Cultural Differences in the Perception of Geometric Illusions

Cultural Differences In Geometrical Perceptions The study chosen is called Cultural Differences in the Perception of Geometric Illusions. The research specifically focused on the psychological processes of depth perception and visual perspective. The first example is the Muller-Lyer illusion which is an optical illusion consisting of stylized arrows in which viewers tend to perceive one as longer than the other.The second example used is the Sanders Parallelogram in which a diagonal line bisecting the larger, left-hand parallelogram appears to be slightly longer than the diagonal line bisecting the smaller, right-hand parallelogram, but it is in fact the same length. The last example used in the stimulus is the horizontal-vertical illusion, in which observers have the tendency to perceive the vertical as longer than a horizontal line of the same length when the lines are perpendicular.All of these relate to how a subject is able to understand the spatial qualities. The researchers hy pothesize that the cultural differences between the people tested affect their perception of the lines. The researchers dispersed the tests to 14 non-European countries including those in Africa, Philippines, and America. All in all this amounted to 1,878 samples. The differences in these cultures can change from those of habitat, where some may be living in a dense, urban environment to those who live in rural land.Language may also affect how one may perceive their surroundings, another factor that differs between the test samples is the school of thought between different cultures. The result of the research showed that on both the Muller-Lyer and Sanders Parallelograms the European and American samples made significantly more illusion-produced responses than did the non-European samples. On the two horizontal-vertical illusions, the European and American samples had relatively low scores, with many of the non-Western samples scoring significantly higher.All samples appeared to b e minimally susceptible to the perspective drawing. These findings point to cross-cultural differences that perhaps can be attributed to ecological and cultural factors in the environment. For example, in the study they provide an explanation for the factor of spatial perception, they believe that if one were to live in a highly urbanized community, in which there is a high prevalence of rectangles, then the subjects are more inclined to interpret two dimensional cute and obtuse angles as representative of rectangles in three dimension drawings. This can also be the opposite, if one were to grow up in the countryside where they are exposed to large horizontal vistas, then their perceptions would change. Works Cited: Segall, Marshall, Donald T. Campbell, Melville J. Herskovits. â€Å"Cultural Differences in the Perception of Geometric Illusions. † Science, New Series, Vol. 139, No. 3556 (Feb. 22, 1963), pp. 769-771

Women Hobbies

Hobbies Preferred By The Women Can you imagine the women walking into each shop in the megamall and try every shoes, clothes, and handbags for 8 hours straight without even feeling tired? Even Haile Gebrselassie, world’s best long-distance runner can’t do that! According to the research done by a group of students from the University of Melbourne, women love to go shopping, grooming, go for a massage or spa, reading, singing, cooking, art &craft and so on. Despite being so passionate about their hobbies, not every woman shares the same hobbies.Although it is regarded as the most favorite’s hobbies, shopping is just one of many hobbies preferred by the women. Shopping is one of the hobbies preferred by the women and is very synonym with women. When I want to talk about shopping, the first thing that will pop out in my head is woman buying things. Although it does sound simple and considered as a light activity, shopping can and will eventually suck out every ounce of your stamina over time and making your legs begging for a massage. However, these creatures from Venus seem not affected by this at all.Most women are so passionate with this hobby till the point where they can eliminate the fatigue just like that even after spending more than 4 hours walking and shopping. Another common hobby shared by most of the women around the world is cooking. Cooking is a wonderful womanly hobby and art that they can enjoy with their loved ones. Women cook for various reasons. Some people just love the taste of good food or they enjoy the time spent cooking together with their love one. While for some women, cooking food has been more than just about feeding one’s body.It is their way to nourish a soul, a relationship, especially with their family members or their loved ones. A hearty meal with family and friends, give them a sense of happiness and appreciation. Sometimes when their family members get into trouble, they will cook, and things someho w seem a little brighter. Most women enjoy reading novels, magazines, newspapers, and also blogs. According to a research made by the popular English newspaper website, www. guardian. co. uk, women enjoy reading as they know how to read properly and with enthusiasm.The new research shows that nearly half of women are avid readers who cannot put a book down once they begin it and who reliably get through a long list of titles in an average year. Women enjoy reading, especially romance novels. It excites them to read the love stories with the unlimited possibilities of what might happen next in the stories. It also gives them a sense of tranquility, a feeling of relaxation when they read. Women also feel that by reading, they are becoming smarter as it helps them in critical thinking skills and the increasing amount of vocabularies.In conclusion, most women usually prefer simple hobbies that are fun and relaxing. Hobbies like shopping, cooking, and reading are widely practiced and enj oyed by many woman although some prefer tougher and more challenging hobbies like mountain climbing, horse-riding, and bungee jumping. Every hobby have their own benefits and it is up to the women to experiment and choose wisely on what they would love to do in order to fill up their time with useful and fun activities.

Leadership at BMW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Leadership at BMW - Essay Example While charismatic leaders are achievement-oriented visionaries who, by virtue of their characteristic aura and excellent communication, inspire their followers, and are also capable of taking a calculated risk, noncharismatic leaders are knowledgeable, confident and analytical. Unlike democratic leaders who believe in participative management style and encourage the involvement of subordinates in the decision-making process, autocratic leaders tend to use the power of their position to impose their verdict on subordinates. Leaders are seen as enablers when they inspire and empower subordinates, and controllers when they manipulate subordinates. These two contrasting styles can be correlated to some extent to autocratic and democratic styles. Finally, transactional leaders are those who incentivize the performance of employees and transformational leaders are motivators who aim at enriching the subordinates. In compliance with the German laws concerning publicly listed organizations, BMW has a supervisory board and a board of management (BOM). The BOM has six members who are led by the Chairman, Board of Management Dr. - Ing. Norbert Reithofer. The supervisory board consists of ten representatives of shareholders as well as employees (BMW-website-a, 2009). The chairman of the supervisory board is appointed by the Quandts and BMW employees comprise half of the board. The organizational structure of BMW is team oriented. The organization employs interrelated and multi-skilled work teams. Being a top-notch automobile company, BMW has institutionalized the concept of high-performance work groups which are self-organized.

