Best Mom

Best mom essay Hello my name is Cassandra and I Will Be talking about my mom and why she should become one of the best moms in San Diego. I believe that my mom has done many things to receive this kind of award and I think that she is one of the greatest moms. There are many reasons that I say why she should become on of the best moms in SanDiego. Some of the reasons that she should become one of the greatest moms in San Diego are because she has volunteered at my school and she has sacrificed many things for me and my siblings and she is also a good role model.These are only some traits if my mom and in the rest of this essay I will be elaborating on these 3 traits of my mother. My mom should be one of the greatest moms in San Diego because she did volunteer at our school and help out. My school has a mandatory of 15 hours that the parents of a student have to volunteer at the school in a year. My mom has volunteered at the school for not only 15 hours. She was done with her volunte er hours around the 3rd moth of school and yet she still volunteers even though it isn’t mandatory after that.At a school program called Acess we do a lot of community services like helping g in beach clean up, doing volunteer at the Ronald MacDonald house and helping kids with autism. Over all we have done more that 20 community services within my years there and my mom has volunteered in almost all of them and helped manage the kids. That is one of the reasons that I believe that my mom should be one of the greatest moms in San Diego. The second reason that my mom should be nominated as one of the greatest is because she has taught me many lessons and many things that will help me in life.Some of the things that my mom has taught me are Responsibility, Organization, respect, Honor, and honesty. All these things are lessons that will help me in school middle school, high school, college, and even after I get out of school just in life. I believe that because I learned many t hings from my mother that she should be named one of the greatest moms in San Diego. Another reason that I think my mom should be named best mom would be because she is a great role model. My mother is a very good role model to me and my siblings.My mother is a person who puts all her effort to raising us good and she is a hard worker and that motivates us to do a good job and work hard in school and that is one reason I think my mom is a great mother. In conclusion I believe that my mom is a great mother and she should be named one of the greatest moms in San Diego. t as told above the reason I think this is because she volunteers at our school even after finishing the mandatory hours and she has taught me some of the important lesson that help me in the future and she is a great role model.

The Lucky Luciano’s History

Lucky Luciano Lucky Luciano made the modern mafia. In 1931 he cut New York into five slices and served the rackets up in a form that still exists today. He had his fingers in every slice of the metaphoric mince meat pie that was America in the first half of the twentieth century, and then spent his remaining years ruling the underworld from afar. In the history of organized crime, there has never been a more powerful boss, and unless there is a drastic change in American law enforcement, no one person will ever be able to consolidate so much criminal power again.In 20 years, with the help of the 18th amendment, Charles Luciano went from being an average pimp to a God amongst thugs. With the help of a number of other famous gangsters, Lucky built a single, business-like crime syndicate with a board of directors and a directed sense of purpose. It would come to rule the entire United States, and eventually, a good portion of the world. From Humble Beginnings Born in italy in 1896 as Sa lvatore Lucania, Lucky Luciano eventually changed his name to spare his family the embarrassment of reading about him in the newspapers.As a kid, he was a thug; he dealt drugs, sold women, and stole anything he could. He was constantly picked up by New York police, who typically smacked him around and dropped him back on the streets due to his age. Junkies everywhere, take note: Charlie â€Å"Lucky† Luciano created the modern heroin trade. Thanks Chuck! In 1915, at the tender age of 19, Luciano was first arrested for dealing heroin on the streets of New York. Upon release, he broke his sales ring into a tiered affair, with thugs standing on street corners dealing out the dope while he stayed upstairs with the women.He was probably one of the first gangsters to use it in his pimping operations to help keep the girls loyal. In 1920, Luciano joined Joe Masseria's gang and helped run booze, manage prostitutes, and traffic horse for the Sicilian mafia. Masseria trusted Luciano, wh o was a great and reliable earner. He eventually became Masseria's right hand man, making him one of the most powerful gangsters in New York. Somewhere in the 20's, Lucky met Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. This three-way introduction is one of the classic underworld myths, and many versions of the story exist.One alleges that Lansky was a heroin addict at the time. Others describe awkward scenes featuring screaming hookers, naked Jews, and Lucky the belt wielding pimp. And still others describe Lansky whacking Luciano upside the head with a plumbers wrench to defend a crying Bugsy. No matter how it went down, the event served as a symbolic destruction of the old racial walls that existed in the New York underground. Previously, Italian and Jewish gangs tended not to associate on the street, but Lucky would be one of the first to cross the cultural lines and forge an alliance between the groups.Siegel, Lansky and Luciano would become the driving force behind the eventual formation of the National Crime Syndicate: Lucky was the heart of the syndicate, Lansky its brains, and Bugsy its fist. Sicilian Neck Tie In 1929, Masseria's gang became embroiled in a violent turf war with Salvatore Maranzano's mafia. Maranzano was a megalomaniacal don fixated on becoming the one and only ruler of New York. In October that same year, Luciano was on a dock at on the Hudson River inspecting a load of fresh chiba that had just arrived. Four of Maranzano's men rolled up in a car, grabbed Luciano and taped his mouth shut.They beat the shit out of him for an hour as they slowly drove towards Staten Island. Once there, they slit his throat and cheek, then dumped him in a ditch and left him for dead. Luciano lived through this attack, earning him the nickname â€Å"Lucky. † Luciano saw the attack as a sign that the gang war had to end, and soon. He, along with Siegel and Lansky, went to see Maranzano. They struck a deal with Marazano to divide up Masseria's empire: Marazano got the liquor turf, Luciano got the girls and the drugs. Luciano set up a dinner meeting with Masseria at the Nuova Villa Tammaro, a spaghetti house on Coney Island.After a few hours of feasting, he excused himself to use the pisser. In walked Bugsy Seigel, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, and Meyer Lansky. Out walked Luciano as the new leader of Masseria's gang. Only half a year passed before Siegel and Luciano bumped off Marazano. This placed Luciano in charge of New York. Through agreements with Dutch Schultz and other Manhattan turf barons, Luciano was able to consolidate all underworld power and streamline the mafia. The Syndicate Rises Despite having dropped out of school in the 4th grade, Luciano had a business savvy unrivaled in the crime world.He set up a board of directors that included all the major players, including millionaire thug Joe Adonis and beancounter extraordinaire Meyer Lansky, who remained on the board until the late 70's. There was even a trial str ucture to hear complaints and justly determine if someone should be whacked. The underground began to flourish, and the organization became known as the National Crime Syndicate. Gambling, prostitution, drugs, liquor, and guns could all be had from the Syndicate, and everyone in the underworld had to pay tribute to the organization by giving it a percentage in all takes.Even assassinations became big business thanks to Lucky. With the help of Bugsy Siegel and Albert Anastasia, Luciano formed Murder Inc. , a professional grade killing company staffed mostly with Jewish hitmen. Mobsters in need of a hit simply called Murder Inc and bought themselves some prescreened contract killers. It was much like 1-800-dentist, but with guns and piano wire instead of drills and laughing gas. This establishment was responsible for hundreds of hits throughout the late 30's, including the killings of Dutch Schultz, Abe Wagner, and even it's founder, Bugsy Siegel. Still Pimpin'Luciano was on top of th e world by 1936. He had a different woman every night, a habit he had picked up early on. By 1936, his empire of whores caught up with him. The state of New York had amassed enough evidence and testimony to put Luciano in jail for pimping by years end. Thomas Dewey, special prosecutor in the case, paraded a near endless stream of witnesses before the jury. Over 28 of them were hookers, and Luciano was incensed by this fact. He claimed that the government had coerced the testimony of these whores by offering them free trips to Europe and a steady supply of drugs.One of these hookers was permitted by the judge to take a shot of bourbon while on the stand to help keep the morphine shakes off long enough to finger Luciano. Initially, most people believed Luciano was grasping at straws, but some documents from Deweys offices confirm that a large number of tickets to Europe were purchased by the office in the same year as the trial. Luciano was sentenced to 30 years in jail for his allege d masterminding of the New York flesh trade. Prison didn't dwindle Luciano's influence. He remained firmly in charge, even under lock down.So great was his influence that when the US government was searching for German saboteurs in the ports of New York during World War II, they came to Luciano to ask for help. Luciano agreed, and used his power to bring the Nazi conspirators to the surface. Luciano also helped the government find contacts on Sicily and in Italy before the Allied invasions. In 1946, Thomas Dewey, now governor of New york, gave Luciano a pardon and deported him to Italy. There, Luciano lived out the rest of his days entertaining the like of Frank Sinatra Sr. and other celebrities.He remained active in Syndicate business, however, even in exile. In 1946, he flew to Cuba to meet with fellow mafiosos about turning the island into a floating Las Vegas. In December of 1946, Luciano arrived in Cuba to discuss the realization of plans for the island. All the biggest names i n the mafia were there: Vito Genovese, Meyer Lanksy, Joe Adonis, and Santos Trafficante Jr. , relative of the infamous senator James Traficant. Aging gangsters arrived one after another, all there to pay respects to Luciano and affirm that he was still in control.Of those in attendance, Vito Genovese was the only real troublemaker. Genovese initially asked Luciano to step down from power, a request which infuriated the aging mobster. Eventually, after a few days of meetings, Genovese again asked Luciano to step down, and to retreat to Italy. Luciano was sure that Genovese had tipped off Washington to his presence in Cuba. Luciano leaped on Genovese and beat the living shit out of him, breaking three of the man's ribs. Aside from wupping up on Gevovese, there were other issues to be discussed at the Havana conference.One issue was narcotics sales, something Luciano thought was becoming too hot for the mob to remain in. He pleaded with his underlings to get out of the business, but no one seemed to care. Meyer Lansky informed Luciano that Genovese was orchestrating much of the trade now, and his followers, as well as his enemies, were making too much money off of drug trafficking to back down now. Another issue was Bugsy Siegel. Bugsy had purposely been left out of the conference because his Flamingo hotel, by then $6 million in the hole, was a sticking point for many in the group.By the end of the conference, Siegel was marked for death. His old friend, Meyer Lansky was unable to help him because he was not allowed to vote in any conference matters. Only Italians could vote, and Lansky was a Jew. In 1962, Luciano was planning to help produce a movie about his life. A Hollywood producer flew to meet the aging gangster in Naples, Italy on January 26th. As Luciano was walking across the runway to shake the producer's hand, he dropped dead suddenly of a heart attack.

