If You’re Building a Niche-Media Platform, You Don’t Have the Time to Read This

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First, the good news: It’s never been easier to create a niche-media platform. And now, the bad: You’ve never faced more competition in your efforts to make your platform profitable.

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You need to be fast, flexible and unafraid to fail. How do you do that?

1. Move faster and smarter.

With , we saw an opportunity to start a conversation we believed was missing among our competitiors in the cannabis culture. Once we realized the potential, it was like we hit the intersection with the lights turning green. We moved quickly to claim the space and establish ourselves as a leading voice.

But we knew that generating content — even really great, really engaging, really smart content — wouldn’t be enough. If we wanted to keep the lights on and pay the amazing people who create that content, we had to figure out a way to make our company profitable. This required us to look at strategic relationships that align with our brand and are good for our bottom line.

Advertising and audience development both go way beyond the banner ad. We’re constantly exploring different channels, including events and sponsorships. “Moment marketing,” meaning digital campaigns connected to offline events, has been described as one of the . But, with millions of individual moments up for grabs, we need to make sure these connections count.

2. You can’t hurry love — but you don’t have to wait.

While everything around us is moving at lightning speed, we’ve found that relationship-building still takes time. We’re trying to get people to fall in love with us every day.

Sometimes it happens at first sight, but it often can take a few attempts. And, just like love, the slow burn that also can happen in business can lead to a deeper connection. We work daily to earn a place in our audience members’ lives and make them feel a part of our community.

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3. Be flexible, and ready to fail.

Earlier this year, projected that mobile-internet consumption would grow 28 percent in 2016. In North America, 72 percent of internet consumption is on mobile platforms. Building a niche media platform is not a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor. We have to be agile enough to shift our approach in search of our audience, we’ve found. But it’s always about adjusting our approach, not abandoning our vision or brand for the next big thing.

We try to be ready and willing to interpret our brand and message in a lot of new ways — and we realize that not all of them will work. If an idea tanks, we want to get the biggest possible return on failure. We do this through insights gained about our company, our community or our market.

4. Look around. Now, do it again.

We keep an eye on our past, present and future. We need to be able to quickly assess where we’ve come from. What have we done well? What will we do better now that we know better? We need to understand who’s gaining on us. To recognize emerging opportunities, we need to project several moves ahead. Where is the space no one has discovered yet? How do we get there before it gets crowded?

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I split my time between two coasts, so I spend a lot of time near the water. The ocean is never the same from moment to moment; it’s the same with media, especially in 2016. You’re not surveying a static landscape, you’re navigating a shifting sea. Read it wrong, and it will take you down. Read it right, and you can ride a rising tide.

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5 Ways to Save Time and Money on Business Travel

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Travel glitches have been frequent within the past month, and they can surely burden a company and their traveling employees — costing extra dollars and wasting precious time.

We’ve seen a number of airline issues this year — and many due to outdated technologies. Just this summer, canceled nearly 2,000 flights due to a three-day-long computer system outage.

At the , more than 100 flights were canceled on Aug. 28 due to issues with “automated flight data transmission.” Regardless of a speedy recovery, travelers were left stranded until the problem was eventually resolved.

All over the world, airport and airline issues are causing chaos and frustration to travelers. A most recent case yesterday has multiple flights delayed at a number of U.S. airports due to a glitch in the airline’s check-in system. Phoenix, Atlanta, Seattle and San Francisco were of the affected airports hit with delays.

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Although these computer outages might tarnish the of major airlines, it’s important for businesses to reduce their risks from any travel hiccup. There’s little you can do to completely avoid the issue, but there are a number of precautionary steps and alternatives companies can take to mitigate risks of their traveling employees.

Check out these helpful tips before you send your employee off on their next business trip.

1. Change your business policies.

We can’t foreshadow the next big airport glitch or change the way an airline operates. But Bruno Santiago, CEO and founder of , explains how changing company travel policies is vital to adapt to the changing travel climate. Company policies should focus less on cost thresholds and limits, and more on factors that influence , such as on-time flight performance, check-in times and TSA and boarding processes.

Thorough research and airline comparisons are a good place to start.

2. Make data-driven decisions.

Let’s face it: We don’t all have time to research and figure out the most optimal plan for efficient air travel. That’s where helpful tools and websites such as Biz Airlines come in.

These websites help companies and travelers collect data that will help drive their decisions to ensure smooth sailing when traveling. The sites collect and compile information such as on-time performance of certain airlines, potential weather issues and check-in and TSA and boarding efficiencies.

3. Stick to one airline.

Sticking to one airline can also help relieve any travel-related stress and even elevate one’s overall experience, Bruno says. Say you’re stuck in the airport due to a flight delay, if you’re a member of a good frequent flier program, you can spend your time in one of the airline’s VIP lounges.

In addition, priority check-in and boarding, rewards and other program perks help alleviate travel stress.

4. Use a private jet.

You don’t have to be a millionaire to fly private. Although there may be higher upfront costs, chartering a private plane for important business trips can be a good idea. If your company can afford it, invest in a company plane, but for the majority of other businesses, jet-sharing is an option.

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The check-in, security and boarding processes are quick and simple. And, “There’s less risk for major system outages, like the big commercial carriers face, and in the long run, this option can save time and money,” Bruno says.

