The Idea Behind The Veneration of Relics Research Paper

The Idea Behind The Veneration of Relics - Research Paper Example According to the New Testament, an old woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for quite a while found a way out. â€Å"Seeing Jesus in the crowds, she told herself "I only need to touch the hem of his garment, then I will be healed" and Jesus, who felt the power leave from him, turned to the woman and told her that her faith had healed her† (â€Å"The origin of relics†). Relics are present in almost every religion. Christians, Muslims, and Hindus have their own relics that have huge significance in the historical literature of these religions. Muslims consider the Holy Water of Zam Zam as sacred. It is also considered as an antidepressant. Hindus bathe in the River of Ganges because they believe that doing so would make them free of their sins and would purify their souls. People believe relics to be solutions for their problems as human beings. Relics are considered as the blessings of God Almighty. They are not just objects but are actually means of spiritual revival and enlightenment. For example, the Holy Water is thought to have many positive effects on the people who drink it. The veneration of relics People has huge regard for the relics as they are the belongings or in some way connected to the people they revere. People who possess relics show respect for them in many ways, which include placing the relic at an elevated place in the house and decorating the relic in beautiful and costly frames. Most people feel honored and blessed to have a relic while others are ready to pay any cost to attain one. The veneration of relics has sustained through history as a custom, which originally encouraged people to visit the martyrs’ graves in the reign of the apostles. It was and is still believed that God shows miracles related to the relics. â€Å"In all, relics remind us of the holiness of a saint and his cooperation in God’s work; at the same time, relics inspire us to ask for the prayers of that saint and to beg the grace of God to live the same kinda faith-filled life† (Saunders cited in â€Å"What is a Relic?†). However, some people go so ahead in their veneration for a relic that they overlook the significance of the Creator, whose obedience gave the saint the status that his relics are being preserved by people, and give the relic more importance. This makes it rather a sin. First class relics are composed of a saint’s physical body. It could also be the physical body of any individual whose sainthood cause is meant to be fostered. First class relics can be a range of features in the physical body that include but are not limited to a hair, fragment of a bone or dust collected from the coffin of the saint or the individual. The relic is held in place with the help of melted wax. â€Å"Any relic related to Our Lord is also considered first class. A splinter of the True Cross upon which Our Lord died is an example. The Eucharist is considered the highest first-class relic but it is never housed in a theca† (â€Å"First, Second, & Third†). Rather it is offered as Holy Communion to the people who practice religion.

Summary of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Essay Example for Free

Summary of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Essay Gladwell’s Outliers started with the introduction of the Roseto Mystery in which he presented the facts and findings of the physician, Stewart Wolf on how the Rosetans lived a life differently from Americans living in the city. Evidences and findings on how the Rosetans have a better life and little cases of heart diseases was not only due to the atmosphere of the place, the things they do, or the food they eat but simply the way Roseto is in which people greeted each other, go to church every day, and their strong family ties. In the first chapter, The Matthew Effect, we may glean from it the idea or phenomenon of â€Å"the rich becomes richer while the poor becomes poorer†. He mentioned about observations on the birth dates of Canadian hockey players and the eligibility of children to participate in youth hockey leagues. This was deemed important as it was a factor that would determine a child’s strength and ability on hockey since they were able to start earlier and they are most likely to be the ones to belong in the elite team in the future. Despite of the fact that birth date is an important factor, an individual’s own skill is really the key to reach the top. In the second chapter, The 10,000-Hour Rule, Gladwell presented that to become truly a master of something, an individual must undergo 10,000 hours of practice and mastery on a particular skill which is like doing 20 hours of work a week for 10 years. He cites examples like K. Anders Ericsson’s study at an elite Academy of Music in Berlin. The study was conducted on seeing the potential of music students by dividing them into three groups based on the potential they could see in them. According to the study, those students who belong in the elite/star group practiced more hours than the others that’s why by the age of twenty, these group of people will probably achieved mastery as they have totaled ten thousand hours of practice. Gladwell also mentioned