Efficiency and Competitiveness by Information System of Marston Tools Assignment

Efficiency and Competitiveness by Information System of Marston Tools - Assignment Example The industry faces a high level of competitive rivalry. The threat of new entrants is high given the increased competition from manufacturers overseas. There is also competition from lower cost substitute products. Changes in the manufacturing technology have been copied by manufacturers in countries where the same manufacturers have the added benefits of lower materials and labour costs. As a result the industry has been flooded with lower cost substitute products. Because of the availability of these substitute products, the customers have more bargaining power. This means that Marston Tools must be able to maintain a high level of manufacturing quality in order to remain competitive. By integrating information systems strategy with business strategy, the company will be able to achieve this objective. When it comes to acquiring and developing the right business information systems, Porter’s five forces should be assessed in terms of how they impact upon the company’s profitability. As the previous analysis indicates, the industry is characterized by changes in the products and manufacturing technology. This increases the competition. ... The company’s information strategy should be formulated accordingly. As mentioned before, the industry experiences changes in the products and manufacturing technology. Porter’s five forces analysis reveals that these changes can easily be copied by manufacturers overseas who also have the added benefits of lower materials and labour costs. Therefore Marston should not define operational effectiveness in terms of continuously improving the manufacturing technology leading to proprietary content or distinctive processes (Kotler and Armstrong, 2005). Rather it should be defined in terms of delivering unique value to the customers in the form of higher quality. Therefore when it comes to the design and acquisition of information systems, the management should focus upon creating a system that is aligned to the strategic objective of delivering high quality to the customers. In this manner the company raises switching costs thus lowering the bargaining power of buyers. The company operates in an industry which has a high threat of new entrants, a high threat of substitute products and high bargaining power from the buyers. Value chain Currently the company is operating a computer-based system of production scheduling and control. This enables the company to facilitate coordination of different departments by creating a production schedule based upon orders received and sales forecasted. However the company is still facing problems in guaranteeing customer delivery dates and this is affecting sales. Therefore the new business information system should address this problem. However the implementation of the information system will affect both primary

Healthcare Law & Ethics class - online discussion Personal Statement

Healthcare Law & Ethics class - online discussion - Personal Statement Example Some businesses benefit from having owners that are active participants in the business that is their livelihood. The only potential opening for unethical behavior would be if this radiologist is interested in abusing her position or finding negative and underhanded means that could undermine the clinics integrity; or was in anyway, compromising patient care, which is not yet an issue. In fact, as stated prior, it is a possibility that the partnership could be beneficial to the clinic not a hindrance. However, again, the ethics of the situation has less to do with the proposed scenario and more to do with the individual that is in the scenario. Some have suggested that the sale of organs in the U.S. would increase the supply of viable organs for transplant. Others have said that only voluntary donation is ethical under the U.S. system of medicine. Should someone in India, for example, be permitted to sell a kidney for $40,000 when there is a willing buyer from the U.S. who is in need of a kidney? What are the issues here? It is proposed that the potential sale of human organs would increase the number of organs available to those who may need them. However, it is also just as likely that the allowance of such sales would lead down a much darker path. By allowing the individual sale of organs creates a market; supply and demand. Simply put, it is very likely that instead of having more potential organs for those who needed them, there would be less. People are going to be less civically moved to donate organs, when there is a possibility of an economical motivation. Why donate when you can make a profit? Secondly, a strong issue is that once a high dollar value is placed on human parts, then it is no longer about who needs the organ the most, due to condition and severity, but to whom can pay the most to receive it. This is where the

