Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Book Borrowing System free essay sample

[pic] BOOK BORROWING SYSTEM In partial fulfillment of the requirements in SE101 Software Engineering I MEMBERS: Baldonado Jr. , Michael M. ADVISER Dinna Lou J. Piedad S. Y. 2011 2012 Introduction Manual systems in libraries were used in the 1970s and early 1980s until computers became more prevalent and less costly. Manual systems tended to operate with a card index to monitor the books that borrowers had out. Libraries also used a manual card catalog system for indexing and tracking books. Manual operating systems are vulnerable to human error. For instance, a librarian who misfiles a borrowers records or indexes a book incorrectly slows down the process and wastes employees time. Manual systems are also slow to operate. Instead of using a computer to issue and take back books, locating and updating a card index is slow and laborious. Manual systems are unable to store large amounts of data efficiently. With manual systems staff spends a lot of their time on mechanical, clerical tasks rather than liaising with library visitors. We will write a custom essay sample on Book Borrowing System or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page User’s Description Most likely the one that who will use the system are students, and teachers that has no time in going System Description Library Management System is a multi-user version and can take care of all the fundamental functions of a Library like borrowing books, searching for books and checking the books. It can satisfactorily cater to all the basic functions of a small library. A simple library management system that provides following facilities login, register, add Category, add / remove book, search / issue Book, return book. Library system keeps track of all the transaction that takes place in the library. Starting from book transaction to financial transaction. Purpose and Objectives The Purpose and Objectives of the project is to create a library management system which sorts the administrators, staffs and students separately. It empowers each with different levels of privileges. Users and administrators are allowed to search and lend/take books from the library. It also sorts the items in the library and lets administrator to monitor items/members and also generate graphical reports for them. Scope and Limitation Any education institute can make use of it for providing information about author, content of the available books. It can be used in offices and modifications can be easily done according to requirements. System’s Features Management System. As it has a user-friendly application interface. ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM CONTEXT DIAGRAM USE CASE DIAGRAM USE CASE SPECIFICATION: login 1. Brief Description To interact with the system, LMS will validate its registration with this system. It also defines the actions a user can perform in LMS. 2. Flow of Events 1. Basic Flow The use case begins when the actor types his/her name and password on the login form. 1. The system displays the Main Form and the use case ends. . Alternative Flow(s) 1. Invalid username and/or password If the user enters an invalid username and/or password, the system displays an error message. The user can choose to either return to the beginning of the Basic Flow or cancel the login, at which the use case ends. 3. Pre Conditions None 4. Post Conditions If the use case is successful, the user can now log into the system. If n ot the system is unchanged. USE CASE SPECIFICATION: Search Books 1. Brief Description Search Books makes it easy to search for article on LMS. With this search companion, user can specify several search criteria. For example, type, book name, author name, publisher etc. 2. Flow of Events 1. Basic Flow The use case starts when the user/borrower wants to search what books he/she is looking for. 1. System will show searching screen. 2. User enters required information. a. It can be user name, book description ISBN etc. 3. By pressing search button system will list down all searching results. 2. Alternative Flow(s) 2. 2. 1. The User enters a invalid keywords. The system will display an error message. The user may choose to re enter the keyword or cancel the search. 3. Pre Conditions Actor must login to the system. 4. Post Conditions If the use case is successful the user can now view the desired results. If not the system displays an error. USE CASE SPECIFICATION: Manage Borrower 1. Brief Description From this use case the Librarian can manage Borrowers. 2. Flow of Events 2. 1. Basic Flow The use case starts when the Librarian checks the borrowers in the borrowing system. 1. The system will show the entire registered user in the system. 2. Librarian will select any user; system will list down all information of a current user. 1. Alternative Flow(s) 2. 2. 1. The actor enters a invalid name of the borrower. The system will display an error message. The Actor may choose to re enter the keyword or cancel the search. 2. Pre Conditions Librarian must login to the system. 3. Post Conditions If the use case is successful the actor can now manage the members in the system, if not the system is unchanged USE CASE SPECIFICATION: Manage Books 1. Brief Description Books have different details; Inquiry Books is used to inquiry all books or articles in the system, it also gives details of its transaction history, and current status. 2. Flow of Events 2. 1. Basic Flow The use case starts when the user will manage books or articles. 2. 1. 1. User enters the required information. . 1. 2. It can be author’s name, ISBN of the book, Label, Number of books available. By pressing the search button system will list down all searching results. 2. 2. Alternative Flow(s) 2. 2. 1. The user enters invalid information about the book. The system will display an error message, the user chooses to cancel or Repeat the search. 3. Pre Conditions The Act or must login to the system. 4. Post Conditions If the use case is successful the user can now view his/her desired results, if not the system is unchanged. USE CASE SPECIFICATION: Manage Borrowed Books 1. Brief Description System will show members current issued books, transaction history and their deadlines. 2. Flow of Events 2. 1. Basic Flow The use case starts when the actor will check the Books Borrowed in the system. 2. 1. 1. The system will display all user history. 2. 2. Alternative Flow(s) 2. 2. 1. The user enters invalid information. The system will display an error message, the user will choose to cancel or repeat the information that he/she entered. 3. Pre Conditions The user must login to the system. 4. Post Conditions If the use case is successful the user can now view his/her desired results, if not the system is unchanged. ACTIVITY DIAGRAM:

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Is a Two-Page Resume Ever Acceptable

Is a Two-Page Resume Ever Acceptable There is a lot of confusing information out there these days about how long a resume should be. While a resume that goes on for pages is unlikely to be read by a hiring manager, not putting in enough information can have the same effect. Now that many resumes are no longer submitted on paper but in digital format, the old rules for resumes make little sense. Keep in mind that hiring managers are interested in finding the right candidate for the job, and the resume quickly tells them whether or not the applicant is eligible for consideration. What About One Page Resumes?One argument is that one page resumes are fine for recent graduates or those who don’t have much work experience. While this might be true, the custom is to try and keep a resume short and to the point. This makes sense since a hiring manager or recruiter may have many of them to check over in order to fill a job position.Are Longer Resumes Acceptable?More experienced workers may require more than one page to li st their previous job positions, skills and experience or already have a resume that takes up more than one page. This is particularly true for those with a lot of work experience or advanced degrees. Now, with social media, personal websites and sites such as LinkedIn, a job seeker can add information to those sites so recruiters can find added information. The good thing about personal websites and LinkedIn is that you can include as much as you wish.Do You Include All Your Jobs?You don’t have to include every job you’ve ever held. Instead, keep it to the last ten years of employment. The important thing is to aim your resume toward the job for which you are applying. A recruiter’s job is to find the best candidates for the position, so if you are qualified for the job and point it out in your resume, you can go to the top of the list of candidates.Do Bullet Points Help?Using bullet points add to your resume by making it quick to scan for the recruiter to pick up important information. It also makes it less likely that an important job qualification will not be missed. Use caution, however, to not overdo using bullet points. Use your qualifications that respond to the job ad.What About Job History?Including your entire job history isn’t necessary for a resume, and neither is listing everything you did in each job. What the recruiter is interested in are the things you did that benefitted the company such as increasing productivity, saving the company money or other benefits. Use this type of approach to show how you would be an asset. This lets the recruiter know quickly whether you are a match for the job position.Should I Chop My Resume or Add to It?By now, you’ve chopped out all unnecessary information but you find your resume is still over one page long, and you are faced with the decision of making the print small to make it fit on one page or of using a second page that is mostly a large blank space. What do you do? T hinking about if you were the person reading it, would you be happy trying to read tiny print or would you prefer a second page, even if it only has a few lines of text? Rather than give the recruiter eye strain, it is better to include the second page. If you really feel that space shouldn’t go to waste, use it to show volunteer work, awards and organizations so the recruiter can see into your personality.Having a good resume is a start to getting that great job. TheJobNetwork takes all the stress out of job hunting by doing the search for you. After you sign up for job match alert and enter your qualifications and job requirements, TheJobNetwork toils around the clock searching for the jobs that match and sends you alerts to notify you when job listings are found.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Summarize Queen Magdas journey Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summarize Queen Magdas journey - Coursework Example On hearing the message stating her wish to depart, Solomon pleaded with her to stay so that he could show her how his government works and the state of his soldiers and dignitaries. Queen Magda complied after hearing all she had missed and attended King Solomon’s supper and she sat behind him as he had stated that she will linger behind him. Solomon ordered his servant to serve a repast for Queen Magda with the intention of making her thirsty. Solomon approached Queen Magda and begged her to reside with her in his quarters. The Queen made him make a vow that he would not touch her and she promised she would not touch anything that belonged to Solomon. Later in the night, she became very thirsty and she opted to take the water present in Solomon’s room. Solomon caught her and reminded her of their vow and she opted to break the vow for the water in the vase. They slept together and Solomon had a vision about the sun moving from Israel to Ethiopia. After her encounter, Ma gda sought to return to Ethiopia and Solomon gave her treasures and other precious things. He gave her his ring and told her to keep it as his token of love, and in the event that she bore a child, the ring would be a sign of his recognition. The Quincy Mayans Myth stated that the gods had sought to create humans who would come as a source of nourishment and sustain them in the light of the day. Later, humans and God's relations became poor and the humans fell out of favor with the gods for their lack of worship to the gods.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Food industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Food industry - Essay Example The company has made great advances in the production of fast foods through their kitchen prototyping, standardizing, self-serving along with fundamental changes in their marketing demographics (Schlosser, 212). The company has been offering fast foods to various classes of customers who include teenagers and the elderly. The beef department of the company is currently being dominated by immigrants who offer cheap labor in the various branches that the company has opened up across the globe. Through the process of recruiting more cheap workers, the organization has been able to expand their activities while at the same time maximizing their profits (Mankiw, 141). In consolidating their activities, Fast food Nation has been able to acquire many other smaller companies in different countries for the purpose of expanding the scope of their activities (Schlosser, 79). For instance, the company has acquired companies that indulge in packing meat such as Kenny Dobbins along with IBP Inc. T hey have been additionally able to ensure that all the outlets deal with uniform franchises (Kroeger, Vizjak, Moriarity, 89). The Omnivore’s dilemma offers a wide variety of foodstuffs for humans that range from industrial and organic foods and the foods we scavenge for ourselves such as meat products (Pollan, 62). The company manufactures the above meals in an effort to diversify their activities while expanding their activities across national along with international boundaries. They have enjoyed economies of scale with their production costs decreasing over the years as a result of using cheaper forms of labor, the use of technology in their activities and advanced production methods (Mankiw, 132). The company acquires its raw materials from many areas, which implies that they rarely have shortages in their production. The company’s production has however faced problems as a result of animal diseases which affect their production along with the

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Consumer Behaviour Analysis Essay Example for Free

