Scheduling Across the Supply Chain Executive Summary Essay

Scheduling Across the Supply Chain Executive Summary - Essay Example Subassembly of the lawnmower occurs within the traditional manufacturing line of the company, but the solar charges follow a different manufacturing process. This patented technology was developed by the R&D department. The company purchased a small building whose only purpose was to produce the solar chargers. The executive staff wanted to maintain control of the trade secrets associated with the solar charger production. The weekly production of solar chargers is delivered to corporate headquarters. For the first six months the forecasted production of the lawnmowers is 1000 units per month. The monthly production of green lawnmower is going to follow a 3:1 production ratio. For every three electric power lawnmower produced one solar powered mower will be manufactured. The green lawnmower project underway at John Deere must consider the effects of equipment availability. The solar powered production line depends on the production capabilities of the solar battery line which is independent of the production of the mower. The equipment to produce the solar panels used in the chargers has a short life span and must be replaced on a quarterly basis. There is only one supplier of the specialized equipment. If the replacement equipment is not ready on time bottlenecks could occur. A bottleneck occurs when a low capacity part of a system creates a constraint that reduces the capacity of the whole system (Heizer & Render, 1996). The company is also having problems training personnel to work at the solar charger production facility. The time to train employees to obtain the specialized skills needed to produce these items was miscalculated. The learning curve is much slower than anticipated. The learning curve stipulates that as employees repeat a particul ar process they gain skill and efficiency and production time improvements are achieved (Chase & Jacobs & Aquilano). It is taking eight to ten weeks

Assess and illustrate the changing nature of the secularisation deabte Essay

Assess and illustrate the changing nature of the secularisation deabte - Essay Example Bryan Wilson posits three dimensions on which secularization may be analysed, namely religious practice, religious organization and religious thought. Religious practice refers to the number of members within a particular religious organization as well as the number of individuals that are present for the actual participation in the practice. Religious organization refers to the amount of influence the Church has on the operation of a society. Religious thought refers to the concept of God and good and evil and the amount of value that each member of society places in these concepts. (Livesey p.5) Wilson noted that this third ingredient is vital in the discussion of secularisation since both religious practices and religious organizations may be on the decline but in the hearts of the individual members of society religious thought could be increasing in leaps and bounds. Peter Berger (as quoted in Aldridge 2000, p.78) defines secularisation as â€Å"the process by which sectors of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols.† Consistent with this idea, Wilson (as quoted in Aldridge 2000) defines secularization as â€Å"the process by which religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance.† Has secularization indeed taken root in today’s society? On the surface it appears that there are fewer persons attending church, fewer marriages taking place, fewer men willing to make a profession in the clergy and fewer individuals regarding Christian celebrations as meaningful. However, is there any empirical evidence to ascertain that these factors are in fact truth? Has the indoctrination of empirical research and industrialization influenced secularization, defined broadly as â€Å"religious decline† (Haralambos, p.436)? In the nineteenth century Auguste Comte believed that human history comprised three phases: the theological stage in which religion held a dominant role, followed