Legalization of marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legalization of marijuana - Essay Example In the United Kingdom, there is a push to have marijuana as Class B drug, legalised. Conversely, there are others such as Steve Rolles who are arguing that Marijuana can be legalised without experiencing the drawbacks that would accompany that move, if the UK marijuana market is regulated with an aid of strict and feasible framework. Steve Rolles is the Transformation Drug Policy Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst. However, presently, the UK law stands as an impediment to Rolles’ postulation, given that the law criminalises recreational use and possession of marijuana. It is for this reason that many cafes selling marijuana are open, run clandestinely and immediately closed. Indications that the United Kingdom, particularly Britain may review its legal stand on marijuana is underscored by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg stating in February that the UK would explore viable alternatives to the wholesale proscription of drugs and that Britain was going to be the cen tre of the debate. There is a myriad of reasons being bandied as the reason for the legalisation of marijuana. First of all, there are those who argue that the legalisation of marijuana would help Britain save billions and this would therefore an economic value to the United Kingdom. Behind this argument is the rationale that decriminalising cannabis sativa will open up many marijuana-related businesses. These businesses would make profits which in turn would be taxable by the federal government. The rationale of this argument is upheld by the fact that the state of Colorado announced in March that it had collected more than one million pounds in taxes. This tax revenue was obtained by taxing marijuana businesses that were newly legalised and sold the drug for recreational purposes. According to Danovitch, political expedience also informs the push for the legislation of cannabis sativa. Legalisation of bhang has become a strong issue in Western Australia’s Senate

Environmental Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Environmental Analysis - Essay Example Marketing is the concluding approach used to endorse the selling strategy for products such as the iPhone 4s. Marketing has then been cleverly practiced at the company to encourage its business. With this understanding, this paper critically examines Apple Inc. and the application of PESTEL analysis. Introduction In any given business organization, management is something which should be done in the right manner possible, and this should be able to integrate all elements of management and functions as well. This becomes a defining application which has the capability of improving performance and ensuring that business goals have been realized within the shortest time possible. For instance, within any strategies of management, it should be appropriate to adopt a number of practices, theories and organizational adoptions which have the capability of improving performance of business organization. In this study, it would be necessary to understand the issue of leader and management and how they can be viewed and adopted towards ensuring that the greatest gains have been realized in the business organization. Different organizations have been able to come into terms with such approaches, and hence they have been in a position of realizing the greatest gains within their business operations. ... 38). This kind of leadership and organizational responsibility has been something very significant for the business, and as well has been able to bring a new wave of promotional engagement which has been seeing an improvement in the business engagement thus leading to the realization of business goals. Basically, Apple Corporation has been able to improve its business engagements, and hence becoming one of the best performing businesses in the economy of the country. There has also been an effective modality in decision making which has been vital towards the realization of business goals. Management and leadership ideologies have been adopted in the best manner thus leading to the realization of goals within the business (Wharam, 2009). In that sense, it should be worth noting that the best of gains in any business shall be only be in line with the kind of engagement of management and leadership which have been adopted in the business (Gill, 2006). It would thus be very appropriate to study the kind of engagements which have been adopted in this business and see how it has been able to become a perfect performer in the business. Management and Leadership: Apple Corporation At Apple, there has been the need of ensuring that all business engagements have been appropriately led and managed towards the realization of the best business goals. In that sense, it should be necessary to apply all management functions as this has the capability of ensuring that the best of gains have been realized in the operations of the business. However, there should be the need of understanding that there are a number of differences between management and leadership (Rost, 2004). In management, this is a wide conceptual

