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swapping out the old DC10s for new 767 air replenishment

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The first operational KC-46A Pegasus, a new tanker built by Boeing for the Air Force, took to the skies for the first time on Tuesday, December 5. The aircraft took off from Paine Field outside Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington. Boeing test pilots took the plane up to the max operating altitude of 39,000 feet and performed operational tests on the engines, flight controls, and environmental systems.

In a statement, Boeing confirmed that the first KC-46 tankers, based off the 767 airframe, will not be delivered to the Air Force until 2018. Six prototypes of the aircraft have been built and flown-the first prototype took to the skies in September 2015-accounting for more than 2,200 flight hours and 1,600 refueling "contacts" with aircraft including the F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, C-17, A-10, KC-10 and another KC-46. However, Boeing has a few hurdles to clear yet before the KC-46 completes FAA certification and the company is ready to start shipping new tankers to the Air Force.

"We still have some tough work ahead of us, including completing our FAA certification activities, but the team is committed to ensure that upon delivery, this tanker will be everything our customer expects and more," said KC-46A program manager Mike Gibbons in a company statement.

Two challenges in particular need to be addressed by Boeing before the tanker is ready for service, according to Aviation Week. The first is that the rigid boom has experienced uncommanded extensions during disengagement with the receiving aircraft, sometimes leading to the boom scraping the surface of the plane taking on fuel. This issue could be a particular problem for stealth aircraft such as the B-2, F-22, and F-35.

The second problem has to do with the KC-46's high-frequency radio, which uses the skin of the aircraft itself as an antenna. This method of radio transmission can lead to electrical sparks and arcs on the plane, and the Air Force needs to be sure that a failsafe will prevent the radio from ever broadcasting during refueling, which could potentially spark a fire at 30,000 feet.

The cost of the program continues to rise, as Aviation Week reports Boeing will seek an additional $329 million related to KC-46 development in the third quarter of 2017. Costs incurred by the Air Force since 2014 exceed $2 billion, though the service's financial commitment to the development program is capped at $4.9 billion in the contract. Ultimately the Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46 tankers valued at $44 billion. The first one of those tankers is finally airborne.

Sources: Boeing, Aviation Week

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Boeing's First Operational KC-46 Pegasus Takes Maiden Flight

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The first operational KC-46A Pegasus, a new tanker built by Boeing for the Air Force, took to the skies for the first time on Tuesday, December 5. The aircraft took off from Paine Field outside Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington.

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really easy to follow video

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Instrumental vs. Expressive Leadership

Many of us choose to be in social groups because there are number of benefits that we receive as members. We may choose to be in a group for instrumental (or task) reasons so that the other group members can help us accomplish something. Or, we may choose to be in a group for expressive (or emotional) reasons so that the other group members can provide us with companionship, love, and security.

Think about our social groups in the context of leadership. There are typically two types of leadership: instrumental and expressive. Instrumental leadership focuses on achieving goals. Leaders who are dominantly instrumental work to maintain productivity and ensure that tasks are completed. They make good managers because they get the job done. However, they are often so focused on the task that they can alienate other members of the group.

Expressive leadership, on the other hand, focuses on maintaining group cohesion. Leaders who are dominantly expressive work to maintain warm, friendly relationships and ensure the collective well-being of the group. They make good bosses because they truly care for their employees. However, they are sometimes lacking efficiency and organizational skills.

Although most leaders are dominantly instrumental or expressive, both styles are needed for groups to work effectively. So, the most effective leaders have the ability to use the style that best fits the situation. They can switch from being instrumental and focusing on the task, to being expressive and focusing on collaboration, whenever they see a need.

Authoritarian Decision-Making

Beyond dominant leadership types and abilities, leaders also vary in their decision-making styles. There are three basic styles of leadership decision-making: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire.

Leaders who use authoritarian decision-making make all the major group decisions and demand compliance from the group members. Authoritarian leaders typically make decisions on their own and tell other group members what to do and how to do it. Authoritarian leadership can be beneficial when a decision needs to be made quickly or when a project or situation is particularly stressful.

For example, imagine you're a member of the Greek army during the Trojan War. It would have been beneficial for Odysseus to practice authoritarian decision-making in order to determine who would perform each task of building the Trojan Horse. You and the other soldiers would not have had to worry about making complex decisions, but instead, you could focus on your individual tasks. Imagine what would have happened if all of those soldiers had spent days debating while in the midst of a war!

While authoritarian leadership can be beneficial at times, it is often the case that it's more problematic. This type of decision-making is easily abused, and authoritarian leaders are often viewed as bossy and controlling. Because authoritarian leaders make decisions without consulting the group, many group members may resent the leader because they are unable to contribute ideas.

Democratic Decision-Making

The next type of leadership decision-making is democratic. Leaders who use democratic decision-making encourage group discussion and believe in decision-making through consensus. Democratic leaders still make the final decision, but do so only after carefully considering what other group members have said. Usually, their decision goes with the majority. Democratic leaders are generally the most popular. They make members of the group feel included and promote teamwork and creativity.

For example, think about King Arthur and his knights. Most of us are familiar with the famous round table, where all of the knights plus King Arthur would sit in equal status. They would discuss problems in the kingdom together and come to a consensus before King Arthur would take action.

While democratic leadership has been described as the most effective decision-making style, it does have a downside. The time that it takes to reach a group consensus can be crippling for a project. In order for every group member to be heard, discussion can last for a very long time. This can lead to frustration and sometimes even uncompleted projects.

Laissez-Faire Decision-Making

Laissez-faire, loosely translated, means 'to leave alone' in French. Therefore, leaders who use laissez-faire decision-making let the groups make their own decisions. They are only minimally involved, basically sitting back and letting the group function on its own. Laissez-faire is usually the least effective style of leadership decision-making.

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leadership styles and types: authoritarian

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laissez-faire & democratic - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Leadership Styles and Types: Authoritarian, Laissez-Faire & Democratic - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Many of us choose to be in social groups because there are number of benefits that we receive as members. We may choose to be in a group for instrumental (or task) reasons so that the other group members can help us accomplish something.

