Manufacturing System Engineering

How Products Are Made : Porcelain.

2011-04-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Background

The term porcelain refers to a wide range of ceramic products that have been baked at high temperatures to achieve vitreous, or glassy, qualities such as translucence and low porosity. Among the most familiar porcelain goods are table and decorative china, chemical ware, dental crowns, and electrical insulators. Usually white or off-white, porcelain comes in both glazed and unglazed varieties, with bisque, fired at a high temperature, representing the most popular unglazed variety.

Although porcelain is frequently used as a synonym for china, the two are not identical. They resemble one another in that both are vitreous wares of extremely low porosity, and both can be glazed or unglazed. However, china, also known as soft-paste or tender porcelain, is softer: it can be cut with a file, while porcelain cannot. This difference is due to the higher temperatures at which true porcelain is fired, 2,650 degrees Fahrenheit (1,454 degrees Celsius) compared to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,204 degrees Celsius) for china. Due to its greater hardness, porcelain has some medical and industrial applications which china, limited to domestic and artistic use, does not. Moreover, whereas porcelain is always translucent, china is opaque.

Hard-paste or "true" porcelain originated in China during the T'ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.); however, high quality porcelain comparable to modern wares did not develop until the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 A.D.). Early Chinese porcelain consisted of kaolin (china clay) and pegmatite, a coarse type of granite. Porcelain was unknown to European potters prior to the importation of Chinese wares during the Middle Ages. Europeans tried to duplicate Chinese porcelain, but, unable to analyze its chemical composition, they could imitate only its appearance. After mixing glass with tin oxide to render it opaque, European craftspeople tried combining clay and ground glass. These alternatives became known as soft-paste, glassy, or artificial porcelains. However, because they were softer than genuine porcelain, as well as expensive to produce, efforts to develop true porcelain continued. In 1707 two Germans named Ehrenfried Walter von Tschimhaus and Johann Friedrich Bottger succeeded by combining clay with ground feldspar instead of the ground glass previously used.

Later in the eighteenth century the English further improved upon the recipe for porcelain when they invented bone china by adding ash from cattle bones to clay, feldspar, and quartz. Although bone china is fired at lower temperatures than true porcelain, the bone ash enables it to become translucent nonetheless. Because it is also easier to make, harder to chip, and stronger than hard porcelain, bone china has become the most popular type of porcelain in the United States and Britain (European consumers continue to favor hard porcelain).

Raw Materials
The primary components of porcelain are clays, feldspar or flint, and silica, all characterized by small particle size. To create different types of porcelain, craftspeople combine these raw materials in varying proportions until they obtain the desired green (unfired) and fired properties.

Although the composition of clay varies depending upon where it is extracted and how it is treated, all clays vitrify (develop glassy qualities), only at extremely high temperatures unless they are mixed with materials whose vitrification threshold is lower. Unlike glass, however, clay is refractory, meaning that it holds its shape when it is heated. In effect, porcelain combines glass's low porosity with clay's ability to retain its shape when heated, making it both easy to form and ideal for domestic use. The principal clays used to make porcelain are china clay and ball clay, which consist mostly of kaolinate, a hydrous aluminum silicate.

To make porcelain, the raw materials—such as clay, felspar, and silica—are first crushed using jaw crushers, hammer mills, and ball mills. After cleaning to remove improperly sized materials, the mixture is subjected to one of four forming processes—soft plastic forming, stiff plastic forming, pressing, or casting—depending on the type of ware being produced. The ware then undergoes a preliminary firing step, bisque-firing.

Feldspar, a mineral comprising mostly aluminum silicate, and flint, a type of hard quartz, function as fluxes in the porcelain body or mixture. Fluxes reduce the temperature at which liquid glass forms during firing to between 1,835 and 2,375 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 and 1,300 degrees Celsius). This liquid phase binds the grains of the body together.

Silica is a compound of oxygen and silicon, the two most abundant elements in the earth's crust. Its resemblance to glass is visible in quartz (its crystalline form), opal (its amorphous form), and sand (its impure form). Silica is the most common filler used to facilitate forming and firing of the body, as well as to improve the properties of the finished product. Porcelain may also contain alumina, a compound of aluminum and oxygen, or low-alkali containing bodies, such as steatite, better known as soapstone.

The Manufacturing Process

After the raw materials are selected and the desired amounts weighed, they go through a series of preparation steps. First, they are crushed and purified. Next, they are mixed together before being subjected to one of four forming processes—soft plastic forming, stiff plastic forming, pressing, or casting; the choice depends upon the type of ware being produced.

After the porcelain has been formed, it is subjected to a final purification process, bisque-firing, before being glazed. Glaze is a layer of decorative glass applied to and fired onto a ceramic body. The final manufacturing phase is firing, a heating step that takes place in a type of oven called a kiln.

Crushing the raw materials

1 First, the raw material particles are reduced to the desired size, which involves using a variety of equipment during several crushing and grinding steps. Primary crushing is done in jaw crushers which use swinging metal jaws. Secondary crushing reduces particles to 0.1 inch (.25 centimeter) or less in diameter by using mullers (steel-tired wheels) or hammer mills, rapidly moving steel hammers. For fine grinding, craftspeople use ball mills that consist of large rotating cylinders partially filled with steel or ceramic grinding media of spherical shape.

Cleaning and mixing

2 The ingredients are passed through a series of screens to remove any under- or over-sized materials. Screens, usually operated in a sloped position, are vibrated mechanically or electromechanically to improve flow. If the body is to be formed wet, the ingredients are then combined with water to produce the desired consistency. Magnetic filtration is then used to remove iron from the slurries, as these watery mixtures of insoluble material are called. Because iron occurs so pervasively in most clays and will impart an undesirable reddish hue to the body if it oxidizes, removing it prior to firing is essential. If the body is to be formed dry, shell mixers, ribbon mixers, or intensive mixers are typically used.

After bisque firing, the porcelain wares are put through a glazing operation, which applies the proper coating. The glaze can be applied by painting, dipping, pouring, or spraying. Finally, the ware undergoes a firing step in an oven or kiln. After cooling, the porcelain ware is complete.

Forming the body

3 Next, the body of the porcelain is formed. This can be done using one of four methods, depending on the type of ware being produced:

soft plastic forming, where the clay is shaped by manual molding, wheel throwing, jiggering, or ram pressing. In wheel throwing, a potter places the desired amount of body on a wheel and shapes it while the wheel turns. In jiggering, the clay is put on a horizontal plaster mold of the desired shape; that mold shapes one side of the clay, while a heated die is brought down from above to shape the other side. In ram pressing, the clay is put between two plaster molds, which shape it while forcing the water out. The mold is then separated by applying vacuum to the upper half of the mold and pressure to the lower half of the mold. Pressure is then applied to the upper half to free the formed body.

stiff plastic forming, which is used to shape less plastic bodies. The body is forced through a steel die to produce a column of uniform girth. This is either cut into the desired length or used as a blank for other forming operations.

pressing, which is used to compact and shape dry bodies in a rigid die or flexible mold. There are several types of pressing, based on the direction of pressure. Uniaxial pressing describes the process of applying pressure from only one direction, whereas isostatic pressing entails applying pressure equally from all sides.

slip casting, in which a slurry is poured into a porous mold. The liquid is filtered out through the mold, leaving a layer of solid porcelain body. Water continues to drain out of the cast layer, until the layer becomes rigid and can be removed from the mold. If the excess fluid is not drained from the mold and the entire material is allowed to solidify, the process is known as solid casting.

Bisque-firing

4 After being formed, the porcelain parts are generally bisque-fired, which entails heating them at a relatively low temperature to vaporize volatile contaminants and minimize shrinkage during firing.

Glazing

5 After the raw materials for the glaze have been ground they are mixed with water. Like the body slurry, the glaze slurry is screened and passed through magnetic filters to remove contaminants. It is then applied to the ware by means of painting, pouring, dipping, or spraying. Different types of glazes can be produced by varying the proportions of the constituent ingredients, such as alumina, silica, and calcia. For example, increasing the alumina and decreasing the silica produces a matte glaze.

Firing

6 Firing is a further heating step that can be done in one of two types of oven, or kiln. A periodic kiln consists of a single, refractory-lined, sealed chamber with burner ports and flues (or electric heating elements). It can fire only one batch of ware at a time, but it is more flexible since the firing cycle can be adjusted for each product. A tunnel kiln is a refractory chamber several hundred feet or more in length. It maintains certain temperature zones continuously, with the ware being pushed from one zone to another. Typically, the ware will enter a preheating zone and move through a central firing zone before leaving the kiln via a cooling zone. This type of kiln is usually more economical and energy efficient than a periodic kiln.

7 During the firing process, a variety of reactions take place. First, carbon-based impurities burn out, chemical water evolves (at 215 to 395 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 to 200 degrees Celsius), and carbonates and sulfates begin to decompose (at 755 to 1,295 degrees Fahrenheit or 400 to 700 degrees Celsius). Gases are produced that must escape from the ware. On further heating, some of the minerals break down into other phases, and the fluxes present (feldspar and flint) react with the decomposing minerals to form liquid glasses (at 1,295 to 2,015 degrees Fahrenheit or 700 to 1,100 degrees Celsius). These glass phases are necessary for shrinking and bonding the grains. After the desired density is achieved (greater than 2,195 degrees Fahrenheit or 1,200 degrees Celsius), the ware is cooled, which causes the liquid glass to solidify, thereby forming a strong bond between the remaining crystalline grains. After cooling, the porcelain is complete.

Quality Control

The character of the raw materials is important in maintaining quality during the manufacturing process. The chemical composition, mineral phase, particle size distribution, and colloidal surface area affect the fired and unfired properties of the porcelain. With unfired body, the properties evaluated include viscosity, plasticity, shrinkage, and strength. With fired porcelain, strength, porosity, color, and thermal expansion are measured. Many of these properties are monitored and controlled during manufacturing using statistical methods. Both the raw materials and the process parameters (milling time and forming pressure, for example) can be adjusted to achieve desired quality.

The Future

High-quality porcelain art and dinnerware will continue to enhance the culture. Improvements in manufacturing will continue to increase both productivity and energy efficiency. For instance, a German kiln manufacturer has developed a prefabricated tunnel kiln for fast firing high-quality porcelain in less than 5 hours. Firing is achieved by partly reducing atmosphere at a maximum firing temperature of 2,555 degrees Fahrenheit (1,400 degrees Celsius). The kiln uses high-velocity burners and an automatic control system, producing 23,000 pounds (11,500 kilograms) of porcelain in 24 hours.

Manufacturers of porcelain products may also have to increase their recycling efforts, due to the increase in environmental regulations. Though unfired scrap is easily recycled, fired scrap poses a problem: mechanically strong and therefore hard to break down, it is usually dumped into landfills. However, preliminary research has shown that fired scrap can be reused after thermal quenching (where the scrap is reheated and then quickly cooled), which makes it weaker and easier to break down. The scrap can then be used as a raw material.

Porcelain appears to be playing a more important role in technical applications. Recent patents have been issued to Japanese and American companies in the area of electrical insulators and dental prostheses. NGK Insulators, Ltd., a Japanese manufacturer, has developed high-strength porcelain for electrical insulators, whereas Murata Manufacturing Co. has developed low-temperature-sintering porcelain components for electronic applications.

Where To Learn More

Books

Campbell, James E. The Art and Architecture Information Guide Series, vol. 7:Pottery and Ceramics, A Guide to Infonnation Sources. Gale Research, 1978.

Camusso, Lorenzo, ed. Ceramics of the World: From Four Thousand B.C. to the Present. Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Charles, Bernard H. Pottery and Porcelain. Hippocrene Books, 1974.

Jones, J. T. and M. F. Bernard. Ceramics, Industrial Processing and Testing. Iowa State University Press, 1972.

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BENCHMARKING

2011-04-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

Benchmarking is the process through which a company measures its products, services, and practices against its toughest competitors, or those companies recognized as leaders in its industry. Benchmarking is one of a manager's best tools for determining whether the company is performing particular functions and activities efficiently, whether its costs are in line with those of competitors, and whether its internal activities and business processes need improvement. The idea behind benchmarking is to measure internal processes against an external standard. It is a way of learning which companies are best at performing certain activities and functions and then imitating—or better still, improving on—their techniques.

Benchmarking focuses on company-to-company comparisons of how well basic functions and processes are performed. Among many possibilities, it may look at how materials are purchased, suppliers are paid, inventories are managed, employees are trained, or payrolls are processed; at how fast the company can get new products to market; at how the quality control function is performed; at how customer orders are filled and shipped; and at how maintenance is performed.

Benchmarking enables managers to determine what the best practice is, to prioritize opportunities for improvement, to enhance performance relative to customer expectations, and to leapfrog the traditional cycle of change. It also helps managers to understand the most accurate and efficient means of performing an activity, to learn how lower costs are actually achieved, and to take action to improve a company's cost competitiveness. As a result, benchmarking has been used in many companies as a tool for obtaining a competitive advantage.

Companies usually undertake benchmarking with a view towards the many improvements that it may offer. These benefits include reducing labor cost, streamlining the work flow through reengineered business processes and common administrative systems, improving data center operations through consolidation and downsizing, cooperative business and information technology planning, implementing new technology, outsourcing some assignments and functions, redesigning the development and support processes, and restructuring and reorganizing the information technology functions.

BENCHMARKING BASICS

The goal of benchmarking is to identify the weaknesses within an organization and improve upon them, with the idea of becoming the "best of the best."

The benchmarking process helps managers to find gaps in performance and turn them into opportunities for improvement. Benchmarking enables companies to identify the most successful strategies used by other companies of comparable size, type, or regional location, and then adopt relevant measures to make their own programs more efficient. Most companies apply benchmarking as part of a broad strategic process. For example, companies use benchmarking in order to find breakthrough ideas for improving processes, to support quality improvement programs, to motivate staffs to improve performance, and to satisfy management's need for competitive assessments.

Benchmarking targets roles, processes, and critical success factors. Roles are what define the job or function that a person fulfills. Processes are what consume a company's resources. Critical success factors are issues that company must address for success over the long-term in order to gain a competitive advantage. Benchmarking focuses on these things in order to point out inefficiencies and potential areas for improvement.

A company that decides to undertake a bench-marking initiative should consider the following questions: When? Why? Who? What? and How?

WHEN.

Benchmarking can be used at any time, but is usually performed in response to needs that arise within a company. According to C.J. McNair and Kathleen H.J. Leibfried in their book Benchmarking: A Tool for Continuous Improvement, some potential "triggers" for the benchmarking process include:
· quality programs
· cost reduction/budget process
· operations improvement efforts
· management change
· new operations/new ventures
· rethinking existing strategies
· competitive assaults/crises

WHY.

This is the most important question in management's decision to begin the benchmarking process. McNair and Leibfried suggest several reasons why companies may embark upon benchmarking:

· to signal management's willingness to pursue a philosophy that embraces change in a proactive rather than reactive manner;
· to establish meaningful goals and performance measures that reflect an external/customer focus, foster "quantum leap" thinking, and focus on high-payoff opportunities;
· to create early awareness of competitive disadvantage; and
· to promote teamwork that is based on competitive need and is driven by concrete data analysis, not intuition or gut feeling.

WHO.

Companies may decide to benchmark internally, against competitors, against industry performance, or against the "best of the best." Internal benchmarking is the analysis of existing practice within various departments or divisions of the organization, looking for best performance as well as identifying baseline activities and drivers. Competitive benchmarking looks at a company's direct competitors and evaluates how the company is doing in comparison.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is not only important in plotting a successful strategy, but it can also help prioritize areas of improvement as specific customer expectations are identified. Industry benchmarking is more trend-based and has a much broader scope. It can help establish performance baselines. The best-in-class form of benchmarking examines multiple industries in search of new, innovative practices. It not only provides a broad scope, but also it provides the best opportunities over that range.

WHAT.

Benchmarking can focus on roles, processes, or strategic issues. It can be used to establish the function or mission of an organization. It can also be used to examine existing practices while looking at the organization as a whole to identify practices that support major processes or critical objectives. When focusing on specific processes or activities, the depth of the analysis is a key issue. The analysis can take the form of vertical or horizontal benchmarking.

Vertical benchmarking is where the focus is placed on specific departments or functions, while horizontal bench-marking is where the focus is placed on a specific process or activity. Concerning strategic issues, the objective is to identify factors that are of greatest importance to competitive advantage, to define measures of excellence that capture these issues, and to isolate companies that appear to be top performers in these areas.

HOW.

Benchmarking uses different sources of information, including published material, trade meetings, and conversations with industry experts, consultants, customers, and marketing representatives. The emergence of Internet technology has facilitated the bench-marking process. The Internet offers access to a number of databases-like Power-MARQ from the nonprofit American Productivity and Quality Center-containing performance indicators for thousands of different companies. The Internet also enables companies to conduct electronic surveys to collect bench-marking data. How a company benchmarks may depend on available resources, deadlines, and the number of alternative sources of information.

TYPES OF BENCHMARKING

There are a number of different types of bench-marking, which are driven by different motivating factors and thus involve different comparisons. Some of the major types of benchmarking are as follows: Metric benchmarking is the use of quantitative measures as reference points for comparisons. Best-practice benchmarking focuses on identifying outstanding techniques. Information technology benchmarking includes data processing, systems analysis, programming, end-user support, and networks. Infrastructure benchmarking includes data centers, networks, data/information, end-user support, and distribution remote centers.

Application benchmarking includes system analysis, development and maintenance programming, and functionality. Strategy benchmarking includes skills assessment, information technology strategy, business-technology alignment, and delineation of roles and responsibilities.

There are many motivators that drive the different types of benchmarking. Application benchmarking and infrastructure benchmarking, for example, use such motivators as cost, quality, competition, and goal setting. An advantage of benchmarking is that it facilitates the process of change, clearly laying out the types of solutions external organizations have used and providing a global perspective on how part of the company affects the whole. It further helps focus improvement in the areas where actual gains can be made, which translates into value added to the company as well as its employees.

SUCCESSFUL BENCHMARKING

There are several keys to successful benchmarking. Management commitment is one that companies frequently name. Since management from top to bottom is responsible for the continued operation and evaluation of the company, it is imperative that management be committed as a team to using and implementing benchmarking strategies. A strong network of personal contacts as well as having an open mind to ideas is other keys. In order to implement benchmarking at all stages, there must be a well-trained team of people in order for the process to work accurately and efficiently. Based on the information gathered by a well-trained team, there must also be an effort toward continuous improvement. Other keys include a benchmarking process that has historical success, sufficient time and staff, and complete understanding of the processes to be benchmarked.

In almost any type of program that a company researches or intends to implement, there must be goals and objectives set for that specific program. Benchmarking is no different. Successful companies determine goals and objectives, focus on them, keep them simple, and follow through on them. As in any program, it is always imperative to gather accurate and consistent information. The data should be understood and able to be defined as well as measured. The data must be able to be interpreted in order to make comparisons with other organizations. Lastly, keys to successful benchmarking include a thorough follow-through process and assistance from consultants with experience in designing and establishing such programs.

THE FUTURE OF BENCHMARKING

Although early work in benchmarking focused on the manufacturing sector, it is now considered a management tool that can be applied to virtually any business. It has become commonplace for companies to use in order to compete in and lead their respective industries. It has helped many reduce costs, increase productivity, improve quality, and strengthen customer service.

In his book Benchmarking the Information Technology Function, Charles B. Greene noted that companies are increasingly interested in benchmarking for a number of activities, including:

· cost of supporting business driver (transaction costs, or cost per order)
· systems development activities, including maintenance, backlogs, development productivity and project management
· end-user support
· data centers/communication networks
· skills management
· business strategy alignment
· technology management
· customer/user satisfaction

According to a 2003 Bain and Company survey quoted in Financial Executive, benchmarking received the second-highest usage score (84 percent) among more than two dozen management tools used by senior executives around the world. The survey also reported that users tend to be highly satisfied (rated 3.96 on a 5-point scale) with the results benchmarking provides to their companies.

FURTHER READING:

Engle, Paul. "World-Class Benchmarking." Industrial Engineer August 2004.
Greene, Charles B. Benchmarking the Information Technology Function. New York: The Conference Board, 1993.
Mard, Michael J., et al. Driving Your Company's Value: Strategic Benchmarking for Value. New Jersey: John Wiley, 2004.
McNair, C.J., and Kathleen H.J. Leibfried. Benchmarking: A Tool for Continuous Improvement. Harper Business, 1992.
Powers, Vicki. "Boosting Business Performance through Benchmarking." Financial Executive (November 2004).
Tirbutt, Edmund. "Brimming with Confidence: Benchmarking Your Perks against Your Rivals' Can Provide HR with Added Reassurance." Employee Benefits (November 2004).

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Ergonomics : Back to School, Backpack to Discomfort!

2011-02-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

Backpack Misuse and the Pain it Inflicts on our Children

Backpacks are a common site in today’s schools. Almost every child seems to carry one in some form or another. And there is ample evidence to link backpack misuse or overloading to the back pain more and more children are reporting.

Recent studies have reported that up to 64% of children suffer from back pain (Negrini, 1999). That number may be alarming, but it does not really matter. What matters is if your child is one of them.

1. Studies from John Hopkins Children Center and many other places have shown that backpacks cause back and shoulder pain and poor posture in children. Here are the numbers:

2. The average student has a visual analog pain scale ( refer Fig.1 ) level of 4.3 with some reaching an 8-9, as reported by Northeastern University in June of 2001.

3. From a survey by the American Academy of Orthopedics: 71% of doctors feel backpacks are a clinical problem, 58% see patients with pain related to backpacks, and 52% think that this is a serious problem.

