Analysis Of Barn Burning By William Faulkner Essay -- William Faulkner,

Faulkner shows the feelings of Sartoris by vividly describing the setting. The second to last paragraph starts off by saying, â€Å"At midnight he was sitting on the crest of the hill† (169). By providing the time of â€Å"midnight,† it shows a new chapter for Sartoris. The time of midnight represents a new day, and for the main character, a new day is symbolic of a new beginning. Also, Sartoris is described as â€Å"sitting on the crest.† A crest is a high point. The use of this word means two things: going up the hill is over and going down hill is beginning. Symbolically, going uphill was escaping his past. It was difficult for Sartoris to have to deal with the history he had with his family. Faulkner showing that Sartoris’s next step of going downhill is a foreshadowing that his life is going to be easier than before. Close to the bottom of the last paragraph, Faulkner says, â€Å"he went down the hill, towards the dark woods within which ... ... middle of paper ... ...d now. The last line states, â€Å"he did not look back† (169). Faulkner using this quote as the last sentence shows Sartoris’s determination to progress without reverting back to his past. Faulkner’s writing is very symbolic. Sartoris’s physical feelings also describe his mental and emotional states. Sartoris lived the first part of his childhood in fear of his father. In the final two paragraphs, Faulkner is presenting the moment Sartoris breaks away from being consumed by his father’s shadow and the fear of his father. Faulkner’s description of the setting is symbolic of how Sartoris feels about earning his freedom. Sartoris’s feelings about his freedom and brighter future are expressed through the shift from a dark tone to a hopeful one. The symbolism of Sartoris’s physical actions is a way Faulkner shows how Sartoris was feeling emotional upon obtaining his freedom.

Company Profile Project on American Airlines Essay

Company Profile Project on American Airlines - Essay Example He has always advocated for consolidation in the airline industry so as to create a stable as well as a competitive environment for its employees, the nearby community and the shareholders. Beverly K. Goulet who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Integration Officer plays the role of worldwide functional manager. Beverly Goulet previously served as the chief restructuring officer of AMR Corp and led the restructuring process in chapter 11 of America’s constitution as well as in the analysis and negotiation of American’s merger with the US Airways. As the worldwide functional manager, she is charged with the role of leveraging knowledge as well as innovations across the various functional departments within the company. The position is held by Stephen L. Johnson as the Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs and Assistant Secretary. Johnson holds a Masters of Business Administration as well as Juris Doctor from the University of California. He further holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from California State University. As the geographic subsidiary manager, he operates as a bicultural interpreter who is in charge of linking different cultures within the company. He is at the forefront in the implementation of corporate as well as global strategies aimed at transforming the image of the company globally. Within the American Airlines, top-level managers include J. Scott Kirby who is the president and Elise R Erbwein who serves as the vice president. Kirby first served as the president of US Airways and he saw a number of major achievements in the airline industry. The top-level managers are responsible for overseeing the operations of the entire organization. They come up with strategic plans as well as setting a tone at the top of the organization so as to ensure smooth operations in the entire organization.

