Themes & Corresponding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Themes & Corresponding - Essay Example Smith and Gordimer are able to use these female characters to in their literary works to depict the manner in which the society treats them, because of the color of their skin, as well as their racial background. The short story by Gordimer and the poem by Smith all depict the life of a black woman. Altikriti (2011) explains that racialism and ethnicity are vices that people experience on a day to day basis. On most occasions, black people are always discriminated upon, by the whites or the Caucasians. Furthermore, Altikriti (2011) explains that racialism and ethnicity was a subject that was difficult to discuss, mainly because of the emotions that it could bring forth. These two literary pieces of art are about ethnicity and racialism. Both the short story and the poem give a discussion of ethnicity and racialism. For instance, in the short story, there is a love relationship between Thebedi, a black woman, and Paulus, the son of the master of Thebedi. Altikriti (2011) explains that this relationship between Paulus and Thebedi was forbidden because of the racial nature of Thebedi. She was a black woman, and the black’s were not allowed to inter-marry with the whites. The relationship between Thebedi and Paulus emanated from their childhood romance, into adulthood, resulting to the pregnancy of Thebedi, without the knowledge of Paulus who had gone to study. This passage is able to show the love that existed between Thebedi, and Paulus, Gordimer in her 1975 piece of work denotes that, â€Å"In one summer afternoon, when water was flowing in the river, and it was very hot outside, Thebedi wadded as they used to, when they were little children, the dress she wore was able to bunch modestly tucking into her leg s. The school girls that Paulus used to go swimming with at the pools or dams near the neighboring farms had their bikinis. However, the sight of their thighs and bellies had never made Paulus to feel

Is China a Threat to Indian Industry Essay Example for Free

Is China a Threat to Indian Industry Essay Renewable energy has huge potential to provide solution to increase energy crisis and it is the key factor to the future of energy, food and economic security, said participants at a seminar organized by greentech and Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We are a growing economy. So our energy requirement is also growing. But we dont produce enough energy to meet even our current needs. With depleting fossil fuel reserves and concerns about its environmental impact, renewable energy is the only long-term solution, said Bibek Bandhopadhyay, advisor at the ministry of new and renewable energy. At present, Indias installed power capacity is 2,10,645 MW with renewable energy contributing 26,900 MW or 12.4%. From various energy technologies, a capacity addition of about 30,000 MW has been planned during the 12th Plan period 2012-2017. The focus is now on mainstreaming renewable energy technologies so that it becomes cost-effective. Of this, 69% is generation from wind and 4.5% from solar. Incidentally, India was the first country to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources in the early 1980s. India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. Much of the country does not have an electric grid, so one of the first applications of solar power has been for water pumping, to begin replacing Indias 4-5 million diesel powered water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 sq km area of the Thar desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW. The Indian Solar Loan Programme, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme has won the prestigious Energy Globe World award for sustainability for helping to establish a consumer financing program for solar home power systems. Over the span of three years more than 16,000 solar home systems have been financed through 2,000 bank branches, particularly in rural areas of south India where there is no grid electricty. Launched in 2003, the Indian Solar Loan Programme was a four-year partnership between UNEP, the UNEP Risoe Centre, and the Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank. Announced in November 2009, the Government of India proposed to launch its Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013 and up to 20,000 MW grid-based solar power, 2,000 MW of off-grid solar power and cover 20 million sq metres with collectors by the end of the final phase of the mission in 2020. Development of wind power in India began in the 1990s and has increased in recent years. Although a relative newcomer to the wind industry compared with Denmark or the US, domestic policy support for wind power has led India to become the country with the fifth largest installed wind power capacity in the world. As of December 2010, the installed capacity of wind power in India was 13,065.37 MW, mainly spread across Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal. Wind power accounts for 6% of Indias total installed power capacity, and it generates 1.6% of the countrys power. Every year, about 55 million tonnes of municipal solid waste and 38 billion litres of sewage are generated in the urban areas of India. In addition, large quantities of solid and liquid wastes are generated by industries. Waste generation in India is expected to increase rapidly in the future. As more people migrate to urban areas and as incomes increase, consumption levels are likely to rise, as are rates of waste generation. It is estimated that the amount of waste generated in India will increase at a per capita rate of approximately 1-1.33% annually. This has significant impacts on the amount of land that is and will be needed for disposal, economic costs of collecting and transporting waste, and the environmental consequences of increased MSW generation levels.