4. 55% of students carry an overloaded backpack, as reported by Simmons College in February of 2001.

5. 3,300 children aged 5-14 were treated in emergency rooms in 1997 for backpack related injuries according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

6. An Auburn University study showed that 67% of children suffered muscle soreness, 51% back pain, 24% numbness and 15% shoulder pain.

7. 65% of adolescents’ doctor visits are due to backpack injuries as reported by National Public Radio in October of 1998.

Get a Visual Pain Scale

Fig. 1:1 Visual Pain ( Chris Adams )

Tracking your pain is a helpful diagnostic tool when dealing with repetitive stress injuries. A visual analog pain scale like this lets you bypass the cognitive level of your brain and give a truer representation of your pain. Print out a number of copies and start a file to track your pain level over time.

Track Your Problem Tasks

Fig. 1:2 Visual Pain Note 1 ( Chris Adams )

Keep a file on your pain near the work site for every problem task you have identified as a potential cause for your injury. Pull it out and record your pain every time you perform that task no matter how long it is for.

Date & Time Stamp

Fig. 1:3 Visual Pain Scale Note 2 ( Chris Adams )

Note the date and the start time of your task.

Mark Your Setting Pain

Fig. 1:4 Visual Pain Scale Note 2 ( Chris Adams )

Indicate your pain level on the colored bar of the chart. Go with your instinct. Just point and mark. The color bar helps bypass your higher brain functions and lets you respond with a truer understanding of your pain. Use an “S” or some other symbol to denote the starting pain level.

Mark Your Ending Pain

Fig. 1:5 Visual Pain Scale Note 2 ( Chris Adams )

Indicate your pain at the end of the task. Use an "E" or some other symbol to denote it. Mark the time you stopped your task.

What to do Now?

You now have all the information you need to track your pain over time and duration, as well as the tools needed to determine which tasks are the real culprits.

If you break up your day into discrete tasks, that is tasks that have a definitive start and finish, and track your pain over those tasks you will be able to identify which ones help, hurt, or do nothing. If your pain decreases over the task it is probably helping your injuries. Do it more often.

If it increases it is a candidate for a cause of your injury, especially if the pain increases dramatically. If it is only a slight increase it might just be the normal fatigue incurred as the day goes on. Try varying the time of day you perform this task to see if it really more pain.

Tracking the start and end time allows you to see what duration is causing harm. If you do the same task a number of times throughout the day, try varying the duration. You might be able to perform the task comfortably for 15 minutes, but a half hour might be overboard. Knowing this will help you plan your day to properly treat your injury.

If you are getting treatment from a health care professional show them your file. This will give them a more thorough history of your problem. Many doctors or chiropractors will actually use a visual analog pain scale during your office visit to get a better understanding of your current pain. If they don’t you can now educate them on its benefits!

Here are some ways to find an appropriate backpack and the right way to use it.

Features to look for :

Lightweight : we don’t want to carry any more weight than we have to.

Wide Padded Straps : they distribute the load over the shoulders and make things more comfortable.

Padded Back : this makes things more comfy as well. A lumbar support in the padding will also help prevent slouching.

Separate Compartments keeps things neat and organized and keeps the load where you placed it.

Waist Strap : it helps transfer the load to the hips. A strap between the two shoulder straps is a good feature as well as it helps prevent slouching.

Size : the pack should not be larger than the child’s back. Learn how to size the child's back for a backpack ( refer to Fig.2 ). Also consider that the more room in the pack the more stuff will fit in it. That’s a bad thing.

How to Measure a Child’s Back for Backpack

Fig.2:1- Fitting Guide for a Child’s Backpack
2006, Chris Adams, Licensed to About.com

A good ergonomic backpack should be no larger than the child's back. To simplify matters you can take two measurements off of a child's back and use those for the maximum height and width of the backpack.

Find the maximum height by measuring from the shoulder line to the waist line and add two inches. The shoulder line is where the backpack straps will actually rest on the body, about half way between the neck and shoulder joint. The waist line is at the belly button. The backpack should fit two inches below the shoulders and up to four inches below the waist so adding two inches to our measurement will give us that.

The width of the back can be measured at a number of locations. Each with different results. For a backpack we want the core and hip muscles to carry the weight so we want to keep it centered between the shoulder blades. Measure between the ridges of the shoulder blades. An extra inch or two here is acceptable.

Chart for Children’s Backpacks

Fig. 2:2 - A Chart of Average Sizes for Children’s Backpacks
2006, Chris Adams, Licensed to About.com

When you can not measure a child you have to guess. Here is a chart to help improve that guess. These are the maximum heights and widths for the average child of that age. Make adjustments as necessary.

Packing & Wearing

The acceptable load in a backpack is related to the child’s weight. Do not overload. Overloading is the chief culprit in backpack related injuries. The American Physical Therapy Association, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the American Chiropractic Association recommend these weight limits:

· A 60 lbs. child can carry a maximum backpack weight of 5 lbs.

· 60-75 lbs. can carry 10 lbs.

· 100 lbs. can carry 15 lbs.

· 125 lbs. can carry 18 lbs.

· 150 lbs. can carry 20 lbs.

· 200 lbs. can carry 25 lbs.

· No one should carry more than 25 lbs. in a backpack.

· Pack only what you need.

· Pack heavier items at the bottom. The goal is to transfer the weight to the hips. A backpack with separate compartments helps keep the load where you place it.

· Pack flat items where they will rest on the back keeping bulky or pointy items away from the back.

· Use both shoulder straps. Always use both shoulder straps.

· Tighten the shoulder straps so that the backpack hangs slightly below the shoulders with no more that 4 inches hanging below the waist line. Note: the waist line is where the belly button is, not the hips.

· Use the waist and chest straps.

· Wear the pack only when necessary.

Other Options

· Keep a second set of heavy text books at home if possible. Or ask the teacher to use handouts instead of textbooks for homework.

· Use separate packs for separate activities. You don’t need to carry athletic or after school gear while in class.

· Try a different style of pack. A saddle bag design that goes over the head with a bag on both the front and back is a good option. Using a rolling back pack is good as well. Just ensure the handle on the roller bag is long enough so that your child does not need to stoop. Do NOT use a shoulder bag. It is all the weight with only half the support.

Reference : Negrini S, Carabalona R and Sibilla P (1999). Back pain as a daily load for school children. The Lancet 354: 1974.

http://ergonomics.about.com

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Malaysia diterima masuk Washington Accord

2010-07-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

MELAKA 5 Julai - Pendidikan kejuruteraan di Malaysia mencapai penanda aras antarabangsa berikutan kejayaan Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia (LJM) mendapat status penandatangan penuh Washington Accord bagi sistem pendidikan tersebut di negara ini.

Menteri Kerja Raya, Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor berkata, berikutan kejayaan itu, graduan program ijazah kejuruteraan daripada universiti tempatan kini boleh menjalankan amalan kejuruteraan di peringkat antarabangsa.

Menurutnya, mereka juga diiktiraf oleh negara lain yang mendapat penandatangan penuh Washington Accord seperti Amerika Syarikat (AS), United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Jepun dan Kanada.

Beliau berkata, graduan kejuruteraan dari negara-negara yang mendapat pengiktirafan itu diperakukan melepasi piawaian akademik yang ditetapkan dalam amalan profesion kejuruteraan di peringkat antarabangsa.

"Dengan pencapaian ini, bidang kejuruteraan di universiti-universiti di negara ini yang diakreditasi oleh LJM dan graduan kejuruteraan kita kini diiktiraf sepenuhnya di negara-negara maju.

"Kita memang di landasan yang betul iaitu pengajian bidang kejuruteraan kebangsaan dijadikan penanda aras setelah Malaysia diterima sebagai salah sebuah negara yang mendapat status pengiktirafan antarabangsa iaitu Washington Accord," katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian selepas merasmikan Minggu Haluan Siswa Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) bagi Sesi 2010/2011 di Dewan Besar UTeM di sini hari ini.

Turut hadir Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pelajaran, Sains, Teknologi dan Sumber Manusia negeri, Datuk Yaakub Mohd. Amin dan Timbalan Naib Canselor (Penyelidikan dan Antarabangsa) UTeM, Profesor Datuk Dr. Mohd. Nor Husain.

Seramai 2,089 penuntut baru iaitu 365 mengikuti kursus diploma dan 1,724 pula mengikuti kursus ijazah di universiti berkenaan.

Shaziman yang juga Menteri Mentor UTeM berkata, pengiktirafan itu diterima Malaysia selepas menandatangani perjanjian penuh Washington Accord pada mesyuarat International Engineering Alliance (IEA) di Kyoto, Jepun tahun lalu.

Washington Accord adalah satu perjanjian eksklusif antara badan pengiktirafan pendidikan di peringkat antarabangsa yang turut disertai oleh UK, AS, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Jepun dan Korea Selatan.

Penglibatan Malaysia dalam Washington Accord bermula setelah Malaysia diterima masuk sebagai penandatangan sementara di Rotorua, New Zealand pada 2003.

Mengulas lanjut, Shaziman menambah, pengiktirafan itu diharap dapat meningkatkan tahap program ijazah kejuruteraan Malaysia dan reputasi negara sebagai pusat pendidikan serantau.

"Bagi pelajar-pelajar antarabangsa yang mengikuti pengajian di universiti tempatan, ijazah kejuruteraan yang mereka perolehi kini dijamin di peringkat antarabangsa," katanya.

Sehubungan itu, jelas beliau, universiti di negara ini kini boleh menggunakan penanda aras itu sebagai alat pemasaran yang berkesan untuk menarik lebih ramai pelajar antarabangsa.

Menurut beliau, graduan-graduan yang lahir daripada program Majlis Akreditasi Kejuruteraan (EAC) boleh mendaftar dengan LJM untuk menjalankan amalan kejuruteraan.

"Setakat ini terdapat 190 program kejuruteraan di 26 institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT) di negara ini yang telah menerima pengiktirafan daripada EAC," katanya.

Menurutnya, semua program kejuruteraan yang dilaksanakan selepas Jun 2009 akan disenaraikan sebagai program ijazah kejuruteraan yang diiktiraf oleh Washington Accord.

Beliau menambah, setakat ini terdapat 85 program ijazah kejuruteraan di 17 IPT seluruh negara. - UM

http://www.accreditation.org/accords.php?page=WashingtonAccord

Putra Design..

Kisah bahasa Melayu di Jepun!

2010-05-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

GAMBAR kulit buku Maiai -go yon shu-kan.

SEBILANGAN orang Jepun mula belajar bahasa Melayu 100 tahun lalu, demikian menurut Moriyama dalam sebuah esei. Buku pertama terbit pada awal 1900-an dan kini jumlah pelbagai buku dan kamus Melayu lebih dari 200 buah.

Beliau mencatat hal tersebut ketika mengisahkan perjalanan Marquis Yoshichika Tokugawa (1886-1976), seorang pembesar Jepun yang disebut sebagai pelopor pelajaran bahasa Melayu di negeri Jepun setelah menjelajah Semenanjung Tanah Melayu dan Pulau Jawa. Beliau kemudian menjadi ketua Muzium Singapura dan Botanical Gardens semasa Perang Pasifik.

Essei tersebut terbit dalam buku berjudul Lost Times and Untold Tales from the Malay World (NUS Press Singapore 2009). Lalu disiarkan gambar salah sebuah buku pertama bahasa Melayu itu yang terbit pada tahun 1912, berjudul Marai-go Dokusyu, lengkap dengan tulisan Jawi.
Moriyama mulanya bercerita mengenai sebilangan kecil warga Jepun merantau ke negeri-negeri sebelah selatan kepulauan Jepun.

Antara mereka ialah peniaga-peniaga kecil dan juga pelacur. Sebilangan dari mereka berjaya memiliki ladang-ladang getah dan ada juga yang melabur dalam industri bijih timah. Kerana itu pengetahuan bahasa Melayu digalakkan. Seperti dicatat oleh Moriyama: "Bahasa Melayu menjadi bahasa terpenting kerana digunakan secara meluas di negeri-negeri yang dijajah oleh Inggeris dan Belanda."

Lalu, antara yang mula terbit ialah kamus dwibahasa Melayu dan Jepun. Pada peringkat permulaan disiarkan seruan: "Marilah kita pergi ke Selatan". Pada peringkat persekolahan pula bahasa Melayu diajar bagi kali pertama pada tahun 1908 di dua buah sekolah di Tokyo.

Moriyama menambah: "Oleh kerana tiada guru Jepun boleh mengajar bahasa Melayu di sekolah maka guru-guru Melayu dipelawa datang ke negara Jepun untuk mengajar bahasa Melayu.

Mereka mungkin menggunakan bahasa Inggeris ketika menyampaikan pelajaran. Sekurang-kurangnya lima guru Melayu datang dari Semenanjung Tanah Melayu untuk mengajar para pelajar Jepun di Tokyo."

Lantas disebut nama salah seorang dari mereka. Bachee bin Wan Chik (atau Bachik bin Wan Chik) yang kemudian menyusun sebuah kamus dwibahasa Melayu-Jepun. Beliau mengajar selama 19 tahun dan kemudian dikurnia bintang kehormatan kerana sumbangannya itu.
Antara buku pelajaran Melayu yang paling laris ialah Marai-go yon shu-kan (bahasa Melayu dalam Ampat Minggu) yang terbit pada tahun 1937.

Ia kemudian diulang cetak hingga 30 kali. Turut menyusun buku tersebut ialah Marquis Yoshichika Tokugawa bersama gurunya Sumitake Asakuri, seorang professor bahasa Melayu di Universiti Tokyo. Pelajaran bagi dua hari pertama ialah bunyi sesuatu perkataan dan perbezaan antara sebutan bahasa Melayu dan bahasa di negeri-negeri yang dijajah oleh Belanda.

Diperturunkan

Pelajaran bagi hari ke-24 ialah bagaimana mahu menggunakan perkataan-perkataan seperti alkisah, arakian, sa-bermula. Pelajaran bagi hari ke-27 dan 28 mengandungi cerita-cerita dari Hikayat Pelandok, Dari Hal Tuan Raffles Hendak Pulang dan Pantun Melayu.

Pada satu peringkat lain diperturunkan kata-kata mengenai harimau: "Untung sekali sahaya sudah lihat harimau lebih dulu dia lihat sama sahaya dan dengan satu peluru boleh sahaya matikan dia." Kata-kata tersebut ialah dari Marquis Tokugawa yang gemar memburu beruang dan harimau. Menurut yang empunya cerita beliau akhirnya memilih Tanah Melayu dan Pulau Jawa kerana kegemarannya itu.

Juga diceritakan betapa beliau menjalin hubungan mesra dengan Sultan Ibrahim Negeri Johor setelah bersama-sama memburu. Dalam surat menyurat kedua menggunakan tulisan Jawi.
Pada 7 Februari 1929, dalam surat Sultan Ibrahim dari Istana Pasir Pelangi di Johor Bahru. Baginda menulis: "Sahabat saya Marquis Tokugawa." Selanjutnya pujian dari Baginda pada Tokugawa kerana menggunakan bahasa Melayu yang baik.

Tokugawa memang menyedari pentingnya bahasa Melayu ketika perantauannya di Tanah Melayu dan Jawa. Hubungan mesra dengan Sultan Ibrahim mendorongnya mempelajari bahasa Melayu yang baik dan tulisan Jawi kerana dalam surat Sultan Ibrahim disebut mengenai warga kulit putih juga belajar bahasa Melayu, tetapi mereka lebih gemar menulis rumi.

Seperti diketahui semasa pemerintahan tentera Jepun di Malaysia setelah tewas tentera Inggeris dan Belanda, bahasa Jepun (Nippon-go) diajar di sekolah-sekolah yang dulu mengajar bahasa Inggeris.

Putra Design..

Dunia intelektual Profesor Diraja Ungku Aziz.

2010-05-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

Profesor Diraja Ungku Abdul Aziz Ungku Abdul Hamid atau Pak Ungku, 88, merupakan tokoh yang sangat sinonim dengan Universiti Malaya (UM) ketika menerajui universiti tertua itu suatu ketika dahulu.

Lantaran itu, beliau terus diingati masyarakat sebagai negarawan intelek yang banyak berjasa kepada agama, bangsa dan negara, khususnya orang Melayu.

Baru-baru ini, UM menerbitkan sebuah buku yang dedikasikan kepada Ungku Aziz sebagai mengenang jasanya yang begitu banyak terutama kepada UM semasa menjadi Naib Canselor selama 20 tahun dari 1968 hingga 1988.

Semasa melancarkan buku ini, Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin menyifatkan Pak Ungku sebagai seorang intelektual dan negarawan istimewa kerana telah banyak menabur jasa kepada negara melalui idea dan cadangan yang praktikal dalam pelbagai perkara.

Malah beliau melalui Kementerian Pelajaran dan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi bersedia menyokong sebarang usaha UM untuk menerbitkan karya baru mengenai Pak Ungku pada masa hadapan.

Menurut pengarang tajuk The Renaissance Man dipilih kerana sangat bersesuaian dengan Pak Ungku atas pembaharuan yang dibawa sehingga berjaya menempa nama dan kedudukan yang tersendiri dalam dunia intelektual di negara ini dan antarabangsa.

Meminjam kata-kata Profesor Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharudin semasa sesi bicara karya, "buku ini adalah satu-satunya yang menyingkap Pak Ungku dari sudut pandang 'orang dalam' daripada sebuah institusi yang menjadikan beliau seorang institusi."

Buku biografi ini ditulis oleh sekumpulan tokoh akademik dan pentadbiran yang pernah berkhidmat semasa pentadbiran Pak Ungku untuk berkongsi pengalaman unik dan perspektif masing- masing mengenai tokoh besar itu.

Mereka ialah mantan Naib Canselor, Datuk Profesor Dr. Hashim Yaacob, Profesor Emeritus Datuk Abu Bakar Hamid, Profesor Emeritus K.T. Joseph, Profesor Dr. Azizah Hamzah, Abdul Manaf Saad, Khoo Siew Mun, Datin Paduka Jamilah Ariffin, Profesor Emeritus Ishak Haron, Profesor Datuk Dr. Mohd Mansor Salleh, Mohd. Said Mohd Kadis dan Dr. Mokhtar Tamim.

Bab pertama tulisan Abu Bakar Hamid dan K.T. Joseph menyingkap sejarah hidup Pak Ungku, sebagai Naib Canselor serta sumbangan beliau khususnya, kepada UM serta pendidikan tinggi tempatan dan antarabangsa.

Azizah Hamzah memberi fokus kepada Ungku Aziz dari perspektif beliau yang banyak berbicara dan menemu bual dengan tokoh tersohor itu. Pengalaman berharga itu dikongsi melalui tulisannya dalam bab dua.

Ungku Aziz memiliki daya pemikiran yang cukup tajam hasil pembacaan yang sangat luas bagi mencari jalan penyelesaian masalah masyarakat negara ini.

Beliau membaca buku dan melihat idea daripada beberapa tokoh unggul yang dikaguminya dalam dan luar negara termasuk Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Pablo Picasso, Iqbal, Rumi serta Za'ba.

Hashim Yaacob yang menulis dalam bab tiga menganggap Pak Ungku sebagai seorang intelektual rakyat kerana keupayaannya memberi maklum balas dalam pelbagai isu berkaitan masyarakat termasuk pendidikan, pengangguran dan kemiskinan.

Selain itu, beliau merupakan personaliti media yang begitu mendapat tempat dalam media massa arus perdana pada zamannya kerana media percaya masyarakat ketika itu sangat menyanjungi Pak Ungku.

Dalam bab berikut Abdul Manaf Saad menceritakan peranan Ungku Aziz dalam memartabatkan Penerbit UM dengan memberi pelbagai suntikan idea dalam menjaga standard penerbitan ilmiah di universiti itu dan menjadikannya terus kukuh sehingga kini.

Khoo Siew Mun dalam bab lima menonjolkan peranan Pak Ungku dalam perkembangan perpustakaan UM serta menyediakan rujukan yang sangat berguna berkaitan dengan bidang penyelidikan tokoh itu.

Dalam bab enam, Jamilah Ariffin menulis mengenai penglibatan wanita dalam industri perkilangan elektronik dan lain-lain. Beliau yang mengetuai Projek Hal Ehwal Wanita (HAWA) pada 1985-1987 itu sebenarnya diilhamkan oleh Pak Ungku.

Projek itu mengkaji masalah wanita Melayu luar bandar yang berhijrah ke kawasan- kawasan bandar yang menempatkan kilang- kilang untuk bekerja.

Menurut Jamilah, Pak Ungku percaya bahawa sesuatu pekerjaan itu wajar diberi kepada individu yang terbaik tanpa mengira jantina serta membenci sikap berat sebelah terhadap wanita.

Dalam bab "Profesor Diraja Ungku Abdul Aziz yang kukenal," Ishak Haron melihat tokoh itu meniup dan membentuk semangat akademik, iaitu meneroka ilmu dalam pelbagai bidang, bertanya dan berbincang, selain mengajar dan melatih pelajar UM supaya pandai dalam bidang mereka.

Pak Ungku juga kata Ishak, seorang yang amat gemar memahami idea dan teori baru dan kaedah baru dalam bidang apa sekali pun, melalui pembacaan pelbagai karya agung dan penulisan penting, perbincangan dengan orang yang pakar dalam sesuatu bidang, selain pemerhatiannya sendiri yang tajam.

