Will You Add? - Business

Plastic Shipping Cases
With the increase in the trading relations between countries, shipping cases are also becoming a vital part in the shipment of products safely from one place to another, whether it is domestic or international shipping. Many shipping case companies are customizing their products to various sizes according to consumers’ requirements. Shipping cases are designed intelligently, so as to protect the commodities from all sorts of damages, collisions, extreme temperatures, shocks, etc.Flight cases are commonly used for air or flight transport. The exterior surface of a flight case is usually made from aluminum or plastic. The plastic cases are much lighter and offer easy mobility, when compared to the aluminum cases.Usually, plastic cases can carry any type of material safely. The durability of plastic cases depends on the type of materiel used in the manufacturing process. Plastic cases are also customizable as per the requirements of a customer. Manufacturers come with varied shapes to attract the customers to their products.Plastic shipping cases are not only used for shipments, but are also used for storage, preservation, and sanitation. The plastic cases are ideal for carrying electrical, clinical, and scientific equipments. Some plastic shipping containers come with take-off lids and recessed corner wheels, and some are made of high-density polyethylene. These cases are especially suited to transport computers, electronic devices, video equipment, and other sensitive equipment. Some of the freight plastic cases are designed to eradicate the need for wood pallets and skids.Thus, plastic cases ship the contents safely and securely without much of a fuss, as they are much lighter and easily movable when compared to the aluminum and iron shipping cases.

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded even the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

But what was left to investigate? Then it struck me - the calendar was at fault. It was the calendar causing the problems. I recalled that in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII had a serious scheduling problem. He could not keep the planting season in sync with the calendar. Farmers could not plan their seeding and harvesting times based on the calendar.

The Pope, following my advice on process improvement of adding, improving or eliminating, he eliminated ten days in 1592. That worked fine for 150 years! In 1744 the British dropped another 12 days (giving rise to the twelve days of Christmas) and all is still in sync.

Compared to the Pope and the British Empire, I only wanted to fiddle with the calendar, nothing major mind you, just a little fiddle here and a little fiddle there.

First, I eliminated Mondays. The day following Sunday was now Tuesday. Brilliant. Quality improved over night. Curing Fridayitis was a no-brainer. I reversed Thursdays and Fridays. With Fridays now being midweek there was little point in taking the day off. So the week now went Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday-Thursday-Saturday.

Everyone enjoyed the four-day week. I was a hero! All went well for a few months. The Production Manager was pleased with the improved quality. However, he complained the missing Mondays was causing his deliveries to fall further and further behind. Hmmm. Should I add the four days a month back into the calendar? I could not call them Mondays so when were they to go?

In another flash of brilliance I add the four days to the end of the month. But what to call them? Certainly not Mondays. So I decided not to name them, but to number them. Following the 31st of the month they were called the 2nd 31st, the 3rd 31st, then the 4th and 5th 31st. The production department loved me.

All was going well until I had a visit from IT. Information Technology: the computer gurus. You know them, the group that has their Help Desk only staffed from 2am-4am, Tuesdays to Thursdays.

“What is with all these requests to change the calendar? You know us: we only work on projects we dream up. Right now we are working to correct a serious bug.” The bug was in a program comparable in importance to Windows 3.0 Solitaire. Even then, they never had the latest software.

“We also have to solve the year 2000 problem”

“But that is nearly fifty years away!” I cried. “Yes, we know. A difficult problem.” The solution seemed obvious. If I can fiddle a little with the calendar, why not fiddle some more? So I eliminated the year 2000. Who would know? They were so please they extend the Help Desk hours to include Saturdays and Sundays.

Who knocked next at my door but the Human Resources people? They did n

High Altitude Locomotives
When China decided to build a railroad line, which would be nearly 16,000 feet high a special locomotive had to be built to run at these high altitudes, as well as oxygen had to be secured for those passengers and locomotive engineers. This technology had to be borrowed from other sources and luckily there was a multinational corporation, which was able to handle this.General Electric has built the GE C38AChe, which is a high altitude locomotive, which runs at optimum even at high elevations. In fact, General Electric has built 78 of these GE C38AChe Locomotives. Each one having 4000 hp and to they are an engineering marvel of technology both old and new. If you look at the GE C38AChe, you see that slightly resembles a locomotive, but it's guts are state-of-the-art technology on the leading edge of locomotive engineering. Here's a picture;http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=133146The GE C38AChe is able to operate over the Himalayas, something no other rail line has ever achieved and a bold step for trade indeed. Apparently, whether it is building a Treasure Fleet, Great Wall, Massive Cities or even a railroad; China thinks big and boldly. Using the best technology in the World, China is making the grade. Consider all this in 2006.

