Labor Relations Essay Example for Free

Labor Relations Essay In reviewing information pertaining to labor unions, there is a plethora of information about unions in the transportation industry. One of the most widely known unions is the teamster unions, which deals with truckers. Labor unions and issues with automotive industry are often seen in the media. The newest transportation industry in American history is the airline industry. As the newest transportation industry that is still vital to American comfort, convenience, and commercial, the airline industry is ripe for workers to organize and demand a greater piece of the profits from operations. In this essay, an effort will be made to review this company in regards to labor relations. Company’s stance toward Labor Delta Airlines was founded by C. E. Woolman, an agriculture extension agent (Anthony, Kacmar, Perrewe, 2010). C. E Woolman was not a banker, venture capitalist or war pilot, as many of the competing airlines were. He didn’t have the aggressive military style that many of the other airline founders had. What C. E. Woolman instilled within the employees at all levels of the organization is that people matter and should be treated fairly and equitably. This philosophy led Delta Airlines to be the leader in customer service from the company’s inception through the many mergers over the years. Through the difficult financial times when other airlines were laying off employees and filing for bankruptcy, Delta continued to pay their people well and keep them employed. There was an exception during the Ronald Allen CEO era of 1987 thru 1997. Human relations took a significant down turn during his tenure as CEO, especially during 1993 and 1994, but Delta decided to part ways with Allen and began repairing those fragile relationships with its employees. Delta Airlines still focuses on the human relations factor and has been able to repair the relationship with its employees; they believe it is their key to success. Despite the corporate culture to take care of its employees, a number of Delta employee departments are unionizing. They feel as though that piece is not being distributed justly. Formulate a strategy for negotiating a labor agreement Human behavior dictates that there will be problems. As a company starts making money, there is always a desire by the employees to acquire more of the profit. On the other hand, management has a desire to retain as much of the profit to be provided to investors and to receive bonuses for their â€Å"supposedly† wise business practices. When one group wants more and another wants to retain, there will be conflict. And this is precisely what is happening at Delta Airline, as well as among many industries in the transportation arena. Employees, seeking to gain an upper hand threaten to strike; however, management must be willing to address the matter through negotiation. The Negotiation Process Fisher and Ury recommend conducting negotiations according to the process of principled negotiation. Their method has four main tenets: 1. Separate the people from the problem. The idea should be for both sides to work together to attack a problem, rather than attacking each other. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to overcome emotional responses and set aside egos. 2. Focus on interests rather than positions. The natural tendency in many negotiations—for example, dickering over the price to be paid for an antique—is for both sides to state a position and then move toward middle ground. Fisher and Ury warn against confusing peoples stated positions with their underlying interests, and claim that positions often tend to obscure what people truly hope to gain through negotiation. 3. Generate a variety of options before deciding what to do. The pressure involved in any type of negotiation tends to narrow peoples vision and inhibit their creativity, making it difficult to find optimal solutions to problems. Instead, Fisher and Ury suggest developing a wide range of possible solutions as part of the negotiating process. These possible solutions should attempt to advance shared interests and reconcile differences. 4. Base the result on objective criteria. No one will be happy with the result of a negotiation if they feel that they have been taken advantage of. The solution is to find and apply some fair standard to the problem in order to guarantee a mutually beneficial result. Fisher and Urys principles provide a good overall guide for the actual negotiation process. In his book, Nierenberg offered a number of other tips and strategies that may be effective in promoting successful negotiations. For example, it may be helpful to ask questions in order to form a better understanding of the needs and interests of the other side. The questions must be phrased diplomatically and timed correctly in order to avoid an antagonistic response. The idea is to gain information and uncover basic assumptions without immediately taking positions. Nierenberg stressed the importance of listening carefully to the other sides responses, as well as studying their facial expressions and body language, in order to gain quality information. Nierenberg noted that good negotiators will employ a variety of means to accomplish their objectives. Small business owners should be aware of some of the more common strategies and techniques that they may see others apply or may wish to apply themselves. One common strategy is forbearance, or patience pays, which covers any sort of wait or delay in negotiations. If one side wishes to confer in private, or adjourn briefly, they are employing a strategy of forbearance. Another common strategy is to present a fait accompli, or come to a final offer and leave it up to the other side to decide whether to accept it. In a simple example, a small business owner may scratch out one provision in a contract that he or she finds unacceptable, then sign it and send it back. The other party to the contract then must decide whether to accept the revised agreement. Nierenberg warns that this strategy can be risky, and encourages those who employ it to carefully appraise the consequences first. Another possible negotiating strategy is reversal, which involves taking a position that seems opposed to the original one. Similarly, feinting involves apparently moving in one direction in order to ivert attention from the true goal. For example, a negotiator may give in on a point that is not very important in order to make the real objective more attainable. Another strategy involves setting limits on the negotiation, whether with regards to time, the people involved, or other factors. It is also possible to change the participation in the negotiation if it seems to be at an impasse. For example, a neutral third party may be enlisted to help, or one or two people from each side may be sent off to continue the negotiation separately. It may also be helpful to break down the problem into small pieces and tackle them one by one. Another strategy might be to trade sides for a short time and try to view the situation from each others perspective. All of these techniques may be applied either to gain advantage or to push forward a negotiation that has apparently reached an impasse. Analyze the principle economic and administrative issues The airline industry is a fast growing sector demonstrating a very strong growth rate. It is associated with a number of social and economic benefits and is a growing contributor to the global inventory (Whitelegg, 2000). Business cycles have a wide reaching impact on the airline industry; during recession, air travel was considered a luxury and therefore spending is cut which leads to reduced prices. The