International Country Based Business Opportunity Project OUTLINE Only Essay

International Country Based Business Opportunity Project OUTLINE Only Part 1 - Essay Example Sunil Mittal, the chairman and CEO of Bharti Telecom, The chairman mentioned the diversification plans of Bharti Telecom. In times like these, when the academia and the industry experts are saying that stabilization is a better option than expanding now, Mittal's choice of the industry he has chosen is huge surprise pack. However, after a deep insight, I was able to understand that the choice is probably has its own strengths. Inorder to give the project a kick start in another two years, Mr.Mittal is planning a corpus fund for which the money will be collected from the Rs.80 Billion Telecom business if his and from other sources. The money thus will be used for investments in Global agricultural scenario and in Airport infrastructure development. These businesses will be run by professional bodies unlike Bharti telecom. Also as he says forays into these areas in the international perspective are limited and the opportunities are unlimited. Inorder to support his claims Mr. Mittal has already acquired a project the Delhi Airport Maintenance Authority to provide top class infrastructure to its International Airport by year 2012. As a part of the plan to log into the agriculture sector, he is planning to start agricultural production, which surprisingly has not been seen anybody as a potential busine

Can Rousseau plausibly be described as a totalitarian democrat Essay

Can Rousseau plausibly be described as a totalitarian democrat - Essay Example While on the other hand, the education and religion comes under the vision as a biased and detrimental due to the reason that it fortified the individuals (Talmon,  Arieli  & Rotenstreich, pp. 37-50, 2002). The government body in the totalitarian democracy enjoys and leverage with complete power of confiscation and obligation. In simple words, the government has the right to direct and manipulate over each individual and everything else. This concept of totalitarian democracy to some extent goes up against by modern and contemporary experts. According to them, totalitarian democracy is the equality-oriented democracy where complete  rights  and freedoms of people should not come under holding as convict to traditions and social agreements (Talmon  & Arieli  & Rotenstreich, pp. 37-50, 2002). Jean Jacques Rousseau has been a significant and accepted name that advocated totalitarian democracy. In addition, Jean Jacques Rousseau has been a prominent name and one of the greatest figures in the history of the French Enlightenment as he was one of the popular French philosophers whose ideas and thoughts persuaded the French Revolution. In addition, more than just being a philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau has also gained a prominent name as an author/novelist, painter, political and educational theorist/philosopher, musicologist, and composer. Apart from achieving recognition as a totalitarian democrat, he was also a flourishing music composer and made remarkable contributions to the music as a theorist. His work of music has come under findings in the form of operas and several other forms (Jeske & Fumerton, pp. 66-75, 2011). At the initial stage, Rousseau gained reputation as a writer after winning the award for one of his writings. In addition, the history provides the fact that the political events occurred during the time of Jean Jacques Rousseau has been quite influential, particularly for the American and French Revolutions

Will American Airline and US Airways merge going to cause monopoly in Essay

Will American Airline and US Airways merge going to cause monopoly in major city'airfare - Essay Example Once the two airlines merge, they will operate as a single entity within the airline industry. Combining these firms’ business is seemingly detrimental to major city airfare. In this respect, there are diverse and dynamic arguments with regard to monopolization of major city airfare. The American Airlines-US Airways merger, however, is less likely to cause airfare monopoly in major cities. In their domestic and international operations, both American Airline and US Airways operate alongside other major airlines such as Delta and United Airlines. Monopoly over airfare would have to outperform other major airline in terms of air ticket prices. In this respect, the American Airlines-US Airways merger has limited chances of controlling airfare due to high competition in the industry. Although the merger could make American Airlines the biggest airline globally (Rosenbloom, 2014), the airline will still have to face stiff competition from other major airlines both locally and internationally. Without necessarily accounting for all major airlines, American Airlines will have to face Delta, United, and Southwest airlines as far as the domestic airline industry is concerned. Due to the competition factor, the firm, even after the merger, cannot base its primary operational strategy on airfare control. Airfare in major cities remains influenced by demand and supply factors, aspects that the merger would have to address before realizing monopolized airfares. Airfare-based monopoly will be difficult to realize in a highly competitive industry. Debates on the American Airlines-US Airways merge contend that air ticket prices could increase following the move (Rosenbloom, 2014). Critical to note, however, is that customers are rational as far price and utility are concerned. With or without the merger, consumer tastes, preferences, and decisions will still be critical to account for. This merger

Customer Relationship Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Customer Relationship Management - Essay Example According to the research findings over the years many things have changed and now a great deal of emphasis is laid on the importance of customers to a company. Marketing tactics have evolved from mass marketing and advertising to target or niche marketing where preferences of each customer are given equal importance. In all this, customers have benefitted tremendously, now special attention is being given to their needs and according to that business strategies are designed. The customer making a purchase has two options, either he can make a direct purchase from the manufacturer itself – use one channel, or opt for multiple channels where he can buy the same product but here this product would have passed through several channels before reaching the intended customer. It has been observed that customers choosing multiple channels are more valuable to a company as compared to those opting for a single channel. This is because shopping is made a very convenient experience for them; they can buy products online from the web or even book their orders on the phone instead of making the trip to the store. In addition, in case they want to track the delivery of their products, this can be done easily either on phone or online by using the tracking code usually provided by the couriers. They are given many payment methods to choose from depending on whichever is the most feasible for them. They can make payment with cash on delivery, issue a cheque or even use their credit card. Hence, at each stage they are being facilitated and so the customer would remember the ease with which they shopped and would return repeatedly for the same service. Customers overall prefer systems which make processes simple, fast and reliable for them and multiple channels guarantee all of that with their expeditious service. Nordstrom is a famous US retailer with 225 stores located nationwide. Being in the business for more than a century, Nordstrom realizes the importance of its c ustomers and knows how vital it is to provide customers with complete ease and best deals, hence, offering customers a comfortable buying experience with the use of its multiple channels network. In order to measure the effectiveness of customer relationship

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT - Assignment Example Treatment of recessionary gap in new classical approach: According to the new Classical approach, economists focus on the unemployment situation, which affects the economy owing to the continuous decline in the real output of the economy. In a recessionary gap situation, supply of resources in the labor market tends to increase substantially. Consequently, the wage rate declines to maintain the equilibrium position of the economy’s resources. Hence, this result in lowering wages and prices with a shift in short run Aggregate Supply (AS) curve causing recessionary gap. Accordingly, the new classical theory suggests that the economy is self-regulatory, and can achieve equilibrium i.e. stability, full employment without government interference and can eliminate the gap in a â€Å"self-corrective mechanism† (Pearson Education, â€Å"Keynes and the Classical Economists: The Early Debate on Policy Activism†). Exhibit 1: Recessionary Gap AS movements as per the new clas sical theory (Jain, Jain, Ohri, Majhi and Ohri 193) Treatment of recessionary gap in Keynesian approach: In contrast to the new classical theory, the Keynesian theory asserts that recessionary gap is the shift in Aggregate Demand (AD) due to low spending in an economy. Economists following the Keynesian approach suggest that the gap can be eliminated by spending more, that is by increase flow of money and capital resources within the economy, which will move the AD curve upwards (Pearson Education, â€Å"Keynes and the Classical Economists: The Early Debate on Policy Activism.†). Exhibit 2: Recessionary Gap AS movements as per the new classical theory (Jain, Jain, Ohri, Majhi and Ohri 193) The main difference between the new classical and the Keynesian theory persist in respect to their assumptions, which are directly associated with the AS-AD curve movements. As can be observed from the above discussion, the new classical theory assumes that with the increase in the unemploy ment rate, which indicates a fall in the demand for labors in the economy, the wage will also shrink, causing the AS curve shift downwards. However, because the economy is assumed to function in a â€Å"self-corrective manner†, it is likely that the fall in the wage rate will increase the demand for the labors and thus fortify the situation to the equilibrium position. Contradictorily, the Keynesian economists shall assume that in a recessional gap situation, if the demand for employment falls, it shall have no effect on the price and also on the supply (in the short run). It is under such circumstance that the government needs to intervene and increase demand for the resource to the equilibrium position (Baumol and Blinder 206-208). QUESTION 2 Two events supporting Classical theory: In the modern era, many economies practice the classical theory of microeconomics. Among these, China has been a significant illustration. China operates with minimum government intervention for better economic stability. For example, at the time of World War 2, China had to witness a steep fall in its employment rate, which had resulted in the downward shift of the wage rate and the AS curve. The reason was likewise assumed to be the failure of the economic drivers to use the resources efficiently, as per the classical the

Employment Law essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employment Law - Essay Example Along with this transference, the company requires the redundancy of thirty-five employees out of total fifty employees in the South Sea centre because of bad reputation of the centre and lessening memberships. The company, Keep Fit & Well Co Ltd has a high turnover, but it is liable for unfair dismissals of employees and in case of downsizing or transferring, it is again accountable to the employees. This paper offers legal advises to Abe, Donald and Esme and finally to the employers and employees involved in the transference of Fareham centre to the Fitness Freaks, as many employees have to face redundancy. The employees are highly affected by wrong decisions taken by the company’s administration. In addition, legalization of every employment action is necessary in order to work without any legal claims. Abe has been wronged, as Cathy, the manager of the South Sea centre unjustifiably accused Abe of theft and pushed him into dismissal. She took a one sided decision based on her own will that comes into the category of discrimination. She also dismissed Abe unfairly calling legal action. She conducted the investigation after dismissing Abe, however, she was supposed to investigate the matter beforehand. In Abe’s case, the role of employment tribunal, unfair dismissal and dismissal based on discrimination must be considered in detail to come to a conclusion, as what Abe can claim for the injustice. Employment tribunal resolves conflicting situations between employers and employees and the matters, it usually solves are related to unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination1. In addition, the employment tribunal is also referred to be accessed as per ACAS guidelines related to disciplinary rules and procedures2. Unfair dismissal can be explained in legal terms as inability of the employer to provide a justified reason for dismissal of the employee, failure of the employer to follow the legal processing of dismissal or a dismissal based on unfair reason.

