Sunday, May 17, 2020

The Semi-Nomadic Chickasaw Indians - 599 Words

The Chickasaw Indians were a small group of Indians, consisting of a estimated amount of 5,000 people in the 1600s. They were people who were very coordinated and established their homes at close proximity. They held life at a high esteem, and had several towns and villages that incorporated present-day elements. The Chickasaw were religious and relied most on faith for healing. This Indian group worshiped the deity Ababinili. This god represents the things above such as the sun, clouds, and sky. In addition, worship of other deities was included into the religion. Each god or deity has a different purpose. For example, some deities protect against wicked spirits and evil forces. Chickasaw Indians were semi nomadic, people who moved according to season in search for food, water, shelter, and land. Families lived in villages made up of small houses with more than one house per family. Throughout the family, tasks were established separately; one category for the women and one for the men. Women were introduced at an early age how maintain their own land and raise their own crops. They accommodated in looking after their children, cooking, and cleaning. They also tended to the slaves which were often given through war with other tribes. Young girls had the option to stay close to their mother and assist their mothers with the labor or spending their day as they chose. Men were also taught at a young age to hunt and become warriors for the tribe. They often traveledShow MoreRelatedNative Americans And The New Discovered Land By The Indigenous People And Slaves1886 Words   |  8 PagesNative American land kept decreasing significantly. They only had territory of a small portion of the Appalachian Mountains because of the rising population of colonists. Thomas Jefferson also wanted them gone, however as an ultimatum he wanted the Indians to accept and integrate the English lifestyle or be terminated. ii. The Natives had different responses to the European style of treatment and English style of treatment. First the frontiers of inclusion had the Natives easily join the European

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Financial Analysis of Selected Pharmaceutical Companies in...

European Journal of Business and Management ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) www.iiste.org Financial Analysis of Selected Pharmaceutical Companies in Bangladesh Md. Tofael Hossain Majumder (Corresponding Author) Lecturer, Department of Accounting and Information Systems Comilla University, Comilla, Bangladesh. Phone: +8801816436176, Email: tofael_cou@yahoo.com Mohammed Mizanur Rahman Lecturer, School of Business and Economics Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Phone: +8801814319485, Email: mizancu@yahoo.com Abstract With the rapid growth of trade, commerce and industries, the numbers of publicly traded companies are considerably increasing in Bangladesh. Pharmaceutical is an†¦show more content†¦With the rapid growth of trade, commerce and industries, the numbers of publicly traded companies are considerably increasing in Bangladesh. Pharmaceutical is an important adjunct of industrialization in the country. There are 20 listed Pharmaceutical Companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange and 16 listed in Chittagong Stock Exchange. Analyzing the Industrial Life Cycle, it has been found that all of the listed companies have just reached the middle stage. No company could reach the maturity stage. In a word, the Pharmaceutical industry of the country is just improving. It is well known that the Pharmaceuticals industry is one of the key to earning foreign currency. On the other hand, most of the internal demand for drugs is fulfilled by the domestic Pharmaceutical industry of the country. But this industry of Bangladesh depends on foreign country for raw-material and technology. Now the time to make the Pharmaceutical firms self sufficient for the betterment of the country. At this time, performance of manufacturing enterprise, like Pharmaceutical, needs to be measured and analyzed. But evaluation of performance is not a regular practice in the country. Against this backdrop this study is an attempt to evaluate performance of some selected Pharmaceuticals for the period under study. 2. Objectives of the study The study is designed to achieve the following objectives: (i) To assess the financialShow MoreRelatedManagemant Practice Spl5103 Words   |  21 Pages[pic] Executive Summary Pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest industries in our country. Every year a huge amount foreign currency comes from this sector. Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the flagship company, is holding the strong leadership position in the pharmaceutical industry of Bangladesh since 1985 and is now on its way to becoming a high performance global player. It was established in 1958 and converted into a public limited company in 1991. The sales turnover of SPL wasRead MoreCapital Budgeting Practice in Bd2333 Words   |  10 PagesReckitt Benckiser Bangladesh Ltd is a leading player in the FMCG market of Bangladesh with a focus on Health, Hygiene amp; Home. Making differencing from conventional playing company in Bangladesh Reckitt Benckiser has strong intention for modern developed capital budgeting technique in evaluating their potential projects especially in large Ramp;D projects. The company mainly uses IRR. It uses sophisticated methods to project future cash flows. The company also uses scenario analysis to incorporateRead MoreCost of Capital5329 Words   |  22 Pagesan empirical analysis of cost of capital on pharmaceutical industry of Bangladesh by using the concept cost of capital Statistical model. In Bangladesh the pharmaceutical sector is one of the most developed hi-tech sectors is contributing in the country s economy . 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Due to recent development of this sectorRead MoreFinance3312 Words   |  14 Pagesmanagement on the profitability of Square Pharmaceuticals Ltd. 1. Introduction: Inventory is one of the factors that can control to improve business profitability. The way source and manage inventory can impact the different profit levels of income statement. Ignorance of how to use inventory advantage prevents you from maximizing operational efficiency. 2.1. Overview of the Company: SQUARE today is a name not only known in the Pharmaceutical world, it is today a synonym of quality-Read MoreThe Importance Of Dividend Policy819 Words   |  4 Pagesits importance to the organisation and shareholders, these scholars argued that shareholders return is maximized when company pays out dividend and investors are likely to make some capital gains when the share prices appreciate. Some existing literatures have been carried out in both large and small firms in frontier and advanced markets such as the UK, USA, Germany, Bangladesh, , Malawi, Malaysia and most recently, Zimbabwe and Jordanian using either an evaluative or empirical surveys. Sali, ALAA

A case analysis of the Reasons

