Health Benefits Of Ergonomics Essay -- essays research papers

Ergonomics involves designing workplaces and work tools to be used easily, efficiently and effectively by people. The overall goal is to promote health and productivity in the workplace. Where ergonomic principles are not applied, chronic musculoskeletal disorders such as tendinitis of the arm and hand, eyestrain injury and back injuries may be common.Most people are concerned when they cannot use parts of the body like they know they should be able to use them. People are often unaware of ways to prevent injury, and ergonomics will introduce methods that will help reduce those injuries. Chiropractors recommend using ergonomics in a professional environment as well as at home. Following simple guidelines can help prevent injury to the arms and hands, eyes, and back. Everyday activities at work, home, or play can cause wear and tear on muscles, joints, tendons, and nerves. Problems can be a direct result of poor posture, repetitive motion, and excessive force or pressure to any part of the body.Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides ergonomic consulting services to companies, labor organizations and government agencies. In an environment where Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) and the associated workers' compensation costs continue to increase, these services are directed to identifying the risk factors to such disorders and assisting clients in reducing the hazards created by these factors.INTRODUCTIONIncreased or constant productivity is a concern of every employer. Employers want to know that their employees are doing their best. Therefore, employers should strive to make the work environment suitable for productivity. The ergonomics program is designed to do just that. In most cases, a happy employer leads to happy employees.PurposeThe purpose of the ergonomic program is to make employers aware of injury prevention. Such awareness can to increased productivity, a decrease in the number of worker's compensation cases, and a decrease in number of lower back injuries.The information provided to you in this proposal will make you, as an employer, see the necessity of applying ergonomics to your working environment. Studies have shown that with increased computer use, the numbers of Repetitive Motion Disorders has tripled since 1979.ScopeThese ergonomic consulting serves are provided by trained and experienced industrial engineers and ... ... body movement: Try Yoga, Chi Kung, or Tai Chi.For reducing stress: Try meditation, visualization exercises, taking deep breaths, or going for a walkFor working through sore, stiff, or sensitive muscles: Try massage, physiotherapy, trigger point therapy, acupressure or shiatsuFor reducing inflammation and pain: Try ice or a package of frozen vegetables on the affected area.For relieving neck strain after sleeping: Use a cervical roll or a "contour pillow" and don't sleep on your stomach.For general well-being: Take frequent rest breaks (recommended is 5 minute rests every 20 minutes and get out of your chair at least once an hour), drink lots of water, exercise, stretch, and move around often.CONCLUSIONSThose are the basics. The most important thing to ask yourself is: Are you comfortable throughout a day's work? If it feels good and you tend not to shift trying to get comfortable, then you are probably less at risk of injury or possible reinjury. Remember, people are not robots. Move around. Get up. A good chair lets you have a little room to move so you can stay loose. Leaning and slumping is fine once in a while, just don't make that your continual working position.

Brita Products Company Essay

1.To what do you contribute Brita’s success?The success of Brita in the USA market is due on the one hand to attributes of the core product and on the other hand to factors related to the market environment and successful marketing. †¢Attributes of the core productThe pitcher itself had the following benefits: it reduced chlorine and odors, it made water to taste better, it was extracting heavy metals from the water and the water was not depositing salts/sediment when boiled. †¢Market environmentInitially, there was no major concern to the consumers about filtering the tap water. However, the sensitivity that people showed about some health problems and/or accidents that rose during the decade of 1990, aided by significant publicity of these health problems, assisted Brita to easily increase brand awareness to the consumers and create a significant market. Moreover a lot of people perceived Brita filter as a present for their friends. †¢Successful marketingBrita pitcher was a technologically advanced product made from a well known German producer of industrial and consumer water filtration products, characteristics which made it attractive to Clorox who had significant marketing experience and distribution channels in the US. Clorox, which obtained the license from Brita GmbH to set up a subsidiary in USA, knows very well the specific market as it was a major manufacturer and marketer of home products with $3.9 billion dollars of sales in 1998. Clorox provided the support for Brita: capital for 4 years, the desired know how and leadership, as expressed by the insistence and personal involvement of Mr. Couric. Furthermore, Brita was the first very successful system of water filter, which created the home water purification industry. In the distribution area, Brita USA has achieved dominant position in most of the outlets and department stores in the market covering all five possible channels of distribution (Department stores, Mass merchandisers, Grocery stores, Club stores, Drug stores). Another important element that contributed to Brita’s success is the different pricing policy set according to the POS outlet. This means that the company could satisfy its consumers according to different needs and habits. Last, but probably the most successful decision was the great taste positioning concept that helped Brita to market the pitchers with a clear promotion and advertising strategy boosting its sales, as there was no other competitor with such a strong image. 