Bad Habits: Attitudes of Filipinos That Need to Change Essay

1. Thoughtless When someone celebrates birthday, graduation or winning the lotto in the neighborhood, the party lasts through deep in the night, keeping neighbors awake by the noise of an out of tune videoke singer. 2. Inconsiderate Even after agreeing to meet at a certain time, some Filipinos manage to fail this initial agreement, using alibis as traffic, got caught up with something or lost in the way, disregarding the feeling of someone who just complied with agreed time. If these folks can’t fulfill simple tasks, can we trust them when it comes to, say lending them our prized books or CDs, loaning them money or anything they promise? 3. Racist Many Filipinos complain of being racially profiled (Filipinas in Middle East are easy to get or gullible) but some of us look down on other people such as Indians as fellows with strange body odor who live off through usury. Or on Chinese neighbors who own bigger stores in the market as penny-pinchers. But we can’t look at ourselves and fix our flaws. Worse, see #6. 4. Too self-conscious Wants to know who are his or her stalkers at social media. Installs ‘who are my top viewers’ application which turns out as a link to a malicious website. Wants to get everybody’s attention to the point that they post celebrity, semi-naked or suggestive profile photos 5. Religious fanaticism While admittedly deeply religious people, many of us Filipinos are also living a life of hypocricy/inconsistency. Outside of the Quiapo church are shops that sell abortion formula and the island of Siquijor becomes a haven of faith healers who practice black magic. 6. Onion skinned We easily go ballistic whenever the word Filipino is used as dark humor in a script of an American sitcom or acelebrity mocking our â€Å"presumed† perfect accent. We are quick to call for apology even if they’re all meant as a joke. That may be a reason we become a topic of humor. 7. Short-sighted Some Filipinos prefer to receive a few hundred pesos in exchange of favors to a politician running for office rather than resist temptation and bond together for a better society and governance. Poor tricycle drivers are allowed to ply on dangerous streets — risking the lives and limbs of passengers — just to earn a living. 8. Laziness When going to the market, some Filipinos prefer to take the motorized bike and pay a premium instead of a 20-minute walk — to ensure a favorite TV show will not be missed. At the end of the day they lament how a hundred peso bill could no longer be stretched. Or they spend the whole day staring at the television, sending SMS on shows that offer prizes to ‘home text partners’. 9. Gossipmonger Many Filipinos live off talking about affairs of other people. Maybe that’s because it’s a major function of the Filipino culture. Who impregnated a neighbor’s teenage daughter? A barrio councilor has bad breathe. The baby of a close friend has a striking resemblance of the family driver. No wonder many families are broken, trust lost and friendships gone awry because of people trying to get in the way. 10. Undisciplined Pass laws that are easily broken: no smoking on jeepneys, no jaywalking on streets, picking flowers in the park or peeing on fences, trees or truck tires. Even wearing prescribed attire (‘please wear semi-formal wear’) when attending wedding ceremonies becomes a task difficult to. When we’re overseas we find it necessary to follow rules, but we seem to take our country and its simple laws for granted. 11. Crab Mentality Once a fledgling banana cue business becomes the talk of the barrio, everyone is riding the bandwagon and put up the same business. Eventually, every single banana cue business in the neighborhood fails and shuts down operation. If someone gets promoted at work, some Filipinos are good at making up stories; did he date the supervisor? Did she sleep with the manager? It also exists in the form of protectionism. Insecurity or lack of creativity drives this attitude. 12. Nepotism A bright yet not well-connected job applicant never gets the job position because it was reserved for a family member of an incumbent official or a reward for supporters of a candidate who just won in the elections. A well-connected passenger gets the airport’s special lane while hard-working OFWs sweat it out on a long line. 13. Freebie hunters Some Filipinos have got the nerve to crash into wedding parties uninvited or show up at a birthday party because they were brought along by a friend of an invited friend. They enjoy free electricity supply through illegal connections or enjoying a bonanza of free water from busted pipes instead of reporting the apparent waste or scarce resources. Often visits the house of a balikbayan/OFW who just arrived and ask — they don’t wait — for presents. 14. Allegiance by convenience. Filipino politicians often change parties not because they found a better principled group, but to gain something — power, money or fame. When momentum shifts, be prepared to jump ship and switch loyalty. Read their biographies and be not surprised they’ve been into various alliances with no real accomplishment to show. 15. Rarely punctual Appointments are never meant to be on time as many Filipinos make it a habit of not making it on time. Meetings, parties, and so on. Teachers didn’t lack the motivation to make us punctual as tardy ones were meted with appropriate punishment. Shall we blame others for this? Traffic congestion, slow jeepney driver, hard to find location, ‘I was robbed’, and others in an endless list of alibis and excuses. 