Dalam bab lapan, Mohd. Mansor Salleh yang berkhidmat selama 14 dengan Pak Ungku dapat melihat keazaman dan usaha gigih tokoh itu untuk mencapai sesuatu untuk anak-anak Melayu desa dan pedalaman dan untuk bahasa Melayu.

Matlamat Pak Ungku amat jelas iaitu menambah bilangan anak-anak Melayu miskin di fakulti-fakulti aliran sains dan teknologi di UM khasnya dan negara amnya.

Mohd Said Mohd Kadis pula menulis mengenai peranan Pak Ungku dalam penubuhan Pusat Asasi Sains UM dan Program Persediaan Khas Jepun yang berjaya melahirkan puluhan ribu siswazah Melayu dan Bumiputera dalam pelbagai bidang sains dan teknologi.

Selain pendidikan, pengarang turut membongkar peranan penting Ungku Aziz dalam proses tranformasi ekonomi negara dari sektor pertanian ke sektor perkhidmatan dan perkilangan khususnya bagi membasmi kemiskinan penduduk luar bandar. Hal ini diceritakan dengan panjang lebar oleh Dr. Mokhtar Tamim dalam bab 10.

Buku ini wajar dimiliki sebagai bahan bacaan dan rujukan penting oleh mereka yang meminati idea dan pemikiran Ungku Aziz, seorang tokoh tersohor negara ini yang sentiasa dikenali, diingati dan disanjungi masyarakat sepanjang zaman.

Putra-Design

Laman jaringan sosial mampu jadi pemangkin perubahan!

2010-02-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

Kerajaan, pemimpin dan ahli politik perlu manfaat alam siber untuk kekal relevan

KEPADA mereka yang kurang tahu, laman Facebook adalah contoh fenomena jalinan media sosial yang terhasil daripada teknologi internet. Seseorang mendaftar menjadi ahli Facebook, dengan mengisi butir diri, betul atau tidak, tiada siapa yang akan periksa dan meletakkan gambar ataupun video. Ahli Facebook mengemaskini laman mereka dengan butiran terkini mengenai diri mereka serta menyatakan pendapat mereka dan segala yang mereka suka atau tidak.

Setiap ahli Facebook boleh meminta untuk menjadi 'kawan' ahli facebook yang lain. Lebih banyak kawan, mungkin lebih popular agaknya seseorang ahli Facebook. Baru-baru ini ada dilaporkan Perdana Menteri mempunyai lebih 100,000 'kawan' di laman Facebook beliau.

Berdasarkan statistik terbaru, ada lebih 350 juta ahli Facebook di dunia - kalaulah Facebook sebuah negara, maka ia adalah negara keempat terbesar di dunia. Lebih menarik lagi, di Malaysia terdapat 4.2 juta ahli Facebook, iaitu kesembilan paling ramai di dunia, di mana nombor satu ialah Amerika Syarikat.

Apa yang penting yang perlu diambil tahu ialah pengaruh yang luas oleh Facebook dan laman media sosial lain. Juga perlu diingat bukan semua yang di internet itu tidak baik. Cuma apabila kita tidak memahaminya, maka kita akan bimbang dan ragu. Satu lagi yang perlu diingati, tiada apa yang boleh dilakukan untuk menghalang atau mengawal internet. Sebarang cubaan akan membawa kesan lebih negatif daripada baik.

Kini terdapat beratus-ratus laman umpama Facebook, antara yang terkenal Friendster dan Myspace. Satu lagi statistik yang menarik - menurut beberapa laporan, hampir dua pertiga rakyat Malaysia adalah ahli salah satu daripada ratusan jalinan sosial media. Jelas, ini bukan fenomena kecil atau boleh diremeh-temehkan. Malah tahun ini dikatakan sebagai tahun media sosial di mana akan ada ledakan fenomena ini.

Di Malaysia saja pertumbuhan keahlian Facebook, umpamanya, bertambah 10 peratus atau lebih 300,000 pada Disember lalu. Baru-baru ini juga Timbalan Perdana Menteri juga melancarkan laman Facebooknya. Apakah maksud semua ini? Apakah penting dan relevannya kesemua ini untuk hidup kita? Ada orang kata aktiviti media sosial kurang bernas.

Sememangnya ia boleh merugikan, seperti juga perkara lain, jika dilakukan berlebihan. Sudah tentulah kita boleh terlebih makan atau bersuka atau mengemaskini laman Facebook kita, maka ia memanglah memudaratkan, tetapi itu tidak menjadi sebab kita tidak boleh bersuka-ria. Ahli seramai lebih empat juta, umpamanya adalah lebih daripada mana-mana parti politik di negara ini.

Walaupun jika separuh daripada mereka tidak aktif, jumlah yang berada di alam siber itu adalah cukup banyak dan memberikan banyak peluang dan kemungkinan. Rasanya ledakan yang dikatakan itu ialah di mana fenomena ini berjaya menguasai bidang sosial, ekonomi dan politik. Siapa sangka mainan pelajar sedekad lalu kini menjadi pemangkin perubahan.

Dikatakan kempen politik Presiden Amerika Syarikat yang lalu dimenangi oleh calon yang faham dengan kuasa dan pengaruh jalinan media sosial, dan seterusnya menggunakannya untuk membantu di dalam kempen. Presiden Barack Obama menggunakan teknologi ini dengan sepenuhnya dan berjaya menyampaikan mesejnya kepada golongan muda yang tidak lagi cenderung dengan media arus perdana.

Beliau juga berjaya memahami teknologi ini untuk menentukan segala mesej dan matlamat kempennya tidak lagi ditentukan dan ditapis oleh pemberita dan pengarang, malah adakalanya beliau terus langsung tidak menggunakan media arus perdana untuk sesetengah strategi kempen. Jelas dia berjaya, manakala lawannya yang tidak menerima media sosial secara menyeluruh, tidak.

Kekuatan utama laman seperti Facebook ialah pengaruh kawan-kawan. Contohnya, jika kawan kita berkata dia suka sesuatu filem, kita mungkin lebih percaya untuk membeli tiket, berbanding kata-kata iklan ataupun pengkritik. Kita lebih percaya jika kawan kita kata ada gerai yang menjual nasi lemak sedap yang perlu kita kunjungi, berbanding jika orang tidak dikenali berkata demikian.

Maka jika seorang rakan alam maya kita berkata dia percayakan Obama, jelas kata-kata ini akan menyerap ke jutaan, malah mungkin puluhan juta rakan yang terangkai dalam jalinan yang luas meliputi dunia. Sedikit sebanyak ada yang akan terpengaruh. Jika seseorang itu berkata ia menyokong sesuatu parti atau seseorang calon, besar kemungkinan dia akan dapat mempengaruhi kawannya lebih lagi daripada berjela-jela laporan media arus perdana. Maklumlah 'kawan' kita mesti bercakap betul.

Mungkin sebagai media arus perdana ini bukan satu perkembangan yang baik, namun sesuatu organisasi yang dinamik perlu melihat bagaimana ia boleh kekal di dalam keadaan yang mencabar. Untuk media arus perdana kekal relevan, ia mesti memahami serta mendakap fenomena ini. Begitu juga kerajaan, pemimpin dan ahli politik. Fenomena jalinan media sosial kini sudah lama dikenali oleh pakar pemasaran sebagai satu alat yang amat berguna untuk kerja mereka.

Begitu juga perlulah parti politik dan pemimpin mereka menerima, memahami dan menggunakan media sosial untuk kekal relevan. Satu lagi statistik yang menarik - lebih 80 peratus ahli Facebook pula berumur antara 18 hingga 44 tahun. Jelas jika mahu berinteraksi dengan golongan muda, haruslah pergi di mana mereka berkumpul.

Putra-Design

Burj Dubai dibuka hari ini!

2010-01-04T05:06:00.001-08:00

Biarpun diselubungi krisis ekonomi dan hutang, menara tertinggi di dunia, Burj Dubai yang juga monumen terhebat di Emiriah Arab Bersatu (UAE) akan dibuka kepada orang ramai, esok.

Dibina dengan ketinggian 160 tingkat bersebelahan pantai Teluk Parsi, Burj Dubai mengatasi ketinggian menara Taipei yang setinggi 101 tingkat pada 508 meter, menjadikannya menara tertinggi di dunia dengan ketinggian 818 meter.

Menara itu turut mempunyai 1,000 kediaman, 160 bilik hotel mewah dan 37 tingkat bilik pejabat korporat. Ia direka oleh Adrian Smith, seorang arkitek dari Chicago, Amerika Syarikat (AS). Pembaziran terbaru oleh negara Teluk itu, memecahkan semua rekod sebelum ini dan ia mungkin merupakan penamat kepada satu era yang dimulakan pada 1994, apabila pembinaan kompleks hotel Burj Al Arab dimulakan.

Pada tahun 2000 semasa pembukaan hotel tersebut, Dubai mencatat rekod baru apabila memiliki hotel kedua terbesar di dunia. Kehidupan sosial dan mewah di bandar itu melampaui had ketika pertumbuhan ekonomi 'bersatu' dengan keseronokan peribadi dan nilai tradisi Islam yang semakin merosot, sebahagiannya akibat pengaruh penduduk asing yang tinggal di Dubai.

Bagaimanapun, apabila krisis kewangan global mula melanda, kebanyakan rakyat asing pulang ke negara mereka. Bangunan-bangunan bertukar menjadi 'rumah hantu', menjadikan keseluruhan kawasan kejiranan yang dulunya dianggap simbol kemegahan berubah kepada lambang ketamakan.

Pada 25 November lalu, keadaan sampai ke kemuncaknya apabila konglomerat Dubai World mengumumkan ia perlu membekukan pembayaran balik hutangnya berjumlah AS$59 bilion (RM206.5 bilion). Biarpun dianggap sebagai kemegahan baru bagi bandar raya itu, menara Burj Dubai dijangka memburukkan lagi 'penderitaan' yang ditanggung UAE melalui penambahan satu lagi hartanah dalam pasaran yang sesak.

Di sebalik kehebatan Burj Dubai

Menara adalah kuasa, demikian tulis Judith Dupre dalam bukunya, Skyscrapers yang diterbitkan sepuluh tahun lalu. Ketika buku ini diterbitkan, dua bangunan tertinggi di dunia berada di Kuala Lumpur iaitu Menara Berkembar Petronas. Kini selepas sepuluh tahun, Menara Berkembar Petronas berada pada tangga kelima dan esok dengan rasminya sebuah lagi bangunan tertinggi di dunia akan dibuka.

Burj Dubai yang terletak di Dubai menjadi satu mercu tanda keajaiban seni ketukangan serta teknologi pembikinan manusia dalam pembinaan bangunan. Burj Dubai mengulangi tamadun hebat manusia dalam pembinaan di Asia Barat selepas piramid yang muncul sebagai binaan tertinggi empat alaf lalu.

Burj Dubai yang tingginya 818 meter (bayangkan ketinggian bangunan hampir satu kilometer) mempunyai 160 tingkat memecah rekod Taipei 101 yang dirasmikan tahun 2004. Taipei 101 tingginya 509 meter mempunyai 101 tingkat. Benar seperti kata Judith Dupre, menara adalah kuasa. Membina bangunan tinggi menjadi simbol ketinggian tamadun dan kuasa sesuatu bangsa.

Sejak manusia mula membina tamadun, mereka sudah berlumba-lumba mendirikan bangunan yang tinggi mengatasi yang lain. Lihat saja bagaimana orang Mesir zaman kuno sudah membina pencakar langit lebih 2,000 tahun sebelum Masihi iaitu piramid.

Piramid paling tinggi ialah Cheo setinggi 146.6 meter (481 kaki) di Giza. Orang Greek pula sudah membina Parthenon pada kira-kira tahun 432 Sebelum Masihi. Pada zaman moden bangunan pertama paling tinggi ialah Washington Monument yang didirikan pada 7 Ogos, 1783 bagi memperingati Presiden Amerika Syarikat (AS) yang pertama, George Washington.

Pada dekad pertama alaf baru, bangunan tertinggi yang berada di Asia berpindah ke Asia Barat dan Dubai memang layak untuk menjadi pemilik bangunan tertinggi kerana kekayaan negara Emeriat Arab Bersatu (UAE). Sebelum ini bangunan tertinggi Menara Berkembar Petronas (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), International Commerce Centre (Hong Kong, China), Shanghai World Financial Centre (Shanghai, China) dan Taipei 101 (Taipei, Taiwan).

Kini Burj Dubai menjadi mercu tanda terbaru penciptaan manusia membangunkan sebuah bangunan yang tingginya hampir satu kilometer. Dengan ketinggian yang "luar biasa" itu, dijangka rekod yang dipegang oleh Burj Dubai tidak mungkin dapat diatasi sekurang-kurang 20 tahun akan datang. Ketinggian yang paling hampir ialah Taipei 101 itu pun hanya 509 meter.

Ini disebabkan oleh faktor krisis ekonomi global khususnya negara-negara maju yang menjadi penghalang untuk membelanjakan berbilion ringgit untuk membina sebuah mercu tanda.
Kerana itu banyak penganalisis ekonomi meramalkan tingginya Burj Dubai mencakar langit dan membelah awan akan menjadi mercu tanda merudumnya Dubai. UAE kini mendepani krisis ekonomi dan hampir tumbang pada akhir November.

Bagaimanapun bernasib baik apabila negara jiran, Abu Dhabi yang juga kaya dengan minyak menyuntik lebih RM38 bilion kepada UAE. Burj Dubai yang boleh dilihat sejauh 100 kilometer kini menjadi mimpi ngeri dan seperti kata pepatah, biar papa asal bergaya. Mata yang memandang memang melihat Burj Dubai sangat bergaya tetapi UAE ligat memikir mencari jalan untuk menjadikan mercu tanda ini sebagai penyumbang kepada ekonomi Dubai.

"Burj Dubai belum mampu menyakinkan pelabur, " demikian ulas Pengarah Bersekutu agensi CB Richard Ellis, Mathhew Green. Dia seterusnya berkata, kadar sewa bangunan komersial turun lebih 55 peratus dari tahun ke tahun. Inilah realiti yang dihadapi oleh Burj Dubai apabila sebahagian besar ruang pejabat dan kediaman untuk disewa masih kosong.

Adakah badi "bangunan tinggi" dengan "keruntuhan ekonomi" yang berlaku sebelum ini terkena pada Burj Dubai seperti yang tercatat dalam The Skycraper Index: Faulty Towers? Buku ini memaparkan hubungkait antara bangunan pencakar langit akan diikuti dengan krisis ekonomi. Misalnya New York Stock Exchange mengalami kejatuhan pada 1907 sebaik saja bangunan pencakar langit Singer Building dan Metropolitan Life Tower didirikan.

Selepas terbinanya Bangunan Empire State diikuti pula oleh krisis ekonomi di Wall Street yang seterusnya mencetuskan Great Depression tahun 1929. Begitu juga setelah siapnya bangunan World Trade Centre (WTC) di New York (yang diletupkan dalam tragedi 11 September 2001) yang dibuka pada 1973 diikuti dengan krisis ekonomi global.

The Skycraper Index: Faulty Towers juga mencatatkan ketika Menara Berkembar Petronas dalam pembinaan krisis ekonomi yang teruk melanda Asia pada 1997. Maka krisis ekonomi apa pula yang akan melanda dunia atau dunia Arab saja selepas Burj Dubai megah berdiri menggapai awan? Adakah krisis ekonomi global yang melanda Amerika Syarikat (AS) sekarang ini menjadi petanda yang dikaitkan dengan Burj Dubai seperti yang dicatatkan dalam The Skycraper Index: Faulty Towers?

Mungkin ada benarnya kalau kita melihat kedudukan ekonomi UAE masa kini menjelang persiapan akhir perasmian Burj Dubai esok. Burj Dubai yang menelan belanja RM67 bilion mempunyai lebih 3,000 unit kediaman, 1,200 ruang untuk membeli belah dan sembilan hotel itu sekaligus menjadi pusat membeli belah terbesar di dunia. Rekod lain yang dipegang oleh Burj Dubai adalah bangunan yang paling banyak tingkat (160 tingkat walaupun jumlah sebenar masih dirahsiakan oleh pemaju Emaar sehingga esok), lif yang paling tinggi dan lif yang paling laju (kelajuan 64km/j)

Reka bentuk Burj Dubai dicetuskan oleh arkitek Skidmore, Owings dan Mervill dan dibina dengan kepakaran syarikat kontraktor dari Korea Selatan, Samsung Engineering & Construction yang juga pernah membangunkan Menara Berkembar Petronas dan Taipei 101. Burj Dubai dibina dengan bahan asasnya konkrit sebanyak 333,000 meter padu konkrit dan 39,000 tan besi.

Samsung Engineering & Construction berkerjasama dengan syarikat kontraktor Besix dari Belgium dan Arabtec dari UAE. Burd Dubai yang dilengkapi dengan ciri-ciri keselamatan untuk mendepani gegaran gempa tetapi masih tidak selamat daripada serangan pengganas yang mengambil pendekatan serangan 11 September 2001 ke atas WTC.

Sumber Utusan Malaysia

Putra Design

China unveils 'world's fastest train link' !

2009-12-27T04:03:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AFP) – China on Saturday unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.

The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 kilometre journey to a three hour ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven and a half hours, the official Xinhua news agency said. Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.

"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua. Test runs for the service began earlier in December and the link officially went into service when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday.

Chinese workers put the final touch on the interior of a new railway station in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province. China has unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.(AFP/Str)

By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, said Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to Xinhua. Beijing has an ambitious rail development programme aimed at increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.

China unveiled its first high-speed line at the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 -- a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin. In September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012 in a massive system overhaul as part of efforts to spur economic growth amid the global downturn. The network uses technology developed in co-operation with foreign firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

Pengajaran penarafan THE-QS World University 2009

2009-10-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

SEBAGAI satu sistem pengajian tinggi yang kolektif, kedudukan purata lima institusi yang termasuk dalam penarafan THE-QS World University Ranking 2009 - Universiti Malaya (180), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (291), Universiti Sains Malaysia (314), Universiti Putra Malaysia (345) dan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (320) sebenarnya telah meningkat daripada 294 ke 290.

Berasaskan kepada dapatan 2007, tahun pertama perubahan besar metodologi penarafan dilakukan oleh THE-QS, semua universiti telah menunjukkan kemajuan pada 2009 kecuali sebuah. Naik turun tahun ke tahun dijangka berlaku disebabkan kesan perubahan dinamik respons survei dan ubah suai kecil terhadap metodologi kajian.

Menurut Ben Souter, Ketua Penyelidik QS, tiga faktor menyebabkan ketidaktentuan ketara dalam ranking THE-QS, misalnya kedudukan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia yang berubah seperti "yo-yo" memberikan contoh yang paling jelas (307 pada 2007, 250 pada 2008 dan 291 pada 2009).

Institusi-institusi baru yang memasuki senarai tersebut membawa kesan secara langsung terhadap kedudukan institusi sedia ada, bergantung sama ada penyertaan mereka pada kedudukan di atas atau di bawah institusi sedia ada. Responden survei yang pada awalnya diwakili ramai dari Malaysia, juga mulai dicair dengan penambahan responden dari negara-negara yang dahulunya kurang diwakili seperti Jepun.

Selain itu mulai tahun 2008, respons dalam negara diasingkan daripada respons antarabangsa dan hanya membawa pemberat 15 peratus. Kesan kepada perubahan ini terhadap penilaian keserakanan akademik akan memuncak pada 2010 dan institusi yang paling teruk padahnya adalah institusi dari negara-negara yang memiliki sebilangan kecil institusi sahaja tetapi mempunyai jumlah responden yang tinggi (Malaysia adalah satu contoh).

Kita tidak harus melihat ini sebagai suatu ketidakadilan kerana kita ingin mengecap pengiktirafan antarabangsa selain disanjungi rakan akademia di Malaysia. Sungguhpun terdapat perubahan kaedah yang tidak menyebelahi institusi di Malaysia, kita tidak wajar mengetepikan data penarafan THE-QS kerana ia boleh dijadikan asas perbandingan selain membantu kita merencana pelan strategi dan tindakan untuk peningkatan berterusan.

Sebagai contoh, iltizam UKM untuk memanfaat sumber yang ada telah menghasilkan peningkatan nisbah pelajar fakulti, tenaga pengajar antarabangsa dan pelajar antarabangsa.
Tumpuan UKM kepada pengukuhan penyelidikan dan menggalakkan penerbitan telah meningkatkan jumlah penerbitan dalam jurnal terindeks oleh Scopus, serta jumlah sebutan pada 2008, berbanding jumlah terkumpul empat tahun sebelumnya, sungguhpun jumlah besar belum mencapai keberkesanan global.

Sebagai sebuah universiti penyelidikan, inilah ruang bagi UKM memberikan tumpuan terbesar.
Strategi transformasi dan tindakan yang dirancang dan dilaksanakan, telah direka bentuk untuk memenuhi sasaran yang akan meletakkan UKM sederap universiti penyelidikan lain menjelang 2020. Penyelidikan memacu pendidikan dan perkhidmatan, dan hasilnya tidak seharusnya memberi dampak kepada penarafan dan reputasi akademik sahaja, malah lebih penting lagi menyumbang kepada pembinaaan ekonomi dan masyarakat yang mapan.

Ben Souter merumuskan, dengan KDNK 6.3 peratus, kerajaan telah melakukan pelaburan yang baik dalam pendidikan. Peruntukan kepada pengajian tinggi harus diagih secara berkesan dengan pemberat kepada pengukuhan universiti penyelidikan dan kemajuan negara jangka masa sederhana. Gaya tadbir urus dan kesinambungan kepemimpinan strategik di peringkat institusi adalah kritikal sebagai asas untuk bersaing pada tahun-tahun mendatang.

