August Wilson The Playwright Or Philosopher - 2077 Words

August Wilson: The Playwright or Philosopher? August Wilson was one of the most accomplished African-American playwrights of this century and was one of only seven to win the Pulitzer Prize. He dedicated his entire career to documenting the 20th century struggles of African-Americans in a cycle of ten plays. He completed the cycle shortly before he died on October 2, 2005. His plays were themed around The Middle Passage, The Underground Railroad, The Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, The Northern Migration, Pittsburgh’s Hill District, Oppression , Civil Rights Movement and Black Nationalism, Developing Personal â€Å"Songs† and Cultural Mythologies, Sports Discrimination, and City Politics Wilson’s main goal in life was to make sure a realistic view of how the African-Americans was put on stage for everyone to see the struggles of African-American. He bridged the gap in tradition, modified tradition when experience demanded it, and he translated experience into meaning and meaning into belief. He deserves a lot of praise, but did he also backtrack on his original thoughts? In this paper, I will give a short biography of him, discuss his plays, and discuss how his plays and his paper/film The Ground on Which I Stand contradicts each other. August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1945. August’s mother was African American and his father was a German immigrant. Wilson’s parents got a divorce when he wasShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesFigure 5.1 Pete Saloutos/CORBIS; Table 5.1  © Managerial Leadership in the Post Industrial Society, P. Sadler, 1988, Ashgate; Figure 5.2 J Gross/Getty Images/Sport; Figure 5.3 after Manpower strategies for flexible organizations, Personnel Management August, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Atkinson, J. 1984); Figure 5.4 from Kalleberg, A., Flexible firms and labour market segmentation: effects of workplace restructur ing on jobs and workers, Work and Occupations (Vol. 30 Issue 2) pp

Confident Interval Free Essays

Fall 2012 Assignment 5 (Total Points Possible: 15) Name: Banner ID: Instructions: Use this page as your cover page, and attach your groupwork behind your work. Your assignment answers should be in complete and grammatically correct sentences. 1. We will write a custom essay sample on Confident Interval or any similar topic only for you Order Now According to the National Center for Health Statistics (2004), 22. 4% of adults are smokers. A random sample of 300 adults is obtained. (a) Describe the sampling distribution of phat, the sample proportion of adults who smoke. (b) In a random sample of 300 adults, what is the probability that at least 50 are smokers? c) Would it be unusual if a random sample of 300 adults results in 18% or less being smokers? Explain your answer. 2. A machine at KA Tube Manufacturing Company produces a certain copper tubing component in a refrigeration unit. The tubing components produced by the manufacturer have a mean diameter of 0. 75 inch with a standard deviation of 0. 004 inch. The quality-control inspector takes a random sample of 30 components once each week and calculates the mean diameter of these components. If the mean is either less than 0. 748 inch or greater than 0. 752 inch, the inspector concludes that the machine needs an adjustment. a) Describe the sampling distribution of the sample mean diameter for a random sample of 30 such components. (b) What is the probability that, based on a random sample of 30 such components, the inspector will conclude that the machine needs an adjustment when, in fact, the machine is correctly calibrated? 3. In a random sample of 678 adult males 20 to 34 years of age, it was determined that 58 of them have hypertension (high blood pressure). Source: The Centers for Disease Control. (a) Obtain a point estimate for the proportion of adult males 20 to 34 years of age who have hypertension. b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of adult males 20 to 34 who have hypertension. Interpret the confidence interval. You wish to conduct your own study to determine the proportion of adult males 20 to 34 years old who have hypertension. (c) What sample size would be needed for the estimate to be within 3 percentage points (interval length is 0. 06) with 95% confidence if you use the point estimate obtained in part (a)? (d) What sample size would be needed for the estimate to be within 3 percentage points with 95% confidence if you don’t have a prior estimate (use phat=. )? 4. A random sample of 60 married couples who have been married 7 years was asked the number of childr en they have. The results of the survey are as follows: 0 0 0 3 3 3 1 3 2 2 3 1 3 2 4 0 3 3 3 1 0 2 3 3 1 4 2 3 1 3 3 5 0 2 3 0 4 4 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 4 3 2 2 1 4 3 2 4 2 1 2 3 2 The data is also in Excel format on Blackboard: FamilySizeData. xls. (a) Obtain a point estimate for the mean and standard deviation number of children of all couples who have been married 7 years. (b) What is the shape of the distribution of the sample mean? Why? c) Compute a 95% confidence interval for the mean number of children of all couples who have been married 7 years. Interpret this interval. (d) Compute a 99% confidence interval for the mean number of children of all couples who have been married 7 years. Interpret this interval. (e) You wish to conduct your own study to determine the mean number of children of all couples who have been married 7 years. What sample size would be needed for the estimate to be within 0. 25 (interval length is 0. 5) with 99% confidence if you use the point estimates obtained in part ( a)? How to cite Confident Interval, Papers

