Ford automobile analysing the vertical integration Essay

Ford automobile analysing the vertical integration - Essay Example Generally, it is the level at which an organization controls the main suppliers and buyers, and aims at improving marketplace supremacy (Katie, 2013). In the early 20th century, Ford Corporation built a manufacturing empire unlike any other before or after based on vertical integration. Ford had chosen to produce the components and materials for its famous Model T passenger car instead of sourcing them from independent contractors or suppliers. The company also bought glass and steel mills to produce steels and window screens for its cars. In addition, Ford acquired huge tracts of land in Asia and Brazil to grow rubber trees to meet its requirements for tyre materials. These efforts culminated in the construction of the massive Rogue plant that ensured full control of all the resources that were necessary in the production of the automobiles. The first model T cars retailed at $850 but the price fell to $440 and eventually to $290 in 1925. The approach had been able to provide better quality cars at much lower prices and thus progressively increase the company’s market share. (Lu, 2011). On the other hand, General Motors, Ford’s main business rival, adopted the multi-divisional approach later on and integrated the various independent firms that were held under the umbrella firm. This ensured that the overall financial and directional decisions were made at the corporate headquarters and the operating decisisons were left to the various divisions. The large scale vertical integration was meant to achieve various objectives. Scholars believe that this was aimed at increasing control, capturing profitability from upstream suppliers, and exerting marketing dominance. This strategy was suitable with the prevailing market environment, which seemed to have enduring demand and low prices determined the market leader. However, despite the soaring sales figures, the approach also had some weaknesses. These included rigidity in asset deployment, modification of product lines and responses to demand changes (Harrigan, 2003). Analysis The Ford Motor Corporation held the dominant position in the automobile industry during the 1910s and 1920s. It held the largest market share and even briefly went over the 50 percent mark. It also reported the highest profits due to its better manufacturing innovation and a reputable brand name. in addition, its main competitors had less superior production technologies and felt the immense pressure from Ford’s market dominance and the low prices. Henry Ford was highly motivated by the vision of producing good and low-priced motor cars for the entire public and the development of technology used to mass-manufacture the cars. His ability to provide substantially lower prices than his closest competitors gave his company the flexibility to pursue these objectives. For instance, Ford’s Model T car was retailing at US$440 while the closest competitor was a Willys-Overland vehicle that was sold fo r US$ 895 (Rosenbaum, 1998). The company had started with the construction of its Highland Park plant in the 1910s, which consisted of a huge capital investment. The multi-storey building became the largest in Michigan state. Its large and open floors provided room for machinery arrangement, and the huge windows provided ventilation and natural lighting. This made the plant a good model for design of factories. In addition, it combined a foundry, a machine shop and a power plant, which brought various stages of automobile

The Character Odysseus in Homers Odyssey :: Odyssey essays

The Character Odysseus in Odyssey "Odyssey" is an epic story that has been a significant piece of literature since it was first composed and will remain so for ages to come. One of the reasons it has been so is because of the hero, Odysseus. Odysseus is one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as his muscle. Indeed he is a man with an inquiring mind, and he is also a man with outstanding prowess and bravery" (123helpme.com/assets/3603.html). "We also must not forget that he is a top-notch athlete which only adds more to this seemingly insuperable character. It is no wonder why many scholars refer to Odysseus as a powerful mythic hero. "Odysseus often hesitates before acting, because he uses his reason and gift to evaluate things. This patience is one of his most important additional attributes"(library.thinkquest.org/19300/data/Odyssey/odysseus.html). It saved him and his men many times. "When the poem opens, it is the tenth year since the fall of Troy, and Odysseus has not yet returned to his home in the island of Ithaca, but is detained in Ogygia, an island in the west, by the nymph Calypso" (bartleby.com/22/1001.html Homer (fl. 850 B.C.). The Odyssey. The Harvard Classics. 1909-14). "In disguise as an old friend of Odysseus', Athena travels to his manor in Ithaka, now overrun with noisy, lustful suitor's intent on marrying Odysseus' wife, Penelope. Odysseus' son, Telemakhos, unhappy among the suitors, greets Athena warmly as a stranger and invites her to their feast. As the suitors devour Odysseus' oxen, Telemakhos says he believes his father - whom he does not know at all - is dead."(gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/odyssey/summ1.html). "He is so unsure of his own identity that he refuses to affirm without qualification his relationship to Odysseus. Athena introduces herself as Odysseus' old friend Mentes and predicts that he will be home soon. Telemakhos matures from a callow, helpless youth into a stronger, more confident man" (Approaches to Teaching Homer's Iliad and Odyssey ). "Just as Odysseus' story is about returning home to his old identity, Telemakhos' is about forging a new one; as A thena tells him, "You are a child no longer"."(gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/odyssey/summ1.html). As Telemakhos' develops from youth to man inspired by Athena, especially her favorable comparisons between him and his father; he stands up against the suitors in his assembly. "Failing in an attempt to get the Ithacans to help him to assert his rights, Telemakhos sets out for Pylus under the guidance of the goddess Athena, who is disguised as Mentes, a friendly chief.

