The Patriarchal and Hierarchical Development of Western Civilization Research Paper

The Patriarchal and Hierarchical Development of Western Civilization - Research Paper Example The earliest human civilizations emerged in the great river deltas of the world, where the land was fertile, water was plentiful, and the rivers provided a means of easy transport. It was the ability to create food surpluses, store them and transport them around the local area that prompted early societies to give up a nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle, and develop solid buildings for permanent residence. This created the leisure time for experimentation and the practical need for the development of technologies. In Mesopotamia the first writing tablets appear to have been made, and they record many lists and commercial details relating to the trade in basic goods. The famous Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a famous ruler who started out behaving badly towards his subjects, and particularly women. He has a lot of power, partly because of his status as heir to the throne of Uruk, but partly also because â€Å"Two thirds of him is god, one-third of him is human† (Tablet 1). He is descended from a goddess, and the story tells of his interactions with both human and godly characters. Goddesses play a big part in the plot, since it is the goddess Aruru who creates the special friend Enkidu for Gilgamesh, and the goddess Ishtar openly taunts him and tries to tempt him into a relationship with her. Gilgamesh is at the mercy of these divine figures, and they largely determine the course of his life. Gilgamesh refuses the advances of Ishtar, showing great strength of character, but in the course of the epic he comes to learn the lessons that his mother and the other goddesses have made every effort to teach him: love for others is of much greater worth than riches, fame and power. The power of the female to bring forth life, and the danger of amorous entanglements, remain key motifs in the story, and they serve to tame the faults of the male, and to counterbalance his arrogance and immaturity. The ruler Gilgamesh at the end of the epic reflects on the massiv e architecture of his city’s walls which encloses the well-ordered community that thrives under the care of the goddess Ishtar: â€Å"is not even (the core of) the brick structure of kiln-fired brick, †¦ one league city, one league palm gardens, one league lowlands, the open area of the Ishtar temple, three leagues, and the open area of Uruk it encloses† (tablet XI). The moral of the tale is that he finally accepts that he must settle down as an administrator in a settled urban community, rather than a wanderer in search of amorous or other adventure. In contrast to this the female characters in The Iliad, which dates from more than a thousand years later, are little more than goods to be passed from one powerful male hero to another, sometimes more or less willingly in matrimony, and sometimes as the spoils of war. In The Iliad notions of power are very much the main theme (Sherman, 2003, p. 47) The women like Helen of Troy are trophies, and their function is mor e symbolic than as an active participant in society. Homer stresses the heroic deeds of the warriors, and his western society values possessions, cities, and conquering other peoples. The patriarchal line of descent is stressed through the frequent repetition of lists of names and titles such as this: â€Å"After Diomede same the Atreidae/Agamemnon and Menelaus and then/the two named Aias, jacketed with brawn/then came Idomeneus and his

Virtue - Plato Essay Example for Free

Virtue Plato Essay And others who are mute auditors. The scene is laid in the house of Cephalus at the Piraeus; and the whole dialogue is narrated by Socrates the day after it actually took place to Timaeus Hermocrates, Critias, and a nameless person, who are introduced in the Timaeus. I WENT down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon, the son of Ariston, that I might offer up my prayers to the goddess; and also because I wanted to see in what man- ner they would celebrate the festival, which was a new thing. I was delighted with the procession of the inhabitants; but that of the Thracians was equally, if not more, beautiful. When we had finished our prayers and viewed the spectacle, we turned in the direction of the city; and at that instant Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, chanced to catch sight of us from a distance as we were starting on our way home, and told his servant to run and bid us wait for him. The servant took hold of me by the cloak behind, and said, Polemarchus desires you to wait. I turned round, and asked him where his master was. There he is, said the youth, coming after you, if you will only wait. Certainly we will, said Glaucon; and in a few minutes Polemarchus appeared, and with him Adeimantus, Glaucons brother, Niceratus, the son of Nicias, and several others who had been at the procession. Polemarchus said to me, I perceive, Socrates, that you and your companion are already on your way to the city. You are not far wrong, I said. But do you see, he rejoined, how many we are? Of course. And are you stronger than all these? for if not, you will have to remain where you are. May there not be the alternative, I said, that we may per- suade you to let us go? But can you persuade us, if we refuse to listen to you? he said. Certainly not, replied Glaucon. Then we are not going to listen; of that you may be assured. Adeimantus added: Has no one told you of the torch-race on horseback in honor of the goddess which will take place in the evening? With horses! I replied. That is a novelty. Will horsemen carry torches and pass them one to another during the race? Yes, said Polemarchus; and not only so, but a festival will be celebrated at night, which you certainly ought to see. Let us rise soon after supper and see this festival; there will be a gathering of young men, and we will have a good talk. Stay then, and do not be perverse. Glaucon said, I suppose, since you insist, that we must. Very good, I replied. Accordingly we went with Polemarchus to his house; and there we found his brothers Lysias and Euthydemus, and with them Thrasymachus the Chalcedonian, Charmantides the Paeanian, and Cleitophon, the son of Aristonymus. There too was Cephalus, the father of Polemarchus, whom I had not seen for a long time, and I thought him very much aged. He was seated on a cushioned chair, and had a garland on his head, for he had been sacrificing in the court; and there were some other chairs in the room arranged in a semicircle, upon which we sat down by him. He saluted me eagerly, and then he said: You dont come to see me, Socrates, as often as you ought: If I were still able to go and see you I would not ask you to come to me. But at my age I can hardly get to the city, and therefore you should come oftener to the Piraeus. For, let me tell you that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me are the pleasure and charm of conversation. Do not, then, deny my request, but make our house your re- sort and keep company with these young men; we are old friends, and you will be quite at home with us. I replied: There is nothing which for my part I like better, Cephalus, than conversing with aged men; for I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to inquire whether the way is smooth and easy or rugged and difficult. And this is a question which I should like to ask of you, who have arrived at that time which the poets call the threshold of old age: Is life harder toward the end, or what report do you give of it? I will tell you, Socrates, he said, what my own feeling is. Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as the old proverb says; and at our meetings the tale of my acquaintance commonly is: I cannot eat, I cannot drink; the pleasures of youth and love are fled away; there was a good time once, but now that is gone, and life is no longer life. Some complain of the slights which are put upon them by relations, and they will tell you sadly of how many evils their old age is the cause. But to me, Socrates, these complainers seem to blame that which is not really in fault. For if old age were the cause, I too, being old, and every other old man would have felt as they do. But this is not my own experi- ence, nor that of others whom I have known. How well I remember the aged poet Sophocles, when in answer to the question, How does love suit with age, Sophocles — are you still the man you were? Peace, he replied; most gladly have I escaped the thing of which you speak; I feel as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master. His words have often occurred to my mind since, and they seem as good to me now as at the time when he uttered them. For certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the pas- sions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the complaints about relations, are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but mens characters and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. I listened in admiration, and wanting to draw him out, that he might go on — Yes, Cephalus, I said; but I rather suspect that people in general are not convinced by you when you speak thus; they think that old age sits lightly upon you, not because of your happy disposition, but because you are rich, and wealth is well known to be a great comforter. You are right, he replied; they are not convinced: and there is something in what they say; not, however, so much as they imagine. I might answer them as Themistocles answered the Seriphian who was abusing him and saying that he was famous, not for his own merits but because he was an Athenian: If you had been a native of my country or I of yours, neither of us would have been famous. And to those who are not rich and are impatient of old age, the same reply may be made; for to the good poor man old age can- not be a light burden, nor can a bad rich man ever have peace with himself. May I ask, Cephalus, whether your fortune was for the most part inherited or acquired by you? Acquired! Socrates; do you want to know how much I acquired? In the art of making money I have been midway between my father and grandfather: for my grandfather, whose name I bear, doubled and trebled the value of his patrimony, that which he inherited being much what I possess now; but my father, Lysanias, reduced the property below what it is at present; and I shall be satisfied if I leave to these my sons not less, but a little more, than I received. That was why I asked you the question, I replied, because I see that you are indifferent about money, which is a characteristic rather of those who have inherited their fortunes than of those who have acquired them; the makers of fortunes have a second love of money as a creation of their own, resembling the affection of authors for their own poems, or of parents for their children, besides that natural love of it for the sake of use and profit which is common to them and all men. And hence they are very bad company, for they can talk about nothing but the praises of wealth. That is true, he said. Yes, that is very true, but may I ask another question? — What do you consider to be the greatest blessing which you have reaped from your wealth? One, he said, of which I could not expect easily to convince others. For let me tell you, Socrates, that when a man thinks himself to be near death, fears and cares enter into his mind which he never had before; the tales of a world below and the punishment which is exacted there of deeds done here were once a laughing matter to him, but now he is tormented with the thought that they may be true: either from the weakness of age, or because he is now drawing nearer to that other place, he has a clearer view of these things; suspicions and alarms crowd thickly upon him, and he begins to reflect and consider what wrongs he has done to others. And when he finds that the sum of his transgressions is great he will many a time like a child start up in his sleep for fear, and he is filled with dark forebodings. But to him who is conscious of no sin, sweet hope, as Pindar charmingly says, is the kind nurse of his age: Hope, he says, cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey — hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man. How admirable are his words! And the great blessing of riches, I do not say to every man, but to a good man, is, that he has had no occasion to deceive or to defraud others, either intentionally or unintentionally; and when he departs to the world below he is not in any apprehension about offerings due to the gods or debts which he owes to men. Now to this peace of mind the possession of wealth greatly contributes; and there-fore I say, that, setting one thing against another, of the many advantages which wealth has to give, to a man of sense this is in my opinion the greatest. Well