Critically Review the Marketing And Corporate Communications Essay

Critically Review the Marketing And Corporate Communications Approaches Used By a Company Of Your Choice To Transmit Information - Essay Example Let us look at marketing and corporate communication approaches taken by Kenya Power Company to promote its image and to realize profit maximization. Kenya Power is a public utility company charged with the responsibility of retailing, supplying and transmitting electricity within Kenya. Marketing entails presenting, selling and advertising a product in the best way possible. The ultimate goal of the same is to build a good name and use the same to enhance improved and sustainable profits. On the other hand, corporate communication refers to a management function that controls and coordinates both internal and external communication with the core objective of maintaining a good reputation with stakeholders and all those the organization depends on (Cornelisen 2010, p.4.). From the definition, it is clear that marketing is closely related to corporate communications and are both meant to create and sustain a good image of an organization. The paper will critically review the marketing and corporate communication approaches that are used by the Kenya Power. To critically review is to carefully examine, express and explain disapprovals of something with the view of changing it if necessary. According to Cornelisen (2010, p.7), one of the approaches of corporate communications is the enhancement of corporate identity. Corporate identity is often coined in the mission and vision statements of an organization. ... This mission is designed to please the customers who are the consumers of the precious commodity, energy, from the Kenya power. This is a very good mission on papers but the question is, do the customers really have better lives, the answer is no since the Kenyan population still witness numerous power interruptions, electric faults causing fire outbreaks, and high prices that keep on escalating. This phenomenon is detrimental to the economic growth of the country and the company. The Kenya Power should have a mission that they live up to. The vision of this company is, â€Å"to provide a world class power that delights our customers.† This is a good desire but a lot still needs to be done to realize this vision and in so doing, customer satisfaction and quality service should be the core concern. Claywood ( 1997, p.8) states that â€Å"it is far less costly to keep a customer than to find a new one.† To find a new customer, an organization has to invest enormously in a dvertisement as an approach in marketing. Advertisement involves relaying persuasive information with the aim of luring customers to use a product. Advertisement is very critical in the expansion, sustainability and fair competition of any company. It involves the use of media outlets like television, radio, print media and billboards among others. To be able to compete fairly with other businesses, good strategies and far reaching advertisement is core. Kenya Power is a public utility company that enjoys monopoly of transmitting and distributing electricity in Kenya. This is why it has not been very aggressive in advertisement, for example, a serious issue like power

Theory and Research in Contemporary Consumer Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Theory and Research in Contemporary Consumer Behaviour Essay Abstract Over the past century, each new generation has entered a new consumer world where the forms and avenues for consumption have multiplied exponentially. The twenty first century saw rapid and dramatic changes in the realms of private and public life that became subject to commodification and marketing. Although the culture of consumption has been written about extensively, the breadth and complexity of consumption within contemporary industrialized societies has not yet seen much attention, particularly among anthropologists. In looking at the consumer lives of Hip Hop subculture, this work aims not only to explore and illustrate the ways in which contemporary commodity consumption is internally differentiated, but also to highlight â€Å"an aspect of contemporary consumption that often has been overlooked: its role as a medium through which social inequalities—most notably of race, class, and gender—are formed, experienced, imposed, and resisted† (Carrier and Heyman 30). Introduction Chicago sociologists of the 1930s began to study subcultural groups in the USA as if they were studying the indigenous tribes of isolated islands. This became known as streetcorner sociology as it studied the deviant subcultures of America (Downes and Rock, 36). Ethnography is an approach to research that is often associated with cultural anthropology. This study has often been conducted over a long period of time so that researchers can gain a truly insider perspective. Management and marketing researchers have also adapted ethnographic approaches to use in shorter periods of research. Ethnographic principles have been used to study consumers and consumption in order to better understand the effects and implications of strategic marketing management actions (Clarke 1999). For example, Elliott and Jankel-Elliott (2002) have used ethnography in strategic consumer research for many global brands, while Morris (1999) studied the culture of the British pub. Ritson and Elliott (1999) used ethnographic principles to research the social uses of advertising among UK adolescent advertising audiences. Belk (1995) explored the subculture of hip-hop music. He was particularly interested in the clothes associated with hip-pop and how manufacturers gained access to the group. In management and marketing research, the applied tradition of ethnography is often reflected in the problem-focused nature of much research. Ethnography is used as a tool to help in the design of management interventions and processes. Social and cultural life is created by people through symbolic interaction. Focus on local shared meanings and the reproduction of cultural norms. This research study into a hip-hop consumption practice began with a thorough investigation of secondary sources. The research then progressed to a first-hand engagement with the contexts of consumption. In an attempt to convey something of the meanings, motivations and experiential understanding of hip-hop consumer behaviour, the research creates an imaginative representation of the social life in question. This research study involves, first, gaining as much insider knowledge as possible about the subject in question. The pervasive theme of this work is that the consumer sphere, by its very nature, is a medium for social inequality. The next section lays the groundwork for understanding the particular complexities of hip-hop consumer engagement. The following analytical section locates the hip-hop consumer experience, looks at contemporary media depictions of hip-hop youth as out of control and dangerous â€Å"combat consumers.