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Jeff Bezos Revealed: Building Amazon One Box at a Time

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Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- "Bloomberg Game Changers" profiles Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. This program explores the story behind the founder of Amazon.com, the world's most successful online retailer and examines key moments in his life. (Source: Bloomberg) --Subscribe to Bloomberg on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/Bloomberg Bloomberg Television offers extensive coverage and analysis of international business news and stories of global importance.

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nice tutorial i found on my favorite learning site, YOUTUBE!!!

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Management Tutorial - What is management?

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Jeff Bezos management style of the worlds largest online retailer

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While Amazon's treatment of its workers deserves scrutiny, we should also ask why such a company is thriving in our culture, and what else we must sacrifice at its altar of profit at any cost.

BETTY J. COTTER

Wakefield, R.I.

To the Editor: I found your portrayal of Amazon to be extremely one-sided. I have worked at Amazon for four years. Yes, it is competitive; yes, the work demand is high; yes, my desk is a slab of wood (who cares?!); yes, I have given Anytime Feedback on my colleagues and have received it as well.

But no - I don't work 80 hours a week; I took four weeks of vacation last year and got promoted. No, I don't cry at my desk every day. No, I wasn't told to forget everything I learned in my last job (my skills in that workplace are what secured my job at Amazon!).

You portrayed Amazon as if people had no will to leave if they don't like it - which is absurd. In Seattle, Amazon employees have numerous options - Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Expedia, Starbucks, Real Networks, Tableau. The list goes on and on. Why didn't your writers ask, "If you were so unhappy, why did you stay?" Maybe the projects they worked on were interesting, or they wanted to keep vesting their valuable stock. But whatever the reason, it was their choice.

There are many valid points in the article - the struggle for work-life balance, data management as a performance appraisal tool and so on - but they're lost when the article is so clearly unfair.

GEN HARRISON-DOSS

Seattle

To the Editor: As a longtime user of Amazon Prime and a dedicated Kindle fan, I was disheartened to read your article. Jeff Bezos, I would be O.K. with getting my packages in three days instead of two, and getting my Kindle books in five minutes instead of one. But please take better care of your employees!

DOUGLAS BINDER

Albuquerque

To the Editor: You refer to a speech given by Jeff Bezos at Princeton's 2010 graduation. He recounts how, as a boy of about 10, he cleverly calculated that his grandmother's smoking had shortened her life by nine years. He told her, causing her to burst into tears. At that ceremony, which I attended, Mr. Bezos continued the story.

His grandfather stopped the car in which the three had been driving, stepped out and brought young Jeff out as well. After some silence his grandfather said, "Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever." What followed were memorable words on the difference between gifts and choices, cleverness being a gift, kindness being a choice.

One wonders if Mr. Bezos has reached that understanding his grandfather clearly possessed. At the very least, it appears that he has not found a way to develop a corporate culture that reflects it.

BARBARA SHANNON

Berkeley Heights, N.J.

To the Editor: Amazon is hardly the only company where "all is not enough." For some years now, phrases like "unreasonable expectations" have been used in an ironically positive way to describe the challenges and stimulation that high-achieving people are supposed to savor in their professional lives.

But at some point, "unreasonable expectations" are not exciting; they are unreasonable. It is routine now for professionals to labor under the kind of relentless demands that 100 years ago gave rise to unions and labor laws for factory workers.

Today, success of the kind that we are all taught to strive for comes at a very high cost. I am certain that a great many professionals would trade their high incomes for a balanced life, with reasonable time for family and decent prospects for retirement and their children's education. Unfortunately, that life is becoming harder to attain at any income.

RON MEYERS

New York

To the Editor: There are so many despicable circumstances described in your excellent article - ageism, sexism, worker tattling on worker, work at the expense of life - but none is more depressing than the fact that there is an endless supply of intelligent people willing to step into inhumane labor practices.

I know that we are in a new "knowledge economy" in which "innovation" is the featured product, but hasn't the current generation of social media, technology-savvy go-getters read even a bit of Marx?

You don't need to be anticapitalist to recognize that the dealings you enter into at work define your social relationships in general, or that the alienation you experience is not only from your fellow workers or from your family, but also from yourself.

How can what you do for 18 hours a day be compartmentalized from who you "really" are?

PEGGY DEAMER

Orient, N.Y.

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While Amazon's treatment of its workers deserves scrutiny, we should also ask why such a company is thriving in our culture, and what else we must sacrifice at its altar of profit at any cost. BETTY J. COTTER Wakefield, R.I. To the Editor: I found your portrayal of Amazon to be extremely one-sided.

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worlds largest hotel chain post merge

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Marriott International's recent Security Analyst Meeting provided the most in-depth discussion yet on how it will fold in Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Plans for Sheraton
Now the third-largest brand in Marriott's portfolio, Sheraton suffers from "poor consumer perception" in North America, according to global chief commercial officer Stephanie Linnartz. "With our deep operational expertise coupled with clear accountability around renovation cycles, brand standards audits and quality-assurance delivery, we can significantly improve customer perception of the brand." The company has formed a council of franchisors for feedback around brand positioning, operations and design. Marriott also is reevaluating the brand's service, food and beverage and quality assurance standards.

Now Sheraton owners have to decide whether to meet new brand standards, shift to a Marriott brand in a lower tier or exit the system. To inspire investment by property owners, Linnartz said, Marriott needs to improve Sheraton's performance. Marriott revived its Fairfield Inn & Suites brand in 2003 and Courtyard Marriott in 2007. Sheraton, though, "is a bit more complicated than the Courtyard because these are, in many cases, hotels that are much bigger, much more complex," CFO Leeny Oberg said. "We would expect that it would take several years."
Legacy Starwood Brands
Global development officer Tony Capuano pointed to The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, St. Regis, Aloft and Element as Starwood brands with particular development potential. The first two, plus legacy Marriott's Autograph Collection, comprise the company's soft brands for independent hotels. Autograph is expected to reach 180 open hotels by 2019. Capuano said the company sees opportunity to add hotels above and below Autograph's upper-upscale tier via the Luxury Collection and Tribute.