Global Branding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Global Branding - Essay Example itical to note that the debate of the standardization versus adaptation is largely rooted into the overall discussion on the globalization and anti-globalization debate. Despite the increase in the overall anti-globalization sentiments across the globe there are still efforts towards the standardization as well as the adaptation of the brands across regions. The debate therefore between the localization and the offering of the standardize products across all the regions largely depends upon how the organizations take into consideration different factors. Though both the approaches towards the brand strategy also required to be explored from the perspective of how they may have an impact on the marketing as well as the financial outcomes for the organizations. This paper will discuss and explore the issue of how the standardization as well as adaptation may have on the marketing outcomes such as prices, premium, market shares besides discussing as to how the same can have an impact on the financial performance of the organization. Branding itself has become one of the challenging aspects of managing the overall marketing strategy of the firm. Marketers have to actually now shift from the product standardization to the brand standardization as increased awareness of the global consumers actually require firms to cater to the uniform needs of the consumers also. Branding as a process actually refers to the process of connecting the name and the reputation to a person or an item. As such, the overall breadth and scope of the branding has expanded and often covers the products and even different product ranges. (Whitelock and Fastoso et al., 2007, pp. 252--270) Increasingly, international marketing experts believe that the share of the globally standardized brands is increasing at relatively greater pace. The entry of luxury brands into Asian markets speaks volumes about the penetration of the global brands into the markets which were previously not served by these

Health Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Health Policy - Essay Example According to the report  high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease are common health problems in the United States and other regions. High blood pressure is also a factor to cardiovascular disease and its prevention and management are therefore important. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, about 33 percent of adults in the United States suffer from high blood pressure, and only 47 percent of the fraction has manageable blood pressures. In addition, about 1000 people die daily in the United States because of high blood pressure.From this paper it is clear that  statistics by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention identifies severity of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. One in every three people suffers from hypertension and the number of deaths per day is high. In addition, having 67 million patients is a burden to the nation’s healthcare facilities as well as to the patients’ family and friends. The fact that the problem d oes not show symptoms and that it can damage other body organs also shows its severity. Similarly, high incidence rate and mortality rate of cardiovascular disease establishes its severity. The fact that one in every four deaths is attributable to the disease means that it is the most significant disease in the United States, and possible in the entire globe. High incidence and mortality due to cardiovascular disease also shows its significance.

Heart attacks and stress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Heart attacks and stress - Essay Example Medicine Net (2010) has reported that if left unmanaged, stress can lead to emotional, psychological, and even physical problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, chest pains, or irregular heart beats (Medicine Net, 2010). Stress can increase both the blood pressure and the cholesterol level in our body which can lead to heart attacks. This paper focussing mainly on stress related heart attacks. In simple terms Heart attack is the blocking of blood flow to the heart due to some problems. Barrier less flow of blood to and fro heart is essential for the smooth functioning of heart. Heart pumps blood to all over our body through veins and whenever this pumping disrupted, heart functions may cease. â€Å"If the flow of blood isn’t restored quickly, the section of heart muscle becomes damaged from lack of oxygen and begins to die† (What Is a Heart Attack?, 2008) Heart attacks are common both in men and women. Different reasons were cited as the cause of heart attacks, But generally it is accepted that lack of physical workouts and changing life styles are the major reasons behind heart attacks. The current generation is tied with so many commitments to their family, society and to the workplace. It is difficult for a layman to manage all this commitments equally well. The failure in the management of commitments may result in increased level of stresses and stress causes many physical and mental problems and heart attacks are one among them. Friedman and Rosenman were the first to explain why specific behaviours (overt pattern behaviour A" or Type A) could cause heart attacks and contribute to coronary artery disease. Stress can cause accelerated atherosclerosis and coronary occlusion that is associated with elevated cholesterol, triglycerides, and free fatty acids, increased fibrinogen, haptoglobin, plasma seromucoids, platelet aggregation and adhesiveness, polycythemia, and accelerated blood clotting (Stress And Heart

Paralegal Class Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Paralegal Class - Assignment Example Since it is a legal firm, they are also required to have excellent communication skills. Since the law firm is a very busy environment, they should also have the ability to multi-task, meet strict deadlines and also have to be flexible to work at odd hours. I find this job advertisement interesting because they place emphasis on fresh graduates with hardly any experience in order to mold them to be what the company needs. The notice was found in an easy internet search. Checks and balances are put in place to make sure that each of the three arms of the government, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive, does not have too much power. For instance, article two section 4 states that the president, the vice president and other civil officials shall be removed from power if they are proven guilty of any acts of corruption. The president or the civil servants do not have the power to absolve themselves of the acts of crime should the congress decide to impeach them (Article 2 Section 2). Article three Section one states that judicial power shall be decided upon by the Supreme Court or any other court as deemed fit by the Congress (Article 3, Section 1). Article one Section one says that the Congress has the right to decide upon how much power the legislation has (Article Section