Question: 1.What's at stake for the key parties, including those with whom susan disagrees? 2.What are the main Arguments Susan is trying to counter ? 3.What levers can susan use to influece thokse with she disagrees? 4.What is susan's most powerful and persuasive response to the reasons and rationalizations he need to address? Answer : 1. Susan is the product manager of PediaBoost that is on its growth stage, unlike other product lines. The product is a nutritious supplement for infants. However, market research shows that adults use it for detoxification. The marketing group for the product wants to capture this new market as the company could use some growth. For Susan, it will increase her chances of promotion. However, venturing into the new market will draw the attention of government regulation authorities (Gentile, 2010). 2. Susan is countering two particular arguments. First, is venturing into the new market to increase PediaBoost sales and for the company's growth. Besides, it will improve her opportunities for a promotion. On the contrary, marketing the product as detoxification suitable for adults will result in increased government intervention. Susan wants to fulfil her personal purpose in the organisation. A dilemma of "truth vs. loyalty" where the marketing team is advocating for capturing the new market yet that is not the goal of the product (Kidder, 2009). Susan is rationalising the argument based on standard practice and loyalty to the organisation. Additionally, it is her responsibility to make the right decision that considers the customer. Otherwise, the regulatory bodies will intervene. 3. Susan can persuade those against her idea of pulling the plug on the new marketing strategy. It is obvious that majority of the team is against her thus she lies in the minority. However, she can present various levers to support her argument and persuade those opposing her. First, Susan should argue based on the long-term effects. Pursuing the new market will lead to government intervention. The regulatory bodies intervene where a product advertising is misleading. Since the initial purpose of the product was to avail nutritious supplements to infants, selling it for detoxification requires licensing (Carroll, Shabana, 2010). Therefore, adequate research must be present by the company itself to support this detoxification purpose. In the long run, the original market may diminish. Secondly, Susan should introduce marketing alternatives rather than pulling the plug entirely. It will eliminate chances of government interventions and increase the growth in PediaBoost sales. Lastly, sh e should recognize the cost to each party and find ways to mitigate it. 4. Susan has a robust and convincing response to the arguments she needs to address. The product is used for detoxification even without such kind of advertising. However, endorsing this marketing strategy will attract regulations. The product is also likely to be viewed as a detoxification product rather than a nutritious supplement for infants. In the long run, the product will lose its original market, thus affecting the competitive advantage of the company. Besides, the company will encounter increased competition from firms offering detoxification products. Therefore, though endorsing the product as detoxifier will increase its sales volume, it may cost the company in the long run. Additionally, increased regulation may affect the public image of the enterprise due to raising questions regarding ethics (Kidder, 2005). References Carroll, A. B., Shabana, K. M. (2010). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice. International journal of management reviews, 12(1), 85-105. Gentile, M. C. (2010). Giving Voice to Values: How to Speak Your Mind When You Know Whats Right? Yale University Press. Kidder, R. M. (2009). How good people make tough choices. Revised Edition. New York: Morrow. Kidder, R. M. (2005) Moral Courage: Taking Action When Your Values Are Put To the Test. William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers. New York. Pg 89.

Monday, April 20, 2020

Resilient Supply Chain Essay Example

Resilient Supply Chain Essay In the recent years many disasters and catastrophic events such as hurricane Mitch, tsunamis, SARS, terrorist attacks and earthquakes have shown that we live in world with increasing uncertainty. These events can cause major disruptions in the supply chain. Although similar events have occurred, since the terrorist attacks of September 11 of 2001 the firms began to reassess the benefits of commonly accepted strategies for sourcing, transportation, demand, planning and managements in a stable environment (Martha and Subbakrisha 2003).In a competitive environment many firms have developed global supply chains which are complex to manage and vulnerable to disruptions. The literature has documented many cases of what can possible go wrong in this supply chains due to unexpected events and what can we learn. For example, Ericsson lost 400 millions euros and the dominant position in the mobile phone market because the managers misestimated the consequences of a fire suffer by their semicon ductor supplier’s plant in Albuquerque (Chopra Sodhi (2004, Rice and Caniato (2003).Norman and Jansson (2004) follow up this case and show how Ericsson implemented proactive supply risk management. Supply chain disruptions can potential compromise facilities, equipment and human resources and the value of stock market shares. Consequently, some studies have quantified the repercussions both in the short and the long run of disruptions in the supply chain. For example, Rice and Caniato (2003) present the results from a company survey that estimates a $50 million to $100 million cost impact for each day its supply network was disrupted.Hendricks and Singhal (2005) analyze the stock market reaction when firms publicly announce they are experiencing disruption during 1989–2000. On a sample of 827 the authors find that one year before through two years after the disruption announcement date, the mean abnormal return of their sample firms was from 33 40%. The author point out that their results suggest that the firms need to invest and develop capabilities and infrastructure that allow them improve reliability and responsiveness in their supply chainThe associated operation and financial risk of supply chain disruptions has been an increasing interesting topic for doing research for academic and practitioners (Craighead et al (2007). The dynamic and evolving nature of supply chain risk does not allow being free of vulnerability (Peck 2005) so it is important to design supply chain that can overcome disruptions and adapt a changing environment. This supply chain is called â€Å"resilient† and there is an increasingly number of papers that discuss the main strategies to build resilient supply chain.The main propose of this paper is to survey the literature in resilient supply chain and try to identify possible research opportunities. Managers Perceptions Catastrophic events and disruption had occurred form a long time and managers are aware of t heir economic and operational consequences. For example, Knight and Pretty (1996) found that the impact of a disruption on shareholder was a sharp decrease of almost 8% and a recovery time (if recovery is possible) of 50 trading days.Despite manager’s recognition of the importance of risk assessment, little investment of resources and time for mitigating supply chain risks have been