Achieving Genting Theme Park Objectives Through Marketing

Achieving Genting Theme Park Objectives Through Marketing Tourist attraction is a place of interest to visit that is very popular with tourists whether from local or foreign country. Normally, places of tourist attractions are brings organizations that operate their business in tourism industries tend to overprice their goods and services in order to gain profits. (Viewed 20th December 2009, However in Malaysia, with growing economies in the country, Malaysia rapidly become hotspot for amusement and also developments of theme park in tourism industries. In Malaysia, there are many tourist attractions available for local or foreign tourists to visit; one of the tourist attractions is Genting Theme Park. Genting Theme Park is one of the famous theme parts under Genting Malaysia Berhad which consists of Fist world indoor theme park, outdoor theme park and Water Park. 1.1 The role of Marketing in Helping Genting Theme Park in Achieve Its Objectives As a leading brand in theme park industry, Genting Theme Park can rarely satisfy everyone in a market. Therefore, Genting Theme Park then decides which segment presents the greatest opportunity in target markets. Its targets in kids and family markets visit to their theme park. In order to achieve theme park objectives to be the leading leisure, hospitality and entertainment organization in the world, which will responsive to the changing demands to customers and excel in providing quality services. As were seen the main objectives of an organization is to maximize the revenue and profits, and at the same time also to satisfy needs, wants and demands of customers. The role marketing plays in society is a societal process by which individual and groups obtain what they need and want through offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with each others and the role of marketing in helping Genting Theme park to achieve their objectives is plays an important part and eff orts of an organization in order to develop satisfying relationship with customers that benefit for the both parties, the organization and the customers. These efforts will lead marketing to serve an important role within organizations. However without a strong marketing effort, unlikely of an organization can survive in the tourism market. Normally what the public or costumers knows more about an organization services that provided is depends on their interactions with marketers. Therefore, it is important of Genting Theme park to do the research and development (RD) to meet the needs and wants of the costumers in the market because it has direct effect on sales and profitability for Genting Theme Park. (Viewed 20th December 2009 ) Doing the marketing research and development is very important in order to know what features to design into new services in the theme park, what prices should offer to customers and how much to spend on advertising or sales compare with other competitors. Therefore in marketing point of view, tourism industries commonly would use of four major mass communication tools which is advertising, sales promotions packages, events and experiences, and public relations and publicity for the various customers especially tourists that come from foreign country to knows more about the theme park information about the services, promotions packages and useful massage that provided to their value customers. For example, television advertisements is generally know as the most powerful advertising medium and directly reaches a broad spectrum of costumers. It can be an effective means of vividly demonstrating product and service attributes and persuasively explaining their corresponding consumer bene fits. 2. Social element of the macro environment that are currently impacting Theme Park industry Theme park industry performance could reflect by social issue, social issue either positive or negative is significant role whether difficultly or unhindered to achieve the vision of theme park industry in the future. 2.1 Migration Firstly, migration from one district to another was become an opportunity for theme park industry to hire local communities manage or operate the theme park facilities. In Malaysia, resident had shift their hometown in order to find job at capital city, such as Kuala Lumpur, the situation causing population of capital city increased, therefore as short distance of Genting from Kuala Lumpur become a perfect geography strength to attract local communities working at Genting Theme Park, cause people apply Genting job and employee shortage condition rare occurred. So Genting often had sufficient employee to serve customers especially during the festival such as Chinese New Year, Deepavali, and Christmas Day and so on. 2.2 Global Crisis Secondly, social issues such as global crisis would affect consumers visit to theme park, usually national government advice resident reduce go aboard to foreign and visitors may worry accidence occurred when outbreak global crisis. For example, in 2003, Iraq war and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) breakout causing local visitor and foreigner choose stay away from crowded placed. Through genting has implemented various events to increased number of customers consume in theme park during the difficult period, however the result show that profit before tax of Genting was decreased to RM1, 131 million compare to previous year around RM1, 195 million. (genting, 2003) Consequently, the global crisis would bring negative impact on Genting unavoidable, Genting must expect global crisis may occur in the future and draw up few set of solution to solve these issues. 