Financial issues Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Financial issues - Assignment Example The global financial crisis is one that has affected many companies. This has led to many changes with regard to the various regulations that exist. There is development in financial planning and the management of wealth (Elizabeth 1156). The article critically discusses this and shows the manner through which the global financial crisis of 2008 has led to trading of financial instruments. There is also the existent issue in modern days with regard to financial instruments that brings up the question of disclosure in the relevant industries and a case in example is what happens in Brazil mostly (Malaquias 95). Many companies do not seem to appreciate the value of privacy in an organization. In modern days, privacy is so poor such that financial statements of various debtors are portrayed to other people that attend to the same bank. Financial reporting is also important as some people fail to offer the important information that is necessary for financial instruments and planning. This information is such as the actual assets that the company or individual bears (Mark 3). It is important for these people to offer exact information to assist in the actual planning of a person’s or the investment of the company. Malaquias, Fernandes. â€Å"Disclosure of financial instruments according to International Accounting Standards: empirical evidence from Brazilian companies.† Brazilian Business Review, 2013: 10, 3. Pgs 82 – 107. Elizabeth, Blankespoor. â€Å"Fair Value Accounting for Financial Instruments: Does It Improve the Association between Bank Leverage and Credit Risk?† Accounting Review, 2013, 88, 4. Pgs 1143 –

Module 3 SLP Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Module 3 SLP - Coursework Example As of December 2012, The Kraft Food owns 34 manufacturing plants in the US and two plants in Canada. The plants are capable of accommodating multiple product lines. They manufacture Cheese products in 12 locations, Beverage products in eight locations, Grocery products in 15 locations, Refrigerated Meals products in nine places. Apart from this they also outsource the production of products, if found advantageous (Kraft Foods Annual Report, 2013). The company garnered net revenues of $18.2 billion while earnings before tax stood at $4.1 billion in 2013. The companys balance sheet as on December 28, 2013 shows assets of $23.1 billion. The companys market capitalization is close to USD 39 billion. The companys operating profit margin is 22.67%. Operating cash flow is $1.8 billion. The companys return on assets is 11% while return on equity is 45.45%. The company stocks are traded on NASDAQ Stock Market (Balance Sheet, 2014). Human resource is considered an important and vital resource at Kraft Foods for companys sustainable development. Based on 2013 data, the company employs 20,400 employees in the US alone and around 2100 people in Canada (Kraft Foods Annual Report, 2013). The company employs rigorous development plans to retain this important resource. The company puts a special emphasis on employee engagement for their overall development and growth. Kraft Foods has mastered the basic science of food processing and the art. They have developed savory flavors, cheese solutions, and enhancers for developing distinct taste of their products. The company has developed cost-reduction technologies for its numerous processes to benefit consumers. The technical resources help them to compete in the market. They are considered a leader in flavor technology and capable of identifying and developing the best solution for their food products. They have pilot plant facilities to developing ingredients for

Impact of Master Data Management

Impact of Master Data Management The impact of Master Data Management in an organization to improve decision making. Abstract This research deals with assessing the importance of Master Data Management in an organization and the impacts it has when making decisions. I will present the methodological framework which allows a centered master data to flow to different systems. This research will use the qualitative approach and interpretive paradigm. Master Data Management MDM Keywords: Master Data Management, Data Quality, Information Management, Data Governance Background of the study The focus to Master Data Management is to provide relevant information for decision making using the various systems in the organization. Based on the increasing number of expected benefits of systems that they will deliver a single version of key organizational entities. â€Å"MDM represents the set of policies, governance, standards, processes and tools that define and manage the master and reference data of a business organization to provide a single point of reference.