done. Research has found that is difficult to perform cost/benefit analysis or return on investment analysis to justify certain risk reduction programs or contingency plans (Closs and McGarrell (2004), Rice and Caniato (2003)). Consequently, passive acceptance is often the default strategy even when it is not appropriate (Tomlin 2006).Furthermore as Repenning and Sterman (2001) point out firms rarely invest in improvement programs in a proactive manner because ‘‘nobody gets credit for fixing problems that never happened. ’’ In a recent survey (Poirier and Quinn 2004) foun d that only 33% of firms responded that they paid â€Å"sufficient attention to supply chain vulnerability and risk mitigation actions. Moreover, Mitroff and Alpaslan (2003) present research on preparing for terrorism and state that only between 5% and 25% percent of Fortune 500 companies are prepared to handle crises or disruptions.The answer of how to improve security without jeopardizing supply chain effectiveness can be found in the quality movement (Lee and Wolfe ( 2003)) . Disruptions Drivers, Vulnerabilities and Security Initiatives In this section we briefly show the frameworks, security initiatives and analytical models for assessing risk and mitigating disruptions that have been developed in the literature. †¢ Iniciatives Many authors (Tang (2006a), Lee and Wolfe (2003) and Rice and Caniato(2003)) have explained security initiatives to improve the supply chain security developed and launched by US government after the terrorist attacks.Two important initiatives are: Container Security Initiative launched by US Customs in 2002, allow firms to target conducted at foreign ports before loading and examine high risk-overseas before arrive US ports and Customs –Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certificated programmed was established by Customs in 2002. Certificated firms will have the benefit of reduce cargo exams. These initiatives have raised some concerns. For example, Rice and Caniato (2003) pint out that security requires a continuous commitment and effort of many parties. †¢ FrameworkDatta and Allen (2005) develop a multi-dimensional framework of supply chain resilience based on concepts from diverse fields of research. The framework captures two main aspects of a resilient supply chain: the capacity to maintain the production system when a disruption the agility to respond to changes in the environment and customer requirements. Then the authors model the supply chain as a complex system and used multiple adaptive agent s that were able to coordinate and adapted to different business scenarios. Chopra and Sodhi (2004) show 8 categories of supply chain risk and their drivers.Disruptions, one of the categories, have these drivers: Labor dispute, supplier bankruptcy, war and terrorism, dependency on a single source of supply as well as the capacity and responsiveness of alternative suppliers. The author used scenarios methodology (what if) to understand the impacts in each risk categories and then show suitable effective mitigation strategies. Peck (2005) using in-depth exploratory case studies and depth interviews find that there is a little understanding of the scope and dynamics of the vulnerability.She proposed an integrated framework that has four levels of analysis: value stream/product or process; asset and infrastructure dependencies; organizations and inter-organizational networks; and social and natural environment. She states that, the resilience of the network should be asses focusing on c ritical operational assets at stage two. Sheffi and Rice (2005) determines the profile of a disruption where the show the different stages of a disruption form preparation to long term-impact.They also develop a vulnerability assessment where a firm can map the different disruptions into four quadrants that are form by the interaction of the potential consequences and the disruption probability. Kleindorfer and Saad (2005) the author develops a conceptual framework (SAM) for managing supply chain risk which considers the three tasks: Specifying sources of risk management, Assessment and Mitigation. The authors introduce 10 principles to implement SAM. Based on empirical results from U.S Chemical industry, the author point out that reducing the frequency and severity of risks faced and increase the capacity supply chain participant is important dimension in disruption risk management in supply chains. Craighead et al (2007) develop six prepositions that show that the severity of the impact of a disruption is moderated by three supply chain design characteristics density, complexity, and node criticality and two supply chain mitigation capabilities of recovery and warning. †¢ ModelsTomlin (2006) shows different financial tactics and operation mitigation and contingency tactics that a firm can use to manage disruptions. Mitigation tactics refers to an action that firm performs before the disruption occurs and contingency tactics when the disaster occurs. He develops a supply chain model that considers a single product firm which can source from two suppliers, one reliable and another unreliable. He finds that the percentage uptime and the frequency and length of the disruptions are key determinants of the optimal policy.Wu et al (2007) present a model called Disruption Analysis Network (DA_NET) that used a Petri net approach to model a supply chain system and its disruptions. The authors state the use of DA_NET can be used to understand the propagation of di sruptions and how do they affect the operational performance of the supply chain such as: cost or leadtime. Defining Resilience in Supply Chains Resilient is a well known concept in disciplines such as: ecology, psychology and mechanical engineering. Coutu (2002) introduces the concept of organizational resilience, which can be defined as â€Å"the ability to bend and bounce back from hardship†.Some definitions of resilience related with supply chain are: Christopher and Peck (2003) define resilience as â€Å"the ability of a system to return to its original state or move to a new, more desirable state after being disturbed’. Implicit in this definition is the notion of flexibility, and given that the desired state may be different from the original, ‘adaptability’ One of the most powerful ways of achieving resilience is to create networks, which are capable of more rapid response to changed conditions. This is the idea of agility.Christopher (2004). Mitr off and Alpasan (2003) state that resilient organizations are ‘crisis prepared (or proactive)’ encounter fewer disasters and recover better from hardship. Sheffi defines resilience as â€Å"the ability of a company to bounce back from disruptions†. From the definitions we can notice that resilience have two main characteristics: The capacity to overcome a disruption minimizing the impact and respond to changes in the environment to gain control of the opportunities (Datta and Allen (2005)). Building ResilienceMost of the research recreates short cases were the introduce strategies implemented and developed by many firms. For example, postporment strategy (Lee (1996)) has appeared in many papers (Lee and Wolfe (2003), Tang (2006a)) and illustrated the cases of Benetton and HP deskjet printers. The first papers do not explicitly introduce the