Legalization of marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legalization of marijuana - Essay Example In the United Kingdom, there is a push to have marijuana as Class B drug, legalised. Conversely, there are others such as Steve Rolles who are arguing that Marijuana can be legalised without experiencing the drawbacks that would accompany that move, if the UK marijuana market is regulated with an aid of strict and feasible framework. Steve Rolles is the Transformation Drug Policy Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst. However, presently, the UK law stands as an impediment to Rolles’ postulation, given that the law criminalises recreational use and possession of marijuana. It is for this reason that many cafes selling marijuana are open, run clandestinely and immediately closed. Indications that the United Kingdom, particularly Britain may review its legal stand on marijuana is underscored by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg stating in February that the UK would explore viable alternatives to the wholesale proscription of drugs and that Britain was going to be the cen tre of the debate. There is a myriad of reasons being bandied as the reason for the legalisation of marijuana. First of all, there are those who argue that the legalisation of marijuana would help Britain save billions and this would therefore an economic value to the United Kingdom. Behind this argument is the rationale that decriminalising cannabis sativa will open up many marijuana-related businesses. These businesses would make profits which in turn would be taxable by the federal government. The rationale of this argument is upheld by the fact that the state of Colorado announced in March that it had collected more than one million pounds in taxes. This tax revenue was obtained by taxing marijuana businesses that were newly legalised and sold the drug for recreational purposes. According to Danovitch, political expedience also informs the push for the legislation of cannabis sativa. Legalisation of bhang has become a strong issue in Western Australia’s Senate

Ational aconomy Essay Example for Free

Ational aconomy Essay A joint venture is a partnership created by agreement between the parties to share in the losses and profits of the venture. But it is unlike a partnership in that the venture is for one specific project only, rather than for a continuing business relationship. If we speak about two great artists: Anrie Matisse and Pablo Picasso the idea about their joint venture could be expressed in the words: â€Å"History of success or How they never worked together but influenced upon each other†. When Picasso met Matisse, his French was poor and he was not so experiencied as his older college. Fernande Olivier said: Matisse, beaucoup plus age, serieux circonspect, navait pas les idees de Picasso. Pole Nord et Pole Sud , disait-il en parlant deux deux. He characterized Matisse in those words: Le type du grand maitre: visage aux traits reguliers, a la forte barbe doree, Matisse etait sympathique. Il semblait cependant se derober derriere ses grosses lunettes, reservant lexpression de son regard mais parlant longuement des quon lentreprenait sur la peinture. Il discutait , affirmait, voulait convaincre. Il avait deja pres de 45 ans, tres maitre de lui a lencontre de Picasso, timide, toujours un peu maussade et gene dans ces sortes de reunions. Matisse brillait et simposait. Ils etaient les deux artistes de qui on attendait le plus. Leo Stein, collector and mecenate said that disorder and dust (â€Å"le desordre et la poussiere†) was usual medium for Picasso versa order and calms (â€Å"lordre et le calme†) for Matisse. They were competitors but they were were friendly competitors. Matisse’s focus was color and lines while Picasso put form above all. And it is so strange to read words of some art experts (Robert Rosenblum) about their competition: â€Å"This is like the heavyweight championship of the art world†¦ like the battle of the titans, like the Montagues and Capulets. One of the exciting things about it is the friction, the rivalry, the give and take. † Well, what art production was the result of two or more artists working together as a joint venture? Historically the first examples of joint venture were seven wonders of the ancient world. I can not recollect names of all authors of the Great Pyramids at Giza, the Hanging Gardens at Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos (Lighthouse) at Alexandria. Nobody can. But I should try. The biggest and the most successful project is Khufu’s pyramide. So, what parties we have in this joint venture? Producer and general director: Great King Pharao Khufu. Architect and executive director – Khimeun. Other participanys: hundreds of unknown artists. Tourists want to look at this specimen of ancient art and they ready to pay for this pleasure. Some kinds of arts are syntetic by their nature. Like opera, which is â€Å"a drama set to music and made up of vocal pieces with orchestral accompaniment and orchestral