Candies Production Line Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Candies Production Line and Manufacturing. Answer: Hard candy production line Arichsweetconfectionmadewithsugar,combinedwithnuts or fruits oris flavored. The ingredients for making hard candy include Sugar, Water, Glucose and Flavor or pigment (Amani S. Al-Rawahi, 2007. The process of manufacturing The required sugar and glucose quantity is weighed and then dissolved in a kettle. The dissolved mixture is fed into the vacuum cooker (235 F240 F) by the feeding pump and thoroughly cooked. The mixture is then cooled to 270-290? (130-145?) on a cooling table. On that cooling table, organic acids, spices and food coloring are added to the mixture until the candy thermometer reads 300. The mixture is rolled into sticks by the batch roller. It is then stretched into the required sizes by another roller called the sizing roller. The mixture is then formed into specified candies type by the forming machine. The candy formed is moved to the cooling conveyor by the life conveyor and it undergoes intense cooling for a certain period (Hui, 2006). The finished candies are moved into the wrapping machine, that wraps the pieces individually. The candy is weighed. Lastly, the candy is sealed and then it is shipped. Gummy candy production line Gummy candy is a type of candy that is unique and has the following ingredients: sweeteners, colorings, flavorings, water and gelatin/pectin. ManufacturingProcess of Gummy candy The Process of star molding is applied in the manufacture of gummy. Making candy is the initial process, then the candy is filled into starched lined trays. The next process is the cooling of the trays then the emptying of the trays to remove the formed candy. Formation of candy After the compounding and passing the QC testing the gummy candy is transferred to Mogul, a starch molding machine. Then the Mogul of 232-235F is started, and the previously used trays are removed from the stack and are intertwined into a conveyor belt then transferred into a starch buck, the subsequent machine section (Michelle Nadaletti, 2009). After entering into the trays, there is inverting of the trays and then the falling out of the gummy into the sieve, the vibrating metal screen. Then the excess candy is removed, the remaining candy is conveyed for next processing. The removed starch is cooled to 250-260F and dried later its reused in the starch molding process. The starch is then returned to the Mogul through a conveyor belt, then the previously emptied trays are filled and leveled. After that the trays are moved to the printer table. The gummy candy, that was compounded in the first step is moved into the depositors. The process of coloring, adding flavor and acids are performed in the depositors. The gummy candy packed trays are transferred into the stacking machine then moved in the cooling room. The gummy candy stays in the cooling room for 24 hours. This ensures they are properly cooled and formed. After the completion of this process, the trays are taken back into the Mogul, and then the same process starts over again, since it is a continuous process Jelly bean production line Jelly bean is a partially soft candy, which has a bean like shape and is fruit flavored. The jelly beans basic ingredients include; food starch, corn syrup and sugar. In the formation of jelly bean, lecithin, confectioners glaze, beeswax, salt and anti-foaming agents are also added. ManufacturingProcess of Jelly bean. Cooking and chemistry The manufacture of jelly bean starts in the chemistry laboratory. The measuring of the appropriate ingredients and developing of the test batches is conducted in the laboratory. The designing of new flavors based on the market research and testing for taste and visual attraction is also done in the laboratory (Hui, 2006).. After the fine-tuning of the recipe by the chemists, the candy kitchen makes the syrup forming the jelly beans through dissolving all the ingredients in big boiler to 230F (110 degrees Celsius). The syrup is allowed to cook to appropriate temperature and uniformly. Color and flavor are later added to the syrup, and its then conveyed in the starch casting area. The kitchen also mixes and cooks the flavor and colors, then syrups which is moved to the next process known as panning. Starch casting process Starch casting is the process of forming and shaping of single jelly bean. This process takes place in the Mogul (Manjula K, 2014). The Mogul transfers the trays into the depositor which squirts the heated candy syrup into small molds. Then the syrup is moved to the cooling room where humidity and temperature are regulated. Then the cooled candy forms the jelly bean gummy center. The panning process The process of panning gives the jelly beans the protective sugar shells, shiny glaze, outer color and flavor. Then there is dumping out of candy trays. During the cooling process the corn starch absorbs moisture; it is then removed, dried, processed, and also recycled to produce molds for more candies. There are centers, which has the similar color and flavor, then they are placed in the stainless still vessels called pans. Like a globe the pans are tilted on the axes to enable candies to be contain inside them easily then worker adds other ingredients via the openings. At the axis end which is a bottom pole, the vessel is connected to a power source that is rotating. The jelly bean center is rotated by the pans many hundred times per minute. Eventually sugar is added, which slowly accumulates on the soft center forming a harder sugar shell. Color and flavor are also added through pouring beakers of syrup from the candy kitchen via the vessel opening. Basically the jelly bean shells at this point are unattractive. But to give them their glossy coats there is an addition of confectioner's sugar. This process of 245 to 250Flast for 6 to 10 days, depending on the kind of bean and the manufacturer (United States of America Patent No. 636,452,1, 2002). . Packaging is the last stage before transporting the jelly beans to distributors. References Amani S. Al-Rawahi, S. K.-M.-S. (2007). Development of a Date Confectionery: Relating Formulation to Instrumental Texture. International Journal of Food properties, 3-4. Erden, I. S. (2002). United States of America Patent No. 636,452,1. Holmes, G. S. (2017). Jelly Bean. Retrieved from www.madehow.com: https://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Jelly-Bean.html Hui, Y. H. (2006). Food Science, Technology, and Engineering, . USA: Library of Congress. Manjula K, S. C. (2014). Formulation and Development of Functional Confectionery by Incorporating Pumpkin Juice. International Journal of Food, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences , 1-2. Michelle Nadaletti, M. D. (2009). Sucrose Inversion of Hard Candies Formulated with Rework Syrup with Addition of Sodium Lactate. Food Processing Engineering, 6-7. Techgen Engineering Ltd. (1994). Techgen Engineering Ltd. Retrieved from techgenbd.techgenltd.com: https://techgenbd.techgenltd.com