Discussion questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Discussion questions - Essay Example Companies allow â€Å"good debtors† to make purchases without necessarily making the payment upfront. The money that the company expects to receive from the debtors after the agreed period is the trade receivable. Receivables are from frequent and ‘good’ customers who are periodically invoiced. An IOU is given to the company by the purchaser for services already rendered or goods already received (Warren, Reeve & Duchac, 2012). When the vice president of operations for Billings National Bank (Tricia Fenton) decided that the bank should use a 365-day year to compute interest on depository accounts (payables), she was being ethical. Therefore, the decision to use a 360-day year to compute interest on loans (receivables) was not professional. A financial year has 365 days; hence, all interests should be calculated based on that period. A 360-day year will reduce the receivables. When receivables reduce, it shows that the company is collecting its debts promptly. However, this is not the case. Tricia Fenton’s aim might be to impress her superiors while in the real sense; the company is facing challenges in collecting debts (Warren, Reeve & Duchac, 2012). Depreciation refers to the loss in asset value due to old age, wear and tear, obsolescence or adverse market conditions. It is crucial to note that land and buildings are the major assets that do not depreciate; instead, their value increases. Depreciation can be regarded as a non cash expense, which increases a company’s cash flow and reduces its reported earnings. For the purposes of financial reporting, businesses use different methods of depreciation. The depreciation method, which a company opts to use while calculating depreciation for all its depreciable assets, may differ from the one it uses for financial statement purposes and for the purposes of determining income taxes. This is due to the varying incentives in hand (Warren,

Care of the Ill Adult Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Care of the Ill Adult - Essay Example The researcher states that it is worth noting that providing a holistic assessment to the patient during admission to the ward is one of the fundamental requirements of nursing. This is because, through holistic nursing, it becomes possible to ensure that unity of the body, mind, spirit, emotion, and the environment becomes guaranteed. This implies that nurses, who strive to offer holistic assessment, need to consider all the needs of every patient irrespective of the reason behind their encounter. According to Dossey, patient’s needs have the highest probability of being known and eventually diagnosed when holistic assessment is employed. This, thus, means that a patient, who receives a holistic care, stands to recover with a quicker rate as compared to a patient receiving non-holistic care given that true needs of a patient are easily identified. This happens, in cases where a patient is provided with an opportunity to think and expound on what care he or she requires. Throu gh this, the patient can work in harmony with the caregivers in finding the appropriate methods to achieve set goals. There are various factors that have to be examined in a holistic assessment, which, certainly are the primary cause of the current illness, as well as act as measures taken by the patient in managing the illness and the patient’s medical history. Factors that ought to be put under consideration are the patient’s social history and the perception of illness exhibited by the patient. With a view to discuss nursing interventions for a range of conditions invented from a patient scenario, this paper explores the case of Rosie who is a patient admitted to hospital for a total thyroidectomy with type 2 diabetes. In this regard, there are five conditions to be explored including the patient's assessment during the ward admission, medical condition, postoperative care, discharge details, as well as immediate care of the patient in the community. Â  In assessin g the communication skills of Rosie, the nurse shall consider investigating nonverbal communication of the patient. Through this, the nurse will work towards reducing the patient’s anxiety by allowing the patient to express fears. In this regard, the nurse shall provide an explanation of all procedures, and then link them up to the relevance of healing anxiety. In order to achieve this, the nurse shall consider the overproduction of catecholamine and cortisol occurring in response to stress and could possess the healing effect of the wound because of alteration in the tissue and immune system. Additionally, the nurse will also encourage questions and inputs of encouragement from the husband with due consent of the family members. Pre-op. In line with this, the nurse shall work towards providing orientation to the ward, giving out information to the patient, investigating allergies, providing baseline observations, urinalysis, Capillary blood glucose monitoring, carrying out b lood tests, providing the patient with medication, as well as managing anxiety and fears of the patient. Additionally, the nurse will provide the patient adequate emotional support, while considering issues including the Braden score, allergies such as drugs, history of DVT, iodine latex, tape, Patient ID bands, and the Nil by mouth for a given recommended time. Postoperative care of Rosie after the Thyroidectomy. Airway and Breathing management. In order to manage the breathing and airway conditions for Rosie, the effects of anaesthesia, rate of respiration, the depth of respiration, as well as the breathing work shall closely be monitored by the nurse. Moreover, the breathing sound of Rosie shall be auscultated while noting the existence of rhonchi.

Emancipation of the slaves Essay Example for Free

Emancipation of the slaves Essay uestion: Examine the methods employed by planters to induce labourers to work on sugar estates after emancipation. Full emancipation of the slaves was achieved in 1838 in the British West Indies and 1848 in the French colonies. The post-emancipation period was viewed with fear by planters who believed that mass of ex-slaves would exodus the plantations, robbing them of their labour supply. In many cases this was so. However, one can argue that the British West Indies experienced a greater labour problem than the French colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Therefore, the coercive measures put in place in the French colonies were unjust, an example of over-exaggerated panic on the part of the planters, and a form of maintaining control over their declining power over labour. The term freed people refers to persons who were not enslaved to anyone, who had open to them various opportunities previously closed, who maintained complete control over their movements and in general their lives. According to the historian Rawle Farley, many ex-slaves saw the estates as an oppression of this particular meaning of freedom and hence left as a form of resisting it. To desert the plantations the ex-slave had to take into consideration land availability, population density and the flexibility to move from one profession to another or even to one with similar characteristics, such as small scale farming. Within low density colonies like British Guiana where land was plentiful, ex-slaves left to settle on small plots. Many ex-slaves also left to their original plantations to work on others where pay was high, some even ventured into other professions such as hucksters, butchers, skilled workers and managers. In some low density colonies like St. Lucia, conciliatory measures like the metayage system was employed so as to make plantation work more appealing. In these cases planters provided the tools, and the ex-slaves, the labour. Both parties shared in the produce at crop time making the ex-slave more eager to not only be present at crop time, but to do the premiere labour efficiently. However, in many other islands planters created a problematic situation for ex-slaves. In high density colonies like Antigua, coercive measures were put in place as a demonstration of power by planters. Even in the low density colony of Jamaica coercive measures dominated and undermined the entire concept of freedom. According to the historian, William A. Green, Jamaica suffered from not a labour shortage but a labour problem, that is, there was a labour force but they did not want to work on the plantations. Douglas Hall furthers this argument with the statement that, [Planters] were likely to exaggerate the withdrawal of ex-slaves from the estates. This leads one to blame the planters for being the creators of their own problems. In a panic, they attempted to force the ex-slaves to remain on the estates by applying the coercive measure of lowering wage rates while raising rents. This was intended to diminish net earnings from sales of provisions in local markets and so make the ex-slave dependent wages for his livelihood. It was this rent question that really was burning issue between employer and employee. In some cases rent was levied on each occupant of a cottage, while in other cases no rent was collected at all so that the labourers could be ejected at a moments notice. All requests by ex-slaves for annual tenacy was denied. Many labourers were faced with the situation whereby rents were paid form their wages. In addition this the tenant and his family household must still work for the landlord. According to Swithin Wilmot, rent was manipulated in such a fashion that it was a penalty rather than a charge for the use of estate property [and]refus[al] to pay [resulted in] increased rental. This coercive measure applied to keep freed persons on the estates had the opposite effect. Ex-slaves abandoned plantations to squat on crown land or purchased land and engaged in various agricultural endeavours for subsistence and market. If these escapees required additional income, they engaged in providing casual labour for the nearby plantations. Many ex-slaves bought land and formed freed villages. These freed villages were a danger to the sugar economy since peasant farmers provided competition with their crops. Within the French colonies labour laws were passed with the intention of controlling the peasantry. In Martinique in particular, where land availability was scarce, ex-slaves were forced to comply with many of the insufferable regulations, for example paying the personal tax, tolerating the pass system and maintaining a domestic passport. The personal tax was created before 1848 with the aim of restricting the movement of Blacks to the towns and served to restrict movement from the countryside. The law imposed a sum payable annually by inhabitants, the boroughs receiving higher taxes than those living in the countryside. In 1848 the personal tax jumped from 10 francs 50 centimes per year in Pointe-a-Pitre, to 15 francs. Even in the country areas, the personal tax rose from 4 francs 50 centimes to 5 francs. The creation of this tax was intended to both restrict the Blacks movement to that of the plantations while forcing them to work to pay for it. The need for the Blacks to pay taxes is extremely interesting, especially since, according to historian Dale Tomich, most planters could not afford to pay freed men wages. On February 15, 1852 the pass system was introduced to attempt to force the ex-slaves to adopt contractual labour. Rosamunde Renard notes that under this system, every individual working for a salary or a daily wage, or every holder of a work contract of less than one year should possess a pass. If they did not own a pass then they were sentenced to working in the workhouses. The authorities tended to play a greater role in supporting planters in the French colonies than in the British West Indies. Ex-slaves however responded at first with violence, attacking anyone trying to remove them from their homes or take away their freedom, and later engaging in passive resistance. When they had to register, they gave a different name for everything, the governor de Gueydon declared they baptized under one name, married under another, taxed under a third and unknown under all these names. The Blacks also loitered and refused to accept contractual work when ever they could. Though the planters mainly used coercive measures, they also attempted to apply conciliatory measures. In Martinique a system of medals for model workers was devised so as to encourage work on the plantations. Gold and bronze medals were distributed among the pupils of religious institutions who had done fairly well in agriculture. Schools were created with the purpose of training plantation workshop leaders and good workers. The freedmen were not fooled. They responded with increasing hostility towards these new attempts to make them stay on the plantations. In conclusion, the term induce tends to mean, according the dictionary to persuade. However, planters were seen applying more often force, that is, coercive measures rather than conciliatory measures to attempt to keep ex-slaves on the plantations. Within the high density colonies the coercive measures were not really necessary but rather a demonstration of planter control and power. Within the French colonies, if one is believe Perrison, there was absolutely no reason to apply the coercive measures the historian Rosamunde Renard described. For Martinique, one can question the sensibility of a slave revolt resulting in emancipation just before it was officially declared. Not surprisingly, an increasing distrust of the slaves exploded directly after emancipation was declared together with fear of economic ruin for the society. Planters and the Authorities joined forces against the savage, uncivilized Blacks whose nature inclined them away from the delights of working in the blistering sun on the plantations and more towards their crude and uninformed version of what freedom was about, like liberty of movement. These hostile attitudes of planters and authorities alike are responsible for the exodus of ex-slaves in both the British West Indies and the French colonies.