† This analysis insists that any understanding of hip-hop consumption must be understood in its specific cultural, historical, and political context, one that engages with centuries-old incidents like slavery, as well as symbolic representations of hip-hop consumer in the contemporary consumer world. Discussion In the post-modern world of consuming passions (Huffman 25) there are a number of dynamics that are rightly the concern of cultural criminology. First there is the process of the commodification of everyday life, including crime and violence. Second there is the absolute necessity for the legal or illegal consumption of commodities for the reproduction of both the economic system and our social selves. Commodities themselves appear, as Marx (1977:435) commented, a very trivial thing and easily understood†¦it is in reality a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties. However the relationship between the production and commodification process, and the distribution and consumption process, takes on a supreme significance in late modernity. In a culture in which the supreme goal is to have†¦and to have more and more†¦and in which one can speak of someone as being worth a million dollars, how can there be an alternative between having and being? On the contrary, it would seem that the very essence of being is having; that if one has nothing, one is nothing (Fromm 3). It is worth quoting Erich Fromm further on contemporary capitalism as he unravels the connections between violent acts, crime and consumption. It means: that I want everything for myself; that possessing, not sharing, gives me pleasure; that I must become greedy because if my aim is having, I am more the more I have; that I must feel antagonistic toward all others: my customers whom I want to deceive, my competitors whom I want to destroy, my workers whom I want to exploit. I can never be satisfied because there is no end to my wishes; I must be envious of those who have more and afraid of those who have less. But I have to repress all these feelings in order to represent myself as the smiling, rational, sincere, kind human being everybody pretends to be†¦ Greed and peace preclude each other (Fromm 8). Here individualism, greed, destruction, dishonesty, fear and violence are woven, through the processes of production and consumption, inevitably into all our everyday lives. Now crime, in the form of a commodity, enables us all to consume without cost as we enjoy the excitement, and the emotions of hate, rage and love that crime often contains. As everyday life becomes less and less interesting, so it also becomes less and less bearable and there is felt a general desire for daily excitement that becomes an essential ingredient in a consumer commodity culture (Clarke, 16). Excitement is now created for consumption in a multitude of manners such as bungee jumping, spectacular rides, ballooning, theme parks and carnivals, all aimed at the commodification of excitement. All these need to be bought at the market rate. The experience of excitement can also be attained by a large range of criminal activities. Bank fraud and theft, joyriding, manipulating the stock market, all contain the thrills and spills of edge-work. In a society that demands excitement and desire in order to keep the momentum of the marketplace, we can expect the problems associated with the quest for excitement to become both enduring and extensive. The general collective yearn is now for spectacle and experience as we become consumers of imagery. As such we have lost our capacity for astonishment, wonder and curiosity in a world that no longer moves us in an emotional way. There is a high fantasy factor within emotional life and existence that creates the need for immediate satisfaction which in turn becomes the driving force of violence. In this world the desire for excitement can, for some, only be satisfied through senseless acts of violence and destruction. In this way the images we consume become devoid of context and become infantile and immediate. As Schopenhauer points out, this outlook is like the childish delusion that books, like eggs, must be enjoyed when they are fresh (Schopenhauer, 1470). In this world based on sensations and emotions the individual is revered and nurtured. It is a Disney-like world based on the immediacy of and need for fun and pleasure. In everyday life and education in particular, there is an emphasis on morale rather than morality. Here institutions strive to achieve activity without pain. Learning must be fun; poverty must be fun; housework must be fun; and as in Clockwork Orange and even Wind in the Willows (where Toad steals a car and partakes in what must be the first literary joyride) violence, crime and disorder must be fun. The violence demonstrates the closeness that the stars of rap and hip-hop have with the community that they come from. They are in a sense still part of that struggle for both survival and the maintenance of whatever success they have achieved. It is a precarious position for all young people from these communities where nothingness waits just round the corner, where acceptance and success are transient and culturally ephemeral, disappearing as quickly as they arrive. Along with clubbing and rave, rap completes the criminalisation of youth styles and creative culture that ensures that the continuing carnivalisation of everyday life will remain the major experience of being young. There is here a strange tension between the rationality (organisation) demanded by production and consumption and the irrationality of senseless consumption needed to reproduce the cycle. As science and rational liberalism attempt to order everyday life and meaning-making, so irrationality is banished to the act of consumption, as irrational acts themselves become commodified, acting as a bridge to the displaced world of the upside down. It is part of the consuming of displays, displays of consuming, consuming of displays of consuming, consuming of signs and signs of consuming (Lefebvre, 108). The endless, senseless and irrational appears a necessary ingredient of contemporary life as we strive through consumption to push back the ordering of rationality and return once more to the comfort of anarchy, disorder and irrationality. Violence itself is not to do with a rational approach to life but is connected to the personal gratification gleaned from the excitement of the superiority of winning. The consumption of crime becomes a blissful state of non-responsibility, a sort of never-ending moral holiday where we can enjoy in private immoral acts and emotions. It is the political and economic realities of life outside of polite society that are reflected in rap as it analyses and celebrates the otherness of poverty and struggle. It celebrates the cultural answer to ascribed social position and economic survival, which includes the legal and illegal acquisition of wealth, the struggle not just for work but the struggle at work. It reflects oppression both through education and through policing and the struggle for respect in life. It not only emphasises suffering but is also a celebration of leisure time as the time free from the industrial processes of production. And it is in the street where others darent go that hip-hop and rap culture is lived and comes to life. The aim is to be street-wise, to survive with dignity and respect amongst your own, without selling out. In the roll-call of rap stars, their names and song titles reflect not only their clashes with the law but also the violence