â€Å"(Subotic, Jovanovic, Poscic, 2014) Years of using and retaining data in different data stores have led to conflicts in data descriptions, in the way data is structured, and the values of data, which makes it impossible or hard for an organization to understand and properly use its key data(Cleven Wortmann). Data are used in almost all the activities of companies and constitute the basis for decisions on operational and strategic levels. Poor quality data will have significantly negative effects on the competence of an organization, while high quality data are often crucial to a company’s success (Haug, Zachariassen van Liempd). Integrating those business definitions and data records across business lines and across subsidiaries is no simple task, demanding rearranging of data ownership and governance, however also requiring advanced technology for policies and business rules to be enforced(Scheidl 2011). The goal of MDM is to create and maintain consistent and complete business data for all stakeholders in a controlled and single-view capable manner across the whole organization which will help them figure out the improvement areas so they become more efficient and competitive. MDM is meant to provide organizations with the ability to integrate, analyze and exploit the value of their data assets, regardless of where that information was collected (Milanov Njengus 2012). Research Problem Organizations deal with different data which may be scatted across the whole organization where systems do not communicate with each other causing the organization to make decisions based on data that is not accurate. Research Objectives Master Data Management seeks to consolidate data that resides in various systems that do not communicate with each other, in such a way that accurate and up to date organizational data is available in a single place (Reichet, Otto, Ostele, 2013). This research will discuss on how Master Data Management can manage the organizations data and outline the benefits of using MDM which will permit the organization to understand their key data. Consequently, the lack of a suitable master data management may lead to severe problems like operational faults, inadequate decision making. The bigger the company, the bigger the issue of managing the data will be. If companies grow the data landscape gets more complicated and managing data becomes an issue that is hard to deal with (K Pietzka). Companies need to make decisions based on the data that they understand and has qualities of data quality dimensions – Timely, Consistent, Completeness, Integrity, Accuracy, Conformity. To be successful in business, you need to make decisions fast and based on the right information. (Thatipamula 2013) Preliminary Literature Review Master data form the basis for business processes. Master data represent a company’s essential basic data which remain unchanged over a specific period of time. Which include customer, material, employee and supplier data. Inconsistent master data cause process errors resulting in higher costs. With proper governance, the master data can be regarded as a unified set of data that all applications can rely on for consistent, high quality information (Hamilton G). Theoretical Framework This framework will allow master data to flow from the Master Data System to the applications, making sure that all applications use the same data. It ensures that the data used is always created the same way and is unique. Which will then allow all linked applications to use the centralized master data. By: C LOSER, Dr. C LEGNER, D GIZANIS showing Central Master Data System Research Questions Asking the right questions will enable the organization to better the way they make decision and the processes involved in their every day to day transactions (Cleven Wortmann). This research will use a qualitative research to answer the following research questions: How to maintain high data quality?   The impacts in business for not having high quality data What causes data redundancy in the organization Maintaining high data quality Achieving better insight into the performance of processes involved in the everyday running of the business, the customers they have and product profitability and market share is one of the goals. These reporting understandings are the base for key decision making, however, the quality of the reporting is directly impacted by the quality of the data. Data that is not of high quality leads to under-informed decisions. Also, the return on costly investments in business intelligence is partly diminished if the source data is corrupt (C Loser, Dr. C Legner and D Gizanis 2004) A major factor of any company’s day-to-day business is the data that is used in business processes and is available to the operational staff. If it happens that this data is not available, out of date or incorrect, the business may suffer delays or financial losses. â€Å"The implications of poor quality data carry negative effects to business users through: less customer satisfaction, increased running costs, inefficient decision-making processes, lower performance and lowered employee job satisfactionâ€Å"(Haug A, Zachariassen F, van Liempd D, 2011) Data in an organization needs to be controlled and managed. Without having specific rules in place or enforcing data governance, this will cause data to be redundant in different places/systems across the organization. Data governance specifies the framework for decision rights and accountabilities to encourage desirable behavior in the use of data (Otto B, 2009) When wrong data is identified in the system, some analysis would have to be performed to find out why it happened and how it can be prevented from happening again. The process of correcting the issues will take time and organizational resources. Benefits of Master Data Management The key benefit of