In my youth, many years ago, I worked for a medium size manufacturing company. I was, like all at that age, eager and knew it all. And some still call me a know it all.

After two months there, the President asked to speak to me. I did not think he even knew I existed. Sweat time. I was sure I would get the axe and I had no idea why.

“I need your help,” he said. I started to become confused and weak kneed. My being speechless, he continued: “We are having serious scheduling problems and I would like you to investigate. A fresh look at the problem may be useful.”

“Listen to this” he said, “It is a memo to the Sales Manager from the Production Manager.”

He read the memo “John: Do you want us to rush the rush job we are rushing now, or are we to rush the rush job you wanted us to rush before we rush the rush job we’re rushing now, or rush the rush job we were rushing before?”

With that he developed a twitch in his left eye. The man was rattled. He continued saying “We have two other serious problems. Quality on Mondays is horrible and we have high absenteeism on Fridays.”

Being capable of solving all the worlds’ problems, I took the assignment.

On the pretext of learning the operations I spent about a week in the scheduling and production departments. Quality was a minor problem except on Mondays. For the most part the suppliers delivered on time. High absenteeism was a mystery to me. Does not everyone like to work? I asked a fellow why he only worked four days a week. He replied, “Because I cannot live on three day’s pay.”

The senior scheduler had an interesting philosophy, not without merit. “Plan well for the days and let the nights be a surprise.”

Frankly, I could find little wrong except for the Monday and Friday problem. However, their scheduling factored in these problems. And the calculated delivery dates seemed reasonable but rarely achieved.

I suspected the planning yet I was at a loss. Then I remembered what General Eisenhower had told me. “Roe,” he said, “in preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” A wise man.

I also remember what my old friend Sherlock Homes had told me years ago. “Roe,” he said, “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded even the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Compared to the Pope and the British Empire, I only wanted to fiddle with the calendar, nothing major mind you, just a little fiddle here and a little fiddle there.

All was going well until I had a visit from IT. Information Technology: the computer gurus. You know them, the group that has their Help Desk only staffed from 2am-4am, Tuesdays to Thursdays.

“We also have to solve the year 2000 problem”

Who knocked next at my door but the Human Resources people? They did not want anything. The inventors of the Annual Performance Review were just wandering the halls lost, as usual. I have always maintained it would be cheaper to fire the lot and simply give us all an annual 10% increase. Don’t you agree?

Next came a visit from Finance. They were totally confused. Apparently I was stressing their limited ability of adding, subtracting, and complaining. A sad condition. They remind me of the bird who flew backwards: it was not interested in where it was going, only where it had been. Finance only measures what can be measured, not what should be measured. Have you ever seen a list of the most important thing of all, lost customers? Of all the expensive, wasteful things is a lost customer. Why did we loose them? No one ever mentions lost customers. Criminal.

Surprisingly, Finance did not have a complaint. They had a request: would I please have the 10th of the month follow the 20th? All their reports had to be in by the 10th of the month and with this change they would have an extra ten days to do their work.

Not surprisingly, I never heard from Engineering. It has been my experience that engineers rarely know or care what day it is.

Now came the really devious group. EH&S- Environmental, Health and Safety. Here were the deep yet warped thinkers, the real troublemakers. Beware of these people for they are a scurvy lot. Avoid them like the plague.

They wanted the 1st of the month to follow the 31st. “What on earth for?” I asked. “Well,” they replied, “We report accidents from the 1st to the 31st. This way the month would be over before it began. Voila! No accidents to report!”

Brilliant, What could I say?

Then a calm voice from the back spoke up. “We cannot do that for if we report no accident for a few months we will all be laid-off.” Good thinking. So I moved the 1st to a few days before the 31st. Now there would be a dramatic improvement but not perfect.