Building Maintenance | Literature Review

Building Maintenance | Literature Review Building defects are common phenomena especially for those old residential apartments. Lack of maintenance management is one of the factors which lead to poor building condition. Despite the authorities in charge of building maintenance, the residents are also a factor contributing to poor maintenance on building. Misusing the facilities, poor management team, insufficiency of fund for maintenance, the use of poor quality material by the maintenance department, improper maintenance strategy often cause maintenance to achieve a result less than expected. Poor maintenance management will reduce the building lifespan and accelerate the deterioration process of building. Besides that, poor maintenance also will effects the condition of the building, it is also a threats to the residents, making the residents feel unsafe, cause inconvenience and bring a lot of trouble to the resident and others. Thus, this research aim is to identify the flaw of building maintenance in residential apartments, give recommendations and provide the suitable of maintenance strategy to improve the quality and conditions of the apartments. The center question in this study is to identify a suitable maintenance strategy to improve the condition of residential apartments. Along the way of research, following question will also be identified. What is the flaw of building maintenance in residential apartments? What is the reason to affect the maintenance cost? 1.3 Aim The aim of this research project is to study the building maintenance strategy in residential apartments. 1.4 Objectives In achieving the aim, four objectives have been outlined. There are: To determine the suitable of maintenance strategy to improve the quality of residential apartments. To compare the type of building maintenance strategy. To review the factor that affect maintenance cost. 1.5 Hypothesis Proper maintenance strategy can reduce the building defects, increase the monetary value of apartment and prolong the lifespan of residential apartment. 1.6 Background of the Study Building maintenance is an important activity to keep the building in good condition. Even though the buildings are seemed like wonderful or in perfect condition, there are a lot of maintenance work needed to be done in order to maintain at such condition. To preserve and prolong the life of building, maintenance is necessary to be carried out. Chudley (1981, p.1) define the maintenance as: maintenance is the act of maintaining. The Committee on Building Maintenance in British defined maintenance as: Building Maintenance is the work undertaken in order to keep, restore or improve every facility, i.e every part of a building, its services and surrounds to a currently acceptable standard, and to sustain the utility and value of the building (Wood, 2009, p.3) In this research project, researcher is tending to identify the flaw of building maintenance in residential apartments and proposed the suitable maintenance strategy. The motivation to carry out this research project is a lot of tenants or residents have neglected the importance of maintenance work. Also, maintenance will affect the built environment, building lifespan, quality, safety and condition of apartments. Proper maintenance strategy plays an important role for a building. The proper maintenance strategy is able to affect the performance of maintenance. Good and poor maintenance also depends on the maintenance strategy using. The poor maintenance also caused by using the improper maintenance strategy. The poor maintenance of the residential apartment will lead to depreciation of property value, affects the condition of the building, result as a threats to the residents, making the residents feel unsafe, caused inconvenience to the residents, building efficiency drop and eventually cause the building to deteriorate rapidly than others. 1.7 Scope of the Study In order to carry out the research project, the researcher specified in residential buildings at Setapak. The nature of the building to be focus in apartment and the building will be reviewed in this research are those which were built between 1990s and early 2000s. The building maintenance of the residential apartments is to be reveal through this research project. This research focuses on the maintenance strategy of the residential apartment thus understand on the building maintenance strategies and knowledge on flaw of building maintenance are important in this case. The key words like building maintenance strategy and residential apartments will be defined at first so that the person who reads can easily understand point of the research project or dissertation. To carry out the research, it is necessary to identify flaw of building maintenance of residential apartments and proposed the suitable or proper maintenance strategy to rectify the flaw of building maintenance or improve the quality of the buildings. In addition, in this dissertation identifies the factors that affect the maintenance cost. 1.8 Research Methodology 1.8.1 Literature review To carry out a research, literature review is the most important of the research. Before carry out a research, it has to well understand of the research title and literature review. The effective information can be obtained through the books in the library, journals, internet, newspaper and others those will provide us ideas to start doing dissertation or easily to do the dissertation with refer to the books, journals and others. 1.8.2 Questionnaire One of the research methodology using in this dissertation, questionnaire will be carried out in order to get some important information from respondents. The questionnaires form will be contribute to the respondents by hands or mail. The targeted respondents are those who stay in the apartment at Setapak. The questionnaire forms can include respondents detail, satisfaction of the building facilities and efficiency, knowledge on the building defect and others. All the data collected get from respondents, it have to analyze it and discussed together with recommendations to improve the building defects or quality of the building. 1.8.3 Interview Besides that, interview also will be carry out in the research. The targeted interviewees are resident of the apartment at Setapak and the repair specialist also will be interview. For this dissertation, the informal interview will be carry out in order to finalize the conclusion and the respond of interviewee are more accurate than the questionnaire and face to face discuss the problem of the resident facing. 1.9 Chapter Outline 1.9.1 Chapter 1-Introduction Chapter 1 is introducing about research background and this chapter is including aims and objectives, problem statement, research methodology, chapter outline and others. 1.9.2 Chapter 2-Literature Review Chapter 2 is review the definition of maintenance and the importance of building maintenance. This chapter also will identify the factors of affecting building maintenance cost and let the reader understanding different types of maintenance strategies. 1.9.3 Chapter 3-Research Methodology Chapter 3 is aim to review the details of research methodology. The Literature review, questionnaire, interview is the method of carry out in this research project. In this chapter, it has to review the way of get the feedback from the respondent and what is the result. 1.9.4 Chapter 4-Data Analysis Chapter 4 is need to analyzing the data which is obtained from questionnaire. It needs to analyses the problem of maintenance management in residential apartments. 1.9.5 Chapter 5-Conclusion and Recommendations Chapter 5 is to provide the conclusion of the whole research project and recommend the importance of building maintenance in residential apartments. Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Title 1.2 Problem Statement 1.3 Aims and objectives 1.4 Background 1.5 Scope of Study 1.6 Research Methodology 1.7 Chapter Outline Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definition 2.3 Importance of building maintenance 2.4 Factor affect the building maintenance cost 2.5 Types of building maintenance strategies 2.6 The comparison of maintenance strategies 2.7 Selection of maintenance strategy 2.8 Maintenance management decision diagram Table 0 Plan and actual schedule Based to the table above, I was late to confirm the research title that is because I was confusing on the various tiles that I have found. To get back the progress that I was planning, I was tried to confirm the tile on Week 4. After that, there is also late to done the work in Chapter One. Within that delay period, I have a presentation and a lot of assignment need to submit. Also, I was having twice time amendment on Chapter One. During Week 9, I was realized that was very late to start the work in Chapter Two. To resolve this problem, I was try to spending more time to do the research and I was try to finished the introduction, definition and importance of building maintenance and factor affect the building maintenance cost. During Week 9 to Week 12, I was try my best to match back the planned schedule and I was get help who is my supervisor in doing the work in Chapter 2. He is giving a lot recommendation to give me a direction to done the proposal and final draft. Finally, I was done my work on Week 12 and I was submitting my final draft on Week 13. Chapter 2.0 Literature review 2.1 Introduction This chapter reviews the types of building maintenance strategy. The definition and the importance of maintenance also will be identified in this chapter. Besides that, this chapter will identify the factor affecting the building maintenance cost and maintenance management decision diagram. 2.2 Definition of Building Maintenance The maintenance term was comes from the French verb maintenir, which means to hold, retain, prolong or preserve the building or structure to an acceptable standard. Chudley (1981, p.1) defines the maintenance is the act of maintaining, many people are misunderstanding the maintenance is equal with repair. In the act of maintaining repairs or replacement may well be necessary but the main objectives of all maintenance procedures is to prevent as far as practicable the need to repair or replace the structure, furnishings, services, equipment or fittings which collectively make up the total environment of any building (Chudley, 1981, p.1). According to BS 3811: 1964 defines maintenance as a combination of any actions carried out to retain an item in, or restore it, to an acceptable condition (Lee, 1981, p.9). Wood (2009, p.4) defines maintenance as keeping an item at a certain level or of restoring it that position of acceptability, although it does not identify who it is that determines the acceptability condition. Besides that, the Building Maintenance Committee in British recommended the following definition: Work undertaken in order to keep, restore or improve every facility, i.e every part of a building, its services and surrounds, to a currently accepted standard and to sustain the utility and value of the facility (Lee, 1981, p.10). In conclusion, the main objectives of building maintenance is to keep the building in perfect condition and ensure that the condition of the buildings meets all statutory requirements by regularly checking or repairing it when failure occurs so that the building can be continued perform in term of acceptable standard. 2.3 The importance of Building Maintenance Most people are unlikely to carry out maintenance work and they have neglected the importance of maintenance work. There are many good reasons for carry out the maintenance work. For example, maintenance can be preserving our building, prolong the buildings life, reducing the deterioration process of the building, provide a safe environment and maintaining buildings appearance. In the economic sense, maintenance can reduce the major repair projects. Under some circumstances, repairs works can be costly than maintenance work in terms of finances. Thus, it is better to carry out the maintenance work than extending the period of repairs work. For an example, the routine cleaning of the gutter and drains is cheaper and less convenient than having to cope with a serious outbreak of dry rot in timber roof trusses which is neglect for many years. The appropriate routine management and maintenance will minimize the need for larger repairs or it is the most economical way of sustaining an ass et (Beehive, 2010). Besides that, maintenance will also ensure the safety of the building or to person (Jeff, 2008). For instance, maintenance of building fire safety installations. Fire safety installations must be capable performing in standard level to ensure the safety of the building and building users or occupants. Fire safety installations are including fire extinguisher, fire doors, fire hydrants, fire hose reels, emergency lighting and smoke detectors (Queensland Government, n.d). In addition, maintenance also can provide opportunities for employment. Some of the maintenance works are required repair specialist or maintenance professionals to carry out the maintenance or repair works. For example, cleaning high-level gutters may require specially trained personnel or equipment to carry out the work or some of the maintenance or repair work need a lot of repair specialist to carry out the work therefore it provide a opportunities to earn a living (Beehive, 2010). 