Risk management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Risk management - Research Paper Example This process is to benefit from the use of the PDCA cycle, as well as the FOCUS model-based situation analysis (Yoder-Wise, 2010; American Society for Quality, n.d.; Garkovich, 2009; Wilburn, 2012). In the case at hand, the patient was admitted into the ER as a stroke suspect, but the tests yielded negative for stroke with the CT scan. The urine tests showed the presence of opiates, leading the staff to suspect the use of IV drugs by the patient. He is negative for aphasia, and has no signs of having had a seizure, even though that was the suspicion,. He was under observation the past 24 hours. Not being certain of the problem in Mr. Xs case, the care staff moved him to a unit on acute care. There he is left without restraints, shirtless, and wearing just a pair of boxing shorts. As nurse administrator, the flag for Rapid Response showed the patient hysterical and asking for help. The intervention given was an facial mask-delivered oxygen, and following the protocol of getting the cardiac monitor attached to the patient as per the Rapid response protocol. The staff seemed paralyzed and unable to know how to deal with the crisis. The protocol fails, as the patient only takes a m inute to start acting up again, and removing the mask and the monitor. The EKG reading was normal, and the protocol having failed, the staff did not know how to proceed. The patient escapes and is seen at home. The patient returns the next day with a headache and discomfort in the chest area that are self-reported. The same unit as the previous day accommodates him, but the staff are understandably wary. Three hours hence they recorded another emergency from the patient The patient complained of pain in the stomach. The doctor is called, but the nurse in charge of the case and the other staff keep their distance from Mr. X (Yoder-Wise, 2010; American Society for Quality, n.d.; Garkovich, 2009; Wilburn,

Band Rate List Essay Example for Free

Band Rate List Essay By storing the Band Rate List in a computer system it can be used to attach payments due automatically to each video when a member returns it late. The system can also be efficiently updated. The use of a computer system would also enable Jean to generate a daily report for each shop detailing unreturned tapes and their subsequent charges. By having all member details on account no report would need to be written to County Court as Jean could simply e-mail all relevant information in a matter of seconds. Saving both time and money. By implementing a scanning device/system on the drop box, linked to a computer, staff will immediately be notified when videos are returned preventing any more lost sales. Introduction of a computer system network will mean any number of staff can access the member files at the same time (as long as there are sufficient servers). It will also put an end to anyones struggle to decipher handwriting. To solve the problem of parking Jean could purchase extra space if possible, alternatively he could use the less busy shop 3 to pilot an innovative scheme where customers can choose to get a drive-thru video. This would cut down on the number requiring parking spaces if successful. Two windows could be formed at the side, one to take the order, receive payment and swipe the membership card, while the other is used to give the video to the member. If the idea catches on Jean could patent it and introduce it to his other shops before retiring with a large sum in the bank as a result (or maybe I should do that). A computer system would allow Jean access to all files from wherever he desired. It would also allow him to organise members easily, e. g. by postcode for mailing, and he would no longer have to start from scratch every time he wanted to update it. Security could also be improved as the shops can efficiently communicate using the computer network. In future a gang member who has stolen from one shop would be expected in the other shops on the same day so relevant actions can be taken before they arrive. Information relevant to Jean in terms of financing any forthcoming I. T. installation is detailed in the section entitled costs. An investments payback period in years (and months, weeks or even days) is equal to the net investment amount divided by the average annual cash flow from the investment. It basically means: How long will it take to get my money back? This refers to the time it takes for an investment to repay the initial outlay. In calculating the payback period, it is usual to work to the nearest month. This month can be obtained using the following formula: Month of Payback = (Income Required / Contribution per Month) Or to find the day of payback: Day of Payback = (Income Required / Contribution per Day) When using this method to choose between projects, the shortest payback period will be chosen. For a business, payback is a simple calculation to make. It gives a good indication of the level of risk associated with potential investments because the longer the payback period, the longer the firms money is at risk, and the greater the likelihood that something unexpected may negatively affect the business. The payback period also takes into account the timing of cash flows. Firms might adopt this method if they have cash flow problems. This is because the project chosen will payback the investment more quickly than others. Strengths of the Payback method are: Its easy to compute, easy to understand and provides some indication of risk by separating long-term projects from short-term projects. It is particularly useful for firms with difficult cash flow positions as it helps them to identify how long it will take for the cash to be restored. Also, the further ahead a forecast looks, the less likely it is to be accurate due to uncertainty increasing over time. For this reason payback is advantageous as it only focuses on the short-term. Weaknesses: It doesnt measure profitability, doesnt account for the time value of money and ignores financial performance after the break-even period. Using this method may also encourage a short-termist attitude within the business.