involved in living a life of struggle and the maleness of the culture, although female rappers and DJs have large followings as well and reflect their own struggle for survival. To give some examples, there was the shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in September 1996 followed by Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G.), shot at the age of 24 in a rap war on 8 March 1997 not long after his last album Life after Death and its ironic track Youre Nobody Til Somebody Kills You. Ninjaman was imprisoned in Jamaica charged with murder, reflecting his raps Murder Dem and Murder Weapon. Frances best-known rappers, Kool Shen and Joey Starr, were jailed in 1996 for 6 months for anti-police lyrics Piss on the brainless police machine from the Nique ta Mà ¨re (Fuck your Mother) concert. Then Frankie Tah of the Lost Boyz was shot dead on 29 March 1999. In April 1999 Sean Puffy Combs was arrested for beating up an employee of Interscope Records and later also arrested for the possession of weapons. Consumption of the irrational remains an important connecting bridge to pre-productive life. Here the marketplace and the process of hip-hop consumption take on an extraordinarily important role in the creation of self and identity. Now in the ever-expanding realm of commodification and consumption, acts of hurt and humiliation, death and destruction, all become inextricably woven into processes of pleasure, fun and performance. We all participate in the creation of crime as we consume the filming of the carnival of the chase, becoming part of the process of production of real crime and real violence. It is not just the criminals but also the police, the public and the media who all play a part (Clarke 15). If hip-hop young people dont steal cars there can be no chase. If the police dont chase there is no event. If the event is not filmed there can be no product. If the product is not communicated there can be no distribution. If we dont watch there is no consumption and the process of production distribution and consumption is incomplete. Shopping is infused with racism; going to the corner store is at once an adventure in independence and a trial where the temptations and dangers of the drug economy must be negotiated; Barbie dolls are representatives of a world both foreign and hostile. In recognizing that these childrens consumer lives are shaped by the same forces of social inequality evident in their neighbourhood, educations, and even their life chances, my aim has been to highlight consumer culture as a terrain in which questions of social justice loom large. The deprivations experienced by children like those in hip-hop subculture are deep and lasting and perhaps all the more poignant because they take place in such close proximity to wealth and comfort. More than a depoliticized cultural space in which people may choose to purchase or try on identities, fantasies, and styles, consumer culture is a medium through which multiple oppressions are brought to bear on peoples lives in enduring and intimate ways. While white kids (among others) might debate the assertion that â€Å"they have everything, † the important point made by this man is that people value the things they own, whether these are sneakers or Porsches. Consumer lives are not simply expressions of individual desire. These lives cannot be understood apart from such processes as urban renewal, deindustrialization, the drug economy, informal segregation, and public transportation, since these are the processes that have been critical in shaping the consumption horizons of the hip-hop community. The ethnography of consumption, then, needs to take into account more than the interactions between individuals and particular commodities, the specific moment of purchase, the malls and stores where shopping takes place. This is in part because consumption activities cannot be seen as being limited to these relatively obvious encounters; consumption begins well outside of the store and continues well after a given purchase has been made. Any particular act of consumption is a moment—a snapshot—taken at the confluence of complex social, political, and historical streams. Understanding these moments requires thinking about what is taking place within the relatively arbitrary frame as a prelude to investigation into the breadth of factors that brought that moment into being. Hip-hop childrens reasons for seeking out particular items and their capacity for â€Å"spending my money wisely† are socially rooted in attempts to please caretakers, efforts to avoid the disappointment or anger of parents, the desire to share with siblings, and anticipation of the pleasures of giftgiving. These relationships, in turn, are shaped by the straitened economic circumstances of these families, circumstances ensuring that consumption is often for these children not a realm of unbridled fantasy, but rather one where fantasies must be reined in. This is not to say that questions of fashion or style, fad and fancy have no place in childrens consumption. Such status items as Cross-Colours clothes and Nike sneakers were without doubt consistent objects of intense desire and scrutiny, coveted by some or lovingly cared for by others. Conclusion This work has cantered its attention on the ways in which consumption is implicated in the exercise of oppression and in responses to such oppression. Because much of the oppression operative in the consumer sphere is symbolic, much of this work has been generated in tension with discussion about the consumption of the hip-hop subculture. This work conducted analysis of consumption under the production of images of hip-hop pathological consumption, for instance, that such oppression is operative at both the symbolic and material levels, both of which have real and telling effects on peoples lives. Such images and portrayals are an important element in the politics of consumption, a politics that portrays the consumption of the poor as being, on the one hand, problematic because they do not want enough and, on the other, dangerous because they want too much. Tales of constrained consumption are often used as examples to show why the poor cannot get ahead, and a lack of consumer desire is often seen as preventing the poor from attaining middle-class status. Rather than not wanting enough, these poor people want too much. In this vein, terms like compensatory consumption surface with regularity. The beauty of this discourse is that whether consuming too little or too much, the supposed consumer orientation of the poor explains their poverty. In hip-hop and rap there is no need for special legislation to control and criminalise both music and culture, since the way of life that is talked of, that makes up the story of the lives of the performers in a musical and rhythmic form, is already criminalised. Indeed what better way of saying the unsayable, of stating the illegal in a legal form, than bringing the reactions of those in poverty and those from minority groups forward through the carnivalesque qualities of hip-hop and rap. Because consumption is at its root a social process, it is enmeshed with the full range of social action from positive, altruistic expressions to destructive and violent outbursts. The realm of consumption offers ample space for people to find profound meaning in their worlds and existence, to integrate (rather than fragment) a sense of self, and to utter or to perform commentaries about what they see and feel in daily living. Children in hip-hop culture often turned the consumer sphere to their own expressive and prosocial purposes, using shopping as a way to create connections to their family and friends, as a sphere of creative play, or a realm in which they could construct critical assessments of the world around them. The consumer lives of these children show the complex ways in which forces of ideology, hegemony, and power can be bent—if only temporarily—into the contours of a particular life.    