Quantum Chemistry: Molecular Geometry of Water Molecule

Quantum Chemistry: Molecular Geometry of Water Molecule Question 1: Optimize the molecular geometry of a water molecule (H2O) at HF/STO-3G level of theory in Gaussian-09 through the GaussView Visualization software package on the desktops provided. Give optimized bond length lengths and angles using this combination of methods and basis set. Ans. Bond Length = 0.98927 Ã… and the Bond Angle H-O-H is 100.035 degrees Recalculate the geometry using an alternative method of your own choice. Ans. Using Semi-empirical (PM6) we get a bond length of 0.94911 Ã… and a Bond Angle H-O-H is 107.488 degrees. Give molecular orbital diagram with drawings of the molecular orbitals. You may have to rerun the calculation with pop=full included.  ­Ans. Molecular orbitals for isolated H-O-H molecule were calculated using Hartree-Fock wave function and STO-3G basis set. [1][2] HOMO (Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital) and LUMO (Lowest Occupied Molecular Orbital) HOMO LUMO HOMO: Mainly pz2 is character with no contribution from Hydrogen 1s orbital but contributes to lone pair effects. LUMO: O-H antibonding with greatest electron density around Oxygen atom. Lowest Energy Orbital 1a1 contributed by 1s orbital of Oxygen Atom (approximately spherical). 2nd Lowest Energy Orbital 2a1 (close to non-bonding) contributed mostly by 2s orbital of Oxygen Atom (approximately spherical). Also contributes to O-H bonds. Energy Orbital 1b2 (non-bonding) contributed by 1s orbital of Hydrogen Atom and 2s plus 2px orbitals of Oxygen Atom leading to O-H bonds. Energy Orbital 3a1 (non-bonding) contributed by 1s orbital of Hydrogen Atom and 2s plus 2pz orbitals of Oxygen Atom leading to O-H bonds. Highest occupied molecular orbital 1b1 (non-bonding) with pz2 character. No contribution from Hydrogen atoms. How will the geometry change when and electron from the highest occupied molecular orbital is removed? Calculate the energy of H2O+, i.e. water with a charge of 1 and multiplicity 2. Ans. Using Hartree-Fock Wave Function with STO-3G basis set for a Water molecule with +1 charge and multiplicity 2, we get Bond length = 0.96 Ã… Bond Angle H-O-H = 109.5 degrees Energy of H2O+ = -75.2017003581 A.U. (atomic units) How will the geometry change when an electron is removed from the second highest occupied molecular orbital of H2O? Ans. If an electron is removed from the second highest occupied molecular orbital and electron from the highest occupied molecular orbital will move down to stabilize the oxygen atom and giving it a negative charge leading to a single lone pair. The original water molecule has 2 lone pairs and repulsion leads to a bond angle approximately 104.5 degrees, on removing an electron the repulsion force decreases leading to a larger bond angle but the geometry will remain the same. Calculate the infrared spectrum of water Ans. For Hartree-Fock Wave Function and STO-3G basis set. How will the spectrum change when the hydrogen atoms are replaced by deuterium atoms? Ans. If the hydrogen atoms were replaced by deuterium the mass of the atoms bonding to the oxygen atom increases as deuterium is a heavier isotope that results in a drop in the frequency of vibration of the molecules with similar peaks. How will the spectrum change when the water molecule is in liquid phase rather than in the gas-phase? Ans. For Hartree-Fock Wave Function and STO-3G basis set. Question 2: Do a geometry optimization and frequency for cyclohexane in the chair and boat configurations in the gas phase. Template structures should be available in GaussView. Chose a density functional method and basis set. As this is a relatively large system, I would choose a modest basis set without polarization and diffuse basis functions. Which of the two structures is more stable? Ans. The chair conformer is more stable as compared to boat as the hydrogens in the chair conformation are well separated as compared to the boat conformer leading to less force of repulsion hence less energy and more stability. [3] Calculate the vibrational spectra of both structures. Give a comparison. Ans. Chair Conformation IR Spectra -> Boat Conformation IR Spectra -> More peaks in the IR spectra of the boat conformation due to more interactions. Higher energy due to more interactions as compared to chair conformation. The boat conformation is not stable and is only used for experimental purposes and cannot exist independently. How would you be able to identify percentages of chair and boat configuration from a mixture of the two? Ans. We can easily calculate the percentages of chair to boat by calculating the value of ΆG between chair and boat and equating it to (- RT ln (Q)). The value of Q will give us the ratio of boat to chair conformer in a mixture of two. Chair Conformer Energy Boat Conformer Energy There will be a negligible difference between the energy for Chair Conformer at 10 cycles rather than 9 cycles. Hence, = 28.077 kJ/mol [5] Equating, where R= 0.008314 kJ/molK and T=273.15+27=200.15 K we get, Q=1.29866 * 10^-5 which is the ratio of boat to chair conformer present in the solution. Draw the dipole moment of the chair and boat configuration. Which of those structures will dissolve better in water and why? Ans. Chair conformer of cyclohexane has negligible dipole moment due to symmetry and equal charge distribution. On the other hand Boat conformation of cyclohexane has dipole moment due to the shape of the conformer making it polar due to charge distribution and steric effects. BOAT CONFORMER (Note: Grey spheres are C atoms and Blue spheres are H atoms) Hence the boat conformer is able to dissolve in water but stabilizes soon and turns into the chair conformer making it non-polar and separating it from water. How many different configurations of Fluoro-cyclohexane exist? Draw structures but do not minimize in Gaussian. Ans. Dipole moments of Fluoro-Cyclohexane have increased by a factor of 611.6 as compared to cyclohexane. This explains how the presence of a single fluoride atom instead of a hydrogen impacts the structure and charge distribution of the cyclic hydrocarbon. In turn adding a Fluoride atom also increases the energy of the cyclic hydrocarbon creating less stable structures in boat, twist and half chair increasing and decreasing the amount of other conformers in a solution compared to chair. [4] CHAIR CONFORMER BOAT CONFORMER (NOTE: Grey spheres are C atoms, White Spheres are H atoms and Blue Sphere is F atom) At room temperature only Chair Fluoro-Cyclohexane can exist but may transition between conformations that will be present for negligible time. REFERENCES: http://www.idc-online.com/technical_references/pdfs/chemical_engineering/Molecular_orbitals_for_water.pdf http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/GenChem2/A6/book.