Perspectives on Various Issues of Interest

How to Bathe a Cat

I. Know that although the cat has the advantage of quickness and lack of concern for human life, you have the advantage of strength. Capitalize on that advantage by selecting the battlefield. Don't try to bathe him in an open area where he can force you to chase him. Pick a very small bathroom. If your bathroom is more than four feet square, I recommend that you get in the tub with the cat and close the sliding -glass doors as if you were about to take a shower. (A simple shower curtain will not do. A berserk cat can shred a three-ply rubber shower curtain quicker than a politician can shift positions.)

II. Know that a cat has claws and will not hesitate to remove all the skin from your body. Your advantage here is that you are smart and know how to dress to protect yourself. I recommend canvas overalls tucked into high-top construction boots, a pair of steel-mesh gloves, an army helmet, a hockey face-mask, and a long-sleeved flak jacket.

III. Use the element of surprise. Pick up your cat nonchalantly, as if to simply carry him to his supper dish. (Cats will not usually notice your strange attire. They have little or no interest in fashion as a rule.)

IV. Once you are inside the bathroom, speed is essential to survival. In a single liquid motion, shut the bathroom door, step into the tub enclosure, slide the glass door shut, dip the cat in the water and squirt him with shampoo. You have begun one of the wildest 45 seconds of your life.

V. Cats have no handles. Add the fact that he now has soapy fur, and the problem is radically compounded. Do not expect to hold on to him for more than two or three seconds at a time. When you have him, however, you must remember to give him another squirt of shampoo and rub like crazy. He'll then spring free and fall back into the water, thereby rinsing himself off. (The national record for cats is three latherings, so don't expect too much.)

IV. Next, the cat must be dried. Novice cat bathers always assume this part will be the most difficult, for humans generally are worn out at this point and the cat is just getting really determined. In fact, the drying is simple compared with what you have just been through. That's because by now the cat is semi-permanently affixed to your right leg. You simply pop the drain plug with your foot, reach for your towel and wait. (Occasionally, however, the cat will end up clinging to the top of your army helmet. If this happens, the best thing you can do is to shake him loose and to encourage him toward your leg.) After all the water is drained from the tub, it is a simple matter to just reach down and dry the cat. In a few days the cat will relax enough to be removed from your leg. He will usually have nothing to say for about three weeks and will spend a lot of time sitting with his back to you. He might even become psychoceramic and develop the fixed stare of a plaster figurine. You will be tempted to assume he is angry. This isn't usually the case. As a rule he is simply plotting ways to get through your defenses and injure you for life the next time you decide to give him a bath.

But at least now he smells a lot better.

The Evolving Digital Music Industry

“Can anybody catch iTunes?” (by Ethan Smith, WSJ, Nov. 27, 2006: pp. R1 & R4) provides a good analysis of how the digital music industry is shaping up. Many companies, such as eMusic, Yahoo, Napster, Real Network and Microsoft are attempting to get a sizeable share of the digital music industry, which is currently ruled by Apple with its iTunes having a commanding 72% of the online song market. eMusic, its closest rival, holds 10% market share and others have single digit market share. On the hardware front, Apple owns three quarters of the market for MP3 player sales with its iPod. Most of the competitors are avoiding a strategy of converting current iTunes customers, and thereby engaging in a direct competition, and are targeting those who have yet to join the digital music bandwagon.

eMusic offers service that is compatible with iTunes. Apple secured the rights to major labels’ catalogs by using software that limited users’ ability to copy songs. eMusic found a way around this situation by focusing on the “unprotected” MP3 format, which can be played on virtually any portable digital music player. The price that eMusic has to pay is that it cannot carry major-label artists. The revenue model is based on a monthly fee for a specific number of song downloads. The company charges $9.99 for 30 downloads a month, $14.99 for 50 downloads a month and $19.99 for 75 downloads a month. The unused downloads do not roll over to the next month. The company recently began selling “prepackaged digital music in a box” at all 650 Borders stores to target people who are intimidated by downloading music and who still shop for CDs. The package does not contain a CD but provides a code that allows them to download the music described on the package. The cost of download is included in the purchase price.

Yahoo’s offering in this industry is aimed at those who launched the digital music revolution and who think that music should be free. Yahoo’s music unlimited provides a low price option and is one of the handful services that allow users to rent unlimited amount of music for a flat monthly fee and transfer it to a digital music player. The services do not work with iPod. Currently, Yahoo’s portable option costs $12 a month with a 12-month commitment. The Yahoo system relies on copy protection software from Microsoft and works with a range of portable music players that also use the software. Yahoo is trying to appeal to potential users who don’t own a dedicated music player or might not want to shell out for one. The company is working towards integrating its services with devices consumers already own such as cellphome and personal digital assistants. So far five devices including the LG CU500 and two Sony Ericsson models work with Yahoo’s subscription service. Yahoo, along with Napster, recently launched a partnership with Cingular that integrates cellphones and subscription music services more tightly. The aim is to develop a system such that a customer is able to download music from subscription services to the phone over the air, instead of hooking it up to a PC.