Personal Essay: I Propose To Change The Status Of Craighead County, Ar :: essays research papers

Personal Essay: I Propose To Change the Status of Craighead County, AR From A Dry To A Wet County I propose to change the current status of Craighead County, Arkansas from a dry county to a wet county. Although there are strong arguments that the benefits of being a dry county are greater than the drawbacks, it is important to reassess those ideas. There are two very important drawbacks to a dry county. One is the loss of businesses and revenues from businesses that sell or serve alcoholic beverages. The second is the safety of those who consume alcohol. First, we must consider the annual amount of money that leaves the pockets of Craighead County citizens and goes into the neighboring counties. As most know you are unable to purchase alcohol under the current laws. Yet, people do not refrain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Logically we can conclude that people purchase the alcohol elsewhere. Money that could recycle itself into the economy of Craighead County contributes to others. There are numerous small businesses along the county line that sell only alcohol. Craighead is a college county. College students spend approximately $4.2 billion annually to purchase 430 million gallons of alcoholic beverages. These businesses could be run here, in Jonesboro, instead of places like Harrisburg and Truman. The fact is that people are going to drink. Why not sell to Craighead citizens in Craighead? It makes far greater sense to put back where you take out. Meaning if you earn a living in Craighead one should purchase from those there as well. If the citizens could legally buy alcohol her they would not be helping out their neighbors. Not only by bringing in those stores that specialize in alcohol, but those businesses who serve it as well, Craighead could increase it's income for small business men and for the county. Tax money from liquor sales goes 20% to counties on basis of unincorporated population, and 80% to cities on basis of incorporated population. In turn that would increase employment by creating jobs. Certain restaurant chains refuse to expand into the area partially because they can not serve alcoholic beverages to those of legal age. Business creates jobs, that is a fact, but if business will not build in the area naturally there will be less work. By making Craighead County a "wet" county not only would it increase the per capita income of those there but increase the job availability as well. More important than the economic aspects of turning Craighead into a wet county is the safety of the citizens.

Are cell phone is dangerous Essay

There are billions of people all over the world use cell phones. They use them for many different purposes, some use them for calling, or sending messages, others use may use them for logging into the net and chatting with friends. From my point of view, cell phones are very dangerous as they waste time and money, sometimes they lead to some sort of addiction, and they are dangerous to the human body. First of all, cell phones waste a lot of time and money. There are a lot of people especially teenagers who spend hours talking to their friends on phones which is also a waste of money. I see that talking to friends for hours weakens family ties. I know people who spend half of their salaries on cell phones bills while their children and their homes need this money. In addition, cell phones lead to addiction. I have a friend who suffers from chatting addiction and that`s because she spends most of her time chatting with her friends on Facebook or Yahoo messenger program. cell phones cause a  another kind of addiction which is sending messages addiction, I remember hearing, a woman in Opera Winfrey Show who sends messages even in the bathroom, and sleeps with the mobile in her hands. This woman nearly sends about three hundreds messages monthly or more. Furthermore, cell phones are very dangerous to the human body. Researchers say that cell phones send electric emancipations that cause cancer to the cells of the human body .As well as, they cause severe headache and harm our ears. Therefore, people shouldn`t sleep with their mobiles beside them, and it is better if you switch off your mobile before sleeping. To cut a long story short, cell phones` disadvatages out weigh its  advantages, I know that they become necessary in our daily schedule, but when it comes to driving it is not necessary.