Master Data Management is to integrate similar data management processes, consolidate the critical information that is scattered across the organization, improve the integrity of data which makes sure that the data available is complete and accurate and business will be able to make more effective business decisions from the data with integrity. (Al-Zhrani, 2010) Challenges of Master Data Management Master Data Management challenges consists of managing the data as there is continuously increasing amount of data which will come with unclear processes of how to collect and maintain that data. Because master data is often used by multiple applications and processes, an error in master data can have a huge effect on the business processes. (Gustafsson, Franke, Johnson, Lillieskà ¶ld) Hypothesis Having implemented MDM effectively, the following can be made from the evidence gathered. Hypothesis 1 (H1): Understanding the company’s customers will lead to increase in market share Hypothesis 2 (H1): Data inconsistencies are caused by the distribution of data ownership across different business and function areas and across IT systems. Hypothesis 3 (H0): Companies that explicitly create a master data stewardship program are significantly more successful in terms of data governance Research Methodology Research design For this research I will be using interpretive research design, as its main idea is to assist in understanding, recognizing and restructuring the subject meanings that already exist in the social world so we can use that understanding as steps into theorizing (Goldkuhl, 2012) Research approach and strategy Qualitative approach will be used for this research as it is suitable for discovering and gaining insight about a problem (Scheidl H, 2011) Data collection The data collection technique used for this research was one-on-one interview using a semi structured questionnaire. This technique is appropriate to this research as it allows elicitation of information that is not yet uncovered. Time kept for each interview is 45 min for each respondent. (Scheidl H, 2011) Sampling and population For this research I will use everyday decision makers so to get an understanding of how data influence the decisions that they make. Data analysis After having the interviews, I will then summaries the whole interview by making notes of the key points that were given by the respondents. This will assist in making sure that I familiarizes myself with my research. Knowledge gap In recent studies there have been increased focus on the importance of Master Data Management. This research contributes to the improvement of the scientific body of knowledge since it explores a part where only little previous study are available. Conclusion Poor data quality means there will be difficulties where decision makers have to build trust in the company data. Therefore, addressing and integrating MDM at the start should be part of an operational excellence initiative, in order to solve part of the process inefficiencies. References Milanov G Njengus A, (2012) Using scrum in master data management development projects. Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences, VOL. 3, NO.11 Nov, 2012 Available from http://www.cisjournal.org [Accessed: 15 April 2015] Cleven A, Wortmann F (2010) Uncovering four strategies to approach master data management, Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2010 Available at www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/hicss/2010/3869/00/09-01-05.pdf [Accessed: 16 May 2015] Subotic D, Jovanovic V and Poscic P (2014), Data warehouse and master data management evolution –a meta-data-vault approach, Issues in Information Systems, Volume 15, Issue II, pp. 14-23, 2014 Cervo D, Allen M (2011) Master data management in practice: Achieving true customer MDM, John Wiley Sons Inc., New Jersey, ISBN 978-0-470-91055-9 Al-Zhrani S, (2010) Management Information Systems Role in Decision-Making during Crises: Case Study, Journal of Computer Science 6 (11): 1247-1251, 2010 [Accessed: 11 March 2015] Rahm E, Hai Do H Data Cleaning: Problems and Current Approaches, University of Leipzig, Germany Available at http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de [Accessed: 16 May 2015] Gustafsson P, Franke U, Johnson P, Lillieskà ¶ld J, Identifying IT impacts on organizational structure and business value, Proceedings of BUSITAL’08, Available at people.dsv.su.se/~pajo/busital2008/paper4.pdf [Accessed: 23 May 2015] Duff A 2015 Master data management roles – their part in data quality implementation. 10th International Conference on Information Quality, 2005 [Accessed: 25 March 2015] Reichert A, Otto B and Ãâ€"sterle H, 2013 A Reference Process Model for Master Data Management. 