16. Propensity for ‘good time’ Gathering of friends isn’t bad. But if it always meant 20 bottles of hard liquor meant to be consumed overnight, that’s something. Just got the job? Let’s celebrate and have a drink. Just got the paycheck, let’s have a drink. When someone starts reminding them to be frugal and slow down on alcohol spending, they reason out, â€Å"it’s my money, you have no business interfering†, â€Å"this is just once in a while† or â€Å"I need to drink to forget my problems†. Yeah, right. 17. Treat OFWs as ATMs Some Filipinos are overly dependent on relatives working overseas that they don’t look for jobs or don’t attend classes because they are in â€Å"abundant supply of financial aid†. Worse, money remittance from OFWs are often spent only on luxuries like mobile phones and jewelry they can brag to friends. In many cases, nothing was allocated for savings or investment. When OFWs come home, families find it hard to explain where money was spent.

Racial discrimination in US

Racial discrimination in US In discussions that touch on race relations, understanding what is meant by specific terms is important. Race implies that the origin of human beings is common and that they originate from a common species. As a result, human beings are equal and any variations in what they achieve are based on economic, geographical, social, historical and cultural factors.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Racial discrimination in US specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Racism is described as any attitude or deed done either consciously or unconsciously with the intentions of subordinating individuals or groups on the basis of race or the color of their skin. It can be perpetrated institutionally or at an individual level. Racial discrimination is therefore the act of treating an individual or groups of individuals on the basis of their race. Power is critical in racial discrimination because the practice relies on the capacity to withho ld or deny facilities, opportunities, social benefits and services that individuals are entitled to. Racial discrimination is a problem that has existed in the US for many years. The victims of the practice have always been the colored communities who include Native Americans, Asian Americans and African Americans. The practice has caused these groups of people to suffer by being denied privileges and opportunities they deserve. There are many factors that have been contributing towards the practice both from within the communities and outside. The first factor is competition for resources. Due to the large number of members of the communities in the US, competition for the scarce resources has been stiff. As a result, some communities have been discriminating against the colored individuals in order to deny them opportunities and privileges. The second factor that leads to racial discrimination in the US is historic prejudice. Prejudice is the prior judging of individuals or formin g wrong opinions about them without full knowledge about them or understanding them fully. In the US, there has always been prejudice against the colored population. These individuals have been discriminated on the basis of their color without trying to understand them and what they are capable of doing. This racial discrimination has caused them to suffer as a result of being denied privileges enjoyed by other Americans.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The third factor that has been encouraging racial discrimination is the need for certain groups of people to dominate the colored population and make them less influential. Domination over them has been associated with social, economic and political benefits for the dominant groups. This has caused the religious and spiritual traditions among the communities to take the issue seriously hence they have been looking for ways of re ducing it. Religion has been a powerful way of dealing with racial discrimination because it has been influencing many people In a bid to deal with the problem, religious bodies in the US have been campaigning for the need to treat colored communities equally. One of the ways through which they have been conducting the campaigns has been through educating members of the particular communities the need to co-exist as brothers and sisters without discriminating one another. In order to fight discrimination from the other individuals, it has been important for them to counter the practice from within. They have been able to do this by agitating for their rights through different channels including the media. In addition, there are government policies that have been guaranteeing all citizens regardless of their color the privilege to enjoy the rights enjoyed by the rest of the citizens. By doing this, they have been able to reduce racial discrimination to a great extent. Reference Jaime s, A. (1992). The State of Native America: genocide, colonization, and resistance. New York: south End Press.