Bridgeton Industries Case

The dynamics of the automobile industry have been very volatile in the last few decades, and the case depicts how the changing environment has affected the Bridgestone Industries. The Bridgestone Industries is a supplier of components and parts for the three main automobile manufacturing companies in the United States. The increase in the fuel prices as well as the technological evolution and the ease of availability of cheaper, cost efficient imported European and Japanese automobiles have taken a significant section of the demand from the US based manufacturers.As a result there is less demand for products and components from the Bridgestone Industries who are facing low volume of sales and therefore low profitability. In addition to this the increasing costs and overheads in the company are aggravating the cost position of the Bridgestone Industries by decreasing the profit margins per sale. The paper provides an analysis of the cost position of the Bridgestone Industries and the overheads associated with the production lines being manufactured by Bridgestone Industries at the ACF.The overhead burden rate for the company is determined to be 437% in 1988, 434% in 1989, 577% in 1989 and 562% in 1990. A budget is also drafted for the year 1991 which considers outsourcing the manifold production line. The budget has depicted that through the outsourcing of the manifold production line significant cost savings in the expenses for direct labor, direct material and the overheads can be achieved which can result in the lowered overhead burden rate of 307% only.As a result it is proposed that the Bridgestone Industries should seek to outsource the manifold production line as it can be highly advantageous for the cost position of the company. Bridgeton Industries Case Overview of Bridgeton Industries The Harvard Business review case depicts the problems that were faced by the Bridgeton Industries due to technological evolution, changes in the internal and external env ironments of the businesses and the changing consumer preferences for automobiles. The company Bridgeton Industries is a major supplier of the complements of the parts and components for the United States automotive industry.The automotive component and fabrication plant in question in this case was originally founded in 1840 but was acquired by the Bridgeton Industries in the early 1900s. Since then the plant was used to manufacture complements for the main automotive manufacturers in the region. However increasing costs of manufacturing the components and increasing overhead costs caused the plant to shut down. The products that were mainly manufactured by the Bridgeton Industries pertained to components of automobiles that were required by the main manufacturers of automobiles in the industry.The main product lines that were manufactured at the automotive component and fabrication plant by the Bridgeton Industries for its customers included fuel tanks for automobiles, stainless s teel exhaust manifolds, the front and rear doors of the automobiles, the muffler exhaust systems for the cars as well as the steel oil pans that are incorporated in manufacturing an automobile. These products were custom made according to the requirements of the customers in the United States market for automobile manufactures only.The target market of the Bridgeton Industries included the three main bid automobile manufactures that operated in the United States. These automobile manufacturers had a large percentage of the market share of the US automobile market and therefore consumed almost the entire production generated by the automotive component and fabrication plant by Bridgeton Industries. The nature of the business at the Bridgeton Industries was such that a business to business customer/ client model was adopted by the company as the customers of the products manufactured by the Bridgeton Industries were not the end users of the products.The case presents that the Bridgeto n Industries was a highly successful manufacture of components and the automotive component and fabrication plant churned out components and products under the product lines of fuel tanks, exhaust manifolds, doors, mufflers and exhausts as well as oil plans that were entirely purchased by the three big manufactures of the automobiles in the country. However with the advent of the Japanese car manufactures in the United States, the company was forced to operate at reduced costs in order to be effici9nt and appeal to the changing markets.Despite the changes that were made to control the costs and stream line operations in the plant, the automotive component and fabrication plant was shut down as it was reporting incrementally increasing overhead levels that could not be contained regardless of the effort put into managing the overheads. This case analysis how the company fared and what initiatives could have been taken to better manage the overheads to reduce costs and make the automo tive component and fabrication plant more cost effective. Cost Position EvolutionThe cost position of the company has developed over the time of its operations due to the internal as well as the external factors that include the demand for automobiles and how much the customers are willing to pay for them in the market. The changing requirements of the customers for cheaper and more affordable cars that provided high mileage increased in the 1970s in the US automobile industry and this impacted the cost bearing capability of the automobile manufacturers. These manufacturers in turn started purchasing the components at cheaper costs.This meant that companies like the Bridgeton Industries that were in the business of making components and parts for the big three manufacturers in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s were faced with the challenge of reducing their cost of production and operations in order to be more affective. The strategy was adopted by the Bridgeton Industries to reduce the value and the volume of the overheads that existed for the manufacture of the product lines of fuel tanks, exhaust manifolds, doors, mufflers and exhausts as well as