Implementation and Challenges of Lean Concept in Human resources Essay Example for Free

Implementation and Challenges of Lean Concept in Human resources Essay Going lean is the talk of the season. Almost all the big organizations are adopting lean practices; not only manufacturing but management. In this write-up I am going to discuss how HR as an organization’s function can help in lean transformation. A critically important issue in lean success, just now coming into clear view, is the relationship between the human resources (HR) function and lean transformation. It turns out that the HR function, even at its best, is often considered as only a passive supporter of lean transformation. At its worst, it is said to be a barrier to progress. There are two facets to the relationship between lean and HR. First, it is self-evident that the HR function—just like any other department in a company—needs to apply lean practices and principles toward process improvement in its own work. Second, the HR function needs to actively support and enforce lean transformation throughout the company. The HR function, by virtue of its interactions with virtually every part of a company, is actually in an ideal position to be a powerful ally in lean transformation, IF lean leaders make the effort to enlist its aid. Here we are discussing how HR makes a significant contribution to lean success with active support in several key areas. What is Lean (concept) Lean principles come from the Japanese manufacturing industry. The term was first coined by John Krafcik. From its inception Lean was considered as manufacturing tool but today lean has evolved from just a tool to a philosophy of success. The core idea of Lean philosophy is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste. To accomplish this, lean thinking changes the focus of management from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments to customers. Eliminating waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects, compared with traditional business systems. Companies are able to respond to changing customer desires with high variety, high quality, low cost, and with very fast throughput times. Also, information management becomes much simpler and more accurate. Lean for production and services A popular misconception is that lean is suited only for manufacturing. Not true. Lean applies in every business and every process. It is not a tactic or a cost reduction program, but a way of thinking and acting for an entire organization. Businesses in all industries and services, including healthcare and governments, are using lean principles as the way they think and do. Many organizations choose not to use the word lean, but to label what they do as their own system, such as the Toyota Production System or the Danaher Business System. Why? To drive home the point that lean is not a program or short term cost reduction program, but the way the company operates. The word transformation or lean transformation is often used to characterize a company moving from an old way of thinking to lean thinking. It requires a complete transformation on how a company conducts business. This takes a long-term perspective and perseverance. The term lean was coined to describe Toyotas business during the late 1980s by a research team headed by Jim Womack. Lean Thinking Lean transformations think about three fundamental business issues that should guide the transformation of the entire organization: Purpose: What customer problems will the enterprise solve to achieve its own purpose of prospering? Process: How will the organization assess each major value stream to make sure each step is valuable, capable, available, adequate, flexible, and that all the steps are linked by flow, pull, and leveling? People: How can the organization insure that every important process has someone responsible for continually evaluating that value stream in terms of business purpose and lean process? How can everyone touching the value stream be actively engaged in operating it correctly and continually improving it? Just as a carpenter needs a vision of what to build in order to get the full benefit of a hammer, Lean Thinkers need a vision before picking up lean tools, said Womack. Thinking deeply about purpose, process, people is the key to doing this.