5. Sign up for Global Entry status.

Say goodbye to the lines.

If you have employees constantly flying across international borders, encourage them to register with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s program — which gives qualifying travelers an expedited customs process. The program allows “expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival into the U.S.,” as stated on the Dept. of Homeland Security’s website.

A background check and in-person interview can get you in the program.

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Just in Time at Jimmy’s

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Just-in-time at Jimmy’s St James’s Hospital, in Leeds in the north of the UK, affectionately known as ‘Jimmy’s’, is Europe’s largest teaching hospital. It employs around 4500 people to support the 90 000 in-patient treatments per year and over 450 000 total admissions. Under increasing pressure to reduce costs, to contain inventory and to improve service, the Supplies Department has undertaken a major analysis of its activities, to try and adopt some of the ideas from the JIT approach.

The initial review highlighted that Jimmy’s had approximately 1500 suppliers of 15 000 different products at a total cost of 15 million. Traditionally, the Supplies Department ordered what the doctors asked for, with many cases of similar items supplied by six or more firms. Under a cross-functional task force, comprising both medical and supply staff, a major programme of supplier and product rationalization was undertaken, which also revealed many sources of waste. For example, the team found that wards used as many as 20 different types of gloves, some of which were expensive surgeons’ gloves costing around per pair, yet in almost all cases these could be replaced by fewer and cheaper (20 pence) alternatives. Similarly, anaesthetic items which were previously bought from six suppliers, were single-sourced.

The savings in purchasing costs, inventory costs and general administration were enormous in themselves, but the higher-order volumes also helped the hospital negotiate for lower prices. Suppliers are also much more willing to deliver frequently in smaller quantities when they know that they are the sole supplier. Peter Beeston, the Supplies Manager, said: ‘We’ve been driven by suppliers for years … hey would insist that we could only purchase in thousands, that we would have to wait weeks, or that they would only deliver on Wednesdays! Now, our selected suppliers know that if they perform well, we will assure them of a long-term commitment. I prefer to buy 80 per cent of our requirements from 20 or 30 suppliers, whereas previously, it involved over a hundred. ’ The streamlining of the admissions process also proved fertile ground for improvement along JIT principles. For example, in the Urology Department, one-third of patients for non-urgent surgery found their appointments were being cancelled.

One reason for this was that in the time between the consultant saying that an operation was required and the patient arriving at the operating theatre, there were 59 changes in responsibility for the process. The hospital reorganized the process to form a ‘cell’ of four people who were given complete responsibility for admissions to Urology. The cell was located next to the ward and made responsible for all record keeping, planning all operations, ensuring that beds were available as needed, and telling the patient when to arrive. As a result, the 59 handovers are now down to 13 and the process is faster, cheaper and more reliable.

Jimmy’s also introduced a simple kanban system for some of its local inventory. In Ward 9’s storeroom, for example, there are just two boxes of 10 mm syringes on the shelf. W hen the first is empty, the other is moved forward and the Ward Sister then orders another. The next stage will be to simplify the reordering: empty boxes will be posted outside the store, where codes will be periodically read by the Supplies Department, using a mobile data recorder.

The hospital’s management are convinced of the benefits of their changes. ‘Value for money, not cost cutting, is what this is all about. We are standardizing on buying quality products and now also have more influence on the buying decision … from being previously functionally oriented with a number of buyers, we now concentrate on materials management for complete product ranges. The project has been an unmitigated success and although we are only just starting to see the benefits, I would expect savings in cost and in excess inventory to spiral!

The report on Sterile Wound Care Packs shows the potential that our team has identified. The ‘old’ pack consisted of four pairs of plastic forceps, cotton wool balls and a plastic pot, which were used with or without additional gloves. This pack cost approximately 60 pence excluding the gloves. The “new” pack consists of a plastic pot, swabs, etc., and one pair of latex gloves only. This pack costs approximately 33 pence including gloves. Total target saving is approximately 20 000. ’

Questions

  1. List the elements in St James’s new approach which could be seen as deriving from JIT principles of manufacturing.
  2. What further ideas from JIT manufacturing do you think could be applied in a hospital setting such as St James’s?

In the UK, the 45 000 square metre purpose-built facility in mid-Wales produces 1300 product types in a spotlessly clean environment, which is akin to a pharmaceutical plant in terms of hygiene, safety and quality. The plant has 55 production lines and 45 different production processes, and the manufacturing systems employed are of a flexibility that allows them to run each of the 1300 product types every two months – that means over 150 different products each week. But the plant was not always as flexible as this.

It has been forced to enhance its flexibility by the requirement to ship over 80 million items each year. The sheer logistics involved in purchasing, producing, storing and distributing the volume and variety of goods has led to its current focus on introducing JIT principles into the manufacturing process. To help achieve its drive for flexibility and for JIT production, L’Oreal organized the site into three production centres, each autonomous and focused within technical families of products. Their processes and production lines are then further focused within product sub-divisions.

