The Greatest Supply Chain Disasters of All Time Case Study

The Greatest Supply Chain Disasters of All Time - Case Study Example This is a major risk to company operations. Foxmeyer made an assumption that its new system would be highly effective, hence estimated benefits from such efficiency. It started bidding future contracts based on a system that was notyet operational. This can only be considered poor management, which entails poor planning, poor project management, and poor change management. Poor planning is because the company managers did not include certain risks that may have affected the project. This then means there was poor project management. The company’s project manager, in his or her plan, should include risk assessment, which should have the risk of the project not going according to plan. Execution risk should also include the risk of the current company system not integrating smoothly with the new system, and the risk that some required activities may not be recognized in time. This mistake is seen in other companies such as; Boeing, GM, WebVan, Adidas, Denver Airport, Toys RUs.co m, Mattel, Hershey Foods, Cisco, Nike, Apple, Loblaws, Ford, GM, Aris Isotoner, and Chrysler. In Boeing, there is also poor change and stakeholder management. A new system is implemented in the company which requires the cooperation of suppliers. These suppliers are not informed in time, are not informed of the company’s expectations, and the challenges that may come with such speedy and change in the production system. In the end, the suppliers cannot supply the products in time. They may have even produced poor quality products which may have caused the company more loses. An assessment was not done to find out the capability of the company, and the suppliers, to steer the project to completion in time. No consideration was given to the supplier, an important stakeholder in the success of the project. Lack of thorough assessment of a project’s feasibility is also a common problem in almost all the companies in the case study. Most of the companies go ahead with the p rojects, without a thorough assessment of the project’s feasibility and compatibility with the current systems. Almost all the companies ignore the risks that are ahead of them. They only assume that such big projects have to bring profit. There are risks associated with new systems, and these are all ignored. The companies work on expected benefits. In all the companies, big projects failed to meet the expectations. Most of the new projects were IT and system overhaul projects. It only means that any new projects that have no verified results of implementation should not be implemented and managed under traditional methods of steering a project to its completion. Traditional methods of management do not focus on the outcome. They focus on assigning duties to specific skills and departments, and expecting outcomes as described in project expectations. After implementation, that is when a manager realizes that the system was not compatible with the company’s operations, the system needed other sub projects, the system needed more time, and so on. New information Technology systems mean; new operational systems, and new roles and so new skills. All these should be accompanied by effective change management, since they will be accompanied by challenges in change management. The Case of â€Å"Denver Airport Cannot Manage the Luggage† This international airport implemented â€Å"a hugely automated baggage handling system†. This did not work as planned. This was an Underground Railroad network, driven by computers. The system was expected to speed up the delivery of bags to customers, and make the process of baggage handling efficient. It came with problems such as derailed cars, mis-delivered luggage, and jammed tracks.

The capitalistic nature of Ben Franklin Research Paper

The capitalistic nature of Ben Franklin - Research Paper Example Earlier, he was the 1st United States Postmaster General. Apart from his politician role, he was also a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a civic activist, a satirist and last but not the least, a diplomat. Ben Franklin was proud of his working class roots and hence became a renowned newspaper editor and a printer. He partnered with William Goddard and Joseph Galloway where all of these three individuals published the Pennsylvania Chronicle; a newspaper known for its out of the league emotions and criticisms of the British monarchy within the reins of the American colonies. His wealth is accredited due to the publishing of Poor Richard’s Almanack as well as The Pennsylvania Gazette. Ben Franklin’s life was considered very colorful because he knew a lot of traits and under his aegis; undertook professions which had far-reaching conclusions. This paper discusses the capitalistic nature of Ben Franklin. As an author, Ben Franklin started to publish the renowned Poor Ric hard Almanack. This happened in 1733. He did so for both the original and borrowed content. He used the pseudonym Richard Saunders for the same. His popularity is based on this rendition. This provided him the platform to pen down further publications with several pseudonyms. The character of Richard Saunders was in denial of the role of Ben Franklin within the publication of Poor Richard Almanack, however it was well-known amongst the relevant people as the secret had come out in the open very vividly and there was no hiding. Poor Richard’s proverbs came out of this almanac where one of the most famous ones is â€Å"a penny saved is two pence dear†, or more clearly suggested as â€Å"a penny saved is a penny earned†. Another one is the â€Å"fish and visitors stink in three days†. These are common proverbs in this day and age and remain very popular within the Western folklore. These are adapted within different occasions within the society’s hold and have the ability to be termed alongside the very popular ones that are being made use of in the society (McCrary, 2009). It was in those times that the people considered it wisdom to have an adage for every occasion and Ben Franklin’s readers were always prepared for such adages. By estimates, he sold about 10,000 copies annually, which by current times are equivalent to three million or more. It was in the year 1758 that Ben Franklin stopped writing for the Poor Richard Almanack. This was the time when he printed Father Abraham’s Sermon which was widely recognized as The Way to Wealth. Similarly, Ben Franklin’s autobiography kicked off in 1771 but got published after he died in 1790. This autobiography was hailed as one of the best known classics of the related genre. Ben Franklin was also a noted inventor. His work spoke for his own self. He invented a number of items, most important of which remained the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, flexible urinar y catheter, the bifocal glasses and glass armonica. The glass armonica is a glass instrument and is very different from the metal harmonica. The most unfortunate part of his inventions was that he never patented them. In his autobiography, he confessed that he enjoyed utilizing others’ inventions but then was the time to allow others to make use of his inventions, and allow the people around the world to delve into the scope of how these inventions worked. He mentioned that he needed to do