term resilience but recommend strategies that are used to secure the supply chain, some of these strategies were also are in corporated in latter papers of resilient supply chain.Following we will briefly summarize the papers that have shown strategies to build resilience in supply chains. Yossi Sheffi (2001) determines the challenges that the firms face in this new environment. The author establishes that redundancies is one possible operate alternative to deal with the terrorist attacks. The paper identifies and discusses some important trade-offs: †¢ Redundancy vs. efficiency. †¢ Centralization vs. dispersion. †¢ The lowest bidder vs. the known supplier. †¢ Government cooperation vs. irect shareholder value. †¢ Managing risk vs. delivering value. Juntter et al. (2003) find that for mangers handling tradeoff is very relevant. Therefore, they claim further research in the ones propose by Sheffi (2001) and develop decision making tools in supply chain. Martha, J. and Subbakrishna, S. (2002) discuss the following strategies to mitigate risk: cultivate sourcing alternative, insure t he risk if you can ,line up alternative transportation, manage inventory right level ,build in quick respond to shifts in demand.Lee and Wolfe (2003) discuss fix mitigating strategies for the effects of a security breach when it occurs. These strategies are: †¢ Comprehensive Tracking and Monitoring †¢ Total Supply Network Visibility. †¢ Flexible Sourcing Strategies: Create a local supply source, develop multiple source component sources for the same component or input material and use supplier with more the one manufacture site to supply materials. †¢ Balance inventory management. †¢ Product and Process Redesign: Standardization and Postponement †¢ Demand Based ManagementChristopher and Peck (2004) describe 4 four principles to create resilience supply chain and in each they determine some key elements: †¢ Supply chain (re) engineering: Supply chain understanding, supply chain design principles and supply base strategy †¢ Supply chain Collabor ation: Collaboration planning and supply chain intelligence †¢ Agility: visibility and velocity and acceleration. †¢ Create a supply chain management culture: continue teams, board- level responsibility andf leadership and factor risk consideration into decision makingRice, J. B. and Caniato (2003) states that resilience can be build be flexibility and redundancy. Redundancy is achieved by maintaining capacity such as: inventory, additional production lines, qualifying and maintaining multiple suppliers, maintaining a dedicated transportation fleet in order to respond to a disruption. The authors state that flexibility is achieved by creating capabilities in the firm’s organization to respond by using existing capacity that can be redirected or reallocated .They also show advantages and disadvantages of different strategies to build resilience for each of the possible disruptions (supply, transportation, production facilities, communication and human resources) that a firm can face in the supply chain. Sheffi (2005) points out that resilience can be achieved by increasing redundancy, building flexibility and changing corporate strategy. He shows actions in each of these strategies. †¢ Redundancy: †¢ Flexibility: Postponement, Standardized process, Concurrency process. Culture Change: Continuous communication, empowerment, passion for work, conditioning for disruptions Peck (2005) states that for a firm to remain truly resilient need slack in the system in the form of inventory, capacity, and capability and even time, plus constant awareness and vigilance. This confirms the importance of redundancy. Lee (2004) study more than 60 successful supply chains around the world and found out that they shared main three characteristics: agility, adaptability and aligned. He introduced a new concept â€Å"The Triple-A Supply Chain†.We can observe that authors have explicitly discussed the first two characteristics as principles to build a resilient supply chains. Some elements of alignment have been explicitly mention resilient supply chain literature. Robust strategies for mitigating disruptions Tang (2006b) introduces the concept of robust strategies have two main proprieties: efficiency and resilience. This means that robust strategists are a subset of the resilient strategies and do not consider redundancies. Tang (2006a) discuss eight robust strategies that have been used by ifferent firms : Postponement, strategic stock, flexible supply base, make and buy, economic supply incentives, flexible transportation, revenue management, dynamic assortment planning and silent product rollover. Table 1 summary of Strategies for building resilient supply Chains |Papers |Methodology |Resilience Strategies | |Christopher and Peck (2003) |Case studies and interviews |Four principles | |Rice, J.B. and Caniato (2003) |Case studies and interviews |Flexibility and redundancy | | | |Strategies depending in the disruption | |Shef fi (2001, 2005) |Case studies and interviews |Redundancy flexibility and culture change. | | | |It is important to consider Trade offs | |Martha, J. nd Subbakrishna, S. |Case studies |Idea of Just in Case, strategies that creates redundancy. | |(2002 | | | |Lee and Wolfe (2003) |Case studies |Introduce how to implement security in supply chain following the path| | | |of the quality movement. | | |fix mitigating strategies for the effects of a security breach | |Tang (2006 a) and (2006b) |Survey papers |Robust strategies =resilient and cost effective. | | | |Eight robust strategies | Conclusions Two big project that provided important knowledge in resilient supply chain are: the first was developed during three years by Sheffi, Rice, Cianiato nd other researchers at MIT center of transportation of MIT and the second sponsored by UK government and developed by Christopher, Peck and other researchers at Cranfiled University. The primarily methodology for studying resilient supply chai n is based on cases and interviews and many studies have discussed the same strategies. As Blackhurst et al (2005) states the literature related to supply-chain disruptions is informative. Consequently, they are some research opportunities in this topic that has an increasingly interest for academia and practitioners.For example INFORMS 2006 annual meeting one of the sessions was dedicated to this topic â€Å"the resilient enterprise- Challenges in supply change security and resilience† Future research There are many opportunities for future research. Some interest topics can be: †¢ How to evaluate the disruptions (low-probability/high-impact) †¢ How can we create resilience we the introduction of new technologies for example, (RFID) †¢ Empirically determine why some companies adopt resilient practice and other do not (Importance supply chain in the firm) †¢ Develop measures or metrics for resilient (do resilient enterprise performs better).It would be dif ficult to actually have a metric for resilience or vulnerability in the supply chain that can capture all the potential risks that a firm faces under such disruptions. †¢ Alliances among suppliers and supply chains. †¢ Humanitarian logistics , what can resilient enterprise learn. †¢ Which elements in common have the companies that are consider resilient. (which strategy is more