Responsible for all the activities within his area, from pre-weighing to dispatch, is the Production Centre Manager, whose role also encompasses staff development, training and motivation. Within the focused production centres, improvement groups have been working on improving shop-floor flexibility, quality and efficiency. One of the projects reduced the setup times on the line which produces hair colourants from 2. 5 hours to only eight minutes. These new changeover times mean that the company can now justify even smaller batches, and may give the company the flexibility to meet market needs just-in-time.

Prior to the change in setup time, batch size was 30 000 units; now batches as small as 2000– 3000 units can be produced costeffectively.

Questions

  1. What did L’Oreal do to help it organize the process of setup reduction?
  2.  What do you think L’Oreal gained from doing each of these things?
  3. If we could halve all changeover times in the factory, what effect would this have on inventory?

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Performance Rating Written Report

For example, If the benchmark of dealing 52 cards In 0. 0 minutes Is established, a complete and specific description should be given of the distance of the four hands alt with respect to the dealer, as well as the technique of grasping, moving and disposing of the cards. The benchmark example should be supplemented by a clear description of the characteristics of an employee carrying out a normal performance. A representative description of such an employee might be as follows: a worker who Is adapted to the work and has attained sufficient experience to perform the Job In efficient manner, with little or .

The worker possesses coordinated mental and physical qualities, enabling him or her to proceed from one element to another without hesitation or delay, In accordance with the principles of motion economy. The worker maintains a good level of efficiency through knowledge and proper use of all tools and equipment related to the Job. He or she cooperates and performs at a pace best suited for continuous performance.

However, Individual differences between workers still exist Differences in inherent knowledge, physical capacity, health, trade knowledge, physical dexterity, and training can cause one operator to outperform another consistently and progressively. Sound rating characteristics The first and most Important characteristic of any rating system Is ACCURACY. Perfect consistency in rating is impossible. The rating plan with variations greater than В± 5 percent should either be improved or replaced. Time study analysts who to conduct such studies.

It is not difficult to correct the rating habits of an analyst who consistently rates high or consistently low. But it is very difficult to correct the rating ability of an analyst who is inconsistent, rating too high today and too low tomorrow. Inconsistency, more than anything else, destroys the operator’s confidence in the time study procedure. A rating system that is simple, concise, easily explained, and keyed to well-established benchmarks is more successful than a complex rating system requiring involved adjustment factors and computational techniques that may confuse the average shop employee.

Workstation rating Performance rating should only be done during the observation of elemental times. As the operator progresses from one element to the next, using the prescribed method, analyst should carefully evaluate speed, dexterity, false moves, rhythm, coordination, effectiveness, and the other factors influencing output. Once the performance has been Judged and recorded, it should not be changed. However, this does not imply that the observer always has perfect Judgment. If the rating is questioned, the Job or operation should be restudied to prove or disprove the recorded evaluation.

Immediately after completing the study and recording the final performance factor if overall rating even elemental rating was used, the analyst can approximate the operator’s performance. This gives the operator an opportunity to express his or her opinion about the fairness of the performance factor, and to give his opinion directly to the person responsible for its development. Rating elements versus Overall study On short-cycle repetitive operations, little deviation in operator performance is realized during the course of the average-length study (1 5 to 30 minutes).

In such cases, it is perfectly satisfactory to evaluate the performance of the entire study and record the rating factor for each element. Remember power-fed or machine- controlled elements are rated normal, or 100, as their speed cannot be changed at will by the operators. In short-cycle studies, an observer who endeavors to reference rate each element in the study will be so busy recording values that he or she will be unable to effectively observe, analyze, and evaluate the operator’s performance.

When the study is relatively long (over 30 minutes) or is made up of several long elements, operator performance may vary during the course of the study. They can consistently and accurately rate elements longer than 0. 10 minute as they occur. If a study is comprised off series of elements shorter than 0. 10 minute, then no effort should be made to evaluate each element of each cycle of the study, as time does not permit such action. It is satisfactory to rate the overall time of each cycle or a group of cycles.

RATING METHODS Speed rating – Is a performance evaluation method that only considers the rate of accomplishment of the work per unit time. In this method, the observer measures the effectiveness of the operator against the concept of a qualified operator doing the same work, and then assigns a percentage to indicate the ratio of the observed performance to performance determine whether it is above or below normal. 100 percent is usually considered normal.

A rating of 110 percent indicates that the operator was reforming at a speed 10 percent greater than normal, and a rating of 90 percent would mean that the operator was performing at a speed 90 percent normal. Two tasks were suggested by Preserve (1957) to develop an initial mental model ; (1) walking 3 miles per hour (4. Km/her), that is, 100 feet (30. 5 m) in 0. 38 minutes and (2) dealing a deck of 52 cards into four equal piles closely spaced In one half minute. Time study analysts use speed rating for elemental, cycle, or overall rating.

The Westinghouse system One of the oldest used rating system was developed by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Then termed leveling, it is outlined in detail in Lowry, Maynard, and Estrangement. This method considers four (4) factors in evaluating the performance of the operator: 1. Skill Lowry defines skill as ” proficiency at following a given method,” and further relates it to expertise, as demonstrated by a proper coordination of mind and hands. A person’s skill in a given operation increases over time, because increased familiarity with the work brings speed, smoothness of motions, and freedom from hesitations and false moves.