Consumer Behaviour Analysis Essay In this competitive market, high quality of products may not be sufficient for companies to gain competitive edges in market (Palmer, 2004). In addition, according to Moutinho et al (1996), it seems that the nature of marketing is to satisfy the needs and requirements of consumers rather than product oriented. Thus, consumers play a prominent role in market as contemporary marketing is customer-oriented. However, it should be noticed that consumer behaviour is unstable because psychological factors have impacts on consumer behaviour. Moreover, Evans et al (2006) indicate that social factors also affect consumer behaviour. Although many companies have drawn attention to the status of consumers in market, they lack of the knowledge of consumer behaviour and guidelines to analysis their consumers. Therefore, the study of consumer behavior is necessary for helping companies clearly understand consumer behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to observe the effects of consumer behavior on established and new companies. Factors affecting consumer behavior will first be presented. The discussion of consumer behaviour’s effect on two types of companies will then be displayed, with a focus on brand loyalty, dynamic demands, and online shopping channels. Furthermore, for future development, effective approaches will be given to reduce the negative effects of customer behavior. Indeed, this paper briefly discusses some main effects of consumer behaviour on established and new companies, and it aims to help companies clearly understand consumer behaviour and further development. 1. Consumer Behaviour 1.1 Psychological influences A company has spent amounts of time developing a new product; however, after the company launches the product to markets, it could realize its efforts is wasted because customers reject its product in a few minutes. The reason is the company fails or neglects to analyze the psychological factors of consumers. Understanding psychological factors is essential for designing and publicizing a product, as these factors tend to influence consumer behaviour. According to Hollensen (2003:122), psychological factors include: â€Å"needs, perception, memory, and attitude†. With regards to the needs of consumers, marketers often distinguish the needs by using Maslow’s famous classification (1970). The classification divides the needs of people into five grades based on hierarchy. The higher level needs cannot be realized unless lower level needs are satisfied. For example, most African countries suffer from starvation. If a marketer sells luxury goods to African consumers, the marketer tends to fail because the marketer cannot understand what African people urgently need. Baker (2006:204) says â€Å"Sensation occurs when a sense organ receives a stimulus, while perception is the interpretation of that stimulus†. From the marketer’s viewpoint, it is essential to attract attention of consumers, and consumers can respond the way marketers intend to. For example, if a marketer chooses red colour to package products, the consumer likes all commodities with red packaging by chance; then, perception arises as this packaging draws the consumer attention. In terms of memory, when consumers make decision among kinds of brands, they prefer to select the brand that they remember. Hollensen (2003) observes consumers store information that is frequently seen or heard. Therefore, marketers try their best to publicize their brand name as much as possible with a view to making consumers remember their brand name when consumers select a product. Attitude can be described as consumers have positive and negative feelings when they see a object that can be a brand, an action, or a person. For this reason, marketers formulate marketing strategy based on using the knowledge of consume attitude in order to associate with consumer’s tastes and preferences. This subsection focuses on psychological factors that influence consumer behavior. In the latter subsection, it concerns social factors that would influence consumer behaviour. 1.2 Social influences Baker (2006) points out that social influences can be divided into three categories including culture, social class, and life-style. In terms of culture, Bennett and Kassarjian (1972) define culture as a consecutive form that can be passed on from one generation to another mainly including habits, beliefs, values, and attitudes. However, culture tends to be relatively unstable, and it is in the process of changing and inducing new ideas because of environmental change and technological change. In addition, Evans et al (2006) note that marketing is a contributory factor in changing of culture. For example, in China, before fast food restaurants of McDonald opened, Chinese people prefer to eat their own food such as porridge, rice, and noodles; nevertheless, after the US lifestyle has transmitted to China through McDonald, the eating habits of Chinese has changed as most of them, especially the young people, would choose hamburgers or chips instead of rice and noodles. With regard to social classes, this classes are groups who have similar characteristics usually including education, income, occupation, and social status (Baker, 2006). Consumers’ behaviour tends to be influenced by the values of social classes, when consumers are divided into one of social classes (Palmer, 2004). In general, social classes consist of three groups including upper class, middle class, and lower class. For example, if individuals identify with the â€Å"upper class†, they prefer to purchase products that differ from universal goods such as luxury necklaces, and advanced cars. Another aspect of social influences is lifestyle that is a way of living of people or families. For example, how people plan leisure time, which interesting products people prefer to purchase. In consumption activities, through analyzing people’s lifestyles, marketers probably know which groups of people tend to be their targets, hence they can design a suitable marketing mix for their targets. 1.3 The buying decision process The above paragraphs introduce influential factors that affect consumers’ decision making. For better understanding consumer behaviour, the process of buying decision is divided into five steps (Hollensen, 2003). The first step tends to be problem identification. According to Hollensen (2003), the differences between current situation and desired situation motivate consumers to seek and purchase products that probably bring satisfaction in order to balance the current condition with the desire. The second step is information search. Consumers gain information from past experiences and long memories stored in mind. In addition, Hollensen (2003) states that memory seeks information from three sources including personal sources, commercial sources, and public sources. The commercial sources are information disseminated by marketers and dealers. Thus, marketers tend to take use of this source in order to make consumer remember and store their brand name in long memory. The third step is evaluation of alternative. In this step, Hollensen (2003) points out that consumers tend to evaluate products from four attributes including cost attributes, performance attributes, social attributes, and availability attributes. Fourthly, Palmer (2004) points out that the purchase decision is made by DMU (Decision Making Unit). This DMU consists of influencers, gatekeepers, buyers, users, and decision makers. Finally, the post-purchase evaluation stage tends to result in satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Also, in this stage, Palmer (2004) states that consumers tend to develop brand loyalty if they obtain satisfaction about their decision-making. Thus, marketers play an active role in developing customer’s brand loyalty. For example, marketers can provide all-weather after-sales services for customers with a view to assure later usage with satisfaction. 2. The Effects of Three Forms of Consumer Behaviour on Established and New Companies 2.1 Brand loyalty It seems that attitudes of consumers tend to build customer loyalty on the certain brand. Evans et al (2006) seem to support this view and point out that consumers’ attitude of one product is significantly different from their attitude of another product, and this attitude can contribute towards loyalty. Indeed, brand loyalty is a competitive marketing strategy for companies especially for established companies. According to Evans et al (2006), loyalty can result in a great number of advantages such as reduction in marketing budgets, expanding market share, and extension of existing brands. For example, in the UK, Tesco is an outstanding retailer. Relying on the success in the UK, Tesco not only extents its career from the retailer to the food manufacture and the clothing manufacture, but also expands its market to China, Korea, and also Thailand. Reichheld (1996) also reports that the longer time a customer is loyal to a company, the much more benefits the company obtains as consumers tend to purchase more products in that company. Furthermore, customers tend to neglect prices of the product in certain industries, so companies can double their profits. For example, the advent of Apple products has attracted many customers to purchase, and many customers has built their brand loyalty to Apple products no matter how high prices Apple products set. However, the brand loyalty of consumers tends not to be advantageous for new companies. Firstly, the new company should pay a considerable fund of marketing costs to publicize its product and brand name. Secondly, established companies already occupy large amounts of market share. Boush and Jones (2006) note that there are few appropriate positions for later entrants. Thus, it tends to be difficult to attract customers that have brand loyalty to a certain brand from competitors. For example, In spite of the fact that Carrefour is famous for its low price and high quality products, it exited from the South Korea eventually because it is a new company for Korea, failed to seize consumers from competitors. 2.2 Dynamic demands In terms of the dynamic demands of consumers, companies need update their products or services constantly because of the change of consumer demands, although Boush and Jones (2006) indicate that established companies already occupy large amounts of market share. Palmer (2004) proposes that established companies should reposition or extension their brand based on their growing strengths in order to meet the changeable needs of targets. From established companies aspects, Murphy (1998) argues that the extension of brand will has risks on diluting the existing brand. Then, Murphy (1998) provides a related example of Cadbury, a chocolate manufacture in Britain. The managers of Cadbury extended the Cadbury name to embrace non-chocolate products to attract new consumers with a view to reducing investments on developing a new brand such as mashed potatoes, dried milk, and beverages. Over the years, the managers of Cadbury realized this action not only diluted Cadbury’s reputation but also weakened its power in the chocolate area (ibid). Moreover, Andrew (1998) also observes that chances are limited to extent brands if the brand maintains its current product attributes. However, from new companies aspects, dynamic demands of consumers create opportunities for them. Joel and Michael (2010) cite a supporting example that Apple’s success due to the change in the mobile phone industry. Moreover, Hartman and Beck-Dudley (1999) provide empirical evidence to support that dynamic demands create opportunities for new companies. With the improvement of environmental awareness, current customers tend to purchase ecofriendly goods that have no detrimental effects on environment. The CEO of the body shop, Anita Roddick, realized this demand of consumers; therefore, in 1976, the first body shop opened and launched its brand with minimal package, natural products that have not been tested on animals. Based on these initiatives, the body shop became most successful company and remained one of the global brands till today in cosmetic industry (ibid). 2.3 New shopping channel: online With the rise of online shopping, internet has become a popular shopping platform. Today, shopping online tend to be a major shopping channel, compared with traditional shopping channel such as stores or shopping Hall. From established and new companies aspects, this condition has positive effects on them. Palmer (2004) gives supporting ideas that online marketing is not only less expensive to use, but also less time to communicate with consumersï ¼Å'compared with traditional marketing such as face-to-face marketing, and personal selling. The Oxford Associations astutely observes, that most companies receive over 50% reduction in transaction costs through the internet (ibid). Furthermore, internet help marketers improve conservation rate, and update rapidly after reviewing consumers’ feedback such as respond to demand change (ibid). Moreover, Baker (2006) seems to support this view and points out that online marketing can collect different requirements about products, and marketers can use these data to make customization for consumers. However, not only established companies, but also new companies should notice that the internet is not as a perfect platform for marketing. Palmer (2004) argues that challenges for companies are how to attract consumers when they face information overload because Millen (1994:303) reports that â€Å"individuals can process about seven chunks of information† at most. Chang and Wildt (1996) also indicate that price is becoming an important factor to choose products when consumer face large amounts of information. Thus, companies tend to use low-price strategy with a view to attracting consumers’ attention. The results of using this strategy lead to slight profit and enter in a vicious competition. Palmer (2004) also provides a related argument that the security of financial transaction and private information of consumers should be taken into consideration. Many consumers resist shopping online because they tend to have concerns over the safety of their transaction and private information. Thus, companies will probably lose these potential consumers. Additionally, Palmer (2004) also argues that consumers tend to lose confident to shopping online because they are unable to fell goods physically before purchase. For example, when shopping onlineï ¼Å'one consumer is attracted by a product with light red packaging; nevertheless, after receiving the product, the consumer is frustrating about the product because the colour is not same as showing online. After this shopping experience, this consumer tends not to purchase products in that brand. Thus, it seems that the company tend to lose this potential consumer because of the terrible experience by chance. This subsection discusses the effect of three forms of consumer behaviour on established and new companies. In the following subsection, the paper will focus on the future development of both types of companies. 3. Future Development Consumer behavior has become an essential factor to influence marketing strategies. To a certain extent, companies can derive benefits from consumer behaviour; however, it should be noticed that consumer behavior also tend to threaten companies. Thus, companies should adopt effective measures to avoid negative effects of consumer behavior with a view to future development. 3.1 Aspects of brand loyalty In terms of brand loyalty, new companies occupy an inferior position, compared with established companies. However, they can take advantage of marketing strategies to reserve this position. Firstly, they can fluctuate brand loyalty of consumers through changing consumers’ attitude because loyalty builds on the basis of attitudes. Evans, et al (2006:76) state, â€Å"Attitudes are essentially stable structures and are not easily modified†. However, Hovland and Weiss (1951) argue that attitude can be changed if consumers believe what experts say, as expert effects or star effects. For example, if Ming Yao, who is a popular basketball player in the world especially in China, endorse a nutrition brand, his opinion tends to be a strongly persuasive force that can change consumer attitude and make consumers establish a trust relationship with the brand. Moreover, if consumers are loyal to a certain brand, it shows that they are satisfied with it, and this brand loyalty is not easy to change. Thus, Murphy (1998) proposes that brand differentiation strategy is significant for new companies in terms of brand loyalty. Finally, low-price strategy plays a significant role in entering market for new companies, because Chang and Wildt (1996) indicate that price is one of important factors for consumers to choose product. After successfully attract consumers through low-price strategy, new companies can use other marketing mix such as promotion, and packaging to cultivate customer loyalty. However, With regard to price, it should be noticed that there should be a correspondence between the prices of a product and positioning. 3.2 Aspects of dynamic demands With regard to dynamic demands of consumers, established companies face a complex and multifaceted problem of reposition or extension with a view to retaining loyal customers and attracting new customers. Firstly, Andrew (1998) states that the core value of a brand is a significant basis for reposition or extension a brand. It seems that the reposition or extension of a brand tends to pose risks on diluting the existing brand if the company ignore the core value of the brand. The company of Cadbury mentioned in the second section is a good example. Furthermore, â€Å"the message/offering should be perceived and understood in the intended way† (Evans et al, 1996:51) by consumers. Thus, it is essential to communicating with current and potential customers when companies need reposition or extension of their brands. Finally, Gerstman (1998) indicates that packaging is an excellent starting point for established companies wishing to reposition or ext ension of their brands. 