Determining of the time of Vee-Bee Consistency of a concrete mix.

AIM OF THE EXPERIMENT: Determining concrete consistency by the help of a Vee-Bee Consistometer as this identifies the needed time for the process of transforming.

THEORY

Green concrete or fresh one behavior that appears after mixing up to compaction is based on the concrete workability as this is a term that consists of four concrete partial properties which are Compactiability, Mouldability, Transportability and Mixability. This can also be explained in general way which is the workability is that factor expressing the work amount that is needed to be made for compacting the specific concrete in a certain given mould. When there is a particular mix and there should be a particular workability for it; the compaction type that is followed can identify this along with the reinforcement complicated nature related to the used reinforcement in the concrete that is reinforced. Regarding the workable mix, it mustn't segregate. Regarding the workability partial properties they can be explained as follows: Mixability: mixability is the mix's ability to produce specific concrete that is homogeneous and green made from the constituent materials. Transportability: Transportability is the concrete mix ability to keep the concrete mix that is homogenous from segregation process in the concrete transportation time that is limited  as this can occur as a result of the limited nature of handling.  Mouldability: is the fresh concrete mix's ability of complete filling of moulds and forms prepared for it keeping its homogeneity and continuity during the process of concrete placing using different techniques available for this process. Compactibility: it is the concrete mix ability for being compacted into specific dense with certain minimum void and under conditions of existence of the compaction means in the site.

It is suggested that the best mix based on the compactibility is that mix that close the voids. Regarding the workable concrete, it is that concrete which is of very low internal friction between its different particles and that is able to overcome the offered frictional resistance presented by the reinforcement or the formwork surface which are found in the concrete with a specific amount of forthcoming compacting works.

. A . KAIKADE, J. (2005).

APPARATUS: there should be the following: A pot made of metal, a vibrator table, a sheet metal cone that is open at its two ends with a high that is 30 cm and a diameter of bottom is 20 cm and a top diameter that is 10cm.  A standard iron rod that is 20 mm in the diameter and in length it is 500mm. there should be trowels and a Stop watch and at the base there should be a cylinder, there should be containers and balance as shown in figure 2.1

MATERIALS: Sample of concrete that is fresh.

EXPERIMENT METHOD: 1.Prepare the needed mix of concrete with specific proportions that are 1:2:4 for (Cement : Sand: Coarse Aggregate) for getting an amount of concrete mix of nearly 16.7 kg and 0.6 w/c ratio.

2. Place the slump cone in the consistometer cylindrical container. Fill the slump cone as being with four layers and each layer should nearly be one quarter of the cone height. Each layer should be tamp with about twenty-five strokes of the end of the tamping rod that is rounded. Distribution of the strokes is in uniformally over the cone's cross-section and for the second as well as the subsequent layers, the tamping bar has to go into the underlying layer. After tamping the top layer, use a trowel for strucking off level the concrete in order to make the cone properly filled. There should be a slump test to be performed in the consistometer sheet metal cylindrical pot.

3. The glass disc that is connected to the swivel arm has to be moved and put into the pot on the slump cone top and before the cone is gone up, the concrete cone position has to be monitored through adjusting the glass disc that is connected to the swivel arm.

4. The cone needs to be lifted up and the slump needs to be noted on the graduated rod through lowering the glass disc on the concrete cone top.

5. Then switch on the electrical vibrator and allow the concrete to go out into the pot.

6. The vibration then has to be continuous till the total concrete surface completely adheres to the glass disc, the stop watch has to be used for monitoring time needed for this process.

 7.Recording time shall be based on seconds.

DATA AND THE EXPERIMENT RESULTS: Time for remoulding completion equals 5.75 seconds

Description of workability	Vee-Bee Time (in Second)
Extremely dry	From 32 to 18
Very stiff	From 18 to 10
Stiff	From 10 to 5
Stiff plastic	From 5 to 3
Plastic	From 3 to zero
Flowing

Figure 2.3 the used data in the experiment

ρ = concrete density 2400 kg/m3

ρ =m/υ

m = ρ . υ

m = 2400× 0.00549= 13.188kilograms

The dimensions of the cone are:

 1. diameter of the bottom -20cm

2. diameter of the top-10cm

3. Height is-30cm

υ =π×30      x(R2 +Rr+r2)

         3

υ =π×30      x(102 +10x5+52)

         3

υ = 5495 cm³=5495 cm³   =0.00549 m³

  100³

25% wastage = 13.188+ 25%

=13.188+3.0825

=16.47 kilograms

* percentage :- 1:2:4 related to cement to fine agg to coarse agg 1 + 2 + 4 = 7 respectively 

*the cement = 1/7 × mass = 1/7 × 16.47 = 2.35kg

*the fine agg = 2/7 × mass = 2/7× 16.47 =4.71 kg

*the coarse agg = 4/7 × mass = 4/7 × 16.47 =9.41 kg

w/c =0.6 w = c ×0.6 = 2.35 × 0.6 = 1.4 liters.

DISCUSSION: The result gained from this experiment is 5 seconds which shows that the concrete type Stiff Plastic is that type that has the appropriate usages in proceses of construction. Cullen, D. (1998).

CONCLUSION: the current experiment shows that because results based on seconds range from zero to 35; this means that each type of concrete can be defined by time and that consistency time of concrete is very important to identify the Vee-Bee consistency time of the concrete mix.