References    Belk, Russell. (1995). â€Å"Studies in the New Consumer Behaviour.† Acknowledging Consumption, ed. Daniel Miller. New York: Routledge. Carrier, James G., and Josiah McC. Heyman. (1997). â€Å"Consumption and Political Economy.† journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3, no. 2: 355–73. Clarke, David B. (1999). The Consumer Society and the Postmodern City. Routledge: New York. Elliott, R. and Jankel-Elliott, N. (2002). â€Å"Using ethnography in strategic consumer research†, Qualitative Market Research: An international journal. Fromm, Erich (1976) To Have or To Be? New York: Harper Row. Huffman, Cynthia. (2000). The Why of Consumption: Contemporary Perspectives on Consumer Motives, Goals and Desires. Routledge: London. Marx, Karl (1977). Karl Marx: Selected Writings, ed. D. McLelland, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Morris B. (1999). Consumer Value: A Framework for Analysis and Research. Routledge: London. Schopenhauer, A. (1969) On the Basis of Morality, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Components Of Material Management Construction Essay

Components Of Material Management Construction Essay The decision to purchase starts with the decision to build or to produce depending on the type of product an organization produces. The construction industrys product is a tangible structure that can either be residential house, school, hospital, office building, recreation center, sport complex, or roads, bridges, dams, sewers, railways, airport runways, pipe lines, etc. To produce the end result of the effort to construct, different resources are required by an organization. These resources are manpower, money, machineries, and most importantly material. It is estimated that 60-70 percent of a project direct costs accounts for material cost. Therefore material procurement is an important aspect of every construction work, and worth planning earlier when the decision to construct starts. Planning material procurement starts with identifying and estimating the amount of materials needed, evaluating the availability of the material in market, selecting the reliable source for obtainin g the material, and answering questions on the problem of transportation and storage of the material on site throughout the construction period of the project. This is to avoid unwanted or extra cost incurred as a result of poor material management process. Material management function starts from office where likely constraints associated with every type of resource needed to build the prospective project can be sorted out. It further extends to construction site where practical implementation of the plans and schedules developed during the initial planning stage of the material procurement is needed. Construction site layout of temporary facilities such as office, staff canteen, security shed, material stores, position of crane, and temporary walkways largely affects the movement of workers and material delivery vehicles. And the proposed position of permanent structures within the project site cannot be affected because of temporary facilities. This put a challenge on the project manager who must study the activities likely to happen on site and provide solution to anticipated risk and inconveniences that arises due to poor arrangement of site temporary facilities. With careful positioning of temporary site facilities, material deliv ery can be easier, accident can be minimized, access to material of work can be faster and ultimately the speed of construction process can be increased. 2.0 Literature review on material management The procurement of material of work is the reason for which an organization should maintain a competent material procurement department. The primary function of this department is to plan the quantities of the materials needed at a particular time, identify the source of purchasing the materials and initiate the process, planning of inventory and control, ensures quality control measures are taken, and maintain a steady flow of material to avoid shortage during the construction period. Other function of the department includes coding and classification of material, maintaining good record of the movement of material right from delivery to storage and use, and observing the current trends in purchase system and market availability of construction materials. 2.1 Components of Material Management Contractors are bound to cut expenditures and make even more profit if adequate attention is given to material and equipment planning, scheduling and control. Therefore profitable contracting requires sound material management. It is found that bout 60-70 percent of a project direct cost is incurred on material and equipment. Construction projects are undertaken to finish within a specific time, cost, and quality. To this end number of people, material, machineries and equipment are needed collectively to tackle the individual activities that together make up the whole project. Although projects are classified into two; Infrastructure and Building projects both requires a common resource depending on the size and complexity of the project. On a large building project such as multi-storey building as well as highways construction, the typified equipment used are machine excavators, heavy bull dozer and number of trucks for carting away surplus excavated material, and transporting aggr egates, cement, blocks, reinforcement bars, timber, etc. to the project site. Other materials used in building type project are sanitary appliances, surface finishes such as marble, granite, ceramic tiles, plaster board, paints, etc. Material management is composed of series of activities that must be collectively identified, planned, organized, implemented, and monitored and controlled. These are:- Purchasing Handling and Transportation Receiving and Inspection Storage and Warehousing. Purchasing: When the need for material arises, the material procurement or purchasing department makes an inventory of the material, sometimes refer to as Material Indent and send to the selected supplier. This is termed as Purchase order/ Material Enquiry. Initially, the suppliers quotation had been received and reviewed by the purchasing department. It is also the sole responsibility of the department to negotiate price with suppliers and select the most reliable one in terms of quality of product, delivery time, and lowest purchase cost. Upon receiving purchase order from the contractor, the supplier makes available all the materials in the correct quantity and quality before transporting to the