High Fructose Corn Syrup

High-fructose corn syrup is an artificial sweetener generally used in the United States. It is so broadly used because it is both cost-effectively favorable and it helps to preserve food for extended periods of time. Some say that though it is favorable, it has ill effects. High Fructose Corn Syrup According to a 2008 USA Today Article, â€Å"high-fructose corn syrup makes up about 50% of the sweeteners used in the USA but worldwide it's only about 10%†. Every day we eat. We eat our home cooked meals or our fast food rarely thinking about what’s going into our bodies.Often times one of the first ingredients listed on a can of soda or canned fruit is some form of HFCS or high fructose corn syrup. This ingredient, while widely known, is a secret additive to many products in our grocery stores. High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the cheapest to make but yet it is the hardest for the body to rid of. Since its introduction to food products nearly forty years ago, it has slow ly been added to most foods you feel your family. We as consumers may not pay attention to what goes into our bodies but more and more scientists are.The studies they are conducting mainly consist of trying to find links between HFCS and several major health problems; such as diabetes and obesity. Although key links have not been defined, they have managed to prove what amounts that can be consumed before harm can be determined. Even though these findings have been confirmed and made public, the FDA still considers HFCS to be safe for consumption. The FDA rule says that as long as a product has no chemicals added it cannot be labeled an â€Å"artificial ingredient†. The reason behind this is because HFCS are made from corn, it is not considered an artificial ingredient.The origin of High Fructose Corn Syrup takes its root in the mid 1970’s. A series of sugar tariffs and quotas were imposed in the United States. These restrictions had significantly increased the cost of imported sugar causing domestic producers to seek cheaper avenues. High-fructose corn syrup became a more economical substitue because the price of corn is kept low through government subsidies paid to its growers. As the United States use of high fructose corn syrup increased, sugar was replaced in most foods and beverages. There is USDA data from 2009 that shows the per capita use of high fructose corn syrup in the U.S. â€Å"was matched with an almost equal decline, on a one-to-one basis, in the per capita use of sugar. † (Sweet Surprize) So why is there mass campaign to revert back to sugar cane or beet sugar based sweetners? Americans have become more health conscious in the last forty years. Our fear of high-fructose corn syrup seems to have been derived from some very real concerns over the effects of its principal component, fructose. The coinsidence between the introduction of HFCS and the rise of obesity related diseases can no longer be ignored.Diabetes is a disea se with no cure that is running rampet through the country and heart failure remains a syndrome on high. Fructose, like glucose are basic sugars. Though your body processes basic sugars the same way, the results seem to be different. (Engber, 09) When ingesting glucose, the body is known to stimulate the release of body chemicals that regulate your food consumption. Fructose, on the other hand, does very little to suppress your appetite, and it seems to form new fat cells while maintaining the old.According to a recent research project conducted at Princeton University high-fructose corn syrup does indeed prompt a human to considerably gain weight. â€Å"Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. † (Parker, 10)   In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup was also evaluated. The s ame research team found that HFCS led to abnormal increases in body fat. These increases seemed to be found in the abdomen area.Body fat was not the only increases found. It was also discovered that HFCS caused a rise in blood fats called triglycerides. The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has spent $30 million to create a multimedia campaign to scream out to the masses that HFCS is just like sugar. (Engber, 09) The Princeton study, is not proving them wrong but are providing the details that show that while they are basic sugars, not all basic surgars are created equal. First, sucrose is composed of two simple sugars equally while fructose is not. The ratio in sucrose is 50:50 while fructose is 55:42. Parker, 10) The extra 3% is made up of saccharides, larger sugar molecules. Secondly, Princeton researchers zeroed in on the process in which makes sucrose and HFCS is different.The results showed that the molecues that make HFCS are unbound and free floating. In sucrose the fructose a nd sucrose molecues are bound to each other causing an extra metabolical process in order to be utilized for energy. This posed a quandary for the researchers. The rats consumed the same items, same caloric intake, yet those who consumed HFCS gained weight while those who did not, had not gained weight. Parker, 10) A little over a year earlier, the Washington Post published a study confirmed by both Enviornmental Science and Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy that there are traces of mercury in HFCS. â€Å"Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury. † [ (Washington Post, 09) ] This was result found in many products where HFCS is either the first or second ingredient listed on the label. While the article quote that nearly children and teenagers diet consists of nearly 80% HFCS, they remind readers that mercury at any level is toxic.The CRA responded that the information presented was based on old information and that the industry adapted non-mercury agents and that â€Å"these mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances. † [ (Washington Post, 09) ] Regardless, we as well as our children are or have consumed an ingredient that has toxic traces. Over a lifetime, imagine what that can do to the human body. The CRA has been very careful when attacking the fear that HFCS is envoking. According to their website, they maintain the stance that HFCS are all natural.The page opens up with their statement that HFCS â€Å"†¦are natural and meet the Food and Drug Administration’s policy for use of the term â€Å"natural. † (CRA, 09) They also side step the specifics of the HFCS make up claiming that HFCS simply is â€Å"like table sugar, is composed of fructose and glucose† but that it is also â€Å"found in many other naturally-occurring foods†. In the end they seem to quietly divert blame to the FDA by stating the FDA â€Å"h as not established a formal definition of the term â€Å"natural† for food ingredients† but that they qualify for natural under the current definition.This is still despite the Washington Post article confirming that the FDA has the mercury information. While many of these studies continue to support the Princeton research, the CRA will continue to spend countless amounts of money to combat the findings. Though in the last decade this issue has become more promient, it will probably continue for years to come. In the meantime, obesity related diseases continue to rise. The cure is just out of reach but it seems that we can indivually take a stand. With many products using HFCS for various amount of sweetning, we can limit our in take.Limiting our in take is as simple as reading the labels of the food and drink you consume. Limit your fast food intake as well. While this seems to be old fashion or time consuming to some, we need to revert back to the days where meals whe re made from scratch. Cut up fresh vegetables and fruits and limit processed foods. Canned foods, frozen foods and even the juice we drink is laden with some form of HFCS. If we as consumers take responsibility for our own food in take, we may be able to reverse the (potential and known) effects of the ingredient in our bodies.As mentioned earlier, 80% of what children consume has some form of HFCS. With the increase in obesity (both child and adult) as well as other syndromes like ADD and Autism, can we assume that our food is to blame? Thinking about the age old idiom of â€Å"we are what we eat†, are we making our bodies and later our creating our children bodies to fall victim to these now chronic disorders? We have always heard to limit our sugar intake to retard the hyperactive tendencies. With that assumption the use of basic sugars have always sent off alarms when it comes to those with hyperactivity disorders.The association between sugar and hyperactivity disorders began by a Harvard researcher in the the 1960’s. He claimed his findings showed that certain food colorings and sugars caused ADHD in children. (Ayoob) Though it has been said that this researchers findings could not be reproduced, the statement has stuck for years. Many mothers refuse to give their children sugar for fear of over stimulation. They were right, to an extent. As many know, sugar does produce spurts of energy as it is being digested. Couple that with a child and you have one bouncy human being.With each person metabolizing sugar a bit differently, mistakes or a misdiagnosis can easily be made. It would be easy to initially mistaken a sugar high child for one with with ADD or any other related syndrome. An unknowing parent, may not know how much sugar the child is consuming and mistakenly percieves this as a â€Å"problem child† with a hyperactive disorder. The parent in turn speaks with a doctor, discusses all the symptoms and after a series of tests, the truth comes to light. I have a child that has a level of autism and ADHD.It was suggested to me, much like Dr. Anne Kelly suggests, that eliminating chemicals from their diets can help limit ADHD triggers. Dr. Kelly also shares how children with these disorders are more sensitive to toxins found in food. Toxins like the previously mentioned mercury found in HFCS. [ (Howard, 10) ] I have children, I have family members and friends affected by obesity and its consequences. I am not within my BMI, and neither are most people I know but what this assignment has taught me is that we shouldn’t take for granted what we consume.For a period of time while researching and writing this paper, I thought what it would entail to grow my own garden. While I am sure that there will be a lot of trial and error, I just might be able to do something small at least. Meanwhile, I will pratice what I preach and pay attention to labels as I shop for groceries. Sadly, time management is an issue as I juggle both my children and their schooling with my own. We are a busy family just like many others. An effort must and will be made to pay attention to the items I purchase. Normal, quick and easy items I would purchase would now be turned into treats if even that.As I sit here and contemplate, I can see where an undertaking of this nature would be life altering in a sense. How I allocate my time, my childrens time besides what we consume is all under review. My mind wonders to what kitchen appliances and utenzils do I have to upkeep this adjustment, what do I have to buy or learn how to do myself. I was raised in a busy working family where many of my own meals were microwaved. Though I try hard now to not make that a normal occurance for my children, it happens more often than I would care to admit.Though the research and arguments will continue for years to come, I will take action today. I will make strides for my family and friends to choose healthier alternatives and maybe even find joy in cooking. Bring cooking back to what it once was, a family event. Where family can come together and catch up, talk and reconnect. Who knew that research could lead to life adjustements.Works CitedAyoob, K. -T. (n. d. ). High Fructose Corn Syrup and ADD/ADHD in Children: Is There a Link or Is It a Myth? Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Sweet Surprize: http://www. sweetsurprise. com/hfcs-and-your-family/your-childs-diet/hfcs-adhd  CRA. (09, 12).CORN SWEETENERS ARE NATURAL. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Corn Refiners of America: http://www. corn. org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/CornSweetenerNatural. pdf Engber, D. (09, 04 28).The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Slate Magazine: http://www. slate. com/id/2216796 Howard, C. (10, 02 26).Toxins in our food may play a role in neurobehavioral problems. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Peoria Journal Star Online: http://www. pjstar. com/features/x2112775064/Toxins-in-our-food-may-play-a-role-in-neurobeh avioral-problems Parker, H. (10, 03 22).A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Princeton Univeristy News Online: http://www. princeton. edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/ Sweet Surprize. (n. d. ).Fructose Availability. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Sweet Surprize: http://www. sweetsurprise. com/myths-and-facts/faqs-high-fructose-corn-syrup/fructose Washington Post. (09, 01 29).Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury. Retrieved 12 08, 10, from Washington Post Online: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831. html High Fructose Corn Syrup High Fructose Corn Syrup: Friend or Enemy We eat every day, rarely thinking about what’s going into our bodies. Take soda, for example, when was the last time you read the label before taking a sip? For me, it is never. One of the first ingredients listed on the can is HFCS or high fructose corn syrup. This ingredient is a secret additive to many products in today's market. High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the cheapest to make and hardest to get rid of in the body. Since its introduction to food products in the 70's it has slowly been added to most foods, even ketchup. More and more scientists are trying to find links between HFCS and several major health problems; such as diabetes and obesity. Although a major link has not been definitely determined to date, minor links have been proven such as such as the amounts that can be consumed before harm can be determined. Even though some minor associations have been made the FDA still considers HFCS to be safe for consumption. The reason for this is because HFCS is not considered an artificial ingredient. The rule considered is as long as a product has no signs of a chemical added it cannot be labeled an â€Å"artificial ingredient†. In researching the origin of High Fructose Corn Syrup I found out that mercury was found in the product. Even with this new information, the FDA still allows this product to be used in 94% of the foods we consume every day. Why would you need to put HFCS in baby formula? In places like England and France they have practically banned HFCS and made it difficult to use in the entire country. The European Union has a deal with the Sugar Refiners to only use natural cane and beet sugars. High Fructose or Syrup as you now knows are any almost everything we eat and drink. But what you don't know is what it is really doing inside your body. High Fructose Corn Syrup started being mass produced in 1982. It was around that time that researchers noticed an increase in children developing type II diabetes. Obesity around the country has soared. Type 2 diabetes is related to the body's inability to effectively use the insulin that is produced by the pancreas. This is thought to be directly related to weight. It has been proven that HFCS also cause heart problems. This is also thought to be weight related. Despite all the recent attempts to try and prove HFCS unhealthy effects, the Corn Refiners Association has come out with campaigns in High Fructose Corn Syrup's defense. They state the HFCS are not bad and are ok when eaten in moderation. There is no such thing as moderation when it is found in 94 % of the food. While more cons can be found than pros for HFCS; the Corn RefinersAssociation stands behind their product. In fact all the pros I found came from the CRA. The only truth I found was that it is cheaper to produce. Their website has no real information; and in fact called what many to believe to be truths myths. Although the Corn Refiners Association proved to be pointless my endless goggle search did take me too many blogs and organizations which I found to be very informative. Even though the bloggers were only expressing their opinion, many found HFCS to be repulsive. Many of the organizations say they are 20 xs bad for your health. The most informative was HighFructoseCornSyrup. com they are a group of bloggers that I agree with. Each of their articles deal with HFCS in the media and how it is affecting us as a society. After reading all this information and making my way through my research, I began to question what I was eating. Is this slurpee chockfull of HFCS? Of course, just look at how sweet it is. Is my burger only good because that ketchup it’s covered with is full of â€Å"sugar†, I mean high fructose corn syrup? Maybe I'm just losing it because I didn't want to believe what I had been hearing for years was true. Is my weight gain because I eat too much or is it the Additive that is in so many of the foods I eat that caused the weight gain in the first place? Hmm! Although it has been on the market for about 35 years most thought their weight gain was cased only by a lack of exercise. With obesity at epidemic proportions many are starting to question is it something in the food too? High Fructose Corn Syrup High Fructose Corn Syrup: Friend or Enemy We eat every day, rarely thinking about what’s going into our bodies. Take soda, for example, when was the last time you read the label before taking a sip? For me, it is never. One of the first ingredients listed on the can is HFCS or high fructose corn syrup. This ingredient is a secret additive to many products in today's market. High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the cheapest to make and hardest to get rid of in the body. Since its introduction to food products in the 70's it has slowly been added to most foods, even ketchup. More and more scientists are trying to find links between HFCS and several major health problems; such as diabetes and obesity. Although a major link has not been definitely determined to date, minor links have been proven such as such as the amounts that can be consumed before harm can be determined. Even though some minor associations have been made the FDA still considers HFCS to be safe for consumption. The reason for this is because HFCS is not considered an artificial ingredient. The rule considered is as long as a product has no signs of a chemical added it cannot be labeled an â€Å"artificial ingredient†. In researching the origin of High Fructose Corn Syrup I found out that mercury was found in the product. Even with this new information, the FDA still allows this product to be used in 94% of the foods we consume every day. Why would you need to put HFCS in baby formula? In places like England and France they have practically banned HFCS and made it difficult to use in the entire country. The European Union has a deal with the Sugar Refiners to only use natural cane and beet sugars. High Fructose or Syrup as you now knows are any almost everything we eat and drink. But what you don't know is what it is really doing inside your body. High Fructose Corn Syrup started being mass produced in 1982. It was around that time that researchers noticed an increase in children developing type II diabetes. Obesity around the country has soared. Type 2 diabetes is related to the body's inability to effectively use the insulin that is produced by the pancreas. This is thought to be directly related to weight. It has been proven that HFCS also cause heart problems. This is also thought to be weight related. Despite all the recent attempts to try and prove HFCS unhealthy effects, the Corn Refiners Association has come out with campaigns in High Fructose Corn Syrup's defense. They state the HFCS are not bad and are ok when eaten in moderation. There is no such thing as moderation when it is found in 94 % of the food. While more cons can be found than pros for HFCS; the Corn RefinersAssociation stands behind their product. In fact all the pros I found came from the CRA. The only truth I found was that it is cheaper to produce. Their website has no real information; and in fact called what many to believe to be truths myths. Although the Corn Refiners Association proved to be pointless my endless goggle search did take me too many blogs and organizations which I found to be very informative. Even though the bloggers were only expressing their opinion, many found HFCS to be repulsive. Many of the organizations say they are 20 xs bad for your health. The most informative was HighFructoseCornSyrup. com they are a group of bloggers that I agree with. Each of their articles deal with HFCS in the media and how it is affecting us as a society. After reading all this information and making my way through my research, I began to question what I was eating. Is this slurpee chockfull of HFCS? Of course, just look at how sweet it is. Is my burger only good because that ketchup it’s covered with is full of â€Å"sugar†, I mean high fructose corn syrup? Maybe I'm just losing it because I didn't want to believe what I had been hearing for years was true. Is my weight gain because I eat too much or is it the Additive that is in so many of the foods I eat that caused the weight gain in the first place? Hmm! Although it has been on the market for about 35 years most thought their weight gain was cased only by a lack of exercise. With obesity at epidemic proportions many are starting to question is it something in the food too?

Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations “SIX SIGMA” Essay

OBJECTIVE This term paper is designed as a part of the curriculum. It helped me to tap into the power of the Six Sigma movement that’s transforming some of the  world’s most successful companies. Six Sigma initiatives have tallied billions of dollars in savings, dramatic increases in speed, strong new customer relationships—in short, remarkable results and rave reviews. SIX SIGMA Six Sigma is now according to many business development and quality improvement experts, the most popular management methodology in history. Six Sigma is certainly a very big industry in its own right, and Six Sigma is now an enormous ‘brand’ in the world of corporate development. Six Sigma began in 1986 as a statistically-based method to reduce variation in electronic manufacturing processes in Motorola Inc in the USA. Today, around twenty years on, Six Sigma is used as an all-encompassing business performance methodology, all over the world, in organizations as diverse as local government departments, prisons, hospitals, the armed forces, banks, and multi-nationals corporations. While Six Sigma implementation continues apace in many of the world’s largest corporations, many organizations and suppliers in the consulting and training communities have also seized on the Six Sigma concept, to package and provide all sorts of Six Sigma ‘branded’ training products and consultancy and services. Six Sigma has also spawned many and various business books on the subject. Six Sigma, it might seem, is taking over the world. Interestingly while Six Sigma has become a very widely used ‘generic’ term, the name Six Sigma is actually a registered trademark of Motorola Inc., in the USA, who first pioneered Six Sigma methods in the 1980’s. The original and technically correct spelling seems to be Six Sigma, rather than 6 Sigma, although in recent years Motorola and GE have each since developed their own sexy Six Sigma logos using the number six and the Greek sigma character. Six Sigma is now a global brand and something of a revolution. But what is Six Sigma? Sigma is a measurement that indicates how a process is performing. Six Sigma stands for Six Standard Deviations (Sigma is the Greek letter used to represent standard deviation in statistics) from mean. Six Sigma methodologies provide the techniques and tools to improve the capability and reduce the defects in any process. Six Sigma is a fact-based, data-driven philosophy of improvement that values defect prevention over defect detectio n. Philosophy: The philosophical perspective views all works as a process that can be defined,  measured, analyzed, improved & controlled (DMAIC). Processes require inputs & produce outputs. If you control the inputs, you will control the outputs. This is generally expressed as the y= f (x) concept. Set of Tools: Six Sigma as a set of tools includes all the qualitative and quantitative techniques used by the six sigma experts to drive process improvement. A few such tools include statistical process control (SPC), Control charts, failure mode & effects analysis, process mapping etc. Methodology: This view of Six Sigma recognizes the underlying and rigorous approach known as DMAIC. DMAIC defines the steps a Six Sigma practitioner is expected to follow, starting with identifying the problem and ending with the implementation of long-lasting solutions While DMAIC is not only Six Sigma Methodology in use, it is certainly the most widely adopted and recognized. Metrics: In simple terms, Six Sigma quality performance means 3.4 defects per million opportunities HISTORY Since the 1920’s the word ‘sigma’ has been used by mathematicians and engineers as a symbol for a unit of measurement in product quality variation. (Note it’s sigma with a small ‘s’ because in this context sigma is a generic unit of measurement.) In