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The Criminal Street Gang Activity Essay - 947 Words

Many experts differ on the definition of what a â€Å"gang† is. Police use the term to refer to groups that hold and defend territory, or turf. Experts use the term to describe any congregation of youths who have joined together to engage in a delinquent act (Siegel Welsh, 2011). The State of Florida (F.S.S. 874.03) defines a Criminal Street Gang as â€Å"means a formal or informal ongoing organization, association, or group that has as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts, and that consists of three or more persons who have a common name or common identifying signs, colors, or symbols and have two or more members who, individually or collectively, engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal street gang activity† (Statutes Constitution, 2016). As children progress through adolescence they learn quickly who they get along with and who they don’t. They bond with certain groups of kids that they have things in common w ith. For some this need provides a social and emotional basis for antisocial activity transforming the clique into a â€Å"gang† (Siegel Welsh, 2011). Researcher Jeffery Fagan found that most gangs fall into one of four categories: 1. Social - few delinquent activities other than alcohol and marijuana. 2. Party – drug use and sales to finance drug use. 3. Delinquent – serious delinquent behavior avoiding drug use and dealing. 4. Organized – heavily involved in criminality. Gang violence. Many former gang members in theShow MoreRelatedPrison Gangs : The United States991 Words   |  4 PagesThe fact that prison gangs are not visible to the public makes them seem unknown to the public eye, however the pose the same threats to the United States as all other gangs. Prison gangs are also often written off and forgotten about by authorities due to fact that they are incarcerated. â€Å"Due to their seclusion from the public and their minimal visibility, prison gangs are difficult to target and are thus frequently overlooked as threat actors, which enables them to commit various crimes withoutRead MoreThe American Of American History Essay1523 Words   |  7 Pagescourse of American history, the usage of gangs has always been embedded in the striving desire to be rebel, such as defeating the overhanging stature of the British empire. However as the 13 colonies formed a colonial gang in an effort to el iminate British influence in America, the definition of the word gang has transformed into an entirely different meaning. One common definition of a gang is a group of three or more individuals who engage in criminal activity and identify themselves with a commonRead MoreThe Criminal Aspect of Social Media1360 Words   |  5 Pagesdays. Social media is now an essential communication method in today’s society. While this initial thought is correct, criminals have also adopted this medium and often use it to communicate and to further their illegal activities. As such, law enforcement needs to look at the various internet applications of social media as an open source information platform in which criminal intelligence can be gathered 24 hours a day. Failure to do so means key pieces of an investigative puzzle may be overlookedRead MoreEssay about Street Gangs in the United States1399 Words   |  6 PagesStreet gangs in this country can probably be traced back to the first wave of Europeans who migrated to the colonies for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of the first gangs were formed as a means of self protection, with the thinking that there is simply strength in numbers. The missions of gangs in today’s society have grown and emerged to include many violent criminal avenues, including drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and extortion but the original thinkingRead MoreCriminal Activity in Salinas1695 Words   |  7 PagesWhy are we still plagued with gang violence and activities? What are the root problems for this increase in crime? What are the solutions? Before we can even try to come up with solutions to reducing and preventing crime would have to be understanding the factors behind the crimes that are plaguing Salinas California. We all know that the main reasons for crimes are gangs, but why do we have gangs. First of all the main reason we have gangs is because of the old gangs members that have become fatherRead MoreWhy Street Gangs Exist993 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction The reason behind the street gangs has been largely associated with myriad of social and economic reasons. Among the reasons as to why youth join gangs are desperation due to poverty as well as breakdown of a family as a cohesive unit. According to the survey of gang areas, Los Angeles showed identical poverty map within the area. In ss much as there are some other reasons behind youth joining gangs, when critically analyzed it, reveals that such reasons are always directly or indirectlyRead MoreThe Police Criminal Intelligence Bulletin1705 Words   |  7 Pageslooking over one’s shoulder so that the gang will not hurt them or a family member. Gang Control Strategies To control gangs, law enforcement agencies have used preventive approaches, including community organization, social intervention, opportunity provision, suppression and organizational change (Spergel, 1990). Not unlike the ones that were talked about earlier. Suppression has historically been a major strategy used by police and involves targeting gang leaders and hard-core members for surveillanceRead Morere various reasons behind young people joining street gangs. One of the reasons young people800 Words   |  4 Pagesre various reasons behind young people joining street gangs. One of the reasons young people join street gangs is because of neighborhood disadvantages. A theory that can contribute to why young people might join street gangs is Social Disorganization Theory. Social Disorganization theory assumes that â€Å"delinquency emerges in neighborhoods where neighborhood relation and social institutions have broken down and can no longer maintain effective social controls (Bell, 2007).† Social DisorganizationRead MoreOperation Blue Rag, By San Diego1597 Words   |  7 Pageshave officers assigned to gangs on either a full-time or part-time basis. Their conclusions underscored the necessity for rapid, multi-agency, coordinated responses to control illegal gang activities (Torres, S. 1998). Operation Blue Rag, a program developed in San Diego, California, focused on the city s black street gangs, while Operation Red Rag, implemented the following year, targeted Blood or Piru gangs. They were both federally funded through the Urban Street Gang Drug Trafficking EnforcementRead MoreJuvenile Gangs Essay980 Words   |  4 PagesFinal Project Andrew Rodriguez CJ150 Kaplan College Mr. Templeton August 30.2012 Juvenile gangs have become a serious and growing problem in many areas throughout the U.S. It is unlikely that gang control strategies can be successful as long as legitimate economic alternatives are lacking. I will be exploring the possible proactive solutions to this social problem. Juvenile gangs on the street and in prison â€Å"Violent crimes committed by juveniles are not diminishing, as other crimes, as reported

