How to Use the Ball Game as an Icebreaker for Groups

An icebreaker game, activity, or exercise is a great way to kick off a class, workshop, meeting, or group gathering. Icebreakers can: Serve as introductions for strangersFacilitate conversationEncourage group interactionBuild trustEnergize group membersEncourage teamworkBuild team skills Icebreaker games are most effective in groups of three or more people. To give you an example of how an icebreaker works, were going to take a look at a classic icebreaker game that can be used for both small and large groups. This icebreaker game is traditionally known as the Ball Game.   How to Play the Classic Ball Game The classic version of the Ball Game is designed to be used as an icebreaker for a group of strangers who have never met each other. This icebreaker game is perfect for a new class, workshop, study group, or project meeting.   Ask all of the participants to stand in a circle. Make sure they are not too far apart or too close together. Give one person a small ball (tennis balls work well) and ask them to throw it to someone else in the circle. The person who catches it says their name and throws it to another person who does the same. As the ball moves around the circle, everyone in the group gets to learn one another’s name. Ball Game Adaptation for People Who Are Acquainted With Each Other The classic version of the Ball Game doesnt work very well if everyone in the group knows each others names. However, the game can be adapted for people who are acquainted with each other but still dont know each other very well. For example, members of various departments within an organization might know each others names, but since they dont work closely together on a daily basis, they might not know very much about each other. The Ball Game can help people get to know each other better. It also works well as a team-building icebreaker.   As with the original version of the game, you should ask group members to stand in a circle and take turns tossing a ball to each other. When someone catches the ball, they will state something about themselves. To make this game easier, you could establish a topic for the answers. For example, you could establish that the person catching the ball has to state their favorite color before tossing the ball to the next person, who will also call out their favorite color.   Some other sample topics for this game include: Say one thing you like about your jobDescribe yourself in one wordName your favorite bookIdentify your biggest strengthIdentify your biggest weakness Ball Game Tips Be sure that you remind participants to throw the ball gently so that nobody gets hurt.Make this icebreaker game more fun by timing the exercise and seeing how fast the participants can get the ball around the circle.Try to select a topic that fits the participants and the goal of the icebreaker.

Essay about The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and...

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels The Communist Manifesto was written by two world renowned philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This book was produced in an era of great suffering and anguish of all workers in a socially distressed system. In a time when revolutions were spreading through Europe like wildfire, Marx organized his thoughts and views to produce the critical pamphlet â€Å"The Communist Manifesto†. Marx’s scrutiny illustrates his belief that unless change is to occur the constant outcome will repeatedly remain uniform. This is a novel that displays the differentiation between the Bourgeois and the Proletariat. Class relationships are defined by an eras means of production. Marx’s†¦show more content†¦Marxs ideas on labor value are very much alive for many organizations working for social change. In addition, it is apparent that the gap between the rich and poor is widening on a consistent basis. According to Marx, the course of human history takes a very specific f orm which is class struggle. The engine of change in history is class opposition. Historical epochs are defined by the relationship between different classes at different points in time. It is this model that Marx fleshes out in his account of feudalisms passing in favor of bourgeois capitalism and his prognostication of bourgeois capitalisms passing in favor of proletarian rule. These changes are not the reliant results of random social, economic, and political events; each follows the other in predictable succession. Marx responds to a lot of criticism from an imagined bourgeois interlocutor. He considers the charge that by wishing to abolish private property, the communist is destroying the ground work of all personal freedom, activity, and independence. Marx responds by saying that wage labor does not properly create any property for the laborer. It only creates capital, a property which works only to augment the exploitation of the worker. This property, this capital, is based on class antagonism. Having linked private property to class hostility, MarxShow MoreRelatedThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels1746 Words   |  7 Pagesdrawn on what the government can do that is acceptable. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, in which he argues that people are naturally immoral and will do what they can, whether good or bad, to maintain well-liked. In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the main argument is that humans are rational and would be able to govern themselves as a result of have one single class. When thoroughly analyzing each of the political works, it is clear that the main motivating factorsRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels Essay929 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"The Communist Manifesto† – the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was published on February 21, 1848. This book is the first document of scientific communism and the first program of the internati onal communist organizations and parties. It is the most systematic work of all thoughts and great teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. â€Å"The Communist Manifesto† consists of the main statements of the materialistic conception of history, the impartial laws of social development, the laws ofRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels2286 Words   |  10 PagesIn 1847, a group of radical workers who were called the â€Å"Communist League† met in London. During this meeting, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were commissioned to write a manifesto which soon became known as the Communist Manifesto. â€Å"A road map to history’s most important political document.