said, Cephalus, I replied; but as concerning justice, what is it? — to speak the truth and to pay your debtsno more than this? And even to this are there not exceptions? Sup- pose that a friend when in his right mind has deposited arms with me and he asks for them when he is not in his right mind, ought I to give them back to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing so, any more than they would say that I ought always to speak the truth to one who is in his condition. You are quite right, he replied. But then, I said, speaking the truth and paying your debts is not a correct definition of justice. Quite correct, Socrates, if Simonides is to be believed, said Polemarchus, interposing. I fear, said Cephalus, that I must go now, for I have to look after the sacrifices, and I hand over the argument to Polem- archus and the company. Is not Polemarchus your heir? I said. To be sure, he answered, and went away laughing to the sacrifices. Tell me then, O thou heir of the argument, what did Simonides say, and according to you, truly say, about justice? He said that the repayment of a debt is just, and in saying so he appears to me to be right. I shall be sorry to doubt the word of such a wise and inspired man, but his meaning, though probably clear to you, is the re- verse of clear to me. For he certainly does not mean, as we were just now saying, that I ought to return a deposit of arms or of anything else to one who asks for it when he is not in his right senses; and yet a deposit cannot be denied to be a debt. True. Then when the person who asks me is not in his right mind I am by no means to make the return? Certainly not. When Simonides said that the repayment of a debt was jus- tice, he did not mean to include that case? Certainly not; for he thinks that a friend ought always to do good to a friend, and never evil. You mean that the return of a deposit of gold which is to the injury of the receiver, if the two parties are friends, is not the repayment of a debt — that is what you would imagine him to say? Yes. And are enemies also to receive what we owe to them? To be sure, he said, they are to receive what we owe them; and an enemy, as I take it, owes to an enemy that which is due or proper to himthat is to say, evil. Simonides, then, after the manner of poets, would seem to have spoken darkly of the nature of justice; for he really meant to say that justice is the giving to each man what is proper to him, and this he termed a debt. That must have been his meaning, he said. By heaven! I replied; and if we asked him what due or proper thing is given by medicine, and to whom, what answer do you think that he would make to us? He would surely reply that medicine gives drugs and meat and drink to human bodies. And what due or proper thing is given by cookery, and to what? Seasoning to food. And what is that which justice gives, and to whom? If, Socrates, we are to be guided at all by the analogy of the preceding instances, then justice is the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies. That is his meaning, then? I think so. And who is best able to do good to his friends and evil to his enemies in time of sickness? The physician. Or when they are on a voyage, amid the perils of the sea? The pilot. And in what sort of actions or with a view to what result is the just man most able to do harm to his enemy and good to his friend? In going to war against the one and in making alliances with the other. But when a man is well, my dear Polemarchus, there is no need of a physician? No. And he who is not on a voyage has no need of a pilot? No. Then in time of peace justice will be of no use? I am very far from thinking so. You think that justice may be of use in peace as well as in war? Yes. Like husbandry for the acquisition of corn? Yes. Or like shoemaking for the acquisition of shoes — that is what you mean? Yes. And what similar use or power of acquisition has justice in time of peace? In contracts, Socrates, justice is of use. And by contracts you mean partnerships? Exactly. But is the just man or the skilful player a more useful and better partner at a game of draughts? The skilful player. And in the laying of bricks and stones is the just man a more useful or better partner than the builder? Quite the reverse. Then in what sort of partnership is the just man a better partner than the harp-player, as in playing the harp the harp- player is certainly a better partner than the just man? In a money partnership. Yes, Polemarchus, but surely not in the use of money; for you do not want a just man to be your counsellor in the purchase or sale of a horse; a man who is knowing about horses would be better for that, would he not? Certainly. And when you want to buy a ship, the shipwright or the pilot would be better? True. Then what is that joint use of silver or gold in which the just man is to be preferred? When you want a deposit to be kept safely. You mean when money is not wanted, but allowed to lie? Precisely. That is to say, justice is useful when money is useless? That is the inference. And when you want to keep a pruning-hook safe, then justice is useful to the individual and to the State; but when you want to use it, then the art of the vine-dresser? Clearly. And when you want to keep a shield or a lyre, and not to use them, you would say that justice is useful; but when you want to use them, then the art of the soldier or of the musician? Certainly. And so of all other things —justice is useful when they are useless, and useless when they are useful? That is the inference. Then justice is not good for much. But let us consider this further point: Is not he who can best strike a blow in a boxing match or in any kind of fighting best able to ward off a blow? Certainly. And he who is most skilful in preventing or escaping from a disease is best able to create one? True. And he is the best guard of a camp who is best able to steal a march upon the enemy? Certainly. Then he who is a good keeper of anything is also a good thief? That, I suppose, is to be inferred. Then if the just man is good at keeping money, he is good at stealing it. implied in the argument. That is Then after all, the just man has turned out to be a thief. And this is a lesson which I suspect you must have learnt out of Homer; for he, speaking of Autolycus, the maternal grand- father of Odysseus, who is a favorite of his, affirms that He was excellent above all men in theft and perjury. And so, you and Homer and Simonides are agreed that justice is an art of theft; to be practised, however, for the good of friends and for the harm of enemies — that was what you were saying? No, certainly not that, though I do not now know what I did say; but I still stand by the latter words. Well, there is another question: By friends and enemies do we mean those who are so really, or only in seeming? Surely, he said, a man may be expected to love those whom he thinks good, and to hate those whom he thinks evil. Yes, but do not persons often err about good and evil: many who are not good seem to be so, and conversely? That is true. Then to them the good will be enemies and the evil will be their friends? True. And in that case they will be right in doing good to the evil and evil to the good? Clearly. But the good are just and would not do an injustice? True. Then according to your argument it is just to injure those who do no wrong? Nay, Socrates; the doctrine is immoral. Then I suppose that we ought to do good to the just and harm to the unjust? that better. I like But see the consequence: Many a man who is ignorant of human nature has friends who are bad friends, and in that case he ought to do harm to them; and he has good enemies whom he ought to benefit; but, if so, we shall be saying the very op- posite of that which we affirmed to be the meaning of Simonides. Very true, he said; and I think that we had better correct an error into which we seem to have fallen in the use of the words friend and enemy. What was the error, Polemarchus? I asked. We assumed that he is a friend who seems to be or who is thought good. And how is the error to be corrected? We should rather say that he is a friend who is, as well as seems, good; and that he who seems only and is not good, only seems to be and is not a friend; and of an enemy the same may be said. You would argue that the good are our friends and the bad our enemies? Yes. And instead of saying simply as we did at first, that it is just to do good to our friends and harm to our enemies, we should further say: It is just to do good to our friends when they are good, and harm to our enemies when they are evil? Yes, that appears to me to be the truth. But ought the just to injure anyone at all? Undoubtedly he ought to injure those who are both wicked and his enemies. When horses are injured, are they improved or deteriorated? The latter. Deteriorated, that is to say, in the good qualities of horses, not of dogs? Yes, of horses. And dogs are deteriorated in the good qualities of dogs, and not of horses? Of course. And will not men who are injured be deteriorated in that which is the proper virtue of man? Certainly. And that human virtue is justice? To be sure. Then men who are injured are of necessity made unjust? That is the result. But can the musician by his art make men unmusical? Certainly not. Or the horseman by his art make them bad horsemen? Impossible. And can the just by justice make men unjust, or speaking generally, can the good by virtue make them bad? Assuredly not. Any more than heat can produce cold? It cannot. Or drought moisture? Clearly not. Nor can the good harm anyone? Impossible. And the just is the good? Certainly. Then to injure a friend or anyone else is not the act of a just man, but of the opposite, who is the unjust? I think that what you say is quite true, Socrates. Then if a man says that justice consists in the repayment of debts, and that good is the debt which a just man owes to his friends, and evil the debt which he owes to his enemies — to say this is not wise; for it is not true, if, as has been clearly shown, the injuring of another can be in no case just. I agree with you, said Polemarchus. Then you and I are prepared to take up arms against anyone who attributes such a saying to Simonides or Bias or Pittacus, or any other wise man or seer? I am quite ready to do battle at your side, he said. Shall I tell you whose I believe the saying to be? Whose? I believe that Periander or Perdiccas or Xerxes or Ismenias the Theban, or some other rich and mighty man, who had a great opinion of his own power, was the first to say that justice is doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies. Most true, he said. Yes, I said; but if this definition of justice also breaks down, what other can be offered? Several times in the course of the discussion Thrasymachus had made an attempt to get the argument into his own hands, and had been put down by the rest of the company, who wanted to hear the end. But when Polemarchus and I had done speaking and there was a pause, he could no longer hold his peace; and, gathering himself up, he came at us like a wild beast, seeking to devour us. We were quite panic-stricken at the sight of him. He roared out to the whole company: What folly, Socrates, has taken possession of you all? And why, sillybillies, do you knock under to one another? I say that if you want really to know what justice is, you should not only ask but answer, and you should not seek honor to yourself from the refutation of an opponent, but have your own answer; for there is many a one who can ask and cannot answer. And now I will not have you say that justice is duty or advantage or profit or gain or interest, for this sort of nonsense will not do for me; I must have clearness and accuracy. I was panic-stricken at his words, and could not look at him without trembling. Indeed I believe that if I had not fixed my eye upon him, I should have been struck dumb: but when I saw his fury rising, I looked at him first, and was therefore able to reply to him. Thrasymachus, I said, with a quiver, dont be hard upon us. Polemarchus and I may have been guilty of a little mistake in the argument, but I can assure you that the error was not in- tentional. If we were seeking for a piece of gold, you would not imagine that we were knocking under to one another, and so losing our chance of finding it. And why, when we are seeking for justice, a thing more precious than many pieces of gold, do you say that we are weakly yielding to one another and not doing our utmost to get at the truth? Nay, my good friend, we are most willing and anxious to do so, but the fact is that we cannot. And if so, you people who know all things should pity us and not be angry with us. How characteristic of Socrates! he replied, with a bitter laugh; thats your ironical style! Did I not foresee — have I not already told you, that whatever he was asked he would refuse to answer, and try irony or