Organisations & people management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organisations & people management - Essay Example It can be seen that leadership is an indispensable component in the day to day operations of an organisation and plays a vital role in guiding the organisations through the turbulent periods. One of the major issues brought about by change is resistance to change which is a natural phenomenon but if it is ignored, it can derail progress in the organisation which is why leadership is of paramount importance to any organisation that is serious about its growth and development. In most cases, the way in which organisations respond to new challenges they face in their operations is a true reflection of the values, attitudes as well as the styles of the leaders. It is therefore imperative that leaders embrace attitudes and behaviour that are compatible with the situation obtaining on the ground at that particular moment in order to keep pace with the changes that may be taking place in the environment. It can also be seen that leadership is not an exclusive domain of the chief executive officer or the charismatic leader but in one way or the other, each one of us can find himself in a leadership position. It is also concerned with people management and factors that shape behaviour in an organisation. Though leadership is often confused with management, a holistic approach is ought to be taken as far as managing change in the organisations is concerned. Failure to put in place measures that are meant to ensure that the organisation positively responds to the changes taking place in the environment may result in unfavourable conditions to the organisation emerging. Against this background, this essay seeks to critically identify and evaluate the major influences on leadership styles and approach on the operations of Google. The essay will begin by giving a very brief description of the organisation in question which will be followed by explaining different key concepts such as leadership, leadership styles as well as management and the extent to which these

Managing for Competitive Advantage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Managing for Competitive Advantage - Essay Example They introduce only two fabric and two garments innovations per year (2003, p8). A growth of .7% means nothing in the industry. They wanted to change many things at once in an effort to regain the lost market but in the process, they ended up losing core customers. The new team, M&R, believed in a selected range, high quality merchandise at reasonable prices with high value (2005, p4). They cut down the product line in clothing as well as in food sector. According to them, too many sub-brands had diluted the main brand. Your M&S helped to draw the brand together. They removed the slow lines and simplified the range (2005, p5). Their concentration was product, service and store environment (2005, p4). Reducing product line enhances the shopping experience they felt. V&H widened the price band by lowering the opening prices in some product lines and believed that they offered best value for money. They wanted to appeal to everyone so had all price ranges and catered to all ages. They wanted to attract the under 35 while M&R felt their core customers belonged to the 35-55 age group (2005, p4). M&R had sharper, very competitive opening prices (2005, p4) while V&H had inconsistent price architecture (2005, p4). V&H used press advertising to appeal to the younger customers. They introduced samples in stores and felt this boosted sales. They changed their products too often, and their designs were complicated (2004, part3, p9), which according to the new team, made the customer feel confused (2006, p5). It was also difficult to find the product they were looking for. M&R thus de-cluttered and simplified the store layouts while V&H constantly tried to change the displays at stores (2005, p5). V&R was not quick to recognize shift in customer demand and could not move fast enough to meet aspirations (2004, part3, p6). This could possibly be due to wide

What can we learn from change strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What can we learn from change strategies - Essay Example is going to discuss how the programme of change affects the structure of the organization illustrating briefly the organization structure prior to change and the results of the change programmes. The paper will also discuss the impacts of change on the staff and systems in relation to motivation and engagement of staff and the new way in which they have to work following the change. Hill and Jones (2007) noted that the programme of change has positive impact on the structure of the organization as the changes are meant to improve ways of achieving the goals and objectives of the Companies. Strategic changes occurred in Asda Superstore in order to deal with new products in the market, increased competition, new government regulations, changing the workforce and technological developments hence the business was assured of success. Prior to the change the organization structure of Asda Superstore was simple since they had less employees and managers and hence running the business was easier. Changes had to be considered because the supermarket was struggling to increase sales and change in consumer habits that were driven by the increase in online shopping and low incomes among customers made it difficult to succeed. Change programmes were initiated after the demand of the products in Asda superstore increased and therefore there was need to change strategies so that they can meet the needs of the customers. Jansson (2008) stated that the organizational structure for Asda superstore was refined, their accountabilities clear, duplication removed and decision-making made swift and communicated transparently. The strategic changes in Asda superstore had a positive impact on the staff and systems, as they were encouraged to contribute to the success of the organization by being given a chance to share their ideas and being involved in the decision-making processes (Samson and Bevington, 2012). After the strategic changes, some staff members were motivated by being

High School Girls Essay Example for Free

High School Girls Essay 1. In my High School, the experience was somewhat different. In the article it says that the boys stared at the girls passing and rated the different parts of their body from one to ten. In my high school days, the boys striped us with their eyes and we felt that they can see inside our clothes. They also made lewd comments. 2. We felt harassed and humiliated and degraded as Rachel and her friends felt. It used to make me very angry but my friends never let me retort as these boys were ‘bad boys’. We were frightened of them. 3. We were taught in home as well in school to keep away from these kinds of boys. As a result the girls rarely talked about the issue. Even if we spoke about it, we never thought of taking actions against the boys who harassed us. 4. Individually sometimes one girl would retort for misbehaving with her. One of the girls in our class once turned back and told the boy who was teasing her to stop it or else she will the principal. 5. Rachel and the other girls taught those boys a lesson. The girls in my school never thought of taking action against the boys. It was very difficult to convince the girls to take action in a group. The common advice was to ignore them. 6. The boys who teased us were the lot who did not study in school. They had all kind of bad habits like smoking, taking alcohol and drugs and they were of rich families. They were notorious. The girls in my school were too scared of these boys to take any sort of action against them. 7. The teachers in my school did not approve of this kind of behavior. There were some strict teachers in our school, those boys stood clear of their path. If any teacher saw them behaving in this manner, they would complain to the principal, who would punish them heavily. 8. The other boys in the school did not confront them as this would lead to fighting and abusing. They did not tell their peers as they did not want to get involved. 9. I think that school teachers and administrators can stop this kind of thing from happening in school in two ways. First, they can make the girls aware of eve-teasing and the result of keeping silent. They should be made aware of the fact that keeping silent is not the solution. It only increases and do not end it. Second, the school authorities should warn those boys that they will be heavily punished and even rusticated if they continue such behavior. Summary: In the article, the boys of high school during lunch time harass the girls but staring and rating different parts of their boy from one to ten. One girl among them, whose name was Rachel also faces similar situation in spite of friendly with them. She feels very humiliate and degraded by the action. She along with other girls plans and teaches them a lesson. They sit in the same bench, rate them and grab them as they used to do. After the episode, those boys stop harassing them.