11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik [Accessed: 2 April 2015] Jonker R, Kooistra F, Cepariu D, van Etten J and Swartjes S, Effective master data management Available at www.compact.nl/pdf/C-2011-0-Jonker.pdf [Accessed: 28 May 2015] Scheidl H (2011), Master data management maturity and technology assessment, Master’s Thesis, Turku school of Economics Kawulich B. (2005) Participant observation as a data collection method Volume 6, No. 2, Art. 43 – May 2005 Otto B, Schmidt A, ENTERPRISE MASTER DATA ARCHITECTURE: DESIGN DECISIONS AND OPTIONS Available at http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Boris_Otto/publication/50222231_Enterprise_Master_Data_Architecture_Design_Decisions_and_Options/links/0a85e53205fc23566a000000.pdf [Accessed: 25 March 2015] Weber K, Otto B and  ¨Osterle H 2009 One size does not fit all—a contingency approach to data governance. ACM J. Data Inform. Quality 1, 1, Article 4 (June 2009), Haug A, Zachariassen F and van Liempd D 2011, the costs of poor data quality, Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. Available from doi:10.3926/jiem.2011.v4n2.p168-193 [Accessed: 18 May 2015] Kamel A, Lakhder D and Ammar Z 2012, The organizational impacts of information systems: Analysis and proposal of a methodological framework, British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, ISSN: 2046-9578, Vol.9 No.II (2012), Available from http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx [Accessed: 18 May 2015] Liang T, You J 2009, and Resource-based View in Information Systems Research: A Meta-Analysis, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems Available from http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2009/72 [Accessed: 18 May 2015] Nowduri S, Management information systems and business decision making: review, analysis, and recommendations, Journal of Management and Marketing Research Available at www.aabri.com/manuscripts/10736.pdf [Accessed: 16 May 2015] Mishra M, Das T 2011, A Study on challenges and opportunities in master data management. International Journal of Database Management Systems ( IJDMS ), Vol.3, No.2, May 2011 C Loser, Dr. C Legner, D Gizanis 2004 Master Data Management for Collaborative Service Processes Available http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.454.7987rep=rep1type=pdf [Accessed: 03 June 2015] Goldkuhl G 2012, Pragmatism vs interpretivism in qualitative information systems research, European Journal of Information Systems, (21), 2, 135-146.Available at http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:515141/FULLTEXT01.pdf [Accessed: 04 June 2015]

Passion in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre :: Jane Eyre Essays

Passion in Jane Eyre It is believed that we are born with a predestined personality. Our spiritual individuality is just as much a product of our genetic makeup as the color of our skin or our eyes. With our soul firmly planted, we can then build upon this basis as we are educated of the world. The social climate and cultural atmosphere shape our personalities, however, it is the people in our lives who have the greatest influence. Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre reveals this idea by the development of the protagonist. Through a series of character foils, Bronte expresses her idea of self- development and growth of the human spirit by contrasting passion with reason. By my interpretation of the novel, Bronte suggests that in one's life time, they will encounter a number of people and experiences that will arouse enough emotion in them to have the power to change their direction in life. St. John Rivers plays one of these life determining foils to Jane Eyre. His confidence, devotion and reason intrigue Jane almost enough to silence her inner passionate spirit, but it is the forces of nature that prove to be stronger than human will. The life path of a Victorian woman was somewhat limited in it's direction and expression of individuality. Jane Eyre strongly adheres to the Victorian morality which was dominated by the Anglican party of the Church of England in which passion and emotion were kept concealed. Jane's instinct for asserting herself was stifled at an early age and could only be expressed through defiance. The defiant declaration of independence from Mrs. Reed , "You are deceitful",(v.i.37) gives Jane the power of freedom and opens up a life of "unhoped-for liberty",(v.i.37). Through the preceding years Jane develops into a highly educated, well spoken and strong willed woman . She is taught to be patient and thoughtful during her years in Lowood , and is introduced to the emotions of the heart and spirit in meeting Rochester. Bronte makes an emphasis on the spiritual and supernatural atmosphere of Thornfield. The reference to the "Gytrash" and the mystical atmosphere she illustrates of their first meeting in the woods (v.i.113) could suggest that she is playing upon natural imagery and allusions to

History Ia (Ib) on Russo-Japanese War and Its Effect on the 1905 Revolution Essay

Russia during the 19th century was considered to be the mystical land of the Great Tsars and Tsarina’s. It long held the imagination of visitors and storytellers alike from its grand courts and palaces to its superb Caviar, Vodka and Faberge eggs. Russia was also the land of magic and superstition due to the powerful presence of the Russian Orthodox Church. But life for the most of Russia was not as starry and glamorous as described above. In fact the oppressive autocratic system was still living in the medieval age with poor peasant and serfs slaving for whatever little their rich masters would allow them. Most Russians lived in abject poverty and oppression and had little chance to advance. Russia was also the last to start its rise as an industrial power and relied mainly on the agrarian industry. Russia previously famed military now laid idle and ill trained to fight modern battles. Unknown