Three great American personalities Essay Example

Three great American personalities Essay In this brief paper, we shall be discussing the life of three great American personalities. Namely: J.F. Kenedy, Michael Jordan and Elvis Presley. We shall be examining their life to justify if they qualify to be addressed ad heroes or icons, or both. To do this, we shall first find out the meaning of icon or who a hero is. This will put us in a better light to understand how the extra ordinary feet they accomplished in their lives qualify them for the unforgettable and super human fame they occupy, not only in American history, but in the world as well.According to Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary, (2001), an icon is somebody famous. â€Å"Somebody or something widely and uncritically admired, especially somebody or something symbolizing a movement of field of activity†. Can these three personalities under scrutiny fit into this category? We shall find out soon. The dictionary further explained that â€Å"An icon is characterized by fame relating to or characteristic of somebody or something admired as an icon†. Similarly, it describes a hero as a â€Å"Remarkably brave person, a performer of a brave action, or conspicuous possessor of other admirable qualities, a war hero†. It also sees a hero as â€Å"Somebody admired. A person who is admired for outstanding qualities or achievements†. This is illustrative enough.By way of analysis, all the three personalities we are analyzing here qualify as icons. But Michael Jordan and John F. Kenedy stood out as heroes. This is because, their achievements are unprecedented in the annals of world history in the field of sports and politics which served as their platform.To do justice to this write-up, it is better if we take the characters and analyze them individually. And we shall take off with:John F. Kenedy.J. F. Kenedy’s life was unusually remarkable because he was an over achiever, attaining incredible feats at such tender age. At the age of 43, he was elected the 35th preside nt of United States of America and served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Before then he represented the state of Massachusetts from 1947 to 1960, first as a member of the US House of Representatives, and later in the Senate, before becoming the president.He demonstrated unusual leadership dexterity judging from his handling of the major events that characterized his presidency. These includes the USS PT-109 incident, the second world war in the South Pacific, the Bag of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, and the American Civil Right Movement, as well as the early events of the Vietnam War. So much happened in the American history during his presidency that so much was put onto his responsibility, and despite his age, he handled the whole issue as a matured and seasoned statesman. These events created an automatic heroic image of him in the heart of Americans.John F. Kenedy derived his fame from the many â€Å"firsts † he accomplished. For example, He was the first, and to date, the only Roman Catholic to be elected US president. He was also the first person born in the 20th century to have served as president, At age 43, Kenedy is the yongest person ever elected president of the United States of America. But he was not the youngest president ever to serve as president. Kenedy was the last Democrat from outside the south to be elected, and the last president to be elected while serving in the U.S. Senate. All these achievements conspired to create both a hero and an icon of him from all perspectives.Without doubt, J.F. kenedy qualified both as a hero and as an icon. He represented an epitome of the American dream. He was globally admired, and only few critics ever had anything uncharitable to say against his personality. His many â€Å"firsts† was also   heroic achievements. He was also considered brave having fought in the world war.According to numerous scholars and pundits, one of them being Carty, T.J, (2004). JFKs victory in 1960 symbolized Americas evolution from a politically Protestant nation to a pluralistic one. The anti-Catholic prejudice that many blamed for presidential candidate Alfred E. Smiths crushing defeat in 1928 at last seemed to have been overcome. However, if the presidential election of 1960 was indeed a turning point for American Catholics, how do we explain the failure of any Catholicin over forty yearsto repeat Kennedys accomplishment? There was the assumption that JFKs successful campaign for the presidency ended decades, if not centuries, of religious and political tensions between American Catholics and Protestants. Religion, and Catholicism in particular, informs U.S. political life in subtle ways that and had affected who becomes the president of America. But Kenedy ended all that myth.John F. Kenedy, â€Å"commodified† and to some reasonable extent commercialized his fame, by exploiting his popularity into money making venture. For example, The President was closely tied to popular culture. Things such as Twisting at the White House and â€Å"Camelot† (the popular Broadway) were part of the JFK culture Vaughn Meader’s Family comedy album – an album parodying the President, First Lady, their family and administration – sold about 4 million copies. On May 19, 1962 Marilyn Monroe sang for the president and raised lots of money. Kennedy and his wife Jackie were very young in comparison to earlier Presidents and first ladies, and were both extraordinarily popular in ways more common to pop singers and movie stars than   politicians, influencing fashion trends and becoming the