Sas Case Study Essay Example

Sas Case Study Essay Succeeding with old-fashioned values in a new industry 1 (revised September 2010) Adapted by CH Besseyre des Horts from C. A. OReilly III J. Pfeffer (2000) : Hidden Value, how great companies achieve extraordinary results with ordinary people, Harvard Business School Press, pp. 99-117. 1 1 CASE STUDY THE SAS INSTITUTE : Succeeding with old-fashioned values in a new industry TREATING PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY (and better) than they expect to be treated, and differently than other companies in the industry treat them, is not something that only works in retailing. Even in the world of high technology and software development, there is a case to be made for being different. And few companies in this industry are as different as the one described in this chapter : SAS Institute that was ranked in 2010 the #1 Best Company to Work For in the USA 2 , # 10 in India 3 and among the 25 Top Employers in China 4 . SAS Institute, the largest privately owned software company in the world, is an anachronism. In an era of relentless pressure, this place is an oasis of calm. In an age of frantic competition, this place is methodical and clearheaded. In a world of free agency, signing bonuses, and stock options, this is a place where loyalty matters more than money. In a world of outsourcing and contracting out, SAS Institute outsources and contracts out almost nothing. Day care workers, onsite health professionals, food service workers, and even most security guards are all SAS Institute employees. In an era of managed care, SAS offers a full indemnity health plan with low deductibles. We will write a custom essay sample on Sas Case Study specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Sas Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Sas Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In almost every respect, SAS Institute seems like a throwback to an earlier era, to a time when there were long-term attachments between companies and their people, and large, progressive organizations such as Eastman Kodak, S. C. Johnson, and Sears offered generous, inclusive benefits in an effort to enhance the welfare of their workforce. Not all observers seem to approve of this form of employment relationship. Some people say that SAS Institute reeks of paternalism or a plantation mentality in a world otherwise dominated by market like labor market transactions. For instance, an article in Forbes stated, More than one observer calls James Goodnights SAS Institute, Inc. , the Stepford software company after the movie The Stepford Wives. In the movie, people were almost robot-like in their behavior, apparently under the control of some outside force. Another article noted, The place can come across as being a bit too perfect, as if working there might mean surrendering some of your personality. Of course, no one is forced to work at the company, and there are many nearby opportunities available. SAS Institute is so inclusive and comprehensive in what it does for its people that it makes some observers, more accustomed to the arms-length, occasionally adversarial relationship between employers and employees now so typical in organizations, uncomfortable. Certainly, aspects of the companys generous benefits, spacious, campus-like grounds, and concern for the total welfare of all of its people seem out of place in contemporary management practice. What a puzzle! How can a company that operates like firms did fifty years ago succeed in todays economy-not only that, but succeed in one of the most high-technology sectors of that economy, software? SAS Institute poses a second mystery. The conventional wisdom is that turnover is endemic and inevitable in high technology in general and software in particular. In these industries 2 3 http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/full_list/ http://www. greatplacetowork. in/best/list-in. htm 4 http://www. topemployers. com. n/en/employers/OurProjects/ChinasTopEmployers2010/CertifiedorganisationsA Z. aspx 2 there is a tremendous shortage of people, and job hopping is an accepted and even expected part of peoples career strategy. But SAS Institute, with no signing bonuses, no stock options, no phantom stock-none of the gimmicks that have come to be taken for granted as ways of inducing people to join and remain in companies-has a turnover rate of less than 4 percent. Never in the more th an thirty-two years of the companys history has turnover been above 5 percent. SAS Institute is located in Cary, in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is surrounded by numerous pharmaceutical companies, as well as by IBM, Northern Telecom, and many other high-technology and software companies, so SAS people would not have to move geographically if they wanted to change jobs. How in the world has SAS Institute kept its turnover so low and succeeded so well in wooing and retaining the talent that has permitted the company to flourish? BACKGROUND SAS Institute was founded in 1976 by Dr. James Goodnight, John Sall, Anthony Barr, and Jane Helwig. Goodnight, today the CEO, was an undergraduate in applied mathematics at North Carolina State University in the 1960s. The son of a hardware store owner, he helped pay his way through college by moonlighting as a programmer. After graduating, Goodnight worked for General Electric on the ground control system for the Apollo space program before returning to North Carolina State to obtain his doctorate in statistics in 1971. He then joined the faculty on a so-called soft money appointment-a position in which you had to go out and get the grants to pay your own salary. Goodnight and Barr, who had worked for IBM for two years developing an information system for the Pentagon and was now also working at State, thought it was wasteful to have to write a new program every time students wanted to do a new statistical analysis. They decided to develop a uniform program that could be used over and over, and that could solve lots of different kinds of [statistical] problems. Having developed such a system, they leased SAS (Statistical Analysis System) to other agricultural schools in the region and to some pharmaceutical companies. When the soft money began to dry up, they were told they could stay on at the university but would have to pay their own salaries. Instead, they left and formed their own company. When that company, SAS Institute, Inc. , began in 1976 as an independent entity, it already had 100 paying customers and was cash flow positive. Except for a mortgage on its first building, SAS Institute has never had any debt, nor has it ever had to raise outside venture or other equity capital. What about ownership of the intellectual property? North Carolina State ceded them all copyrights on the program in exchange for free upgrades. If this seems generous, consider that in the 1970s there really wasnt a software industry and no one knew what software was worth. As Jim Goodnight recounts, when his wife would tell people her husband worked in software, they thought it was some type of clothing or undergarments. One of the cofounders, Anthony Barr, sold his 40 percent stake in the company for about $340,0 00 in 1979. Jane Helwig left to found another software company, Seasoned Systems, with her husband and then decided to attend medical school. She now practices obstetrics/ gynecology, and her stepsons, Mark and David Helwig, work for SAS Institute. Today, James Goodnight owns two-thirds of the company; the other cofounder, John Sall, owns the other third. Goodnights two-thirds stake of SAS Institute means that, according to Forbes, he is the forty-second richest person in the world. John Sall, also a billionaire, is not active at all in the 3 management of SAS Institute and does not want to be. He sees himself as a statistician and a software developer-not a businessperson or a manager. Over the years, the SAS program has expanded to become a twenty module system for data warehousing, data mining, and decision support. With 6. million lines of code, the massive program is used by the U . S. Census Bureau to count and categorize population, by the Agriculture Department to develop crop forecasts and by the long distance phone companies to figure out how much to charge for each call . Banks use SAS Institute software to do credit scoring, hotels use the product to manage frequent visitor programs, and catalog companies use the system to help decide which people to mail particular catalogs. The original statistical analysis package that was the foundation of the company currently contributes less than 2 percent of total revenue. SAS Institute operates on a worldwide basis. In 2009, the company has many sales offices in the United States and more than 400 offices globally, as well as 600 licensed distributors. Ninety-seven percent of the Fortune 100 companies use SAS software, as do more than 93 percent of the Global 500. SAS Institute has more than 45,000 customers sites throughout the world in 122 countries 5 . Because SAS Institute is privately owned, information on its finances is not publicly available. Figures 1 and 2 present information on sales revenues for the past 23 and 33 years. SAS Institute is currently the largest privately owned independent software company. SAS Institute has enjoyed double-digit revenue growth since its founding. Year Revenues (millions US $) 1986 98 1990 240 1994 482 1998 871 2002 1. 180 2005 1. 68 2007 2. 15 2008 2. 26 2009 2. 31 Figure 1 : Annual Sales Revenues for SAS Institute 1986 – 2009 6 Figure 2 : SAS Annual Revenue History 1976 – 2009 3 5 6 SAS Institute company fact sheet (http://www. sas. com/company/about/statistics. html ) Annual report SAS Institute 2009 (http://www. sas. com/corporate/annual-report-current. df) and company fact sheet (http://www. sas. com/company/about/statistics. html ) 4 The company has no single competitor that provides precisely the range of software products it does, but in segments of its business it competes with companies such as SPSS that offer statistical analysis and graphic packages, with vendors of decision support and graphics, or with database management companies such as Ora cle; Although originally running only on mainframes, SAS applications run on midrange computers, workstations, and personal computers as well as on a variety of mainframe platforms. The company is to use Internetand intranet-based applications. SAS Institute has spent in 2009 about 23 percent of its revenues on research and development, an amount that has remained remarkably constant over the years and is about twice the average for the software industry. SAS Institute employs about 11,325 people (end of 2009), approximately 38% of them work at corporate headquarters at Cary. Almost all of the companys software development occurs at Cary, with the other offices performing account management and service support. If anyone thinks that SAS Institutes success was foreordained by its being at the right place at the right time, a comparison with SPSS is particularly revealing. SPSS was founded in the late 1960s by three Stanford University graduate students to offer packages for statistical packages. SPSS incorporated in 1975 and set up its headquarters in Chicago. In August 1993, SPSS offered stock to the public. SPSS applications originally ran only on mainframes, but in the 1980s they were migrated to a personal computer operating environment. In 1996, desktop revenues were almost 80 percent of total revenues. SPSS traditionally offers data analysis and graphics software, process documentation, and various management products. More recently, SPSS principal activity has moved to provide technology that transforms data into insight through the use of predictive analytics and other data mining techniques : SPSS solutions and products enable organizations to improve decision-making by learning from the past, understanding the present as well as anticipating future problems and opportunities. Although its origins in a university were similar to SAS Institute and it was founded at about the same time, the growth of the two companies has been quite different. In the fiscal year that ended December 31, 2008, SPSS had revenues of $302. 