Waste Management individual coursework

Brief overview The modern day industrial societies are concerned with environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. A lot of waste is generated by businesses, households and the construction industry globally on daily basis. Engineering has a role in designing ways of effectively managing waste through various means like green technology and exploiting waste to produce alternative sources of energy (Worrell & Vesilind, 2012, p. 71). The management of waste through proper disposal or recycling is important in protecting the environment. Engineering has a great role in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources and environmental protection. Mechanical engineers are actively engaged with how the society uses natural resources. It discovers, designs, maintains, improves and repairs machineries like cars, airplanes and industrial equipment which human beings depend on for their daily lives (Wang & Koh 2010, p. 49). In the future, mechanical engineering will deliver solutions that will sustain and protect the existence of man on the planet. There are two major ways in which engineering can help in mitigating the problem of waste management which are preventing waste in engineering and management of waste. The next section will look at the two methods, their advantages, disadvantages and cases where they have been used successfully. Waste prevention (Designing out waste in mechanical engineering) Green manufacturing is an emerging concept in engineering that aims to achieve sustainable development in the manufacturing industry. Dornfeld (2010, p. 56) defines green manufacturing as the creation of manufactured products that use processes that conserve energy and natural resources, are non-polluting and are economically safe and sound for users. There is an increasing need for mechanical engineers and engineering in general to innovate new ways of creating products that minimise waste of resources. Rynn (2010, p. 87) asserts that for mechanical engineering to b e able to design products that are friendly to the environment, issues of sustainability should be part of all the decision making processes in engineering. This covers all the steps from product design to its end life and after that the needed efforts in regaining its value rather than disposal. The main objective for green manufacturing is to produce products that can be remanufactured, recycled or reused. As such green manufacturing process reduces the environmental impact of a manufacturing process than it was in the past. Green manufacturing systems include measures to reduce the volume of hazardous waste produced, change the energy mix to include the use of more renewable resources and cut down the volume of coolant consumed in the manufacturing process. The other measure that reduces waste of resources is lean manufacturing which has been successfully used by Toyota in its manufacturing plants. The lean manufacturing system as used by Toyota managed to reduce seven types of w astes in the company’s manufacturing process. Toyota reduced overproduction, inventory, transportation, motion, over processing, defects and waiting times (International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Green Manufacturing & Li 2010, p. 77). Most of these wastes are related to the desire to minimise the environmental impacts of the manufacturing process. For instance, a reduction in the waiting times saved company resources like lighting and air conditioning. Many machines used in the production process consume a lot of energy even when not processing any products. As such the idle time used for allowing the smooth flow of products wastes a lot of energy. The lean manufacturing processes, initiatives, strategies and techniques are advantageous in terms of reducing operational costs and also aim at boosting, restoring and significantly improving organisational competitiveness. Lean manufacturing reduces the manufacturing time by eliminating the wastes in the manufactur ing process. A reduction in manufacturing time leads to a subsequent reduction in operational costs in the form of labour, energy and other utilities. In so doing, it helps organisations in retaining, maintaining and significantly increasing their revenues, widening their margins and generation of savings from lowering costs. Lean manufacturing helps companies in saving space which raises the levels of efficiency and savings. According to Davim (2013, p.64), lean manufacturing has a potential of increasing the productivity of a company by approximately 75% to 125%. This is because the elimination of wastes and any other unnecessary practices at the workplace assists the employees to work without distractions and in so doing maximise output. The elimination and reduction of waste in the production process helps the companies in increasing earnings and profits by reducing wasteful use of resources. In addition to this, the elimination of unnecessary tasks and job positions helps compa nies in reducing labour expenses and in return increase their earnings (Skrabec 2013, p. 33). Despite the aforementioned benefits that come with lean manufacturing, there are various barriers that prevent organisations from fully implementing it in their manufacturing processes. The capital cost requirements of emission control and waste management are extremely high with long payback period (Worrell & Vesilind, 2012, p. 88). This makes it very difficult for most companies as this translates into higher product prices which would drive away potential customers. In other instances the capital input exceeds the direct economic gains thus frustrating the successful implementation of green manufacturing. The other barrier is that the manufacturing industry relies on certain technologies and processes that may cause undesirable effects but cannot be ignored like the volatile organic compound used in automotive manufacturing. Waste management (use of recycling and reuse) Waste management entails reducing the amount of waste that the manufacturing industry disposes on the environment (Ku?hnle 2010, p. 96). In reusing and recycling of waste products, the manufacturing industry reuses old or waste products to produce new products. Waste management reduces environmental pollution, energy usage, air pollution, water pollution and consumption of fresh raw materials by reducing the reliance on conventional waste disposal (Hesselbach & Herrmann 2011, p. 54). The manufacturing firms should therefore aim at reducing waste at each and every phase of the production process. The first step is to identify the areas where waste is high in the manufacturing process and then find out what needs to be recycled using cost benefit analysis. Nikon has successfully managed to do this and is recycling its wastes to produce new products. Recycling of old products is important because it helps in environmental conservation. Reusing of resources relaxes the strain placed on n atural resources which are increasingly getting depleted. The other advantage of recycling old products is that it reduces energy consumption (Shina 2008, p. 65). The manufacturing process uses large amounts of energy in processing the raw materials into finished products. Recycling helps the manufacturing companies in minimising energy consumption which is important for massive production like refining and mining. In addition to this, it also makes the production process effective in terms of cost which raises the margins for the manufacturers (Association for Manufacturing Excellence 2008, p. 162). Although product recycling is very beneficial to the manufacturers, there are some barriers that hamper the successful implementation of recycling old products in the manufacturing process. The first barrier is that the recycling process is not always cost effective because at times companies are forced to open up new factories thus raising their operational costs (Wang et al 2011, p. 2 2). A new factory by itself may even cause more pollution in terms of transportation, cleaning and storage. Other than operational challenges, the other major limitation of recycling is that the recycled products are not always as durable as the original products. Products made from trashed waste are cheap and less durable and may not generate sustainable revenue for organisations like other products. Key lessons learnt and how these can be used to improve the future Both lean manufacturing and waste reuse are important in reducing wastes that emanate from the manufacturing processes. Lean manufacturing should be used in eliminating wastages in the production process in order to ensure that organisations minimise operational costs. However, the findings reveal that both methods should be implemented in the manufacturing process in order to improve the waste management in mechanical engineering. Key conclusions and recommendations Waste management should be included in all the stages of the manufacturing process in order to ensure sustainability in engineering. Owing to the fact that the quality of recycled products is often lower than the other original products, it is recommendable to embrace lean manufacturing in order to ensure that wastages are eliminated in the production process. References Association for Manufacturing Excellence (U.S.) (2008). Green manufacturing: Case studies in lean and sustainability. New York: Productivity Press. Davim, J. P. (2013). Green manufacturing processes and systems. Heidelberg: Springer. Dornfeld, D. (2010). Green Manufacturing: Fundamentals and Applications. Berlin: Springer US. Hesselbach, J., & Herrmann, C. (2011). Glocalized Solutions for Sustainability in Manufacturing: Proceedings of the 18th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, Technische Universita?t Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, May 2nd – 4th, 2011. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Green Manufacturing, & Li, S. (2010). Mechanical engineering and green manufacturing: Selected, peer reviewed papers from the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Green Manufacturing (MEGM) 2010, November 19-22, 2010, in Xiangtan, China. Stafa-Zurich: TTP, Trans Tech Publications. Ku?hnle, H. (2010). Distributed manufacturing: Paradigm, concepts, solutions and examples. London: Springer. Rynn, J. (2010). Manufacturing green prosperity: The power to rebuild the American middle class. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger. Shina, S. G. (2008). Green electronics design and manufacturing: Implementing lead-free and RoHS-compliant global products. New York: McGraw-Hill. Skrabec, Q. R. (2013). The green vision of Henry Ford and George Washington Carver: Two collaborators in the cause of clean industry. New York: Productivity Press. Wang, L., & Koh, S. C. L. (2010). Enterprise networks and logistics for agile manufacturing. London: Springer. Wang, L., Ng, A. H. C., Deb, K., & SpringerLink (2011). Multi-objective evolutionary optimisation for product design and manufacturing. London: Springer. Worrell, W. A., & Vesilind, P. A. (2012). Solid waste engineering. Australia: Cengage Learning.

