Example of Bullwhipp Effect Essay Example for Free

Example of Bullwhipp Effect Essay The Barilla company, a major pasta producer located in Italy provides a demonstrative of issues resulting from the bullwhip effect. Barilla offered special discounts to their customer who ordered full truckload of their goods. Such marketing deals created customer demand-patterns were highly peaked and volatile. The supply chain costs were so high that they outstripped the benefits from full truckload transportation. The Barilla case was one of the first published cases that empirically supported the bullwhip phenomenon. The 5 major reasons leading to the bullwhip effect according to Lee: Demand signal processing is the is the practice of decision makers adjusting the parameters of the inventory replenishment rule. Target stock levels, safety stocks and demand forecasts are updated in view of information or deviations from targets. Another major cause of the bullwhip problem is the lead-time, which is caused by two components. The physical delays and also delays in cause of information. The lead-time is a key parameter to calculate safety stocks. The third bullwhip creator is the practice of order batching. Economies of scale in ordering, production set-ups or transportation will quite clearly increase order variability. The fourth major cause of bullwhip is highlighted by Lee has to do with price fluctuations. Price discounts and quantity discounts are often offered by retailers. So the retailers buy goods in advance and quantities and store them. This do not reflect their immediate needs. The fifth cause of bullwhip is connected with rationing and shortage gaming. Inflated orders placed by supply chain occupants during shortage periods tend to boost the bullwhip effect. Possibilities to minimize the bullwhip effect (in order to avoid costs): improve communication in the supply chain simultaneousness of actions (therefore time delays and reaction times can be avoided) centralization of disposition establish strategic alliances reduce the variability

The Ideal State of Today Essay -- Philosophy, Lao-Tzu

The search for the ideal state has been an on going mission for leaders since the creation of the first government. For a state to be truly ideal, its administration and chief must have the right characteristics. A government is a system that governs a state. A leader is someone who operates the administration. Although this seems simple, historical and current chiefs and regimes have proven it is not. The teachings of men such as Lao-Tzu and Niccolo Machiavelli include specific details on the traits a leader must posses in order to run and maintain a government where he or she is happy as well as the citizens. However, several of the traits classified as necessary for both a leader and government, by Lao and Machiavelli are undesirable in the path to the ideal state. In his work, â€Å"Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching,† Lao-Tzu discusses the Tao. Lao believes the Tao or â€Å"the way† to be the most effective method into developing a leader fit to manage a government in which everyone is content and is at peace. According to Lao, â€Å"the Master doesn’t talk, he acts. When his work is done, the people say, Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!† (25). Therefore, the chief, in order to run the administration, he must govern the people in ways that they are barely aware of his presence and ruling. The people, when they forget their superior, â€Å"goodness and piety appear† (25). Subjects living under such a government, turn to a higher supreme power, which they believe is responsible for their accomplishments, which creates religious devotion. Niccolo Machiavelli, in â€Å"The Qualities of the Prince,† discusses whether a prince should keep his word to his people. Machiavelli said, â€Å"the princes who have accomplished great deeds are those who have cared ... ...ch speculators prosper while farmers lose their land, government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures, when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn-all this is robbery and chaos† (Lao-Tzu 29). In addition, this is complete capitalism and, therefore, the government will not succeed. One country that has united the two types of administrations is China, which is the world’s second-largest economy and has become known as the â€Å"world’s factory† (Bin 2). According to Prof Alok Bhargava in â€Å"Persuade Beijing of need for democracy,† â€Å"China is now more capitalist than communist. The Chinese economic policies have lowered production costs and brought prosperity† (16). China’s use of dual administrations demonstrates the positive outcomes of doing so, even though; China considers itself completely a communist country.

Online Shopping Essay

Online shopping has become a popular shopping method ever since the internet has declared a takeover. There are many individuals that are looking for other amazing alternatives shopping and online shipping is just the fix for that. There are many advantages of online shopping; this is the reason why online stores are a booming business today. If there are advantages, most likely there will be disadvantages. Despite the success of purchasing through online shopping stores, there are still some disadvantages that most people complain about. The advantages There are many advantages of internet shopping, firstly is it save time. Do you have the specific list that you want to buy? With just a couple of clicks of the mouse, you can purchase your shopping orders and instantly move to other important things, which can save time. Second is save fuel. The market of fuel industries battles from increasing and decreasing its cost every now and again, but no matter how much the cost of fuel are it does not affect your shopping errands. One of the advantages of shopping online is that there is no need for vehicles, so no purchase of fuel necessary. Third is save energy. We admit it, it is tiresome to shop from one location and transfer to another location. What is worse is that there are no available stocks for the merchandise you want to buy. In online shopping, you do not need to waste your precious energy when buying. Forth is comparison of price, the advanced innovation of search engine allows you to easily check prices and compare with just a few clicks. It is very straightforward to conduct price comparisons from one online shopping website to another. This gives you the freedom to determine which online store offers the most affordable item you are going to buy. Fifth is available in any time. Online shopping stores are open round the clock of 24/7, 7 days a week and 365 days. It is very rare to find any conventional retail stores that are open 24/7. The availability of online stores give you the freedom to shop at your own pace and convenience. Sixth is no need to waiting in lines. When buying items online, there are no long lines you have to endure, just to buy your merchandise. The idea of shopping online is cutting down those bad habits of standing in a long line and just waiting. Every online store is designed with unique individual ordering features to purchase the item. Lastly is easy to search merchandise you want to buy. You are able to look for specific merchandise that includes model number, style, size, and colour that you want to purchase. In addition, it is easy to determine whether the products are available or out of stock. The disadvantages There are few disadvantages of internet shopping despite of advantages. Firstly is personally check the item. If you are one of those shoppers who want to touch, see, and test the product personally, at online shopping, you are not able to do so. Online stores are only showing product description and photos of the merchandise, which can be a disadvantage for many online shoppers. Second is diminished instant satisfaction. Unlike buying at retail stores, you are able to use the product instantly after you buy it, which can be satisfying. However, online shopping requires patience to wait for the item to arrive at your door step about 2 to 3 days or even longer depending on the location you’ve ordered it from.