2.4 The factors that affecting building maintenance cost This research project is to identify the factors that affecting building maintenance cost because the issue of continuous increasing in building maintenance cost is often discussed. In order to solve the problem of increasing in building maintenance cost, building management team should adapt some strategies by reduce or minimizing the number of maintenance activities (Azlan Shah Ali, 2010). Besides that, building maintenance costs increase and decrease will be affected due to the various factors. For examples, designer is fails to comply with the specifications and standard also is a factors that influence the building maintenance cost. (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003) 2.4.1 Design The complexity of the building design will increase the difficulty in maintenance work. Regular cleaning and minor repair work can be carried out easily to avoid major replacement of building component. For example, some of the maintenance requires some tools to be performed. If the designer fails to allow enough space for the tools to execute maintenance work, it will cause minor problem become major problem (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). The building design also including the building height, area and size. The high rise building is need the additional costs for the equipment and tools used to carry out the maintenance works. For instance, when carry out the maintenance works at high rise buildings such as window cleaning, painting work, repairs work and other external works is need scaffolding (Azlan Shah Ali, 2010). Besides that, some of the building defects are caused by improper structural design such as designer is neglected the spacing for contraction and expansion which movement will cause joint of the wall cracking (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.2 Poor Quality Control Quality control program is essential and important during the maintenance and construction stages. That program is used to control, check and test of activities due to the contract requirement and construction procedures. An effective quality control program will reduce the occurrence of building defects therefore maintenance work will be reduce accordingly. During the maintenance stages, the quality control program is essential to ensure that which component is required to maintain or might not need to maintain (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.3 Lack knowledge of maintenance strategy Improper maintenance strategy is caused by the designer or maintenance management team lack in knowledge of maintenance strategy. Improper using maintenance strategy might not be increase the cost of the particular work but it might be affected on the long-term durability of the building and the cost of maintenance (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.4 Unfamiliarity with local and site condition The designer should know the building location, type of plants, environment condition and insects existing around of the building. For example, if the designers realized that surround of the building have many plants and those plants might have termite or white-ants, it can be provide a suitable maintenance strategy to avoid termite attack. In addition, designer also should be familiar with buildings site condition such as soil condition. For example, poor soil condition might affect the building shrinking and causes the structural elements start cracking (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.5 Improper diagnosis The maintenance management team is failure to identify the main and true causes of the defect and it will affect the decision on decide the maintenance strategy. Besides that, improper diagnosis will affect the maintenance cost. This is because improper diagnosis will worsen the condition of the building therefore it is require a lot of maintenance or repair works to repair it (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.6 Life Cycle Cost (LCC) Life cycle cost (LCC) is the total relevant costs over the life of a system including cost of operation, maintenance, acquisition, disposal and modification for the purpose of making decision (Shear, 1993). LCC takes into account firstly and other costs (total cost of operation and maintenance of a system) over a buildings life. During the buildings life period, it helps in the determination of how the owners money distributed. Moreover, it was to determine of meeting a need of space with the most economic way. Besides that, it was also assisting in developing the most economic plan shape, structural form and internal layout. The greater saving and lowering the committed cost if LCC is applied earlier. LCC is used to identify which have the lowest total cost of design feature, components and finishing. And, it also identifies high cost areas and evaluates changes that will reduce these costs (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.7 Labour Unskilled labours such as foreign labour will failure to carry out the maintenance work and it is also will increasing the maintenance cost if they have not performing well in maintenance work. It is because they are lack in experience, knowledge and skills to perform well of the maintenance work. Therefore, employ a skilled labour is better than employ unskilled labour. Skilled labour will help to minimizing maintenance cost and improve the quality of work (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.8 Material selection Material selection in the early design stage also is the one of the factors will be influence the maintenance cost. Once the selection of materials is failure or select wrong materials it is required high maintenance cost to repair or replace the existing building components (Azlan Shah Ali, 2010). The selection of poor or bad quality of materials will cause failure of the materials and deterioration occurred in the building components, which will require replacement or more maintenance tasks in the future. To minimize future expenses during maintenance stage, selection of materials should be according to the performance specification requirements of the building (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.9 Misusing materials The misconception of using cheap materials will minimize or reduce the maintenance cost. Those cheap and bad quality materials will cause building deterioration, which will require more maintenance or repairs work to be carry out. It will be more costly to carry out the repair, replacement and maintenance work (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.10 Fluctuation of Material Prices The most common of factors that affecting the maintenance cost is fluctuation of material prices such as cement, steel bar and etc. it might be increasing the material prices and also decreasing the material prices but usually is increasing (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.11 Climate change Some of the building material will have chemical reaction when the climate was change. For example, acid rain wills accelerate the deterioration process of some building materials. Thus, there are some maintenance or remedial action need to be carry out (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.12 Unqualified Maintenance Contractor To ensure the maintenance work can be performing effectively, the well-experiences maintenance contractors are very important. A good maintenance contractor should be good in analyzing the maintenance cost and analyze which maintenance strategy is most economical way to carry out the maintenance work or which is the most suitable maintenance strategy can be using (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003).. Besides that, those of the unqualified maintenance contractor or operator are lack of training which could cause to poor operating and maintenance practices (Azlan Shah Ali, 2010). 2.4.13 Age of the building According to Skinner (1982), Slater (1982) and ONeill (1974), the age of the building or property also could be influencing the maintenance cost. When the age of a building increase, the maintenance cost also will increase accordingly. Some of the maintenance works such as replacement of new roof tiles, painting work, and other works are required to carry out because these maintenance works is to ensure the sustainability of building while the building age is increasing (Azlan Shah Ali, 2010). Besides that, the building components have their expected life, if the building components life is over than the expected life, it is better to demolish it or replace it. This is because the maintenance cost might be higher than the cost spending on demolished or replacement (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003).. 2.4.14 Poor management A good maintenance management can be an effective tool or equipment for achieving a high standard of maintenance work and it can reduce the maintenance works and costs. According to Horner et al. (1997), the maintenance management is required to reduce or minimize the repair works on building defect (Azlan-Shah Ali, 2010). Without maintenance management, it will lead to failure maintenance work, time consuming and cumbersome. Therefore, maintenance management is requiring formulating long term strategic plan to meet those needs. 2.4.15 Poor financial management The building owners are require to preparing the annual budgets which budgets is enough financial support for maintenance work. Without financial support for maintenance work required, maintenance works require to carry out will not be perform properly and building will not maintained properly (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.16 User neglected importance of maintenance work Building users are often misunderstanding that there is not their responsibility to keeping the building in good condition and facility therefore they are taking no action or neglected the maintenance work. As time passes, it will lead to the buildings start to deteriorate. Therefore, they require additional maintenance cost to carry out large repair or maintenance work to cope the deterioration of the building. Therefore, it is better that they are intention to carry out the maintenance work before the building is deteriorated (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.17 Misuse of building after construction is complete Some of building users or owners is misusing the buildings and its components in proper way after the building construction is completed. There are causing the building components are needs to repair and it is also would be costly for those repairs work (Jalal, 2003). In order to minimized this problem, the introducing of property operating manuals and regulation, and educating occupants and users are need to be carry out (Azlan-Shah Ali, 2010) 2.4.18 Behavior and attitude of users The bad attitudes of building users are often misusing the facility and services of the building and vandalism by building user will cause to damage and defects on building components. It would be costly to repair for those damages (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.4.19 Improper Maintenance Strategy Improper maintenance strategy also will be affected the cost of maintenance. For example, a building elements are require to using the preventive maintenance strategy but they are using corrective maintenance strategy therefore it is more costly to carry out the maintenance (Jalal A. Al-Khatam, 2003). 2.5 The types of Buildings Maintenance Strategies According to Chudley (1980, p.110), defines maintenance as any work undertaken in order to keep or restore every part of a building to an acceptable standard. The types of maintenance activities which are require achieving this objective. It can be categorized as planned and unplanned maintenance. Those of the maintenance strategies are provide options to decide which maintenance strategy will be decide to use, it should be make sure that those alternative decisions are available to management in maintaining a building. Besides that, it is also need to depend on the failure elements condition then decide a maintenance strategy to repair or replace it. During making decision to select maintenance strategy, it must be consider which maintenance strategy is more efficiency (Chudley, 1981). Figure 0 Types of Maintenance Source: (Abdul-Mohsen Al- Hammad, n.d) 2.5.1 Planned Maintenance is defined the planned maintenance is the maintenance work have been planned, organized and execute with forethought, control and the use of records to a predetermined plan (Abdul-Mohsen Al- Hammad, n.d). Besides that, planned maintenance can be used to overcome the disadvantages of corrective maintenance and emergency maintenance. It is commonly referred to the schedule system which is require consider time, cost and quality. Planned maintenance is including preventive maintenance. 2.5.1.1 Preventive Maintenance (PM) In this maintenance strategy, the building components, elements, facilities and services are subjected to a regular schedule of maintenance tasks, such as cleaning, inspections, adjustments, inspections, and others. The maintenance tasks are carried out at fixed intervals to reduce building deteriorated or to ensure the building is in good condition (RDH Building Enginerring Ltd, n.d). Besides that, the disadvantages of corrective maintenance can be overcome by preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance also will reduce the probability of occurrence of failure or defects and avoiding sudden failure. This maintenance strategy is referred to as time-based maintenance, planned maintenance or cyclic maintenance. Preventive maintenance tasks are performed in accordance with a predetermined plan at regular, fixed intervals, which may be based for example on operating time (IMSS Security Services, 2011). Preventive maintenance has various advantages over the corrective maintenance. The preventive maintenance tasks are providing several advantages, those are shown as below (Au Wai Hoe, 2008): The equipment will perform more efficiently. Preserve and prolong the life of the building. Reduce and avoid the occurrence of failure. Save potential energy and prevent energy will go to waste. The preventive maintenance cost is more economical than the corrective maintenance cost. The following are the disadvantages of preventive maintenance. Unnecessary task will be carried out even thought the building components are in good condition. The elements which are required remained in a safe and acceptable condition for long time; it will be carried out a large amount of unnecessary tasks. Very demanding in terms of spare parts and labour. Although the preventive maintenance work is carried out, failures are still likely to occur because it was human error during the implementation of the maintenance works. In addition, there are some of the advantages of preventive over corrective maintenance as shown as below: It will not make the building users inconvenient while execute maintenance work because maintenance can be planned ahead and performed when it is convenient to the users. Avoiding the cost of consequential damage can be reduced the maintenance cost. It can be minimized the downtime which is the time that an element of the building or whole of the building is out of services, so that the habitability of the building can be increased. Improved health and safety of the building users. 2.5.1.1.1 Condition-based maintenance This maintenance strategy work is performing in response to an acceptable deterioration in a unit as indicated by a change monitored parameter of the units condition or performance. The reason for carrying out the maintenance work is the condition of building elements has been change or deterioration, and the optimal time to execute maintenance works is determined by monitoring the actual state of the system, its performance or other condition parameters. Its concept recognizes that the main reason for carrying out maintenance is due to change in condition or performance of an item. Before a major failure occurs, to identify the element or equipments requires maintenance which is condition-based maintenance tasks. This maintenance tasks is planned by good monitoring to the buildings elements and service equipment. To make this strategy perform or works effectively, it is need to monitoring the condition of the building components or item. Those monitoring works is to identify whether there is any evidence of change from a normal to abnormal condition. This maintenance can be carried out by selecting the factor which can be best described the item and monitoring changes using suitable condition monitoring tools. Condition measurement can be change from a simple inspection or visual check to more advanced assessment by using variety of condition monitoring tools and techniques (IMSS Security Services, 2011). 2.5.2 Unplanned maintenance Unplanned maintenance works is executed without predetermined planning. In this strategy, the maintenance work is carried out after a failure has occurred (Abdul-Mohsen Al-Hammad n.d). The repair works of the unplanned maintenance is the restoration of an item to an acceptable state or level through replacing, renewing and mending damaged parts. Unplanned maintenance cost is more costly than planned maintenance cost. Besides that, unplanned maintenance includes corrective and emergency maintenance. 2.5.2.1 Corrective maintenance Corrective maintenance is the simplest types of maintenance strategy, where a building element is used until it cannot perform or breaks down. It covers all activities, including replacement, repair and renew of a building element that has failed to a point at which it cannot perform its required function or cannot carry out the services. This maintenance strategy is carried out the work after a failure or defects has occurred and intended to restore an item to an acceptable state to perform its required func