The Ideals of Fdr

FDR: The Great American President Jacob WagmanProfessor Christy ChapinHIST102Due: 25OCT12 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is easily the best president of his era. He had the single best approach to the economic problems and social problems that followed the economic problems of the time. Many people would say that he couldn’t make decisions for himself because of how he was constantly changing his ideas but in truth, his plan was to do whatever it took to work and he was going to make something work. In case it was not known, FDR was a fighter. He never gave up on the USA or stepped down even after being stricken by polio.A lot of his ideas came from his â€Å"brain trust† which was comprised of many advisors of all different back rounds and political beliefs. He was constantly keeping the American people informed with the state of the government and economy through a new invention popularly known as the radio. He would go out of his way to help the banks and would do anythin g to dig the US out of the pit that Hoover had dug and did nothing really to dig them out other than laying the foundation for FDR to bring America back from the brink of complete collapse.Using the foundation laid by Hoover many Administrations, Acts, and even some Corporations were put in place and somewhere welcomed and others weren’t, but FDR took all of the success and failures and made sure it worked out for the American people and the world when WWII came around. His foreign policy in WWII was very much respected and still is today because FDR would not let the crimes of others go unpunished. All in all everything FDR did was for the best of this country and the way he handled WWII both domestically and overseas.When FDR was elected into office he was left with quite a mess left by Herbert Hoover, but Hoover had left a very nice foundation to start FDR’s famous â€Å"New Deal. † Programs during this time focused on trying very hard to help bring the US ou t of the Great Depression by working on reform, recovery, and relief efforts. Many of the programs put together by FDR came from his â€Å"brain trust† which was FDR’s circle of advisors which ranged from democrats to republicans and even to progressives. This is why it seemed like his ideals were always changing because he was trying to here from verybody to see which would work best to pull the US out of the muck. He started with starting a bank holiday in which every bank in the US was forced to close so that government officials could come into each of the banks and decide if the banks were suited to re-open for public use. In order to guarantee the money people put into the bank for safe keeping, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created and this gained the public’s usage of the banks again because they could not possibly lose their money because of a bank failing because the government backed up the money 100%.The Securities and Exchange Commission Act was also implemented to regulate the stock market so that another stock market crash could be avoided. Many people disagreed with these economic policies but if they were alive they could see that these two government sectors are still in use today because of how effective they have been throughout the years. FDR’s next goal was to provide jobs for all the people who were unemployed, which was about 25% of the entire population.Programs to fix this problem were such like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired young adults around 18 to plants tress and help the National Parks, the Public Works Administration (PWA), which contracted with private businesses to build roads, schools, hospitals, and other government-esc buildings, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TWA), which was set up to build dams along the Tennessee River, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was an administration that directly hired people and also white collar workers s uch as teachers and nurses, and they also trained unskilled workers so they could perform specific tasks.Looking back nobody could even argue with these programs because it provided thousands of jobs for the unemployed which did much more good than bad. There was some controversy over the TWA forcing people out of their houses but it was for the good of the entire Tennessee River Valley so it was more necessary than anything. ,Many programs were welcomed with open arms like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) which tried to lower the foreclosure rate and made more long term mortgage loans that made owning a house more possible, but there were programs like the National Recovery Administration (NRA) which wanted to eliminate competition so all businesses could thrive, but it ailed very oorly because the little businesses were still eaten alive by the bigger companies, and another unpopular program was the Resettlement Administration (aka Federal Security Administration), tried t o make farming more like the USSR in which farming was more collective and controlled by the government but the program was met by much resistance both from Farmer’s and the Chamber of Commerce.But if it had not been for these failure than FDR would not have been able to come up with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which was the government paying farmers not to produce so that the goods on the market could be purchased at a slightly higher price to attempt to stimulate the economy. At first the Supreme Court shot down the AAA, but it was later brought back by congress in 1938 because it actually helped farmers and made them happy.During the start of WWII when it was strictly in Europe and China, the USA became extremely isolationist to the point where they even pulled out of Haiti and Nicaragua so that they were involved in as little foreign conflict as possible. The USA even refused to sell weapons to Great Britain and France because they didn’t want to risk getting pulled into another World War again. While the war kept going on the USA passed acts such as the Neutrality Acts which banned US citizens from traveling on ships from foreign nations that were in war with another country and they banned selling weapons to foreign nations.FDR pleaded with congress to allow the USA to at least attempt to assist the allies fighting in Europe because they were just that, the USA’s allies. But congress kept turning down FDRs pleas for help until he managed to convince congress to allow for the first Military draft and for the US to start building and selling arms to the Allied powers. This was when FDR decided to run for a 3rd term which he won by a landslide because people saw how he had started to help the economy grow bit by bit. In 1941, FDR got the Lend-Lease act to be approved.The Lend-Lease Act made it possible for the US to fully help the Allies by giving them arms and munitions. In order to provide these items for the All ies more jobs had to be created to produce the weapons and so thousands of jobs were created which helped the economy out that much more. The Lend-Lease Act also stopped all trade with Japan in an attempt to discourage them from continuing the atrocities they were committing over in China. This unfortunately provoked Japan into launching a preemptive strike on Pearl Harbor where over 2000 service men lost their lives and about 200 aircrafts were destroyed and 18 naval ships were lost.FDR immediately requested a declaration of war in his famous address to congress in which he quoted the attack on Pearl Harbor as â€Å"a day that will live in infamy. † FDR’s policy on isolationism and then all-out war is an extremely well thought out strategy considering the position the US was in. He wanted to help GB and France desperately but Congress wouldn’t help him at all. But he pushed and pushed till he finally succeeds and ultimately, helped the Allies push to victory an d overcome the most outstanding odds against them.Franklin Delano Roosevelt is not only one of the best Presidents the USA has ever had, but he also had some of the most ingenious ideals for how to fix the economic crisis the US has ever faced, and then later one of the worst crisis the world has ever faced in World War Two. His plans or creating jobs worked unlike those of Hoover, and even though some of his programs failed, he learned from the failures only to make the successful programs even more helpful and long lasting for the US.To top his economic policies, his policies on World War Two were even better because he found a way to stay isolationist at the beginning where he could still make jobs by avoiding the war and then joining the war when it was absolutely crucial the US did, which ultimately ended up pulling the USA out of the Great Depression even if he were not alive to see them win the war and there to see the Great Depression end due to all the good he did for the U SA. Nobody can argue that his ideals and policies were anything shy of some of the best of any president.

Pestel Analysis Essay

Australia is the 15th richest nation in per capita terms and is the 6th oldest continuously functioning democracy in the world. Australia has the 14th biggest overall economy in the world and the 9th biggest economy. Australia’s economy is open and innovative. Over the past decade solid productivity gains have been accompanied by low inflation and interest rates. Also Australia has low barriers to trade and investment .Australia foreign and trade policies promote the security and long term prosperity of Australia in a global context. Australia’s economy is highly susceptible to the impact of climate change. In 2008 the Australian Government committed to create an organization called â€Å"Infrastructure Australia† to provide a new national approach to planning ,implementing and funding the nations future. Being a safe, stable and prosperous country Australia is an increasingly attractive hub for international and regional business and business operations. Politic al environment In Australia, it is a liberal-capitalistic democracy. The state keeps interfering substantially in the economy through the use of various roles; for instance the parliament might decide to set up importation taxes aimed to protect the national economy, or it might create environmental protection laws aimed to protect the natural heritage of the country. This affects international business because when taxes keep varying and increasing especially there will be an impact on the economy which in turn will affect the exchange rates and currency rate. According to surveys Australia’s economy continued to gather pace in March as world demand for commodities boosted the nation’s coffers. However due to recent uncertainty from the European debt crisis could lower expectations of economic growth in the future.

Relationship Between Iran and China in Light of Economic Sanctions Essay

Relationship Between Iran and China in Light of Economic Sanctions Imposed on Iran - Essay Example India, like many other countries, has invested billions of dollars in Iranian oil fields towards business oil trading purposes as well as research and development of oil refineries in Iran. The Economics Times reported that the Indian government-owned ONGC along with the private sector Ashok Leyland Project Services Ltd of the Hinduja group won $10 billion bid for investing in Iranian oil company, Naftiran Intertrade Co and Petropars Ltd in 2008. However, India eventually lost this deal to China after the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) offered to contribute towards NICO's share of the $ 2.5 billion cost for developing the field that holds an estimated 42 billion barrels of oil reserves, one of the world's largest finds in the last 30 years according to The Economics Times news report. Iran’s conduit towards India’s proposition and favoring China is a result of international business relations between the countries, which are further shaped by their cultures, busin ess negotiations and political positions. It is important to note that both India and China have high demand for oil in both domestic and commercial sectors (Oil Prices, 2). Moreover, China is a larger and greater potential for business compared to India. Reports from investigation agencies revealed that inward FDI into China is at least two to three times higher than what is reported; and FDI is majorly from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other European nations. Yet, China’s high corruption and regulations still discourage FDI by significant amount (Wei, 200). Sources also report that corruption has been tackled to a great extent in China compared to India, where corruption still continues to haunt its economic progress (Ragunathan, para 1). Reduction in Chinese corruption... This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact, that international sanctions imposition on Iran would exert on the nature of the relationships between China and Iran. While most of the other nations that traded with Iran before the imposition of the sanctions, have stopped or minimized their trade, China still seemed to be inclined towards Iranian oil reserves, owing to its huge investments in Iran. In fact, Iran dismissed its deal with India’s oil company and confirmed the same with China’s oil company few years before the sanctions were announced. China did not heed to the warnings of sanctions from the US and succeeded in this and many other business deals in order to secure its oil reserves. With China already investing in oil business at international level with Iranian companies, the proposed sanctions on Iran will result in serious consequences for China. The Iran-China relationship has only intensified during last decade, despite warnings from the US to China to stay away from Iran because of Iran’s advent into nuclear program and refusal to support peace projects in neighboring countries. The US had delayed sanctions on Iran for many years because of China’s involvement with Iran, which was an obstacle to putting international pressure on Iran. China should continue to abide by its principles and norms of not seeking control, upholding principles of sovereignty, engaging in peaceful development and in being a responsible stakeholder in the international system.

'A Council of Europe convention on trafficking of women Essay

'A Council of Europe convention on trafficking of women - Essay Example generally and unanimously agreed by researchers, international institutions – including the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2010), various agencies of the United Nations (UNESCAP, 2010), as well as human rights groups which are established to confront the issue and prevent its rise and spread, that human trafficking and especially trafficking of women and children is expanding at a rapid pace, and is considered to be an exceptionally lucrative business, and needless to add, a gross violation of human and women’s rights. Human trafficking is regarded as one of the most lucrative activities in the realm of organized crime, world-wide, and ranks among the top three crimes in the world, including trafficking in arms and drug trade. Furthermore, despite being recognized as one of the top three crimes across the globe, and having a wide nexus of traffickers dealing in smuggling of humans across borders, the perpetrators of such a ghastly crime often get away with lesser punishments as compared to those involved in drug dealing and arms trafficking (Ethridge, Handleman, 2009). The issues of human trafficking and concerns related to it have been raised ever since the beginning of the twentieth century. The ignominious trade attracted world attention since the framing of the first international counter-trafficking treaty signed in 1904 (Weissbrodt, Vega, 2007, Pp. 41) and the movement to prevent such blatant disregard toward human life, gained momentum since 1990s. However, the innumerable efforts to curb this trade have been rendered futile, as is evident from the range of studies and available literature which point to the fact that the phenomenon is actually on the rise. The studies also reveal that the major cause behind such a trade is the growing disparity between the rich and the poor as well as the widening economic gap between nations (Chandra, Herrman, et al., 2009; Thachuk, 2007; Siegel, Nelen, 2008). Women, and children, invariably fall