I said they were a devious lot. I was being cautious, trying to choose my words carefully. I am convinced EH&S is running a very clever extortion operation and is probably connected to the Mafia. They say, “Pay us more and we will do less. Pay more and there will be fewer accidents and fewer chemical spills. Don’t pay us and you will see accident, spills, and government visits will increase.” Get less for more money - that’s incredible. That’s extortion, pure and simple.

And they have a powerful lobby to write more and more complicated regulations. Imagine; in this time of deregulation these people have the power to increase regulations. Can you imagine the Finance department lobbying for more complicated tax regulations? Or the production people saying, “Pay us more and we will produce less?”

It must be extortion. Imagine: work and do nothing. My advice? Get a job there quick. After the first day on the job they all seem to be retired at full pay.

And it goes beyond this company. On my last visit to California I went to the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in San Diego. It was a beautiful building. Huge. 2-3 floors, the cafeteria sat 300-400 people. It was a large, spacious and attractive building.

Now think it through. They are the EPA. Do you realize how much pollution was generated for the building’s construction? If they truly believed in protecting the environment, they would be working in tents, especially in earthquake prone California. What could be safer than living in tents? At least in the north we have the cold as an excuse.

In general my new and improved calendar had a few minor problems. We sometimes delivered products before receiving an order and occasionally are accused of being late before receiving an order.

What was the end result? What would you expect? I was promoted. The President retired early on a medical leave. The Production Manger simply disappeared. I inherited the President’s tic. Strangely enough I was never asked to help with scheduling again. What a waste of talent.

James Roe www.smartjobhunting.com A free web site.In Business Scheduling is Critical By James Roe 7/10/06

In my youth, many years ago, I worked for a medium size manufacturing company. I was, like all at that age, eager and knew it all. And some still call me a know it all.

After two months there, the President asked to speak to me. I did not think he even knew I existed. Sweat time. I was sure I would get the axe and I had no idea why.

“Listen to this” he said, “It is a memo to the Sales Manager from the Production Manager.”

Being capable of solving all the worlds’ problems, I took the assignment.

The senior scheduler had an interesting philosophy, not without merit. “Plan well for the days and let the nights be a surprise.”

Compared to the Pope and the British Empire, I only wanted to fiddle with the calendar, nothing major mind you, just a little fiddle here and a little fiddle there.

All was going well until I had a visit from IT. Information Technology: the computer gurus. You know them, the group that has their Help Desk only staffed from 2am-4am, Tuesdays to Thursdays.

“We also have to solve the year 2000 problem”

Who knocked next at my door but the Human Resources people? They did no

Catering To The Chinese Market
In the first quarter of 2006, the Chinese economy grew 10.2%. With the increase in growth in the Chinese market and the constant continued growth being forecast for the future, it's wise for western businesses to research what the Chinese market wants and needs before dipping their toe into the Chinese market. Here are the current trends in the Chinese marketplace:FoodWith such masses of people in China and a steadily growing population, it's no wonder that food and food service is one of the biggest markets in China. From fine dining to fast food to supermarkets and specialty food shops, pretty much every kind of food is available in China. The biggest western names in food have all delved into the Chinese market already, including Walmart, Pizza Hut, KFC and, of course, McDonald's. There is also a huge market for all types of food and even catering services.Banking & Financial ServicesMany foreign financial companies including Merrill Lynch and The Royal Bank Of Scotland have already bought stakes in Chinese banks. With the lifting of more restrictions on foreign financial companies in 2006, the banking industry should see even more foreign investment.Luxury GoodsHigh end goods, including foreign brand name watches, clothing, jewelry, electronics and autos are markets that continue to grow. The rise in the amount of wealthy people in China continues to fuel the demand for high end and luxury goods of all kinds.CellularWith an estimated 440 million cell phone users in China, there is a huge market for cell phones, cell phone service and cell phone accessories.MallsMassive sized malls and shopping centers are popping up all over China, most offer a wide range of imported products, particularly stores from the US and Europe, including Chanel, Papa Johns Pizza, Gucci, Burberry, and Ralph Lauren. Retail sales in China have increased a staggering 50% in the last four years, with much credit going to the boom of mall building. Over the last six years, over 400 malls have been built in China and that number will only increase. In Dongguan, you'll find what is now the largest mall in the world, the South China Mall. It boasts 6.5 million square feet of total floor area and room for 1500 stores.Western Brands

years! In 1744 the British dropped another 12 days (giving rise to the twelve days of Christmas) and all is still in sync.