Flexible Manufacturing System Analysis

Flexible Manufacturing System Analysis Historyof Flexible Manufacturing Systems Introduction AFlexible Manufacturing System(FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is a certain degree offlexibilitythat allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. According toMaleki[1], flexibility is the speed at which a system can react to and accommodate change. To be considered flexible, the flexibility must exist during the entire life cycle of a product, from design to manufacturing to distribution. Flexible Manufacturing System is a computer-controlled system that can produce a variety of parts or products in any order, without the time-consuming task of changing machine setups. The flexibility being talked about is generally considered to fall into two categories, which both contain numerous subcategories[2]. The first category, Machine Flexibility, covers the systems ability to be changed to produce new product types, and ability to change the order of operations executed on a part. The second category is called Routing Flexibility, which consists of the ability to use multiple machinesto perform the same operation on a part, as well as the systems ability to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume, capacity, or capability. The main advantage of an FMS is its high flexibility in managing manufacturing resources like time and effort in order to manufacture a new product. The best application of an FMS is found in the production of small sets of products like those from amass production. FM systems are supposed to provide the manufacturer with efficient flexible machines that increase productivity and produce quality parts. However, FM systems are not the answer to all manufacturers problems. The level of flexibility is limited to the technological abilities of the FM systems. FM systems are being used all over the manufacturing world and though out industries. A basic knowledge of this kind of technology is very important because FM systems are involved in almost everything that you come in contact with in todays world. From the coffee maker to your remote control FM systems are used all over. History of Flexible Manufacturing Systems At the turn of the twentieth century, FMS did not exist. There was no pressing need for efficiency because the markets were national and there was no foreign competition.Manufacturers could tell the consumers what to buy. During that period, Henry Ford had been quoted as saying â€Å"People can order any colour of car as long as it is black.† All the power remained in the hands of the manufacturer and the consumers hardly had any choices. However, after the Second World War a new era in manufacturing was to come. The discovery of new materials and production techniques increased quality and productivity. The war led to the emergence of open foreign markets and new competition.The focus of the market shifted from manufacturer to consumer. According to Maleki, the first FM system was patented in 1965 by Theo Williamson who made numerically controlled equipment. Examples of numerically controlled equipment are like CNC lathes or mills whichKusiaksays are varying types of FM systems. During the 1970s, with the ever-growing developments in the field of technology, manufacturers started facing difficulties and hence, FM systems became main-stream in manufacturing to accommodate new changes whenever required. During the 1980s for the first time manufacturers had to take in consideration efficiency, quality, and flexibility to stay in business. According to Hoeffer, the change in manufacturing over time was due to several factors. (Hoeffer, 1986) Increased international competition, The need to reduce manufacturing cycle time, and Pressure to cut the production cost. Everyday new technologies are being developed and even FM systems are evolving. However, overtime FM systems have worked for many manufacturers and hence will be around for the time to come. The Process of Flexible Manufacturing Systems As has been discussed above the flexible manufacturing system can be broadly classified into two types, depending on the nature of flexibility present in the process, Machine Flexibility and Routing Flexibility FMS systems essentially comprise of three main systems.[3] The processing stations: These are essentially automated CNC machines. The automated material handling and storage system: These connect the work machines to optimize the flow of parts. Central control computer: This controls the movement of materials and machine flow. The FMS as a system stands out because it does not follow a fixed set of process steps. The process sequence changes according to requirement to allow maximum efficiency. Sequence of material flow from one tool to another is not fixed nor is the sequence of operations at each tool fixed. Key Features of the Process[4] Some characteristics that differentiate FMS from conventional manufacturing systems are their technical flexibility, i.e., the ability to quickly change mix, routing, and sequence of operations within the parts envelope and also complexity resulting from the integration, mechanization, and reprogrammable control of operations i.e., parts machining, material handling, and tool change. Some key features of the process are discussed below. Cell: It consists of several groupings of two or more automated machines within a company. Each grouping is called a cell. All the machines present are controlled by a computer. They are programmed to change quickly from one production run to another. A key feature is the automated flow of materials to the cell and the automated removal of the finish item. Several cells are linked together by means of an automated materials-handling system, and the flow of goods is controlled by a computer. In this manner a computer-integrated manufacturing process is initiated. Random bypass capability: The material handling system has a random bypass capability, i.e. a part can be moved from any tool in the interconnected system to another because the transport system can bypass any tool along the path, on demand. This implies: Each part can traverse a variable route through the system. Again, this flexibility in material handling, in combination with multipurpose tools, makes it possible for a flexible manufacturing system to process a great diversity of parts. Automation: Computers are the heart of automation. They provide the framework for the information systems which direct action and monitor feedback from machine activities. As FMS involve a wide variety of components, each with their own type of computer control, many of these computer components are installed as islands of automation, each with a computer control capable of monitoring and directing the action. Each of the computer controls has its own communication protocol based on the amount of data needed to control the component. Thus, the task of computer integration is to establish interfaces and information flow between a wide range of computer types and models. Computer software provides the ability to transmit timely and accurate status information and to utilize information which has been communicated from other computers in FMS. Component redundancy: In FMS as the equipment is highly integrated, the interruptions of one component affect other components. This results in a greater time to trace the problem when compared with isolated components. In some cases, the interruption might be due to some other integration effect, and greater downtime may result before the actual cause of the problem is found. In this situation, component redundancy provides flexibility with the opportunity for choice, which exists when there are at least two available options. Flexible manufacturing contains functionally equivalent machinery. So in case of failure of one machine the process flow is directed towards a functionally equivalent machine. Multiple Paths: A path in flexible manufacturing represents a part sequence and requisite fixtures to complete its required operations. In a conventional machine environment, only one path exists for a part because a single fixture remains at a single machine. However, this is not the case within flexible manufacturing systems, where there are multiple paths. The number of paths which are present within flexible manufacturing is a measure of the degree of flexibility. Obviously, the higher the number of paths, higher is the degree of flexibility. Flexibility ranks high in Japan†²s manufacturing strategy but not in America†²s. A true flexible factory will not only build different versions of the same car, like a coupà © or a station wagon, on the same production line, but also a completely different car. This is what the Japanese factories are setting out to do. The cost of one factory can be spread across five or ten cars. Apart from lower fixed cost, it is also less painful to stop making one of those cars if it fails to sell. FMS as a system of manufacturing process can be compared to other processes in terms of the product volume it generates and its capacity for creating part variations. The above depicts the position of FMS vis-à  -vis that of stand-alone machine and transfer lines. The horizontal axis represents production volume level and the vertical axis shows the variability of parts. Transfer lines are very efficient when producing parts at a large volume at high output rate, whereas stand-alone machines are ideally suited for variation in workplace configuration and low production rate. In terms of manufacturing efficiency and productivity, a gap exists between the high production rate transfer machines and the highly flexible machines. FMS, has been regarded as a viable solution to bridge the gap and as a gateway to the automated factory of the future. The Process: With Reference to particular companies[5] Though the features of this manufacturing innovation process are similar across all types of firms, the manner in which they are adopted and implemented depends on product type, manufacturing, maintenance, process planning and quality control processes. It is also contingent upon the people carrying out these processes; the productive resources being used and the organizational arrangements used to divide and coordinate the processes