9 million 7 , less than one-seventh that of SAS Institute and about 1,200 employees compare to more than 11,000. SPSS was subsequently acquired late 2009 by the giant IBM 8 in order to reinforce its predictive analytics solutions’ offerings. Strategy SAS Institutes business strategy is built on relationships. As described in the companys 1996 annual report, The Institute is founded on a philosophy of forming lasting relationships with our customers, our business partners, and our employees. These critical relationships, combined with our leading-edge software and services, together form the basic elements of our success. Relationships are important because, unlike many software vendors, SAS Institute does not sell products and subsequent upgrades but rather offers site licenses, provided on an annual basis after a thirty-day free trial. The software is not cheap. A charge of $50,000 a year for 50 users is typical. However, the licenses include free upgrades to new versions of the software and outstanding customer support. Initial first-year revenues are less than if the product were sold outright, but over time, revenues from a given customer will be 7 8 http://www. corporateinformation. com/Company-Snapshot. aspx? cusip=78462K102 http://www. spss. com/ibm-announce/ 5 higher as long as that customer remains with SAS Institute. The companys license renewal rate is over 98 percent. Early 2009, the economic crisis situation has not impacted the optimistic view of the market as expressed by Jim Goodnight in the 2008 annual report : In 2008, organizations of all sizes—spanning every industry and geography— felt the effects of a slowing economy. Though everyone is still trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I am optimistic about the future, and I’ll tell you why. Businesses have been forced, by necessity, to get back to basics—to focus on the essentials that can help them weather this economic crisis. If the market has taught us anything, it is that no matter how bad things get, they will get better. How individual businesses conduct themselves in the face of such dire economic circumstances will help determine who will be around when things begin to improve†¦ 9 This positive vision was confirmed early 2010 by Jim Goodnight in the 2009 annual report : â€Å"Our optimism and determination in the face of an uncertain economy paid off last year, and we finished 2009 – our 34th consecutive year of growth – with global revenues of US$2. 31 billion, up 2. 2 percent over 2008 results. Our revenue from software sales alone jumped 3. 3 percent at a time when the software revenue of other major vendors has been declining. Customers are increasingly turning to SAS ® solutions to maximize effective customer relations, more effectively manage operations and engage in better risk management. Software revenue was strong in several areas, including customer intelligence, credit risk, supply chain and text analytics, attesting that companies striving to survive in a down economy, and succeed in times of recovery and growth, need such solutions to answer complex business problems, spur innovation and enable success. † 10 Customer support is one key to maintaining satisfied customers. SAS Institute has one technical support person for every 100 customers. Customer loyalty is intense. Like many software companies, SAS Institute sponsors user group meetings. One difference is the loyalty of the users who attend these meetings. SAS veterans of previous user conventions wear up to 20 badges on their jackets as a demonstration of loyalty. Howard Dresner, research director for the Gartner Group, sometimes speaks at SAS user group meetings and commented, I was afraid that if I said anything negative they [the users] would lynch me. Product development at SAS Institute is also based on staying in very close touch with customers and giving them what they want and need. Jim Goodnight said : Listen to the customers. Give them the software they want. There is no reason to develop software they dont want. . . . Once a project is underway, well have a few of our customers come in that we know are interested. in a particular area and have meetings with them and have them test the software weve developed. . . . If we could make these products fit the needs of half a dozen companies through these strategic partnerships, it will pretty well fit the needs of other companies as well One way information is acquired is by meeting with users in user group conferences. SAS Institute has six regional user groups in the United States, one international group, and a dozen country-specific user groups. It also sponsors a number of user group conferences throughout the world each year. At user conferences, the company holds a contest asking questions about the SAS software, for which customers have been known to study for days. 9 10 Annual report SAS Institute 2008 Annual report SAS Institute 2009 (http://www. sas. com/corporate/annual-report-current. pdf) 6 Each year the company sends each of its customers a ballot asking what features they would like to see. From tabulating the results of that ballot, the company decides on its development priorities for the coming year. The company does not have a focused product strategy, nor does it engage into along-range planning. Goodnight believes that the industry is evolving too rapidly for such planning and, as he puts it, I am not as much of a visionary as Bill Gates, so I cant tell where the industry is going. The company will not turn down a product idea that seems sound, even if the idea doesnt fit tightly into the existing product line. As David Russo , formerly the vice president of human resources commented, the company operates on the philosophy of the educator Maria Montessori, namely, that creativity should be followed not led. Russo noted that if youre hiring creative people, you give them their head, you tell them that its all right to take chances and you mean it, they will do their best. People at SAS Institute are encouraged to do new things. David Russo commented: Have you ever heard us talk about the holes ? He [Goodnight] says that hes dug a lot of holes. The only smart thing is knowing when to quit digging. . . We dont know if its going to make a lot of money for the company or not. But the technology out there is exciting and it might turn into something. Go for it. As one consequence of this customer-focused, employee-initiative product development philosophy, SAS Institute is developing video games and is moving heavily into educational software. Neither of these areas is within the scope of its t raditional focus on statistical and data mining products. These new products are being internally incubated, not obtained through acquisitions. One other important element of SAS Institutes business is its drive for market share and revenue growth. David Russo commented that the company, and Jim Goodnight, wants the software everywhere. If its a choice between making X dollars per sale or having more people have the software, he would rather have the software everywhere. He [Goodnight] thinks that there is no reason that any midsized or large enterprise shouldnt be using SAS. They should be using SAS for everything. So his perspective is, it should be out there. And as a result, hell try anything. SAS INSTITUTE PHILOSOPHY AND VALUE The fundamental way that SAS Institute operates has been the same since its inception and is premised on a small, consistent set of values and beliefs. One is the desire to create a corporation where it was much fun for the workers as for top management. Two principles are inherent in that statement. The first is the principle that all people at SAS Institute are treated fairly and equally. In its practices and day-to-day operations, the company is a very egalitarian place. Jim Goodnight nor anybody else has a reserved parking space. His health plan is no different from that of the day care workers. There is no executive dining roomeveryone regardless of position can eat at one of the on-site company cafeterias, where highquality, subsidized food is accompanied by a pianist playing during the lunch hour. Everyone at SAS Institute has a private office, not a cubicle. Dress is casual and decided by what the person feels comfortable wearing. As Goodnight explained, Four of us started the business. When we started, there were no employees, we were all principals. What we tried to do was to treat people who joined the company as we ourselves wanted to be treated. . . The 7 company is characterized by an egalitarian approach. The second important principle is that the workplace should be fun and people should be treated with dignity and respect. This philosophy comes from Goodnights early experiences. When he worked for General Electric on the Apollo space program, although the work was interesting, the job environmen t was not good: We had guards at the door every day. . . . We had to sign in. Youd go down the hall and put your quarter in the machine and get a cup of coffee out. A lot of these things, I found somewhat offensive. Essentially, SAS Institute believes in the power of reciprocity-that people feel obligated to return favors that are done for them. Or, more prosaically stated, if you treat your people well, they will treat the company well by being loyal and dedicated in return. Jim Goodnight has commented that he likes being around happy people. Who wouldnt ? He and other SAS Institute leaders believe that if you take care of your people, they will take care of the company. As one manager put it, the basic philosophy is one of trickle down-if you treat people well, things will take care of themselves. A third, interconnected part of the philosophy that guides SAS Institute is a belief in and reliance on intrinsic, internal motivation. Part of trusting people is treating them like resp onsible adults and relying on them to do a good job. Barrett Joyner, vice president of North American sales and marketing, noted that the emphasis is on coaching rather than monitoring and controlling. Trust and respect- its amazing how far you can go with that. The importance placed on people comes from the fact that SAS Institute operates in a business critically dependent on intellectual capital. David Russo, who was head of human resources for more than seventeen years, explained: The best way to produce the best and get the best results is to behave as if the people who are creating those things for you are important to you individually. Every night at 6 oclock, all of our assets walk out the door†¦We just hope they come back at nine the next morning.. If you believe that, then its just a waterfall of common sense. It just means that you take care of the folks who are taking care of you. . . . Why we do the things we do is whats important. The things we do are secondary. . . . They are just a natural outgrowth of a philosophy that if you really mean that your people are important, you will treat them like they are important. The final part of the SAS Institute philosophy comes from an important insight about the business and economic benefits that come from creating an environment in which both the physical aspects the workplace and the services offered to employees relieve the stress and the day-to-day concerns of people: We believe that an employee with some of the normal workday stresses relieved . . is more productive, not only for that day, but comes back more refreshed and able to be more productive that second day . . . and so on, explains Russo. The point of the strategy is to make it impossible for people not do their work, by removing as many distractions and concerns possible. The ideas that people are important, that if you take care of them they will take care of the company, and that taking care of them involves treating them as you yourself might want to be treated are not particularly novel or complicated. What makes SAS Institute fairly unusual is that it actually lives by these simple precepts. Implementing this philosophy requires taking 8 a long-term approach. SAS Institute definitely thinks long term. Goodnight commented, We only take a long-term view of all issues. Since any project will take at least one to three years to come to fruition, a long-term perspective is required This long-term perspective extends to the management