† These words on the cover of one of the books newest editions to The Communist Manifesto represents that this document has been translated into many different form; this particular remake was meant for all levelsRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedr ich Engels1255 Words   |  6 PagesThe Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to begin explaining Communism and its goals. The Manifesto suggests that history acts according to what is called â€Å"class struggle.† The â€Å"means of production† are what truly defines the class relationships according to Marx and Engels (Marx 2002). Inevitably, the classes conflict and become hostile, no longer moving fluidly (Spalding 2000). The Manifesto states that this conflict becomes so severe that it eventually becomes a revolutionRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels831 Words   |  4 PagesNovember 4, 2015 COMM 8200 Analysis of The Communist Manifesto A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism. The Communist Manifesto reflects an attempt by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to explain the goals of Communism, as well as the theory behind the movement. Marx sees all of Europe allied against the idea of communism and consistently demonizes it and its followers. This caused the Communists to assemble in London and create this Manifesto in order to make their views public and clarifiedRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto, By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels Essay1664 Words   |  7 PagesThe Communist Manifesto The Communist Manifesto was drafted under the commission of the Communist League, a body that consisted of a group of radical workers who were disgruntled by the abject poverty of the working class in industrialized Europe. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the authors of the Communist Manifesto, lived at a time when the gap between the rich and the poor was becoming evidently wide, and the working class was struggling to survive. The Communist Manifesto is a result of contextRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto, By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels1000 Words   |  4 Pagesis the history of class struggles† (Marx). In the year 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels decided to publish a manifesto after sitting down and sharing ideas for a period of time. Today, that piece of writing is known as The Communist Manifesto. In this book, Marx, the principal author stated that escaping from alienation required a revolution. That was the only possible way in which a political as well as a socia l change could have been seen. Therefore, Marx’ theory implied the use of violenceRead MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels835 Words   |  4 Pages The Communist Manifesto is written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels which was published by a group of German born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League. The main idea in this book is define the goals and theory of Communism. It explains how classes affect one another as well. This book consists of four different chapters which display Marx’s approach on Communism in different circumstances. This book is about Marx’s perspective on Communism, its effects, how it is criticized,Read MoreThe Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels1212 Words   |  5 PagesThe history of all hithero existing society is the history of class struggle. (Marx Engels 1848). This statement establishes the setting for the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A bold proclamation, the Communist Manifesto set the stage at the time for illustrating, so distinctly, a prolonged tension between two opposing and intertwined classes of a capitalis tic economy. Still resonating in contemporary society, class struggle, especially between these two classesRead MoreEssay The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels958 Words   |  4 PagesThe Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, outlines how a society should be run under communism. The document provides truths to what is wrong with society; what causes these wrongs; how they can be fixed; and how this relates to humans and nature. Marx was a political philosopher of German ancestry. Marx and Engels split the document up into four sections: Section 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians, section 2:

The Social Theory of Du Bois Free Essays

Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim are widely recognized as the trinity of sociological theory. While these three sociologists were trailblazing social theorists who enhanced the study of human behavior and its relationship to social institutions, other, more contemporary scholars were just as innovative – one of those scholars being W. E. We will write a custom essay sample on The Social Theory of Du Bois or any similar topic only for you Order Now B. Du Bois. W. E. B. Du Bois was a political and literary giant of the 20th century, publishing over twenty books and thousand of essays and articles throughout his life. W. E. B Du Bois is arguably one of the most imaginative, perceptive, and prolific founders of the sociological discipline. In addition to leading the Pan-African movement and being an activist for civil rights for African Americans, Du Bois was a pioneer of urban sociology, an innovator of rural sociology, a leader in criminology, the first American sociologist of religion, and most notably the first great social theorist of race. The work of W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) has recently become recognized for its significant contributions to sociological theory. Although Du Bois himself was overwhelmingly concerned with the scientific perspective of â€Å"value free† sociological research, later social theorists have found his thoughts on race to offer one of the first instances of the articulation of standpoint theory. This theoretical perspective is anything but value free, because of the self-conscious efforts of the researcher to look at the social world from the vantage point of minority groups. Feminists, multiculturalists, and even postmodernists have come to recognize the importance of the black point of view found in Du Bois’s work. They have also come to appreciate Du Bois for his focus on local knowledge and practices. W. E. B. Du Bois was an important American thinker. Poet, philosopher, economic historian, sociologist, and social critic, Du Bois’ work resists easy classification. Du Bois is more than a philosopher; he is, for many, a great social leader. His extensive efforts all bend toward a common goal, the equality of colored people. His philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination. So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppresses the dreams and the freedoms of human beings, so long will Du Bois be relevant as a thinker, for he, more than almost any other, employed thought in the service of exposing this privilege, and worked to eliminate it in the service of a greater humanity. Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. He wrote the first scientific treatise in the field of sociology; and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP’s journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States’ Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death. Early in his career Du Bois claimed that the â€Å"race idea† was the central thought of all history and that the primary â€Å"problem of the twentieth century was the problem of the colour line. † Du Bois viewed the goal of African Americans not as one of integration or absorption into white America, but one of advancing â€Å"Pan-Negroism. † Critical of the excessive materialism of white America, Du Bois believed that black culture could temper the self-interested pursuit of profit. Du Bois called on blacks to organize and unite around their race, and although he was not opposed to segregation per se, he did come to realize that discrimination stifled the development of â€Å"separate but equal† facilities and institutions. The concepts of the Veil and double consciousness occupy an important place in Du Bois’s theory on race. Du Bois discusses both in his work The Souls of Black Folk. The Veil is an imaginary barrier that separates whites and blacks. Du Bois hoped his work would allow whites to glimpse behind the Veil, so they could begin to understand the black experience in America. Perhaps the most fundamental component of the black experience in America was living with what Du Bois called double consciousness. Blacks are simultaneously both inside and outside of the dominant white society and live with a feeling of â€Å"twoness. † By trying to cultivate and preserve a racial identity, blacks come into conflict with trying to fit into white society. According to Du Bois, the tension of being both black and American can manifest itself in pathologies within the black community and discrimination in white America. Whatever turns out to be the best general account of Du Bois’ philosophy, it seems the significance of his thought only really shows up in the specific details of his works themselves, especially in The Souls of Black Folk. It is here that he first develops his central philosophical concept, the concept of double consciousness, and spells out its full implications. The aim of Souls of Black Folk is to show the spirit of black people in the United States: to show their humanity and the predicament that has confronted their humanity. Du Bois asserts that â€Å"the color line† divides people in the States, causes massive harm to its inhabitants, and ruins its own pretensions to democracy. He shows, in particular, how a veil has come to be put over African-Americans, so that others do not see them as they are; African-Americans are obscured in America; they cannot be seen clearly, but only through the lens of race prejudice. African-Americans feel this alien perception upon them but at the same time feel themselves as themselves, as their own with their own legitimate feelings and traditions. This dual self-perception is known as â€Å"double consciousness. Du Bois’ aim in Souls is to explain this concept in more specific detail and to show how it adversely affects African-Americans. In the background of Souls is always also the moral import of its message, to the effect that the insertion of a veil on human beings is wrong and must be condemned on the grounds that it divides what otherwise would be a unique and coherent identity. Souls thus aims to make the reader understand, in effect, that African-Americans have a distinct cultural identity, one that must be acknowledged, respected, and enabled to flourish. Du Bois’ other major philosophical concept is that of â€Å"second sight. † This is a concept he develops most precisely in Darkwater, a work, as we have seen, in which Du Bois changes his approach and takes up a stauncher stance against white culture. Du Bois holds that due to their double consciousness, African-Americans possess a privileged epistemological perspective. Both inside the white world and outside of it, African-Americans are able to understand the white world, while yet perceiving it from a different perspective, namely that of an outsider as well. The white person in America, by contrast, contains but a single consciousness and perspective, for he or she is a member of a dominant culture, with its own racial and cultural norms asserted as absolute. The white person looks out from themselves and sees only their own world reflected back upon them—a kind of blindness or singular sight possesses them. Luckily, as Du Bois makes clear, the dual perspective of African-Americans can be used to grasp the essence of whiteness and to expose it, in the multiple senses of the word â€Å"expose. That is to say, second sight allows an African-American to bring the white view out into the open, to lay it bare, and to let it wither for the problematic and wrong-headed concept that it is. The destruction of â€Å"whiteness† in this way leaves whites open to the experience of African-Americans, as a privileged perspective, and hence it also leaves African-Americans with a breach in the culture through which they could enter with t heir legitimate, and legitimating, perspectives. Later in life, Du Bois turned to communism as the means to achieve equality. Du Bois came to believe that the economic condition of Africans and African-Americans was one of the primary modes of their oppression, and that a more equitable distribution of wealth, as advanced by Marx, was the remedy to the situation. ( John J. Macionis: Sociology 14th edition) Du Bois was not simply a follower of Marx, however. He also added keen insights to the communist tradition himself. One of his contributions is his insistence that communism contains no explicit means of liberating Africans and African-Americans, but that it ought to focus its attentions here and work toward this end. â€Å"The darker races,† to use Du Bois’ language, amount to the majority of the world’s proletariat. In Black Folk, Then and Now, Du Bois writes: â€Å"the dark workers of Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea, and South and Central America†¦these are the one who are supporting a superstructure of wealth, luxury, and extravagance. It is the rise of these people that is the rise of the world† (Black Folk,). A further contribution Du Bois makes is to show how Utopian politics such as communism is possible in the first place. Building on Engle’s claim that freedom lies in the acknowledgment of necessity, as Maynard Solomon argues (Solomon, â€Å"Introduction† 258), (because in grasping necessity we accurately perceive what areas of life are open to free action), Du Bois insists on the power of dreams. Admitting our bound nature (bound to our bellies, bound to material conditions), even stressing it, he nonetheless emphasizes our range of powers within these constraints. Although difficult to characterize in general terms, Du Bois’ philosophy amounts to a programmatic shift away from abstraction and toward engaged, social criticism. In affecting this change in philosophy, especially on behalf of African-Americans and pertaining to the issue of race, Du Bois adds concrete significance and urgent application to American Pragmatism, as Cornel West maintains, a philosophy that is about social criticism, not about grasping absolute timeless truth. Above all, however, Du Bois’ philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination. So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppresses the dreams and the freedoms of human beings, so long will Du Bois be relevant as a thinker, for he, more than almost any other, employed thought in the service of exposing this privilege, and worked to eliminate it in the service of a greater humanity. References: Du Bois, W. E. B. Black Folk, Then and Now (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited, 1975). Du Bois, W. E. B. Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil (Mineola, N. Y. Dover Publications, 1999). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072824301/student_view0/chapter10/chapter_summary.html Sociology: 14th edition (John J Macionis; Prentice Hall, 2011) How to cite The Social Theory of Du Bois, Papers

Management of a World Class Company Toyota free essay sample

Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in Japan[1] and it is also the largest worldwide as of the first half of 2012[2] by volume of sold cars ahead of General Motors and Volkswagen AG. The company was created in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as a spinoff to Toyota Industries to create automobiles. As of 2012, Toyota own several different brands as Lexus luxury cars, Scion – brand only for North America, aimed towards the Generation Y and 51% in Daihatsu – the oldest car manufacturer in Japan. Akio Toyoda is the current CEO of Toyota, he is grandson of the creator Kiichiro Toyoda[3]. Toyota have produced more than 200 million cars all over the world with their biggest market in North America – 32%, followed by their home country Japan – 25%, Europe – 14% and Asia – 11%[4]. Toyota is publicly traded company of three of the major Stock Exchanges: New York Stock Exchange(NYSE), London Stock Exchange(LSE) and Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). In the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, Toyota recalled 9 million cars on various technical faults[5]. We will write a custom essay sample on Management of a World Class Company Toyota or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 5. 3 million of them was over a faulty â€Å"all-weather† floor mat, additional 2. 3 mil. For a faulty accelerator pedal and 1. 7 for both problems. On 14th of November 2012, Toyota announced that it will recall additional 2. 7 mil. cars over problems with the steering wheel and water pump system. This comes four weeks( 10th October) after another 7 mil. cars recalled over faulty electric windows mechanisms[6]. The 2010 recalls hit the company hard with huge financial loses, because of the recalls and stop of production for some time of the affected vehicles. Severe damage to the brand in the eyes of the public. An estimate of 1. 93 billion dollars were lost, because of missed sales, output and another recall related costs[7]. A 15% drop in shares was experienced by the company. Toyota is one of the leading manufacturers in pushing the hybrid electric vehicles. Their hybrid technologies make them the first company to mass produce such an automobile with the Toyota Prius in 1997. As of October 2012 the Prius around 3 mil. units[8] . 19 other Toyota branded vehicles are also available with the hybrid technology. So are models from the Lexus sub-brand. II. Management of Toyota Motor Company 1. Coprporate Governance of Toyota Motor Company Toyota Motor Company(TMC) is a public listed company, which means everybody can buy shares in it. This mean that the is a specific corporate structure and management operations. Toyota is with top-down centralized way of management. The company is headed by Fujio Cho, he is the chairman which in the Japanese system, that puts him in charge of the countrys and worlds largest automaker. He is only the second person to head Toyota and to not be from the Toyoda family after they stepped out in 1995. He joined Toyota in 1960 and previous titles include: Managing Director, Senior Managing Director, Vice President, President and Vice Chairman of the Board. He stepped in as a chairman in September 2006[9]. 960–1966, apprentice and training employee; 1966–1974, Production Control Division; 1974–1984, manager in Production Control Division; 1984–1986, manager in Logistics Administration and project manager in Production Control Division; 1986–1987, manager in Administration; 1987–1988, manager of Toyota North America Project and executive vice pres ident of Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA; 1988–1994, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA; 1994–1996, managing director; 1996–1998, senior managing director; 1998–1999, executive vice president; 1999–, CEO and president[10]. The Vice Chairman of the Board is Takeshi Uchiyamada since April 2012 and also serve as Vice President of the Company. Mr. Uchiyamada served as Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corp. since June 2005, as the Chief Production Control Logistics Officer of Toyota Motor Corp. since 2004, as Senior Managing Director of Toyota Motor Corp. from 2003 to June 2005. He served as the Chief Vehicle Engineering Officer of Toyota since 2003 and joined Toyota in 1969[11]. Akio Toyoda is the President and Chief executive officer of the company. He is also President of Toyota Finance Australia Ltd. , Toyota Motor North America, Inc. and Toyota Motor Credit Corporation since June 2009. Mr. Toyoda serves as Senior Adviser of Toyota Media Service Corporation. He has been the President of Hitachi Ltd and Honda Motor Co. since March 2009. He served as an Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corp. from January 21, 2005 to June 2009, Senior Managing Director and Chief of Asia China Operations Officer since 2003 and also served as its Division General Manager of Taiwan China Offices. He joined Toyota in 1984[12]. The company also have 7 Executive Vice Presidents,63 Directors, 7 Corporate Auditors, 18 Senior