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclohexane_conformation http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/sterism2.htm http://www.virginia.edu/ep/Interactions/Constants_Units__Conversions.htm SOFTWARES: Gaussian(R) 09 Art in the Victorian Era | Analysis of Styles Art in the Victorian Era | Analysis of Styles The Victorian era was an age of peace and prosperity in Great Britain. The Victorian style is developed mainly in Great Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria, who became queen at the age of 18 years old. This movement takes place during the peak of the Industrial Revolution, in this moment, the science, as well as every other aspect of the society, were suffering big changes, with technological advances and a loss on the moral and religious values. This brought a search of rising the social dignity and tried to integrate all the arts in this harmonious and beautiful environment. The Victorian Era begins in 1837 and ends by the beginning of the 20th Century. The Victorian art is eclectic, it gathers the best of other styles, coming back to the Medieval. It uses richly ornamented objects and it has a taste for the naturalist inspired motifs, with great excess and saturation on the forms. A great interest for the daily spaces emerges, specially the dining room, for being a meeting point. The medieval themes are frequently used, full of knights and damsels, and comes back to the representation of religious scenes. Regarding to the painting, the Victorian era is a cult to the classical beauty, to counter the ugly modern world, result of an industrial revolution, where several topics are used, from the religious to the historical, and where the representation of women is recurrent. During the Victorian era, several artists tried to imitate the big former artists, previous the Industrial Revolution. The pre-Raphaelite movement is one of the most important of this period, formed by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, mainly. The pre-Raphaelite tried to fight the teaching on the academies, and all the bad that the Industrial Revolution brought, wanting to recover a more spontaneous art, searching for inspiration on the natural, looking up to the big Reinassance artists. The Lady of Shalott, painted in 1888 by John William Waterhouse is a representative painting of this time. This oil on canvas is held nowadays at the Tate in London. This painting tells the story of Elena, the lady of Shalott, who was confined in a tower where she wove day and night. One day, a whisper announced that a terrible curse will await her if she ever looked at Camelot. In this painting we see Elena in a boat on her way to Camelot. The artist shows us a def enceless young lady, wearing a white tunic. She seems exhausted, a woman who has assumed her faith and her death, with a lost gaze and her arms lay in a surrender position. In the boat, Elena is carrying some of her fabrics, in these fabrics we can observe the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table, as well as the love she feels for Lancelot. The English landscape on the background is reduced to simple strokes. The rich colours and details are used to highlight the central figure. Waterhouse gives importance to the atmosphere, giving less importance to the design. It is a composition of isolation and despair. Waterhouse creates a balance in the composition by opposing the pale figure of the woman on one side of the painting with the horizon on the other. He uses warm and autumnal colours, maybe as a symbolism of Elenas imminent death. Waterhouse captures a sense of sorrow, giving Elena a bewildered look, a woman with no control in her life, a possible nod to the political powe r of women at the time. Victorian society was especially harsh on its female subjects, particularly regarding issues of sexuality and chastity. For instance, Augustus Eggs oil, Misfortune, caused a big shock when it was shown for the first time in 1858 at the Royal Academy. This painting is part of a triptych, which tells us the story of an infidelity and the consequences it had for a woman at the time. The subject of this painting was not only controversial but contemporary and topical. The scene happens in the living room, the husband is holding a letter, evidence of his wifes affair. He is looking to his wife, who is laying on the floor, she is wearing two bracelets in both arms that seem like handcuffs, maybe a symbolism of what the marriage supposed to her. There is religious symbolism as well, there is an apple cut in two, placed in two different spheres of the painting, one half on the floor next to the mother, and the other half by the knife on the table next to the father. On the left side of the p ainting, we see the two children playing with cards, they built a tower which is falling apart, symbolism of the marriage of their parents, only the big sister seems to acknowledge what is happening. We can also see a novel of Balzac at the base of the girls, as well as four small significant paintings on the wall, Adam and