UK Taxation System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

UK Taxation System - Essay Example Alongside, the developments in the indirect taxation are also described. Income Tax is believed to be the largest source of earning equating up to 30% of the total tax revenue in UK. This is charged on salaries from employment, on rental income for let-out properties, on bank and building societies' interests and on company dividends. The one that comes next in this list is the Value Added Tax (VAT). VAT is charged to the customer by businesses on the supply of goods and services in the country. The revenue generated by the UK government by way of VAT comes somewhere around to 23% of the total tax revenue and also this is believed to be the second largest earner of revenue to the government. Apart from this the government of UK also generates revenue through some other kinds of taxes like the National Insurance Contributions (NIC), duties and Corporations Tax, the contribution of which are believed to be 21%, 16% and 8% respectively. There exist also other sources of contributions like the Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Inheritance Tax (IHT), Stamp Duty (SD) and Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) etc., which form the rest of the total tax revenue. The Tax Year: The Tax Year in the United Kingdom starts on the 6th of April in the current year and ends on 5th of April in the following year. All the citizens of the country pay their income tax by reference to the same. The different kinds of rates and allowances relating to taxes are finalized in the Annual Budget which is scheduled every year in the month of March. The Tax System: A study conducted in the previous year reveals that almost 29.5 million individuals do pay tax in the form of income tax in UK. Indirect taxes are collected in the form of Excise duties, Vehicle excise duties, Insurance premium tax, Air passenger duty, Landfill Tax and Aggregates Levy etc. The government of UK levies excise duty particularly on five types of goods. They are tobacco, fuel, beer, wine and beer. A flat rate is followed for levying tax on these particular goods. When it comes to tobacco, they are additionally subject to a tax called ad valorem tax. This ad valorem tax is set up at an amount of 22% of the total retail price. The following table shows the tax rates of duties that were levied in the year 2006-07. Table.1 Excise duties, 2006-07 Good Duty (pence) Total duty as a % of price Total tax as a % of price Packet of 20 cigars: Specific + ad valorem 314 66.4 81.3 Pint of Beer 29 13.5 28.4 Wine (75cl bottle) 129 38.2 53.1 Spirits (70cl bottle) 548 48.0 62.9 Ultra-Low sulphur petrol 47 50.8 65.7 Ultra-Low sulphur diesel 47 49.1 64.0 Sources: HM Revenue and Customs website (customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal'_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageExcise_InfoGuides); UK Trade Info website - www.uktradeinfo.co.uk; National Statistics - www.statistics.gov.uk Capital Gains Tax: The concept of Capital Gains tax was introduced in the year 1965. These capital gains are supposed to be levied on the

Sequential and Selection Process Control Structure Essay Example for Free

Sequential and Selection Process Control Structure Essay Associate Program Material Appendix G Sequential and Selection Process Control Structure In the following example, the second line of the table specifies that tax due on a salary of $2,000. 00 is $225. 00 plus 16% of excess salary over $1,500. 00 (that is, 16% of $500. 00). Therefore, the total tax is $225. 00 + $80. 00, or $305. 00. | |Salary Range in Dollars |Base Tax in Dollars |Percentage of Excess | |1 |0. 00-1,499. 99 |0. 00 |15 % | |2 |1,500. 0-2,999. 99 |225. 00 |16 % | |3 |3,000. 00-4,999. 99 |465. 00 |18 % | |4 |5,000. 00-7,999. 99 |825. 00 |20 % | |5 |8,000. 00-14,999. 99 |1425. 00 |25 % | Input |Process |Output | |First name |Get user input |First name | |Last name | |Last name | |Salary | |Salary Salary |Find base tax salary |Bas tax | |Tax table | |Salary range | |Salary range |Determine base tax and |Percentage total |Percentage of excess |percentage of excess |Base tax | |Base tax | | | |Salary |Determine gross salary |Total tax | |Total tax due | |Tax due | |Base tax | |Gross salary | |First name |Display the gross salary |First name | |Last name | |Last name | |Salary | |Salary | |Gross salary | |Gross salary | |Input |Process |Output | |Salary = 0. 0 |Determine salary and taxes |Error message | | | |Salary = 0. | | | |Taxes = 0. 0 | |Salary 15000. 00 |Determine salary and taxes | Error message | | | |Salary = 0. 0 | | | |Taxes = 0. 0 | |Salary = 0. 01 |Determine salary and taxes |Salary = 0. 1 | | | |Taxes = 0. 0015 | |Salary = 1000. 00 |Determine salary and taxes |Salary = 1000. 00 | | | |Taxes = 150 | |Salary = 1499. 99 |Determine salary and taxes |Salary = 1499. 00 | | | |Taxes = 225. 00 |

Powers Of and Limitations On the UK Prime Minister

Powers Of and Limitations On the UK Prime Minister Parliament is the legislative body of the UK; it is composed of bicameral parliaments; The House of Commons (HOC) is responsible for considering and proposing new laws as well as scrutinizing governmental policies and legislation, oversees governments finances and administration. The House of Lords (HOL) participates within the law-making process, investigates matters of public interest independently and examines the administration of government. The party with the largest number of members in the HOC forms the government under the office of the Prime Minister (PM). This arrangement exists by a whereby the Monarch must appoint a PM to oversee government and lead the HOC; this position has evolved overtime as a consequence of historical and political acts with origins in the early 1680s. This appointment results in a transfer of power from the sovereign to parliament under the Royal Prerogative Powers (Bradley 2011). The role of the PM is to serve as the head of the Her Majestys government having been elected as the premiership winning party in the UK elections. He / she are not elected as head of their respective party by the public but from within their