Quantitative Applications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Quantitative Applications - Essay Example (c) A project plan was constructed and the network was designed for designing, writing and installing a bespoke computer database. The critical path and the shortest time to completion is identified as follows: = Contract negotiation User discussions Review current system Systems analysis (a) Systems analysis (b) Programming Preliminary testing Documentation preparation Implementation Debugging Manual. (d) This project can be controlled by monitoring and controlling the critical activities and reducing lead time on the other activities which do not contribute towards the critical path. The important activities that need monitoring and control may be the Systems analysis, programming, testing, documentation, implementation and debugging. (a) The main advantages of holding an inventory are that losses due to unexpected changes in demand and deliveries from suppliers can be avoided and it is a safety net against backorders. The main disadvantages of holding inventory are the increased holding costs incurred due to higher rental value of the space occupied, higher premiums, the danger of the inventory losing its value or becoming obsolete and the loss of money in opportunity costs. The assumptions made are that the demand rate is known and it is uniform (constant), the ordering cost is constant, quantity discounts do not exist, the production rate is infinite (with no shortages) and the order is received immediately after placing the order. The formula for a simple demand model for the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) is now given below: Economic Order Quantity, Q = Where, C = fixed cost per order (not per unit, in addition to unit cost) D = annual demand quantity of the product H = annual holding cost per unit (also known as carrying cost) (c) Unit cost = 80 Annual holding cost per unit = 20% per year = 0.20 * 80 = 16 Holding cost per unit per month = 1.33 Fixed cost per order = 140 Demand = 700 /month Therefore, EOQ, Q = 384 units/order (d) If the supplier offers a 5% discount on the product cost if ordered in lots of 1200 units or more, then the advice to the manager is to place the orders once every four months. QUESTION 3 (a) A diagram of a simple and basic EBQ model is shown below (production and consumption model). The assumption here is that rather than the lot arriving instantaneously, the lot is assumed to arrive continuously at a production rate K. This situation arises when a production process feeds the inventory and the process operates at the rate K greater than the demand rate D. According to this model, the Economic Batch Quantity (EBQ), or the Economic Production Quantity (EPQ) is given by Where, K = Setup cost D = Demand rate F = holding cost P = production rate (b) Unit cost of a thermostat = 25 Demand per annum, D = 4000 Production Rate, P = 200 per week = 10400 per annum Setup costs, K = 240 /setup Inventory Holding costs, F = 17.5% of

Features of Efficient Market Hypothesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Features of Efficient Market Hypothesis - Essay Example As a result one cannot earn returns over and above the average return of the market provided that the information is available when invested. The following are the underlying assumptions of efficient market hypothesis. The ‘weak form’ of the efficient market hypothesis identifies prices of tradable assets like stocks, property and bonds etc, which reflect all information that was available to the public in the past. In other words, say for example, the past prices of stock A is reflected in its current stock price. The ‘strong form’ of the efficient market hypothesis is the strongest form of efficiency of financial markets. It is of the view that information, public or private in nature, is reflected through the stock prices, in the market. Thus even insider information cannot put the investor in an advantageous position (Fama, 1970, p.383). As already discussed the efficient market hypothesis makes the assertion that asset prices reflect all the information available in the market. Now we shall explain as to why it is not able to adequately explain asset pricing with respect to debt and equity. The efficient market hypothesis is the right platform to start when one is thinking of asset price formation. However evidences have suggested that it has been unable to explain some features of market behaviour. The market prices at times are subjected to misalignments which can exist for a prolonged period of time (Fama, 1991, p.8). The random walk model is one of the versions of efficient market.