Are we prepared Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Are we prepared - Essay Example r management programs that meet the requirements of state license bodies and the JCAHO, the main issues of concern are whether the plans fully address the requirements of the community and those of the health facility (Aguirre, &Quarantelli, 2008). In Merrillville, Indiana, where I work, there is the white code plan for disaster management. As a midnight nurse, I encounter a lot of challenges at work especially during winter where the weather gets at its worst with winter floods. Sometimes I am mandated to work during the day while waiting for relieve. Despite the plan being function on some occasions and meeting the licensing requirements, there are still loopholes and areas that need to be addressed in order to enable the plan meet the needs of the stakeholders in the facility. First, a disaster planning committee has to be established to supervise the execution of the plan. The committee should have representatives from the various departments of the facility as well as specialists in disaster management (Uscher-Pines, 2009). There is also need to acquire the latest tools and equipment to accompany the disaster plan. Finally, the plan needs to be amended to include a disaster recovery

Higher education in gulf countries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Higher education in gulf countries - Essay Example Through higher learning schedule, each country manages to meet its wants of eligible and trained labor forces which labor market wants and which its state development requires. Higher education universally experiences many of the adjustments, transformations and problems imposed by technical and information developments of the modern evolution. More so the future development and constancy of any financial system is determined by the capability of its education scheme to position people with the essential knowledge and effectively incorporate them into the labor force and contribute to the state’s economy. To perfect, education has often been viewed as a fundamental component of human well fare and national output. Gulf states is a suitable short name for the Arab states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the united emirates in and Saudi Arabia. Gulf nations are associates of the collaboration council for the Arab countries of the gulf. These states are usually called gulf cooperative countries. The Gulf States are known to have a common regional culture. Although their status quo and rate of development differ, these states share similar features that exemplify their economic and education sectors for instance overreliance on oil, a dominant public sector with an important economic surplus, a young and quickly growing national labor force and overdependence on expatriate labor. These sate also face similar problems to put up with for example they face difficulties in expanding their economies, addressing low production and labor force setbacks, increasing the non-oil private sector, and improving the ability of managerial and public sector organizations. Several years ago, most third world countries especially the Arab Gulf States have come to discover a good education scheme as a basis of the economic progress. The necessity for the education

Analyzing and contrasting data mining based network intrusion Thesis

Analyzing and contrasting data mining based network intrusion detection - Thesis Example In this age of the Information Revolution, there are obvious advantages that can be reaped from the vast and ever growing Internet Community of the web: 24/7 connectivity; robust e-commerce that simplified business transactions and operations; erasure of geographical separation and distance; and access to a multitude of modern means of communications. Yet, as the benefits derived from being part of the Internet community are numerous to mention, one resounding concern that pervades this virtual world is security. Most, if not all, entities that are part of the Internet world are on their toes, keeping an eye on their own virtual space on the Internet. Security is an important word in the Internet today. There are many people actively involved in developing attack software and are ready to attack anyone and any site that has a vulnerability in its network security setup. As defenses are developed, the attack software is modified to adapt to those defenses and launch even more deadly attacks. These attacks not only stop people from using their computer systems but some are also designed to damage the target computers or the data that they store. Since many e-commerce companies and enterprises depend on the Internet for their survival, it is not a surprise that there is an interest in finding different way to protect one’s network.... s age of the Information Revolution, there are obvious advantages that can be reaped from the vast and ever growing Internet Community of the web: 24/7 connectivity; robust e-commerce that simplified business transactions and operations; erasure of geographical separation and distance; and access to a multitude of modern means of communications. Yet, as the benefits derived from being part of the Internet community are numerous to mention, one resounding concern that pervades this virtual world is security. Most, if not all, entities that are part of the Internet world are on their toes, keeping an eye on their own virtual space on the Internet. Security is an important word in the Internet today. There are many people actively involved in developing attack software and are ready to attack anyone and any site that has a vulnerability in its network security setup. As defenses are developed, the attack software is modified to adapt to those defenses and launch even more deadly attacks . These attacks not only stop people from using their computer systems but some are also designed to damage the target computers or the data that they store. Since many e-commerce companies and enterprises depend on the Internet for their survival, it is not a surprise that there is an interest in finding different way to protect one’s network. Over the past couple of decades, techniques to secure network through latest technology have gained an importance and have proven to be a necessity to any entity maintaining a network. The need for security has spawned in the design of firewalls, cryptography, authentication and many different intrusion detection systems. Among these security tools, network intrusion detection systems hold the potential to become a tool against computer crime. An

Research proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Research proposal - Essay Example This is to facilitate communication and formulation of superior performance policies that focus on the participation of everyone. Employee engagement remains a hot issue with most professionals posting diverse opinion on its suitability in measuring performance in institutions. One school of thought reports that employee engagement indices criteria form a fundamental element that provides relevant incentives for measuring performance. It acts as a scorecard guideline that measures the satisfactory level of employees and consumers in service delivery. However, another school of thought faults its use since it fails to provide clear benchmarks that can be applied to facilitate credible measurement of performance. Ideally, employees hold the requisite capacity of influencing performance in institutions (Macey, Schneider & Barbera, 2009, p. 224). To ensure superior innovation and creativity in product development, proper employee engagement is essential. It ensures adequate sharing of id eas and formulation of policies with innovative ideals. It is crucial to note that, employee performance can be achieved when their morale is enhanced through adequate engagement in diverse aspects. This paper evaluates the imperativeness of employee engagement as a performance measure and advancement of cordial relations in business institutions. Objectives I. To ascertain the relevance of engagement indices in improving cordial relations between employees and employers II. To establish the factors that improve good relationship between employees and employers III. To evaluate the relevance of engagement indices as a performance measure in institutions IV. To establish the influence of employee engagement in enhancing productivity and efficiency in institutions V. To establish whether employee engagement contribute to employees’ wellbeing Definition Employee engagement indices provide institutions with relevant capacity to focus on diverse factors that hinders employee perfo rmance and coordination with employers. It is coordinated through a survey questionnaire that identifies workers efforts and enthusiasm in execution of activities. Evidently, inferior relations between employees and employers hold far reaching effects on performance in institutions (Macey, et al, 2009, p. 229). It may results to dismal performance or reduced output, low working morale and increased worker turnover that can severely influence productivity in corporations. According to Macey, et al, (2009, p. 225), superior engagement through adoption of excellent communication channels is vital in boosting understanding in institutions. Engagement fosters idea formulation and coherence at work that defines team spirit. This is vital since team spirit is an essential element that drives execution of activities based on strong shared norms and objectives. Consequently, engagement between employees and employers contributes in performance measurement together with other performance para meters. It is significant to state that poor worker engagement with employers influences individuals’ wellbeing at work and reduces output levels Methodologies The study adopts purposive research technique that gives clear guidelines of conducting a detail study with specific goals. The technique is relevant since it has the potential of steering the purposive nature of the study, which investigates the relevance of employee en

The Language of Health Informatics (M3C) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Language of Health Informatics (M3C) - Essay Example The new information system at our hospital will be based on a completely centralized database management system that will automate the overall working and operational procedures of the hospital. In this scenario this arrangement will offer a variety of advantages and facilities for the hospital, doctors and other working staff. Some of the main characteristics of such information system at the hospital are outlined below: (Healthcare Informatics, 2004) Complete automation of hospital records Digitization of hospital’s operations No paper based environment Simple user interface for hospital staff Data integrity Quick searching plus efficient response Better protection of the data as well as information Rapid response to the possible issues Fast and effective reporting of all the processes Backup as well as archives facilities In case of new health information system application at our hospital we would have to deal with a lot of medical records and other details those can be re corded as well as processed. In this scenario we can record and assess the details about patients like patient data and information that can be used and assessed by the doctors for better and effective treatment. Then we can record disease information and its potential symptoms so that they could efficiently diagnose the disease.

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 16

Sociology - Essay Example Karl Marx was an infamous theorist whose â€Å"Alienation† theory describes society as a whole striving to perfect the world and at its peak of success with abundant resources; it fails to do so because it is flawed through individual isolation (Kivisto 3). Humans cannot conquer nature or practice self-control when it comes to the exploitation of resources. Even the heavy operation of an object alienates a man. Marx explains: For it is clear on this presupposition that the more the worker expends himself in work the more powerful becomes the world of objects which he creates in face of himself, the poorer he becomes in his inner life, and the less he belongs to himself. (Wendling 13) Although, mankind has the ability to feed every one and counter hunger, people continue to starve. Marx says this is due to the fact that when a man alienates himself from other men, he in-turn alienates himself from human life (Wendling 17). Marx believes that a man does not belong to himself when he is performing an act that constitutes as cultural practice because it is society that is placing its social imprint on him. For example, â€Å"The worker puts his life into the object, and his life then belongs no longer to himself, but to the object† (Wendling 13). A man, therefore, belongs to the object. This is society affecting the self. Durkheim’s theory of â€Å"Social Fact† does not stray far from Marx’s idea. That is because he divides social facts into two categories: material and nonmaterial. The material aspect corresponds with Marx’s description of an object and how it influences an individual’s social behavior. Where Marx says this is what alienates a man, Durkheim describes it as the drive behind what society cherishes or assigns purpose to communally (Kivisto 16). If the social facts are revealed, it can help scientists and sociologists examine the causes and effects of behaviors and laws among mankind. For instance, Durkheim studied suicide rates