respective party (Braizer, 1999). Serving as the Chief of the Executive, the PM has a number of functions which include; overseeing Parliament, overseeing the operation of the Civil Service and government agencies, serving as the link among the executive and legislative branches of the assembly, responsibility for policy and governmental decisions ensuring that they are scrutinized and implemented once Royal Ascent has been granted and serving as the figure head in the HOC (Heffernan, 2005). They are responsible for managing a number of relations which include those between; the Government and the Monarch, Government and the Opposition and between the UK and the devolved assemblies. Through the power of patronage, the PM has the power to select the Cabinet The Executive and can appoint ministers to the Cabinet and appoint ministers to lead on specific policy areas such as education, health, foreign and commonwealth; extending the ministerial responsibility for the respective areas of work to them. The PM will also appoint special advisors and other political advisors within the Cabinet, on the basis of political viewpoint, skills and expertise. The PM is required to ensure that the order of precedency is upheld in Cabinet as well as ensuring that ministers adhere to and uphold the ministerial code. Holding power over ministerial conduct (1997 revised 2007) and if required they can appoint, reshuffle or dismiss ministers. The PM can use their power of collective responsibility to silence any critics avoiding dissention and ensuring cohesion exists with the cabinet. Decisions made with Cabinet meetings chaired by the PM must have support of the ministers irrespective of agreement on such matters, they are required to publicly support the PMs decision / mandate, failure to do so can result in dismissal / resignation as was the case of the late Robin Cook, Leader of the Commons and former Foreign Secretary, 2003. In order to encourage support from the cabinet the PM can use their power of patronage as a tool for reward and recognition bringing about change in behaviour and ensuring loyalty. It could be argued that this is both a power and a limitation, to some it is perceived as an elitist method of promotion on the basis of political support and rather than on the merit of work. Whilst the PM has many powers, one of the greatest limitations is the threat and in fighting from within their own respective party; without majority support, their position is weakened significantly as was the case with Margaret Thatcher in 1990, her former cabinet colleague Geoffrey Howe initiated a revolt against her leadership style leading to her resignation as PM. Interestingly, her successor John Major was subjected to a revolt following the lack of support from his party on the issue of Britain developing greater links with Europe, when the 1997 general election was undertaken he and the Conservatives suffered the largest electoral defeat in history. Without consulting the electorate, the governing party can at any time seek to replace the PM, as was the case in 2007 when Tony Blair was replaced by Gordon Brown as PM. The style of leadership style (Norton) of a PM can work for or against them during their time in office (Norton 2013). Thatcher gained significant popularity in the early 80s but went on to lose support as she was perceived as being too over-bearing and out of touch. Her famous statement This Ladys not for turning demonstrated how aggressive her leadership style was. Blairs leadership was strong and presidential like, he, like Thatcher did not always use his Cabinet for scrutiny or consultation giving rise to accusations of utilizing a kitchen-cabinet and increased use of special advisors, ultimately this caused much mistrust and dissention within the party and executive (Buckley, 2006). Although the PM serves as head of Cabinet; Ministerial members of the cabinet have equal powers primus inter pares, yet the PM is accountable to the nation and the electorate and is not above reproach. They are responsible not just for their decisions but those of their ministers. How the PM deals with contentious political or social issues and how they seek resolution can impact greatly on their popularity and confidence in them as a leader (Quinn, 2012) as was the case with Heath (Miners Strike 1974), Thatcher (Poll Tax 1989) and Blair (Iraq 2003). Browns popularity waned over the issue of calling a general election (2007) and tax rate reductions (2008) resulting in a call for leadership contest, this was usurped on the basis of his handling of the financial crisis (2008). Media can grossly influence public perception on the PM depending on their readerships left or right wing views (McCombs, 2013). To conclude, the PM is granted numerous powers, many of which bestowed from the Monarch and others from their position of PM and leader of their respective party. All powers come with limitations; the powers will work for or against a PM. Fundamentally their position is dependent on their interpretation and execution of said powers, a majority support of ministers on their mandate or how well he or she can secure their support. The office of Prime Minister is what its holder chooses and makes of it H H Asquith (Hennessy, 2001). Their leadership style can affect how ministers react; their position on changing legislation, how accountable they are politically and socially or when subjected to scrutiny can sway the balance of power to eventually become a limitation. (Word count 1094) Bibliography BRADLEY, A., 2011. The sovereignty of Parliament-form or substance? The changing constitution, 23, pp. 54-56. BRAIZER, R., 1999. Constitutional Practice: The Foundations of British Government. Oxford University Press on Demand. BUCKLEY, S., 2006. Prime Minister and Cabinet. Edinburgh University Press. HENNESSY, P., 2001. The Prime Minister: the office and its holders since 1945. Palgrave Macmillan. MCCOMBS, M., 2013. Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. John Wiley Sons. NORTON, P. and JONES, B. 2014. Politics UK. 8th Edition. Harlow, Pearson QUINN, T., 2012. Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders in Britain. Springer.

