Swift Courier Company | Analysis

Swift Courier Company | Analysis Introduction to the Company: SWIFT courier company is a reputed Parcel and Document courier company. Operating since 1989, it has offices in Oxford, Reading, Swindon and Newbury. It has grown exceptionally since its inception and now caters to the entire UK population. It also provides Logistics and Supply Chain Management solutions to some of the leading players in the business like DHL. It is also a preferred corporate partner with corporate giants like Herma UK Ltd., Epic data, Stryker UK Limited among others. SWIFT has tie ups with a number of global players, ensuring that its customers can also make international shipments (SWIFT Couriers, 2009). SWIFTs success hinges on its values of integrity, team work, customer centric business operation and providing a platform for people development. Services Portfolio: SWIFT provides three standard services both to the general public and corporate clients alike: Same day Parcel delivery and Courier Services: A premium service wherein shipments are collected and delivered across to any UK destination on the same day. Next Day Parcel Delivery and Courier Services: Shipments are collected and delivered to any location in the UK within one business days time. International Parcel Delivery, Courier and Freight Services: A high end service offering catering to international logistics demands. The company operates its own fleet of transport vehicles and also uses third party networks in service delivery. The firm is highly responsive to market trends and provides a fleet of vehicles for business operations. It has on its range Small courier Vans, Mercedes Vitos, Mercedes Luton Tail Lift, 4ft Arctic Lorries, Mercedes extended sprinters and 7.5 tonne lorries. It offers both branch and on line bookings. Customers can choose to place their orders at any of their 4 branches, over the phone or online through the companys website. It allows for the online baggage tracking and has a tie up with Prudential Insurance to provide lost baggage insurance to all its shipments. The company has an impressive pricing strategy and is one of the low cost service providers operating in the same day delivery market. It has secured numerous corporate partnerships and is now an official carrier for a large number of manufacturing firms, solely relying on its competitive pricing. Operations and its cycle: SWIFT has close to two thousand employees working in its operations department and another 400 providing supporting functions to the operations team. The companys Operations cycle can broadly be classified into four divisions: Sell: The marketing team is responsible for lead generation and execution of deals. For the Operations staff, this is the input for their functioning. Source: The purchasing department is concerned with the acquisition of the transport fleet and other equipment necessary to provide the service. The staffing function is outsourced to professional recruiters who provide the necessary human capital. Build: The operations staff is now concerned with the delivery of shipments. For domestic shipments, the operations team ensures the product delivery. For international destinations, the network management team works with third party operators to have the package delivered. Delivery: The online tracking system generates an automatic delivery confirmation to the customer. The Operations function starts with a delivery consignment being keyed into the companys ERP. Depending on the packages dimensions, its weight and the delivery timelines, the ERP routes the details to the respective teams. The tagged pick up team then picks up the package and transports it to the take away shuttle points. Various packages are then sorted at the shuttle point according to their destinations. Using the Mercedes Vitos, they are all routed to their base collection centres. The bases currently operating are Gatwick Airport- for international consignments, Lambeth for domestic same day deliveries and Oxford for domestic nest day deliveries. Air carrier fleet then transports these packages to the local distribution centres- Edinburgh for Scotland destinations, Cardiff for Whales and London for domestic. From these distribution facilities, the packages are finally routed to their respective destinations using a range of road carrier fleet. The Operation function ends when the recipient signs digitally on the collection barometers upon the receipt of the consignment. At Swift, Operations assumes the most critical of the business functionalities and is the organizations Bread Earner. It has a layered relationship with the other departments and works in tandem with them. The Operations Function consists of two teams- IT and Fieldwork. The IT team is the brain of the company and does all the calculations for finding the most effective route to deliver a package. It encompasses a strategic and an operational role. It literally details the specified route for each shipment and the fieldwork simply follows the channel to deliver the shipment. Company Vs. Market performance: The UK logistics services business has grown multi fold over the past decade. The market has seen over a hundred new entrants, a majority of them being successful global brands. The industry has seen a lot of players create a mark in the niche segments as well as a few firms like Fedex and UPS, spread their wings with diversified and customized offerings to all segments. In 2004, the industry has posted 7% growth rate, 10% in 2005,11% in 2006, 12% in 2007 and 9% in 2008. 