Warehouse Management Essay Example for Free

Warehouse Management Essay Abstract: The study presented here considers arrangement and management policies to improve the order picking procedure in the existing company warehouse. The study was conducted in a timber goods production and trading company. The main objective was to reduce the overall picking time that is quite high due to the lack of proper management and the nature of the stored items. The first stage was to register the situation in the warehouse. The second stage involved the analysis of the obtained data, to identify promising modifications and quantify the benefits of adopting them. The proposed modifications were based on policies and methodologies suggested in the literature. After the company approved and implemented (some of) the proposed modifications, the final stage was to measure and analyse the achieved improvements. Keywords: warehousing, case study, facility layout, order picking time 1. INTRODUCTION Order picking (OP) appears as one of the most significant activities in a warehouse. The picking tasks may contribute by over 65% in the warehouse operating costs. In fact, the retrieval cost exceeds by far the storage cost of any given item (Coyle et al., 1996). The factors affecting the efficiency of OP typically include the product demand, the warehouse layout, the location of the items, the picking method in combination with the routing methods, the experience of the employees, and the extent of automation (Gattorna, 1997). Note that the high cost associated with the automation of the procedure forces the majority of companies to use manual operation, usually at the expense of efficiency and time. The case study is carried out in a timber goods production and trading company. We consider one of the existing warehouse facilities and we attempt to improve its performance. The performance measure is the total picking time, so our objective is to find ways to reduce it as much as it is practically possible and desirable. At the first stage involves the collection of time data, to target the improvement that may be accomplished from the transition from a totally disorderly situation to an organized and controlled warehouse environment. The second stage suggests, implements and studies alternative storage, picking and routing schemes, according to observations made during the first stage. During the third stage, a second series of time measurements is carried out to investigate the achieved benefits. 2. REVIEW OF WAREHOUSE POLICIES RELATED TO ORDER PICKING There is a variety of studies on methods, policies, principles and/or techniques developed to improve the overall OP procedure. The decisions usually concern policies for the picking of the product items, the routing of the pickers in the warehouse, and the storage schemes for the products in the warehouse. The research scope has been to investigate the effect of changes in these policies on the reduction of the overall OP costs and the increase of percent savings. Petersen and Gerald (2003) was the first to attempt a simultaneous evaluation of all the three policies, whereas the usual practice is to consider them separately. 2.1. Picking policies In terms of the picking policies, Ackerman (1990) divided OP into strict, batch and zone picking and proposed policies tailored to each case. In strict picking, a single order is assigned during a picking tour, leading to lower service times and higher customer satisfaction. The policy is ideal when the group of the picking products is quite small and easy to be found. Drawbacks of the policy include an increase in the overall transportation time and a cost penalty. Alternatively, the batch picking policy assigns to a picker more than one orders during a picking tour (Gibson and Sharp, 1992; De Coster et al., 1999; Petersen, 2000). The batch scheme may bring significant reduction on the total picking time, but introduces an additional cost for monitoring and separating the orders at a later stage. Zone picking assigns a picker to a designated picking zone, where the picker is responsible for those products that are in his/her zone of the warehouse. This scheme decreases the chances for destructions and mistakes, but a possible delay in a zone is a threshold for the entire picking procedure for a big order. Frazelle and Apple (1994) further divided zone picking into: sequential zone, batch zone and wave OP. Petersen (2000) suggested that in the sequential zone scheme the order integrity is maintained, in batch zone the orders are batched together and each picker collects the products within a zone, and in wave picking a group of orders is programmed in precise time period. 2.2. Routing policies Routing policies suggest the route for a picking tour and the picking sequence of the items on the pick list. The suggestions are based on decision-making technologies that range from simple heuristics to mathematical optimization procedures. Using mathematical programming tools Ratliff and Rosenthal (1983) found that optimal routing reduced the travel time, but the optimal routes were quite confusing routes and difficult to implement in practice. Hall (1993) and Petersen and Schmenner (1999) examined the efficiency of heuristic routing in minimizing the distance traveled by the picker. In practice, many warehouses use the traversal policy, where the picker must pass through the entire aisle and in order to collect the items. Petersen (1997) and Roodbergen and Koster (2001) examined the possibility of combined traversal and return routes to reduce further the travel distance. 2.3 Storage policies Storage policies remain the least investigated among the three policy categories. Random storage is the most widely used option, and Schwarz et al. (1978) examined its performance. Petersen and Aase (2003) claimed that random storage is by far the simplest option and requires less space compared to the more sophisticated storage policies. The simplest structured-storage schemes apply class-based and/or demandbased policies in the arrangement of the products. In class-based storage the products are classified, and items of each class are placed within the same area of the warehouse. In demand (or volume) –based storage the products are stored according to their demand (or their size) near the Pick-up / Drop-off point (P/D). Jarvis and Mc Dowell (1991) suggested that the optimal storage strategy is to place the items with great demand in the aisle, thus reduce the travel time. Gibson and Sharp (1992) and Gray et al. (1992) stated that locating high volume items near to the P/D point increased the picking efficiency. Petersen and Schmenner (1999) examined the volume-based storage policies and concluded that the method resulted to less time compared to other storage policies. Eynan and Rosenblatt (1994) claimed that the class-based storage required less data processing and yielded similar saving with volume-based storage. Tompkins and Smith (1998) suggested that the overall picking time could be reduced applying the Pareto principle on the storage arrangement. In a warehouse, a relatively small number of products constitutes the largest part of the stock and accounts for the largest part of the dispatches of the warehouse. Consequently, if high demand items are placed in near distance and grouped into classes, then picking time can be significantly reduced. The former is easy to apply by allocating a number of the front area piles to items of high demand or leftovers. In terms of more sophisticated storage options, Ven den Berg (1999) suggested a separation of the warehouse into a forward and a reserve area. The forward area was for order picking, while the reserve area was used for replenishing the forward area. The variety of different methods and techniques makes it difficult to identify the most appropriate policy to increase the overall performance of the picking activity. The decision on the appropriate principles and policies to be applied depends on the characteristics of the particular system, i.e. product and warehouse. By reducing the non-productive elements during OP, Gattorna (1997) presented a set of basic and general productivity improvement principles. 