Eve expelled from the paradise hanging over the wifes portrait, and one of a shipwreck hanging over the husbands portrait. We can observe a pair of scissors on the table, maybe as a symbolism for the break up. The brushwork is precise, paying attention to the details. Dark colours are predominant in this painting, and the light comes from the left side of the painting, tenuously enlightening the room. Augustus Egg represents the deception of the fallen women, which became almost a trademark of the Victorian period, ex.: The Awakening Conscience by William Holman Hunt, in which we find similitudes such as the mirror in both scenes. The mirror in Eggs painting show s us an open door, through which the mother will soon leave. The mirror gives a sensation of depth by showing us the rest of the room. The Victorian era can be summed up in a series of changes caused by the Industrial Revolution. For many people this period represented a step back of all what had been achieved by the time, that will take artists to romanticize previous times, when everything seemed to be simpler, it was a fight against the progress and the unknown, marked by artistic tendencies which searched for a balance between the what it is beautiful and the new, resulting in a greater richness on the design. These two paintings are a representation of the artistic movement during the Victorian era. They both use recurring topics of the period. Bibliography. Rosenblum, R. Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friederich to Rothko, Icon (Harpe), 1977. Rothenstein, J. Moder English Painters, Arrow Books, 1962. Treble, R. London: Victorian Paintings. The Burlington Magazine 122, no. 925 (1980): 274-77.

Aflac

Table of Contents I. Executive Summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 3 II. Company History†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3-4 III. Company Financials†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 IV. Internal Factors & External Industry Analysis. 6-11 V. House of Quality & DMAIC†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 11-19 VI. Tree Diagram & PDPC†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 19-22 VII. Flowchart & Check Sheet†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦22-26 VIII. Consultants Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 26 IX. Works Cited†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 27 ? I. Executive Summary AFLAC, incorporated offers all different types of insurance including life, health, and accident insurance as being their top sellers. The insurance industry can often be a competitive one. There are many insurance companies, in the past few years, that have been greatly effected by the current recession in the United States. Some insurance companies needed government intervention to help them through this. AFLAC, just like other big companies out there, have gone through many problems. Building the House of Quality and using Deming’s five points will help this company succeed and train their employees better. Using flow charts, check sheets, and tree diagrams will show the employees the right way to do their work and can continuously improve at their work. Consultants will be overall most satisfied with these types of practices. II. Company History Aflac, also known as American Family Life Assurance Company, was founded in Columbus, Georgia in the year 1955. It was discovered by brothers John, Paul, and William Amos to sell life, health, and accident insurance (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † Competition was very fierce back then and the little company did poorly. In the 1940s and 1950s, there were many cases of polio scares and had spawned insurance coverage written specifically for this disease. It was then that Aflac decided to sell cancer insurance (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † In the year 1958, they introduced the world’s first cancer insurance policy. This wound up being a big hit for this company and had written over a million dollars in premiums and had expanded over state lines. This company grew very quickly. It grew very quickly in the decade of the 1960s. They developed a selling approach that was much clustered. This approach worked as employees were willing to make payroll deduction for premiums (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † By the year 1971, this company was booming in over 42 states. In the 1970s, John Amos then decided to expand his company outside the United States. This started by Amos visiting the World Fair in Osaka and he then decided to market this idea to the Japanese (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † The Japanese healthcare plan left them exposed to considerable expense from cancer treatments. After four years, the company finally got approved to sell health insurance overseas to the Japanese (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † It was basically approved because after research, it would have not threatened existing markets and the Amos’s found notable backers in the insurance and medical industries. Aflac became one of the first insurance companies to enter the Japanese market, and it had an eight year monopoly with the Japanese (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † Aflac has sought to supplement its cancer insurance by introducing new products and improving old ones to encourage the policyholders to add on or trade up (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † The company boosted its name recognition in the United States from two percent to fifty six percent primarily through advertising, including the slots throughout the 1998 Winter Olympic Games and NASCAR races (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). Accident and disability premiums surpassed cancer premiums in the United States for the first time in the company’s history in the year 2000. The popular Aflac duck made its first appearance