Business Environment Essay Example for Free

Business Environment Essay Recruitment and retention The need of recruit- There is been a new position arisen for Customer Service Executive in Buffs Supplies LTD. As now they have a website developed, there is a need of person who can run the website effectively, and make a very good use of the website to help the business to offer a good and improved service for their customers. Job description- is there to provide a clear understanding of the job details for the people who are going to apply. It outlines the things that he/she will do during his/her employment and it outlines the things that employer wants from the employee. So that Job description should include the following: * The job title/type * Position of the employee, who they will report to * The location * A summary of the jobs objectives, * Main purpose/duties/responsibilities * Pay levels, and any potential increase, benefits, uniform/dress code * Hours/ holidays * How to apply and deadline for application Ive designed a job description document (please see attached document) for Buffs Supplies LTD to assist my manager. Person specification- gives a better understanding of what kind of person that certain company wants for the job, and to identify the knowledge, skills and ability to require to do the job as well as to fit within the company. It should include the following: * Educational/ qualification- it is essential for professional jobs like lawyers, accountants as it is directly connected to their performance as well as they should know what they should/ should be doing. If you dont know the law you cannot work as a lawyer, simple! * Experience and training- you may need to be experienced to be able to do a good job for your role and its likely for employers to specify length of time of experience on their job description. A good thing of being experienced is you may not need a qualification to do certain jobs if you are experienced. * Personal interest/ attributes- its helpful for both parties to understand each other as it shows the requirement of peoples character for the job role. Persons interest may relate to the job role, for example if you are not comfortable with approaching to stranger, you may not be suitable for jobs like sales person who deals with customers face to face as part of their job role, if you enjoy talking to people you might enjoy the work and motivated to be at work, meaning that success will be a closer for you. Ive designed a personal specification with my job description for customer service executive. (Please see attached sheet) Different methods of advertising a job There are number of method that you can use to advertise your job vacancy arises. It helps the company to reach targeted group of candidate and it might also depend on the people who will be your candidate to choose where you would like advertise the job vacancy. First of all you will need to have a good job description to help the candidate what youre looking for. Im going to write about different methods. 1. Internal Advertising- you can employ people within the organisation instead of getting some one from outside. It might be cost efficient as you might not have to pay for recruitment agency to advertise your job, when you can put it on your companys website, employees board, send internal e-mails to everyone and even put it on companys facebook page. It is useful because if someone wants to climb to the ladder, they can do so by applying for the job vacancy. 2. Online- you can advertise it by online through job websites such as Monster, Job Centre website etc. Advantage of online advertising is you might be able to reach a lot of people and they can search by location, industry or job titles they wish to apply. 3. Recruitment Agency- you can also advertise it through these agencies with a small charge. They will advertise the job, maybe create the job description according to the company needs and asses the applicants to ensure they meet the minimum requirements. It might be useful for them if the company needs a staff urgently they can quickly find someone to cover as they have a lots of member who are seeking for jobs. they also 4. Newspapers- this is a offline choice you can advertise it on a local newspapers to let the local know about the job vacancy. Importance of staff retention I think recruiting a new staff is an expensive, because you will have to advertise the job, do the search on the applications, interview them individually and also once you got the right candidate you will have to train them from the start pointing every single fire points etc. Instead of going through all these you can try to retain the staffs you already has so that person is already know the companys style and people so it will be easier for him to work/deal with things. It is good for the company image and reputation to promote people within the organisation. If someone got hired and leaves after a month It will cause a problem, because they will have to do the recruitment process all over again and spend money to recruit the person will be a waste. Existing staff might be overworked so it will lead to unhappy employees and they will not perform their best as theyre tired of long hours and covering for someone else. However, businesses can avoid this situation by retaining staff as if the person stayed within the organisation and got promoted it is likely for the person to stay longer and work more harder as he will feel he is achieved something after working for the company. Ways of improving staff retention rate Businesses calculate to see how long their staffs are tending to stay with the company using the following formula. Number of staff leaving a year 100 Average number of staff employed that year This formula helps them to identify any problem so that Human Recourse can act on it to research what is going on by preparing surveys for staffs to complete or organise an open meeting with their staffs to know exactly what is going on, what is that they are happy and not happy with, so that they can act on it straight away. Reason to have high rate: this is when employees are not happy with the work they do, or the environment they work with, or even the management they are working for. It could be anything to be not happy as human expectation is increasing with the technology. However, employers should provide the right facility with the right motivation to keep the employers happy and juice them effectively. Ways to avoid these situations: to improve the rate you can do all sorts of things like showing them that they (employer) really care about them by listening to what they have to say, support them with their life, or organise some outside work events like weekend bowling competition to help them work closely with each other. Make the work place more challenging by doing competition with a price, a little investment wont bring down the company, in that way work place might be more interesting and staff will perform better. Motivation is a key thing to get a better out of the staff and keep them within the business as well. b) Describe main employability, interpersonal and personal skills required by the new customer service executive. Organisations often look for people who are skilled or experienced so that it will be easier for both parties, from the employers view it helps them to replace the worker quickly and it may save some money as there might not need of training for example if he is trained as first aider, and the job requires to have a qualification the company does not have to train the staff who already has the qualification for it, from the employees part of view it might be easier for him to do the job and as he is experienced he will have an idea of what he is expected to do, and will be paid as a full employee, I mean some organisations pay lower wage for those who are not experienced enough. Employability skills: this is the basic skills that are needed to get, keep, and do the job. It is necessary for the candidate to have or knowledge these skills as it can be transferable during the employment as they go up the ladder in a modernised environment. It includes the following: 1. Qualification/ Previous experience in similar role and industry You may not need any qualification for some profession, but you will need your GCSE or NVQ qualification for some job roles for example if you are seeking to work as waitress as such, you may even not need any qualification as long as you are experienced enough or maybe your employer will provide a full training to do the job. However, for professions like accountant and lawyer or higher positioned job role which requires specialised skills/ qualification, you will definitely need not only GCSE but at least a Bachelors Degree to be considered in your application. According to my study book Im on the right track to develop and educate myself further. Having an experience in similar role is always a bonus for employers and it is more likely for employers to consider those who are experienced and it is important that you mention it on your CV or letter indicating that you have worked in this role before. However, previous experience in similar industry is very beneficial for the employer, because they can get information about their competitors as well as an idea of how they worked to be more effective so that they can walk in a same level of their crowd. For example when I applied for a job in Harry Ramsden, Ive put on m CV that I used to work in McDonalds, so I knew that I would definitely be invited for an interview so I did, on my interview they asked me that how McDonalds motivate their workers to stay with the business longer as I worked there for quite long time, I said to the lady that if you hire me Ill tell you how they did it, and she smiled at me and welcome aboard! It shows that it is useful for the candidates as well as the business. 2. Knowledge of product/services This is one of the must have knowledge. For example you will obviously need to know about your product if you are a sales person, you should have a good knowledge of what you are going to sell. If you dont know of your product, you cant possibly persuade to sell it to different person. 3. Effectiveness in meeting personal and team targets As every business work towards achieving their aims and objectives, you must be able to meet targets to do so in the first place. You should clearly indicate if you have met any previous targets during your previous employment and any achievement, improvement you have set as a target for yourself past years, showing that to an employer will help you to get the job and it shows/proves that you are able to meet targets because of your previous achievement. 4. Ability to observe and raise professional standards There is a quote I know from my country it says if you work your hands hard, your mouth will also work hard, which means if you work hard, you will be able to feed yourself, same as that if you work hard and have a great attitude towards you work then you might get a reward/promotion. In business you are a professional, so you have to be professional to people taken be considered seriously and every organisation have a set of standard which you should meet. Personal skills: Everyone have their own character and attitude from their childhood. It might be difficult for some to change that in a day because of the job you are doing, but for some it doesnt matter as you can learn them from others or on your own. Basically if you have the right attitude that the employer wants, it will attract the employer towards you as you are the right candidate for the job. For example if you are a kind, understanding, a good listener and most importantly patient and calm, then you are suitable for jobs like carer or consultant as the job itself requires you to be calm and a good listener as you will be hearing all kind of things and dealing with the public. A personal skill requires you to have the following: 1. Patient and hard working Patient is a very difficult thing that human being can face in difficult situations. I would consider a person who is very patient is a very calm and collective person. For some jobs you will have to be patient and calm at all times, if you can do that employers are very like to keep them as it is difficult to find these kind of people in our society and I believe making your business successful is hard work and them patient. I mean you work very hard to build your business, and it might not be success as you want it to be, so you will have to be patient to drink the juice of your fruit you plant. 2. Team work Ability to working as a team or a part of a team is essential for you and for your employer. If you are a peoples person/ easy to get along with people you might/can be a good team player as it is all about communicating and understanding each and everyone one of the team players. Employers will always look for a people who can work with the team as if you have a say of different people you can get the work done quickly and more effectively, because the things you dont know, the other people might know so it is better for more brain than only one. Interpersonal skills: this is the skill that how you approach or deal with people and also how well you communicate with others. Customer Service Executive Employee Skills: Personal Skills: Interpersonal Skills: * Good written and spoken skills * Good IT knowledge * Previous experience in customer focused environment * * A good team player * Problem solving * Hard working * Friendly * Professional * * An excellent communicator * Good with people * c) Assess the importance of employability, interpersonal and personal skills in the recruitment and retention of staff in a selected organisation. Ive chosen The Manchester College to assess in this task; I think The Manchester College is the largest college in Manchester and in the UK. It is important for the college to consider employability and personal skills when recruiting staff as it is an educational institution, I believe the teachers should be educated as a teacher and also the subject of their own to give their students the best knowledge possible. If the college needs to hire a new staff they should consider to hire experienced staff to save that money to put towards the existing staff training, bonus for those who worked overtime during the recruitment process, so that people get rewarded after the hard work theyve done for their organisation, in doing that college manages to keep their staff happy, that means it is likely for them to stay within the organisation longer. To work more efficient college can carry out a skill auditing to identify the skill gap within the organisation and decide whether to hire new staff or train their existing staff. Communication is the key skill that college needs to have to be able to understand their student and their needs, so it is essential for their staff to have strong communication skills in written and verbally as it is a large organisation people will need to communicate in writing. Employees of the college should be presented and act in a professional manner, so that student and teachers will be look separately. Employability skills will be required for teachers as they have to be qualified in certain areas, whereas administrator of the college will not need to have a qualification if she/he is experienced enough. Task 2 a) Select an organisation and describe the main physical and technological resources that are involved in the running of your selected business. Physical resources this is the things that business can use to run their day to day activities includes machinery, buildings and facilities. For my chosen organisation The Manchester College, it is very important for them to use all the resources to run effectively. They are number of main physical resources which needs them to run the business. 