Managing Officers and 35 Managing Officers[13]. The company’s top management priority is to steadily increase corporate value over the long term. In order to achieve that, Toyota builds favorable relationships with all of its stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, business partners, local communities and employees. In house committees and councils are used for monitoring and discussing management of the company from the viewpoint of the stakeholders. In 2003 was introduced the current system of management in which Chief Officers, who are directors, serve as the highest authorities of their specific operational functions across the entire company, while non-board Managing Officers implement the actual operations[14]. Toyotas philosophy of emphasizing developments on the site, the Chief Officers serve as the link between management and on-site operations, instead of focusing exclusively on management. The company have different divisions all over the world, United States of America, The United Kingdom. In the UK the division is headed by a General Manager – John Burton. He is responsible for two branches of the company, the office and shop floor. In the office part there is Assistant General Manager, Senior Manager, Section Manager, Specialist Engeneer – Senior, Specialist Engeneer, Lead Administrator and Administrator. For the Shopfloor we have the same structure till Section Manager with the adition of Group Leader- Senior, Grouo Leader, Team Leader and Team Member. As a publicly traded company Toyota have issued 3,447,997,492 shares and have 668,186 shareholders. 2. The Toyota Way The most important created in the managerial sphere by Toyota is the Toyota Way. The Toyota Way is a set of principles and behaviors that underline the Toyota Motor Corporations managerial approach and production system. Toyota first explained and summed up those philosophy, values and manufacturing ideals in 2001, calling it â€Å"The Toyota Way 2001. † It consists of principles in two key areas: continuous improvement, and respect for people[15]. The principles for a continuous improvement include establishing a long-term vision, working on challenges, continual innovation, and going to the source of the issues or problems. The rules relating to respect for people include ways of building it and teamwork. Toyotas management philosophy has evolved from the companys origins and has been used in the terms Lean Manufacturing and Just In Time Production, which it was very important in developing[16] Toyotas managerial values and business methods which are known collectively as the Toyota Way. Toyota uses five principles for their operations: †¢ Challenge †¢ Kaizen (improvement) †¢ Genchi Genbutsu (go and see) †¢ Respect †¢ Teamwork[17] Another part of the Toyota Way is the Toyota Production System. The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that Cover its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the company, how it interacts with suppliers and customers. The system is a major predecessor of the lean manufacturing. Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo and Eiji Toyoda developed the system between 1948 and 1975. [18] Originally called just-in-time production, it develops on the approach created by the founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda, his son Kiichiro Toyoda, and the engineer Taiichi Ohno. The principles of TPS are embodied in The Toyota Way. The main objectives of the TPS are to design out overburden (muri) and inconsistency (mura), and to eliminate waste (muda). The most significant effects on process value delivery are achieved by designing a process capable of delivering the required results smoothly; by designing out mura (inconsistency). It is also crucial to ensure that the process is as flexible as necessary without stress or muri (overburden) since this generates muda (waste). Finally the tactical improvements of waste reduction or the elimination of muda are very valuable. There are seven kinds of muda that are addressed in the TPS[19]: 1. Waste of over production (largest waste) 2. Waste of time on hand (waiting) 3. Waste of transportation 4. Waste of processing itself 5. Waste of stock at hand 6. Waste of movement 7. Waste of making defective products The system, is one of the biggest aspect of the company, it is responsible for having made Toyota the company it is today. For long time Toyota has been recognized as a leader in the automotive manufacturing. [20] It is a myth that Toyota received their inspiration for the system, not from the American automotive industry (at that time the worlds largest by far), but from visiting a supermarket. The idea of Just-in-time production was originated by Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota. [21] The question was how to implement TPS. When reading descriptions of American supermarkets, Ohno saw how the supermarket operated with the model he was trying to accomplish in the factory. A customer in a supermarket takes the desired amount of products off the shelf and buys them. The store restocks the given products with enough new ones to fill up the empty shelf spaces. Similarly, a work-center that needed parts would go to a store shelf (the inventory storage point) for the particular part and buy (withdraw) the quantity it needed, and the shelf would be restocked by the work-center that manufactured the part, making only enough to replace the inventory that had been withdrawn. 22] While low inventory levels are a key outcome of the Toyota Production System, an important element of the philosophy behind its system is to work intelligently and eliminate waste so that only minimal inventory is needed. Many American businesses, having observed Toyotas factories, set out to attack high inventory levels directly without understanding what made these reductions possible. The act of imitating without understanding the underlying concept or motivation may have led to the failure of those projects. In 2004 a professor from University of Michigan, Dr. Jeffrey Liker published a book â€Å"The Toyota Way† in which he called Toyota way â€Å"a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work†. [23] â€Å"Since Toyota’s founding we have adhered to the core principle of contributing to society through the practice of manufacturing high-quality products and services. Our business practices and activities based on this core principle created values, beliefs and business methods that over the years have become a source of competitive advantage. These are the managerial values and business methods that are known collectively as the Toyota Way. —Fujio Cho, President Toyota (from the Toyota Way document, 2001)[24] According to Liker in the Toyota Way the people are what bring the system to