Critical Ilness

It is very difficult for a patient to have a critical illness as this case affects the patient's family because their well being and their quality of life differ when having a critical illness patient. The sudden occurrence of the disease and its complicated requirements leave hard effects on the family members. This imposes them to be there with the patient in the critical care unit to provide help and support to the patient but the stressors they are liable to affect their stay negatively as they are not accustomed to stay in the critical care environment. (Schmidta and Azoulay 2012). According to what was confirmed by McAdamet al (2010), nurses' support is highly asked by the family members as they feel lost in the care environment and need nursing advice about the patient's condition, treatment, costs of stay and other information. Nurses have to be skillful and bearing the initiation ability to provide information and support for the family members according to the differences between each family of a specific patient in order to provide them with the holistic care through the nursing interventions in the critical care environment. Andersonet al (2008) analyzed the stressors that the patient's family members are encountered to in the critical care unit and stated that these stressors can vary from simple ones to very sever ones as, for example, decision making may bother the family members if they don’t have enough information about the patient's case so when the patient is admitted to hospital, the family should receive enough information about the patient. Stress, anxiety and panic are among the stressors that affect the family members and they can be a result of the environment of the care unit. The assignment is a presentation and a discussion for the impact left on the family members of a critical illness patient regarding their well being and quality of life and the role of the nursing staff in supporting the family members of a critical illness patient.

According to Davidson et al (2012), critical illness is a disease which is serious and it forces the patient to live a difficult life due to the conditions of the disease that requires the patient to be under control, monitoring and support from the family members and from health caregivers. Critical illness can affect the patient's health and cause cases such as coma or stroke and other cases that may lead to ending the patient's life. Such cases and disease conditions make the patient in a need for critical care that can help in improving the quality of life of the patient. Critical care was defined by Abuatiq et al (2012) to be a kind of healthcare that targets certain types of patients with critical illness or with an illness condition which is unstable and causes physiological difficulties to the patient that makes healthcare is critical too and includes continuous monitoring and observing for the patient by special care providers who understand the condition of the patient deeply and the way it is developing. The patient whose health is affected by a critical illness usually reflects the condition of the critical illness on the family members who suffer as long as the patient suffers. According to McLain and Dashiff(2008), a family is a group of related members forming a social unit with known parents who are considered the source of care. The stressors found where a critical illness patient stays can result in disturbing the patient and the family. Laveeet al (2013) defined well being as a case of illness absence and a feeling of satisfaction with life, work and health and it helps in having better social engagement and psychological stability.  

Today's life is full of stressors that affect everyone differently according to the individual's conditions and the surroundings around each person. Hickmanand Douglas (2010) referred to hospital experiences where there are lots of stressors and that these stressors increase when the patient stays long periods with the family members or some of them who are accepted to stay I the critical care unit as stressors then are reflected on the family members as well as the patient and sometimes reflected on the health caregivers themselves. Dodge et al (2012)discussed how the family members can be prone to many stressors which can take many various aspects such as the financial and economical stressors, social ones, emotional and psychological and or physical stressors; these stressors come from what may be confronted by the family members of severe experiences in the critical care unit. It is critical illness that confuses the life of the patient and the family as the patient needs the family members to stay for help and support in the hospital and this can last for long periods affecting each one's life, career and social activities in addition to the financial burdens the family affords as this may be more than their financial capabilities.  Novaes et al (2009) confirmed that the stressors the family suffers can include psychological stressors as they watch one of them in a critical health condition and in need for treatment, care and support. Another stressor is the physiological stressors that affect the body functions as a result of standing, providing help for the patient while eating or having a bath, not having good sleep and feeling pain. Leske(2008) said that the care environment itself can be a source for stressors affecting the family as it includes strong lights, strange devices' sounds, equipment for therapy uses and odors of medicines and other medical substances, there are also the emotional stressors that result from fears and decisions to be taken regarding the patient's therapy and this becomes more difficult when the family lacks proper information about the patient's condition and needs of therapy. Leske and Jiricka(2011) states that the family members endure many social stressors in their communities as they are asked to engage in the social activities and meetings while they are spending their time with the patient in hospital which makes them away from applying the social needs. Members of the family may also suffer having bad relations with the health care givers because they don't give them the needed information to help them decide about the patient's case which raises their stressful feelings and anxiety. Delva et al (2012) reported that the family of the patient usually suffers emotional stressors due to what they face of difficult family situations and less family conversations in addition to their fears towards the life of the patient and being uncertain if he or she is going to complete life or die which causes great disturbance and emotional or psychological problems to them.   

Curranet al (2006) discussed the stressors to find out that they are multi- faceted through the body, financial state, emotions and psychological state of the family members which reduces the efficiency of their daily functions and decreases the quality of life. Another study by Chien et al (2006) confirmed this because the stressors are having features that are severe and hard on anyone being in the critical care unit and are difficult to be coped with by the family members staying with the patient whose case is usually serious and may be facing the last days of life. This can affect the patient as well as the family members and cause great pain physically and psychologically. A big stressor is the family's sufferings with the financial needs of the patient as they may be unable to pay what they have to and this may cause troubles and fights among the family members especially when they are surprised with these unexpected costs. This can also make the family unable to provide the patient with the support they are staying for and this reflects on the well being of the patient also. Jee et al (2012) discussed the psychological consequences resulting from the critical care unit stressors and affecting the patient and the family members and that they can cause varied psychological problems such as depression, grief, despair, anxiety or worry feelings. When the family stays with the patient for long times that appear not to end, these psychological problems increase especially when there aren't enough and effective nursing interventions aimed at helping the family members not to be liable to have such problems and this may lead the patient to have negative health outcomes and decrease the effectiveness of therapy. Curley (2010) stated that when nurses tend to neglect their role towards the patient's family member, this will lead to all the problems the family members suffer and decrease the success chances in treating the patient or raising his quality of life and well being so the nursing interventions are very important for preventing any complications to occur to the family members due to their stay with the patient. Miles (2009) added that weak compatibility issues are usually causes by the shortage in information in addition to adding more stressors to the family members because they feel not welcomed and feel as aliens in the care environment then when they asked to provide therapeutic decisions, they don't know exactly what to do and their decisions may be wrong ones. Their weak knowledge about the patient makes them uncertain about what is good and what is bad for the patient so they can't be correct in their decisions as the case of the patient is mysterious and vague to them so their fears of death and difficulty of the patient's recovery make them hesitate regarding what steps to be taken for helping the patient. Coyne (2011) added also that the family members' dissatisfaction with the service and care provided for the patient can also affect the health care providers and let them suffering stressors which retards the case of the patient and decrease the treatment effectiveness. 