Reflective Entry Purple Hibiscus by Chimamands Ngozi

Reflective Entry Purple Hibiscus by Chimamands Ngozi Using one or two passages from Purple Hibiscus to support your arguments, discuss how you interpret the ending of this novel? What is the message Adichie is relaying? â€Å"That night, I dreamed that I was laughing, but it did not sound like my laughter, although I was not sure what my laughter sounded like. It was cackling and throaty and enthusiastic, like Aunty Ifeoma’s† (Ngozi 299).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Reflective Entry: â€Å"Purple Hibiscus† by Chimamands Ngozi specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The above excerpt was echoed by Kambili as she was heading to her aunt’s home to visit the family that was staying there. Where their father sent her together with her brother Jali, to live with their Aunt Ifeoma’s who is a professor and is living with her children who are happy and are left to do whatever they feel like. This is unlike what Kambili is used to at her home wher e her stringent, rich and staunch Christian father believes in the rule of the fist. Her father rules their home with an iron fist and her together with her brother is not allowed to do whatever they like. They grow in a tyranny home which is as much of a dictatorship just like what Nigerian as a country is facing. The passage shows how much Kambili has grown in personality and how free and bold she is becoming. Her Aunt is of a free mind and is liberal as opposed to her father. The passage therefore shows how much living under her Aunts roof (house) has changed her personality. While at her Aunt’s house, Kambili fell in love with a liberal preacher a move which is seen as a sign of shedding naivety. Kambili has grown to being admirable and is viewing herself with much more respect and able to stand for what she believes in. she is empowered by the staying with her Aunt and her children. Feeling free and able to make mistakes she is headed back to her father’s house. T hen, she is more able to make mistakes and learn from them as opposed to the life their father had put her with her brother where they were to grow as perfect kids. In this passage, Adichie is trying to bring about the themes of oppression, defiance and change. The defiance is learnt in Nsukka a place associated with hte purple Hibiscus. Hte whole book is about freedom and oppression. It features the transformation from these two themes which are exhibited by Kambili.Advertising Looking for essay on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The book ends with Kambili returning to Nsukka to visit the new family of Ifeoma’s flat while she laughs her way to the place which she says isâ€Å"Because Nsukka could free something deep inside your belly that would rise up to your throat and come out as a freedom song. As laughter† (Ngozi 299). The ending of the novel comes with the enlightenment of Kambili, the confidence and defiance cultivated as she was living in her aunt’s house in Nsukka. It ends as she is travelling back to visit the family that is staying in her aunt’s house who had moved to America after she lost her job for defying the University, defiance which is emulated by Kambili in her characters as she returned home. She is travelling back to see experience the feeling of freedom and the place where the cycle is broken, where they moved from being voiceless to being able to air their views on concerns that affected them. Ngozi’s message in this novel is that of enlightenment: that as human beings we need to be able to air our views on matters touching on our personality and we need to allow others the space to do so too. Living an oppressed life cripples our abilities and we end up achieving less, but when we are left to be free, we discover ourselves and live a better life. Ngozi, Chimamands. Purple Hibiscus. Lagos: Harper Collins Publish ers, 2010.