any other shuffle, in order that he might avoid answering? You are a philosopher, Thrasymachus, I replied, and well know that if you ask a person what numbers make up twelve, taking care to prohibit him whom you ask from answering twice six, or three times four, or six times two, or four times three, for this sort of nonsense will not do for me — then obviously, if that is your way of putting the question, no one can answer you. But suppose that he were to retort: Thrasymachus, what do you mean? If one of these numbers which you interdict be the true answer to the question, am I falsely to say some other number which is not the right one? — is that your meaning? — How would you answer him? Just as if the two cases were at all alike! he said. Why should they not be? I replied; and even if they are not, but only appear to be so to the person who is asked, ought he not to say what he thinks, whether you and I forbid him or not? I presume then that you are going to make one of the interdicted answers? I dare say that I may, notwithstanding the danger, if upon reflection I approve of any of them. But what if I give you an answer about justice other and better, he said, than any of these? What do you deserve to have done to you? Done to me! — as becomes the ignorant, I must learn from the wise — that is what I deserve to have done to me. What, and no payment! A pleasant notion! I will pay when I have the money, I replied. But you have, Socrates, said Glaucon: and you, Thrasyma- chus, need be under no anxiety about money, for we will all make a contribution for Socrates. Yes, he replied, and then Socrates will do as he always does — refuse to answer himself, but take and pull to pieces the answer of someone else. Why, my good friend, I said, how can anyone answer who knows, and says that he knows, just nothing; and who, even if he has some faint notions of his own, is told by a man of authority not to utter them? The natural thing is, that the speaker should be someone like yourself who professes to know and can tell what he knows. Will you then kindly answer, for the edification of the company and of myself? Glaucon and the rest of the company joined in my request, and Thrasymachus, as anyone might see, was in reality eager to speak; for he thought that he had an excellent answer, and would distinguish himself. But at first he affected to insist on my answering; at length he consented to begin. Behold, he said, the wisdom of Socrates; he refuses to teach himself, and goes about learning of others, to whom he never even says, Thank you. That I learn of others, I replied, is quite true; but that I am ungrateful I wholly deny. Money I have none, and therefore I pay in praise, which is all I have; and how ready I am to praise anyone who appears to me to speak well you will very soon find out when you answer; for I expect that you will answer well. Listen, then, he said; I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger. And now why do you not praise me? But of course you wont. Let me first understand you, I replied. Justice, as you say, is the interest of the stronger. What, Thrasymachus, is the meaning of this? You cannot mean to say that because Polyd- amas, the pancratiast, is stronger than we are, and finds the eating of beef conducive to his bodily strength, that to eat beef is therefore equally for our good who are weaker than he is, and right and just for us? Thats abominable of you, Socrates; you take the words in the sense which is most damaging to the argument. Not at all, my good sir, I said; I am trying to understand them; and I wish that you would be a little clearer. Well, he said, have you never heard that forms of govern- ment differ — there are tyrannies, and there are democracies, and there are aristocracies? Yes, I know. And the government is the ruling power in each State? Certainly. And the different forms of government make laws demo- cratical, aristocratical, tyrannical, with a view to their several interests; and these laws, which are made by them for their own interests, are the justice which they deliver to their subjects, and him who transgresses them they punish as a breaker of the law, and unjust. And that is what I mean when I say that in all States there is the same principle of justice, which is the interest of the government; and as the government must be supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion is that everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger. Now I understand you, I said; and whether you are right or not I will try to discover. But let me remark that in defining justice you have yourself used the word interest, which you forbade me to use. It is true, however, that in your definition the words of the stronger are added. A small addition, you must allow, he said. Great or small, never mind about that: we must first inquire whether what you are saying is the truth. Now we are both agreed that justice is interest of some sort, but you go on to say of the stronger; about this addition I am not so sure, and must therefore consider further. Proceed. I will; and first tell me, Do you admit that it is just for sub- jects to obey their rulers? I do. But are the rulers of States absolutely infallible, or are they sometimes liable to err? To be sure, he replied, they are liable to err? Then in making their laws they may sometimes make them rightly, and sometimes not? True. When they make them rightly, they make them agreeably to their interest; when they are mistaken, contrary to their in- terest; you admit that? Yes. And the laws which they make must be obeyed by their sub- jectsand that is what you call justice? Doubtless. Then justice, according to your argument, is not only obedience to the interest of the stronger, but the reverse? What is that you are saying? he asked. I am only repeating what you are saying, I believe. But let us consider: Have we not admitted that the rulers may be mistaken about their own interest in what they command, and also that to obey them is justice? Has not that been admitted? Yes. Then you must also have acknowledged justice not to be for the interest of the stronger, when the rulers unintentionally command things to be done which are to their own injury. For if, as you say, justice is the obedience which the subject renders to their commands, in that case, O wisest of men, is there any escape from the conclusion that the weaker are commanded to do, not what is for the interest, but what is for the injury of the stronger? Nothing can be clearer, Socrates, said Polemarchus. Yes, said Cleitophon, interposing, if you are allowed to be his witness. But there is no need of any witness, said Polemarchus, for Thrasymachus himself acknowledges that rulers may some- time command what is not for their own interest, and that for subjects to obey them is justice. Yes, Polemarchus — Thrasymachus said that for subjects to do what was commanded by their rulers is just. Yes, Cleitophon, but he also said that justice is the interest of the stronger, and, while admitting both these propositions, he further acknowledged that the stronger may command the weaker who are his subjects to do what is not for his own interest; whence follows that justice is the injury quite as much as the interest of the stronger. But, said Cleitophon, he meant by the interest of the stronger what the stronger thought to be his interest — this was what the weaker had to do; and this was affirmed by him to be justice. Those were not his words, rejoined Polemarchus. Never mind, I replied, if he now says that they are, let us accept his statement. Tell me, Thrasymachus, I said, did you mean by justice what the stronger thought to be his interest, whether really so or not? Certainly not, he said. Do you suppose that I call him who is mistaken the stronger at the time when he is mistaken? Yes, I said, my impression was that you did so, when you admitted that the ruler was not infallible, but might be sometimes mistaken. You argue like an informer, Socrates. Do you mean, for example, that he who is mistaken about the sick is a physician in that he is mistaken? or that he who errs in arithmetic or grammar is an arithmetician or grammarian at the time when he is making the mistake, in respect of the mistake? True, we say that the physician or arithmetician or grammarian has made a mistake, but this is only a way of speaking; for the fact is that neither the grammarian nor any other person of skill ever makes a mistake in so far as he is what his name implies; they none of them err unless their skill fails them, and then they cease to be skilled artists. No artist or sage or ruler errs at the time when he is what his name implies; though he is commonly said to err, and I adopted the common mode of speaking. But to be perfectly accurate, since you are such a lover of accuracy, we should say that the ruler, in so far as he is a ruler, is unerr- ing, and, being unerring, always commands that which is for his own interest; and the subject is required to execute his com- mands; and therefore, as I said at first and now repeat, justice is the interest of the stronger. Indeed, Thrasymachus, and do I really appear to you to argue like an informer? Certainly, he replied. And do you suppose that I ask these questions with any de- sign of injuring you in the argument? Nay, he replied, suppose is not the word — I know it; but you will be found out, and by sheer force of argument you will never prevail.

Perceptions of Reading for Pleasure in Boys Methodology

Perceptions of Reading for Pleasure in Boys Methodology Methodology. Design approach To address the challenge of boys perceptions of reading for pleasure and referring to relevant literature, I decided to approach the research using triangulation so that cross examination of findings could be achieved within a relatively short space of time. A mixed method research approach was used to answer my research question so that in carrying out a questionnaire, follow up interviews and observations could take place to answer further underlying causes and questions. Cresswell at al. (1993) describes the mixed method approach as collecting, analysing and integrating both qualitative and quantitative data through a single or multiple studies. In doing this Kettley (2012) writes that it allows for the analysis of both patterns and causes of behaviour which can heighten the reliability of results. However, Laws (2003) challenges this view, stating that a variety different research perspectives may not match tidily as there could be contrast and conflict between findings. Laws (20 03) recommends that a researcher should critically analyse any contrasts in findings so to make meaning from them. What researchers have used it- why is it good Triangulation- what is it (ive used this method but show some insight) Sampling-300 words Morse and Niehaus (2009) observe that sampling methods are intended to maximise the efficiency and validity of research results. This research involved using a purposeful sample, a technique which is widely used so that individuals or groups of participants are especially knowledgeable or experienced in ones line of inquiry (Palinkas et al., 2013). For this research, two year three classes both from independent schools were chosen to explore the challenge of boys reading for pleasure. My main interest for this research was to see how perceptions of reading differed between classes which had members that were thought to read more for pleasure (such as in a mixed setting) in comparison to a class where the class was all boys and were stereotyped to be disinterested to read in their free time. These schools were chosen as the number of boys in each year group were similar and were of contrast in terms of single sex or mixed. Both schools were from the same county of Oxfordshire, and all members of staff in each year group were female. The two groups of pupils were, although determined on school establishment type, not based on predetermined viewpoints on reading for pleasure. Patton (2002) highlights that the use of a purposeful sample is to capture major variations through the analysis of results rather than to identify a common core. Due to the lack of single sex primary schools, a private mixed school was chosen as the contrast so that in terms of types of schools these were the same. If I were to carry out this research again, I would involve more single sex and mixed schools in my research so that my results were not generalised Observation Observational data is an attractive form of data collection as it allows the researcher to gather evidence from real-life situations (Cohen et al., 2000). At the beginning of each week in the schools, I observed the children in their learning environment, concentrating especially on the daily routine and how English was taught. I chose to use observations as one of my research methods as it allows you direct access to social interactions which can be of focus to the research