the success of Bill Joy as he was a genius, and devoted time on computers and programming. Other examples were how the Beatles achieved the 10,000 hours rule due to the number of concerts and performances that they did. He also mentioned how William Henry â€Å"Bill† Gates achieved the 10,000 hours rule and it was not only that. According to his interview with Gates, he paved his way to success not only because of his penchant for computers but also of the opportunities opened to him during his lifetime. In the third and fourth chapter, The Trouble with Geniuses Parts 1 2, it was mentioned that being a genius is not enough to determine whether a person will truly be successful. He mentioned the story of Christopher Langan, a man with an IQ of 195 (higher than Einstein because he only had 150). Despite of Langan’s skills, he was not able to reach a high level of success because of the lack of opportunities and there is no one in his life to lead him to a higher level of success. In the fifth chapter, The Three Lessons from Joe Flom, presented three lessons according to Flom on how a person could achieve success. Lesson 1: The Importance of Being Jewish presents how Jewish people were exposed to work at an early age especially when it comes to clothing that lead them to their success in business. Lesson 2: Demographic Luck shows us how location can determine your place e.g. a place rich with gold and minerals possible for putting up a mining industry vs. a place with little natural resources. Lesson 3: Garment Industry and Meaningful Work presents how hard work is definitely an important factor to success. Reflection Looking at Gladwell’s observations, collection of ideas and stories from people about attaining success or being successful in life made me realize that one factor is not enough to be successful. According to the book, the date of birth, place of birth, how the individual was nurtured, social influences, interests, devotions, intellectual abilities, talents, etc are some of the many factors that determine one’s success Going back to Frank Lynch’s article on Social Acceptance Reconsidered, I realized that some of his points like Pakikisama is one of the factors that could help one become successful. Looking back at Chris Langan’s story, he wasn’t able to attain a higher level of success because he didn’t have someone to help him which means he lacks the value of Pakikisama. Let’s look at this: most successful business people not only in the Philippines but in the whole world achieve success not only by themselves but because of their partners or people who backed them up. Bill Gates too is one example since he had Paul Allen in putting up Microsoft Corporation. It is because of the value of Pakikisama that people achieve success because at times, we cannot accomplish things by depending only on ourselves. Thinking about the Philippines, I think that the ideals in the book, when applied can truly help our country towards development and prosperity. The Philippines is a country laden with a lot of natural resources which means that we possess the demographic luck. We also have some good universities that produce some of the brightest Filipinos that we have today. If only the Philippines would increase the way it encourages people and seek people’s potentials even at a young age, then we may be able to predict what we should mold our future human resources into so that by after 10 years on refining themselves on their chosen field, they could possibly achieve the 10,000 hours rule and achieve mastery on their field.

The Men Who Knew Two Much A Compairson of Hitchocks Classic Original an

The Men Who Knew Two Much A Compairson of Hitchocks Classic Original and Remake Many works of art can be considered artifacts that hold volumes of information regarding the culture of the people that created them and the historical context in which they lived. Films are also treasures of culture, filled with clues and insights into the attitudes and perceptions of the people of the day. While documentary films obviously present a historical record of people and events, dramatic fictional movies can also reveal the same. Comparing the main characters in Hitchcock's 1934 The Man Who knew Too Much with their 1955 counterparts unveils many differences between American and English cultures, expectations of their women and the pre- and post-war world view. THE HEROES [top] The heroes, heroines and villains portrayed in the two versions of the film were drawn quite differently. Lawrence (1934) was assertive and took control of the situation, while McKenna (1955) seemed to let the situation control him. When Lawrence got the message from his wife about the cryptic note, he immediately ran into Louis' room to get it. He used his resources and wit to get him through sticky situations, from standing up to the authority of Scotland Yard, to tangling with the dentist to the chair fight at the church. Lawrence even recruited Clive to do most of the dirty work such as getting a tooth pulled or being hypnotized by the 7-fold ray. Unlike Lawrence, McKenna was largely ineffectual and kind of bumbling at times. It wasn't until the very end that he actually took any risk when he went to the hitman's box at Albert Hall and then when he