Structured essay on a comprehensive Marketing Plan to Promote YHA

Structured on a comprehensive Marketing Plan to Promote YHA Australia using UKs Back Packers as market target - Essay Example Cheaper flights and favourable exchange rates have encouraged the tremendous growth of this market with more than 400 000 backpackers expected to visit Australia in 2002. (Macbeth and Westerhausen, 2003) Backpackers hold special potential for regional Australia. Already, backpackers make up more than half of all international visitors and visitor nights in some parts of regional Australia. Their tendency to roam farther afield than other types of tourists is reflected in the fact that backpackers visited an average 10.6 regions in Australia during 1995-96, compared with 2.7 regions for all visitors. However although backpackers are visiting up to four times more of Australia than other types of tourists, large sections of regional Australia continue to be bypassed altogether The marketing strategy for backpacker tourism is composed of four strategies: promote 'quality' tourism based upon: maximizing income from tourism through a value-volume strategy (i.e. relatively lower growth in arrivals, but targeting higher-spending visitors); reducing seasonality; repositioning Australia's image as a destination, with greater emphasis on experiences linked to the island's environment and cultural heritage, marketing Australia's diverse population as a 'a mosaic of nature and culture, a whole, magical world concentrated in a small, warm and hospitable island in the Mediterranean at the crossroads of three continents, between West and East, that offers a multidimensional, high quality tourist experience. Tourism Australia has been active in this segment for a number of years, and is building on past experience to continue to develop it. Investing in this segment now will provide substantial returns in the future as the backpackers of today are likely to become the returning high-yield target markets of tomorrow. Backpackers area unique tourism segment. Their characteristics are as follows: there is an evident and strong social interaction among backpackers, the existence of backpacker enclaves, the relatively prolonged duration of most backpacker journeys compared to the conventional tourist trips), and the inviting traits of a classic anthropological subject, rites of passage. Parallel with the growth and expansion of the phenomenon itself, research into backpacker tourism has grown dramatically too, and a noteworthy share of that research has been conducted by means of ethnography, while a large share of the remainder display much influence from ethnographic methodology. The autho r has been part and parcel of this development as he, since 1990, in total has conducted more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork among backpackers and has published several papers on the ethnography of backpackers INTRODUCTION 'Travel and tourism is the largest industry in the world, accounting for 11.7 per cent of world GDP, 8 per cent of world export earnings, and 8 per cent of employment. This mobility affects almost everywhere, with the World Tourism Organization publishing tourism statistics for over 180 countries (WTO 2002). Almost no countries are not significant senders and receivers of visitors. Internationally there are over 700 million legal passenger arrivals each year (compared with 25 million in 1950) with a predicted 1 billion by

Assistant Practitioner Providing Support For A Diabetes Patient

Assistant Practitioner Providing Support For A Diabetes Patient The following paper will reflect on an experience as a trainee assistant practitioner which involved the care and support of a patient with type 1 diabetes. For this reflection I will use Bill as a pseudonym name for my patient as The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) states that. The common law of confidentiality reflects that people have a right to expect that information given to a nurse or midwife is only used for the purpose for which it was given and will not be disclosed without permission. This covers situations where information is disclosed directly to the nurse or midwife and also to information that the nurse or midwife obtains from others. For this assignment Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) will be utilised as I feel comfortable with this model. Gibbs (1998) refers to the experience as an incident which involves exploring good and bad feelings, however Johns (1995) suggests that the fundamental purpose of reflective practice is to enable the practitioner to interpret an experience in order to learn from it. Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition in which the body cannot control the amount of glucose in the blood. This is because the body cannot produce the natural hormone insulin. Diabetes is a common, lifelong condition and as Zimmet et al (2001) identify that in developed countries one person in thirty may be affected and it is likely that by 2025 there will be three hundred million people with diabetes worldwide, this is mainly the result of more sedentary lifestyles and increased obesity. In 2006 Diabetes UK estimated that there were more than two million people with diagnosed diabetes and up to one million who are still undiagnosed (Diabetes UK 2006). A holistic approach to this long term condition is essential as it can come with so many complications. Complications may arise from inadequate management and treatment of the condition, which can adversely affect the quality of life and have financial implications for patients and the National Health Service (DH2001). There are two types of diabetes. In type 1 diabetes there is no production of insulin by the beta (ß) cells of the pancreas. In type 2 diabetes, which accounts for over 80 per cent of all cases of diabetes, insulin is produced by the ß cells and is released into the bloodstream, but it subsequently fails to act properly at the sites of glucose uptake, which are skeletal muscle, liver and adipose tissue (Donnelley and Garber 1999, Reginato and Lazar 1999). As a trainee assistant practitioner I was asked by the district sister to visit Bill to do a blood test which had been requested by the general practitioner as Bill is housebound and unable to attend a blood clinic. The blood test was to check