Comapring Sympathy For Characters in O. Henrys Furnished Room and Chek

Sympathy For Characters in O. Henry's Furnished Room and Chekov's Vanka  Ã‚   Two Works Cited   The narrators in both O. Henry's "The Furnished Room" and Anton Chekov's "Vanka" view their protagonists as desperate and helpless in a world of cold realism. With tones rich in sympathy, the narrators in both stories take pity on their characters. Both characters have yet to understand that realistically they have little control of the dismal life they lead; instead, their surroundings have more of an impact on their life. Trapped in a harshly ironic and deceitful world, the characters become pitiable symbols in a world numb to their presence. Transforming the protagonists into symbols that touch on everyday human norms (such as unending faith and one's lodgings), the narrators promote a sense of empathy. While the young man in "The Furnished Room" represents the personified room in which he lodges, Vanka resembles a sad angel in his purity and innocence. For instance, like the worn-down room in which the young man stays, his well-being depends on people and events that pass him by. The room's personified descriptions reflect all of the young man's emotions: the young man is emotionally "chipped and bruised," (41) and "desolat" (41) like the constantly abandoned room. Also, like the room the protagonist remains anonymous, as if he means little compared to his surroundings and his lost love (all of which are given names). Vanka, though also enduring a rough life, instead possesses a beam of hope in his innocence. Kneeling before his faithful letter to his Grandfather (as if to pray), Vanka resembles a sad angel. Inspite of his constant neglect and abuse, Vanka holds steadily to his faith and wishes his Grandfather "all the blessings... ...ness of mankind. The idea of diminshing hope for both characters is the narrator's final sympathy-balming attempt. The manner in which the narrators present human nature--the dark side of a merciless world in which the characters live--as well as the naive and pathetic nature of both characters, render two stories thirsty for empathy. The naivity that both characters have towards the deceit in their surroundings, as well as their lack of control in events which they endure, cause both characters to be helpless in a cruel world. Works Cited Chekov, Anton. "Vanka." Understanding Fiction. 3rd ed. Eds. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979. 46-49. Henry, O. "The Furnished Room." Understanding Fiction. 3rd Edition. Eds. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979. 39-43.   

Psycholinguistics: Linguistics and Language Production Essay

Psycholinguistics studies the relationship between language and mind. It studies how are language and speech acquired, produced, comprehended, and lost. Language acquisition and language dissolution happen over time or diachronically. While language production and comprehension happen at a certain point of time or synchronically. Firstly, this paper will talk about language acquisition. Children are a focus of attention and affection in all societies. They go through many stages in language acquisition such as crying, cooing, babbling, first word, birth of grammar and childish creativity. During the very first few weeks of a child’s life, crying is his only way to show what he needs. Crying is unaffected by intentional control from the nervous system, which is responsible for human behavior. At the very beginning, baby’s crying is completely iconic. For example, when the child is hungry, his or her crying becomes louder and louder, it also increases in pitch. During the first two months of the child’s life, his or her crying becomes more symbolic. At these early stages, babies cannot depend on themselves. They depend completely on their caretakers for several years. This creates on enormous degree of early bonding and socialization. As a result of the extensive interaction between the children and their caretakers, children start to coo, making soft gurgling sounds, to express satisfaction. The cooing stage emerges at two months. When the child is about six months old, he or she starts to babble. This babbling stage refers to the natural tendency of children to create strings of consonant-vowel syllable clusters as a kind of vocalic play. Psycholinguists distinguished between marginal babbling and canonical babbling. Marginal babbling is an early stage similar to cooing where the child produce few and random consonants. While canonical babbling emerges at eight months when the child’s vocalization narrow down to syllables that similar of caretaker’s language. Then, the child enters the first-word stage. It starts after crying, cooing, and babbling. It emerges at about one year old. Children use idiomorphs. They are words which children invent when they first catch on to the magical notion that certainly sounds have a unique reference. For example, when the child sounds†milk†, he or she says â€Å"kaka†. By using these idiomorphs, children transform from an iconic creature to a symbolic one. During this stage, children use egocentric speech. They want to talk about the objects which surround them. After this previous stage, the child starts to use grammatical forms. Children start to use one word as a sentence, request or an exclamation. It is referred to as the holophrastic stage. Psycholinguists believe that the intentional, gestural and contextual clues which accompany holophrases make it clear those children are using single word sentence, exactly as adults do in conversations. The child starts to make sentences by a grammatical form. They can develop they use of grammar by imitating their caretakers. For example, when the father says â€Å"backwards†, his daughter imitated him by saying â€Å"rightwards†. They start to create sentences after the holophrastic stage, first with two words and subsequently with more. Childish creativity is an important stage during the child’s life. Children’s language is determined for their mother tongue. For example, children who rose up in china, they speak Chinese. Children are creative. They come up with new words and expressions which are not in their native language or not heard in their bilingual environments. Children are a bit more like well-programmed computers, who make creative, but often inaccurate guesses about the rulers and patterns of the language they are acquiring. They create to construct or reconstruct their mother tongue. Secondly, this paper will talk about language production. We fail sometimes to appreciate our gifts underlying so many of our everyday activities, such as writers and artists. We realize how much we take our actions for granted only through loss of injury. Language production is very important for us. Psycholinguists divided language production into four stages, conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-monitoring. Conceptualization is the first step in language production. It means how to conceptualize the speech in our mind. The theory of the American psycholinguist, David McNeill , says that primitive linguistic concepts are formed as two modes of thought. These are syntactic thinking, which creates the