2.What are Clorox’s marketing assets going forward? Can you comment on their positioning choices?Marketing assetsThe Clorox company for the first four years faced real problems to launch the pitcher in the market. After the four years the company managed to create a strong image and build strong brand equity. These assets of the Brita’s pitcher are revealed through the following facts:First of all Brita company is a strong brand name in the market of water purification system. This functions as an asset to support and boost the sales of Brita’s pitcher (or any other water purification system), as there is high degree of brand awareness. Also, by the year 1999 Clorox had created with the Brita pitcher a significant home water purification industry worth of $350 million at retail and was holding about 70% of revenue share or about $250 million, being a market leader. Furthermore there is a strong customer base who will buy new filters for the next years (80% of the buyers who have tried the pitcher were still using it a year later and they were re-buying extra filters of about 2.5 pieces per year). Furthermore, from the Lifetime Value of a Customer (LVC) analysis shown in the next question (No 3), it is obvious that filters contribute  significantly to the profitability of this product. All these details above are showing to us that the Brita company has significant assets (brand equity, loyalty, awareness, being a market leader, having a strong customer base of people who buy filters) for going forward with any clear strategy. Positioning choicesAt the beginning Brita company positioned the pitcher as a purification system providing water of unique taste. They positioned most on this benefit for 3 reasons:a) Surveys showed that taste means health, b) whole bottled water industry had been built without reference to health and c) Brita wanted to develop an unbeatable position (â€Å"be at the top of the mountain†) which would not be possible by positioning on how much of some impurity is removed. We believe that Clorox made an important decision for the promotion and advertising campaign under the idea of taste (â€Å"great tasting water†, â€Å"clear, fresh, wonderful†) because it was also consistent with the attributes of the core product (water indeed tasted better after filtration with a Brita pitcher). Brita stuck on one USP and promoting as taste as one central benefit avoiding a confused or doubtful positioning strategy which would lose the attention of the consumers. The choice that Brita did not make was focusing on health. Filters decrease health hazards by low quality tap water (even if not all dangers are eliminated). The publicity given to health problems due to water could easily serve to strengthen Brita’s position. Health is PUR’s choice for positioning their faucet mounted system, which is not quite a head-on attack, since they would attempt to occupy a different position in the mind of the consumers. 3.What is the lifetime value of a customer with a pitcher? How does it compare with that of a customer with a faucet mounted system? Does their  Ã¢â‚¬Å"bogo† promotion make sense?According to Gupta and Lehmann, Lifetime Value Of a Customer (LVOC) is:LVOC = m r/(1+i-r), where m=margin, i=cost of capital and r=retention rate. Since cost of capital is not mentioned in the case study, we assumed a value of:0% for simplification purposesand a scenario with:3% which can be considered closer to real valuesA hypothesis with cost of capital 0Under this scenario, with r=0.8 (80% yearly retention rate) and i=0, the ratio r/(1+i-r) is equal to 4. From the case study (p.18) the gross margin for the pitcher is 7,36, while gross margin for the filters is 2,05. 1a. The lifetime value of a customer with a pitcher system is the following:LVOCpitcher system= LVOC from pitcher + LVOC from filters== margin from pitcher + 4*margin of filters*2,5 filters/y==7.36+4*2.05*2.5=$27.86So, we can see that Brita is going to receive $27.86 from one customer for the lifetime period of a customer with a pitcher. 2a. At this point we examine the lifetime value of a customer with a mounted faucet in two different models:(i)Best scenario: pricing at $40 and retention at 80% (same as for pitchers)(ii)Worst scenario: pricing at $35 and retention rate of 80%Cost as mentioned in the case study is taken as $15. We have also assumed that Brita will keep on filters for faucet-mounted the same margin as in filters for pitchers. i.(40-15)=25+4*2.05*3=$49.8*LVOCfaucet=ii.(35-15)=20+1*2.05*3=$26.15*The worst scenario of the faucet production for Brita is that it is going to receive $26.15 from the lifetime value period of one consumer and the best scenario reveals that Brita is going to receive $49.8 for the same period. If we compare the worst scenario of (2aii) with 1a we see that the two amounts are close but pitcher systems have higher LVOC ( LVOCfaucet is $26.15 while current LVOCpitcher is $27.9) and in case of (2ai) there will possibly be significantly higher profits by the faucet ($49.8) in comparison with the pitcher system ($27.9). Using the lifetime values of the pitcher and faucet filter, we can conclude that if Brita is going to enter the market of faucet filters, it will receive higher margins of profits by 78% if all goes well, while even in a bad scenario it would lose 6,5% of its margin. A hypothesis with cost of capital of 3%1b.Similarly, the case when cost of capital is considered to be 3% and all other things unchanged, then our calculations will be:LVOCpitcher= 7.36+3.45*2.05*2.5=$25.04a.(40-15)=25+3.5*2.05*3=$46.52**2b.LVOCfaucet=b.