The Westinghouse rating system lists these six degrees or lasses that represent an acceptable proficiency for evaluation: Poor, fair, average, good, excellent, and super. 2. Effort This rating method defines effort as a “demonstration of the will to work effectively. ” Effort is representative of the speed with which skill is applied, and can be controlled to a high degree by the operator. The six effort classes for rating purposes are: Poor, fair, average, good, excellent, and excessive 3. Conditions In this performance rating procedure affect the operator and not the operation.

Time study analyst rate conditions as normal or average in more than a majority of instances, as conditions are evaluated in comparison with the way they are customarily found at the workstation. Elements affecting working conditions include temperature, ventilation, light and noise. The six general classes of conditions, with values ranging from +6 percent to -7 percent, are ideal, excellent good, average, fair, and poor. 4. Consistency Elemental time values that constantly repeat would have perfectly consistency.

This situation occurs very frequently, as there always tends to be dispersion due to the and effort, erroneous watch readings, and foreign elements. The six classes f consistency are perfect, excellent, good, average, fair and poor. Perfect consistency is rated +4 percent and poor consistency is rated -4 percent. Once the skill, effort, conditions and consistency of the operation have been assigned, and their equivalent numerical values established. For example, if a given Job is rated CA on skill.

CLC on effort, D on conditions and E on consistency, the performance factor would be as follows; The Westinghouse rating system demands considerable training to differentiate the levels of each attribute. The procedure generally followed is; 1 . A film is shown and he operation explained. 2. The film or tape is reshow and rated. 3. The individual ratings are compared and discussed. 4. The film or tape is reshow and the attributes are pointed out and explained. 5. Step 4 is repeated as often as necessary to reach understanding and agreement.

Synthetic rating Morrow (1946) established a procedure known as synthetic rating. This procedure determines a performance factor for representative effort elements of the work cycle by comparing actual elemental observed times to times developed through fundamental motion data. The performance factor may be expressed algebraically HO Where; P= performance or rating factor. Fundamental motion time. 0= observed mean elemental time for the elements used in F. Objective Rating Developed by Mendel and Dander (1994), eliminates the difficulty of establishing a normal speed criterion for every type of work.

This procedure establishes a single work assignment to which the pace of all other Jobs is compared. After the Judgment of pace, a secondary factor assigned to the Job indicates its relative difficulty. Factors (1) Amount of body used, (2) Foot pedals, (3) Femaleness, (4) Eye-hand coordination, (5) Handling or sensory requirements, and 6) Weight handled or resistance encountered. The rating (R) can thus be expressed as follows: where: P= Pace rating factor. Difficulty adjustment factor. Rating Application R=PIX job The value of a rating is written in the R column of the time study form.

After the stopwatch phase is complete, the analyst multiplies the observed time (OR) by rating (R), scaled by 100, to yield the normal time (NT). RATING ANALYSIS TO X 100 Four criteria determine whether or not time study analyst using speed rating can consistently establish values within 5 percent of the rating average calculated by a rope of trained analyst. These are: 1. Experience in the class of work performed. 2. Use of synthetic benchmarks on at least two of the elements performed. 3.

Selection of an operator who gives performances somewhere between 85 and 115 percent of standard pace. 4. Use of the mean value of three or more independent studies and/or different operators. To assure speed rating consistency, both with their own rates and with the rates established by the others, analyst should continually participate in organized training programs. One of the most widely used training methods is the observation of audiotapes or motion-picture films illustrating diverse operations performed at different productivity levels.

Figure 10-3. A straight LINE indicates perfection, whereas high-irregularities on both sides of the line indicate inconsistency, as well as an ability to evaluate performance. The analyst rated the first film 75, but the correct rating was 55. The second was rated 80, while the proper rating was 70. In all but the first case, the analyst was within the company’s established area of correct rating. Note, that due to the nature of confidence intervals, the В±5 percent accuracy criterion is valid only around 100 recent or standard performance.

When performance is below 70 percent of standard or above 130 percent of standard, an experienced time study analyst would expect an error much larger than 5 percent. The closer the time study analyst’s rating comes to the x-axis, the more correct he/she is. To determine quantitatively an analyst’s ability to rate performance, compute the percentage of the analyst’s rating contained within specified limits of the known ratings. This can be done as follows: 1 . Compute the mean difference ( CD )between the analyst’s rating and the actual rating for n test (n should be at least 15 observations). Compute the standard deviation (SD )of the differences in rating 3. Compute the normal deviate(Z), where; 4. Compute the normal deviate (Z ), where; Z = +5 (or some other figure of accuracy) – CD 5. Compute the area under the normal distribution curve between В±5 (for some figure of accuracy) centered at CD, which is assumed to be equal to deed, and Sd which is assumed to be equal to ad Analyst overrated low performance levels and underrated high performance levels. This is typical of novice raters who tend to be conservative raters and afraid to deviate too far from standard performance.

In statistical applications, this tendency is termed regression to the mean and result in a relatively flat line compared to the expected line with a slope of one. The novice rater who rates higher than the true value for performance below standard performance produces a loose rate. For performance above the standard, a novice rater who rates lower than the true value produces a tight rate. Straight Speed Rating The performance rating plan that is easiest to apply, easiest to explain and gives the most valid results. Rating Training -To assure speed rating consistency, both with their own rates and with the rates

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3 Signs It’s Time to Fire the Boss

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Fox News Channel recently found itself making headlines when Andrea Tantaros, host of “The Five” and “Outnumbered,” filed a  alleging that her boss, Fox News’ then-Chairman Roger Ailes, had sexually harassed her. Other female hosts at the cable network, including Gretchen Carlson, quickly broke their silence and filed similar lawsuits.