sequence of words which we typically think of when we talk about how language is initiated, and imagistic thinking, which creates a visual mode of communication. Syntactic thinking and imagistic thinking collaborate together to conceptualize conversation. Formulation is the second step in language production. It is the eventual output of the process. It is easier to formulate than to conceptualize. The psycholinguist , Karl lashely, published an essay focused on the psychology of language. It concentrated on how speakers produce words, sound, sentences and phrases together so rapidly and accurately. He talked about how common it is to commit spelling errors when one is typing. These slips of the tongue or the pen are not linguistic loss during brain damage. They are normal mistakes occurs in everyday speaking and writing. We can make back-track and correct it. Slips of the tongue happen between two constants or two vowels. It has a certain pattern. There is the planning of higher level of speech. It is to analyze the steps we have to take and the decisions we have in order to produce an intended utterance. For example, there is a conversation between you and your friend about a certain situation. You decided that something is not important. You can choose to formulate it by some factors as politeness. It could be stated in an affirmative of negative response such as, â€Å"it is nothing† or † it is trivial†. Articulation is the third step in language production. What happens in our mind is very similar to what happens in the computer when I want to print some information. The conceptualization stage perceive itself as the primary and ultimate composer of communication, and the formulation stage pride itself as the conductor of speech sounds, but without the instrument of articulation, the music of our voices remain unheard and unappreciated. Like the operation of the printer which connected with the computer to produce what I wrote. Human larynx’s position plays an important role in speaking. It gives the human the ability to articulate speech. Its lower position gives humans the ability to articulate speech sounds. Self- monitoring if the final step in language production. All speakers and writers of any language, regardless of their degree of native fluency, commit linguistic blunders. Here, we have errors and mistakes. For native speakers, they do not commit errors, but they commit mistakes. They can self-correct immediately. While for non-native speakers, they commit errors and they are not able to notice it or correct it. Thirdly, this paper will talk about language comprehension. Understanding language is an automatic task which happens very quickly. Sounds or letters strike our ears or eyes creating words which form phrases, clauses and sentences. Understanding language was divided into four stages, comprehension of sounds, comprehension of words, comprehension of sentences and comprehension of texts. In the comprehension of sounds, psycholinguists did an experiment on a group of people. They gave them four sentences and each sentence has a missing word. They gave them the last syllable of each missing word and asked them to write down each word. For example, (1) it was found that the †¦eel was on the axle, (2) it was found that the †¦eel was on the shoe , (3) it was found that the †¦eel was on the orange, (3) it was found that the †¦eel was on the table. This insertion of different missing sounds to create a separate and appropriate word in each sentence is called the phoneme restoration effect. From the comprehension of the other words in the sentence, they can expect the missing word. Comprehension of words is more complex than the comprehension of sounds. Each word has many sounds. Even in short and one syllable words, we can find that they composed of many sounds. Each language has thousands of words where we can find some similar words which make us confuse in the meaning. One model that psycholinguists have adopted to account for this complexity is Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP). Its perspective argues that we use several separate and parallel processes when we understand spoken or written language. When someone hear or see a word, he or she can stimulate an individual logogen (verve cells) or lexical detection device for that word. These logogens link to individual neurons in neuronal network. Then, they activate themselves and work in parallel with many other logogens to create comprehension. There are comprehension of high frequency words and comprehensions of low frequency words. High frequency words are rapidly and frequently comprehended like â€Å"boy† and â€Å"orange†. While low frequency words take a long time to be comprehended like â€Å"exotic† and â€Å"logogen†. Psycholinguists divided the comprehension of words into several ways, in term of their spelling, on the basis of their pronunciation, and in terms of grammatical functions. In term of their spelling, like the homophones, the words pronounced alike but spelled differently, for example ; â€Å"threw† and â€Å"through†. On the basis of their pronunciation, like homographs, words spelled alike but pronounced differently, for example; â€Å"lead†noun and â€Å"lead† verb. In terms of grammatical functions, the word may be function as a verb and a noun or either of them only. There is another example of the uselessness of (PDP) approach to the comprehension of words most of us encounter during our daily life. It is what psycholinguists named as the Tip of the Tongue (TOT) phenomenon. This phenomenon occurs when we know a word but we cannot remember it to pronounce it. It is on the tip of the tongue. The word is not completely forgotten, but we can remember usually the first syllable of this word. This means that our long term memory storage is better for recognition than for recall. Comprehension of sentences is more complex than comprehension of sounds and words. Psycholinguists based their researches to examine the comprehension of sentences on the model of sentence grammar which proposed by Chomsky in 1950s. Chomsky model claimed that all sentences were generated from a phrase structure skeleton has a series of transformational rules which is named as (Transformational Generative Grammar). These transformations are very powerful. They could create many verities of sentences by rearranging, adding, deleting or substituting words in the original sentence. Psycholinguists examine these transformations on a group of native listeners to notice their level of comprehension. Example number one is : the dog is chasing the cat. While example number two is : Is not the cat chased by the dog?. Example number one is easier than example number two, because it has three transformational changes; it has been transformed into a negative, passive and interrogative sentence. Psycholinguists called this process as Derivational Theory of Complexity (DTC), because difficulty in comprehension was derived from number of transformations that were added to the original and simple sentence. Psycholinguists made experiments to test (DTC). They gave a group of listeners a number of sentences and asked them to recall both the sentence they had just heard and a string of words. They