Leske and Jiricka(2009) confirmed that nurses are well acquainted with what the family members really need and that they are considered a tool of the critical care tools and that they are under pressures of psychological sufferings which may be complicated and require special dealing with them especially when they spend long time with the patient in the hospital. Nurses have to get a clear identification of the family members' requirements and needs in order to arrange them according to their importance and include them within the care plan provided to the patient because these needs may differ from a family to another according to many measurements such as the conditions of the patient and the condition of the family members themselves. This was also asserted by Warren(2014) when he mentioned that the family's most important need is having a good knowledge background about their patient's case and to be aware that the healthcare provided for the patient is well planned and is suitable for the case. The family members have to learn all about the care costs, expenses and financial requirements in order to prepare themselves and not to be surprised by such costs and this can decrease the stressors the family suffers due to financial burdens. According to Kinradeet al (2009), nurses are responsible for helping the family members psychologically in order to prevent any negative emotions from affecting them where they stay in the care environment and it is better to make them familiar with the strange devices and the medical equipment in the room to avoid their being disturbed by them or fear them. Molter (2010)added that health education is very necessary to be provided for the patient's family members in order to help them support the patient and raise his psychological and emotional status to be at its best. Chartierand Coutu-Wakulcyzk(2011) commented on the five basic needs that the family members of the patient often have and mentioned that these five needs are the need to be informed about the patient's case and the care environment components, the need for receiving organized regular nursing interventions for the patient and for the family members, the need to have some relaxing and resting time to relieve pains and sufferings, the need for psychological aid by nurses in their interventions and the need for discussions with healthcare providers about the patient's progress and recovery plan and this increases the patient's ability to receive treatment and medical examinations. Koscoand Warren(2012)referred to the needs of the patient's family to be classified into main categories such as the psychological needs, physical needs, social needs and knowledge needs and that nurses have to meet their needs through their organized interventions that should include all needs' categories as this is considered a part of treating the patient.

Hannemanand Cardin(2010) reported that the patient and the family both need to relieve stressors in order to be able to endure life in the hospital and this can happen using some strategies to relieve stressors and reduce their impact and can have stability during their stay in the critical care unit. These strategies can be applied by the health caregivers and especially nurses who should be trained to perform them well in order to help the family cope with difficult situations and hard times they suffer in the hospital. Miracle(2011) discussed how nurses can use the strategies prepared for helping the family through using behavioral strategies and cognitive strategies for managing stress and provide solutions for difficult situations for enabling the family members to have stable emotional status. Kinradeet al (2009) added that the strategies used for helping the family during the time they spend with the patient in the hospital can be categorized to four major important ones such as using newsletters as a means of providing information to the family members and communicating with the family members based on having a strong therapeutic relationship with the patient and the family members depending on exchanging information, answering questions and applying needs of them through discussing their troubles and learning all about the health history of the family in order to enable them help the patient and provide all possible aids to the healthcare staff and to the patient without being upset or nervous and having improved relations with nurses specifically and solving the emotional and psychological problems of the family through having a clear idea about their emotional sufferings and discussing them to find solutions for them. This can help them overcome any stressors they may suffer and can be as obstacles to health caregivers. Baileyet al (2010) stated that there is a successful strategy to be used to help the family members which is inviting them to spend extra time with the patient to help the patient have mind peace and be stable during the hospital stay. Azoulayet al (2011), presented a discussion for nurses' role in using the techniques that help the family members have high levels of confidence in the nursing team and all healthcare providers and a confidence in what doctors and other care providers present for the patient through the set care plans that aim at improving the status of the patient and in making the family acknowledged with what is prepared for them of means to make them cope with the care environment such as the nursing interventions prepared to provide them with information and answers for any enquiries they may have about the patient or the care environment. Ahrens et al (2012) stated that there are many ways to provide information for the family by nurses such as using leaflets and magazines and inviting the family members to be in the meetings the doctors and nurses have about the patient's condition and the care plan set for helping the patient. This helps the nursing staff get the best benefits from the family members by using them as tools to help the patient and not to disturb him. 

Conclusion

Critical illness requires many care measurements and many procedures of keeping the patient healthy through the critical periods of his life. Critical illness is dangerous that the patient needs to be staying in the hospital with the family members in many cases. This makes it important for the health caregivers to understand the needs of the family members in order to be careful while dealing with them and to apply their needs in the critical care environment. The family members may be bothered by many stressors found in the critical care unit such as their feelings towards the patient, death fears, misunderstanding of the care providers' role and the existence of many unusual devices and equipment in the care unit. The care environment can also work against the rest of the family members with the lights, sounds and disturbance effects it has so it is important to care for the family members' needs and enquiries by a skillful trained cooperative staff of nurses who provide special interventions for the family members. There are strategies that were found by researchers to be effective with the family members such as newsletters, leaflets and meetings with the family members so as to recognize what they think of, what they are in need for and what questions they need answers for. Applying the strategy of building a nurse family therapeutic relationships found to be successful in helping families of the critical illness patient cope with all stressors they find while they are staying with the patient during treatment periods. A nurse has to understand the roles and responsibilities that should be done with the patient's family in order to reach to the main goal of care which is improving the patient's condition and well being and employ the family energies to serve the healthcare staff and not to disturb them while they are doing their jobs of providing care for the patient with critical illness.   