For luxury, St. Regis is underrepresented globally, with only 38 open properties and 22 in the pipeline, Capuano said. "We can see a significant increase in St. Regis signings, in the range of about 10 deals a year." And Linnartz said Marriott is revamping the 10-year-old Aloft brand's guest room design to be more profitable for developers and more user friendly for customers. It's also launching healthy grab-and-go options for Aloft's food and beverage program.

As for Element, Marriott is pivoting the health and well-being lifestyle brand to an extended-stay product. Capuano said the company's success with Residence Inn indicates potential to broaden Element's presence in that space.
Loyalty Integration
Though Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest have been linked since the merger, Marriott doesn't expect to complete integration of the platforms until late 2018.

Already, though, borrowing from SPG's Ambassador concept, Marriott Rewards implemented its own Ambassador Service with a personal concierge for members who stay more than 100 nights a year. The SPG platform will launch Marriott Mobile features this year, including mobile check-in and check-out and service requests. And in March, Marriott invested in PlacePass, an online platform connecting members to local activities, Linnartz said.

Marriott anticipates a renegotiation of terms for its branded credit cards, which could increase loyalty program contributions and reduce hotels' card-processing costs. The Marriott Rewards Visa through JPMorgan Chase expires in 2018, while the SPG American Express card expires in 2020.
Global Sales Organization
Linnartz said that after the merger, the sales organization numbered 750 global corporate accounts that have "meaningful overlap." On April 1, the company launched its new global sales organization and redeployed sales associates for those accounts. "This streamlined sales force should position us to increase revenue across group, extended-stay and business travel, and we will be ready for the annual special corporate pricing season, which begins in May," Linnartz said.

Legacy Starwood hotels in North America also have migrated to Marriott's Expedia and Booking.com contract terms, which are more favorable by "200 to 400 basis points," according to Linnartz. The company expects its scale and distribution strength-only about 10 percent of its bookings come from online travel agencies-to help it negotiate even better terms in the future.

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Four Marriott Merger Updates: Business Travel News

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Marriott International's recent Security Analyst Meeting provided the most in-depth discussion yet on how it will fold in Starwood Hotels & Resorts, from plans for the Sheraton brand and other Starwood legacy flags, as well as legacy program integration and plans for the global sales organization.

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great article on why employee satisfaction is important, and increases workplace moral.

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Employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and contented and fulfilling their desires and needs at work. Many measures purport that employee satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, and positive employee morale in the workplace.

Employee satisfaction, while generally a positive in your organization, can also become a downer if mediocre employees stay because they are satisfied and happy with your work environment.

Factors contributing to employee satisfaction include treating employees with respect, providing regular employee recognition, empowering employees, offering above industry-average benefits and compensation, providing employee perks and company activities, and positive management within a success framework of goals, measurements, and expectations.

The critical factor with employee satisfaction is that satisfied employees must do the job and make the contributions that the employer needs. If they don't, all that the employer does to provide an environment that satisfies employees is for naught.

Measuring Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is often measured by anonymous employee satisfaction surveys that are administered periodically to gauge employee satisfaction. (I do not support these as most employers do them. See how to improve employee satisfaction surveys.)

In an employee satisfaction survey, employee satisfaction is looked at in areas such as:

management,

understanding of mission and vision,

empowerment,

teamwork,

communication, and

coworker interaction.

The facets of employee satisfaction measured vary from company to company.

A second method used to measure employee satisfaction is meeting with small groups of employees and asking the same questions verbally.

Depending on the culture of the company, and whether employees feel free to provide feedback, either method can contribute knowledge about the degree of employee satisfaction to managers and employees.

Exit interviews are another way to assess employee satisfaction in that satisfied employees rarely leave companies.

How to Make Employee Satisfaction Surveys Successful

A satisfaction survey is used by an organization or a business to measure the liking and approval of a particular group of stakeholders for its services, work environment, culture, or employment. Specifically, for this Human Resources site, an employee satisfaction survey is the survey most frequently noted.

A satisfaction survey is a series of questions that employees answer to inform the employer about how they feel about or how they experience their work environment and culture.

The questionnaire usually offers both questions that ask employees to rate a particular aspect of the work environment and open-ended questions that allow them to express opinions.

With carefully chosen questions that do not lead to particular answers, an employer can get the feel for the happiness, satisfaction, and engagement of employees. When a satisfaction survey is used at specific intervals, such as annually, an employer can track employee satisfaction over time to see if it is improving.

Effective Satisfaction Surveys Require Employer Actions

If an employer decides to use a satisfaction survey, the employer must commit to making changes in the work environment based on the employee responses to the survey. This is the bottom line for employers who are considering administering a survey to employees.

The employer who chooses to use a satisfaction survey with employees must be committed to reporting the results to employees. Additionally, the employer should be committed to making changes to the work environment, with the help and involvement of employees and teams of employees.

Communicating transparently about the changes, their impact, and future plans are all part of a positive satisfaction survey process.

Without the transparent communication, results reporting, and employee updates, employees will not trust the employer's motives in collecting survey data.

Over time, employees will cease to respond or respond only with answers that they believe the employer wants to hear. This makes the data collected on the survey useless.

The involvement of employees in improving the work environment based on survey results creates an environment of shared responsibility for workplace culture and improvements. Employers should avoid leading employees to believe that satisfaction at work is the employer's responsibility. Employee satisfaction is a shared responsibility. So, is the response to an employee satisfaction survey.

Related to Employee Satisfaction

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How (and Why) to Foster Employee Satisfaction

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Employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and contented and fulfilling their desires and needs at work. Many measures purport that employee satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, and positive employee morale in the workplace.

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big supporter of hiring grads with will to work and progress...