(35-15)=20+0.94*2.05*3=$25.78**. As we can conclude from the above calculations the profit Brita is going to receive according to LVOC of pitcher and LVOC of faucet are close to those of the 1st hypothesis. In the best scenario there can be significant profit from the faucet. In the worst case, the faucet remains (even marginally) higher since the higher price of the faucet brings most of the benefit of the LVOC in the beginning (when the system is sold). An important element in the calculations above was the hypothesis that filters will be priced to provide the same margin of $2.05. BOGOThe amount of money Brita is going to receive it is based to the following hypothesis:†¢Retention rate would be the same as for the pitcher. †¢The consumers will use the second filter as the first, replacing filters at the same rate. †¢There was no cannibalization of the market. †¢COGS per pitcher is shown to be $7,8 at p.18 of the case study†¢Cost of capital is also taken at 0% for simplicity reasons. LVOCbogo= 4*2.05*2.5-7.80=$12.7Brita hopes to receive an extra amount of money of about $12.7 from the jag is going to give it as a present. If the conditions / hypothesis presented above are true, then the BOGO promotion did indeed make sense. Bibliography: KOTLER R. – KELLER K, MARKETING MANAGEMENT 11TH EDITION, PRENTICE HALL 2005

English Tips for Job Interview Questions and Answers

Congratulations! You have applied for a job and now you are getting ready for that important job interview. Use this page to make sure your English makes a great impression, in addition to your skills. Opening Questions When you walk in the room the very first impression you make on the interviewer is key. It is important that you introduce yourself, shake hands, and be friendly. To begin the interview, its common to engage in some small talk: How are you today?Did you have any trouble finding us?What do you think of the weather lately? Take advantage of these questions to help you relax: Human resources director: How are you today?Interviewee: Im fine. Thank you for asking me in today.Human resources director: My pleasure. Hows the weather outside?Interviewee: Its raining, but I brought my umbrella.Human resources director: Good thinking! As this example dialog shows, its important to keep your answers short and to the point. These type of questions are known as ice-breakers because they will help you relax. Strengths and Weaknesses You can expect to be asked about your strengths and weaknesses during a job interview. Its a good idea to use strong adjectives to make a good impression.  Use these adjectives to describe yourself by talking about your strengths.   accurate -  Im an accurate bookkeeper.active -  Im active in two volunteer groups.adaptable -  Im quite adaptable and happy to work in teams or on my own.adept -  Im adept at identifying customer service issues.broad-minded -  Im proud of my broad-minded approach to problems.competent -  Im a competent office suite user.conscientious -  Im efficient and conscientious about paying attention to detail.creative -  Im quite creative and have come up with a number of marketing campaigns.dependable -  Id describe myself as a dependable team player.determined -  Im a determined problem solver who wont rest until weve come up with a solution.diplomatic -  Ive been called in to mediate as Im quite diplomatic.efficient -  I always take the most efficient approach possible.enthusiastic -  Im an enthusiastic team player.experienced -  Im an experienced C programmer.fair -  I have a fair understanding of programming languages.firm -  I have a firm grasp on the comp lexities facing us.innovative -  Ive often been complimented on my innovative approach to shipping challenges.logical -  Im quite logical by nature.loyal -  Youll find that Im a loyal employee.mature -  I have a mature understanding of the market.motivated -  Im motivated by people who love to get things done.objective -  Ive often been asked for my objective views.outgoing -  People say Im an outgoing person whos very personable.personable -  My personable nature helps me get along with everyone.positive -  I take a positive approach to problem-solving.practical -  I always look for the most practical solution.productive -  I pride myself on how productive I am.reliable -  Youll find that Im a reliable team player.resourceful -  You might be surprised by how resourceful I can be.self-disciplined -  Ive often been complimented on how self-disciplined I remain in difficult situations.sensitive -  I do my best to be sensitive to others needs.trustworthy -   I was so trustworthy that I was asked to deposit company funds. Make sure to always have an example ready as an interviewer might like  more details: Human resources director: What do you consider your greatest strengths?Interviewee: Im a determined problem solver. In fact, you might call me a trouble-shooter.Human resources director: Could you give me an example?Interviewee: Certainly. A few years ago, we were experiencing difficulties with our customer database. Tech-support was having difficulties finding the problem, so I took it upon myself to dig into the problem. After two days of brushing up on some basic programming skills, I was able to identify the problem and resolve the issue. When asked to describe your weaknesses, a good strategy is to select weaknesses that you can overcome by a specific action. Once youve described your weakness, state how you plan to overcome this weakness. This will demonstrate self-awareness and motivation.   Human resources director: Could you tell me about your weaknesses?Interviewee: Well, Im a little shy when first meeting people. Of course, as a salesperson, Ive had to overcome this problem. At work, I make an effort to be the first person to greet new customers to the store despite my shyness. Speaking About Experience,  Responsibilities Making a good impression when speaking about your past work experience is the most important part of any job interview.  