EA300A

Introduction

Purposes of writing a literature for children or about them can vary as they can be didactic ones or entertaining or combine the two elements in one literary work for children.

Since early times, authors wrote works that could be classified as children literature although in many cases, they were not meant to be written for children but time passed and there has been great interest in writing specially for children to have what is known with children literature which became important for children as well as for adults. Many works written basically for children today can be made as films which attract not only children but adults also. Children literature today can be a good material in most educational institutions and schools so as to be studied and criticized like other literary works as great writers present good works of it. The purposes of writing children literature can be didactic or entertaining or guiding or others yet writing for children is mostly either didactic or entertaining. This assignment is about how children literature purposes can be numerous specially as being didactic or entertaining and there will be discussions with references to works of children literature, critics' opinions and a personal point of view regarding the opinions of those referred o critics.

Body

Instruction and delight or didactic and entertaining are two major purposes that interest authors of children literature as they write this kind of literature for delighting the receivers or providing them with instructional lessons or morals that can be learnt from others' experiences but each work presents the instructions and delight differently from other works. Some authors of children literature decide to make them entertaining by providing them with funny stories, imaginary scenes and enjoyable trips and journeys so this way is following the delight purpose but when the writer tends to be instructional while writing a work as making it full of advice and educational aims for children means that it is a didactic one or written for instructional purposes. There are some literary works for children include the two purposes and this is better. Writing a children literature for instruction or delight should be made simply and professionally in order to convince the readers and attract them and to add to the work values that make it be highly ranked among other literary works. As adults usually are those persons who write for children, their effect is sometimes left in the work as their ideologies can appear within lines, a matter that has changed throughout time to have today's children literature which is wider and depends on open minded readers who can have the roles of doers and judge the themes or the characters not just being passive receivers who can not decide what is right and what is wrong or can not differentiate between justice and tyrany. (Hunt, 1991)

Adults have many different ideologies which they tend to include in children books and works because they think this will lead to the good for children. In the past, parents, teachers, preachers and most adults used to impose their policies and ideologies over the young children and used to direct them specially using stories with specific rules and morals but this can not happen today as this way of applying didacticism over children became not accepted even by adults themselves that's why the techniques of didacticism changed a lot and freedom took its role in writing children literature. In the eighteenth, chapbooks were very popular as to be among children and adults as well, they were sold by pedlar in low prices as their print was not that good and they were not meant to be for children specifically but they contained some pieces of poetry, verse or wood pages from books as "Robinson Crusoe". These books used to  present clear didactic excerpts from books as " A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" with its scenarios " Letter to Sir" and " Letter to Madam" as obedience and following adult rules were presented as the good boy characterizations with rewards for them and these works differentiated from girls and boys as tasks needed from each of them were different as girls have to be good at cooking and sewing but boys have to be educated. Didacticism in the past served what adults want as purposes but not what children really need to mature. (Hunt, 2009)

An example on today's children literature that presents both pleasure and didacticism in modern methods and in new techniques that can satisfy today's children minds is "Hary Poter and the Philosopher's Stone" by the author J. K. Rowling, she addresses children or adults using a story that contains a moral which is virtue can beat vice and virtue is represented through Harry character versus Vold Mort who represents evil and vice but not as advising or instructing, this could be clear in the following quote from the story:

‘Most of us reckon he’s still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. ’Cause somethin’ about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin’ goin’ on that night he hadn’t counted on – I dunno what it was, no one does – but somethin’ about you stumped him, all right.’(Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, page 47)

These words are Hagrid words who is speaking about the power Harry has to stop the evil of VoldMort as it is only Harry who can work against this evil due to the power of virtue he naturally has in spite of the fact that his parents were killed by Vold Mort. The lesson here is clear yet convincing and the author respects the audience minds. Many purposes are served in such a work as being didacticism because it contains the meaning of virtue can kill evil and faith can help a person to succeed and make important things in life. The delight element is never neglected in that work as magic themes are presented in images and symbolism which is high in quality. (Sparknotes team, 2014)

There is a relation between instruction and delight when literature is written for children as a successful literary work for children should combine the two elements in equally. Most children literature presented to us in childhood was fairytales and stories about dangerous creatures as ogres, gennies or gorillas as it was full of frightening stories as well as stories about silly dreaming girls waiting for princes to save them. "Cinderella", "The Sleeping Beauty", " The Beauty and the Beast", "The Frog Prince" and "Snow White" and others abesidere all stories with shallow ideas presented in a shallow ways of didacticism yet with great excellent techniques of delight, the relationship between delight and instruction in them is weak as the lessons in each story are almost the same in the others and the entertaining techniques are all similar. There are stories as "Robinson Crusoe" that is lacking some entertainment to be related with all the religious idea in it to make the story more interesting. A story like "Gulliver's Travels" is fantastic referring to the delight element but it needed more stress on instruction. The critic Jack Zipes sees fairytales, for example, entertaining stories only with no didactic purposes just written to succeed popularly. Another example on having good relation between instruction and delight is "Alice in wonder land" which is a work that attracted almost all people children and adults as the freedom Alice has to decide and choose through experiencing things and people raised the quality level of the book and turn it to be very popular and respectable at the same time as the images in it are very high and impressive in addition to the diversity of its events and confirming female role in work, traveling and society. (Zipes, 2005, Jack)