industry creates its impact not just by providing direct employment, but also through the creation of opportunities throughout the travel and hospitality sector of the economy. Jobs in hotels, resorts, restaurants and car rental agencies are all impacted by the airline industry (Global Airline Industry Program, 2011). The airline industry itself is a major economic force, both in terms of its own operations and its impacts on related industries such as aircraft manufacturing and tourism. There are few industries that create the amount and intensity of attention that airlines receive, not only among its participants but from government policy makers and the media as well. The crucial issues on the table vary depending on whether the person is in management or is a worker. For management, the key to retain as much money as possible, while for the workers the goal is to obtain more of the profit. Thus, in management, the argument would be made to show how much money is used to provide employee insurances and benefits, reinvest in equipment and aircraft, general property and liability. On top of that, investors must be repaid. For the employee or worker, this is a stressful environment where the employee needs to be compensated for his work-related stress. Employee paid benefits continues to decrease, and the employee is forced to pay a disproportionate share. Thus, the employee needs more money just to live at a sustainable level. Recommend policies and procedures to administer a labor contract and resolve disputes. It is of utmost importance to resolve conflict expeditiously and justly for all parties involved. Thus, I would recommend the following policies as a means to resolve disputes: When a team oversteps the mark of healthy difference of opinion, resolving conflict requires respect and patience. The human experience of conflict involves our emotions, perceptions, and actions; we experience it on all three levels, and we need to address all three levels to resolve it. We must replace the negative experiences with positive ones. Acknowledge the conflict – The conflict has to be acknowledged before it can be managed and resolved. The tendency is for people to ignore the first signs of conflict, perhaps as it seems trivial, or is difficult to differentiate from the normal, healthy debate that teams can thrive on. If you are concerned about the conflict in your team, discuss it with other members. Once the team recognizes the issue, it can start the process of resolution. †¢ Discuss the impact – As a team, discuss the impact the conflict is having on team dynamics and performance. Agree to a cooperative process – Everyone involved must agree to cooperate in to resolve the conflict. This means putting the team first, and may involve setting aside your opinion or ideas for the time being. If someone wants to win more than he or she wants to resolve the conflict, you may find yourself at a stalemate. †¢ Agree to communicate – The most important thing throughout the resolution process is for everyone to keep communications open. The people involved need to talk about the issue and discuss their strong feelings. Active listening is essential here because to move on you eed to really understand where the other person is coming from. Determine the most likely interest dispute and determine how you could leverage economic pressure to help resolve that dispute. â€Å"There is no way to overstate the role â€Å"leverage† plays when it comes to achieving favorable settlements. Leverage is defined as: â€Å"positional advantage; the power to act effectively; strategic advantage†. Stated more simply, your leverage is whatever power you have† (Cory, 2011). Leverage is usually more about situational advantage than objective strength or power. For example, a single individual or small business may have few resources relative to a large corporation but still have situational advantage by virtue of being able to compel the larger corporation to appear and answer in a favorable venue. Likewise even when there is a legitimate claim which could result in a significant loss to the defendant, if the plaintiff does not have the resources or the fortitude to stay the course, then the defendant has the situational advantage by virtue of being able to delay and wait the plaintiff out. Leverage can be real or imagined. Your actual leverage at any point in time is based only on the other side’s perception of your leverage (which can obviously differ significantly from the actual facts). There are obviously situations where you have an information advantage, such as when you know about a weakness in your case that is not yet known by the other side. In such a situation you will, perhaps only briefly, appear to have more leverage than you actually do. Likewise, you can be at an information disadvantage such as when you mistakenly think that the other side has a stronger case than they actually do. There are also situations where you mistakenly think that your case is stronger than it actually is which occurs when for one reason or another you don’t have all the facts, or when the facts have not been accurately relayed to you. But regardless of your actual leverage, if there is no fear on the other side, you have little if any effective leverage (Cory, 2011).

Isolation Theme in Grendel :: essays research papers

Isolation Have you ever felt as though you’re alone in the world, even though you are not? In the book Grendel, the main character is the last of his species, excluding his mother who might as well be non-existent in the novel. Grendel is a monster who speaks a language very similar to that of the humans he watches almost constantly. He feels a certain attachment to them throughout the whole novel, but he is unable to become close to any of them due to his horrifying form. The humans are terrified of Grendel, and attack him whenever he comes near. He feels completely isolated, as do many people in our world. The story begins with a flash-back into Grendel’s early years. He is all alone even then, but he is too young to realize it and fills this void with imaginary friends. He talks about how he entertained himself during his early years saying â€Å"Crafty-eyed, wicked as an elderly wolf, I would scheme with or stalk my imaginary friends, projecting the self I meant to become into every dark corner of the cave and the woods above† (17). People in our world may invent imaginary friends also, sometimes for companionship, as part of play, or for other reasons. Imaginary friends can serve as an important source of companionship to some children and even adults, especially if companionship is absent for them in the social world. As an example â€Å"young children in boarding schools often develop imaginary friends to cope with extreme stress and separation from their intimate relations† (www.phycologytoday.com/z10/fl/mllr.7se.php) Finding a mate is hard for Grendel, especially because he’s the last of his species. However, he still has the same emotions as humans when it comes to love. He first encounters these unfamiliar emotions when Hrothgar is given a wife named Wealtheow. Grendel thinks she is beautiful, and starts to rethink his war on the humans when he contemplates killing Wealtheow, saying to himself â€Å"It would be meaningless, killing her. As meaningless as letting her live. It would be, for me, mere pointless pleasure, an illusion of order for this one frail, foolish, flicker-flash in the long dull fall of eternity.† (108). Even though he is a monster, he still feels the same emotion of love that humans do. Grendel and the humans share a common language, but the humans’ disgust for, and fear of Grendel precludes any actual meaningful exchange.