2.3 Natural Environment Issue Thirdly, natural environment issue may also affect policy on operating theme park industry indirectly. The nature environment issue such as global warming has became serious in recent years, that would brought various natural disasters around the world. Therefore society has awareness the environment pollution that threaten their life, society will concern about global warming and support companies going green. Hence theme park industry has engaged and practice various method to reduce global warming. For example, Genting theme park has installed water flow restrictor that function was reduce water consumption around 5% each month, the cost of material would reduced. In addition, Genting theme park also installation of energy devices and minimum boiler process to reduce heat and air pollution. Furthermore, Genting corporate has planning and development various conservation programmed in the future. These programmed could brought advantage on reduce resource waste and simultaneously o btain margin profit in Genting corporate. (Nre, 2009) 3.0 Economic element of the macro environment that are currently impacting Theme Park industry Theme park industry is currently being impact by the economic elements of the macro environment such as currency exchange rate and unemployment rate. 3.1 Exchange rate The exchange rate affects the oversea tourists coming to their country. In U.K, their British pound exchange rate cost higher than other countries, which makes the tourists unable to afford the expenses to a tour in U.K. A lower British pound exchange rate makes the tourists able to afford the expenses for park experience. A reasonable exchange rate among both countries like U.K and Malaysia, Euro countries and Malaysia will effect on the buying power of the tourists, so the tourist will pay a visit to the park. The currency exchange rates policy either limited by government or followed the global economy trend will positively or negatively affects the tourists attendance. (viewed 20th december2009, ) 3.2 Unemployment rate The unemployment rate is one of the major factors that are influencing the theme park industrys attendance. Unemployment rate in local and oversea will bring different effects to the theme parks attendance, either fewer tourists with more local visitors or vice versa. (http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/documents/areas/ctr/ccp/ThemeParkAttendance%28bw%29.pdf) The revenue the people earn will spend part of it with families going to theme park for leisure time to enjoy during the weekend. If the unemployment rate getting higher in the countries, those people normally will not spending their money in the theme park and they will aim for the theme park promotion period for cheaper ticket. 4.0 Customer element of the micro environment that are currently impacting Genting Theme Park Customer is the person, company,orother entity which buys goods and services produced by another person, company, or other entity. So, customers are playing a very important role in market. Genting Highland Theme Park the first mission is to be responsive to the changing demands of our customers and excel in providing quality products and services. (viewed 2009/12/05 http://www.gentingmalaysia.com/annualreports/2008/rwb2008_missioncontents.pdf) 4.1 The Age and Stage In The Life Cycle The age and stage in the life cycle concept will impact upon the Genting Theme Park. They come from different group status, such as children, youngsters, adult and elderly customers. This is because consumers are from different group of age stage they will impact Genting to build or create new games to service the consumers when traveling at Genting Threme Park. Genting Theme Park will serve their customers with different age with different game either in indoor or outdoor. Such as the customers from children and teenager the indoor games such as Malaysias first 4D Motion Master Theater to give the education movie for them. Because adult customers they will aspire stimulate entertainment and new creative game, Genting Theme Park will build the game in outdoor such as Flying Coaster is the first in Asia. Family life cycle from customers also will impact to Genting Theme Park. In the end of the year holiday season parent will bring their children go to travel therefore family relations hip between parent and children when travel at Genting Theme Park. (Philip Kotler and Kelvin Lane Keller, 2009) 4.2 Consumer Consumption Concept The consumers consumption concept changed impacting the Genting Theme Park. Nowadays each customers had basic education and they consider consumption concept not only focus on buying products, that they know their rights and also consist service consumption, therefore customers would spend more money consume on services in entertainment. As service entertainment industry corporate, Genting provide Theme Park either indoor or outdoor to satisfied demand of customers. Customers can enjoy these exciting game simultaneously that improved family relationship between parents and children. Customers consider ticket price of Genting Theme Park was worth to consume, they could going and playing these entertainment facilities with a whole day. But how when the consumers think that what Genting Theme Park provide is not worthy? 