his full blood count and HbA1c which had not been done for almost a year. Bill is seventy four years of age, lives alone and has lived with diabetes for many years. Bills wife passed away a year ago and has one son who lives many miles away so sees him very little; he does however have a neighbour who pops in to check on him now and again. Bill administers his own insulin in the mornings and checks his blood sugar levels daily before giving his insulin. My first impressions of Bill were that he looked frail and quite pale but having not met him before this may have been the norm for him. Whilst taking the blood sample I began chatting to Bill and he started to tell me that he had several episodes of feeling unwell recently and on that morning he had felt particularly unwell. I asked him to explain why he felt unwell and what symptoms he was experiencing. He explained the symptoms included shaking in his hands, feeling lightheaded and a fuzzy headache. As a trainee assistant practitioner I felt it necessary to explore what was wrong with Bill even further. First of all I began taking some basic clinical observations, his blood pressure was 140/90, pulse 80 and regular which were both within normal limits. He appeared pale and clammy so I checked his blood glucose level which was 3.2mmols; Bill was suffering from hypoglycaemia. Blood glucose levels are normally maintained within relatively narrow limits at about 5-7mmol/l (Williams an d Pickup 2004). My immediate concern was to ensure Bills blood glucose levels did not drop any further and the priority was to take short term action and increase his blood sugar to prevent it becoming any worse. Bill had no glucose tablets or glucogen so with his consent I looked in his fridge and cupboards to find something that would increase his blood sugars quickly. All that was in his fridge was a carton of milk a few slices of bread and some jam, I promptly gave him a drink of milk and made a jam sandwich. I felt it was my responsibility to sit with Bill until his blood glucose returned to acceptable levels and he had recovered from this episode of hypoglycaemia. I took Bills blood glucose levels every ten minutes until it returned to a safe and acceptable level. Bills blood sugar was now 5.2mmols and he was feeling brighter I checked to see if he ever recorded his blood glucose levels or kept a record of administration of his insulin but there was nothing. I asked him about his diet he said he hadnt been feeling up to eating much, I asked who did his shopping which he informed me his neighbour gets his milk and bread and a few other little bits when he needed them. I was aware that the lack of food in the house was probably the cause of Bill suffering from hypoglycaemic attacks. Hypoglycaemia occurs when the blood glucose level falls below 4mmol/L and is a common side effect of insulin therapy. Causes of hypoglycaemia include missed or late meals, not eating enough, taking too much insulin, exercise and excessive alcohol. National Health Services Choices (2009) state that hypoglycaemia should be treated with fast-acting carbohydrate, for example, 3-6 glucose tablets, 150ml fizzy drink or 50-100ml Lucozade, and followed up with a longer-acting carbohydrate, for example, biscuits or a sandwich. Glucose gels, for example, GlucoGel are useful to raise blood glucose levels and blood glucose should be recorded five to ten minutes after treatment. After ensuring that Bills hypoglycaemic attack had subsided and he was feeling better I made him a cup of tea and left him another sandwich that he could have at lunchtime. My initial feelings were of concern for Bills safety in the future and as a trainee assistant practitioner I knew that it was my responsibility to see my mentor immediately to discuss the situation. I was satisfied that I had taken the time to find out what was wrong with Bill and that he had recovered from his hypoglycaemic attack which I may not have taken time to do in my previous role. From the years of working in the community nursing setting experience I was fully aware that other mutli-displinary agencies may need to be involved in the care of Bill. I returned to the office and fed back to my mentor and later that day we returned to Bill and a full assessment was undertaken, it came to light that Bill had been struggling for some time with his diabetes, personal care and shopping and housework. It was decid ed by my mentor that for the interim period until care and support for Bill could be implemented that the district nursing team would administer his insulin that way his blood glucose levels could be regularly recorded and ensure that he has eaten something. He was also referred to the community diabetic nurse for a review of his insulin regime. Dietary management of type 1 and type 2 diabetes Nutritional therapy is an integral part of effective management of diabetes and has a vital role in helping people with diabetes to achieve and maintain optimal glycaemia control (Delahunt 1998, UKPDS 1990).I visited the general practitioner surgery and obtained some patient information on diabetes care and diet and took them to Bill, with the supervision of my mentor I sat with him and read through them. Once a care package was in place the carers would be informed of what foods Bill should and should not have and they would help with meal preparation. The British Diabetic Association (1999) suggest that ideally dietary information should be delivered by a diabetes specialist dietician, however in the case of Bill awaiting an appointment to see the dietician would have taken time and the information was needed on a more urgent basis. McGough (2003) suggest that structured patient education plays an important role in enabling people with diabetes to manage their diabetes on a day-to-day basis and a greater emphasis should be on the benefits of regular physical activity and weight management. More flexibility in the proportion of monounsaturated fat and carbohydrate in dietary intake and sucrose should no longer be restricted to a specific amount. For Bill initially it was essential that he was provided with regular meals and snacks at least three times daily to prevent any further hypoglycaemic attacks. An urgent referral was sent to members of the multi-disciplinary team and a meeting was arranged the following day with a social