Bmws Operation Management free essay sample

BMW is a company that manufactures cars, motorcycles and engines by implementing the ten operations management decisions. The design of cars is usually made by the designers and the company uses an interesting technique in which they put the designers of interior and exterior against each other in a friendly competition, then the head designer of the specific series chooses the best design of this series. After choosing, he then builds a clay model of the car and enhances its visuals to see how it would actually look like. Then managers from all departments come to examine the prototype and check for faults and mistakes and if everything checks out, the design will be send to the executives to check its relevance. The quality control procedures that BMW operates within, is achieved through a system of quality audits at the stages of production of parts, and at the stages of the components and in the assembly plants. BMW Group established common policies on flexibility reserves to make sure that their capacity is extremely versatile in production amount. BMW is the worlds leading luxury car company and is devoted to maintain and improve its existence in key markets worldwide. Layout decisions are important because they allow a company to be more competitive by considering capacity, processes, flexibility, cost, quality of work life, and customer contact and image. BMW uses intelligent software tools as well as WMS (warehouse management system) which is a computer software designed for managing the movement and storage of materials throughout the warehouse, in order to reduce production costs and increase the number of output in distribution centers. BMW applies selection processes for both internal and external applicants which ensure the appointment of the highest quality staff. BMW is using a service management system as part of a bigger plan to improve supply chain lifecycles. Inventory, material requirements planning, and JIT decisions deal with issues such as how much inventory of each item should exist, and when to reorder. Maintenance deals with issues like how to build reliability into the process and who is responsible for maintenance Introduction: Operations management is a discipline concerned with the production of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. BMW is one of the companies that implements the ten operations management decisions. It’s the operations managers that are responsible for the way the production is planned. Managers in all companies, perform the basic functions of the management process which are planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. These are applied to the decisions they make in the 10 major operations management decisions. These decisions include: The design of goods and services Managing quality Process and capacity design Location strategy Layout strategy Human resource and job design Supply-chain management Inventory, material requirements planning, and JIT ( just-in-Time) Intermediate and short-term scheduling Maintenance History: BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded by Franz Josef Popp in 1916. BMW is currently the 1st most valuable car brand in the world and the 23rd most valuable brand in the world; in 2011 it was the 2nd right behind Toyota. BMW’s brand value increased 10% while Toyota’s brand value decreased by 10%. It currently own â€Å"Rolls-Royce Motor Cars† which is a British manufacturer of luxury automobiles and â€Å"MINI† which is a British automotive marque which specializes in small cars. BMW’s main products are: 1 Series: The 1 Series was introduced in 2004 and was the first sports hatch in the highly competitive compact car segment. The 3 Series is the benchmark premium sports saloon, and continues to define the compact executive car segment. It was launched in 1975. Series: The 5 Series car was launched in 1972 and is available in both Saloon and Touring models with a number of petrol and diesel engine options. The 5 Series is known for its agility, performance and driving dynamics. 6 Series: The 6 Series comes in two models, Coupe and Convertible, and is available in a Launched in 2003, the 6 Series has become renowned for its sporting elegance and cutting-edge design. 7 Series: The 7 Series is BMW’s luxury Saloon, combining performance, elegance and dynamic appeal. X5: The X5 was the first car in the Sports Activity Vehicle Segment, when it launched in 1999. These can appeal to buyers who enjoy the command driving position, as well as the dynamic driving characteristics of a BMW. X6: The X6 offers a unique proposition: four-wheel and drive model, high levels of performance combined with a sports car coupe body style Z4: The Z4 is BMWs premium sports car range and was launched in 2003, uses innovative technology and a lightweight engine to offer the ultimate roadster driving experience. M Series: BMW M combines technology and expertise gained from BMWs motorsport activities and translates it for the road. BMW M launched its first road car, the M1, in 1978 and the range has since expanded to include the M3 Coupe, Convertible and Saloon, the M5 Touring and Saloon, the M6 Coupe and Convertible and the Z4 M Roadster and Coupe. The company’s bestselling car is the BMW 3-Series which in 2005 accounted for nearly 40% of the companys car sales; and the company’s most profitable car is the BMW 5-Series which accounts usually for 50% of the company’s profits. In 2011, BMW created a sub brand called â€Å"BMW i† which commercializes in low emission vehicles. It unveiled 2 cars under the â€Å"I† brand, the BMW i3 which is an urban electric car and BMW i8 which is plug-in hybrid sports vehicle which can reach a speed of 100 km/h in 4. 