Plato Euthyphro, Aristotle, Hobbes, Hume, Kant Assignment

Plato Euthyphro, Aristotle, Hobbes, Hume, Kant - Assignment Example 3. Socrates explains that the reactions or effects of things are different, as an action loved is said to be loved because someone is loving it. When someone does not love the action then it is not an action loved anymore. 1. Aristotle claims that we gain virtues by adaptation, and this I believe is true. I believe that humans are not naturally good or evil, we just absorb whatever it is that we are socially exposed to. As we mature, we learn to question things so we begin to choose for ourselves which are virtuous deeds and which are not, in our own perception. 2. I agree that there is no fixity with matters concerned with conduct and what’s good for us. As we mature, we, as humans learn how to preserve ourselves by accepting and rejecting beliefs that are beneficial for us. 3. Aristotle explains that virtuous men are only the ones capable of doing virtuous acts. I believe that virtuous men are more important than performing virtuous acts since it is a given that virtuous men will do virtuous acts but those who do virtuous acts may also do non-virtuous acts. 4. I find the premise rather contradictory. Aristotle states that the mean is between extremes but he says that there are some things that are wrong in all circumstances, such as adultery or stealing. According to Aristotle himself, we only adapt to our social environment, that’s how we learn virtues. One’s wrong may be one’s right and the differences in the opinion clouds the premise that some actions is always wrong. So then, wrong actions become wrong only because the social environment rejects the behavior. 1. Hobbes claims that men can be equal when a weaker man conspires with other weaker men or use machineries or such to fight a stronger man, whether it is physical or mental strength. And I agree with this since there are instances, like in wars

Social Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Health - Essay Example There is substantial evidence that shows that Americans do not attain the care they deserve despite the fact that USA spends more money per individual that any other country in the globe. The preventive care in the America’s health system is underutilized which results to a higher spending when the diseases advance to complex stages. The aspect hence questions effectiveness in the America’s health system in terms of service delivery. Similarly, the financial effectiveness of the America’s health system has been in question. The research that was carried out in the year 2009 indicates that approximately 62 percent of the entire personal bankruptcies in USA are linked with medical bills. This shows that the system is not financial effective at all (Sultz & Young, 2011). The America’s medical system has an estimate Medicare fraud of 60 billion USD annually. The fact shows how ineffective the America’s health system is. Lack of enough transformation incentives in terms of service delivery as well as strengthening infrastructure has greatly affected the America’s health system sustainability. In conclusion, the America’s health system’s effectiveness is yet to be realized (Sultz & Young, 2011). Various reasons prompted the need for health reforms especially in USA. One of the reasons is the need to address the adverse practices in the health industry such as fraud, waste and abuse. The need for provision of better health insurance coverage for all the Americans is another main reason that triggered the need for reforms. Lowering the health care costs and improving service delivery is the third reason while improving nation’s economic outlook through reducing budget deficit by improving Medicare’s sustainability is the fourth reason (Sultz & Young, 2011). The affordable care act that was enacted under the president Obama’s reign has addressed several key features. One of the key features addressed in this act is

Drug Addiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drug Addiction - Essay Example They crave for the drug so much that they can do anything they could to get a dose for them to relax. For those who are addicted they will continue taking the drugs even after realizing the harm it has on their body. (Amusable, 2008) The risk factors of drug addiction are common as for the other condition. Risk factors include family history of addiction where it is usually common on the families that had prior addiction before the current case. In addition, addiction of drug is dominant in males than female according to statistics. Stats show that the addiction in male is two folds compared with their counterparts. Peer pressure is also a contributing factor. This according to stats is seen mostly in the young people trying to fit in their social stratum. After the first introduction into drug abuse, the body develops a tolerance with time and eventually dependence. Drug addiction is a physiological process on its own. It is a physiologic process, because, it does not just happen at once but develops slowly and in sequential stages. Dopamine is the main hormone that is involved physiologically in the process of drug addiction. Drugs such as cocaine, morphine, and alcohol alter the pathway of dopamine. The first dose taken by an individual has no big effect. Additional drug abuse cause tolerance effect and soon the level of dopamine increase and consequently cause a feeling of being happy. Continuous administration of drugs also has a sensitization effect on the extracellular cells. So when an individual has reduced, or the dose reduce in the blood also the happiness causing hormone, dopamine, also goes down and the craving also start to go back to normal. The drugs taken tend to increase dopamine and when withdrawn the level of this dopamine dwindle and the cycle repeat itself. This cycle is what is known as drug addiction (Hanson, 2005). Will power to withdraw from drugs is most a time futile. The physiologic development of regulation effect