the mid-1980’s engineers in Motorola Inc in the USA used ‘Six Sigma’ an an informal name for an in-house initiative for reducing defects in production processes, because it represented a suitably high level of quality. (Note here its Sigma with a big ‘S’ because in this context Six Sigma is a ‘branded’ name for Motorola’s initiative.) (Certain engineers had varying opinions as to whether the very first was Mikal Harry – felt that measuring defects in terms of thousands was an insufficiently rigorous standard. Hence they increased the measurement scale to parts per million, described as ‘defects per million’, which prompted the use of the ‘six sigma’ terminology and adoption of the capitalised ‘Six Sigma’ branded name, given that six sigma was deemed to equate to 3.4 parts – or defects – per million.) In the late-1980’s following the success of the above initiative, Motorola extended the Six Sigma methods to its critical business processes, and significantly Six Sigma became a formalised in-house ‘branded’ name for a performance improvement methodology, i.e., beyond purely ‘defect  reduction’, in Motorola Inc. In 1991 Motorola certified its first ‘Black Belt’ Six Sigma experts, which indicates the beginnings of the formalisation of the accredited training of Six Sigma methods. In 1991 also, Allied Signal, (a large avionics company which merged with Honeywell in 1999), adopted the Six Sigma methods, and claimed significant improvements and cost savings within six months. It seems that Allied Signal’s new CEO Lawrence Bossidy learned of Motorola’s work with Six Sigma and so approached Motorola’s CEO Bob Galvin to learn how it could be used in Allied Signal. In 1995, General Electric’s CEO Jack Welch (Welch knew Bossidy since Bossidy once worked for Welch at GE, and Welch was impressed by Bossidy’s achievements using Six Sigma) decided to implement Six Sigma in GE, and by 1998 GE claimed that Six Sigma had generated over three-quarters of a billion dollars of cost savings. By the mid-1990’s Six Sigma had developed into a transferable â₠¬Ëœbranded’ corporate management initiative and methodology, notably in General Electric and other large manufacturing corporations, but also in organizations outside the manufacturing sector. By the year 2000, Six Sigma was effectively established as an industry in its own right, involving the training, consultancy and implementation of Six Sigma methodology in all sorts of organisations around the world. That is to say, in a little over ten years, Six Sigma quickly became not only a hugely popular methodology used by many corporations for quality and process improvement, Six Sigma also became the subject of many and various training and consultancy products and services around which developed very many Six Sigma support organizations CENTRAL CONCEPTS We can clearly observe from the definitions and history of Six Sigma that many people consider the model to be capable of leveraging huge performance improvements and cost savings. None of this of course happens on its own. Teams and team leaders are an essential part of the Six Sigma methodology. Six Sigma is therefore a methodology which requires and encourages team leaders and teams to take responsibility for implementing the Six Sigma processes. Significantly these people need to be trained in Six Sigma’s methods – especially the use of the measurement and improvement tools, and in communications and relationship skills, necessary to involve and serve the needs of the internal and external customers and  suppliers that form the critical processes of the organization’s delivery chains. Training is therefore also an essential element of the Six Sigma methodology, and lots of it. Six Sigma teams and notably Six Sigma team leaders (‘Black Belts’) u se a vast array of tools at each stage of Six Sigma implementation to define measure, analyse and control variation in process quality, and to manage people, teams and communications. When an organization decides to implement Six Sigma, first the executive team has to decide the strategy – which might typically be termed an improvement initiative, and this base strategy should focus on the essential processes necessary to meet customer expectations. This could amount to twenty or thirty business process. At the top level these are the main processes that enable the organization to add value to goods and services and supply them to customers. Implicit within this is an understanding of what the customers – internal and external – actually want and need. A team of managers (‘Black Belts’ normally) who ‘own’ this processes is responsible for: identifying and understanding these processes in detail, and also understanding the levels of quality (especially tolerance of variation) that customers (internal and external) expect, and then Measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of each process performance – notably t he ‘sigma’ performance – ie., is the number of defects per million operations (pro-rate if appropriate of course). The theory is entirely logical: understanding and then improving the most important ‘delivery-chain’ processes will naturally increase efficiency, customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, and profitability. Easily said – tricky to achieve – which is what the Six Sigma methodology is for. SIX SIGMA PROCESS The term â€Å"six sigma process† comes from the notion that if one has six standard deviations between the process mean and the nearest specification limit, as shown in the graph, practically no items will fail to meet specifications. This is based on the calculation method employed in process capability studies. Capability studies measure the number of standard deviations between the process mean and the nearest specification limit in sigma units. As process standard deviation goes up, or the mean of the process moves away from the centre of the tolerance, fewer standard deviations will fit between the mean and the nearest specification limit,  decreasing the sigma number and increasing the likelihood of items outside specification SCALE OF MEASUREMENT The table below gives long-term DPMO values corresponding to various short-term sigma levels. It must be understood that these figures assume that the process mean will shift by 1.5 sigma toward the side with the critical specification limit. In other words, they assume that after the initial study determining the short-term sigma level, the long-termCpk value will turn out to be 0.5 less than the short-term Cpk value. So, for example, the Defective parts per million opportunities (DPMO) figure given for 1 sigma assumes that the long-term process mean will be 0.5 sigma beyond the specification limit (Cpk = –0.17), rather than 1 sigma within it, as it was in the short-term study (Cpk = 0.33). Note that the defect percentages indicate only defects exceeding the specification limit to which the process mean is nearest. Defects beyond the far specification limit are not included in the percentages. Sigma level DPMO Percent defective Percentage yield Short-term Cpk Long-term Cpk 1 691,462 69% 31% 0.33 –0.17 2 308,538 31% 69% 0.67 0.17 3 66,807 6.7% 93.3% 1.00 0.5 4 6,210 0.62% 99.38% 1.33 0.83 5 233 0.023% 99.977% 1.67 1.17 6 3.4 0.00034% 99.99966% 2.00 1.5 METHODOLOGY Six Sigma projects follow two project methodologies inspired by Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. These methodologies, composed of five phases each, bear the acronyms DMAIC and DMADV. DMAIC is used for projects aimed at improving an existing business process. DMADV is used for projects aimed at creating a new product or process design. The DMAIC project methodology has five phases: Define the problem, the voice of the customer,  and the project goals, specifically. Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data. Analyze the data to investigate and verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered. Seek out root cause of the defect under investigation. Improve or optimize the current process based upon data analysis using techniques such as design of experiments, poka yoke or mistake proofing, and standard work to create a new, future state process. Set up pilot runs t o establish process capability. Control the future state process to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Implement control systems such as statistical process control, production boards, visual workplaces, and continuously monitor the process. Some organizations add a Recognize step at the beginning, which is to recognize the right problem to work on, thus yielding an RDMAIC methodology. DMADV or DFSS The DMADV project methodology, known as DFSS (â€Å"Design For Six Sigma†),[features five phases: Define design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy. Measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and risks. Analyze to develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design and evaluate design capability to select the best design. Design details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification. This phase may require simulations. Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it over to the process owner(s). THE TOOLS AND THEMES Like most great inventions, Six Sigma is not â€Å"all new.† While some themes of Six Sigma arise out of fairly recent breakthroughs in management thinking, others have their foundation in common sense. Before you dismiss that origin as no big deal, we’d remind you of a saying: â€Å"Common sense is the least common of the senses.† From a â€Å"tools†Ã‚  perspective, Six Sigma is a pretty vast universe. The more we have learned over the years about the Six Sigma system, the more we have come to see it as a way to link together—and even to implement—many otherwise disconnected ideas, trends, and tools in business today. Some of the â€Å"hot topics† that have direct application or can complement a Six Sigma initiative include: e-Commerce and Services Enterprise Resource Planning Lean manufacturing Customer Relationship Management systems Strategic business partnerships Knowledge management Activity-based management The â€Å"process-centred organization† Globalization Just-in-time inventory/production Six Themes of Six Sigma We’ll close out this introductory look at Six Sigma by distilling the critical elements of this leadership system into six â€Å"themes.† These principles—supported by the many Six Sigma tools and methods we’ll be presenting throughout this book—will give you a preview of how we’ll help you make Six Sigma work for your business. Theme One: Genuine Focus on the Customer During the big Total Quality push of the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of companies wrote policies and mission statements vowing to â€Å"meet or exceed customer expectations and requirements.† Unfortunately, however, few businesses tried very hard to improve their understanding of customers’ requirements or expectations. Even when they did, customer data-gathering typically was a one-time or short-lived initiative that ignored the dynamic nature of customer needs. In Six Sigma, customer focus becomes the top priority. For example, the measures of Six Sigma performance begin with the customer. Six Sigma improvements are defined by their impact on customer satisfaction and  value. We’ll look at why and how your business can define customer requirements, measure performance against them, and stay on top of new developments and unmet needs. Theme Two: Data- and Fact-Driven Management Six Sigma takes the concept of â€Å"management by fact† to a new, more powerful level. Despite the attention paid in recent years to measures, improved information systems, knowledge management, etc., it should come as no shock to you to hear that many business decisions are still being based on opinions and assumptions. Six Sigma discipline begins by clarifying what measures are key to gauging business performance; then it applies data and analysis so as to build an understanding of key variables and optimize results. At a more down-to-earth level, Six Sigma helps managers answer two essential questions to support fact-driven decisions and solutions: 1. What data/information do I really need? 2. How do we use that data/information to maximum benefit? Theme Three: Process Focus, Management, and Improvement In Six Sigma, processes are where the action is. Whether designing products and services, measuring performance, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction—or even running the business—Six Sigma positions the process as the key vehicle of success. One of the most remarkable breakthroughs in Six Sigma efforts to date has been convincing leaders and managers—particularly in the service-based functions and industries—that mastering processes is not just a necessary evil but actually a way to build competitive advantage in delivering value to customers. There are many more people to convince— with huge dollar opportunities tied up in those activities. Theme Four: Proactive Management Most simply, being â€Å"proactive† signifies acting in advance of events— the opposite of being â€Å"reactive.