Use these verbs to specifically describe responsibilities at work. As with  speaking about your greatest strengths, youll need to have specific examples ready when asked for further details. act -  Ive acted in a number of roles in my current position.accomplish -  It took only three months to accomplish all our goals.adapt -  I can to adapt to any circumstance.administer -  Ive administered accounts for a wide range of clients.advise -  Ive advised management on a wide range of issues.allocate -  I allocated resources across three branches.analyze -  I spent three months analyzing our  strengths and weaknesses.arbitrate -  Ive been asked to arbitrate between colleagues on a number of occasions.arrange -  Ive arranged shipments to four continents.assist -  Ive assisted management on a wide range of issues.attain -  I attained the highest levels of certification.built -  I built out two new branches for my company.carry out -  I was responsible for carrying out managements decision.catalog -  I helped develop a database to catalog our clients needs.collaborate -  Ive collaborated with a wide range of clients.conceive -  I helped conceive of a  new marketing approach.conduct -  I conducted four marketing surveys.consult -  Ive consulted on a wide range of projects.contract -  Ive contracted with third parties for our company.cooperate -  Im a team player and love to cooperate.coordinate -  As project manager, Ive coordinated major projects.delegate  -  I delegated responsibilities as supervisor.develop -  We developed more than twenty applications.direct -  I directed our last marketing campaign.document -  I documented workflow processes.edit -  I edited the company newsletter.encourage -  I encouraged coworkers to think outside the box.engineer -  I helped engineer a wide range of products.evaluate -  I evaluated sales operations throughout the country.facilitate -  I facilitated communications between departments.finalize -  I finalized quarterly sales reports.formulate -  I helped formulate a new market approach.handle -  I handled foreign accounts in three languages.head -  I headed the RD department  for three years.identify -  I identified production issues to streamline development.implement -  I implemented a number of software rollouts.initiate -  I initiated discussions with personnel to improve communications.inspect -  I inspected new equipment as part of quality control measures.install -  Ive installed more than two hundred air conditioners.interpreted -  I interpreted for our sales department when necessary.introduce -  Ã‚  I introduced a number of innovations.lead -  I led the regional sales team.manage -  I managed a team of ten for the past two years.  operate  -  Ive operated heavy equipment for more than five  years.  organize -  I helped organize events at four locations.presented -  I  presented at four conferences.provide -  I provided feedback to management on a regular basis.recommend -  I recommended changes to help improve workflow.recruit -  I recruited employees  from local communit y colleges.redesign -  I redesigned our company database.review -  I reviewed company policies on a regular basis.revise -  I revised and improved plans for company expansion.supervise -  Ive supervised project development teams on a number of occasions.train -  Ive trained new employees. Human resources director: Lets talk about your work experience. Could you describe your current responsibilities?Interviewee: Ive taken on a number of roles in my current position. I collaborate with consultants on an ongoing basis, as well as evaluate ​the  job performance of my team members. I also handle foreign correspondence in French and German.Human resources director: Could you give me some more details about job evaluation?Interviewee: Certainly. We focus on project-based assignments. At the end of each project, I use a rubric to evaluate individual team members on key metrics for the project. My evaluation is then used as reference for future assignments. Your Turn to Ask Questions Towards the end of the interview, its common for the interviewer to ask you if you have any questions about the company. Make sure to do your homework and prepare for these questions. Its important to ask questions that show your understanding of the business rather than just simple facts about the company. Questions you might ask could include: Questions about business decisions such as why a company decided to expand into a specific market.Questions that show off your intimate understanding of the type of business.Questions about current projects, clients and products that go beyond information you might find on the companys website. Make sure to avoid any question about workplace benefits. These questions should be asked only after a job offer has been made. Choose Your Verb Tenses Well Here are some tips on verb tense usage during the interview. Remember that your education took place in the past. When describing your education use the past simple tense: I attended the University of Helsinki from 1987 to 1993.I graduated with a degree in agricultural planning.If you are currently a student, use the present continuous tense:I am currently studying at the University of New York and will graduate with a degree in Economics in the spring.I am studying English at the Borough Community College. When talking about current employment be careful to use the  present perfect  or  present perfect continuous. This signals that you are still performing these tasks at your current job: Smith and Co. have employed me for the last three years.I have been  developing intuitive software solutions for more than ten years.When talking about past employers use  past tenses  to signal that you are no longer working for that company:I was employed by Jacksons from 1989 to 1992 as a clerk.I worked as a receptionist at the Ritz while I was living in New York.