Dirt Bike Usa

TABLE OF CONTENT I. DIRT BIKES USA COMPANY I. IS REQUIREMENT AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE II. COMPETITIVE STRATEGY III. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: 1. rent or buy decision for hardware and software 2. CUSTOMER DATABASE 3. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOLUTION 4. E-COMMERCE STRATEGY 5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 6. COMPONENT PRICE CHANGES. I – DIRT BIKES USA COMPANY: Dirt Bikes USA is Dirt Bikes production company based in California.It was founded in 1991 by Carl Schmidt and Steven McFadden, two young but experienced bikers with engineering backgrounds who saw that dirt bikes were becoming very popular in the United States as both sporting and racing motorcycles. 1. Goals and Culture * Culture: Carl Schmidt and Steven McFadden founded dirt bikes USA. They noticed that Dirt bike was becoming popular in the United States. They were founded on a friendly, family type atmosphere, attention to detail and quality, and continual learning and innovation.With these values Dirt bikes has excelled to one of the top companies, competing with the likes of Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. * Goals: Dirt bikes goals are very ambitious, and if fulfilled will bring them to the top of the list. They want to improve on their services, and products, and innovate cutting edge technology that will hopefully propel them to the top. They want to increase sales in both the domestic and international market. 2. Products and services: * Dirt Bikes does not sell directly to retail customers, relying on a network of 40 distributors concentrated in the Western and Midwestern United States.A small percentage of Dirt Bikes are sold in Europe using independent distributors that sell other brands of dirt bikes and motorcycles as well as Dirt Bikes. Dirt Bikes motorcycles, parts, and service, including warranty repairs, can only be obtained through an authorized Dirt Bikes dealer. All motorcycle and spare parts sales, shipping and set-up must be handled by a certified dealer. If a potential customer lives more than 50 miles from the nearest authorized Dirt Bikes dealer, the customer can purchase a Dirt Bike or Dirt Bike parts through a certified independent motorcycle dealer.Retail customers can purchase spare parts directly from Dirt Bikes only by verifying that they live more than 50 miles from an authorized Dirt Bikes dealer. The engines for Dirt Bikes are Rotax engines from Austria and tires are from Dunlop, but many of their parts, such as shock absorbers, front wheel forks, exhaust pipes, and headlights, are from the United States. Dirt Bikes currently produces four models: the Enduro 250, the Enduro 550, the Moto 300 and the Moto 450. The two Enduros are endurance racers, while the Motos are for motocross racing.All four are very modern, with such technology as both kick and electric starters, steering stabilizers, and liquid cooling 3. Organization: Carl Schmidt is the CEO of Dirt Bikes USA and Steve McFadden serves as President and COO. The employees of this company are involved in the design, engineering and production aspects, and include 3 full-time designers, 3 full-time engineers, 4 full-time parts specialist, and a 10-employee service department. There is also a marketing manager whose job is to oversee 5 sales representatives. Overall, the company employs 120 people and has expanded greatly since the early 1990’s.The strengths of this organization is that production department is divided effectively in smaller parts, they can easily control the operations. However, the weaknesses of organization is moderately hierarchical & small, there are no separate managers for service, shipping & receiving, parts and design & engineering and manufacturing. II – INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENT AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: Dirt Bikes USA relies heavily on database software such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. This is to keep track of sales, inventory, and employee matters.The best selling product of Dirt Bikes USA has been the Enduro 550 and th e worst selling product has been the Moto 450. Sales by Model| Model| 2003| 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| Enduro 250| 1201| 1663| 2291| 2312| 2195| Enduro 550| 2832| 3290| 3759| 4078| 3647| Moto 300| 1755| 1932| 2454| 2615| 2627| Moto 450| 463| 598| 661| 773| 823| TOTAL| 6251| 7483| 9165| 9778| 9292| In the first three years, international sales were consistently rising from 2003 – 2005, and then started to fall during the last two year. They have never contributed more than 10% of the total sales.International sales have grown relative to Domestic sales, however, in 2006, there has been a decrease in international sales while domestic sales have also increased. Domestic vs. International Sales| | 2003| 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| Domestic| 5723| 6843| 8254| 8889| 8530| International| 528| 640| 911| 889| 762| TOTAL| 6251| 7483| 9165| 9778| 9292| % International| 8. 4%| 8. 6%| 9. 9%| 9. 1%| 8. 2%| | | | | | | Figure 2: Domestic vs International Sales from 2003 to 2007 Consolidated State ments of Income (in thousands)| | 2007| 2006| 2005| Revenue| | | |Net sales| 60,144 | 64,063 | 61,529 | Cost of goods sold| 45,835 | 43,155 | 41,072 | Gross profit/(loss)| 14,309 | 20,908 | 20,457 | Gross margin| 23. 8%| 32. 6%| 33. 2%| | | | | Operating expenses| | | | Sales and markering| 4,733 | 4,537 | 3,944 | Engineering and product development| 3,141 | 2,992 | 2,339 | General and administrative| 1,913 | 1,601 | 1,392 | Total operating expenses| 9,787 | 9,130 | 7,675 | Operating income/loss| 4,522 | 11,778 | 12,782 | | | | | Other income/expense| | | | Interest income/expense| 1,747 | 175 | 80 | Other income/(expense)| (6,254)| (2,914)| (3,080)|Income before provision for income taxes| 15 | 9,039 | 9,782 | Income taxes| 1,459 | 1,729 | 535 | Net income/(loss)| (1,444)| 7,310 | 9,247 | Net margin| -2%| 11%| 15%| | | | | Summary Balance Sheet Data| | | | | At December 31| 2007| 2006| 2005| Current assets| | | | Cash and cash equivalents| 6,994 | 7,197 | 6,891 | Accounts reveivabl e| 13,083 | 12,981 | 12,872 | Inventories| 6,315 | 5,931 | 5,843 | Total current assets| 26,392 | 26,109 | 25,606 | | | | | Property plant, and equipment| 36,920 | 34,515 | 32,002 | Other assets| 1,765 | 1,903 | 1,834 |Total assets| 65,077 | 62,527 | 59,442 | | | | | Current liabilities| | | | Accounts payable| 8,943 | 8,694 | 7,592 | Accrued expenses and other liabilities| 10,877 | 9,382 | 8,654 | Total current liabilities| 19,820 | 18,076 | 16,246 | | | | | Long-term debt| 9,772 | 9,338 | 8,890 | Total liabilities| 29,592 | 27,414 | 25,136 | | | | | Shareholders' equity| 35485| 35113| 34306| Total liabilities + shareholders' equity| 65,077 | 62,527 | 59,442 | The income statement and balance sheet are the primary financial statements used by management to determine how well a firm is performing.The income statement, also called an operating statement or profit and loss statement, shows the income and expenses of a firm over a period of time, such as a year, a quarter, or a month. The gross profit represents the difference between the firm’s revenue (or sales) and the cost of goods sold. The gross margin is calculated by dividing gross profit by net sales. Revenue is not growing steadily, from 2005 to 20046 the revenue increases at rate of 4. 