There are respectable literary works and there are popular ones but some works are both respectable and popular. Judging a children book, for example, regarding being popular or respectable is a process that requires lot of study and criticism. Mathew Grenby in his essay:" birth, infancy, maturity" said that most popular books are not very respectable like the chapbooks of the eighteenth century, he tried to describe how could a respectable or popular book be as referring to respectable books as being made of good paper, good ink, well printed and having good themes with arranged writing didactic techniques while on the contrary are popular books as being poor printed with poor themes and writing techniques that depended only on pleasing the readers. Some works prove to be respectable and popular when they combine the two good characteristics of popularity and respect which means a success for the book and the people who made it. An example on being both popular and respectable is "Northern Lights" which is a work full of imagination and delight with good techniques of presenting didacticism through the characters in the book but not directly or as a kind of advice. (Grenby, 2009)

Childhood is a very loving period of one's life as stories are told and mothers and teachers feed the mind with all the needed fiction and images through stories but the question is:" Were we that innocent to follow stories' instructions or the fairytales were not true enough to convince us follow mothers advice? Most of those stories of childhood depended on addressing weak minds such as Sinbad's story as how could a kid do such dangerous adventures without being harmed? When we read "Sinbad " adventures, we were asked not to follow what he did so as not to get harmed but we tried to do dangerous things to be like him. There were good stories like" The Three Pigs" which stressed cooperation in spite of the violence it contained. "The Ugly Duckling" is another example as it conveyed respectable meanings of racism and stressed how to respect others despite being different. Being a child means that imagination is vivid so children literature should carry delight along with instruction to let the messages reach the children easily and to make children get benefits as well as enjoying pictures and adventures that they read the children books for.

(Arab Open University, Block1, Children Literature)

The critics who worked on children literature were interested too much in every detail and this proves that children literature is very important so there are many views and opinions of the critics dealt with children literature such as Hunt who was right in many of his views regarding how adults controlled children literature and tried to impose their opinions as grown ups through children literature and I agree with that opinion but I see that things changed and today's children literature is different. A critic as Grenby was not fair, in my opinion regarding his description to the respectable and popular works as some popular works that lack good printing are respectable. Zipes opinions are good enough to me as he refused the fairytales to be didactic which I think true and I think the lessons most of them include are lessons for respecting power , money and beauty which are not the lesson needed to be presented for educated children who understand life values and rules. I found many benefits in all the materials made by critics regarding children literature and this enabled me to provide my own opinion regarding children literature matters and regarding works of children literature from past times or from modern present times.  

Conclusion

Adult love reading children literature as well as children perhaps for pleasure not only so delight is an important element in children literature but it should be gathered with instruction techniques to be didactic and useful. A discussion is above made regarding some children literature purposes, some works and some critics views regarding judging children literature and presenting how instruction and delight can be combined together to form a strong relation in a children literary work to provide the readers with respectable works which are enjoyable, didactic, delightful and instructional at the same time. 

Custom Coffee and Chocolate SWOT Analysis

Introduction

Any business organization needs to have a strategy for reaching the required competitive advantage it seeks. This can be done through making a general assessment and an evaluation for the organization's work and by studying its strengths and weakness, the threats that may delay the organization and work as obstacles against its success and the opportunities the company can make good use of. SWOT analysis is set mainly for these purposes so as to prepare business strategies according to analyzing the company strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities. The current paper is a business brief that discusses the strategies of the important matches to the organization according to SWOT analysis. It also provides reasons for the matches' importance in addition to explaining how the strategy supports the match.

Through analyzing the company (Custom Coffee and Chocolate) according to SWOT analysis, some matches appeared to be of great importance so as to set strategies for the business success and reach the required goals that raise the company's levels of competitive advantage, profits and good market reputation. The following matches were found to be important as they suggest good organizational strategies for the business as follows:

1-Strengths and Opportunities

Custom Coffee and Chocolate has much strength such as their efforts to be distinguished among other market competitors and having unique products which are not found in another place that is considered a rival to them. They have a qualitative factor which is the unique outputs they produce. The strong management at the company raises its chances in reaching success. Customer loyalty is a basic element of success in the company as they depend on targeting their loyal customers in addition to attracting new customers who are being loyal day after day which helps the business to grow and gain more profits. The company's strengths provide many opportunities to be exploited such as raising prices with trust that customers will purchase them due to the unique products the company is characterized with. The unique outputs that are renewed regularly can provide new chances for the business to grow and expand. Good management can enable the business to broaden its activity by providing new solutions such as opening new markets in new places and building an online customer base. Good management can search for new services to be provided for customers that attract more customers and build good reputation for the business. Customers' loyalty can help the company make its customers bring more customers by providing special offers for the old customers and by appreciating them by prizes and gifts from time to time.  A strategy that is built upon using this match can be to protect the strengths of the business by using all available opportunities to reach competitive advantage. This match is important as it highlights all the companies' strengths to make good use of them in capturing opportunities.