Outsourced Delivery Services Of Ikea

Outsourced Delivery Services Of Ikea The purpose of our thesis is to find out the factors that affecting the customers satisfaction on outsourcing. The importance of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is being a vital part of a company; however, a well SCM is not as mature as some old function like Human Relation Management, Accounting, etc. Thus, companies may outsource SCM or particular function among SCM to the 3rd party services provider. Meanwhile, the quality and effect on outsourcing would be a concern to companies. Customers make the sales, profit of a company. If the part which being outsourced may contact customers directly, is there any precaution and measurement to ensure the services provide will not be affecting during outsourcing, or how to minimize the influence to companies. Todays Supply Chain Management Many companies today are strengthening their connections with partners all along the supply chain. They no longer just treat suppliers as vendors and distributors as customers. They treat both as partners in delivering customers value. Most business nowadays are customer-oriented, e.g., Sales, CS Business, Insurance, Banking/Finance, Beauty Care/Health, etc. Background of Outsourcing In a global marketplace an increasingly huge competition forces companies striving to find strategies that give them competitive advantage over the competitors (Christopher, M., 1998). Outsourcing has been treated as one of the most important business and economic concepts for achieving competitive advantages. Outsourcing can be defined as the transfer of the production of goods or services that had been performed internally to an external party (Van Weele, A., 2005). Company can focus on their core business if the companies transfer its operations to another company to produce goods or services some 3rd party services provider. The basic reason for outsourcing is the increased trend of globalization (Enarsson, L., 2008, p.33). The reasons behind outsourcing may lower the cost on delivery, utilize local firms resources thus avoid capital investment on fixed asset for developing non core products, and to gain access technology, performance through effective partnership. Problems discussion Outsourcing, regardless a powerful economic and business strategy, does not always ensure success to the outsourcesr involved in the entire process. There are many drawbacks in outsourcing operations. It might help a company on cost saving, focus on core business; enhance capacity for innovation, wider experience and knowledge, etc. However, there are some arguments on guaranteeing quality of service, qualifications of outsourcee, standpoint of labor. Once a company determined which projects will be outsourced, they have to know why outsource and when to be carry out, how to prevent from mistakes while outsourcing. CONCEPTUAL STUDIES In this part we will explain the concept of supply chain management and outsourcing as well as their relationship from the point of view of different available and established theories and literatures. In this section our goal is to elaborate more about outsourcing in a theoretical frame. Supply Chain Management (SCM) A customer focused definition is given by Hines Supply chain strategies require a total systems view of the linkages in the chain that work together efficiently to create customer satisfaction at the end point of delivery to the consumer. As a consequence costs must be lowered throughout the chain by driving out unnecessary costs and focusing attention on adding value. Throughput efficiency must be increased, bottlenecks removed and performance measurement must focus on total systems efficiency and equitable reward distribution to those in the supply chain adding value. The supply chain system must be responsive to customer requirements. SCM describles a longer channel, stretching from raw materials to components to final products to final buyers. To implement an efficiency and effective supply chain systems take lots of time to design and manage, and so many companies nowadays decided to outsource parts of logistic function to a 3rd party services provider. Then they can allocate more resource and pay more effort on their core business. The Trend of Outsourcing There are no constrains to any functions which can be outsourced or not to be outsourced. To enhance the levels of competition, many organizations have started to consider in developing and maintaining the range of expertise and skills needed to compete effectively. This need has led many companies to engage with various kinds of sourcing; like outsourcing (Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Willcocks, L.P., 2009) Definition of Outsourcing Different authors have defined the outsourcing that covers a wide scope of the concept of outsourcing. The word of outsourcing can be split as out and source which means sourcing externally. Some simple definitions of outsourcing are given as follows contracting with a third service provider for the management and completion of a certain amount of work, for a specified length of time, cost, and level of service (Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J., Willcocks, L.P., 2009, p 4) A contract is the means by which the planning, responsibility, knowledge, and administration of processes is transferred to an external party (McCarthy Anagnostou, 2004, Blumberg, 1998) According to Franceschini, F. et al., 2003, Outsourcing is a managerial approach usually taken for delegating the responsibility to an external source for carrying out the operation of production process or services of an enterprise. In these contexts, it can be summarized that, outsourcing is an