5.0 Competitor Element of the Micro Environment That Are Currently Impacting Genting Theme Park Competitor means a business that provides similar products or services. The presence of competitors in an industry drives down the price of goods and services because consumers have more alternatives from which to choose if the price of a particular good or service is too high. For Genting Theme Park, it also facing different competitor since they joined in this industry. 5.1 Threat of intense segment rivalry In a business field, the competitiveness between corporate will become very strong if it already contains numerous, strong competitor. In Malaysia, Genting Theme park is not only the one numerous and strong theme park, there still have many different theme park that have the competitiveness to compete with Genting. The competition like frequent price wars, advertising battles and promotion battle between Genting Theme Park and other themes park, all these lead Genting have to constantly compare its marketing strategies, products, prices and promotion with other competitors. Otherwise, this will make it expensive to compete. This happen more frequently especially in the holiday period. 5.2 Threats of High Entrants and Low Exits In a business field, competitiveness is high when the entry barriers are higher than exit barriers. Firm enter during good times but find it hard to leave during bad time. As the result, this will leads to chronic overcapacity and depressed earnings for all. In this last 10 years, the new entry of other theme park in Malaysia is more than the exit entry. Many firms join and stay in this industry as long as they can get profit from this industry but if they cannot, as long as they keep continued presence, this will cause dampens profit for everyone. In directly, this lead Genting Theme Park has to dealing with even more competitors in order to keep survived in this business field. 5.3 Threat of Substitute Products A segment is unattractive when there are actual or potential substitutes of the product. If technology advances or competition increases in these substitute industries, prices and profits in the segment are likely to fall. For example, electronic games and theme park is categorized in the entertainment field. Nowadays, the introduced of electronic games like play station, PSP, and computer games becomes a common and necessary amusement tool by the world. People will visit Genting theme park because to have fun, and so that same with playing electronic games-all is about fun. With the introduced of the electronic games, this success attracted the major target of customer of Genting Theme Park, like teenagers. Virtually, this creates a competition between of electronic game business field and Genting Themes Park which in the same business field entertainment. 6.0 Conclusion Marketers do not make decision about target market and marketing mix variables in a vacuum. Research and study should be applied in order to further understanding the market. This will help marketer in making the business plan and business decision

Anne Bradstreet: The Heretical Poet :: essays research papers fc

Anne Bradstreet: The Heretical Poet Greg Saxon The purpose of this research is to discuss heretical elements in the poetry of Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672). This is not to imply that Bradstreet was a heretic in the sense that American religious reformer Anne Hutchinson was. Hutchinson (1591-1643) emigrated to Boston in 1634 and preached a doctrine of salvation through intuitive apprehension of grace rather than by works, and attacked the rigid moral and legal codes of New England Puritanism. Anne Bradstreet accepted the tenets of Puritanism and was a very religious person. Anti-Puritan themes are, however, to be found in her poetry in terms of her religious doubts, her expression of personal emotions and thoughts, and her artistry. She did not write to preach or teach,, as Puritan writers were instructed to, but to express herself. It is this personal expression that forms the basis of the heretical elements in her poetry. To understand why personal expression may be considered heretical, the society in which Bradstreet lived and wrote must be examined in order to comprehend what kinds of human activities and behaviors were acceptable and how Bradstreet deviated from these behaviors. Bradstreet was not