Napster’s offering is similar to Yahoo with a cost of $14.99 a month for the portable version. Rather than accessing the online service through a Web browser, subscribers use a dedicated software program on a PC. In May 2006 the company began offering a free version of its “all you can eat” subscription service. The subscribers listen to all music they want at no charge, however, they can listen to any given song only three times a month, and they can’t load the songs onto a portable player or copy them elsewhere. The lost subscription revenue is attempted to be compensated by selling advertising.

RealNetwork’s Rhapsody subscription service is similar to Napster’s service; the subscription cost is $15 per month. The company recently entered a three-way partnership with Best Buy and SanDisk to create a tightly integrated hardware, software and retail combination.

Thus far, the launch of Microsoft’s Zune hardware and software ecosystem is the most ambitious strategy that aims at challenging Apple’s presence in the industry with its iTunes and iPod based synergistic offering. Zune comprises of portable player and service that are designed to work together smoothly, but not with other online stores or devices. The 30 GB player sells for $249 and the “Zune marketplace” offers music two ways – individual songs for 99 cents, or an all-you-can-eat subscription plan at $15 per month. The critics point out the bulkier design and limitation in terms of service offerings that include only music and music videos as compared to iPod’s design and in terms of iTunes service offering that include music, music videos, television shows and movies. Microsoft intends to offer music sharing feature that lets friends swap songs wirelessly between Zune players. 

Cellular phones and digital music

“Wakeup call for the iPod” (by Li Yuan, WSJ, November 30, 2006: pp. B1 & B3) further expands on my previous posting on 28^th November. This year has witnessed rollouts of phone sets that allow users to store and listen to digital music on cellular phones. This is an important development. To put things in perspective, Apple has sold more than 60 million iPods globally, but there are over two billion cellphone users in the world and analysts believe that close to one billion cellphones will be shipped in 2006 alone.

These devices that take on the dual role are already showing impressive sales around the world. Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Telefon AB L. M. Ericsson and Sony Corp. has sold 15.5 million Walkman music phones in a 14 month period ended in September. Motorola Inc., in its third quarter earnings call, stated that it shipped 15 million high quality music phones in 2005. Nokia Corp., the world’s largest handset makers aims to sell 80 million music phones in 2006, making the company the world’s largest manufacturer of digital music players. Cellular phone service companies have tied up with multiple music phone models. For example Cingular Wireless has 18 music phone models available, including two Walkman phones from Sony Ericsson, a Smartphone called Blackjack from Samsung and three Motorola phones that play iTunes tracks. Verizon Wireless is marketing music phone called enVy by LG and Chocolate.

The promotional price is available to new subscribers. These phones can either tap into iTunes music store, which feature 3.5 million tracks (e.g. the three Cingular phones from Motorola) or they can tap from their own offerings. For example, Spring Music Store offers one millions songs and Verizon’s proprietary music service called V Cast Music has 1.5 million songs. Cingular has partnerships with Napster, Yahoo Music and eMusic, which provide access to two million tracks. These songs are typically offered on a dual delivery basis, whereby one copy can be stored on the phone and another copy can be stored on the computer. Phone users that have downloaded iTunes music can either use iTunes phones from Motorola or format iTunes tracks into non-iTunes music files with special software that can be downloaded for free. The addition of a 1GB memory card to the phones allows a user to store up to 1000 songs.

These phone music devices offer some services that iPods don’t provide such as wireless downloading. Verizon Wireless and Cingular provide a feature where the user can hold the phone up to a speaker playing a song and then match the song against their music database. The user can then buy the song if available in the database. Rumors and speculations in the industry suggest that Apple is also aiming to launch such devices. As an example, earlier in November 2006 The Commercial Times in Taipei said that Apple has ordered 12 million iPod phones from Hon Hai, a Taiwan-based manufacturer that makes iPods. It is a matter of time to understand the scope of Apple’s strategy and the direction that the digital music industry will take.

Toyota's Strategic Direction

“As Rivals Catch Up, Toyota CEO Spurs Big Efficiency Drive” (by Norihiko Shirouzo, WSJ, December 9-10, 2006: pp. A1 & A6) presents how Toyota’s leading role in the auto industry comes with some concerns and responsibilities for sustained improvement of products and processes.

Today Toyota holds 12% of the world-wide car market, including sales from its two affiliates, putting it in the No. 2 spot behind GM. In the very near future it is poised to become the industry leader in terms of sales. Toyota’s CEO, Katsuaki Watanabe, considers that the leadership role that Toyota is assuming in the automotive industry comes with loss in its traditional source of competitive edge. Quality has been and still remains

Toyota’s forte, but the company is observing that this foundation of its success is slipping in recent years. The efficiency of its factories and engineering practices needs an overhaul and the relentless focus on continuous improvement, i.e. kaizen, need further emphasis. The improvements that  Toyota is undertaking are seeing diminishing returns. In 1998, the assembly time for a car at Toyota’s North American plant was 21.6 hours, more than 10 hours faster than GM. However, by 2005 Toyota has improved only marginally to 21.3 hours, while GM had almost caught up. The rapid global growth of Toyota is resulting in quality control problems. In 2005 Toyota recalled 2.38 million vehicles more than the 2.26 million it sold, suggesting that the manufacturing problems are in fact compounded by potential design flaws.

