The Need for Help

Businesses around the world spend billions every year on better products and processes. Products and services along with the supply chains that deliver them are on the move. They are constantly changing in new and unexpected ways. Most of the investments made in what we broadly refer to as product development or operations have at least some, and more often a lot, of impact on the supply chain. These expenditures include product research and development, systems upgrades, capital investments in brick, mortar, and equipment, and even enhancement of employee skills. Managers are faced with a myriad of choices asking, What should I do next  

We hope this book will help answer that question. This chapter introduces those that follow. Its purpose is to argue for a framework for analyzing and understanding the potential of supply chain projects for building potent supply chains. After all, this book is less about running supply chains than it is about improving them. 

What s the payoff Managers are fond of measures. We all like to know how we re doing and where we stand If you can t measure it, you can t manage it. Some managers are fond of this characterization. However, despite the rigor of most financial systems, many managers often have to accept on faith that a project either proposed or recently completed is worth the effort. 

For example a manager or writer will describe some organization, including his or her own, as world class. This implies an advanced competitive position in world markets, being tiie benchmark leader others in the industry turn to for ideas. But it s hard to measure world class with any great precision. We sort of know it when we see it.  

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), presented by the U.S. government, is another example of a quality yardstick. It has a comprehensive checklist that defines quality in terms of both internal operations and customer expectations. So it s both externally and internally focused. Companies use the checklist to guide internal evaluations. Some go through the review for an outsider s perspective on their operations. Excellence here doesn t necessarily assure economic success, however at least one winner went bankrupt. 

In assessing information systems, integration is another frequently pursued goal. We encounter many supply chain improvement projects intended to integrate the enterprise. According to Hau Lee of Stanford, a company can be more or less integrated based on the following  

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The other problems mentioned in this section (the fact that so many people with alcohol and other drug problems do not acknowledge the need for help, the problem of retaining chents in treatment, and the frequency of relapse among chents fohowing treatment) are related to each other. In order to understand this relationship, it is necessary to examine some controversial issues in treatment. 

Several international organizations have been estabUshed that can offer conservation advice or even practical help in areas of the world where such is not readily available. The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and the Conservation of Cultural Properties (ICCROM), based in Rome, is an intergovernmental organization that serves over 80 member states, among which is the United States. In the United States, the National Institute for Conservation of Cultural Property (NIC) serves as a fomm to faciUtate information distribution and exchange, coordination and planning between institutions and representatives of the various professions, and to promote pubHc and government awareness of the need for conservation of the cultural... 

The third control is by use of a fixed burnable poison. This consists of rods containing a mixture of aluminum oxide and boron carbide, included in the initial fuel loading using the vacant spaces in some of the fuel assembhes that do not have control clusters. The burnable poison is consumed during operation, causing a reactivity increase that helps counteract the drop owing to fuel consumption. It also reduces the need for excessive initial soluble boron. Other reactors use gadolinium as burnable poison, sometimes mixed with the fuel. 

Modifications to Precipitates. Silicon is sometimes added to Al—Cu—Mg alloys to help nucleate S precipitates without the need for cold work prior to the elevated temperature aging treatments. Additions of elements such as tin [7440-31-5] Sn, cadmium [7440-43-9] Cd, and indium [7440-74-6] In, to Al—Cu alloys serve a similar purpose for 9 precipitates. Copper is often added to Al—Mg—Si alloys in the range of about 0.25% to 1.0% Cu to modify the metastable precursor to Mg2Si. The copper additions provide a substantial strength increase. When the copper addition is high, the quaternary Al CuMg Si Q-phase must be considered and dissolved during solution heat treatment. 

Heterogeneous hydrogenation catalysts can be used in either a supported or an unsupported form. The most common supports are based on alurnina, carbon, and siUca. Supports are usually used with the more expensive metals and serve several purposes. Most importandy, they increase the efficiency of the catalyst based on the weight of metal used and they aid in the recovery of the catalyst, both of which help to keep costs low. When supported catalysts are employed, they can be used as a fixed bed or as a slurry (Uquid phase) or a fluidized bed (vapor phase). In a fixed-bed process, the amine or amine solution flows over the immobile catalyst. This eliminates the need for an elaborate catalyst recovery system and minimizes catalyst loss. When a slurry or fluidized bed is used, the catalyst must be separated from the amine by gravity (settling), filtration, or other means. 

The other temperature points would have helped the operator diagnose the trouble. But he did not look at them. He probably thought there was no point in doing so. All the temperature points were bound to read the same. The need for checking one reading by another should have been covered in the operator s training. 

Having selected the right sponsor and identified key advocates, the next task is to sell them on the concept of PSM—and the need for an effective system within your company. The first step in any selling situation is to know your audience. It is up to you to do some informal research on the person or people you want to endorse PSM look for insights into their business priorities, their track records with comparable initiatives, and their professional backgrounds. This will help you ... 

The competence of the mentors, as college teachers, is invariably strongest in one or another of the traditional disciplines, and instruction of students has generally been through courses in one discipline without explicit reference to another. Yet the need for global change instruction is for help in understanding a multidisciplinary set of problems. Some appear to lie mainly in the natural sciences while others deal more with humanity, but all should be studied in a broad framework that embraces both science and humanities. How to achieve... 

According to a study conducted by Allen et al. (2000), mentors (both male and female) are biased towards selecting mentees based on their perceptions of the mentee s potential/ability rather than perceptions of his or her need for help. This means that the extent of a mentee s need for help is not as important a determinant in mentee selection as is his or her perceived potential to grow and develop. 

Scattering experiments can be performed to help determine the size and shape of the vesicles without the need for the extensive sample preparation required for electron microscopy and AFM. Dynamic (DLS) and static light scattering (SLS) are widely used to determine the size and possible shape of vesicle systems [40,42,48,49,51,... 

There is therefore an as-yet unmet need for helping management intuitions about the best way to invest and use R D capacity to optimize value added, under conditions of uncertainty. 

Hydrocolloid stabilizers are vitally important in the manufacture of sherbet and ices. The absence of larger amounts of milk colloids and the presence of larger amounts of water emphasize the need for proper stabilization. Stabilizers help to maintain a Arm body and smooth texture during manufacture, storage, and distribution. Bleeding and surface sugar crystallization are two problems related to crystal structure in sherbet and ices and are very closely associated with the use of the proper hydrocolloid stabilizer. 

Ethylhexanol can be epoxidized with 1-hexadecene epoxide. This additive also helps reduce or prevent foaming. By eliminating the need for traditional oil-based components, the composition is nontoxic to marine life, biodegradable, environmentally acceptable, and capable of being disposed of at the drill site without costly disposal procedures [44]. 

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