3.3 Aspects of online shopping channel With regards to disadvantages of shopping online, firstly, not only established companies, but also new companies should strengthen the security of finance transaction and privacy information and use of third-party platform of payment transaction that can improve the safety of online shopping such as paypal, alertpay in order to make consumers believe that their information is security when they shopping online. Secondly, in terms of information overload, Palmer (2004:513) proposes â€Å"Getting a high ranking in search engines has become a critical skill†. Finally, it seems that no practical approach tend to solve the problem that consumers cannot examine goods physically before purchase. However, the company can take pre-action in order to reduce dissatisfaction. For example, free samples can provide for potential customers to attempt. Conclusion Understanding consumer behavior is not only a necessary in the stage of attracting consumers, but also a process of sustainable development for companies. This paper supports consumer behavior having a significant effect on established and new companies, and this paper has presented three forms of consumer behavior. These included brand loyalty, dynamic demands, and online shopping channel. The discussion of consumer behaviour’ effects on two types companies have been highlighted. Moreover, factors affecting consumer behaviour are mentioned, including psychological factors, social factors, and buying process. Similarly, for future development, effective approaches have also been given in terms of aspects of brand loyalty, aspects of dynamic demands, and aspects of online shopping channel. In discussing effects of consumer behavior on companies, it may be concluded that established companies occupy dominant position in terms of brand loyalty, compared with new companies; from dynamic demands perspective, new companies reverse the inferior position, and get opportunities to develop and attract consumers from competitors; with regard to online shopping channel, established and new companies face same opportunities and threats. The future role of consumer behaviour has also been taken into consideration, based on research by Evans, et al (1996), and this suggests that consumer behaviour has become a basis to analysis market issues or future trend in market. It should be noted that this paper briefly discussed some effects of consumer behavior on companies and other effects is beyond of this paper and further work could be done in this area. This paper would be of particular interest to those companies who face a problem about consumer behavior.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Identity Crisis in Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee

Identity Crisis in Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee ABSTRACT: Immigrants have envisioned tales that exhibit experiences of independent and emerging countries. Cultures have taken up new form in the contemporary times, where the issues of Diaspora, globalization, consumerism, transnationalism cultural hyberidity and identity crisis have become new motif in the postcolonial literatures. The new issues give rise to identity crisis that evokes feelings of an individual that portrays socio-cultural setup that shows the blend of tradition and modernity. The new identity creates problems for Tara in Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee, where she is alienated, languishing in the angst and ennui of the diasporic experience, yet to carve out a niche for herself. In the novel, Bharati Mukherjee has struck a balance between tradition and modernity by representing past and present which is achieved through the female protagonist -Tara, who severed her links with tradition but remains tied to her native country. Tara is influenced by ancient customs and traditions, but is rooted to modern customs. She is conscious of her existential predicament which is mirrored in the epigraph: No one behind, no one ahead the path the ancients cleared has closed. And the other path everyones pathà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ goes nowhere, I am alone and find my way. Tara is alienated from the society as she oscillated between the nostalgic fascinations of a traditional past and the romantic and adventurous allurements of the present. The diasporic qualities exhibited by Tara establish the merging of the East and West which shows the clash. The Identity of the protagonist is highly assimilative, can adopt and accommodate herself both to her traditional Indian way of life and to her newly adopted American ethos. She tries to move away from the constrained identity and vacillates between two lives: maybe I really was between two lives.(251) Taras reconstruction of identity is rooted in her nostalgic and romantic recollection of her past. It is based on the flux of her thoughts about the past coming to her mind in the present but in fragments, and not whole. She tried to reconstruct her identity through her diasporic experience. She was attempting to redefine the importance of her cultures through space and time. Loneliness had made Tara a little wanton and wantonness had made her very lonely. In these five years she had changed beyond recognition, but other character Bish had not changed at all.Bish is also an upholder of tradition. He prefers the values of an imagined past than those of contemporaneity. The concept of home and migration is very much embedded in the narratology that Bharati Mukherjee presents in Desirable Daughters. It is the sense of migration which brings about a change to the identity of Padma, who has finally made New York her home, her land of choice. But her inalienable attachment to her home makes her the sustainer and preserver of Bengali tradition in America. The alien culture thus fails to subvert her traditional identity. On the other hand it only remaps nad reconstructs her cultural identity. Hence migration plays a crucial role in restricting individual identifies and cultural attitudes and perceptions. The novel is woven brilliantly which depicts the thoughts and feelings of three Calcutta, India-born Brahmin upper-class sisters, renowned for their beauty, brains, wealth, and privileged position in society. Mukherjee narrates their lives as they leave their conservative, sheltered childhood home, where they are inundated with culture, tradition, and values and inculcated with education by the Catholic nuns in their convent structured school and college. Two of them emigrate to America and the other relocates to Bombay, India. The three sisters, Padma, Parvati, and Tara, are born exactly three years apart from each other and share the same birthday.They are named after the goddessess name,hoping that they will survive and prosper in whatever they do. We are sisters three/as alike as three blossoms on one flowering tree. (But we are not), says Tara, the protagonist, quoting a poem. Desirable Daughters is the novel that takes a long time to lift itself from the surface and once it releases its themes and characters, it seems to get liberated from the trapped situation. Engrossed in Indian culture old and new, it keeps strucking down in tight little circles of detail that create an atmosphere of cramped inwardness, even suffocation. Bharati Mukherjee, like in her previous four novels and short stories, tries to portray the repression that enables the women of her culture nailed down in subservience to male desires. The feelings and emotions are discovered after exploring traditional Indian society. The novel is based on three strikingly-beautiful sisters from a privileged Bengali Brahmin family in Calcutta feel the tug between tradition and freedom as they try to meet expectations that are often wildly contradictory. The youngest, Tara Chatterjee, seems to have flown farthest from the nest. Tara is divorced from Bishwapriya (a Silicon Valley multimillionaire hand-picked for her by her father), shes raising a sensitive teenaged son on her own. The depressing part is that, she works as a lowly teacher, a choice which would be unthinkable in the culture of her birth. The story is narrated by Tara from her adopted San Francisco home, where she lives with Andy Karolyi, a strange sort of Hungarian Zen carpenter who earthquake-proofs houses. The lifestyle of the protagonist implies, a sort of free and easy hippie lifestyle, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In the novel the rebellion-gestures are merely trappings, or reactions against the gagging restrictions of Taras girlhood. Tara initiates her tale of repression in a curious way, with a legend about her namesake Tara Lata, also known as the Tree Bride a remarkable figure who became prominent in the fight for Indian freedom. After going in for more than twenty pages, Tara then delves into telling story of her own, which seems to be dislocating in nature. She recalls the utter lack of romanticism in her marriage, in which her father told her, There is a boy and we have found him suitable. Here is his picture. The marriage will be in three weeks. Tara, not knowing any other way, submitted: I married a man I had never met, whose picture and biography and bloodlines I approved of, because my father told me it was time to get married and this was the best husband on the market. Mukherjee dwells on every detail of this highly traditional occurrence. The father of the child bride is a traditionalist even though he is a lawyer educated in English and English law. The groom dies of snakebite and his family blames the bride as unlucky. Greedily the father of the groom demands the dowry. But the brides father takes his daughter into the forest where he marries her to a tree. She becomes a woman noted for her courage and generosity. Her American granddaughter visits her home. She has the same name, Tara Lata, as the old woman and like her she has two sisters. The contemporary woman is a divorced woman. Her ex-husband was the traditionally pre-selected bridegroom like his former wife a resident in America and now she lives with her lover, an American, in San Francisco. Her son introduces a young man who claims kinship as the son of her oldest sister, Padma. This is a kind of impossibility. An impossibility since her sister never had a child and a possibility since the familial relationships are so convolutedly secretive as to make the existence of the young man as her nephew plausible. It seems likely that the young mans claim is true and that Padma, Taras sister, did bear an illegitimate child. This is a momentous event for Tara. As the pampered child of wealthy Calcutta parents, she was sheltered from the poverty of the city and from all but the most severe political crises. She suffers the stress now of an immigrant with a child that belongs wholly to her new country. The discovery of Padmas child brings into focus all her inner disqu iet and the need to find valid connections. In the novel, Taras relationship with her two elder sisters is complicated, the flow of affection blocked by a certain formality and adherence to preset roles. Middle sister Parvati married a rich man and stayed in India, but by some miracle was able to select the suitable match for her. Parvati in her own way had established her identity, because of which it was said:Parvati, the pliable middle daughter had done the unthinkable: shed made a love match. He was certainly not what brains-and-beauty Parvati Bhattacharjee could have commanded on the Calcutta marriage market. Even though Paravati was given right to select her right match but after that she is depicted as one who is a meek follower and gets diminished by losing her real.She writes to Tara: I hope you arent doing bad things to yourself like taking Prozac and having cosmetic surgery. Please, please dont become that Americanized. The third, and the eldest sister of Tara, Didi, is married to a Mehta (an illustrious family which includes the conductor Zubin) and moved to New Jersey to pursue a career in television. But again, all is not as it seems. Her lifestyle is a thin veneer laid over the dense, pressed-down bedrock of tradition. She is considered to be most glamorous of all the three sisters. The other character Chris Dey, is represented as crisis in the novel. He is a young man who represents himself to Tara as Didis illegitimate son, conceived through an affair with a prominent businessman named Ronald Dey. This exposes an ugly under layer of culture to Tara, not the India of doting grandparents, not the India of comfort and privilege, but the backyard of family, the compost heap. The characters in the novel are not portrayed in the liberated form, they are trapped into different set of emotions trying to carve out a new identity for themselves. Tara is projected as a character who more of a status conscious tries to uphold the values of traditional society despite falling for different allurements in the present. Her elder sister, Didi pretends hard to be a pure character but falters when gives birth to her son, which represents misalliance.Chris Dey isnt really who he says he is, and in fact he feels like a device, something dropped into the story to keep things moving forward. In the end, the novel, tries to come back from where it started, where and the legend of Tara Lata the Tree Bride, but this device doesnt quite work either. The denouement somehow goes slack and does not yield a satisfying end to the story. The novel seems to be a family saga which could not bring out the desirable characteristics in the characters of the novel, that portrays them as a dominant in any sphere. The end is quite suspenseful and complex where the description of homeland may be magical but symbolic intention was lost. Bharati Mukherjee depicts a liquid society in her novels, ie a society in flux. It is a society of constant flow, the flow of migrants, the flow of machines, flow of criminals, flow of power structures, flow of people and commodities.  Amidst all the confusions the message was brought out clearly and it is represented as a fascinating beautifully written work of art that exhibits vulnerability that cannot be missed out.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Zara