services. Referrals were also sent to the community diabetic nurse, dietician and foot health services. On assessment with my mentor she identified that Bill had not been washing properly and had not cut his toe nails for some time, Bill was also experiencing pain in his legs and feet. Bi ll was likely to be experiencing diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and I completed a pain assessment chart with him. Hill (2009) identifies that painful neuropathy affects the feet, typically causing burning or stabbing pain, which is particularly apparent at night. This was a mirror of what Bill described his pain as and we reassured him that his pain control would be discussed with his general practitioner as at present Bill took no analgesia at all and there was none in the house. The general practitioner prescribed paracetamol 1000mg four times daily initially as he felt that the pain may improve once more control had been gained again with his diabetic control. I returned to assess Bills pain control several days after commencing paracetamol and it had improved, he was still experiencing slight discomfort but felt that he would like to continue on this regime as he did not want anything stronger at the present time. It was agreed with Bill that this would be reviewed again the fo llowing week. A joint visit was done with the diabetic nurse, my mentor and myself and it was identified that Bills technique of giving his own insulin was poor due to poor dexterity in his hands and he was unable to turn his insulin pen properly or read the digits on the pen clearly. It was unclear how long Bill had been trying to manage in this way but Bill would certainly need long term care with his insulin from the district nursing team. The diabetic nurse identified that Bills eyesight was particularly poor and that he had not had his eyes checked for several years. Diabetic retinopathy is a major cause of blindness and many patients do not have any symptoms of the damage occurring in the retina until the complications have become advanced. NICE (2008) recommend annual screening for all patients with diabetes and that a record of the retina is made by digital imaging for year on year comparison to identify the development and progression of retinopathy. The general practitioner was informed that Bill had not had his eyes checked and he agreed that he would refer him for retinopathy screening. As a trainee assistant practitioner I have learnt valuable knowledge in the management and care of patients with diabetes, from Bill requiring a routine blood test he has become a complex patient with multiple problems related to his diabetes. Due to the word limitations of the essay all areas of complications relating to diabetes could not be covered but through researching and reading around the topic I am aware of other complications such as nephropathy, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular disease. I have continued as an assistant trainee practitioner to visit Bill and monitor his progress with my mentor. His blood glucose levels have improved and are maintained controlled between 6-9mmols. Bill has needed some psychological support as he is used to seeing few people and all of a sudden his life has changed and he has several members of the multidisciplinary team visiting and reviewing him regularly. Overall I feel a sense of satisfaction that from a routine bl ood test and utilising a more advanced role all of this relating to Bill has been identified and his health and care are much more improved.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Battle Between Dr. Jekyll

The Battle Between Jekyll and Hyde      Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout Western literature, writers have created characters who act as perfect foils to each other with dramatically observable differences. Each pairing has a stronger and weaker in the combination, and usually one outlives the other. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the pairing exists in one body, and yet the struggle is heightened because both aspects of the identity are equal in strength. Ultimately, Stevenson emphasizes it is Jekyll who holds the power of life or death over Hyde. Hyde's "love of life is wonderful," but Hyde is also aware of Jekyll's "power to cut him off by suicide (Stevenson 101)." It is the awareness of each for the other which confirms that neither can exist alone.    According to Albert Camus in his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus," "the sight of human pride is unequaled (Bowie 47)." It is Jekyll's pride in his secret existence of sensuality and "love of life" which postpones the self-destructive tendency. However, as soon as Hyde begins to appear without Jekyll's physical act of drinking the elixir, Jekyll can no longer allow the "brute that slept within" to emerge on his own (Stevenson 102." Both Jekyll and Hyde are ultimately aware of each other, and interact through necessity. To each, the other's freedom must be checked in order to stay "alive," and yet Jekyll finally spies freedom, but only through suicide. In the end, it is Hyde who triumphs, as it is in his guise that the body is discovered.    Hyde is Jekyll without restraint, and the man Jekyll wants to be in the light of day. Jekyll's close friend and attorney Utterson regards Hyde with "disgust, loathing and fear," and yet cannot put a name on the precise reason for the... ...tor (Mighall 190)."    Works Cited Camus, Albert. "The Myth of Sisyphus." Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy. Ed. G. Lee Bowie, Meredith W. Michaels and Robert C. Solomon. 4th ed. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 45-49. Charyn, Jerome. "Who Is Hyde?" Afterword: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Bantam Books. Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1981. 105-114. Hume, David. "Of Personal Identity." Twenty Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy. Ed. G. Lee Bowie, Meredith W. Michaels and Robert C. Solomon. 4th ed. Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 348-352 Mighall, Dr. Robert. A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History's Nightmares. Oxford University Press, 1999. 166-209. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Bantam Books. Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1981.   