2-Weaknesses and Threats

Among the weaknesses the company Custom Coffee and Chocolate has is the possible bankrupt which could occur to the company if the business decisions were poor and it is resulting from high debt load on the company and this in turn can raises the business debt interests to be paid. Another weakness point is the weak online services that could reflect poor image of the business as a whole. If the company's brand is weak and not attractive for customers, they will not continue purchasing processes due to the decreased value of the brand of Custom Coffee and Chocolate. Lack of responsibility and poor service providing can affect the reputation of the business and cause customers to find out more reliable companies to deal with. These weaknesses can lead to many threats such as reducing the company's profits even when debit interests are high. Poor online services that may include less products availability can lead customers to seek other competitors which have substitutes for Custom Coffee and Chocolate products which are not available everywhere. The brand weak reputation that tells the company is not caring for customers' different desires and tastes leads customers stop dealing with the company. A strategy can be suggested by the business according to this match is to change the weaknesses by raising profits and attracting more customers so as to fight threats. This match is important as it highlights the company's weaknesses so as to avoid them and avoid the threats resulting from their existence.

3-Strengths and threats

Strengths of the business as having unique products, strong management and customer loyalty can be compared to the threats such as reducing the company's profits and customers looking for other companies for products substitutes and then strengths can be enhanced so as to fight threats. A strategy to be made by Custom Coffee and Chocolate is to make a defensive strategy that can look for more strengths such as having a good online service so as to fight the threats by increasing profits and having more customers.  This match raises the business chances to work on strengths and stand against threats through a strategy that depends on enhancing strengths against threats.

4-Weaknesses and opportunities

Opportunities such as raising prices, opening new markets, providing customers with new services and finding new online services for customers can be matched with weaknesses that may endanger the company's chances to make good use of these opportunities. Weaknesses such as the company's possible bankrupts due to debts, poor online services and weak brand can be well studied against opportunities so as to change them into opportunities. A good strategy for Custom Coffee and Chocolate is to build a good website for the business, launch a game that reflects the business and raises its brand and sell it so as to raise profits and also to raise the quality of its products and launch new products that attract more customers. This match is of great importance to the business as it lets the company think of strategies that work against weaknesses and turn them to opportunities in addition to making good use of the available opportunities.

Conclusion

SWOT analysis is important for any business organization as it provides new solutions and strategies for the business by studying its internal environment and external environment so as to help the business reach its competitive advantage, overcome its problems and find rapid solutions for what make it retard. Matches that can be suggested by SWOT analysis help the business to find strategies that raise its profits and achieve good business reputation. The current paper is discussing matches resulting from a SWOT analysis based on a case of Custom Coffee and Chocolate as it provides suggested strategies that can help the business progress and overcome its problems.

Matsushita (Panasonic) Case Study Analysis

General Description of the Company (Matsushita)

Matsushita is a great company based in Japan and known there as National and in the USA and other countries as Panasonic but Matsushita isn’t a commercial name for the company anywhere. The company is specialized in electronics and was established in the year 1920 and its growth was parallel to that economic growth of Japan which was rapid and distinguished and it witnessed its great economic success in the 1970s and the 1980s. The company was established on the traditional values of old Japan that the Confucius rules were forming them such as respect, loyalty, self denying and hard work. Panasonic corporation was the name that the company was referred to as in 2008 as a consequence of the company’s unity of all international brands. The company was first established by efforts of  Konosuke Matsushita who set the company’s management framework and divided it for  parts ruled by a headquarter and the parts were given rights of decision making. The company was a leading in its field competing with others such as Sony in producing electronics.  (Panasonic.aero, 2015)

The Central Issue of the Case

Before the war, Japanese companies used to employ workers who were considered a part of the business and workers at that time before 1960s considered the companies where they worked as a place they belong to and that work is a duty they have to do with love and respect. Workers in Matsushita did the best of efforts to provide the company with the best they could do through hard work and loyalty in spite of any other advantages that could be found in other companies as they felt the company as being their home. The company in return provided them with good salaries, rewards and other merits. Japanese values and tradition affected the way people worked then but within time and postwar workers were not following the same attitudes in work. The new generations followed different attitudes in work as they didn’t consider themselves parts of the business or so loyal but they only thought in money being given and they used to compare business chances in different companies which was a thing that affected Matsushita largely as employees turnover became a problem that bothered the company. The Western culture had a role to play within the thoughts of the new generation of workers and employees at Matsushita as in the 90s, young employees were more eager for being promoted fast to get higher salaries and were seeking better  opportunities in other places as loyalty and belonging to the business disappeared with the modern life needs. As tradition and values stopped being the main rule employees followed, Japanese companies tried to react to this by changing their strategies and study human resources trends in order to be able to deal with employees professionally and on evidence based practice. Companies were affected by the employees’ behavior as, for example, Matsushita encountered a problem of low business performance on the individuals’ level and on the organizational level as well. Old techniques used with human resources should have been replaced with new ones so the company assigned new managers with creative ideas in human resources management as they set plans to manage human resources according to the changes in the cultural image as this affected all practices in human resource management. 

The Goals of the Company

The company is working to achieve major goals on the business level and on the administrative level as these goals can enable the company to preserve its position n the Japanese market of electronics and internationally, the company has the following goals:

-Ensuring a revolutionary attitude within the workplace by assigning innovative and creative workforce.

-Coping with the new changes in culture and Japanese and world society in order not to be retarded.

-Restructuring the human resources of the company and restructuring management strategies in the company.

-Training the company’s employees on new business trends and new technologies and software engineering.

-Reaching a reality vision of all the company’s ambitions.

-Following more rational models of management in the company as these management models can raise the company’s chances to succeed.

-Reach high performance levels by having high performance employees.

-Being aware of growth drivers in order to keep competitive advantage levels.

-Encouraging creativity as a major principle that the business adopt with talented employees.