Threats – ZARA Some threats that affect ZARA include international expansion, geographic scope, and intense competition. Zara recognizes that the company needs to have a competitive advantage in order to survive, so they are constructing a second distribution centre in Zaragoza. Also the company is still looking to expand internationally. Expanding in Spain is difficult for the company because of past experience in Sweden.Zara is considering expansion in North America, but is concerned that it is already suffering from retail saturation, less fashion-forward sense, the demand for plus sizes, lots of competition, and not enough demand for the clothing. Zara's vertically integrated model is a threat to Zara in long run. The model will not work once Zara scales its operation. Currently, Zara's designing, production, distribution and retails stores are tightly coupled together and operate very closely.Expanding operations in different regions such as American or Asian requires add ressing different fashion trends at a time. Also, given different sizes and trends in different regions, it would not be easy to pull a new fashion cloth or apparel from one region and put it in other region. Plus, scaling its operation may require joint-ventures and acquiring some smaller chains also. In a 50:50 joint venture, it is very difficult for Zara to impose its business model to the other partner.In this case, we have already seen Zara's joint ventures dissolving on a couple of occasions. While Zara may find it difficult to manage the vertically integrated model for its large scales of operation, local retailers may follow Zara's formula to success and can emerge as big threat to its success. It is not easy to beat the local retailers in their home market. For example, the Local apparel market in Italy is still owned 61% by the independent stores, 45% in Spain (Note that this is Zara's local market too) and 15-30% in other three major European markets.Specially, in a count ry with very cheap labour (mostly in Asia), it will be very difficult for Zara to keep up its production in Spain. Zara's business model is based on ever changing fashion. For countries like US, where people are less fashion forward, it may be a challenge for Zara to sustain its presence. With changing time, Advertisement is becoming an important part of the business and it reflects directly to the sales. Zara's in-store advertisement model may not work going forward.Most serious threat to Zara is to sustain its success. Another most serious threat to Zara is its growth. The company could not acquire large market shares in the domestic market. Even in Europe, the company does not have a reasonable presence. American and Asian markets have different types of challenges, which Zara may be facing in future. American market is less fashion forward, which questions Zara’s basic business model itself. Asia, on the other hand, is known for its cheap labour.Competing with these chall enges at a time in different markets, while keeping its vertically integrated business model intact is the most serious challenge for Zara. Zara cannot address different requirements and challenges working from its home location only. It can have multiple vertically integrated productions for each region. For Asia, having cheap labour will definitely add a lot to the operating cost. While it’s engineering team can continue giving fast response to new designs. Zara Title Warehouse Inventory Management A Case Study in Retail Fashion Industry Company Name Ezra International Objective for a warehouse management Is fully utilize the space, Improved the productivity of operations flow and reduce the Inventory carrying cost. From the case of Ezra, I found that they arranging the cross- dock rather then typical storage function. Because they have the commitment about the order fulfillment time from warehouse to stores, for examples 24 hours to European countries, 48 hours to American and within 72 hours to Japan.So Sara warehouse needs to have efficient operations arrangement with the automatic middling equipment to achieve the fast fashion goal. (90 words) 1. 1 Functional Design The typical warehouse functions have five main processes receiving, pathway, storage, pick pack and dispatch. If we need to understand and well planning the warehouse design and layout. Primarily we must understanding the industry business strategy, trend and consumer behavio r. Nowadays the warehouse functions are not only for storage and also need to provide the added value service to fulfill the business needed.First of all, we need to learn the product nature and understand business Intention. For the retail fashion Industry, the raw materials appliers from Fabric Company mainly. The cloths have difference color, pattern and natural of fabric (wool, cotton, leather etc. ), the suppliers must have sufficient raw materials to provide to the industry for further processing. Second, we need to understand the nature of products, for example packaging (cartons, boxes, pallets, hangers etc), size, stock keeping unit (SKIS) and stock layout.Third, we need to know the production, work in process for example suppliers order, shipment order, size of markets served, material handling system used, throughput rate, production lead time, aisle requirement etc. If we need to provide the fast and accuracy operations flow, all parties within the supply chain also need to provide the co-operation thoroughly, Including fabric supplier, accessories supplier, garment manufacturer, garment processor, designer, distribution centre, warehouse, customer service levels etc. 218 words) Basic warehouse operation process for retails fashion Industry (Figure 1)- Irrespectively of deliveries from suppliers (raw materials) Involve the processing of relevant business documents Capture and entry of the actual physical details of each delivery Quality checking products to ensure compliance with the arches radiotherapy Pathway involves allocating a storage location Physically moving the item to the location Ensure correct information is entered in the inventory control reclassification's involves keeping products in their allocated location.Moving items to picking locations as required and waiting for production. Prognostication's in factory Produce the finished geodesics biophysically selecting each items and quantity from stock to fill the order Packing the orde r for transportation to avoid damage or electrocardiographs the necessary documentation for the transport operator Planning the loading of delivery remonstration and delivery routes Physically loaded the vehicles / containers to maximize cube utilization and minimize damage. (167 words) 1. Warehouse layout and design According to the captioned operations flow, I designed the typical Hong Kong, according to the website information, Established apparel retails in the Asia Pacific region, and over 1700 stores operating in 31 territories worldwide. The warehouse to arrange the Just In Time TOT) operations and 95 of productions lines outsource to Asia factories and still have 5 arranging the in-house production and after the production all finished goods will send to central warehouse to arrange the distribution function.The inbound area including the inspection function to ensure the receiving goods have good quality, if the cargo for raw materials will pass to temporary storage area to waiting the processes for the manufacturing and assembly storage. If the cargo for finished goods will pass to outbound are for storage and waiting for distribution to the town stores. From the figure 2, difference storage area to arrange the difference style of cargoes, for examples block stacking storage area or small accessories. Finished goods warehouse for set of processes and capabilities that enhance the company ability to serve the physical distribution.The hanger area for the finished fashion, 2 level racking areas for the box garment cargoes, the block stacking area for the picking area and ready to release for the shipment. Because to fulfill the maximum height of the building will using the double stack design combined with racking system and hanger system. Also using the U-shaped layout to arrange the operation flow, to improve the utilization of dock resources and facilities he cross-docking for outsource finished goods to saving the time and avoid the inefficiency. ( 276 words) 751 words 2. Facilities planning and materials handling After the warehouse layout and design, the other most important decisions for a warehouse operations management to arrange facility planning and how to increasing the effective capacity and minimize aisle space. Because the planning aim for reduce number of time products handled and develop effective working conditions to reduce movement involving manual labor and the main thinking to reduce cost. Warehouse management system (WHIMS) to operating processes and speed up all warehousing functions.It can be operate all documents and information flow, including receiving order, delivery order, inventory record, location allocation, releasing order etc. It is usually investigation with larger and more complex distribution operations. The WHIMS development to optimal capacity of warehouse operation for the industry to deliver the right goods at the right time, in the right place and do the right thing at the right cost, to increasing distribution efficiency by shorten lead time and reduce the uncertainty.So for the target at technology related savings, productivity benefits and business process enhancements enabling the great return on investment. The captioned graphic (Figure 3) showing WHIMS operated functions in the warehouse and helping the logistics process. It is including the warehouse layout design, storage data information, operations flows and stock record section, through the information transaction in WHIMS with other additional tools (RFC, barricading, resource management etc. , the objective for WHIMS to provide systematic and computerized procedures to handling the logistics flow. It also helping to monitor the progress ensures the timely report and communication between the productions and operations sections for the data analysis. Besides the WHIMS for a retails fashion warehouse, there should have some equipments and tools to handling the cargo movement in the warehouse, for ensure t he products handle at faster and smooth for the flow to assist the operational efficiency. (307 Words) 2. Full automation advantage On the other hand, some warehouse are using fully automatic mechanism to help the workflow, the products are moved from/to the locations with a automated conveyors, using the audio frequency (RFC) to arrange the sorting arrangement also with logistics automation software to tracking the cargo information to arrange pathway function and ensure the warehouse fully utilize the space. The WHIMS databases also helping to improve the efficiency of the warehouse and ensure the inventory levels have real time control and accurate view the inventory information.The full automation to help the workflow to save time, labor and space, because the mechanization can be operate 24 hours and more accuracy, after that to gain the time efficiency and reduce mistakes (double handling) to improve the productivity. Because in a fashion industry is definitely a fast moving o peration model, since they requested to keep accurate, vast SKU and fast marketing sense, so the quickly operations response will helping them to develop the business promotion and catch the consumer demand.According to the captioned requirement for an industry, the state-of-the-art automatic system will help them to ensuring accuracy, efficiency and controlled cost. For example automatic serration system – Garment on hanger (GOGH) sorter is a practical system for fashion industries together with automated conveyor it is very helpful for the pick pack arrangement. Ezra using the auto labeling system to ensure the shipping mark on the carton and through the WHIMS information to optimizing to arrange the loading operations.The automatic hanger system and location system to guarantee the cargo move to/from right locations and also with Radio frequency identification (RIFF) is one of the powerful mechanization and technologies for the supply chain management. From year 2004, Mark s Spencer (MS) was trial run the RIFF system to track clothing from distribution centre to retails store and year 2006 have 53 stores used, to track menswear and inventory control with bile RIFF readers. Year 2010 news from twitched. Com, MS used at least 800 million of tag for the RIFF system.The RIFF tags to help to achieve the 100 stock accuracy by ensuring the right goods at the right size in the right store to meet the customer demand. Mr.. James Stafford, head of clothing RIFF at MS said that the RIFF is a good examples to prove that the new technology how to increased the business efficiency and customer services. (399 words) 706 words 3. 1 Information Technology (IT) in Sara warehouse Ezra is the leader of fast fashion in the world. She is holding by Inedited Group from Spain. The annual report 2009 mentioned Ezra represented approximately two thirds of Inedited sales.Ezra have 1,723 stores in 77 countries around the world at year 2010. Ezra located four distribution centers in Spain at cities (Figure 4) Artesia, Leon, Madrid Saratoga. The factories will send the finished cargoes to difference logistics center in shortest transaction time. They have over 20 factories for production in Spain and deliver with own railway track move all finished cargoes to Artesia as a central logistical center to provide the distribution and cross docking functions (Figure 5).So the warehouse manger needed to achieve the fast fashion process, and shorter order fulfillment time, to avoid the uncertainty and mishandling for the operations flow (Katz Abjure, 2005). According to Shannon action for inbound arrangement, the cargo direct transact to loading docks for outbound shipment, without inventory cost added. It is create more flexible optimization criteria, reduce the handling, and increase the operation efficiency for the warehouse management.Cross-Dock Direct Ship in warehouse management, Figure 5 information from Oracle IT system can help the manager to achieve the fa st, deed value and no mistake objective in the cross-dock function. The manager controlling the automatic equipments (for examples serration system, auto hanger system automatic conveyors) and WHIMS to help the order processing arrangement to speed up and managed the operations needed to squeeze the processing time in the warehouse, with Sara electronic integration the manager can catch up more data to planning the operation flows, flow the captioned IT system to achieve the objection for Ezra.The Ezra concept to simply and easier the management, so the IT communicate information flow through the wholes supply chain parties (Figure 6) to improve the workflow and narrow down the operating time and reduce the human error. Figure 6 Ideal Operation Flow about the Ezra IT Sara store manager will place the new orders twice a week through personal digital assistant (PDA) and each delivery must have new models. Because they own central warehouse, factories and designer team, so more flexibi lity and reacted to arrange the time schedules quickly and better manageable of whole supply chain arrangement.After received the information from Stores will through internet and electronic data interchange (DEED') service to place the order to head quarter in Spain and at the same time Sara arouse will receive the pre-advice notice then they will proactively to arrange the distribution planning before the finished cargoes arrival logistics center. (424 words) 3. 2 Electronic Data Interchange (DEED') EDI advantage to catch up the data immediately to sharing the information to improve the supply chain performance, reduce the cycle time and lowest set up cost.Because Sara warehouses need to achieve the operational efficiency so the EDI can be provide the greater flexibility and accuracy information for fine tuning for the operations flow. Ezra understands better operations planning through information transparency with the network linkage help to smooth distribution arrangement. The company culture with quick responses system with real time information as well as tailor-made Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, to control and managed the business flow. The updated information all the way through EDI to track trace the orders processing and customer feedback with all stores worldwide. 121 words) 3. 3 Radio Frequency Identification (RIFF) For sure that, the technology of RIFF with barded support to bring more benefit for the business needed nowadays, so they using RIFF and arcade for the warehouse operations. The RIFF also called smart tags it is very useful for track trace the cargoes from manufacture to warehouse to store to end user. Every check points can be provided the real time information and return the information into the system to ensure the inventory control or material requirements planning (MR.).In addition, RIFF can be capturing all information in a lot of cargoes a second of time. To speed up the receiving and shipping functions in the distr ibution productivity, it can found out the lost, missing items at the same time, if he warehouse need to arrange the stock take arrangement then can be faster the also can be using for security threats for the retails store. The RIFF tags can be writing more data in the tags including the color, size, location, inventory etc. They through the reader will get all information from the handheld machines.All up-to- date and accuracy information will automatically scan the data and help to reduce the cycle time. (205 words) 750 words 4. 1 Inventory Management for Ezra Other information about the Fabric Company – The garment manufacture will place the sizeable POP to Raw materials Company every year- To commit will place a retain quantities and materials (for example Rudyard cotton per month or physics Zip for 3 months or physics button per month), will let the raw material factory to prepare the raw materials first. Once receive the manufacture order will produce the difference pa ttern and color, normally they can provide the finished materials around 1 week. 5. Operations The main operational risks the Group has to face up to arise out of a potential difficulty in recognizing and taking in the ongoing changes in fashion trends, manufacturing, supplying and putting on the market new models meeting customers expectation. The Group reduces the exposure to this risk through a manufacturing and procurement system that ensures a reasonable flexibility to answer to the unforeseen changes in the demand by our customers.Stores are permanently in touch with the designer team, through the Product Management Department, and this allows perceiving the changes of taste of the customers. Meanwhile, the vertical integration of the transactions allows cutting the manufacturing and delivery terms as well as reducing the stock volume, while the reaction capacity that allows the introduction of new products throughout the season, is kept.Given the relevance that an efficient l ogistics management has on the appearance of such risks, the Group conducts a review of all the factors which may have a negative impact on the target of achieving the maximum efficiency of the logistics management, to actively monitor such factors under the supervision of the Logistics Committee. 