applied) †¢ How to create resilience in services operations. Resilient Supply Chain Essay Example Resilient Supply Chain Essay In the recent years many disasters and catastrophic events such as hurricane Mitch, tsunamis, SARS, terrorist attacks and earthquakes have shown that we live in world with increasing uncertainty. These events can cause major disruptions in the supply chain. Although similar events have occurred, since the terrorist attacks of September 11 of 2001 the firms began to reassess the benefits of commonly accepted strategies for sourcing, transportation, demand, planning and managements in a stable environment (Martha and Subbakrisha 2003).In a competitive environment many firms have developed global supply chains which are complex to manage and vulnerable to disruptions. The literature has documented many cases of what can possible go wrong in this supply chains due to unexpected events and what can we learn. For example, Ericsson lost 400 millions euros and the dominant position in the mobile phone market because the managers misestimated the consequences of a fire suffer by their semicon ductor supplier’s plant in Albuquerque (Chopra Sodhi (2004, Rice and Caniato (2003).Norman and Jansson (2004) follow up this case and show how Ericsson implemented proactive supply risk management. Supply chain disruptions can potential compromise facilities, equipment and human resources and the value of stock market shares. Consequently, some studies have quantified the repercussions both in the short and the long run of disruptions in the supply chain. For example, Rice and Caniato (2003) present the results from a company survey that estimates a $50 million to $100 million cost impact for each day its supply network was disrupted.Hendricks and Singhal (2005) analyze the stock market reaction when firms publicly announce they are experiencing disruption during 1989–2000. On a sample of 827 the authors find that one year before through two years after the disruption announcement date, the mean abnormal return of their sample firms was from 33 40%. The author point out that their results suggest that the firms need to invest and develop capabilities and infrastructure that allow them improve reliability and responsiveness in their supply chainThe associated operation and financial risk of supply chain disruptions has been an increasing interesting topic for doing research for academic and practitioners (Craighead et al (2007). The dynamic and evolving nature of supply chain risk does not allow being free of vulnerability (Peck 2005) so it is important to design supply chain that can overcome disruptions and adapt a changing environment. This supply chain is called â€Å"resilient† and there is an increasingly number of papers that discuss the main strategies to build resilient supply chain.The main propose of this paper is to survey the literature in resilient supply chain and try to identify possible research opportunities. Managers Perceptions Catastrophic events and disruption had occurred form a long time and managers are aware of t heir economic and operational consequences. For example, Knight and Pretty (1996) found that the impact of a disruption on shareholder was a sharp decrease of almost 8% and a recovery time (if recovery is possible) of 50 trading days.Despite manager’s recognition of the importance of risk assessment, little investment of resources and time for mitigating supply chain risks have been done. Research has found that is difficult to perform cost/benefit analysis or return on investment analysis to justify certain risk reduction programs or contingency plans (Closs and McGarrell (2004), Rice and Caniato (2003)). Consequently, passive acceptance is often the default strategy even when it is not appropriate (Tomlin 2006).Furthermore as Repenning and Sterman (2001) point out firms rarely invest in improvement programs in a proactive manner because ‘‘nobody gets credit for fixing problems that never happened. ’’ In a recent survey (Poirier and Quinn 2004) foun d that only 33% of firms responded that they paid â€Å"sufficient attention to supply chain vulnerability and risk mitigation actions. Moreover, Mitroff and Alpaslan (2003) present research on preparing for terrorism and state that only between 5% and 25% percent of Fortune 500 companies are prepared to handle crises or disruptions.The answer of how to improve security without jeopardizing supply chain effectiveness can be found in the quality movement (Lee and Wolfe ( 2003)) . Disruptions Drivers, Vulnerabilities and Security Initiatives In this section we briefly show the frameworks, security initiatives and analytical models for assessing risk and mitigating disruptions that have been developed in the literature. †¢ Iniciatives Many authors (Tang (2006a), Lee and Wolfe (2003) and Rice and Caniato(2003)) have explained security initiatives to improve the supply chain security developed and launched by US government after the terrorist attacks.Two important initiatives are: Container Security Initiative launched by US Customs in 2002, allow firms to target conducted at foreign ports before loading and examine high risk-overseas before arrive US ports and Customs –Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) certificated programmed was established by Customs in 2002. Certificated firms will have the benefit of reduce cargo exams. These initiatives have raised some concerns. For example, Rice and Caniato (2003) pint out that security requires a continuous commitment and effort of many parties. †¢ FrameworkDatta and Allen (2005) develop a multi-dimensional framework of supply chain resilience based on concepts from diverse fields of research. The framework captures two main aspects of a resilient supply chain: the capacity to maintain the production system when a disruption the agility to respond to changes in the environment and customer requirements. Then the authors model the supply chain as a complex system and used multiple adaptive agent s that were able to coordinate and adapted to different business scenarios. Chopra and Sodhi (2004) show 8 categories of supply chain risk and their drivers.Disruptions, one of the categories, have these drivers: Labor dispute, supplier bankruptcy, war and terrorism, dependency on a single source of supply as well as the capacity and responsiveness of alternative suppliers. The author used scenarios methodology (what if) to understand the impacts in each risk categories and then show suitable effective mitigation strategies. Peck (2005) using in-depth exploratory case studies and depth interviews find that there is a little understanding of the scope and dynamics of the vulnerability.She proposed an integrated framework that has four levels of analysis: value stream/product or process; asset and infrastructure dependencies; organizations and inter-organizational networks; and social and natural environment. She states that, the resilience of the network should be asses focusing on c ritical operational assets at stage two. Sheffi and Rice (2005) determines the profile of a disruption where the show the different stages of a disruption form preparation to long term-impact.They also develop a vulnerability assessment where a firm can map the different disruptions into four quadrants that are