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Enterprise Rent-A-Car Hiring 10,000 College Graduates, 2,000 Interns Across Six Countries

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What Is Operations Management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

Operations management teams attempt to balance costs with revenue to achieve the highest net operating profit possible.

Key Takeaways

Understanding Operations Management (OM)

Operations management involves utilizing resources from staff, materials, equipment, and technology. Operations managers acquire, develop, and deliver goods to clients based on client needs and the abilities of the company.

Operations management handles various strategic issues, including determining the size of manufacturing plants and project management methods and implementing the structure of information technology networks. Other operational issues include the management of inventory levels, including work-in-process levels and raw materials acquisition, quality control, materials handling, and maintenance policies.

Operations management entails studying the use of raw materials and ensuring that minimal waste occurs. Operations managers use numerous formulas, such as the economic order quantity formula, to determine when and how large an inventory order to process and how much inventory to hold on hand.

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM)

A critical function of operations management relates to the management of inventory through the supply chain. This process is known as operations and supply chain management (OSCM). To be an effective operations management professional, one must be able to understand the processes that are essential to what a company does and get them to flow and work together seamlessly. The coordination involved in setting up business processes in an efficient way requires a solid understanding of logistics.

An operations management professional understands local and global trends, customer demand, and available resources for production. Operations management approaches the acquisition of materials and the use of labor in a timely, cost-effective manner to deliver customer expectations. Inventory levels are monitored to ensure that excessive quantities are on hand. Operations management is responsible for finding vendors that supply the appropriate goods at reasonable prices and have the ability to deliver the product when needed.

Another large facet of operations management involves the delivery of goods to customers. This includes ensuring that products are delivered within the agreed time commitment. Operations management also typically follows up with customers to ensure that the products meet quality and functionality needs. Finally, operations management takes the feedback received and distributes the relevant information to each department to use in process improvement.

What Operations Managers Do

Operations managers are involved in coordinating and developing new processes while reevaluating current structures. Organization and productivity are two key drivers of being an operations manager, and the work often requires versatility and innovation. As part of their daily responsibilities, operations managers must possess a variety of skill sets, including:

Technical expertise in areas such as production automation, data entry, budget tracking, and design.

Organizational ability and attention to detail to include keeping track of project files, employee reports, budgets, schedules, and other details related to company processes.

Motivational prowess in the form of strong leadership skills that provide the expertise to motivate others, inspire ideas, and foster a supportive and diverse team.

Analytical aptitude, including skill in risk analysis and mitigation when initiating new projects. Operations managers also must analyze processes to identify challenges and offer solutions in the event that negative situations develop.

Decision-making proficiency, especially under stress when there is very little time to assess all factors.

Ability to maintain quality standards, including as they relate to raw materials, machinery, manufacturing procedures, packaging, delivery processes, and the finished product.

A master of business administration (MBA) degree in operations management can provide global perspective on industry trends and an awareness of financial regulations and political uncertainties that can affect an organization. It also provides a solid grasp of the inherent complexities and the tools needed to respond well to change.

What is the purpose of operations management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is concerned with controlling the production process and business operations in the most efficient manner possible. OM professionals attempt to balance operating costs with revenue to maximize net operating profit.

What are some systems of operations management?

Modern operations management revolves around four theories:

Business process redesign (BPR), which is focused on analyzing and designing workflow and business processes within a company. The goal of BPR is to help companies dramatically restructure the organization by designing the business process from the ground up.

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems, designed to incorporate accelerated change in structure, hardware, and software components. This allows systems to adjust rapidly to the capacity to which they can continue production and how efficiently they function in response to market or intrinsic system changes.

Six Sigma, an approach that focuses on quality. The word "six" references the control limits, which are placed at six standard deviations from the normal distribution mean. Tools used within the Six Sigma process include trending charts, potential defect calculations, and other ratios.

Lean manufacturing, which is the systematic elimination of waste within the manufacturing process. This theory sees resource use for any reason other than value creation for customers as wasteful and seeks to eliminate wasteful resource expenditures as much as possible.

What is an example of operations management?

Operations management is prevalent in the healthcare sector. The current healthcare system overuses expensive, technological, and emergency-based treatment. High costs from care often remain uncompensated due to uninsured patients. A prevalence of services in expensive settings creates a burden on taxpayers, health insurance holders, and healthcare institutions.

The Bottom Line

In simple terms, operations management (OM) is the process of prioritizing and employing business practices designed to achieve maximum efficiency as a means to achieve maximum profitability. Within the process, operations managers utilize organization and productivity to achieve their primary goals.

Balancing the efficient use of resources, including staff, materials, equipment, and technology, is key to a successful OM process and, by extension, to the success of the company.

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Operations Management: Understanding and Using It

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Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization.

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staying lean increases competitiveness!

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Learning Six Sigma methodologies for your work life can help impact your career future. The ability to add Six Sigma Certification to your resume proves your commitment to improving your business acumen and analytical skills, as well as improving the business where you work. Famed the world over, the principles of Six Sigma find applications in countless organizations across a wide range of industries worldwide.

What Is The Six Sigma Certification?

Six Sigma is a carefully designed set of tools and techniques that help improve processes within an organization. The primary goal of the Six Sigma certification is to validate individuals who possess the skills to identify errors or defects in a business process and eliminate them.

The Six Sigma certification comes in various skill levels: Yellow Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt. These certifications can be obtained through an accreditation body like the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
Join the Six Sigma certification course today and enhance your quality-testing skills.
These certifications also help you become a specialist in process improvement and will enhance your career's standard and credibility. Is Six Sigma worth it? Read below and decide for yourself: apart from just being able to add another certification to your resume, there are many advantages that make Six Sigma certifications wonderfully useful.

Seven Benefits of Six Sigma
1. Help Your Organization Eliminate Errors
From an organization's perspective, acquiring a Six Sigma certification enables an individual to become crucial to an organization's ability to identify and eliminate repeatable process errors.