Paidea and Identity Essay -- Philosophy Hobbes Papers

Thomas Hobbes, like Francis Bacon before him, disliked Aristotle and scholasticism. They were both quite familiar with the objects of their dislike, having encountered Aristotle and scholasticism first hand at Oxford University. Bacon later described his tutors as "men of sharp wits, shut up in their cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle, their Dictator." Bacon clearly saw the extent of new possibilities in thought. He held that Europeans of his time needed to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the limits of ancient learning) into an ocean of new learning. Hobbes, for similar reasons described the universities as places for the production of insignificant speech. Locke also echoed this rejection of scholasticism and contempt for the universities. The purpose of this paper is to talk about this rejection and the ways in which the continuing revolt against university education by Hobbes and Locke has contributed to a new view of the self. Hobbes rejects the teleology of Aristotelian science. His view of man is shaped by Galileo's new insights about motion. His translation of the revolutionary doctrines of physics into claims about man and politics is a most remarkable piece of creative thinking. Life is not aimed at the attainment of the mature state of the species as Aristotle claimed. Man, like other physical objects, keeps moving until something (death, in the case of man) stops him. Yet the reaction to Aristotle and scholasticism was not a matter of simply rejecting the philosophy of Aristotle wholesale. The relation which philosophers had to Aristotelian ideas is much more complex. Philosophers quite typically would reject one piece of Aristotelianism but keep another. Part of the reason for this is that it is not easy... ...ump of matter to another, when the matter changes, so necessarily do the accidents which depend on it. Thus the ship of Theseus case Hobbes claims fits this model of individuation and not the first two. (10) Thus, Hobbes also can give an account of the trinity in terms of these definitions, and it is worth noting that most of the occurences of the term 'person' in the Leviathan are in the context of a discussion of the trinity. But, presumably Hobbes still regards God as a material body, and the three persons of the trinity as different representations in speech and action of that body. (11) John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Peter Nidditch, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972. (II. xxvii. 6. 2-9) Pg. 332 (12) Ibid. (13) Ibid. (18-20) Pg. 332 (14) Ibid. (II. xxvii. 7. 23-24) Pg. 332 (15) Locke, op. cit. (II. xxvii. 9 21-28) Pg. 335

History of Optometry Essay

Optometrist is the kind of doctor who makes sure that a person’s eyesight is functioning well and that there are no harmful diseases slowly emerging that may later on affect the sight of a person. They are in charge examining a patient’s eyes and gives prescription if it is needed. Like any other healthcare profession, an optometrist should and must have a certification which is a basic requirement before they practice their profession. Optometry is a healthcare profession that is autonomous, educated, and regulated (licensed/registered), and optometrists are the primary healthcare practitioners of the eye and visual system who provide comprehensive eye and vision care, which includes refraction and dispensing, detection/diagnosis and management of disease in the eye, and the rehabilitation of conditions of the visual system. (World Council of Optometry) However, there is a little knowledge about optometry and the emergence of optometrists. It is always associated with medicine, microbiology and physiology to name a few. There is no exact date or specific person who explored on the topic. But in 1886, the term ‘optometrist’ was coined by Landolt which means, â€Å"Glass fitter† or someone who makes and prescribe eyeglasses. Prior to this, there are already persons who call themselves ‘opticians’. Prior to this, there was a distinction between â€Å"dispensing† and â€Å"refracting† opticians in the 19th century. The latter were later called optometrists. (David Goss, History of Optometry, Lecture Handout, Indiana University School of Optometry, 2003) Before, the opticians are those who make glasses for a person but do not exactly know if that pair of glasses will fit the person or not. Or if that pair is the one that will help a person correct his eyesight. More, in the United States, the first school of optometry was founded sometime 1850-1900. Also, in 1940, the use of contact lenses was first established. The development of optometry in the US started way back 1600’s, where the first person to own glasses, Peter Brown who is a Pilgrim introduced the use of such device during the time when there are only a handful of people who knew about the said product. It is said that Peter Brown, a Pilgrim, brought a pair of eyeglasses to North America in 1620 and thus became the first to wear glasses on this continent. There is little known about the use of spectacles in North America for more than another hundred years. (David Goss, History of Optometry, Lecture Handout, Indiana University School of Optometry, 2003) At the onset of the 17th century, there were a number of American optometrists who came to the country to practice the profession. And since the Spectacles then were very expensive, this group of optometrists introduced better and more correct glasses that should be used by the people. Other notable early American optometrists were Benjamin Pike, who came to the US in the early 1800s, and James Prentice, who came to the US in 1847. They both were trained in optics in England, and they both trained their sons. James’ son, Charles Prentice, would have an important role in the development of American optometry. (David Goss, History of Optometry, Lecture Handout, Indiana University School of Optometry, 2003) On the other hand, not all diseases that concern the eye can be cured by an optometrist. Eyesight disease such as macular degeneration or the breakdown of a certain part of the retina to be able to see things clearly, cannot be treated by an optometrist. Rather, the ophthalmologist is the one responsible for its cure. Another is the Diabetic Retinopathy which is sometimes an indication for having diabetes. It is a kind of illness where the retina is being blocked by masses of blood clots that cause irregularities in a person’s eyesight. The most well-known disease that concerns the eye is the cataract – which the optometrist cannot cure as well. It is the work of the ophthalmologist to perform. They are the ones who prescribe supplements, vitamins and other needed medication to the patient. Sometimes, they also perform the surgery to remove the cataract. Among the many diseases that concern the eye, these are the few which is directly handled not by an optometrist but an ophthalmologist. Other diseases such as glaucoma, near/far sightedness can be treated by either an ophthalmologist or an optometrist.