contractor who receives the goods in his own store. The materials supplied to the contractor are often accompanied by consignment notes indicating the types and quantity of the material loaded, and usually this happen within a short time having confirming before placing the order that the materials needed are available in the suppliers store. However in some cases, the contractor has to follow up order especially if time is against the project. This is known as Expediting by Contractor. Expediting can be done through phone calls, email, fax or any means of communication available. Material Handling and Transportation: Difficulties can be encountered with handling and transporting materials to the project site especially large fragile materials such as interior glass partitions. Handling materials should start from the point of uploading onto transporting vehicle through maneuvering of the vehicle around busy area to have to reach the project site, and downloading and storage. It further extends to proper positioning in the store till the period when the material can be incorporated into structure or component. Material handling and transportation procedures are not limited to fragile items only. Long and heavy materials such as steel column, galvanized steel angle iron for steel trusses, reinforcement bars, precast concrete components, bricks/blocks and cement bags are almost first line items needed onsite, and deserves careful handling both offsite and onsite. Some materials applicable to a particular trade may be required at a time when other trades are busy working. For example aggregates can arrive at the project site when steel fixers/iron benders are fabricating reinforcement bars. And the truck may have to pass across the iron workers before reaching the designated point of delivery. To avoid such an incident, the planners should take consideration of all materials likely to be required within the time other trade workers are working. This ensures smooth interaction between workers of different professionalism onsite. Receiving and Inspection: Different types of materials of work are being delivered on site prior to construction work begin or as the work proceeds. Some materials are fragile such as glass panel, asbestos, ceiling board, wooden and plastic door panels etc. while others are of metallic or aluminum nature e.g. door and window frames, steel columns, reinforcement bars, burglar proof etc. Other materials that are directly tipped onsite include aggregates, bricks/blocks, and cement. Whatever type of material needed onsite must be received and ascertained by site manager or the clerk of work upon arrival of delivery. Materials are prone to breakage and or damage in the cause of transportation. Similarly shortage can occur mistakenly as materials are being uploaded from the suppliers store. However, as a precaution to ensure quality control, proper record of the number of materials received and inspection of their qualities is necessary. This ensures security of expenditure since shortage and broken items are necessarily wastage. Efficient material record also documents the material movement in and out of store for use. It shows the material destination from the store including date and signature of the receiving person e.g. masonry foreman. Three important documents received by the store officer are copy of purchase order from the purchasing department, suppliers advice document, and consignment notes. This enables the store officer to organize and plan for clearances of material. Where materials received are from internal divisions e.g. from contractors central store to the site store the document involved are usually Material transfer and Return to store Notes. Storage and Warehousing: Competent and experience staffing is needed to perform the activities of storing materials. Although aggregate materials may not require warehousing, some materials such as sanitary appliances, glass panels, door and window frames, electrical equipment such as air conditions, ceiling fans, room heaters, water heaters, and interior finishing materials such as floor tiles, wall tiles, carpets and rugs etc. requires storage within an enclosed storeroom to safeguard the material against loss, theft or pilferage, damage, etc. Nevertheless, in some cases material deterioration may occur in the cause of keeping materials in store. For example heavy materials placed over a fragile material can result to breakage. Therefore a designated operation of store personnel that takes into account downloading deliverables, good positioning and proper arrangement in the store should be maintained. Also good storage practice ensures that materials to be used early are kept close r to the store entrance for ease of access to the material in order to avoid displacing other materials before reaching the needed item. And frequent rotation of materials around storeroom should be avoided as it leads to breakage or damage of materials. 2.2 Objectives of Material Management The goal of operating any business entity is to make profit over the goods or services it offers. In this respect, construction business is not an exception. The goal of the investment made on plants and machineries, expenditure on material of work and payment of staff and lobour wages is to make a reasonable profit at the end of every project work. At the inception of every project work, there is gradual absorption in the use of materials to form components. The components makes up a structure and the structure makes up the whole building. However the total quantity of all the materials needed to build a project must not be obtained at hand before work starts, rather the materials will be supplied daily or periodically as scheduled by the project management team. This requires efficient planning of inventories, effective buying and purchasing strategy, good storage and inventory control, timely supply and distribution of materials, and maintaining the harmonious relationship between the supplier and the customer. 2.3 Function of Material Management The function of material management can be divided broadly into primary and secondary functions. Primarily it aims at planning material of work required, purchasing which includes selecting the reliable supplier, ensuring the availability of material at the designated point, and ascertaining and maintaining the steady flow in material supply. The secondary function has to do with proper recording of material through coding and classifications of the materials to ensure proper record are kept both for receiving and using of material. The other secondary functions of the material management deals with the assessment of difficulties in handling and transportation of the material. This challenges the project management team with need to adopt systematic implementation of their plans at all level of the management organization. Ultimately it requires strict monitoring and control. 