1. Building and Facility Building of your business may play an important role as you might not think, it is very important for businesses to have to well presentable building as it is effective in many different way. For example in my country there is a bank called Coin and the building is round and gold coloured. Anyone who saw that building will know it is a bank and will go straight to it as it is located near the airport, foreigners will have to get their money changed before they take a taxi etc. I think the prettiest campus of The Manchester College is Openshaw and it has a lots of facilities that is available for students and staffs to use such as IT suites for multimedia students, an award winning training restaurant, workshop for construction, engineering and electrical students, hair and beauty salons etc. I think the facilities that are available for student and staffs are amazing and it will be very useful for students to use these to improve their knowledge on things that they are studying. 2. Materials and waste The need of materials will depend on the business type as they all use different things. For my chosen organisation they are likely to use papers, computers, printers, pen, pencil, projectors and all sorts of office equipment as they are small teachers offices. Businesses should keep a close eye on what they waste, if you do that it will help them to cut costs and work more environmentally friendly. 3. Plant, machinery and equipment Businesses spend thousands of pounds on equipment and machineries to work more quickly and efficient. It is essential for them to have them and an up to date one as it helps the business run smoothly. For example teachers at The Manchester College use projectors to make it more easier for students to read or see what the teacher is teaching, and we have a library with computers which students and staffs can use to do their work. 4. Security, insurance and emergency provision I believe The Manchester College follows the Health and Safety act as Ive seen the fire exits and there were . Also they must have the policies and provisions if there is an event of fire, there must be a staff who are trained to lead the way or make way for people in that event to keep them calm and put them in the right direction, and the people who have come to study/work to the college should have had a training or at least shown the fire exits or false alarm to see if the fire alarm works and to people know what to do in that event. All the building must have insurance against things like this to ensure the building and the employee/customers are protected, so that in any case of accident the insurance company will pay for the person who is injured or pay money to the persons family in the event of death. Technological resources- are not only computers and printers which can be treated as physical resources. There are four main areas: 1. Intellectual property This is the right to own ideas and have a right to concerning what happens to them, if the one of the staff has new idea that no one has the business can protect it from others to use it so that business will only benefit from this idea to make more profit or attract more people. For my college if one of the teacher/ advisor got a new idea of having a nursery on site which can be paid by day and any student/employee can give their child it would be a good and new idea as it enables students with children to study/work and easy to bring her child to the place they study/work, and the business protected it, only The Manchester College can use this idea to bring in more students. 2. Accumulated experience and skills This is an experience gained over a number of years when a person has come across lots of different issues to do with the job. There is a good side and not so good side by keeping employers for a very long time. Of course, it will be worth if the employee is the brilliant one, if so the level of experience will grow. Not so good side is if it the experienced staff is not handled carefully, it may result that you will have to pay more for them or give them a special condition whereas you can hire a new staff with the same or higher skills and pay low wages. For my college I think the employees are likely to stay longer and I think teachers are feel privileged when the student comes back to her/him to show what they have got out of their education that is gained from the teacher and college. 3. Software licences, patents and copyright I believe The Manchester College bought a license from Microsoft to use their Microsoft Office Pack as it will cost them cheaper than buying it individually and install them on computers which they have a hundreds and thousands of them. So it is enabling them to use it unlimited with a one off payment. Often it is allowed for businesses to do so, not for single person/public. Patents and copyright has always been tricky to protect or should I say difficult to prove the person who stole it, because people may copy the whole idea and change the name of it to pt it on the market, so apparently it is different as it has a different name and maybe slightly different, but if people see it they wont even recognise or know the difference. I remember one girl was selling a hoody with the logo of the college without permission from the college back home, so the college found out and they fined her parents as she was not an adult herself. b) Explain how the management of human, physical and technological resources can improve the performance of your selected organisation. Human Resources Every activity is carried put by human at The Manchester College and other businesses, so it is essential for businesses to have the right source of people to work towards their main aims and objectives. They must improve/ update their Human Resources to work effectively. I believe that my college try to manage its human resource at the level of standard as the best to provide the better future and education for us the students, considering the highly professional staff they have in my college, they hire the best possible staffs with ability and interest to care for students, so that staff will have better understanding of what students needs, also they train their staff accordingly with the new technologys or hire new staffs who have new skill which can be introduced to the other staff. To do those things there is department especially designed to do that job. Their main job role is to manage and control the employees in the college, meaning hiring a new staff, train the existing ones to improve their employers ability to have the best source of employees. To manage its staff successfully the college tries to keep the existing staff as it is beneficial for the college as longer the staff stays, college wont have to advertise jobs and train them which costs money for them to do that, instead of spending money on new person who is starting as an entry level, the company invest in their people who have stayed with them on the long run so that the employee will feel that they belong there and work more harder. Team work is always important for organisations like Manchester College as it is very large organisation and everyone have to work as a whole to get the work done, to improve team performance organisation do things like group activity, staff meeting and staff day out to make them closer so that they work with each other more comfortably, if they work closely the organisation will benefit from the use of full staff performance and things will go quicker and smoother, so that they can move forward to their next objective. Physical Resource If the college have a good facility for students, it can attract more students and people would be looking to work for them as basic standard of facility needs to meet and higher would be an advantage. It also important for them to use these facilities with its full use and keeping them up to date as the things are developing very fast and things are getting out of fashion quickly. For example if the student had learned Microsoft Office 2003 in their IT class by the time they finish their studies and find work would be 2007 and he might struggle if the new employer has the newer version and he doesnt know how to use it properly even though it is similar to the older version, he will not get the all the benefit that the software is offering. Technological Resource As the college uses a lot of paperwork and papers, it is crucial to save them as they need to be used for hard evidence, however I would like to suggest that teachers can send their assignment brief to student e-mails which college have provided for them it saves the trees and we are going to be use the e-mail which is one of the facility college improved last year and I think we are not making a full use of it and it feels it might be waste of money to have e-mail address and not using it, to motivate students to use their e-mail college can put their names instead of student number which will look more real and nice, and not allow to have an access to any other mail service in the library so that student have no choice but to use it properly. If we can do that we will reduce the use of papers and use the facility which we dont use. Task 3 a) Describe the sources of internal and external finance, available to Barneys business. There are two main ways that business can access financial resources: 1. Internal sources ( within the business) This is the money you can get within the business: Owners savings- I believe Barney has some money for himself if he is thinking to start a new business, because its the owners who are often invest in their company to cover the setting up costs. It might be the only source they available immediately for them as for sole traders like Barney, banks or other financial institution unlikely to offer a loan as there is too much risk involved, and if you have that kind of money it is really good for the business as you will not have to pay it back by monthly or pay an interest. Capital from profit- this will become available after the business set up and operating. Once they have run for certain time, they may make some profit to invest into the business to run or buy more stock or buy new machinery to grow the business 2. External sources (outside the business) There are number of different external sources that business can get money from to help them to set up or invest in. Banks- they can offer loans, overdrafts and business account to businesses but you will have to have a good business plan to get it. Loans are not easy to get and might not be a good option for small business as you must pay it back with interest in certain amount of time and if the company goes down the owner will end up with huge debt. The choice I would suggest is the overdraft for him as it is flexible and you wont have to pay a penny unless it is used, there are some banks who offer interest free overdraft, if you can get it will be a win! Friends/Family- you can always seek for help from your friends and families and you can even offer them a share for return of their investment or just borrow some money from them to put towards the business if they are nice enough. I would say it is the best option of borrowing money as you dont pay interest and it is your family they will not give you to court unless you run with their money. Government grants- these are available from the EU, national/local government. A grant is money you can receive as a business man; a good thing about it is that you dont have to pay it back. If Barney falls under the age group of 18-30 he can get a low interest loan from Princes Trust. Task 4 (a) The purpose of budgets, and how they can be used to monitor and control the performance of Barneys business, including, the monitoring of actual performance against budget and the use of variance analysis. Budget is a written plan with spending which will occur and a revenue that is need in the future to cover these costs. The purpose of it is it gives you clear understanding of what to expect to spend/receive in the future (coming year) to prevent or act any crisis before it happens. It also can be used as a communication between the employees to understand the objectives of the business and work towards it. For owners they can see how well their managers managing the budget plan and performance of them. Budgetary control 1. Set objective for Barney Objective for Barney could look like this * Do a business related course * Get information on government grants * Find any other fund that is available to him 2. Set a plan to how to achieve these objectives He can start of with: * Do a year course in business related or hair styling course to have a better understanding of how business operate * Design business plan to show it to the banks and to apply for government grants * Get advise from people who are in the same business as his to find out what needs to be done orderly * Do an online research on advise and support from government websites to collect necessary documents to apply for government grant * Hire someone to do research on the market things like where to open the salon, and what kind of people lives in the area, and what is the average income for people in that area to help to set a price etc. 3. Prepare the plan You should produce a budget plan to attach it with your business plan to show how much is going to cost what and how you can manage to pay for it etc and you should compare it with the actual figure to analyse the situation of what has gone wrong or right and then you can take some action to prevent it in the future and more experienced on the next budgeting. Task 5 a) Study the contents of the profit and loss account and balance sheet for Wansbeck Motors Ltd and give an account of the worthiness of the business by explaining the purpose of each element. Purpose of balance sheet- is important as it shows the value of the business. * Assets things that business own * Liabilities ( debts a business owns) * Equity (the amount invested in the business) Purpose of profit and loss account- it shows how much money business making and how much money they are losing and you can identify it by looking at the profit and loss account to do something about it.