to the Tsar and Russia the world has long left Russia in the rotten medieval age and had moved on. During the first half of the 20th century witnessed some repercussion in the mindset of the Russian bourgeois towards the oppressive Tsardom. The first strike came in 1905 through a revolution. Several factors contributed towards this revolution among them special mention is to be given for the Russo Japanese war. Through this essay I am attempting to dig out the possible connection between the war and the Revolution of 1905. The Russo-Japanese War was from 1904-1905, it was caused due to Japans and Russia’s desire for expansion and dominance in Korea and Manchuria. Russia suffered many defeats in this war, against a nation that was considered inferior and was not one of the Great Powers. This humiliated the people of Russia who were a proud group of people who always believed to fight to the last man and never give up. This loss caused them to lose confidence in Tsar Nicholas II and created great military, economic, and political problems for Russia. This caused the Russo-Japanese War to be partly responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905. Huge military defeats in the Russo-Japanese War, which outlined the weakness of the military once famed for its excellent discipline and technologically weapons such as the moisan nagant resulted in national humiliation, thus contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. An example of such a defeat was in January 1905 when the Army surrendered Port Arthur even though they had enough food and ammunition for 3 more months, this is was a great dishonor for Russia as surrender is against Russia military doctrine till date. This is believed to be because of the divide in the commanders of Port Arthur. They had taken Port Arthur at start of the war due to a treaty made with China. Another example of the failure of the military was at the Battle of Tsushima. The Russian Baltic fleet had sailed from Northern Europe to the Far East to help the Defenders of Port Arthur only to be defeated by the Japanese navy. The brutal destruction of Russian’s military added to the Revolution of 1905, as it made the people of Russia aware of the weakness of their military and made them ashamed to be Russian as Russia was the first European nation to lose a battle to any Asian country. They were losing to a nation very few had heard of and though to be inferior. However, many of the defeats to the Russian military occurred after the Revolution had started, not causing its outbreak, but added to the opposition to autocratic rule by the Tsar. The Russo-Japanese War also brought about significant economic problems to Russia, and this therefore meant there was a significant lack of funds to solve any other problems, which were present Russia, hence partly being responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905. The war cost a huge amount of money. As it resulted in failure no money could be gained from the invaded territories. Russia had already had economic problems, and its economy was still far behind that of other European Nations. Further more the lack of funds meant that Tsar could not do anything about the living and working conditions in Russia, or the problems in the rural areas of Russia. Also the economic problems brought about shame for all Russians and by Russia’s being unable to solve any of its other problems due to financial constraints were also responsible for the 1905 revolution. The political implications of the Russo-Japanese War perhaps were the most important reason as to why this war is considered to be responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905. The war was fought in the very far eastern reaches of the country, far away from where the majority of the population lived, and they must have felt removed from it, especially as news was still slow to travel, as Russia did not use modern methods of communication. There was therefore little public enthusiasm for the war. Many people felt there was little justification for it: public opinion was not on the side of the war. Moreover, the military was very ill equipped for the war and was malnourished and did not have the appropriate technology. This showed to the people of Russia the government’s failings, and caused people to turn away from the Tsar as a leader and move onto political groups who were prepared to take any means necessary action to their aims. The political implications of the Russo-Japanese War helped cause the Revolution of 1905 because the public did not support it and people therefore lost faith in the Tsar and looked in other places to groups that could possibly rule instead of the Tsar. Another reason for the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905 was the growth of opposition groups to the Tsar. These groups gradually became more organized. The four main groups were the Populists, Social Democrats, Social Revolutionaries and the Liberals. These groups were slowly providing more opposition, in particular the Social Revolutionaries. Between 1901 and 1905 this group was responsible for a wave of political assassinations such as that of Plehve, the Minister of the Interior and Grand Duke Sergei. These opposition groups were becoming more widely known and provided an alternative to rule to autocratic rule by the