Supply Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Supply Change Management - Essay Example At the heart of supply chain is information; such that its efficiency and effectiveness depends on a company’s ability to create, process, and communicate information from both ends of the chain ensuring that the right things get to the right places, at the right time.2 However, information can often be distorted, with fluctuations increasing as the supply chain moves from customers, ordering products and services, to manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials, compromising a company’s ability to manage information.3 In this respect, the Internet, as an enabling technology with the ability to automate the supply chain, integrate business activities, supply real-time data, and reduce costs presents a powerful resource to improve SCM. One of the biggest challenges companies are facing insofar as SCM initiatives are concerned is streamlining the supply chain to reduce cycle time without having to maintain high inventory levels. On one hand, these goals can often be conflicting such it will be difficult to provide on-time delivery of products without maintaining high inventory levels; while on the other hand, such operations can be difficult to maintain given high holding costs, warehouse and production-line storage costs, and insurance costs among others.4 In order to resolve this, companies have traditionally resorted to forecasting customer demand and matching inventory levels to these forecasts, as much as possible. However, given the uncertainties and fluctuations in the supply chain, this can often lead to inefficient operations and customer dissatisfaction. In this respect, Internet-enabled SCM strategies, by automating the supply chain and linking the supply chain activities presents an effective and effici ent way to reduce cycle times, reduce inventory levels, and reduce costs. Looking at the example of Dell, and its Command and Control Model, one can illustrate how an

Discretion in the stop and search context have come under much Essay

Discretion in the stop and search context have come under much scrutiny as it has widely been linked to racist practices.Discuss - Essay Example Although stop and search normally happens in public places, it may also be implemented in certain private areas. However, police discretion to stop and search individuals in public has become one of the most contentious aspects of British policing, and several empirical researches, anecdotal evidences, and survey data point to the ineffective and discriminatory use of the police powers. Significantly, the question of police powers to stop and search people has become one of the central questions in the debate about the relationship between police and community. Most notably, discretion in the stop and search context give rise to several related issues including racist practices and it remains a bare fact that Black people are more likely to be stopped than White people. As Bowling and Phillips (2007) maintain, â€Å"the statistics show that the use of the powers against black people is disproportionate and that this is an indication of unlawful racial discrimination. If stop and sea rch powers cannot be electively regulated – and it seems that they cannot – then their continued use is unjustified and should be curtailed.†1 Therefore, it is fundamental to establish that discretion in the stop and search context has come under much scrutiny as it has widely been linked to racist practices. This paper makes a reflective exploration of the use of discretion in the stop and search in relation to racist practices. Discretion in the Stop and Search and Racist Practices The fundamental relationship among the concepts of ethnicities, racism, crime, and criminal justice has been widely acknowledged in the various empirical studies in criminology. Significantly, the modern strategies of police and policing affect the minority communities and ethnic groups. Ever since the beginning of post-colonial migration to the U.K., the relationship between policing and minority ethnic communities have been characterised by mistrust, resentment, and suspicion. As W hitefield (2004) maintains, the anti-immigrant attitudes and insensitive policing of the early years of post-colonial migration developed ‘mistrust, resentment, and suspicion’ between the police and minority ethnic communities. For example, the West Indian Standing Conference report by Hunte (1966) draws attention to police officers going â€Å"nigger hunting †¦ to bring in coloured person at all costs.† 2 Significantly, oppressive policing against African, Caribbean, and Asian communities takes the form of mass stop and search operations, the improper use of paramilitary methods, disproportionate surveillance, groundless armed raids, etc. â€Å"Among the various aspects of the relationship between the police and minority ethnic communities, it is the practice of ‘stop and search’ that has been the most contentious.† 3 Therefore, police discretion in the stop and search context has given rise to heated debates in criminal justice seeing t hat it has widely been linked to racist practices. First of all, it is essential to realise what ‘stop and search’ exactly means and what are the various contexts in which the police discretion in the stop and search is applicable. According to the Vagrancy Act of 1824, any individual in suspicious context could be arrested and prosecuted by the police, and there are evidences to establish that this discretionary power of the police