oil plans in order to reduce the costs associated with operations.This strategy was focused on reducing the cost in order to increase the margin on the sales made to the big three automobile manufacturers in the market for increased profitability to sustain operations of the Bridgeton Industries The Bridgeton Industries underwent significant changes and evolution in its cost positions. The company first wrote off the physical machinery, the equipment and the buildings from the automotive component and fabrication plant’s financial books to reduce the costs associated with the depreciation expenses for these items.Then the company employed the costing strategy for its product lines that was based on the three elements of materials, direct labor, and overheads. The research undertaken to determine the h igh levels of costs at the Bridgeton Industries and the factors contributing to these costs provided that the overhead burden was one of the main factors that was forcing the automotive component and fabrication plant to be least cost effective when it came to generating profit. The results provided that the overhead burden existed on a ratio of 435 percent of the direct labor cost (Patricia & Cooper, 1993).This was a significant percentage of the total costs being attributed as an expense for overheads which was forcing Bridgestone Industries into a negative cost position with its customers. The cost position evolution saw that the Bridgestone Industries were gradually facing increasing costs in the form of incremental overhead expenses, increasing spend on the manufacture and processing of the product lines as well as the costs associated with the management and the operation of the automotive component and fabrication plant.This decreased the appeal of the products being produced at high costs for the customers of the Bridgestone Industries which forced the Bridgestone Industries to reduce shut down the automotive component and fabrication plant as it was continuously depicting increasing costs that reduced the profit margins for the Bridgestone Industries on the products that its sold to the big three automobile manufactures in the Unites States automobile industry.Internal and External Factors Effecting the Cost Position The increased imports of the European as well as the Japanese make of automobiles in the United States significantly impacted the demand of the automobiles manufactured by the US manufacturers. â€Å"Imports of sub-compact cars from Europe and Japan rose steadily in the 1950s, often as families’ second cars but US manufacturers retained their hold on the lucrative markets for larger vehicles.† (French, 1997, p142) The US manufactures saw their market shrink as the more aware and price conscious consumers shifted to the Europ ean and Japanese counter parts for their automobiles, while the US manufacturers were left with making large, excessive fuel consuming vehicles that denoted social status and personal style.Aside from this the increasing prices of crude oil in the international market in the 1970s also significantly changed the demand of the automobiles as depicted by the consumers. â€Å"A crisis in the US car-market developed as a result of sudden unforeseen shifts in the general environment which allowed overseas producers to expand market share rapidly. New car sales faltered in the 1970s and excess capacity increased.At the same time the leap in fuel prices shifted the consumer preference towards smaller, more fuel efficient cars which Japanese and European makers already supplied in their domestic markets and were better able to produce that were the US manufacturers used to making larger, more up-market ‘gas-guzzlers’† (French, 1997, p142) The automobiles of French and Jap anese make were smaller, more fuel efficient as well as more stylish yet cheaper than the those manufactured by the big three US automobile manufactures.As a result the consumers opted for purchasing the imported cars instead of those manufactured by the Unites States manufacturers. The recession of the 1970s also further reduced the disposal income and the propensity to save for the people in the United States which made purchasing the imported European and Japanese models of automobiles much more attractive to the consumers instead of opting for those models manufactured by the big three US automobile manufacturers.In the same period the perception of the consumers also significantly changed as was marked by the baby boomer generation and the hippy era. In this period, the consumer became more aware of the environment, the increasing pollution and the contribution that automobiles made towards adding to the pollution levels. As a result the consumers started to look for cheaper al ternatives of travel and those which were more environmental friendly that the vehicles manufactured by the big three US automobile manufacturers.The internal factors that contributed to the changing cost position of the Bridgestone Industries, specifically at the plant pertained to the decreasing demand of the US manufactured cars and increased demand for cheaper cars that was reflected un the restricting cost based purchases being made by the big three manufactures form the Bridgestone Industries.As the volume of sales decreased for Bridgestone Industries, along with the margin for profits on sales made due to the rising overhead costs the cost position of the Bridgestone Industries significantly changed to become negative and resulted in the closing of the automotive component and fabrication facility by the Bridgestone Industries. Overhead Burden Rate The Bridgestone Industries had a specific method for determining the overhead burden rate for the products that was proposed and set on an annual basis.â€Å"The budgeted unit costs provided by the plant for the 1987 model year study included overhead (burden) applied to products as a percentage of direct labor dollar cost. The overhead percentage was calculated at the budget time and used throughout the model year to allocate overhead to products using a single overhead pool. The overhead rate used in the study was 435% of direct labor cost† (Patricia & Cooper, 1993)