Sharifah Hapsah Shahabudin
Naib Canselor
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Anti-Wi-Fi paint keeps your wireless signal to yourself

2009-10-03T02:32:00.001-07:00

With a quick lick of paint, your wi-fi connection could be secured

Don't like the idea of your neighbors rudely snooping on the wireless signal you slaved to pay for from the lazy comfort of their living room? It's not just about slowing down your connection; while they're downloading Mad Men via bittorrent, you could be on the hook for their actions.

Wireless security and encryption systems are fraught with problems and insecurity, and other methods to restrict your signal to a small area are cumbersome at best.

The idea is simple: Use a special paint on walls where you don't want wireless to pass through (say the exterior of your house). The secret is mixing aluminum-iron oxide particles in with the paint. The metal particles resonate at the same frequency as Wi-Fi and other radio waves, so signals can't pass through the thin layer of pigment.

Outsiders would simply be unable to access your wireless network, just as you, inside the house, won't be able to interlope on anything beamed on the outside. Developed by the University of Tokyo, the paint is said to be the first that can block radio frequency in higher spectra where Wi-Fi and other higher-bandwidth communications occur rather than just low-frequency wireless like FM radio.

Most Wi-Fi technologies operate at 2.4GHz; the Tokyo paint can reportedly block frequencies all the way up to 100GHz, with a 200GHz-blocking paint now in the works. The paint isn't just of interest to those concerned about wireless leaking out of the building. Movie theaters have long been interested in finding a legal way to keep cell phones silent during screenings.

Electronic jammers that actively block wireless signals are illegal, but passive materials that prevent wireless signals from getting through are not. Since the wireless-blocking paint can also block the lower-frequency signals that cell phones use, addled mobile junkies would have no outlet for reaching the outside world.

Some aren't convinced that anti-Wi-Fi paint makes a lot of sense for a secure situation, though. Says one engineer, "Surely the thought of having to redecorate a building in order to provide Wi-Fi security is more costly and complex than the security functionality available in even the cheapest of Wi-Fi access points..."

Good point.

More about the Paint : Anti-wi-fi paint offers security .

Researchers say they have created a special kind of paint which can block out wireless signals. It means security-conscious wireless users could block their neighbours from being able to access their home network - without having to set up encryption.

The paint contains an aluminium-iron oxide which resonates at the same frequency as wi-fi - or other radio waves - meaning the airborne data is absorbed and blocked. By coating an entire room, signals can't get in and, crucially, can't get out. Developed at the University of Tokyo, the paint could cost as little as £10 per kilogram, researchers say.

" You could block phone signals from outside and stop people's phones ringing during the movie. " Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, University of Tokyo.

Cost-effective security

The makers say that for businesses it's a quick and cheap way of preventing access to sensitive data from unauthorised users. Presently, most companies have to invest in complicated encryption software to deter hackers.

Speaking on the BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme, Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, who is leading the project, explained how the paint could have many uses beyond security.
"In a medical setting, you could transmit large volumes of data from a medical device, such as an endoscope, to a computer.

"By painting a solution containing our magnetic particles on the walls, you would quickly, and effectively, shield the room from stray electromagnetic radiation from outside." While paints blocking lower frequencies have been available for some time, Mr Ohkoshi's technology is the first to absorb frequencies transmitting at 100GHz (gigahertz).

Signals carrying a larger amount of data - such as wireless internet - travel at a higher frequency than, for example, FM radio. "I'm working on a material that can absorb a larger range of frequencies. We are capable of making a paint that can absorb over 200 gigahertz." He hopes that soon the technology could be woven into clothing. "We're not sure about the true effects of electromagnetic waves, in this range, on the human body.

"We're assuming that excessive exposure could be bad for us. Therefore we're trying to make protective clothes for young children or pregnant women to help protect their bodies from such waves."

At the movies

The paint could also provide some much-needed relief during nights out at the cinema. "Our current mobile phones work at much lower frequencies, around 1.5 gigahertz. But, our material can also absorb frequencies that low, so you could block phone signals from outside and stop people's phones ringing during the movie," he said.

As well as helping to keep the cinema quiet, the paint may also pave the way for higher quality screens. "Movie pictures are beamed on the screen by the projector at the back of the cinema. But in the future, you could use a data link that works with millimetre waves. "You would have problems with interference, unless you painted the wall and ceiling of the theatre with an absorbent material like ours.

"In fact, we've had an order from an American company keen to use our ink in its movie theatre - we've just sent them a sample."

'Nothing new'

Some security experts remain unconvinced by the paint. "The use of electromagnetic shielding techniques are nothing new," said Mark Jackson, security engineer at Cisco UK. "They have been utilised by highly sensitive environments for many years." Mr Jackson notes that while the paint may block eavesdroppers, it would not prevent other types of hackers or intruders.
"Paint that blocks RF based Wi-Fi transmissions does not in any way remove the need to ensure a robust security model is deployed," he added.

"Surely the thought of having to redecorate a building in order to provide Wi-Fi security is more costly & complex than security functionality available in even the cheapest of Wi-Fi access points?" he said.

DIGITAL PLANET

By Dave Lee

BBC World Service

How Products Are Made : Aluminum Beverage Can

2009-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Background

Ninety-five percent of all beer and soft drink cans in the United States are made of aluminum. American can makers produce about 100 billion aluminum beverage cans a year, equivalent to one can per American per day. While almost all food cans are made of steel, aluminum's unique properties make it ideal for holding carbonated beverages.

The typical aluminum can weighs less than half an ounce, yet its thin walls withstand more than 90 pounds of pressure per square inch exerted by the carbon dioxide in beer and soft drinks. Aluminum's shiny finish also makes it an attractive background for decorative printing, important for a product that must grab the attention of consumers in a competitive market.

Aluminum was first identified as an element in 1782, and the metal enjoyed great prestige in France, where in the 1850s it was more fashionable than even gold and silver for jewelry and eating utensils. Napoleon III was fascinated with the possible military uses of the lightweight metal, and he financed early experiments in the extraction of aluminum.

Although the metal is found abundantly in nature, an efficient extraction process remained elusive for many years. Aluminum remained exceedingly high-priced and therefore of little commercial use throughout the 19th century. Technological breakthroughs at the end of the 19th century finally allowed aluminum to be smelted cheaply, and the price of the metal fell drastically. This paved the way for the development of industrial uses of the metal.

Aluminum was not used for beverage cans until after World War II. During the war, the U.S. government shipped large quantities of beer in steel cans to its servicemen overseas. After the war most beer was again sold in bottles, but the returning soldiers retained a nostalgic liking for cans. Manufacturers continued to sell some beer in steel cans, even though bottles were cheaper to produce.

The Adolph Coors Company manufactured the first aluminum beer can in 1958. Its two-piece can could only hold 7 ounces (198 g), instead of the usual 12 (340 g), and there were problems with the production process. Nevertheless, the aluminum can proved popular enough to incite Coors, along with other metal and aluminum companies, to develop better cans.

The next model was a steel can with an aluminum top. This hybrid can had several distinct advantages. The aluminum end altered the galvanic reaction between the beer and the steel, resulting in beer with twice the shelf life of that stored in all-steel cans. Perhaps the more significant advantage of the aluminum top was that the soft metal could be opened with a simple pull tab.

The old style cans required the use of a special opener popularly called a "church key," and when Schlitz Brewing Company introduced its beer in an aluminum "pop top" can in 1963, other major beer makers quickly jumped on the band wagon. By the end of that year, 40% of all U.S. beer cans had aluminum tops, and by 1968, that figure had doubled to 80%.

While aluminum top cans were sweeping the market, several manufacturers were aiming for the more ambitious all-aluminum beverage can. The technology Coors had used to make its 7-ounce aluminum can relied on the "impact-extrusion" process.

The modern method for making aluminum beverage cans is called two-piece drawing and wall ironing, first introduced by Reynolds Metals company in 1963. where a punch driven into a circular slug formed the bottom and sides of the can in one piece.

The Reynolds Metals company introduced an all-aluminum can made by a different process called "drawing and ironing" in 1963, and this technology became the standard for the industry. Coors and Hamms Brewery were among the first companies to adopt this new can, and PepsiCo and Coca-Cola began using all-aluminum cans in 1967. The number of aluminum cans shipped in the U.S. rose from half a billion in 1965 to 8.5 billion in 1972, and the number continued to increase as aluminum became the nearly universal choice for carbonated beverages.

The modern aluminum beverage can is not only lighter than the old steel or steel-and-aluminum can, it also does not rust, it chills quickly, its glossy surface is easily imprintable and eye-catching, it prolongs shelf life, and it is easy to recycle.

Raw Materials

The raw material of the aluminum beverage can is, of course, aluminum. Aluminum is derived from an ore called bauxite. U.S. aluminum producers import bauxite, primarily from Jamaica and Guinea. The bauxite is refined and then smelted, and the resulting molten aluminum is cast into ingots The aluminum base, for beverage cans consists mostly of aluminum, but it contains small amounts of other metals as well.

These are typically 1% magnesium, 1% manganese, 0.4% iron, 0.2% silicon, and 0.15% copper. A large portion of the aluminum used in the beverage can industry is derived from recycled material. Twenty-five percent of the total American aluminum supply comes from recycled scrap, and the beverage can industry is the primary user of recycled material. The energy savings are significant when used cans are remelted, and the aluminum can industry now reclaims more than 63% of used cans.

The ManufacturingProcess

Cutting the blank

1 .The modern method for making aluminum beverage cans is called two-piece drawing and wall ironing. The process begins with an aluminum ingot which was cast to be about 30 inches (76 cm) thick, then rolled into a thin sheet. The first step in the actual manufacture of the can is to cut the sheet into a circle, called a blank, that will form the bottom and sides of the can. Each blank is 5.5 inches (14 cm) in diameter. Some material is necessarily

The small ripples at the top of the metal are called "ears". "Earing" is an unavoidable effect of the crystalline structure of the aluminum sheet. lost between each circle, but manufacturers have found that minimum aluminum is lost when the sheets are wide enough to hold two staggered rows of seven blanks each.

About 12-14% of the sheet is wasted, but can be reused as scrap. After the circular blank is cut, it is "drawn" or pulled up to form a cup 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) in diameter.

Redrawing the cup

2. The small cup resulting from the initial draw is then transferred to a second machine. A sleeve holds the cup precisely in place, and a punch lowered swiftly into the cup redraws it to a diameter of about 2.6 inches (6.6 cm). The height of the cup increases simultaneously from the initial 1.3 to 2.25 inches (3.3 to 5.7 cm). The punch then pushes the cup against three rings called ironing rings, which stretch and thin the cup walls.

This entire operation—the drawing and ironing—is done in one continuous punch stroke, which takes only one fifth of a second to complete. The cup is now about 5 inches (13 cm) high. Then another punch presses up against the base of the cup, causing the bottom to bulge inward. This shape counteracts the pressure of the carbonated liquid the can will contain. The bottom and lower walls of the can are also a little thicker than the upper walls, for added strength.

Trimming the ears

3. The drawing and ironing process leaves the can slightly wavy at the top. These small ripples in the metal are called "ears." "Earing" is an unavoidable effect of the crystalline structure of the aluminum sheet. Aluminum companies have studied this phenomenon extensively, and they have been able to influence the placement and height of the ears by controlling the rolling of the aluminum sheet. Nevertheless, some material is lost at this stage. About a quarter inch is trimmed from the top of the can, leaving the upper walls straight and level.

Cleaning and decorating

4. The drawing and ironing process leaves the outer wall of the can with a smooth, shiny surface, so it does not require any further finishing such as polishing. After the ears are trimmed, the can is cleaned and then imprinted with its label. After the can is decorated, it is squeezed in slightly at the top to a make a neck, and the neck is given an out-ward flange at the very top edge, which will be folded over once the lid is added.

The lid

5. The lid is made of a slightly different alloy than the aluminum for the base and sides of the can. The inward bulge of the bottom of the can helps it withstand the pressure exerted by the liquid inside it, but the flat lid must be stiffer and stronger than the base, so it is made of aluminum with more magnesium and less manganese than the rest of the can. This results in stronger metal, and the lid is considerably thicker than the walls.

The lid is cut to a diameter of 2.1 inches (5.3 cm), smaller than the 2.6-inch (6.6 cm) diameter of the walls. The center of the lid is stretched upward slightly and drawn by a machine to form a rivet. The pull tab, a separate piece of metal, is inserted under the rivet and secured by it. Then the lid is scored so that when the tab is pulled by the consumer, the metal will detach easily and leave the proper opening.

To ensure that the cans are made properly, they are automatically checked for cracks and pinholes. One in 50,000 cans is usually found to be defective.

Filling and seaming

6. After the neck is formed, the can is ready to be filled. The can is held tightly against the seat of a filling machine and a beverage is poured in. The lid is added. The upper flange formed when the can was given its neck is then bent around the lid and seamed shut. At this point, the can is ready for sale.

Byproducts/Waste

Some aluminum is lost at several points in the manufacturing process—when the blanks are cut and the ears are trimmed—but this scrap can be reused. Cans which have been used and discarded by consumers can also be reused, and as mentioned above, recycled material makes up a significant percentage of the aluminum used for beverage cans. The savings from recycling are quite significant to the industry.

The major expense of the beverage can is in the energy needed to produce the aluminum, but recycling can save up to 95% of the energy cost. Can producers also try to control waste by developing stronger can sheet so that less aluminum goes into each can, and by carefully controlling the manufacturing process to cut down on loss through earing. The lid of the typical can is smaller in diameter than the walls in order to conserve the amount of aluminum that goes into it, and as world-wide demand for beverage cans continues to grow, the trend is to make the lid even smaller.

A new can introduced in 1993 with a lid a quarter-inch smaller in diameter than most cans can save manufacturers $3 per thousand. This figure seems small until it is multiplied by the hundreds of millions of cans produced each day in the U.S. It becomes clear that any small savings in raw materials or energy can be a major step in conserving both money and resources.

The Future

Worldwide production of aluminum beverage cans is steadily increasing, growing by several billion cans a year. In the face of this rising demand, the future of the beverage can seems to lie in designs that save money and materials. The trend towards smaller lids is already apparent, as well as smaller neck diameters, but other changes may not be so obvious to the consumer.

Manufacturers employ rigorous diagnostic techniques to study can sheet, for example, examining the crystalline structure of the metal with X-ray diffraction, hoping to discover better ways of casting the ingots or rolling the sheets. Changes in the composition of the aluminum alloy, or in the way the alloy is cooled after casting, or the thickness to which the can sheet is rolled may not result in cans that strike the consumer as innovative. Nevertheless, it is probably advances in these areas that will lead to more economical can manufacture in the future.

Where To Learn More

Book

Smith, George David. From Monopoly to Competition: The Transformations of Alcoa, 1888-1986. Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Periodicals

Hosford, William F. and John L. Duncan. "The Aluminum Beverage Can." Scientific American, September 1994, pp. 48-53.
Larson, Melissa. "New Ideas Come In Cans." Packaging, April 1993, pp. 30-31.
Singh, S. Paul. "Internal Gas Pressure on the Compression Strength of Beverage Cans and Plastic Bottles." Journal of Testing and Evaluation, March 1993, pp. 129-31.

Prepared by : Putra-Design

Proton unveils its first MPV, the Exora.

2009-04-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Proton Holdings Bhd unveiled its first multipurpose vehicle (MPV), the Exora, to the public in a gala event here Wednesday night. Launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the 1.6-litre Exora has already received orders of 2,500 units, even before its public unveiling.

The seven-seater -- Proton’s most important model for the year -- also marks the company’s entry into the MPV market, which is growing domestically and regionally.
In addition to an interior that is easily more spacious than other MPVs in its engine class, the Exora also comes with a separate air-conditioner blower with ceiling mounted vents for the second and third row passengers. Large doors allows for easy entry and exit while the second and third row seats can be folded for a flat floor layout when carrying bulky items.

The vehicle is also not short on safety features with dual front airbags, pretensioner seatbelts and an anti-lock braking system with electronic brake-force distribution.
In the safety department, the MPV has the equivalent of a four-star crash safety rating in the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP).

The vehicle also has a steering wheel with audio buttons, reverse sensors, an immobiliser and radio/ CD player that supports MP3 and WMA files and Bluetooth handsfree connectivity.
The Exora is a result of an investment of RM450mil and 18 months of intense in-house research and development, the company said.

It is powered by a 1.6-litre CamPro CPS engine with 125bhp and torque of 150Nm, and is available in a four-speed automatic version, in trim levels of Mid-Line and Hi-Line.
The Mid-Line Exora costs RM69,998 and the Hi-Line variant, RM75,998 for the metallic colours.

The Hi-Line variant gets additional features such as a rear DVD monitor, tinted glass, portable satellite navigation system, cruise control, fog lamps, rear spoiler, and leather seats and finishing. Colour choices are Solid White, Genetic Silver, Tranquillity Black, Blue Haze, Pyrite Brown and Gaia Blue.

A fine achievement indeed

As an offering, this one must surely rank as an absolute highlight for a company that has well and truly come back from the ropes. Indeed, it’s all the more impressive given the fact that it’s unchartered waters that’s being treaded.

Say hello then to the Proton Exora, the country’s first fully homegrown MPV. As the third part of the great comeback, following on the successes of the Persona and Saga, the vehicle - developed from design to completion in 18 months and at a cost of RM450mil - is quite a sterling showpiece, and essentially completes the circle of reinvention for the brand.

As a platform, there’s nothing radical about it - a seven-seater MPV isn’t exactly a new type. But for what it is, it’s a very clever offering, rolls in at an excellent price point and incorporates enough winsome features that there surely must be little to complain about, and there really isn’t, but more as we go along.

At the point of launch, two versions of the Exora go on sale - the 1.6l AT Medium-line and 1.6l AT High-line, and both only come with a four-speed automatic gearbox, which features a retuned transmission control unit and a revised final drive. There’s a manual variant, though this is only slated for launch later in the year.

Visually, the Exora is best described as elegant; shades of the Toyota Wish and Honda Stream, benchmarks in the development of the vehicle, as well as the Mitsubishi Grandis, can be traced in the exterior lines and general flow, but the Exora has enough of its own identity, helped by a prominent enough looking front end and a tail that has one of the best looking tail-lamp clusters in recent memory.

The sleek vehicle, which has a coefficient drag of 0.33Cd, looks sizeable, and once you get inside, you’ll find it is indeed quite the spacious offering it promises to be. The dashboard is unfettered, there’s plenty of space, and the legroom on the second row is rather good, with the third adequate for short hauls. The rear doors open to a maximum angle of 80 degrees, making for easier ingress and egress for passengers.

As for seating layout combinations, the Exora does pretty well in this regard too, with six different seat folding configurations. Granted, with the rear seats up, there's little cargo space, but with the third row seats fully flat-folded and the second row stored forward the load-carrying space becomes very convincing. Ingress to the third row is by means of a single-lever seat-folding mechanism on the second row, and in use getting in and out is accomplished easily enough.

In terms of trim, the Medium-line version comes with a simple grey interior with fabric seats, whereas the High-line variant features leather and Alcantara-finished seats in light grey. Surprisingly, I thought the fabric seats offered a better visual perspective, both in terms of shade and texture - the leather looked a little on the pasty side.

Much attention has been paid to reducing the noise levels in the cabin - the firewall, door panels and floor pan have been given soundproofing insulation treatment, and all the pillars are injected with foam; effectively, it makes everything less zingy. As for fit and finish, there were some small assembly imperfections here and there on some panels, but nothing that would make you scream murder.

Plenty of new and subtle features abound, courtesy of an integrated Body Control Module (BCM) unit from Siemens VDO; this is the first Proton to be equipped with BCM and offers a whole new range of application options and items. With a total of 24 different functions, from follow-me-home lights, programmable door locking configurations and wiper speeds (this one is done rather neatly) to automatic hazard light activation during emergency braking from above 96kmh, the list is pretty comprehensive.

Indeed, there’s no shortage of mod cons throughout - yes, items such as 10 cup holders may seem like overkill, but better to have more than less, yes? Among the many small, but nice, touches is the inclusion of what is tagged a teh tarik holder, located below the glove compartment area, for your takeaways. Not new, but handy nonetheless.

In terms of safety, twin front airbags - standard fitment in both versions - and front seat-belt pretensioners are part of the kit, as well as ABS and EBD.
Elsewhere, the primary differences in both variants, besides the seat material, are with equipment levels, as the chart below shows:

Opting for the High-line version bags you fog lights, front seat armrests, cruise control, a remotely mounted navigation system, a roof-mounted DVD/LCD monitor - with SD/MMC card slots and USB port - for rear passengers, a rear spoiler and tinted glass. And of course, those leather seats.

Powering the Exora is the tried and tested 1.6l Campro CPS engine, here offering 125bhp at 6,500rpm and a maximum torque of 150Nm at 4,500rpm. Placed in a vehicle that weighs in at 1,422 (M-line) and 1,442kg (H-line), the result isn’t ever going to be breathtaking, but surprisingly the Exora goes about its business ably enough as an entire package.

The chance to sample the final product came at a press preview last week, and as is usually the case with previews, there wasn’t enough time spent with the vehicle to offer a firmer opinion than a mere skim-through, but it’s certainly a very likable sort.
First impressions reveal a vehicle that is as comfortable and pliant as promised. Ride comfort is high, and in general everything is geared towards cosy, though the softness comes through without being overly mushy.