2.4 Problem of Material Management There are number of problem associated with material management. The problems may be associated with structure of an organization, storage space requirement, delivery problem, lack of security, market availability of materials, legislation etc. These problems are examined in details below: Organization Structure: Good organization structure that properly defines roles and responsibility of the individuals at all level is likely to support material management purpose. The coordination and communication between estimating department, research and development department, purchasing department, and plant and machineries department should be maintained at highest level. Where there is poor coordination and communication, internal memo/notes cannot reach an intended destination. For example when there is plant breakdown e.g. excavator is not working due to mechanical problem and the plant and machineries department did not alert engineering department about the problem until the time when soil excavation is needed. Or quantity of materials such as cement is low in the store without informing the purchasing department by the store officer. Storage Space: Large number of materials is required depending on the magnitude of the project. And the term storage space implies both enclosed and open space that can be used to keep materials of work safe until the need for it arise. All materials need protection against many threats such as pilferage, theft, damage or loss. Material such as aggregates, bricks/blocks may not require enclosed storage protection than proper outdoor positioning and stacking. However, other materials such as reinforcement bars, steel columns, timber, and galvanized steel for trusses must be protected against contact with water in order to avoid rust/corrosion. The size of proposed building may occupy 60% of the total project site, enabling the remaining 40% to be used for temporary access and site facilities. In such case, the planners must arrange for periodic delivery of certain materials to avoid cluttering the space, and maintain constant operation to keep the surrounding area clean. Problem of Delivery: Not withstanding material order is placed early, a situation exist in which material can not arrive on time. This may be due to a problem on the side of the supplier. And certain specialized materials may not be available within the proximity of the construction site. The material must be transported possibly from another city e.g. hot rolled or cold rolled materials. Eventually worker must be left redundant and time is being wasted. Security Problem: Security of materials onsite is of paramount importance. Gradual pilferage and theft are issues of concern to the project managers. Loss of materials through pilferage and theft represent financial lost to the project as a whole, and in the end it increases the cost of the project. Materials are prone to be stolen despite being in store. And some materials as earlier mentioned may not require indoor storage. Therefore, a well designated vigilante must be maintained 24 hours onsite. Availability of Materials on Market: Steady flow of materials throughout project duration is among the primary function of material management. However, this can be affected by market availability of the material of work. Occasionally manufacturers can run out of raw material or be affected by government policy to the extent that production may have to be slow or suspended. Unavailability of materials of work on market can affect material management by either increasing competition in material purchase or delay the general work progress. Legislation: Domestic manufactures are not likely capable to satisfy construction industrys need for raw materials. This is true no matter how develop a country is, certain products must be imported from another country. Example of these materials can be specialist hot rolled items, structural members such as steel I section columns, galvanized steel angle iron, air conditions, heaters, wall tiles, floor tiles, etc. and government policy on importation can affect the flow or availability of material on market. Another example can be seen in the price of labour to be used for government projects. Construction labour costs are divided into two; government price, and the price determined by other labour unions such as bricklayers union, steel fixers union, etc. All labour cost whether union cost or government cost can be influenced by the act of legislative committee who are responsible for monitoring and controlling the aspect in a particular country. 3.0 Relations of the Existing site layout to position of Material/Site facilities Construction sites are bound to face trouble not only technically related, also management related difficulties results into unwanted situation that affect time and cost. Site-based management can make a significant improvement in the cost and time saving during the construction process without involving mass of additional work. Among the important tasks of site management is the site layout planning. Without effective and systematic approach to site planning, extensive time loss and cost overruns could result especially in large projects, where the number of manpower, subcontractors, and equipment involved are high. A detailed planning of the site layout and location of temporary facilities can enable the management to make considerable improvement through minimizing travel time, waiting time, and increasing workers morale by showing better and safer work environment. Existing Site Layout: Contrary to the above idea, the existing site layout shows concrete batching plant, timber, materials 1, material 2, temporary building, waste materials, reinforcement, scaffold store, store 1, store 2, and temporary road with little information to fully identify the use of the facilities. It further located the concrete batching plant quite away from any storage facility. Waste material is situated behind the temporary office. And finally the project site does not contain security room and toilet. The major short coming of the existing site layout is lack of proper definition of the site facilities, whether the store is for cement or tools, what sort of material can be stored in the facilities named Material, as both do not convey ideal information that indicates the type of materials to be stored. Assuming the current position of the temporary facilities is to be maintained, the lead time of concrete work must be slow due to large distance between the concrete batching plant and stores. There is proposed two units of 2-storey building as shown on the site layout, however no provision for tower crane that hoist materials of work to high rise area. Waste material facility should not be too far from the center where most construction activities takes place, this is true in order to encourage the site sanitarians in keeping the site free of scraps that can cause injuries e.g. cut off pieces of metal or timber, broken asbestos, long span aluminum roofing sheet, etc. The temporary walk ways in the existing site layout does not lead up to the spaces between both semi-detached and double storey twin buildings. Following rainfall, the surrounding site area is likely to become bog and muddy, thus inconveniencing traffic around the site. 4.0 Anticipated problems to be encountered on the existing site layout Most engineers have the impression that site planning can be undertaken simultaneously as the work proceeds day by day. It is important to know that condition of project site will be the condition in which workers live for the duration of the project. Thus, careful pre-planning is imperative. Since construction labour cost constitutes 30-40 percent of project total cost, it is important to realize that significant cost saving will be achieved if the labour force moves freely and quickly within the project site. With free and quick progress of labour force, large amount of work will be done in a day. Conversely, lack of free movement slows rate of production by obstructing the cycle time of material delivery to workers. 