of people at SAS Institute. HOW SAS INSTITUTE MANAGES ITS PEOPLE The management practices SAS Institute uses are all premised on the idea that in an intellectual capital business, attracting and retain talent is paramount, and that the way to attract and retain good people is to give them interesting work to do, interesting people to do it with, and treat them like the responsible adults that they are. It is a management system based on trust and mutual respect. The fact that it is so unusual says something about most contemporary organizations and their leaders. The fact that the system works so well says a lot about human potential and what it takes to unlock that potential. Benefits and the Work Environment SAS Institute is probably most famous for its generous, family-friendly benefits and pleasant physical work environment. As already mentioned, everyone (including assistants) has a nice private office and is provided with the latest computer equipment. As in many organizations, the philosophy and practices reflect the founders early experiences and their reactions to those experiences. Goodnight tells about interviewing for a job as a computer programmer-a job he did not take- when he was a young man: The programmers sat in desk after desk, lined up row after row, in a building that was like an aircraft hangar. No walls, no privacy. Company headquarters at Cary consists of eighteen buildings scattered over a 200-acre campus-like setting with a lake and beautiful grounds and forests. The grounds feature outdoor sculpture and picnic areas, as well as hiking trails. People sometimes bring their friends and family to the grounds on the weekend for picnics or hiking. The building are architecturally interesting, with atriums and light wells. Goodnight himself oversees their design. They are beautifully decorated with art something that a committee of four, including an artist-in-residence as well as Goodnight, attends to. Company policy is for people to work about thirty-five hours a week, or a 9 to 5 work day with an hour for lunch and exercise. If you call after 5 P. M. , the voice mail system tells you that the company is closed. As David Russo noted, if you shot off a tell gauge shotgun in the parking lot on a typical Wednesday at 7 P. M. , you wouldnt hit anything. Goodnight and other senior leaders have the same schedule. Betty Friend, the director of corporate communications, has contrasted SAS Institute with other software companies, commenting, you know that old joke about Microsoft having flex time, they dont care what 18 hours you work? The company believes that people dont perform effectively when they are tired. Jim Goodnight commented: Ive seen some of the code that people produce after these long nights and its garbage. You throw it away the next day and start over. . . You have got to be alert and sharp to be a good programmer. . . . Id rather have sharp, focused people that write good code that doesnt need as much testing. I recently came back from a Microsoft conference and they said that now Microsoft has three testers for every programmer. 9 The reduced work hours permit people to have both a job and a life. It means that women dont have to give up their careers if they want to s ee their children. As a consequence, at SAS Institute more than 50 percent of the managers are women, a relatively high percentage for the software industry. The company has been able to attract and retain both men and women with its work-family balance. The company has a number of other amenities and benefits, such as an on-site 7,500-squarefoot medical facility staffed by six nurse practitioners, two family practice physicians, a physical therapist, massage therapist, and a mental health nurse. The average waiting time to be seen, if you have an appointment, is five minutes. When waiting times increase (for instance, because of the growth in the number of SAS people), the medical facility adds people, adjusts hours, or does something else to reduce the waiting time. SAS Institute recognizes that time is money and that time spent obtaining medical care cant be used on work. The facility is free to employees and their families, although there is a small copayment required for the massage therapist. The companys full indemnity health plan-not an HMO or a PPO, and with no managed carehas a $100 deductible per person, $350 per family, and covers first dollar costs for many things. Nonetheless, SAS Institutes health care costs are $1,000 per employee below the average health care costs for plans that arent nearly as ich as theirs. The SAS Institute health plan includes vision care, hearing, a go dental plan, free physicals, free mammography, and many other benefits. Gail Adcock, the manager of corporate health services, noted that the goal of her group was to keep people at work and to decrease turnover, not simply to save money. SAS Institute also provides on-site Montessori day care, with one staff for every three children. Although the day care was originally provided completely free, SAS employees now pay about one third of what the comparable fee would be in the market. Between the on-site and subsidized off-site care, SAS Institute provides child care for 528 children. SAS Institute has a fitness center that includes a large aerobics floor, two full-length basketball courts, a private, skylit yoga room, and workout areas segregated by gender. . . . Outside, there are soccer and softball fields. All of this is free to employees and their families. SAS Institute provides towels and even launders exercise clothes, also for free. The company estimates that 65 percent of its people use the exercise center two of more times per week. SAS is noted for its snack facilities-refrigerators and small eating areas- scattered throughout the buildings. Every Wednesday afternoon, plain and peanut MMs are distributed to these snack areas on every floor and every building. SAS Institute uses 22. 5 tons of MMs a year. SAS Institute was one of the early companies to offer benefits for domestic partners. It provides on-site help in arranging elder care. The company provides financial assistance and paid leave for adoptions. The companys cafeterias provide excellent food at subsidized prices, with live piano music in the background. Families are encouraged to use this facility, and many parents will eat lunch with their children who are at the on-site day care facility. A program provides undergraduate scholarships to SAS Institute employees on a competitive basis. The company even helps with housing: It sells some of the land it owns to employees at discounted prices so they can build homes. The idea behind all of this is to remove distractions that keep people from focusing on their jobs and also to reduce the stresses that come from dealing with the common demands of life. 10 For SAS employees not working at Cary, every effort is made to provide similar levels of benefits and amenities, either on site or by purchasing them for employees at local vendors. The idea is to provide Cary-level care for everyone. Performance Management David Russos theory of performance management is simple: Give people the tools to do their jobs and then let them do it, while holding them accountable. Every SAS product manual includes the names of the developers and testers who created or updated the software. Try finding the name of any person in the product manuals for most software companies, such as Microsoft. SAS Institute has eliminated the performance appraisal form. David Russo explained the decision: We dont do performance appraisals. Why? Because theyre stupid. Because everybody hates them. Because they take an inordinate amount of time with always a negative result. Instead of formal appraisals, managers commit to spending time talking to their people and providing feedback on a regular basis, at least three times a year. In return for getting rid of the appraisals, managers also committed to walking around and talking to their people. Russo believes: If there were a good performance appraisal process, everybody would be using it. . . . So what happens is companies institute a new performance appraisal process, it works for a while because its new, and all of a sudden it starts to slide and then they start looking for something else. . . .I dont think you can really manage someones performance. I think you can observe the results. . . . I think you can set short- and long-term goals. And you can sit back and see if it happens or i1 doesnt happen. The companys fundamental approach to performance management entails setting high expectations for both conduct and performance, which then become self-fulfilling, and giving people the freedom to do what they like to meet these expectations. John Boling, director of the educational technologies division, said: When Ive wanted to do research, Ive had the opportunity. When Ive wanted to travel, Ive had the opportunity. When Ive wanted to publish, Ive had the opportunity. Its been pretty much my taking the initiative. . . . We assume that you have talent, creativity, and initiative. You have to be able to take that and run with it. SAS Institute operates on the basis of trust. Violations of that trust are not sanctioned. The company, therefore, has no sick days or sick leave policy. Nor does it have a sick child care program. Jim Goodnight believes if a child is sick, it should be home with its mother or father. Commenting on the companys sick day policy and the issue of trust, David Russo said: We dont have sick days. If youre sick for six months, youre going to get flowers, youre going to get candy, youre going to get a lot of concern and a lot of visits. If youre sick for six or seven Mondays in a row, youre going to get gone. Its a simple thing. . . . Now, do we have free riders ? Absolutely, and guess who figures them out? Their peers. Management doesnt have to take care of that. They surface and they either get right or eventually . . . they get gone. Its just the way it is 11 Managers are evaluated principally on their ability to attract and retain talent. The company believes that in a business based on skill and know-how, if it can get and keep the best people, the rest will take of itself. Pay Practices SAS Institute provides none of its employees with stock options, phantom stock, performance shares, or similar schemes. Goodnight has referred to stock options as Ponzi schemes. The company does contribute to the maximum allowed by Internal Revenue Service regulation, 15 percent, to employees profit sharing (40lk) retirement plans. There is no matchingemployees do not have to contribute anything. SAS Institute has done this for more than twenty years, a record unmatched by any other company. A small bonus based partly on the companys financial performance, typically on the order of 5. percent to 8 percent, is paid at the end of the year. Base salaries are quite competitive with the industry and are adjusted annually, although people have taken pay cuts to work at SAS Institute because they value the work environment so highly. Salary increases are based on supervisors assessments of an individuals performance, so in that sense, there is a merit pay system. However, SAS Institute tries to deemphasize the importance of financial rewards because most SAS managers dont believe money is a very effective motivator. As David Russo put it, A raise is only a raise for thirty days. After that, its just somebodys salary. Its one thing not to emphasize financial rewards in software development and administration. But SAS Institute eschews the piece rate system even for its sales organization. Account representatives do not receive commissions on sales. Goodnight noted, commissions do not encourage an orientation toward taking the customer and building long-term relationships. Also, a commission culture tends to be more high pressure and high stress than what the leadership wants for their company. Barrett ]oyner, head of North American sales and marketing, described their philosophy and approach to achieving performance: We have sales targets, but mostly as a way of keeping score. I want to make the numbers, but I want to make the numbers the right way†¦. Im not smart enough to invent on a formula. People are constantly finding holes in incentive