The constraints of the problem

There are major constraints of the problem such as the following constraints

1. Cultural change is a constraint of the problem that  Matsushita encountering as cultural changes were reflected on the workers’ attitudes, desires and needs that became difficult for the company to realize and respond to so these cultural changes resulted in a perplexed view of the company to its human resources who should be an asset for investment.

2.  Employees turnover is another constraint as the company faces it because it occurs when other rivals in the market plan to raise their salaries in order to attract the young creative employees so they quit or leave to these companies.

3. Old management systems of the company that are considered a burden on the company’s budget such as old payment systems, old lifetime employing systems, old retiring rewards and the lack of modern human resources practices that work against change achievement.

All the relevant alternatives

1. Setting a long term HRM plan

A long term plan is a good alternative for the current problem; it is based on making deep analysis and study for the company today and in the past and then choose new human resource management practices including new recruitment, reward and motivation practices that tend to change the company’s view for its human resources for an enough period of time such as five years or ten years for example. This plan should be comprehensive and covers all areas of human resources management especially ways of retaining the best employees and ways of decreasing the expenses of human resources to reduce their burden o the company. 

2. Setting a short term HRM plan

A short term human resources management plan is a good alternative for the company because this plan is performed in short time period and it includes the basic needs of the company and matching them with employees’ needs and studies the current capabilities of the companies and the best solutions which can currently be applied to solve human resources problems. (Laursen and Foss, 2000).

The best alternative for the problem (Short term plans)

This problem can be solved by the best alternative which is following short term plans that are continuously changed as this plan depend on making modifications in the current HRM practices to make them coping with the new business and human resources needs and to be matched with new technologies that are changed daily and also changes which are not known but may happen to employee’s behaviors. This plan should focus on employees’ behaviors as a major motive for the company to apply the plan which is soon showing its effectiveness and whether they are useful for the business or not. Matsushita can find some managers who are well trained and are able to make quick decisions correctly and to attract new genius employees to the business and focus on those employees’ retention and not others as those genius can bring more profits for the company and achieve its organizational goals. The plans should be changed after being applied on their terms and changing should be radically and completely in order to cope with cultural and social changes and changes in the business market as well.  According to Ma, (2014), human resources management can be best applied by short term plans that tend to make quick changes to save the business from loss and disasters as these plans has genius solutions for problems of HRM in the current time as low performance employees shouldn’t stay in the work as they should be retired and new employees who are recruited on new conditions and new intelligent contracts can provide better suggestions for the company. A company such as Matsushita can depend on multiple short term plans that are changed from time to time according to the needs of the job and according to the employees behaviors in business as they can be motivated to change their passive business behaviors and follow new creative business behaviors.(Garg, 2015).

An implementation plan

Matsushita can implement a plan for solving the human resources problems that may lead to poor performance of the whole organizations as this implementing plan depends on the most appropriate alternative suggested. The plan should be based on setting main goals to be achieved such as making a general view of the company, its HRM practices and its position in the market, making good manager employee relationships that enable managers to understand employees’ behaviors and needs, use the best fastest ways to reach competitive advantage and following new HRM practices that are evidence based to be effective with companies that have similar activity as Matsushita.   

Stakeholders

All stakeholders should be identified in the plan such as employees, managers, owners and customers as roles of all of them should be clear and they should all be studied according to the benefits they can get from the implementation plan.

Assessment and Evaluation 

Assessment and evaluation are two main elements that an implementation plan should focus on as they are important to know if the plan was well applied and if it is effective and what future actions should be done in the next short term plans. Assessment and evaluation should also identify the future areas that will be addressed by business managers to raise the effectiveness of employees.

Custom Models Case -Tom and Manson Miller.

Introduction

Custom Models is a company specialized in plastic molds production, founded by Tom and Mason Miller in 1987. The main activity of the company is the manufacture of custom molds used for making plastic parts. The company also produces high quality plastic connectors incorporate in electronic devices. The company operates to provide electronic connectors producers with state-of-the-art customized molds that are manufactured closely according to each customer standards and requirements. Having good reputation in molds design and fabrication, the company management decided to expand its business to manufacture plastic parts, which led the necessity to change current strategies in order to handle the demand level and quality control requirements.

Analysis

Tom and Mason Miller, the father-and-son-team of the company, faced the problem of adopting new strategies to meet the change in order requirements, regarding time schedules, quality control and so forth. Regarding demand fluctuations, electronics producers attempted to sign agreements with their suppliers to ensure strict delivery of raw materials provided that the received materials must be both cheap and of high quality. Therefore, Custom Molds Company increased its production of custom molds which required extra work load and full rearrangement of the plant layout. With the expansion in production, the company increased its molding equipments and ingredient mixing facilities in order to be the leading supplier of plastic molds by the mid 1990’s. Therefore, the company became involved in two manufacturing processes: plastic parts production and fabricating molds. The increase in work load in Custom Molds led to reduced performance level. The company received tons of negative feedback regarding its incapacity to meet delivery promises. Furthermore, the large-scale production raised the number of defective products which increased customers’ complaints regarding production quality. In order to achieve its objective and become the leading molds supplier, Custom Molds has to rearrange its manufacturing processes and adopt time management techniques; this can help meet demand while keep production quality level. Furthermore, the company has to evaluate its market and identify priorities regarding quality control and mass production based on marketplace fluctuations and decide where to focus its efforts, either on fabricating molds or manufacturing plastic parts.

Conclusion

Custom Molds is a supplier for plastic molds for electronics manufacturers; lately, the company expanded its activities to include the manufacturing of plastic parts, in addition to molds injection activities. As a result, the demand for the company production increased which implies the expansion in manufacturing processes, increasing work load and rearrangement of current strategy to meet the new demand level. The company faced the problem of increased complaints regarding mediocre quality of products and delayed delivery. In order to solve this problem, the company must change its production policy and prepare new effective and proactive policy that considers the fulfillment of four main aspects: profitability, quality control, timeliness and cost effectiveness.