2009 has been a dreaded year. The current economic downturn, coupled with the freezing consumer spending has contacted the market; diminishing its value by 15%. According to Highbeam Research Consultants, the UK courier market will grow to 127% by 2011. SWIFT has grown quite well in this lucrative market. The company, over the past two decades has been posting impressive growth rates each year. The company has posted a 15% growth in bottomlines in 2004, 13% in 2005, 16% in 2006, 5% in 2007. It has declared a negative growth of 5% in 2008 and 25% in 2009. Though the company has fared well for the better part of the last decade, it has been sluggish over the past two years. A recent survey conducted by the company on the cause of its declining market share has shown that customer dissatisfaction is the main reason for this dismal performance. Problem Identification: SWIFT runs its operations in traditional ways using very little automation and a lot of manual intervention. The scale of its business, currently, does not support complete automation as by firms like Fedex, UPS and DHL. This makes the functioning error prone. Numerous packages have been misplaced and delivered outside the timelines, resulting in a lot of customers looking for alternative operators. SWIFT has even lost 3 corporate clients over the last 3 years. A lot of these errors have been traced to the point of collections- the earliest part of the supply chain. Lack of clearly defined routing procedures mean that a package to be delivered to London could easily be mistagged to be delivered to Glasgow. The mistake could only be identified when the package has been delivered to the regional collection point in Edinburgh. It then has to be returned back to Lambeth from which it is finally routed to London. All this happens at huge unplanned costs for the company. Added to this, it leads to delays in shipping the consignment. In a tough and competitive market, customer dissatisfaction is aggravated and the customer starts looking at other carriers. According to the company sources, erroneous routing has cost the company over five hundred thousand pounds in 2009 and lost atleast 2000 customers from transacting again. A few mistakes have also been committed downstream, by the regional collection centres. They have been dysfunctional in identifying the most cost effective and quick modes of disseminating the shipments. As an instance, a package arrived at Lambeth for final destination to London is grouped with packages to be delivered to Cranfield. By the time the Trucks have delivered all the packages in Cranfield, only to see a last package to be delivered to London, a transit has to be made all the way from Cranfield to London for a single consignment. With the rising fuel prices, this can be very costly for the company. Analysing the business operation, it can be seen that a lot of efforts are being wasted in areas that make no contributions to service delivery. In other words, there is a high propotion of Non Value Add (NVA) pieces in its model. As an instance, two separate hubs- one as a collection hub and the other as a delivery hub, can be avoided. Problem Resolving: In times as dynamic as the current and in a market with cut throat competition, the business has to look at a mix of innovative and tested business techniques to reduce overhead expenditure and to ensure higher levels of customer satisfaction. We suggest the management to adopt the tried and tested Six Sigma concepts in Operations. Though this will involve a complete revamp of the functioning and some major decisions in Operations Strategy, the positive outcomes of successful implementation will overshadow the costs by a fair margin. Six Sigma: Six Sigma is an Operational concept, originated by the Motorolla Corporation of Japan and widely used across the services industries. The Six Sigma culture aims to achieve operational excellence by consistently writing off the errors. It aims to minimize variability is Business production. It preaches the provision and management of appropriate tools and techniques which ensure that the error tolerance is no more than one defect per million operations (DPMO). The term Six Sigma has its roots built around the concepts of probability. In this case, its the probability of a defect. Majority of the things in the common world have a probability which form a normal distribution. The normal distribution can be explained on two parameters: mean- the average of the expected values of the parameter and Standard deviation- variability(fatness of the curve). This can be measured by the distance between the mean and the perpectual closing points on either one of the sides. This distance is also popularly