4. 3 KIT Objective Multi-pronged approach High quality, quick response, flexibility Attacks waste Anything not adding value to product (customer view) Exposes problems and bottlenecks caused by variability Deviation from optimum Achieves streamlined production (pull system) Reduced inventorySimplified Execution Push system material is pushed into downstream workstations regardless of whether resources are available Pull system material is pulled to a workstation Just as it is needed KIT Characteristics A Fixed, Steady Rate of Production Uniform flow/communicated to vendors Mixed model, linear production Low Inventories Less space, investment Uncover defects Small Lot Sizes Less WHIP Flexib ility/Velocity Fast feedback Quick, Low Cost Setups Flexibility/Velocity Small lot sizes Layout U-shaped Cellular/flexible Preventive Maintenance Repair Worker pride/ownership Empowered Workers Multifunctional/Cooperative (Guerilla squad)Flexible capacity High Quality Levels On-going production Small/frequent deliveries Product simplification Standardization Fewer part numbers/drawings Reliable Suppliers Dock-to-stock Much fewer in number Long-term relationships A Pull System of Moving Goods Request-based Kanata signal Commitment to Problem Solving/ Continuous Improvement KIT Advantage Use KIT to eliminate virtually all inventory Build systems to help employees produce a perfect part every time suppliers Eliminate all but value-added activities Develop the workforce Make jobs more challenging Reduce the number of Job classes and build worker flexibilityReduce downtime by reducing changeover time Use preventive maintenance to reduce breakdowns Cross-train workers to help clear bottle necks Reserve capacity for important customers Conventionalism Wisdom Strategic Attainability vs. costliest cost with acceptable quality, consistent quality zero defectlnventoriesLarge inventories from Quality purchasing discounts Manufacturing economies of scale Safety stock protection inventories with reliable continuous flow deliveryFlexibilityLong minimum lead times minimum flexibility's lead times customer-service driven, much flexibilityTransportationLeast cost within acceptable arrive elaborately reliable service lavenders/charactering adversarial relationship's venture partnerships of Vendors [careerism avoid sole sourcing and dependency exposure long-term open relationshipCommunicationsMinimal many secrets tightly controlled sharing of info Joint problem solvingGeneralBusiness is cost derivativeness is service driven 3. 2 3. 5 Order Management System Order-management system principal means buyers and sellers communicate information relating to individual orders of product. Effective order management enhances operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Firms that lid order-management systems around full understanding of customer need can out-compete others. Firms tend to place corporate order-management function within the logistics area so as to achieve timely and accurate information of individual customer orders. Order management has become an innovator in exploiting new technological advances. Zara Title Warehouse Inventory Management A Case Study in Retail Fashion Industry Company Name Ezra International Objective for a warehouse management Is fully utilize the space, Improved the productivity of operations flow and reduce the Inventory carrying cost. From the case of Ezra, I found that they arranging the cross- dock rather then typical storage function. Because they have the commitment about the order fulfillment time from warehouse to stores, for examples 24 hours to European countries, 48 hours to American and within 72 hours to Japan.So Sara warehouse needs to have efficient operations arrangement with the automatic middling equipment to achieve the fast fashion goal. (90 words) 1. 1 Functional Design The typical warehouse functions have five main processes receiving, pathway, storage, pick pack and dispatch. If we need to understand and well planning the warehouse design and layout. Primarily we must understanding the industry business strategy, trend and consumer behavio r. Nowadays the warehouse functions are not only for storage and also need to provide the added value service to fulfill the business needed.First of all, we need to learn the product nature and understand business Intention. For the retail fashion Industry, the raw materials appliers from Fabric Company mainly. The cloths have difference color, pattern and natural of fabric (wool, cotton, leather etc. ), the suppliers must have sufficient raw materials to provide to the industry for further processing. Second, we need to understand the nature of products, for example packaging (cartons, boxes, pallets, hangers etc), size, stock keeping unit (SKIS) and stock layout.Third, we need to know the production, work in process for example suppliers order, shipment order, size of markets served, material handling system used, throughput rate, production lead time, aisle requirement etc. If we need to provide the fast and accuracy operations flow, all parties within the supply chain also need to provide the co-operation thoroughly, Including fabric supplier, accessories supplier, garment manufacturer, garment processor, designer, distribution centre, warehouse, customer service levels etc. 218 words) Basic warehouse operation process for retails fashion Industry (Figure 1)- Irrespectively of deliveries from suppliers (raw materials) Involve the processing of relevant business documents Capture and entry of the actual physical details of each delivery Quality checking products to ensure compliance with the arches radiotherapy Pathway involves allocating a storage location Physically moving the item to the location Ensure correct information is entered in the inventory control reclassification's involves keeping products in their allocated location.Moving items to picking locations as required and waiting for production. Prognostication's in factory Produce the finished geodesics biophysically selecting each items and quantity from stock to fill the order Packing the orde r for transportation to avoid damage or electrocardiographs the necessary documentation for the transport operator Planning the loading of delivery remonstration and delivery routes Physically loaded the vehicles / containers to maximize cube utilization and minimize damage. (167 words) 1. Warehouse layout and design According to the captioned operations flow, I designed the typical Hong Kong, according to the website information, Established apparel retails in the Asia Pacific region, and over 1700 stores operating in 31 territories worldwide. The warehouse to arrange the Just In Time TOT) operations and 95 of productions lines outsource to Asia factories and still have 5 arranging the in-house production and after the production all finished goods will send to central warehouse to arrange the distribution function.The inbound area including the inspection function to ensure the receiving goods have good quality, if the cargo for raw materials will pass to temporary storage area to waiting the processes for the manufacturing and assembly storage. If the cargo for finished goods will pass to outbound are for storage and waiting for distribution to the town stores. From the figure 2, difference storage area to arrange the difference style of cargoes, for examples block stacking storage area or small accessories. Finished goods warehouse for set of processes and capabilities that enhance the company ability to serve the physical distribution.The hanger area for the finished fashion, 2 level racking areas for the box garment cargoes, the block stacking area for the picking area and ready to release for the shipment. Because to fulfill the maximum height of the building will using the double stack design combined with racking system and hanger system. Also using the U-shaped layout to arrange the operation flow, to improve the utilization of dock resources and facilities he cross-docking for outsource finished goods to saving the time and avoid the inefficiency. ( 276 words) 751 words 2. Facilities planning and materials handling After the warehouse layout and design, the other most important decisions for a warehouse operations management to arrange facility planning and how to increasing the effective capacity and minimize aisle space. Because the planning aim for reduce number of time products handled and develop effective working conditions to reduce movement involving manual labor and the main thinking to reduce cost. Warehouse management system (WHIMS) to operating processes and speed up all warehousing functions.It can be operate all documents and information flow, including receiving order, delivery order, inventory record, location allocation, releasing order etc. It is usually investigation with larger and more complex distribution operations. The WHIMS development to optimal capacity of warehouse operation for the industry to deliver the right goods at the right time, in the right place and do the right thing at the right cost, to increasing distribution efficiency by shorten lead time and reduce the uncertainty.So for the target at technology related savings, productivity benefits and business process enhancements enabling the great return on investment. The captioned graphic (Figure 3) showing WHIMS operated functions in the warehouse and helping the logistics process. It is including the warehouse layout design, storage data information, operations flows and stock record section, through the information transaction in WHIMS with other additional tools (RFC, barricading, resource management etc. , the objective for WHIMS to provide systematic and computerized procedures to handling the logistics flow. It also helping to monitor the progress ensures the timely report and communication between the productions and operations sections for the data analysis. Besides the WHIMS for a retails fashion warehouse, there should have some equipments and tools to handling the cargo movement in the warehouse, for ensure t he products handle at faster and smooth for the flow to assist the operational efficiency. (307 Words) 2. Full automation advantage On the other hand, some warehouse are using fully automatic mechanism to help the workflow, the products are moved from/to the locations with a automated conveyors, using the audio frequency (RFC) to arrange the sorting arrangement also with logistics automation software to tracking the cargo information to arrange pathway function and ensure the warehouse fully utilize the space. The WHIMS databases also helping to improve the efficiency of the warehouse and ensure the inventory levels have real time control and accurate view the inventory information.The full automation to help the workflow to save time, labor and space, because the mechanization can be operate 24 hours and more accuracy, after that to gain the time efficiency and reduce mistakes (double handling) to improve the productivity. Because in a fashion industry is definitely a fast moving o peration model, since they requested to keep accurate, vast SKU and fast marketing sense, so the quickly operations response will helping them to develop the business promotion and catch the consumer demand.According to the captioned requirement for an industry, the state-of-the-art automatic system will help them to ensuring accuracy, efficiency and controlled cost. For example automatic serration system – Garment on hanger (GOGH) sorter is a practical system for fashion industries together with automated conveyor it is very helpful for the pick pack arrangement. Ezra using the auto labeling system to ensure the shipping mark on the carton and through the WHIMS information to optimizing to arrange the loading operations.The automatic hanger system and location system to guarantee the cargo move to/from right locations and also with Radio frequency identification (RIFF) is one of the powerful mechanization and technologies for the supply chain management. From year 2004, Mark s Spencer (MS) was trial run the RIFF system to track clothing from distribution centre to retails store and year 2006 have 53 stores used, to track menswear and inventory control with bile RIFF readers. Year 2010 news from twitched. Com, MS used at least 800 million of tag for the RIFF system.The RIFF tags to help to achieve the 100 stock accuracy by ensuring the right goods at the right size in the right store to meet the customer demand. Mr.. James Stafford, head of clothing RIFF at MS said that the RIFF is a good examples to prove that the new technology how to increased the business efficiency and customer services. (399 words) 706 words 3. 1 Information Technology (IT) in Sara warehouse Ezra is the leader of fast fashion in the world. She is holding by Inedited Group from Spain. The annual report 2009 mentioned Ezra represented approximately two thirds of Inedited sales.Ezra have 1,723 stores in 77 countries around the world at year 2010. Ezra located four distribution centers in Spain at cities (Figure 4) Artesia, Leon, Madrid Saratoga. The factories will send the finished cargoes to difference logistics center in shortest transaction time. They have over 20 factories for production in Spain and deliver with own railway track move all finished cargoes to Artesia as a central logistical center to provide the distribution and cross docking functions (Figure 5).So the warehouse manger needed to achieve the fast fashion process, and shorter order fulfillment time, to avoid the uncertainty and mishandling for the operations flow (Katz Abjure, 2005). According to Shannon action for inbound arrangement, the cargo direct transact to loading docks for outbound shipment, without inventory cost added. It is create more flexible optimization criteria, reduce the handling, and increase the operation efficiency for the warehouse management.Cross-Dock Direct Ship in warehouse management, Figure 5 information from Oracle IT system can help the manager to achieve the fa st, deed value and no mistake objective in the cross-dock function. The manager controlling the automatic equipments (for examples serration system, auto hanger system automatic conveyors) and WHIMS to help the order processing arrangement to speed up and managed the operations needed to squeeze the processing time in the warehouse, with Sara electronic integration the manager can catch up more data to planning the operation flows, flow the captioned IT system to achieve the objection for Ezra.The Ezra concept to simply and easier the management, so the IT communicate information flow through the wholes supply chain parties (Figure 6) to improve the workflow and narrow down the operating time and reduce the human error. Figure 6 Ideal Operation Flow about the Ezra IT Sara store manager will place the new orders twice a week through personal digital assistant (PDA) and each delivery must have new models. Because they own central warehouse, factories and designer team, so more flexibi lity and reacted to arrange the time schedules quickly and better manageable of whole supply chain arrangement.After received the information from Stores will through internet and electronic data interchange (DEED') service to place the order to head quarter in Spain and at the same time Sara arouse will receive the pre-advice notice then they will proactively to arrange the distribution planning before the finished cargoes arrival logistics center. (424 words) 3. 