Strategic Operations Issues Essay Example for Free

Strategic Operations Issues Essay Using your own organisation or a local organisation that you know well, identify a strategic operations issue or problem that needs to be addressed. Describe the organisation briefly and briefly explain the specific operational issue, problem or process that needs to be addressed and provide clear details of its functions within the organisation; analyse the problem using a concept covered in the subject; consider the performance objectives of operations management; changes to performance objectives or outcomes; improvements; theory and recommendations for improving the system or operation. Executive summary Manufacturing plant operation issues of XYZ Plastics Pty Ltd This paper studies the operations issues of XYZ Plastics Pty Ltd’s manufacturing plant. In the last three months, the plant experienced a decline in % OEE (% Overall Equipment Effectiveness) from 90 per cent to 81 per cent, the raw materials inventory increased 10 per cent from 900 tons to 990 tons and increased the outsource warehouse cost from $100 000 per month to $150 000 per month. The overtime cost was also increased by 50 per cent from $20 000 per month to $30 000 per month. The analysis of the manufacturing process and workflow revealed that the root causes were: a) Inadequate communication linkage between the Planner and Maintenance supervisor which resulted in lack of critical spare parts to service major equipment breakdown. b) The batch size of white product was too small which contributed to speed loss and quality loss c) The Planner’s order quantity of raw materials was too big and caused average inventory to increase and inventory overflow to outsource warehouse. d) The double handling of raw materials by the warehouse staff which contributed to the wastage of overtime resources. The study recommended the company: a) Use a Kanban system to signal â€Å"pull† to the Planner to order spare parts for maintenance department. b) To set up an operating policy to limit the minimum production batch size to ËÆ'24 tons for white product. c) To maintain a discipline of using the Economic Order Quality (EOQ) for replenishment  order of the raw materials and reorder according to the inventory profile based on safety stock, delivery time and consumption rate. d) To provide training to the operating staff regarding the Wastes of Lean Manufacturing as a way to promote the learning culture. Table of Contents Table of Figures 1 Introduction XYZ Plastics Pty Ltd manufactures and sells black and white plastic materials for toy molding application. Its manufacturing process involves grinding the polyethylene plastics into a molten form and mixing with black pigment or white pigment. It produces a black product and a white product. The products are sold in 25 kg bags. The plant operates 24 hours by seven days a week but only four weeks in a month. It produces a product mix of 96 per cent black and four per cent white. The General Manager reviewed the monthly operations report recently and found that in the last three months, the operations performance was on a downward trend: a) Its Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) dropped down from 90 per cent to 81 per cent. Pophaley (2010) states that there would have been issues associated with the Availability rate, Performance rate or Quality rate. b) Raw material average inventory was increased by 10 per cent and the outsourced warehouse costs increased by 15 per cent. c) There was 50 per cent more overtime paid to fulltime workers. The sales volume remained unchanged at around 672 000 kg per month in the last three months. This was alarming because it suggested that the profile and productivity would have dropped. The General Manager called a meeting with its operations team to review the performance data and operations issues. They traced the problem back to the manufacturing processes and workflow to determine the root causes and take corrective actions. Discussion and analysis The manufacturing process involves loading the plastic pellets and pigments into the hopper, the grinder and mixer converts the mechanical energy into heat then melts and mixes the raw materials. The mixed molten paste is extruded out through a pressing die with 400 holes to form spaghetti like strips. The strips are cooled by water and cut into pellets by the rotary cutter, the slurry is then spun in a water separator to remove the water and dry the plastic pellets (see Figure 1 below). The products are then packed into 25 kg bags and stacked onto a pallet as a 1000 kg lot. Figure Manufacturing process schematic diagram 2.1 OEE performance trend analysis The operations team reviewed the % OEE trend of the last three months and looked at the date of three components that made up the % OEE, namely Availability rate, Performance rate and Quality rate mentioned by (Pophaley 2010). They found that all three components were on the decreasing trend which contributed to the % OEE decrease from 90 per cent to 81 per cent. The operations team found that the Availability rate dropped from 95 per cent to 93 per cent which indicated that there was increase of equipment breakdowns. They looked at the maintenance log book and