on television in the year 2001 for a commercial for accident insurance (â€Å"Aflac Incorporated History). † III. Company Financials With every company, the financial po rtion of the company will vary from year to year. AFLAC, which is one of the most trusted insurance companies and has the most popular commercials, has been doing very well over the years as an insurance company. This company has annual sales presently at over eighteen million dollars (â€Å"Aflac Financial Reports†). Ten million dollars of the eighteen million dollars in revenues were solely from the sales of the employees that worked for this company. This company is a publicly traded company located on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Over the years, this stock price has gone up and up every single year. It is now priced at fifty five dollars per share, which shows how successful this company has been over the years. Below, is a chart that shows Aflac’s stock price from June of 2009 to April of 2010 (Business Source Complete). It shows that in June of 2009, it was price at thirty three dollars per share. It had a significant setback right before September where it dropped under thirty dollars per share (Aflac’s Financial Reports. )† It has since resurged in the past ten months to be up to fifty five dollars per share. It shows that Aflac has not been affected by the recession, which is ongoing in the United States. IV. Internal Factors & External Industry Analysis The insurance industry is a very competitive industry. AFLAC’s main concern is the customer service problems and that the agents are not trained enough to help out the various customers the company deals with. AFLAC specializes in accident and health insurance mostly, with the option of life insurance as well (Business Wire). The industry as a whole is very successful. The most popular aspect that most people will recognize about this company is their memorable commercials featuring the AFLAC duck (Price 1). The duck’s familiar quack and voiceover by Gilbert Godfrey immediately shows that it provides worker’s compensation to its employees (Price 1). There are definitely way more strengths than weaknesses in this particular company. The strengths of this advertisement are its catchiness and cleverness of the advertisements design rather than its theme. The main theme of the advertisement should have gone in a more interesting way of the necessity of the worker’s compensation as part of one’s health insurance package (Price 1). However, the nature of the duck in AFLAC’s commercials makes the surface theme of the duck recognizable and that’s why AFLAC’s commercials with the duck are so popular and has been a big reason why AFLAC has been a solid company over the years. Moreover, in the strengths of this company, it also has to do with the sole person that the customer is dealing with (Wiki wealth). The main strength of this company is the agents that are hired to work with the various customers. If a customer has a great representative, it has come apparent that they would recommend the company to all their friends and family. Personally, having a good representative will keep the customer more calm and know that their insurance claims will be paid in a more efficient time period. In addition, having an agent that can answer all of the customer’s questions and concerns is a big thing as well. If the agent is intelligent enough to answer all of the inquiries the customer may have, the customer will overall have a great experience and would feel that dealing with a company like this would be overall a great experience for that individual. Many believe that the insurance industry can be a profitable one. The industry in itself can be a very successful one, but also can be risky at times. As many might already know, insurance involves pooling different funds from many uninsured entities in order to pay for relatively uncommon, but severely devastating losses which can occur to these entities (â€Å"Industry Handbook). In the United States, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 was put into legislation. It stated that banks, brokerages, and insurance firms can come together to offer the customers a range of services (â€Å"Industry Handbook. )† In the insurance industry, this had led to an outrage of â€Å"Merger and Acquisition† activity. In addition, a majority o f liability insurance companies underwritten in the United States has been through big firms, which has been scooping up all different insurance industries (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). Insurance can also have some positive and negative effects on society and the economy as well. These are effects that are important and have to be monitored closely (â€Å"Insurance†). One negative about it is that it can increase fraudulent acts by individuals (â€Å"Insurance†). People will try to use insurance companies to try to get money out of them even if nothing extraordinary happens when they need money. On the other hand, it can help many families and individuals prepare for catastrophes and the effects of this on households and societies (â€Å"Insurance†). As one can see, the risk of insurance companies is that there can be access to fraud by individuals trying to exploit these companies for money. On the other end, this is a great way just in case a catastrophe happens in a family such as a deadly car accident, untimely death, or anything of that circumstance. Other factors need to be considered as well when talking about the internal and external aspects of this industry. Demographics is an important factor that needs to be considered. It can affect the sales for insurance, particularly the life insurance aspect (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). As people become older, they tend to rely more on life insurance products for their retirement. In more recent years, the insurance industry has made great headway in offering investments and savings type insurance products for their benefit (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). The Global Insurance Industry is also an important factor when it comes to insurance companies. The industry has to deal with the many fluctuations of the interest rates established. Global insurance premiums grew by 3. 