2 Electronic Data Interchange (DEED') EDI advantage to catch up the data immediately to sharing the information to improve the supply chain performance, reduce the cycle time and lowest set up cost.Because Sara warehouses need to achieve the operational efficiency so the EDI can be provide the greater flexibility and accuracy information for fine tuning for the operations flow. Ezra understands better operations planning through information transparency with the network linkage help to smooth distribution arrangement. The company culture with quick responses system with real time information as well as tailor-made Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, to control and managed the business flow. The updated information all the way through EDI to track trace the orders processing and customer feedback with all stores worldwide. 121 words) 3. 3 Radio Frequency Identification (RIFF) For sure that, the technology of RIFF with barded support to bring more benefit for the business needed nowadays, so they using RIFF and arcade for the warehouse operations. The RIFF also called smart tags it is very useful for track trace the cargoes from manufacture to warehouse to store to end user. Every check points can be provided the real time information and return the information into the system to ensure the inventory control or material requirements planning (MR.).In addition, RIFF can be capturing all information in a lot of cargoes a second of time. To speed up the receiving and shipping functions in the distr ibution productivity, it can found out the lost, missing items at the same time, if he warehouse need to arrange the stock take arrangement then can be faster the also can be using for security threats for the retails store. The RIFF tags can be writing more data in the tags including the color, size, location, inventory etc. They through the reader will get all information from the handheld machines.All up-to- date and accuracy information will automatically scan the data and help to reduce the cycle time. (205 words) 750 words 4. 1 Inventory Management for Ezra Other information about the Fabric Company – The garment manufacture will place the sizeable POP to Raw materials Company every year- To commit will place a retain quantities and materials (for example Rudyard cotton per month or physics Zip for 3 months or physics button per month), will let the raw material factory to prepare the raw materials first. Once receive the manufacture order will produce the difference pa ttern and color, normally they can provide the finished materials around 1 week. 5. Operations The main operational risks the Group has to face up to arise out of a potential difficulty in recognizing and taking in the ongoing changes in fashion trends, manufacturing, supplying and putting on the market new models meeting customers expectation. The Group reduces the exposure to this risk through a manufacturing and procurement system that ensures a reasonable flexibility to answer to the unforeseen changes in the demand by our customers.Stores are permanently in touch with the designer team, through the Product Management Department, and this allows perceiving the changes of taste of the customers. Meanwhile, the vertical integration of the transactions allows cutting the manufacturing and delivery terms as well as reducing the stock volume, while the reaction capacity that allows the introduction of new products throughout the season, is kept.Given the relevance that an efficient l ogistics management has on the appearance of such risks, the Group conducts a review of all the factors which may have a negative impact on the target of achieving the maximum efficiency of the logistics management, to actively monitor such factors under the supervision of the Logistics Committee. 4. 3 KIT Objective Multi-pronged approach High quality, quick response, flexibility Attacks waste Anything not adding value to product (customer view) Exposes problems and bottlenecks caused by variability Deviation from optimum Achieves streamlined production (pull system) Reduced inventorySimplified Execution Push system material is pushed into downstream workstations regardless of whether resources are available Pull system material is pulled to a workstation Just as it is needed KIT Characteristics A Fixed, Steady Rate of Production Uniform flow/communicated to vendors Mixed model, linear production Low Inventories Less space, investment Uncover defects Small Lot Sizes Less WHIP Flexib ility/Velocity Fast feedback Quick, Low Cost Setups Flexibility/Velocity Small lot sizes Layout U-shaped Cellular/flexible Preventive Maintenance Repair Worker pride/ownership Empowered Workers Multifunctional/Cooperative (Guerilla squad)Flexible capacity High Quality Levels On-going production Small/frequent deliveries Product simplification Standardization Fewer part numbers/drawings Reliable Suppliers Dock-to-stock Much fewer in number Long-term relationships A Pull System of Moving Goods Request-based Kanata signal Commitment to Problem Solving/ Continuous Improvement KIT Advantage Use KIT to eliminate virtually all inventory Build systems to help employees produce a perfect part every time suppliers Eliminate all but value-added activities Develop the workforce Make jobs more challenging Reduce the number of Job classes and build worker flexibilityReduce downtime by reducing changeover time Use preventive maintenance to reduce breakdowns Cross-train workers to help clear bottle necks Reserve capacity for important customers Conventionalism Wisdom Strategic Attainability vs. costliest cost with acceptable quality, consistent quality zero defectlnventoriesLarge inventories from Quality purchasing discounts Manufacturing economies of scale Safety stock protection inventories with reliable continuous flow deliveryFlexibilityLong minimum lead times minimum flexibility's lead times customer-service driven, much flexibilityTransportationLeast cost within acceptable arrive elaborately reliable service lavenders/charactering adversarial relationship's venture partnerships of Vendors [careerism avoid sole sourcing and dependency exposure long-term open relationshipCommunicationsMinimal many secrets tightly controlled sharing of info Joint problem solvingGeneralBusiness is cost derivativeness is service driven 3. 2 3. 5 Order Management System Order-management system principal means buyers and sellers communicate information relating to individual orders of product. Effective order management enhances operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Firms that lid order-management systems around full understanding of customer need can out-compete others. Firms tend to place corporate order-management function within the logistics area so as to achieve timely and accurate information of individual customer orders. Order management has become an innovator in exploiting new technological advances.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Qualitatively Compare The Problem Solving Behavior Education Essay

The intent of this survey is to depict and to qualitatively compare the job work outing behaviour of immature schooled sellers in informal and formal scenes. Ten sellers were consistently selected from a purposive population of 25 sellers in two unfastened markets in Beirut. Sellers in the sample varied in schooling, age, and peddling experiences. Ethnographic instance survey was the general methodological attack for this survey. Four methods of roll uping informations were used: Participant observation, interviewing, aggregation of artefacts, and analysis of papers. Interviews ranged from informal conversations, to semi-structured interviews, to formal interviews Two hebdomads after the semi-structured interviews and based on minutess executed by the topics in the informal scene, a formal trial was administered. Items of the formal trial were presented as either calculation exercises or as word jobs. Upon completion of the formal trial, each topic was asked to explicate processs use d in job resolution. All interviews were taped and transcribed for analysis. The process used for informations analysis was analytic initiation which involved scanning the information for classs and for relationships among these classs. Upon comparing the job work outing behaviours of sellers across informal and formal scenes, two findings emerged. First, sellers employed computational schemes in the informal scene which are different from those used when work outing calculation exercisings in the formal scene. Second, the intuitive computational schemes that topics used in the informal scene were indistinguishable to those employed when work outing word jobs and were associated with a higher success rate than computational schemes used when work outing calculation exercisings in the formal scene. The consequences were discussed and interpreted utilizing Vergnaud ‘s theoretical account and knowledge in pattern theory. The consequences were similar to findings of a figure of re levant empirical research surveies. Deductions and recommendations for instruction were presented along with suggestions for farther research.ContextAccomplishment in schools has been diminishing steadily in many states. In peculiar, the U.S.A and some European states have shown in the last 30 old ages a diminution in school accomplishment in mathematics ( Millroy, 1992 ) . In Lebanon there is a concern about the detrimental effects of exam-driven direction and peculiarly that of mathematical job resolution ( Osta, 1997 ) . Failing every bit good as non being able to cover the disbursals are major causes of dropping out- of school. With no other beginning of support, pupils have to work to back up themselves and their households therefore work in what has been called the â€Å" informal sector of the economic system † . In his book, The Other Path, the Peruvian economic expert, Hernando de Soto, gives a absorbing history of how Peru ‘s informal economic system was created by illiterate provincials who were excluded from take parting in the formal economic system. He describes how the informals responded by making markets to back up themselves with merely limited resources. By forming themselves and voluntarily obeying their ain regulations and norms, they created a subculture that socially and economically outstanding. In most states where the phenomenon of informal economic system prevails, Street peddling is considered as one of the most popular professions that kids pattern. In many developed and developing states, the phenomenon of street peddling or market kids has been broad spreading. In this survey, we are chiefly interested in sing the instance of Lebanon and India. Street Children in India India is the 7th largest state in the universe with the largest population of street kids. They work as porters on coach and railroad Stationss, mechanics in car fix stores, sellers of tea, nutrient or handmade goods, seamsters, ragpickers who pick useable points from refuse. Harmonizing to the Civil Society forum study, it has a big and quickly turning population of 1.027 billion of which 40 % are under 18 ( 1/3 of the entire population are under age15 ) . In 2001, the rate of urbanisation was 28.77 % . The accelerated gait of industrialisation and urbanisation in the state has disrupted the household life and has compelled tribal and rural people to migrate to large metropoliss. Migration from rural to urban countries ( in hunt of employment ) has resulted in the rapid growing of the urban population and about 29 % of the entire population lives in urban countries. There are some negative effects of the urban roar. One of the negative effects is the being of a big proportion of the urban hapless life in slums and jhopad-patties or thatched huts ( Phillips, 1994 ) . An norm of 50 % of the urban population lives in conditions of utmost want – compounded by deficiency of entree to basic services, legal lodging and hapless urban administration. In add-on, Agrawal ( 1999 ) found that about 90 per centum of the employment in the state is in unorganised and informal sectors. Literacy degrees are still low. Handiness and installations for instruction and societal substructure is instead unequal to run into the demands of a turning population. â€Å" Even now 2.6 per centum of the kids in the urban countries and 3.5 per centum in rural countries have ne'er attended school † ( Agrawal, 1999, p.24 ) . As the consequence, the figure of street kids in India is swelling. Harmonizing to UNICEF ‘s appraisal, there are about 11 million street kids in India ( 1994 ) . These figures are considered to be conservative. An estimated 100,000-125,000 street kids live in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, with 45,000 in Bangalore. Harmonizing to old surveies about street kids in India, bulk of the street kids who are of school-going age and even over school-going-age are kids who have ne'er been to schools. The increasing figure of street kids may hold an impact on India ‘s economic system. Arbind Singh, coordinator, National Alliance of Street Vendors of India, outlined the part of street sellers to the local economic system. Street Children in Lebanon After World War II and the creative activity of Israel province in 1948, 1000s of Palestinian refugees entered Lebanon, many settling in Beirut. Seventeen refugee cantonments are spread all over Lebanon, the most dumbly populated are those found in Beirut. In 1964 and late in 1994, the Lebanese authorities has passed two edicts which outlined the conditions of work for aliens populating in Lebanon. As alien refugees, the Palestinians are barred from working in over 70 professions. This deficiency of employment chance for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has created a annihilating economic status. ( O §U„U‚O §U† U?U†  O §U„U„O?U† O §U† US ) In 1978, and after the Israeli business to Southern Lebanon, many Lebanese fled to the capital Beirut and settled following to the Palestinian refugee cantonments. Through out the refugees ‘ cantonments, more than 60 % of both Lebanese and Palestinians live below the poorness line. Children suffer greatly- born into cantonments as refugees, they have lived no other manner. In many instances, neither have their parents. Life without equal schools, wellness attention, nutrition or shelter becomes the norm. Palestinian arabs can non fall in any professional associations- relegated to the unskilled and informal labor markets, they compete with 50,000 Egyptian and one million Syrian. In add-on to employment and belongings limitations, authorities bars them from inscribing their kids in Public schools. ) United Nations Human Rights System, 2002 ) For some clip, pedagogues who have studied school accomplishment in rural and urban communities have recognized that kids do good in their day-to-day life and so turn as successful citizens, in malice of their hapless public presentation in school mathematics ( D'ambrosio, 1992 ) . For illustration, Saxe ( 1988 ) showed that Brazilian confect Sellerss with small or no schooling, can develop in the merchandising experience arithmetic patterns that differ from the arithmetic taught in schools and that are associated with a high success rate. Increasingly, pedagogues have found the cultural milieus of kids to be a factor impacting their accomplishment in school mathematics ( Dawe, 1988 ) , supplying support to the hypothesis that cognitive power, larning capablenesss, and attitudes towards larning are closely related to cultural background ( D'ambrosio, 1992 ) to which Millroy ( 1992 ) , adds a socio-political dimension that may make larning barriers impacting peculiarly kids from disad vantaged groups. Outside the school environment, the public presentation of low-achieving kids and grownups in schools is frequently successful. Both kids and grownups perform â€Å" mathematically † good in their out-of-school environment: numeration, measurement, work outing jobs and pulling decisions utilizing techniques of explicating, understanding and get bying with their environment that they have learned in their cultural scene ( D'ambrosio, 1992 ) . These patterns have been generated or learned by their ascendants, transmitted through coevalss, modified through a procedure of cultural kineticss and learned in a more insouciant and less formal manner than school mathematics. It is the ancestral cognition of the groups. It is the â€Å" ethnomathematics † . ( D'ambrosio, 1992 ) Ethnomathematics develops largely when there is a disagreement between people ‘s demand for job resolution and the sum of mathematics they have learned in school i.e. when people become involved in undertakings necessitating job work outing accomplishments that are non learned in school ( Nunes, Schliemann & A ; Carraher, 1993 ) . It has been suggested that there are informal ways of making arithmetic computations that have small to make with the processs taught in school ( Carraher & A ; Carraher, 1985 ) . Besides surveies have documented differences across groups as a map of their degree of schooling. However, it is rather possible that the same differences between â€Å" street † and school arithmetic could be within persons. In other words, it might be the instance that the same individual could work out jobs sometimes in formal, and at other times, in informal ways. This seems peculiarly likely with kids who frequently have to make mathematical computations outside school that may be beyond the degree of their cognition of school algorithms. It seems rather possible that these kids might hold trouble with modus operandis learned at school and yet at the same clip are able to work out, by more effectual ways, the jobs for which these modus operandis were devised. One manner to research this thought is to look at kids who have to do frequent and rather complex computations outside school. The kids who sell things in street markets in Beirut organize one such group.PurposesWhile the short term purpose of the present instance survey is to look into the utilizations of math by a sample of immature schooled sellers in the streets of Beirut who use math in their occupations, its long term purpose is to be transferred and replicated in India. Specifically, the intent of this survey is to: 1. Describe the job work outing behavior of a sample of 10 immature street sellers in informal and formal scenes in Beirut. 