The network conducted an internal investigation of Ailes’ management over the past 20 years, revealing numerous on-the-record instances of professional misconduct. The controversy ultimately led .

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As a budding startup, you’ve likely not had to deal with such a public dismissal of an executive. But while your decision to demote or terminate high-ranking management might not be as highly visible, it is nonetheless imperative to the survival of long-term company goals and culture.

Hesitations to moving on.

Letting a higher-up employee go is never an easy decision, particularly when a replacement is not immediately available to backfill the position. That said, having someone under-perform and affect your company’s bottom line .

 suggests managers who are not effective at their jobs improve only slightly when given remedial training. Essentially, providing ongoing training to a manager who struggles with leadership will only prolong performance issues and strain relationships with other team members.

The anxiety associated with firing someone is natural. Even shrewd businessmen such as Warren Buffett struggle when it comes time to make a management change. “It’s pure agony, and I usually postpone it and suck my thumb and do all kinds of other things before I finally carry it out,” .

So what stops us from pulling the trigger when enough is enough? Much of that hesitation stems from fear. You may dread the immediate effect it will have on the company and on long-term relationships with customers and employees, but you may also anticipate the potential of  by the individual you’re firing. Nonetheless, strong leaders have an obligation to push past those fears and make a change for the overall health of the organization.

Signs it’s time to move on.

While a good manager can spark , a bad manager has the opposite effect. If you have a manager who does not support you or team members, it’s  in your organization. Allowing this type of management to continue can seriously affect potential hires and retention.

If your CEO or company manager is demonstrating these three behaviors, it might be time to escalate the discussion to your board of directors or appropriate upper management:

1. Dishonesty.

In the workplace, sincerity is worth its weight in gold, yet according to a , 22 percent of executives are let go because they’re all wax and no wick.

A good manager or executive can effectively communicate change, rally the troops during crunch time and guide employees through tough situations. A poor manager will pay your employees plenty of lip service, but he won’t have any actions to back up his big talk. And faced with a mistake, he’ll spend more time trying to point fingers than solve the problem.

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2. Harmful misconduct.

Offensive or intimidating behavior in the workplace is neither acceptable nor excusable, but unfortunately, it is not terribly uncommon. Roughly  will experience sexual harassment at work, and  of workplace bullies hold higher-ranking positions than their victims.

Workplace bullying and harassment can open your company up to expensive lawsuits, but more than that, you have an ethical duty to ensure your employees feel safe at work. As a leader, it’s your job to cultivate a productive, inclusive environment, and if one of your managers or executives is posing a threat to someone, you need to take action to not only stop it, but also to prevent it from happening again.

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3. Poor communication.

Effective managers work hard to encourage reciprocity because they know it pays off.  found employees who felt their managers listened to them were reportedly five times more likely to feel excited about their jobs and a staggering 21 times more likely to stay loyal to their current companies.

Ineffective managers tend to bark orders and tune out employee suggestions — which can demotivate even your best talent and cause those workers to look elsewhere for employment opportunities.

Make no mistake. A bad manager or executive can create a toxic work environment, affecting your company’s success in the long run. Take action now. Don’t let the continuation of awful management have disastrous consequences on your employees, customers and reputation.

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Operations Management: Process Improvement Plan

Statistical process control is important in a process design because it can show the characteristics from a certain behavior, operation, or task over a period of time. It is important to collect the data and report results as the process is occurring, so that immediate corrective actions can be taken. This helps in controlling the quality and the deviation beyond acceptable limits. In simple terms, a process is measured to find out the deviations from the desired result.

The metrics designed to measure the process help in quantifying and depicting the ability of the process design to give the expected results. Using the quantitative information and the use of statistical process controls helps in identifying the deviations. In this study, we have selected a process design, “Getting ready for work in the morning. ” The factors that affect the process design could be the time taken to complete all the activities required for getting ready and the availability of resources (toothpaste, shaving cream, electricity, dryer, food & clothes).

Time and the tasks which are being performed play the key roles in determining what and how to improve this process design. Design and Development of Flow Chart Flowcharts represent the flow of logic in systematic manner. The following are the steps involved in getting ready and leaving for work

a) waking up and getting out of the bed,

b) Using restroom for performing essential duties such as brushing, shaving and taking shower.

c) Drying clothes (usually takes 20 minutes) and simultaneously eating breakfast.

d) Getting dressed

e) Reviewing the to do list

f) Leaving for work.

While measuring and controlling this process, the time was an important variable and it was calculated in minutes. Multiple tasks contributed to the amount of time spent from the first process to the final process. The following data was collected before measuring and controlling the process and the time it took to leave home for work after the process was controlled and corrective actions were taken.