subjects of numerous photo spreads in popular magazines.The Kennedys brought new life and vigor – a favorite word of Kennedy – to the atmosphere of the White House. They believed that the White House should be a place to celebrate American history, culture, and achievement, and they inv ited artists, writers, scientists, poets, musicians, actors, Nobel Prize winners and athletes to visit,Contrary to the heroic and iconic fame which JF. Kenedy attained, most people argued that his reputation is undeserved. His immense popularity, according to some critics, was the result of the optimistic beginnings of many programs declared to be of great benefit to the United States, its people, and various global issues, and the national trauma of his assassination. The Civil Rights Act which he sent to Congress in June 1963 was, in large part, conceived by his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and it was signed into law by his successor to the Presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1964. So the glory of such accomplishment should not be given to him.Others point out that Kennedy started the process which led to the U.S. getting involved in a complete Vietnam War. They point to Kennedy sending 16,000 military advisers and introducing napalm defoliants strategic hamlet, free -fire zones and jet planes to the Vietnam conflict, which the previous administration was not willing to do.He was accused of having an ilicit affair with Gene Tierney who was separated from her then husband fashion designer Oleg Cassini in 1946. He was also accused of being sexually involved with Marilyn Monroe, and many believed that Meryn Monroe was killed because she threatened scandal.Seymour Hershs The Dark Side of Camelot (1998) presents a critical analysis of the Kennedy administration, stating that Kennedy was probably one of the unhealthiest men ever to sit in the Oval Office, because of Addisons Disease and a bad back, as well as recurring childhood illnesses and venereal infections.   Robert Dalleks An Unfinished Life (2003) is a more traditional biography, but itMICHAEL JORDAN.By popular acclaim,   Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. He was a   phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of fundamental soundness, grace, speed, power, art istry, improvisational ability and an unquenchable competitive desire. Jordan single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar. His accomplishments on the field of basket ball and outside of it can only be described as legendary in a culture with an inexhaustible passion to rank, to quantify, to compare and contrast everything, Michael Jordan became the universal measuring device for appraising greatness. Jordan the athlete, as well as cultural icon, had such an effect on global society, that descriptions of standout athletes, in other sports, as well as top artists, business executives and elite achievers in any field Were compared with him.   He was so universally adored, much more than any other athlete. In China, school children ranked him with Zhou Enlai as the two greatest figures in twentieth-century history. The children knew Zhou because he helped create their Communist Revolution. They knew Jordan because he miraculously floated through the air as both an athlete and as a pit chman for American-produced advertisements for Nike shoes, which the children avidly followed on television. His coach in Chicago, Phil Jackson, believed that Jordan had somehow been transformed in the public mind from a great athlete to a sports deity—especially when an amazed Jackson saw people kneeling before the statue of Jordan that stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls.LeFeber, W, (1999), captured his fame when he wrote that, In China, schoolchildren ranked him with Zhou Enlai as the two greatest figures in twentieth-century history. The children knew Zhou because he helped create their Communist Revolution. They knew Jordan because he miraculously floated through the air as both an athlete and as a pitchman for American-produced advertisements for Nike shoes, which the children avidly followed on television. His coach in Chicago, Phil Jackson, believed that Jordan had somehow been transformed in the public mind from a great athlete to a sports deity—especially when an amazed Jackson saw people kneeling before the statue of Jordan that stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls. That is simply extra ordinary.He led the NBA in scoring a record 10 times with a 31.5 points per game average, another all-time mark. What made the achievement even more remarkable was that he did so while playing the other end of the floor as well. Nine times he was named to the NBAs All-Defensive First Team, and in 1988, he was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.From the above facts Michael Jordan qualify both as a hero and as an icon. He lived his life without any scandal, except his recent divorce with his wife, which was more or less a private affair.Jordan being black, symbolized serious racial myths. The media tends to endow Michael Jordan with physical strength and dexterity that is almost magical. In contrast, white sports stars are portrayed with less natural talent. They are depicted as having to work har der to be successful. This seemingly harmless racial myth seriously influences the occupational choices of black youth. Recent generations tend to select professional sports as their only career choice. Psychologist Othello Harris (Miami University of Ohio) (Le Feber) researched these racial stereotypes in the media. Harris has divided this stereotyping into three main themes.Advertisements emphasize the athletic abilities of African-American players, but downplay intellectual abilities. They are portrayed as more suited for the court than the boardroom. In print ads, black athletes are seen with slogans like, Basketball is the life. The rest is just details. or The game doesn’t end. . The myth goes on and on.Michael Jordan more than commercialized his skills, He commanded so much   money and power in the world, of the late twentieth century. Jordan was an African-American