plans. He commented that many companies used incentive systems a of signaling what was important, that is, as a communications device. Joyner said that instead of using incentive schemes for this purpose Here, we just tell people what we want them to do and what we expect. To further downplay individual short-term performance, SAS Institute does not even post comparative sales data by name. Some observers believe that this kind of pay system does not encourage the best people to join and remain in the organization. Instead, the thinking goes, these high-potential people will go to places where they can do better financially. The re is, of course, no way of definitively answering this concern. However, Barrett ]oyner had the following cor on this issue: As you know, we move people around a lot at the Institute, so even though we have low turnover, account representatives may change assignments. I frequently get calls from 12 customers that say, I dont want to lose my account executive. How many software firms do you know where that happens? Training, Career Development, and Mobility SAS Institute believes in training, but it is almost all internally done. New employees receive an orientation program from senior managers history of the company, its vision, and its values. New employees learn about the products, the organizational structure, the business model, and the customers. Long-time employees really enjoy and value helping with this socialization. A lot of technical training takes place. For instance, in a nine and a half month period in 1997, about 400 technical training seminars were held that had a total of 3,000 people in attendance. In the sales organization, new people receive two weeks of training in Cary, but the company is moving to a five to six-week program delivered over a six-month period to beef up sales training effort. SAS Institute does not offer tuition reimbursement for outside classes. Although it has sent people to outside management or leadership training programs on rare occasion, the emphasis is very much on doing things internally. SAS Institute tries to make it easy for people to move laterally – there are no functional silos. As David Russo noted: There are no silos of research and development, there are no silos of marketing and sales, there are no silos of technical support. Everything is based on a tool kit. If your tool kit fits this divisions model for business and you want to do that, chances are pretty good youll get to do that. And if two years later you see something else you want to do and its across three organizational boundaries, you get to do that†¦. In an intellectual capital organization like ours, the most important thing you can do is engage the individuals energy so that they can apply it to the thing that excites them most, their work. SAS Institute believes that people will have three or four careers during their working lives it would like for all of those careers to be within SAS Institute. The company has a very flat organizational structure. Depending on the particular division, there are only three or four levels in the company. Jim Goodnight has twenty-seven direct reports. He noted that my management style is to let people manage their own departments and divisions with as little interference from me as possible. The company structure is fairly informal, and the firm does not have a formal organization chart. One of the most important aspects of careers at SAS Institute every manager is a working manager-they do their own jobs as managing others. This model even extends to Goodnight, who spends about 40 percent of his time programming and leading product development teams. He noted, running a big company like this is pretty boring. Another dimension is the ability to move from an individual contributor role to a managerial role, and back, without penalty. A number of people have preferred less managerial responsibility and more programming activity, and this is possible. This practice is consistent with Russos previously cited philosophy of letting people do what theyre good at and what they want to do-and permitting them to discover what they like an d are good at by doing it. 13 As one might imagine in a company with a strong culture, fit is important in hiring, promotion, and retention decisions. SAS Institute wants people who are team players, not those who seek to stand out, to be particularly important, or to be treated like stars. Barret Joyner encourages people to think about what they really want out of their jobs and to be clear and direct about this. In considering this question, one former employee said, I want to be able to have performance that permits me to do whatever I want. When I walk down the hall, I want to feel like Im the man. ]oyner told this individual that this sounded like a wonderful goal and that he (Barrett) would him achieve it-at another organization. As David Russo has SAS Institute is not a good place for someone who wants to feel like a star feel or particularly important. At SAS Institute, everyone is important and the contributions of all are valued and recognized. Outsourcing and the Use of Temporary Help SAS has a simple policy with respect to the practice of using contract programmers supplied by so-called body shops (for instance, in India or Pakistan), a practice common in high technology, particularly the Silicon Valley. It doesnt use them. It also has a simple policy respect to contracting things out-it doesnt. SAS Institute used to have an outside public relations firm, but has now taken this back inside. SAS Institute does its own training; develops and prints its own materials, including marketing materials and product manuals; and even runs its own publishing organization that publishes books about the SAS program, including those written by outsiders. Why does it do this? Barrett Joyner said, If you want something done right, own it and control it. He noted that most companies contracted out activities in an effort to save on costs. They frequently got products or services that may have cost less, but were also of lesser quality. The question soon becomes, How little can one get away with? SAS Institute is not that focused on short-term costs in the first place, so cost savings are less critical. It is focused on doing things in a quality fashion, and it believes the best way to ensure quality is to manage the process internally. But why not contract out non-essential or non-core activities such as health care, day care, the food service, and so forth? The answer is actually quite simple: Those activities are viewed as being core at SAS Institute. If the company is organized around the attraction and retention of talent not through throwing money at people but by providing a good work environment, then activities involved in building that work environment are actually quite central to the companys operations. Many people at SAS comment on how other firms make poor decisions about what are and are not core activities and get themselves into trouble in the process of ostensibly saving money. 14 ANNEX EXCERPTS FROM THE 2009 SAS INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT Source : http://www. sas. com/corporate/annual-report-current. pdf 15 Leadership and innOVaTiOn Our customers can count on us – today and tomorrow. Our leadership is built on the combined strengths of our software, our domain expertise and more than 34 years of experience helping customers across organizations, industries and governments around the globe succeed. We listen to customers to understand their needs, and we give our employees the freedom to explore new ideas to address those needs. While our company continues to grow, we remain true to our long-standing goal of helping customers transform how their businesses work and sustain a culture of factbased decision making. Our business analytics framework provides customers with a flexible and straightforward path for achieving their key objectives and gaining maximum return from their information assets. Today, SAS is the world’s largest privately held software company, with more than 11,000 employees and staffed offices in 55 countries. Together, we provide software and services to more than 45,000 sites in 119 countries. And the guiding principles that launched this company in 1976 are still the foundation of our growth and success: ? Commitment to customers. ? Appreciation of and dedication to employees. ? Adherence to the highest standards of quality and performance of our software. ? Continual innovation that creates lasting value. As the economy continues on its journey toward recovery, we pledge to maintain and enhance these principles, for they have proven their value in helping us achieve success since the company’s inception in 1976 and will continue to do so for many years to come. For more than 34 years, SAS has given our customers THE POWER TO KNOW ®. www. sas. com | annual report | 2009 Jim Goodnight, CEO and founder of SAS. LeTTer FrOm The CeO Our optimism and determination in the face of an uncertain economy paid off last year, and we finished 2009 – our 34th consecutive year of growth – with global revenues of US$2. 31 billion, up 2. 2 percent over 2008 results. Our revenue from software sales alone jumped 3. 3 percent at a time when the software revenue of other major vendors has been declining. Customers are ncreasingly turning to SAS ® solutions to maximize effective customer relations, more effectively manage operations and engage in better risk management. Software revenue was strong in several areas, including customer intelligence, credit risk, supply chain and text analytics, attesting that companies striving to survive in a down economy, and succeed in times of recovery and growth, need such solutions to answer complex business problems, spur innovation and enable success. Growth rates of our industry-based software solutions were highest in financial services, government, health care, insurance and retail. Strong sales to financial services firms demonstrates the confidence these companies have in our ability to help them solve intricate business issues and navigate changes in customer needs, business models and regulatory oversight. The public sector showed growing interest in using data as a key strategic asset for combating fraud, halting declining tax revenues, managing service levels and achieving greater transparency. And retailers turned to our software solutions to improve margins and counter the effects of sluggish consumer spending by taking into account regional, local and even storelevel buying preferences of their customers. IDC, Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2008 Vendor Shares, Doc # 218598, June 2009, www. sas. com/news/analysts/idc-ww-bi-tools-2008. pdf 2 www. sas. com/news/analysts/chartis-risk-0609. pdf 3 www. sas. com/news/analysts/chartis-credit-risk-0709. pdf 4 www. sas. com/news/analysts/chartis-risk-1109. pdf 5 Gartner Research, â€Å"Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Marketing Management,† by Kimberly Collins and Adam Sarner, July 15, 2009. See the full report at www. gartner. com/technology/media-products/reprints/sas/vol6/article2/article2. tml 6 Gartner Research, â€Å"Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools,† by Ted Friedman and Andreas Bitterer, June 9, 2009. See the full report at www. gartner. com/technology/media-products/reprints/dataflux/167657. html SAS is well-positioned to continue helping our customers succeed. Our strong commitment to research and development – we reinvested 23 percent of revenue back into RD last year – resulted in another year of prodigious innovation. We released 21 new products or bundles last year, including SAS 9. 2 platform Phase 2, which included classic SAS products as well as 87 usiness intelligence and data integration solutions. The capabilities of SAS software were again validated in 2009 by leading analyst firms. In June, IDC called SAS the â€Å"overwhelming lead er† in advanced analytics,1 saying that enterprises choose SAS Analytics more often than the other 16 analytics suppliers combined. Chartis Research again named SAS as the leader in its Operational Risk Management Systems 2009 report in June. 2 SAS was also named as a leader in the firm’s July report, Credit Risk Management Systems 2009,3 and in November, SAS was ranked No. in the prestigious RiskTech100 rankings, an annual international listing of the top risk technology vendors. 