life, working, communicating, resolving issues, and growing together. The Toyota Way encourages, supports, and in fact demands employee involvement. It is a system designed to provide the tools for people to continually improve their work. Toyota Way means more dependence on people, not less. It is a culture, even more than a set of efficiency and improvement techniques. You depend upon the workers to reduce inventory, identify hidden problems, and fix them. The workers have a sense of urgency, purpose, and teamwork because if they don’t fix it there will be an inventory outage. On a daily basis, engineers, skilled workers, quality specialist, vendors, team leaders, and—most importantly—operators are all involved in continuous problem solving and improvement, which over time trains everyone to become better problem solvers. In it Liker summarized it in 14 principles. The principles are organized in four broad categories: 1) Long-Term Philosophy, 2) The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results (this utilizes many of the TPS tools), 3) Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People, and 4) Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning. [25] 1)Long-Term Philosophy 1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals. It is needed to replace the short term decision making with philosophical thinking of purpose. Understanding that the organization is bigger than money and that long term value for the customers and be responsible. )The Right Process Will Produce The Right Results 2. Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. Time management is very important, it must not be wasted. Creating good flow of the work with materials and people. 3. Use â€Å"pull† systems to avoid overproduction. Providing customers with everything they want when they wanted it. There is no need for costly overst ocking. There need to be flexibility with the day-by-day shifts in customer demand not convoluted forecasts. [26] 4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare. ) People and machines must not be overused. There must be leveled out workload. 5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time. Quality for the customer drives the value proposition. Building equipment capable of detecting problems and stopping itself. Developing a visual system to alert team or project leaders that a machine or process needs assistance. Jidoka (machines with human intelligence) is the foundation for â€Å"building in† quality. Problems must be solved quickly. 6. Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous mprovement and employee empowerment. Capturing the accumulated learning about a process up to a point in time by standardizing today’s best practices. Allowing creative and individual expression to improve upon the standard; then using it into the new standard so that when a person moves on, to easily hand off the learning to the next person. 7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden. Use simple visual indicators to help people determine immediately whether there are problems. [27] 8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. Technology must be used for supporting the people not replacing them and it can lead to slow implementation. Tests can determine if it is viable to use new technologies. 3) Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People 9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others. Creating leaders inside the company and not sourcing them outside of the company. Such leaders must be role-models. 10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy. Creating a strong, stable culture in which company values and beliefs are widely shared and used over a period of many years. Corporate culture and teamwork must be adhered by the employees for exceptional results. [28] 11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve. 4) Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning 12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu). Personal observation and data gathering for the problems that are encountered. Verification of information first hand. 13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly (nemawashi). Straightforwardness must not be accepted, alternative solutions must be taken into account. Also using other people for gathering information and helping with the decision is needed. 14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen). Using improvement tools to determine the cause of inefficiencies and apply effective countermeasures. Once waste is exposed, having employees use a continuous improvement process (kaizen) to eliminate it. Using hansei (reflection) at key milestones and after you finish a project to openly identify all the shortcomings of the project. Develop countermeasures to avoid the same mistakes again. [29] By using TPS Toyota reduced time consumption and money, while it improved quality. This helped the company become the biggest company by 2007 and be very profitable. But in recent years it looks that the TPS is not working so well or it is abandoned altogether. The recent technical problems of Toyota showed to some that maybe the TPS is not so good, but if it wasn’t good or it can’t be used anymore, Toyota would have not be able to go back to the top in such short time. The problems maybe are not part of the TPS, but rather other factors. Too big growth of the company in the 21st century. The central lead management don’t allow flexibility in tackling problems. Another issue it that problems become much more obvious with the increase of quantity and this will result in much more negative situation which can’t be handled or will be exploited by competitors. The complexity of cars is attributing factor to have more problems and this can’t be solved by the managers. Of course TPS can be blamed in some way. It support standardization in task and processes and when there is problem with one thing, that problem translate everywhere where standardization is used. And finally a problem experienced by almost all big companies all over the world – slow response to problems, because of the amount of bureaucracy that comes with complex management in big organizations. 