termed as Sigma. The term Six sigma emphasizes that if an organization has sophisticated working conditions which ensure that the lower and upper service levels (or the range of tolerance) is within six standard deviations on either side of the mean, the chances of a manufacturing defect are only 3.4 per every million operations. Suggested tools for implementation: SWIFT can implement Six Sigma across the length and breadth of its operations using two basic tools: Business Process Mapping and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). The scale of its operations do not, yet, suggest the use of more complex and sophisticated techniques like Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Process Capability Analysis for two reasons: High costs involved in the analysis. The medium scale operations of the firm will not provide the sufficient data for a more rigorous analysis. Business Process Mapping: Business Process Mapping refers to an activity involved in defining the exact functioning of a business. It aims is present, in clear and quantifiable terms, the objective of each business vertical, the steps to be followed in achieving the objective, the acceptable standards of the goods are services produced, the roles and the responsibilities of every person involved in the business functioning. It results in an illustration of the business functioning, usually through a flow chart. Services industries use two software packages for business stream mapping or business modeling as it is called in a few companies- Microsoft Visio and Casewise Business Modeller. We suggest the use of Visio because it is inexpensive. Casewise is amongst the most highly priced softwares and the scale of our operations do not justify its use. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA): FMEA is a procedure used in Operations management. It explores the potential failure within a business function with an aim to rate the severity of the failure, the probability of the occurrence of the failure and its effects. Failure modes are anything which originate the dysfunctionality within the business. Effects Analysis studies the effects of these failures on the business. The three principal parameters of an FMEA are : Occurrence, Detection and Severity. In an FMEA, all the Implementation: Implementation of Six Sigma on the job floor is a very important function. The effectiveness of the whole project depends on careful planning and implementation in a phased manner. We suggest the following technique be used in the structured implementation and effective absorption of the Six Sigma culture. Initialization The initialization phase is strategic in nature. Responsibility lies with the Senior management to initialize the Six Sigma thinking. The CEO/ Chairman understands the concept of Six Sigma and how its implementation influences the business core competencies and effectiveness. Upon the managements decision to proceed, an enterprise level delivery leader, having a direct line of sight and reporting to the CEO should be identified. A set of formal guidelines, policies and implementation plan have to documented by the identified leader, in consultation with Operations, Human Resouces, Finance and other support functions. Execution With the framework set, it is now turn to put the plan into action. The company has now to select domain experts from different functions and assign them to work full time on the project. Training is now crucial. Having identified the people who would be the as the quality team, experienced consultants have to hired to train them on the Six Sigma and Lean concepts. Initial projects should then be identified. These could be any major problems that the business is facing. The projects must clearly identify one or more of the organizational goals thereby contributing to the enterprises core competencies. The goals must be clearly defined and be practically achieved within three to four months. There has to be a continuous review of these projects by the senior management. Assessment As projects are deemed to be completed and additional ones taken up, objective vs benefits assessment is to be done. The phase serves as a control mechanism. This is to ensure that: Key constituents of the Six Sigma Initialization plan are being achieved within the predefined time lines. Identify and manage any variability between set goals and actual accomplishments. Six Sigma is all about continuos improvement (Kaizen) and continuos learning. An assessment is necessary to ensure the knowledge is being shared across the business verticals. Promote discipline and accountability. The assessment could be a formal illustration or a word based. A sample suggestion is provided below: Project Selection and Execution: Having looked at the organizational wide implementation, the next focus should be on the individual projects. We propose the use of DMAIC thinking. Define: Identify a suitable defect. Measure: Measure the impact of the defects. Analyze: Analyze the defects and identify solutions. Improve: Implement Improvement opportunities. Control: Set up a control mechanism to monitor the project.