interest (Simpson and Tuson, 1995) whilst also viewing and analysing the physical, human, interactional and programme setting (Cohen at al., 2000). Using a semi-structured observation approach allowed me to immerse myself in the situation so that I could understand how reading for pleasure was promoted within the classroom and how children reacted to reading in the classroom environment. As I was comparing two different year groups from different schools, using the unstructured approach allowed for elements of th e observational situation speak for themselves, rather than preparing an observation schedule (Cohen et al., 2000). Thomas (2009) states that although an unstructured observation may be easier in comparison to structured, it involves a great deal of preparatory work so that one is able to become part of the situation and requires sensitivity, thought and commitment to analyse the findings meaningfully. Punch (1998) highlights other difficulties stating that in terms of recording data, the flexible nature of observational methods, the recording of data can potentially become flexible also. To overcome this potential barrier, simply noted characteristics from each category in terms of the physical environment, the links to literacy in lessons, childrens behaviour and finally teachers strategies. All observational methods have advantages and disadvantages, however with careful preparation, they can be powerful tools in gaining valuable research evidence. Questionnaire A questionnaire was decided to be used to find out the childrens viewpoints on reading for pleasure, as well finding out what other hobbies they like to do in their free time and how often they engaged in reading for pleasure in their free time. Gray (2004) recommends that questionnaires are used when working with a large audience where standardised questions are required. Using questionnaires as a research method allows an analytical approach which can be used to explore relationships between variables. Gillham (2000) highlights that there are a few advantageous aspects of a questionnaires which has led to it being a popular choice of research method. Some of these factors include low cost, quick data retrieval and the fact that questionnaires can be sent to a large scale of people in little time. Gillham (2000) also highlights that anonymity can be assured whilst using a questionnaire however he also points out that on a small scale, researchers may be aware of characteristics of r espondents and therefore able to identify answers based on a character profile. Like many research methods, questionnaires have their drawbacks. Gillham (2000) advises that if a questionnaire is to be intrinsically motivating for participants, the length should range between four and six pages. Robson (2011) further highlights that the motivation of a participant could affect the data leading to a less valid result. To overcome these barriers, I chose 12 questions, many of which were closed questions which required little thinking time. Two open questions were used to find out their view point on why they enjoyed or disliked reading, and what would motivate them to read more for pleasure. Due to the anonymity of questionnaires, researchers are unable to identify misleading or flippant answers, and if no further follow-up observations or interviews are involved, researchers may not be able to detect true representations. As I used two other research methods alongside questionnaires, I was able to identify a more valid representation of children and teachers viewp oints in comparison to just using one method alone. Using the same standardised questions which have been piloted and altered if necessary, it is possible to gain a high reliability of response (Robson, 2011). Prior to the research taking place, I emailed the questionnaires to both schools and tested the questions for clarity with an external 8-year-old boy so that the questions were clear and the vocabulary was age appropriate. Interview I decided to use semi structured interviews with both the teachers of year three from both schools and a selection of 4 boys who were deemed reluctant readers by their teachers. This was so that my research could be further supported and a deeper understanding of both teachers and boys could be achieved. Arksey and Knight (1999) comment that the method of interviewing allows participants to express their feelings and perceptions of the world around them. This further agreed by Cohen and Marion (1997) highlighting that one of the fundamental reasons for using interviews as part of a research approach is to gather information on an individuals knowledge, value and attitude which can be used in conjunction with other methods such as a survey. These interviews were undertaken after they had completed the questionnaire, so that I was able to gain more insight into what motivated boys to read in the classroom and at home, and what would motivate them further to read for pleasure. Although the questions for each student was the same, a semi-structured approach was used so that answers could be clarified further and I could gain a more transparent understanding. Using semi structured interviews when researching childrens viewpoints is ideal, especially when used alongside child-friendly language and meeting in places in which the child is familiar with (Graham et al., 2012). Each class teacher was also questioned on which strategies they used to promote reading for pleasure. As half of the teachers were from the mixed school, the questions were worded slightly differently as I wanted to find out how they motivated the boys. All of the interviews with each student was recorded rather than making notes on what was being said. This was so that I could concentrate on their body language and verbal response at the same time rather than concentrating primarily on just verbal feedback. It has been reported that taking notes during an interview can distract the interviewer from the focus of the conversation which can result in a loss of critical information (Britten, 1995) therefore using a high quality recorder alongside note taking on the participants body language and emotions can significantly decrease the likelihood of error or misconceptions during data analysis (Fernandez and Griffiths, 2007). As the majority of the interviews were with the children, it was important that the children could see that I had their full attention, and that by listening to what they had to say we were showing respect (McCrum and Hughes, 1998). A researcher needs to be aware that not all respondents may be willing to participa te in an interview, and if uncomfortable about the interview being recorded may inhibit honest responses (Bell, 2010). Prior to each interview, the children were asked about whether they would be willing to take part, and were assured that all information would be purely for research purposes and kept anonymous. Speer and Hutchby (2003) see this as an essential part of social sciences, so that a researcher can investigate impeccably what a participant is doing whilst they are being recorded. Using semi structured interviews allows for further probing of opinions and view when it is ideal that individuals answers are expanded upon (Gray, 2004). Ethics Due to the nature of this research being held in two schools involving students, ethics was taken into consideration prior to any research taking place. It has been highlighted that children from an early age are able to speak for themselves on a range of experiences, their views and their surrounding environment (James, Jenks and Prout, 1998) therefore if they are to be directly involved in research, they should be made aware of what is to be expected and the option whether participate or not (Cohen and Emmanuel, 1998). Prior to any research taking place, I emailed both schools stating the aims of the research and what information I was wanting from each child. Once in the school, informal meeting were arranged with the Heads of school, so that no further consent from the childrens parents was needed. UK Data Protection Act ? (1988)? How could my sample have been better? Bigger sample size in terms of using more than one single sex school and one mixed school Using state schools as well as private schools How was the quality of data? References: Arksey, H. and Knight, P. (1999) Interviewing for Social Scientists. London: SAGE Bell, J. (2010) Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in education, health and social science. 5th edn. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. Britten, N. (1995) Qualitative research: Qualitative interviews in medical research. British Medical Journal, 311(6999), pp. 251-253 Cohen, J. and Emmanuel, J. (1998) Positive Participation: Consulting and Involving Young People in Health Related Work. London: Health Education Authority. Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K. and Cohen, P.L. (2000) Research methods in education. 5th edn. London: Taylor Francis. Fernandez, R.S. and Griffiths, R. (2007) Portable MP3 players: Innovative devices for recording qualitative interviews. Nurse Researcher. 15(1), pp.7-15 Gillham, B (2000) Developing a Questionnaire. London: Continuum. Graham, A., Powell, M.A., Fitzgerald, R., Taylor, N.J and Moulat, B. (2012) Draft Ethical Research Involving Children. International Charter and Guidelines. Florence: UNICEF, Office for Research. Innocenti Kettley, N.C. (2012) Theory building in educational research. London: Continuum International Pub. Group. Laws,S.D., Harper, C. and Marcus, R. (2003) Research for development: A practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Morse, J.M. and Niehaus, L. (2009) in Kettley, N.C. (2012) Theory building in educational research. London. Continuum International Pub.Group. Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, K. (2013) Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Adminstration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544 Punch, K.F. (1998) Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. London: Sage Publishing. Pages 184-90 Simpson, M. and Tuscan, J. (1995) Using observations in small-scale research: A beginners guide. Edingburgh: SCRE, The Scottish Council for Research in Education. Thomas, G. (2013) How to do your research project: A guide for students in education and applied social sciences. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications

Coal Extraction and Black Lung :: Environment Energy Essays

Coal Extraction and Black Lung Coal is an indispensable fossil fuel that is very important to today’s society. With out coal, one would have to live without many of the luxuries we have today. There would be no lights to light a house, no movie cinemas, no electrical heaters, and no televisions or phones. â€Å"Coal has many important uses, but most significancy in electricity generation, steel and cement manufacture, and industrial process heating. Coal provides over 23% of global primary energy need and generates about 39% of the world’s electricity† (Source 1). Coal is also used as fuel for steam locomotives, to make synfuels, and in home heating. Some other miscellaneous items made by coal are insecticides, paint thinners, batteries, disinfectants, varnish and insulin. (Source 2) Coal, obviously, is very important to our society and we cannot do without it. The extraction of coal from the ground, however, can be a dangerous process that has serious health effects. The ways coal has been extracted from the ground has changed many times over time due to improved mining techniques and different geological formations. In the early history of mining a technique called bell pitting was used where the coal was â€Å"obtained by digging it from where it appears on the surface† . This method was replaced by more efficient methods. Today, â€Å"the three methods of extraction are open cast, drift and deep mine† (Source 3). These methods are not safe and many miners who work with these methods suffer many health problems. Coal miners suffer from many different health problems that are caused from mining. Among these diseases is the well known Black Lung. â€Å"Black Lung is a legal term describing man-made, occupational lung diseases that are contracted by prolonged breathing of coal mine dust. Call in miner’s asthma, silicosis, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovovanoconiosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, or black lung–they are all dust diseases with the same symptoms† (Source 4). Black Lung usually effects workers who are over 50 and who have worked as a miner for most of their lives. The symptoms of black lung are coughing, spitting, and breathlessness. Another symptom is that the lung has black pigmentation on it. â€Å"In Severe cases, an enlargement and strain of the right side of the heart may occur. This is caused by chronic lung disease. The strain on the heart may eventually cause right side heart failure.