Manzana Insurance

Operations Management ____________________________________________________________ _________________________ Case Study Manzana Insurance [pic] Presented to: Prof B. Mahadevan Submitted By Group 12 (Section B) Peeyush Razdan (0811115) Shalekh Banka (0811124) Shalem Anand Tirkey (0811125) Shreshth Sharma (0811128) Sumeet Mittal (0811131) Manzana Insurance As per the case facts, Manzana Insurance’s Fruitvale branch is the least performing branch and the senior VP seeks a report on the same. Their competitor Golden Gate (backed by its corporate parent generated a price war to gain market) is performing much better in terms of most metrics of Insurance business. 1) Problems faced by Manzana Insurance (Fruitvale branch) a) High Turn Around Time (TAT) Agents in the insurance sector are mediators who act as an interface between the client and the insurer. Hence, the quality of service, measured by average TAT, to the agents (who are common to the competitors) is of primary importance. TAT for Fruitvale has deteriorated to 6 days (1991) from 5 days (1990), while Golden Gate’s offer of 1 day TAT is luring agents away from Manzana. The number of late renewals is also increasing and quite high compared to Golden Gate. b) Geographic/Territorial Allocation to Underwriting Teams Leads to an Uneven Task Distribution We observe that the geographic allocation of agents to the underwriting teams is not optimal. This method has an inherent problem; there can be a surge in requests from a geography which might overload that particular team while the other teams might be idle due to lack of requests from their geography. Hence, their pooling should be rather than using the geographic allocation. c) Primary focus on RUNs rather than RERUNs and Increasing late Renewals Currently, Fruitvale is focusing on RUNs for getting new customers and compromising the service towards the RERUN requests for the existing customers. Loss of focus on RERUNs has led to increase in its TAT causing agents to move towards Golden Gate. The number of late Renewals has increased from 20% to 44% over the last year which has led to a significant increase in the Renewal loss rate from 33% to 47%. Renewal is a low premium – high volume business. Exhibit 5(in case) shows that a new policy and policy renewal give similar revenues of $6724 and $6205 respectively. The commission given to agents is 25% and 7% respectively. So in fact renewal of old insurance brings more revenue due to reduced commission percentage. Also, the time taken for renewal of policies is less, thus more renewals can be done in a given time. d) FCFS Scheduling may not be always optimum Most of the departments follow FCFS scheduling which may not be optimum. Ex. a policy with an effort of 4 hrs would delay all the other smaller policies behind it, effectively delaying 10 simple requests for serving one difficult one. Moreover, the scheduling policy followed across various departments is not same. While some strictly follow FCFS others do it on type of policy ex: RUN preferred over RERUNs. Also, The RAP is given preference over RERUNs by the rating team. The RAPs in fact take more time for processing than RERUNs. Also, only 15% of all quotes result in new policies. Thus, the Manzana Fruitvale branch seems to be servicing RAPs at the cost of RERUNs. e) Huge backlog of policies The existing backlog of policies is quite high, due to which any new policy received is not attended instantly (due to FCFS) further adding on to existing backlog, essentially creating a cascading effect. 2) Process Flow and Capacity Analysis We have used process flow, capacity analysis, Lead Time Analysis and Average daily Workload Analysis to analyze the current situation at Manzana’s Fruitvale Branch. ) Process Flow Exhibit 1 shows the process flow diagram with the existing capacity across the four major team Distribution clerks, Underwriter teams, Raters, Policy writers. b) Capacity Analysis Usage of Mean time for capacity analysis is ideally favored over 95% Standard Completion Time (SCT) parameter as 95% SCT is a highly conservative. It assumes every request to be of longer duration (95th percentile with respect to request duration) and does not take into acco unt the time saved while executing smaller requests. Mean on the other hand takes into account that fact that time consumed on longer jobs is compensated by the time saved on smaller jobs. Capacity analysis based on Mean Time (Exhibit 2) shows the bottleneck for RUNs is the Distribution step, for RAPs is underwriting, for RAINs is again Distribution and for RERUNs is policy writing. The same capacity analysis when done using 95% SCT (Exhibit 3) shows Underwriting step to be bottleneck for all the 4 types of policy requests. We observe that there is high standard deviation for most of the steps (especially Underwriting Step) and is comparable to mean value itself. Ex: For RERUNs Underwriting step mean is 18. 7min while the standard deviation is 19. 8min. Hence we are using 95% SCT for determining bottleneck step. And thus we consider Underwriting Stage as the bottleneck for the whole system. c) Lead (Service) Time Analysis Using Little’s Formula we have done Lead Time Analysis (Exhibit 4) which shows that on an average Lead Time is approximately 2 days (2. 10). As we have seen, throughput on the other hand is approximately 6 days which is much higher than the average Lead Time. This suggests that the longer throughput time is because of allocation problems described later. d) Average Daily Workload Analysis The argument of allocation problem is further strengthened by our Average Daily Workload Analysis (Exhibit 5). This analysis has been done taking into account the relative proportions of various types of requests on a daily basis. On the basis on mean processing time for all the steps it comes out that the average daily workload for each step is less than 7. 