form by the interaction of the potential consequences and the disruption probability. Kleindorfer and Saad (2005) the author develops a conceptual framework (SAM) for managing supply chain risk which considers the three tasks: Specifying sources of risk management, Assessment and Mitigation. The authors introduce 10 principles to implement SAM. Based on empirical results from U.S Chemical industry, the author point out that reducing the frequency and severity of risks faced and increase the capacity supply chain participant is important dimension in disruption risk management in supply chains. Craighead et al (2007) develop six prepositions that show that the severity of the impact of a disruption is moderated by three supply chain design characteristics density, complexity, and node criticality and two supply chain mitigation capabilities of recovery and warning. †¢ ModelsTomlin (2006) shows different financial tactics and operation mitigation and contingency tactics that a firm can use to manage disruptions. Mitigation tactics refers to an action that firm performs before the disruption occurs and contingency tactics when the disaster occurs. He develops a supply chain model that considers a single product firm which can source from two suppliers, one reliable and another unreliable. He finds that the percentage uptime and the frequency and length of the disruptions are key determinants of the optimal policy.Wu et al (2007) present a model called Disruption Analysis Network (DA_NET) that used a Petri net approach to model a supply chain system and its disruptions. The authors state the use of DA_NET can be used to understand the propagation of di sruptions and how do they affect the operational performance of the supply chain such as: cost or leadtime. Defining Resilience in Supply Chains Resilient is a well known concept in disciplines such as: ecology, psychology and mechanical engineering. Coutu (2002) introduces the concept of organizational resilience, which can be defined as â€Å"the ability to bend and bounce back from hardship†.Some definitions of resilience related with supply chain are: Christopher and Peck (2003) define resilience as â€Å"the ability of a system to return to its original state or move to a new, more desirable state after being disturbed’. Implicit in this definition is the notion of flexibility, and given that the desired state may be different from the original, ‘adaptability’ One of the most powerful ways of achieving resilience is to create networks, which are capable of more rapid response to changed conditions. This is the idea of agility.Christopher (2004). Mitr off and Alpasan (2003) state that resilient organizations are ‘crisis prepared (or proactive)’ encounter fewer disasters and recover better from hardship. Sheffi defines resilience as â€Å"the ability of a company to bounce back from disruptions†. From the definitions we can notice that resilience have two main characteristics: The capacity to overcome a disruption minimizing the impact and respond to changes in the environment to gain control of the opportunities (Datta and Allen (2005)). Building ResilienceMost of the research recreates short cases were the introduce strategies implemented and developed by many firms. For example, postporment strategy (Lee (1996)) has appeared in many papers (Lee and Wolfe (2003), Tang (2006a)) and illustrated the cases of Benetton and HP deskjet printers. The first papers do not explicitly introduce the term resilience but recommend strategies that are used to secure the supply chain, some of these strategies were also are in corporated in latter papers of resilient supply chain.Following we will briefly summarize the papers that have shown strategies to build resilience in supply chains. Yossi Sheffi (2001) determines the challenges that the firms face in this new environment. The author establishes that redundancies is one possible operate alternative to deal with the terrorist attacks. The paper identifies and discusses some important trade-offs: †¢ Redundancy vs. efficiency. †¢ Centralization vs. dispersion. †¢ The lowest bidder vs. the known supplier. †¢ Government cooperation vs. irect shareholder value. †¢ Managing risk vs. delivering value. Juntter et al. (2003) find that for mangers handling tradeoff is very relevant. Therefore, they claim further research in the ones propose by Sheffi (2001) and develop decision making tools in supply chain. Martha, J. and Subbakrishna, S. (2002) discuss the following strategies to mitigate risk: cultivate sourcing alternative, insure t he risk if you can ,line up alternative transportation, manage inventory right level ,build in quick respond to shifts in demand.Lee and Wolfe (2003) discuss fix mitigating strategies for the effects of a security breach when it occurs. These strategies are: †¢ Comprehensive Tracking and Monitoring †¢ Total Supply Network Visibility. †¢ Flexible Sourcing Strategies: Create a local supply source, develop multiple source component sources for the same component or input material and use supplier with more the one manufacture site to supply materials. †¢ Balance inventory management. †¢ Product and Process Redesign: Standardization and Postponement †¢ Demand Based ManagementChristopher and Peck (2004) describe 4 four principles to create resilience supply chain and in each they determine some key elements: †¢ Supply chain (re) engineering: Supply chain understanding, supply chain design principles and supply base strategy †¢ Supply chain Collabor ation: Collaboration planning and supply chain intelligence †¢ Agility: visibility and velocity and acceleration. †¢ Create a supply chain management culture: continue teams, board- level responsibility andf leadership and factor risk consideration into decision makingRice, J. B. and Caniato (2003) states that resilience can be build be flexibility and redundancy. Redundancy is achieved by maintaining capacity such as: inventory, additional production lines, qualifying and maintaining multiple suppliers, maintaining a dedicated transportation fleet in order to respond to a disruption. The authors state that flexibility is achieved by creating capabilities in the firm’s organization to respond by using existing capacity that can be redirected or reallocated .They also show advantages and disadvantages of different strategies to build resilience for each of the possible disruptions (supply, transportation, production facilities, communication and human resources) that a firm can face in the supply chain. Sheffi (2005) points out that resilience can be achieved by increasing redundancy, building flexibility and changing corporate strategy. He shows actions in each of these strategies. †¢ Redundancy: †¢ Flexibility: Postponement, Standardized process, Concurrency process. Culture Change: Continuous communication, empowerment, passion for work, conditioning for disruptions Peck (2005) states that for a firm to remain truly resilient need slack in the system in the form of inventory, capacity, and capability and even time, plus constant awareness and vigilance. This confirms the importance of redundancy. Lee (2004) study more than 60 successful supply chains around the world and found out that they shared main three characteristics: agility, adaptability and aligned. He introduced a new