SURPLUS STYLES

Derrick should take to solve his problem. Derrick should firstly identify the factors that this organic process would entail. He has to ensure that whatever adjustments in the supply chain strategy he will implement should drive and support the business strategy as a well designed supply chain can provide competitive advantage. In order to continue leveraging the competition and maintain the same path of gaining costs reductions and compete on a cost productivity advantage he can opt to increase sales volumes or utilize an efficient supply chain network.Efficient apply chain network can increase efficiency and improve productivity as such reduce overall cost per unit. He should research potential suppliers assess the cost of possible outsourcing also identify key tech oenology to assist with this new direction. Establishing and building new relationships through the supply chain will be paramount since the Strategy has now changed.Investigating the competition, possible merchants and associated costs of other suppliers should be an avenue to pursue as even though the focus was initially on costs the priorities have now shifted as organic and CEO friendly rodents are more expensive than regular products. Getting all aspects of the chain aligned and workable to fit the modified supply chain design should take precedence. Should Derrick ask for the required changes from the current suppliers? If they do not comply, should he solicit new suppliers?How might he do this? It is definitely k for Derrick to ask for the required changes from the current supplier. He has maintained and fostered a relationship with them over the years and this can also be viewed as part of building further relationships in the supply chain. If they are not familiar with organic CEO roundly products they could be afforded the first opportunity to continue business provided they are willing to facilitate the request. This can mean new future potential business for them as well.If they do not comply then he reserves the right to research and seek out other possible vendors. This new direction of organic products that the company has undertaken comes with great responsibility as the company's bottom line is dependent on it. The company with the help of Derrick has in the past successfully competed on cost and has used competitive bidding to select suppliers and award yearlong contracts. He should be able to procure the same with the new specifications and supply chain design. Should Derrick go through a competitive bid in the future?If so, should he do it for all purchased products or just some products? Based on the high level of competitive environment experienced in today's marketplace garnering a sustainable competitive advantage is definitely a priority for companies. Even though organic products are more expensive he should still try to minimize costs. Utilizing a competitive bid process in the future could be recommended for Derrick as this strategy has worked eff ectively in the past for the company. This can be used for obtaining the best products at cheaper costs.Continuing on the same path should assist him to maintain and align all factors such as costing, innovation, distribution, and product quality and customer service as part of the supply chain strategy. What are the differences when looking for suppliers to meet cost standards versus quality standards? The quality of a product is usually lacking if costs is the only thing a company is focused on. Most companies who compete on costs are only focused at offering the lowest price possible. This strategy requires going to the cheapest suppliers rather than focusing on gig quality components.

