Describe the relationship between MRP and ERP

Managing inventory and scheduling works are very important for manufacturing companies. Firms that make products need to know clearly the amount of their inventory on hands, which materials do they need for the productions and in what amount from time to time before they can accept customer orders. Many firms fail or delay to deliver their products to their customers due to their inability to keep track of their inventory, set up appropriate schedules for their works, and/or order inadequate amount of materials for productions. Thanks to the development of technology, organizations now can do a better job at managing their inventory and scheduling their works with the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and material requirements planning (MRP). In this essay, I will explain what are ERP and MRP and the relationship between them.

Zaman University Internship Pioneers

By obtaining data from Google Trend data, which forecast method should be used to predict housing prices and sales?

Many scholars and companies around the globe are using Google Trend data to conduct researches and to forecast about current and future economic activity. Google Trend data has helped a lot in providing query data to predict current and future trend related to various industries in a timely manner. Before 2004, there was no source to provide daily or weekly data, as the data needed times to compile, revised and not all data was available in all geographic areas. Thus, there was usually a time lag for the release of current data trend. Google Company had realized this problem and as a result, they introduced Google Trends to the public in 2004. Since then, Individuals and companies can obtain daily and weekly reports on the volume of queries related to various industries from Google Trends. Many researches have proven the effectiveness of using Google Trend data to predict about the present trend. For instance, a recent study by three economists had proven the usefulness of Google Trend data in predicting daily price moves in the Dow Jones industrial average (as cited by Leinweber, 2013). In this essay, I would like to explain one of forecast methods that can be used to predict about changes in housing prices and sales based on a research by Lin Wu and Erik Brynjolfsson (Lynn Wu; Erik Brynjolfsson, 2013).

Describe the benefits of ODM

A lot of companies around the globe have outsourced their productions to other companies in order to reduce cost, increase productivity, leverage a global knowledge, gain access to offshore resources, delegate responsibilities, just to mention a few. As the productions extend internationally, the product design also expands globally. Previously, companies generally chose local designers to conduct their product design. However, most of the product designs now are done by international team as organizations started to realize the benefits of global product design, which uses the combined efforts of a team of designers who work in different countries and even on different continents (Stevenson & Chuong, 2014). One of the renowned global product designs is ODM, which is an acronym for Original Design Manufacturer. In this essay, I would like to explain what is an ODM and its benefits.

Book Review: Irrational Exuberance

       Irrational exuberance is written by Nobel Laureate Robert J. Shiller who is currently a professor of economics at Yale University. This book was first published by Princeton University Press in year 2000 which was coincided with the dot com boom period.  It is a business book in which the author tries to transparent the factors that caused the stock market booms in 1800s, 1920’s, 1950s-60s, and late 1990s. Beyond analyzing the factors that caused the stock market booms, the author also offers readers solutions on how to deal with future speculative bubbles. This book is one of the main critiques of efficient market theory. The title of this book was named after Alan Greenspan’s Speech in 1996 regarding the behavior of stock market investors.  It means unsustainable investor enthusiasm that drives asset prices up to levels that are not supported by fundamentals (INVESTOPEDIA, 2014).

After an introduction to stock market historical context, the book was written into five parts. Part one was about the 12 structural factors that influenced the market from 1995-2000.  Shiller had identified 12 factors that are not grounded in sensible economic fundamentals in explaining the surge of stock market during 1990s. Part two of the book emphasized on cultural changes that leverages stock market boom in late 1990s and other speculative booms. Cultural changes was a result of the news media and of new era economic thinking. Part three discussed about the basic psychological factors-psychological anchors for the market and herd behavior that bear on the plausibility of speculative bubbles. Part four of the book examined the arguments against irrational exuberance. In other words, it focuses on the attempts to rationalize exuberance. The last part of the book was about Shiller’s suggestions regarding policy options and action that should be taken to prevent future speculative bubbles. 

An example of an analysis of a research paper

Neuman, W. L., 2014. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 7th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Normaz Wana Ismail, Peter Smith, Maurice Kugler, 2009. The Effect of ASEAN Economic Integration on Foreign Direct Investment. Jstore, 24(3), p. 398.

In this study, they examine how ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) affects foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into ASEAN countries. There are two main types of FDI flows in this study: the flows of intra-regional FDI and the flows of extra-regional FDI. This research finds out that ASEAN new members (Brunet, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos) benefit from the increase of intra-regional foreign direct investments, while, ASEAN 5 countries(Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia) can attract more investments from Japan and US. Furthermore, this research suggests that there is an increase in investments from ASEAN 5 countries to new members; however, those flows do not appear much within the original ASEAN 5 (Normaz Wana Ismail, Peter Smith, Maurice Kugler, 2009). There are factors that are positively related to foreign direct investment such as market size, income, population, language and distance in sources countries. The researchers have used different kinds of research method in order to come out with the above findings. I am going to discuss the research methods use in this study, and also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this study below.

Effects of Booyoung Town Project on Cambodia

Abstract: 

Booyoung Company, a Korean conglomerate, has recently invested more than $1.1 billion to build satellite city in Phnom Penh. This investment is the biggest investment ever from Korea to Cambodia. This paper analyzes spillover effects of this investment on Cambodia. I find out that this project brings many positive benefits to Cambodia. 

Author: Mizuno Thay

Senior Banking and Finance Student

Published date: 21 January, 2014