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Effect Of Annealing Time And Temperature Environmental Sciences Essay

introduced to depict the experimental semi log I-V curve informations from the thermionic emanation theory utilizing ideality equation the ideality factor N of the rectifying tube was calculated from the incline of the additive part of the semi log I-V curve. Using equation 3.22, the nothing biased barrier tallness was determined from the impregnation current that was obtained from the intercept of the excess plotted additive part with current axis at V=0.

In Fig. 4.1 the logarithmic dependance of I with forward biased electromotive force is seen to widen over more than five order of magnitude leting ‘n ‘ to be easy deduced from the gradient. Any interfacial oxides layer ensuing from exposure of the semiconducting material surface to the ambiance between growing and metallization would hold the consequence of doing ideality factor a electromotive force dependent parametric quantity instead than a changeless ( Rhoderick and Williams, 1988 ) . The one-dimensionality observed in Fig. 4.1 clearly show that any bing interfacial bed must be undistinguished thickness and value for ‘n ‘ which was deduced from Fig. 4.1 being close to 1 indicated the cross barrier conveyance procedure in preponderantly via thermionic emanation. Harmonizing to Pattabi et Al. ( 2007 ) an ideality factor greater than integrity is by and large attributed to the presence of a bias dependent Schottky barrier tallness. Image forces, burrowing, generation-recombination, interface drosss and interfacial oxide bed are possible factors which could take to a higher ideality factor. The ideality factor represents a direct step of interface uniformity. The values for both Ns and are listed in Table 4.1 for junctions at assorted times after formation ( while at room temperature ) and in Table 4.2 for a sample which was subjected to a series of tempering interventions in vacuity at 150C0.

In order to analyze the stableness of Au-CdTe contacts, the electrical features of a figure of samples were investigated as map of clip after fiction. Table 4.1 gives the information for one of these samples which was studied over a period of four hebdomads. Immediately after fiction it can be seen in Table 4.1 that the barrier height measured 0.88ev. After one hebdomad there was important decrease in the barrier height to 0.80ev as determined from I-V measurings and after two hebdomads at that place was a farther decrease in the barrier height to 0.68eV. At this phase in order to look into the stableness of the measuring system, these measurings were repeated on the following twenty-four hours and, as the Table 4.1 shows indistinguishable features were observed. This confirmed the dependability of the measuring. Subsequent measuring after three hebdomads and four hebdomads indicated a much more stable behaviour of the contact with the barrier height being mentioned in the part 0.67 – 0.68eV.As it was expected that these procedures could be speeded up by increasing the temperature, a figure of sample were studied after tempering or different lengths of clip at 150C & A ; deg ; . Typical sets of I-V consequence are presented in Table 4.2. For this sample ( 228F ) the initial barrier tallness was calculated to be 0.95eV although this is non a dependable value in the position of the initial value of the ideality factor being instead high ( at 1.02 ) . How of all time after the sample was annealed at 150C & A ; deg ; for merely ten proceedingss, there was a important betterment in the ideality factor ( to 1.1 ) and a significant decrease in the measured barrier tallness to 0.75eV. It appears from this that the consequence of a brief annealing intervention was similar to go forthing the sample for a hebdomad or two at room temperature. After the sample was annealed for a 2nd clip ( for 15 proceedingss ) there was further but smaller decrease in barrier tallness to 0.68eV and after a 3rd annealing period ( this clip for 20 proceedingss ) there was an even smaller decrease to 0.65eV.

This tendency in behaviour due to tempering, with an initial rapid autumn in the barrier height being followed by lower alterations and greater stableness is clearly similar to that observed for sample 228A which remained at room temperature for four hebdomads. It was noted above that this behaviour must be due to chemical reaction or diffusion procedures in the part of the M/S interface.

In order to supply farther information on the nature of the procedures involved, a 2nd Au contact was formed to try 228F after it had been annealed ( with its first contact in topographic point ) for a sum of 45 proceedingss are antecedently described. The features of this 2nd contact are included in Table 4.2. It is clear that the initial barrier height 0.66eV for this new contact is closer to the concluding ( station tempering ) value for the original contact instead so to the much higher initial ( brittle ) value. This suggests that the procedures which influence the barrier tallness may be due to some out-diffusion from the inside of the semiconducting material to its surface. Clearly they are non dependent on the presence of the gold bed although some interaction between the Au contact and the implicit in semiconducting material is expected to happen ( Dharmadasa et al. , 1989 ; Van Meirhaeghe et al. , 1991 ) .The consequence of farther tempering for up to 70 proceedingss is recorded in Table 4.2. Merely little alterations in ideality factor and barrier tallness were observed, bespeaking rather stable behaviour for the new junction similar to that of the original junction after tempering.

Although Au is a p-type dopant in CdTe, the informations in table 4.1 and 4.2 indicates that the alterations in interface features are non dependent on the presence of Au during the procedure of tempering. An alternate account is that there is an outward diffusion of Cd ( likewise taking to the coevals of acceptor provinces near-surface part ) .This reading of the consequences is entirely understanding with the decision reached by Dharmadasa et Al. ( 1994 ) on the consequence of chemical etch interventions. Those etchants which were found to go forth the surface rich in Cd tended to bring forth barrier highs greater than 0.9 electron volts while those go forthing the surface deficient in Cd produced barrier highs which were ~ 0.2eV lower, as found in the instance of the annealed samples studied in this undertaking. Therefore, it is clear that interface reaction lead to a significant alteration in the defect construction in the locality of the junction but farther work will be necessary to find the exact construction of the defects provinces which might be responsible for Fermi degree traping before and after the reaction and the associated decrease in barrier tallness.