† In the real world, though, proactive management means making habits out of what are, too often, neglected business practices: defining ambitious goals and reviewing them frequently; setting clear priorities; focusing on problem prevention versus fire  fighting; questioning why we do things instead of blindly defending them as â€Å"how we do things here.† Being truly proactive, far from being boring or overly analytical, is actually a starting point for creativity and effective change. Reactively bouncing from crisis to crisis makes you very busy—giving a false impression that you’re on top of things. In reality, it’s a sign of a manager or an organization that’s lost control. Six Sigma, as we’ll see, encompasses tools and practices that replace reactive habits with a dynamic, responsive, proactive style of management. Considering today’s slim-margin-for-error competitive environment, being proactive is (as the airline commercial said) â€Å"the only way to fly.† Theme Five: Boundary less Collaboration â€Å"Boundary less† is one of Jack Welch’s mantras for business success. Years before launching Six Sigma, GE’s chairman was working to break down barriers and improve teamwork, up, down, and across organizational lines. The opportunities available through improved collaboration with in companies and with their vendors and customers are huge. Billions of dollars are left on the table (or on the floor) every day, because of disconnects and outright competition between groups that should be working for a common cause: providing value to customers. As noted above, Six Sigma expands opportunities for collaboration as people learn how their roles fit into the â€Å"big picture† and can recognize and measure the interdependence of activities in all parts of Process. Boundary less collaboration in Six Sigma does not mean selfless sacrifice, but it does require an understanding of both the real needs of end users and of the flow of work through a process or a sup ply chain. Moreover, it demands an attitude that is committed to using customer and process knowledge to benefit all parties. Thus, the Six Sigma system can create an environment and management structures that support true teamwork. Theme Six: Drive for Perfection; Tolerance This last theme may seem contradictory. How can you be driven to achieve perfection and yet also tolerate failure? In essence, though, the two ideas are complementary. No company will get anywhere close to Six Sigma without launching new ideas and approaches—which always involve some risk. If people  who see a possible path to better service, lower costs, new capabilities, etc. (i.e. ways to be closer-to-perfect) are too afraid of the consequences of mistakes, they’ll never try. The result: stagnation, putrefaction, death. Fortunately, the techniques we’ll review for improving performance include a significant dose of risk management (if you’re going to fail, make it a safe failure). The bottom line, though, is that any company that makes Six Sigma its goal will have to constantly push to be evermore- perfect (since the customer’s definition of â€Å"perfect† will always be changing) while being willing to accept—and manage—oc casional setbacks. SOME SUCCESS STORIES Seeing the impact that Six Sigma is having on some leading companies sets the stage for understanding how it can impact your business. As we relate some of these results, we’ll also be reviewing the history that has brought Six Sigma to the forefront General Electric Six Sigma has forever changed GE. Everyone—from the Six Sigma zealots emerging from their Black Belt tours, to the engineers, the auditors, and the scientists, to the senior leadership that will take this Company into the new millennium—is a true believer in Six Sigma, the way this Company now works.† —GE Chairman John F. Welch1 When a high-profile corporate leader* starts using words like â€Å"unbalanced† or â€Å"lunatics† in connection with the future of the company—you might expect a plunge in the company’s share price. At General Electric, however, that passion and drive behind Six Sigma have produced some very positive results. The hard numbers behind GE’s Six Sigma initiative tell just part of the story. From an initial year or so of break-even efforts, the payoff has accelerated: $750 million by the end of 1998, a forecasted $1.5 billion by the end of 1999, and expectations of more billions down the road. Some Wal l Street analysts have predicted $5 billion in gains from the effort, early in the decade. GE’s operating margins—for decades in the 10 percent range—continue to hit new records quarter after quarter. The numbers are now consistently above 15 percent, and even higher in some periods. GE leaders cite this margin expansion as the most visible  evidence of the financial contribution made by Six Sigma. Improvements from Services to Manufacturing The financial â€Å"big picture,† though, is just a reflection of the many individual successes GE has achieved through its Six Sigma initiative. For example: âÅ" ¦ A Six Sigma team at GE’s Lighting unit repaired problems in its billing to one of its top customers—Wal-Mart—cutting invoice defects and disputes by 98 percent, speeding payment, and creating better productivity for both companies. âÅ" ¦ A group led by a staff attorney—a Six Sigma team leader—at one of GE Capital’s service businesses streamlined the contract review process, leading to faster completion of deals—in other words, more responsive service to customers—and annual savings of $1 million. âÅ" ¦ GE’s Power Systems group addressed a major irritant with its utility company customers, simply by developing a better understanding of their requirements and improving the documentation provided along with new power equipment. The result: Utilities can respond more effectively to their regulatory agencies, and both the utilities and GE have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. âÅ" ¦ The Medical Systems business—GEMS—used Six Sigma design techniques to create a breakthrough in medical scanning technology. Patients can now get a full-body scan in half a minute, versus three minutes or more with previous technology. Hospitals can increase their usage of the equipment and achieve a lower cost per scan, as well. âÅ" ¦ GE Capital Mortgage analyzed the processes at one of its top performing branches and—expanding these â€Å"best practices† across its other 42 branches—improved the rate of a caller reaching a â€Å"live† GE person from 76 to 99 percent. Beyond the much greater convenience and responsiveness to customers, the improved process is translating into millions of dollars in new business. The Actions behind the Results GE’s successes are the result of a â€Å"passionate† commitment and effort. Notes Welch: â€Å"In nearly four decades with GE I have never seen any Company initiative move so willingly and so rapidly in pursuit of a big idea.†2 Tens of thousands of GE managers and associates have been trained in Six Sigma methods—a hefty investment in time and money (which is appropriately deducted from the gains cited earlier). The training has gone well beyond  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Black Belts† and teams to include every manager and professional at GE—and many front-line people as well. They’ve instilled a new vocabulary revolving around customers, processes, and measurement. While dollars and statistical tools seem to get the most publicity, the emphasis on customers is probably the most remarkable element of Six Sigma at GE. As Jack Welch explains it: The best Six Sigma projects begin not inside the business but outside it, focused on answering the questionâ₠¬â€how can we make the customer more competitive? What is critical to the customer’s success? . . . One thing we have discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes the customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us. AlliedSignal/Honeywell AlliedSignal—with the new name of â€Å"Honeywell† following its 1999merger—is a Six Sigma success story that connects Motorola and GE. It was CEO Larry Bossidy—a long time GE executive, who took the helm at Allied in 1991—who convinced Jack Welch that Six Sigma was an approach worth considering. (Welch had been one of the few top managers not to become enamoured of the TQM movement in the 1980s and early 1990s). Allied began its own quality improvement activities in the early 1990s, and by 1999 was saving more than $600 million a year, thanks to the widespread employee training in and application of Six Sigma principles.5 Not only were Allied’s Six Sigma teams reducing the costs of reworking defects, they were applying the same principles to the design of new products like aircraft engines, reducing the time from design to certification from 42 to 33 months. The company credits Six Sigma with a 6 percent productivity increase in 1998 and wit h its record profit margins of 13 percent. Since the Six Sigma effort began, the firm’s market value had—through fiscal year 1998—climbed to a compounded 27 percent per year. Allied’s leaders view Six Sigma as â€Å"more than just numbers—it’s a statement of our determination to pursue a standard of excellence using every tool at our disposal and never hesitating to reinvent the way we do things.† As one of Allied’s Six Sigma directors puts it: â€Å"It’s changed the way we think and the way we communicate. We never used to talk about the process or the customer; now they’re part of our everyday conversation.† AlliedSignal’s Six Sigma leadership has helped it earn recognition as the  world’s best-diversified company and the most admired global aerospace company . IMPACT There are many well known companies that have implemented Six Sigma programs and reached astounding results. Companies like General Electric, Motorola, Ford, Honeywell and American standard have all reaped the benefits of successful Six Sigma quality programs. Motorola claims to have saved $17 billion from 1986 to 2004 by successfully implementing their strategies throughout all departments of the company. The other companies have achieved staggering results such as cutting invoice defects and disputes, streamlined contract processes, reduction in project duration, waste elimination, reduced energy costs and increased production capacity. By understanding the philosophy and deploying the program, these companies have succeeded in making themselves more efficient and more profitable for their stakeholders. Companies wishing to make changes to their quality system should research this and consider Six Sigma as an option. BENEFITS It is clear that many companies have capitalized on the application of Six Sigma to their business model. If we look deeper into the appeal of Six Sigma, past the historical quantitative gains, we will find several benefits that companies find attractive. 1. â€Å"Generates sustained success† – The only way to sustain a high level of growth is to continually innovate and remake the organization. A Six Sigma process creates the skills and culture to achieve this continuous process improvement cycle. 2. â€Å"Sets a performance goal for everyone† – a company is made up of multiple departments with different tasks and objectives. Six Sigma provides a common objective for all departments to be as close to perfect as possible. The idea is that if you understand the customer’s requirements, then you can measure for defects. 3. â€Å"Enhances Customer Value† – The focus of Six Sigma is understanding what the customer requirements are and deli vering a product or service within those requirements. 4. â€Å"Increases the rate of improvement† – Six Sigma helps a company stay on top of it’s improvement efforts by constantly updating requirements and identifying defects before they happen. 5. â€Å"Promotes Learning† – Six sigma brings experts together with novices to manage the process and teach the Six Sigma way of business. Companies that use Six Sigma view it as learning tool that is critical to their success. 6. â€Å"Executes strategic change† – Six Sigma gives you a better understanding of your company processes. The philosophy is tied back to the company goals so when it’s time for change there is a higher probability of success.† NEGATIVES Just like any other quality improvement initiatives we have seen in the past, Six Sigma has its own limitations. The following are some of the limitations of Six Sigma which create opportunities for future research : 1. â€Å"Kills Creativity† – Six Sigma gives emphasis on the rigidity of the process which basically contradicts the innovation and kills the creativity. The innovative approach implies deviations in production, the redundancy, the unusual solutions, insufficient study which are opposite to Six Sigma principles. 