found that when the sentence becomes more complicated than the previous sentence and the number of sentences becomes more than one or two, the listener remembers fewer and fewer words. They also confuse by additional transformations in each sentence. Comprehension of texts is more complex than the others. When someone read or hear a text, he or she can remember the content but not typically the grammar of each sentence. The presence or absence of our background information can affect dramatically the way we remember a piece of discourse. Grammatically, we can remember simple sentences not complicated ones, for example we can remember active sentences than passive ones. Finally, this paper will talk about language dissolution or language loss. Language dissolution can be caused by unhappy accident which violates the language area of the brain, a traumatic event in our personal life, or genetic disorders. Psycholinguists found that the dissolution of language whether due to accident or age, is a rich source of information about how the human mind controls our attempt to communicate. Neurolinguistics and language loss have two things which are the evidence from aphasia and the surgical evidence. Neurolinguistics is an offspring of psycholinguistics, investigates how the human brain creates and processes speech and language. Firstly, we will talk about the loss of language due to brain damage. To understand how this happens, we need to clear up some misunderstandings about the human brain and how it functions. Anatomically, the brain has two separate and virtually identical cerebral hemispheres. There are millions of associations’ pathways which connect the left and the right hemispheres together, so any information in either hemisphere is shared with the other. Our central interest is in language not in the anatomical mapping of human neurology, so we concerned with the location of the control of speech organs and the sensation of speech. If I take the left hand and cup it over the left ear so that the palm of the hand is clapped over the ear hole. I can find that the left hand covers most of the left side of the head. If I opened the skull, I will find under the first two fingers, two vertical strips of brain tissues running down from the top of the head. They have the same size of the two fingers. It is the area of the brain which is responsible for the production and comprehension of human language. Under the middle finger, there is the motor cortex which responsible for muscular movements. While under the index finger, there is the sensory cortex. The top of the motor cortex and sensory cortex take care of the movement and sensation of the feet. While the bottom of these two strips are responsible for the head, mouth and throat. We can find that the top of the brain controls the lower part of the body and the vice versa. The left side of the brain is responsible for the right side of the brain and the vice versa. The top parts of the motor and sensory cortexes are responsible for the movement and sensation of the feet. While the bottom parts of them are responsible for the head. Humans are susceptible to injury in the central nervous system. The damage could arise from a loss of blood supply to the location of the central nervous system due to stroke, or invasive injury like an automobile accident or gunshot wound. There are two consequences that make the central nervous system unique in relation to any part of your body. Firstly, there is no pain receptor in the brain that is why a stroke, unlike a heart attack, is not a painful experience. The second thing is that the central nervous system does not regenerate. Once it is damaged, it does not grow back. Now, let us speak about the surgical evidence. There are two kinds of surgical operation have a particular bearing on questions of language dissolution. The first operation is hemispherectomy and the second one is split-brain operation. In rare cases, when the neurosurgeons find that either the left or right hemisphere of a patient was hardly affected, he or she opens this affected side of the skull and remove the entire left or right hemisphere. This operation performs on adults or children under the age of ten. For an adult, this operation causes a dramatic effect on them. When an adult undergoes a left hemispherectomy, he or she becomes completely aphasic, except for a few words of automatic speech. While, if this operation performed on children, it does not lead to loss of speech. The factor here for these causes is the age of the brain. During the first decades of human life, the human brain is continuously evolving and growing. Linguistic functions have not yet localized to specific areas of the brain. This gives a neuroplasticity of the still maturing brain. When a young brain encounters traumatic injury, even to the extent of losing an entire cerebral hemisphere, because it is still maturing, and because the primary areas of cognitive and linguistic functioning have not established, a child does not suffer the functional loss that an adult does. Children aphasia exists and stem from neurological abnormalities such as autism. The second operation is the split-brain operation which was developed in 1970s to treat specific cases of severe epilepsy. This operation was developed to spare sufferers from the terrible trauma of major seizures, because there are certain severe and singular forms of epilepsy which remain unaffected by pharmacological treatment. Epilepsy is caused by discharges in the motor cortex in one hemisphere that are transmitted to the corresponding cortex of the other hemisphere via the corpus callosum. There are a few negative consequences to the operation, and this rests largely on the fact that our senses are bilaterally represented. After the corpus callosum is cut, in normal, everyday situations, information from either eye goes to both hemispheres. Speech and language disorders are divided into dissolution from non-damaged brains and language loss through aging. There are two examples of disorders which causes dissolution from non-damage brain. These two examples are stuttering and autism. Stuttering is one of the most common articulation problems. It occurs, most frequently on the initial word of a clause, the first syllable of a word, the initial consonant of a syllable, and on stop consonants. There is a theory represents the extreme behavioral view and claims that stuttering originates from traumatic events occurring in early childhood when sensitive parents and primary school teachers are too assiduous in attempting to ensure that the child speaks fluently. There is another theory states that stammering is caused by the absence of unambiguous lateralization of speech to the left hemisphere. There another disorder which is autism. The first signs of this disorder are apparent in infants, before speech has really developed. Autism is referred to as childhood schizophrenia. An autistic infant exhibits a disregard for human interaction and ignores eye and face contact. This condition creates a lack of social interaction. At the end, the reduction in physical and mental abilities does accompany the aging process. When we become older, the language may be lost quickly.