12%; from 2006 to 2007 the revenue decreases at rate of -6. 12%.Cost of goods sold increases steadily from 2005 to 2007, while revenue just increases from 2005 to 2006, and decreases from 2006 to 2007. Gross margin and net margin decreases from 2005 to 2007 Operating expense increases from 2005 to 2007 A company has more current assets than current liabilities, firm has enough working capital to fund investments in new products and information systems. Firm has assets to pay for expenses and to finance the development of new products and information systems. III – ANALYZING COMPETETIVE STRATEGY 1. VALUE CHAIN OF DIRT BIKE USA:The company provides value to its customers by designing and manufacturing high qu ality custom motorcycles, and by servicing those motorcycles. Dirt Bikes choose top components from different famous suppliers around the world to make sure that each component of their product perform the best quality to customer. This activity make it become a unique spirited style for which company is noted. Moreover, all of Dirt Bikes’ product are warranty repaires, shipping and set-up must be handled by a certificate dealer, if the customers living within 50 miles from the nearset athoritizedDirt Bike dealers, they can purchase a Dirt Bike or Dirt Bike parts through a certified independent motocycle dealer, and so forth. The fact showing Dirt Bike’s concentration on providing the best products and services to its customers is that the company’s parts and service department is responsible for 15% of the total revenue. Furthermore, the most significant evidence to prove that Dirt Bike has provided the best quality products can be seen in the numbers of races that this brand wins each year. Besides, focusing on diversity of products is also a reason create value for Dirt Bike in the high competitive market.The company has produced many forms of racing dirt bike such as racing specifically for different size bikes, for short distances, long distances, and even for up to six days. Currently, Dirt Bike produces the highest value product is the Enduro 550, which is the top selling bike focused toward the dedicated beginner and semi-professional racer. By products lines that represent the needs and request of customers, Dirt Bike has gained the satisfation and trust from its customers. One of the most activities creating the most value for Dirt Bike is advertisement.Most of its advertisement is at racing event or racing magazines. Although known as one of the supplier selling the highest quality to customer, Dirt Bike use a very competitive level of price to against others competitors. Honda :2012 Honda CRF ® 450R $8,440| Dirt Bike 2012:Mot o 450 $8,995 The Enduro 250 $3,250The Enduro 550 $7,600The Moto 300 $4,295| Yamaha motocross :2012 Yamaha YZ 250F $7,290| | KTM: 2012 KTM SX 250| $6,899| | | | Kawasaki2012 KX450F US MSRP Price: $8,399| | Other ways to provide value to customers are the policy of listening to customers’ feedback on how to improve the product, sharing their experiences and informing the newest products to them through Dirt Bikes USA Owner Group. In addtion to adding value to its products and customers, Dirt Bikes also have a professtional employees who communicate with customers and show up the high quality as well as the differences of Dirt Bike directly. 2. RIVALS There are many company which produce and sell dirt bikes in the world.Among of such a huge competitors, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha represent as Dirt Bike’s primary competitors. Those companies are known for completely custom in-house design. Besdides that, they not only sell products but also the parts of their bikes ,which allow them to expand theirs business and control the quality as well as the revenue of company. Furhermore, Having a large Expenditure budget on advertisement helps them build a significant image in customer’s trust, gain a strong loyalty with long-term customer, appear popular on other retailers’ websites.Four brands shoould have been consider as the â€Å" big four† threaten Dirt Bikes USA. Honda Advantages: * Slimmed -down fuel tanks * Wide-ratio gearing * Electric starting Suzuki Advantages: * Loads of mid-range * Lightweight handling Yamaha Advantages: * Lightweight frame * Lightening- quick handling * Smooth power delivery 3. FACTORS INFLUENCE DIRT BIKE INDUSTRY: * Internet: the fast development of Internet is always a good sign for society and all manufacturing process whole the world. However, it is also considered as a potential threat of any industry, not except dirt bike.The ease of access allows Dirt Bike as well as other competitors to search the information of lower price supplies, high quality but cheaper parts as well as labor or advance advertisement. There is the same source for all compaies, therefore, it is hard for Dirt Bike to make the differences from other exitsting competitors as well as new potential competitors who are going to step into this segment. * Economy situtation: There is no exactly prediction about the world in the future, especially the current economy in Europe is not a optimistic view for Dirt Bike when its the largest market is almost in those Western countries.When there is a recession, people tent to reduce their demand in leisure activities; as a result, the revenue of dirt bike industry will steadily decrease. * The policy of goverment: It can not deny the relationship between economy and politic. Lower tax on import goods and service as well as afforable tax income, so forth are