8 seconds. BMW cars are found all over the world and in some countries it is the leading car brand. In 1994, BMW acquired Rover Group, which is known for its Range Rover. But eventually in 2000, Rover Group was divested. In South Africa, many car manufacturers such as Ford and GM divested in subsidiaries, but BMW still retains full ownership of its operations in South Africa. BMW uses a hybrid of diversification and concentration strategy. BMW manufactures its vehicles in 7 countries, Germany, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom, Austria, U. S. A and South Africa. BMW also has local assembly operations using complete knock down components in Thailand, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Chennai, India. BMW uses a detailed analysis to see if they can achieve their goal in particular countries and if the cost of labor is acceptable hence the opening of manufacturing plants in Mexico, Russia and South Africa. In some countries there are income inequalities; BMW has a solution for that because of its diverse cars. It has cars for low income people up to the high income people. The price of BMW cars varies from models to series. A 2,000$ BMW E30 can be found up to the BMW Hydrogen 7 at 1,000,000$. BMW’s prime competitors are Mercedes-Benz and Audi which in some countries have taken the market for a limited time then lost it due to BMW’s fast production of new cars. Germany exports 97% of its goods to other countries. Similarly BMW and its German competitors rely heavily on exports to make profit. In 2010, BMW produced 399,009 BMW 3-series in which 25% of them were exported to U. S. A. Also in 2010, BMW sales were 1,224,280 cars in which only 43,000 were to the local market, it also sold 98,047 BMW motorcycles of which 500 were to the local market. BMW uses a lot of third-party export intermediaries to facilitate the exporting process in a lot of countries. BMW also exports engines. â€Å"Alpina†, which is an automobile manufacturing company that sell their own cars based on BMW cars, work closely with BMW so their processes are integrated into BMWs production lines. While working closely with BMW, it made the BMW Alpina B7, a high-performance 7-Series, which is priced at 123,000$. It produced a limited amount of B7’s; almost 50% of them were exported to the U. S. A and were quickly sold out. Design of goods: The design of a BMW car starts in an extensive and enthusiastic procedure. Its most exclusive function is the unique BMW internal design competition. This is where developers in the professions of external and internal contend against each other with their suggestions. Their thoughts and styles are first drawn two-dimensionally on document or on the computer. They then later make a three-dimensional form as elaborate clay models or in virtual renderings using CAD. BMW won multiple awards for its impeccable design of cars, including â€Å"iF Product Design Award† for the BMW 1 Series M Coupe, â€Å"iF Product Design Award† for the BMW 6 Series Coupe, â€Å"German Design Award in Silver† for the BMW 5 Series Touring, â€Å"Winner Automotive Brand Contest† for the BMW 328 Hommage, â€Å"Louis Vuitton Concept Classic Award 2009† for the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics and a lot more. Karim Habib, a 42-year old Lebanese-born Canadian, has been named the new head of BMW Design, beginning June 1. He planned the design of the present 7 Series, will report to Adrian van Hooydonk, the senior vice president BMW Group Design. Habib started his career at BMW in 1998, and worked on a number of cars before moving to Mercedes-Benz in 2009 as head of the Stuttgart firms advanced design studio. He was lured back last year by BMW to run the companys Exterior Design group. The design of BMW cars has been increasingly progressing every decade. There are renowned designers that have made a name of themselves thanks to the BMW Company and in return they gave BMW the best design of cars possible, some of these famous designers of the present day are: Adrian van Hooydonk, he is responsible among others for the gull-wing Z9 Gran Turismo prototype, BMW 6 series E63/E64 and E65 7 series. Jacek Frohlich, he is responsible for BMW F10/F11, the newest 5-series. Juliane Blasi, who is responsible for the second generation BMW Z4. Karim Habib which we already spoke about, and many more. Quality management decision: Managing quality deals with issues like how quality is defined, and who is responsible for quality which is the key for improving operations. It permits building good and successful strategies of differentiation, low cost, and response. Good quality increases the company reputation and image, and therefore increases profits. The quality control procedures that BMW operates within, is achieved through a system of quality audits at the stages of production of parts, and at the stages of the components and in the assembly plants. Suppliers of materials and components also follow the same quality control principles. BMW considers quality as a key importance in every stage of the production process. It places a great value on customer feedback and manages quality according to their needs. It empowers its employees so that they become committed to the organization. The employees attitude to quality prevents mistakes and ensures continual improvement and therefore increased profitability. The principles that it applies are consistency and complete coverage of all requirements throughout the development and manufacturing process. When cars are then delivered to the distribution centers, their quality is also checked again and they have a full pre-delivery inspection before delivering them to the customer. In case a fault is found, the BMW management structure allows its team to react quickly and work on the problem. BMW has received a quality certification, which is the DIN EN ISO 9000, a quality standard with international recognition. BMW Group production has been confirmed as the first-class quality standards many times. Process and Capacity design: Because demand is vague, the BMW Group established common policies on flexibility reserves to make sure that their capacity is extremely versatile in production amount. These policies are obligatory for strategic planning, and they reflect the way BMW interact with long-term need concerns. They are included in the load-planning model. For a production line, we identify between the maximum potential (per week or per year) based on running consistently seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and normal capacity under normal working conditions. Maximum capacity is a specialized characteristic of the product line, whereas normal capacity depends on the working-time technique, which differs for various development levels and from nation to nation. We show normal capacity as a percentage of the maximum capacity. Reducing the maximum potential by the flexibility reserve (a percentage) gives the disposable potential. In load planning, any usage between the minimal and the disposable potential is possible, but utilization above the normal potential drives overtime expenditures up. Location strategy: BMW is the globes leading high-class luxury car company. This is thanks to their brilliant marketing strategy across the world. Their forceful sales strategy reaches out to millions of people every year across a number of regions. Their existence is felt universally, adding to the company’s universal dominance. To make that dominance a bit stronger, BMW are to set out various locations for car production, all of which have not been touched before. This will come in line with BMW’s plans to establish new partnerships with different automobile companies across the globe to help their growth and expansion plans. BMW manufactures its vehicles in 7 countries, Germany, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom, Austria, U. S. A and South Africa. BMW