5 hrs (the stipulated working time). Inferences Above analysis shows that problem at Fruitvale branch is not due to capacity constraint but it is actually due to allocation issue. Predominantly, allocation problems are in underwriting step. Currently allocation is done on the basis of Geographical/territorial lines which lead to uneven workload over time as well as inefficient allocation leading to longer TPUT time. Exhibit 5 shows that RUNs on an average take 50% (Exhibit 6) more processing time than RERUNs hence territory1 which is heavily loaded with RUNs has a higher RERUN loss even though overall it is least loaded. This necessitates a better allocation scheme rather than FIFO. Shortest Job First Scheduling may be used to minimize TPUT but it may delay a high priority request (ex a RERUN close to expiry) and also requires a priori estimation of various time factors. Currently, the system follows FCFS though not strictly, since some departments prioritize based on type of request ex: Underwriting favors RUNs over RERUNs. We would suggest an improved priority scheduling over FIFO which would be determined based on the type of request, agent’s importance, client importance, expiry time etc. et across uniformly across the steps. 3) Recommendations a) Distribution of reports to teams based on priority rather than territorial As found in previous section the current workforce should suffice the existing requirements if there are no backlogs and even if there are, it should not take more than 2 days. The problem was identified in the allocation of the policy request based on territory. We recomm end a collective (instead of territorial) request processing system with more intelligence added to the distribution system, which were also identified as bottlenecks for RUN and RAIN. This distribution system would first prioritize the requests and then allocate them to the underwriting team on an optimal basis ensuring even distribution of total requests, individual requests RUN, RERUN etc. This would remove the existing anomaly of having an overloaded team and an idle team concurrently. They should also keep monitoring the progress of the process and remove blocking issues that may result in a further delay of other policies. To expedite this process, it can also be automated by the help of computers. These changes should substantially reduce the TAT and the delayed RERUNs. The priority should be decided based on the following factors instead of current system purely on the type of request 1) Type of request – RERUN, RUN, RAP, RAIN 2) Already waited time – request that have waited for a long time should be upgraded 3) Estimate of total time required 4) Agent’s priority 5) Client’s priority 6) Expiry Time (Incase of RERUNs) 7) Other factors determining the business value of the request Hence overall, this would reduce the intensity of bottlenecks at DC and UT. b) Increase focus on RERUNs RERUNs, which generate maximum revenue, should be given a higher priority based on their proximity to the expiry date. This ensures customer retention and gives sufficient time to agents for renewal. c) Reduce Backlogs Reduction in current backlogs to minimum will help Fruitvale achieve a day’s TAT as explained. This can be done by working overtime, getting temporary teams possibly from other branches, and increase number of working days temporarily. d) Use Mean instead of SCT We observe that SCT is not a correct approach to evaluate the process flow since the 95th percentile customer’s time considered as a benchmark to set up the system results in very conservative estimates. Initially, other statistical methods like mean + n times standard deviation etc. can be used to achieve desired level of service. Following that, a record including TAT for each request should be maintained so that it can be used for future reference and for reducing the noise in mean that we recommend to be used in future. Exhibits Exhibit 1: Process Flow Diagram Exhibit 2: Capacity Analysis based on Mean Processing time |Capacity |RUNs |RAPs |RAINs |RERUNs | |Distribution |26. 8 |36. 00 |41. 38 |64. 29 | |Underwriting |30. 96 |35. 53 |59. 73 |72. 19 | |Rating |47. 68 |55. 64 |54. 96 |47. 68 | |Policy Writing |31. 69 |NA |41. 67 |44. 91 | *darkened cells show the bottleneck Exhibit 3: Capacity Analysis based of 95% Standard Completion Time Capacity |RUNs |RAPs |RAINs |RERUNs | |Distribution |14. 05 |16. 70 |26. 43 |41. 67 | |Underwriting |12. 59 |15. 43 |27. 33 |21. 50 | |Rating |32. 06 |40. 59 |40. 27 |39. 05 | |Policy Writing |25. 20 |NA |31. 65 |33. 58 | *darkened cells show the bottleneck Exhibit 4: Lead (Service) Time Analysis using Little’s Formula |Requests in progress |82 | |Requests served per day (in steady state) |39 | |Lead /Service Time (Requests in progress/Requests served per day) |2. 1 | Exhibit 5: Average Daily Workload Analysis |Demand Analysis |Requests in 120 days (1991) |Demand per Day | |RUNs |624 |5. | |RAPs |1524 |12. 7 | |RAINs |451 |3. 758333 | |RERUNs |2081 |17. 34167 | |Total |4680 |39 | |Mean Processing Time |RUNS |RAPS |RAINS |RERUNS |Workers/Teams | |Â   |(5. 0) |(12. 70) |(3. 75) |(17. 34) |Total Time |hrs per day | |Distribution |356. 20 |635. 00 |163. 13 |485. 52 |1,639. 85 |6. 83 | |Underwriting |226. 72 |482. 60 |84. 75 |324. 26 |1,118. 33 |6. 21 | |Rating |392. 60 |821. 69 |245. 63 |1,309. 17 |2,769. 09 |5. 77 | |Policy Writing |369. 20 |N. A. |202. 50 |868. 73 |1,440. 43 |4. 0 | Exhibit 6: Uneven distribution due to territorial allocation |Policies |Total |% diff with avg |RUNs |% diff with avg |RERUNs |% diff with avg |Rene wal lost | |/Territory | |1315 | |208 | |693 | | |1 |1151 |14. 24% less |274 |31. 73% more |636 |8. 2% less |403 | |2 |1393 |5. 93% more |179 |13. 94% less |840 |21. % more |227 | |3 |1402 |6. 66% more |171 |17. 7% less |605 |14. 54% less |296 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Processing Time (using mean values) | |Distribution |Underwriting |Rating |Writing |Total |Baselined (w. r. t. minimum) |Baselined (w. r. t. RERUN) | |RUN |68. 5 |43. 6 |75. 5 |71 |258. 6 |169. 35 |150. 09 | |RAP |50 |38 |64. 7 |NA |152. 7 |100. 00 |88. 62 | |RAIN |43. 5 |22. 6 |65. 5 |54 |185. 6 |121. 55 |107. 72 | |RERUN |28 |18. 7 |75. 5 |50. 1 |172. 3 |112. 84 |100. 00 | | ———————– Distribution clerks Number : 4 Capacity: Runs 26. 