athlete who earned $30 million a year for playing with the Bulls and twice that amount from his endors ements and personal businesses. He earned multi millions from Nike and countless other commercial endorsements.Elvis Presley.Elvis Presley, known simply as Elvis or The King, derived his fame as a musician who changed the face of music around the world. Dubbed the King of Rock and Roll, Presleys gyrating hips, long, dark sideburns, and unusual style of rock music made the entertainment industry, as well as its followers, stand up and take notice. Elvis was probably one of the most loved personalities of all time. To this day, many years after his untimely death, devoted fans still mourn him and make the pilgrimage to Graceland, his beloved home in Tennessee. In the late 1960s, after a period of declining fame, he remade himself into The King, a melodramatic icon known for his sequined karate-style jumpsuits and mega concerts.Elvis qualified as an icon, but can not be fully described as a hero. Reason, he was admired all over and loved by many, but his action and activities were not brave. Heroes are brave persons, but Elvis was simply a great musician. According to Golbert Samie (1997). In a conversation affirmed that,   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Famous in life, Elvis Presley has become even more famous in death as an icon of American music and TV-era celebrity†. He was no doubt an icon, but not a hero.Presley became the teen idol of his decade, greeted everywhere by screaming hordes of young women, He opened the door to both black and white rock artists. More important, he served as the great cultural catalyst of his period. Elvis projected a mixed vision of humility and self-confidence, of intense commitment and comic disbelief in his ability to inspire frenzy. He inspired literally thousands of musicians. . Elviss Memphis home, Graceland, has become a permanent shrine to the singer and many of his followers even after his death.Unlike Michael Jordan, he did not command much commercialization as is known today. But the popularity of his music brought him so much wealth , He made wealth from his various TV, films, and other commercial programmes he was involved in. Even till date he still make more money than he ever did when he was alive.Presley was not loved by all. Those who did not worship him found him despicable (no one found him ignorable). Preachers and pundits declared him an anathema, his Pentecostally derived hip-swinging stage style and breathy vocal asides obscene. Racists denounced him for mingling black music with white (and Presley was always scrupulous in crediting his black sources, one of the things that made him different from the Tin Pan Alley writers and singers who had for decades lifted black styles without credit). He was pronounced responsible for all teenage hooliganism and juvenile delinquency.

L.L. Bean Item forecasting case study Essays

L.L. Bean Item forecasting case study Essays L.L. Bean Item forecasting case study Paper L.L. Bean Item forecasting case study Paper Essay Topic: The Bean Eaters Harvard Business School 9-893-003 Rev. September 7, 1993 L. L. Bean, Inc. Item Forecasting and Inventory Management When you order an item from an L. L. Bean catalog and were out of stock, Im the guy to blame. And if we end up liquidating a bunch of womens wool cashmere blazers, its my fault. No one understands how tough it is. Mark Fasold, Vice President† Inventory Management, was describing the challenge of item forecasting at L. L. Bean. Forecasting demand at the aggregate level is a piece of cake†if were running short of expectations, we Just dip deeper into our customer list and send out some more atalogs. But we have to decide how many chamois shirts and how many chino trousers to buy, and if were too high on one and too low on the other, its no solace to know that we were exactly right on the average. Top management understands this in principle, but they are understandably disturbed that errors at the item level are so large. In a catalog business like ours, you really capture demand. Thats the good news. The bad news is, you learn what a lousy Job youre doing trying to match demand with supply. Its not like that in a department store, say, where a customer ay come in looking for a dress shirt and lets the display of available shirts generate the demand for a particular item. Or if a customer has some particular item in mind but its not available, he or she may Just walk out of the store. In a department store you never know the real demand or the consequences of understocking. But in our business every sale is generated by a customer demanding a particular item, either by mail or by phone. If we havent got it, and the customer cancels the order, we know it. Rol Fessenden, Manager†Inventory Systems, added: We know that forecast errors are inevitable. Competition, the economy, weather are all factors. But demand at the item level is also affected by customer behavior, which is very hard to predict, or even to explain in retrospect. Every so often some item takes off and becomes a runaway, far exceeding our demand forecasts. Once in a while we can detect the trend early on and, with a cooperative vendor, get more product manufactured in a hurry and chase demand; most of the time, however, the runaways leave us Just turning customers away. And for every runaway, theres a dog item that sells way below expectations and that you couldnt even give away to customers. Annual costs of lost sales and backorders were conservatively estimated to be $11 million; costs associated with having too much of the wrong inventory were an additional $10 million. This case was prepared by Professor Arthur Schleifer, Jr. as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright 1992 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to ttp://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means†electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise†without the permission of Harvard Business School. 