also has local assembly operations using complete knock down omponents in Thailand, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Chennai, India. BMW is devoted to maintain and improve its existence in key markets worldwide. BMW Group marketing subsidiaries are present in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and U. S. A. Also BMW currently has 17 production facilities in six countries: Berlin plant, Dingolfing plant, Eisenach plant, Contract production in Graz (Austria), Goodwood plant (GB), Hams Hall plant (GB), Landshut plant, Leipzig plant, Munich plant, Oxford plant (GB), Regensburg plant, Rosslyn plant (South Africa), Shenyang plant (China), Spartanburg plant (USA), Steyr plant (Austria), Swindon plant (GB), Wackersdorf plant. South Africa is a key location for BMW. In South Africa, many car manufacturers such as Ford and GM divested its subsidiaries, but BMW still retains full ownership of its operations in South Africa. BMW are increasing production of their new 3 Series in South Africa. Millions have been invested in order for this development plan to go ahead. This is a key location as the South African car marketing is currently thriving. It is also in a great location as many of BMW vehicles cars are exported from the country, with it having close connections to other key areas. Frank Peter Arndt, a Board Member of the BMW board and the Chairman of South African division of BMW said how important the 3 Series is to South Africa and the rest of the world. He said â€Å"The BMW 3 Series is the most important volume-produced model for the group, as well as the biggest-selling model in the entire premium segment. Mr. Arndt believes that despite the global economy being uncertain, BMW can still reach targets this year throughout the world. They are so confident that demand will be high that a third shift in BMW’s South African plant is being introduced. Layout strategy: Layout decisions are important because they allow a company to be more competitive by considering capacity, processes, flexibility, cost, quality of work life, and customer contact and image. It deals with issues like how the facility should be arranged and how large it must be in order to meet the plan. It can help an organization achieve a differentiation, a low cost strategy or response. If a layout is efficiently implemented, the flow of materials, people, and information within and between areas will be much easier. BMW adopts the warehouse layout that supports a low cost strategy in order to achieve this objective. This type of layout deals with minimizing total cost by examining the capacity of the warehouse. Instead of physically restructuring the warehouse layout or investing in expensive warehouse technology, BMW uses intelligent software tools as well as WMS (warehouse management system) which is a computer software designed for managing the movement and storage of materials throughout the warehouse, in order to reduce production costs and increase the number of output in distribution centers. Human resources: BMW applies selection processes for both internal and external applicants which ensure the appointment of the highest quality staff. Special selection events are designed to give applicants every opportunity to demonstrate their skills and abilities in a variety of relevant activities, to learn as much as they can about the organization and to take responsibility for the role they are applying for. Generally, vacancies will be advertised internally and wherever possible a current member of staff will be recruited into a position. Only if an internal appointment is not possible will BMW consider external recruitment. BMW encourages its employees in the development of their careers. BMW operates an equal opportunity policy which is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular â€Å"distinctions can be explicitly justified. † Supply chain management: Car manufacturer BMW is using a service management system as part of a bigger plan to improve supply chain lifecycles. The platform introduction was triggered by complexities in the technology rooted in its cars and subsequent demand for systems to support servicing, said Bennie Vorster, the group’s vice president of IT solutions and technology standards. We are working on the adaptation of the software to cover new car releases, and updates will be made,† Bennie Vorster said. Supply chain management continues to be a challenge for manufacturers whatever the sector, Vorster told Computing. â€Å"Warehouse spaces to handle supply are becoming smaller and firms must deal with issues related to customers’ requirements for more choice and flexibility. So complexities related to the increasing demand for ‘just in time’ delivery processes must be met by efficient supply chain management systems,† he said. The incorporation of mobile connectivity between systems and necessities from manufacturers or sales departments translates to short supply chain processes. â€Å"To avoid inefficiency both in terms of time and space, we don’t order parts long before the production time to keep in our warehouses in case a customer orders a car of any particular specification. â€Å"For that reason, the technology behind the process linking suppliers and manufacturers has to be seamless and as fast as possible,† said Vorster. BMW uses â€Å"SAP†, which is very popular business software, as its core platform along with a set of modified legacy systems. The company is looking at updating some of the programs managing diverse parts of its supply chain management procedure, and uses the Agile programming model to speed up delivery processes. Inventory, material requirements planning (MRP), and JIT decisions: Inventory, material requirements planning, and JIT decisions deal with issues such as how much inventory of each item should exist, and when to reorder. Inventory is the items which the firms possess during the implementation of their jobs in the production process. It can take any form of the product such as raw material, work in process or finished goods. The Production procedure in car development is very complicated, in order to fulfill customer requirements and preferences. Conventional techniques of preparing, managing and tracking the procedure are not appropriate any longer. Thus new techniques are required. At BMW, a system dynamics strategy is used. A simple powerful inventory simulator with a friendly user-interface can considerably improve the inventory procedure. This simulator is used on a day-to-day basis to support monthly, weekly and daily inventory reviews as well as everyday tracking of the performance of the procedure. To highlight the effectiveness of the developed simulator, the manager of the production-planning division at BMWs plant in Regensburg, who said in an interview: â€Å"The simulator used within our division permitted us to improve our results for more than 2000 units this year. This was possible, because the simulator revealed in advance the