Sampling and Continuous Improvement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sampling and Continuous Improvement - Essay Example United States have always been in the forefront of international trade and manufacturing and it wants to keep it that way. Since China started its mass export of goods, US had been worried that it would capture a major chunk of world's exports however US found solace in the fact that Chinese products were of lower quality. However with changing times, China has started to develop low cost and yet high quality products to challenge US in the international market. The study conducted by Industry Week magazine on the comparison of Chinese and American manufacturers have identified important developments in the inputs that largely contribute to China's inevitable success. The article "Manufacturers Like Us" by David Drickhamer gives us important insights in this subject. According to the article, Chinese manufacturers have become increasingly competitive over the past decade. Their strict management practices and performance metrics show the proof of such changes. Also US makes china's industry revolution much more prominent by referring to them as Enemy Number 1. The two basic reasons for the increasing competitive advantage of Chinese manufacturers have been described as cheap labor and much more efficient machinery. Costs of raw materials and land utilization have also been declared as important inputs to the higher quality outputs that are now being produced. To fully analyze the factors of high quality production by Chinese manufacturers, let's analyze each input factor in detail. 1) Raw Materials Raw Materials are the building blocks of the manufacturing process. These unprocessed materials are bought from the market and transformed into outputs by applying different processes. Since it is expected that the prices of the raw materials will rise in the future, some manufacturers start hoarding these raw materials. This storage is referred to as the inventory and it is kept to meet unexpected shortages in the future. The Chinese manufacturers store large amounts of inventory hence their inventory turnover rates are lower for all types of products. As most managers said that they had four or fewer total inventory turns in a year, there costs are lower since ordering and purchasing costs are not encountered regularly. Rise is raw material costs have not been met by half of the manufactures in China. And those who reported increases, 20% did not charge the customers for the increase. Because of lower raises in cost of raw material, Chinese products are of lower prices and they can maintain the quality of the products without increasing the prices. 2) Labor China has been able to maintain its low cost products primarily because of very low labor rates. According to the article, the Chinese manufacturers pay average wages of $1,450 per year, which is less than three weeks' pay in the U.S. This is how China is able to compete with any country on its cost difference. The quality of the products made by the Chinese seems to be increasing because of better skilled and better trained employees than were available in the past. The Chinese managers provide over 20 hours of training per employee per year while they spend 5% of their annual labor budget on training. The costs may

Beneficial Effects of Overseas Travel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Beneficial Effects of Overseas Travel - Essay Example The "Beneficial effect of overseas travel" demonstrates positive effect that traveling has on adventurers. It also contains personal experience of some travelers. The learning on an overseas trip begins from the point where the person enters the terminal for international flights. As one moves ahead through check-in counter, one learns the laws and regulations regarding international travel. The swarms of people arriving and departing from the airport is a sight in its own where one experiences a place where no single culture is dominant, people of different ethnic backgrounds and belonging to different countries can be seen talking and waiting for their flights to depart. This is one place where a passenger will have a chance to observe his own people and their personalities and traits in comparison to those of people from around the globe. You may have heard of someone returning from an excursion and telling you about what different people were wearing at the airport or how they sp oke etc. Also if you have a connecting flight and have a stop over at a certain airport on the way you will mention the food available and what you liked and disliked. A personal experience of this sort happened on a trip to Malaysia with a stop over in Bangkok. The Bangkok airport which is known to be one of the biggest and busiest airports allows you to meet and interact with people from so many different places. It is hard for a person to walk out without learning a new thing about the people from many parts of the world. I for instance found most people at the airport to be very fashion conscious. Nearly every