4 Gartner positioned SAS in the Visionaries quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Marketing Management 5 and placed our DataFlux subsidiary in the Leaders quadrant of its Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools 6 in June. In September, the firm placed SAS in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services. 7 And in December, Gartner placed SAS and DataFlux in the Visionaries quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Too ls. www. sas. com | annual report | 2009 In November, Forrester Research gave SAS top rank for cost and profitability analysis and a top score in product strategy and vision. 9 And in December, Forrester ranked SAS Customer Intelligence No. 1 in optimization, analytics and reporting, and installed base. 10 SAS also had a strong showing in application usability, real-time analytics, budget management and forecasting, architecture and campaign design. Of the top 100 companies on the 2009 FORTUNE Global 500 ®, 92 are current SAS customers. And in the US, 80 percent of new commercial accounts were small and midsized businesses, showing that organizations with annual sales of less than $500 million also recognize the value of business analytics from SAS. In all, nearly 1,400 new customers around the world chose SAS. Customers new to SAS in 2009 included: Anglopharma, Bombay Stock Exchange, the Clorox Company of Canada Ltd. , Hong Kong Efficiency Unit, Fiat Automoveis, Lego Systems Inc. , Loyalty New Zealand, Niagara Health System, Dex One Corp. (formerly R. H. Donnelley), Telefonica, TV 2 AS (Norway), WestJet, Wet Seal Inc. , Wistron Corp. nd Vattenfall. Looking forward, we believe that 2010 will be another strong year for SAS. While economic recovery is under way in many parts of the world, it won’t be quick and it won’t be easy. Organizations will react by continuing to focus on improving customer-centricity, enhancing top-line revenue growth and optimizing their businesses in 2010. SAS is well-positioned to play a critical part in recovery efforts. By providing our customers with a business analytics framework that can grow over time, we empower them to meet both the demands of today’s economy and the opportunities of tomorrow with: ? Data management capabilities that improve the flow of and access to information throughout organizations. ? Greater insights into data for making quick, meaningful decisions. ? Risk analysis and optimization solutions to save money. ? Customer intelligence and marketing automation to drive sustainable revenue growth. ? Social network analysis to uncover fraud and terrorist threats as well as business opportunities. Finally, as a debt-free global company, SAS offers our customers another valuable commodity: stability. We attribute this to our 34-year focus on listening to our customers and meeting their needs with robust, reliable and relevant products and services. SAS is poised for growth again in 2010. The momentum is greater than it has ever been for this company, and the future looks promising indeed. Sincerely, James H. Goodnight, PhD, CEO 2009 | annual report | www. sas. com 7 Gartner Research, â€Å"Magic Quadrant for Operational Risk Management Software for Financial Services,† by Douglas McKibben and David Furlonger, August 28, 2009. See the full report at www. gartner. om/technology/media-products/reprints/sas/vol6/article3/article3. html 8 Gartner Research. â€Å"Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools† by Ted Friedman, Mark A. Beyer and Eric Thoo, November 25, 2009. See the full report at www. gartner. com/technology/media-products/reprints/sas/vol6/article5/article5. html 9 The Forrester Wave: Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2009 report, www. sas. com/news/analysts /forresterwave-bus-perf-q409. pdf 10 The Forrester Wave: Cross-Channel Campaign Management Platforms, Q4 2009 report, www. sas. com/news/analysts/forresterwave-cm-104330-1209. pdf TabiLiTy and GrOwTh – 34 years and COunTinG SAS achieved its 34th consecutive year of growth in 2009, with global revenue reaching US$2. 31 billion, up 2. 2 percent over 2008. SAS saw healthy sales growth in multiple industries. Sales to the retail industry increased by 12 percent, despite a very challenging environment for that sector. Sales to the health care industry were up by 8 percent. And sales to the oil and gas industry increased by more than 30 percent. Our growing network of alliance and channel partners played an integral role in 25 percent of new sales and half of the top 50 global deals. Specifically, there are strategic initiatives including partnerships with leading business consultancies and systems integrators, expansion of in-database activities across multiple partner platforms, and a continued focus on building third-party channels. Partnerships with global systems integrators such as Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte and Wipro Technologies offer customers the specialized resources and expertise to deploy SAS Business Analytics throughout the enterprise. In addition, SAS continues to drive the momentum of in-database analytic innovation with technology partners such as Teradata and Netezza. Global Presence, Global success SAS’ revenue growth remained distributed around the globe. The Americas accounted for 44 percent of total revenue; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) contributed 45 percent; and 11 percent came from the Asia Pacific region. Of the 120 countries where SAS does business, 83 percent saw growth in software sales. Among mature markets, growth rates for software sales were highest in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands. In developing markets, doubledigit percentage gains were achieved in most of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and pockets of Asia and Latin America. Even in a challenging global economy, SAS did not waver in its commitment to our 11,000 employees and our core belief that happy, healthy employees are more productive. In 2009, SAS was again recognized as an employer of choice around the world. In the EMEA region, we received workplace awards for our offices in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Portugal and Finland. In the Asia Pacific region, we received workplace awards in China, Australia and India. In the Americas, we were recognized in Canada and Mexico, and as this annual report was being roduced, we received notification that we ranked No. 1 on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list in the US – our 13th consecutive year on the list. www. sas. com | annual report | 2009 2009 reVenue revenue by region Americas 44% EMEA 45% Asia Pacific 11% Other 1% Health Care 2% Energies Utilities 3% Education 3% revenue by industry Financial Services 42% Retail 4% Life Sciences 6% Manufacturing 6% Communications 7% Services 1 1% revenue Growth 1976-2009 Government 15% 2009 | annual report | www. sas. com

Teilhard De Chardin - Place Of Man In The Universe Essays

Teilhard De Chardin - Place Of Man In The Universe Essays Teilhard De Chardin - Place Of Man In The Universe Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. (Eph. I, 4-5). These powerful words of St. Paul in his first letter to the Ephesians, I think, best characterize the spirit of Teilhard the Chardin, his idea of man and man's place in the universe, and of the common goals of humanity. Just imagine somebody Somebody, whose whole life was a continuous prayer to God, a prayer, in which he constantly asked to break through the seal of traditional authority and common ignorance, and explore the depth of reality, the ultimate beginning and the ultimate end, and the reasons behind the emergence of life and conscious beings in the universe. Of course, that means that your books are put on the Index and you are almost made into a heretic by the True and Holy Catholic Church. But he didn't give up. He clearly saw his goals, his purpose. It was his life's work, to trace back the origins of mankind, and to speculate of its goals and ultimate outcome. It was his type of spirituality, scientific spirituality, that drove him incessantly to spend sleepless nights trying to make sense out of scientific facts, to tie them together with what seemed apparent, and with that which didn't seem so apparent. And the best he came up with was a simple statement, We Are All One. Life is eter nal, love is immortal, and death is but a horizon. Life Is, he would say if someone would have asked him, what is life? Life Is, and ever was, and forever will be - world without end. Composite matter dies and falls apart, but spirit remains. And with it - that indelible part of it, the nuclei of personality, the individual particles which have been with us from the very beginning, which grow and evolve with us, and which strive towards common union into a whole, with God as the center In my paper, I will discuss Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's idea of man's place in the universe, as presented in a variety of his works. I will be using mostly primary sources for my research, as well as talks delivered at the Centennial Teilhard de Chardin Symposium at Georgetown University, and books written by Teilhard's friends or contemporaries. In most of his works, Teilhard establishes a link between anthropology and metaphysics, between science and religion. They are an attempt to understand the universe through man, who is very much part of it. In them, we can see Teilhard's vision of harmony of duality of the universe, which is composed of matter and spirit. Union of matter and mind, of the cosmos and the spirit of the universe, and the evolving of one into the other is one of the main ideas behind all of Teilhard's works. He tries to prove that life didn't emerge by accident, but was a product of evolution. And man has his own place in the evolution of the universe. First of all, universe is not static. That is, there is no permanence in it. Everything is in the constant process of change, and a particular kind of change - evolution. How did man come to be, asks de Chardin. And the only plausible conclusion he can make is, that human being is a link in a chain of evolution. What was before man? And how does God fit into the whole picture? Let us follow Teilhard in his understanding of the universe through ourselves, human beings. Has there always been conscious life in our universe? No, would be Teilhard's answer. Emergence of consciousness was indeed a breakthrough in the evolution of the world. But what kind of a breakthrough? What is the primordial element that gave rise to life in the universe? What is it composed of? As a Catholic priest, he should say, well, the universe was created by God out of nothing in six days, and culminated in the creation of man out of earth. And this Old Testament myth, however surprising it

LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