found that there was an increase of pressing die cleaning frequency. During the pressing die cleaning, the process is shut down and the maintenance staffs needs to spend 16 hours to drill holes to clean the dirt out. This maintenance job is usually outsourced and they have a spare pressing die but this was not returned to the plant on time from the cleaning services supplier because there was a miscommunication between the Pla nner and the Maintenance Supervisor. The workflow is described in (Figure 2 below). Figure Process mapping of workflow The maintenance supervisor left an email message to the Planner, to order the die cleaning service which the Planner overlooked. There was a delay in sending the spare pressing die out to the supplier for cleaning. If they had  the spare pressing die ready, they would have saved the downtime of 16 hours for cleaning the die. It appears that a Kanban pull system would have provided better systematic demand information as stated by (Claudio Krishnamurthy 2009) for parts replenishment. The operations team found that the performance rate dropped from 97 per cent to 92 per cent of their maximum capable production rate of 1030 kg per hour, based on the current deteriorated production rate of 947.6 kg per hour (0.92 Ãâ€" 1030) the plant will be behind the monthly production target. The operations team reviewed the production log book and found that the production speed loss was due to increased production runs of white products. For every white production run, the operating staffs needs to clean the whole production line thoroughly because the black pellets in the previous run will contaminate the white products. The cleaning process required two hours per run. The plant also needs to spend two hours to change the rotary cutter as well. The plant normally runs one white product per month (26 880 kg) but in recent months the sales team requested four smaller white product runs per month (6720 kg Ãâ€" 4). The rationale was there were four smaller customers willing to pay higher price for the white products but they required delivery at short notice without providing forecast to the Planner. The smaller run size of white product contributes negatively to the per cent performance rate, the cleaning time of two hours per run and cutter changing time of two hours per run contributes a total of four hours of speed loss per run which could have been utilised to make more products. The Planner and sales team did not communicate with each other on this change and assess the economy of scale for the production run. The operations team re-assessed the change with the capacity size decision process, as (Rabta Reiner 2012) suggested that optimal values of production batch size will reduce cost and lead time. The operations team took considerations on algorithms of the extra cost required for the cleaning, changing cutter and speed loss for different batch sizes, and generated a graph (see Figure 3 below) to assist the decision on the size of the production run. Figure Capacity size decision graph The Figure 3 graph showed that the smaller run (6720 kg per run) costs more to make per ton and even selling at increased price, it was making a profile margin of only $100 per ton. In comparison, the larger run size (26 880 kg per run) costs less to make but even selling at normal price, it was still making $400 per ton. The graph showed that the most economical run of the white product is ËÆ'24 tons. The operations team also found that the quality rate dropped from 98 per cent to 95 per cent. They checked the quality records and determined that this was due to the rework materials generated from the increased white runs. The manufacturing team used raw materials to purge clean the process system to avoid contamination. The purged materials were used later on the black runs as rework. The time they spent on the rework could have been utilised to make good product. The above analysis determined the root causes which caused the % OEE drop from 90 per cent to 81 per cent and it is illustrated below: % OEE = Availability rate % Ãâ€" Performance rate % Ãâ€" Quality rate % Historical % OEE = 95% Ãâ€" 97% Ãâ€" 98% = 90% Current % OEE = 93% Ãâ€" 92% Ãâ€" 95% = 81%. 2.2 Raw materials inventory analysis The operations team reviewed the inventory performance on the monthly operations report; it showed that the raw material average inventory volume increased by 10 per cent from 900 tons to 990 tons in the last three months. Due to the increase in average inventory, the plant ran out of storage space and therefore it required the inventory to be stored at an outsourced warehouse location. The plant storage space was enough to store 1000 tons of raw materials but from time to time the space is filled and overflows the inventory to the outsource warehouse especially in the last three months. As a result, it increased the storage costs by 15 per cent from $100 000 to $115 000 per month including logistics and labour costs for the material handling. The operations team interviewed the Planner regarding the order quality and order frequency. The investigation revealed that the Planner was not  ordering based on inventory management principles. The ordering process takes about one week, from placing the order to receiving the goods. The plant normally keeps a safety stock of 672 tons of raw materials (roughly enough for one month consumption). This was based on their experience that the raw materials comes from other state and shipment delays could be up to four weeks; this safety stock is to maintain the service levels of the company. The raw material comes in normal order