2. â€Å"Role of consultants† – The use of â€Å"Black Belts† as itinerant change agents has (controversially) fostered an industry of training and certification. Critics argue there is overselling of Six Sigma by too great a number of consulting firms, many of which claim expertise in Six Sigma when they have only a rudimentary understanding of the tools and techniques involved. 3. â€Å"Rigid† – A more direct criticism is the â€Å"rigid† nature of Six Sigma with its over-reliance on methods and tools. In most cases, more attention is paid to reducing variation and searching for any significant factors and less attention is paid to developing robustness in the first place (which can altogether eliminate the need for reducing variation.) 4. â€Å"Criticism of the 1.5 sigma shift† – The 1.5 sigma shift has also become contentious because it results in stated â€Å"sigma levels† that reflect short-term rather than long-term performance: a process that has long-term defect levels corresponding to 4. 5 sigma performance is, by Six Sigma convention, described as a â€Å"six sigma process.†. The accepted Six Sigma scoring system thus cannot be equated to actual normal distribution probabilities for the stated number of standard deviations, and this has been a key bone of contention over how Six Sigma measures are defined. APPLICATIONS In pharmaceutical industry, adoption of the Six Sigma technique helped the industry reduce wastage and rework involved in the production. It was said that 5-10% of medicines produced during a period were to be discarded or modified due to the defects. The adoption of Six Sigma helped the pharmaceutical companies to reduce the errors in the production. Airline industry had to adopt the Six Sigma metrics for its survival. The increased cost of fuel, the competition driven by low budget airlines, etc has made the need for lower cost without a hit to quality the need of the hour. The number of errors in handling the calls from customers, and ticketing is to be minimised drastically. It was with this intention that the airline industry adopted Six Sigma into the organisation. Indian companies like Kingfisher, Jet Airways, and Indian Airlines, all have adopted Six Sigma technique into its process. Hospitality services are another industry which benefited by the adoption of Six Sigma techniques. Providing personalised service to each and every customer by bending to their demands within a limited time without comprising the quality was aided by the Six Sigma matrices. The Six Sigma technique is adopted in every field from maintaining full occupancy to efficient housekeeping, ensuring a balanced inventory supply, and to minimise wastage in the inventory. Starwood hotels and resorts Inc was the first company to adopt Six Sigma in the hospitality sector. Steel industries like TISCO use this technique to minimise the inadequacies in the design, imperfect products, etc. I. Logistics, insurance, call centres, all embrace the Six Sigma techniques for improving the quality of service provided by them. Six Sigma goes in to the details of improving customer service, generating business expansion and gaining knowledge about the service sectors business processes. Most service industries revolve around areas of finance, human resources and sales and marketing. Hence, Six Sigma delves deeply into the subject of soft skill. Irrespective of the type of industry, all companies have to adopt Six Sigma techniques as quality and timely delivery are crucial for their survival. SOME COMMON CONFUSUIONS KAIZEN – â€Å"Kaizen†, is a Japanese word, meaning â€Å"improvement†, or â€Å"change for the better† refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, and business management. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste (see lean manufacturing). Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country. It has since spread throughout the world] and is now being implemented in many other venues besides just bu siness and productivity. Six Sigma process involves employees at every level to improve a process. The theory is that a machine operator is best suited to identify the waste surrounding that machine. Employees participate in KAIZENS (a sort of quality circle) to eliminate all the waste along the process of delivering to customers. Everything left over is meaningful and profitable work. Generally, the employees themselves are empowered to recognize the need for an improvement, and to make that change immediately. LEAN SIX SIGMA – â€Å"Lean Six Sigma† is a synergized managerial concept of Lean and Six Sigma that results in the elimination of the seven kinds of wastes (classified as Defects, Overproduction, Transportation, Waiting, Inventory, Motion and Over-Processing) and provision of goods and service at a rate of 3.4 defects per million opportunities Six Sigma as well is far more data-driven than Lean Six Sigma (and Lean). A Six Sigma level is, again, 3.4 defects per million; a Five Sigma level is 233 defects per million, and so on. As Michael L. George describes, every Six Sigma improvement requires â€Å"a measure to define the capability of any process.† This reliance upon precise measurement is what makes the DMAIC processlengthy; a DMAIC project may require thousands of measurements before project leaders can analyze the results. Lean Six Sigma does not ignore measurement where it is required, but does not rely upon it absolutely. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT – â€Å"Total Quality Management† or TQM is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes. TQM functions on the premise that the quality of products and processes is the responsibility of everyone who is involved with the creation or consumption of the products or services offered by an organization. In other words, TQM requires the involvement of management, workforce, suppliers, and customers, in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. TQM, as its name suggests, concerns itself entirely with quality. All efforts, finances and techniques are directed at improving quality as much as possible. While Six Sigma is certainly concerned with quality as well, it extends its focus to other issues such as product cycle time and cost. Because of this difference, Six Sigma can be much more complex to implement but also can create farther-reaching benefits. The goals of TQM and Six Sigma differ in significant ways. Total Quality Management has no specific goals or endpoints at which management can aim. Basically, the goal of TQM is to always become â€Å"better,† an objective that can become both a blessing and a curse as it continually inspires both motivation and frustration. Six Sigma, on the other hand, has the very tangible goal of 3.4 defects per million. This target gives the philosophy its name, as the amount is six standard deviations (represented by the Greek letter sigma) from the centre of a bell curve Accordi ng to Six Sigma specialist Thomas Pryzdek, TQM originally featured vague and abstract guidelines that were difficult, if not impossible, for most managers to turn into tangible and implementable strategies. Six Sigma attempts to fix this problem by creating specific areas to target for improvement. In lieu of general statements about quality improvement, the Six Sigma philosophy pinpoints sectors of specialized focus. IMPLEMENTATION †¢ Analyze – Is the discovery of variations Six Sigma programs are deployed  from the Top down and implemented from the bottom up. (Cariera and Trudell, 2006) You must have upper managements buy-in and full support. This support must be communicated effectively through the organization. Upper management must be willing to invest in training for their employees and willing to embrace the changes that will come out of the initiative. Although Six Sigma can involve some complex statistical theories and measurement tools, the barriers to successful implementations usually come from â€Å"behavioural† resistance rather than â€Å"technical† issues. (Kumar, 2006) The following are what Kumar considers â€Å"Fundamental rules for significant change†: †¢ Always include affected individuals in both planning and implementing improvements. †¢ Provide sufficient time for employees to change. †¢ Confine improvements to only those changes essential to remove the identified root cause(s). †¢ Respect an individual’s perceptions by listening and responding to his/her concerns. †¢ Ensure leadership participation in the program. †¢ Provide timely feedback to affected individuals. These are all key points to implementing Six Sigma, however to a Six Sigma critic’s point, there is nothing really new here. This is very similar to many other management and quality philosophies. Regardless of what name you give it, these fundamentals are imperative for instituting positive change in an organization. Perhaps by applying these fundamentals under a recognized program such as Six Sigma, there will be a better chance for success. Each phase is important in its own right; however the key thing for long lasting results in understanding the Control phase. The control phase must include a plan for continuous review and improvement. The DMAIC roadmap should be looked at as a circular process rather than linear. During the control phase companies must continually look for new opportunities then restart the process at Design. CASE STUDY Mumbai Dabbawalas, a perfect example of SIX SIGMA. -Dr. Pawan Agrawal The food is cooked at home. Tiffin is yours. They [dabbawalas] will simply deliver it from your home to your workplace before lunch time and deliver the empty tiffin box back in the evening at your home as well. Why would you want dabbawala to carry your tiffin? There are two reasons. One is that the Mumbai local trains have lines extending 60-70 km and two, they are crowded. If you have to reach office at 9, you must start at 6. But you wouldn’t want to wake your loved ones at 5 and have them prepare the tiffin for you; that’s where Dabbawala can help you. Another reason is that even if you start at 8, you won’t be able to carry your own tiffin because of how crowded the trains are. So, for these two reasons, Dabbawala has been in the business [of carrying your home food to your office] for the last 120 years. There’s a group of people called Varkari Sampradaya in Maharashtra; they are the devotees of Lord Vitthala and there’s a place called Pandha rpur, the town of the temple of Vitthala. When they go to that place, they wear a ‘tulasi mala’. And when a person wears this mala, he will never drink or smoke because Lord Vitthala doesn’t like it and the same principle is brought into practice here. Dabbawalas feel that their customer is their Lord Vitthala. These people are poor, they are working in difficult situations, they are not qualified and they don’t use technology, and yet, they possess all these qualities and work with passion and commitment. Dabbawala was started in 1890 by Mr. Mahadeo Havaji Bachche. He was once asked by a Parsi working in the Britisher’s rank, â€Å"Will you bring my tiffin from my home?† He simply answered â€Å"Yes, I will, no problem.† From that day onwards, he started to collect tiffins from homes and delivering them to the respective workplaces. In 1890, there was one dabbawala and one customer, and now, there are 5000 dabbawalas and 200,000 customers, which means, one dabbawala carries approximately 40 tiffins. The maximum weight comes to 65-70kg; carrying that much weight in the crowded local trains is a lot of hard work. Why do they do it then? Work is worship. And, as far as qualification is concerned, you will see that the average literacy rate is 8th grade schooling; which means the dabbawalas are illiterate and yet they have managed to achieve a Six Sigma quality rating, which means only one wrong service in a 6 million deliveries. Ownership is a feeling that an  empl oyee has to instil in oneself, and unless you get that feeling of ownership you cannot work excellently. In 120 years, it has never happened that a dabbawala has failed to deliver. It’s impossible. They will never tell you that â€Å"the trains are late today,† and even if Mumbai trains are late, the tiffins can’t be late. The dabbawala knows that if he’s not going in time, his customer will eat outside food, pay money for it and waste time. The dabbawala knows the consequences of going late. So he always goes on time. The people of Mumbai say with confidence that â€Å"our lunch can go wrong but not the Mumbai dabbawalas.