concept â€Å"The Triple-A Supply Chain†.We can observe that authors have explicitly discussed the first two characteristics as principles to build a resilient supply chains. Some elements of alignment have been explicitly mention resilient supply chain literature. Robust strategies for mitigating disruptions Tang (2006b) introduces the concept of robust strategies have two main proprieties: efficiency and resilience. This means that robust strategists are a subset of the resilient strategies and do not consider redundancies. Tang (2006a) discuss eight robust strategies that have been used by ifferent firms : Postponement, strategic stock, flexible supply base, make and buy, economic supply incentives, flexible transportation, revenue management, dynamic assortment planning and silent product rollover. Table 1 summary of Strategies for building resilient supply Chains |Papers |Methodology |Resilience Strategies | |Christopher and Peck (2003) |Case studies and interviews |Four principles | |Rice, J.B. and Caniato (2003) |Case studies and interviews |Flexibility and redundancy | | | |Strategies depending in the disruption | |Shef fi (2001, 2005) |Case studies and interviews |Redundancy flexibility and culture change. | | | |It is important to consider Trade offs | |Martha, J. nd Subbakrishna, S. |Case studies |Idea of Just in Case, strategies that creates redundancy. | |(2002 | | | |Lee and Wolfe (2003) |Case studies |Introduce how to implement security in supply chain following the path| | | |of the quality movement. | | |fix mitigating strategies for the effects of a security breach | |Tang (2006 a) and (2006b) |Survey papers |Robust strategies =resilient and cost effective. | | | |Eight robust strategies | Conclusions Two big project that provided important knowledge in resilient supply chain are: the first was developed during three years by Sheffi, Rice, Cianiato nd other researchers at MIT center of transportation of MIT and the second sponsored by UK government and developed by Christopher, Peck and other researchers at Cranfiled University. The primarily methodology for studying resilient supply chai n is based on cases and interviews and many studies have discussed the same strategies. As Blackhurst et al (2005) states the literature related to supply-chain disruptions is informative. Consequently, they are some research opportunities in this topic that has an increasingly interest for academia and practitioners.For example INFORMS 2006 annual meeting one of the sessions was dedicated to this topic â€Å"the resilient enterprise- Challenges in supply change security and resilience† Future research There are many opportunities for future research. Some interest topics can be: †¢ How to evaluate the disruptions (low-probability/high-impact) †¢ How can we create resilience we the introduction of new technologies for example, (RFID) †¢ Empirically determine why some companies adopt resilient practice and other do not (Importance supply chain in the firm) †¢ Develop measures or metrics for resilient (do resilient enterprise performs better).It would be dif ficult to actually have a metric for resilience or vulnerability in the supply chain that can capture all the potential risks that a firm faces under such disruptions. †¢ Alliances among suppliers and supply chains. †¢ Humanitarian logistics , what can resilient enterprise learn. †¢ Which elements in common have the companies that are consider resilient. (which strategy is more applied) †¢ How to create resilience in services operations.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Nursing Accountability Vte Essays

Nursing Accountability Vte Essays Nursing Accountability Vte Essay Nursing Accountability Vte Essay Running head: NURSING ACCOUNTABILITY Nursing Accountability Sarah Redmond Grand Canyon University Professional Dynamics NRS-430V July 24, 2011 Nursing Accountability Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a disease that includes both deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). More than 2 million Americans suffer from VTE each year, with over half of these individuals developing their VTE in the hospital or in the 30 days post hospitalization. In a large registry trial capturing more than 5,450 patients at 183 sites over a 6-month period, 50 percent (2,726) developed their VTE during hospitalization. Nurses are accountable in helping change the practice of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis. There are many risk factors that can cause VTE including recent hospitalization, surgery, prolonged immobility, recent travel, trauma, and certain conditions including heart disease, respiratory disease, cancer, and clotting disorders. In our study, waist circumference was more predictive of a VTE than body mass index. We also found that heavy smoking predicted a VTE, whereas hypertension did not (Hansson et al. , 1999). There are pharmacological and non pharmacological ways to protect patients in the hospital setting. Using these in conjunction with each other is the overall safest method. Non pharmacological methods of VTE prophylaxis include early ambulation, sequential compression devices (SCD), and compression stockings. Early ambulation promotes venous return and helps minimize length of stay in hospitals. Compression stockings and SCDs help prevent venous stasis. A recent systematic review found that graduated compression stockings, intermittent pneumatic compression devices, and foot pumps reduce the risk of DVT in surgical patients by two thirds when used in monotherapy and by an additional 50% when added to drug prophylaxis (Roderick et al. 2005). Pharmacological methods of VTE prophylaxis include anticoagulants such as low molecular weight heparin, unfractionated heparin, and vitamin k antagonists. These medications are given to prevent clot formation, not to actually dissolve the clots. It’s important to know which patients are at greater risk and which type of prophylaxis should be used. In most hospitals there is a VTE protocol that is followed to determine the risk level of patients and which prophylactic measure to implement. It’s important for medical personnel to help develop and implement these VTE protocols. These protocols should be mandated in every hospital at time of admission. Doctors need to review VTE risks for patients and order which prophylactic measure to use along with admission orders. In addition to the doctor’s risk assessment for VTE, nurses should assess their patients for risk factors and signs or symptoms. If prophylactic measures are not ordered, nurses can ask the doctor if they feel prophylaxis is warranted or make them aware. Quality improvement teams can be initiated throughout hospitals. Team members can help develop, improve, and review VTE protocols to make sure they are being ordered and are effective in prevention. There are many ways nurses can be accountable in the prevention of venous thromboemobolisms. Nurses can walk high risk patients often and help patients perform leg exercises without a physician’s order if not contraindicated. Proper measurement and correct application of compression stockings are essential to their performance, so helping the patients with this would be beneficial. There should be frequent assessments of patient’s skin integrity, pulses, and