With a Six Sigma certification, you would be able to transform and enable an organization to increase revenue by identifying and eliminating errors that would otherwise have brought poor customer satisfaction and losses to the business. Certified Six Sigma professionals can help reduce invoicing errors, customer complaints, complaint resolution time, spending, schedule delays, and cost overruns.

For example: in 1998, GE attributed their $350 million in savings to the Six Sigma process, while Motorola attributed their highest savings of $17 billion in 2005 to Six Sigma. GE's savings rose to more than $1 billion later that decade.
2. Improve Business Processes and Sustain Quality Improvement
Once you attain the Six Sigma certification, you'll be able to prove you have the knowledge to identify the characteristics of an organization's manufacturing and business processes and be able to measure, analyze, control, and improve them. You will also have the ability to conduct a complete review of current practices and gain a very clear understanding of their impact on quality performance.

You'll also develop the ability to achieve the level of sustained quality improvement that organizations require-monitoring processes closely to ensure there is little to no deviation from the mean and taking corrective measures to reel in a project that may be straying from the path.

3. Applicability Across Industries

What is the value of a Six Sigma certification? As an industry-agnostic methodology, Six Sigma techniques are applied in aerospace, electronics, telecom, banking and financial services, IT, HR, marketing, and many more industries.

Getting a Six Sigma certification can lead to better job opportunities and improved salary-even though it's not easy to attain. One of the reasons Six Sigma certified professionals get so much respect is that the exams are not easy to pass-and executives and hiring managers at major companies are well aware.

With a Six Sigma certification, you will be able to position yourself as a change agent within the organization, spearheading quality improvement throughout your team or organization, bolstering your leadership skillset. Individuals certified in Six Sigma are knowledgeable in dozens of different methods to streamline business processes, improve employee acceptance, reduce costs, and increase revenue-all of which lead to a better bottom line, no matter the industry.

Asa professional, you need to adapt yourself to the changing demands of your industry. No matter what industry you are a part of, you need to learn to adapt your knowledge to different situations.
Get certified in Six Sigma today and stay relevant to the demands of your industry 4. Ensure Compliance
With the stringent quality standards of Six Sigma, manufacturing and process errors are reduced to insignificant figures. This has meant that a number of vendors, procurers, and oversight organizations apply Six Sigma standards when evaluating products or accounts. As a certified Six Sigma professional, you will be able to help your organization comply with international standards, as well as maintain profitable contracts.
5. Helps Nurture Managerial And Leadership Ability
Six Sigma training also prepares you for leadership roles, with the techniques and knowhow to cut costs, increase revenue, and ways to improve the efficiency of the business process. Those who achieve Six Sigma Black Belt are not only educated on the methodologies of Six Sigma, they are also prepared to become a change agent within their organization, leading efforts to improve processes and the quality of products and services delivered to customers.

Once you complete your Six Sigma course and obtain your certification, you will have a clear understanding of measuring and quantifying financial benefits from executing any Six Sigma project. Because financial management and risk assessment are highly desirable skills for middle and top-level management, certified Six Sigma professionals stand a very good chance of rising to senior managerial positions.
6. Excellent Salary
According to a survey carried out by indeed.com, the salary for Six Sigma certified individuals routinely break into the $100,000+ pay bracket, and are among the highest-paid professionals globally.
7. Gain Hands-On Experience In Quality Management
Unlike a few other certifications, the Six Sigma certification process includes hands-on work on industry projects and experience with implementation of theoretical principles to real-life scenarios. As a certified Six Sigma professional, you will gain valuable experience even before you enter the workforce.

Ready to get started on the path to Six Sigma Master Black Belt? Simplilearn's Lean Six Sigma master's program is taught by Green and Black Belt certified professionals with more than ten years of industry experience in implementing Quality Management and will help you become a Lean Six Sigma champion.

Simplilearn's Six Sigma training is designed to get you the knowledge you need to pass your exam on the first try. What are you waiting for?

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7 Reasons to Get a Six Sigma Certification

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Learning Six Sigma methodologies for your work life can help impact your career future. The ability to add Six Sigma Certification to your resume proves your commitment to improving your business acumen and analytical skills, as well as improving the business where you work.

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Page 5: Monitoring and controlling performance

While the Commercial Manager is generating enough sales to meet the forecast, and the Personnel Manager is controlling the agreed staffing budget, the Financial Manager will monitor all other costs. Costs are broadly broken down into direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs are those clearly identified with the sales volume. They include carrier bags, food waste and staffing costs. Indirect costs include stationery, telephone expenses, security and electricity.

Making the store more profitable involves looking not just at the large direct costs but also examining the smaller indirect costs. (Savings in stationery in one store may be small, but across the whole Marks & Spencer Group, it may represent a considerable sum.)

Some costs are easier to control than others. For example, notices near light switches may be a simple way to save electricity by encouraging staff to turn off unnecessary lights. The use of stationery may simply be limited to the amount ordered. Costs such as theft and loss, however, may take up much more time, involving maximising the benefits of close-circuit television, using security guards efficiently to deter crime and deciding how to use store detectives. With around 35 tills in an average store, possibly being using by up to eight to ten staff each day and with large volumes of stock coming in at the back door, it will also involve close scrutiny of all areas of business organisation.

Line Manager

The Financial Manager is also a Line Manager with established responsibilities for decision-making. Every store has an administration office comprising a team of people dealing with expense-related issues. The team may be between 2 to 25 staff (depending on the size of store) and may include a Finance Supervisor reporting directly to either the Financial Manager or Assistant Financial Manager. The team will also be responsible for security staff.

The administration office is responsible for various information systems, such as Food Stock Management, Textile Ordering and Point-of-Sale information from the tills. Although staff across the store use these systems, reports from the systems will be extracted by the Financial Team for accounting purposes, for example, information from the tills provides key sales information which feeds into staffing costs. The Financial Manager will be consulted when problems arise with these systems and will take responsibility for decisions which have to be made. They will be responsible for data protection and computer security.

