The importance of customer service and quality management in determining a firm's success

Today's organizations must be able to adapt and keep abreast with the development and seize the opportunity and benefits to grow and succeed. The management must be sensitive and opened to changes to avoid uncertainties and confitsions about their roles and their customers needs and demands. Failure to act and respond to the changes will expose them to lot of risks, including losing customers' confidence. They must be able to serve their customers more effectively and efficiently. Implementing a quality management system in an organization is a challenge. Despite numerous hurdles, quality management is still being considered as something that is needed for long-term solutions and customer-driven strategies. This paper focuses on the importance of customer service and quality management in a organization, specifically on achieving continuous improvement through quality customer service. Specific topics include initiating and implementing a quality management program, building a continuous improvement climate, applying quality principles and techniques, and performance appraisal vs. quality management

Development Of Zn-Mn02 Battery Using Chitosan-Znci2. Gel Polymer Electrolytes.

This project is divided into two main sections, that is to produce solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) as a proton conductor (H+) and to fabricate polymeric solid-state protonic battery with configuration of zinc (Zn)/SPE/manganese (IV) oxide (Mn02)' 1.0 g of chitosan was dissolved in 100 ml of 1 % acetic acid solution. Projek ini dibahagikan kepada dua bahagian utama iaitu penghasilan elektrolit polimer pepejal (SPE) sebagai konduktor proton (H+) dan fabrikasi bateri proton keadaan pepejalpolimer dengan konfigurasi zink (Zn)/SPE/mangan dioksida (Mn02)' 1.0 g kitosan dilarutkan dalam 100 mllarutan asid asetik 1 %. Garam ammonium nitrat (NH4N03) dan bahan pemplastik etilena karbonat (EC) ditarnbahkan ke dalam larutan kitosan tersebut

Synthesis Of Cobalt/Gold Bimetallic Hollow Microspheres And Its Optical Properties

Galvanic replacement reaction is a very simple and effective method to prepare the particles with hollow interior [1]

Comparison of data-driven building energy use models for retrofit impact evaluation

A change-point (piecewise linear regression) model fitted to the pre-retrofit data as the counterfactual for the savings calculation, is considered to be the best approach to evaluating the energy savings of building retrofits ( ASHRAE Guideline 14). However, when applied to a large portfolio savings analysis with substantial multi-year data, the change-point model does not fit the data well in some cases. The study thus aims to improve the accuracy of the changepoint model by: 1) using more advanced non-linear models, 2) incorporating additional input features, and 3) increasing the time resolution of input variables. We found that random forest regression (RF) models with an array of climate (humidity, wind, solar radiation, etc.), time (day of the week, season, holiday), and energy consumption of the immediate past 1-4 hours (energy lag terms) outperformed the change-point model, shallow neural networks, and support vector machine regression (SVR). Our result implies that high resolution smart meter data should be used in place of monthly utility bills to more accurately evaluate retrofit savings. We further explored the relative contribution of the input variables to the random forest regression model using Shapley Value, a game theoretic variable importance metric. We found that the most important input feature is the energy consumption of the immediate past (or energy lag terms). We also found that solar radiation and weekend day indicators are more important than outdoor temperature. The improved model could provide better insights to portfolio managers in planning future energy retrofits. Policy makers could also use such models to evaluate the average energy saving potential for energy policy changes, such as the requirement of minimum insulation level, and lighting equipment efficiency