overtures and interludes† (www. m-w. com). So several persons participate in developing opera: composer and conductor (music), writer (libretto), scenograph and director (performance). Success of the performance depends not only on music or text but on every participant. Painters usually work independently. Leonardo da Vinchi made picture Babtize of Christ (Andre Veroneze’s workshop) to be more expensive when he put his hand to an angel and landscape. But when young Leonardo worked with Veroneze he was only his apprentice. Some artists created consortium which became brend name of their production. Soviet caricaturists Kupriyanov Mikhail, Krilov Porfiri and Sokolov Nikolay were teamed up during second world war and their caricaturs signed as KUKRINIKSI. Work in harmony – is ideal. But artist team creates atmosphere of inspiration which helped individuals to produce true chedevre. â€Å"This was a project conceived of with joy and optimism, it was carried out with faith and love faith that we could, as a team, work collectively to create something much greater than each of us individually and love because thats why we make street paintings we love what we do. † – these words of participant of street painting festival demonstrated advantages of team work and joint venture in the art. So, the oldest story is relationship of master and apprentice. The apprentice system, through which new artists learned the trade ensured that styles of art were continued from master to apprentice. An apprenticeship was an obligation of future painter members and normally lasted from four to six years. This period spent in a recognized master painters workshop insured the young artist a thorough familiarization with the complexities of his craft. Laborious task like hand grinding of mineral paints was often left to the apprentice. In the masters studio the apprentice was exposed to the many thoughts, opinions and artistic theories which circulated with great fluency from one artists studio to the others. Painters studios were often lively places frequented by artist, patrons and men of culture. Animated artistic debates as well as exchanges of information concerning the art market were the norm. The apprentice, within the space of a few years, was personally exposed to an endless stream of ideas and information which passed every day through the masters studio. He was allowed to work on the less important areas of the masters own paintings such as large areas of unmodulated color or monotonous areas of foliage in the background. The master closely followed his pupils progress and corrected him when needed. Some extremely talented artists were able to leave the masters studio within a few years. Rembrandt progressed so rapidly that he already had pupils of his own at the age of 21. An apprentices first tasks were humble: sweeping, running errands, preparing the wooden panels for painting, and grinding and mixing pigments. As the apprentices skills grew, he would begin to learn from his master: drawing sketches, copying paintings, casting sculptures, and assisting in the simpler aspects of creating art works. The best students would assist the master with important commissions, often painting background and minor figures while the Master painted the main subjects. The few apprentices who showed amazing skill could eventually become masters themselves. A very few became greater artists than their masters. As the apprentices skills improved he worked on the more complex areas such as drapery and the secondary objects seen in the painting. Once the apprentice had gained sufficient mastery, he was allowed to conceive and execute his own paintings, but could neither sign nor sell them. This could be done only after he had undergone the entrance exam of the guild. Another advantage of being a guild member was permission to sell paintings of other artists as well in order to increment his earnings. It’s very difficult to call this relationship true joint venture. But we could find some parallels in the modern business. For example iFIDs. com is a joint-venture partnership between Thunder Bay International Airport Inc. and Aviation InterTech. iFIDs. com came about when the airport went looking for a flight information display system for the terminal to fit their budget and Aviation InterTech came up with a low-cost Internet-based solution. Another axample: the joint venture have been formed recnetly between BBC Worldwide Americas Inc. (BBCWA) and New York merchant banking firm Veronis Suhler. The venture will initially focus on acquiring consumer lifestyle and informational publishing properties with cross-media expansion potential. It incorporated the BBC’s existing and future North American businesses in publishing including video, books and magazines. The 50/50 joint venture is being capitalized at $100 million of equity, with significant purchasing power beyond this. The company will be managed jointly by both partners. You see: joint venture in the art is always virtual. But JV in the business – is very important part of world and national aconomy.