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDIED WAREHOUSE – INITIAL SITUATION The company considered here deals with wood production and trading, and uses 6 warehouses for the finished products. Each warehouse is further divided into individual sections where different categories of products are stored. Panels, i.e. sheets of compressed wood (chipboard) account for 80% of the total product sales of the company. The panels are covered with coloured melamine to imitate the appearance of various types of wood. The panel warehouse has over 6000 codes of stored products, distributed into 4 individual sections. The study considers one of these sections, where the number of codes is around 1000. The most frequent values for the size of the panels is 3.66Ãâ€"1.83m, and the thickness is between 6cm and 25cm. Instead of using shelves, the products are piled one on top of the other using small chocks between the packages. Great attention is paid to the alignment of the items in each pile, to avoid sheet warping. Warping can easily occur due to the small thickness of the packages and the large load they take. The studied warehouse section consists of three parts: two of them have 12 front piles each and the third part has 6 front piles (Figure 1). The piles are 7m high and the products are stored in up to 4 depths of pile levels. The main aisle is used by the clarks to gain access to the front piles. The aisle is wide enough to allow the clarks to remove the items of the front piles and to retrieve items stored in the deeper levels. Each part of the section contains different groups of products. Customer orders are collected by the Sales Department and sent to the Traffic Office on daily basis. The loading plans contain information on the ordered items and their quantities, the customer placing the order, and the requested mode of loading on the lorry. In the course of a day, the Traffic Office prepares over 25 order plans. The plans are usually collected and loaded at the same time. Initially, the warehouse suffered from many problems that mainly affected the search and retrieval times. The picking followed the strict OP policy. Each pair of pickers (an operator and an assistant) undertook a single order-plan at the time. Orders from other plans were collected once the pickers completed their current plan, even if this required revisiting the same areas of the warehouse. There was no automated or optimal routing system used here, and the choice of an efficient route remained on the experience of the picker. The grouping of the products in the section parts was based on the type of their surface (e.g. porous or smooth), regardless of the kind of wood. This was the only storage rule, and then the items were stored randomly in the section parts. Tracing a product was relying on the experience of the warehouse managers and the memory of the pickers. From the point of management the process depended on the experience of the personnel, while even a simple WMS version was certain to improve the situation. Once the location of an item was specified, the retrieval time was affected by the size/weight of the products, and the mode of storage. For instance, if the ordered product was located on the second, third or fourth depth of pile levels, many items had to be removed until the product was finally retrieved. Then, the removed items had to be placed back to their original locations. 4. MEASUREMENTS AND PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS The time measurements were carried out twice. The first measurement (stage 1) presented the initial anarchous situation of the system (see Section 3). The second measurement (stage 3) showed the effect of the improvements suggested by the authors and adopted by the company. The picking procedure is divided into four phases, and the time measurements concern the: 1. the travel time required for the picker to reach the pick point, 2. the search time required for the products to be found, 3. the retrieval time required for the products to be retrieved, and 4. the return time required for the picker to transport the products to the order point. Each time measurement considered 15 order plans selected by the Traffic Office of the company in collaboration with the authors. The selected plans were representative and included a large number of products, so that the analysis of the obtained time schedules yields reasonable and reliable conclusions. The number of orders in the studied plans ranged from 5 to 17 per plan. To allow comparison between the picking times measured for items of different size, the results are presented as the measured time over the volume of the respective item, namely in minutes per cubic meter. 4.1. Stage 1: Results of the 1ST measurement series The results of the 1st measurement series are reported on Table 1. The time required to complete the picking cycle is 5.69 min/m3. In terms of the itemized times for travel, search, retrieval and return, we observe that finding and retrieving the products are the most time-consuming procedures. The search time is around 36% (2.05 min/m3) of the total OP time. The percentage is quite high and reveals the need for an automated system to control and monitor the placement of the stock. Tracing the products becomes an extremely difficult and demanding procedure relaying mainly on the experience of the operator and the assistant. Many years of work in this particular position and the ability to locate the items using visual contact are decisive factors. In many cases, finding an item quickly is merely a matter of coincidence or luck. Our results include cases where locating a stocked product took over 45 minutes of searching and the product eventually failed to reach the customer on time. Table 1: Final results obtained during the 1st and the 2nd measurements Phases Travel time Search time Retrieval time Return time Travel return times Total 1ST measurement before modifications t1 (minutes) % total 0.51 9.0 2.05 36.0 2.50 43.9 0.63 11.1 1.14 5.69 20.0 100. 2ST measurement after modifications t2 (minutes) % total 0.33 11.5 0.37 12.9 1.73 60.5 0.43 15.0 0.76 2.86 26.6 100. Relative time reduction (t1-t2) / t1 % 35.3 82.0 30.8 31.7 33.3 49.7 The retrieval time is around 44% (2.50 min/m3) of the total OP time. Most of this time is spent on removing products in the front levels until the desired item comes to surface. The multiple storage depths combined with the surface type-based storage makes retrieval the most time-consuming procedure. Note that the initial choice of storage policies was based upon empirical criteria since, without a systematic measurement and consideration of the real system. Typically, the travel and return times account for over half of the total OP time (Tompkins, 1998), and most of the research work in increasing the efficiency of OP has focussed on the assumption. This does not apply to the problem considered here, where the retrieval times are considerably higher due to the nature of the products. Supported by the results of Stage 1, the retrieval times can be reduced by rearranging the warehouse and applying storage principles as discussed in Section 2. 