27 (58. 63), Raps 36 (72. 28), Rains 41. 37(195. 65), Reruns 64. 28(290. 32) Underwriter teams Number: 3 Capacity: Runs 30. 96(12. 59), Raps 35. 52(15. 42), Rains 59. 73(27. 32), Reruns 72. 19(21. 49) New Requests, Renewal requests Request for underwriting Policy writers Number: 4 Capacity: Runs 31. 69(25. 19), Raps NA, Rains 41. 67(31. 64), Reruns 44. 91(33. 58) Raters Number: 4 Capacity: Runs 47. 68(32. 05), Raps 55. 64(40. 58), Rains 54. 96(40. 26), Reruns 47. 68(39. 04) Policy issuing request Rating request Manzana Insurance Operations Management ____________________________________________________________ _________________________ Case Study Manzana Insurance [pic] Presented to: Prof B. Mahadevan Submitted By Group 12 (Section B) Peeyush Razdan (0811115) Shalekh Banka (0811124) Shalem Anand Tirkey (0811125) Shreshth Sharma (0811128) Sumeet Mittal (0811131) Manzana Insurance As per the case facts, Manzana Insurance’s Fruitvale branch is the least performing branch and the senior VP seeks a report on the same. Their competitor Golden Gate (backed by its corporate parent generated a price war to gain market) is performing much better in terms of most metrics of Insurance business. 1) Problems faced by Manzana Insurance (Fruitvale branch) a) High Turn Around Time (TAT) Agents in the insurance sector are mediators who act as an interface between the client and the insurer. Hence, the quality of service, measured by average TAT, to the agents (who are common to the competitors) is of primary importance. TAT for Fruitvale has deteriorated to 6 days (1991) from 5 days (1990), while Golden Gate’s offer of 1 day TAT is luring agents away from Manzana. The number of late renewals is also increasing and quite high compared to Golden Gate. b) Geographic/Territorial Allocation to Underwriting Teams Leads to an Uneven Task Distribution We observe that the geographic allocation of agents to the underwriting teams is not optimal. This method has an inherent problem; there can be a surge in requests from a geography which might overload that particular team while the other teams might be idle due to lack of requests from their geography. Hence, their pooling should be rather than using the geographic allocation. c) Primary focus on RUNs rather than RERUNs and Increasing late Renewals Currently, Fruitvale is focusing on RUNs for getting new customers and compromising the service towards the RERUN requests for the existing customers. Loss of focus on RERUNs has led to increase in its TAT causing agents to move towards Golden Gate. The number of late Renewals has increased from 20% to 44% over the last year which has led to a significant increase in the Renewal loss rate from 33% to 47%. Renewal is a low premium – high volume business. Exhibit 5(in case) shows that a new policy and policy renewal give similar revenues of $6724 and $6205 respectively. The commission given to agents is 25% and 7% respectively. So in fact renewal of old insurance brings more revenue due to reduced commission percentage. Also, the time taken for renewal of policies is less, thus more renewals can be done in a given time. d) FCFS Scheduling may not be always optimum Most of the departments follow FCFS scheduling which may not be optimum. Ex. a policy with an effort of 4 hrs would delay all the other smaller policies behind it, effectively delaying 10 simple requests for serving one difficult one. Moreover, the scheduling policy followed across various departments is not same. While some strictly follow FCFS others do it on type of policy ex: RUN preferred over RERUNs. Also, The RAP is given preference over RERUNs by the rating team. The RAPs in fact take more time for processing than RERUNs. Also, only 15% of all quotes result in new policies. Thus, the Manzana Fruitvale branch seems to be servicing RAPs at the cost of RERUNs. e) Huge backlog of policies The existing backlog of policies is quite high, due to which any new policy received is not attended instantly (due to FCFS) further adding on to existing backlog, essentially creating a cascading effect. 2) Process Flow and Capacity Analysis We have used process flow, capacity analysis, Lead Time Analysis and Average daily Workload Analysis to analyze the current situation at Manzana’s Fruitvale Branch. ) Process Flow Exhibit 1 shows the process flow diagram with the existing capacity across the four major team Distribution clerks, Underwriter teams, Raters, Policy writers. b) Capacity Analysis Usage of Mean time for capacity analysis is ideally favored over 95% Standard Completion Time (SCT) parameter as 95% SCT is a highly conservative. It assumes every request to be of longer duration (95th percentile with respect to request duration) and does not take into acco unt the time saved while executing smaller requests. Mean on the other hand takes into account that fact that time consumed on longer jobs is compensated by the time saved on smaller jobs. Capacity analysis based on Mean Time (Exhibit 2) shows the bottleneck for RUNs is the Distribution step, for RAPs is underwriting, for RAINs is again Distribution and for RERUNs is policy writing. The same capacity analysis when done using 95% SCT (Exhibit 3) shows Underwriting step to be bottleneck for all the 4 types of policy requests. We observe that there is high standard deviation for most of the steps (especially Underwriting Step) and is comparable to mean value itself. Ex: For RERUNs Underwriting step mean is 18. 7min while the standard deviation is 19. 8min. Hence we are using 95% SCT for determining bottleneck step. And thus we consider Underwriting Stage as the bottleneck for the whole system. c) Lead (Service) Time Analysis Using Little’s Formula we have done Lead Time Analysis (Exhibit 4) which shows that on an average Lead Time is approximately 2 days (2. 