opportunities of increasing production by introducing extra changes in the production schedule†. Because these 2000 units were required to fulfill customer requirements, this lead to an improvement in net-income of more than 15 million US$. A material requirement planning is an effective inventory control system that provides the necessary information for a company to compete in the global marketplace. BMW applies excellent standards for its internal processes by using service-oriented architecture (SOA) to redesign its material requirements planning operations, and to enable a more innovative supply chain management strategy based on flexible quantity agreements. The SOA is an IT architecture plan that is open, flexible, and adaptable for developing modular service-based business solution. It enables enterprises to differentiate their business by lowering material handling costs and improve vendor management. JIT (just-in-time) production is producing and delivering goods on time. The benefits of JIT are: reduced operating cost, improved quality and performance, increased innovativeness, flexibility, improved delivery. BMW is beyond JIT. It shifted from just-in-time production to delivery on demand. BMW sends JIT delivery schedules to suppliers who receive the information via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or by accessing the SAP Automotive Supplier Portal, where up to date information about the delivery needs is posted. The order includes all parts required to build each car. For example, the X5 has hundreds of components listed in the bill of materials. SAP Automotive gathers the delivery schedules for each part to fit the BMW assembly-line planning and sequencing directives. Suppliers then send BMW information about the delivery date. Maintenance: Maintenance deals with issues like how to build reliability into the process and who is responsible for maintenance. it is a very important issue because it ensures sustainability of the product. It’s a method used to keep an organization running efficiently. Herman Adams, a maintenance planning specialist in the BMW Body Shop, said: People who buy a BMW are paying for the engineering and quality, not for breakdowns on the plant floor. â€Å"To achieve maintenance and reliability excellence, its all about being the driver. † On the macro level: We look at ways that can ensure the equipment is going to be able to do what we want it to do, says Seaman. And, on the micro level: We plan all of our maintenance and schedule it. It does not schedule us, says Adams. Managers and technicians at BMW are motivated to build and plan maintenance to comply with the plant’s needs. They use reliability centered maintenance (RCM) which is a strategy used to improve production and efficiency of the plant. It includes determining a way to increase operating procedures like maximizing a machine’s uptime by adding more workers or making engineering modifications. They focus on managing the equipment to ensure much efficiency as possible. Moreover, they can easily buy from external partners’ commodity skill opportunities like changing air filters. There are four different units in the plant that take a distinct spin on maintenance which are: the body Shop, assembly, the paint shop and facilities/energy. In BMW, there is no maintenance manager position. Rather, there is a managerial representative from each unit that plan maintenance. Maintenance and reliability doesnt reside in one department or with one individual, says Adams. Everybody owns maintenance, reliability, uptime and overall equipment effectiveness. Its a team game. Conclusions and Recommendations: BMW is a well known and highly valued brand. Hence, it is a benefit for the company. In the premium section market, the prices for the vehicles are greater and therefore the well established brand creates credibility and warrants the customers to the purchase of a BMW. An example of this is the BMW 3-series. In the section for premium middle-class vehicles, despite the price, the 3-series is the best selling among the competition. The diversity in their portfolio is wide. In the different sections, many editions of the vehicles are provided. Moreover, BMW will release new models not only of existing but also in new series in the near future. The various vehicles available are the same in all the different markets. Thus, despite where the car is bought, the style is identical both with regards to efficiency and after sale services which creates creditability among the clients. In the three years that passed, BMW had greater sales volume than its nemesis Mercedes-Benz and at the same time a significantly greater profit edge on each car sold which is a strength for BMW. Also, it has not been dealing with the same problems with quality that Mercedes-Benz has been dealing with. Actually the quality that BMW has held has often provided the backbone to maintaining a strong brand which provides devoted and satisfied customers. BMW offers great competency and the organization produces most of the car by themselves. BMW is not reliant on any other organization that could force them to utilize products that are not according to BMW standards. Many car producers work together with regards to research and development but BMW has announced their independency and want to keep their business developments to themselves; therefore, BMW gets left out of the opportunity in reducing costs as well as synergy effects. A trend is emerging in the automobile industry which is to use the same elements in different types of products or brands. Also here, BMW varies from the market average since they customize their cars after each model themselves. Even though BMW has not collaborated with any organization, it is still apparent that BMW is trying to acquire new market shares. In addition, higher interest rates could impact the revenue results negatively since 41. 1% of the purchased BMWs are financed by BMW Financial Services. Causing the successful growth of BMW are the constant investment in innovation; the latest technologies and knowledgeable employees. BMW should keep its sustainability because it’s influenced by the operations management decisions. It should keep on introducing new products into the market and diversify. It should also create new technologies in order to produce cheaper cars, to meet the increasing customers’ demands. Moreover, in planning and operations processes, pollution should be taken into consideration. BMW should accelerate the production of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 that are pollution-free as well as making it cheaper. It should use resources efficiently in order to decrease the cost, and therefore making more profits. Thus, demand will increase and customers will be more interested in the purchase of the car. Customer satisfaction is what elevated BMW to such a high pedestal which means they should maintain the operations management decisions that have been successful for them.