† So nobody can stop you from being punctual.. Let me speak about (mukadal) group leaders. A group has 10, 20, or 25 dabbawalas, depending on the density of customers in your area, and their in-charge is the group leader. The responsibility to keep the dabbawalas and the customers happy is on the group leader. Despite the fact that he doesn’t get even a rupee extra for the extra10% that he works, he feels proud to be a group leader. For example, the group leader also takes care of the train passes of the dabbawalas, to check whether they have expired or not; he reminds the dabbawalas in case their passes are about to expire in the next 2-3 days and also buys the pass for the dabbawala if he fails to do so himself in order to ensure that timely delivery doesn’t suffer. I will tell you an instance of how one dabbawala performs duty in one day. He collects 40tiff in’s from a particular area and drops them in the Vile Parle railway station because his customer is from Vile Parle. He can’t deliver all of them because he would have to go all over Mumbai, so he leaves these 40 there. That’s his first job. His second job is to collect 35-40 tiffins from his group leader and deliver them to Dadar. His third job is to deliver 30 tiffins to Chavani Road, and in the fourth job from Chavani Road, he delivers 30 Tiffin’s to Churchgate. His fifth job is to go from Church Gate to deliver 30 tiffins to NarimanPoint. Finally, in his sixth job, he delivers 30 tiffins to Express Tower to the customers before lunch time and after lunch, he will reroute back to his original area and deliver the same tiffins from where he had  collected them. After all this, Forbes has found 1 erroneous delivery out of 6 million deliveries, but they don’t accept that either. They are unhappy that that  one error has occurred. Twelve years ago, some people from Delhi came to Dabbawala and said they want to do research on Dabbawala; they prepared a project and went back to Delhi. They called after 3 months and informed Dabbawala about Six Sigma. Dabbawalas didn’t know what it meant. They told Dabbawala it was a big honour so Dabbawala asked them to send it across. They were told to go to Delhi and collect it. Sixteen dabbawalas went to Delhi to collect the Six Sigma certification. People work so hard for three and Four Sigma but dabbawalas got Six Sigma because they didn’t care about the certifi cation and cared only about customer satisfaction. It is a big achievement especially without the use of technology. Even if the dabbawalas use technology in the form of mobile phones, they can’t because both their hands are used in delivering tiffins. Technology is useless for them for delivery. And after all this, they charge only 400 rupees per month for delivery. So, the question arises is that, why do they charge so less. They say customers are poor. If they want more income, they work extra. Dabbawala then gave me an example of a teacher, who earns only Rs 5000 per month as a government rule. He said, â€Å"Despite the teacher’s double graduation, I earn more than him, so I’m happy.† For example, some customers refuse to pay bonus, but the dabbawalas don’t disrupt their services. So I asked one of them why, he said, â€Å"the customer is my God, he has paid me 12 months’ of salary so it’s ok if he doesn’t pay me one month’s bonus.† Despite the disputes there has never been a police or a court case. Every 15 days they have a meeting. The disputing dabbawalas resolve their disputes and if they can’t, the president takes a call and they follow his judgment without questioning. Dabbawalas feel satisfied. I asked one customer, what he thinks about the dabbawalas. He said, â₠¬Å"Excellent. When I get my salary I am afraid of carrying it in the local train because it’s so crowded and I can get robbed so instead, after I have lunch, I put the money in the empty dabba and send to my wife.† Dabbawalas are very honest. If you do services consistently and with discipline, then the customer, at some point of time, will believe that you are God. In one day, one dabbawala handles 500 tiffins. There is a 79-year-old man who is a dabbawala, nobody’s forcing him, but he still works because he thinks he can still provide service to his customers. The dabbawalas use bicycles. Another thing is the coding system; about 100 years ago, they were using colour codes. Then when Mumbai  grew and the number of customers increased, they started using alphabets; A for Andheri, B for Bandra, etc. And today, they write a proper code with details of the source, destination and all the dabbawalas involved in that particular delivery. When this tiffin is coded and then washed, sometimes the coding becomes unclear, so the dabbawala takes colour out of his pocket and overwrites the code. He doesn’t complain about it, he just finishes the job. Due to the overcrowded Mumbai local trains, some people enter the l uggage department, and when they do, the tiffins stick to their heads. So they start fighting with the dabbawalas and the dabbawalas also fight with them but only till the station arrives, because after that they’re more interested in the delivery. They use carts for longer distances. In running local trains, they sort the tiffins to save time. Risk is there, but it’s there everywhere. You must work with the situation. For example, they lost some income and customers because of some instances. In 1969, customers stopped taking food. In 1975, there was a railway strike; the dabbawalas lost one month’s income. In 1982, 40,000 meal workers went on strike. Till today they’re on strike. A lot of people lost their lives. Dabbawalas have gone through all this and come out shining. They have been featured on multiple channels and have been awarded multiple awards. These 50 Indians have influenced Mumbai: Tata, Birla, Ambani, Thakarey, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachhan and Mumbai Dabbawala. Somebody took a survey in Mumbai about the likes of people, and Dabbawala was one of them. I am not a Dabbawala. I’m not involved in any of the operations at all. I have done a Ph.D. on this subject and my topic was ‘A study of logistics in supply chain management of Dabbawala in Mumbai.’ It took a lot of years to complete my Ph.D. But, two days into the research, I was taken aback by the p assion of these people. I decided to do the research whether or not I complete my Ph.D. Prince Charles came to Mumbai in 2003. Six months before his visit, Mr. Jeetendra Jain, in the British Council of India, contacted dabbawala to arrange a visit. Dabbawala first refused and then, after realizing that Prince Charles is Britain’s royalty in the manner of a king, he agreed, but, with two conditions. First one was that Prince Charles should come at the Dabbawala’s convenience — between 11 and 11.40 because that’s when they’re free. Second, Prince Charles must go to Dabbawala himself. Where to? The footpath. Prince Charles accepted these conditions. Richard Branson came to  Mumbai. He wanted a photo with Dabbawala to put it up in his office in London to send a message to his employees to work like Dabbawalas. That’s the impact of Mumbai Dabbawala. There was an inauguration of a book written by Shobha Bondre. This was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh. The chief minister said that for every program he goes an hour late but for a dabbawala program he came 5 minutes early because he was scared that if he came late the Dabbawalas will go away. ANALYSIS How the Dabbawalas works? 1. Collecting food dabbas 2. Sorting +Grouping 3. Transporting 4. Receiving 5. Delivering 6. Collecting empty dabbas 1. Collecting A collecting dabbawala, usually on bicycle, collects dabbas either from a worker’s home or from the dabba makers. The dabbas have some sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a colour or symbol. 2. Sorting + Grouping The dabbawala then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort (and sometimes bundle) the lunch boxes into groups. 3. Transporting The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes). 4. Receiving The markings include the railway station to unload the boxes and the building address where the box has to be delivered. At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawala. 5. Delivering: The local dabbawala delivers the dabbas to the respective places. 6. Collecting empty dabbas The empty boxes, after lunch, are again collected and sent back to the respective houses or dabba makers Factors contributing to their success 1. Cost efficient and faster delivery : The dabbawalas charge a nominal monthly fee which is affordable and they have an efficient delivery network which makes them deliver on time. 2. Highly reliable: On time delivery for all the â€Å"dabbas† and hardly any errors. All deliveries have ensured 100% customer satisfaction. There are cost best in time management and have been awarded six sigma rating. 3. Using Mumbai’s railway network : Using the Mumbai sub urban railways for their daily transportation from homes to the offices. Thus making it a cheaper and more efficient system. 4. Structure: They have a flat hierarchical in the organisation. Just 3 levels of organisation: carriers, supervisors and committee members. This flat structureimplies a wide span of control. Every supervisor has about 4-5 carriers under him. CONCLUSION Six Sigma looks at all work as a series of processes with inherent variations, which can cause waste or inefficiency. Focusing on those  processes with greatest impact on business performance, as defined by leadership teams, the methodology involves statistical analysis to quantify repeated common cause variations – which can then be reduced by the Six Sigma team. Six Sigma becomes a continuous process for quality improvement and cost reduction flowing throughout the company. Originally developed from a Japanese quality control process for manufacturing electronic semi-conductors, Six Sigma developed the capability of reducing problems or issues effecting customer expectations on key business processes. Six Sigma has provided the opportunity to drive forward important customer focused initiatives across the Cummins global organisation. As an improvement and cost reduction process, Six Sigma is equally valid for marketing and product development as well as manufacturing and c ustomer services. Six Sigma improvement projects and techniques are now the cornerstone of Cummins continued success in cost reduction and quality improvement. REFERENCES LINKS http://www.experts123.com/q/who-invented-six-sigma.html as on 11/10/2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_sigma as on 11/10/2012 http://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/ on 12/10/2012 http://www.6sigma.us/six-sigma.php as on 13/10/2012 http://www.businessballs.com/sixsigma.html as on 13/10/2012 http://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/ as on 13/10/2012 BOOKS Pede, Peter.S (2002), Mc-Graw Hill, The Six Sigma Way (from 029-72) De Feo, Joseph A.; Barnard, William (2005). JURAN Institute’s Six Sigma Breakthrough and Beyond – Quality Performance Breakthrough Methods. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 0-07-142227-7 (from p235- 245). Ramias, Alan, The Mists of Six Sigma, (2005), BP Trends (from p5-9) Eckes, George, Six Sigma for Everyone, 2003, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. (p 155-169)

Data Collection Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Data Collection - Assignment Example rt from FEMA to explain the state of emergency management as well as present their findings regarding the heavy loss that was experienced following hurricane Katrina. In the report, it was apparent that the multi-agency operation lacked proper coordination because of the communication challenge occasioned by destruction of telecommunication network. Further on, the decision by government to cut down on its budgetary allocation to emergency management and the concomitant impacts have widely been tackled in peer reviewed articles, print media, as well as online news website. Information gathered from the aforementioned sources is critical in informing the various stakeholders of steps to be undertaken to address the challenge. First, from the issues raised by the disaster managers, it is apparent that limited budgetary allocation has further complicated the path to finding solution to the challenge. Secondly, citizen apathy and preference to varied communication challenge has made emergency officers face an uphill task when trying to reach out to victims of a disaster. From the information gathered, various recommendations have been put forth, including adoption of social media platforms to enhance communication. Additionally, these recommendations have proposed new state of communication infrastructure that, if adopted, would guarantee minimal interference in case of