893-003 L. L. Bean Background In 1912 Leon Leonwood Bean invented the Maine Hunting Shoe (a combination of lightweight leather uppers and rubber bottoms). He obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders, prepared a descriptive mail-order circular, set up hop in his brothers basement in Freeport, Maine, and started a nationwide mail- order business. The inauguration of the U. S. Post Offices domestic parcel post service in that year provided a means of delivering orders to customers. When L. L. Bean died in 1967, at the age of 94, sales had reached $4. 75 million, his company employed 200 people, and an annual catalog was distributed to a mailing list of 600,000 people. L. L. s Golden Rule had been Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and theyll always come back for more. When Leon Gorman, L. L. s grandson, succeeded him as president in 1967, he sought to expand and modernize the business without deviating from his grandfathers Golden Rule. By 1991, L. L. Bean, Inc. as a major cataloger, manufacturer, and retailer in the outdoor sporting specialty field: Catalog sales in 1990 were $528 million, with an additional $71 million in sales from the companys 50,000 square-foot retail store in Freeport. Twenty-two different catalogs (often referred to as books by company employees)†114 million pieces in all†were mailed that year. There were six million active customers. The mail-order business had been giving way to tele phone orders after the company installed nationwide 800 service in 1986. By 1991, 80% of all orders came in by telephone. Major direct- mail competitors included Lands End, Eddie Bauer, Talbots, and Orvis. A 1991 Consumer Reports survey on customer satisfaction with mail-order companies found L. L. Bean heading the list for overall satisfaction in every category for which they offered merchandise. In explaining why L. L. Bean had not expanded its retail operations beyond the one store in Freeport, Leon Gorman contrasted the direct- arketing (catalog) and retail businesses. The two approaches require very different kinds of management. Mail-order marketers are very analytic, quantitatively oriented. Retailers have to be creative, promotional, pizzazzy, merchandise-oriented. Its tough to assemble one management team that can handle both functions. 1 Product Lines L. L. Beans product line was classified hierarchically (see Exhibit 1). At the highest level of aggregation were Merchandise Groups: mens and womens accessories, mens and womens apparel, mens and womens footwear, camping equipment, etc. Within each Group were Demand Centers; for instance, womens apparel had as Demand Centers knit shirts, sweaters, pants, skirts, Jackets and pullovers, etc. Each Demand Center was further broken down into Item Sequences; for example, womens sweaters consisted of Midnight Mesa Handknit Cardigans, Indian Point Pullovers, Lambswool Turtlenecks, and about twenty other products. Item Sequences were further broken down into individual items, distinguished primarily by color; it was at this item level that forecasts had to be issued and, ultimately, purchase commitments had to be made. About 6,000 items appeared in one or another of the catalogs that were issued in the course of a year. 1 L. L. Bean, Inc. Corporate Strategy, Harvard Business School Case (581-159), 1981. 21tems were further broken down by size into stock-keeping units, or SWs. This was done by applying standard size-distribution breakdowns. Although an inappropriate distribution could lead to excessive inventory of some sizes and stockouts of others, management concern was directed to the item level, since there was no evidence of a better system than assuming that the distribut ion of demand by size would behave in the uture as it had in the past, and would be indistinguishable from one item to another. Items were also classified into three seasonal categories (spring, fall, and all year), and into two additional categories (new or never out) that described whether the item was a recent or more permanent member of the companys offerings, and consequently characterized the amount of historical demand data available for the item. The Bean Catalogs The major catalogs†spring, summer, fall, and Christmas†each came out in several versions. A full catalog, running from 116 to 152 pages, went to Beans regular ustomers. A smaller prospect catalog was circulated to potential customers; it contained primarily a subset of items from the full catalog. (Bean identified such prospect customers in a variety of ways, for example, through the purchase of mailing lists, or by recording recipients of gifts from other Bean customers. ) In addition, a number of specialty catalogs†Spring Weekend, Summer Camp, Fly Fishing, etc. † presented items that were unique to that catalog, as well as some items found in the major catalogs. There was some overlap in circulation: the best ustomers received almost all the catalogs, and those customers known, through past purchasing behavior, to be interested in various specialties might receive an appropriate specialty catalog in addition to the seasonal full catalogs. Item Forecasting Each catalog had a gestation period of about nine months, and its creation involved merchandising, design, product, and inventory specialists. For example, the initial conceptualization for the Fall, 1991 season began in October, 1990. Preliminary forecasts of total sales for each catalog were made in December. Product managers eveloped preliminary item forecasts by book in the December, 1990 to March, 1991 time frame. Layout and pagination of the books began in January, 1991. Initial commitments to vendors were made in January and February. In the subsequent months, as the catalogs took shape, item forecasts were repeatedly revised and finally frozen by May 1. By early July a black-and-white version of the layout was available internally. At this point, the product managers handed off their product line to the inventory managers. The completed Fall 1991 catalogs were in the hands of customers around August 1 . As the catalog generated demand, inventory managers decided on additional commitments to vendors, scheduled replenishments, handled backorders, etc. This catalog remained active through January, 1992; inventory left