Biography of Mary Parker Follett, Management Theorist

Mary Parker Follett (September 3, 1868–December 18, 1933) was an American social theorist known for introducing ideas about human psychology and human relations into industrial management. Her articles and essays had a profound influence on the field of organizational behavior. Modern management theory owes much to her original ideas. Fast Facts: Mary Parker Follett Known For: Follett was a management theorist who incorporated ideas from psychology and human relations into her theories.Born: September 3, 1868 in Quincy, MassachusettsParents: Charles and Elizabeth FollettDied: December 18, 1933 in Boston, MassachusettsEducation: University of Cambridge, Radcliffe CollegePublished Works: The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1896), The New State (1918), Creative Experience (1924), Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett (1942) Early Life Mary Parker Follett was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1868. She studied at the Thayer Academy in Braintree, Massachusetts, where she credited one of her teachers with inspiring many of her later ideas. In 1894, she used her inheritance to study at the Society for Collegiate Instruction of Women, sponsored by Harvard, and later completed a year of study at Newnham College in  Cambridge, England, in 1890. She studied on and off at Radcliffe College as well, starting in the early 1890s. In 1898, Follett graduated summa cum laude from Radcliffe. Her research at Radcliffe was published in 1896 and again in 1909 as The Speaker of the House of Representatives. Career Follett began working in Roxbury as a voluntary social worker in 1900 at the Roxbury Neighborhood House of Boston. Here, she helped organize recreation, education, and social activities for poor families and for working boys and girls. In 1908, Follett became chair of the Womens Municipal League Committee on Extended Use of School Buildings, part of a movement to open schools after hours so that the community could use the buildings for activities. In 1911, she and others opened the East Boston High School Social Center. She also helped found other social centers in Boston. In 1917, Follett took on the vice presidency of the National Community Center Association, and in 1918 she published her book on community, democracy, and government, The New State. Follett published another book, Creative Experience, in 1924, with more of her ideas about the creative interactions that take place between people in group processes. She credited her work in the settlement house movement with many of her insights. She shared a home in Boston for 30 years with Isobel L. Briggs.  In 1926, after Briggs death, Follett moved to England to live and work and to study at Oxford. In 1928, Follett consulted with the League of Nations and with the International Labor Organization in Geneva. She lived in London for a time with Dame Katharine Furse of the Red Cross. In her later years, Follett became a popular writer and lecturer in the business world. She was a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1933, and she also provided personal advice to President Theodore Roosevelt on organizational management. Management Theories Follett advocated for a human relations emphasis equal to a mechanical or operational emphasis in management. Her work contrasted with the scientific management of Frederick W. Taylor and promoted by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, which stressed time and motion studies. These approaches did not account for human psychology and the ways in which work demands might be in conflict with personal needs; rather, they treated human activities as machine processes that could be optimized to produce better results. Unlike her contemporaries, Follett stressed the importance of the personal interactions between management and workers. She looked at management and leadership holistically, presaging modern systems approaches; she identified a leader as someone who sees the whole rather than the particular. Follett was one of the first (and for a long time, one of the few) to integrate the idea of organizational conflict into management theory, and is sometimes referred to as the mother of conflict resolution. Follett believed that conflict, rather than presenting a need to compromise, could actually be an opportunity for people to develop innovative solutions that they would not have been able to devise on their own. In this way, she promoted the idea of reciprocity within organizational structures. In a 1924 essay, Power, Follett coined the terms power-over and power-with to differentiate coercive power from participative decision-making, showing how power-with can be greater than power-over. Do we not see now, she observed, that while there are many ways of gaining an external, an arbitrary power—through brute strength, through manipulation, through diplomacy—genuine power is always that which inheres in the situation? Death Mary Parker Follett died in 1933 during a visit to Boston. She was honored widely for her work with the Boston School Centers, including her promotion of after-hours programming for the community. Legacy After Folletts death, her papers and speeches from 1942 were compiled and published in Dynamic Administration, and in 1995 Pauline Graham edited a compilation of her writings in Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management. The New State was printed in a new edition in 1998 with helpful additional material. In 1934, Follett was honored by Radcliffe as one of the colleges most distinguished graduates. Her work was mostly forgotten in America, and is still largely neglected in studies of the evolution of management theory, despite the accolades of more recent thinkers like management consultant Peter Drucker, who has called Follett the prophet of management and his guru. Folletts ideas also had a strong influence on psychologists such as Kurt Lewin, who studied group dynamics, and Abraham Maslow, who studied human needs and health. Sources Follett, Mary Parker, et al.  The Essential Mary Parker Follett. Franà §ois Hà ©on, Inc., 2014.Follett, Mary Parker, and Pauline Graham.  Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management; a Celebration of Writings from the 1920s. Beard Books, 2003.Follett, Mary Parker., et al.  Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett. Taylor Francis Books Ltd., 2003.Tonn, Joan C.  Mary P. Follett: Creating Democracy, Transforming Management. Yale University Press, 2003.