Benjamin Franklin Essay

Founding father Benjamin Franklin once said, â€Å"The way to see faith is to shut the eye of reason. † Theists for thousands of years have shut their eyes to reason and blindly followed the word of those who would have them believe in false gods. Reason demonstrates, through outlets such as Occam’s Razor, the lack of a need for the existence of those gods and the shortcomings of theists in attempts to prove their faith. Such shortcomings most prominently come in the failure to provide empirical data for the existence of gods, in fact, experimentation and observation show otherwise. To accompany a lack of need and a lack of evidence, because faith causes one to turn a blind eye to reason, arguments for theism are often weak, personal, and circumstantial at best, and can be easily negated. Reason, a lack of evidence, and weak arguments leave mankind only one option in regards to belief in the supernatural; no god or gods actually exist. Occam’s Razor not only establishes the falsehood of a requirement for gods, but also shifts the burden of proving the existence of gods unto the theorists. In blunt terms, the Razor states that, â€Å"All other things being equal, a simpler explanation is preferred over a complex one† (Krauss). Therefore, entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily, so the simplest of theories should be chosen before the most complex and that the unknown should first be measured in known quantities (Krauss). A deity, while providing a simple metaphysical escape for the absence of evidence, adds a plethora of unneeded layers of complexity to the creation of the universe. The addition of a supreme being to the equation not only dismantles established laws of physics, but creates a type of pyramidal scheme to the universal hierarchy, with the deity at the top, as its influence can â€Å"butterfly out† to touch everything in existence and possibly altering its physical properties. The metaphysical effect of a deity on the physical world would have unimaginable effect on known forces and constants, creating a faucet that streams unknown quantities. Fortunately, Occam’s Razor demands that without empirical data solving some of those unknowns, there is no need to add a god to the equation and the deity can be dismissed (Krauss). To stack on the allowance of a dismissal of gods by the Razor, Occam also requires that the burden of proof of gods falls to theists. Without a need for a god, one must not assume without evidence that a deity exists, just as one would not assume a Minnie Mouse teapot floats between the Earth and Mars without empirical proof of its existence (Krauss). Therefore, if there is no need for a god, then theists must provide tangible confirmation demonstrating the existence of such a being in order for a reasonable person to feel the need to believe in it (Myers). If the theists, on the other hand are unable to provide tangible confirmation, then the majority are essentially asking the world to follow their religion without a need for god, without proof, and on the terms that the church understands all there is to know of the universe. In the end, thanks to Occam’s Razor, in order for the thesis to stand atheists need not disprove the idea of gods, as one cannot prove a negative. They need only to disprove (or prove the absence of) the evidence supporting theism. The religious throughout history have failed to provide empirical data for the existence of gods; in fact, experimentation and observation shows otherwise. Theism ultimately provides no factual evidence indicating the existence of a god or multiple gods. The so-called strongest proof for the presence of the supernatural lies almost entirely in the realm of unreliable personal experiences (Faust 72). Theists will often claim that they know of their gods through personal communication or through the feeling of their presence in the world. This idea inspires quite the opposite of the confidence in God the religious are trying to demonstrate by sharing that information. What the concept of â€Å"feeling† gods or having them speak to a person is not only condoned as ludicrous by those who do not partake in the lie, but if true indicates something that drifts very nearly toward borderline mental illness. Those who believe their gods speak to them should not be granted any immunity other schizophrenics are not and need to be admitted into a psychiatric ward. The thought that personal experience that cannot and has not been processed through a reasonable scientific experimental procedure can take the place of real evidence is one shared solely by theists. The world does not so lightheartedly admit untested and inconstant variables such as personal experiences because no one who logically assesses the facts could morally do so. The nonreligious portion of the Earth’s population does not recognize personal experience as a viable form of evidence for anyone besides theists (Faust 72). This arises from the notion that these experiences claimed by the religious are not comparable to witness accounts r recollection of victims in the court of law. Unlike in the case of witness accounts and recollections, theists demand that the supernatural feelings they have be classified as stand-alone evidence without empirical data or essentially a case to back it up (Faust 74). This form of proof cannot stand by itself, especially when one takes into consideration the fact that these experiences happen so little and with so little correlation to any direct event or circumstance that when compared with the rest they produce an insignificant number (Faust 75). Not to mention of course, that any witness account in a case must be taken with a grain of salt, as one can never be certain they are telling the truth without the backing of empirical data. In a vain attempt to denounce alternatives to supernatural creation theists often cling to the proud notion that if they can find a single flaw in an important scientific theory, such as natural selection or evolution, then the entire case of the nonexistence of god collapses (Dawkins 51). First, as proved earlier in the paper, the burden of proof is on the theists, so even if theists can disprove every scientific theory they must still prove theirs (Dawkins 53). Second, a scientific theory must be show to be fundamentally flawed in order for it to collapse. A few issues in the theory simply shows that there is a small amount of data missing or that a certain aspect must be corrected, both of which existences would serve to further the theory (Dawkins 53). The distinct difference between science and religion is that the scientific method of proposing a theory allows for the theory to change and adapt according to what is observed, meaning the core of the idea is what needs to collapse for it to be incorrect, not the random outliers and exceptions picked on by theists. Conclusively, unlike religious arguments, scientific theory is based on observation and change and therefore need to be proven fundamentally wrong to be publically denounced. Atheists have all heard it before, â€Å"Complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity, complexity. Did you know that a cell is really complex? Complexity, complexity, complexity, and you are just going to be blown away by the Trilobites. It crazy, they’re like little machines. Complexity. Therefore, design. † The argument of complexity through intelligent design is another tidbit of supposed empirical data theists put forth in an effort to provide â€Å"physical† evidence for the existence of gods (Myers). This contention is one of the main, and essentially their only, religious attempts to put forth empirical data which scientists can measure. The entire idea of complexity indicating design is in every sense ridiculous. The notion can be dispelled by observing the known world and watching nature, or even humans, create complex structures by chance or accident. Take for example, a young boy who tires of playing with a stick and throws it into a nearby creek. The stick floats downstream until it gets caught between two rocks at a narrow, and begins to catch other debris floating by. Eventually a variety of different types of objects will form a natural dam in the creek, creating a small pond, which in turn can develop its own ecosystem filled with life giving the illusion of design, but being completely natural (Myers). As shown in the example, the complexity of the world derived not from design, but from the wonder of chance, evolution, and natural selection. Over hundreds of millions of years life has slowly developed and pieced itself together much like the dam, changing and adapting to conditions and lifestyles on Earth (Myers). The extreme complexity through which the systems of life today work is derived from the natural selection aspect of evolution, if a system does not work, or fails to quickly adapt, then the system is eliminated time and time again until a system that operates survives (Myers). The argument of complexity solely resides in world of fantasy, has no scientific basis, and should be disregarded as viable physical evidence. Full well knowing how pitiful the points of the argument of intelligent design are, theists look to one final, very childish, measure to save their drowning plight, questioning the validity of science and the scientists who propose it (Mathew 1). Worshippers have long tried to poke holes in important theories such as natural selection and evolution or convince people to dismiss them as simple â€Å"guesses by scientists† (Mathew 1). On the receiving end of most of this ill-informed ridicule rests a creationist’s worst enemy, the theory of evolution. According to many theists, evolution cannot be as there are, so pompously pointed out, several gaps in the evolutionary chain (Dawkins 52). Not only does this not affect the validity of a theory as proved earlier, but is entirely untrue. Fortunately in this world there stands a concept known as a universal constant, a constant essentially keeps humans from testing if the floor will hold them every time they leave bed, or if the stove is hot when the on light is on, or allowing them to understand if they ump from a building they will die. These constants allow mankind to make a series of assumptions that make up nearly every decision in an average day. These assumptions permit humans to deduce situations such as that if a malicious looking; blood-soaked man leaves a room with a knife in hand and a body is found that the man was the murderer. The same idea transfers to the concept of evolution in the regard that scientists, with proper reasoning and motive, can guide the theory across gaps in the chain and still hold a fair evidence base. This utilization of basic skills as assumptions paired with evidence to substantiate them, along with earlier points of scientific theories’ abilities to withstand isolated flaws discredits theist attempts to put science to the question. Not only do the religious weakly attempt to discredit scientific theory and method, but they often will question the religious background of scientists in an effort to win people over to their side (Mathew 4). Perhaps the two most famous cases of the abuse of character are that of Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. For ages now religious fanatics such as Ray Comfort have bastardized their work by releasing edited copies of their books and mining for quotes that will purposely mislead the common citizen into believing the scientists were theist. For example, Ray Comfort puts forth this quote about Einstein, â€Å"I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Comfort removed the quote completely from context in order to misconstrue its true meaning (Mathew 4). Spinoza’s God is not a god at all, but a term used to sum up the forces of the universe into a word. Einstein in that very paragraph went on to describe how he does not believe in a god who concerns himself with the fates and actions of humans (Mathew 4). Einstein even addressed this kind of misleading material in his own day writing statements denouncing those who claimed him as a believer in God, â€Å"It was of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which has been systematically repeated (Mathew 4). Zealots like Comfort also release carefully crafted versions of great works like Darwin’s Origin of Species in which Darwin claims that he finds it hard to believe that something as astounding as the human eye could have developed through chance, neglecting to add the parts right in which Darwin continues to say that despite this, reason suggests that its true (Mathew 5). The attempt to discredit science and scientists by theists is disgraceful and such a ersonal attack in an impersonal topic alone should be grounds to dismiss the claim. Overall, theists have repeated neglected to present any actual empirical data, therefore have no proof of the existence of gods, and must resort to metaphysical or personal claims. Not only do Occam’s Rule and the absolute lack of empirical evidence disprove the idea of gods, but what arguments theists do rely on are weak, individual, and circumstantial at best, and can all be easily negated. One of these arguments for theism is the existence of morality and the correlation of morals throughout the world and history (Hauser et al 1). This can be easily negated as, put simply, atheists are the perfect example of how this cannot be true. Without guidance and belief in gods they are just as morally good as any religious person (Hauser et al 2).