Palm oil biodiesel: A source of renewable fuel

Palm oil biodiesel: A source of renewable fuel The demand of increasing price in fossil fuel has prompted the global oil industry to look at the alternative sources of fuel from renewable energy source which is biodiesel. Biodiesel is considered as better option because of its environmental friendly characteristics while giving almost the same functional properties like fossil fuels. This paper will focus on the biodiesel produced in Malaysia. Since Malaysia is one of the leading palm oil producers in the world with palm oil was chosen as the raw stock for the palm oil biodiesel production. There are many advantages and disadvantages in palm oil biodiesel industry in Malaysia from the economy, social and environmental aspect. The aim of this paper is to analyze the past, current and future of palm oil biodiesel industry in Malaysia. This paper will include the technology aspect used in the palm oil biodiesel production and characteristics of pure palm oil biodiesel to meet the international market standard. Malaysia faces tough competition from other biodiesel producers like Indonesia and Brazil. The scope of this study covers the worldwide biodiesel development in brief in continuation with the challenges faced by Malaysia in becoming the top biodiesel exporter in the world with the advantages disadvantage of using palm oil as the feedstock. . Keywords: Alternative, renewable energy, palm oil biodiesel, technology, exporter List of Abbreviations ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials CPO Crude Palm Oil DBKL Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid EU European Union IFC International Finance Corporation ISO International Standards Organization MPOB Malaysian Palm Oil Board MPOC Malaysian Palm Oil Council MYR Malaysia Ringgits NGO Non Government Organization OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration POIC Palm Oil Industrial Cluster POME Palm Oil Methyl Ester PRIME Rebuilding and Improving Malaysias Export of Palm Oil RSPO Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil UK United Kingdom UNFCC United Natons Framework Convention on Climate Change US United States USA United States of America List of Symbols CO2 Carbon dioxide ml milliliter NOx Nitrogen Oxide INTRODUCTION All energy used by humans originates from one of the following sources: radiant energy emitted by the sun (solar energy); geothermal energy from the interior of the earth; tidal energy originating from the gravitational pull of the moon; and nuclear energy. By far the largest source is solar energy, thousands of times larger than all the others and inexhaustible for as long the sun shines (approximately 4.5 billion years). Present energy system, especially based on the use of fossil fuels (not renewable), cannot handle the problem of guaranteeing energy security and that increasing the share of renewable energies is one of the best ways to addressing them. Increasingly, renewable energy in the form of biodiesel is getting attention from the world countries due to the environment friendly characteristics, while still be able to be used in diesel engine without any major modifications. Biodiesel also has its advantage of abundance of raw stock which confirms continuous raw material supply. Biodiesel is an environmentally-friendly, renewable energy source that could also produce cost savings for taxpayers and private businesses which is produced from farmers that grow various fuel crops. Given high gasoline prices and the negative environmental effects of burning fossil fuels, there is intense research on the alternative energy sources, including biofuel. Brazil and the US have been leading the way with ethanol production derived from sugar cane and corn. Recently, there has been increased interest in another biofuel (biodiesel) particularly in Europe (the leading producer). Biodiesel, a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel, can be produced from the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats. In the US, most biodiesel is made from rapeseed (canola) or soybeans. Other producers have different biodiesel feedstock such as palm oil and jatropha that have great potential as renewable fuels. Malaysia is a leading palm oil producer, therefore Malaysia in the past have focused on palm oil as raw stock used for biodiesel production. This paper takes an in depth look at the palm oil used for the production of biodiesel. 2.1 SCOPE OF THE PAPER Biodiesel production is facing several issues and challenges like tough global competition, feedstock issue, food versus fuel war, sustainability, and limited land for use deforestation. The scope of this paper is to collect and analyze the data of palm oil biodiesel in Malaysia to determine their performance and their position in the world biodiesel industry, the advantage disadvantage of using palm oil as the main feedstock for production, political economic barriers which needs to be overcome, competition between the major producers technological aspects. This study covers the biodiesel technology that is currently being used in Malaysia to produce pure biodiesel that meets international criteria, suggestions for improvements in implementing better method and technologies to be used in Indonesia and Malaysia. Overall, this paper analyzes the past, current and future trend of the palm oil biodiesel industry in Malaysia among world biodiesel industry. 2.2 BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Raw Stock for Biodiesel There are several sources used as feedstock for biodiesel production such as rapeseed and soybean oil. However, compared with other vegetable oil, palm oil has far better advantage and potential as feedstock for biodiesel production. Palm oil is a perennial crop, unlike soybean and rapeseed. Perennial crop means the production of oil is continuous and uninterrupted, though annual production has its seasonal peak and down cycle [6]. In terms of oil production per hectare of plantation, palm oil is the most produced oil seed. The yield of palm oil from palm is a factor of ten higher than oil yields from soybeans, sunflower or rapeseeds [17]. Palm oil production has higher production yield compared to soybean, sunflower seed and rapeseed as shown in Figure 1. Palm oil imports from Malaysia into EU are equivalent to having 4.9 million hectares of soybeans or 1.7 million hectares of rapeseed [17]. 2.2.2 Palm Oil as Raw Stock Palm oil is the most prospective biodiesel feedstock compared to other oilseeds. As discussed earlier, palm oil has higher production yield, low fertilizer, water and pesticide needed for the plantation. Palm oil production takes less sunlight in terms of energy balance to produce a unit of oil as it produces more oil per hectare. However, in terms of the basis of palm oil yield per man in a day, it is not as competitive as other oilseeds because of the difficulty of labor plantation management and harvesting of the fruit. Comparatively in Indonesia, it is less an issue because the extensive labor market readily available in Indonesia compared to Malaysia. Crude Palm Oil and Refined Palm Oil are the most traded vegetable oil in the world today [14]. Palm oils have been established as a dietary nutrient for nearly five thousand years. Palm oils are harvested from the mesocarp of the Elaeis Guineensis fruit, through a refining process that includes; cooking, mashing and pressing. In this process, the seeds are separated and after cracking and removing the shell, the kernel can be processed to yield palm kernel oil and palm kernel cake. Crude palm oil also referred as CPO comes from the mesocarp which is the fleshy portion of the fruit wall. Mesocarp is processed into CPO through refining and kernel processing in steps shown in Figure 2. CPO depends on the variety of the palm tree and the age of the palm. The CPO to bunch ratio is approximately 25 to 28 percentages. 2.2.3 Palm Oil Biodiesel The palm oil harvested and produced from palm trees is referred to as CPO. The crude palm oil is the transported to palm oil refinery to be refined. The factory output is the Refined Palm Oil which is suitable to be used as biodiesel fuel or blended with petroleum diesel. Palm oil converted into methyl ester which then can be used as fuel is called the bio diesel. Blending certain percentage of petroleum diesel with palm diesel is called Envo Diesel. Methyl ester from palm oil has low engine emissions, high oxidation stability apart from the high nitrogen oxide emission which is higher [2]. Refined palm oil; after crude palm oil is refined is referred as Refined Palm Oil and can be used for number of applications including as a substitute for petroleum diesel which is known as Palm Oil Biodiesel. Palm oil is processed into CPO, then into refined oil before being processed into palm oil biodiesel as shown in Figure 3. Palm Oil biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel. This type of diesel is known as Envo Diesel. This paper will discuss in detail the Palm Oil Biodiesel. 3. Analysis 3.1 Perspective on Indonesian versus Malaysian Palm Oil A significant change took place in palm oil industry in the year 2006 when Indonesia surpassed Malaysia in production of the palm oil as shown in Figure 4. Malaysia is currently worlds second largest producer of palm oil [6]. Looking at the Indonesias palm oil production rate compared to Malaysia in Table 1, there are high chances of Indonesia surpassing Malaysia and continue to be leading producer for the foreseeable future. In Malaysia, palm oil exports amount to 16.5 million tonnes, representing an increase of near 11 percent in year 2007. The total palm oil planted area in the country increased by 4.3 percent to 4.48 million hectares in 2008 [16]. The expansion in planted area in the country occurred mainly in Sabah and Sarawak with a combined growth of 7 percent compared to 2 percent in Peninsular Malaysia. Sabah remained as the largest palm oil planted state, accounting for 1.33 million hectares of 30 percent of the total planted area in the country. 3.2 Palm Oil Biodiesel vs. Other Feedstock In the year 2008, the government of Malaysia was looking at the possibility of using jatropha oil the raw material for the production of biodiesel in the future. However, this was still at the research and development stage and it has not reached the commercialization stage [2]. The government looked at other potential feedstock for biodiesel production due to the competition on the use of the palm oil either as food sources as fuel. Around the world biodiesel producers are now focusing on using non food based raw materials for the biofuel production. Currently, all the biodiesel projects in Malaysia are based on the use of palm oil as the raw material. During the surface of the reports indicating that EU might ban biofuel derived from crops grown on some sensitive ecosystems, Malaysian palm oil industry feared the worst. Malaysia; as the second largest palm oil producer in the world after Indonesia is the potentially largest palm oil biodiesel producer. Countries like Brazil and the US; biodiesel producer from ethanol are eyeing the EU market giving heavy competition to palm oil biodiesel producers. Biodiesel market are having large market competition after the 27 nation bloc suggested for biofuel to be used at least 10 percentage in transportation by year 2020 [17]. Jatropha is a promising second generation biodiesel feedstock. The government publicity on Jatropha as next potential biodiesel feedstock at the Sabah Development Corridor launch in the year 2008 gave competition to existing palm oil biodiesel. However, the use of Jatropha as biodiesel feedstock requires more research to develop its properties to acceptable level for mass commercial usage [2]. And currently, the research is still ongoing. 