distinguished. The description of the layout of a company that has adopted the flexible manufacturing system gives a clear idea of how the system works in practical life. It has all the features as mentioned before of a typical FMS. Flexible Manufacturing System at The Hattersley Newman Hender (H.N.H.) This company, located in U.K. manufactures high and low pressure bodies and caps for water, gas and oil valves. These components require a total of 2750 parts for their manufacture. That is why they decided to go for the system of F.M.S. to fulfill their machining requirements in a single system. The process described below shows how FMS is used for efficient production for this company. Their FMS consists of primary and secondary facilities. The primary facilities include 5 universal machining centres and 2 special machining centres. The secondary facilities consist of tool settings and manual workstations. System layout and facilities: Flexible Manufacturing Systems [F.M.S] Primary facilities: Machining centres: The FMS contains two 5-axis horizontal ‘out-facing machines and five 4-axis machining centres under the host control. All the machines have a rotating pallet changer each with two pallet buffer stations. These stations transfer pallets to and from the transport system which consist of 8 automated guided vehicles. The 5 universal machining centres have 2 magazines with capacity of 40 tools in each magazine. The special purpose out-facing machines (OFM) each have one magazine having a capacity of 40 tools. The tool magazines can be loaded by sending instructions to the tool setting room either from the host computer or the machines numerical controller. Processing centres: The system contains two processing centres a wash machine and two manual workstations. Ø Wash machines: It contains two conveyor belts where one is for input and one for output of pallets, each with a capacity of three pallets to transfer the pallets. The wash booth has a capacity of three pallets. The pallets are washed in the booth and turned upside-down to drain out the water. Then they are dried with blown air. Ø Manual workstations (ring fitting area): The operator fits metal sealing rings into the valve bodies at the manual workstations. He receives work instructions via computer interface with the host. Secondary facilities: Auxiliary stations: Ø Load/unload stations: The FMS has four-piece-part load and unload stations. Loading and unloading is performed at these stations with the instructions again received via computer interface with the host. Ø Fixture-setting station: At these stations the fixtures are readjusted to accommodate different piece parts. Ø Administration of tools: Tools are assembled manually. The tool-setting machine checks the dimensional offsets of the tools and generates a bar code for further identification of the tool that has been set. Auxiliary facilities: Ø Transport system: The transport system consists of a controller and 8 automated guided vehicles (AGV). The system also contains an A.G.V. battery charging area. Ø Buffer stores: The FMS has 20 buffer stores in order to store the empty and loaded pallets while they are waiting to be taken to another transfer station (i.e. a load/unload station or a machine tool etc.). Ø Maintenance Area: This facility caters to pallets that may be damaged or need servicing or for storing scrapped piece-parts. Ø Raw Material Stores: These stores are located in front of the load / unload stations and are used to store the raw materials (like forged valve bodies etc). The store is served by two fork-lift-stacker cranes and motor roller conveyors. It has a capacity of 80 containers. Ø Fixture store: The fixtures that are not stored in FMS are stored here. It has a capacity of storing 120 fixtures. The store is served by a stacker crane and motor roller conveyors. Flexible Manufacturing System at TAMCAM Computer Aided Manufacturing (TAMCAM) Lab. This is an example of flexible manufacturing system that is used to describe the TAMCAM Simulation-Based Control System (TSCS)[6]. This system is located within the TAMCAM Computer Aided Manufacturing (TAMCAM) lab. The system consists of three CNC milling machines, one CNC turning centre, two industrial robots, and an automated cart based conveyor system. In addition to the automated equipment, human operators are used to load and unload some machines and perform assembly and inspection tasks. Advantages of Flexible Manufacturing System Why would firms embrace flexible manufacturing systems? What benefits does FMS provide? Answers to these two questions are important to the success of flexible manufacturing systems. It is important to understand the impacts on product life cycle, direct labour input and market characteristics. Various advantages arise from using flexible manufacturing systems.[7] Users of these systems enlist many benefits: * Less scrap * Fewer workstations * Quicker changes of tools, dies, and stamping machinery * Reduced downtime * Improved quality through better control over it * Reduced labour costs due to increase in labour productivity * Increase in machine efficiency * Reduced work-in-process inventories * Increased capacity * Increased production flexibility * Faster production * Lower- cost/unit * Increased system reliability * Adaptability to CAD/CAM operations Since savings from these benefits are sizeable, a plethora of examples from the manufacturing industry are available to illustrate these benefits. â€Å"A major Japanese manufacturer, by installing a flexible manufacturing system, has reduced the number of machines in one facility from 68 to 18, the number of employees from 215 to 12, space requirements from 103000 square feet to 30000 and processing time from 35 days to a 1.5 days† â€Å"Ford has poured $4,400,000 into overhauling its Torrence Avenue plant in Chicago, giving it flexible manufacturing capability. This will allow the factory to add new models in as little as two weeks instead of two months or longer. The flexible manufacturing systems used in five of Ford Motor Companys plants will yield a $2.5 billion savings. By the year 2010, Ford will have converted 80 percent of its plants to flexible manufacturing.† The benefits enlisted above are the operational benefits.[8] Flexible Manufacturing Systems also give rise to benefits in terms of strategy for the firm. Operational Benefits Strategic Benefits Lower Costs per unit A source of competitive advantage in present and future. Lesser workstations Less space in plant required. Reduced Inventories Less of Storage Space. Plant Layout gets simplified. The space is freed up for other activities. Increase in labour productivity Lesser workforce required. Operational Flexibility Ability to meet varying customer demands in terms of numbers (seasonality) and choices. Improved Quality Increased customer satisfaction Less inspection costs Lesser lead time Increased Machine Efficiency Less technical workforce for handling maintenance and repair Less Scrap and Rework Consistent Production Process On a macro level, these advantages reduce the risk of investing in the flexible manufacturing system as well as in ongoing projects in such a firm. Let us look at how flexibility helps firms. To maximize production for a given amount of gross capacity, one should minimize the interruptions due to machine breakdowns and the resource should be fully utilized. FMS permits the minimization of stations†² unavailability, and shorter repair times when stations fail. Preventive maintenance is done to reduce number of breakdowns. Maintenance is done during off hours. This helps to maximize production time. Cost of maintaining spare part inventories is also reduced due to the fact that similar equipment can share components. Hence we can see that higher the degree of flexibility of the workstation, the lower the potential cost of production capacity due to station unavailability. To make a product every day, the trade off between inventory cost and setup cost becomes important. However, each time the workstation changes its function, it incurs a set-up delay. Through flexibility one can reduce this set-up cost. [9] CAD/CAM aids in computerized tracking of work flow which is helpful in positioning inspection throughout the process. This helps to minimize the number of parts which require rework or which must be scrapped. FMS changes the outlook of inspection from a post-position to an in-process position. Hence, feedback is available in real time which improves quality and helps product to be within the tolerance level.[10] Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) are virtually always used in conjunction with just-in-time (JIT) order systems. This combination increases the throughput and reduces throughput time and the length of time required to turn materials into products. Flexible Manufacturing Systems have a made a huge impact on activity-based costing.[11] Using these systems helps firms to switch to process costing instead of job costing. This switching is made possible because of the reduced setup delays. With set-up time only a small fraction of previous levels, companies are able to move between products and jobs with about the same speed as if they were working in continuous, process type environment. To look at another aspect of strategic benefits, enterprise integration can be facilitated by FMS. An agile manufacturer is one who is the fastest to the market, operates with the lowest total cost and has the greatest ability to delight its customers. FMS is simply one way that manufacturers are able to achieve this agility.