factors can determine the supply and demand of dirt bike industry. When governemnt carry out the tighten poli cy, selling those products will get the big trouble. * Taste of customer: Taste is also an important factors influent on dirt bike industy.It is very simple to see that switching hobby from using dirt bike to other vehicles will cause a headache for producer to motivate their customer to spend money on unnecessary procucts. * Quality: When Dirt Bike came into this industry, it made a promise on providing high quality and services to its customerl; therefore, it must keep its promise as its competitive advantage against others rivals. * New competitors: a market with many competitors will also cause some problems to existing company in dirt bike market. The organization as well as strategy will change along with behaviors of new enterprises. . COMPETITIVE STRATEGY: The most suitable strategy that Dirt Bike USA should follow is Low-cost Leadership. As we know, it has 4 big competitors who make Dirt Bike have to apply the most attractive strategy to gain more loyalty, interest from cus tomers as well as keep its market segment in long term. Others set the higher prices for their products as the claim on the quality. If Dirt Bike could produce such high quality products but sell at an attractive price, this competitive advantage would help Dirt Bike become unique in this industry.Moreover, Dirt Bike should apply some methods to improve its business besides the Low-cost Leadership: * Firstly, Dirt Bikes is known as one of the highest quality suppliers in the world. Its warranty on satifation of customer with Dirt Bikes’ products is its competitive advantage and it should continue to make use of this advantage to expand its business to others segment or others countries. It can do the same as other rivals by selling the parts to satisfy full demand of customers or expand its business to ATV or road motorcycles, which will help Dirt Bikes’ revenue as well as gain a better profit. Secondly, Dirt Bikes alsmot sell its products through its distributors. The information they keep is just information about those distributors not its customers. Another way to improve its business is develop its information system. Set up a large source of information about about all customers not only help Dirt Bike with managing customer profile more easily, spreading out needed information faster but also create a great bridge to build a long-term relationship with customer. * Finally, it should spend more money and time in advertisement, especially E-commerce.Its website should be redesigned to make customer as well as employees has a clearly look at all products it is selling. Providing more detail, technical information, comparision to others same line products. Those essential information has to be uploaded on the Website, beautiful and clear design to help customer more knowledgeable about products they would like to buy and support employees when they talk about products customers would like to know or they would like to sell. What is more, Dirt Bikes should invite famous riders to ride advertise for their products. This method will raise the trust in customer more. . INFORMATION SYSTEMS WOULD BE SUITABLE FOR THE CHOSEN STRATEGY: * CAD/CAM: technology allows engineer and draftspeople to design systems. * Communication and collaboration systems: allows all employees to communicate effectively and efficiently via e-mail, voice mail, call center and others. * Data warehouse: allows managers and knowlegde workers store huge amount of data that can be easily accessed and manipulated for decision support. * Mobile computing systems: supports mobile employees who work with cusomer or business partners outside the physical boudaries of the organization.Supply Chain Management System: This system may allow the company to manage their inventory levels more efficiently. * * IV – OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: * Developing a website privacy policy: developing a web site privacy policy There are some kind of personal information the web site can collect in order to serve customers well such as name, address, email, phone number†¦these database can be collected through: Order form If customers order products, the company requires personally identificable information. With these database, the company will deliver products exactly and on time.Email is very useful to provide services for customers. For example, a customer has a problem about his product, he can send email to service center to get the help instead of going to the company, or when the company has promotional campaign, it will send information to customers to announce about the news and encourage customers to buy new products. Surveys or contests: Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. The requested information certainly includes contact information. Clickstream, web bacons: he company can use information collected from clickstreams to well understand about what customers are interested in, what they need; since the company set up pl ans to satisfy customers or provide services they needs. Although the website collects customer information and uses them as marketing and business purposes, it is ensured that security is very important to the company. When customers enter sensitive information such as social security number or credit card number on order forms, the company always warrant that information is encrypted by using secure socket layer technology (SSL).Additionally, not share personal information to the third party is a goal of the company. 