comfort when using compression stockings. Patient education is very important in the prevention of VTE. Nurses should make sure patients understand reasons for the different prophylactic measures and make them aware of signs and symptoms to watch for. Proper medication administration of anticoagulation agents is essential, as with any other medication. It’s important to have the patient’s exact weight, because even the slightest wrong dose of some of these anticoagulants can be very detrimental and even kill a patient. To make sure these medications have a purposeful effect, it is important to teach the patients how to take them properly. Nearly two-thirds of 9,675 medical patients at risk for venous thromboembolism received no inpatient pharmacologic prophylaxis, and more than 98% received no outpatient prophylaxis, a retrospective analysis showed (Wendling, 2010). Prophylaxis is the most important way to prevent these deadly venous thromboembolisms from forming. References Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2011). Retrieved from ahrq. gov/qual/vtguide/vtguideapa. htm Hansson, P. O. , Eriksson, H. , Welin, L. , Svardsudd, K. , Wilhelmsen, L. (1999). Smoking and abdominal obesity. Archives of Internal Medicine, 159(16), 1886-1890. Roderick, P. , Ferris, G. , Wilson, K. , Halls, H. , Jackson, D. , Collins, R. et al. (2005). Evidence based guidelines for the prevention of venous thromboembolism. Health Technology Assessment, 9 Wendling, P. (2010). Many at-risk patients lack VTE prophylaxis. American College of Chest Physicians. Retrieved from chestnet. org/accp/article/chest-physician/many-risk-patients-lack-vte-prophylaxis

Friday, February 28, 2020

What it means to be human Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What it means to be human - Essay Example quotes the words of Nietzsche: â€Å"He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.†(Foreword, ix) What he mentions in the book is no doubt important; but how he says, what he says is more important; about whom he says is still more important. He doesn’t tell the glorious stories of heroes and great men. He details the sufferings and mind-plays of the common folk, when imminent death challenged them; when they were face to face with the prospectus of death of the worst order. This book is considered as an important contribution to the psychiatric literature since Freud. Stories of other prisoners and prison staff are interwoven around the story of Frankl, about his imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for a fairly long period of 5 years, and how he kept his inner spirit burning with the latent desire to live. In this aspect Frankl seems to surpass Freud, who propounds that sexual instincts and urges are the driving force in the life of a human being. Frankl thinks otherwise and argues about the nobler instincts that are more powerful. The core desire of a human being is to search for meaning and purpose of life. The worst was in store in the life of Frankl. Besides, Auschwitz, he had to go through the rigor of four different camps between 1942 and 1945. His parents, brother and pregnant wife perished. In a similar situation, an ordinary individual will develop suicidal tendencies, if not commit suicide. Frankl was a man of great grit and determination. Through his suffering he encourages others by arguing that one cannot avoid suffering when it has to come, when it falls in one’s lot, but it can be challenged, one can cope with it, find meaning and march forward in life with renewed determination. His theory is known as logotherapy. History produces stalwarts like Frankl whom it wants as the witness and to record its pages daubed in bloodshed and violence. To prove to humanity that brutal force will not produce any thing durable!

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Controlling Factor of Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Controlling Factor of Management - Essay Example These factors include the need for accountability in organizations, the need to detect environmental changes that significantly affect organizations, the growing complexity of present day organizations and the need to identify operational errors in organizations to avoid incurring excessive costs. In addition to addressing the above mentioned factors, controlling plays an important role in helping managers detect irregularities, identify opportunities, handle complex situations, decentralize authority, minimize costs, and cope with uncertainty. Coping with Uncertainty - In today's turbulent business environment, all organizations must cope with change. When organization goals are established, they are based on the knowledge available at that point of time. However, by the time the goals are accomplished, many changes may have occurred in the organization or its environment. An improperly designed control system, however, may result in poor organizational performance. Detecting Irregularities - Control system help managers detect undesirable irregularities, such as product defects, cost overruns, or rising personnel turnover. Although small mistakes and errors may not seriously damage the financial health of an organization, they may accumulate and become very serious over time. Early detection of such irregularities can prevent minor problems from mushrooming into major ones and often save a great deal of time is money for the organization. Example: A large radar detector manufacturer in the US named Whistler Corporation once faced with such rapidly escalating demand that it stopped giving attention to quality. This led to a rise in the defect rate from 4% to 9% to 15 % and finally, to 25%. A manager observed that 100 out of 250 employees of the company were spending all their time fixing defective units and that an inventory worth $2 million was still awaiting repair. Had the company detected the defects and rectified them early, the problem would never have increased to such proportions. Problems such as missing important deadlines or selling faulty merchandise to customers are sometimes difficult to rectify. Identifying aberrations in the early stages helps organizations avoid such problems. Identifying Opportunities - Control also helps managers identify areas in which things are going better than expected, thereby alerting management to possible future opportunities. For example, division managers at the St. Louis-based May Department stores prepare and generate monthly reports that specify the items that have high demand and the amount of money those items are generating. On the basis of these reports, the chain develops successful merchandising strategies for all its stores like what to buy, which vendors to buy from, and how to display the merchandise etc. Handling Complex Situations - Another important factor contributing to the need for a control mechanism is that growing complexity of today's organizations. When a company requires only on kind of raw material, produces only one kind of product has a simple organization design, and enjoys constant demand for its products, it can afford to have a very basic and simple system of control. But, as organizations grow or engage in producing many products from a number of different raw materials, and operate in a large market area with many competitors, efficient and