A quick ride being seated in the third row showed very little undue modulation, with only large dips causing some discomfort. The lack of lower-end support here means that if you’re an adult - and a strappy one at that - it’s definitely not going to be rosy if you decide on say, doing Penang from KL, but at least you won’t be shaken senselessly while at that.

Performance-wise, the 1.6l pot is adequate enough for the job, under most conditions - at the preview, the vehicle showed a slight lack of urgency on take-up unless pushed, and doing so results in the block being a little shouty, but once you get moving the vehicle pulls along well enough, and at cruising levels the car feels tractable. This, mind you, with five adults on board.

As for fuel consumption figures, the claim is 7.2l per 100km at a steady rate of 90kmh, while for a combined cycle it is 9l per 100km. In the real world, with some of the loads that are going to be expected in many Exoras, those figures might differ a fair bit. Still, we’ll be able to tell you more about how well it does in terms of actual fuel economy - as well as operation over a wider range of conditions - when a full road-test is done, hopefully soon.

The pricing for the Exora Medium-Line is RM69,998, while the High-Line goes for RM75,998 (both on-the-road, without insurance). Six colour choices are available - Pyrite Brown, Gaia Blue, Genetic Silver, Tranquillity Black, Blue Haze and Solid White - and the vehicle comes with an extended warranty of 175,000km or five years, whichever comes first.

On the whole, this one should hit it right on the spot for a very large audience, and there are 2,500 of these so far from pre-launch bookings. Undoubtedly, detractors will continue to do the usual, but surely three out of three is more than commendable.

Putra Design - TheStar

PROTON EXORA DILANCAR

2009-04-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

NAJIB Tun Razak, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Datuk Mohd. Nadzmi Mohd. Salleh dan Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Mohamed Tahir (kanan) menunjukkan isyarat bagus pada majlis pelancaran MPV Proton Exora di Pusat Konvensyen Kuala Lumpur, malam tadi. – UTUSAN/Ahmad Zakki Jilan

SETELAH beberapa bulan menunggu penampilannya, Proton Exora, kenderaan pelbagai guna (MPV) pertama keluaran Proton dilancarkan oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak di ibu negara, malam tadi.

Proton Exora yang menggunakan enjin 1.6 Campro CPS dengan 125 kuasa kuda, dijual pada harga RM69,998 hingga RM75,998 sebuah. Tidak hairanlah dengan harga semurah itu, 2,500 unit telah ditempah orang ramai.

Peminat kenderaan untuk seisi keluarga itu mempunyai pilihan membeli unit transmisi automatik empat kelajuan atau manual lima kelajuan.

MPV itu ditawarkan dalam enam warna pilihan dan dua varian iaitu Exora Hi-Line 1.6 Automatik Metallic (RM75,998) dan Exora M-Line 1.6 Automatik Metallic (RM69,998).

Tempoh 18 bulan bangunkan Exora

KUALA LUMPUR 15 April – Kenderaan pelbagai guna (MPV) pertama Proton, Exora dibangunkan hanya dalam tempoh 18 bulan, lebih cepat daripada standard antarabangsa untuk membangunkan kenderaan yang selalunya mengambil masa 24 bulan.

Pengerusi Proton Holding Berhad, Datuk Mohd. Nadzmi Mohd. Salleh memberitahu, Exora juga dibangunkan dalam tempoh lebih pendek berbanding semasa syarikat ini mula-mula membangunkan kereta sendiri iaitu Proton Waja yang mengambil tempoh 36 bulan.

“Ini kejayaan Proton kerana bukan saja mampu membangunkan produk dalam tempoh 18 bulan malah jumlah jurutera yang terlibat hanya 250 orang berbanding ketika membangunkan Proton Waja yang melibatkan 1,000 jurutera di samping bantuan pembekal kejuruteraan daripada syarikat kereta di Eropah dan Jepun,” katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian ketika berucap pada majlis pelancaran Proton Exora yang disempurnakan oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak di Pusat Konvensyen Kuala Lumpur (KLCC) di sini hari ini.

Mohd. Nadzmi memberitahu, Exora bukan hanya model terbaru Proton tetapi titik permulaan kepada kemajuan teknologi automotif tempatan dan ia merupakan MPV pertama buatan Malaysia.

Tegasnya, Exora dibangunkan 100 peratus oleh anak Malaysia daripada penyelidikan dan pembangunan, reka bentuk dan sehingga ke peringkat pemasangan.

UM - Putra Design

Important : Koobface, Other Worms Target Facebook Friends (NewsFactor)

2009-03-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

- As Facebook works to make itself more relevant and timely for its growing member base with a profile page makeover, attackers seem to be working overtime to steal the identities of the friends, fans and brands that connect though the social-networking site.

Indeed, Facebook has seen five different security threats in the past week. According to Trend Micro, four new hoax applications are attempting to trick members into divulging their usernames and passwords. And a new variant of the Koobface worm is running wild on the site, installing malware on the computers of victims who click on a link to a fake YouTube video.

The Koobface worm is dangerous. It can be dropped by other malware and downloaded unknowingly by a user when visiting malicious Web sites, Trend Micro reports. When attackers execute the malware, it searches for cookies created by online social networks. The latest variant is targeting Facebook, but earlier variants have also plagued MySpace.

Koobface's Wicked Agenda

Once Koobface finds the social-networking cookies, it makes a DNS query to check IP addresses that correspond to remote domains. Trend Micro explains that those servers can send and receive information about the affected machine. Once connected, the malicious user can remotely perform commands on the victim's machine.

"Once cookies related to the monitored social-networking Web sites are located, it connects to these Web sites using the user log-in session stored in the cookies. It then navigates through pages to search for the user's friends. If a friend has been located, it sends an HTTP POST request to the server," Trend Micro reports.

Ultimately, the worm's agenda is to transform the victim's computer into a zombie and form botnets for malicious purposes. Koobface attempts to do this by composing a message and sending it to the user's friends. The message contains a link to a Web site where a copy of the worm can be downloaded by unsuspecting friends. And the cycle repeats itself.

An Attractive Face(book)

Malware authors are investing more energy in Facebook and other social-networking sites because that effort pays off, according to Michael Argast, a security analyst at Sophos. Facebook alone has more than 175 million users, which makes it an attractive target.

"Many computer users have been conditioned not to open an attachment from an e-mail or click a link found within, but won't think twice about checking out a hot new video linked to by a trusted friend on Facebook," Argast said.

Argast called the Koobface worm a mix of something old and something new. The new is using social networks as a method to spread malware. The old is using fake codec Trojans linked to a saucy video to induce the user to install the malware.

Argast said people can protect themselves by running up-to-date antivirus software, restricting which Facebook applications they install, thinking twice before clicking on links from friends and never, never installing a codec from some random Web site in the hopes of catching some celebrity in a compromised situation.

"I would expect to see more attacks on Facebook," Argast said. "As long as this is a successful propagation method, the bad guys will double down and invest more. They are entirely motivated by financial gain. If it pays, they'll continue to romp in your social playgrounds."

Putra-Design

SWOT ANALYSIS

2009-03-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

Organizational strategies are the means through which companies accomplish their missions and goals. Successful strategies address four elements of the setting within which the company operates: (1) the company's strengths, (2) its weaknesses, (3) the opportunities in its competitive environment, and (4) the threats in its competitive environment. This set of four elements—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—when used by a firm to gain competitive advantage, is often referred to as a SWOT analysis.

SWOT was developed by Ken Andrews in the early 1970s. An assessment of strengths and weaknesses occurs as a part of organizational analysis; that is, it is an audit of the company's internal workings, which are relatively easier to control than outside factors.

Conversely, examining opportunities and threats is a part of environmental analysis—the company must look outside of the organization to determine opportunities and threats, over which it has lesser control.

Andrews's original conception of the strategy model that preceded the SWOT asked four basic questions about a company and its environment: (1) What can we do? (2) What do we want to do? (3) What might we do? and (4) What do others expect us to do?

The answers to these questions provide the input for an effective strategic management process. While Andrews' original conception of this analysis has been developed and changed to the more streamlined SWOT analysis that we know today, his work is the foundation of this activity.

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES,OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS

Strengths, in the SWOT analysis, are a company's capabilities and resources that allow it to engage in activities to generate economic value and perhaps competitive advantage. A company's strengths may be in its ability to create unique products, to provide high-level customer service, or to have a presence in multiple retail markets. Strengths may also be things such as the company's culture, its staffing and training, or the quality of its managers. Whatever capability a company has can be regarded as strength.

A company's weaknesses are a lack of resources or capabilities that can prevent it from generating economic value or gaining a competitive advantage if used to enact the company's strategy. There are many examples of organizational weaknesses. For example, a firm may have a large, bureaucratic structure that limits its ability to compete with smaller, more dynamic companies. Another weakness may occur if a company has higher labor costs than a competitor
who can have similar productivity from a lower labor cost. The characteristics of an organization that can be strength, as listed above, can also be a weakness if the company does not do them well.

Opportunities provide the organization with a chance to improve its performance and its competitive advantage. Some opportunities may be anticipated, others arise unexpectedly. Opportunities may arise when there are niches for new products or services, or when these products and services can be offered at different times and in different locations. For instance, the increased use of the Internet has provided numerous opportunities for companies to expand their product sales.

Threats can be an individual, group, or organization outside the company that aims to reduce the level of the company's performance. Every company faces threats in its environment. Often the more successful companies have stronger threats, because there is a desire on the part of other companies to take some of that success for their own. Threats may come from new products or services from other companies that aim to take away a company's competitive advantage. Threats may also come from government regulation or even consumer groups.

A strong company strategy that shows how to gain competitive advantage should address all four elements of the SWOT analysis. It should help the organization determine how to use its strengths to take advantage of opportunities and neutralize threats. Finally, a strong strategy should help an organization avoid or fix its weaknesses. If a company can develop a strategy that makes use of the information from SWOT analysis, it is more likely to have high levels of performance.

Nearly every company can benefit from SWOT analysis. Larger organizations may have strategic-planning procedures in place that incorporate SWOT analysis, but smaller firms, particularly entrepreneurial firms may have to start the analysis from scratch. Additionally, depending on the size or the degree of diversification of the company, it may be necessary to conduct more than one SWOT analysis. If the company has a wide variety of products and services, particularly if it operates in different markets, one SWOT analysis will not capture all of the relevant strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist across the span of the company's operations.

LIMITATIONS OF SWOT ANALYSIS

One major problem with the SWOT analysis is that while it emphasizes the importance of the four elements associated with the organizational and environmental analysis, it does not address how the company can identify the

elements for their own company. Many organizational executives may not be able to determine what these elements are, and the SWOT framework provides no guidance. For example, what if a strength identified by the company is not truly a strength? While a company might believe its customer service is strong, they may be unaware of problems with employees or the capabilities of other companies to provide a higher level of customer service. Weaknesses are often easier to determine, but typically after it is too late to create a new strategy to offset them. A company may also have difficulty identifying opportunities.

Depending on the organization, what may seem like an opportunity to some, may appear to be a threat to others. Opportunities may be easy to overlook or may be identified long after they can be exploited. Similarly, a company may have difficulty anticipating possible threats in order to effectively avoid them.

While the SWOT framework does not provide managers with the guidance to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does tell managers what questions to ask during the strategy development process, even if it does not provide the answers. Managers know to ask and to determine a strategy that will take advantage of a company's strengths, minimize its weaknesses, exploit opportunities, or neutralize threats.

Some experts argue that making strategic choices for the firm is less important than asking the right questions in choosing the strategy. A company may mistakenly solve a problem by providing the correct answer to the wrong question.

USING SWOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOPORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY

SWOT analysis is just the first step in developing and implementing an effective organizational strategy. After a thorough SWOT analysis, the next step is to rank the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to document the criteria for ranking. The company must then determine its strategic fit given its internal capabilities and externalenvironment in a two-by-two grid . This fit, as determined in the grid, will indicate what strategic changes need to be made. The quadrants in this grid are as follows:

Quadrant 1—internal strengths matched with external opportunities;
Quadrant 2—internal weaknesses relative to external opportunities;
Quadrant 3—internal strengths matched with external threats; and
Quadrant 4—internal weaknesses relative to external threats.

Quadrant 1 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's strengths and its perceived external opportunities. It represents the best fit between the company's resources and the options available in the external market. A strategy from this quadrant would be to protect the company's strengths by shoring up resources and extending competitive advantage. If a strategy in this quadrant can additionally bolster weaknesses in other areas, such as in Quadrant 2, this would be advantageous.

Quadrant 2 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's weaknesses with external opportunities. Strategies in this quadrant would address the choice of either improving upon weaknesses to turn them into strengths, or allowing competitors to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace.

Quadrant 3 matches the company's strengths and external threats. Strategies in this quadrant may aim to transform external threats into opportunities by changing the company's competitive position through use of its resources or strengths. Another strategic option in this quadrant is for the company to maintain a defensive strategy to focus on more promising opportunities in other quadrants.

Quadrant 4 matches a company's weaknesses and the threats in the environment. These are the worst possible scenarios for an organization. However, because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, any company is likely to have information in this quadrant. Strategies in this quadrant may involve using resources in other quadrants to exploit opportunities to the point that other threats are minimized. Additionally, some issues may be moved out of this quadrant by otherwise neutralizing the threat or by bolstering a perceived weakness.

Once a strategy is decided on in each quadrant for the issues facing the company, these strategies require frequent monitoring and periodic updates. An organization is best served by proactively determining strategies to address issues before they become crises.

An example of how a firm can develop strategies using these quadrants is as follows. Generic Corporation produces high-quality; high-priced specialty kitchen items in a catalog and in stores and is known for their excellent customer service. This strength has been able to offset its major weaknesses, which are having few stores and no current capabilities for Internet sales. Its major opportunities come from the explosion of Internet shopping, and its threats are other more high-profile competitors, operating primarily on the Internet, and the concerns of identity theft in Internet sales that many customers have. Matching Generic's strengths to its opportunities (Quadrant 1), the firm may choose to enhance its Internet site to allow online purchases, still providing its excellent 24-hour telephone customer service.

Ideally, this strategy will offset the weakness of not having an Internet presence, which addresses the concerns of Quadrant 2. Additionally, by bolstering the strength of excellent customer service by applying it to the online shopping site, the company may be able to alleviate customer concerns about identity theft (Quadrant 3). A strategy for Quadrant 4, which matches the company's weaknesses and threats, is that Generic may consider selling its online business to a competitor. Certainly, the Quadrant 4 strategy is the least preferred, but a proactive strategy that plans for managing such a situation is favored over a crisis situation in which the company is forced to sell with no planning.

A SWOT analysis is a first, but critical, step in developing an organizational strategy. By examining the company's internal capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses and its external environment—opportunities and threats, it helps to create strategies that can proactively contend with organizational challenges.

FURTHER READING:

Andrews, K. The Concept of Corporate Strategy. Homewood, IL: R.D. Irwin, 1971.
Barney, Jay. Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Fleisher, Craig S., and Babette E. Bensoussan. Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Jackson, Susan E., and Randall S. Schuler. Managing Human Resources: A Partnership Perspective. 7th ed. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing, 2000.

Prepared by :
Putra-Design

Satellite Receiving Antennas

2009-02-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

All satellite dishes incorporate a parabolic curve into the design of their bowl-shaped reflectors. The parabolic curve has the property of reflecting all incident rays arriving along the reflector's axis of symmetry to a common focus located to the front and center. The parabolic antenna's ability to amplify signals is primarily governed by the accuracy of this parabolic curve. Poor antenna performance can result from inaccuracies in the dies used to manufacture the reflector surfaces. More often, however, low antenna efficiencies are caused by the installer's failure to grasp the importance of using good antenna assembly techniques.

Antenna Materials & Construction

The reflector must be constructed out of metal in order to reflect the incoming microwave signals. Some antenna reflectors appear to be manufactured out of plastic or Fiberglas; however, these dishes contain an embedded metal mesh material that reflects the incoming satellite signals.
Solid one-piece antennas are most often the best performers because there are no assembly errors and they will maintain their exact shape over the lifetime of the system. Solid petalized antennas constructed out of four or more segments are generally the next best performers. Potential assembly errors are limited to variations along the seams between petals.

The installer can easily visually inspect these seams during assembly to ensure that there are no variations in the surface curve from one petal to the next. One-piece and petalized antennas are also available in a perforated form. The diameter of the perforation holes is a function of signal wavelength: too small to pass or resonate with the wavelength of the incoming microwave signals but large enough to pass light in order to minimize the antenna's environmental impact.

Mesh antennas are the most susceptible to construction errors. The two-part construction process consists of the building of a support frame and a series of flexible mesh panels. The installer attaches the mesh to the frame using a series of metal clips or sheet metal screws. Mesh antennas also are highly susceptible to environmental effects. Heavy wind storms, for example, can loosen the clips holding the mesh to the frame and distort the curve from its original shape or even blow out one or more of the mesh panels. The installer should examine the antenna at intervals during the installation process. Close attention should be paid to how the various petals fit together. The reflector surface should appear to be continuous, with minimal variation from petal to petal and few noticeable bumps or waves along the surface of mesh antennas. Antenna symmetry is also very important.

Improper construction of a petalized antenna can warp the reflector curvature. The installer should sight along a side view of the reflector from the near to far edge of the antenna rim. If the near and far rims of the dish do not line up in parallel with each other then the installer will need to loosen the bolts holding the petals together and re tighten them in such as way that the reflector conforms to the manufacturer's intended shape. Another way to detect warp is to run strings across the antenna's rim. All strings should lightly touch over the center of the dish. Any gaps between strings indicate a flaw in the reflector surface.

Prime Focus Antennas

The basic design principle of the parabolic curve can be incorporated into antenna designs in a variety of ways. Dishes with a focal point directly at the front and center of the reflector are called prime focus antennas. Prime focus antennas are easy to construct and point toward the desired satellite. There are two main design disadvantages, however: the feedhorn and feed support structure block part of the reflector surface and the feedhorn must look back at the dish at such an angle that it can also intercept noise from the "hot" earth located directly behind the reflector.

The feedhorn's illumination of the antenna must be attenuated or tapered to minimize noise contribution from the perimeter of the dish. This design necessity acts to reduce the antenna's efficiency.Prime focus antennas use two different types of feedhorn support bracket. A three or four-legged support provides a rigid support structure for the feedhorn and LNB over the center of the dish and at the distance specified by the manufacturer. The main disadvantage of this structural approach is that it may be difficult to make minor variations in the focal length, that is the distance from reflector center to the lip of the feed opening.

The buttonhook structural design uses a single support member to position the LNB and feedhorn. This tubular leg can usually be slid in and out of a clamp or bracket at the center of the dish, allowing the installer to fine-tune the focal length. However, the buttonhook support may not always position the feed at the precise center of the dish, especially when the feedhorn is weighted down by multiple LNBs. Motorized dishes may experience feedhorn movement when the antenna is moved from one satellite to the next; heavy winds can also temporarily move the feedhorn away from the antenna's focus. Guy wire kits are available which the installer can use to provide additional structural rigidity to the buttonhook support if required for a given installation.

Offset-fed Antennas

The dish design of choice for most digital DTH systems is called an offset-fed antenna. Here the manufacturer uses a smaller subsection of the same parabolic curve used to produce prime focus antennas, but with a major axis in the north/south direction, and a smaller minor axis in the east/west direction. With the offset-fed design, the feedhorn is no longer positioned at the front and center of the reflector but rather offset to the bottom of the dish. However, the feed would be centrally located if we extended the parabolic curve of the offset fed dish to the full length of a prime focus parabola. The offset fed antenna design offers several distinct advantages over its prime focus counterparts.

There is no feedhorn blockage, an important consideration when the antenna aperture is less than one meter in diameter. Moreover, the offset angle at which the feedhorn tilts up toward the reflector is such that if the feed looks over the antenna's rim it will see the cold sky rather than the hot earth. Due to these advantages, the offset-fed antenna can achieve higher efficiency levels than prime focus antennas can generally attain. The low inclination angles required by offset antennas also may be beneficial in certain climate zones. In tropical or semi-tropical environments, rain will not collect inside the reflector. In cold weather climates, snow will slide off of the antenna surface rather than accumulating inside the reflector.

Cassegrain Antennas

The cassegrain antenna is most often used for dishes that exceed five meters in diameter. Its use is primarily restricted to uplink earth stations and cable TV head ends. The cassegrain design incorporates a small sub reflector located at the front and center of the dish. The sub reflector deflects the microwaves back toward the center of the reflector, where the feedhorn is actually mounted. Like the prime focus dish, the cassegrain antenna's view of the satellite is partially obscured, in this case by the sub reflector.

However, when the diameter of the dish exceeds 5m, the percentage of blockage is actually quite small. This type of antenna obtains higher efficiencies because the feedhorn looks up at the cold sky and the required illumination taper is reduced. The precise manufacturing tolerances required to implement this dual reflector approach, however, increases the manufacturing cost and adds complexity to the installation process.

Spherical Antennas

The spherical antenna design creates multiple focal points located to the front and center of the reflector, one for each available satellite. The curvature of the reflector is such that if extended it outward far enough along both axes it would become a sphere. Spherical antennas are primarily used for commercial SMATV and cable installations where the customer wishes to simultaneously receive multiple satellites with a single dish. These satellites must be within +/- 20 degrees of the reflector's axis of symmetry.

Planar Arrays

Some digital DTH systems in Japan and elsewhere have elected to use an alternate antenna design called the planar array. These flat antennas do not rely on the reflective principles used by all parabolic dishes. Therefore no feedhorn is required. Instead a grid of tiny elements is embedded into the antenna's surface. These elements have a size and shape which causes them to resonate with the incoming microwave signals. A spider's web of feed lines is used to interconnect all the resonant elements in such a way that their signal contributions are all combined in phase at a single terminal located at the center of the array which connects directly to the LNB.