Tsar. Their cause was furthered by the dissatisfactions with the Tsar’s methods of ruling especially since the news of his wife controlling him and Rasputin controlling her and having sexual relations with her. Another reason for the Revolution of 1905 was the lack of constitutional reform. It was only through extreme measures that the population of Russia could make their views known to the Tsar. There were no elected parliament and since Alexander III had passed the Statute of State Security Act and the Zemstva Act barely any percent of the population had any say in the war Russia was governed. Therefore their growing dissent caused by events such as the Russo-Japanese War and expressed through opposition groups could only be shown by violence towards the Tsar and his government. The lack of constitutional reform pushed something as extreme as a revolution to occur, as there was no other way for the people to influence the government other than using force. The personality of Nicholas II also added to the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905. Nicholas II did not have the personal qualities necessary to lead Russia. He was said to be quiet, and easily led. He was not at all charismatic and this did nothing to be loved by the people of Russia. This lead to the hatred towards the Tsar. Nicholas II had a very narrow, conservative view, partly due to his tutor having been Konstantin who was Slavophil. This meant that he was unable to empathize with the groups that made liberal demands for equality and justice. He did not understand them. Those around him also easily influenced him and he had harbored deep hatred for the Japanese due to an assassination attempt, which eventually lead to the Russo-Japanese War furthered by economic and strategic advantages for Russia. The economic problems in most of Russia were another reason for the outbreak of the Revolution of 1905. Both peasants and the landowners were suffering. Agriculture systems were very backward when compared to that of other countries, as under the Witte system nothing was done to improve it. Therefore the land was not cultivated properly, and famines occurred quite regularly. The peasants were free after the Emancipation of Serfs Act in 1861, but they were bound to Mirs and could not leave without permission. Also the redemption payments for the land were very high and still enslaved them. The landowners were also suffering: they had lost free labor, and with the selling of the land to the government, many of them were in deep debt. They too were dissatisfied with the Tsar. Nicholas II was unable to help neither the peasants nor the landowners: after the Russo-Japanese War money was an issue. The discontent, resulting from these economic issues, in rural areas partly contributed to the event of the Revolution. Another main cause of the Revolution of 1905 was industrializations when factories were made people flocked to the cities: Moscow, for example, doubled in population but Living and working conditions were extremely bad and because of this huge population growth it lead to overpopulation and crime. This caused the peasants to hate the Tsar. Industrialization therefore caused deep resentment for the Tsar, and added to the resentment caused by the Russo-Japanese War and the economic problems. Bloody Sunday was a short-term cause of Revolution. It happened when a large group of peaceful protestors under Father Gapon marched to outside the winter palace in St. Petersburg with a petition that would improve their working conditions. Father Gapon, who is believed to be a double agent working for the Okhrana, led the crowd and the Tsar feared he might have switched sides to the Liberals. The Tsar therefore ordered the Cossacks who were the Tsars Personal Guard to open fire upon these demonstrators, and about 300 protestors were killed, including women and children. It was a massacre. It led to wide public outrage, not just from revolutionaries and radical that a peaceful demonstration had led to such an event. After Bloody Sunday, many of the surviving demonstrators were exiled from St. Petersburg. This furthered public outrage, and damaged the Tsar’s popularity. He was no longer trusted and the Bloody Sunday was the spark that ignited the 1905 Revolution. In conclusion, the Russo-Japanese War was certainly a main factor responsible for the outbreak of the Revolution. It caused military, political and severe economic problems that contributed to the Revolution. However, many of the events of it such as the defeats, occurred after the Revolution had started. The greatest effects therefore of the Russo-Japanese War occurred after the Revolution had started, prolonging and worsening it, rather than causing it. There were also many other factors that caused the Revolution, the most important of these being industrialization and the economic trouble. These contributed more to the start of the Revolution than any other factors including the Russo-Japanese War because it exposed a problem that was present in Russia, and by that itself it would have eventually caused the revolution. By itself the Russo-Japanese War would have not been able to be the main cause of the Revolution of 1905. Therefore the Russo-Japanese War was somewhat responsible for the Revolution but not as important as other factors discussed above.