4.2. Stage 2: Proposed and implemented mo difications The scope here is to reduce the time spent to reach the picking area and the packaging point. Based on the analysis of the first measurements the following were suggested to the company. Introduction of a Warehouse Management System (WMS): The use of a WMS can facilitate and speed up the tracing of the products. This is expected to reduce significantly the search time that is over a third of the total OP time. Improvement of the picking policies: After introducing a WMS, it is advisable to change the method of OP from strict to zone picking. Application of optimal routing policies: In total, the travel and return time is only around 20% of the total OP time. A techno-economical feasibility study (in the form of an ABC analysis) can quantify how much of this can really be reduced by the choice of routing policies, and provide incentives to carry out the necessary modifications. Changing the location of fast moving products in the warehouse, to reduce the retrieval time for small orders. The number of the wood panels ordered is usually other than those contained in the panel lots. The initial policy was to leave the remaining items in their original locations until they were again in demand. The result was to have many broken lots of the same product stored randomly in various places and levels within the warehouse. The remainders of the product lots can be placed in easily accessible front piles assigned for this purpose. Extending the storage space to reduce the storage depths from four to two, to reduce the retrieval time. This however increases the fraction of the void over the total space in the warehouse, and creates a trade off between the time needed to access the products and the cost of extending the warehouse area. The company adopted some of the above suggestions, namely the installation of a simple WMS and a change in the location of its products, following an ABC analysis. The storage mode changed to demandbased, hence the fast moving products were placed closer to the section entrance to reduce the travel and return times. Also, two piles were allocated on each side section, where the remainders under 20 sheets would be placed (see the broken lot piles in Figure 1). The company did not switch to zone picking, because separating the items of the different order packs needs extra space. Also, the company could not consider our suggestion to reduce the storage depth levels, since this requ ired building an additional warehouse. 4.3. Stage 3: Results of the 2ND measurement series Once our suggestions were implemented, the second measurement series was conducted to evaluate the subsequent reductions on the total OP time. The results and the differences between the first and the second measurements are presented on the Table 1. The total time to complete the picking cycle is now 2.86 min/m3, thus a reduction of nearly 50% was achieved. More specifically, the search time is down by over 80% and is now nearly 13% (0.37 min/m3) of the total. This is because the item locations are registered and given to pickers along with the order plan. Further reductions could be achieved if the employed WMS specified the height along with the depth of the product location. The demand-based storage and the use of the two piles for the broken lots reduced the retrieval time by 30.8%, to 1.73 min/m3. There is also significant reduction (33.3% on average) in the travel time to and from the picking points, due to the new storage policies adopted. Despite the significant overall reduction on the OP time, the problem of item retrieval remains unresolved. In effect, the current retrieval time is 60% of the total OP time. Redu cing the storage depths is not considered presently, as it requires expansion of the warehousing establishments. 5. CONCLUSIONS This work presents a real case study to improve the performance of order picking in an existing company warehouse. The main objective is the reduction of the overall picking time. The work is divided into three stages. The first stage is to register the situation in the warehouse with regard to the required order picking times. The total time is divided into travel, search, retrieval and return time to allow a more detailed analysis of the situation. The analysis of the obtained data identifies promising modifications and quantifies the benefits of adopting them. In effect, the measurements indicated the need for more systematic management, storage and arrangement of the products in the warehouse, and more efficient routing. After the company approved and implemented (some of) the proposed modifications, the time measurements were repeated to see the benefits. Finally, a mean 50% reduction in the total picking times was achieved. There is still space for improvement, even given the reluctance of the company to carry out expensive modifications. Our future research considers the development of a simple warehouse simulation tool to apply different arrangement options and evaluate their performance, using the time data collected in this work. REFERENCES Ackerman, K. B., 1990. â€Å"Practical Handbook of Warehousing†, Van Nostrand Reinhold, NY. Coyle, J.J., Bardi, E.J., Langley, C.J., 1996. â€Å"The Management of Business Logistics†, 6th ed., West Publishing, St Paul, MN. De Koster, M.B.M., Van der Poort, E.S., Wolters, M., 1999. â€Å"Efficient order batching methods in warehouses†, International Journal of Production Research, vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 1479-1504. Eynan, A., Rosenblatt, M.J., 1994. â€Å"Establishing zones in single-command class-based rectangular AS/RS†, IIE Transactions, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 38-46. Frazelle, E.H., Apple, J.M., 1994. â€Å"Warehouse Operations†, in J.A. Tompkins and D.A. Harmelink (Eds), The Distribution Management Handbook, McGraw-Hill, NY, pp. 22.1-22.36. Gibson, D.R., Sharp, G.P., 1992. â€Å"Order batching procedures†, European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 58, pp. 57-67. Gray, A.E., Karmarkar, U.S., Seidmann, A., 1992. â€Å"Design and operation of an order-consolidation warehouse: Models and application†, European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 58, pp. 3-13. Hall, R.W., 1993. â€Å"Distance approximations for routing manual pickers in a warehouse†, IIE Transactions, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 76-87. Jarvis, J.M., McDowell, E.D., 1991. â€Å"Optimal product layout in an order picking warehouse†, IIE Transactions, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 93-102. Gattorna, J., 1997. Handbook of Logistics and Distribution management, 4th ed., Gower Publisher Company. Petersen, C.G., 1997. â€Å"An evaluation of order picking routing policies†, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1096-1111. Petersen, C.G., 2000. â€Å"An evaluation of order picking policies for mail order companies†, Production and Operations Management, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 319-335. Petersen, C.G., Aase, G., 2003. â€Å"A comparison of picking, storage and routing policies in manual order picking†, International Journal of Production Economics, in press. Petersen, C.G., Schmenner, R.W., 1998. â €Å"An evaluation of routing and volume-based storage policies in an order picking operation†, Decision Sciences, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 481-501. Ratliff, H.D., Rosenthal, A.S., 1983. â€Å"Order-picking in a rectangular warehouse: A solvable case of the traveling salesman problem†, Operations Research, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 507-521. Roodbergen, K.J., Koster, R., 2001. â€Å"Routing methods for warehouses with multiple cross aisles†, International Journal of Production Research, vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 1865-1883. Schwarz, L.B., Graves, S.C., Hausman, W.H., 1978. â€Å"Scheduling policies for automatic warehousing systems: simulation results†, AIIE Transactions, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 260-270. Tompkins, J.A., Smith, J.D., 1998. The Warehouse Management Handbook, 2nd ed., Tompkins Press, Raleigh. Van den Berg, J.P., Zijm, W.H.M., 1999. â€Å"Models for warehouse management: Classification and examples†, International Journal of Production Economics, vol. 59, pp. 519-528.