The Evolution of Google Penguin Algorithm Updates

Penguin: The History The original Penguin algorithm arrived on April 24, 2012, and was aimed at rooting out and penalizing websites with low-quality links and too many keywords. Alongside the Panda algorithm, Google wanted to reward sites with valuable, relevant links, and penalize sites that had built unnatural links solely to increase their search rankings. Penguin initially affected around 3.1 percent of all search queries and had a significant impact on how webmasters approached SEO, causing many to shift towards unique content. Penguin 2.0 made further tweaks to the algorithm, affecting around 2.3 percent of all search queries. Similarly, Penguin 3.0 built off the tweaks made in the previous updates. Penguin 1.0 The Penguin update is Google’s latest crackdown on what it terms webspam: Techniques used to boost PageRank without providing value to visitors. Launched on April 24, the update affects 3.1% of searches and targets sites that abuse Google’s existing quality guidelines. So far Penguin’s main impact has been on websites that rely on link networks for traffic. Using exact match anchor text, especially if the links are bought rather than organic, is a red flag to Google, as are spammy comments using exact match link signatures, guest posts on irrelevant websites and low-quality article directories, and links from sites that contain dangerous or dishonest content and links. Penguin is not an attack on the use of SEO. Instead, it is the latest phase of Google’s war against webmasters who abuse links and rely on other on-page SEO tricks. The search engine behemoth believes that real people’s enthusiasm for content is the best indicator of quality. This means that social signals and sharing are becoming more and more critical to PageRank. Providing your visitors with high quality, unique content that offers useful information that they’ll want to share is thus becoming more and more important; this is the only type of SEO content that’s going to pay off for you in the long term. If your website focuses on providing engaging, fresh content for visitors, then you have nothing to fear from Penguin. Avoid future problems by focusing your link-building efforts on getting high-quality links from influential websites in your niche or industry. Think link quality rather than quantity. Links are the natural consequence of an engaging, content-rich webpage rather than a tool to be manipulated. Google has very helpfully released specific guidelines for its Penguin update. It advises websites to avoid the following: Hidden on-page text and links that exist only to boost rankings. Cloaking or redirects that mislead your site’s visitors. Sending automated queries to Google to boost rankings. Keyword stuffing and hidden keywords that are there only to fool the search engines. Multiple domains or subdomains with duplicate or irrelevant content Doorway pages and pages created for affiliate schemes that have little or no original content. Pages that contain phishing links or install viruses and trojans. Note that there is nothing in the guidelines to concern websites that exist to please their visitors. However, if you feel that Penguin has unfairly punished you, Google has provided an online form for complaints about the effects of the update. Google’s latest push against webspam is not going to be its last. The days of building traffic via link networks and paid links are over: Websites now have to earn their links by merely being link-worthy. The search engine wants SEO to be transparent and honest. It is guaranteed to continue its war against websites and SEO experts who try to game its algorithms. Ultimately the Penguin update is good news for honest webmasters and quality websites and blogs. Focus on providing unique, engaging content on a regular basis and make it as easy to share as possible with social network buttons. The more attractive your website and its content to real people the more it will rise in the rankings. What Sites Got Hit? Google’s most significant updates often knock webmasters for a loop. Even with hints beforehand that Google was planning an update targeting over-optimization, no one knew what to expect before Penguin came about. Since Google doesn’t tell us exactly what they’re doing- or even what they’ve done, after the fact – it leaves SEO experts to analyze their changes to sort out what happened to the algorithm and what ranking factors are most likely to get you into trouble. Now that the Penguin update has been launched, it is easier to see what Google was targeting, but the only way to know for sure is to study a large number of sites and look for a common thread between those that were impacted by the update. Microsite Masters has done the research and published the results on their blog. They found two factors that the penalized sites had in common: Targeted anchor text: Every single site they found that was penalized used keyword-optimized anchor text for at least 65% of their incoming links. Yes, that’s right–every single site. Links from irrelevant sites: Almost half of the penalized sites had no links from other sites in the same niche, and over 70% of the penalized sites had less than 30% of their links coming from related sites. What to do About the Penguin Update? The mere mention of an update to Google’s search algorithm is enough to inspire fear in the hearts of many internet marketers, bloggers, and webmasters. For those who make a living off ad revenue and affiliate sales, being ranked highly on Google is critical to success. Being de-indexed by Google has been referred to as â€Å"internet death.† When a site is de-indexed its content becomes invisible to search users, which translates into traffic almost wholly vanishing. The following advice will assist you in avoiding such a nightmare situation. Calm Down; It’s Not the End of SEO When the update known as Penguin was released, many anxiously awaited to see the impact it would have on their traffic. A good number of these people were just now recovering from Google’s previous algorithm update, Panda. While the aftermath of the previous update was nothing short of cataclysmic, Penguin seems to be much milder in comparison. This is likely due to many webmasters learning from the lessons taught by Panda. The main focus of this update appears to be backlink spam and keyword stuffing. Avoid Black-Hat Backlinking Services Even before the release of Penguin, Google sent a strong signal that paid backlinking services will not be tolerated. It did this by de-indexing BuildMyRank.com, one of the most successful and popular of these services. This sent shock waves across the SEO community and signified things to come. Google designed Penguin to more effectively weed out sites with backlink profiles determined to be unnatural and intended to game the system. Never use automated software and services to build vast amounts of low-quality links in a short amount of time. Penguin sniffs these out like a shark smells blood. This