Crystallization and enthalpic relaxation studies on a Copolymer of lactic acid

The effect of thermal behaviour and properties such as enthalpic relaxation, degree of crystallinity, development of crystallization, crystallization kinetics and melting behaviour of Co-poly (lactic acid) were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), FTIR spectroscopy and hot stage microscopy. Both glass formation and enthalpic relaxation have been measured on amorphous and partially crystalline samples produced by controlled cooling from the melt and the effect of the degree of crystallinity measured. Observation of the crystallization in thin films by hot-stage microscopy confirmed that the mechanism was that of the growth of heterogeneously nucleated disc spherulites. Both nucleation density and radial growth rates were measured but they exhibited different temperature dependence. FTIR spectroscopy has been used to study and characterize the change in structure of Co-PLA with temperature and time. Isothermal crystallization kinetics of Co-PLA was measured in the temperature range from 120 to 136 oc from these changes in the absorption of the IR bands and in particular the intensities of the crystalline and amorphous bands of the carbonyl ester group. In this way it was possible to analyse the kinetics of both primary and secondary crystallization directly from the relative crystallinity over extended periods with sufficient accuracy to test the validity of the Avrami equation

Promoting and developing knowledge communities in the workplace

Knowledge is a critical resource for competing in today's economy. 'Today's organizations must find ways to turn the knowledge of their employees into a competitive advantage in order to survive and succeed. It is very critical that the relevant people are well-equipped with the necessary knowledge and know how in order to cope effectively and efficiently particularly when making decisions that affect their lives as well as the lives of others. Thus, continuous enhancement to their knowledge, skills and abilities is a must. However, companies are in danger of losing critical organizational knowledge when workers retire or resign. This paper is focused on promoting and developing knowledge communities or communities of practice in the workplace. The benefits of establishing communities go far beyond retention of knowledge. It is a way of describing how people in organizations can teach and learn from each other. By facilitating the development of communities of practice in the workplace, organizations can help ensure that their human resource is fully and effectively utilized

Detection of Salmonella in chicken meat and chicken using conventional and rapid culture methods.

A study on the detection of Salmonella in chicken meats and chickens using conventional and rapid culture methods was conducted over a four weeks period in Selangor area of Malaysia. Thirty chicken meats of various parts included wing, breast and thigh were sampled from three markets and 75 cloacal swabs were sampled from three farms located near UPM. Two isolation methods used in this study were conventional culture method and rapid culture method for both food and cloacal swab samples. Of the thirty chicken meats sampled, three (10%) were positive for Salmonella. The occurrence of Salmonella in chicken meat maybe due to contamination during handling, processing, supply, transportation and the processing areas. Of the 75 cloacal swabs sampled, four (5.3%) were positive for Salmonella. The occurrence of Salmonella in chicken may due to poor management and stress. From the two isolation methods used, rapid culture method isolated 10% of Salmonella in chicken meat and none from cloacal swabs. On the other hand, the conventional method isolated 5.3% of Salmonella from cloacal swabs and none from chicken meat. The presence of Salmonella in chickens and chicken meat is of public health importance

Humans and Nature in the Loop: Integrating occupants & natural conditioning into advanced controls for high performance buildings

Post Occupancy Evaluation plus Measurements (POE+M) has revealed that thermal, visual, acoustic and even air quality standards derived through controlled experimentation alone does not ensure comfort or health in buildings. Introducing human input into environmental standards and into user centric controls is critically needed for a sustainable future. For over a decade, CMU’s Center for Building Performance & Diagnostics has been gathering POE+M data from over 1500 workstations around the world and testing the benefits on innovative environmental control systems. The separation of ambient and task conditioning, the provision of task controls, the introduction of occupant voting and bio-signal inputs into ambient and task set-points, offers major gains in comfort, task performance, energy savings, as well as health and wellness

Adaptive interference mitigation with user grouping for fast transmission in cellular networks

Designing uplink systems which group users with adaptive interference mitigation techniques is the objective of this research. Reduction in error rates and improvement in the energy efficiency is expected with this approach in addition to spectral efficiency. This paper reports a study on interference mitigation and transmission designs for groups of users in the uplinks. New formulations for the interference mitigation are produced based on the minimum mean square error and successive interference cancellation approach. By reducing the interference, the energy efficiency can be maintained and improved although the number of users per group increases. The measured error rates of this approach with user grouping achieve gains between 1 to 3 dB against that of the existing approach. With reduced complexity, the proposed scheme should be viable for practical deployment