Ratio analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Ratio analysis - Coursework Example An increasing interest coverage ratio means that the company is gearing sufficient funds from its operations. This implies that the company does not have to use the cash at hand to make up for any difference or need to outsource funds. Assets turnover ratio measures the amount of revenue generated from assets owned by the company. A decreasing trend because of reducing sales implies that promotions and advertising of sales must be done (Gibson and Gibson 187). The debt to income ratio measures the level of total income to that of total assets of the company. The company’s increasing ratio of 0.01% means that the both assets and sales are on the rise. Debt to equity ratio increases in the current year which means a lesser risk to the potential shareholders of the company. The investment potential of the company is safer for the likely investors. Competitors in the same industry are competing fairly with the company. The higher the higher the interest cover means improved ability of the company to pay its obligations. The company has enough chance to bear the amount of its prevailing finance cost. From its assets turnover ratio, the company is not optimizing the use of its assets. The company cannot generate more sales with any fewer assets. Decreasing asset turnover ratio means a negative impact on the return on equity (Gibson and Gibson

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Proposal Case Study

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Proposal - Case Study Example A description of Brain Freeze’s existing â€Å"legacy† information systems Brain freeze ltd, it still relies on information systems that are not current and not able to accommodate the growth rate of the company. The company relies on an outdated financial accounting system known as solution 7. Solution 7 financial accounting system does not have a manufacturing module and does not support sales and marketing of the products. BrainFreeze Pty Ltd also uses excel spread sheets to record the warehouse inventories and track the distributions channels and record the different transactions. The company also relies on manual methods for the production and packaging operations. The tracking of data required for production is done using the available clipboards. The tracking of raw materials is facilitated by a pear tree module that is not adequately reliable as payments are made through the accounting system. Business processes One of the most common business processes at BrainFreeze Pty Ltd is the order management process where the customer’s order the products on phone. This process involves the set of actions that BrainFreeze Pty Ltd takes to ensure that they deliver the goods ordered by the customer. Some of the main steps include processing the order, production of the goods and delivery of the goods to the client. The production of the goods is done in case they are not available in the companies’ warehouse or if the customer makes the order according to their own preferences. Additionally to ensure customer satisfaction, the management of the orders is closely related to the Customer Relationship Management. The parties involved in the order management process include; the customer (orders the products on phone), the manufacturer (BrainFreeze Pty) and the shipping service process. Below is a flow chart for the ordering process; Another common business process at BrainFreeze Pty Ltd is t he accounting process that involves the recording of all sequential activities of how cash is received and how it is paid out. The accounting process is done through recording of various financial statements such as journals, ledgers and trial balance. Below is a flow chart for the current accounting process; The human resource management process is also common at BrainFreeze Pty Ltd. The human resource department in the organization is responsible for recruitment of new staff, management of the staff within the organization and providing direction for the staff members. The human resource management as a business process involves both the human resources department and the management. The human resource management process is also concerned with evaluating the staff’s performance, qualifications and their safety among others. This process also involves moving away the traditional staff members. The main goal of human resource management at BrainFreeze Pty Ltd is to enhance st rategic utilization of the staff members to influence the business in as beneficial way. Below is a flow chart for the human resource management process of staff hiring; How the proposed ERP streamlines the business processes This system is likely to eliminate most tedious tasks that are considered to be time consuming; therefore, the management of BrainFreeze Pty Ltd becomes more effective. Some of the benefits of the use of the modern improved systems include easier control over the different processes, clearer monitoring of operations, streamlining the supply chains and more efficient storage and retrieval of information. The system will give the managers a better view of the operation of the organization by easily accessing all the

Cold war Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cold war - Research Paper Example Each tried to spread their ideologies to many countries as possible throughout the world, effectively dividing the free world between capitalism and communism. America was  lending economic and military assistance to the nations that agreed with its Capitalist  ideology, and Russia doing the same on the other side. This lead to division in, Korea which was split into North and South Korea, as well as Germany, which was divided into; East, for Russian and West for The  US and its allies; the extent of the division was embodied in the construction of the Berlin wall. The 25 miles wall was put up to prevent citizens of the East side from escaping to the west side. Hot conflicts also resulted from the war with the effects and losses being escalated by the backing of the superpower for each side i.e. in Korea and Vietnam. The war was hence fought in a variety of ways such as the arms race, with each country trying to acquire the most advanced atomic weaponry, the space race, where e ach of the two countries tried to make the biggest steps in space exploration as well as arming and supporting countries engaged in fighting with the other side’s supporters. ... From this point onwards both countries endeavored to produce as many weapons of mass destruction as possible mainly missiles, fast planes and bombs. New weapons were experimented on and, by 1960, both nations were working on mobile controlled missiles it was estimated that, by 1961, enough bombs had been made to destroy the whole world most of them by the two rival nations. They had bombs that could cause about a hundred times more damage than the catastrophic Hiroshima bomb had caused in Japan. 2 This had considerable financial implications since both spent millions in the development of weapons although America had the edge since it had a stronger economy. This led to the theory of mutual assured destruction  (MAD) which many claimed was the main reason the world saved from war, each of the two rival camps had so many weapons that if one attacked the other and the latter allies reiterated with nuclear weapons, there would be no winner, but both sides would suffer catastrophic los ses. Around 1970, the two nations were cognizant of the need to deal with the issue more flexibly and talks on reduced armaments begun in Ernest. The death or Stalin, a hardliner was also instrumental in ending the war as he was replaced by Goberchev who was more willing to negotiate with America. Russia backed North Korea in its attempt to invade and take over the south, and the United Nations backed the South, China also joined in the war and, for several years, the two sides fought each other with the armies driving each other to and fro, until they agreed to negotiate. This was; however, one of the conflicts between Russia and the USA albeit by proxy. The Vietnam War was

Planning and Land Use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Planning and Land Use - Essay Example This was compelled to protect the historic character of the town. Nevertheless, according to the planning balance between the homes and places of employment, and the notion of sustainable development today it has led to negative impacts. This city is of interest because it is a medieval city, which has a rich history and the pressure of developing threatens to wipe away the rich history of this town. For this reason, the core of the city has become limited because the research and development activities have been concentrated within the sites of employment on the edge of the city. Under the Cambridge phenomenon there were four hundred high-tech organizations in the area, which employed over sixteen thousand people (Morrison, 2010). These organizations stemmed from the departments of the university and spun offs from companies, which had had origins of the university. Ever since, it has been concentrated. During this period, the trans-European highway provided the main road link between the parts and the midlands that were industrialized. The decision to improve the infrastructure of the city was made at the National Level, whereas, the land use of the planning of Cambridge was under the Holford Plan of 1950 (Waters & Lawton, 2002). Despite all these plans, the structure plan of the Cambridgeshire sought means to control the growth of the city outwardly. This was done through maintaining the tight green belt. The reason for this plan was to secure the historic character and setting of Cambridge. Green belts have been an essential mechanism for planning in England. Within it, it is hard to get permission for planning for development. The purpose of that is to preserve the setting and memorable character of the town, check unrestricted emergence of built-up areas, assist safeguarding the countryside from encroachment and finally to restrain the neighboring towns from merging into another (Wicksteed, 2005). For Cambridge, without the green belt then the city

What problems in other approaches to political analysis has feminism Essay

What problems in other approaches to political analysis has feminism sought to address - Essay Example Such a strategy can become an obstacle in managing efficiently, the types of problems, as described above. Precaution needs to be taken not to unnecessarily reject an approach leading to actual analysis, thus limiting feminist considerations (Lawson, 1999). The aim of feminist approaches in politics is to change the research and practice of politics, differentiating it from actions that just include women or links between women and men as a field of significance. For many academicians, a major add-on is the notion of ‘gender’. Although this term is mostly taken for ‘women’, feminist study is precautious to differentiate between ‘sex’, biological variations between women and men and ‘gender’, social contexts provided to these differences in terms. A change to gender has two wide implications: one is to shift the attention away from biological sex to framed gender identities, and the other is that it shifts overall concern with women while thinking of the effect of masculinities and femininities, besides the relations between men and women, on political awareness and results (Childs and Krook, 2006). Given women’s concurrent cornering from the political arena, centring on ‘women’ becomes significant for measuring designs of political empowerment, attitudes and impacts. Nevertheless, theories of gender provide an opportunity to study more deeply by researching masculinities and femininities, along with the comparative ranking of men and women, in the behaviour of political life. Another aim of feminists is to widen the scope of ‘politics’. Political scholars are in the habit of using this term to mean formal political procedures in relation to government and elections. Nevertheless, women’s movement activism has led scientists to theorize two more meanings. On the one side, feminists have enlarged the meaning of ‘politics’ to include informal politics and the f orces of routine life. Feminists view social movements as a type of inclusion equal to their participation inside the state (Beckwith, 2007)). On the same line, they point out towards the power relations that cover all aspects of social life, including relations within the private arena, assuming ‘the personal is political’ (Okin, 1979)). Other than that, feminists and postmodern theorists have also followed a concept of ‘politics’ as any representation of power relations (Butler, 1990)). This approach separates most from positivist premises, theorizing about not only the politics of the state and social movements but also the politics of language (Driscoll & Krook, 2011). A third trait of feminist study is a dedication to bring about political transformation. In certain cases, this aim is employed as an opposition to feminist work on the basis that it is not ‘objective’, as political aims intrude with the finding of ‘truth’ (Hamme rsley and Gomm, 1997)). In reaction to these objections, feminist philosophers debate for identifying the contextual and incomplete nature of all knowledge assertions, with some ideating that the outlooks of the sidelined should be considered as a man for creating relatively sound knowledge about the world (Hartsock, 1983)). Irrespective of their methodological approaches, which may catapult between wide agreement of the present instruments of the subject, a state called as feminist empiricism, to tryst