agreement between buyer and supplier(s) to avail processes or services that the buyer is providing internally at present; with an intention to reduce cost, increase focus on core business, improve quality of products and services and to ensure more flexibility. Evaluation Process for Outsourcing An organization needs to maintain an operational cycle to conduct the outsourcing operation. There are the outsourcing life cycle brought up by M.J., Desouza, K.C., Bonifazi, C. (Source: Power, M.J., Desouza, K.C., Bonifazi, C., 2006) Strategic assessment As the first stage of the outsourcing process, strategic assessment is the crucial activity in the whole life cycle of outsourcing. The organization should identifie a certain business case and assesses the potential benefit of adopting the outsourcing as a strategy. Needs analysis After completion of the strategic assessment, the next step for the organization is to define the needs and more specifically areas of the needs that are needed to be focused on. Vendor assessment Organization goes for soliciting, evaluating and choosing the vendor for its outsourcing needs. Contract and negotiation management To be engaged in negotiations (and renegotiations) until an agreement is reached about the details of outsourcing work. Project initiation and transition This is the most influential stages of the outsourcing relationship. The client organization slowly starts to hand over the control of the work to the outsourcee. Outsourcer should always pay attention to deal with emergent issues and smooth out any problems that occur. This stage marks the foundation of the continued relationship. Relationship management To keep up to date with the outsourcing relationship Continuance modification or exit strategy Organization must evaluate its current outsourcing contract to see if its best interest lies in continuing, modifying or exiting the relationship. Motives for Outsourcing Cost Efficiencies: Cost reduction has been the prime motive for outsourcing (Ford, D., et al., 1993). To develop a complete product is always expensive for a company as it needs huge investment to improve products and production process through continuous research and technology development. Outsourcing reduces the cost of the client company in this area as the service providers invest in this area to meet up the demand of the buyers in a large scale. In this way, a company can achieve the competitive advantages in the market reducing the cost through outsourcing process. Focus on Core Business: Every company has some activities that are not as essential as compared to its core business functions. By sourcing non-core business activities a company can focus on its core business in a better way. So, the efficiency of a company is likely to increase as more time and resources are focused only on the core business functions (Davis, J., 2002). In addition, there are some other driving factors that encourage the buyer company to adopt the outsourcing strategy. Such as operational expertise, enhance the capacity for innovation, capacity management where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier. EMPIRICAL STUDIES IKEA Hong Kongs Concept and History They offers a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. This is the idea at the core of everything IKEA does, from product development and purchases to how they sell their products in retail stores. IKEA can make a good-quality product for a high price, or a poor-quality product for a low price. But to make good products at low prices, they need to develop methods that are both cost-effective and innovative. This has been the focus of IKEA since its beginnings in Smà ¥land, Sweden. Maximizing the use of raw materials and production adaptation to meet peoples needs and preferences has meant that their costs are low. The IKEA way of doing things is to pass these cost savings on to customers. Importance of Select Reliable Outsourcee Under our investigation, IKEA Hong Kong has outsourced the home delivery and assembly services to an independent contractor. Basically, with return or exchange, home delivery and assembly services would be the final stage for company to provide services to customers. From ordering to delivery, IKEA takes at least three workings, even the staff give excellent customer services at retails store, the experience in store almost fade out after placing order. As the period from waiting order delivery to complete can replace the experience in store, services provide during these period of time is essential to decide will this customer return or not. No customers, no business, no sales. Those satisfied ones turns to be a loyal customers, otherwise, unsatisfied customers will bad month our company. Word of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. The influence of word of mouth is not measurable and difficult to rebuild company image. The dimensions of reliability; responsiveness; assurance; empathy; tangibility and cost in the service quality approach can be used in identifying critical factors that may suggest some ideas on selection of logistic services provider (LSP) (Kong Mayo, 1993; Bienstock, et al., 1997). Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Transit time Service Consistency Document Accuracy Responsiveness Variety of Services Express Delivery Global coverage Updated rates Track and Trace Containerization Consolidation Reputation No Goods Damages Empathy Tangibility Cost CRM Employee Courtesy Location Modern Equipments Own CFS E-services EDI Price Discount Credit term Case Study I: Apple Computer and TNT Express (See Appendix I) Apple Computer has been outsourced its delivery services to TNT Express. There would be a list of complaint about the services of TNT Express. The complaints are regarding to package missing, long delivery time, with recomfirm to package receiver. FINDINGS Apple Computer outsourcing its delivery services to TNT, every one who place the order from Apple store knew this. Once the order is placed, there are an implication of customers are agreed to let TNT Express to take over the duty of product delivery. Unlike IKEA Hong Kong, the delivery materials of contractors like trucks, boxes are printed in IKEA logo. It is difficult for customer to identify they are not the staff of IKEA. In order to protect the image or reputation, IKEA should ensure the contractor can perform like an IKEA staff, i.e., the delivery worker should have basic product knowledge, especially for solving the enquiries during the process of services delivery. That is unreasonable to say we are contractor rather than direct staff of IKEA. Customer service is any contact between a customer and a company, which can cause a negative or positive perception by a customer during services delivery. As an outsourcer, they may state clear of relationship between outsourcer and outsourcee may reduce complaints caused by misunderstanding. The case of Apple, sometimes online checking system of TNT Express does not show the actual product delivery status. Those complainers about product delivery did focus on the services provider TNT Express instead of complaining the Apples decision making on contractor selection. Case Study II: Survey on Outsourcing of Government Activities on 2002 and 2004 (See Appendix II) The Efficiency Unit of HKSAR has been conducted a survey about outsourcing of governemt activities as at 2002 and 2004 since 2000. In this two reports, it showed, over 80% of bureaux and departments have beed outsourced at least one function to an indepentend contractor. FINDINGS According to the report on 2004, those functions which occupied the most expenditure were capital works constraction, building property management and environmental hygiene are the top three outsourced functions. By analyzing the pattern of annual expenditure, the fluctuation of transport services is the most serious among the listed functions. The ratio of reducing expenditure is the most significant as well. In 2000, the expenditure was around $1 billion and then it dropped to $0.1 billion in 2002. Unlike other services categories, transport services were doubling up the expenditure on 2004. The focus of outsourced function of IKEA Hong Kong is the delivery services, it may categorize as transport services among the government functions. Reference to the expenditure on different services categories, transport services it is did not donminated the propular function of being outsourced. Reference to the page 6 of survey on 2004, there are current satisfaction of outsourcees performance. Around half of the outsourcee full met the requirement of outsourcer. Yet there is also another half that only partially fulfill. CONCLUSION IKEA is now the worlds largest furniture retailer; they have a fixed group of partners on manufacturing, purchasing and supply functions, design and development of products in the IKEA range. For distribution they have their own logistics center Europe is located in Dortmund, Germany and Asian logistic center is located in Singapore along with its IT base. To retaining customers, they have the customer relation system of IKEA Family. IKEA perform well in Europe no matter for SCM, marketing and customer retention. In Hong Kong region, they also have a good SCM, even they outsourced parts of service to an independent services provide. Yet the seldom to hear so negative comment to those outsourced services. Furthermore, under our investigation, we found that only one contractor took over the job of delivery, assembly services. The part that would appreciate is even the delivery services are being outsourced, IKEA Hong Kong still having a backup delivery term in-house. Once there are any conflicts or under peak seasons of ordering, IKEA can take over part of the order themselves. However, it is difficult to understand why they have not launch the loyalty card in Hong Kong. To strength the loyalty of customer, which is important to understand the purchase pattern of customers, in order to give related promotion and information to encourage them repeating purchase. There are no absolute anwser for good to be outsoure or not to be.Companies should adopt a planned approach towards outsourcing taking into account the interests of employees and customers alike and come up with a balanced advance. The cycle of evaluation process for outsourcing is a good model for a company which would interest in outsourcing a/some particular function to a 3rd party services provider. For those companies which have been outsourced, a regular evaluation on before and after outsourcing is important. In todays dynamic marketplace, there are no rules can last till the end. The one who wants to be dominant of the market, they should keep track on of market trend, find out the competitive advantage and having a periodical review companys performance from time to time. APPENDICE http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2537721start=0tstart=0 APPENDICE http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/tnt-shipping-c41785.html APPENDICE Some links of complaint about TNT Express when taking over the order from Apple Computer. http://www.uwants.com/archiver/?tid-10549683.html (a brief survey hold by some forum members) http://www1.17t17p.com/viewthread.php?tid=452427 http://boardreader.com/thread/Apple_HK_TNT_FRUSTRATION_9udfX1jc6j.html http://discussions.info.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1messageID=12054701