2. Compare qualitatively the job work outing behavior of the sample in informal and formal scenes in Beirut.RationaleOur purpose is to analyze the mathematical patterns and schemes that develop out of street sellers day-to-day activities, to admit their strengths and to see their failings, as chances to negociate broader apprehensions of what counts a mathematics. Millroy ( 1992 ) has stated that â€Å" an recognition of these factors [ the societal, cultural and political facets of math ] would promote a broader conceptualisation of math and may get down a procedure whereby math could be seen as an active experience, accessible to all people † . ( p.50 ) Second, the consequences of this survey may lend to the turning organic structure of research in â€Å" mundane knowledge † or â€Å" knowledge in pattern † by analyzing the job work outing behaviour of the same group in two distinguishable scenes. Very few surveies investigated the ways in which the arithmetic cognition is learned outside school. In analyzing the arithmetic of Liberian seamsters, Lave ( 1988 ) proposed that there were two qualitatively different manners of making arithmetic. The untaught seamsters used a â€Å" use of measures † attack, an unwritten context-based manner of working with Numberss in contrast to the â€Å" use of symbols † attack employed by their schooled counter parts. It is possible that such different manners of making arithmetic may be found within the same persons particularly if they use math in every twenty-four hours work scenes ( Nunes et al. , 1993 ) . If so, it may be utile to depict and compare the utilizations of math by the same group in the context-based ( informal ) and school-based ( formal ) scenes. Third, the comparing of informal and formal processs in arithmetic, that is the manner people manipulate Numberss in work outing add-on, minus, generation and division jobs is a natural starting point for research for several grounds. D'ambrosio ( 1992 ) claims that arithmetic is a really simple facet of math. Another ground is that concluding about Numberss is portion of mundane experience every bit good as portion of the formal subject of math ( Nunes et al. , 1993 ) . On the other manus, Lave et Al. ( 1990 ) province that one of the several grounds for concentrating on arithmetic was that â€Å" arithmetic activity has formal belongingss which make it identifiable in the flow of experience in many different state of affairss † ( cited in Millroy, 1992, p.6 ) and Lave ( 1988 ) states that â€Å" it ( arithmetic ) has a extremely structured and incorrigible vocabulary, easy recognizable in the class of on-going activity † . ( p.5 )Significance FOR EducationThe present survey is important for three chief grounds. First, it represents the first effort in Lebanon to analyse the mathematical job work outing behavior of kids outside the confines of the schoolroom utilizing a qualitative attack. Second, it surveies the public presentation of schooled kids across two different contexts. Third, it contributes to the turning organic structure of research on larning in footings of â€Å" Apprenticeship † theoretical account of direction. Through garnering grounds that could be seen as a challenge to the conventional definition of math, mathematical activity can be seen as interlacing with mundane pattern outside the academic formal scenes. This, in bend, could open new positions for farther research into other theoretical accounts of learning and larning since â€Å" for old ages, math pedagogues and research workers in math instruction have focused on the schoolroom as the primary scene in which math acquisition takes topographic point † ( N unes et al, 1993, p. 557 ) . Another part from this work concerns instructors. The elaborate description and comparing of job work outing behavior of schooled sellers in work and school scenes may supply penetrations for instructors into their pupils ‘ degree of mathematical apprehension. By making chances for pupils ‘ job work outing activities in practical contexts, instructors might bring forth quandary to excite pupils ‘ innovation, find, and understanding in forms of activity. For, job work outing that relies to a great extent on the acquisition of regulations can be frequently â€Å" plagued † with bugged ( consistent mistake ) algorithms. If pupils can come to understand the regulations through conceive ofing situational contexts, they may be able to beef up their apprehension of these regulations. A farther practical value of this survey is the proposal it offers to curriculum developers on how to show mathematical constructs. In a school context, a mathematical construct is normally described and explained by raising the criterion algorithm for its computation. The analysis of the job work outing behaviors of sellers in work contexts may supply course of study developers with alternate and more effectual ways of showing mathematical constructs.LITERATURE REVIEWA good trade of involvement has been generated late by grounds that untaught individuals solve mundane math jobs successfully utilizing invented schemes and that many schooled individuals work out every twenty-four hours math jobs utilizing schemes different from those learned in school ( Carraher et al. , 1985 ; Saxe, 1991 ) . For many old ages, math instruction research workers have questioned the math that is generated and used outside of establishments of acquisition ( Millroy, 1992 ) . This is the math that allows untaught and sometimes illiterate people to pattern trades and trades, behavior concern minutess and do their lifes in a assortment of ways. This mathematical activity has been called â€Å" informal † math ( Ginsburg, 1988 ) or â€Å" mundane † math ( Lave, 1988 ) or â€Å" ethnomath † ( D'ambrosio, 1992 ) , or even â€Å" street † math ( Nunes et al. , 1993 ) . Several parts to the literature on informal math can be grouped into two categories of surveies: ( a ) work that aims at depicting informal math used in Western civilizations and ( B ) work that aims at depicting non-Western autochthonal signifiers of math bing in civilizations, where no systematic transmittal in school prevails ( Nunes et al. , 1993 ) . A good part of the work on informal math in Western civilizations focal points on immature kids and simple arithmetic. Several of import parts to our cognition of simple arithmetic in preschool old ages were made by Ginsburg ( 1988 ) who demonstrates that when kids learn a numeration system and understand it good, they can so contrive ways of utilizing it to work out arithmetic jobs through numeration and decomposition. A 2nd group of surveies on informal math in Western civilizations focal points on math used outside school by grownups, non by kids. This line of probe has shown that it is one thing to larn formal math in school and rather another to work out math jobs intertwined in mundane activities â€Å" Whether it is inventory taking at work or shopping or ciphering Calories in cookery, school math does non play a really of import function † ( Nunes et al. , 1993, p. 3 ) . Hence, the thought prevails that informal math has its ain signifiers that are versions to the ends and conditions of the activities. On the other manus, work on non-Western math showed that several groups of people who learn numeracy without schooling, use their autochthonal numbering systems to work out arithmetic jobs through numeration, decomposition, and reorganizing ( Gay & A ; Cole, 1967 ; Ginsburg, 1988 ) . For illustration, Gay and Cole ( 1967 ) study that the Kpelle people of Liberia used rocks as support in work outing arithmetic jobs and could work out add-on and minus jobs utilizing Numberss up to 30 or 40 with truth. Beyond that, their method became boring, and people tended to think the figure instead than give an exact reply. Several surveies ( Carraher et al. , 1985 ; Ginsburg, 1988 ) seem to bespeak that school-learned algorithms may non be people ‘s preferred ways for work outing numerical jobs outside the schoolroom. This observation seems to be true of kids with changing grades of schooling ( Carraher et al. , 1985 ) , grownups with an simple and secondary instruction and kids up to fifth class in both the United States and the Ivory Coast ( Ginsburg, 1988 ) . Carraher et Al. ( 1985 ) have suggested that the state of affairs in which arithmetic jobs are solved may hold an of import function in arousing different types of schemes ; school state of affairss tend to arouse school-taught processs, and out-of-school state of affairss are more likely to give rise to informal processs. In their survey, five kids, aged 9 to 15 old ages and with assorted degrees of schooling ( first to eight class ) , were asked to work out arithmetic jobs in the class of their work as market or street-vendors and in a school-like scene. Their public presentation in the natural state of affairs was significantly better than their public presentation in the school-like scene. Furthermore, their attacks to job work outing varied across state of affairss ; school-like jobs were more likely to be solved through resort to the school algorithms whereas the natural state of affairs gave rise to a assortment of informal processs that were extremely improbable to hold been learned at school. These consequences have motivated farther probe of the consequence of the state of affairs on the problem-solving processs since many differences exist between the scenes under consideration. Several possible accounts for the differences in public presentation observed in the informal and formal trials were suggested. In peculiar, Nunes et Al. ( 1993 ) present two types of theory that could explicate these consequences. One emphasizing the social-interaction facets of the state of affairs and a 2nd emphasizing the social-cognitive facets. Informal math has frequently been treated in the literature as â€Å" lesser † math affecting â€Å" idiosyncratic, intuitive, child-like processs, techniques that did non let for generalisation and should therefore be eliminated in the schoolroom through carefully designed direction. † ( Nunes et al. , 1993, p.19 ) . However, there are many calls that legitimize the signifiers of cognition associated with out-of-school patterns.MethodologyPopulation and SampleThe population of this instance survey consists of immature schooled sellers in two unfastened markets in Beirut who had at least three old ages of schooling and three months of peddling experience. The method used for choosing the sample is purposive sampling. The ground for taking this method was merely because peculiar sellers, whose features were known and dictated by the survey before trying, were intentionally chosen in order to fit and ease the survey. Ten sellers were purposively chosen from two market scenes in Beirut, viz. : Haret Hreik and Sabra. Sellers in the sample varied in old ages of schooling ( three to seven old ages ) , in age ( 10 to 16 old ages ) , and peddling experience ( one to eight old ages ) . Four of the sellers worked entirely while the other six helped their male parents or neighbours. Merely three were wholly responsible for buying the green goods at sweeping market and pricing it for selling. Since competition was normally high in these unfastened markets, the sellers would invariably be obliged to revise and alter their merchandising monetary values out of the blue even during the same twenty-four hours. Of the 10 topics, six had complete freedom in altering the monetary values of the green goods they were selling, while invariably revising their net income and loss. Sellers devoted long clip for their work: Seven topics worked from six to seven yearss per hebdomad with a mean of 10 hours per twenty-four hours ; whereas, the other three topics, still go toing school, worked after school and during holidaies. Failure was the basic ground for topics dropping out from school. Seven topics were out-of-school during the clip of the survey, six had dropped school because they merely had failed and repeated categories and merely one had to discontinue and work to back up his household. During the class of their day-to-day work, the topics were involved in minutess that required them to mentally work out a big figure of mathematical jobs without the usage of reckoners or even paper and pencil.DesignAn ethnographic instance survey attack was adopted as the chief methodological analysis. The delimited unit being the job work outing behaviour of immature street sellers in two unfastened markets: Sabra and Haret Hreik. These two markets are located in comparatively dumbly populated vicinities in Beirut. The two countries attract a big figure of migratory workers who live at the nearby cantonments. These workers come from a low socio-economic background where household members, including kids, usually work to back up the household. Both are unfastened markets for selling fruits and veggies in fixed booths whose roofs are fundamentally covered with corrugated sheets of Fe, weighted with blocks of rocks and held by thin wooden and Fe supports. The architecture of this roof helps to shadow and protect the sellers and their green goods from rain and direct sunshine. Inside the markets, sellers have wooden tabular arraies, each at his ain topographic point, on which fruits and veggies are exhibited. Other sellers who stand on the boundary lines of the market have their ain p assenger cars, each shaded by an umbrella. Photographs of the sellers and the two markets are provided and are used as informations beginnings ( Merriam, 1998 ) . ( See Appendix A ) . A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods is undertaken. The general methodological attack in the informal scene was to carry on realistic observation of the topics at work in both markets and to observe their job work outing behaviour on the arithmetic undertakings encountered during their day-to-day pattern as sellers. In the formal scene, a formal trial was administered and the job work outing behaviour of topics was studied from worksheets and transcribed audio-taped interviews.DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUESIn an effort to beef up dependability of findings ( Merriam, 1998, Yin, 2003 ) , informations was triangulated utilizing four methods of roll uping grounds from multiple beginnings: participant observation, interviewing, analysis of paperss, and Collecting artefacts.Participant ObservationTo acquire a instead emic position on the phenomenon of street peddling, the research worker posed as client asked inquiries on the monetary values of fruits and veggies for a purchase or a p ossible purchase. During observations, interactions with the sellers every bit good as sellers ‘ interactions with other clients were recorded.Interviewing