tripped up Mr. Dreighton on the stairs. McKenna's wife seemed the stronger and smarter one throughout as she was suspicious of Louis in Marrakech and later figured out Ambrose Chapel was a place instead of a person. THE VILLAINS [top] The portrayal of the villain was different in both versions as well. In the first one, the villain was singularly personified in the form of Abbot, but the second film's villain was shared by the Dreightons and the foreigner who wanted to become Ambassador. In contrast, the motive of Abbot was rather ambiguous and only referred to as "the cause," while the assassination of the Ambassador in the color version was clearly a means for personal advancement... ...and hugged. However, the role of women in 1995 America is a little bit 1934, a little bit 1955 and a lot of neither. The following generalizations are just that: Today in this society, women are expected to be sexy and smart,but not too much of either one. If a girl is very glamorous, she is not expected (or desired) by males to be smart, and women see her as hurting the liberation movement, perpetuating the "object" stereotype. On the other hand, a smart, assertive woman is often viewed as being unfeminine and bitchy, especially in the workplace. Hillary Clinton personifies this dichotomy - she was applauded for abandoning the subservient First Lady role and at the same time criticized for overstepping her bounds. Wonder Woman is perhaps the only cultural hero to solve this problem. She could be sexy and strong in her little Wonder Woman outfit and tiara, as well as loyal and subordinate in her glasses as Diana Prince. But she only succeeded by becoming two people. We still have a long way to go. Bibliography: Â ©1996 Chris Sheridan All views expressed are the opinions of the author. Feel free to link to this page. For educational and informational purposes only.

Ikea Management Analysis Essay

Abstract: This article is an analysis of the IKEA’s supply chain. IKEA’s supply chain is globally with sales in more than 250 own stores in 24 countries and 32 external franchisees in 16 countries. It has special supplier management, store design, and warehouse management. IKEA Supply Chain system includes IOS, TSO, material and suppliers, DC and IKEA store. IKEA global planning has seven processes. Sale planning and demand planning are in this article. IKEA’s supply chain was operated really successful, however, it still exist some problems, like lack of central coordination, inaccurate sale forecasts, and high inventory costs. In the end, this article will provide some recommendations to solve those problems. Introduction IKEA, founded in 1943, is one of the best home furniture company in the world whose, and its vision is â€Å"To provide better life for everyone†. IKEA provides modern and fashionable low cost furniture for over 38 countries with 301 stores. It is the largest furniture retail chain in the world and boasts a range of 12000 products, including home furniture, accessories and some other stuff. What’s more, it’s concern for people and environment lead to excellent use of raw material and energy, which result in their green targets and the overall environment. A supply chain is a network of retailers, distributors, transporters, storage facilities, and suppliers that participate in the production, delivery, and sale of a product to the consumer. The supply chain is typically made up of multiple companies who coordinate activities to set themselves apart from the competition. A supply chain has three key parts: Supply focuses on the raw materials supplied to manufacturing, including how, when, and from what location. Manufacturing focuses on converting these raw materials into finished products. Distribution focuses on ensuring these products reach the consumers through an organized network of distributors, warehouses, and retailers. Ikea is a worldwide company and its supply chain also deserves us to study. In this paper we are going to analyze the IKEA’s supply chain in the market and we will also analysis the strategy and plan of the company. In addition, we would give our proposed recommendation in the end. IKEA Supply Chain Strategy IKEA’s supply chain is global with sales in more than 250 own stores in 24 countries and 32 external franchisees in 16 countries. The stores are supplied through 31 distribution countries, or directly from the 1,350 suppliers in more than 50 countries. IKEA’s supply chain consequently has a global spread with both sales and purchasing in all major regions of the world. IKEA’s growth has been tremendous and sales are still growing. Currently IKEA plans to open 10-20 new stores every year with a goal to double sales within the coming five year. Considering the pace of growth in sales, the many stores and warehouses, and the fact that some business areas change up to 30% of its assortment every year, supply chain planning is a real challenge. The supply chain needs tight control and high levels of visibility to keep costs down and avoid obsolete inventory and/or stock outs. The IKEA supply chain is mainly make-to-stock (MTS) and only a few products are made to custo mer orders. Consequently, the entire supply chain is heavily dependent on forecasts. The regions and the stores have