Product Process Matrix Essays

Product Process Matrix Essays Product Process Matrix Paper Product Process Matrix Paper The product-process matrix, developed by Hayes and Wheelwright in 1979 was designed to show the trade-offs in operations and marketing by linking product plans and process choices. The model is based on traditional trade-offs evident in a single manufacturing facility environment. The product-process matrix has been empirically tested, but improvements in operations flexibility by applying advanced technologies have caused many to question the models continued validity. In recent years, the environment has changed significantly, with manufacturing companies offering more product customization as they gain process flexibility. In addition, the model as originally developed, does not incorporate the supply chain perspective. New models are required that include the entire supply chain as well as the impact of developments in manufacturing. The operations strategy literature discusses the importance of defining the appropriate production process to support the competitive priorities specified in the business strategy. Building on the works of Skinner (1969) and Abemathy and Townsend (1975), this hierarchical structure was further analyzed by Hayes and Wheelwright as they looked at the relationships between marketing and operations. They suggested that there should be a link between product plans and process choice that supports the overall business strategy (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1979). Furthermore, they contended that firms operating on or close to the diagonal of the product-process matrix will outperform those that hold significantly off-diagonal positions (see Figure 1). Much of the operations strategy literature since then has supported their assertions, and many operations management texts use the model to describe process choice in manufacturing. More recently, research has been conducted to validate empirically whether firms actually link their process choice to product volume and customization and whether those decisions result in better performance. Safizadeh et al. (1996) in a study of 144 U. S. manufacturing plants, found that process choice was linked to product plans and competitive priorities and that there was some evidence of improved performance when they were well aligned. However, the authors recognized that some batch shops and continuous flow shops were able to increase their ability to customize products through lexible manufacturing systems and by using common parts and subassemblies. Their work suggests that as flexibility increases it may be possible to move away from the diagonal on the matrix and still be successful. The authors go on to suggest that flexibility is a complex phenomenon and the literature has gradually uncovered its multiple dimensions and their strategic implications. They also note that companies may appear to be off the line because product and process choices dont happen simultaneously. Companies may have partially implemented processes that would move them closer to the diagonal, but not have the processes completely in place. More work is required to determine the true relationship between process choice and product customization. About the same time, other researchers felt it was necessary to continue to validate the Hayes and Wheelwright model, given changes in manufacturing technology and practice. McDermott, Greis, and Fischer (1997) conducted an in-depth study of nine firms that made up 95% of the total U. S. market for portable electric tools. Through surveys, semi-structured interviews, and plant tours, they determined that new production technologies and practices enable firms to provide flexibility, responsiveness, and low-cost production at the same time. Their results suggested that the process-product trade-offs may have changed and that the Hayes and Wheelwright model may no longer be suitable for describing the environment in that particular industry. They proposed that models based on mass customization (Pine, Victor, and Boynton, 1993) and flexibility (Collins and Schmenner, 1992) may better capture current manufacturing practices. However, they suggested a need for additional research to provide a more prescriptive model for operations strategy. Significant advances in manufacturing and information technologies and changes in competitive priorities suggest that the Hayes and Wheelwright model should be revisited. One attempt to describe a new type of model, given the changes in business environments, is illustrated in Heim and Sinha (2001). They described electronic business-to-customer (B2C) operations and developed a framework in the form of a product-process matrix to explain elationships between electronic service products and service processes. While their model was not empirically tested, it did suggest that the product-process matrix had the potential to be useful as a planning tool in other business environments. A study by Ariss and Zhang (2002) provided some evidence that companies might achieve multiple competitive performances rather than settle for fewer priorities because of trade-offs. Their survey of 31 firms in the Detroit area supported the hypothesis that because of flexible process capabilities firms fall within a wide scope of the diagonal on the product-process matrix. While the sample was small, there was evidence that firms with a highly flexible process capability could perform well despite being off the diagonal. They suggested that flexible process capability is necessary to overcome the technological or economic constraints inherent in the product-process matrix. Matching Supply Chain Processes to Products While these more recent studies examine the appropriateness of the model regarding a firms ability to make process choices predicted by the matrix, they continue to look only at one firm and its process choices. Recent literature suggests that rather than firms competing with other firms, the new competition is supply chain to supply chain (Bhattacharya et al. , 1995; Whipple and Frankel, 2000; Rice and Hoppe, 2001). There is little disagreement among operations strategy researchers that the operations strategy should be aligned with the marketing strategy and support the companys overall strategy; hence, the relationship between product choice and process choice. Others might argue that the overall company strategy must support the supply chain strategy. This leads to the question: is there a relationship between a supply chains product characteristics and competitive priorities with the supply chain firms process choices? As Lee notes (2004, p. 108) Smart companies tailor supply chains to the nature of markets for products. Some researchers provide support for the suggestion that supply chain design should be based on the nature of demand for the product, i. e. , there must be a match between the type of product and the type of supply chain. Fischer (1997) divides products into two types, functional and innovative. Functional products are likely to be staples with stable predictable