kind of linking strategy is blatantly unnatural and will almost guarantee a stiff penalty. Instead focus on backlinking methods that Google views as natural, such as guest writing on blogs and websites that fall under the same niche category as the content you are trying to rank. The Death of Exact Match Anchor Text Penguin has made it clear that link diversity is essential for surviving Google’s wrath. This is especially true when it comes to choosing anchor text. The majority of the sites punished by Penguin had one thing in common; the blatant exploitation of exact match keywords. This was once considered perfectly sound SEO strategy for dominating specific keywords but has since become tainted by black hat services spamming irrelevant anchor text to exploit Google’s algorithm. Keyword anchor text can still be used but in smaller doses. A general rule of thumb is to have exact match anchor text make up under 50% of your total link profile. Keyword Stuffing A former holy grail of SEO has now become detrimental to success. Stuffing a whole host of keywords together and producing sloppy, low content articles will now prove toxic to your traffic. Google views this as a blatant act of spamming and punishes it severely. The safest route is to pick just a few keywords and strategically place them throughout your content. Make sure your keywords do not seem forced or out of place. Do not treat an article as filler to place keywords. Content should always be relevant, interesting and grammatically correct. Your keyword ratio should be between 2 to 5 percent of the entire article. Penguin 2.0 The world’s biggest search giant released the Penguin 2.0 update on May 22, 2013, and this latest transformation of the Google search algorithms further improve the quality of the results delivered. The latest update is aimed at clearing spam off the Internet by penalizing websites which attempt to artificially increase their standing in the search results by using black-hat SEO tactics. This update focusses in particular on elements such as keyword-stuffed anchor text and aggressive link building strategies. Webmasters who might have been over-optimizing their content may be looking at a sudden drop in traffic since the release of the latest update. If your site has been hit by Penguin 2.0, then you will need to think about taking a new direction in your search engine marketing campaign. Which Sites Are Affected by Penguin 2.0? The latest update focusses heavily on links and anchor text, and the ratio of your site links will determine whether your website benefits or gets penalized. In particular, websites containing links with keyword-stuffed anchor text have been hit the hardest. If the content of your website includes large amounts of anchor text with exact-match key phrases, then it looks very unnatural in the eyes of Google’s crawlers and your traffic will likely suffer as a result. Any website which has made use of aggressive link building campaigns may be adversely affected by Penguin 2.0. This includes sites containing backlinks from other websites deemed low quality in Google’s eyes and sites which contain a lot of other outgoing links. Additionally, having an excessively high percentage of keyword-rich incoming links will hurt your website. Other bad places to have a high percentage of your backlinks include webpage footers, blog comments, unrelated websites and other pages which are also penalized by Google. Those who have brought links before will almost certainly find that the vast majority of their backlinks appear on such sources. How to Survive Google Penguin 2.0 For the most part, the things which have constituted good SEO tactics since the first release of Penguin back in 2012 should still work. Google has not changed its policies; it has simply become better at enforcing them and making sure that less and less spam and otherwise junk content makes it into the search results. While ideally, you should have already discontinued any black-hat SEO tactics long ago, it is even more important now to change your strategy if you haven’t done so already. If your website has been severely hit by the latest algorithm, then it may be time to completely redo your content as well as entirely change your search engine marketing strategy. Now is the time to ensure that your website is filled with quality and original content that human readers want not only to read, but also to share with others. Content that gets social signals is exactly what impresses Google and, in some cases, it may even end up going viral. The modern Internet is very much about social media and it is an inescapable fact that any successful website is successful due to the very fact that its visitors are the ones promoting the site by sharing content that they like on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Any webmaster should also do their bit to encourage the sharing of content by providing social networking buttons to accompany suitable articles and other pages. When it comes to link building, you need to be looking for natural links rather than having more links on irrelevant or otherwise unsuitable sources. Going after the cheap and easy links is only going to hurt your business in the longer term. Instead, focus on getting links on other sites which deal with relevant niches and industries. People should be clicking on those links because they want to learn more about something or they want to read references supporting another piece of content. Finally, ensure that you have content creation and marketing strategy. This needs to be something that you are one-hundred percent committed to. If you are running a blog, ensure that it is updated frequently and consistently to encourage your existing readers to come back regularly while also attracting new ones. This will also help to encourage social signals and natural, organic traffic. When it comes to dealing with social media, it is important not to ignore important social signals. Social media is about interacting with your readers by responding to their queries and comments and getting involved with the community that builds up around your business and website. Google wants to reward popular websites which draw in traffic organically rather than that those which put every effort possible into manipulating the search engines. In conclusion, make sure that you abandon the old strategies of search engine optimization if you haven’t already. Focus on your human readers and customers – that is what today’s SEO is all about. What Was Punished by Penguin 2.0? Google Penguin 2.0, released in May 2013, is the latest major version of the search giant’s algorithm in a long stream of updates which focus on penalizing over-optimized content and, in particular, many of the link building strategies which were once deployed by the vast majority of search engine marketers. Whether you are doing much of the SEO yourself or hiring a company to do the work for you, it is essential that you pay close attention to Google’s webmaster guidelines as it is becoming increasingly difficult to artificially manipulate a website’s standing in the search results. The following takes a look at seven of the most prominent ways to get yourself booted out of Google’s indexes. 