3. Toyota managerial problems The management of Toyota today are not very successful, after the big vehicle recalls there was a serious lack of admittance by Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda that something is wrong at that was most prominently seen in his press conference about that matter where he stated: â€Å"Believe me, Toyota’s car is safety. But we will try to make our product better. † Another big problem for the management is the dysfunctional organization structure and a secretive culture. After a problem experienced in Europe and this problem could have affected North America there was absolute no communication between the different branches of the company. [30] Instead of admitting that there is a problem Toyota denied that there are any problems with their cars. III. Conclusion As of mid 2012 Toyota is once again the leader in the automotive world. Although the problems that plagued the company for 2 years reduced their output, profits decreased substantially and the company image was severely damaged which led to the company losing a big sum of money and trust with their consumers, they managed to get out of the problem with relative ease. The company also realized some important things from all this: 1. They could not want to be a global leader and keep all the power in the hands of the headquarters in Japan. Even though they claimed that they are delegating management to other parts of the company around the world the crisis showed something different. When a lot of the production is happening outside Japan they couldn’t afford to still maintain all the power in Japan. 2. They must create friends in order to advance even if they have millions of customers. The crisis left them with no real allies and protection. 3. Toyota learned that it must maintain its reputation every minute. Claiming that they are the best don’t help. Consumers want to see and experience that in the real world not just through ads and statistics. [1] Wikipedia, Toyota [2] Tim Higgins Jul 26, 2012, Bloomberg, http://www. bloomberg. om/news/2012-07-25/toyota-extends-global-sales-lead-over-general-motors-vw. html [3] Wikipedia, Akio Toyoda [4] Wikipedia, Toyota [5] Christian Science Monitor, http://www. csmonitor. com/USA/2010/0129/Toyota-recall-update-dealers-face-full-lots-anxious-customers [6] BBC, http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-20321594 [7] BBC, http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/8493414. stm [8] Mike Milikin 8 Nov. 2012, Green Car Congress, http://www. greencarcongress. com/2012/11/tmchybrids-20121108. html [9] Wikipedia, Fujio Cho [10] Reference for business, http://www. referenceforbusiness. om/biography/A-E/Cho-Fujio-1937. html [11] Bloomberg Business Week, http://investing. businessweek. com/research/stocks/people/person. asp? personId=646436ticker=TM [12] Bloomberg Business Week, http://investing. businessweek. com/research/stocks/people/person. asp? personId=1828739ticker=TM [13] Toyota Global [14] Toyota Global [15] Environmental Social Report 2003. Toyota Motor. p. 80. [16] Strategos-International. Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. [17] Toyota internal document, The Toyota Way 2001, April 2001 [18] Strategos-International. Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. [19] Ohno, Taiichi (March 1998), Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, Productivity Press [20] Brian Bremner, B. and C. Dawson (November 17, 2003). Can Anything Stop Toyota? : An inside look at how its reinventing the auto industry [21] Ohno, Taiichi (March 1988), Just-In-Time For Today and Tommorrow, Productivity Press, [22] Magee, David (November 2007), How Toyota Became #1 Leadership Lessons from the Worlds Greatest Car Company, Portfolio Hardcover, [23] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 36 [24] Liker, Jeffrey(2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 35 [25] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 36 [26] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principle s of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 7 [27] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 38 [28] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 39 [29] Liker, Jeffrey (2004). The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way: An Executive Summary of the Culture Behind TPS. University of Michigan. p. 40 [30] Wall Street Journal, http://online. wsj. com/article/SB10001424052748704820904575055733096312238. html

Idioms and Expressions - Draw

Idioms and Expressions - Draw Here are  idioms with the verb  draw  in English. For each idiom, study the definition and read the example sentences.  Next, take the quiz to check your knowledge of what youve learned.  To learn more idioms, you can also use  short stories providing idioms in context. Draw a Blank Use draw a blank  to express that you do  not know the answer to a question: Im afraid Im drawing a blank. I just dont know what to do.Who is that person over there? Im drawing a blank. Draw a Line Between   Use draw a line between  with two objects to show that you  separate one activity from another:   You should draw a line between your private life and work.Some people have a hard time drawing a line between friends and family. Draw Blood   Use draw blood  to express that something or someone has  caused someone to bleed. This idiom is also used figuratively to express that someone hurt another emotionally: He drew blood during his last five boxing matches.She drew blood when she began to put down his friend.   Draw Interest Use draw interest  to indicate that something has  created interest or become popular: Any time a new movie comes out, youll see articles in magazines trying to draw interest to the movie.His crazy comments drew interest during the presidential campaign. Draw Someone Out   Use draw someone out  when you are  asking questions in order to get someone to speak in detail about something: Make sure to ask her lots of questions. Its hard to draw her out and shell try to keep everything secret.If you keep asking questions, you can draw anyone out on almost any subject. Draw Something Out Use  draw something out  to refer to a process that takes place over a long period  of time: The chairman drew the meeting out for over two hours.Its a good idea to not draw out your presentation for too long. Draw Fire Away From Something Use draw fire away from something  when someone  creates a distraction so that people dont pay attention to something else: Id like you to go out and draw fire away from the institution.Politicians dont answer direct questions in order to draw fire away from something that has gone wrong. Draw Something to a Close Use draw something to a close  to express that you would like to  finish  something in progress: Lets draw this meeting to a close by reviewing the decisions weve made.If you dont mind, Id like to draw dinner to a close. Ive got an early flight tomorrow. Draw Something Up Use draw something up after having reached a verbal agreement when you intend a write a contract, proposal, or report based on the agreement: Now that weve agreed. Lets draw a contract up and get to work.Could you draw up a proposal for next weeks meeting? Draw the Line at Something Use draw the line at something  to show that you will tolerate something up to a certain point: Im afraid I draw the line at speaking poorly of my friends.If you were in a difficult position, would you draw the line at breaking the law to resolve your situation? Draw to a Close Use draw to a close  to indicate that something has come to an end: Thank you, Mary. And with that, our presentation draws to a close. Thank you for coming this evening.Id like to draw the class to a close. Remember to do your homework for Monday. Beat Someone to the Draw Use  beat someone to the draw  when you are quicker than someone else in obtaining something: He beat me to the draw and won the auction.Jennifer beat us to the draw and arrived an hour earlier. Quick on the Draw Use  quick on the draw  to show that someone is quick to do or understand  something: She was quick to the draw on buying that handbag.