demand versus innovative products with short life cycles, many varieties, and volatile demand. For functional products, supply chains should be physically efficient and manufacturings focus should be on minimizing inventory and maintaining high average utilization rates. For innovative products, supply chains should have responsive processes, and manufacturing should focus on where to strategically place inventory and deploy excess buffer capacity to meet changes in demand. Fisher suggests that making these alignments will provide a competitive advantage. Lee further defined the characteristics of functional versus innovative products (2002). Functional products have low demand uncertainties, stable demand, long product life, low product variety, higher volume per stock keeping unit (SKU), along with other characteristics. Innovative products have high demand uncertainties, variable demand, short selling seasons, high product variety, low volume per SKU, along with other characteristics. He then defines four supply chain strategies to meet product demand. Efficient supply chains use scale economies and optimize capacity and distribution utilization. Risk-hedging supply chains use strategies to pool inventory and other resources to avoid supply disruption. Responsive supply chains have strategies that are responsive and flexible and use build-to-order and mass customization processes. Agile supply chains utilize strategies to be responsive and flexible but also pool inventory or capacity resources to meet unpredictable demand with minimal disruptions. As Lee states, Only those companies that build agile, adaptable and aligned supply chains get ahead of the competition (2004, p. 105). Determining how a supply chain can, or should be, improved to gain flexibility can be difficult. One proposition suggests that supply chain flexibility is affected by decisions or process choices inherent in the operations systems, logistics processes, the supply network, organizational design, and information systems of every firm within the supply chain for a given product (Lummus et al. , 2005). Evidence from this study reveals that practitioners recognize many different facets associated with supply chain flexibility but do not necessarily perceive differences between those in terms of greatest-to-least impact on flexibility. Childerhouse, Aitken, and Towill (2002) detail how an organization achieved focused processes in their demand (supply) chain through a case study of a major U. K. lighting company. Figure 2 describes their proposed model for the development of focused demand chain strategies. They suggest that the marketplace today has diverse requirements for alternative products, and no single demand chain can best service all these requirements. Through a review of literature, they identified five key product characteristics that influence the design of supply chain strategies. The characteristics included: duration of product life cycle, time window for product delivery, high versus low volume, variety in required product offerings, and variability in demand. From there, they documented the lighting companys efforts to identify customer requirements and realign their supply chain strategy to focus on specific demand requirements. The company focused its efforts on the supply chain activities of planning (choosing between material requirements planning [MRP] and pull system execution [kanban]), simplifying the ordering and communication between players in the chain and improving the new product design process. The company identified four focused demand chains, and over a four-year period transformed its supply chain in to a competitive, market-focused demand chain. Supply Chain Product-Process Matrix Building on the work of Hayes and Wheelwright, the product classification work of Fisher and Lee, and the focused supply chain discussion just outlined, it may be beneficial for companies to define a model that aligns product characteristics and processes across a supply chain. As supply chains compete with supply chains, companies within a supply chain must select processes consistent with end-customer value and competitive priorities. The purpose of this research is to propose a model that may be used by companies when making product and process decisions across a supply chain. There is clearly support for the product-process matrix, i. e. , firms that operate on or near the diagonal will outperform those that are significantly off-diagonal. However, as noted, there is also some evidence that as companies adopt more flexible systems and identify inventory pooling strategies they may succeed despite operating further from the diagonal. If demand characteristics are important for defining the competitive priorities and process choice within a company, why wouldnt end-customer demand characteristics also be important for defining the process choices across a supply chain? The association between process choice and end-customer requirements across a supply chain has not been empirically tested. Therefore, the following proposition is suggested: Proposition 1: The competitive priorities and end-customer value with regard to a supply chains primary product line must be consistent with the supply chain firms process choices. While Proposition 1 suggests the importance of alignment, it does not imply that each company in the supply chain must have similar processes, or even that the processes would have similar capabilities (i. e. , speed, volume, changeover, etc. ). What is suggested is that regardless of where the company is positioned in the supply chain, the focus must be on end customer requirements. If end-customers require a variety of products with short lead times and variable volumes, each partner in the chain must be able to react quickly to provide different varieties and ramp production up or down. An end customer focused on low cost and consistent product in high volumes requires each partner to focus on streamlined production and efficient operations. How each partner meets the capability required by the end customer may differ, but the focus must be on what the supply chains end customer requires. As noted by both Lee and Fisher, there are key differences in the characteristics of products that affect supply chain design. Uncertainty surrounding the specific product design volume and delivery requirements increases the need for flexibility across the supply chain. Each firm within the supply-chain plan processes must understand end-customer value to maintain the flexibility required by all upstream partners. Types of uncertainty include: the need for differently defined product (make-to-order [MTO]), the desire to choose from an existing group of designs (options), the need for different volume requirements, and the need to design new products. End-product uncertainty suggests that entire supply chains must be adaptable. Therefore, the following is suggested: Proposition 2: End-customer product uncertainty characteristics increase the need for supply chain flexibility and influence process choice. As an example, consider