LAW - Essay Example 2. Your LAW1100 essay should use at least 6 to 10 quality academic reference sources (i.e. in terms of LAW1100 requirements, texts and journal articles – see LAW1100 on campus Essay Preparation Kit (2011), page 19). This essay has 6 quality academic reference sources (in determining the number of quality academic reference sources for LAW1100 purposes, add up the total number of end references and subtract those which are not texts or journal articles; do not include the number of cases in this count – see point 4 below). 3. Your LAW1100 essay should cite your end reference sources (collectively) on at least 30 occasions in the body of your essay (see LAW1100 on campus Essay Preparation Kit, page 20). This essay has 30 in-text reference entries. (in determining the number of in-text references used, count the number of times your end reference sources have been cited in-text in total – note that a few of your reference sources will likely be cited in-text more of ten than others; do not include the number of cases in this count – see point 4 below). 4. Your LAW1100 essay should use at least 8 to 10 case authorities (see LAW1100 on campus Essay Preparation Kit, page 17). ... SAY ASSIGNMENT (DUE MONDAY WEEK 8) Law of Negligence: Duty of Care An essay by __________________________ (your name) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 Introduction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 2.0 Background†¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 3.0 Duty of Care for Negligent Acts †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦ 4 3.1 Historical Approach †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 3.2 Contemporary Approach †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 3.2. 1 Reasonable foreseeability †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 3.2.2 Analogies – recognized duties of care †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 3.2.3 Neighbourhood factors †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 4.0 Duty of Care for Negligent Advice †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 4.1 Development of the law †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦... 9 4.2 Shaddock test, reliance and assumption of responsibility†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 5.0 Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 9 5.1 Duty to prove duty of care†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦................ 9 5.2 Breach of contract†¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 6.0 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 7.0 End References and Table of Cases †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 Law of Negligence: Duty of Care 1.0 Introduction The duty of care is a duty which is often assumed to be incumbent upon each and every person for as long as he deals and he relates with other people. This duty can sometimes be neglected and

Marketing Communication Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing Communication - Research Paper Example The researcher states that some of the main benefits of an effective marketing campaign include market penetration, increased market share, increased market share, increased competitive advantage, and increased awareness among customers about the products of the company. However, in every marketing campaign, managers need to focus on finding an appropriate marketing mix in order to make the campaign successful and profitable for the company. In this, we will discuss the importance of the role of the marketing mix components in the success of businesses operating in today’s competitive business environment. Implementation of an effective marketing communication plan and taking steps to monitor the actual performance of the plan are of significant value for any company to succeed in a competitive business environment. In order to successfully monitor and control the working of the marketing communication plan, companies use the marketing mix as one of the main marketing tools. A s Belohlavek states, â€Å"The objective of a marketing mix is to establish the successive and simultaneous actions to influence the consumer’s or user’s purchasing decision†. Finding the right marketing mix holds the central value for the success of any marketing campaign. Marketing mix helps managers in determining the best way to market their products and services. As Varey states, â€Å"The marketing mix is seen as a collection of tools to be used to elicit desired responses from target markets†. It helps a company in finding the target market, as well as in determining the price of the product by considering various external business factors, such as the price being offered by competitors, similar products being offered by competitors, and buying the power of people living in any specific geographical location. Proper analysis or evaluation of all components of the marketing mix, which include price, place, product, and promotion, plays a key role in making the marketing plan successful for the company. As McDaniel and Gates state, â€Å"The mix is the unique blend of product, price, promotion, and place (distribution) designed to reach a specific group of consumers† (3). Companies usually develop their marketing strategies depending on the needs of the public and the market in which the product is to be placed. In highly competing firms, such as cell phone and automobile companies, the strategy regarding use of the marketing mix components does not remain the same forever. Managers of such companies review and change the nature of their marketing strategies continuously depending on internal and external business environments. For high profile brands, companies usually focus more on the promotion component of the marketing mix instead of price. Similarly, for a product which is to be placed in a market where there is a lot of competition, the company focuses more on price instead of promotion because customers like to b uy products of such companies that offer superior quality at a relatively low cost. Managers of high profile companies also analyze their marketing mix frequently in accordance with the level of customer acceptability regarding their product in order to make the required changes in the marketing strategies if needed.

Mencap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mencap - Essay Example Background/history Mencap began in 1953 by a group of parents and carrier from Leeds (UK) who saw the urgency to respond to the plight of children with special needs. During this period, Leeds and even the entire Uk hosted very few support services for people with special needs. Such is the case that parents who gave birth to babies with disability were often asked to surrender them to particular institutions and forget them completely; painful words for any parent. Consequently, many babies were left to suffer such a fate. Tired of this disgrace, parents with special kids, living within Leeds, began holding meetings in their houses and later formed a committee to serve the Leeds society. This committee named National Society of Parents of Backward Children became functional on 8 April 1953, immediately after its inauguration (Mencap, 2013). The inaugural meeting took place at Leeds Museum and was attended by squire Holye , the then Executive Officer of Leeds Health Department(its former name). In 1956, the organization changed its name to Leeds and District Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and later took the name Leeds Mencap Organisation structure (local&international) The day-to-day running of Mencap depends entirely on six important groups of people. This includes 1) The members 2) The board of trustees 3) The staff 4) Districts 5) Regional and country committees 6) National assembly members

Water Level Control System Of The Tank Engineering Essay

Water Level Control System Of The Tank Engineering Essay The report provides an interim account of water level control system of a tank. The step-test experimental results for both (old and new) tanks and the method of calculating the water flow rate into the tank has been discussed. In addition, the techniques to work out the pump horsepower, motor power and the pump efficiency had been covered in this report. Future work on the laboratory experiment on proportional gain (P) and proportional plus integral gain (PI) testing and its relevance to industrial process and the approach to accomplish the set objectives of the project were discussed. CONTENT SUMMARY i CONTENT ii LIST OF FIGURES iii LIST OF TABLES iv AIM 4 OBJECTIVE 5 1.1 EXPERIMENT COMPONENTS 5 1.1.1 AMPLIFIER 5 1.1.2 SENSOR 6 1.1.5 VANE PUMP 9 1.1.5.1 PUMP TEST 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 12 3. CONTROLLER 12 3.1 P ONLY 13 3.2 P+I CONTROLLER 14 3.3 PID CONTROLLER 15 4. METHODOLOGY 15 4.2 P ONLY EXPERIMENT 16 4.3 P+I EXPERIMENT 17 5. RESULTS DISCUSSION ANALYSIS 18 5.1 SYSTEM TRANSFER FUNCTION 18 5.2 SYSTEM MODELLING 19 5.3 SYSTEM PERFERMANCE 19 5.4. RESULT DISCUSSION 20 21 6. CONCLUSION 21 7. REFERENCES 22 8. APPENDIX 23 LIST OF FIGURES Graph 1: Outcome of Pump Testing Graph 11 LIST OF TABLES NOMENCLATURE P Proportional PI Proportional Integral PD Positive displacement PID Proportional-Integral-Derivative PWM Pulse width modulation Qo Output Qi Input INTRODUCTION In years back level control has been a major issue in the industrial processes. The controlling of liquid level is essential in most industrial processes such as: food processing, nuclear power plants, water purification systems, industrial chemical processing, boilers etc. Although, most industrial problems such as: controlling the speed of motor, or fluid level in a tank, or temperature of the furnace are due to the installation of control process when the control concepts had not been properly understood (Dutton et al., 1997). However, the ingenuity of control engineer can often overcome these challenges by producing a well-behaved piece of equipment. Mostly, proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are used for liquid level control in most applications and can be applied to many industrial processes and mechanical systems. PID controllers proven to be a perfect controller for simple and linear processes, but when it comes to controlling of non-linear and multivariable processes, the controller parameters have to be continuously adjusted (Bhuvaneswari et al., 2008). In process control systems, nonlinearity is the rule rather than the exception. Most control loops such as pressure, temperature, composition, etc., are significantly nonlinear. This may be because of nonlinearity due to control valves, or on account of variations in process gain, time constant, and dead time, as discussed in (McMillan et al, 1994). Therefore, the study of control system has contributed to huge impact positively to our modern day development. A plant can be controlled manually or automatically and the control system consists of a plant with its actuators, sensors and a controller. Manual controlling process of a plant cannot be as accurately enough compared to automatic control. An automatic controller is made up of device, electronic circuit, computer, or mechanical linkage etc. The interface between the plant and the controller requires actuators (control elements) to provide control action. In instrumentation, detectors and sensors (measurement elements) are needed to provide information about the plant status to the controller (Golten and Verwer, 1991). However, the most important characteristic of a plant is its stability, which indicates that a system can be control smoothly without undue oscillation or overcorrection. The behaviour and performance of a control system depends on the interaction of the entire element. The difference between the set-point and the actual value of the variable is called error. Another important characteristic of a control system is how quickly it can respond to an error and correct it. The smaller the error, the better it would be for the control system. The basic types of process control are open loop and closed loop system. + The open loop system has no feedback because it has no sensor to sense the fluid level in the tank. While the closed loop system is characterised by a sensor and a feedback signal which carries information from the measurement device to the comparator. Typical actuators used in liquid level control systems include pumps, motorised valve, on-off valves, etc. In addition, level sensors such as displacement float, capacitance probe, pressure sensor (Bateson, 1999), etc., provide liquid level measurement for the purpose of feedback control. In a closed loop feedback control system, the forward path transfer function is G(s) representing the process or plant being controlled together with any controller dynamics. The feedback path transfer function, H(s), represents the measurement system or transducer which provides the feedback signal (Golten and Verwer, 1991). The overall transfer function relating the controlled variable Qo to the desired value or reference, Qi is Qi Qo Figure 1: Closed loop block diagram Hence, the procedure of deriving the equation above can be found in the appendix page. In addition, the prime objective of feedback control systems is to minimise the differences between the output and the reference input since this represents the error. The control system should be quick as possible in reducing this error to zero (or to some reasonable low value) when there is either a disturbance or