1. Improving decision making: Making the rent or buy decision for hardware and software a. Rent or purchase software | | 2 tables above shows that the cost of purchasing software is less than the cost of renting hosted software. Thus, purchasing software is the best solution | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | b. Strengths and Weaknesses of renting vs purchasing | Rent| Purchase|Strengths| -cheaper cost -alternative new software easily-having most of the required features-minimal IT staffs| -free management to deal with product's core competence forever-have guaranteed appreciation over a time period time-minimal IT staffs| Weaknesses| -limited time using-limitation on the software customization-uncomfortable when the software is out of date-frequent software updates-long term reliance on vendor support| -expensive cost-expense when alternative new software-limitation on software customization-incompatible with company needs-frequent software updates-long term reliance on vendor support|If the company rent software, it can change into another software when the old one doesn’t fit company needs. The cost paid for rented software is cheaper than purchased software, so the cost for changing does not take much as well. Suppose the rented software is not out of date, the company also does not waste available resources as well as the money spending. Software is usually sold in a package. The c ompany has to buy full package even though it may not use all the functions. Thus, the company will waste the big money for spending useless functions of the software which is going to be released.Otherwise, the company has free management to deal with software’s core competencies forever. The company do not need to concern about time using as renting. That is uncomfortable when someday the software is out of date but the company still need to use it, the manager will have to sign a new contract for continuously using. That affects to company’s operations and waste time. Renting and purchasing need to be updated frequently to ensure that they always fits to company demands, hence both of them rely on vendor support in long term. Additionally, limitation on the software customization need to be considered as well.The company rent or purchase any software, it just has authority to use this software for helping the business to run effectively. It is not allowed to transfe r or copy into many versions to sell. However, minimal IT staffs is a strong point of both renting and purchasing. Software helps the company to handle well with a large information that human can not do although amount of staffs is large. c. Other factors need to be considered (beside cost): * Duration of need (long term or short term) If the company want to use in short term (usually under 6 months), then renting is optimal solution.In contrast, purchasing will be the best solution if time using is over 6 months (long term) * Compatibility Software run on iphone can not run on android. That is example about compatibility. Similarly, Microsoft 2010 can not run on window XP SP1, SP2, rather than they are window XP SP3, win 7 or later * Friendly interface Software that is easy to use will increase efficiency for the company. * Efficiency Microsoft 2007 is better than Microsoft 2003 because Microsoft 2007 has more functions than Microsoft 2003:colorful interface, beautiful templates.F urthermore, office 2007 can open XML files which are files of older office version†¦More functions are shown on ribbon. That helps users manipulate quickly. * Supporting The software should provide support for common tools used for the volume digitization of paper documents and integration with other devices that generate digital documents such as fax servers. 2 – CUSTOMER DATABASE: Dirt Bikes USA does not sell its products directly to retail customers; however, these transactions are primarily made through its distributors’ network.The information of a customer will be collected by the company’s distributors when this sale is made. This database is then forwarded to Dirt Bikes. Figure 1: Customer Database collected from distributors. Figure 1 shows the customers’ information that distributors forwarded to Dirt Bikes. This table includes many kinds of information: customer name, address (street, city, state, and zip code), telephone number, model pur chased, date of purchase, distributor, customers’ interests and tastes (their ages, level of education, and favorite sport), and their attentions to racing events.Storing all the information at only one place is so complicated and when it develops into thousand-record table, it is difficult to manage all information effectively. Moreover, it may take a lot of time to withdraw a piece of data as needed. To be able to market aggressively, therefore, the database needs to be redesigned. The new database will include tables and reports that allow the company to know certain information about the customers. The Marketing department would also like to be able to keep the customers updated on certain events, such as races and sales, depending on their ages, education level, and their previous purchases.Using Microsoft Access program (version 2007), the database that we designed is very simple to use, yet very effective. From the main database (Figure 1), 3 sub-tables are adding and each table manages 1 kind of information withdrawing from the main data. Figure 2: Distributor table The table shows the list of distributors’ names and their IDs. Managing distributors’ information by their IDs can avoid confusions and help looking up this information easily and quickly. Figure 3: Model table This table shows the models of dirt bike that the company produces and sells in the market.Each model is managed by 1 ID. Figure 4: Purchase table This table show previous purchases. Each record comprises Customer ID (the customer that made this transaction), Model ID (model ordered), date purchase of such transaction, and Distributor ID (distributor that made the transaction with the customer). Purchase ID is the primary key of the table. Figure 5: Relationship between 4 tables. This figure shows the relationship between 4 tables: Customer table (main table), Purchase table, Model table, and Distributor table.Specifically, Customer ID is the primary key in Custo mer table and in Purchase Table; Customer ID is the foreign key. Model ID is primary key in Model table and the field with the same name in Purchase table is foreign key. Distributor ID in Distributor table is the primary key and is the foreign key in Purchase table. All these relationships above are in one-to-Many type because the primary keys of tables of Customer, Distributor, and Model can appear many times in Purchase table. It means that one customer can make many transactions with many distributors and buy many models as well.Figure 6: Identify repeat customer by query. This table shows the way we design query to count the number of transactions that customers have made so far with source is Purchase table. Based on the result of this query, we can report frequent customers of Dirt Bikes USA. Figure 7: Repeat Customers. This figure shows the process that we create report of frequent customers. Customers that bought more than 1 product of the company will be reported with thei r names, phone number, model they ordered, dates of purchases and the distributors they bought