3.3 Palm Oil and Malaysia The palm oil industry is an important pillar of Malaysia economy. The palm oil sector have contributed significantly towards providing a continuous flow of foreign investments and earnings through the export of palm oil and its value added products to the global market. In the year 2008, palm oil industry contributed MYR 65.2 billion or equivalent USD 18.1 billion in the export earnings which proves to be a significant contribution from the palm oil industry to the economy [16]. The contribution of Malaysian palm oil to the worlds oils and fats market was very significant in the year 2008, where the palm oil production of 17.73 million tonnes was 11.1 percent of the global production of 160 million tonnes of oils and fats. The sustainable production of palm oil in Malaysia is overseen by the Malaysian Palm Oil Association. Malaysia palm oil production is estimated 18.3 million tonnes in 2009 compared to 17.73 million tonnes in year 2008 [17]. The global demand for palm oil has increased significantly over the last two decades, first for the use in food industry, consumer products and the most recent application for biodiesel. The growing market in India and China; which is the top two important nations, increases the demand for edible vegetable oil [14]. Another major factor in growth of palm oil production is its role in sustainable energy campaign around the world [14]. European countries have promoted the use of palm oil by investing hundreds of millions dollars into the national subsidies towards biodiesel. European countries are major importer of palm oil; subsidization of biodiesels by the European governments has accelerated the demand for the palm oil in Europe and as a consequence, this has increased the conversion of large areas of rainforest in South East Asia. Palm oil plantations are often built after clearing large area of forest land and draining peat swamps. As of the year 2009, the Malaysia palm oil had 26 percent share in the export of oils and fats. The palm oil also comprised 46 percent share of global palm oil and is being consumed in more than 150 countries worldwide [16]. All these were achieved by using 4.5 million hectares of land which is far more less than 1.9 percent of total area in the world utilized for oilseeds. The total area in the world used for oilseeds is 233 million hectares. Malaysia is currently focusing on increasing the productivity by increasing the oil yields from the current average of four tonnes per hectare to eight tonnes per hectare by using genome sequencing. Genome sequencing is a laboratory process that determines the complete DNA sequence of an organism [16]. Using this technique, scientific process and procedures can be done to the palm oil plant to produce more outputs. Using this technique, Malaysia is hoping to continue as the major supplier to global palm oil needs without the necessity to open n ew areas for plantation. The EU need a company to be legally certified to produce palm oil that can be used as an alternative fuel in a sustainable manner before the commodity can be shipped and used in the 27 member bloc countries. Restrictive policies implemented by EU created differences in the marketing of vegetables and grains oil that caused the decrease of the palm oil prices compared to soybean and rapeseed oil. Indonesia and Malaysia, the worlds two biggest producers of palm oil teamed up in November 2008 to reduce the output of the edible oil after he prices slumped. The two countries agreed to replant old plantation, cutting yearly production of approximately 800000 tonnes. In the year of 2009, during the global economic slowdown, Malaysia palm oil industry was facing issue of oversupply. To reduce the oversupply of palm oil and at the same time to support the palm oil prices, Malaysia launched the Palm Oil Replanting Incentive Scheme worth of MYR 200 million to reduce the nations high palm oil stock to ensure the stability of palm oil prices. The objective of this scheme is to chop 200000 hectare of palm oil trees aged 25 years and above, which will reduce the palm oil supply by 700000 tonnes per year in the short term. The government had approved 63000 hectare under this scheme which was closed in June 2009 [16]. Strategies like replanting palm oil tree schemes and impose of the mandate for the palm oil biodiesel use reduces the CPO inventory and helped to sustain its price at MYR 1400 per tonne in the year 2009 [14]. It is important to reduce the oversupply and maintain the CPO price above RM 1400 tonne as the producers will not be profitable in the trade below this price. In March 2008, the CPO prices soared up till MYR 4180 but the price plummeted to low MYR 1403 per tonne in November 2008 [16]. The inventory for palm oil rose to significantly high amount of 2.3 million in November 2008 but reduced to slightly more than 1.8 million tonnes in January 2009 as shown in the Figure 5. Palm oil is the major oil produced in the world; this indirectly helps to lower price of palm oil biodiesel but not significantly. The CPO price range between MYR 1400 and MYR 1900 per tonne in year 2009 was sufficient to sustain the export earnings. However, the earnings from palm oil exports in the year 2009 dropped compared to MYR 65.8 billion in the year 2008 because of the lower prices as well as lower exports. Late in the year 2008, MPOC launched PRIME program. This program is one of the MPOCs palm oil export promotion strategies to encourage exporters to explore new markets and introduce new products in order to develop new areas of business [22]. 3.4 Biodiesel Production Technology Before analyzing the infrastructure and technology required in converting Palm oil into biodiesel, the production process must be understood first. There are three general ways to convert vegetable oils and fats into biodiesel; base catalyzed transesterification of the oil, direct acid catalyzed transesterification of the oil or conversion of the oil to its fatty acid then to biodiesel [12]. Biodiesel producers opt for the option 1 which is the base catalyzed reaction because it is a low temperature and pressure. This method also yields high conversion ration of almost 98 percentages with minimal side effects and reaction time. Another advantage of this method is that it is a direct conversion to biodiesel with no intermediate compounds required and no exotic materials of construction are needed [18]. The chemical reaction for base catalyzed palm oil biodiesel production is shown in the chemical equation shown in Figure 6. Chemical Equation above shows transformation of palm oil into biodiesel which also gives another output; glycerin. The conclusion from the above chemical equation is that when one hundred pounds of fat or palm oil reacted with 10 pounds of short chain alcohol in the presence of a catalyst that has already been mixed with methanol, 10 pounds of glycerin and 100 pounds of biodiesel produced as output. The short alcohol chain is represented by ROH which means methanol or in some cases, ethanol that is used to quicken the conversion process. The catalysts usually are mixed with the methanol. R, R and R represents the fatty acid chains of the palmitic oil or fat [12]. The catalyst mixed with alcohol. The catalyst usually dissolved in the alcohol using a standard mixing machine. The mix is then put into a closed reaction vessel and the palm oil or fat is added. A closed system is done in the process to prevent the loss of alcohol to the atmosphere. The mix is kept at the temperature above the boiling point of alcohol at about 70 degree Celsius so that the reaction takes place. The reaction time varies from 1 to 8 hours and excess alcohol usually used to ensure complete conversion of palm oil into methyl esters. Once the reaction have completed, there will be two outputs which are glycerin and biodiesel. Glycerin and biodiesel output will not be in their purest form. Each has significant amount of excess methanol that was used earlier in the reaction. This is where the neutralization step takes place. The glycerin has more density compared to biodiesel and the two outputs can be separated using gravity by drawing off the bottom of the settling vessel. After the glycerin and biodiesel have been separated, the excess alcohol in each of them will be removed and the mix will be neutralized. The alcohol will be recovered in methanol recovery step using distillation equipment and it will be re-used. After separation from the glycerin, the biodiesel is purified by washing gently with warm water to remove the residual catalyst or soaps, dried and sent to storage. This step may be skipped when the output of the production process is a clear amber yellow liquid with viscosity similar to petrodiesel. Colorless biodiesel is obtained in an additional step of distillation to remove small amount of color bodies. For usage as an automotive fuel, the end product of biodiesel must be analyzed using international standard analytical equipment to ensure it meets specifications. For global biodiesel marketing, it is important for a biodiesel manufacturer to register the biodiesel product with the United Stated Environmental Protection Agency under 40 CFR Part 79 [18]. 3.5 Pure palm oil biodiesel characteristics Biodiesel is a biodegradable and non toxic fuel; free from sulfur. It is produced by transesterification reaction of vegetable oil with low molecular weight alcohol, such as ethanol or methanol. In the industry, biodiesel is produced using homogeneous reaction [10]. Important characteristic of oil to be used as fuel is the solubility of the oil in petroleum. Another way is to emulsify the oil or fat with the ethanol. Most of the vegetable oils are a mixture of different esters such as oleic acid (main portion from olive oil), ricinoeleic (main portion from castor oil) , linoleic acid )main portion from linseed oil), palmitic acid (main portion from the palm oil kernel) and many other oils. Palm crude oil is refined to make a useable automotive fuel that is useable in unmodified diesel engines. As discussed in earlier topics, biodiesel is a clean burning alternative to petroleum based fuel made from renewable energy source which is biodegradable and non-toxic. In recent times, biodiesel issues have drawn lot of interest as increase of depletion of petroleum source in near future is predicted. Biodiesel market is booming in Europe as fuel or fuel additive for most of the diesel internal combustion engines and turbine in Europe as fuel or fuel additive for most diesel internal combustion engines and turbine engines, and it is also available in the US and Asia, as well as in Canada, where it is in its early stages of development. Biodiesel is derived mainly from the byproducts of soybean and other oils, such virgin and recycled vegetable oils derived from crops such as canola, corn and sunflowers and animal fats or spent cooking greases, although it may be obtained from ethanol. Soy-based fuel is the most common used biodiesel in its pure form or mixed with a petroleum-based diesel as an additive to improve the otherwise low lubricity of pure ultra low sulfur petrodiesel fuel. Research was done in Bangkok where palm biodiesel was used for a motorcycle, the emission and engine performance was tested. Research found there was no significant difference in emissions between the biodegradable and the fossil fuel. Comparison of the engine performance and fuel consumption for both lubricants showed no significant difference either [8]. However, since palm biodiesel is a renewable source, it is a lower carbon source and that it offers superior tribological properties (wear scar, viscosity index, etc.) [8]. This is a promising alternative to fossil fuels. This fuel is also important from the economic point of view, considered as one of the possible candidates to replace petrodiesel as the worlds primary transport energy source thanks to its renewable condition and the fact that it can be transported and sold using todays infrastructure instead of old fossil fuels ducts. In fact, it is available to consumers in a growing number of fuel stations, but still makes up a small percentage of fuel sold. Biodiesel has been classified as a non-flammable liquid by the OSHA, although as with most fuels, it may burn if heated to a high enough temperature, but significantly reduced in toxic and other emissions when burned as a fuel. [20] 4. DISCUSSION 4.1. Past and Current Market trend of Palm oil Biodiesel The production of palm oil biodiesel in Malaysia is overwhelming. There are initial researches conducted for the production of biodiesel from waste materials including palm oil. However, this is still in early stage of research and development and so far; the researches shows that the production of biodiesel from waste materials is still very high and not viable for commercial use. Till the year 2008, Malaysia had about 91 percent of palm oil biodiesel projects approved with a total production capacity of 10.2 million tonnes a year [16]. Total of 12 biodiesel plants have been fully completed and are in operation with production capacity of one million tonnes a year [16]. Another two biodiesel plants have been also completed but the operations have not started. These two plants have production capacity of 160000 tonnes a year. According to MPOB, the existing biodiesel plants produces approximately 196363 tonnes for the period of August 2006 till March 2008 while 154791 tonnes were valued at MYR 411 million for the export to US, Europe, Singapore and Australia. Recently, the production cost at biodiesel plants have increased with the rising price of crude palm oil. The average cost of CPO in the year 2006 was MYR 1502.50 per tonne. This price has increased significantly within two years; in the year 2007, the price was MYR 2516.50 per tonne while in the early of 2008, the price was MYR 3433.50 per tonne. This has caused the cost to exceed the profit margin. In March 2008, production cost for palm oil biodiesel was MYR 4330 per tonne; whereas the market price for the palm oil biodiesel was MYR 3632 per tonne. The CPO prices are increasing rapidly as shown in Figure 8. The rising cost of biodiesel have prompted several palm oil biodiesel producers to temporarily stop producing biodiesel as the high producton cost has left an negative impat on their profit margin and the development and growth of the biodiesel