the level of uncertainty associated with customer demand for fashion items, such as womens handbags. There is great uncertainty associated with how well any particular design might be accepted and eventually purchased by the end customer. Systems must be established to move product to the location with the greatest demand. Demand characteristics, including general market response and seasonality, may affect the sales or shelf-life of the product and, therefore, require a supply chain that can make adjustments in production, design, and raw materials. At the other end of the uncertainty spectrum resides a product like sugar. Stable demand and specific product characteristics allow for the development of a supply chain where minimal flexibility is required. These examples and the propositions offered suggest the need for a new model to define the relationship between processes and products across a supply chain. Successful supply chains will focus on end-customer demand and select the appropriate processes to match the demand characteristics. Figure 3 describes a proposed supply chain product-process matrix. The proposed supply chain matrix takes into account Lee and Fishers perspectives on end-product customer characteristics. The horizontal axis represents product uncertainty that can vary from a repetitive standard product to a highly variable product, where the customer wants to participate in the design or at a minimum wants a customized product. The horizontal axis represents the needed flexibility for the entire supply chain and ranges from the highly efficient supply chain to one that uses processes for specific customer requirements. Efficient supply chains can produce products in large quantities at a low cost and with short lead times. Responsive supply chains can respond to changes in customer requirements and produce a customized product in quantities as small as one. In Hayes and Wheelwrights original model (see Figure 1), they suggest that companies will be most successful when operating closely on the diagonal. While a particular location on the proposed matrix (see Figure 3) does not suggest particular processes for the firms in the supply chain, it does suggest the types of processes required across the supply chain. For example, the make-to-order clothing retailer must have processes that can gather size information, translate that information to drawings, and transfer the information quickly to the clothing manufacturer. The clothing manufacturer must have equipment that can interpret design requirements, quickly change from one size to another, and incorporate color and other choices. The textile manufacturer must stock or quickly produce the right color and thickness of material to match the particular customers needs. The entire supply chain must be able to react to customized design. At the opposite extreme are supply chains that produce a standard product in one or a very small number of options and are focused on efficient production throughout the supply chain. Many supply chains today are finding more and more customers requiring customized products. Companies currently mass producing products, such as shoes, are considering how to build a product specific to the customer. In this example, the customers foot measurements are translated into a custom-fit product. This movement from repetitive products to more mass-customized items suggests that supply chains in the future must be more responsive. Therefore, the following is suggested: Proposition 3: The goal of the supply chains firms, depending on the product and competitive environment is either to move up and to the left of the matrix without sacrificing efficiency and cost effectiveness or to move down and to the right without sacrificing flexibility and customization. Expectations for mass customization are certainly changing the competitive environment. This push requires that companies redesign processes to gain flexibility without increasing costs. As an example, a local cabinet manufacturing firm requested help redesigning a manufacturing process that would allow it to customize cabinets for product sold though a large home improvement chain. The push from the store was to provide reasonably priced custom cabinets to its customers. In addition, lead-time from order receipt to ship was very short. The manufacturing company set a rip-to-ship goal of 24 hours. The retail chain promised high sales volume. The company then needed to change its high-volume manufacturing processes in such a way that customization could occur without adding to costs-a move up and to the left on the supply chain product-process matrix (Figure 3). Results from this manufacturing change were expected not only to increase the companys ability to customize its high-volume products, but to also increase margins for its low-volume, highly-customized products as manufacturing process improvements were moved to its low-volume lines. For this product line, the improvement would be down and to the right of the matrix, improving costs without sacrificing flexibility and customization. The cabinet company example illustrates another issue in selecting processes within a specific company to match supply chain objectives. While the company aligned its processes to provide a customized, short lead-time product, it also provided a high-volume standard product. Many companies have multiple product lines with differing end-customer requirements. It may be necessary to provide diverging paths through a manufacturing process to accommodate multiple customer objectives, or to create secondary processes. Either way, the key issue is to focus on end-customer requirements and vary process choice to accommodate product variation. Companies often find themselves members of multiple supply chains and must plan processes accordingly. At the same time, companies make process choices that are unique from other companies choices and provide them distinctive capabilities. They make trade-offs in process choice, which allow them to satisfy a given range of customer needs. These decisions allow a broad range of customers with a variety of needs to be served by different companies with distinct capabilities. While this may limit one companys capability to serve some customers, it opens opportunities for others to serve that market. Conclusions Determining supply chain processes is not an isolated task and should be considered in relation to end-customer requirements and the competitive priorities of the entire supply chain. Hayes and Wheelwright concluded that, with their well-known product-process matrix, companies focusing on aligning processes with product requirements will be most successful. Today, as supply chains compete with supply chains, the entire supply chain must be focused on the end customer. Childerhouse et al. (2002, p. 687) summarized the perspective of a focused demand chain: The theory of focused demand chains is based on the premise that modern day marketplaces have diverse requirements for alternative products and services. 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