5.2 Effect of ion plating technique

In order to compare the consequence for Au contacts formed by ion-assisted manner with contacts produced by the usual vaporization process, a figure of samples were given two contacts ( one of each type ) . Fig. 4.2 gives the features for the normal Au contact and Fig. 4.3 gives the features for the ion-plated contact with 15 unsweet ion-etching clip. As expected, the I-V features in Fig. 4.2 are with ideality factor ‘n ‘ 1.2 and barrier tallness ( ) 0.90eV. As expected, the features in Fig. 4.2 are really similar to those shown in Fig. 4.1. However, for the ion-plated contact with 15 unsweet ion-etching clip there is a drastic alteration in both ideality factor ‘n ‘ and the barrier tallness ( ) was found to be 2.2 and 0.69 electron volts severally from I-V features shown in Fig. 4.3. This consequence suggests that a significant denseness of defects has been created below the Au contacts as a consequence of ion barrage of the surface during the plating procedure. The presence of defects in the depletion part, moving as recombination centres, leads to an extra forward prejudice current constituent with an ideality factor of about 2 ( Shochley and Read, 1952 ) .

However, the alteration in the behavior for the ion plated contact with 20 unsweet ion-etching clip is even more drastic than observed in Fig. 4.3. There is a greater addition in both frontward and change by reversal bias current with a really low barrier tallness of the order of 0.45 electron volt and N was determined to be 4.1 observed from features shown in Fig. 4.3. Fig. 4.4 shows the battier highs as a map of ideality factors for these ion plated Schottky rectifying tubes. As can be seen from Fig. 4.4, there is a additive relationship between the barrier tallness and ideality factor, with the barrier height going smaller as the ideality factor additions.

Change in ideality factor indicates that current conveyance mechanisms other than thermionic emanation are present. As this value of N is significantly greater than 2, as would be expected for a bearer recombination mechanism, as discussed earlier, it seems likely that bearer tunneling may besides be playing a function ( Popovic, 1978 ) . These consequences indicate that the possible consequence of plasma-induced surface defects is that they contribute to the conduction of the contact by moving as fast recombination centres ( Ponon, 1985 ) and in add-on to burrowing procedure suggest that this might be a utile manner of farming low opposition ( ohmic ) junction utilizing a lower work map metal.

5.3 Effect of Doping

The ideal I-V features of a Schottky rectifying tube exhibits exponential prejudice dependance as in equation 3.21 can be reduced to

For V & A ; gt ; 3kT/q

The magnitude of this impregnation current is governed by the effectual barrier height i.e. the difference between the conductivity set lower limit ( CBM ) at the surface of Au/n-CdTe and the Fermi degree of the metal ( Au ) .

The value of the barrier tallness can be calculated from the measured impregnation current utilizing equation 3.22

Deviation from this ideal behavior can be seen on the exponentially determined I-V features for normal, low and to a great extent doped InSb substrate in Figures 4.6, 4.7 and 4.8 severally where important inclines are observed for the current under contrary prejudice. Those divergences are attributed to image force take downing ( IFL ) , recombination phenomena due to the presence of deep traps and the being of high electric field ( Martin, 1981 ) .

The ideality factors ‘n ‘ and effectual barrier tallness were calculated from I-V features utilizing equation 3.23 and 3.24. The term effectual reflects the fact that the barrier tallness deduced from I-V measurings is lower than the value that should be obtained under inactive status i.e. without bearer injection, and includes the consequence of the image force take downing. Fig 4.11 shows a comparative position of I-V features for these three doped samples. After rating of I-V features, the values of the effectual barrier tallness and ideality factors for three wafers are shown in Table 4.4. A graph between barrier highs and ideality factors of three doped Au/n-CdTe Schottky rectifying tube is shown in Fig 4.9. A additive relationship between ideality factor and barrier tallness can be seen in Fig. 4.9 which is comparable to Fig.4.4. It has been demonstrated theoretically and by experimentation that the additive relationship between and ‘n ‘ can be attributed to the sidelong inhomogeneties of the barrier tallness in Schottky rectifying tubes ( Koutsouras et al. , 2005 ) . The presence of traps besides modifies the incline of the forward current and at the same clip the value of the ideality factor, which is higher than integrity for both samples ( low and high doped sample ) .

With increasing dopant concentration, the breadth of the depletion part W i.e. given by relation 3.11 i.e.

at a given prejudice decreases taking to higher electric Fieldss at the interface. Low barrier or effectual barrier height instead than observed for the to a great extent doped sample ( 549E ) substrate. That is the ground for the higher swill under contrary prejudice for doped samples ( 549F, 549F ) . However, the enhanced recombination rate due to the presence of deep trap degrees besides contributes coevals and recombination consequence and can non be excluded.