over at that time might be liquidated, marked down and sold through special L. L. Bean promotions, or carried over to the next year. Scott Sklar was a buyer for mens shirts. He described the forecasting process as follows: Four or five of us†my inventory buyer, some product people, and I†meet to forecast shirt sales by book. We start by ranking various items in terms of expected ollar sales. Then we actually assign dollars in accordance with the ranking. Theres discussion, arguments, complaints. People invent rules of thumb. I say invent, because there arent any good rules of thumb. We set this up on an Excel spreadsheet. We look at the book forecast and make adjustments accordingly. We look at the total of forecasted shirt sales and check it for reality. Does it feel good? Does it make sense? We do it book by book, item by item, and thats how we get an item level forecast. Of course, when we add a new item, we have to make a Judgment: will this item enerate incremental demand, and if not, from what items is it going to steal demand? And then those items need to be adjusted accordingly. 3 Barbara Hamaluk, a buyer for mens knit shirts, observed that the sum of the item forecasts for a catalog was often at variance with the dollar target for that book. Usually this roll-up comes in on the high side, so you try to reduce forecasts on certain items. Or you can Just say, if were too high by 10%, well Just slash everything across the board by 10%. We really ought to have an intermediate level of forecasts t the Demand Center level, reconcile item forecasts with Demand Center forecasts, and the latter with the book forecast. Production Commitments The typical producti on lead time for most domestic orders was eight to twelve weeks. (Of course, deliveries against a commitment could be scheduled to conform to the anticipated pattern of in-season demand. With some vendors who cooperated with L. L. Beans Quick Response initiative, it was possible, after observing some early- season demand, to place a second order, which would be delivered in sufficient time to meet late-season demand. However, with many domestic and most offshore vendors, lead times were sufficiently long so that it was impractical to place a second commitment order in the course of the season. (In the remainder of this case, then, discussion will be limited to these one-shot commitments. The commitments were generally not equal in size to the forecasts, but were determined in two steps as follows: First, historical forecast errors (expressed as AIF ratios the ratio of actual demand to forecast demand) were computed for each item in the previous year, and the frequency distribution o f these errors was compiled cross items. 3 The frequency distribution of past forecast errors was then used as a probability distribution for the as yet unrealized future forecast errors. For example, if 50% of the forecast errors for new items in the past year had been between 0. and 1. 6, then it would be assumed that with probability 0. 5, the forecast error for any new item in the current year also would fall between 0. 7 and 1. 6. So in such a case, if the frozen forecast for a particular item were 1,000 units, it was then assumed that with probability 0. 5, actual demand for that item would end up being between 700 nd 1,600 units. Next, each items commitment quantity was determined by balancing the individual items contribution margin if demanded against its liquidation cost (or value) if not demanded. Suppose, for example, that an item cost Bean $1 5, would regularly sell for $30, and could be sold at liquidation for $10. The gain for selling a marginal unit would be $30 15 = $15; the loss for failing to sell the marginal unit would be the cost less the liquidation value, i. e. $15 10 = $5. Accordingly, the optimal order size should be the 0. 75 fractile of the items probability distribution of demand. Suppose the 0. 75 fractile of the distribution of forecast errors was 1. 3, and the frozen forecast for that item was for 1,000 units. Then the 0. 75 fractile of the demand distribution would be 1,000 x 1. = 1,300, and Bean would make a commitment for 1,300 units. Rol Fessenden expressed concern that the methodology treated the errors associated with all never out items as equally representative of the forecast errors that might be anticipated for the forecast demand of any never out item (and similarly for new items). mioud think that the error distribution for some of our buyers might be ighter than for other buyers, or that the distribution for womens sweaters might have more dispersion than the distribution for mens footwear, but we cant find any real differences. Also, Im not entirely convinced that we go about estimating contribution margin and liquidation cost correctly. Mark Fasold was worried about the wide dispersion in forecast errors, both for never outs and new items. He was also concerned about the implications of the methodology: If the cost 3This was done separately for new items and for never outs; not surprisingly, the historical error istribution of never outs had less dispersion than that of new items. No other way of segmenting items had revealed significantly different distributions of forecast errors. 4 associated with understocking exceeds the cost of overstocking, which is the usual case here, we end up committing to more than the frozen forecast. And for new items, about which we obviously know very little, the excess over the frozen forecast is even greater than for never outs. The buyers are understandably upset when we commit to more than they forecast; they perceive us as going way out on a limb for new items. Exhibit 1 5

Channeling My Energy