Film Analysis Of Forks Over Knives - 1572 Words

Forks Over Knives is a documentary dedicated to spreading knowledge of the effectiveness of a whole-foods, plant-based diet. It was directed by Lee Fulkerson, produced by John Corry, and distributed by Virgil Films and Entertainment. The documentary was released May 6, 2011, a time ridden with diabetes and heart disease. America in 2010 had seen over 20 million cases of diabetes. Over 600,000 people died of heart disease. America was in crisis mode – desperate for a solution to keep residents healthy and alive. Fulkerson believed he had found that solution – a diet that cut out animal products and heavily processed foods. He wrote this film with the intention of spreading that diet. Forks Over Knives is targeted towards people who have†¦show more content†¦The rats fed more protein had more cancer growth, which proved to Dr. Campbell that people need to eat less protein. The documentary also gives the success stories of many people. Men and women who have diabe tes meet with these doctors, follow their diet for just a few months and no longer are diabetic. The narrator and director of the movie, Fulkerson, had high cholesterol levels and other health problems, so he started a whole-foods, plant-based diet. At the end of the film, Fulkerson had much safer levels of cholesterol and was far healthier. The entire documentary is closed with a shot of every main character eating salad together, celebrating their health. It also seems that they are celebrating a convincing documentary. Fulkerson, and the other crew members, successfully argue that Americans should adopt a whole-foods, plant-based diet. They do so using the rhetorical devices, especially logos and pathos. Throughout the film, there are two main focuses. These are ‘a Western diet is unhealthy’ and ‘a whole-foods, plant-based diet is the solution.’ Understanding the contextual meaning is critical to dissecting the rhetorical devices because otherwise the in tent of the documentary’s creators would be hidden. Dividing instances of ethos, logos, and pathos into the two focuses allows for a clear explanation of each. Through separation, one can focus on purpose and effectiveness. The first focus of Forks Over Knives is ‘aShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Film Forks Over Knives880 Words   |  4 Pages Forks over Knives Response Like many of the documentaries that are present today, the film Forks over Knives came to be because of the rapidly increasing health concerns. For example, the average American carries 23 extra, unnecessary pounds. American adults aren’t the only ones suffering, obesity and diseases such as hypertension and diabetes type two are now commonly seen in children. 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A mother of two boys, Allisons career has provided her with the opportunity to work for The National Childminding Association and she is currently employed. Share | [pic] [pic] Read MoreAutobilography of Zlatan Ibrahimovic116934 Words   |  468 Pageshe used to come in his old blue Opel Kadett and we d go to Pildammsparken or out on the island in Limhamn to get hamburgers and soft ice cream. One day he made a splurge and got us each a pair of Nike Air Max, the cool sneakers that where like over a thousand kronor, really expensive. Mine were green, Sanela s pink. No one in Rosengà ¥rd had shoes like that, and we felt so cool. We had it nice with dad and we d get some money for pizza and Coca-Cola. He had a decent job and only one other son