truly unorthodox in that she did not dissent from accepted beliefs and doctrine. She was a woman of the 17th Century and lived in a male dominated, intensely religious society. She lived within the limitations not only of the beliefs and standards of her society, but of her sex. A woman's place was definitely in the home in Colonial America. The experiences of women were considered narrow and trivial in comparison with men's. Puritanism was more than a religious belief; it was a way of life. "In the dozen years before 1640, some 15,000 Englishmen crossed the Atlantic in order to establish a 'Holy Commonwealth' in which that way of life could flourish"(Hall 1). The Puritans were a party in the Church of England that arose in Elizabeth's reign with the purpose of carrying out the Protestant reformation, and to base the Church of England on the foundation of the scriptures. Aside from a literal belief in the Bible, Puritans wholly accepted the doctrines of John Calvin and his stern legalistic theology. The Puritans held that religion should permeate every phase of living. The purpose of life was to do God's will; everything else was subordinate to this basic doctrine. The Colony set up by the English Puritans was essentially an experiment in Christian living. Religion and earning a living were the two priorities of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In contrast to the Pilgrims, they were well-off and well-educated men, many of whom were professionals and

Merton Truck Co

Case Analysis: Merton Truck Company Linear programming techniques can be used to not only determine the best production mix, but also to provide clues and data suggesting ways to improve profits. In 1988, Merton Truck Company was searching for ways to increase profits and ultimately its poor financial performance. Options being considered included changing their product mix by either removing or adding a product line, or renting capacity. In the following pages, the product mix and capacity options considered by Merton are evaluated, other factors and alternatives are discussed, and final recommendations are provided. Product Mix Based on the financials in 1988, Merton’s president suspected that discontinuing their Model 101 would result in stronger financial performance. With unit costs of $40,205 (including fixed overhead) and a sales price of $39,000, each sale of Model 101 resulted in a $1,205 loss. However, the president did not consider that fixed overhead (OH) was being allocated across all units, and the discontinuation of Model 101 would increase the overhead applied to Model 102. In reality, the $8. M in monthly fixed overhead exists regardless of the product mix and does not need to be allocated on a per unit basis to determine overall profit or financial performance. Therefore, fixed overhead was not considered until the end of each evaluation. In order to evaluate any alternative, we need to compare to current profit. Utilizing the data from Tables B and C to obtain production costs per unit as well as fixed overhead, Merton is currently making a profit of $1. 9M (Exhibit 1A). Since it was the specific request of the president, the impact of discontinuing Model 101 was evaluated. The first step was to determine the capacity of producing only Model 102, which is as follows based on Table A: Engine Assembly4,000 hours / 2 hours per unit = 2,000 units Metal Stamping6,000 hours / 2 hours per unit = 3,000 units Model 102 Assembly4,500 hours / 3 hours per unit = 1,500 units The resulting capacity of 1,500 units is the same as the current production level, so it was suspected immediately that discontinuing Model 101 would likely have a negative result. Without an increase in sales, discontinuing Model 101 would only result in increasing the fixed costs for Model 102 without increasing the revenue. As seen in Exhibit 1B, this would indeed result in a $1. 1M monthly loss for Merton. This is a phenomenon known as the death spiral, when the discontinuation of a seemingly unprofitable product causes otherwise profitable products to become unprofitable. Merton should continue to use that extra capacity to produce Model 101 to generate additional revenue and help absorb costs. The impact of making only Model 101was evaluated by determining the capacity using Table A: Engine Assembly4,000 hours / 1 hour per unit = 4,000 units Metal Stamping6,000 hours / 2 hours per unit = 3,000 units Model 101 Assembly5,000 hours / 2 hours per unit = 2,500 units As shown in Exhibit 1C, producing 2,500 units of Model 101 results in a $1. 1M loss. However, since the bottleneck is the Model 101 Assembly, additional capacity remains to produce Model 102 units: Engine Assembly1,500 hours remaining / 2 hours per unit = 750 units Metal Stamping1,000 hours remaining / 2 hours per unit = 500 units Model 102 Assembly4,500 hours / 3 hours per unit = 1,500 units Exhibit 1D shows that producing 500 units of Model 102 results in a $1. 4M profit; however, Merton is still better off in its current situation. In the current analysis, it is assumed that Model 102 Assembly cannot be used for Model 101, a logical assumptionsince Merton specifies the department where Model 103 will be made. However, if Model 102 Assembly can be used for Model 101, the bottleneck then becomes Metal Stamping at 3,000 units x $3,000 CM = $9. 0M – $8. 6M = $0. 4M profit. In a similar fashion, the ability to use Model 101 Assembly for Model 102 would also drastically change the impact of discontinuing Model 101. The bottleneck for producing only Model 102 would then become Engine Assembly at 2,000 units x $5,000 CM = $10. 0M – $8. 6M = $1. M profit. So far an improved product mix has not been identified, so linear programming was used to identify the production mix that would maximize profits using the following objective function: To maximize c1x1 +c2x2 Where: x1 = Number of Model 101 trucks to produce x2 = Number of Model 102 trucks to produce c1 = Contribution margin of Model 101 (excluding fixed costs) c2 = Contribution margin of Model 102 (excluding fixed costs) The contribution margins (CMs) were calculated in Exhibit 1 as: c1 = $3,000 c2 = $5,000 Subject to Constraints: Engine Assemblyx1 + 2Ãâ€"2 ? 4000 Metal Stamping2x1 + 2Ãâ€"2 ? 000 Model 101 Assembly2x1 ? 5000 Model 102 Assembly3x2 ? 4500 Negativityx1,x2 ? 0 Each constraint was graphed as a line by setting each variable to zero, and then determining which side of the line satisfied the equation by plugging in points (such as the origin). Once the relevant range of all the constraints was determined, the extreme points were clearly identified. The extreme points corresponding to the non-negativity, Model 102 Assembly, and Model 101 Assembly constraints were easy to identify, and the rest was determined by simultaneously solving the equations of intersecting lines. Exhibit 2 shows the graph, including the values in USD obtained when the extreme points are plugged into the equation. Many of the values were in accordance with expectations as they corresponded to the earlier analyses. The optimal product mix was identified as 2000 units of Model 101 and 1000 units of Model 102, which would generate $11. 0M – $8. 6M fixed costs = $2. 4M profit. The same result was obtained when the analysis was done in Excel Solver (see attached Exhibit 3, Model 101 & 102 Solver Results). The binding constraints seen in Exhibit 4 are no longer the Model Assemblies s seen with earlier combinations, but are now the Engine Assembly and Metal Stamping departments. The optimal product mix for Merton given their current product mix and constraints has been determined, but Merton is also considering the addition of a new Model 103. The values for contribution margin (CM) are given as well as the portion of departmental capacity required to produce 103. Based on the capacity information, it was determined that Model 103 would require 0. 8 hours of Engine Assembly, 1. 5 hours of Metal Stamping, and 1 hour of Model 101 Assembly per truck. The constraints and objective function were modified with these new values and run in Excel’s Solver, which determined that Model 103 should not be produced (Exhibit 5). Exhibit 6 provides a sensitivity report indicating a reduced cost of -$350, meaning that the CM of Model 103 would need to increase by $350 before it would make sense for Merton to begin producing Model 103. Capacity Options Given the capacity limitations seen thus far, it is a fair conclusion that increasing capacity may present an opportunity. In the optimal solution, there are limitations in both Engine Assembly and Metal Stamping. If one or both of these was increased, this could have a strong positive impact on profit. By referring to the sensitivity report for the optimal solution found in Exhibit 7, we see that Engine Assembly and Metal Stamping have shadow prices of $2,000 and $500 respectively, which means that an increase in one unit of capacity would result in the corresponding increase in profit. If Merton can rent capacity for less than the shadow price for either department, it should. Note that for each, this is only true for 500 units before the scenario would require reevaluation (see the allowable increase in Exhibit 7). Also, only one variable or department can be increased. If both are modified, the shadow prices may no longer hold true. Merton also has the option of increasing engine capacity by 2,000 hours using overtime. This would also result in a 50% increase in direct labor or: Model 101$4,000 current from Table B x 1. 5 = $6,000 (reducing CM by $2,000) Model 102$4,500 current from Table B x 1. 5 = $6,750 (reducing CM by $2,250) In the overtime tab (Exhibit 8), we add two additional variables epresentative of overtime production o1 and o2, including an additional constraint representing the maximum of 2000 hours. As seen in Exhibit 8, Solver has determined that overtime should be utilized to produce 250 additional units of Model 102. However, fixed OH has not been included in the calculations until afterwards as it does not impact the optimal solution, only the net profit. In this case however, the fixed overhead increases by $0. 75M to $9. 35M if overtime is utilized. Therefore, the $9. 35M is subtracted from this result and compared to our previous optimal solution net profit of $2. M. This was done in Exhibit 8, resulting in a net profit of less than $2. 4M. Therefore, Merton should not assemble engines on overtime under these conditions. Other Factors, Alternatives and Considerations Merton’s president would like to impose a marketing mix constraint requiring Merton to produce at least three times as many units of Model 101 as units of Model 102. By adding this constraint to the analysis in Exhibit 9, the marketing mix moves to producing 2,250 units of Model 101 and 750 units Model 102, and a net profit of $1. M . The marketing constraint hinders the potential total net profit by $500,000 because at optimal production levels, Merton will be able to produce a total net profit of $2. 4M. There are several other options th at Merton did not consider. Renting capacity from an outside supplier was one alternative, but a similar option would be to simply outsource (at a rate less than the shadow prices discussed earlier). It is also mentioned that at present, demand is great enough that the company is selling everything it produces. How much greater than supply is the demand? If it is much greater, Merton should consider raising its prices to reduce demand. If demand is expected to continue, Merton should also evaluate the ROI of investing in capital and permanently increasing capacity as an alternative to renting or outsourcing capacity. Merton should also consider the impact that learning curves and technology may have on their production process. As the Model 101 and 102 life cycle continues, the company should see a reduction in time and costs associated ith every aspect of the truck manufacturing process as a result of learning curves. It can be reasonably estimated that labor hours per vehicle will be reduced due to learning curves (which result from staff experience and familiarity with the production process), and that Merton will therefore be able to increase the total volume of vehicles produced. Technology could also play an important role in reducing the time and costs needed to produce the vehicles, so it is important that Merton maintain a watchful eye on new production methods and machinery. Investments in technologies can reduce the firm's fixed overhead costs and increase profits and improve productivity. In addition, technologies can help reduce the costs of designing, developing, and manufacturing a product which can help the firm to improve product quality and to charge a higher price. Conclusion Merton’s president was absolutely correct in his supposition that the company could improve its financial performance by changing their product mix, though wrong in his initial thoughts on which actions to take. The value of linear programming techniques in evaluating possible solutions is clear, particularly in that it quickly provides clues of other options to consider (such as adding additional Engine Assembly Capacity). Based on the information provided here, further recommendations for Merton would be to (1) immediately change the production mix to 2000 Model 101s and 1000 Model 102s, (2) evaluate anticipated demand and the impact of a capital investment to increase capacity, and (3) seek quotes for capacity rental or outsourcing Engine Assembly.

House of Spirits essays

House of Spirits essays Isabel Allende was born August 2, 1942. Although born in Peru, she was raised in Chile as the daughter of government official. She began her writing career as a journalist and worked throughout South America. Allende begins writing all of her novels on January 8. The tradition began when, on that date, Isabel received word that her grandfather was dying. She was so moved by the news that she began composing a letter which turned into her first novel, The House of Spirits. Since then, Allende has not started a novel on any other date. On her Website, www.isabelallede.com, she explains her formula for an innovative and successful story line. Allende suggest carrying around a notebook and noting inspiration. She acknowledges that inspiration could be a portion of a conversation or a road sign. She also reveals that almost all her characters are modeled after family members, friends, or people she has met briefly. According to Allende, When I develop a character I usually look for a person who can serve as a model. If I have that person in mind, it is easier for me to create characters that are believable. People are complex and complicated, they seldom show all the aspects of their personalities, characters should be that way too. Allendes poetic style and colorful language are her trademark. She writes all of her novels and short stories in Spanish, because as she explains, I can only write fiction in Spanish, because it is for me a very organic process that I can only do in my language. Isabel Allende has written many books including: The House of the Spirits, (novel) Spain 1982, Of Love and Shadows, (novel) Spain 1984, Eva Luna', (novel) Spain 1985, Stories of Eva Luna, (short stories) Spain 1989, The Infinite Plan, (novel) Spain 1991, Paula, (novel) Spain 1994, Aphrodite (recipes, stories and other aphrodisia...