Liberal Media Gone Too Far

Liberal Media Gone Too Far This article GOP Convention Exposes Bigotry and Hatred on Left, on investors. com posted on August 29, 2012, shows the ignorant statements of the media to stir the American people. Written by a Republican point of view, they are sick of all the media bashing they get from liberals. The Democrats use fear to get their fellow Democrats to follow them. There are more destructive ads on Facebook and news sites against Republicans than I have ever seen.The Democrats want everyone to focus on the negative ads and statements and scare people, so they won’t think about what bad shape this country is in today. The GOP wants us to know that they have the experience to run this country. The Democrats always pull the race and religious card whenever they don’t want the true facts to be known. The race card plays a significant role in the 2012 Democrat campaign. The race card was used excessively during the 2008 presidential election. Bill Clinton played t he race card in an attack on voter ID laws in his September 6th speech at the Democratic convention.He wants Democrats to believe the GOP doesn’t want any minorities, young, poor, and disable voters to vote. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. There have been so many democrats prosecuted over voters’ fraud from the 2011 elections, it just wasn’t believable. ACORN showed us all how easy it was to manipulate the system. Voters ID are important to maintain the integrity of our voter’s registration laws. When 74% of Americans favor having people an ID when they vote, including 65% of African Americans and 64% of Hispanics.Most voters believe showing ID, a necessity in our daily lives, is common sense. As long as the democrats continue to stir up racial fears and tensions, this problem of using the race card will continued. I hope the Americans people can see how reckless and irresponsible this practice is to our voter’s confidence in our el ection process. Mia Love was unfairly judged by the liberals in this article. For the liberals to label Mia Love as a â€Å"house nigger†, â€Å"dirty worthless whore† and an Aunt Tom, is very cruel and uneducated.She is a highly educated woman from Haitian immigrants, who is a Mormon running for Congress in Utah’s fourth district. If she wins, she would be the first black woman that Republicans have ever elected to Congress. Mia Love stands for physical discipline, limited government and personal responsibility. Liberals likes to bash the person and not the politics. Politicians use the religious card all the time. Liberals judge people by their appearance and what their background is, they will make an ugly comment about it instead of sticking with the issues.Mitt Romney believes in Mormonism and the liberals think he shouldn’t be running for president. Chris Matthews called Mormons â€Å"cultist†, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow tweete d that Mitt Romney should â€Å"stick that in our magic underwear† a remark referring to a Mormon religious practice. Again why don’t liberals worry about the issues instead of someone’s background? In the early 1960s, people thought that John F. Kennedy shouldn’t be running for president because he was a catholic and it turned out that he was elected president of the United States of America.Your faith is important no matter what party the candidate is with; his or her faith is a personal choice. This article opened by eyes to the importance of doing my own research on the candidates and issues instead of believing everything that I read. I believe that liberals think that all republicans are white men in the corporate world. That is a stereotypical view point of a liberal. People need to stop focusing on badmouthing each other and start thinking what it is going to take to make this country a stronger and safer country.

Using Reasons for Writing a Research Proposal

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The Divine Command Theory Of Morality Essay - 1946 Words

When reflecting on the diversity of the world and the people that surround us it’s difficult to understand how we all compromise with one another. Everyone desires different things in life, for some its happiness and shiny objects, for others its Gods approval and moral intuition. Those that aim towards happiness are said to be a part of theories of the good, were as those that are more in tuned to the subject of God or gods and morality are regarded as theories of morality. With this in mind, we will be shifting our focus on theories of morality, specifically relating to the divine command theory. In concerns to this theory there is a division that one must choose between deep moral convictions and Gods absolute moral authority. Throughout, this intellectual argument concerning the divine command theory; I will be arguing that this is in fact a plausible moral theory, based off an answer that many religious individuals take on and that is God’s role inbeing superior ov er all. The divine command theory states, if God commands you to do A, then it is your moral obligation to do A. In other words, what makes an action wrong depends on God’s authority to not do it and right based on the command that he said too, there is no other reason but that. We as humans are not like God, and therefore has formed an answer to things that have happen and the morality that has been inclined in society. This ultimately links the idea of religion and morality through religious belief and itsShow MoreRelatedDivine Command Theory : Morality And Moral Obligations1486 Words   |  6 Pagesframework, Divine Command Theory is the view that morality is dependent upon God, and that moral obligation depends on God’s commands. Therefore, Divine Command Theory claims that morality is ultimately based on the commands or character of God, and that the morally right action is the one that God command. The specific content of these divine commands varies according t o the particular religion and the particular views of the individual divine command theorist, but all versions of the theory hold inRead MoreMagistrates of Morality: How the Euthyphro Dilemma Cripples Divine Command Theory1654 Words   |  7 Pagesorder to live as a good, moral being. When a deity (or a group of deities) commands followers to abide by specific moral standards though a vehicle such as prophets, religious texts or otherwise, this is called Divine Command Theory (DCT). Those who accept this theory believe that moral action coincides with what has been ordered by the deities, and immoral action would occur when one deviates from these orders. Despite this theory remaining relevant into the twenty-first century, it has still yet toRead MoreReligion And Morality On The Hunt Of Finding The Author Of What We Know As Social Norms952 Words   |  4 PagesGod as Author of Morality There is always controversy around when we bring any topic related to religion to the table and it is not different when we talk about morality. This paper will explore the controversial side that plays religion and morality in the hunt of finding the author of what we know as social norms. In this philosophy paper, we will discuss the origin and evolution of the Divine Command Theory and we will analyze an objections against this theory cited by Plato (Atenas, 427 - 347Read MoreThe Doctrine Of The Divine Command Theory1237 Words   |  5 PagesThe Divine Command Theory dictates that â€Å"An act is morally required just because it is commanded by God, and immoral just because God forbids it (Shafer-Landau 65).† This view is often accepted by religious people as the basis for morality; the morality of an action is determined by whether or not it is commanded by God. However, there are multiple problems presented by this line of thinking. One of the most common arguments again st this theory is known as the Euthyphro Dilemma, derived from Plato’sRead MoreThe Divine Command Theory And The Doctrine Dilemma Essay1448 Words   |  6 PagesThe Divine Command Theory is the idea that morality is ingrained in the nature and command of God, and the Euthyphro Dilemma is one of the most common arguments refuting the Divine Command Theory. The argument was inspired by Plato’s Euthyphro dialogue, which contains the question â€Å"Are morally good acts willed by god because they are morally good? Or are morally good acts, morally good because they are willed by god?† (Euthyphro, 10a). This question raises large problems for the Divine Command TheoryRead MoreDivine Command Theory : An Ethical Theory828 Words   |  4 PagesDivine command theory is an ethical theory (metaethics) which asserts that an actions place as morally good, is corresponding to whether or not it is commanded by God. The theory states, roughly, that â€Å"The view that morali ty is somehow dependent upon God, and that moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s commands. Divine Command Theory includes the claim that morality is ultimately based on the commands or character of God, and that the morally right action is the one that God commands orRead MoreJohn O’Keefe. Net Id: Jjo85. Word Count: 1,369. All Actions1381 Words   |  6 Pagesunrestricted version of the divine command theory which is a moral theory based on God’s commands and their relation to morality. Does God command what is right or is what is right commanded by God? There exists a version of the divine command theory that avoids all the contradictions that can arise from the application of the Euthyphro dilemma to the unrestricted divine command theory, and that is what this paper will discuss. Before delving into this restricted version of the theory it is first necessaryRead MoreThe Divine Command Theory : Capital Punishment And Abortion Essay1128 Words   |  5 PagesThe Divine Command Theory is the assertion in ethics that an action is morally right if, and only if, it conforms to God’s will. This premise ties together morality and religion in a manner that seems expected, since it provides a solution to arguments about moral relativism and the objectivity of ethics. On the other hand, in Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates questions whether something is right because God commands it, or whether God commands it because it is right. The ethical implications of theRead MoreThe Doctrine Of Divine Command Theory Essay1665 Words   |  7 PagesDivine Command Theory â€Å"If God does not exist, then everything is permitted,† in other words, if there turns out to be no God then nothing is morally wrong. Someone who would believe a statement such as this one would most likely be in agreement with the Divine Command Theory---the reason being that the main claim in this theory is, all that is morally right, is right because God commands it so. Therefore in order to believe in the Divine Command Theory, one would need to be a strong believer inRead MoreThe Divine Command Theory And Euthyphro Problem Essay974 Words   |  4 PagesIn this paper, I will discuss about the Divine Command Theory and Euthyphro Problem and show how the Euthyphro Problem makes the Divine Command Theory morality arbitrary. Also, I will discuss why one does not have to reject the belief in God due to the Divine Command Theory cannot give a satisfactory answer to the Euthyphro Problem. First, I will define what the Divine Command Theory is and discuss its attractive features that answer the problem about the objectivity of ethnics. Second, I will define