industry. Till to date, the Malaysian government has given more than 90 biodiesel licences to various organization and companies which has production capacity of 10 million tonnes per year. However, it is reported in the Reuters survey that on seven biodiesel plants are currently running and most of them are operating well below the capacity. The survey also showed that there were 14 projects with their combined biodiesel production capacity of more than two million tonnes were shelved or delayed. The main reason for the delay is the high CPO prices, which encourages the palm oil industry to produce palm oil for more profitable business or industries instead of the biodiesel which has higher production cost compared to profit. The high cost of investment to setup the biodiesel facilities does not encourage the palm oil industry. It is said that for the priceof biodiesel at MYR 4000 per tonne, even conglomerates in Malaysia such as Sime Darby is not keen to plunge into the biodiesel industry currently [16]. Currently, the company is focusing on the palm oil downstream activities such as bulking and refinery process to be exported [16]. A report by Frost and Sullivan regarding biodiesel showed that the demand for biodiesel has increased in the Asia region over the past few years. For Malaysia, the demand for palm oil biodiesel would increase from current 110000 tonnes to 563000 tonnes in the year 2013. Asia region has a booming market for biodiesel as there are several strong drivers of growth; increased supply and increased demand. Many countries in the Asia region developed domestic markets and at the same time,producers like Malaysia and Indonesia targeted export markets. In several countries in the Asia region, the government introduced mandates for biofuels to develop the domestic market. On March 22, 2006, Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched biodiesel called Envo Diesel. This type of biodiesel blends 5 percent of proccessed palm oil with 95 percent petrodiesel. In EU, there are B5 type of biodiesel that blends 5 percent methyl ester with 95 percent petrodesel. The manufacturers for diesel engine prefer the use of palm oil methyl ester blends as diesel engines are designed to handle 5 percent methyl ester meeting the EN14214 biodiesel standard [16]. In the year 2009, the Malaysian government reassured that there are no plans to remove the current biodiesel mandate of five percent despite high CPO cost. The government encourages the use of biodiesel in the country, although it is not have been mandatory use [5]. Malaysian government are encouraging the use of palm oil biodiesel as they are obliging to Kyoto Protocol. The use of palm oil biodiesel have not been made mandatory due to the fact that at the present,the raw material price is very high . Kyoto Protocol is a protocol of the UNFCC , an international environmental organization. This organization is trying to achieve the stabilisation of the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent the degradation caused by human that would disturb the ecosystem and the climate system. In October 2008, Malaysia put into practice the mandate of five percent biodiesel will be used in vehicles starting with the government vehicles in the year 2009 and planning to implement extensively to industrial and transportation sector in the year 2010. By early 2010, Malaysia is expected to consume 500000 tonnes of palm oil which is 3 percent of national CPO production. This will happen when Malaysia fully implements the blended biodiesel programme where B5 diesel will be made available througout the country through 36 depots [5]. The use of blended biodiesel has started with government agencies and will be extended to industrial and transportation industry in the future. The Malaysian government is working with nations biggest petroleum company; Petronas to enable some retail station to supply B5 to the agencies. I February 2009, Malaysia started the biodiesel programme with Kuala Lumpur City Council and the Armed Forces in the country [5]. The biodiesel producers and the petroleum companies are currently discussing the important aspects and critical issues to the implementation such as logistics and finance. As of the year 2009, the main challenges facing the biodiesel industry in Malaysia are the exports of subsidised US biodiesel to EU that is distrubing the prices and trade, the EU energy directive and overall global economic slowdown. The global economic crisis have caused a sharp drop in the CPO prices, together with global financial crisis had led the develoment of the biodiesel industry to slow down or to be exact halt new investments. The Malaysian biodiesel industry has the production capacity of 1.67 million and feedstock available to satisfy the demand in the domestic and world market. Malaysia and Indonesia has expressed concern over a plan by the EU countries to impose taxes on US biodiesel which potentially might slowdown the outlook for alternative fuels made from vegetable oils and grains. Almost half of Europes biodiesel Apple: A Multinational Corporation Apple: A Multinational Corporation Introduction Apple Inc. it is a well known American multinational corporation that designs most of the famous consumer electronics and widely used softwares. It was established on 1st April, 1976 at that time the company was known as Apple computer, Inc. the word computer was dropped after 30 years of its establishment on 9th Jan, 2007.To mark its expansion in consumer electronic market. Apple nearly has 35,000 employees worldwide and its sales recording nearly US$42.90 billion by 26th September, 2009. It came in a magazine named Fortune that Apple had been most appreciated company in United States in 2008 and worldwide in 2009. Objectives Apples motto, â€Å"Think differently†, a concept which Apple has been following since it started by creating state of the art products that. Other computer manufacturers have tried hard for decades to copy the ideas but none had succeeded as Apple did. It has always manufactured and designed products which no one has even imagined of. They provided the first ever user-friendly laptops and computers. Apple introduced iMac and iBook for the basic computer users such as students etc and Power Book and G series for advanced computer users for graphic designers, business man etc . Ownership Of Business As it is public owned company so it sells its shares. Currently there are around 1,441 shareholders, with total shares held are 652,325,642 and the total value of their holdings is around $134,501,972,866. The top 5 holders are: TOP 5 HOLDERS Shares held FMR LLC 45,173,344 STATE STREET COMPNY 31,980,670 Vanguard Group 31,216,671 Barclays Global 26,449,599 PRICE T ROWE 24,545,605 Board Of Directors: Steven P. Jobs Chief Executive Officer, Director Timothy D. Cook Peter Oppenheimer Chief Operating Officer Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President Philip W. Schiller D. Bruce Sewell Senior Vice President Worldwide Product Marketing Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary Ronald B. Johnson Senior Vice President Retail Bertrand Serlet Senior Vice President Software Engineering Robert J. Mansfield Mark Papermaster Scott J. Forstall Senior Vice President Mac Hardware Engineering Senior Vice President Devices Hardware Engineering Senior Vice President iPhone Software Engineering and Platform Experience Stakeholders Consumers As there will be any kind of changes in Apple company itself consumers will be affected, as the price increases consumer wont be willing to buy apple products or if the price increases consumers will be buying to buy apple products Competitor The biggest example of competitors can be Microsoft, whatever Apple does directly or indirectly affect Microsoft or vice versa. For example if Apple releases any kind of new computer regarding business the result is some new firms might opt to adapt that new system or might go along with Microsoft, thus effecting each other by every means. Steve Jobs Apples CEO He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple. He was the only one who introduced the bright idea to Apple e.g. iPod, iPhone etc. The whole company is affected by his decisions, as his health was affected the companys share lost its value. Stakeholders had a fear that if Steve Job isnt there it will cause Apples downturn causing a great loss. Apples SWOT Analysis Strengths Sales of its notebooks are very strong which represents a large portion of Apples income Apple is considered as one of the most established IT brand in the world. It not only attracts new customers but existing customers also come back for latest products as well as to take advantage of the services they are offering. Weakness Apple is making an end with IBM who was among Apples main chip supplier and switching to Intel for supplying chip which is thought to make consumers confuse as most of consumers have tend to use IBM chips which existed before Intel. It has its own software platform which doesnt allows users to have any kind of flexibility or to run Microsoft softwares on Apple OS which discourages consumers to buy Apple OS based consumer electronic. Opportunities Can offer some software flexibility by open source operating system so it would attract more consumers and making it more user-friendly thus increasing sales. Apple can step ahead by horizontal integration with some other major IT Company like Microsoft to expand its business to a completely new level. Offer Apple OSX to non Apple hardware which can turnout out to be a great advantage as more people will tend to use Apples OS as it is a completely different experience. Threats The biggest threat to Apple is its competitor Microsoft around 90% of the world-wide computers have Microsoft OS installed on them. This in long run can be very dangerous for Apples business. Global recession can likely reduce the sale of high priced consumer electronic; since apple is offering no cheap alternatives the consumer itself tend to switch to other manufactures for cheap prices. Market Research The most shocking thing about Apple Inc is that it never does any kind market research; they never hired any kind of consultants. They hired once in a decade which they considered later as there mistake. Apple itself figures out what people want and then work on it at the end the whole world is just amazed by that work and wants to include it in daily lifestyle. Marketing The marketing concept which Apple Inc uses and has been successful in long run can be divided into 3 categories customer oriented, organization objectives and coordinated market activities. The customer attraction is done by advertising through different media which is appealing to customers, moreover they provide good delivery services all this steps taken is to reach customer orientation concept. For organization objectives concept they set a target for its employees to reach, with that to even move closer to their ultimate goal they improve their quality of product. Apple does marketing management by acknowledging customers needs and wants. Market Mix Product Apple basically sells laptops, iPods, mobiles etc here we are going g to concentrate on their laptops. Apple has different kinds of laptops for different uses. They are quite light, slimmer and highly advanced which can make anyone stand alone in a crowd. It is mostly preferred due to its uniqueness and brand name. In their product range Mac book, Mac book pro which comes in different sizes 13†, 15† and 17† depending on users usage. As student s will prefer small n compact were as a graphic designer will prefer large screen display. Price The prices differs according to how basic or powerful laptop you are purchasing as for students small and compact can be bought cheaper ranging from $999-$1699, where as for high end user is around $2499 above depending on specification Place Apple has very good delivery service so you just buy it online from anywhere in the world the laptop will be delivered right at your door step which encourages most of the people to buy laptop with quality services. Else all famous electronic retailers sell Apple laptops around the world. Promotions Apple promotions are the best deals that can be found anywhere. Apple provides special student concessions and even low interest rate installment so that it is reliable from every aspect. Sometimes free deliveries offers are also available. External Factors That Can Impact The Business Activities: Economic: The economic factor plays an important role in the normal functioning of the business. The fluctuations in the economy directly affect the budget and Apple being a public business entity may face challenges to cope with the fluctuations. Social: Society also plays a major in the flow of the business activities. The customs and trends of a society do affect the way the business is functioning although these customs might be favorable to the businesses. Technological: Apple being major IT Company, has to provide the best services so it has to constantly upgrade its infrastructure and has to bring changes in its technologies.