dirt bikes from.Besides knowing who are valuable customers that the company needs to take good care of, Marketing department can also recognize effective distributors to give them acknowledgements for their good jobs (rewards, bonus, etc. ). Additionally, more reports can be added to better suite the needs of the company. Several reports that may be of need to Dirt Bikes USA are Racing events report, which show customers are avid racers, as well as the ages of the customers. Below are some examples of the reports needed by the Marketing department of Dirt Bikes USA. Figure 8: Racing events.This figure shows the way we made report of Racing events. The report shows customers that will attend racing events. This information is useful to Dirt Bikes USA because it enables the company to notify customers of when certain racers are being held. This way, the customers are aware of races and event s that they are interested in attending or racing in. Figure 9: Customers’ ages, Education levels, and favorite sports This figure shows the way we design the report of Customers ‘Ages, Education Levels, and favorite sports. The report allows the Marketing department to see their customers’ tastes.It can also help the company know which group of customers they are serving. From this information, Dirt Bikes USA can improve their performance in Customer services as well as improving its products’ designs and quality to fit customers’ interests. 3 – SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOLUTION: A supply chain is defined as a network of organizations and business processes for procuring materials, transforming raw materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to customers. Fulfilling orders on time is becoming increasingly harder for Dirt Bikes.This is due to the delays of obtaining certain parts to the motorcycles , especially their fuel tanks. This is a serious issue because this could lead to loses in sales because customers do not want to wait so long for their orders to be filled. Finding a different fuel tank supplier is very necessary. In response to the supply chain problems that Dirt Bikes USA searched for alternate suppliers on the internet. There are three possible alternative suppliers that were found: Company| Location| Cost of part| Cost of shipping| Motosport. com| Gresham, OR 97230| $247. 9| Fedex: free 2days| Motocyle-superstore. com| Medford, OR 97204| $273. 99| Free ground| Xrsonly. com| Hesperia, CA 92345| $249. 95| UPS 3 day: $26. 39| The suitable choice is motosport. com. They have the cheapest price and their website guarantees 30 day price matching. The shipping is not only free but 2nd day by Federal Express. The motosport. com website also looks more professional, and has a contact page that shows a picture of their administration offices, and the address of their war ehouse. It is possible that Dirt Bikes USA could be aided by implementing supply chain management software. Logility: Voyager SupplyPlanning| Wolin Design Group: da Vinci| Features| – Maximize probabilitycost for effective solutions- Optimizing sourcing and decision making. – Helps balance resources, constraints and customer service levels. – Analyses of customer orders-Evaluate costs and revenues| – Easy to report cost of effective solutions- Free training- Allows implementation of all or one applications- Optimizing resources. – Helps balance resources, constraints and customer service levels- Analyses of customer orders| Dirt Bike USA should also invest in good supply chain management software.The figure below compares the features of The Logility Company’s Voyager Supply Planning software with Wolin Design Group’s da Vinci software. The suitable option is the da Vinci software. There are some reasons for this, first of all, the co mpany does not require the purchase for all the components of the software; a company can choose to buy only certain applications. There are even add-ons to the standard software package. Before the company purchases the product, they are allows to do a demo with employees from Wolin Design Group.If the company is not satisfied with the product, the company will not have to purchase the software. Once the demo is complete and the company purchases the software, the implementation process begins. There is a Help Desk that can answer any questions or fix any problems that may arise. The actual software package itself provides Dirt Bikes with great services. Da Vinci is a whole database where every part of the ordering, financing, and inventory side of the company can be kept. It allows tracking of the products and shipping aspects.Inventory Management and other reports are easy to access because of the tracking. There are reports for the profit, revenue and costs of Dirt Bikes, as wel l as management reports. The reports help with the decision making and the everyday success of the company. The software also tries its best to minimize the cost of building the bikes and the all around costs in general. Voyager Supply Planning software is a great option, but da Vinci provides services that are more suitable for Dirt Bikes USA. 4- E-COMMERCE STRATEGY: Internet is becoming more and more popular in modern life as well as in business.E-commerce is an useful application for seller and buyer to reach their willingness.. Almost everyone has a computer with internet connection. By having a website, Dirt Bikes would be able to expand its business better because it will reach out to many people. Customers will also find it more convenient to do their shopping online. The customers have more time for choosing products and the shopper has a chance to read about all the different kinds of bikes. It also enables them to compare bikes to one another, as well as see pictures of al l of them. E-commerce allows the company to be more competitive.Dirt Bike should sell not only motorcycle but also parts on the Web, the customers will have more option when looking its website. Advertisement about the new products, popular product on the front page of the website is also a good way to attract customer. Although there are many benefits from E-commerce, Dirt Bike has to face with risks that derive from online trading. * Buyers from all over the world may use fake or stolen credit cards and online payment accounts or they outright lie about delivery. Many claim non-delivery or damaged goods in order to get refunds.This is turn makes it costly for sellers, as they are faced with the reality that now they have