Features of Java Operating System

Features of Java Operating System Introduction: When 1st java card details were issued, the card chips where 8 bits with a few hundred of bytes of RAM and a few kilo bytes of EEPROM. These sever constraints led the java card forum and Sun to issue a had lots of limitations compared to standard java. This specification does not specify and operating system but an execution environment that most player in the smart card industry is able to implement on top of his own proprietary operating system. The silicon market evolution seems to indicate that next generation products will be based on much more powerful machines (32bits, 64bits, RISC, cache are becoming common in chip category) the smart card industry, through the java card forum, has clearly indentified this evolution and has started initiatives like the java card 3.0 details process that aim to define upcoming version of java card adapted nest era of hardware with this hardware evolution, java has also evolved a lot. It is more limited to the desktop environment and is now present in both the server market with J2EE and in the embedded system market with J2ME. This evolution brought interesting feature to the java platform process for running long lived application are popular on the server side and less java subset applicable to categories of devices has been defined with J2ME configuration. The purpose of this assignment is to have overview of what can be considered now as the less java feature that can be integrated to modern smart card hardware and how these features that can be integrated to modern smart card hardware and how these features can be turned into a card operating system that cope with the smart card industry particular constraint like big production, personalization post issuance. The reason for targeting an operating system instead of an additional software layer like its done in the computer world with standard JDK is to use java as the unique hardware abstraction for applications without intermediate levels to reduce the workload and increase the efficiency. Features of Java Operating System: The java platform defined in different techniques the java VM (Virtual Machine) specification and the java language specification. In the context of operating system these techniques are only relevant at the running environment level. The selection of the java Operating System features is guided by the classical needs of OS. The coding, linking, running engine and memory management for the performance. Class file of Java: The class file is Java define in the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) specification as delivery format for the code of classed to load into a Java VM. This format is considered to be verbose and not compact, but it has some other properties that provide a maximum flexibility both for the development and for the code application update. Other formats such as the Java card 2.x Cap file or the JEFF file format are focusing on reducing file size using the command and techniques like linking information removal or file structure reorganization. These techniques have good result in size reduction but induce deployment constraints depending on the degree of size reduction for example a Cap file can be ten percent size of the equivalent set of class files, but it requires an off card conversion step for the developer and to maintain off card a database of linking information to perform card pre linking which is painful work for deployment and card management. We argue that on card class file processing that provides the same reduction ration as the JEFF conversion fifty percent reduction. The process explaining more detail in figure below. Since the load link operation occurs only once in the life times on the class, we think that the development benefits brought by loading standard class files are worth the effort of loading the class file in its entirety and applying an on board conversion process that enable to store in card memory a structure equivalent to fifty percent of the original class file size. One of the main industrial profits of choosing the class file and defining you own conversion process is that it gives freedom for differentiation most of the card manufacture can choose an internal format adapted to his own particular constraints. Engine Multithreaded Execution: the java platform has native support for multithreaded and synchronization and even in the lowest configuration defined for the embedded system market like CLDC, this help to maintained the one may think that for embedded and resource constrained devices the Support for the multithreading may be too heavy to be reasonable, well there are lots of reason to have multithreading support in the core of very small java operating system. The core reason is that it enables to write power application framework on top of the Operating System, in java without needing complex native modifications of the Operating System and its happen when the SIM Toolkit application model has been explained in java card. There are also lots of classical reasons to use threads that are briefly described in the literature. In limited devices like smart cards, memory such as the Virtual Machine implements must be carefully choose an efficient and resource helping implementation of the multithreading support. The existence of java application only on the top of java operating system collaborating with native code and not with native application like in a desktop computer seems to support a green thread like implementation rather than a native thread implementation. Java Memory Management: One of the interesting feature of Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is the automatically garbage collected heap that is used to allocate java objects when they are created, letting the burden of moving, compacting, freeing the memory to the system instead of the developer. This interesting feature was lacking in the java card specification and give the developer of complex applications to developer their own memory management routines within the application code, which is written in java, this disadvantage of java card to behave as an Operating System. The programs shouldnt handle such sensitive task. There are several types of garbage collectors but the ones that seem the more appropriate to smart card like environments are generational collector. This type of collector are well adapted to server like long lived application which is typically the case of smart card program. Actually