Role of IT in Operational Excellence of manufacturing firms

The recent recession has wiped off many big companies off their business. Many have just survived luckily but are badly hurt (economically). It may take very much time for them to recover and get back to the situation what it was before recession.

Many manufacturing firms have started recovering from the economical downturn and have started back to focus on strategies. A recent report from IDC Manufacturing Insights, says that many of the manufacturing firms are adopting Operational Excellence in order to recover faster. Operational Excellence helps businesses to improve continuously and consistently with the help of stronger teamwork atmosphere.

Going in depth into the report, around 57% of the European manufacturing companies that participated in the survey have responded that they are going to focus more on operational excellence and have expressed faith in it. About 40% of them have said that IT plays an important role in supporting their efforts to recover through operational excellence.

Manufacturing Intelligence, Quality Management Systems, Lean, MES, and Factory Automation Applications are the vital initiatives that manufacturing firms are going to focus in order to achieve operational excellence.

All About Mobile Scanning Systems

Mobile scanning systems help to scan and register data from moving objects/platforms such as trains, cars, busses, boats, etc. Generally, mobile scanning systems are supplemented by attitude and position sensors (video, laser range, positioning, orientation, etc). IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and GPS (Global Positioning System) are some examples of these sensors.

Mobile scanning systems help to overcome many limitations of radial laser scanning. Mobile scanning systems can digitalize 3-D (three dimensional) models of real world terrain. In order to make this workout a combination of sensors is placed on a mobile platform which is in motion against the target terrain that needs to be digitized. These sensors result cause data fusion that constructs an accurate 3 D model of the target terrain.

The efficiency of a mobile scanning system can be measured in terms of the speed and quality (accuracy, resolution, etc) in construction of the 3D data. Recently released Riegl’s VMX-250 can collect 600,000 measurements per second.

Mobile scanning systems are generally used in mapping of waterways, railroads, highways, etc. It can also in mapping out open put mines, construction sites, etc.

HSBC At $600 Million Loss

HSBC, the biggest bank in Europe by its market incurs loss after setting aside $15.3 billion, mainly for consumer loans that soured in the U.S. The first-half net loss approximately will be $600 million, compared with earnings of $7.72 billion last year.

HSBC has disclosed $53 billion of provisions in the last three years, much of which are from the 2003 takeover of U.S. finance company Household International Inc. In March HSBC decided to stop consumer loans. Chief Executive Officer of the company said that the bank’s credit-card unit will face a “difficult” two years because of the economic downturn.

HSBC, in April, increased its capital with $1.78 billion rights as bad debts in the US reserves. The bank said in May it would take a pretax accounting charge of $4.7 billion for the rights offer because most of the shares were denominated in currencies other than U.S. dollars.

How to enjoy a great conversation?

The art of conversation takes some knowledge, practice and patience. Make a good first impression. Smile, it costs nothing to smile.

Listening is the most important part of any conversation. Pay attention to what is being said. Make the other person talk more, you will get appreciation as a good conversationalist.

Find out what the other person is interested in. Give him compliments but must be sincere. Compliments start a great conversation. Ask questions and be polite. Give space between questions and encourage him to tell, do not make them feel like you are interrogating them.

Introduce yourself, shake hands forget about yourselves and focus on them. Ask questions from what you have heard or you can phrase back what they have said in your words. This will give them opportunity to clarify you if you have any doubts.

Always consider your response before disagreeing. If a point is not important, ignore it rather than start arguing on it. If the point is important, disagree politely. Different people have different opinions; it is this difference that makes conversation more interesting. Do not agree to what ever is said, but tell them politely.

Always end the conversation on a positive note. Know when the conversation is over and tell them you cannot wait to talk to them next time.

Homebuyers Luckier Than Renters

The real estate market, which was doing fine even in the previous year by this time, has collapsed. With the fall in this industry, many homebuyers could get their dream homes at affordable rates.

But the condition of the renters was bad before real estate boom and even after that. The rental prices has surged bringing the affordability of renting an apartment to go farther.

The nation’s minimum wage of $6.55 could not get a person even a one-bedroom apartment for hire. According to National Low Income Housing Coalition’s survey, median hourly wage of an American renter is $14.69. But the amount he needs to earn to cover his monthly rent of an average $928 per two-bedroom apartment is $17.84 an hour.

Thus, he is short of more than $3 per hour to pay his rent.

In the case of an expensive metropolitan like Stamford or Santa Cruz, the renter must earn at least $31 per hour.

New Rent Control Law For Filipino Families

Philippines rent control law expired with the arrival of New Year itself. With this law, owners were checked against uncontrolled hikes in the rental prices, thus giving protection to low-income tenants and boarders.

With its expiration, people have fallen again under the trouble of uncontrolled rents. At first, the house of Philippines didn’t seem to have any plans on extending the law, but now the House Speaker itself assured the swift passage of the bill to extend the rent control law. According to the announcement made by the House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles, the new rent control law will be effective for 3 years - until 2011.

The rent control law was first made into existence in the year 1999. Since then, it was extended twice, in 2002 and 2005. The new extension will be the third one, which is intended to support people with low incomes as well as people with insufficient funds to buy a own house.

Frisking a Passenger for No Crime

The US Supreme Court passed a judgment, which reads that any person caught for a traffic violation can be subjected to frisk if the police officer wants to.

This judgment was made as a part of final hearing of the case of Johnson. He was on the backseat of a car, traveling, before it was pulled over by a police officer of Arizona. The police officer has enquired for the details of the passenger. Here she came to know that he was from a place, which is known to be a home for a Crips gang and he was an ex-burglar. This made her suspicious of the person. A pat-down search was conducted and was found that he possessed a pistol and a small bag of marijuana. Johnson was convicted under illegal possession of weapons and drugs.

It is here that a debate started over the power of a police officer on checking a person just in the name of suspicion. A lawsuit was filed against it. The Supreme Court ruled it out saying that police has legal powers to interrogate or search a person just for suspicion.

Zero Interest Rates Can be Working

The interest rates of federal funds have been lowered to 0.25 percent recently due to recession. Though the number seems so low, it seems that it is still not working.


According to a survey from Goldman Sachs, the lowered rates of federal funds are still not working effectively enough to stimulate the nation’s economy form gloom. Then what interest rate can be working? Is zero a good number? The answer, surprisingly, is no. They say that it is only when the Federal Reserve cuts the interest rates to negative 6 percent, it will work out.

This is going to hurt the US economy more. Already we are in turmoil of low running businesses and plummeting economy. All the major banks are already struggling to survive in middle of this chaos.

The zero interest rates is what are needed to work out for now. But by 2010, the Federal Reserve might require to cut the rates.

The Critical Age to Avoid Being a Drug Abused

There might be many situations and many temptations in life, which drag you towards using some kind of drugs. And slowly the abuse turns to addiction.

This is the same pattern continuing repeatedly, in the cases of millions of drug-abused worldwide.

In a study, which was conducted recently, it was found that children, who get drug abused before the age of 15, are more likely to become addicted compared to other age groups.

And in the case of female drug abused in early ages, the chances of becoming pregnant before the age of 21 are more, compared to the non drug-abused.

The age between 13-15 years is very crucial as more and more children fall prey to the drugs and alcohol at this very age.

This is the very age where children, having jumped into teenage, get more freedom in their life. This is also the very age where children get attracted to bad or good, easily.

So, if your child is in this age, be more careful.