and TestingInterviews ranged from informal conversations, to semi-structured, to formal-structured interviews which were preceded by a formal trial. Informal conversation. These conversations took topographic point the first two hebdomads of the survey. They consisted, basically, of general and open-ended inquiries that would do the capable start speaking about his life. The 2nd type involved instead specific inquiries, a book of which is provided in Appendix B. The chief intent of these conversations was to acquire to cognize the topics better, to obtain information about their age, degree of schooling, nationality, and residence. Semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were administered in Arabic, the native linguistic communication of the topics and the verbal responses were taped-recorded along with topics ‘ accounts of the processs used for obtaining the reply. A book of the semi-structured interviews is provided in Appendix C. It is deserving adverting here that though inquiries posed in these interviews were comparatively formulated following a general guideline, they were besides generated in the natural scene and were non identified prior to questioning. Formal trial. Upon transcribing informations from the semi-structured interviews, conversations with the topics were separated from minutess. The points of the formal trial were therefore extracted from the minutess executed by topics in an effort to accomplish a sell or a possible sell. In this manner, each operation performed by a topic in the semi-structured interviews was chosen as an point to be included in the formal trial taken by that topic. Problems were presented as either calculation exercises or as word jobs. After transforming the minutess into mathematical operations exercisings, points were chosen indiscriminately for each topic to be presented as word jobs. Problems involved different contexts such as minutess with different currencies, $ and L.L, measurings and weights. A book for word jobs is provided in Appendix E. The formal trial was administered a twosome of hebdomads after the semi-structured interviews, formal-structured interviews were scheduled. The formal trial took topographic point in the market or at the topics ‘ places. It is formal in the sense that it took topographic point in a formal, school-like scene where topics were given documents and pencils and were asked to execute a school-like undertaking while sitting at a tabular array. Formal-structured interviews. Upon completion of every trial point in the formal trial, each topic was interviewed and unwritten accounts of the processs used in job work outing were taped.Roll uping artefactsThis method involved roll uping anything a community makes and uses which reflects their experiences and patterns. The artefacts gathered consisted of exposures of topics at work visualizing the manner these topics exhibited their merchandises and the weights and graduated tables used, in order to demo the natural state of affairs that provided intending for their job work outing behaviour. Besides, specimen of documents on which topics wrote their computations was collected. ( See Appendix D )Analysis of paperssStatistical national and international records from international organisations ( UNICEF and UN ) every bit good as official and legal paperss from the Lebanese authorities were examined.AnalysisData consisting of descriptive and brooding field notes, transcribed taped i nterviews every bit good as job solutions were read and reread several times. The chief intent for scanning the information was to guarantee its completeness and to enter important observations that helped in establishing the analysis procedure. Careful scanning of the informations resulted in sketching a general and preliminary model for screening these informations. This categorization was chiefly based on the computations carried out by topics in discernible manners in both scenes during job work outing and their accounts for responses. As an initial measure in the procedure of analysis, Eisenhart ( 1988 ) emphasized the constitution of â€Å" meaningful † units of analysis harmonizing to which ascertained phenomena were divided and forms and regularities evolved in the sellers ‘ job work outing behaviour. Similarities and differences between forms of behaviour were delineated and finally major classs emerged stressing wide lineations of sellers ‘ job work outing behaviour. Relevant balls of informations were assembled to suit these classs and extra classs were formed to include â€Å" negative † cases which did non suit the general model. Finally, by comparing and fiting these classs and subcategories and mentioning to field notes, â€Å" consistent integral strategies † for sorting and categorising job work outing behaviour of sellers in both scenes, started to emerge. At this point, informations were categorized and consequences were produced.SUMMARY OF RESULTSUpon analysing the j ob work outing behaviour of street sellers in formal and informal scenes, three major findings emerged. First, when work outing the three types of jobs: jobs in the informal work scene ; calculation exercises ; and word jobs, three heuristics, three computational schemes, and eleven computational substrategies were used by the sellers. These heuristics, computational schemes and substrategies involved a combination of standard school-taught algorithms and nonstandard processs invented by the sellers. Sellers in the informal scene solved proportion jobs through building-up heuristic which constituted 66 % of the heuristics employed and was associated with a high success rate viz. 92 % . Besides, sellers attempted add-on, generation, and minus jobs utilizing informal, intuitive computational schemes, the most frequent of which was decomposition which represented 62 % of the computational schemes employed and which elicited high per centum of right responses, viz. 89 % . Second, sellers in the formal scene used formal computational schemes ( combination of traditional and idiosyncratic algorithms ) for work outing calculation exercisings that were different from the informal computational schemes used for work outing word jobs. For 81 % of sellers ‘ computational schemes when work outing calculation exercisings were formal whereas 78 % of the computational schemes used for work outing word jobs were informal. Informal computational schemes were associated with a high success rate on both types of jobs ; 85 % for calculation exercisings and 82 % when work outing word jobs. However, utilizing formal computational schemes, this success rate decreased well when work outing calculation exercisings ( 46 % ) and increased when work outing word jobs ( 91 % ) . Third, sellers employed computational schemes in the informal scene that were indistinguishable to those used when work outing word jobs but were qualitatively different from the computational sc hemes used for work outing calculation exercisings. For, the informal, intuitive computational schemes were entirely used by the sellers in the informal scene and represented 78 % of the computational schemes in word jobs, whereas 81 % of sellers computational schemes when work outing calculation exercisings were formal ( combination of traditional and idiosyncratic algorithms ) . Besides, informal, intuitive computational schemes were associated with a high success rate across scenes whereas the formal computational schemes elicited high success rate, 91 % , merely on word jobs. One of the deductions drawn was that applied jobs were much easier and meaningful than pure calculation exercisings. Besides, the presence of existent objects could non by any ground cut down the complexness of the mathematical jobs posed and therefore lend to this comparative success in the market, since public presentation on word jobs was well high.INTERPRETATION OF RESULTSTheoretical models that were pr oposed by cognitive developmental theoreticians, specifically the plants of Vygotsky and Piaget, may, to a big extent, explicate within and across single differences in public presentation in the informal and formal scenes. Vergnaud ( 1988 ) has developed a theoretical theoretical account of constructs which may explicate the usage of heuristics every bit good as differences in computational schemes within and across groups and scenes. Vergnaud ‘s theoretical account is based upon the thought that concepts ever affect three facets: invariants, representations, and state of affairss. A possible reading for this difference in computational schemes use could be the differential impact of the state of affairss that elicited such computational schemes. The informal computational schemes that were employed in meaningful peddling state of affairss required apprehension and their usage by the topics developed understanding. It was an apprehension of Numberss and figure system develope d within a larger context, a context of meaningful and sensible relationships. But the formal schemes were instead more symbolic, restricted merely to meaningless representations that messed up the topics ‘ public presentation and led to uncertainness and confusion.IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONThe most of import deduction that can be extracted from this survey is the new construct about what counts as math in general and arithmetic in peculiar. Math is intuitive, realistic, subjective, and can be used as a tool for carry throughing purposive activities. In this regard, the consequences of this survey confirm the position that math, specifically arithmetic, is non an abstract organic structure of regulations but instead can be invented by the people.Deductions for TeachingThis survey has provided grounds that kids can contrive job work outing schemes for work outing add-on, minus, generation, and simple proportion jobs which may non hold been taught to them in school. Teachers cou ld ease more meaningful acquisition by set uping links between kids ‘s intuitive schemes and the traditional algorithms. Besides, Students can outdo larn a construct when they have experienced for themselves manifestations of that construct. A 3rd deduction for instruction is the fact that pupils ‘ mistakes can be valuable portion of the acquisition procedure because they can supply information about pupils ‘ apprehensionsDeduction for Curriculum DevelopersOne direct deduction of this survey to curriculum development is the designing of course of study around primary constructs and showing it in a whole-part attack as suggested by constructivists ( Brooks & A ; Brooks, 1993 ) . The sellers ‘ informal computational schemes were holistic in that they dealt with complete Numberss instead than single figures and they worked from left to compensate, continuing the significance and topographic point value of Numberss. Showing mathematical content and structuring jo bs around â€Å" large † thoughts can supply chances for pupils every bit good as instructors to get constituent accomplishments, gather more information, and therefore construct mathematical constructs for, â€Å" with course of study activities clustered around wide constructs, pupils can choose their ain unique job work outing attacks and utilize them as spring boards for the building of new apprehensions † ( Brooks & A ; Brooks, 1993, p.47 ) . The consequences of this survey have generated a figure of inquiries that are deserving sing for farther research. Possibly, the most important inquiry is the manner in which school larning interacts with the sorts of understandings kids generate through their engagement in every twenty-four hours cultural patterns. Despite the importance of this inquiry, we have small empirical research in this country. Besides, depicting and comparing the job work outing behaviour of sellers in informal and formal scenes have triggered the digesting inquiries about what a mathematical construct is and what it means to work out a job in nonacademic scenes. It may be interesting to retroflex this survey on different mathematical constructs and with a different group of learners and to compare the job work outing behaviours across contexts. Further research in support of the thought of people ‘s practical theorems, or Vergnaud ‘s theorems-in-action should be conducted. We likely need to develop adept ways for depicting different kinds of inexplicit cognition and find the range of intuitive job work outing behaviour.POSSIBILITIES FOR REPLICATION IN INDIAWhile our chief focal point in this instance survey was to analyze the job work outing behavior of street kids in Beirut, we are interested in widening it to India. However, we are cognizant of certain challenges including those pertinent to linguistic communication as different linguistic communications are spoken by kids in assorted metropoliss in India. Besides, the gender function differences will be present. Girls are required to get married early and boys remain on the streets longer. Beging by households is common excessively. The Torahs do non allow kids to set up little boxes to sell their wares so they run when they see police coming. There is a surc harge to be paid to the authorities to put up little booths to sell their wares. Besides, there are specific countries that these kids can sell their goods. Most times they are selling and puting up their boxes where it is illegal to make so. So, as a research worker you may hold to wait yearss for your capable to return from gaol etc.Appendix AA participant deliberation The architecture of Sabra ‘s market Selling and interchanging money Negociating the monetary valueAppendix BScript of Informal ConversationsAdapted from Millroy ( 1992 )A. General, open-ended inquiries to do the topic talk about his life. B. More specific inquiries 1. What is your name? 2. How old are you? 3. Where are you from? 4. At which category have you dropped school? 5. How many old ages have you studied? 6. Where do you populate? 7. How old were you when you dropped school? 8. Why did you drop school? 9. For how many old ages have you been working in the market? 10. At what clip do you come to the market and when do you go forth? 11. How many are you at place? 12. Make your male parent work? 13.Have you taken add-on, minus, and generation at school? 14.Do you know how to calculate? Do you utilize paper and pencil or a reckoner? 15. What do you sell? 16. Make you sell entirely or person helps you? 17. Make you do sweeping purchases? 18. Who makes the pricing on the green goods? 19. Can you alter the monetary values, make price reductions or increase the monetary value? 20. Make you calculate net income and loss? 21. Can you give a alteration to a dollar measure? 22. Make you utilize the things you have learned in school while working in the market? 23. Make you like working in the market? 24. Make you wish your brothers to work in the market? 25. Is it profitable to work in the market? 26. When have a job do you inquire for aid from anybody? 27. Make you see traveling back to school? 28. What does it take to be a good seller?Appendix CScript for semi-structured interviewsQuestions posed were drawn from the topics ‘ natural scene, from the type of minutess used and the inquiries they may confront in their work. 1. I am traveling to take X kg of this green goods. How much is that? How do you cognize? 2. I will take X kilos. I am traveling to give you z L.L measure, what do I acquire back? How did you acquire it? 3.You are selling X kg for y L.L but I want z kg, how much do I have to wage? Why? 4.I privation to purchase X kg of this and y kg of that. How much do I have to pay? How? 5. I have X L.L. I want to take Ys kilos from this green goods, how much will I hold left? How did you happen out? I have X L.L How many kilos can I purchase with it from this green goods? How did you cognize? 7. You are selling X kg of this green goods for Y L.L, but I merely want one kg. How much does one kg cost? How did you acquire the reply? 8. Have you changed your monetary values today? By how much? Why? 9. I want Ten kg from this green goods. I will pay you with a y $ measure. How much is the alteration in $ ? In L.L? How? 10. Can you gauge how much the leftovers from this green goods weigh? How? 11. From the leftovers can you perchance think how much have you sold? How make you cognize? 12. How much have you sold today? Can you find your net income? How?Appendix DDocuments on which the sellers wrote their solutions of arithmetic jobs