With heavier doping, increasing figure of new donor-type energy degrees are created underneath the conductivity set border. Under these fortunes, the givers are so near together that the giver degrees are no longer discrete and non-interacting energy degrees. These are instead debauched unifying together to make an dross bond, and doing band-gap narrowing ( BNG ) of the conductivity set. Obviously, the BNG is the highest near M/S interface, and the lowest in the majority. The effectual M/S barrier tallness is therefore reduced, as shown schematically in Fig 5.1.

The crisp tip of the conductivity set border in contact with the metal is peculiarly lowered, and the new barrier tallness becomes, where is the

Figure 5.1: Conventional diagram demoing the decrease of M/S barrier tallness due

to band-gap narrowing.

barrier tallness without BNG, and is the barrier tallness with BGN. However, a much more opposition arises from the CdTe/InSb junction. It has been shown that there is a possible barrier at this interface, associated with a conductivity set discontinuity of ~0.31 eV ( Van Welzenis and Ridley, 1984 ) . From a elaborate analysis of I-V features for gold-contacted devices with similar dimensions to those in present survey, effectual opposition value of ~100? have been deduced for the CdTe/InSb junction part ( Sands and Scott, 1995 ) . Harmonizing to the thermionic emanation theory, the contact electric resistance at the M/S contact depends merely on the effectual M/S barrier tallness, as given by ( Sze, 1982 )

( 5.1 )

Where S is the contact country ; q, K and T are electronic charge, Boltzman invariable and temperature severally and is the Richardson invariable ( with a value of ~ 1.2 -105 Am-2T-2 for CdTe ) . is the opposition associated with the forepart metal/CdTe junction. Assuming RC & A ; lt ; 10? so ?C & A ; lt ; 0.1?cm2 and the corresponding upper bound for effectual barrier tallness is 0.38 electron volt. This is consistency with surveies of Al contacts on cleen vacuity cleaved surfaces of CdTe which yielded barrier highs of ~ 0.1 electron volt ( Patterson et al. , 1986 ) .

About all the old probe emphasized tunneling as the primary mechanism for low contact electric resistance in n-CdTe. The present survey dose non govern out the importance of burrowing in making low contact electric resistance. However, it demonstrates that, depending on how much is lower than, thermionic emanation, instead than burrowing, may so be the primary cause for low contact electric resistance even in the tunnel contacts. If the surface intervention is really good, and the metal parametric quantity ( e.g. , metal thickness, metal deposition temperature, metal work map, metal combination, etc. ) are optimal, so may be significantly lower than. This, together with BGN and IFL can so play a important function for giving thermionic emanation based low contact electric resistance.

5.4 Decisions

The undermentioned decisions can be reached from the surveies on the effects of tempering clip and temperature, ion plated technique and doping in scope of 2.5-1016-1-1019 cm?3 on I-V features of the Au/n-CdTe Schottky rectifying tubes.

From Comparative survey of ion plated and doped samples of Au/n-CdTe Schottky rectifying tube, a additive relationship between the effectual barrier highs and ideality factors was found which shows that barrier tallness lessenings as ideality factor additions. As a consequence conduction additions. From which it can be concluded that:

When n = 1 so all conveyance of negatron is from the top of the barrier and thermionic emanation current mechanism should be dominant.

When 1 & A ; lt ; n & A ; lt ; 2, so burrowing current mechanism is dominant.

When n = 2, so all conveyance is due to coevals and recombination current.

When N & A ; gt ; 4 so there is non simple burrowing but step degree burrowing occurred.

Gold contact formed to n-CdTe by vacuity vaporization output Schottky barriers with initial barrier tallness In surplus of 0.88eV. This reduced to 0.66-0.68 electron volt in a period of clip which is dependent on temperature. This decrease is found to be accompanied by a partial compensation of the sickly givers in the semiconducting material part near to the contact, a procedure which can be attributed to a discriminatory out diffusion of Cadmium from this part to the contact surface.

It has been shown that the usage of simple vapour deposition on Au on n-type CdTe epilayers gave rectifying behavior with barrier tallness 0.9eV. A drastic alteration in barrier tallness was observed by the usage of ion-assisted plasma procedure, an ion etching clip of 20 sec to Au contact. This decrease in barrier tallness is attributed to the plasma- induced surface defects that contribute to the high conduction of the contact by moving as recombination centres along with multi measure degree burrowing centres.

Consequence of doping in Au/n-CdTe Schottky rectifying tube shows that if n-CdTe is to a great extent doped with important conductivity set flexing near M/S interface, burrowing is possible through metal/CdTe contact. The semiconducting material part at the interface therefore becomes really thin leting an unhampered flow of negatrons via burrowing. But existent challenge to accomplishing low resistively contact by utilizing reasonably doped semiconducting materials. Many devices do so necessitate low electric resistance contacts without the load of heavy doping ( Noor Mohammad, 2004 )

Consequence of doping on I-V features of Au/n-CdTe shows that barrier breadth ( tungsten ) decreases with the increasing doping denseness in conformity with ( Eq.3.11 ) .

The chief decision to be drawn from the comparative survey of I-V features of Au/n-CdTe Schottky rectifying tube, formed by the ion-plating procedure and doping consequence, leads to a much reduced contact opposition suggest that this might be a utile manner of farming stable and low opposition ( ohmic ) junction utilizing a lower work map metal ( e.g. , Al etc. ) suitable for thin movie MBE grown devices.

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