quantity of 2.5 weeks consumption, about 420 tons (672 Ãâ€" 2.5/4 = 420 tons). The Planner starts to place order when the inventory gets close to 672 tons (the safety stock mark). When there is a supplier promotion, the Planner would order a bigger quantity than 420 tons, thinking that would save the company money. There were a number of supplier promotions in the last three months and the Planner placed a bigger order quantity of 470 tons for each promotion which resulted in an increase in average inventory level from 900 tons to 990 tons. The operations team constructed a graph to determine if the Planner was making the correct order quantity decision. They used the total inventory cost based on two inventory cost components mentioned by (Schreibfeder 2009), namely holding cost and materials order cost. Figure Economic order quality(EOQ) The EOQ graph in Figure 4 indicated that the order quantity of 470 tons which the Planner placed on the supplier’s promotion was not economical. Rather than saving the company money, the total cost was higher than that of the EOQ of 336 tons. Even the normal order quantity of 420 tons was not as economical as the EOQ of 336 tons. The inventory profile with the new EOQ of 336 tons is shown in (Figure 5 below). It was constructed according to the method shown by (Silver Zufferey 2011) with the probabilistic replenishment lead time and slope (consumption rate). If The EOQ of 336 tons was adopted and orders were placed when the inventory touches 840 tons, it would have kept an average inventory of 840 tons and maximum of about 1000 tons on site. The inventory profile showed that average inventory (840 tons) would be lower than the current average inventory (990 tons) and most importantly it would eliminate the need for outsource warehouse. Figure Raw material inventory profile 2.3 Labour cost analysis The operations team reviewed the profit and loss statement and found out that there were 50 per cent more overtime paid to fulltime workers. It increased from $20 000 to $30 000 per month in the last three months. The amount of overtime was mainly paid to the warehouse staff. The operations team interviewed the warehouse supervisor and found that when the raw materials warehouse is full, they would move the materials to the finished goods warehouse for temporary storage, and shift it back when there are more spaces. One round trip to transport one ton of materials on a fork lift would require two minutes. These are considered double handling of materials as stated by (Liker Franz 2011). This is one of the Wastes in Lean manufacturing namely (transportation) that should be avoided (Slack, Brandon-Jones, Johnston, R Betts, A 2012). Conclusion The drop in Availability rate was due to the longer breakdown time required to clean the pressing die as there was no spare pressing die available. It appears that both the Planner and Maintenance supervisor required an improved communication system for the spare parts ordering. The capacity size decision graph in Figure 3 showed that the most economical run of the white products is 24 tons. Any smaller run size would result in speed loss and contribute negatively to the performance rate. The quality records showed that the drop in quality rate was due to the rework materials generated from the increased white runs per month. These root causes need to be addressed in order to improve the % OEE from the current level of 81 per cent back to 90 per cent. The EOQ graph in Figure 4 indicated that the order quantity of 470 tons which the Planner placed on the supplier’s promotion was not economical; even the normal order quantity of 420 tons was not economical. The associated total costs were both higher than that of the EOQ of 336 tons; it increased the average raw materials inventory level on site and causes inventory overflow to the outsource warehouse. There were double handling of materials by the  warehouse staff and this is a â€Å"transportation waste† which needs to be avoided according to the lean manufacturing principals described by (Liker Franz 2011). 4 Recommendations The maintenance supervisor should use a Kanban system to signal a â€Å"pull† to the Planner to order outsource services to clean the pressing die. Kanban is a visual signal system advocated by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota and mentioned by (Liker Franz 2011). The Maintenance supervisor can use a red box to signal that the pressing die is ready to be picked up and send outside for cleaning. When the cleaned pressing die returns, it can be placed in a green box indicating it is ready to be used, similar to the dual card system described by (Chen Subramaniamac 2012). The plant needs to set up an operating policy which states that the minimum size is to be 24 tons for white product. The Planner needs to maintain a discipline of using the EOQ of 336 tons for replenishment order of the raw materials and placing the purchasing order when the raw materials inventory touches 840 tons (a re-order point about one week before it reaches the safety stock of 672 tons). The inventory profile should be reviewed every three months to update the consumption rate to determine the new re-order point. The plant needs to provide training to operating staff regarding the Wastes of Manufacturing especially the warehouse staff as a way to promote the learning culture as advocated in Toyota and stated by (Liker Franz 2011). The operations performance such as OEE should be shared with all staff and initiate counter measures to poor performances. This will connect the staff to the continuous improvement cycle to achieve operational excellence.