traditionally had a strong power and a high degree of local freedom in terms of planning and placing replenishment requests. This has led to a fragmented supply chain planning with local optimization and a lot of manual intervention with plans throughout the supply chain. Furthermore, due to frequent shortage situations some regions have purposely overestimated demand to ensure delivery, which in turn has led to imbalance in terms of demand coverage. Hence, some markets have suffered from stock outs during long periods, whereas other markets have ended up with obsolete inventories. Forecasting has been done on a regional level with approximately 120 users striving for different goals and using different methods. Part of the explanation to this is that IKEA has lacked a common and structured tactical planning of demand and replenishment. In terms of capacity planning, all different parts of the supply chain (stores, warehouses, regions, etc.) tried to optimize its own part of the supply chain, leading to a set of imbalanced supply plans with a low and unstable total throughput with long replenishment times for the supply chain as a whole. IKEA initiated a program (cluster of projects) aiming to taking better control of its supply chain, and enhance performance in terms of delivery service and costs. A new global planning concept was developed and is currently being implemented. Its cornerstones are mutually integrated planning processes, a centralized planning organization, focus on data quality and use of advanced software support. The purpose of this article is to outline IKEA’s global supply chain planning concept and describe the roles of the planning organization, data quality, software support and project and change management in the concept and its implementation. Supply Chain Management of IKEA Supplier Management IKEA has about 1400 suppliers from 33 countries, 64% of them are from European countries, with largest supplier markets in China and Poland. IKEA maintains lasting relationship with suppliers, and it has its own way to select suppliers from worldwide. After decide what product and material to be used, trading offices would find the suppliers in their respective regions and invite bids from them. IKEA has a principle, which is to choose suppliers of lowest cost at the same time, guarantee the quality. By placing orders directly on line, IKEA can always receive the deliveries within one to two weeks. On the other side, they ask suppliers to take inventory, so that suppliers can clearly know about the time, category, and amount of goods they have to fill up. IKEA also asks suppliers to deliver some of the goods straight to their stores, and this kind of managing would possibly save time, energy, and money considerably. They have formed a certain role to evaluate the performance of suppliers and point out standards and grades. Under such pressure, IKEA’s suppliers would be serious about their job and try their best to make sure the goods are of best quality and fastest delivery. By this kind of supplier management, IKEA would absolutely has high efficiency and quality. Store Design IKEA chose its store location on the city outskirts as the company’s stores were large and required huge parking spaces because IKEA realized that its customers were visiting stores in their cars. There is a typical feature of IKEA stores. [pic] The picture above is a map of some IKEA stores, in this, one can obviously see that customers entered into the stores, they would follow the arrow printed on the floor, and see through all products they exhibit. This kind of layout is called Racetrack layout, which has a main section that directs towards various section of the store, loops through the store and returns customers to the front of the store. It draws customers around the store and is commonly used in department stores. IKEA uses this to encourage customer to explore and move around IKEA at ease. The Racetrack Layout leads customers throughout the whole IKEA passing through different department. It makes sure that no section is missed out as the Racetrack Layout is design in a way that customer will have to follow the path in order to get to the end. The Loop allows customer to have different viewing angles and to catch a glance of every item in the store within a look. This encourages exploration and impulse buying. Thus this is strategic for IKEA as to capture customers. Warehouse Management IKEA has large warehouses like â€Å"DC008†, it has 19 input doors and 22 output doors. This separation makes the warehouse operation more effective. In the warehouses, there are many forklifts and they run fast and flexible. This also improves efficiency. Besides, IKEA seriously considered the safety of warehouses. It built a perfect security system. If some materials are not in right position, the red light will turn on and there will be an alarm ringing. Another significant warehouse management is space management. A system numbers every area, and all of them will be in the computers, so workers can clearly see wherever there is a vacancy. That ensures turn-around speed. The WMS (Warehouse Management System) in IKEA is so mature that it is used in every warehouse of IKEA’s. However, now IKEA need to figure out how to reduce