Boccaccio v Keats :: English Literature

Boccaccio v Keats In reading Lisabetta (Boccaccios version) and Isabella (Keats version) it can help us understand Keats intentions, plans and achievements better. Keats deliberately begins his poem with the lovers, Keats sees the lovers as the main focus and he wants to reinstate their importance. Keats puts effort into portraying the lovers as young and innocent and due to the brothers their relationship is ruined. 'fair Isabelle, poor simple Isabelle Lorenzo, a young palmer in loves eye.' Keats seems to write in such a realistic way, it comes across as autobiographical. Keats characterises the lovers differently to Boccaccio. In Keats they are shy with each other. 'So spake they to their pillows.' 'I may not speak and yet I will, and tell my love all plain.' Keats portrays them as being in tune with nature 'voice pleasanter than the noise of trees of hidden rill' and 'Lorenzo is more watchful over her than the falcon.' The main attraction between the two lovers happens in May/June. These are the summer months when love occurs, and eventually it 'grew like a lusty flower in Junes caress' Keats keeps the lovers innocent. In Boccaccio, Lorenzo is experienced 'he gave up all other amours' and the lovers quickly slept together 'each that they most desired' Keats on the other hand 'purifies' the lovers. They keep close company' in a bower of hyacinth and musk.' In Keats the brothers notice the love between them 'found by many signs' instead of caught popping into each others bedrooms. In Keats they noticed each other all the time. In living in the same house Keats takes trouble over unfolding their frustrations and love, for there is not much they can do (autobiographical). We now start to care about them. Both know the danger of the lovers class difference, but the fact that they cant be together seems to fuel their lust. 'Even bees knows there is richest juice in poison flowers' Another big difference between the poems is the concentration put towards the brothers. In Keats the brothers are introduced late on and the characteristics have been moulded around evil. In Boccaccio the brothers are introduced at the very beginning of the poem and their decision about killing Lorenzo is more to do with wanting the sister to be happy without consulting the sister. (In Keats) the brothers work their servants to death. 'The Ceylon diver went all naked to the hungry shark' Their money is made on the back of great cruelty 'the workers did melt in blood from the stinging whip' The brothers cruelty seems to stand for the abuse of the early

Analysis of Variance Essay

How would you explain the analysis of variance, assuming that your audience has not had a statistics class before? When one does a study of data, generally this implies an evaluation of the â€Å"mean† or average of that data. .i.e. What is the average time it takes a 5th grader to complete his final math exam? A t test is used to test differences between two means. i.e. the mean of the experiment group vs a control group. An ANOVA test, on the other hand, is indicated when there are three or more means or populations to be examined. When only two samples are looked at, the t test and ANOVA test will yield the same results. Beyond two examples, the t test can be used to evaluate other means using many t tests, but this method becomes unreliable and subject to increased error. ANOVA or analysis of variance allows one to use statistics to test the differences between two or more means and decreases the probability for a type 1 error, which might occur when looking at multiple two-sample t tests. This is why use of the ANOVA is indicated for testing hypotheses where there are multiple means or populations. ANOVAs essentially takes the t test and applies it when testing or comparing three or more groups, means or variables. Example experiment: Study different types of protein consumption on weight gain. Is the effect of each type of protein consumption on weight gain significantly similar or different? 50 men total, 10 men per group, each group fed equal amount of protein calories but from different type of protein classification. One way ANOVA – looking at effect of 5 different feeding strategies to increase weight gain. (i.e. high natural red meat protein diet, high vegetable protein diet, high protein powder diet, high fish protein diet, etc.). This is a one way ANOVA study because there is only one category (protein) that will be examined, as it relates to its effect on weight gain. It is balanced as there are an equal number of men (10) consuming the same type of protein. Simplistically put, the study will give us information as to whether or not each type of protein produces similar or different results (weight gain). Two way ANOVA, as the name implies, includes the addition of a second variable that may be looked at as affecting weight gain. i.e. amount of exercise. Three way ANOVA, as the name implies, includes the addition of a third variable. i.e. consumption of â€Å"other calories†. In the end, the experiment may lead one to conclude that different types of protein consumption leads to weight gain. Unfortunately, experiments are never that cut and dry, and there are always other variables that must be accounted for. There is what’s called â€Å"error† due to â€Å"chance† and â€Å"beyond human control† or â€Å"variation† associated with â€Å"assignable causes†. An F test must be used to compare these errors and/or variations, to determine if the population variances are the same or different. If the variances are the same or equal, the F ratio will be 1. This will allow one to complete their study / experiment and make final conclusions. References: https://explorable.com/anova http://onlinestatbook.com/2/analysis_of_variance/intro.html https://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m170/ch13-f.html