The team of managers within the store are not there all of the time, particularly when there is late opening. From time-to-time, therefore, the Financial Manager takes responsibility for the whole store, dealing with operational problems wherever they arise within the store, such as a customer problem, a distressed member of staff or a stock issue. The Financial Manager takes joint responsibility for legal requirements within the store, such as temperature issues, pricing issues, hygiene and waste disposal.

Problem solving

Problem solving is not just about day-to-day issues. It also involves understanding the complex relationship between variables so that the Financial Manager can respond flexibly to locally-based issues and problems as and when they arise. This may include feasibility issues, such as advising about the costs and benefits of working on Sundays, which may require considerable research and planning. The Financial Manager may also advise about general opening times.

Acting as an auditor

The Financial Manager acts as an internal auditor responsible for many different areas within each store. Every year, the store will be audited by the Company's internal audit team from Head Office. The Financial Manager will therefore develop an audit trail for key issues which show the paperwork and procedures followed in responding to a particular problem to prove the integrity of the Company's procedures.

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Monitoring and controlling performance - Financial management in a retail setting - Marks and Spencer | Marks and Spencer case studies and information | Business Case Studies

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While the Commercial Manager is generating enough sales to meet the forecast, and the Personnel Manager is controlling the agreed staffing budget, the Financial Manager will monitor all other costs. Costs are broadly broken down into direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs are those clearly identified with the sales volume.

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X&Y theory

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The approach that you take will have a significant impact on your ability to motivate your team members. So, it's important to understand how your perceptions of what motivates them can shape your management style.

We'll now take a more in-depth look at the two different theories, and discover how and when they can be useful in the workplace.

Theory X

Theory X managers tend to take a pessimistic view of their people, and assume that they are naturally unmotivated and dislike work.

Work in organizations that are managed like this can be repetitive, and people are often motivated with a "carrot and stick" approach. Performance appraisals and remuneration are usually based on tangible results, such as sales figures or product output, and are used to control and "keep tabs" on staff.

This style of management assumes that workers:

Dislike their work.

Avoid responsibility and need constant direction.

Have to be controlled, forced and threatened to deliver work.

Need to be supervised at every step.

Have no incentive to work or ambition, and therefore need to be enticed by rewards to achieve goals.

According to McGregor, organizations with a Theory X approach tend to have several tiers of managers and supervisors to oversee and direct workers. Authority is rarely delegated, and control remains firmly centralized.

Although Theory X management has largely fallen out of fashion in recent times, big organizations may find that adopting it is unavoidable due to the sheer number of people that they employ and the tight deadlines that they have to meet.

Theory Y

Theory Y managers have an optimistic opinion of their people, and they use a decentralized, participative management style. This encourages a more collaborative, trust-based relationship between managers and their team members.

People have greater responsibility, and managers encourage them to develop their skills and suggest improvements. Appraisals are regular but, unlike in Theory X organizations, they are used to encourage open communication rather than to control staff.

Theory Y organizations also give employees frequent opportunities for promotion.

This style of management assumes that workers are:

Happy to work on their own initiative.

More involved in decision making.

Self-motivated to complete their tasks.

Enjoy taking ownership of their work.

Seek and accept responsibility, and need little direction.

View work as fulfillling and challenging.

Solve problems creatively and imaginatively.

Theory Y has become more popular among organizations. This reflects workers' increasing desire for more meaningful careers that provide them with more than just money.

It's also viewed by McGregor as superior to Theory X, which, he says, reduces workers to "cogs in a machine," and likely demotivates people in the long term.

When to Use Theory X and Theory Y

Most managers will likely use a mixture of Theory X and Theory Y. You may, however, find that you naturally favor one over the other. You might, for instance, have a tendency to micromanage or, conversely, you may prefer to take a more hands-off approach.

Although both styles of management can motivate people, the success of each will largely depend on your team's needs and wants and your organizational objectives.

You may use a Theory X style of management for new starters who will likely need a lot of guidance, or in a situation that requires you to take control such as a crisis.

But you wouldn't use it when managing a team of experts, who are used to working under their own initiative, and need little direction. If you did, it would likely have a demotivating effect and may even damage your relationship.

Circumstance can also affect your management style. Theory X, for instance, is generally more prevalent in larger organizations, or in teams where work can be repetitive and target-driven.

In these cases, people are unlikely to find reward or fulfilllment in their work, so a "carrot and stick" approach will tend to be more successful in motivating them than a Theory Y approach.

In contrast, Theory Y tends to be favored by organizations that have a flatter structure, and where people at the lower levels are involved in decision making and have some responsibility.

The Disadvantages of Theory X and Theory Y

However, both theories have their challenges. The restrictive nature of Theory X, for instance, could cause people to become demotivated and non-cooperative if your approach is too strict. This may lead to high staff turnover and could damage your reputation in the long term.

Conversely, if you adopt a Theory Y approach that gives people too much freedom, it may allow them to stray from their key objectives or lose focus. Less motivated individuals may also take advantage of this more relaxd working environment by shirking their work.

If this happens, you may need to take back some control to ensure that everyone meets their team and organizational goals.

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Theory X and Theory Y - Understanding People's Motivations

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The approach that you take will have a significant impact on your ability to motivate your team members. So, it's important to understand how your perceptions of what motivates them can shape your management style. We'll now take a more in-depth look at the two different theories, and discover how and when they can be useful in the workplace.

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(Illustration: Allan Lasser; Photo: Grendelkhan)

If I drive through a stop sign, I might protest to the traffic officer that "I didn't notice it," or "it was blocked by a tree," or "I thought it was a red flag." And those claims might be perfectly true from what I remember of my experience: nothing feels more natural than explaining a mistake. But as plausible as these explanations may sound, the officer shouldn't believe them. The truth is that even I don't know the source of my error.