Summer Internship Report on Madura Garments Essay Example

Summer Internship Report on Madura Garments Essay Example Summer Internship Report on Madura Garments Paper Summer Internship Report on Madura Garments Paper Project Report On Improving Service Level for Institutional Sales SUBMITTED FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT (PGDIM) By Puneet Verma Roll No. 105 PGDIM – 18 Under the guidance of [pic] National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Vihar Lake, P. O. NITIE, Mumbai 400 087 Date of Submission: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Certificate of Supervision This is to certify that Puneet Verma, student of PGDIM, Batch No. 18 has successfully completed the project titled – â€Å"Improving Service Level for Institutional Sales†, nder the guidance of Mrs. Sadhana Ghosh (NITIE) from 11th Jan 2013 to 15th March 2013. Based on the professional work done by him, this report is being submitted for the partial fulfillment of Post-Graduation Diploma in Industrial Management at NITIE, Mumbai Signature Faculty Guide Acknowledgement I wish to extend my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to my guide Mrs. Sadhana Ghosh(Professor, NITIE), whose Guidance and help constantly helped and motivated me during the entire tenure of the project. I am able to say with conviction that I have immensely benefited. Puneet Verma PGDIM-18 Executive Summary The apparel companies cater to various channels such as Department Stores, Trade, Organized Retail etc. Institutional Sales is a nascent business channel that caters to the demand from Institutional customers i. e organizations. Sales to this channel are generally in the form of bulk orders at volume discounts. For example, a pharmaceutical company orders through this channel for gifting shirt to doctors. The majority of the business of apparel organizations comes in through Trade and Department store channels. Orders for those channels come in during the Trade shows held twice a year 6 months prior to the launch of a season (Spring-Summer or Autumn-Winter). Sourcing and production plan for those channels so are essentially done against fixed orders. But for Institutional Channel orders are not predetermined and customers come in with orders with very short lead time. This makes sourcing and manufacturing strategy for this process completely different from traditional channels. Currently the company Madura Garments (for reference and data) is not able to service these customers at a satisfactory level applying the business processes in place. This is contributed by the fact that the normal business model is significantly different from the requirements of this channel. The approach adopted was to first study the as-is business processes in place and review the past data to ascertain the capability of the current system in place. Next the problems in the current system were identified irrespective of whether the problem was a process or people related problem. A revised process flow was the proposed which will enable the company to service Institutional customers at a satisfactory rate. Lean Six Sigma methodology was adopted to approach the problem using a DMAIC model. The final list of recommendations include changes in the current business process in the short time frame for immediate enhancement of service levels and long term changes to improve process capability to ramp up the business capabilities. Table of Contents Project Report1 Certificate of Supervision2 Acknowledgements4 Executive Summary5 1. Introduction8 2. Need Significance of the Project11 3. Objective12 4. Literature Review. 3 4. 1 DMAIC 13 4. 2 Fishbone Diagram. 15 4. 3 Cause and Effect Matrix. 17 4. 4 Failure Mode Effect Analysis.. 18 5. Methodology.. 4 5. 1: Understand the current market and business scenario.. 25 5. 1. 1: Market Scenario: .. 25 5. 1. 2: Agent Performance: 29 5. 1. 3: Business processes: 30 5. 1. 4: Key Points: . 5 5. 2: Ascertain the current service level of the system.. 36 5. 3: Identifying and Defining Problems.. 37 5. 3. 1: Fishbone Diagram: 37 5. 3. 2: Cause and Effect M atrix: 38 5. 3. 3: Failure Mode Effect Analysis: 39 5. 3. : Principal Issues: 41 5. 4: Process Improvement Plan 42 5. 4. 1: Short term changes: 43 5. 4. 2: Long term plans: 47 5. 5: Process Control.. 1 6. References:.. 54 Introduction The Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of 100,000 employees, belonging to 25 different nationalities. In India the group has been adjudged â€Å" The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia† by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Over 50 percent of it revenues flows from its overseas operations. The several Group companies under Aditya Birla Group are Grasim, Hindalco, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Essel Mining, Aditya Birla Retail Limited. Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited is a diversified conglomerate and the platform that has launched many new businesses for India’s Premier Business house, the Aditya Birla Group. Aditya Birla Nuvo has a dozen businesses under its fold, ranging from textiles to telecom. As a leading player, Aditya Birla Nuvo ranks as The country’s largest premium branded Apparel Company : Madura Garments Largest Manufacture of linen fabric in India India’s largest and the world’s fourth largest producer of insulators The second largest producer of carbon black in India India’s second largest producer of viscose filament yarn (VFY) Aditya Birla Nuvo’s Business: Garments (Branded Apparel) Madura Garments, a division of Aditya Birla Nuvo is India’s leading apparel retail company. It enjoys market leadership in the branded gar ments business through its power and popular lifestyle brands – Louis Phillipe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England. The company has also entered into a distribution agreement with the International brand Esprit and has opened exclusive brand outlets. It has 2 successful store formats The Collective and PEOPLE. Madura Garments has exclusive showroom space which includes several large format brands outlets of world-class standards, providing top quality retail experience to the consumers. It also has a high visible presence in large department and multi brand stores. The thrust is on brand building through development of innovative new merchandise, exciting communication campaigns and enhancing the product portfolio. The overall marketing strategy has been move from a â€Å"Wardrobe Brand† to a â€Å"Lifestyle† Brand. The company has won many coveted awards in the fashion world like the â€Å"Best Retailer of the Year, Best Apparel Company of the Year, Best Trouser Brand of the Year, Best Smart Casual Brand of the Year† etc. , at well known for a such as Reid Taylor Awards and Images Fashion Awards. To bolster its presence significantly in the exploding apparel retail sector, the company has started retailing its life style brand and affordable popular brands through two new formats- Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail Company Limited and Peter England Fashions and Retail Limited. Contract Manufacturing Madura Garments Exports limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo focusing on garment exports. It is an integrated player in the apparel industry with interest in manufacturing exports of wovens, knits and Full Service Provider business. The company has modern manufacturing facilities and caters to customers like Marks Spencer, Next, Blackberry, Arrow, Tommy Hilfiger and Menswear House. The organization delivers from design to delivery of merchandise at the customer warehouse. [pic] 2. Need Significance of the Project Madura Fashion Lifestyle has a fast growing institutionalized sales business. In December 2011, institutional sales hit an all time high of 4. 43 crores for a month. For FY12 institutional sales will account for Rs 14 crores with a high profitability (CBA). This channel has grown by four times in terms of sales over the last four years. However, the on time in full order execution for this channel continues to be poor. Delayed deliveries and missed opportunities continue to limit the growth of this channel. In this context, there is a need to study the supply chain (planning and execution) of this channel to identify the root cause for service failures and define process and system changes to tackle these. 3. Objective Mapping of as-is supply chain (planning process, order capture and order fulfillment process): The current business process that is being followed to cater to the customer demands Establish current service level for this channel: The order service level of the channel derived from the past data that has been obtained Identify root cause for service failures in institutional business: The major causes that leads to an unsatisfactory service level related to people, process, business issues 4. Literature Review Six Sigma Methodologies: Six Sigma  is a  business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola in 1986. Six Sigma became well known after  Jack Welch made it a central focus of his business strategy at General Electric in 1995, and today it is widely used in many sectors of industry. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing  variabilityin  manufacturing  and  business processes. It uses a set of  quality management  methods, including  statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (Black Belts, Green Belts, etc. ) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction and/or profit increase). The term  Six Sigma  originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing  processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a  sigma  rating indicating its yield, or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which 99. 99966% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3. defects per million). Motorola set a goal of six sigma for all of its manufacturing operations, and this goal became a byword for the management and engineering practices used to achieve it. 4. 1: DMAIC The DMAIC project methodology has five phases: ? Define  the problem, the voice of the customer, and the project goals, specifically. ? Measure  key aspects of th e current process and collect relevant data. ? Analyze  the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered. Seek out root cause of the defect under investigation. ? Improve  or optimize the current process based upon data analysis using techniques such as  design of experiments,  poka yoke  or mistake proofing, and standard work to create a new, future state process. Set up pilot runs to establish  process capability. ? Control  the future state process to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Implement  control systems  such as  statistical process control, production boards, visual workplaces, and continuously monitor the process. Some organizations add a  Recognize  step at the beginning, which is to recognize the right problem to work on, thus yielding an RDMAIC methodology. 4. 2: Operation Definition: Recall the quote in the first step section of this site, You can manage, what you can measure; you can measure, what you can define; you can define, what you can understand. Operational definition is the first step towards effective management. It helps us build a clear understanding of a concept or a phenomenon so that it can be unambiguously measured. Let us take a very simple example to understand the need and the concept of operational definition. Let us imagine a situation that we wish to buy an all-purpose shirt with 50% cotton and 50% polyester. Would you accept a shirt whose front is made up of 100% cotton cloth and the back made of 100% polyester cloth? Surely not! Clearly we need to (operationally) define what we need. A better expression would be that we need a shirt made up of a cloth having even distribution of cotton and polyester fibers and their proportion by weight (or may be by number) is equal. So far so good, but we also need to have a mechanism to test it. In this case, we can send the shirt to a lab where randomly selected two areas (say 1 cm x 1 cm) one from the back and one from the front are examined for the contents. The lab reports that group of two fibers of each polyester and cotton are interwoven to make this clothe. Did we mean alternate fibers of polyester and cotton or something else? We now discover that we even need to define even distribution. In a business management scenario, common words such as good, reliable, and accurate (etc. ) can have multiple meanings unless they are (operationally) defined in a specific context. So how do we construct an operational definition? The process is explained with the help of an example in the following figure: [pic] Document the outcome of each process step and that becomes the operational definition. The operation definition must be tested before it is rolled out. 4. 