U.S. and European companies are catching up on most of the traditional core strengths of Toyota. Mr. Watanabe foresees kakushin, i.e. revolutionary change in how Toyota designs cars and factories, as an important element of future strategy. The push is to reduce the number of components used in a typical vehicle by half and to create fast and flexible plants to assemble these simplified cars. The aim is to cut at least a trillion yen ($8.68 billion) in vehicle costs in the next three to four years, translating to a reduction of approximately $1000 per vehicle. During the period 2000-2004, Toyota managed to reduce about one trillion yen out of its parts purchasing, equivalent to 30% cut in the company’s procurement costs in the five years through 2004. With the help of two colleagues, Mr. Watanabe, who headed Toyota’s purchasing division worked with the suppliers to change the way 173 components and systems were designed, in an effort to make them simpler and less expensive without affecting quality. The effort was dubbed: “Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21^st Century,” or CCC21.

In 2002, Toyota began to rethink their “Lean Production” approach. Interestingly, the company learned that there were several areas in which the lean production principle was not applied. Most of its machines were too big, clunky and slow which as limiting Toyota’s ability to drive waste out of its factories. Smaller and simpler machines are less expensive to install, take less energy to run, are less likely to break down and are easier to fix if they do.

Toyota worked with its equipment suppliers to shrink the size (for example for its aluminum caster the size was shrunken to third of its size) and banned the supplier from selling the new technology to Toyota’s rivals for six years. The drive termed as “simple and slim” resulted in several other changes as well. At the Tsutsumi plant near Toyota City, where the Prius and the Scion tC are built for U.S. market, workers relied on lifter on rails to hoist gasoline tanks into vehicles suspended from production line. The size of the machine adversely affected the chassis and cramped the workplace. In 2005, a minilifter was designed and introduced that sits on a push-cart and uses air pressure to lift the tanks. The plant now used 16 minilifters to handle same number of installations; these minilifters take up a third of the space and helped Toyota cut the cost of using the tool in half. Furthermore, now two workers can work under the body of one car due to the smaller size of the equipment, which helped Toyota to shorten the line and install more quality assurance checkpoints.The length of paint line is another area that has been given further attention. The slow process of dragging a car through a 115 – foot long bath of anticorrosion undercoating, Toyota engineers devised an approach in which a car body is immersed in the paint pool to make the paint stick. The new approach is implemented under strict secrecy and the aim is to reduce the paint line length to half.

The use of new processes and new equipments has slashed the cost of building a new plant by as much as 30%. The company aims to come up with a new type of low-cost factory in which workers will churn out nearly a dozen different cars on the same line at a speed of one every 50 seconds. Currently, Toyota’s fastest plant takes 56 seconds to produce a vehicle. The first of these revolutionary plants are expected to open by the end of 2007, when Toyota finished rebuilding one of its two lines at its Takaoka plant near Toyota City. The plant will have a new assembly line, where parts are delivered to workers in small containers inside cars, eliminating the need to pick the parts off nearby shelves. It is expected that this will reduce the assembly line’s length by half. In the future the company is planning to give close attention to the number of components used in a typical vehicle. The aim is to cut the number of components to half. The drive that was initiated in 2005 is dubbed “value innovation” with an ultimate aim that in the next decade or so a vehicle will have just one antenna and one receiver that handles all the wireless communication for a car.

Enterprise Information Systems and Engineering Design at Briggs & Stratton

In this paper, co-authored with Chetan Sankar, P.K. Raju, David Patton and Nadja Bleidung, we present an educational case-study of the K-11 engine development at Briggs and Stratton.

There are two specific educational objectives of using this case study in a classroom.

First, the case provides a context to illustrate the benefits of using an Enterprise information system (for example, SAP R/3) for enhanced product-based profitability. SAP R/3 is a complex system and many students have difficulty understanding its utility in a large organization. The case shows how Briggs & Stratton uses SAP R/3 during many stages of its product life cycle.

Second, the case underlines the importance of better communication between engineering design, manufacturing, MIS, and other divisions of a company. It shows that there is very little linkage between the information systems used by designers and the manufacturing employees. Improved linkages could lead to more efficient systems and higher profitability for the company.

The citation for the paper is as follows:

Sankar, Chetan S., Raju, P. K., Nair, Anand, Patton, David, and Bleidung, Nadja. 2005. Enterprise Information Systems and Engineering Design at Briggs and Stratton: K11 Engine Development. Journal of Information Technology Cases and Application Research, 7(1): pp. 21-40.