the memory manage for the object instances is separate from the memory management of system data like description, threads, code, classes, objects. This normally leading toward the complexity, bigger footprint of the memory management and static segmentation of the memory. We are experimenting an alternative to such a split organization that is to use unified object oriented memory management and static segmentation of the memory. We are experimenting an alternative to such a split organization that is to use a unified object oriented memory manager that both types of programs and system objects, in this case most of the things in the system is an object including java objects instances, loaded, code, classes and every object in the system is subject to garbage collection. This memory management leads to easy management code which is then hopefully smaller and more robust. Different Application Models: Most of the earlier feature of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) describe above have common objective put in the Operating System the functionality that will make smaller and more efficient application. One great strength of java that was lost in java card and that we think must be reconsidered for next generation smart card Operating System is to be application model independent. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) doesnt clarify a particular application model, but gives all the core features that are necessary to build various successful frameworks such as applets, serves or RMI Objects. Configurations: The smart card program and system designers and developers have considerations that are very similar to the people working in the mass production embedded system devices market. How to debugging fast/safely the Operating System and the programs, how to build quickly a product configuration, and how to decline and Operating System in product range to leverage the investment. There is more, the smart card industry has his own particularities like for instance the need for personalization of every issued card with the holder information. Development Issues: The use of java is in itself the beginning of a solution for some of these problems, because of the wide range of products freely or commercially available to help designers and developers. But the high safety exigency on smart card products implies that maximum effort must be made on any tools that would allow the developers to operate in an environment as close as possible to the actual device. Debugging the code while it runs. Issues: Product issue and other tools are help in the production and personalize phase of the cards. The ROM intervenes at the production step, to generate the code to mask into the chips ROM. It is complemented by the memory serialize which is used to build memory images saves in files. It will be sent to the card at initialization and personalize time to build the right memory structure that will put the card in the right state. Such tools are usually difficult to write and to maintain, but these tasks can be greatly simplified using the introspection capabilities provided by the unified object oriented memory management introduce above. Integrated Operating System: A solution to minimize the cost of these tools is to build an operating system that includes them from the beginning, in a configurable manner, and that can be declined from the same set of sources in different editions adapted to the targeted device. Such a configurable Operating System is illustrated in the following figure. Feature Categories Developer edition of the Operating System would include any developer features like an embedded debugging interface based on the JPDA standard, a shell based console to administer the Operating System load remove classes, create threads. Such a complete edition would of course run on computer and on emulator only not on real cards. Another declination would be the post issuance enabled edition that would be the high end embeddable version of the Operating System, targeted for high end cards with post issuance facilities with a loader linker. On the other eternity would be the minimal edition, targeted for low end cards, without any post issuance capabilities, that would have a much smaller footprint. Conclusion: In this assignment we have highlighted some features of an embedded java Operating System suitable for next generation smart cards considered as java micro server platforms. Three important java Operating System characteristic have been explained class file format acquisition, multithreaded support and unified memory management. Their implementation has been shown feasible and their usage and advantages has been explained in the context of configurable card platform architecture. Thanks to tools such shell console, debugger, ROMizer and Serialzier, the migration path from a rich platform configuration up to a customized platform configuration has been explained. The overall advantages of this embedded java Operating System architecture is its adaptability for being used, on one hand as full fledge java environment to quickly develop and test programs and on the another hand as an engineering environment for mass production of optimized embedded code hosted by limited devices. Though originally developed in the context smart cards, such architecture could be suitable in any embedded system device in which the java development platform can different from the final Java deployment platform. References: [1] The Java Card Virtual Machine specification 2.1.1. Sun Microsystems http://java.sun.com/products/javacard/ [2] Java 2 Micro Edition, Sun Microsystems http://java.sun.com/j2me/ [3] Java Virtual Machine Specification, Tim Lindholm, Frank Yellin. Sun Microsystems. http://java.sun.com/docs/books/vmspec/index.html [4] Java Language Specification, James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy Steele, Gilad Bracha. Sun Microsystems. http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/index.html [5] The JEFF File Format, J-Consortium http://www.j-consortium.org/jeffwg/index.shtml [5] J2ME Connected Limited Device Configuration http://java.sun.com/products/cldc/ [6] Sim API for Java Card, ETSI TS 143 019 V5.2.0 (2002-03) http://www.etsi.org [7] Concurrent Programming in Java. D. Lea. Sun Microsystems, 1999. ISBN 0-201-31009-0, Addison-Wesley [8] Java Platform Debugger Architecture, Sun Microsystems, http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/jpda/index.html Master of Science BITE Innovative Technology 1