This is because the real explanation had something to do with computations performed by my brain. As I passed the stop sign, my neurons were busy encoding sensory inputs and combining them with memories of past experiences. We are just beginning to understand that these these computations have natural mathematical descriptions utterly unlike the verbal "explanations" we find most convincing. The post-hoc descriptions of how we made a decision are sometimes pure fabrication, but even when they contain some truth (flags and signs do look similar), we can only trust them, practically, when they predict behavior as well as explain it.

Unfortunately, they usually do not. In experiment after experiment, unconscious internal processes and external influences predict behavior-in run-of-the-mill, moment-to-moment situations like these, if not in slow, high-level deliberations-better than verbal reports can. We don't rely on overt internal monologues as we drive, telling us to gauge the color or shape of an approaching sign. The decision happens on a deeper level, concealed from conscious experience. These facts force us to be skeptical whenever a person offers reasons for their behavior, whether that is a driver missing a sign, a doctor diagnosing an illness, or a juror weighing the evidence.

Yet people do become experts, given enough of the right experience, at making certain decisions. Our brains change in ways that allow us to make the right choices, even if we lack conscious access to those choices or changes. That is, we perform these tasks thanks to unconscious algorithms that we learn to modify.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have begun to tell us what these algorithms might be, and how they might change with experience. A certain class of "machine-learning" method currently produces the best models for how our brains learn to recognize patterns, so there is good reason to say they provide the best "explanations" for basic behaviors.

But these explanations are mathematical formulas, not sentences describing why the computations work. This may tempt us to describe what they do in words, like we describe our own behavior, in lieu of understanding the underlying algorithms. That's a major problem if we hope to truly explain ourselves or employ AIs that outperform us-as they are already beginning to, driving cars, interpreting medical data, and playing games.

Between the inaccuracy of our verbal reports and the superiority of mindless machines, it is time to leave behind our comfortable notion of "explanation" as high-level description. Once we accept that unconscious processes dominate much of our familiar life, there are great advantages to speaking in the language of algorithms.

"Black" and Glass Boxes

Unlike a person, an AI algorithm cannot lie or misinterpret its subjective experience; if we ask the right question, we will learn the truth about how it reached a decision. Rather than a forced translation, these mathematical descriptions are where to look when a self-driving car misses a stop sign or an AI doctor insists on errant surgery.

Some have argued that these misfires will happen because machine learning algorithms, which recognize patterns in larger data sets than a single human can process, inevitably learn unconscious human biases too. This fear has led to frequent claims that machine-learning-based AIs are " black boxes," which we cannot trust to make decisions unless they provide simple reasons for us to accept or reject.

Part of this caution in speaking about AI comes from a good moral intuition: We should not let an AI drive unless we know it will make the decisions we want it to make. But these claims are misleading: AIs are only called "black boxes" because they do not emit language-level explanations of their choices. This is the same mistake we make so often with human behavior, thinking that what sounds simplest-an English sentence-bears any relation to the causal processes occurring in the brain or the machine. In fact, in their natural mathematical description, AIs are entirely transparent. We can assess every computation they perform.

So instead of demanding explanations as a traffic cop would, we must frame our questions concretely and quantitatively. How do we want the AIs to behave, and what algorithms can produce that pattern of behavior? For machine-learning algorithms, we must further decide which data to use for training, as biases in the data will produce biases in behavior. Thus, as with biological brains, explaining AI behavior will force us to confront issues of both hardwired "nature" and experiential "nurture." Fortunately, if we take the same attitude toward AI as we should toward the brain, the truth is waiting for us.

Language in Numbers

Studies of biological and artificial intelligence should therefore shake off the restrictions of language-level explanations. This does not, however, discount high-level human reasoning: it is responsible for our understanding of the world and all the benefits of science, technology, and government.

Furthermore, we need to communicate with each other about why certain approaches work and how they can be extended, even if the explanation for what a particular brain region or computation does cannot be converted to a textbook sentence. The sort of understanding within reach is that of pattern recognition, quick decision-making, and other tasks we perform so automatically that algorithms describe them more accurately than words. Explanations of high-level cognition are far more distant.

This is why we must be honest and precise in our language, and not fool ourselves into believing that current AIs even could tell us "how they decided" in English. Such an explanation would be just as misleading as my excuse to the traffic cop.

Free from this tangle of words and misconceptions, we can accept that AIs yield the real explanations for their behavior much more readily than we do: our brain is the true black box. Reflecting our inner machine, unconscious algorithms offer the keys to this darkest chamber.
originally appeared on , an editorial partner site that publishes science stories by scientists. to their newsletter and follow Massive on and

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How Artificial Intelligence Can Explain Unconscious Decision-Making

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If I drive through a stop sign, I might protest to the traffic officer that "I didn't notice it," or "it was blocked by a tree," or "I thought it was a red flag." And those claims might be perfectly true from what I remember of my experience: nothing feels more natural than explaining a mistake.

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Top Echelon | TE Recruit™ and TE Network™

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Top Echelon | TE Recruit™ and TE Network™

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Defense Secretary Ash Carter (left) with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on March 3, 2016. Amazon.com Inc.'s organizational structure or corporate structure enables managerial control of the e-commerce business. (Photo: Public Domain)

Amazon.com Inc.'s organizational structure enables control on global operations. The organizational structure or corporate structure establishes the design and system of interactions among personnel, business processes, and other resources of the e-commerce company. For example, the corporate structure determines how managers direct operational activities in various business areas, such as information technology development and marketing. The company maintains an organizational structure that supports its expanding market reach and the management of subsidiaries, such as Whole Foods Market. Also, Amazon's corporate structure evolves, as the enterprise gradually diversifies. The company's organizational design involves such a business structure that complements the technological foundation of online services operations. This complementary condition makes the company's corporate structure a determining factor of the business ability to withstand the effects of competitors, like Walmart, Alibaba, eBay, Home Depot, Costco Wholesale, and Rakuten, as well as IBM and Intel. The competitive landscape examined in the Porter's Five Forces analysis of Amazon.com Inc. also shows the significance of competing consumer electronics, online services, software, and on-demand digital content distribution businesses, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, and Netflix. The characteristics of Amazon's organizational structure strengthen the business against these competitors.