10). As we have seen, throughput on the other hand is approximately 6 days which is much higher than the average Lead Time. This suggests that the longer throughput time is because of allocation problems described later. d) Average Daily Workload Analysis The argument of allocation problem is further strengthened by our Average Daily Workload Analysis (Exhibit 5). This analysis has been done taking into account the relative proportions of various types of requests on a daily basis. On the basis on mean processing time for all the steps it comes out that the average daily workload for each step is less than 7. 5 hrs (the stipulated working time). Inferences Above analysis shows that problem at Fruitvale branch is not due to capacity constraint but it is actually due to allocation issue. Predominantly, allocation problems are in underwriting step. Currently allocation is done on the basis of Geographical/territorial lines which lead to uneven workload over time as well as inefficient allocation leading to longer TPUT time. Exhibit 5 shows that RUNs on an average take 50% (Exhibit 6) more processing time than RERUNs hence territory1 which is heavily loaded with RUNs has a higher RERUN loss even though overall it is least loaded. This necessitates a better allocation scheme rather than FIFO. Shortest Job First Scheduling may be used to minimize TPUT but it may delay a high priority request (ex a RERUN close to expiry) and also requires a priori estimation of various time factors. Currently, the system follows FCFS though not strictly, since some departments prioritize based on type of request ex: Underwriting favors RUNs over RERUNs. We would suggest an improved priority scheduling over FIFO which would be determined based on the type of request, agent’s importance, client importance, expiry time etc. et across uniformly across the steps. 3) Recommendations a) Distribution of reports to teams based on priority rather than territorial As found in previous section the current workforce should suffice the existing requirements if there are no backlogs and even if there are, it should not take more than 2 days. The problem was identified in the allocation of the policy request based on territory. We recomm end a collective (instead of territorial) request processing system with more intelligence added to the distribution system, which were also identified as bottlenecks for RUN and RAIN. This distribution system would first prioritize the requests and then allocate them to the underwriting team on an optimal basis ensuring even distribution of total requests, individual requests RUN, RERUN etc. This would remove the existing anomaly of having an overloaded team and an idle team concurrently. They should also keep monitoring the progress of the process and remove blocking issues that may result in a further delay of other policies. To expedite this process, it can also be automated by the help of computers. These changes should substantially reduce the TAT and the delayed RERUNs. The priority should be decided based on the following factors instead of current system purely on the type of request 1) Type of request – RERUN, RUN, RAP, RAIN 2) Already waited time – request that have waited for a long time should be upgraded 3) Estimate of total time required 4) Agent’s priority 5) Client’s priority 6) Expiry Time (Incase of RERUNs) 7) Other factors determining the business value of the request Hence overall, this would reduce the intensity of bottlenecks at DC and UT. b) Increase focus on RERUNs RERUNs, which generate maximum revenue, should be given a higher priority based on their proximity to the expiry date. This ensures customer retention and gives sufficient time to agents for renewal. c) Reduce Backlogs Reduction in current backlogs to minimum will help Fruitvale achieve a day’s TAT as explained. This can be done by working overtime, getting temporary teams possibly from other branches, and increase number of working days temporarily. d) Use Mean instead of SCT We observe that SCT is not a correct approach to evaluate the process flow since the 95th percentile customer’s time considered as a benchmark to set up the system results in very conservative estimates. Initially, other statistical methods like mean + n times standard deviation etc. can be used to achieve desired level of service. Following that, a record including TAT for each request should be maintained so that it can be used for future reference and for reducing the noise in mean that we recommend to be used in future. Exhibits Exhibit 1: Process Flow Diagram Exhibit 2: Capacity Analysis based on Mean Processing time |Capacity |RUNs |RAPs |RAINs |RERUNs | |Distribution |26. 8 |36. 00 |41. 38 |64. 29 | |Underwriting |30. 96 |35. 53 |59. 73 |72. 19 | |Rating |47. 68 |55. 64 |54. 96 |47. 68 | |Policy Writing |31. 69 |NA |41. 67 |44. 91 | *darkened cells show the bottleneck Exhibit 3: Capacity Analysis based of 95% Standard Completion Time Capacity |RUNs |RAPs |RAINs |RERUNs | |Distribution |14. 05 |16. 70 |26. 43 |41. 67 | |Underwriting |12. 59 |15. 43 |27. 33 |21. 50 | |Rating |32. 06 |40. 59 |40. 27 |39. 05 | |Policy Writing |25. 20 |NA |31. 65 |33. 58 | *darkened cells show the bottleneck Exhibit 4: Lead (Service) Time Analysis using Little’s Formula |Requests in progress |82 | |Requests served per day (in steady state) |39 | |Lead /Service Time (Requests in progress/Requests served per day) |2. 1 | Exhibit 5: Average Daily Workload Analysis |Demand Analysis |Requests in 120 days (1991) |Demand per Day | |RUNs |624 |5. | |RAPs |1524 |12. 7 | |RAINs |451 |3. 758333 | |RERUNs |2081 |17. 34167 | |Total |4680 |39 | |Mean Processing Time |RUNS |RAPS |RAINS |RERUNS |Workers/Teams | |Â   |(5. 0) |(12. 70) |(3. 75) |(17. 34) |Total Time |hrs per day | |Distribution |356. 20 |635. 00 |163. 13 |485. 52 |1,639. 85 |6. 83 | |Underwriting |226. 72 |482. 60 |84. 75 |324. 26 |1,118. 33 |6. 21 | |Rating |392. 60 |821. 69 |245. 63 |1,309. 17 |2,769. 09 |5. 77 | |Policy Writing |369. 20 |N. A. |202. 50 |868. 73 |1,440. 43 |4. 0 | Exhibit 6: Uneven distribution due to territorial allocation |Policies |Total |% diff with avg |RUNs |% diff with avg |RERUNs |% diff with avg |Rene wal lost | |/Territory | |1315 | |208 | |693 | | |1 |1151 |14. 24% less |274 |31. 73% more |636 |8. 2% less |403 | |2 |1393 |5. 93% more |179 |13. 94% less |840 |21. % more |227 | |3 |1402 |6. 