inventory in order to save money. As for IKEA, there is a special kind of warehouse, which is self-serve warehouse. It is just in stores and keeps some inventory to give customers more choices. It can as well make customers enjoy pleasant about self-purchase. IKEA Supply Chain IKEA Supply Chain System (From the tree to the living room) IKEA is one of the leading home furnishing companies in the world and is expanding globally and fast gaining market share. Also IKEA’s supply chain has a global spread with both sales and purchasing in all major regions of the world. In IKEA Supply Chain system, firstï ¼Å'IOS is IKEA of Sweden, where decisions are made, such as the number of items, purchasing, suppliers, distribution, store coordination, and so on. Second, TSO (Trading), trading is responsible for the relationship with suppliers. Within trading there are 43 trading service offices in Europe, Asia and North America. Third is material and suppliers. They provide raw materials and manufacture the products. Co-workers in this area form a bridge between the factory floor and the products on the shelves at IKEA stores. They are responsible for ensuring reliable production methods that lead to high quality results, but which at the same time involve the min imum waste and maximum efficiency. Although not the most visible role within IKEA, this area is incredibly important for the company. The suppliers of IKEA and the good relations IKEA enjoy with them are among the company’s greatest assets. Fourth, in DC (Distribution centers), trucks, boats and trains are all needed to move products around. Coordinating these different means of transport to make the movement of goods as quick and efficient as possible is a real art. And DC are not enough just to make sure the goods arrive at the right stores and customers at the right time; they must also arrive in good shape, ready to be sold at the lowest possible price. Fifth is store. IKEA has more than 250 own stores in 24 countries and 32 external franchisees in 16 countries. To simplify, chart 1 shows the whole IKEA Supply Chain system described above. [pic] Chart1 IKEA Supply Chain system Moreover, in fifth part, In-store Logistics are also an important part in IKEA supply chain. In-store Logistics have seven steps (chart 2): Step1, create commitment with clear and qualified goods. Step2, develop an in-store logistics organization based on knowledge and competence. Step3, create balance between the space to range relation. Step4, place rational and correct orders. Step5, sales space management. Step6, establish routines for the most efficient goods flow. Step7, follow-up on performance. [pic] Chart 2 IKEA Supply Chain-In-store Logistics IKEA Supply Chain Planning Planning Concept Overview. According to IKEA’s characters, such as offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function and provide low prices, Ikea’s supply chain is in constant flux, with improvements being made whenever they are required or new technology appears. But generally, Ikea’s supply chain is mainly make-to-stock (MTS) and only a few products are made to customer orders. Consequently, the entire supply chain is heavily dependent on forecasts. IKEA focus on all forecasting activities and need calculations to control the entire supply chain inventory levels and replenishment. The global planning process (Chart1) is made by the central function of IKEA of Sweden. From the IKEA’s global supply chain planning (Chart1), we can figure out there are seven major processes (1) Sale planning; (2) Demand planning; (3) Need planning; (4) Supplier capacity planning; (5) The distribution supply chain planning (transport, warehouse, and store planning; 5a-c) and (7) Replenishment orders. In the following, we will talk about the processes separately into more details. But we will only focus on two parts Sales planning and Demand planning. [pic] Chart1 IKEA’s global supply chain planning concept and planning processes. Sales planning. The first step of sales planning is the corporate management of IKEA makes the overall sales forecast. The forecast is made on an aggregate level in terms of total sales volumes in monetary units for IKEA in total. It shows the expected sales increase in percentages. Ikea’s sales plan will be updated three times a year. The forecast is mainly determined by the strategic marketing plan and the remaining part of the current fiscal year plus five years into the future. So the current strategic business plan of Ikea is important for sales planning. At the end of the sales planning process, in order to achieve the business areas’ growth plans and expectation for the future, Demand Planners at IKEA of Sweden provide the data and information of forecasts for each of the business areas. Demand planning. In Ikea, there are 32 Demand Planners work in the tactical demand planning process, each one responsible for forecasting a certain part. The tactical forecast attach to IKEA of Sweden and is done on a rolling 84 weeks, with new historical sales data loaded once a week. In the end the forecasts on store levels are aggregated, reconciled, and compared with the sales frames on the retail forecast group level and on the distribution services region level. IKEA also has Retail Forecast