4.1 Anticipated Problem Strictly speaking, the existing site layout contradicts the general site management idea. Construction projects are to start on a specific date and end on a specific date. Consequently, individual activities in the project are given expected starting and finishing time. Unless the activities are on schedule, the project will not finish on the time it is expected to finish. And unless production is maintained at highest speed level, the individual activities would not meet the schedule. To maintain production at highest speed level, access to material of work must be uninterrupted. Interruption to material access is caused by different reason including the distance through which the material must pass before reaching the final production point. The following problems should be anticipated by the site manager:- Laydown Space: The site layout does not consider simple laydown space for materials such as aggregates, bricks/blocks, etc. which do not require enclosed space for storage. Also for materials which are arranged to be periodically brought to site such as pile for foundation and precast concrete components. If bored pile foundation is to be used for the double-storey building and the scheduled work force is that only 80 piles can be driven into the soil per day. There bound to be problem for space to stack these items upon delivery before they are used. Plant Equipment Wrongly Located: The concrete batching plant located far away from any storage facility indicates how far workers need to travel in order to bring material of work to the batching plant. The batching plant and the material stores are located in two opposite sides of the project boundary. This apparently increases the cycle time for the production of wet concrete mix. The ideal procedure for casting wet concrete should not suggest any delay in the production cycle which can be achieved by keeping all the materials needed closer to the batching plant. When materials are closer to production point, the number of labourers needed to be supplying the materials can be reduced because of the short cycle distance than they otherwise have to cover assuming the material is far away. Consequently, the amount of money that must be paid for lobour is reduced. Poor Location of Temporary Building/ Site Office: It is important to locate temporary site office closer enough to be able to monitor the site activities probably by looking through the window. However, it is equally important to locate the office where noisy construction activities can be avoided as much as possible. The location of the temporary office as shown on this existing site plan seem to be too close to construction activities especially vibration and sound produced by jetting down pile into the ground. Large magnitude of vibration and sound is produced during hammering pile down into the ground, and dust flew up when drilling and chiseling holes on concrete or wooden components. Thus the office is also too close that dust may be entering into the building as a result of such activities. Inadequate Space between The Existing Site Facilities: The existing facilities such as temporary building, reinforcement, scaffold store, waste material, material, and store are located too close to one another. The effect of this can be manifested by the need for material delivery to the store between waste material and materials. Locating site facility in a confined space do not allow delivery vehicle to reach the location of the facility. And in the extreme it results into double handling of the material by having to off-load temporarily before arranging for workers to move the material to its final destination. Double handling should be avoided as much as possible as it waste time, and often attracts petty charges which when accumulated can make a reasonable amount of money. Insecurity: The major problem to be faced by the site manager comes from the complete omission of the provision for site security shed. Materials, plant and equipment are never to be taken home by workers nor always brought from high rise areas down to store and locked up, and the next morning they are taken up again. This is tedious. It is a good practice if small electric tools such as drilling machine, welding machines can be left where they have been used today for instance on 2nd floor, and tomorrow the work continues without need for taking it up again. However, this can only be proven good practice if constant day and night security of the material is maintained in the construction site. Material pilferage by labourers is another reason for maintaining security on site. Omission of Staff Canteen: Notwithstanding workers are always busy onsite, provisions should be made for location of temporary staff canteen. Omission of this facility on this project site may cause workers to travel some distance for need of water, cigarette, mints, cake, etc. and when this happens, automatically the work is retarded. Lack of Temporary Toilet: The provision of this seemingly less important site facility is almost necessary in every project site. Site management personnel, visitors, members of statutory agencies, and workers are bound to require toilet to ease themselves of their demand. It is impracticable while work is on progress for a worker to seek to go back home or anywhere away from the project site for the need of toilet. Therefore temporary site toilet should be among the site planners focus when design temporary site facilities. 5.0 Proposed New Site Layout The architectural drawings of a project indicate among other things, the proposed position of the individual structures within the scope of the project work. Invariably, this position must be maintained and never to be altered because of the need for temporary site facilities such as material stores, security shed, staff canteen and toilets, site office, position of crane, etc. It is the project managers responsibility to examine the activities that take place in the cause of construction work and provide viable alternative that maintain the proposed position of the structures as well as proper location for the temporary site facilities. In achieving this, number of factors deserves consideration. These are lead time of individual activities on the project, ease of access to material of work, activity cycle time, raw material delivery, safety of workers, types of materials, and space requirement for laydown purpose and free interaction. Site Security Shed: Among the important site facilities is security shed as it provides shelter for site security personnel against weather. It can be constructed of timber, metal/aluminum, tent leather, and even masonry materials such as brick/block, and stone defending on the decision of the project management team. Security shed