacks, Latinos, and whites off to kill and be killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere, as did their elitist predecessors a generation ago in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Indeed a Class war. Finally, in September 2002 the Bush Jr. Administration officially approved and adopted the â€Å"National Security Strategy of the United States,† fully embracing this reprehensible, criminal, and Nazi doctrine of preventive warfare, and transmitted it to the U. S. Congress as a declaration of official policy by the United States of America.. Certainly its most odious language is: â€Å"†¦ we recognize that our best defense is a good offense†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In other words, the United States government has publicly admitted in an official government document that it is now prepared to wage offensive warfare against adversaries of its choosing around the world irrespective of the requirements of, inter alia, the United Nations Charter, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, as well as the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles. This official U. S. government document could be filed with the International Court of Justice in The Hague as proof-positive that it is now the official policy of the United States government to wage criminal wars of aggression against other U. N. member states in violation of the most elementary principles of the contemporary international legal order that would be too numerous to list here. The document is nothing less than what lawyers call an â€Å"Admission against Interest. † In brief, the Bush Jr. administration has officially incriminated the United States of America under international law and practice. Such is the arrogance of Power—which usually spells its downfall! Even more disturbingly, while it was publicly campaigning for a war of aggression against Iraq, in December 2002 the Bush Jr. administration released its so-called â€Å"National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction,† which was published on the web-page for the White House itself. This supplementary Nazi war plan calls for the first use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)–-chemical, biological, and nuclear—by the United States government under the justification of waging a preventive or preemptive war. Of course this Nazi Doctrine of Preventive Warfare is nothing more than a pretext for waging a war of aggression in the first place. So the Bush Jr. administration officially signaled that it is fully prepared to be the first to use WMD. It would do so against its chosen adversaries around the world as part of an offensive military operation, or even to launch a full-scale war itself, thereby evoking shades of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! North Korea took notice and responded accordingly to defend itself. Reference Page †¢ James Moore (2004) Book Title: Bushs War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People. Publisher: Wiley. Place of Publication: Hoboken, NJ.

When Darkness Struck Essay Example for Free

When Darkness Struck Essay It was past your curfew late one night and you were on your way home. While you were in the lift with a neighbour, it came to a complete halt suddenly. Based on the above information, write a composition of about 150 words. In your composition, make use of the points below: †¢ How did you feel? †¢ What did your neighbour do? †¢ What happened in the end? You may reorder the points. You may also include other relevant points. I looked at my watch. Oh no! It was 10 pm and it was way past my curfew. I sighed. Who cares? I have to work overtime. ‘Ok, everyone you may pack up for the day. Sorry to hold you guys in,’ said the boss. My heart rejoiced. Finally, peace and freedom! I took the public bus home to my flat. I walked briskly towards the lift lobby as I pressed the lift button. Mr Chan, my next-door neighbour, was waiting for the lift, too. We smiled at each other. ‘Working overtime again?’ he asked. I nodded. The lift door opened. We walked into the lift together. While the lift was moving up, it suddenly halted, the lights went out, the entire lift went pitch dark. Fear crept onto me as I felt my way to Mr Chan and asked,’ What should we do?’ ‘Don’t worry, I will try possible ways for help,’ Mr Chan replied as he felt for the emergency button and pressed it. To our dismay, it did not work due to the blackout. Next, Mr Chan tried the second attempt. He felt around his pocket to look for his mobile phone. With that, he dialed to the engineer rescuers. A few minutes later, the lift door cracked open. I could saw the glimpse of light outside. I thanked Mr Chan and the rescuers for their help. Mr Chan and I walked home together, then we split into different routes to our doors respectively. I could see Mr Chan’s wife, Mrs Chan, standing by the front door, waiting for him anxiously. On the other hand, my mother was waiting for me. When she saw me, she asked, ‘Where did you go? I was about to call to your office venue!’ ‘There was a blackout in the lift.  Luckily Mr Chan was with me, or I would still be stuck in the lift by now,’ I replied. This reassured my mother, as we walked into our house, getting ready for the night. I saw a piece of paper on the coffee table. It was written to me by Mrs Chan. It said: Dear Carine, There’s a curfew today from 10pm onwards. Residents are not to use the lift, for they might encounter problems such as blackouts. I would like to remind you so that you could tell your boss about the curfew at your estate when you reached your working venue so that he can release you earlier. Your neighbour, Mrs Chan I was about to sleep for the night after changing my clothes when I heard ‘Carine, Mrs Chan left you a note this morning. Have you seen it?’ I sighed, with a smile on my face. There goes my mother again, who only tells people after they have seen it.

Understanding Optimized Production Technology

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