Group, including one to several stores located geographically close to each other. In Europe, a retail Forecast Group normally corresponds to a country. IKEA in different countries own the right to have local event and activities. But, to let Demand Planners review the forecast on the regional level each week, the specific activity plans must be told at least six months in advance. In case that the forecast deviates considerably from actual sales, the Demand Planner looks for the reason and adjusts the sales figures or forecast model accordingly. Problems Lack of Central Coordination All we know IKEA is a hug international company. It provides modern and fashionable low cost furniture for over 38 countries with 301 stores. It emphasizes on local autonomy rather than a centralized coordinator. This method is easier for regions and store to plan and replenishes their own inventories. However, it also causes hundreds of subsystems inside the IKEA. Those subsystems include product design system from the headquarters; orders to suppliers system, orders to transport to the mall system, store management system and some accessory systems in each region or store. There are at least four hundreds complex subsystems inside the IKEA. These system’s databases is not well integrated, and do not have unified communications platform, that resulting in information separation, the low quality of information transmission, it is not conducive to the efficient operation of the supply chain. Lack of Accurate Sale Forecasts Due to changes in demand, sales forecasts data of the Swedish headquarters get deviation, if the forecasting data is bigger than the real, and this led to the warehouse overstock directly. If the mangers do not adjust the place orders plan that will cause serious problems by global warehouse overstock, retail shopping centers will immediately face to increase sales efforts to absorb the backlogged inventory. The other hand, in order to avoid some seasonal items out of stock, IKEA place large quantities of orders to suppliers, the mall immediately changed the stage from the under stock to overstock, However, the shopping center cannot sell them all, therefore, pass the season, there are still a lot of inventory backlog. Inventory Costs are too high IKEA purchases and sales too much, and often use the strategy of expand the inventory to cope with the uncertainty situation. IKEA worried about the inventory cannot be well satisfied the needs of the shopping centers, and if IKEA keep a low inventory level, it will increase the risk of lost sales opportunities, Therefore, IKEA maintain a high level of inventory to avoid the risk of under stock, That cause the shopping malls, the distribution center, and the central warehouse to maintain a considerable amount of inventory. Recommendations The urgent need for IKEA is to spend a large investment in the supply chain systems integration, make a great effort to integrate internal business systems, to achieve the company internal information sharing, built unified communications platform to make sure each subsystem can easy get the information from others, particular in transportation information and warehousing information. Ultimately achieve the comprehensive integration of manufacture, procurement, inventory, sales, financial and human resources management, logistics. That can make the ideal supply chain operations to become a reality. The supply chain systems integration can make each subsystems get the other subsystems information easily that really helpful for IKEA to forecast the sales in the future. In addition, IKEA also can get information from the date of the past sales, the public economic information, from customer and from suppliers. The supply chain systems integration also can help IKEA use those two strategies to reduce the cost of inventory. Firstly, IKEA requires the supplier to transport the production directly to the shopping malls, omitting the middle stage of the warehouse storage and handling. Use this strategy, IKEA do not have to establish the inventory and also do not have to maintain a safety stock to satisfy the demand of the shopping center. The delivery period becomes short, and easy to control. It also reduces the broken rate of the goods that ultimately improve the service level of the mall shopping centers. Secondly, IKEA also can use the strategy of vendor-managed inventory. It means suppliers according to IKEA’s the actual sales demand and safety inventory requirements to place the order to them. This strategy requires mutual trust between IKEA and supplier. IKEA can establish appropriate oversight mechanisms to make this strategy works well. This strategy can make both the IKEA and the suppliers’ benefit. References Laura Spinney (2011) The secret of IKEA’s success: we do the hard work, New scientist. Retrieved from: http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.leopac.ulv.edu/eds/detail?vid=2&hid=23&sid=0dbc6e03-427b-4dec-9711-136b9cfedca8%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=edselp&AN=S0262407911631783 Jonsson, P. and Gustavsson, M. (2008) â€Å"The impact of supply chain relationships and automatic data communication and registration on forecast information quality†, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 