HR strategy analysis: Smith Radiators, inc Essay

Smith Radiators, Inc. is undoubtedly one of the major players in the automobile industry, being a supplier of radiators to some major automobile suppliers. In fact, it supplies fifteen percent of the Auto of America, Inc. (AAI) demand for radiators in 1991, competing with five other major suppliers and some minor suppliers. On the side of Smith Radiators, AAI is their major customer. About thirty three million dollars of its sales during the early 90’s came from its partnership with AAI. Thus, Smith Radiators must take good care of the business partnership with AAI to maintain or further improve its financial stability. And this could be done if Smith Radiators could sustain and further improve the quality of its products and services. But a more challenging task appeared before Smith Radiators on April 20, 1991. AAI demands a major change to its company. Smith Radiators, being a partner of AAI for thirty years, is obviously affected by this. Due to recession, AAI decided to do some cost reduction but with sustainable quality improvement on its products and services and effective response to its customer needs. AAI will be shifting from its traditional way of purchasing supplies to the so-called just-in-time basis or the JIT. Some major changes using the JIT philosophy would be streamlined purchasing operations and few certified suppliers. On the part of Smith Radiators, this needs immediate attention. It cannot afford to lose its major customer. The president of Smith Radiators called for an emergency meeting with the company’s department heads to address the demands of AAI. Being a company that does not practice JIT that time, the president assumed that problems will arise upon adapting JIT onto their functional areas. Vice-presidents were asked to identify these problems. One of the vital areas to be taken in consideration is the workforce or the labor force. This is under the Human Resource Department. JIT would definitely affect the workforce. Currently, the recruitment process adapted by Smith Radiation is done by the so-called internal recruitment, wherein a prospective candidate will be recommended by a current employee. The candidates will undergo try-outs and interviews, and the successful candidates will be undergoing informal training with fellow workers and under the supervision of a foreman. The workers participate on this recruitment strategy because they earn some extra money if their recruits are accepted and could be able to work for two years in the company. With JIT, that would be a much different thing. The workers of Smith Radiators, like workers of other companies, also have their union. The union serves as the unified voice of the workers that answers, accepts, or contradicts issues that directly affect them. Even before the proposed JIT, the union has several conflicts with the management. The workers’ wage is in fact much lower relative to those working for competing companies. It is saddening that the workers agreed for this low wage for the sake of job security, which is a responsibility of the management. The management of Smith Radiators obviously takes advantage of this situation. They were able to save on their labor cost. On the other side, the job security is what’s important here, considering that most of the workers were high school drop-outs. Another issue is that women were not allowed to work in some of the areas, like those areas that use lead-based chemicals, where higher wage is given for the service. In my point of view, it is just right to ban women in this particular work, because their health will be at risk. This ban, I must say, is a commendable action of the Smith Radiators’ management. But the major concern of the union is that the company is overstaffed by twenty percent, and by the end of 1991, end of the workers’ contract, some of them might be laid off. As a result, workers were dissatisfied with their work. In fact, absenteeism became a habit to some or maybe majority of the workers. Considering all these issues or conflicts between the management and the workforce, it is expected that the vice-president for human resource spends most of his time dealing with the union’s concern, when in fact; some of his times could be used for brainstorming, structuring activities that could improve the working attitude and discipline among the workers. With the need to comply with the demand of AAI, Smith Radiation needs to do some changes especially on its management strategy. The goal is to get a certification to operate as AAI