Hypergiants the Most Massive Stars in the Universe

The universe is filled with stars of all sizes and types. The biggest ones out there are called hypergiants, and they dwarf our tiny Sun. Not only that, but some of them can be truly weird. Hypergiants are tremendously bright and packed with enough material to make a million stars like our own. When theyre born, they take up all the available starbirth material in the area and live their lives fast and hot. Hypergiants are born through the same process as other stars and shine the same way, but beyond that, they are very, very different from their tinier siblings.   Learning about Hypergiants Hypergiant stars  were first identified separately from other supergiants because they are significantly brighter; that is, they have a larger luminosity  than others. Studies of their light output also show that these stars are losing mass very rapidly. That mass loss is one defining characteristic of a hypergiant. The others include their temperatures (very high) and their masses (up to many times the mass of the Sun). Creation of Hypergiant Stars All stars form in clouds of gas and dust, no matter what size they end up being. Its a process that takes millions of years, and eventually the star turns on when it starts to fuse hydrogen in its core. Thats when it moves onto a period of time in its evolution called the  main sequence. This term refers to a chart of stellar evolution that astronomers use to understand the life of a star. All stars spend the majority of their lives on the main sequence, steadily fusing hydrogen. The bigger and more massive a star is, the more quickly it uses up its fuel. Once the hydrogen fuel in any stars core is gone, the star essentially leaves the main sequence and evolves  into a different type. That happens with all stars. The big difference comes at the end of a stars life. And, thats dependent on its mass. Stars like the Sun end their lives as planetary nebulae, and blow their masses out to space in shells of gas and dust. When we get to hypergiants and their lives, things get really interesting. Their deaths can be pretty awesome catastrophes. Once these high-mass stars have exhausted their hydrogen, they expand to become much-larger supergiant stars. The Sun actually will do the same thing in the future, but on a much smaller scale. Things change inside these stars, too. The expansion is caused as the star begins to fuse helium into carbon and oxygen. That heats the interior of the star up, which eventually causes the exterior to swell. This process helps them avoid collapsing in on themselves, even as they heat up. At the supergiant stage, a star oscillates between several states. It will be a red supergiant  for a while, and then when it starts to fuse other elements in its core, it can become a  blue supergiant. IN between such a star can also appear as a  yellow supergiant as it transitions. The different colors are due to the fact that the star is swelling in size to hundreds of times the radius of our Sun in the red supergiant phase, to less than 25 solar radii in the blue supergiant phase. In these supergiant phases, such stars lose mass quite rapidly and therefore are quite bright. Some supergiants are brighter than expected, and astronomers studied them in more depth. It turns out the hypergiants are some of the most massive stars ever measured and their aging process is much more exaggerated.   Thats the basic idea behind how a hypergiant grows old. The most intense process is suffered by stars that are more than a hundred times the mass of our Sun. The largest is more than 265 times its mass, and incredibly bright. Their brightness and other characteristics led astronomers to give these bloated stars a new classification:  hypergiant. They are essentially supergiants (either red, yellow or blue) that have very high mass, and also high mass-loss rates. Detailing the Final Death Throes of Hypergiants Because of their high mass and luminosity, hypergiants only live a few million years. Thats a pretty short lifespan for a star. By comparison, the Sun will live about 10 billion years.  Their short lifespans mean that they go from baby stars to hydrogen-fusion very quickly, they exhaust their hydrogen quite fast, and move into the supergiant phase long before their smaller, less-massive, and ironically, longer-lived stellar siblings (like the Sun). Eventually, the core of the hypergiant will fuse heavier and heavier elements until the core is mostly iron. At that point, it takes more energy to fuse iron into a heavier element than the core has available. Fusion stops. The temperatures and pressures in the core that held the rest of the star in whats called hydrostatic equilibrium (in other words, the outward pressure of the core pushed against the heavy gravity of the layers above it) are no longer enough to keep the rest of the star from collapsing in on itself. That balance is gone, and that means its catastrophe time in the star. What happens?  It collapses, catastrophically. The collapsing upper layers collide with the core, which is expanding. Everything then rebounds back out. Thats what we see when a supernova explodes. In the case of the hypergiant, the catastrophic death isnt just a supernova. Its going to be a hypernova.  In fact, some theorize that instead of a typical Type II supernova, something called a  gamma-ray burst (GRB) would happen. Thats an incredibly strong outburst, blasting surrounding space with incredible amounts of stellar debris and strong radiation.   Whats left behind? The most likely result of such a catastrophic explosion will be either a  black hole, or perhaps a neutron star or magnetar, all surrounded by a shell of expanding debris many, many light-years across.  Thats the ultimate, weird end for a star that lives fast, dies young: it leaves behind a gorgeous scene of destruction. Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen.