Modals in Different Varieties of English

Introduction The modern use of some words can be considered wrong though the changes that are natural for the language take place and should be treated as the transitional period in formation of new grammar and vocabulary. In this respect, I would like to analyse the use of modal words and modal verbs in different varieties of English by contemporary speakers comparing those with the results received a few decades earlier.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Modals in Different Varieties of English specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More So, I would like to trace the relation between the origin of speakers and their ability to use modals correctly taking into account the current situation in the language environment and the one that occurred a few decades earlier with regard to the varieties of British and American English in different age groups. Aim and Scope The main purpose of this paper consists in investigati ng the use of modal verbs and expressions in different varieties of English language including mostly the difference between American and British English. Besides, it is necessary to analyse the peculiarities of use of modals by teenagers and children with the help of examples from different corpora of English language. These corpora include examples of speech from different settings and origins including different age groups, namely children and teenagers, various sources of information such as documents and newspaper articles. One of the major peculiarities of these corpora is the variety of genres including press reportage, editorials, reviews of books and music, letters, periodicals, catalogues and reports as well as fiction, science fiction, adventure, humour, and romance. Every source will be analysed with regard to the frequency of use of modals in different functions and shifts in the meaning conveyed with the help of modals that can be observed in terms of the period to whi ch the examples refer. Besides, it is also necessary to investigate how children and teenagers were affected by changes in the meaning and the frequency of use of modals by adults and teenagers/children. Previous Work As a rule, linguists investigate the most interesting aspects of the language usage in terms of results of the researches to be used in practice. In this respect, the changes that occurred in the use of modals can be related to the shifts in preferences of using modals and quasi-modals. Besides, population of different continents uses modals and quasi-modals with different frequency as well as representatives of different generations. Moreover, the results of the research can be influenced by the origin of the example taking into account the oral speech and written language because the genre to which the example is referred characterises the formality.Advertising Looking for research paper on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Thus, formal language is supposed to contain more modals whereas informal language is sure to contain more quasi-modals and fewer modals. As reported by Collins, the shift in the use of modals can be seen while comparing the results from British and American English-speaking population in the early 1960s and in the early 1990s respectively (7). These findings analyse the figures presented in studies by Leech (2003), smith (2003), and Mair and Leech (2006) who investigated the changes that took place in the use of modals taking into account American and British varieties of English language. Every member of the society has a right to express his/her thoughts in different ways. The variety of ways can be seen from the COLT corpus that includes Bergen Corpus of London Teenage English being a vivid representation of variety of nonverbal means of communication among teenagers and communication of teenagers with members of their families including other siblings a nd parents, teachers, and strangers. As a rule, teenagers use more informal language when they communicate with peers; this variant of communication differs greatly from the language used by teenagers with parents and teachers. However, the main aim of the current research is to investigate the frequency of use of different modals and quasi-modals and the percentage of use taking into account modals and quasi-modals ratio in the American corpus primarily. As suggested by Krug, the attention to quasi-modals is not sufficient in terms of scholarly articles and researches conducted on this issue (1). The researcher analyses the modals and quasi-modals with regard to their grammaticalization and categories typical for modals: â€Å"the most salient determinants in the present case are almost certainly phonological form, morphosyntactic properties and discourse frequency of potential category members† (Krug 3). Though many researchers have compared and contrasted the frequency of using different parts of speech and various phrases and word combinations by native speakers of English with regard to different dialects and genres, it is still necessary to investigate the number of modal used in different periods with regard to information from the Corpus of historical American English, contemporary situation with regard to the information from the Corpus of contemporary American English, and contrast the number of modals used by Americans with the one used by users of the British variety of English with regard to the information from the British national corpus. In other words, the current research is focused on the analysis of data from these three corpora using the theoretical background about the use of modals from researches conducted by other scholars. Material The nature of the primary research consists in choosing modals for analysis and comparing the frequency of use of modals in sources of different genres and in spoken language taking into account the situation in American variety of English a hundred years earlier and contemporary situation. I have used the corpora of English language to investigate the frequency of use of modals in different varieties of English though the primary purpose of the research was to compare and contrast the findings from the British variant of English and American variant of English with regard to the historical development of the latter.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Modals in Different Varieties of English specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this respect, the most influential limitation was the lack of information on the historical development of the British variant of English over a long period of time. As the changes in the American variant of English could be explored from 1810 to 2000, the changes in the British variant of English could be explored only regarding the results from two last decades dating from 199 0 till 2010. Though I used the modals and quasi-modals that are typical of the English language with regard to all varieties of the language, I faced the difficulties concerning the variety of combinations that were typical of the modals and quasi-modals. In other words, further research could focus on the combinations of other parts of speech with modals and the nature of expressions in terms of mood (imperative or subjunctive) and the attitude of the author of the utterance. So, the main sources of data include the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the Corpus of Historical American English, and the British National Corpus. I used the Corpus of Contemporary American English to see the frequency of occurrence of different modals in spoken language, fiction, articles from magazines, newspaper articles, and academic sources with regard to the period (1990-2010) to which the use refers. The Corpus of Historical American English provides researchers with a richer variety of resul ts as it includes the examples of speech dating from 1810 till 2000. In this respect, I was able to analyse the frequency of use of modals in different periods of time with regard to the sources they appeared in, including fiction, non-fiction, magazines, and news. This information enabled me to conduct a research on a great variety of issues concerning the use of word and the peculiarities of word choice for different sources such as fiction and non-fiction. Besides, it is possible to analyse the percentage of the appearance of modals in fiction and non-fiction. One of the limitations, in this regard, concerns the historical approach that, if used, could explain the frequency of use of certain words due to changes in the country and the world including economical factors, social and cultural development, and shift in lifestyle and values of the population. The British National Corpus provides researchers with the information on the variety of different word combinations. In this re spect, I was able to investigate the frequency of using modals in different setting in terms of the genre and parts of speech with which the modal occurred. The queries could be limited in terms of written and spoken language inserted into examples. In other words, the research turned out to be full of unexpected limitations. To be more exact, the limitations should have been imposed into the research mode so that I could get the clear data for analysis at the end of the investigation. However, this was not doe at the beginning of the research; so, I had to limit the number of queries and choose more objective and universal samples from all three corpora. In other words, the choice of data was likely to affect the results in an important way if the number of queries is not restricted.Advertising Looking for research paper on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Method Though the comparative analysis of the use of modals and quasi-modals was conducted by Mair and Leech (2006), it is necessary to view the frequency of use of certain modals and quasi-modals that were reported to have the lowest difference in American and British variants of English. In other words, the study is based on the findings by Mair and Leech (2006) who managed to identify the use of modals and quasi-modals in examples provided by American and British English language corpora. In this respect, the issue of primary importance is the decline of use of modals and increase in the number of quasi-modals used in the late twentieth – early twenty-first century. Though modals were used more frequently at the beginning of the reported period and the frequency of their use declined toward the end of the reported period, the frequency of use of quasi-modals was just the opposite and it increased toward the end of the same period. I searched for the frequency of use of the modals shall and should and quasi-modals be supposed to and need to. First, I entered the modal should into the entry boxes of all three corpora mentioned above including the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the Corpus of Historical American English, and the British National Corpus. This enabled me to see the changes in the use of the modal in a short period of time in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus; also, I could trace more obvious changes in the frequency of use of the modal with the help of queries made through the Corpus of Historical American English. The next step I took was the same procedure with the modal shall, and quasi-modals be supposed to and need to. The final stage of the research presupposed analysis of data and relevant conclusion made on the basis of the findings. In this respect, I was able to see the changes that took place in the use of modals that were previously reported to have similar changes in both var ieties of English including British and American variants and quasi-modals that were previously reported to have a greater difference in changes in these two variants of English language. As reported by Mair and Leech, the modal shall was used less frequently by people who used the British variant of English (-43.7% compared to the data received in 1960s) and by people who used the American variant of English language (-43.8%). Similar changes can be observed with regard to the frequency of use of the modal should (-11.8% of British and -13.5% of American). The quasi-modals were used more frequently compared to the period of 1960s when the first set of data was received. Thus, the quasi-modal be supposed to was used more frequently in the British variant (+113.6%) and in the American variant (+6.3%) which shows a great difference in the variants. The quasi-modal need to was used more often as well (+249% in British and +123% in American). Results and Analysis The first set of data c omes from the comparison of styles and genres used by the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. The following figure suggests the data received from the British National Corpus. Figure 1: Frequency of use of the modal should represented by the results from the British National Corpus. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper non-acad academic miscellaneous 9,724.94 7,015.77 8,241.27 7,571.64 8,142.98 10,221.98 11,257.89 Key: non-acad – is the set of non-academic sources whereas written and spoken are not clearly differentiated. Thus, the British National Corpus provided the information concerning the genres and styles typical for the use of modal should. I turned out that the modal should is used more frequently in spoken language, in academic sources and in sources considered miscellaneous. These results enabled me to conclude that the frequency of the use of the modal should is still very high with regard to the r eported decline of the use. The next step concerned the use of the same modal traced with the help of the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Figure 2: Frequency of use of the modal should represented by the results from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper academic 930.65 622.75 721.51 657.63 897.18 Though the non-academic and miscellaneous sources are not identified as separate subgenres, it is necessary to show that the difference between the British and the American variants is still very high as 9,724.94 words per million in the British variant is much larger than 930.65 words per million in the American variant of English. In this respect, the difference is already obvious though it is necessary to see the situation that occurred in the frequency of use of the modal should with the help of the results from the Corpus of Historical American English. This corpus enables me to claim that the frequency of use of the modal should declined greatly while comparing the results from different decades during the entire nineteenth century and the entire twentieth century. In this respect, the most frequently the modal should was used in the period of 1820s though even then the use of this modal was not as large as the current situation in the British variant of English as there was an average number of 1,649.88 words per million whereas the use of the same modal in the contemporary British variant of English equals an average figure of 7,423.46 words per million. The next modal that was analysed is shall. The first corpus that should be discussed in this section is the Corpus of Historical American English which provides us with the picture showing changes in the frequency of use of the modal shall comparing the nineteenth and twentieth century. In this respect, we can see that the decline is great, especially while comparing the results on the frequency of use of the modal shall in the early nineteenth century and the ones from the late twentieth century. Thus the results from the 1810s equal 1,924.31 words per million whereas the same figure is much smaller for the period of 1990-2000 (53.27 words per million). It is also notable that the most frequently the modal shall was used in fiction and in academic sources whereas spoken language, examples from magazines and newspapers show smaller frequency of the use of the modal shall. Figure 3: Frequency of use of the modal shall represented by the results from the British National Corpus. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper non-acad academic miscellaneous 2,195.98 2,310.60 315.07 330.20 1,160.58 2,139.88 2,024.27 This figure shows that the results differ greatly with regard to the use of the modal shall in the American and in British variants of English. At the same time, the results concerning the genre of use partially coincide for two variants of English language though the British s poken language as well as examples from miscellaneous sources demonstrates the same or similar frequency as the ones from fiction and academic sources as well as in the American variant of English. Figure 4: Frequency of use of the modal should represented by the results from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper academic 22.59 70.29 21.88 14.03 63.93 The results received from the Corpus of Contemporary American English are similar to those reported concerning the use of the Corpus of Historical American English where the use of the modal shall prevailed in fiction and academic sources while it was the least frequent in examples from newspapers (14.03 words per million). This figure can be compared to the results from the same genres for the British variant of English language where the frequency of use of the modal shall equals 2,310.60 words per million and 2,139.88 words per million for the academic sources . The next unit for analysis was the frequency of use of the quasi-modal be supposed to in British and American variants of English. It is necessary to note that this quasi-modal was analysed in terms of pure entries (supposed to was analysed in queries in order to ensure that all variants are included – be supposed to, is supposed to, are supposed to, am supposed to, ‘m supposed to, ‘re supposed to, etc.) In this respect, the results for entry supposed to differed greatly for the initial entry be supposed to. As this imposed some limitation on the analysis, I decided to restrict results to the absolute queries that were supposed to include all potentially relevant results. The results from the Corpus of Historical American English enable us to see that the obvious changes started in the 1930s when the frequency of use of the quasi-modal supposed to was characterised with the 43.21 words per million whereas every coming decade showed increased frequency of use of this quasi-modal leading to the results of 98.32 words per million for the period of 2000s. One of the most notable features of the frequency of use of the quasi-modal supposed to concerns the sources of examples as in all periods reported in the Corpus of Historical American English, spoken language provided us with the most frequent use of this quasi-modal. The results received from the Corpus of Contemporary American English differ slightly from the ones in the Corpus of Historical American English. Thus, we can see the difference from the figure: Figure 5: Frequency of use of the quasi-modal supposed to represented by the results from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper academic 103.92 121.42 53.12 60.82 24.80 This figure shows that the main sources where the frequency of the use of the quasi-modal supposed to was higher than in the spoken language is the fiction. The results from the British National Co rpus are similar to the situation presented in the Corpus of Historical American English where spoken language shows the highest frequency of use of the quasi-modal supposed to. The final unit for analysis is the quasi-modal need to; as reported by Mair and Leech, the use of this quasi-modal increased dramatically with regard to the results from 1960s compared to the contemporary situation. We can clearly see the frequency of use of the quasi-modal need to with the help of results from the Corpus of Historical American English where the lowest frequency can be observed in the period of 1810s (2.54 words per million) while the highest frequency of use is typical of the period of 2000s (211.14 words per million). Figure 6: Frequency of use of the quasi-modal need to represented by the results from the British National Corpus. Section/use per million spoken fiction magazine newspaper non-acad academic miscellaneous 2,555.89 1,028.71 1,589.51 873.46 1,438.18 1,840.44 1,882.11 T his figure shows that the use of the quasi-modal need to was the most frequent in the spoken variant of the British English whereas the average frequency is about 1,601.19 words per million which is twice as high as the frequency of use of this quasi-modal in newspapers and is almost 1.5 as low as the frequency of use of the quasi-modal need to in spoken language. The results received from the Corpus of Contemporary American English provide us with the information similar to the one from the British National corpus which enables us to conclude that the frequency of use of the quasi-modal need to increased compared to the beginning of the early nineteenth century. Conclusion The use of modal words and combinations has changed over the last hundred years with regard to the data from the British national corpus (BNC), Corpus of Contemporary American English, and Corpus of Historical American English as the sources of primary research materials. Besides, it is necessary to note that the use of the modals shall and should differs from the changes in the frequency of use of quasi-modals supposed to and need to. In other words, the data from the corpora demonstrates certain tendencies when the frequency of use of modals declines contrasted to the frequency of use of quasi-modals which increases. The most obvious changes concern the spoken language where the use of quasi-modals supposed to and need to is higher than in all other genres and sources of data. However, the quasi-modal supposed to is reported to be frequently used in fiction rather than in spoken language according to the results received from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. At the same time, the frequency of use of the modals shall and should tends to decline compared to the results received in the early nineteenth century. Works Cited Collins, Peter. Modals and Quasi-Modals in English. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print. Facchinetti, Roberta, Manfred G. Krug, and Frank Robert Palmer (Eds.). Moda lity in Contemporary English. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003. Krug, Manfred G. Emerging English modals: a corpus-based study of grammaticalization. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000. Mair, Christian, and Geoffrey Leech. â€Å"Current Changes in English Syntax.† 2006. Accessed from https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/doc_library/linguistics/leechg/mai_and_leech_2006.pdf. This research paper on Modals in Different Varieties of English was written and submitted by user Hadley Hendricks to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Next Generation Plm an Integrated Approach for the Product Lifecycle Essays

Next Generation Plm an Integrated Approach for the Product Lifecycle Essays Next Generation Plm an Integrated Approach for the Product Lifecycle Essay Next Generation Plm an Integrated Approach for the Product Lifecycle Essay Proceedings of ICCPR2007: International Conference on Comprehensive Product Realization 2007 June 18-20, 2007, Beijing, China Next Generation PLM an integrated approach for the Product Lifecycle Management Julius D. Golovatchev 1 Oliver Budde 2 1) Detecon International GmbH, Managing Consultant for Enterprise Effectiveness PLM, Bonn, Germany 2) Research Institute for Operations Management at RWTH Aachen University, Germany Abstract: Consistent definition, categorization and operation of products (e. g. extended products, bundles, etc) delivered to global markets and customized for ifferent buyer segments is one of the major challenges for the Lifecycle Management. Each lifecycle encompasses the processes, information, support systems and people involved in delivering the related business functions. It can be argued that process supporting technologies/solutions like WFMS, PDM-System etc exist today for the creation of a seamless environment for accessing, ma nipulating and reasoning about product information that is being produced in fragmented and distributed environment. A holistic approach that is suitable for aligning the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) business requirements (like process flexibility, horter time to market etc) to the potentials of new technology driven concepts in the information management like SOA is nevertheless still missing. The authors give reasons why the holistic view on the product lifecycle management as well as the link between an inter-company wide information management is critical for an efficient PLM and present an integrated approach taking these aspects into account. In this paper four building blocks of Next Generation PLM are introduced. The PLM Meta Model makes up the first building block. It defines the constraints and rules for decomposing the roduct functionality into meaningful modules. The PLM IT-Architecture represents the second part and describes the IT-components and their interrelat ion utilized for the purpose of PLM. A PLM-Process methodology as a basis for describing the relevant activities is attached in the third building block. The final building block is constituted by the Lifecycle Value Management concept for steering the PLM- process on a strategic level like, among other things, by considering portfolio effects. The paper closes with the presentation of a short case study validating the proposed concept for a company in the ervice industry. Keywords: PLM, product lifecycle management, extended product, integrative approach, lifecycle value management 1. Motivation As Shark (2004) postulates, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the activity of managing a company’s products across the complete lifecycle, from the early stages of conception to the final disposal or recycling of a product. From this definition, a strong interrelation between the value creation process and the PLM of the company can be deduced. Taking the current globally changin g business environment into account the PLM can be considered as a strategic weapon for enabling he company to provide an additional value to customers and thereby gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Especially in the telecommunication industry, which experienced a significant change in its environment during the last five years, PLM is considered to be essential for facing ever shorter innovation cycles (Wohler-Moorhoff et al. , 2004). In the following two sections, we introduce the main business drivers, which currently have the most impact on a company’s business model and are expected to do so in future. For each business driver specific PLM-relevant challenges can be derived. These challenges will be pointed out in detail in the last section of this chapter and will serve as motivation for our integrated PLM- approach in chapter 2. The validation of this approach is the goal of chapter 3 by introducing a case study. (1) Business Drivers Business Driver One: Management of the Extended Product The dichotomy between tangible goods and immaterial services is subject to change according to Saaksvuori (2004). In the service industry as well as in the traditional industries like manufacturing this development towards a hybrid or extended product can be observed. (Figure 1) Fig 1: Extended Product according to Thoben et al. , 2001 Following the argumentation of Mateika (2005) a critical success factor in the manufacturing industry is the ability to provide more profitable services in addition to the tangible good. But this combination of tangible and intangible attributes in terms of the extended product increases the complexity in managing the Product Lifecycle. (Saaksvuori, 2004) Another concomitant phenomenon of the so-defined extended product is the focus-shift to a horizontal integration along the value chain (Teresko, 2004), which can be achieved by considering product modularization oncepts. Business Driver Two: Globalization Global markets result in global competition that every company is confronted with. This barely new business driver forces companies to follow either a cost-leadership strategy by standardising their products or a differentiation strategy on a global scale by individualizing their products. In order to perform in the cost-lea dership role, companies have to implement efficient processes regarding the development of complex products and to handle the order management process. Simultaneously companies have to cooperate with numerous business partners, which results in a high effort or coordination. A product differentiation strategy implies processes that ensure short time-to-market on one hand and an effective degree of freedom in the process definition for staying innovative on the other hand. Business Driver Three: Legal Frameworks Increasing regulations such as safety, environmental and product reliability will influence company’s PLM- process. Especially the resulting effort for ensuring traceability will have an impact. Traceability has two dimensions in the PLM-context. First of all it is related to the PLM process itself. Effective measures have to be in lace in order to ensure the flow of transactions to identify where material misstatements due to error or fraud could occur (Sarbanes Oxley Act). Further, traceability in the order-delivery process is about tracking of an individual product units or even components. Legal frameworks like TREAD Act for the automotive industry in the USA or REACH for the chemical industry in EU can be subsumed under this dimension. Companies that need to respond to this kind of regulation must ensure that the implementation and the integration in the existing processes happen to be simple and at the least possible lifecycle costs. 2) Challenges Based on the outlined business drivers, challenges for companies can be derived for the strategy, the processes organization and the IT. An overview of these challenges is given in the following table. Tab. 1 PLM-relevant challenges Strategy Impact Impact on Processes Impact on IT Business Driver 1 Less vertical integration, more horizontal integration of the value chain Focusing on product modularization and utilisation of product platforms to enable the re-use of components Collaborative PLM-pr ocess with defined interfaces Process readiness for the management of complex products Data exchange standards IT-representation of complex products Integration of business applications Business Driver 2 Commitment to either a product individualisation or product standardisation strategy Improvement in the process automatisation Inter-company wide process standards Enterprise Application Integration with external business partner Workflow Management System Business Driver 3 Comply to regulations e. g. (Sarbanes Oxley Act, TREAD Act Support for traceability of products by standardised and well documented processes Support for traceability of processes Safeguarding data consistency Storage concepts for long-time archiving PLM is an essential component to support the value chain process in the company. In Aerospace industry, for instance, taking six month out of the development cycle can increase market share as much as 8% (Teresko, 2004). Due to the complex and multilayered challenges, that companies have to face, an isolated, non-integrative PLM-approach is not promising. Instead we recommend a more integrative approach that addresses the relevant dimensions of the PLM and thereby ensures an effective implementation. 2 Integrated PLM- Approach The integrated PLM- Approach consists of four components, depicted in figure 2. PLM-IT- Lifecycle- Value Management 4 Meta Model PLM Architecture PLM- Process Building Blocks Fig. 2: Four components constituting the integrated PLM-approach In the following paragraphs the different components are described further. (1) PLM Meta-Model Many present quality deficiencies in the product development (esp.. n the service industry) originate from a diffuse definition of products as well as from the inconsistent view on the object â€Å"productâ€Å". The product (or service) should be clearly and precisely defined to be developed, commercialized and to be understood from the customer. There should be a constant product definition ith the overall product lifecycle and for all business processes. The product as the main subject of the process needs to be defined and this definition should be taken from the customers? perspective. A product is an entity the customer perceives in its entirety and is characterized by being offered to a market place. It includes physical products, services and information (compare figure 1). The precise definition of the complete product range and their categorization still remain a problem especially in the service industry (eg. telecommunication, energy, finance industry etc. ). For example, in the elecommunication industry essentially four categories of products can be differentiated: market product (service), standard solution, customized (individual solution) and bundle. All offered products and services can be assigned to one of the mentioned categories. Product definition is not simply a reflection of the engineering design. It also includes the entire set of information that defines how the product is designed, manufactured, operated and managed on the market and finally withdrawed from the market. Product definition should be furthermore detailed by the company-wide specific PLM Meta-Model to decrease complexity costs. Such Meta-Model defines the product on an even more detailed level for the optimization of time to market and decreasing of resembling components PLM Meta-Model is the basis for standardization and modularization of products. Modular product data structure as core element of PLM Meta-Model ensures linking the sales perspective to the internal (production) perspective in relation to the offered products and services. The main aim of introducing a modular product structure is the optimization of the product development. and market Internal Portfolio branch Modules Components cat I Module cat †¦ in well management systems Realization systems and management Sales view production view Product Modules Module II †¦ †¦ Realization PLM as as stock in production order IT architecture: Product realization: PLM-Process Transfer payments Controlling: cost / revenue, product success accounting Production service: demand assessment, Marketing Portfolio invoicing target and regional resource planning and advance performance mgmt: structure Billing: Processes: input/ output, process quantities Fig. 3: Definition and requirements on product data structure The unique PLM Meta-Model and the corresponding processes should be implemented by considering the xisting processes, company structures, and cultures. Requirements from the affected functional areas flow into the definition of the product data structure. One master product data management fits all needs of the main processes and its interfaces. Using PLM Meta-Model leads to simplification and cost optimisation of â€Å"product engineering† throug h the re-use of the production modules, shorten â€Å"time-to-market†, avoiding overlaps in development and reduce technical variance, availability of the product modules range of all service lines (factories) for all division of the company etc. . (2) PLM IT-Architecture The foundation for moving a product through its complete lifecycle beginning with the product idea and ending with the product removal from the market is a solid PLM IT-Architecture, that is customized for the company-specific PLM- requirements. In our perspective, such a PLM IT- Architecture must support the PLM- process in the dimensions: (1) Decision support, (2) Operational support and (3) integration of supplemental business applications. A standardized off-the-shelf PLM-System is therefore not the tool of choice as Ausura and Deck (2007) point out. Instead we suggest to rely on a PLM IT- Architecture that re-uses, respectively ustomizes existing IT- components as far as possible. In the next paragraphs a description of the essential IT-components is given that build up the PLM IT- Architecture. Decision Support System (DSS): The main purpose of a DSS is to gather and consolidate data from operative systems in order to provide the senior management with aggregated information re garding the product lifecycle. The Computer Aided Selling (CAS) module provides functionality for the product configuration 1 and product pricing. The component Strategic Resource Management focuses on the long-term resource capacity planning on a strategic level. Product ortfolio management aspects are covered with the last Value Management component. Operational Support System (OSS) On the operational level the PLM- process execution is supported by the OSS. The Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) enables a higher degree of process automation. Especially in the context of distributing and releasing unstructured content like a product specification in cross-functional teams, the WFMS plays an essential role through a strong link to the Product Data Management System (PDM). The Product Modelling System and the PDM are closely coupled. The former defines the product structure, in which types of modules he product is decomposed into 2 . In the database context this functionality is sim ilar to the schema definition. The PDM-systems stores all product relevant data according to this definition and provides different views for each stakeholder e. g. marketing and engineering. The Multi-Project Management System as well as the Collaboration Tools are instruments for managing the product in different phases in a collaborative environment. Integration of supplemental business applications: A PLM IT- Architecture is supposed to hold the promise of seamlessly integrating and presenting all information roduced throughout all phases of a product’s life cycle to everyone in an organization, along with external business partners. For ensuring this functionality, an EAI-approach has to be implemented. According to recent research activities a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is most suitable to integrate the business applications from external partner e. g. suppliers as well as integrating the own business applications like ERP, CRM etc. in order to fulfil the promi se of seamless integration for becoming a real-time enterprise (Abramovici, 2002). Product-Marketing Management Exit Management CAS Strategic Resource Management Value Management Applications Supplier) Multi-Project- Tools Workflow- Product System Applications CRM CAD Decision System PLM- Process Business Customer) layer (Development Product Operational Support System Business (Management System Product-Data-Management System Collaboration Management Modeling System Business SCM ERP Support Applications (Integration-SOA) 1 The CAS module is also essential in the operative context for the order management. In our understanding CAS goes beyond the operative support and helps to steer the variant management in order to cope with the increasing product complexity nowadays. .For example hierarchies of assembly groups can be defined. Additionally constraints and rules can be modeled constricting the combination of specific modules. Fig. 4: PLM IT- Architecture building the IT-foundation of the PLM- approach (3) PLM-Process and Structure In this section the PLM-Process description will be introduced. The main design goals of this approach is to facilitate the execution of this collaborative process (efficiency goal) and equally important to align the activities with the strategic goals of the company (effectiveness goal). Our PLM-Process approach is based on three principles: Stage Gate Approach, Multi-Perspective, Metrics based Management. These principles are subject for further explanation in the following paragraphs. Principle One: Stage-Gate Approach The Stage-Gate Approach is both a conceptual and an operational model for the development, marketing and removal of a product during its life cycle. The PLM- Process consists of seven stages. This structure is oriented on the life cycle of the product and has been validated in several projects by Detecon Inc. primarily in the Telco-Industry. Every stage consists of a distinct number of activities (organized in perspectives, refer to the next ection), which have to be accomplished by specific process stakeholders at the given phase. The entrance to each stage is a gate; these gates control the process much like quality control checkpoints. Each gate is characterized by a set of deliverables as input, a set of exit criteria and an output. Gates are manned by senior managers that form the so-called Product Board. The Product Board acts as a gate-keeper that evaluates the results from one stage by a given set of criteria. Based on this evaluation, the product board can either decide whether the product idea proceeds to the next stage, e-starts at the previous stage or is archived. Principle Two: Multi- Perspective Product Lifecycle Management has always to cope with the conflict of objectives between the product marketing and the technical side. Several case studies have documented that this conflict often results in product failure in the market. Either because the product specification is too much technical driven and therefore far from the market demand or the product marketing has defined product specifications without collaborating with the technical department about technical feasibility beforehand. For solving that conflict of objectives three erspectives on the process have to be taken into account in order to ensure an efficient coordination and collaboration of the relevant d epartments or business partners. In the market perspective all activities are assigned to that relate to the product marketing. Referring to the service industry, typical tasks like the definition of product specifications and the management of the product on the market-place belong into this category. By contrast the technical perspective subsumes all technical or production- oriented activities. Additionally the financial implications of moving the product through the life cycle re grouped in the financial perspective. Principle Three: Metrics based Management In addition to the process definition the organisational component must not be neglected. Since products, and consequently the PLM-process, become more complex and involves internal as well as external partners along the value chain, there is a greater need to balance top- management control with the empowerment of self-managed, cross functional teams. As a prerequisite for achieving this balance, the company has to implemen t a metrics-based management approach in which teams are measured on strategic performance indicators such as evelopment cost, time to market and customer satisfaction. The definition and selection of the indicators is critical for the successful implementation of the PLM-concept. By setting the weights properly the teams will self-steer to the greatest short- and long-term profit, which results in less coordination effort and efficiency gains especially in the context of for cross- departmental teams. Evaluation Implementation Marketing Management Perspective Perspective Business Plan Implement Plan Technical Implementation Launch Product Go-Live technically Business Case Monitor Manage KPIs Monitor Ensure Product Process Controll Business Case Delivery Finalize 1 3 4 5 6 7 Gate 1 Gate 4 Idea Paper Description Report by Board Innovation- Management Planning Launch Exit Market Technical Financial Perspective Market Capabilities Analysis Technical Evaluation Financial Rating Market Roll-out Planning Develop technical concept Detailing Business Case Market Adjust Business Case Monitor Innovation-Market Exit Technical Exit Business Case 2 Gate 2 3 Gate Gate 5 6 Gate Detailed Design Product Launch Report Mgnt. Approved the Product Fig. 5: PLM-Process based on three principles (4) Lifecycle Value Management Life cycle oriented product planning is a necessity for companies on the competitive market and requires a robust and systematic process combined with the right organizational environment. Enterprises use Lifecycle Value Management to support the management of the product after launch through the growth, maturity, and decline stages of the product life cycle. In the overall value chain, Lifecycle Value Management ensures that the products and services which are developed and implemented fulfill the market requirements and reflect the market demand. Lifecycle Value Management requires permanent attendance for analysing and planning or ensuring the customer benefits and the alignment to all company functions. There are three different but supplementary building blocks of Lifecycle Value Management. PLM and Lifecycle Management Value Reporting Controlling Customer Needs Management Value Oriented Portfolio Management Fig. 6: Three building blocks of Lifecycle Value Management Value orien ted portfolio management (incl. IT-supported portfolio database) Increasing complexity of the product marketing without an appropriate and efficient data foundation will result in a lack of business transparency and low synergies in the value network. The modular structure of the portfolio promotes the use of common parts in the production processes, increasing the ratio mass production to overall production. Strategic alignment and value based product portfolio management enable an effective product lifecycle management. Focusing on clearly defined products makes a significant contribution to effective portfolio management. The products can be positioned without overlaps and in accordance with market demand. Value oriented portfolio management helps to prioritize product investments. Sales and marketing departments benefit from the increased transparency of the product range and he improved comprehensibility for the customers. Reporting and controlling process regarding the product lifecycle management process The referencing of different divisions (sales, resources and production planning; cost/profit accounting, etc. ) to a standard product definition lays the foundation for the application of important controlling instruments (e. g. product success accounting). The unambiguous correlation of the basic data to business management indicators along the lines of a standard product structure provides staff and management with precise and timely information about all of the critical success factors that elp staff and management to make the right decisions at the right time. Customer Needs Management Customer Needs Management incl. Requirement Management builds interface between PLM and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and gives input for the collaborative product design. The effective Customer Need Management ensures that product content matches customer requirements and allows delivering more personalized products by facilitating mass customization Implementation of these three building blocks combined with a modular product data structure ensures the â€Å"state-of-the art† Lifecycle Value Management: Individual product performance information available at real-time. Product Manager retains product accountability throughout life cycle. Strategy for product growth, maturity, and withdrawal stages is defined up front. Product replacement strategy also considered. Systematic (e. g. annual) review and clean-up/optimization of product portfolio. Supplier and customer are involves in the high collaborative integrated PLM 3 Case Study A renowned company in the telecommunications industry carried out an extensive restructuring program which would enable it to maintain its position in a deregulated market environment. The objective was on the one hand to convert the previously technical driven approach for the product design (i. e. , their orientation towards technical performance features) to an approach focusing on the customers’ needs and requirements. On the other hand, the aim was to develop and implement the integrated management approach, Next Generation PLM. In the initial situation the PLM and the platform was not â€Å"state-of-the-art† (e g. no withdrawal phase, missing of decision gates, long â€Å"time-to-market† etc). A portfolio management process was not designed and implemented. The current portfolio structure was oriented on the rganizational or technical structure and not organized from the customer’s point of view. The product portfolio was characterized by a large number of product variants and features. All these products needed to be handled individually from an IT management perspective. This broad variety of products needed to be realized and im plemented within all operative processes, IT-applications and –systems as well as sales information tools. This led to an enormous complexity that impedes the maintenance of IT-landscape and the management and optimisation of the processes. No integrated IT-solutions ere available at company and at its affiliates. During the project the integrated PLM approach valid for the company and its affiliates was developed. Implementation of Next Generation PLM at this company showed the valuable benefits for solid product development, marketing and strategy: PLM Meta-Model: Easier know how exchange and using of the â€Å"same language† during product development as well as fast and efficient communication between international partner Introduction of the harmonized product definition and product portfolio for all national and international affiliate companies The product portfolios across all of the company ere to be reduced by 50% and integrated into a modular structure. Adop tion of the product data platform at all international subsidiaries PLM Process and Structures Acceleration time-to-market up to 25% by several product groups Efficient cost savings along the PLM process by using standard support system and re-using of modules and components (process costs saving up to 170 m USD/year in the product realization phase) Effective and similar procedure of innovation and market management projects execution PLM IT-Architecture An implemented shared platform for document and project management. One physical server is used to support separate product lifecycle management processes in all divisions and subsidiaries Lifecycle Value Management Sound marketing strategy due to the early recognition of market needs and standardized information More detailed input for controlling for exactly allocation of revenue and costs to products Simpler allocation at cost centres and cost unit Introduction of the harmonized product portfolio for all national and international affiliate companies References [1] Abramovici, M. ; Sieg, O. C. (2002): Status and Development Trends of Product Lifecycle Management Systems. In: Proceeding of International Conference on Integrated Product and Process Development, Wroclaw, Poland, p. 2122. [2] Ausura, B; Deck, M (2007): The new product lifecycle management systems: whar are these PLM systems? and how can they help your company do NPD better? Visions Magazine. Online available at pdma. org/ visions/jan03/plm. html, last visit 26. 01. 2007. [3] 5 Mateika, M. (2005): Unterstutzung der lebenszyklusorientierten Produktplanung am Beispiel des Maschinen- und Anlagenbaus. Essen: Vulkan-Verl. [4] Porter, M. E. (1985): Competitive advantage: Free Press New York. [5] Saaksvuori, A. ; Immonen, A. (2004): Product Lifecycle Management: Springer. [6] Teresko, J. (2004): Auto Report: Information Technology The PLM Revolution. In: Industry Week-CLEVELAND OHIO-, Vol. 253, Nr. 2, p. 32–38. [7] Thoben, K. D. ; Jagdev, H. ; Eschenbaecher, J. (2001): Extended Products: Evolving Traditional Product Concepts. In: Proceedings of the 7 th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising: Engineering the Knowledge Economy through Co-operation, Bremen, Germany, p. 27–29. [8] Wohler-Moorhoff, Falk; Dieter, Stephan; Schwill, Matthias (2004): Telco 2010. Telekommunikation im Wandel: Die Karten werden neu gemischt. Published by Detecon. Bonn

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Technology cause of obesity - Research Paper Example The materials that I will research on and write annotated bibliography will enhance me write a research paper with much ease because I will have the reference within my reach. Australian Government. Australia: The Healthiest Country By 2020. Australian Government. (2009): Web. 11 Nov. 2014. Australian Government is a government publication that was published in 2009. It expounds on the effects of technology on humans. According to the article, obesity is one of the diseases that challenge the government currently. It asserts that approximately 60% of adults in Australia are obese (â€Å"Australian Government† 1). The article claims that the issue of obesity has been rising significantly for the last years. However, the article claims that the obesity is common among people who do not know the essence of observing good eating habit. The main objective of the article is to create awareness among Australians on the importance of observing and valuing what they consume (â€Å"Australian Government† 1). Among the steps advocated by the article in order to address the obesity issue include protecting children as well as other people from buying and purchasing unhealthy foods and drinks and reshaping urban environments so as to boost healthy lifestyle. The artic le also expounds on the essence of strengthening and supporting health care workers as well as public healthy workforce in assisting the public in making the right health choices (â€Å"Australian Government† 2). Additionally, the article expounds on the value of a national food strategy in addressing the production and supply of foods. All the issues addressed by this government publication are future oriented; the government of Australia aims at protecting future generation from the impact of

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