Impact of Slope Incline on Cart Roll

Impact of Slope Incline on Cart Roll Parth Mahajan Acceleration Cart The Aim of this practical report is to roll a car on a slope of 15 °, 30 °, 45 °. The Results then used to make a Ticker-tape graph, Displacement-time graphs, and Velocity-Time graphs with the results that have been obtained. This will show the effects on the cart and how the different aspects of the cart can be effected, (such as the Velocity of the cart, Displacement of the cart and the acceleration of the cart.) Ticker-timers will help analyze the carts motion as the dots on the ticker tape can tell various things which include: The displacement of the cart, the time taken for its total journey, the acceleration of the cart and the velocity of the cart. The Incline plane is a tilted surface which an object (in this case a cart) will slide down. The angle of the incline plane is measured from the horizontal surface to the plank used for the cart to roll down. The Greater the incline of the plank results to a greater acceleration while the smaller the incline of the plank will lead to a smaller acceleration. If friction is deduced then at least 2 forces are acted upon an object to move the object, the force of gravity and the normal force. The force of gravity The force of gravity is also known as the weight acts in a downward direction.The normal force The normal force acts in a direction perpendicular to the surface. Galileo had put this to the test and conducted appointment with the inclined planes. After he had completed the prac several times he had observed that the amount of time it took for the ball to roll down the entire length of the ramp equal to double the amount of time it took for the same ball to only roll a quarter of the distance. He had concluded with: If an object is released from rest and gains speed at a steady rate, then the total distance travelled by the object is proportional to the time squared needed for that travel. Ticker Timer, Power Pack, Wires (2), G clamp. Paper Tape, Sticky Tape Wooden Ramp Trolley Find a place to put the wooden ramp. Secure the Ticker timer with a G-clamp to the wooden ramp. Connect the ticker timer to the power pack. (Make sure you connect to the AC ports and have your volts set to 12V) Get some ticker tape, 60 cm should be enough, and attach it to your cart with some tape. Thread the tape through the ticker timer, making sure the tape goes under the carbon paper and not over. Turn the power bank on, which should turn the ticker timer on and let go of the cart. Make sure someone is there to catch the cart or it could damage the cart. Remove the tape from the cart and you should have a ticker tape with multiple blue dots. Do this for each group member Repeat the process for different angles You should do for angles 15 °, 30 ° and 45 °. 15 ° Incline The ticker tape for the cart going down a 15 ° incline has the least space between the dots out of the 3 inclines tested. This is because the acceleration on the 15 ° incline is the least. As the acceleration is the least this means that the velocity would be the smallest at a given time out of the 3 inclines. The shape of the displacement-time graph shows that the cart is accelerating, this can be seen as the graphs gradient is increasing. For the Ticker-Tape Graph, there is a constant increase in the gradient showing that the cart is accelerating at a constant acceleration. Lastly the Velocity-Time Graph the line is mostly the same gradient showing that there is a constant acceleration. 30 ° Incline The ticker tape for the cart going down 30 ° incline has averagely sized spaces between the dot out of the 3 different inclines tested. The shape of the displacement-time graph is like the 15 ° incline graph but this graph picks has a greater gradient in the end and reaches a higher velocity, this is because since the incline is greater than it means there will be more acceleration. For the Ticker-timer graph the spaces between the different parts of the tapes are similar meaning that the gradient is constant. This is the same for Velocity-Time graph, as the gradient varies a little bit but is mainly constant. 45 ° Incline The ticker tape for the cart going down a 45 ° has the most space meaning that this cart was travelling the fastest out of all the three carts. The shape of the Displacement-Time Graph for the 45 ° incline has the biggest gradient out of the three meaning that it had reached the highest velocity out of the three. The shape of the Ticker-Timer is having a steady increase in the velocity meaning it had constant acceleration. This can be seen in the Velocity-Time Graph. The Gradient of the Displacement-time graph shown the velocity of the cart, since the line is a curved line to find the gradient tangent would need to be calculated to find the instantaneous velocity. The gradient of a Velocity-Time graph shows the acceleration of the cart.       When all 9 graphs are compared, it can be seen that the greater the incline means the create the velocity reached and the greater the acceleration of the cart. The results for this prac can vary within the classroom as of human error, the angles measured werent 100% accurate meaning that there could be variations for the angles which leads to variations of the speed reached by the carts. This Prac had been completed successfully and without any major errors. It was learnt that in an Incline is plane is a tilted surface which an object will slide down, it was also learnt that the angle of the incline is measured from the horizontal surface to the planked used.   Galileo had put this to the test and conducted various experiments using the incline plane. Improvements that could be made are that the measuring of the angle could greatly be more accurate as the protractors used for the prac were just rough estimates for the angle.