supplier, adapting JIT philosophy in their workplace. JIT depends on elimination of waste, total quality control, supplier participation, and employee’s participation on decision makings. The expected result of JIT would be shorter lead time in production, flexible manufacturing, reduced inventory, higher quality of products, and increased productivity. To be certified, four criteria must be met by Smith Radiation. First: quality of supplied parts. On the current system of Smith Radiators, considering the fact that the company does not provide formal training to their new worker, low quality of products will be produced. Generally, the company currently follows the defender type of strategy, wherein it stays in its comfort zones. Research shows that training and development are guaranteed to be needed at some point of the strategic growth process. And the current human resource department seems to overlook this aspect. But I appreciate the fact that the vice-president for human resource communicates with human resource officers from other companies that were able to practice JIT philosophy already. This is a good start. Smith Radiations could learn from the experiences of other companies and use these experiences as baseline for starting JIT. Second: frequent delivery. The AAI demands that two times per day will be the transfer of products from Smith Radiators. The vice-president for human resource might realize that he needs to train the workers work flexibly. Meaning, he must be multi-tasking for him to respond to sudden changes in the production schedule. This would be an effective move by Smith Radiators, wherein they could save from their labor cost, contrary to the current management practice where a worker is skilled only with a specific type of work. However, on the part of the workers, some of them might be laid off. The management may consider retaining only the most productive workers, and in return, providing them with better wages and development programs. But the good thing is that workers will be challenged to do better to retain their position. Third: reliability of delivery. Quality must come first. In JIT, the human resource department will train the workers to perform during critical decision makings. The worker must be able to inspect his own work. For example, during a process, if the worker sees that the product is out of specification, he can stop the whole process. And this could only be possible if the worker is fully knowledgeable with the basic technicalities of the process. On the part of the worker, this is a good opportunity not only to obtain a higher wage but opportunity to explore new knowledge and opportunity to practice responsibility. In addition to this quality issue and reliable delivery, the management, imploring JIT philosophy, discussions in round table as strategized by the vice-president of human resource is actually an effective way to obtain new ideas. This would be a perfect venue for the workers to communicate with their co-workers, supervisors, and if possible with the managers. These workers are the actual people that experience the process. They could have better ideas to explore changes in processes without sacrificing the quality of the products. The supervisor’s or foreman’s role on this part of the strategy would be to confirm the suggestions of the workers using scientific trials and experiments. Fourth: number of shipments received in exact quantities. Workers being multi-skilled, self-disciplined, group-oriented, and has good quantitative and diagnostic skills, there would be no doubt that Smith Radiators can comply with the demanded two shipments per day at ten radiators per shipment. Over-all, the strategy that is proposed by the vice-president for human resource comply with the goals of the company and supports the business strategy, the prospector business strategy, which aims to obtain certification, and in the long run, sustain its business partnership with AAI. The company, however, is expected to provide job security, fair wage, and respect to the workers. In essence, a strategy made by the human resource department must capture the â€Å"people element,† as it is called by an article in a reliable website, of what is intended to be achieved in the medium to a long run by an organization. According to Richard Chang, author of The Passion Plan at Work, HRM focuses mainly on HR Research and Information Systems, Union/Labor Relations, Employee Assistance, and Employee Compensation/Benefits. In the case of the Smith Radiators, the human resource department did a very great job!