Planar arrays are relatively unobtrusive: there is no feedhorn and the LNB is located to the rear of the antenna out of sight. Since these antennas are most always dedicated to the reception of a single satellite or constellation of collocated satellites, they can be mounted in a fixed position on an outer wall or rooftop. One main disadvantage of the planar array is its limited frequency bandwidth which is about 500 MHz. Parabolic antennas, however, have a broad bandwidth; a single dish, for example, can be used to receive S, C, and Ku-band satellite signals. Another disadvantage of the planar array is the high construction cost: more than four times the cost of manufacturing a feedhorn and parabolic reflector with equivalent signal amplification characteristics.

Antenna Gain and G/T

The gain of a satellite antenna is the measurement of its ability to amplify the incoming microwave signals. Gain, which is expressed in decibels, or dB, is primarily a function of antenna capture area or aperture: the larger the antenna aperture, the higher the antenna gain. Gain also is directly related to antenna beam width: the narrow corridor or "boresight" along which the antenna looks up at the sky.

The antenna's efficiency rating is the percentage of signal captured by the parabolic reflector that actually is received by the feedhorn. As we have previously seen, the feed-horn's illumination of the outer portion of the dish is attenuated or tapered, which leads us to conclude that antenna gain is not as important a factor as it might first appear to be. The ultimate figure of merit for all receiving antennas is the G/T (pronounced "G over T"); that is, the gain of the antenna (in dB) minus the noise temperature of the receiving system (in dB). A typical C-band DTH system will have a G/T of around 20 dB/K, while most Ku-band digital DTH systems have a G/T of 12.7 dB/K.

The more powerful the satellite signal, the lower the G/T value that will be needed at the receiving system down on the ground.The noise value (T) primarily comes from two sources. The antenna noise is a function of the amount of noise that the feedhorn sees as it looks over the antenna rim towards the hot earth (which has a noise temperature of 290 K). Antenna noise generally ranges between 30 and 50 K.

The noise contribution of the LNB's internal circuitry is the other major source of concern. C-band LNB performance now ranges as low as 20 K. If we add an antenna/feed noise of 40 K to LNB noise of 35 K = 75 K. Ten times the Logarithm of 75 K equals a (T) of 18.8 dB. A typical 1.8m diameter C-band antenna will produce a gain of 38 dB. Therefore the G/T of the system described above would be (G) 38 dB minus (T) 18.8 equals 19.2 dB/K.

Deep Versus Shallow Dishes

The parameters of the parabolic curve that the antenna designer selects can be adjusted to create a variety of focal length to antenna diameter (f/D) values. Antennas which have an f/D greater than .38 are said to be shallow, whereas dishes will an f/D less than .33 are said to be deep.Although the long focal length afforded by the shallow dish design increases the feedhorn's ability to illuminate the entire reflector surface, we have already seen that there are distinct disadvantages to doing this.

Moreover, antenna noise increases as antenna elevation increases. Shallow dishes are more susceptible to intercepting earth noise when pointing at low elevation angles. Finally, the shallow dish is more susceptible to picking up terrestrial interference from microwave relay stations. The deep dish trades off gain in order to lower antenna noise performance.

The deep-dish design is an attractive alternative for locations that potentially may experience terrestrial interference problems or at installations which require low antenna elevation angles. The deep-dish design positions the feedhorn relatively close to the rim of the reflector. Therefore the deep dish has a greater ability to shield the feedhorn from potential TI sources. However, the feedhorn is so close to the reflector that it cannot illuminate the entire surface.

Antenna Side Lobe Rejection

The explosive worldwide growth in satellite telecommunications is leading to closer spacing between satellites in geostationary orbit. What's more, the very latest satellites are transmitting higher-powered signals than ever before. Both of these developments act to increase the potential for interference from nearby or adjacent satellites. The perfect parabolic antenna would only receive signals from the satellite at which it was pointed while rejecting all signals coming from other directions.

In the real world, however, each antenna design will produce a main beam along the axis of symmetry as well as other beams of lower intensity that look out at adjacent angles. These beams of lower intensity are called "sidelobes". The goal of all satellite TV antenna manufacturers is to reduce the gain of these sidelobes to levels that are at a minimum of 15 dB below the gain of the main lobe. This level of sidelobe attenuation is usually sufficient for preventing adjacent satellites from causing interference to reception of the desired satellite.

The location off axis of each sidelobe is a function of antenna diameter and signal frequency. The installer can therefore select an antenna that is large enough to put the adjacent satellites in the first "null" of the antenna receiving pattern or use an antenna which has a sidelobe that is at least -15 dB down from the main beam.

Antenna Mounts

The steel mount and the bearing that supports the antenna reflector must be able to maintain a precise position once boresighted onto the desired satellite. A misalignment of the mount of as little as two inches can make the difference between perfect TV reception and no reception at all. The installer should check the rigidity of the mount by grasping the rim and gently shaking it to see if there is any "play" as wind or rainstorms may push the dish off of boresight, causing erratic reception.

All mounts incorporate adjustments that permit the installer to point the dish at the desired satellite. Digital DTH antennas commonly have what is known as a fixed mount that is adjusted once at the time of installation and then left alone thereafter. The fixed mount has separate settings for the required azimuth (compass bearing corrected to true north) and elevation (the angle at which the reflector tilts up at the sky). Motorized DTH antennas must rotate in an arc that mimics the curvature of the geostationary arc where all the satellites are located.

A modified form of the polar mount used by astronomers on their telescopes is used to achieve this effect. The axis of the modified polar mount must be aligned with the earth's axis of rotation at an angle that corresponds to the latitude of the receiving site. Precise tracking of the geostationary arc also requires a declination adjustment that tilts the antenna downward slightly in the direction of the geostationary arc. This modification to the polar mount is required because of the relative closeness of the satellites in comparison to the stars that astronomers view with polar mounted telescopes.

First published in Middle East Satellite Today magazine. Copyright 1998 Mark Long.

Putra-Design

Sony Company Profile, History and Culture, and SWOT

2009-02-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Sony Corporation Company Profile, History and Culture, and SWOT

Executive Summery :

Sony's current financial difficulties are tied into its corporate culture which were stated over 30 years ago. With such a large multinational corporation, greater planning and more use of strategies should be pursued. Sony could start with the implementation of a new mission statement, with profit and benefits of the company tied more closely to everyday operations. Internally, the four forces, the management, the designers, the production and the marketing should achieve better communication and cooperation.

Alliance and cooperation between competitors should also be actively sort after in order to create standards in new fields. Sony should aim at being the leader instead of being the maverick. As for cost cutting, Sony should seriously consider setting up operations in other Asian countries in order to take advantage of the cheap labour and the budding markets. Finally, diversification, instead of pursuing the fast changing and easily imitated consumer goods market, Sony should use its technological know-how for high-end business and office equipment.

With SWOT analysis and Porter's competitive forces model, we can view that the market is much more competitive with less profit margins and lead-time for product innovation. The conclusion is that change is needed in Sony. However,even with strategirial and structure change, the Sony spirit of innovation should remain intact because that is what made Sony grow and would make it stay strong.

Introduction

The first thing that comes to peoples minds of the company and products of Sony is its high-technology-filled-with-gadgets electronic goods and innovation. It was also this innovation that make Sony the greatest company that started in post-war Japan. Sony has used its innovation in building markets out of thin air, created a multibillion, multinational electronic empire with products such as the transistor radio, the Trinitron, the Walk-in and the VTR. that changed everyday household lives forever.

However, this consumer targeted quest for excellence and constant innovation instead of targeting mainly at profit also has a lot to do with current crisis Sony is facing - sales and profits are down or are slowing down, capital investment cost and R&D are climbing, competitors are moving in with copycats, the battle between VHS and Beta and the search for a smash hit product such as the Trinitron or the Walk-in.

This volatility and emphasis (or gambling) on new products instead of concentrating on profit and loss statements have always been a part of Sony since its beginning days. For each successful product (i.e. transistor radio and Trinitron), R&D cost often ran so high that the they pushed the firm to the verge of bankruptcy. This can also be seen through the eyes of the investor in which although sales have increased tremendously throughout the past twenty years, the stock price has remained relatively low.

History and Culture

The current Sony corporation has a unique culture which is firmly rooted in her history especially in relationship to her two founders, Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. Ibuka and Morita were both dedicated electrical engineers and geniuses above their business talents. Both gave insights and visions in what the company should make and how it should be made. Ibuka, especially, gave constant advice and suggestions to the engineers involved in projects from the earlier on transistor radios to Walkmans.

This created the umbrella strategy in which Sony operates under where the top management, especially Ibuka, Morita and now Norio Ohga gave the general direction in which the lower engineers actively learned, developed and improved on the vision/idea. Therefore, although there is a planned direction, the actual product development through launching is emergent with great flexibility.

Although the research and development section of Sony differs greatly from other companies with its great flexibility, Sony, in its essence is still a traditional Japanese company in many ways. There is life-time employment, with strong norms and values which in turn create strategies through their actions. Status is given (the crystal award) instead of bonuses (not significant amount) for superior achievement. There is also the strong seniority system such as the mentor and apprentice relationship that is typical of a Japanese firm. All this can be classified as the cultural school in which strategy formation is of collective behaviour. Collective vision and stress on human resource, which is typical of many Japanese, can be clearly seen in the mission statement "Management Policies".

Weaknesses and Threats

Referring to Exhibit 1, sales has slowed down considerably since the beginning of the 80s. In the domestic market, sales actually decreased by 7.22%. The overseas market expanded both in real terms and relative to total sales, but slowed down to around 10% a year. This can be seen as the vacuum period between one hit product, the Walkman, and its succession. As mentioned by Ibuka, business is conducted in a ten year cycle.

However, in the eighties, the product might still take a few years to develop, but the time reaping the results and profits might be much less. As seen in the VTR example, both the VHS and Beta were developed by Sony. However, in a short time, Matsushita could come up with a competitive product based on Sony's technology. Therefore, it is fair to say that other electronic firms would be able to copy Sony's technology in a much shorter time while offering more competitive prices. The margin for technology advancement is therefore diminishing.

Associated with innovation is the capital expenditure cost and return on investment ratio. As seen from Exhibit 1, capital expenditure has risen dramatically, especially in 1981, due to the automation of plants. However, the return on investment has decreased. Spending around 10% of sales on capital investment is by all company standards an extremely high figure. The question is that does this high rate of investment represent corresponding growth in profitability? As mentioned above, the diminishing returns from product innovation is apparent. However, the internal dimension also poses as much of a problem.

With its great freedom, research and development are divided into small teams which are free to pursue their interest with little reference to "how it will fit into a market, what the product can do, how well it will function or how it could be used by customers." Secret projects without management knowing about them until "secret reports" are submitted are of common practice.

With this kind of practice, there is lack of communication between management and R&D and threat of duplication of resources among the small groups. There is also a lack of general direction. This would be especially prominent when Ibuka and Morita, the symbolic leaders and founders retire. This is because the two in many ways act as the main guidance and bridge between management and the engineers. Therefore, there is also a succession problem.

Sony has always been a leader in technology, creating markets by looking for new markets where bigger, well-established companies are not a threat. However, new products such as VTR, the Walk-in and the Mavica involve both hardware and software. Sony can no longer just produce superb quality machines and expect them to sell. The software would also have to be available. For the Walkman, cassette tapes were well established but for the Beta system and Mavica, a standard has yet to be set. For example, the images of Mavica would be held on a high density magnetic disk but Kodak, 3M and Sony all have different systems and are not compatible. The Mavica system also stands alone with little compatibility with conventional systems and little transitional interfaces.

This leads to the problem of cooperation where Sony is often the maverick, alone creating markets. With Sony entering markets such as the VTR with no standards, it might be beneficial to both Sony and other vendors if they cooperated instead of competing on conflicting software that supports the systems. This could also be seen in Exhibit 2, the Porter competitive forces mode: new entrants from other Asian countries, other Japanese industry competitors, substitutes and buyers are all strong and much stronger than 20 years ago which reinforce the weakness of Sony acting alone.

Last but not least, Sony lacks strategy. Product development, manufacturing and marketing are all well established but the firm lacks any formal long term direction. The original mission statement is also outdated with its references to W.W.II. Short term strategy is also lacking and there is little emphasis on profit and accountability of research and development of products. The result : a company with strong components but unable to coordinate in a coherent way in order to achieve maximum potential.

Strengths and Opportunities

The greatest asset of Sony is of its human capital, especially its engineers which make up the R&D department. Their constant innovation is crucial for a consumer electronic firm which specializes in audio-visual equipment and the higher profit margin, which comes from being the leader of the pact. Subsidiaries are also well established, such as in the United States and Europe which give Sony a distinct local hands-on knowledge of the local market.

It also makes Sony an international corporation, bringing together the talents and best of strategies of both world to the organization. Besides the employees, the two founders, Ibuka and Morita also legends in their fields which they create vision and sense of direction for the organization. The also acts as bridges between the employees and the management.

The self promoting system and job rotating systems creates satisfaction for employees and give them greater exposure to all aspects of the business. Ideally, this would produce better products as engineers gain knowledge on consumer needs while marketing people engaged in the production and can give their point of view.

The innovative style also stems from the "never copy others" culture, the generous funding of the R&D and huge amounts in capital investments. As described by Ibuka,"It also stems from consumer driven in which technology is targeted at consumers or business while American electronic industry are spoiled be military and space applications."

Sony has been ahead in the race of Video Tape Recorders and digital imaging techniques in Mavica which both offer tremendous potential of household penetration and sales. It also has the opportunity to set up standards and dominate the field. Sony has also acquired enough technology to increase width by going into the high technology business fields. With the rise of the Asian countries, Sony also has the opportunity to make use of them for markets and for cheap labour.

Recommendations

Building of Strategy

With the succession of the two founders at hand, it would be very difficult for the company to find someone as visionary, as respected and with the same engineering background to lead the umbrella strategy company. With Sony as a much international company with major branches in Europe and the United States and stocks listed in 23 stock exchanges, the Japanese cultural school strategy is not sufficient. Becoming a mature company, the strategy should also change to more profit orientated. There should also be greater emphasis on market share, especially in Japan where Sony's market is shrinking. Strategy should be aimed at greater control and communication between manager and workers, especially the engineers in the R&D Department. A more planned strategy should be adopted, which should outline the general direction of the company.

Diversification

One direction which is possible is concentrating more on electronic know how in non-consumer business. Currently, the buyer has much more choosing power and competition is fierce (Exhibit 2). The competitors are also able to copy the product in a much shorter time. To create larger profit margins, Sony should concentrate on the business sector and industries, supplying high technology equipment and parts. This would make full use of the R&D Department, the strongest advantage of Sony without waiting for the price cutting and technology adaptation to fit the average consumers needs. This would also make Sony less dependent on coming up with a steady stream of relatively short-lived hit products, and able to use its unique talents in video and semiconductor technology to create its version of the office of the future.

Although the Sony name is often related to expensive, high-profit end of the market, the organization should also expand its product range by offering lower priced, simpler featured products that would compete head on with other copycats. With the lower priced line, Sony can also increase its market shares in both overseas and Japanese markets.

Alliance and Cooperation

Sony should try to become a leader instead of a maverick. The difference is great, the leader, besides a great innovator, should also be a great coordinator. New products, which involve both hardware and software such as the Mavica, should try to achieve industry wide standards. The standard may not be the best or the one created by Sony, but Sony, by pioneering in the field first, would already have a significant head start and the standards is just a way to ensure stability to allow Sony to concentrate on product development and improvement. This is because Sony is not large and strong enough to acquire and provide both software and hardware for one product. They also lack the know-how to the creative software market. Consumers also prefer to have the ability to choose between competitive equipment.

Internally, the different R&D groups should cooperate more. The product line should also be made more compatible with one another which is crucial through the communication between groups and managers, i.e. no more secret projects. Products should be made with higher added value and longer life rather than making frequent model changes. This is also a shift from a manufacturer-orientated mentality to a consumer-orientated mentality, which is a way to save natural resources. The brand-line compatibility also builds brand loyalty for consumers.

In relationship with the other Japanese consumer electronic firms, a more cooperative attitude should also be taken. Just like when Japanese took over the US market through cheap yet quality consumer goods, other Asian countries such as Taiwan and South Korea, with their lower labour cost, pose as great competitors at the lower end of consumer goods. Therefore, the Japanese firms should cooperate in setting up standards in high technology areas in order to reap maximum profits and extend the technological lead-time over their fellow Asian countries.

Cost Cutting

Cost cutting is important because R&D plays an integral part in the success of Sony and cannot be cut drastically although it gobbles up 10% of sales. Therefore, the only way to improve profit margins is to cut cost.

Sony currently has factories in the United States and Japan. Although this is good for relationship of the firm in a foreign firm and offers a chance to pay suppliers with local currencies, Sony is not fully making use of other lower cost areas in the world, especially Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines etc. By setting up factories in these countries, Sony can take advantage of their cheap labour and also get a head start in their budding consumer markets.

As mentioned above, products should be refined instead of reinvented so that there would be less set up cost and greater automation could be achieved.

Integration of production, design and marketing

In many ways, designing and developing of a product is separate from the production and marketing. Although there is job rotation, the design stage is backed by intuition and experience rather than market research and analysis. Often, the rational is that it is the marketing personnel's job to find a market for a product after it has been developed instead of the other way round. To cure this phenomenon, R&D should listen more to what the consumer needs and then innovate instead of always creating new markets. With great freedom, the designing team should also take on greater responsibility in making the product fit to the current production pattern and marketing aims. They should also be made more responsible to the profit and lost of the particular product. Empowering these three separate groups create conflict, but it also brings these separate efficient groups together achieving synergy.

Implementation

Internally, strategy should be reviewed beginning with renewing the corporate goals. It should integrate together both the Japanese work ethic and its western counterparts. This is possible, because Sony is a multinational corporation with employees and customers in many different countries. This involves writing the importance of profits and its responsibility to shareholders in the statement. Integration of the company, the designing, production and marketing should be encouraged, with increased communication between each groupand the management acting as liaison and guidance. The management should be providing the organization with specific goals and strategies for the short and long term. These changes are intended to balance business Vs engineering.

Setting up alliances with fellow electronic manufacturers / competitor is crucial to mutual benefit so should be pursued as soon as possible. In areas such as the VTR, Sony has to decide what standard the world is adapting and make decisions to cut off setbacks. For new products such as the Mavica, new standards for the industry should be actively sort after with commitment from other competitors and conventional producers. This is also a change in culture for Sony so top management has to actively push and pursue for this direction.

Cost cutting, with emphasis in making use of lower cost of labour in the Asian developing countries should then be implemented. This could also be seen as a long term strategy. The work force could also be made more flexible. Finally, diversification, with emphasis on making business supplies a major part of Sony's business. This is one of the long term goals in which Sony should thrive to achieve. However, the end product ratio between consumer and business products should be constantly reviewed throughout the process to achieve the optimum mix.

Conclusion

Although other electronic firms are taking market share and profits from Sony by being copycats, the heart of Sony's success, the innovative spirit and quest of excellence and perfection cannot be copied. Sony's main task is to integrate its talent by placing common goals and priority for this increasing competitive market. Sony also has the potential to innovate into a company with international operations as well as culture since it was one of the first Japanese companies to set up a main branch in the United States. With strategy and luck, Sony could become a great firm as it was and will be.

Putra-Design

Torque sensor helps to reduce engine friction..

2009-02-24T02:08:00.000-08:00

A torque sensor is helping to reduce engine emissions and improve economy as part of a project to develop an intelligent lubrication system.With engine efficiency under the spotlight like never before, automotive companies are exploring all avenues for improving performance. And because engines have a rotating power output, torque is the key measurement.

Car engines are the bête noire of the environmental lobby. There is no doubt that they are major contributors to carbon build up. But equally they are fundamental to modern life. A true replacement is decades away, so we have to make them as efficient as possible. Engine lubrication systems are essentially dumb.

They have a simple mechanical pump which has been sized to ensure an adequate supply of oil in the worst operating condition. This is typically a hot engine at idle. The pump is thus hugely oversized for most of the rest of the speed range and, as a consequence, nearly 60 per cent of its output is dumped straight back into the sump via the relief valve.

It will also deliver the same amount of oil to every part of the engine regardless of what that system might actually need. The pump is also insensitive to engine load and thus the bearings will receive the same oil supply at a given speed regardless of the load. This is a very inefficient system.In addition the pump forces nearly a ton of oil per hour through the filter, and when the oil is cold this takes a huge amount of energy.

With this in mind a major UK company asked Powertrain Technologies Ltd in Snetterton, Norfolk, to design an intelligent lubrication system and to analyse its effects on engine friction and parasitic losses. They built a highly specialised test rig for the project and, since accuracy in measuring small changes in drive torque reliably and repeatedly was a critical requirement, a key part of the rig is a TorqSense transducer from Sensor Technology.

The engine being tested was a current production diesel and the test bed was configured for motored friction tests with a 6,000rpm 32kW electric motor driving the engine. Andrew Barnes, a director at Powertrain explains: “We completely re-designed the engine lubrication system and installed a bank of five computer controlled oil pumps (to our own design).

Each is capable of supplying individual parts of the engine with oil under conditions unique to that part of the engine and sensitive to the engine operating conditions (for example we can supply the head with oil at pressures different to the block and supply the bearings with more oil when the engine is under high load).”The idea is to completely profile the performance of the engine under various lubrication conditions and to derive optimum configurations of the intelligent systems for best performance.