The Aerospike :: physics aerospike rocket engine

When a rocket's fuel ignites, the molecules in the fuel release a tremendous amount of energy in the forms of heat, light, and sound. They expand rapidly as they move from the "throat" of the nozzle into the "bell." The compressed air inside the balloon wants to expand outward. Therefore it presses against the walls of the balloon in every direction except the place where there is no wall - the "nozzle" of the balloon. Because there is no force vector in this location, adding the vectors yields a net force to the right. A bell nozzle, where a fuel (liquid Hydrogen) mixes with an oxidizer (liquid Oxygen) at a rate "m." As they ignite they are forced into the throat, where they are compressed substantially. As they move out into the bell, they steadily expand, pushing against the nozzle and creating a net upward thrust, similar to the compressed air pushing on the walls of the balloon. Luckily, a rocket can be controlled more than a released balloon. Nozzles do not have to be bell shaped - as long as gas is expanding and pushing against a surface, creating thrust, any shape can be used! One alternative to the bell engine is the spike configuration. In particular, the Aerospike engine will be described and analyzed. The "Spike," or annular, engine is one of three basic engine designs: cones, bells, and annulars.The Cone is the simplest engine design. A cone with a narrow angle provides the greatest thrust, but a longer engine means increased weight. A short, wide-angle cone tends to be unstable under pressure (in the atmosphere). For example, the Apollo Saturn 5 featured long, relatively thin nozzles for optimum thrust at sea level. The Command Module, which operated only in space, utilized a comparatively wider engine for more expansion in space. The Bell nozzle is a compromise, opening up more rapidly near the throat and then opening more slowly near the end. However, bell nozzles are optimized for specific altitudes, therefore they will only provide their maximum thrust at a given altitude - at all other points they will provide less-than-optimum thrust. The annular, or "altitude compensating" engine is a more recently developed design. Commonly referred to as Spike engines, annulars operate with exhaust flow outside what is typically thought of as the nozzle. The exhaust flows around a central spike, rather than being contained by walls. They are called "annular" because the throat is donut-shaped, with the spike protruding from the middle.

Costcos Unorthodox Management Essay -- Costcos Success

The success of a company all falls on the shoulders of good management. If you have great management the company will run very smoothly. There are so many things that take place when you have good management. It encourages initiative, encourages innovation, helps with growth and expansion, improves the life of workers, motivates employees and much more. Without good management there would be no success. Costco is the company that I have chosen to write about in this essay. Costco is a membership only warehouse club that provides a huge merchandise selection. They are the second largest retailer in United States. Costco had 2.3 million members in 2009 and in the year of 2011 they had four million members sign up. It’s not just their attractive bargains that persuade people to become a member. It is also their management style. It is the environment at Costco and the attitude of the company that also sells them on a membership. Costco is a very successful company that will continue to rise and become even more successful in the future, all because of the management. It is inevitable that Costco has to have a great management style because the company is so large and is doing so well. How do they keep the company running great though? How do they keep their employees and customers happy, while making money at the same time? In this essay we will find out how the CEO’s and managers run this company. We will learn the style of management and how Costco keeps the employees and customers happy. â€Æ' Costco Wholesale was founded on September 15, 1983 by Jeffery H. Brottman and James Sinegal. There are fifteen people on the board of directors, Jeffery H. Brottman is the chairman at Costco whole sale. He is on the board of director ... ... customers, it all improves Costco that much more. The management at Costco has made their success soar sky high. The success is still rising today. With their great management that is being instilled, Costco’s success will continue to progress. In conclusion, I believe that the board of director’s ways of managing this company is brilliant. They have great technique’s that will continue to carry the company to the top. All of these techniques that Costco uses are the reasoning behind their success. This is why I believe their success will only progress. They are great to their employees, customers and partners and that is why their company will do even better in the future. Works Cited http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830&p=irol-homeprofile https://www.openforum.com/articles/what-costco-ceo-james-sinegal-can-teach-you-about-management/ Costco's Unorthodox Management Essay -- Costco's Success The success of a company all falls on the shoulders of good management. If you have great management the company will run very smoothly. There are so many things that take place when you have good management. It encourages initiative, encourages innovation, helps with growth and expansion, improves the life of workers, motivates employees and much more. Without good management there would be no success. Costco is the company that I have chosen to write about in this essay. Costco is a membership only warehouse club that provides a huge merchandise selection. They are the second largest retailer in United States. Costco had 2.3 million members in 2009 and in the year of 2011 they had four million members sign up. It’s not just their attractive bargains that persuade people to become a member. It is also their management style. It is the environment at Costco and the attitude of the company that also sells them on a membership. Costco is a very successful company that will continue to rise and become even more successful in the future, all because of the management. It is inevitable that Costco has to have a great management style because the company is so large and is doing so well. How do they keep the company running great though? How do they keep their employees and customers happy, while making money at the same time? In this essay we will find out how the CEO’s and managers run this company. We will learn the style of management and how Costco keeps the employees and customers happy. â€Æ' Costco Wholesale was founded on September 15, 1983 by Jeffery H. Brottman and James Sinegal. There are fifteen people on the board of directors, Jeffery H. Brottman is the chairman at Costco whole sale. He is on the board of director ... ... customers, it all improves Costco that much more. The management at Costco has made their success soar sky high. The success is still rising today. With their great management that is being instilled, Costco’s success will continue to progress. In conclusion, I believe that the board of director’s ways of managing this company is brilliant. They have great technique’s that will continue to carry the company to the top. All of these techniques that Costco uses are the reasoning behind their success. This is why I believe their success will only progress. They are great to their employees, customers and partners and that is why their company will do even better in the future. Works Cited http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830&p=irol-homeprofile https://www.openforum.com/articles/what-costco-ceo-james-sinegal-can-teach-you-about-management/