1. Keyword-Stuffed Anchor Text Anchor text refers to the clickable text representing a hyperlink. Traditionally in search engine optimization, anchor text contained keywords designed to artificially increase the ranking of a webpage in the search engine results. Search engine marketers have often optimized their anchor text in such a way that it contains keywords associated with the contents of the page linked to. However, using the same anchor text to excess will ultimately flag your website as over-optimized and, not only this; it also annoys your human readers. You should overcome this situation by diversifying your anchor text to include a wider variety of keywords to avoid repetition and make it look more natural within the context of the content itself. 2. Paid Links Google’s dislike of paid links is certainly nothing new, but its latest algorithm updates are getting better and better at determining which links have been paid for. Link buying often means that you end up with backlinks plastered all over the Internet often accompanied by content which is completely irrelevant. Do not forget that your ranking in the search engines is becoming increasingly heavily influenced by the content of the websites that link to your own. Paid links represent a completely artificial way of manipulating the search results and, if you use link buying services, there is a high chance that your website will be kicked out of the Google indexes within a matter of months. 3. Link Stuffing Internal links are meant to guide human visitors to other pages on your website which they may be interested in. When used with this intention in mind, internal links are useful if not essential to any user-friendly and easily navigable webpage. However, it is poor practice to have too many of these internal links as it makes your website look over-optimized both to your visitors and to the search engines. Be particularly wary of using drop-down menus and the same anchor text in your internal links. 4. Keyword Stuffing Aside from its use in anchor text, keyword stuffing in the other content of a webpage is also something that many search engine marketers are guilty of. In spite of constant condemnation from Google, many people still seem to believe in things like the myth of keyword density. In reality, however, paying attention to keyword density inevitably leads to over-optimized content of questionable quality. Stuffing your content with keywords will not help to increase your search engine ranking and, these days, it is more likely to get your site penalized. As with your anchor text, diversify your keyword usage and only use them in such a way that they blend in naturally with the rest of the content. 5. Invisible Text Webmasters hoping to manipulate the search results with minimal effort sometimes use invisible text containing a list of keywords and phrases. Using CSS, this text is the same color as its background thus hiding it from human readers while remaining visible to the search engine crawlers. Unbelievably, many webmasters are still using hidden text on their sites in spite of Google have been easily able to uncover this method and remove offending websites from its indexes. 6. Duplicated Content While there is nothing wrong with posting your content for which you own the copyrights across multiple websites, it is important to remember that Google doesn’t like this. Publishing unique content is a must, and this has long been the case in spite of many people still not paying attention to this fact. Worse still, content theft remains a major problem on the Internet with unscrupulous and lazy webmasters stealing content to post on their sites or to use in their marketing campaigns. Google is becoming increasingly better at detecting such sites and those posting stolen content can expect not only to have their website de-indexed but also to have it taken down entirely. Penguin 3.0 One year after the Penguin 2.1 update, Penguin 3.0 has finally arrived. Google recently confirmed that the most recent update to the algorithm started rolling out on Friday, October 17. So what’s different about Penguin 3.0? How do you know if you’ve been affected, and how do you recover if you’ve been hit? Penguin 3.0: What’s New? The new algorithm helps sites that have cleaned up their webspam signals since the last update and demotes sites with newly-discovered spam. Penguin 3.0 is a worldwide update which will be rolled out throughout weeks. It’s aimed at further improving search results by punishing websites that violate Google Webmaster Guidelines. Google has stated that it’s an algorithm change, not merely an update. Most SEO experts predict it will affect a similar number of websites as Penguin 2.0, but the full impact will only be known in the coming months. Google is not in the habit of revealing precise details, but when it has been fully rolled out, we’ll probably receive some form of official announcement. Do You Need to Take Action? If you’ve previously used dubious SEO strategies to improve your search rankings, you will have already been hit by previous Penguin updates. However, if you’ve since taken the appropriate measures to clean up your link profile and publish more relevant, quality website content now is the time to check your rankings and your organic search traffic data. If you’ve noticed any sudden drops in rankings, it’s likely you’ve been affected by Penguin 3.0. There are no quick fixes, but with a little effort, you can recover. You may have to wait until the next algorithm update to see if the changes have made a difference, but it’s still wise to act now. Steps to Recovery If you’ve been affected, it is most likely because of too many unnatural links pointing to your website. You can track down all your inbound links with tools like Google Webmaster Tools, Majestic SEO, and Ahrefs. So what qualifies as a poor-quality link? Links on article directories and link farms Any paid links, apart from advertisements Irrelevant links posted on forums or social media Too many exact keyword-match anchor text links Once you’ve used one of the above tools to source the origins of your inbound links, you need to contact the relevant webmasters and ask them to remove your links. If they refuse or can’t remove them, you can use Google’s Disavow Tool. The Bottom Line However you’re affected by Penguin 3.0, you need to continue to build better links on more authoritative sites and avoid stuffing your content with too many keywords. This can only be done by producing original, relevant, and high-quality content that people want to link to. If you are unfamiliar with how to compose such content, outsourcing an experienced content writer is an easy and inexpensive alternative. This is the best way to avoid being affected by the Penguin algorithm in the future.