2: Ishikawa’s Fishbone Diagram: The fishbone diagram is a graphical method for finding the root causes of an effect. The effect can be either a negative one, such as a process defect or an undue process variation; or a positive one, such as a desired process outcome. Kaoru Ishikawa, a famous Japanese consultant developed this method in the 1960s. It is also known as Cause-and-Effect Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram. The balance chapter details the steps required to construct a fishbone diagram. The example effect to illustrate the concept is high petrol consumption in a car. Step I Identify the process effect to be analysed. Develop an Operational Definition to ensure that it is clearly understood. Write the effect in a box on the right side and draw a horizontal arrow from left to right that touches the box as illustrated in the figure below. [pic] Step II Identify the main categories of causes resulting in the effect under consideration. These categories can easily be selected from the applicable six key process elements. These process elements are people, environment, material, method, machinery, and measurement. Add selected categories in the diagram as illustrated in the following figure. [pic] Step III Identify as many causes under each category and add them to the corresponding category. Detail each cause further (recursively) to the lowest level possible. [pic] Analyse this diagram to identify the causes that require deeper investigation. As fishbone diagram identify only potential causes, it may be a good idea to use a Pareto Chart to determine the cause(s) to focus on first. 4. 3: Cause Effect Matrix The  Cause and Effect Matrix  is a tool which is used to prioritise potential causes by examining their relationship with the  CTQs. CTQ’s are placed on the top of the matrix and causes are place along the left side. The CTQ’s are ranked in terms of importance. The relationship between the causes and CTQs are ranked. An overall score is calculated and the cause with the highest overall score should be addressed first because they will have the largest impact on the CTQs. Steps 1. List the CTQs across the top of a matrix. 2. Rank and assign scores to each CTQ according to its importance to the customer. 3. List the causes on the left side of the matrix 4. Determine correlation scores between each cause and CTQ based on the strength of their relationship (E. g. 1 – weak, 3 – some, 9 – strong) 5. Cross multiply correlation scores with priority scores and add across for each cause 6. Create a  Pareto chart  and focus on the causes with the higher overall scores. The following diagram is a CE matrix template from  ProcessMA. [pic] 4. : Failure Mode Effect Analysis: A  failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)  is a  procedure  in  product development,  systems engineering  and  operations management  for analysis of potential failure modes within a system for classification by the severity and likelihood of the failures. A successful FMEA activity helps a team to identify potential failure modes based on past e xperience with similar products or processes, enabling the team to design those failures out of the system with the minimum of effort and resource expenditure, thereby reducing development time and costs. Because it forces a review of functions and functional requirements, it also serves as a form of  design review. It is widely used in manufacturing industries in various phases of the product life cycle and is now increasingly finding use in the service industry. Failure modes  are any errors or defects in a process, design, or item, especially those that affect the intended function of the product and or process, and can be potential or actual. Effects analysis  refers to studying the consequences of those failures. The pre-work The process for conducting an FMEA is typically developed in three main phases, in which appropriate actions need to be defined. Before starting with an FMEA, several other techniques are frequently employed to ensure that robustness and history are included in the analysis. A robustness analysis can be obtained from interface matrices, boundary diagrams, and  parameter diagrams. Failures are often found from external noise factors and from shared interfaces with other parts and/or systems. Typically, a description of the system and its function is developed, considering both intentional and unintentional uses. A block diagram of the system is often created for inclusion with the FMEA, giving an overview of the major components or process steps and how they are related. These are called logical relations around which the FMEA can be developed. The primary FME document or worksheet lists all of the items or functions of the system in a logical manner, typically based on the block diagram. NOTE: Above shown example format is not in line with mil. td 1629 or Civil Aerospace practise. The basic terms as given in first paragraph of this page are not available in this template! Step 1: Occurrence In this step it is necessary to look at the cause of a failure mode and the number of times it occurs. This can be done by looking at similar products or processes and the failure modes that have been documented for them in the past. A failure cause is looked upon as a design weaknes s. All the potential causes for a failure mode should be identified and documented. Again this should be in technical terms. Examples of causes are: erroneous algorithms, excessive voltage or improper operating conditions. A failure mode is given an  occurrence ranking (O), again 1–10. Actions need to be determined if the occurrence is high (meaning   4 for non-safety failure modes and   1 when the severity-number from step 2 is 9 or 10). This step is called the detailed development section of the FMEA process. Occurrence also can be defined as  %. If a non-safety issue happened less than  1%, we can give 1 to it. It is based on your product and customer specification. Rating |Meaning | |1 |No known occurrences on similar products or processes | |2/3 |Low (relatively few failures) | |4/5/6 |Moderate (occasional failures) | |7/8 |High (repeated failures) | |9/10 |Very high (failure is almost inevitable) | Step 2: Severity Determine all failure modes based on the functional requirements and their effects. Examples of failure modes are: Electrical short-circuiting, corrosion or deformation. A failure mode in one component can lead to a failure mode in another component, therefore each failure mode should be listed in technical terms and for function. Hereafter the ultimate effect of each failure mode needs to be considered. A failure effect is defined as the result of a failure mode on the function of the system as perceived by the user. In this way it is convenient to write these effects down in terms of what the user might see or experience. Examples of failure effects are: degraded performance, noise or even injury to a user. Each effect is given a severity number (S)  from 1 (no danger) to 10 (critical). These numbers help an engineer to prioritize the failure modes and their effects. If the sensitivity of an effect has a number 9 or 10, actions are considered to change the design by eliminating the failure mode, if possible, or protecting the user from the effect. A severity rating of 9 or 10 is generally reserved for those effects which would cause injury to a user or otherwise result in litigation. Rating |Meaning | |1 |No effect | |2 |Very minor (only noticed by discriminating customers) | |3 |Minor (affects very little of the system, noticed by average customer) | |4/5/6 |Moderate (most customers are annoyed) | |7/8 |High (causes a loss of primary function; customers are issatisfied) | |9/10 |Very high and hazardous (product becomes inoperative; customers angered; the failure may result unsafe operation and | | |possible injury) | Step 3: Detection When appropriate actions are determined, it is necessary to test their efficiency. In addition, design verification is needed. The proper inspection methods need to be chosen. First, an engineer should look at the current controls of the system that prevent failure modes from occurring or which detect the failure before it reaches the customer. Hereafter one should identify testing, analysis, monitoring and other techniques that can be or have been used on similar systems to detect failures. From these controls an engineer can learn how likely it is for a failure to be identified or detected. Each combination from the previous 2 steps receives a  detection number (D). This ranks the ability of planned tests and inspections to remove defects or detect failure modes in time. The assigned detection number measures the risk that the failure will  escape detection. A high detection number indicates that the chances are high that the failure will escape detection, or in other words, that the chances of detection are low. Rating |Meaning | |1 |Certain fault will be caught on test | |2 |Almost Certain | |3 |High | |4/5/6 |Moderate | |7/8 |Low | |9/10 |Fault will be passed to customer undetected | After these three basic steps, risk priority numbers (RPN) are calculated Risk priority number (RPN) RPN play an important part i n the choice of an action against failure modes. They are threshold values in the evaluation of these actions. After ranking the severity, occurrence and detect ability the RPN can be easily calculated by multiplying these three numbers: RPN  =  S  ? O  ? D This has to be done for the entire process and/or design. Once this is done it is easy to determine the areas of greatest concern. The failure modes that have the highest RPN should be given the highest priority for corrective action. This means it is not always the failure modes with the highest severity numbers that should be treated first. There could be less severe failures, but which occur more often and are less detectable. After these values are allocated, recommended actions with targets, responsibility and dates of implementation are noted. These actions can include specific inspection, testing or quality procedures, redesign (such as selection of new components), adding more redundancy and limiting environmental stresses or operating range. Once the actions have been implemented in the design/process, the new RPN should be checked, to confirm the improvements. These tests are often put in graphs, for easy visualization. Whenever a design or a process changes, an FMEA should be updated. A few logical but important thoughts come in mind: ? Try to eliminate the failure mode (some failures are more preventable than others) ? Minimize the severity of the failure ? Reduce the occurrence of the failure mode ? Improve the detection 5. Methodology A brief outline of the methodology adopted in the project is given below: 1. Understand the current market and business scenario a. Gather historical data from the system to analyze market condition b. Analyze trends and patterns in the sales figures c. Study the current business processes and map the material and information flow 2. Ascertain the service level that the system currently operates at a. Gather data for a specified period b. Ascertain the service level for that period subjected to constraints c. Interpret the data to assess system capability 3. Identify and define the issues a. Identify the principal issues currently affecting service levels b. Use Lean Six Sigma Methodologies to structure the analysis process 4. Propose a Process improvement plan that addresses the need of the system a. Structure all the issues in the current system systematically b. Propose solutions which can positively affect the major issues c. Propose solutions for current service level improvement and long term improvement of business capabilities 5. Propose metrics to effectively control the process once implemented a. Propose metrics that can capture the effectiveness of the system in place 5. 1: Understand the current market and business scenario 5. 1. 1: Market Scenario: Brandwise sales for FY11-12 85% of sales contributed by LP, VH 62% of LP sales contributed by December sales 31% of overall sales in December [pic] Overall Sales volume for FY ‘11-‘12 Business runs on relationship based contacts. A client can take away a number of his contacts from a business. Period for gifting by companies: April ( June Companies want products by March So ideally order should be placed by November/December Educating customers about the functioning of the business is important to obtain feasible targets Customers generally specify the brand, but may also sometimes specify the colour to coordinate with an event A serviced customer will not look for an alternate source for subsequent orders A customer may order goods for gifting or internal use Price sensitive customers Currently Pharmaceutical is the major player, but new avenues can be explored (Essar Steel uniform order) Pharmaceutical companies generally demand a turnaround of 30 days Pharmaceutical sector generally not affected by downturns Delivery in correct time and correct order quantity If delivery is correct then a premium price may be charged Priority of delivery is low in this channel, the priority should be highest Customers may reject the order if delivery is delayed for a day. Events. Priority is low as the volume of business is low in comparison with overall business volume If service level is high then company bargaining power will also be high Market is susceptible to economic downturns (no order from IT firms for the past 3 yrs) Agents display a variety of goods to the customer. May sell a rival brand or a different product. Forecasting is difficult as a company may choose to give a different gift the next year Satisfied customers does not ensure return customer but provides base for word of mouth marketing Leverage on the firms brand names High profit business where the discount depends on the volume of products ordered. No returned goods. Dealings are made with top management, so client facing operations should be capably handled Customer |Sum of Quantity |Sum of Gross | | | |Total | |Mankind pharma ltd |107500 |55623750 | |Madhuram apparels |14019 |11155274 | |Lupin limited |10460 |9936990 | |Addon holding pvt ltd. |12781 |8356870 | |Supra garments pvt limited |9098 |7067832 | |Padma international corporation |10188 |6298490 | |Unichem laboratories ltd |6555 |5004589. 