38 (4), 280-295. Steve Banker (2009 Nov) In-Store Logistics at IKEA. Retrieved from: http://logisticsviewpoints.com/2009/11/05/in-store-logistics-at-ikea/ IKEA’s Cost Efficient Supply Chain. Retrieved from http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Operations/OPER084.htm NYP IKEA: Merchandising Presentation and Store Design (Part 3), May 18 2012. Retrieved from http://ikea-escrapbook.blogspot.com/2011/07/merchandising-presentation-and-store_4586.html Patrik Jonsson, Martin Rudbergochï ¼Å'Stefan HolmbergGlobal, Supply chain planning at IKEA, Retrieved from http://www.plan.se/files/Jonsson_Rudberg _Holmberg_08.pdf Ikea supply chain-from the tree to the living room, Retrieved from http://www.slideserve.com/presentation/39927/IKEA-Supply-Chain–from-the-tree-to-the-living-room â€Å"IKEA | Purchasing.† IKEA | Purchasing. Web. 17 May 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/jobs/business_types/purchase/index.html Ikea, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA â€Å"Ikea.mov.† YouTube. YouTube, 15 Feb. 2010. Web. 18 May 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYr6JlJ1wlE. SWOT Analysis and Sustainable Business Planning An IKEA Case Study.† Weaknesses and Threats. Web. 18 May 2012. http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/ikea/swot-analysis-and-sustainable-business-planning/weaknesses-and-threats.html. â€Å"IKEA Distribution Improves Supply Chain Management.† IKEA Distribution Improves Supply Chain Management. Web. 18 May 2012. http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240083923/IKEA-Distribution-improves-supply-chain-management.

Oman Air Essay

Oman Air, the flagship company of the Sultanate of Oman’s Civil Aviation sector, commenced operations in 1993. Starting off as a regional player, Oman Air, as Oman’s national carrier has witnessed rapid growth since the time it was established. Oman Air has played a major role in making Muscat a major traffic hub in the Middle East providing a fillip to commercial, industrial and tourism activities. The history of the establishment of Oman Air to 1981, where it began flights actually in 1993, and we all know that the company emerged as a result of the integration that has occurred between the two companies, â€Å"Gulf Air for light aircraft† and â€Å"Oman International Services†, and later form the Oman Aviation Services â€Å"Oman Air. † As a full-fledged commercial airline of Oman, Oman Air has striven to maintain high performance standards in all aspects of its operation. The Oman International Services was established in the year 1970 & later Oman Aviation Services was founded on 1981 to extend services to the other airlines in terms of cargo handling, ground handling etc. The Oman Air fleet consists of most modern and fuel- efficient aircraft with aesthetically designed interiors. Ultra- modern in-flight service equipment is deployed onboard to improve safety and overall performance. Investment in new technology, planning and product innovation has propelled Oman Air to the forefront of the aviation industry. At Oman Air, we strive hard to enhance our products in terms of convenience, efficiency and service so that flying with us is consistently an enjoyable experience. Achieving and maintaining internationally recognized standards of quality and safety is a continuous and uncompromising process in every department of Oman Air. Strong of the company We can say that the company has a many strong points as following: Destinations Covered Oman Air currently operates direct international flights to major Gulf destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Al-Ain, Jeddah, Dammam, Kuwait and Riyadh from Muscat. The airline also flies to ten destinations in India – Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Delhi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Kozhikode and Jaipur. Chittagong in Bangladesh, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan, Male in the Maldives, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Kathmandu in Nepal, Bangkok in Thailand, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar in Tanzania. Oman Air also flies to Cairo in Egypt, Beirut in Lebanon, Amman in Jordan, Tehran in Iran, London in the UK, Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, Paris in France and Milan in Italy. The airline operates domestic flights from Muscat to Salalah and Khasab. To each one of the destinations that it covers, Oman Air lends a distinct touch of its legendary traditions of hospitality. At Home in the Air – With Oman Air On all international flights of Oman air their offer on-board Duty – Free shopping facility, enabling passengers to choose from a select, world-class range of quality merchandise. A detailed list of products available can be found in the in-flight Duty – Free catalogue. New planes Today Oman Air stands tall with a list of achievements to its credit. It is the first airline in the Gulf to introduce the brand new Boeing NG 737 aircraft series. Their safety record is a matter of pride. Oman Air has excellent on-time performance – OTP exceeding 95% and is striving to better its track record, in times ahead. Oman Air, poised to enter the next phase of modern aviation, in the new millennium with confidence and pride!