Organizing your own business

Introduction

Different entrepreneurs are willing to start their own business and define a specific market segment to which their business will belong. However, a lot of people are not clear on defining their goals and objectives that will guide their business strategy. Most entrepreneurs consider profitability as the main target they wish to reach; over the long-term, their objectives and goals can be extended to include gaining competitive advantage and being distinguish than other competitors and rivals in the same market. Nevertheless, having your own business enables you to work independently, you will not need to work for somebody else but yourself. Running your own business will let you set your own rules and guidance that can better be suitable to your goals and objectives. In this paper we will discuss the idea of owning a business and being the leader of a certain number of employees; we will evaluate different types of business organizations in order to identify which one is more appropriate to our business. We will identify and explain different factors to be considered in selecting our business and how many employees we need to hire in our business to achieve success in the marketplace.

How to Organize a Personal Business

The first thing anyone needs to do in order to run his own business is to identify different opportunities available in the marketplace and threats that can be challenging and requires him/her to perform certain efforts to achieve market success. The type of business we will choose here is a fast food restaurant. Opening your own fast food restaurant implies that you must have a staff made up of more than eight employees in the first place. Fast food business model requires great efforts to be achieved from different workforce sectors. You will need to hire, for instance, at least two chiefs, three or four waiters and two delivery workers. An entrepreneur who desires to run his own fast food restaurant will have two choices in front of him, either to acquire a fast food franchise, such as KFC or McDonald's, or to own a brand new fast food restaurant. Once you define your choice you will need to organize your business structure by setting a suitable business plan that better identify types of food to be served, appliances and equipments needed, workforce activities and duties, salaries and wages system, different menus, accounting application and so forth. You can offer hot and cold drinks, fresh or canned food, these factors can make your brand food more distinguished and differentiated than your rivals in the market.

Different Types of Business Organizations

For any startup business, it is critical to consider available types of business organization in your country or area and identify which form of business organization is most appropriate to you market segment, business type and location of your business. Organizational types of business can differentiate between three main types, sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. Each type has its own features, pros and cons that make it suitable to different types of business. When choosing the appropriate type of business organization, an entrepreneur needs to consider different factors, such as financial concerns, legal issues and governmental policies, taxation and other financing and personal concerns.

The sole proprietorship type of business organization grants a single owner the full power to run the business solely. It is easy to form or dissolve your business as you are the single owner. It grants the entrepreneur unlimited liability in handling different issues, regarding to choose the types of products and services to be offered, staff members, and different organizational structure components. However, in most cases, businesses that adopt a sole proprietorship type are more vulnerable to fold in a limited time if the owner failed to continue running the business because of death or any similar reason for instance. The second type is partnership, this type implies that two or more individuals run and own the business together, it is and easy to form type of business organization, it is distinguished from the former type in imposing a certain number of regulations to rule different activities of different owners. However, potential conflicts among the owners can raise the possibility of dissolving the partnership and fold the business. The third and last type is corporation, it is the dominant type followed in large companies as it is characterized by unlimited commercial life, ease of ownership transition and greater flexibility in capital rising by selling common or preferred stocks. However, corporations are subject to regulatory restrictions, and require large operational and organizational costs because of the double taxation and other administrative expenses. For the type of business we focus on in our paper, fast food restaurant, the suitable type of business organization will be the partnership, because it is more flexible in management issues than corporations and less risky to fold or dissolved than sole proprietorships.

Factors to Be Considered In Selecting Your Form of Business

When making a decision regarding the type of business organization, an entrepreneur requires considering a certain number of factors that affects how to run and organize his business structure properly.

• Future requirements: you can determine the needs and requirements of your business on the short run, but it is difficult to identify your long term requirements in terms of employees, financing resources, system of accounting, workforce activities, new product lines and other similar requirements, unless you adopt a long term oriented strategy.
• Capital requirements: how much you need to finance your new business reflects the way to attract potential investments to your business. To raise capital, you can create a well-defined business plan to present to your investors; such business plan must include information on business type, and products or services provided.
• Location: the area you choose for your business can affect the organizational form you will adopt in your business. If your business will be in one of the Gulf countries, or in the Middle East, for instance, you better adopt a partnership form of organization in the short run, and then you can expand your business to a corporation in the long run.
• Healthcare issues: you must confirm your commitment to different rules and regulations imposed by the government in terms of health codes and provide all necessary licenses that guarantee the level of commitment your business achieve towards healthcare issues.

Terms and Conditions Regulating Your Business

Before you open your own fast food restaurant, you need to define the number of owners, in the case you follow a partnership; the number of owners can be three or four owners. Certain other rules must be considered in your contract that will govern the relationship between you and the rest of the owners. Such rules must cover the following issues:

• Number of employees and hiring priorities
• Products and services provided and different product lines
• Schedules and time plan to be committed by different workforce members
• Budgeting issues and cost effectiveness principle
• Profitability levels and market segmentation issues

Conclusion

In this paper, we discussed the idea of owning a new business and we identify the business we wish to own as a fast food restaurant. We identified different factors affecting this type of businesses and concluded that partnership is the best form of business organization that is most suitable to open a fast food restaurant. We figured our that an entrepreneur can choose between franchising or opening a new business brand for his own, and we referred to different factors that can affect the type of business we will open. We finally illustrated the number of owners who can share business ownership and different terms and conditions that can regulate the way they can run their business and relationships among them.