My dream and where it would take me Essay Example for Free

My dream and where it would take me Essay * Brain Storming: My Dream is a boat I am terribly fond of Write it in the past tense to give the impression of a memory Describe My Dream using personification: red birch, comparison to older lady, adventurous, eager to carve through the water Grandfather was very skilled in this domain, he had a gift Passed on passion for canoeing and I feel certain passion for the sport when he gives me My Dream Setting: Prince Edward Island, grandmothers house, no specific time although indications may show it is set in modern times. Reasons: keeping Nana company because grandfather passed away and I enjoy her company Grandmother is becoming more aged, her wrinkles are deeper, an invisible creature steels her energy and she is forced to stay in bed for long periods of time. She reads to me and as a result I enjoy her company. give background information on ancestors who were Native Americans and so it was necessary that they be able to manipulate a canoe quickly and quietly (surprise attacks) Storm arises, wind is fierce and swells are great. I am very alone and although before I appreciate the solitude, now I am terrified I feel blind, entirely helpless, requires use of new sense: touch and hearing Fog lets up and I am able to sight a protected inlet on shore I avoid the rocks and pull My Dream on to shore I reach land and leave it up to the reader to imagine how I get home, not vital to the topic/plot development I reach home, Nana is not worried, she knew all along that My Dream would bring me safely home * Plan: Introduction: Begin with a walk along the beach while describing some aspects such as sun, sand, wind, ocean etc. Then, I notice My Dream, impatiently waiting for me to let it spread its wings. Expose to the reader my feelings towards canoeing: sense of freedom, isolation from corruption of world, feel the presence of my grandfather. First Paragraph: Mention setting, grandmother (Nanas house) I am keeping her company for the summer because she lives alone on Prince Edward Island. Nana is an intellectual, she reads to me, I develop passion for reading. Second Paragraph: With some technical difficulty, I manage to slide My Dream into the water Describe my grandfathers gift for canoeing When I was younger we spent long afternoons, in the shade of willow trees, with cottages passing us by I would observe him, and he would observe nature (dolphins, eagles, rays, and turtles) We would always come back with an adventure to recount to Nana/parents Third Paragraph: Portray actual moment when passion began to surface Namely, fifteenth birthday, when finally I obtain the canoe I always wanted to be solely mine, My Dream Fourth Paragraph: Discuss in three or four lines the purpose of Native Americans during their attacks by canoe: surprise This required perfect skills that made no sound, a tradition that was continued in my family I begin to paddle, first stroke provokes happy/joyful sentiments No particular direction, wherever the wind chooses to take me, one should never contradict the wind, it is dangerous One must canoe at a safe distance form shore Family of porpoises approach (brings the reader back to theme of calm, beautiful sea, before setting up for storm the calm before the storm) Fifth Paragraph: Storm erupts, terrible wind and downpour, I dont have any extra clothes, pull hood over head for protection. I feel alone, vulnerable Fear of My Dream capsizing Sixth paragraph: I attempt to imagine how my grandfather might feel Put my faith in my boat and in myself, giving up was not in my nature. Seventh paragraph: I thought about my Nana and how worried she would be when she awoke Perhaps she would feel just as alone/scared as I was Eighth paragraph: It was hard to paddle against the strong current, all my work would constantly be undone by the enormous waves Mist lifts a little, I amble to distinguish a protected inlet on the shore line (no rocks) Steer towards it Conclusion: the focus shifts to Nanas house as I am entering She knew that I would come home, only slightly concerned for she understood that I was similar to grandfather and My Dream would bring me home. My Dream The sand, greeted by the rays of the sun, was warm and dry under my bare feet. Drowsily, I sauntered along to the edge of the water. The wind played with my hair and the salty mist of the ocean kissed me gently on the cheek. I was suddenly aware of My Dream. She had lay there all night and seemed restless for the waves teased her as they hit her bow. How I loved to look upon her. My Dream was composed of red birch, a strong, durable, closed-grained wood with a very even, smooth texture. She had the grace of an elderly lady, yet vibrant with life and eager for adventure and company. Her inviting nature made it impossible to resist the temptation to slide inside and paddle away. However, I could not stray too far from my dear Nana. She lived isolated from society on the north shore of Prince Edward Island and I had come from Toronto to offer her my camaraderie for the summer. Since the last time I had visited, I had noticed she had withered and grown grey. She had a fine sense of humour and so I enjoyed my time with her immensely. I adored the evenings where she would open a classical novel and read to me. This ritual had begun before I was able to read and as a result, I had developed a passion for literature. Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, David Copperfield, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins became my childhood friends. Then, her time spent awake grew precious. Her cot had asked for her company incessantly and she never refused such demands. Presently, Nana was resting and so would not miss me, but I would have to return shortly. With no little effort My Dream glided smoothly into the sea. She has been in our family for many generations, yet then she was entirely devoted to me. My grandfather had patiently instructed me in canoeing. He had a passion for it. To most people the ability to manipulate a canoe is a skill. This is too delicate a word to describe the way in which my grandfather paddled. He had a gift. When he sat in our canoe, it was as if man and canoe became one. I can recall the many afternoons of solitude and tranquillity as we travelled along in My Dream. I had the honorary position in front of but facing my grandfather. I would study how calmly and skilfully he manoeuvred the canoe in all sorts of seas, and he would study nature. Although he referred to them as mischievous beasts, he loved the hawk that soared defiantly at high altitudes with its magnificent wings spread wide. His eyes would light up at the spotting of a group of Steller sea lions. They would flaunt their nautical capacities and then would vanish into the ocean trailing their hind feet or flippers behind them. We would invariably return home to Nana and to my parents with an adventure or a sighting to recount. My grandfather had passed his passion for canoeing to me. I am most content when I am nestled in my canoe, gliding through water. Yet, I am not able to precisely pinpoint when this ardour had begun to surface. Surely, it was when my grandfather presented me with My Dream on my fifteenth birthday. He had sanded and polished her and her name had been repainted in gold letters. Rays of sunlight caused her to take on a youthful appearance. My ancestors were Native Indian and in order to triumph in times of war, they planned surprise attacks arriving by canoe. Their rhythmic strokes were at one with the water as they urged the young warriors onward towards their quest. One could only have heard their breathing. Our family has continued to practice such faultless paddling. I placed one of the long, aged paddles, which had been My Dreams comrade since her beginning, across the gunnels. I slid into the boat with ease. I did not have a chosen course, I would follow the wind. Many people endeavour to challenge the wind, but its dominating character will not tolerate such provocative behaviour. My first stroke was strong, steady and instantly I was euphoric. There was a certain distance one could travel from shore after which the swells were too large for My Dream to navigate safely. After I had reached this distance, I stopped paddling and lay in the abdomen of my guardian. I knew that the oceanic waves would quickly cause My Dream to drift into shore. A family of porpoises playfully approached. I had seen them only just last week. They had grown and soon they would venture off to satisfy their curiosity with the wonders of the ocean, whose manner, they would soon discover, was unruly. Something wet brushed against my cheek. I paid no heed, until yet another splash landed on my forehead. I sat up quickly. A dark, ominous cloud had cast a shadow on My Dream. It had begun to rain and there was no visible land in sight. The waves whipped against the side of the canoe and the spray of the salt water stung my eyes. A fog enveloped My Dream and with a shock, I realized I had forgotten my compass. The wind changed direction numerous times. I was forced to adjust the direction of the canoe to avoid being capsized by the strong wind and high waves. I was entirely dependant on my sense of hearing and touch. I imagined this was similar to being blind. I had always loved to canoe because it offered isolation from the pressures of life. Now, alone, I was terrified. The ocean was quick to anger when a storm came to torment it. I pulled my hood over my head and hoped that this would keep my head dry. I could hear the downpour on the water and on My Dream. The sound was terribly loud and consequently I couldnt think of anything else. I tried to consider how my grandfather would have reacted if he were here. He had been an excellent judge of weather, and probably would not have gone out at all on that day. My canoe lost all dignity as she was tossed about recklessly. We are here together, and I will never abandon you, I shouted to My Dream, who was showing every indication of being just as nervous and agitated as I was. I trust you, I whispered because I understood that the only way I was going to survive was if I had faith in My Dream and in myself. Suddenly, I had a vision of my Nana, sitting in her rocking chair, balancing back and forth gazing searchingly out of the window of the front parlour. Her face was melancholy and a tear paused a moment before streaming down her cheek. I supposed that she had felt lost and alone, just as I had in that storm. However, her cause was worthier for she had been frightened for me and selfishly, I had been frightened for myself. The current was strong, and trying to paddle against it was laborious and strenuous work. Each time I advanced by a few feet, an enormous wave would undo all my progression. I wanted to cry but I did not have the energy and no one would have heard over the tumult of the storm. My spirits had fallen, I was wet, cold and thirsty. I looked down and a flash of lightening revealed my callous hands. I had hardly noticed that the heavy mist had slightly lifted, and although the torrent continued, the thunder had ceased. The shoreline was hazy, but I could make out a protected inlet. It was not safe to approach the shore anywhere else because it was rocky and would certainly destroy My Dream. I navigated towards it. The waves, having had their fun, let me pass with little trouble. Before My Dream collided with land, I jumped out and pulled her safely on to the sand. Is that you? my grandmother asked as I gently closed the door behind me. I had expected her voice to be shaken and high pitched, as it had been when my grandfather had moved to Heaven. However, her voice was calm. I wondered why she was not concerned. Afterward, she explained that I was comparable with my grandfather in many respects. She had known that I would carve my way through the rough waters and that My Dream would deliver me unharmed to land. Yes, it is I Nana. I answered.