is almost provided in every type of building project whether it is office building, commercial building, school, hospital, etc. therefore it is advantageous to build the facility once and for all. Building security shed using temporary material like timber, metal etc. can be considered as waste of money and time since the temporary one must be replaced by the permanent structure to serve the same purpose at the end of the project work. The most suitable position for locating security facility is always by the main entrance of the building, since security personnel are to monitor any movement in and out thereby looking after the properties in and around the building. In this respect, site security building is no exception. Its position has to be by the site main entrance. And it should be properly sited to allow clear coverage of reasonable locations both left and right. Specifically to this project, the security building should be by the right side of the entrance. This is because the left side is a proposed double-storey structure, and can block proper view of the semi-detached structures at the opposite side due to double-storey height of the building. Conversely, positioning the facility at the right hand side enhances proper viewing of the facade of the double-storey, as well as reasonable view of the semi-detached structures. Material Store: There can be number of stores on site defending on the type of material to be kept in the store. Site material stores do not need to be located all in one position. The location has to be based on the type of material in the store, distance between the store and the point of using the stored items, and accessibility by the delivery vehicle. All material stores must be accessible to the material delivery van, and be close enough to ease difficulty in removing items out of the store. Inaccessibility of store location result into double handling a situation where materials need to be temporarily off-loaded before moving the same into the store. This is time consuming and attracts expenses. Waste Material Store: Waste is being generated in the course of executing works onsite. Therefore daily waste management should be designed and maintained throughout the project duration. Site waste can be broken stones, blocks/bricks, empty cartons, cut-off pieces of metal, aluminum, timber, etc. which is no longer needed or seen as valuable. Defending on the site managers decision, waste can be stored as salvaged items which can subsequently be sold for recycle purpose. However, not all onsite waste can be salvaged for recycling. Waste such as paper cartons and polythene e.g. for tiles, sanitary and electric appliances are best disposed up by taken them away to any refuse collection point nearby, since it is not needed for recycle. This type of waste may not require enclosed storage facility. A simple laydown waste collection point can be satisfactory before they are disposed-off. Only solid non-combustible waste e.g. cut-off metal as piling material, steel angle iron, steel sectio ns, rebar etc. can be stored in waste material facility before they are removed for recycling. The best practice for onsite waste collection is to collect the generated waste on daily basis just at the point it occurs. Since different trades are working at different places around the project site, it can be difficult to set a single point for waste collection. The waste collected from all points can be taken to central waste collection facility from where the accumulated wastes from all the project activities are moved out of the project site. For example, waste can be generated at 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor, and ground floor respectively. The waste collected at each floor should be packed and brought down to the central waste collection point. Like material store, the proper location for central waste collection should always be accessible by both vehicle and workers to increase morale in dumping and subsequent removal away from the project site. Scaffold Store: There are different types of scaffold designed to serve different purpose. These are independent tie scaffold, bird cage, slung scaffold, mobile tower scaffold, and putlog scaffold. The independent tie and bird cage scaffolds are specially designed for external works, covering from ground floor up to high rise areas to enable painting, plastering, glazing, and external electric work. They are mounted immediately on arrival, and once mounted do not need to be dismantled until the end of the project. Such scaffold does not need to be kept on site; ideally they can

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Veterans Disability I Disability Attorneys of Michigan

Veterans Disability I Disability Attorneys of Michigan Remembering 9/11 As we begin our Monday morning, it is important to take a moment to remember this historic day that changed so many American lives. Today we remember all of the victims and families of victims from the September 11th  attacks.Today there will be 9/11 Memorial services around the country to pay tribute to those we lost.At the Disability Attorneys of Michigan, we would like to pay our respects to the victims and families of victims of the 9/11 attacks sixteen years ago. And we would like to thank our incredible military for working so hard to keep our country safe.We will never forget.Disability Attorneys of Michigan. Compassionate Excellence. DA Michigan, Disability Attorneys, Disability Attorneys of Michigan, Veterans Disability, Veterans Disability Attorneys, Veterans Disability lawyer, Veterans Disability Lawyers

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Top Five Tips on Revising Essays Top Five Tips on Revising Essays Since it is important to rewrite and revise your work, there are several stages required to work your way toward perfection. Below are suggestions and techniques to use when rewriting and revising your work. #1 The Whole Paper Examine the entire essay to determine if it has made its point to the audience and has conveyed the desired message. Try to look at your paper from the reader’s point of view. A few quick checks: Make sure your paper is spaced according to instructions Share the essay with someone who unfamiliar with the topic and get feedback Do additional, needed research If necessary, save the strong paragraphs in a separate file and start over #2 Paragraph Revisions After that first stage, ensure your essay is well organized and each paragraph communicates its intended message. Make the essay cohesive and each paragraph consistent with its topic or subheading. #3 Sentence Construction Double-check sentence constructions. Before handing in an essay, an author must check spelling and correct grammatical errors: Sentences should remind the reader of the essay’s theme Sentences vary in length Edit too-long or run-on sentences Correct any language (grammatical) errors Run a spell check on your essay and check for missing words Capitalization and correct citation are also priorities If you need assistance with essay writing, professional knowledge and expertise can come in handy. At , we deliver custom well-researched essays and help with what you’ve already written. Contact us with your questions at 1-800-573-0840 or email: sales@masterwriter.ca.