ï » ¿Im afraid youll have to be quicker on the draw on such a good deal. Quiz Use one of the  idioms with draw to complete the blanks. Be careful to use the correct form of the verb draw: The new actor from South Africa is _________. I think shell be a huge success.Id like you to _________ a contract by the end of next week.She told me she ______________ her work and her family, so she wouldnt work more than 20 hours overtime.The politician _________ at the death penalty.  If you can _________ from my scandal, Ill make sure you get all of my business for the next two years.I dont know answer. Im _________.You _________ me  __________, so go ahead and take the last one on sale.Id like to _________ the meeting _________. Thank you all for coming.  Ask her as many questions as you can, so you can _________. Shes a fox!I promise I didnt _________ when I hit him!I tried to ________ her ________ on the details for the deal, but she wouldnt tell me anything.Shes very ____________ and understands almost everything immediately. Answers drawing interestdraw up  drew the line betweendrew the line at / draws the line atdraw fire away  drawing a blankbeat me to the drawdraw the meeting to a closedraw her outdraw blooddraw her outquick on the draw

Femme Fatales and Film Noirs

Femme Fatales and Film Noirs Femme Fatales and Film Noirs Femme Fatales and Film Noirs By Maeve Maddox A freelancer who writes about film wants to know how to deal with two French terms used by filmmakers: If Im dealing with  more than one film, is it femmes fatale or femme fatales? And when it comes to multiple films of film noir, is it films noir or film noirs? Plus, given that the terms are French, should they be italicized? Note: Readers who are not film buffs may be unfamiliar with these terms as they are used in English. A femme fatale is an attractive and seductive woman. Film noir is a movie genre explained below. The terms are so common in English that they do not need to be italicized The expression femme fatale was in the language before it became a part of movie jargon. The earliest OED citation is from a US source dated 1879. On the Ngram Viewer, both terms, film noir and femme fatale, begin their rise in printed books in the 1940s. Film noir describes a category of gloomy movies that begins with The Maltese Falcon (1941) and ends with Touch of Evil (1958). The film noir genre breaks a previous Hollywood pattern that glorified home life, presented idealistic views of American government, and provided happy endings for the main characters. Film noir often depicts the criminal justice system as unfair, the police as corrupt, and the federal government as oppressive and threatening. According to a description at the Film Noir Studies site, women in film noir are of three kinds: the â€Å"marrying kind† who wants the hero to settle down and conform to societal norms, the nurturing woman, who is depicted as â€Å"dull, featureless, and unattainable,† and â€Å"the femme fatale.† The femme fatale is an independent, ambitious woman who rejects marriage, but who, in breaking free of the traditional male-female relationship, causes violent disruption in the lives of those around her. French in origin, the terms have been sufficiently Anglicized to form their plurals by adding -s: femme fatales (not â€Å"femmes fatales†) and film noirs (not â€Å"films noirs†). Some writers do form the plurals of these terms partially la franà §aise (by adding an -s to the noun), but the Ngram Viewer indicates that such writers are in the minority. Likewise, the terms are italicized on some Web sites, but the recommendation given in The Chicago Manual of Style is to use roman type for foreign words that have entries in English dictionaries. The official site of the Film Noir Foundation does not italicize â€Å"film noir.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Does [sic] Mean?Used To vs. Use ToWhen to use "an"

Media portrayal of plus size women causes young men to believe that Essay

Media portrayal of plus size women causes young men to believe that overweight women are lazy, unattractive, and ignorant - Essay Example I immediately drop the magazine and start doing sit-ups. Can you blame me?† (Maine 90) This woman is not alone. These images do more damage then many people understand. Women who wear large sizes are judged based on their body, not on other attributes. It does not matter how smart, or how funny they are, what kind of person they are, or even how beautiful their face is. What counts is their size, and they will constantly be judged by that. Often the most painful judgment comes from men; they scorn, they catcall, and they chose to ignore women who do not meet the beauty standard. It is through the media, men learn that women must meet the ideal, or they are not valuable. By looking critically at two media forums, television, and magazines, it is clear that the impact media has on men’s understanding of female beauty and value is directly linked to the false image media has imposed upon society. On of the best loved shows on television has had one of the strongest impacts on men’s understanding of beauty. For ten seasons Friends was adored by fans, and still today is on television everyday. Yet time and again comments were made about weight, and even at nine months pregnant Rachel was not allowed to look over a size eight! One of the most shocking moments comes when they do a clip back in history, and the viewer is taken to watch a scene between Ross, Monica and Chandler. When Chandler first meets Monica, Ross introduces her as â€Å"his little sister.† Chandler, noticing her weight comments, â€Å"yeah, okay.† Later, at a different meeting, when Monica has lost weight, he then finds her incredibly attractive. Although she is the same person, what matters is her outside, not her inside. Another show, discontinued in 1997, was Married†¦with Children. About families, the main character, Al Bundy, works as a shoe salesman, and has particularly negative views of large women. There are constant, negative quotes from the show,