change in reference value (Golten and Verwer, 1991). Feedback has similar advantages when applied to automatic control system, it has the ability of controlling a system that deals with unexpected disturbances that might occur within the system and adapt to changes in the plant. Therefore, with the advancement of electronics and its applications, the understanding of close loop control system increased rapidly, since feedback amplifier is essential (Healey, 1975). A simple control system is used to maintain a constant water level in a tank, example of such is toilet systems in various homes. The swinging arm attached to the input valve of the WC water tank allows water to flow into the tank until the float rises to a point that closes the valve. When the water level is low in the tank, the swinging arm moves downwards which allows more water to flow into the tank. This continues until the swinging arm returns to its initial state. This is a simple and effective level control system for water tank. Another level of control system is a steam boiler where the level of the water in the boiler must be maintained between certain limits; otherwise, it may lead to serious damage to the boiler and building as well as cause hazard to the building occupants (Miller et al, 2004). Water gages serves as a means of measurement level in the boiler. In an engineering context, the addition of control systems must be justified in terms of their profitability, or environment safety. A control system must be effective and efficient, and remain so throughout the life of the plant (Dutton et al., 1997). The performance of a system is often expressed in terms of their parameters such as: speed of response, stability and steady-state error. A good speed of response may often be achieved at the expense of steady state error and stability (Premier, 2008)  [1]  . Stability is one of the most important characteristics in any system. For a system to be stable, the system components must be appropriatel y sized for the application and the system must be correctly adjusted (tuned). The objectives of this project is to investigate the control of water level in non-linear water tank which is fed by a centrifugal pump and discharges to a sump tank through a valve. The tank is a V shaped tank which has a straight wall. The system inflow would be adjusted alongside with the control signal to the outlet valve and the outlet pump during the simulation. Furthermore, the project task includes designing a proportional (P) only and proportional + integral (PI) controller for a specific operating point and implementing it as an analogue s-domain system. The objectives would be accomplished by examining the dynamics of the water tank, modelling it from first principles and by applying step tests to identify the system model at various operating points. The diagram below shows the equipment used to carry out the experiment. Figure 2: Water tank level control system Figure 4: Block diagram of V Shaped Tank system AIM To characterise a new V tank Conduct identification and control experimentation Comparing it with an existing replicate system OBJECTIVE Relating level control to industrial applications. Understanding the dynamics of water tank, modelling it from first principle Application of step-test to identify the system model at various operating points. Designing a proportional + integral controller for specific operating point. 1.1 EXPERIMENT COMPONENTS In order to perform the laboratory experiment on process plant (V-tank), the experimental components used are: amplifier, sensor transducer, water tank, valve, and pump which are discussed below. 1.1.1 AMPLIFIER The amplifier is a very important part of any control system. Basically, it is used to deliver an output signal which is larger, in a prescribed way, than the input signal. A good designed amplifier mostly requires that the input impedance should be large so that the source is not loaded, and the output impedance should be small so that the power element can be easily driven (Anand Zmood, 1995)  [2]  . An amplifier could be referred to as the signal conditioner use in this experiment. An am In pulse width modulation (PWM) the amplitude and repetition rate remain constant, and the width of the pulse is varied according to the modulation signal amplitude (Parr, 1996)  [3]   Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) signals are increasingly being used to drive continuous actuators such as d.c. motor, hydraulic servos and a.c. motor. If the switching frequency of the PWM amplifier is sufficiently high in relation to the actuator time constants, then the signals will be average around the value (Olsson Piani, 1992)  [4]  . The motor is driven by a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) power amplifier, which supplies power to the motor proportional to a voltage signal from the controller. Pulses are produces at regular intervals, the duration or width of the pulse being proportional to the size of the voltage at each of the times concerned (Bolton, 1991)  [5]  . The reason why pulse width modulation is used is that conventional power amplifiers would simply burn at high power levels. The advantage of switching is that the solid-state devices are not continuously loaded with high power and therefore their power dissipation is low. This fact makes PWM amplifier very efficient. In PWM amplifier, the switching can be directly controlled from the digital output ports of a computer. 1.1.2 SENSOR In virtually every engineering application, there is the need to measure some physical quantities, such as displacements, speeds, forces, pressures, temperatures, stresses, flows and so on. These measurements are performed using this physical device called sensors, which are capable of converting a physical quantity to a more readily manipulated electrical quantity (Onwubolu, 2005). A sensor could be referred to as transducer. Although, there are different kinds of liquid level transducers which are used in variety of control applications with different function such as: float-type liquid level transducers, hydrostatic pressure liquid level transducers, capacitance probes, and so on. But with respect to this project, the pressure transducer will be the point of focus. The pressure transducer is used to measure the height (or head) level in the tank For a sensor to function effectively there is a need for signal conditioner and a display system. This signal conditional obtains signal from the sensor and manipulates it into a condition which are suitable either for display, or control system usefulness. Hence, a display system shows the output readings from the signal conditional (Bolton, 1999)  [6]  . Since the dynamic and static characteristics of the sensor or measuring element affect the indication of the actual value of the output variable, then the sensor plays an important role in determining the overall performance of the control system. The sensor usually determines the transfer function in the feedback path. If the time constants of a sensor are negligibly small compared with other time constants of the control system, the transfer function of the sensor simply becomes constant (Ogata, K., 1997). In selecting a good transducer with respect to its performance and system measurement, certain criteria had to be fulfilled. The accuracy of the transducer to which it has been calibrated, its response to error within the system, its stability i.e. the ability of the transducer to give the same output reading when used to measure a constant input over a period of time, etc (Bolton, 2008)  [7]  . 1.1.3 WATER TANK Water tank is a The tank characteristics are non linear depending on the operating point and are such that tank level surface is a function of the level. Figure 5: Tank fluid level system The objective of the controller in the level control process is to maintain a level set point at a given value and be able to accept new set point values dynamically and this level control system must be controlled by the proper controller. In considering the top section of the tank as shown in fig. 5 above, the flow-rate can be calculated using Bernoullis equation. From Bernoullis law the flow through a valve q (m3s-1) is related to the pressure head across the valve h (m) by the following equation, in which g is the acceleration due to gravity, Cd is the coefficient of discharge (m2) (Dutton et al., 1997). Modelling the Tank The tank can be modelled from first principles with the provision of certain assumptions. For the sake of simplicity, it is possible to consider the top section of the tank with parallel sides and then extend this model to deal with the whole tank. The prismatic section of the tank can be considered to be a simple rectangular tank with an inflow Q and an outflow, QL as in Figure 2. By considering conservation of matter, we can say that the flow into the tank must be equal to the flow out plus the flow converted into a change in level. but if then 1.1.4 VALVE Control valves are commonly encountered elements in process plant and the equation that describes their flow behaviour are nonlinear. Other nonlinear effects may exist because of the valve characteristic and the equipment surrounding the value. Control valves are used to regulate the flow rate of fluid in a system. The control of flow rate can be achieved by varying the size of the passage through which the fluid flows (Stenerson, 2004)  [8]  . The control valve modulates the flow of a fluid by introducing a variable area aperture into the pipeline. The volumetric flow rate, Q, of a particular liquid through a valve is proportional to the pressure drop across it, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  P. Thus, let kv be the valve coefficient which is the function of the valve opening or lift, h. in order to avoid dimensionality, the lift, h is defined as a fractional lift, i.e. when h is 1 the control valve is fully open, and when the h is 0 the value is shut. 1.1.5 VANE PUMP In selecting a pump for a specific task, there are certain factors that needs to be considered such as: the height at which the pump will be moving the liquid to, the speed that is required, and the pressure flow at the pumps outlet. A pump is a mechanical device that changes mechanical power into fluid power. Positive displacement (PD) pumps perform work by expanding and then compressing a cavity, space, or moveable boundary within the pump. In most cases, these pumps actually captured the liquid and transport it through the pump to the discharge nozzle (Bachus Custodio, 2003)  [9]  . However, the flow through PD pump is mostly a function of the speed of the driver or motor. A D.C motor drives the pump at a constant speed in most cases so that the delivery would be constant, i.e. the flow Q is normally constant (Healey, 1975). The pressure or head that a PD pump can generate is mostly a function of the thickness of the casing and strength of the associated accompanying parts (seals, hoses gaskets). In addition, a PD pump has been designed to have some strict tolerance parts. This strict tolerance controls the flow, and pressure that these pumps can generate. The ability to pressurize the fluid to higher pressures will depend on the tolerance of the components within the pump. Hence, the closer the pumps tolerance, the higher the capabilities would be (Brumbach Clade, 2003).  [10]  Furthermore, there are three types of positive displacement pumps in use nowadays which are: vane pump, gear pump and the piston pump. These kinds of pump had different similarities depending on their performance but based on this task it would be concentrated on vane pump. Vane pump are used in hydraulic systems. When the rotor rotates the pumps vanes in a counter clockwise direction which caused the vanes to slide in and out of their slots within the pump housing, a large amount of fluid would be carried from the inlet to the outlet (Onwubolu, 2005)  [11]  . This results from the eccentricity of the centre of the rotor with respect to that of the housing. Figure 3: Vane Pump 1.1.5.1 PUMP TEST In order to examine the pumps accuracy, a test was carried out on the pump. The pump was used to move water from one container to the other within a time limit. Using the laboratory scale machine, the empty container was measured to weighs 0.585Kg. However, the pump was tested at different voltage supplied to the pump from 1v 10v at every one minute and then measured the filled container to know the actual weight. The reading was measured in kilogram (kg) which was converted to litres per minute. The conversion was 1kg to 1litre at a constant time. The outcome of the pump testing experiment could be seen in the graph below. Graph 1: Outcome of Pump Testing Graph In addition, the pump testing results obtained from the graph above shows that the pump was not functioning perfectly. The inaccuracy of the pumps efficiency is as a result of imbalance modified vanes inside the pump. The actual dimension of the vane inside the pump was 8mm inner diameter, 52mm outside diameter and 22mm thickness. The out diameter of the vane was cut-down or modified to roughly about 40mm for the vane to rotate easily within the casing. Hence, the graphs shape should be linear and not the linear curve shape in graph 1. From this experiment, it was observed that at any increase in voltage supplied to the pump; there will be large amount of pressure increase from the flow outlet and vice versa. Pump Figure 4: Modified Vane Size Figure 5: Actual Vane Size 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Literature review 3. CONTROLLER A controller is a device which monitors and influences the operational condition of a given dynamical system. In closed loop control system, a controller is used to compare the output of a system with the required condition and convert the error into a control action designed to reduce error. The error might be as a result of some changes in the conditions being controlled or because of changes in the set value. Most industrial controllers use electricity or pressurized fluid such as oil or air as power sources. Controllers may also be classified according to the kind of power employed in their operation, such as pneumatic controllers, hydraulic controllers, or electronic controllers. For this kind of controllers to be used for a particular task, it must be based on the nature of the plant and the operating conditions (Ogata, K., 1997)  [12]  . 3.1 P ONLY With proportional control the change in the controller output from the set point value is proportional to the error (Bolton, 1991)  [13]  . This means that the correction of the control element such as valve will receive signal which depends on the size of the correction required. Although, a system with a proportional control may have a steady state offset (or drop) in response to a constant reference input and may not be entirely capable of rejecting a constant disturbance (Mutambara, 1999). For higher order systems, large values of the proportional feedback gain will typically lead to instability. For most systems there is an upper limit on the proportional feedback gain in order to achieve a well damped stable response, and this limit may still have an unacceptable steady state error. Therefore, there is a limit on how much the errors can be reduced by using proportional feedback only. One of the ways to improve the steady state accuracy of the control system is to introduce integral control. Set point Error Process variable Amplifier Actuator signal Plant 3.2 P+I CONTROLLER The primary reason for integral control is to reduce or eliminate constant steady state errors within the plant or system. Several limitations of proportional control are resolved by integral control. The steady state response to this class of load disturbance is completely eliminated. Thus, as long as the system remains stable, the system output equals the desired output regardless of the value of KP and its dynamic response (Mutambara, 1999)  [14]  . If the designer wishes to increase the dynamic speed of response with large integral gain, then the response of the system becomes very oscillatory. Hence, in order to avoid this oscillatory behaviour of the system then both proportional and integral control should be used at the same time. Set point Error Process variable Amplifier Actuator signal 3.3 PID CONTROLLER Most industrial processes are controlled using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers. The popularity of PID controllers can be attributed to their good performance in wide range of operating conditions and partly to their functional simplicity, which make it easy to operate (Dorf and Bishop, 2005)  [15]  . PID controllers are so effective that its controlling ability are standard in processing industries such as petroleum, refining, etc. In order to design a particular control loop system, the constants value of KP, KI and KD had to be adjusted to an acceptable performance. Increasing KP and KI tends to reduce system errors but may not be capable of also producing adequate stability, while increasing KD tends to improve stability. The combination of the three control components in this system yields complete control over the system dynamics. The proportional-integral-derivation (PID) controller provides both an acceptable degree of error reduction and an acceptable stability and damping. 4. METHODOLOGY 4.1 STEP-TEST EXPERIMENT The first part of the laboratory experiment involves determining the theoretical model at various level (h) of the water tank which include the prismatic bottom of the tank, the V shaped section and the top parallel sides of the tank. The water level in the tank was measured by a pressure sensor which was calibrated in the instrumentation laboratory prior to the experiment which showed that the pressure transducer produced a voltage signal proportional to the head. To start this experiment, the centrifugal pump was switched on and the Lab View step input programme was opened. The centrifugal pump was used to fill the water tank from a rectangular sump tank and also ensuring that there was enough water in the sump tank to perform the experiment. Although, the control valve was ensured to be fully open so that there would be continuous flow of water from the sump tank into the main tank as a result of constant running of the pump. After warming up the pump for some time, the pump bias was then set on the Lab View program to 1.3 volts (constantly) were the water is just about to start dropping into the tank. Using one second sampling time, the step volt was increased repeatedly by an additional 0.1 volts each time the head (h) settles from 0v 0.1v, 0.1v 0.2v, and so on. As a result of increases in voltage, the water level would be increased as well in the tank. Once the water level reached the top of the tank, in order to prevent the water from overflowing the step volt was reduced back to zero volt (0v) which allows the water to be empty back into the sump tank from the main tank and data or result was collected from the PC. 4.2 P ONLY EXPERIMENT In order to perform the P only experiment, the proportional gain has to be calculated to get the accurate value that would be input into the system. The proportional gain value can then be input into the LabVIEW package to run the experiment. The set point can be changed form one point to another to see how the plant would responds to the sudden changes to increase in set point The second part of the experiment entailed the design of the P only controller and P + I controller. As regards to the P only controller, once the values of the steady state gain and time constant were found from the initial step input experiment, the next step was to design a P only controller which will give closed loop dynamics 1/3 that of the open loop plant, which was then used to calculate the values of Kp at known head (h). Having calculated the Kp values, the pump was then switched on and allowed to warm up, also the Lab View P only controller programme was initiated. With the pump warmed up the Kp value was then entered into the P only controller programme alongside the same value for the pump bias and the sample time used in the previous experiment, i.e. 1.28 volts and 1 seconds respectively. The P only controller programme was allowed to run and the results for the sensor output (volts), the error (e) and the control effort were recorded and retrieved. 4.3 P+I EXPERIMENT Finally to control the level of water in the tank and eliminate the steady state error the Proportional Integral Controller experiment was initiated, the hf (design level to which the tank is to be controlled) was defined and further derivation resulted in two unknowns, Kp and TI. The values for Kp and TI were then calculated for, then input into the Proportional Integral Controller program and allowed to run with a sample time of 1 seconds. The results for the sensor output (volts), the error (e) and the controller output were recorded and retrieved. 5. RESULTS DISCUSSION ANALYSIS 5.1 SYSTEM TRANSFER FUNCTION AMPLIFIER WATER TANK SENSOR CONTROL VALVE PUMP PROPORTIONAL ONLY PROPORTIONAL PLUS INTEGRAL 5.2 SYSTEM MODELLING 5.3 SYSTEM PERFERMANCE 5.4. RESULT DISCUSSION Graph 1: Step-test experiment of voltage against time. Graph 2: Step-test experiment of voltage against time 6. CONCLUSION FUTURE WORK Filter design discussion: noise reducer 7. REFERENCES Bateson, R.N., 1999. Introduction to control system technology. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, London: Prentice-Hall. Bhuvaneswari, N.S. Uma, G. and Rangaswamy. T.R., 2008. Adaptive and optimal control of a non-linear process using intelligent controllers. Applied Soft Computing [e-journal] (9) pp.182-190. Available through: Science Direct database [Accessed 26 November 2010]. Dutton, K. Thompson, S. and Barraclough, B., 1997. The art of control engineering. Harlow; Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley. Girdhar, P. and Moniz, O., 2005. Practical centrifugal pumps: design, operation and maintenance. Oxford: Newnes. Golten, J. and Verwer, A., 1991. Control system design and simulation. London: McGraw-Hill. Healey, M., 1975. Principles of automatic control. 3rd ed. London: English Universities Press. Miller, R. Miller, M.R. and Oravetz, J., 2004. Audel Questions and Answers for Plumbers Examinations. USA: Wiley Publishing. Shinners, S. M., 1998. Modern control system theory and design, 2nd ed. Canada: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Wahren, U., 1997. Practical introduction to pumping technology: a basic guide to pumps. Houston: Gulf Pub. Co.

A Speech Directed to Politicians About The Problem of Homelessness :: Papers

A Speech Directed to Politicians About The Problem of Homelessness Today, we are faced with an increasing problem in society – homelessness. When we walk down the street, we find many people sleeping rough, living a life with drugs and alcohol as their only comfort. We are all united in tackling this dilemma that forces local authorities in Britain to take responsibility for housing 110,790 homeless households and in London, 28,610. I alone cannot do it, which is why I need your help to set up bed and breakfasts, detox centres, charities and some solace for these people. It is our duty to help our nation bring itself up to scratch; it is our duty to help each other. â€Å"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you†. Not only do we need to find homes for the homeless. We need to help them kick the habit of drugs and get them to hospitals where their health can be cared for. Homeless people have a frequency of physical health problems two or three time higher than the general population. Also, more than half of the people sleeping rough on the street have mental health problems, more than half. They can be a danger to themselves and to others, which is why they absolutely need our help. An alarming thought is that the statistics only count the homeless people who have applied to local authorities for help, so I have no idea how many have not been accounted for who desperately need help. I have heard about too many cases of homeless people who abuse drugs, which have shocked me and will shock you as well. One of them was a nineteen-year-old called Francis - he wasn’t that sure of his age, just like many other things in his life. His teeth were rotting so badly there were just black shards of them left and he smelled of old faeces and sweat. His own mother had introduced him to drugs when he was just a fifteen-year-old and then dumped him and his brother in a