“Both petrol and Diesel engines run far cleaner than they did 20 or 30 years ago,” says Andrew. “However the need to operate efficiently under a wide range speeds and loads and environmental conditions from -40°C to 40°C remains the Achilles Heel. Intelligent lubrication has the potential to improve performance no end, although quantifying the best configuration is painstaking work.”

He goes on to explain that the torque sensor is critical to the project since the object of the exercise is to measure the effect on friction of a range of different oil supply strategies and oil types. Thus the changes in friction are represented by a change in the motored drive torque of the engine. TorqSense sensors are particularly appropriate for development work because they are wireless.

TorqSense effectively senses and measures the radio frequency (RF) waves generated by two Surface Acoustic Wave devices (SAWs) fixed onto a rotating shaft and converts them to a torque measurement using two tiny SAWs made of ceramic piezoelectric material with frequency resonating combs laid down on their surface. The SAWs are fixed onto the drive shaft at 90degrees to one another. As the torque increases the combs expand or contract proportionally to the torque being applied.

In effect the combs act similarly to strain gauges but instead measure changes in resonant frequency. The adjacent RF pickup emits radio waves towards the SAWs as well as collecting the reflected resonant changes and its this change in frequency of the reflected waves that identifies the applied torque.

Powertrain's research has now progressed to the next stage in which the test rig is forsaken and the engine installed in a car to quantify the effect on fuel economy. “It’s now a matter of driving it under all sorts of conditions on a mixture of test tracks and rolling roads to build up profiles of fuel consumption, says Andrew.

Engineer Live - Putra Design

Archive for Proton MPV 2009...

2009-01-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

Proton MPV Exora

South Korea's Samsung says unveils world's slimmest TV (AFP)

2009-01-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

Posted on Mon Jan 5, 2009 3:11AM EST

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled what it says is the world's slimmest LCD (liquid crystal display) TV.

The new product, measuring only 6.5 millimetres (0.26 inch) thick, is thinner than any other existing TV set, and even slimmer than most mobile handsets, Samsung said in a statement.
Its thickness is one seventh of Samsung's "Bordeaux 850" LCD TVs, which is currently the thinnest on the market, the company said.

The new product, which adopts an LED (light emitting diode) backlighting system, will be on display at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, Samsung added.

Putra-Design

PRODUCT DESIGN !

2008-12-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Product design is cross-functional, knowledge-intensive work that has become increasingly important in today's fast-paced, globally competitive environment. It is a key strategic activity in many firms because new products contribute significantly to sales revenue. When firms are able to develop distinctive products, they have opportunities to command premium pricing. Product design is a critical factor in organizational success because it sets the characteristics, features, and performance of the service or good that consumers demand.

The objective of product design is to create a good or service with excellent functional utility and sales appeal at an acceptable cost and within a reasonable time. The product should be produced using high-quality, low-cost materials and methods. It should be produced on equipment that is or will be available when production begins. The resulting product should be competitive with or better than similar products on the market in terms of quality, appearance, performance, service life, and price.

THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF PRODUCT DESIGN

Product design is more important than ever because customers are demanding greater product variety and are switching more quickly to products with state-of-the-art technology. The impacts of greater product variety and shorter product life cycles have a multiplicative effect on the number of new products and derivative products that need to be designed. For example, just a few years ago, a firm may have produced four different products and each product may have had a product life cycle of ten years. In this case, the firm must design four new products every ten years.

Today, in order to be competitive, this firm may produce eight different products with a life cycle of only five years; this firm must introduce eight new products in five years. That represents sixteen new products in ten years or one product every seven and one-half months. In this fast-paced environment, product design ceases to be an ad hoc, intermittent activity and becomes a regular and routine action. For an organization, delays, problems, and confusion in product design shift from being an annoyance to being life threatening.

PRODUCT DESIGN AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Product design can also be an important mechanism for coordinating the activities of key supply chain participants. As organizations outsource the production of sub-assemblies and components, they also may be asking suppliers to participate in product design. As they outsource design capabilities it is essential that they manage and coordinate the flow of information among the supply chain participants.

This can be especially important as firms outsource components to two or more suppliers. Now, there may be important design interfaces among two, three, or more suppliers. These interfaces must be properly managed to ensure cost effective and timely designs. Clearly, information and communication technologies become important parts of this effort.

PRODUCT DESIGN: A KEYTO ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS

Product design is an essential activity for firms competing in a global environment. Product design drives organizational success because it directly and significantly impacts nearly all of the critical determinants for success. Customers demand greater product variety and are quick to shift to new, innovative, full-featured products. In addition, customers make purchase decisions based on a growing list of factors that are affected by product design. Previously, customers made purchase decisions based primarily on product price and/or quality. While these factors are still important, customers are adding other dimensions such as customizability, order-to-delivery time, product safety, and ease and cost of maintenance.

Environmental concerns are expanding to include impacts during production, during the product's operating life, and at the end of its life (recycle-ability). In addition, customers demand greater protection from defective products, which leads to lower product liability losses. Safer and longer lasting products lead to enhanced warrantee provision, which, in turn, impact customer satisfaction and warrantee repair costs.

Programs and activities are being put in place so organizations can cope with these dimensions. Organizations are embracing concepts such as mass customization, design for manufacturing and assembly, product disposal, quality function deployment, and time-based competition. They are using technology such as rapid prototyping and computer-aided design to examine how products function, how much they may cost to produce, and how they may impact the environment. Firms are searching for and implementing new technologies to determine ways to design better products. They are examining legal and ethical issues in product design as well as the impact of product design on the environment.

MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Mass customization is the low-cost, high-quality, large volume delivery of individually customized products. It is the ability to quickly design and produce customized products on a large scale at a cost comparable to non-customized products. Customization, cost effectiveness is the ability to produce highly differentiated products without increasing costs, significantly. Consumers expect to receive customized products at close to mass-production prices.

Customization volume effectiveness is the ability to increase product variety without diminishing production volume. As markets become more and more segmented and aggregate demand remains constant or increases, firms must continue to design and produce high volumes across the same fixed asset base.

Customization responsiveness is the ability to reduce the time required to deliver customized products and to reorganize design and production processes quickly in response to customer requests. It would be counter-productive to pursue mass customization if a customized product takes too long to produce. Speed in product design and production is an indispensable criterion for evaluating an organization's mass customization capability.

DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY

Improving manufacturability is an important goal for product design. A systems approach to product design that was developed by two researchers from England, Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst, is called design for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA). It can be a powerful tool to improve product quality and lower manufacturing cost. The approach focuses on manufacturing issues during product design.

DFMA is implemented through computer software that identifies designs concepts that would be easy to build by focusing on the economic implications of design decisions. These decisions are critical even though design is a small part of the overall cost of a product because design decisions fix 70 to 90 percent of the manufacturing costs. In application, DFMA has had some startling successes. With the DFMA software, Texas Instruments reduced assembly time for an infrared sighting mechanism from 129 minutes to 20 minutes. IBM sliced assembly time for its printers from thirty minutes to three minutes.

Firms are recognizing that the concept behind DFMA can also be extended beyond cost control to design products that are easy to service and maintain. To do this effectively, service and maintenance issues should be considered at the earliest stages of the design. Also, firms will be required to examine disposal during product design as they become liable for recycling the products they make. It can be easier to recycle products if those factors are part of the product design paradigm.

DISPOSAL AND PRODUCT DESIGN

Disposal is becoming an increasingly important part of product design. The European Union is taking the lead by requiring that most of an automobile is recycled by the year 2010. This requirement has a major impact on product design. The most obvious effect is to change the notion that a consumer is the final owner for a product. With this approach, the product returns to the manufacturer to be recycled and the recycling process should begin in product design.

Vehicles should be designed so they can be disassembled and recycled easily. The designers should avoid exotic materials that are difficulty to recycle. For example, parts that have plastic and metal fused together should not be used in applications where they are difficult to separate. The designers should determine which parts will be designed to be refurbished and reused, and which will be designed to be discarded, broken down, and recycled. All this should be done without adding costs or reducing product quality.

QUALITY AND QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

Product design shapes the product's quality. It defines the way that good and service functions. Quality has at least two components. First, the product must be designed to function with a high probability of success, or reliability; that is, it will perform a specific function without failure under given conditions. When product reliability increases, the firm can extend the product's warrantee without increasing customer claims for repairs or returns.

Warrantees for complex and expensive items such as appliances are important selling points for customers. Second, quality improves when operating or performance characteristics improve even though reliability does not. The goals of product design should be greater performance, greater reliability, and lower total production and operating costs. Quality and costs should not be viewed as a trade-off because improvements in product and process technologies can enhance quality and lower costs.

Quality function deployment is being used by organizations to translate customer wants into working products. Sometimes referred to as the house of quality, quality function deployment (QFD) is a set of planning and communication routines that focus and coordinate actions and skills within an organization. The foundation of the house of quality is the belief that a product should be designed to reflect customers' desires and tastes. The house of quality is a framework that provides the means for inter-functional planning and communications. Through this framework, people facing different problems and responsibilities can discuss various design priorities.

PROTOTYPING

Engineering and operations combine to develop models of products called prototypes. These may be working models, models reduced in scale, or mock-ups of the products. Where traditional prototype development often takes weeks or months, the technology for rapid prototyping has become available. Some companies are using the same technology that creates virtual reality to develop three-dimensional prototypes. Other firms employ lasers to make prototypes by solidifying plastic in only a few minutes; this process can produce prototypes with complex shapes. Prototyping should increase customer satisfaction and improve design stability, product effectiveness, and the predictability of final product cost and performance.

COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN

Currently, business managers and engineers perceive computer-aided design (CAD) as a tool to assist engineers in designing goods. CAD uses computer technology and a graphic display to represent physical shapes in the same way that engineering drawings have in the past. It is used in the metalworking industry to display component parts, to illustrate size and shape, to show possible relationships to other parts, and to indicate component deformation under specified loads. After the design has been completed, the engineer can examine many different views or sections of the part and finally send it to a plotter to prepare drawings.

This capability greatly reduces engineering time and avoids routine mistakes made in analysis and drawing. It significantly increases productivity and reduces design time, which allows faster delivery. Applications of CAD systems are not limited to producing goods. While it's true that services do not have physical dimensions, the equipment and facilities used to produce services do. For example, the service stalls in an automotive center or rooms in an emergency medical center have physical characteristics that can be represented by the interactive graphics capabilities of a CAD system.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN PRODUCT DESIGN

What is the responsibility of an organization and its managers to see that the goods and services they produce do not harm consumers? Legally, it is very clear that organizations are responsible for the design and safe use of their products. Consumers who believe they have been damaged by a poorly designed good or service have legal recourse under both civil and criminal statutes. Often, however, only the most serious and obvious offenses are settled in this way. More difficult ethical issues in product design result when the evidence is not as clear.

For example, what responsibilities does a power tool manufacturer have with respect to product safety? Does a power saw manufacturer have the responsibility to design its product so that it is difficult for a child to operate? Suppose a parent is using a power saw and is called away to the telephone for a few minutes. A ten-year old may wander over, press the trigger and be seriously injured. Designing the saw so it has a simple and inexpensive lockout switch that would have to be pressed simultaneously when the trigger is pressed would make it more difficult for the accident to happen. What is the responsibility of the parent? What is the responsibility of the company?

PRODUCT DESIGN AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Organizations consider product design a critical activity to the production of environmentally friendly products. Organizations increasingly recognize that being good corporate citizens increases sales. Fast-food restaurants have begun recycling programs and redesigned packaging materials and systems in response to customer concerns. In other cases, being a good corporate citizen and protecting a company's renewable resources go well together; there are win-win opportunities where an organization can actually design products and processes that cut costs and increase profits by recapturing pollutants and reducing solid waste.

OVERVIEW OF PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS

Product design time can be reduced by using a team approach and the early involvement of key participants including marketing, research and development, engineering, operations, and suppliers. Early involvement is an approach to managing people and processes. It involves an upstream investment in time that facilitates the identification and solution of down-stream problems that would otherwise increase product design and production costs, decrease quality, and delay product introduction.

Time-based competitors are discovering that reducing product design time improves the productivity of product design teams. To reduce time, firms are reorganizing product design from an "over-the-wall" process to a team-based concurrent process. Over-the-wall means to proceed sequentially with the limited exchange of information and ideas. When this approach is used, problems are often discovered late because late-stage participants are excluded from decisions made early in the process. As a result, poor decisions are often made.

Product design is a labor-intensive process that requires the contribution of highly trained specialists. By using teams of specialists, communications are enhanced, wait time between decisions is reduced, and productivity is improved. Participants in this team-based process make better decisions faster because they are building a shared knowledge base that enhances learning and eases decision-making. By sharing development activities, design decisions that involve interdependencies between functional specialists can be made more quickly and more effectively. This reorganized process creates a timely response to customer needs, a more cost-effective product design process, and higher-quality products at an affordable price.

There are several reasons why early involvement and concurrent activities bring about these improvements. First, product design shifts from sequential, with feedback loops that occur whenever a problem is encountered, to concurrent, where problems are recognized early and resolved. The ability to overlap activities reduces product design time. Second, when a team of functional specialists works concurrently on product design, the participants learn from each other and their knowledge base expands. People are better able to anticipate conflicts and can more easily arrive at solutions. As a result, the time it takes to complete an activity should decline. Third, fewer changes later in the process results in faster and less expensive product design. When problems are discovered late, they take more time and money to solve.

Product design requires the expertise and decision-making skills of all parts of the organization. Marketing, engineering, operations, finance, accounting, and information systems all have important roles. Marketing's role is to evaluate consumer needs, determine potential impact of competitive pressure, and measure the external environment. Engineering's role is to shape the product through design, determine the process by which the product will be made, and consider the interface between the product and the people.

Operations' role is to ensure that the product can be produced in full-scale production. Finance's role is to develop plans for raising the capital to support the product in full-scale production and to assist in the evaluation of the product's profit potential. Accounting and information systems provide access to information for decision making. Cross-functional teamwork and knowledge sharing are thus keys to success.

FURTHER READING:

Corswant, F, and C. Tunälv. "Coordinating Customers and Proactive Suppliers: A Case Study of Supplier Collaboration in Product Development." Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 19, no. 3-4 (2002): 249–261.
Droge, C., J. Jayaram, and S. Vickery. "The Ability to Minimize the Timing of
New Product Development and Introduction: An Examination of Antecedent
Factors in the North American Automobile Supplier Industry." Journal of Product Innovation Management 17 (2000): 24–40.
Gerwin, D., and N.J. Barrowman. "An Evaluation of Research on Integrated Product Development." Management Science 48, no. 7 (2002): 938–953.
Hong, S.K., and M.J. Schniederjans. "Balancing Concurrent Engineering Environmental Factors for Improved Product Development Performance." International Journal of Production Research 38, no. 8 (2000): 1779–1800.
Koufteros, X.A., M. Vonderembse, and J. Jayaram. "Internal and External Integration for Product Development: The Contingency Effects of Uncertainty, Equivocality, and Platform Strategy." Decisions Sciences 36, no. 1 (2005): 977–133.
Koufteros, X.A., M. Vonderembse, and W. Doll. "Concurrent Engineering and Its Consequences." Journal of Operations Management 19 (2001): 97–115.
Krishnan, V., and K.T. Ulrich. "Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature." Management Science 47, no. 1 (2001): 1–21.
McDermott, C.M., and G.C. O'Connor. "Managing Radical Innovation: An Overview of Emergent Strategy Issues." Journal of Product Innovation Management 19, no. 6 (2002): 424–438.
Meyer, M.H., and A.P. Lehnerd. The Power of Product Platforms. New York: The Free Press.
Reinertsen, D.G. Managing the Design Factory. New York: The Free Press.
Song, X. M., and M. Montoya-Weiss. "The Effect of Perceived Technological Uncertainty on Japanese New Product Development." Academy of Management Journal 44 (2001): 61–80.
Tu, Q., M. Vonderembse, and T.S. Ragu-Nathan. "The Impact of Time-Based Manufacturing Practices on Mass Customization and Value to Customer." Journal of Operations Management 19 (2001): 201–217.
Vonderembse, M.A., and G.P. White. Operations Management: Concepts, Methods, and Strategies. Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Prepared by:
Putra-Design
Bandar Puncak Alam,
Malaysia.

POKA-YOKE !

2008-12-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

Poka-yoke is a technique for avoiding simple human error in the workplace. Also known as mistake-proofing, goof-proofing, and fail-safe work methods, poka-yoke is simply a system designed to prevent inadvertent errors made by workers performing a process. The idea is to take over repetitive tasks that rely on memory or vigilance and guard against any lapses in focus. Poka-yoke can be seen as one of the three common components of Zero Defect Quality Control performed by Japanese companies (source inspection and feedback are the other two).

Dr. Shigeo Shingo, a renowned authority on quality control and efficiency, originally developed the mistake-proofing idea. Realizing its value as an effective quality control technique, he formalized its use in Japanese manufacturing as the poka-yoke system. One hundred percent inspections catch unacceptable products but do nothing to improve the process. Shingo was emphatic that the purpose of this system be to improve the process not sort out defective parts.

Today, this concept is in wide use in Japan. Toyota Motor Corporation, whose production system Shingo helped design, averages twelve poka-yoke devices per machine in their manufacturing plants, thus validating the concept as beneficial to industry. Patel, Dale, and Shaw, in the article "Set-Up Time Reduction and Mistake Proofing Methods: An Examination in Precision" list the potential benefits as:

elimination of set-up errors and improved quality .
decreased set-up times with associated reduction in production time and improved
production capacity .
simplified and improved housekeeping.
increased safety.
lower costs .
lower skill requirements.
increased production flexibility .
improved operator attitudes.

In a Quality magazine article, Melissa Larson provides interesting details about benefits resulting from the implementation of poka-yoke systems at the Supply Support Activity (SSA) at Fort Carson, Colorado, a military retail supply operation of the U.S. Army.
Inventory, receipt, and batch processing all improved quantifiably. Location survey accuracy was approximately sixty-five percent prior to implementation.

After implementing the use of the bar-code readers location accuracy increased
to ninety-eight percent. Inventory adjustments averaged $3000 a month. Inventory adjustments dropped to an average of $250 per month. The rate of incorrect receipt closures to the supplier had been ninety percent. This rate dropped to zero percent. Batch processing was also significantly improved.

Traditionally, the SSA had approximately fifteen to twenty batch processing failures per month, and a myriad of system file failures due to operators performing the process out of proper sequence. Since the poka-yoke implementations, there have been zero batch process failures.
Catalog update improvements also resulted. The error rate was twenty-two percent but dropped to zero percent. Original request processing time was 12.5 days, but with the new request processing time is 1.6 days. Actual dollars invested in these activities totaled less than $1000.

TYPES OF POKA-YOKES

Poka-yoke is based on prediction and detection. That is, recognizing that a defect is about to occur or recognizing that a defect has occurred. Consequently, there are two basic types of poka-yoke systems. The control poka-yoke does not allow a process to begin or continue after an error has occurred. It takes the response to a specific type of error out of the hands of the operator.

For example, a fixture on a machine may be equipped with a sensing device that will not allow the process to continue unless the part is properly inserted. A 3.5-inch floppy disk will not work if inserted backwards or upside down. As a matter of fact, it won't fit into the drive at all unless properly inserted. A second type of poka-yoke provides some type of warning when an error occurs. This does not prevent the error, but immediately stops the process when an error is detected. This type of poka-yoke is useful for mass production environments with rapid processing as the device prevents mass production of scrapped material.

For environments where large losses of time or resources do not result, a warning poka-yoke is warranted. All that is needed is a way to ensure that the error is investigated and corrected in a timely manner. Poka-yokes can be as simple as a steel pin on a fixture that keeps incorrectly placed parts from fitting properly, or they can be as complex as a fuzzy logic neural network used to automatically detect tool breakage and immediately stop the machine. Surprisingly, the simple low-cost devices tend to be in the majority. Regardless of degree of simplicity, all poka-yokes fall into one of three categories: contact methods, fixed-value methods, and motion-step methods. Each is briefly discussed.

CONTACT METHODS.

Contact methods are based on some type of sensing device which detects abnormalities in the product's shape or dimension and responds accordingly. Interference pins, notches with matching locator pins, limit switches and proximity switches are sometimes used to ensure that a part is positioned correctly before work occurs. Asymmetric parts with matching work fixtures can also alleviate incorrect positioning. If orientation is not critical, symmetrical designs can then be used to prevent defects.

Contact methods are useful in situations which encourage mistakes. Such situations involve rapid repetition, infrequent production, or environmental problems such as poor lighting, high or low heat, excess humidity, dust, noise, or anything which distracts a worker. Paul Dvorak, in "Poka-Yoke Designs Make Assemblies Mistakeproof," an article appearing in Machine Design, recommends that the maintenance engineer investigate at least four areas for potential problems that require contact method solutions:

Look for where the product will fail if parts are assembled incorrectly.
Look for small features critical to proper assembly.
Beware of relying on subtle differences to determine top from bottom or front from back, especially if the parts are painted dark colors.
Beware of designs so complicated that they confuse inexperienced operators.

FIXED-VALUE METHODS.

Fixed-value methods are used in processes where the same activity is repeated several times, such as tightening of bolts. This method frequently involves very simple techniques, such as methods that allow operators to easily track how often this activity has been performed. Dvorak gives the example of an operator who is responsible for tightening down six bolts on a product. Before passing the product on, the tightening process is performed a fixed number of times (six).