37 | |Biocon limited |4980 |3650530 | |M/S. Glaxo smithline ltd |3424 |3589379 | |Clairemont enterprises |8138 |3544110 | |Emcure pharmaceuticals limited |5395 |3426004 | |IPCA laboratories limited |3284 |2891923 | |Saffron enterprises (p) ltd. |4118 |2855504 | |Geno pharmaceuticals ltd |4200 |2520000 | |Government of India |3000 |1875000 | |Society of Petroleum Geophysicists |2028 |1817540 | |Pidilite industries ltd |2500 |1650206. 25 | 53 customers were serviced where ordered quantity was over 100 9 orders were serviced where the ordered quantity was more than 5000 17 orders were worth more than Rs 10,00,000 The revenue generated from these orders contribute to 88% of the overall revenue Orders exceeding 5000 contributed to 74% of overall revenue Revenue per unit from large orders generally lesser than that from medium/small orders 5. 1. 2: Agent Performance: Agentwise breakup of sales amount Proportion of sales made through agents as opposed to directly 5. 1. 3: Business processes: [pic] Current scenario of sourcing op tions: Sourcing not dependent on Core or Fashion, depends on how Core is defined Mills are large entities and Madura cannot consume their entire produce Sourcing time depends on overall demand for a fabric in the market Sourcing strategy dependant on individual Style Codes For a style code with constant Y-o-Y demand an buffer inventory of 1000 mts is maintained at either factory RM level or supplier level A fabric from the current season, brand checks whether they can sell the product at the full priced market , then they service the institutionalized sales customers No separate sourcing strategy for institutional channel Sourcing strategy fixed at the start of the season Products manufactured against fixed orders Fabric sourced to meet only the fixed demand Excess fabric stock due to customers cancelling orders ARS (Automated Replenishment System) not affecting sourcing Sourcing for one style code done only once Sourcing is done according to the preplanned production sc hedule Fabric is not allocated to any channel, the FG is allocated to a specific channel If fabric is not sold off to the specific channel then the stock is offered to the same/ different channel the next season Once the plan for the season has been made the plan is not subjected to any major change 5. 1. 4: Key Points: Plant Capacity: Plant capacity is allocated to various brands depending on their orders from trade shows/forecasts The allocated plant capacity is fixed for a year and is reviewed at the beginning of the season Excess fabric stock from previous season piled-up at factory (inventory build-up) Production Planning: No separate capacity is present to cater to institutional sales Brands utilize excess capacity or reschedule work orders to cater to Institutional customers Service level dependent on demand from other traditional channels Institutional Orders: Factory receives direct enquiry from the Institutional Sales team Factory check reserve stock and ready so urcing options for fabric and trims (lower lead time to source trims than brands) Schedule production plan according to excess capacity available i. e unutilized by the brands 5. 2: Ascertain the current service level of the system Data Collection: Data collected from mail records from Jan ( Mar 2012 Enquiries for less than 100 units neglected Orders divided into separate groups depending on ordered volume Overall service levels for the period is at 35% Current process can service only about 16% of the total volume of demand None of the 10000+ orders have been serviced Service level for orders between 2000-10000 is the highest Excluding the very large orders, the company serviced 40% of the total volume of demand |Row Labels |Accepted |Despatched |Enquiry |Rejected |Grand Total |Service Level | |500-2000 |7 |5 |1 |21 |34 |0. 6 | |2000-10000 |2 |4 |2 |5 |13 |0. 55 | |10000+ | | |2 |4 |6 |0 | |Grand Total |10 |15 |5 |47 |77 |0. 35 | |100-500 |225 |1725 | |3380 |5330 |0. 37 | | 500-2000 |5240 |4050 |1000 |18400 |28690 |0. 34 | |2000-10000 |14380 |11500 |9500 |33500 |68880 |0. 4 | |10000+ | | |51000 |144000 |195000 |0 | |Grand Total |19845 |17533 | |High Turnaround Time |Fabric catalogue not provided for IS |567 | |High Turnaround Time |Information is decentralized |567 | |Unavailable fabric |Low clarity regarding reserve stock level |441 | |Unavailable fabric |Sourcing not done for Institutional Channel |441 | |High Turnaround Time |Low clarity regarding reserve stock level |441 | |Low Priority of Institutional sales |Volume of business w. r. overall business |441 | |Unavailable fabric |Volume orders |405 | |Unavailable capacity |No separate plant capacity for Institutional customers |245 | |Low Profitability |Discount margin offered |245 | |High Turnaround Time |Response time to get back on a query |245 | |Unavailable capacity |Volume orders |189 | |Unavailable capacity |Current utilization of factory for retail channels |175 | |Delayed Delivery |No sepa rate plant capacity for Institutional customers |175 | |Low Profitability |Price sensitive customers |147 | |Delayed Delivery |Current utilization of factory for retail channels |125 | |Low Priority of Institutional sales |Price sensitive customers |105 | |Competitor Action |NOS range not always available |105 | |Competitor Action |Agents working for multiple companies |45 | 5. 3. 4: Principal Issues: Fabric Stock: Fabric catalogue is not provided for IS leading to lack of clarity for agents and IS team Reserve fabric stock at factory level is not visible to IS team Sourcing for fabric is not done for Institutional customers Process: Priority for Institutional orders are low Information is decentralized leading to a high turnaround time Bulk orders from Institutional customers leading to shortage of available capacity Slack information flow between brand and factory leading to delayed production Planning: Lack of planning and subsequent strategizing for achieving targets Pro blems with forecasting the sales of this channel Manufacturing for orders are done on an ad-hoc basis 5. 4: Process Improvement Plan The proposed solution has been broadly divided into short term actions and long term actions: Short term actions: a. Channel potential Dispel value chain image Communicate benefits of the channel Change accounting standards for brands for catering to IS b. Fabric stock visibility Catalogue of reserve stock in factory Swatch set, inventory record of current stock made visible to IS team c. Process capability Sourcing done on a limited scale by the IS team Book order for a limited quantity of core range during trade show Plant capacity set up to cater to Institutional customers exclusively Long term plans: Revamp Order Interface Integrate sourcing solutions Create and maintain a database of mills Create an online portal for centralized information storage from the brand, factory and IS team Formulate ramp-up strategy Target a service level of 100% for orders within 5000 Process should be capable of handling 5000+ orders with a lead time of 45 days Target new segments to increase business volume Create a low price point brand, Byford, to cater to demand for price sensitive customers 5. 4. 1: Short term changes: Channel Potential: Apprehension of brands regarding profitability and quality of products offered Demand from this channel is an additional demand (basic difference from value channel) Quality assurance according to brand standards Adhering to predetermined discount slabs (PC:MRP ratio) Potential to facilitate fabric stock liquidation (AS has already prepared swatch set) Process Capability: NOS stock not always available leading to business loss in Core range IS team should form some sourcing capabilities by using the standard mills IS team can also book a certain range of core products during trade shows (brands currently identify 5 styles that will sell in IS) Separate plant capacity based on past y ear minimum demand per month for the past year Fabric stock visibility: Swatch set of reserve fabric stock to be made and sent to the IS team A basic database of current stock from traditional channel that the brand can offer for IS Information clarity between the stake holders for fabric stock to be centralized Key Changes: Central repository of information regarding reserve stock from factory and excess fabric stock from all national mills adhering to quality standards Repository periodically updated for fabric from current stock (dropped order) that can be offered to Institutional customers Agents have an upstream visibility regarding fabric on offer, therefore enabling queries to be addressed on first contact IS team and agent have stock visibility to reply to queries better, shortening the order capture time IS team itself explores sourcing options if fabric not present with brand Interaction with brand minimized regarding the fabric stock information Interactions betwe en contact points in the whole process flow reduced Non-Availability of capacity: Plant capacity not allocated to Institutional sales Delay in order delivery due to lack of capacity Separate line to cater to IS specially during peak season (Aug/Sept) Line can be used for traditional channel in case capacity unutilized Factory to have the capability to manufacture 7000 units for IS per month 5. 4. 2: Long term plans: Strategic goals: Target a service level of 100% for orders within 5000 units Aim to serve 12 very large orders (revenue over Rs. 50,00,000 every fiscal year) Service an order with volumes larger than 5000 in 45 days lead time (considering fabric sourcing is required) Expansion: Pharmaceutical sector contributes to 90% of the current business Decrease dependency on one sector by exploring new avenues Actively ask agents to promote business to new customers and provide incentive if a new sector is breached (volume orders) Brand development: Byford currently cate rs to Institutional customers Make Byford capable of servicing parallel industries like uniform orders, that are not being serviced by LBRDs Byford can service internal requirement for manufacturing industries that cannot be serviced because of price point issues (accept orders only beyond a certain volume) Key Changes: Interface is created to capture the entire information in an accessible format Interface provides information about style code, fabric properties, swatch, quantity available, estimated manufacturing capacity and price of product Processes typically addressed after an enquiry is expedited to be processed beforehand Customer driven ordering system which minimizes the unstructured interaction between the various stakeholders Customer has ready information regarding the quantity available, fabric availability and tentative delivery dates Price, fabric and plant capacity issues are dealt with in a structured manner to avoid unnecessary delays n the system Informati on is centralized successfully and the interface can be further utilized by other channels (e. g: a Trade customer wants to order a Core range) 5. 5: Process Control Auditing Measures: Brands feel it is not profitable to sell to Institutional channel because of the 67. 3% transfer price between MFL MGLRCL Monthly targets are affected as brands service IS orders Separate auditing for sales made through Institutional channels Process Capability: Measure of defects in delivery (quantity quality) for orders accepted Measure to be Defects Per Hundred Opportunities Service level: the number of accepted enquiries Process Dashboard: a. Historical: Data for the past quarter Revenue Selling price CBA Orders accepted Orders served Monthly plant utilization b. Exceptions: Data outliers in business process Largest enquiry by volume Largest order accepted Longest delay c. Current status: Enquiries under process Enquiries potentially worth over Rs 10,00,000 Actual sales vs target sales d. Future: Current orders under process Utilization of plant capacity by IS Scheduled vs expected delivery dates 7. References: Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results by Mike Rother The Toyota Way by Jeffey Liker