The importance of Amazon's organizational structure includes support for managerial control. This control facilitates strategic management initiatives in the information technology business. Thus, the business structure strategically contributes to the business strengths detailed in the SWOT analysis of Amazon.com Inc. The characteristics of this company structure also provide support for new product launches in the e-commerce market, as the corporation diversifies its operations. In this regard, the fulfillment of Amazon's corporate mission statement and corporate vision statement partly depends on the design of the organizational structure. Future elements of the corporate structure are expected to represent business needs through new organizational components that match a more diversified information technology and online services corporation.

Organizational Structure Type and Structural Features of Amazon

Amazon.com Inc. has a functional organizational structure. This company structure type uses business function as basis for determining the interactions among components of the organization, in contrast to other organizational designs and organizational structures wherein variables, like market location, dictate corporate management decisions, strategies, and control. In this case, Amazon's corporate structure has the following characteristics:

1. Global function-based groups (most significant structural feature)

2. Global hierarchical structure

3. Geographical divisions

Global Function-Based Groups. Function-based groups are the strongest characteristic of Amazon's organizational structure. Each major business function, such as Consumer Business, has a dedicated group or team, and a senior manager. The strategic objective in having this structural characteristic is effectiveness combined with efficiency in Amazon.com Inc.'s operations management throughout the organization. Function-based grouping in the company structure affects resource availability for various areas of operations, such as consumer electronics design and development. Through this feature of the corporate structure, the company grows in terms of support for establishing new market operations, as described in Amazon.com Inc.'s generic strategy for competitive advantage and intensive growth strategies. This characteristic of the online retailer's corporate structure reflects traditional organizational design that focuses on basic business functions. The following are the major function-based groups in Amazon's organizational structure:

1. Office of the CEO

2. Business Development

3. Worldwide Amazon Stores

4. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

5. Finance

6. International Consumer Business

7. Accounting

8. Legal and Secretariat

Global Hierarchical Structure. Hierarchy is a traditional organizational structural characteristic applied in Amazon's organizational design. The hierarchical structure is expressed in terms of a multinational system of vertical lines of command and authority that influence the online retail firm. For example, senior executives' directives are passed down through the corporate structure, from the headquarters to lower-level managers in online retail, inventory and warehouse management, and other business areas. The directives are then applied throughout the organization, affecting all relevant offices of the e-commerce company. The strategic objective of this feature of Amazon's organizational structure is the facilitation of managerial control of the organization. The effectiveness of these function-based groups in the corporate structure relates to human resource support for vertical lines of command in the online retailer's operations. Amazon's organizational culture influences how corporate activities and human resources provide such support for the corporate structure.

Geographical Divisions. The organizational structure involves geographical divisions representing target markets for Amazon's international business. In this structural characteristic, divisions are based on geographical regions and related business goals for the technology and Internet-based services company. These divisions of the corporate structure facilitate the management of the regional trends, opportunities, and threats described in the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Amazon.com Inc. In this regard, a strategic objective in having this characteristic of the organizational structure is enabling the e-commerce company to address issues relevant to each geographic region, considering differences among regional markets. In addition, these divisions of the business structure influence how strategies and tactics are implemented in Amazon's marketing mix or 4Ps. Thus, this aspect of the organizational design determines the success of strategic plans in providing information technology goods and online services. Amazon's corporate structure has a simplified approach for this feature, involving the following geographical divisions:

Implications, Advantages & Disadvantages of Amazon's Corporate Structure

Amazon's organizational structure supports business growth in the international market. The e-commerce company's success in expanding its business is an indicator of the suitability of this corporate structure. An advantage of function-based groups and the hierarchical structure is that they enable rapid and effective implementation of managerial directives from Amazon's corporate headquarters. Also, geographical divisions are advantageous in terms of ensuring that retail operations strategically address the socioeconomic conditions of regional markets.

A disadvantage of the organizational structure of Amazon.com Inc. is that it has limited flexibility and responsiveness. The dominance of the global function-based groups and global hierarchy can limit the company's capacity to rapidly respond to new or emerging issues and problems, such as security risks in online data processing. Thus, a recommendation is for Amazon to consider reducing the dominance of these characteristics in its corporate structure. The information technology company can also achieve higher flexibility and responsiveness by increasing the empowerment or degree of autonomy of regional or local offices. Improving the corporate structure's flexibility and responsiveness can help in satisfying Amazon.com Inc.'s stakeholders, in support of the company's corporate social responsibility strategies.

References

Amazon.com Inc.'s E-commerce Website.

Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-K.

Cai, J., & Wang, Y. (2021). Optimal capital allocation principles considering capital shortfall and surplus risks in a hierarchical corporate structure. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 100, 329-349.

Fu, Q., Abdul Rahman, A. A., Jiang, H., Abbas, J., & Comite, U. (2022). Sustainable supply chain and business performance: The impact of strategy, network design, information systems, and organizational structure. Sustainability, 14(3), 1080.

Johari, R. J., Sanusi, Z. M., & Shafei, N. A. (2020). Social enterprises' performance: The influences of corporate structure, corporate monitoring process and corporate controlling process. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(13), 73-87.

Rahmad, R., Sabri, S., & Nasfi, N. (2021). The influence of organizational structure, leadership and human resource capability on service effectiveness. International Journal of Social and Management Studies, 2(3), 123-131.

U.S. Department of Commerce - International Trade Administration - Retail Trade Industry.

U.S. Department of Commerce - International Trade Administration - Software and Information Technology Industry.

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Amazon's Organizational Structure Type & Characteristics (An Analysis) - Panmore Institute

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Amazon.com Inc.'s organizational structure enables control on global operations. The organizational structure or corporate structure establishes the design and system of interactions among personnel, business processes, and other resources of the e-commerce company. For example, the corporate structure determines how managers direct operational activities in various business areas, such as information technology development and marketing.