A simple poka-yoke device would incorporate the use of a wrench dipped in diluted paint. Since untightened bolts will not have paint on them, the operator can easily see if he or she has performed the process the required number of times. A second example (from Dvorak) would be the use of packaged material in the exact (fixed) quantities needed to complete the process. If the bolts were stored in containers of six, the operator could easily see when the process was still incomplete as the box would still contain one or more bolts.

MOTION-STEP METHOD.

The motion-step method is useful for processes requiring several different activities performed in sequence by a single operator. This is similar to the fixed-value situation in that the operator is responsible for multiple activities but instead of performing the same activity multiple times the operator performs different activities.

First, each step in the process is identified by the specific motions needed to complete it. Then devices are created to detect whether each motion is performed and then alert the operator when a step is skipped. An assembly process could utilize a device that senses when all required components are present at the start of the process for each unit. The devices could then detect when each component is removed from its dispenser, If a component is not removed, the sensing device alerts the assembler before he/she can move on to another unit.

Examples of Poka-Yokes

Contact Method ,

Contact Type : A steel pin on a fixture keeps incorrectly placed parts from fitting properly.

Warning Type : A device on a drill counts the number of holes drilled in a work piece; a buzzer sounds if the work piece is removed before the correct number of holes have been drilled.

Fixed-value Type ,

Contact Type : Light sensors determine if each crayon is present in each box; if a crayon is missing, the machines will stop automatically.

Warning Type : Bolts are tightened with a wrench dipped in paint. Bolts with no paint on them are still untightened.

Motion-Step Method ,

Contact Type : A simple proximity switch opens after all components are loaded in the proper order.

Warning Type : A device detects when each component is removed from a dispenser; if a component is not removed, the device alerts the assembler before he can move on to another unit.

SELF CHECKS

Poka-yoke devices which provide the fastest possible feedback about defects and allow workers to assess the quality of their own work are referred to as self-checks. Self-checks can be used to allow workers to rapidly identify slips or work errors such as incomplete or omitted operations and to verify the existence or absence of an attribute. For example, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a computer system is used to check and process doctors' prescriptions.

EXAMPLES.

A number of "real world" applications are presented in the business and engineering literature. Below are a list of examples of poka-yoke applications. James R. Evans and William M. Lindsay present these examples in their book The Management and Control of Quality:

Color-coding a wiring template to assist the worker.
Installing a device on a drill to count the number of holes drilled in a work piece; a buzzer sounds if the work piece is removed before the correct number of holes has been drilled.
Cassette covers were frequently scratched when the screwdriver slipped out of the screw slot and slid against the plastic covers. The screw design was changed to prevent the screwdriver from slipping.
A metal roller is used to laminate two surfaces bonded with hot melted glue. The glue tended to stick to the roller and cause defects in the laminate surface. An investigation showed that if the roller were dampened the glue would not stick. A secondary roller was added to dampen the steel roller during the process, preventing the glue from sticking.
One production step at Motorola involves putting alphabetic characters on a keyboard, then checking to make sure each key is placed correctly. A group of workers designed a clear template with the letters positioned slightly off center. By holding the template over the keyboard, assemblers can quickly spot mistakes.

John Grout presented these examples in "Mistake-Proofing Production," an article written for Production and Inventory Management Journal:

Trinity Industries Railcar Division workers created a layout jig to avoid having to use a tape measure and chalk to position subassemblies on each car individually. The jig has tops that allow it to be quickly positioned correctly on the car's chassis. Each component that is to be attached to the car has a corresponding cutout on the jig. The jig eliminates two modes of worker error. It eliminates incorrect measurements and inaccurate positioning of parts. It also eliminates the worker vigilance required to ensure all of the components are attached.
Omitted parts are made very obvious because an empty space exists on the layout jig. Without the jig, there would be no indication that anything is missing. Once parts are spot welded in place the jig is lifted off and welding is completed. Not only is dependence on worker vigilance reduced, cost savings result from the simplified, accelerated process.
Binney and Smith, maker of Crayola Crayons, uses light sensors to determine if each crayon is present in each box of crayons they produce. If a crayon is missing, the machines will stop automatically. Producing complete boxes of crayons right the first time is the preferred outcome.
A mail-order computer company has designed its boxes and packing material to avoid mistakes. The inner flaps of the box bottom have a large brightly colored warning to "Stop! Open the other side." When the correct side is opened, a book titled "Setting Up Your Computer" is on top of the packing material. The sequence of the book matches the arrangement of the contents of the box. Each instruction involves the next item from the box.
Airplane lavatory lights come on only when the door lock is engaged. This keeps customers from failing to lock the door.
John Deere produced a gearbox that was assembled without oil, mounted on a machine, and required replacement after factor tests. A team streamlined production with a simple proximity switch that opens after all components were loaded into an assembly fixture. The switch prevents workers from using air wrenches to tighten bolts on the assembly until they cycle an oil gun into the gearbox. After filling the gearbox a solenoid releases the interlock sending air to the wrench. Then workers can tighten cover bolts and send the box to the next station.
The electrical connectors in one machine control formerly used only three-pin connectors to join each in a series. Labels instructed assemblers which boards went where and which connectors should be joined. But in the field, assemblers connecting and disconnecting them wear or bend the pins, which meant putting on a new plug. Soon the label was gone. The simple solution involved three, four and five-pin connectors that cannot join others and demand a single assembly sequence.
Ficarra's solution to labels that come off is to machine them into parts, especially when the function is to determine the correct orientation.

On Varian machines, assemblers are guided by small machined-in pictures that cannot wear off.

SERVICE APPLICATIONS

Poka-yoke can also be applied to service-based organizations. The following is summarized from the paper "Using Poka-Yoke Concepts to Improve a Military Retail Supply System," which was printed in Production and Inventory Management Journal.

While manufacturing typically only considers errors made by the producer, service industries must consider errors from both the server and the customer. Additionally, service organizations interface in many different ways to transfer a service to the customer. Because of the possibility that service errors can be created by both the customer and the server, service poka-yokes are grouped into two categories: fail-safing the server and fail-safing the customer.

SERVER POKA-YOKES

There are three types poka-yoke systems that can be used to fail-safe the server: task poka-yokes, treatment poka-yokes, and tangible poka-yokes.

TASK POKA-YOKES.

Task poka-yokes focus on server tasks and common mistakes servers make while performing the service/task for the customer. A good example of a control-oriented, task poka-yoke is the coin return machine used in may fast-food restaurants. The coin portion of a customer's change from payment is returned automatically through these machines. This takes the control out of the hands of the cash register operator, eliminating errors and speeding up the processing of customers.

TREATMENT POKA-YOKES.

Treatment poka-yokes focus on the social interaction between the customer and the server (i.e., eye contact, greeting). By mistake-proofing/standardizing what servers say and do to customers, managers can reasonably ensure that customers receive proper, fair and consistent treatment. Burger King utilized warning-oriented, treatment poka-yokes by placing "cue cards" at the service point ensuring that servers know what to say the minute they interface with the customer.

TANGIBLE POKA-YOKES.

Tangible poka-yokes attempt to improve the tangible, physical impression and experience for the customer in addition to the direct task of the server (i.e., dirty office, unkempt server, sloppy documents). Motorola uses a control- oriented poka-yoke in the legal department by having a second lawyer inspect all legal work for spelling, presentation, and arithmetic. In this way, the legal department is ensuring that the "tangibles" of the service are satisfactory in addition to the task of the service (legal work).

CUSTOMER POKA-YOKES

Fail-safeing the customer also consists of three of poka-yoke systems: preparation poka-yokes, encounter poka-yokes, and resolution poka-yokes.

PREPARATION POKA-YOKES.

Preparation poka-yokes attempt to fully prepare the customer before they even enter the service. An example of a warning-oriented, preparation poka-yoke is the notice a university sends to each student prior to registration for the next semester detailing the courses he needs to finish his degree. This system could be converted to a control system by having an automated registration process which would not allow students to sign up for classes out of sequence or until all prerequisites are met.

ENCOUNTER POKA-YOKES.

Encounter poka-yokes attempt to fail-safe a customer at a service who may misunderstand, ignore, or forget the nature of the service or their role in it. A good example of a control-oriented, encounter poka-yoke is the use of concrete curbing at an oil& lube shop that directs customers so that they do not/cannot pull the wrong way into the station. This system also assists in the selection process so that customers are not served out of order.

RESOLUTION POKA-YOKES.

Resolution poka-yokes attempt to remind customers of the value of their input to the continuous improvement of a service. A hotel which uses an automated check-out system through the television in each room could attach a few questions to the check-out process to ensure the customer provides feedback on key issues. This would be a control-oriented resolution poka-yoke. Obviously, one of the keys to the success of any customer-oriented poka-yoke is to obtain willing customer participation.

BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATIONAND RECOMMENDATIONS

Patel, Dale and Shaw note that there are a number of barriers a firm may face when implementing poka-yoke devices within their system. These include:

Difficulty in accepting change
Justification of the investment
Using inappropriate and ineffective methods
Time requirements
Difficulty encountered as a result of continuous process

Stewart and Grout, in an article entitled "The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing," make the following recommendations for the implementation of poka-yoke devices:

The outcome of the process or routine must be known in advance so as to have a standard for comparison.
The process must be stable, i.e., outcomes are not changing.
There must be an ability to create a break between cause and effect in the process so as to provide an opportunity to insert a poka-yoke.
Environments requiring substantial operator skill are prime locations for poka-yoke devices.
Environments where training or turnover cost is high are prime locations for poka-yoke devices.
Environments with frequent interruptions and distractions are prime locations for poka-yoke devices.
Environments with a consistent set of mixed products are prime locations fopoka-yoke devices.
The beginning of any process where there are multiple other possible processes that could be initiated are a prime location for poka-yoke devices.
Locations in the process with similarly positioned or configured parts, controls or tools are prime locations for poka-yoke devices.
Any point in the process requiring replacement or orientation of parts in order to prevent mispositioning is a prime location for poka-yoke devices.
Any point in the process where adjustments are made for machine or process setups is a prime location for poka-yoke devices.

John Grout attributed defects to three sources: variance, mistakes, and complexity. Complexity requires techniques which simplify the process while managing variance can be accomplished by utilizing statistical process control (SPC). However, if quality problems are the result of mistakes, poka-yoke devices are the appropriate technique to use. In this case, poka-yoke provide an even more effective quality improvement tool than SPC. Other poka-yoke benefits include reduced training costs and the advantage of freeing workers' time and minds for more creative and value-adding activities.

Circumstances where poka-yoke is not the appropriate response are situations involving high speed production, situations where X-bar (Χ̅) & R charts are effective, and use in destructive testing. Other situations, however, provide opportunities for simple, inexpensive, and fail-safe devices to improve performance. Grout relates the example of Lucent Technologies, which reported that half of their 3,300 mistake-proof devices cost less than $100. However, they estimate a net savings of $8.4 million or about $2,545 per device. Poka-yoke is a most impressive and powerful tool.

FURTHER READING:

Dvorak, Paul. "Poka-Yoke Designs Make Assemblies Mistake-proof." Machine Design, 10 March 1998, 181–184.
Evans, James R., and William M. Lindsay. The Management and Control of Quality. South-Western Publishing, 2004.
Ghinato, Paulo. "Quality Control Methods: Towards Modern Approaches Through Well Established Principles." Total Quality Management 9, no. 6 (August 1998).
Grout, John R. "Mistake-Proofing Production." Production and Inventory Management Journal 38, no. 3 (3rd Quarter 1997): 33–37.
Larson, Melissa, "Drill Template Illustrates 'Poka-Yoke.'" Quality 10, no. 6 (June 1998).
Patel, S., B.G. Dale and P. Shaw. "Set-up Time Reduction and Mistake Proofing Methods: An Examination in Precision Component Manufacturing." The TQM Magazine 13, no. 3 (2001): 175–179.
Snell, Todd, and J. Brian Atwater. "Using Poka-Yoke Concepts to Improve a Military Retail Supply System." Production and Inventory Management Journal 37, no. 4 (1996).
Stewart, Douglas M., and John R. Grout. "The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing." Production and Operations Management 10, no. 4 (2001): 440–459.
Stewart, Douglas M. and Steven A. Melnyk. "Effective Process Improvement: Developing Poka-Yoke Processes." Production and Inventory Management Journal 41, no. 4 (2000): 48–55.

Prepared by :

Putra-Design

Bandar Puncak Alam, Malaysia.

LCD or Plasma HDTVs: Which to Choose?

2008-12-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

The war between plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs rages on, and no doubt you've heard the propaganda from both camps. While LCD has traditionally been more expensive than plasma at the larger sizes, that gap is diminishing -making other factors such as performance and features more significant. We'll take you through the pros and cons of each technology to help you make the important decision: whether to buy a plasma or LCD television?

Plasma Flat Panels

Benefits:

• Better contrast and deeper blacks. Plasma displays are known for their deep, inky-black levels, which result in better contrast and a more three-dimensional picture. Panasonic and Pioneer are especially well known for their sets' high-quality black levels, setting the standard for all other plasma sets. By comparison, LCDs have a more difficult time "turning off" their backlighting mechanisms for a truly dark image. On the other hand, they are generally brighter than plasma displays, and therefore perform better in situations where there is a lot of ambient light (more on that later).

• Don't suffer from motion blur on action. Due to technical reasons we won't get into here, LCDs are often victims of motion blur- aka image smearing - which results in fast-action or sports footage looking blurry or smeared across the screen. In a very bad case, if a golf ball is flying through the sky, you might see a comet-like trail behind it.

• Unlimited viewing angle. Unlike LCDs, off-axis viewing of a plasma set will look the same as if you were looking at the plasma sitting directly in front of it. In short, image quality is consistent from any seat in the house.

• Cost slightly less than LCD sets. While the difference in price is shrinking, plasmas are slightly less expensive than LCDs, especially at larger sizes. However, this doesn't necessarily apply to top-end models.

Drawbacks:

• Short-term image retention a possibility. Plasmas have always gotten a bad rap for burn-in or image retention: When an image, such as a station logo or stock ticker, remains on the screen for too long, you may see a faint ghost of the image after it disappears. For most good plasma displays though, this is a non-issue, and any ghosting that appears should quickly go away. A lot of manufacturers use screen savers if an image is paused for too long to prevent image retention.

• Screens can suffer from glare in bright rooms. Plasma TVs' glass panels are known to reflect light and make them harder to watch in a bright room. Many manufacturers are using special techniques to minimize reflections, however, and some of them, such as Panasonic's anti-reflective filter, minimize these reflections and improve performance in brighter rooms. Look for antiglare options when you are shopping for a plasma TV.

• Use slightly more power than LCD displays per square inch.

• Fewer choices. LCD panels are everywhere and come in a wider variety of sizes. There is a little less variety to choose from when it comes to picking a plasma display.

The bottom line:

While we could take the stance that both technologies are equally good, and the choice is up to your personal preference, we won't go for the easy cop-out. The fact is, plasmas have a slight edge when it comes to a truly cinematic picture. If you are a cinephile who likes to watch a lot of different film sources such as Blu-ray discs or DVDs, plasma is your best bet - especially if you have some control over ambient light.

The technology's deeper blacks, sharper contrast and absence of motion blur make it ideal for almost any application. Just watch out for image glare on untreated plasma displays, and make sure your plasma can stand up to the amount of uncontrollable light in your room.

LCD HDTVs

Benefits:

• Brighter images. LCD panels offer brighter pictures than plasma, making them great models for viewing in a well-lit room.

• No screen reflection. LCD televisions' matte screens don't fall prey to screen glare like plasma displays do. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, so be on the lookout for that errant non-matte screen when shopping for an LCD.

• No risk of image retention. Unlike plasma, there is absolutely no fear of image retention on an LCD display.

• Slightly lower power consumption. In a world that is becoming more energy-conscious with every passing day, consuming less power is a strong selling point. However, almost every manufacturer-plasma and LCD- is incorporating special energy-saving modes into their sets. Check power-consumption ratings and features before you buy.

Drawbacks:

• Limited viewing angle. LCD TVs' viewing angles are not as wide as plasmas. This means that if you are sitting off to the sides of the TV (or below it), the image may appear somewhat off in terms of color, contrast, and brightness.

• Blacks are not as deep as plasmas. LCDs don't begin to compare with plasmas in the black-level department. However, there are some new LCDs that use light emitting diode technology (LED) to more effectively "turn off" the black parts of the image during dark moments. These models are relatively expensive, however.

• Can suffer from motion blur. While motion blur or image smearing can be a factor when watching fast-moving action on an LCD, most manufacturers have introduced frame-interpolation technology into their LCD sets that add frames to double or even quadruple LCD's 60Hz frame rate. If motion blur is a concern, demo the LCD using sports source material. Most consumers won't notice motion blur on a screen with frame-interpolation technology.

The bottom line

While LCDs have a slight disadvantage when it comes to watching cinematic content, they do have their benefits. They can stand up to almost any viewing environment, such as watching a football game during broad daylight in a room flooded with natural light. If this sounds like your viewing space, LCD may be the way to go.

Additionally, if you are looking for an HDTV at a smaller screen size, then LCD is the only way to go, as plasmas are not manufactured below 42 inches. You have a lot more choice when it comes to picking an LCD panel, and most of them are quite good, especially those from Samsung, Sony and Sharp.

Putra-Design

Lukisan teknik

2008-12-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

Lukisan Lakaran (Mesin Terbang Leonardo da Vinci)

Lukisan Pemasangan 2 Matra

Lukisan Terperinci atau Lukisan Pembuatan

Lukisan Pemasangan Terurai 3 Matra dilukis dengan sistem CADD

Lukisan Teknik; juga dikenali sebagai lukisan kejuruteraan, adalah cara untuk menghasilkan lukisan pelan yang mengambarkan dengan tepat sesuatu objek teknikal, seni bina dan kejuruteraan. Dengan kata lain lukisan kejuruteraan merupakan alat komunikasi atau bahasa perhubungan di kalangan mereka yang terlibat dengan dunia kejuruteraan.

Ia adalah satu dokumen, dalam bentuk bergambar dan sedikit nota. Ia mengandungi semua maklumat penting bagi tujuan pembuatan atau pengilangan; iaitu mungkin mengandungi satu komponen tunggal, sebahagian kumpulan binaan atau satu barangan lengkap yang menunjukkan keseluruhan komponen.

Secara teknikalnya lukisan kejuruteraan boleh dipecahkan kepada dua iaitu:-

Lukisan Mesin ; Iaitu lukisan pemasangan yang dikhususkan kepada proses mencantum dan membuka komponen untuk memenuhi tujuan pembuatan, selenggaraan atau persembahan..

Lukisan Kerja ; Iaitu lukisan yang menerangkan dengan terperinci bagaimana sesuatu komponen itu harus dihasilkan dan apakah yang patut dicapai oleh sesuatu pengeluaran itu. Lukisan ini juga menunjukkan sifat akhir sesuatu komponen. Lukisan ini termasuklah Lukisan Terperinci, Lukisan Butir, Lukisan Bahagian-bahagian dan Lukisan Pembuatan.

Orang-orang yang mempraktikkan seni ini dikenali sebagai pelukis plan. Sebelum komputer berkembang pesat kebanyakan lukisan kejuruteraan dilukis secara insani (Manual). Dewasa ini tugas melukis dipermudahkan dengan kewujudan sistem Rekabentuk Terbantu Komputer. Namun sama ada sesuatu lukisan itu dilukis secara insani atau dengan bantuan komputer, lukisan berkenaan hendaklah mempunyai ciri kebolehasilan semula yang baik, serta mematuhi spesifikasi lukisan dan piawaian lukisan kejuruteraan tertentu yang telah ditetapkan.

Putra-Design

INTRODUCTION

2008-12-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

Manufacturing plays a very important role in a country's progress towards industrialisation. Competitivenes in manufacturing contributes more than other industries towards competitivenes of nations. However, achieving competitiveness in manufacturing is a challenge by itself. To take up this challenge, skilled, competent and creative workforce is a pre-requisite.
The Manufacturing System Engineering is designed for those who wish to enhance their knowledge in manufacturing technology and processes.

In a recent study by the United States Academy of Engineering, the greatest engineering achievements in this century that have shaped and changed the world were electrification, automobile, airplane, water supply and distribution, electronics, radio and television, agricultural mechanization, computers, telephone, air conditioning and refrigeration, highways, spacecraft, internet, imaging, household appliances, health technologies, petroleum and petrochemical technologies, laser and fiber optics, nuclear technologies and high-performance materials. These engineering innovations and inventions indicate the important role that mechanical engineers played in developing, operating and manufacturing new machines, devices and processes that have benefited mankind in this century.

In a commercial world mechanical engineers must have not only technical skills, but also management skills necessary to get the job done while ensuring their company continues to function efficiently. To do this they must have a deep understanding of scientific principles and engineering processes. At the undergraduate level, mechanical engineers learn the science and engineering principles of designing and building machines, structures, components, power-trains, pumps, compressors, turbines, engines, power plants, furnaces, refrigerators, air conditioners, manufacturing systems and processes and more.

As graduate students, this learning process is enhanced through advanced formal courses and laboratory research experience. They conduct in-depth research and benefit from the up-to-date knowledge and facilities. Graduate students also benefit from research grants from industry and government as they work with the faculty members of the department in the study of thermal sciences; mechanics; mechatronics and robotics; design and manufacturing; and materials processing. They must make decisions based on fundamental knowledge, analytical skills, creativity, perspective, and ethics. They must also apply advanced technology and science by combining basic knowledge with the application of engineering and scientific principles.

Putra-Design-UKM