At nine years old, I wouldn’t walk into supermarkets; I would fly. I would grip the cool metal handles of the towering shopping carts with my childishly hot hands and push off with one foot, propelling myself into infinity. The only thing that could bring me back to earth were my mother’s disapproving looks and barely successful attempts to make me â€Å"Slow down!† or â€Å"Come back here† since I might â€Å"plow into someone.† At school, the poster-plastered walls seemed to close in after long days, edging closer and closer until I felt energy-induced claustrophobia creeping up my spine. The blue and green and yellow of the carpet and walls and finger paintings tumbled and blurred as I turned myself upside down and shifted my weight onto my surprisingly steady palms. â€Å"No handstands in the classroom!† my teacher would admonish, kneeling beside me and gently lowering me to the floor, afraid my precarious center of gravity would soon destabilize. â€Å"You have to learn to stay seated.† To little me, this seemed just too much to ask; sitting down for such long periods seemed a feat only someone as grown up as she could accomplish. It wasn’t long before my teachers started making other comments. Soon it wasn’t just â€Å"You need to learn to stay seated,† but things like â€Å"Paige is slightly immature and behind the other children socially† and â€Å"Maybe you should consider keeping Paige back a grade so she has time to mature and settle down.† My mother knew she had to do something. Suddenly I was sitting in an over-air-conditioned room with a smiling lady who showed me flashcards of dogs and fire trucks and houses, and prompted me to repeat as many as I could remember. She gave me different samples of sounds, testing how long I could remain focused on the voice crackling through the recorder. I was too young to know that she was testing my attention span and mannerisms for ADHD. After I was positively diagnosed, my mother enrolled me in gymnastics to address my overabundant energy. I was mesmerized by the many ways I could contort my body and the countless flips I could execute in midair. The possibility of moving into the advanced group with the older girls motivated me to spend my boundless energy tumbling and balancing in the gym, instead of sprinting and rolling in the supermarket. I soon realized that this solution could be applied to other areas of my life – even those that weren’t physical. After all, I didn’t merely have an excess of physical energy, but mental energy as well. The world seemed to me an incredibly complicated tapestry, and I wanted to unravel its mysteries thread by thread. When I was 10 years old, my brother introduced me to the wonderful world of the fiction novel. From that day on, I was hooked. Stories of vampires and werewolves and witches and warlocks from other worlds swirled in my mind; I constantly had my head in a book. To this day, I continue burning my mental energy on novels, although my tastes have transitioned from teen fiction to classics like Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But merely reading words on a page wasn’t enough. Somewhere inside me, I had created my own worlds, unbeknownst to my conscious mind. The day that my hand picked up a pen and put it to paper remains blurry in my memory; it is almost as though it happened of its own volition. I soon became addicted to the beauty of the English language, to the way hard consonants could be combined to elicit a sense of urgency and anger in a reader, and the way liquid consonants could be melded to coax out a sense of calm and happiness. High school came speeding toward me like a freight train, and instead of fully embracing the four years to come, I felt my excess energy – whether it be physical, creative, or inquisitive – made me different from everyone else. I was that teenager who pored over classic literature and wrote poetry for fun. The summer of eleventh grade, fate brought me to the moment when I discovered I was not alone in these pursuits. It was the first hot summer night of the Iowa Young Writer’s Workshop, and listening and observing the other teens around me, I felt the sense that I’d arrived at my intellectual home. Here were peers whose minds were always buzzing and whose hearts were always open. They were propelled by the same abounding energy that I was. They too understood the law of physics stating that energy could neither be created nor destroyed, only changed. And they, like me, had chosen to channel it into something positive.

Construction Management & Organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Construction Management & Organisation - Essay Example The project manager has to establish a team of functional specialists to complete the individual tasks of the project. The project manager usually has such qualities as team building, be able to motivate, communicate and be a good listener. In addition, the manager has to be a facilitator and not a supervisor, one who synthesizes instead of being an analyst and finally be problem oriented rather than being discipline oriented. An effective project management has got four main functions; Project planning, team building, directing and control measures. The planning process entails a sequence of activities planned to ensure that the project meets the deadline given, within budget and the expected outcome. Results from planning have to make sure that the overall objectives of the project can be realized. The planning process entails considering schedules and budgets. The budget identifies the resources needed and the means of financing the project. Scheduling establishes timeliness and milestones for the completion of tasks and activities that makeup the project. Project scheduling involves a sequence of activities in a logical and systematic way. Once established, appropriate resource allocation for each activity becomes the next challenge. Budgeting applies to the costs associated with each activity. There are the budget figures with time. The costing has to be done on material and labor, direct and indirect. Team building can be defined as finding the appropriate person to do a specified task in a competent manner. The project has to determine the staff level requirements for each task, the period of engagement for each member, and where each team member lives. The members may come from either within the organization or from an external consulting firm. Directing involves guiding project activities to their timely completion within the assigned budget. Through directing, staff members get to familiarize themselves with the project and their individual