[12] This has also been reported in many studies that FMS makes the transition to agility faster and easier. Over time, FMS use creates a positive attitude towards quality. The quality management practices in organizations using FMS differs from those not using it. The adoption of flexible manufacturing confers advantages that are primarily based upon economies of scope. As a result of aiming simultaneously at flexibility, quality and efficiency, the future manufacturing industry will strive towards: producing to order, virtually no stock, very high quality levels, and high productivity. [13] Disadvantages of Flexible Manufacturing System[14] Now that we have looked at the multiple advantages flexible manufacturing systems offer, the next obvious question is, if they are so good and so useful then why are they not ubiquitous by now? It is essential to look at the other side, especially the impact these systems have on costing, product mixes decided by the company and the inevitable trade- off between production rates and flexibility. Following are the major disadvantages that have been observed Complexity These sophisticated manufacturing systems are extremely complex and involve a lot of substantial pre planning activity before the jobs are actually processed. A lot of detail has to go into the processing. Often users face technological problems of exact component positioning. Moreover, precise timing is necessary to process a component. Cost of equipment[15] Equipment for aflexiblemanufacturingsystem will usually initially be more expensive than traditional equipment and the prices normally run into millions of dollars. This cost is popularly known as the Risk of Installation. Maintenance costs are usually higher than traditional manufacturing systems because FMS employs intensive use of preventive maintenance, which by itself is very expensive to implement. Energy costs are likely to be higher despite more efficient use of energy. Increased machine utilization can result in faster deterioration of equipment, providing a shorter than average economic life. Also, personnel training costs may prove to be relatively high. Moreover there is the additional problem of selecting system size, hardware and software tailor made for the FMS. Cost of automation in the form of computer integration is the most significant cost in a flexible manufacturing system. The components require extensive computer control. Also, the costs of operation are high since a machine of this complexity requires equally skilled employees to work or run it. Adaptation Issues There is limited ability to adapt to changes in product or product mix. For example, machines are of limited capacity and the tooling necessary for products, even of the same family, is not always feasible in a given FMS. Moreover, one should keep in mind that these systems do not reduce variability, just enable more effective handling of the variability. Equipment Utilization Equipment utilization for flexible manufacturing systems is sometimes not as high as expected. Example, in USA, the average is ten types of parts per machine. Other latent problems may arise due to lack of technical literacy, management incompetence, and poor implementation of the FMS process. It is very important to differentiate between scenarios where FMS would be beneficial (ex, where fast adaptation is the key) and those where it wouldnt (ex where a firms competency is based on minimizing cost). Product/Job Costing[16] Arguably the biggest disadvantage of flexible manufacturing systems is the difficulty faced by the company in allocating overhead costs to jobs. Usually, several products share the same resources with different consumption characteristics. Ideally, the overhead allocation should be directly proportional to the resource consumption. But this becomes complicated in the case of flexible manufacturing systems since it is very difficult to estimate which product used which machine for which purpose and for how long. Often this leads to under costing of some products and consequently over costing of others. In systems that use FMS, usually the fixed costs are quite high due to the following reasons: * The machines are costly, material handling is more expensive and the computer controls are state of the art, thereby leading to a higher depreciation than seen in traditional manufacturing systems. * A lot of items which are otherwise usually treated as direct costs are counted under indirect costs in case of flexible manufacturing systems. For example, labour is normally attributed to the job directly done, but in FMS, the same workers work on machines that usually run two jobs simultaneously. Hence even labour costs are to be treated as overhead or indirect costs. * In order to ensure smooth running of the flexible manufacturing systems, a lot of support activities carried out by engineers and technicians. Keeping the above points in mind, we can infer that in order to cater to these scenarios, Activity Based Costing techniques are used with FMS to reduce distortion of product costs. FMS Adoption in Automobile Industry The Flexible manufacturing system has been adopted extensively in the manufacturing industry in this day and age. It addresses the issue of automation and process technology which is a key area for concern of manufacturing management along with inventory production planning and scheduling and quality. One industry which has extensively adopted this system is the Automobile Industry. Almost all global giants now follow the Flexible Manufacturing system and many have developed their own manufacturing system keeping FMS as an integral part of it. The Big Three of the American Automotive Industry namely General Motors, Ford Motors and Chrysler Motors enjoyed a monopolistic environment for a very long time. This in some way inhibited their innovation capabilities as there was no competition in the market which could drive them to innovate. These companies, therefore, maintained production facilities that were suitable for mass production of any single model, which ensured economies of scale and plant profitability. But gradually as Asian car makers gained prominence in the automotive market, the Big Three of the United States faced huge challenges across all product lines. The main Asian competitors that came into picture were Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi from Japan and Hyundai from South Korea. With these Asian countries exporting vehicles to the United States of America, competition heightened and the profitability of the Big Three decreased. To improve its profitability and maintain its market share Chrysler Corporat ion, General Motors and Ford Motor Company employed Flexible Manufacturing System in their production lines following what had been started in Japan. The essential driving force for adoption of FMS in Automobile industry is 1. The emphasis on increasing product variety and individualization has created a strong need to develop a flexible manufacturing system to respond to small batches of customer demand. 2. Cost savings were required to be more competitive. Newer varieties needed to be introduced in lesser time and at lesser cost. Given below are examples of some companies and their motive for adopting FMS as well as the benefits that they have achieved through it Japanese Companies and Latest FMS Toyota Toyota has been at the forefront of adopting flexible manufacturing system which has been in place since 1985. In 2002, Toyota unveiled its Global Body Line (GBL), a radical, company-wide overhaul of its already much-envied FMS.[17] The GBL process was developed so Toyota could implement a common vehicle-assembly â€Å"platform† at any and all of its worldwide assembly locations — regardless of volume or method of assembly. GBL helps Toyota to meet its goal â€Å"To seamlessly manufacture our products in any country, at any volume† The advantages that GBL delivers over the older FBL system of Toyota are * 30% reduction of the time a vehicle spends in the body shop. * 70% reduction in time required to complete a major model change. * 50% cut in the cost to add or switch models. * 50% reduction in initial investment. * 50% reduction in assembly line footprint. * 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions due to lower energy usage. * 50% cut in maintenance costs. More than 20 of Toyotas 24 worldwide body lines already have been converted, and the rest either are in the process of conversion or will be refitted for GBL in conjunction with upcoming model changes. Operations in Toyota Older Flexible Body Line (FBL) System : Each vehicle would require three pallets — each tightly gripping either a major bodyside assembly or the roof assembly and assuring its adherence to dimensional hard points — as the body panels travelled through the various stages of welding to the floorpan and to one another. Three pallets limited the number of vehicles that could be in the build sequence at any given time in some plants the number was 50. Also, the design of the pallets — which held the bodysides and roof panels from the outside — limited the access of welding robots and required a lot of floor space. Planners had to â€Å"guess† about how many pallets to build and work that guess into the plants vehicle mix (FBL-equipped plants could handle as many as five different models). Bad guesses about pallet allocation were very costly. Also, quick reaction to a change of production mix was discouraged by the 3-pallet system. Newer Global Body Line (GBL) System : GBL design solves those problems by replacing FBLs three pallets with a single pallet, one that now holds all three major body panels from the inside. This â€Å"master pallet,† layout eliminates the need for predicting initial pallet demand. Since each model or variant requires only the lone pallet, switching new models in or out of the production mix is a breeze. Thus the 70% reduction in time required to facilitate a model change[18]. GBL doubles the amount of floor space that can be occupied by robots, and, on a GBL tour here, every inch appears to be used. In the Georgetown plant of Toyota, the floor space freed by GBL allows a second GBL line — helping the plant achieve a recently announced capacity increase to 500,000 units. Highly advanced robots are central to leveraging the advantages of the GBL layout the system was designed to make the most of new-generation body shop robots that are smaller, more precise and more energy efficient. The number of robots has increased from about 250 to nearly 350. GBL system is enhanced by initial vehicle designs that ensure commonality for various hardpoints. This makes it easier to accommodate a variety of models: GBL-ready plants now can build as many as eight, rather than five with the FBL system. However even with the ability to produce eight different models, there is a limit to GBLs flexibility. Once pressed, engineers admit that not everything Toyota makes, from Vitz to Land Cruiser, can be produced on a single GBL line. There are two siz