lost both their inventory and money. * Sellers may take money without ever sending any product or forwarding inferior goods to the customers. * When a company accepts a customer's credit card and personal data, unless the business takes measures to protect that in formation, data is easily stolen through hacking, making both the seller and the buyer vulnerable. Solutions for better E-commerce strategy: One e-commerce company that provides excellent services is NetSuite.It allows a small to medium company to be managed completely on this one software. Some of the services : website and web store building and hosting, built-in analytics and reporting, low-cost customer service, and superior e-commerce marketing tools. In order for the e-commerce software to be a profitable investment for Dirt Bikes, the cost savings need to increase. The increase should be more than the company has made in the past, and then some because of the cost of the e-commerce software. Advantages: * Managed Completely on on Software. Website and Web store building and hosting * Built-in analytics and reporting * Low-cost customer service * Superior e-commerce marketing tools 5 – KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: The most important explicit knowledge of Dirt Bike USA assets a re its engineering designs, its customer relations management, and its sales/marketing processes. This is the explicit and tacit knowledge, most of the knowledge can be documented. The engineer can graph his or her design and the customers or sellers can save their information in their documents.There is also tacit knowledge, the designers have to think about the new ideas to refresh the products and attract people, the engineers have to think about the techniques to deal with employees and customers as well, they have to think the ways to increase the employees’ productivity, some tricks that can be used by the sellers to persuade the customers to buy their products. However, the knowledge assets of Dirt Bike is not only internal asset but also external assets. The Dirt Bike use outside engine manufacture so it has be knowledgeable about the engine products that are produced and developed by their engine suppliers.The marketers also use outside media to know about the market trend, the customers interest to increase the investment from outsiders to expand the company. Knowledge management system is the system that would contain as much information as possible that can be documented and organized, from raw data to data studies. The system brings many benefits for employees and company itself. The engineers can use the data from this system for the correct engine designs and knowing whether the engine products from the suppliers are qualified are or not. The designers can use the data and get the materials for the products.The marketers can use external and internal data for making marketing plan and getting investment. The sellers can use the data for market segmentation, and determine the time for selling suitable kind of product. The managers can know the information quickly to update about the new plan, new economics trend to have better react. Finally, the company can get the products’ feedback from customers, make the survey about the custom ers’ interest. With many benefits from the Knowledge management system Dirt Bike need to use it but the problem here is how can they find he Knowledge management system company that suitable for them? The appropriate knowledge management system for Dirt Bike is Safeharbor (http://www. safeharbor. com/solutions/knowledge-management-services/) it has almost everything that suitable for not only Dirt Bike but also many different companies. Its Knowledge Engineers work directly with the company’s teams to help with some or all of the following: Content assessment, Content creation and testing, Analysis and reporting, Contact center alignment, Taxonomy, Best practices.It has some functions that other companies do not have like multi-language which is necessary for the company to have agencies in different countries, multi-currency for faster transaction and Boolean search for faster searching. The company has 3 competitive advantages: simple and intuitive, powerful and cust omizable, cost effective. It provides: Internal Knowledge base: * Powerful Search Engine. * Easy Article Creation and Content Management. * Powerful Knowledge Base Management Tools. * Improved Agent Effectiveness * Moderator Controls. * Reporting & Analytics * Cloud Mobility. External Knowledge base: Extremely Customizable. * Intuitive Self Service. * User Feedback. * Community Forums. Component| Component No. | Source| Unit Cost| Quantity| Extended Cost| | Brake cable| M0593| Nissin| 27. 81| 1| 27. 81| | Brake pedal| M0546| Harrison Billet| 6. 03| 2| 12. 06| | Brake pad| M3203| Russell| 27. 05| 2| 54. 10| | Front brake pump| M0959| Brembo| 66. 05| 1| 66. 05| | Rear brake pump| M4739| Brembo| 54. 00| 1| 54. 00| | Front brake caliper| M5930| Nissin| 105. 20| 1| 105. 20| | Rear brake caliper| M7942| Nissin| 106. 78| 1| 106. 78| | Front brake disc| M3920| Russell| 143. 80| 1| 143. 80| | Rear brake disc| M0588|Russell| 56. 42| 1| 56. 42| | Brake pipe| M0943| Harrison Billet| 28. 52| 1| 28. 52| | Brake lever cover| M1059| Brembo| 2. 62| 1| 2. 62| | | | | Total cost| | 657. 36| | | | | | | | | * Integrated Help Desk and Call Center. 6. COMPONENT PRICE CHANGES The table above shows the cost when it is not affected by any impacts. However when the front brake caliper increased from $103 to $107,the extended cost would increase, too and if the brake pipe increases from $27 to $30 the extended cost increases. The brake system represent 30 percent of the total materials cost for one complete Moto 300 motorcycle.Therefore, not only does the cost of the brake system increase, but the whole motorcycle price. | | | Brake Pipe| | | Total Cost| 657. 36| 27| 28. 00| 29| 30. 00| | 103| 653. 64| 654. 64| 655. 64| 656. 64| | 104| 654. 64| 655. 64| 656. 64| 657. 64| Front Brake caliper| 105. 00| 655. 64| 656. 64| 657. 64| 658. 64| | 106| 656. 64| 657. 64| 658. 64| 659. 64| | 107| 657. 64| 658. 64| 659. 64| 660. 64| The table shows the total cost increase when the price of the brake pipe and front brake caliper increase. Finally when the front brake caliper and brake pipe increase up to $ 107 and $30 the total cost increases to $660. 64. REFERENCES:

Emr Concerns Are Plaguing The Health Care Industry Today

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