66% more |171 |17. 7% less |605 |14. 54% less |296 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Processing Time (using mean values) | |Distribution |Underwriting |Rating |Writing |Total |Baselined (w. r. t. minimum) |Baselined (w. r. t. RERUN) | |RUN |68. 5 |43. 6 |75. 5 |71 |258. 6 |169. 35 |150. 09 | |RAP |50 |38 |64. 7 |NA |152. 7 |100. 00 |88. 62 | |RAIN |43. 5 |22. 6 |65. 5 |54 |185. 6 |121. 55 |107. 72 | |RERUN |28 |18. 7 |75. 5 |50. 1 |172. 3 |112. 84 |100. 00 | | ———————– Distribution clerks Number : 4 Capacity: Runs 26. 27 (58. 63), Raps 36 (72. 28), Rains 41. 37(195. 65), Reruns 64. 28(290. 32) Underwriter teams Number: 3 Capacity: Runs 30. 96(12. 59), Raps 35. 52(15. 42), Rains 59. 73(27. 32), Reruns 72. 19(21. 49) New Requests, Renewal requests Request for underwriting Policy writers Number: 4 Capacity: Runs 31. 69(25. 19), Raps NA, Rains 41. 67(31. 64), Reruns 44. 91(33. 58) Raters Number: 4 Capacity: Runs 47. 68(32. 05), Raps 55. 64(40. 58), Rains 54. 96(40. 26), Reruns 47. 68(39. 04) Policy issuing request Rating request

Priestley’s Paradox

It is assumed that technology has aided the increase in interpersonal communication however it important to discuss the effects of technology on modern communication. This essay briefly provides a critical opinion on modern communication and provides examples of some interpersonal communication that rely on new technology, its potential advantage and possible dilemma with the use of modern technology in interpersonal communication. The world today is a global world; we live in a global village and the world as we know it keeps decreasing due to the rapid growth of technology. The ever increasing speed at the development of new technology creates innovative ways of communicating and in more ways than one has changed the way people communicate. Although modern communication has some advantages, which include convenience, speed, dissemination, and these advantages can be overpowered by disadvantages such as lack of content, language confusion. It will be argued here that the role of modern technology provides methods that hinder interpersonal communication, therefore while there are certain advantages associated with the increase of communications technology; these are evidently outweighed by the disadvantages. Communication is important to humans and a vital part of our world; man is a social animal and therefore requires communication as an essential tool for socializing. Focusing on interpersonal communication skills, Eunson (2008, p. 86) defines this as the processes that help, distort or block communication of messages between individuals but communicating effectively requires some basic skills such as active listening, usage and interpretation of body language and facial expressions. Technology however has created different channels to enhance interpersonal communication, invention such as mobile phones, emails, social networks, has made for easier, faster and smarter ways of communicating. This has led to the internet becoming an essential instrument in the media and communication strategies of civil society (Bailey, Cammaers, Carpentier 2008, p. 98). However with such availability, communication barriers are constantly increasing, with language confusion and a vast vocabulary of ever growing internet slang. Priestley’s paradox suggests that the rapid increase in communications technology has increased the quantity but decreased the quality of contemporary communication (Eunson 2008, p. 4-5). Whether or not this statement is entirely true, it is undeniable that it is very representative of the degree to which communication has deteriorated due to the constant increase of different technologically enhanced means of communication. Communication between individuals includes both verbal and non-verbal that can be easily misunderstood depending on the medium of communication. The occurrence of misunderstanding between individuals is heightened because of the lack of personal connection and context. Emails are generally informal, unstructured with the use of colloquialisms and jargons, email has rendered irrelevant more direct and often more effective forms of communication such as using telephone, walking down the corridor and talking, or attending meetings (Eunson 2008, p. 208-215). In addition to that, some people take advantage of the accessibility of sending an email and say things they wouldn’t feel comfortable saying in face to face conversations and messages sent can be misinterpreted or misunderstood by receiver further reducing the quality of communication. Things such as body language and eye contact is non-existent when it comes to sending emails, these are very essential part of daily conversations and some people use it as an excuse to avoid face to face conversation. Many may argue that in the past few years the world has undergone radical changes with the amount of available modern communication mediums, and these appears to have caused an increase in the number of social networks. Online communications mediums, weblogs in part, are sites of author audience interaction that differ from face to face performance and traditional reader relationship (Buckingham 2000, p. 207). Most young people spend countless hours on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo creating friendships and relationships with people they meet in cyberspace. The strangeway in which so many of these interactants see the internet as both an intimate area for exchange, as well as a place for public display, challenges our perceptions of these boundaries (Buckingham & Willet 2006, p. 19). The ease at which many disclose personal information on the internet via social networking sites is alarming as they generally are exposed to risks of contact with paedophiles (e. g. via grooming in chat rooms) and often exposure to violent or racist / hate material (Buckingham & Willet 2006, p. 94). Another advantage of communicating via social network sites is that people can share ideas a nd values while maintaining anonymity. Concerns about modern communication is the