4% to reach 4. 3 trillion dollars (â€Å"Reuters†). Insurance companies do invest in much of the collected premiums, so the income generated through these premiums is highly dependent on these interest rates (â€Å"Reuters†). For the first time in the past three decades, premium income has declined in inflation adjusted terms, with non life premiums falling by 0. 8% and life premiums falling near 3. 5% (â€Å"Reuters†). It has become apparent that this industry (insurance) is exposed to the global economic turndown on the assets side by the decline in return on investments and on the liabilities side by a rise in insurance claims (â€Å"Insurance†). It shows that AIG, a similar insurance company just likes AFLAC, was bailed out in September of 2008 and has had an enormous effect on AFLAC’s business and the insurance industry as a whole. The recession and the financial crisis that has gone on throughout the United States the past few years have shown that the insurance industry is sufficiently capitalized (â€Å"Insurance†). The vast majority of the insurance companies have had enough capital to survive, with only a few insurance companies asking the government for help. AFLAC was one of the companies that did not to have the government intervene into their company. The Five Forces Model, which originated from Michael E. Porter’s book, â€Å"Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,† has become a frequently used tool for analyzing a company industry structure and corporate strategy (â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces Analysis†). These five aspects include Threat of New Entrants, Power of Suppliers, Power of Buyers, Availability of Substitutes, and Competitive Rivalry. First, the threat of new entrants is the first aspect in Porter’s Five Forces Model. In explaining this, it most nearly means that the easier it is for new companies to enter the industry, the more cutthroat the competition will be (â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces Analysis†). Barriers to entry can limit the threat of new entrants. When it comes to the insurance industry, it is not like any type of person or entrepreneur cannot come along and start an insurance company. The threat of new entrants lies within the insurance industry itself. AFLAC has been fearful in the past of being squeezed out by the big players (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). Another threat for AFLAC may be the other financial services companies entering the market (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). This might cause a direct threat to AFLAC and often hurt them in the long run. If a bank or investment company offered insurance products, it would directly hurt the success of AFLAC. The second aspect of this model is the Power of Suppliers. This most nearly means how much pressure suppliers can place on a business (â€Å"Porters Five Forces Analysis†). In the insurance industry, there can be an immense amount of pressure. The suppliers of capital might not pose a big threat initially, but the threat of suppliers luring away human capital does pose a big threat (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). In AFLAC’s case, they do not want suppliers luring away their human capital because they would lose a lot of business. Also, if this had happened, government intervention might have to happen if they were not doing well financially. For example, if a talented insurance agent is working for a smaller insurance company, there is a legitimate chance that they will be enticed away from the smaller company moving to a larger one. In AFLAC’s case, there have been a few individuals that have gone from smaller insurance companies to the more, popular large ones to move into a particular market that they are comfortable in. The power of suppliers has a huge effect on AFLAC and needs to be monitored closely. The third aspect of this model is the Power of Buyers. This is just the opposite of the Power of Suppliers. In this case, this most nearly means how much pressure customers place on a business (â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces Analysis†). The customer can hold substantial power when it comes to insurance companies such as AFLAC. A regular individual does not pose a threat to AFLAC when it comes to the power of customers. But, what do pose a threat to AFLAC, is the large corporate clients that have more bargaining power than AFLAC (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). Just like airlines and pharmaceutical companies pay lots of money in premiums every year and insurance companies try hard to get high corporate clients (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). AFLAC tries this approach so they can get more for their dollar and be successful in different ways of the insurance industry. The fourth aspect of this model is the availability of substitutes. If someone who uses AFLAC as an insurance possibility and the cost of switching is low, this could cause a potential serious threat to AFLAC (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). This aspect is a pretty straightforward one as there are various substitutes in the insurance industry. Most large insurance companies, such as AFLAC being one of them, offer similar services. Whether it be automobile, life, home, and health insurance, chances are that the competitors can offer similar services. Companies focusing on niche areas usually have a competitive advantage, but this advantage depends on the size and whether there are barriers of entry available (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). AFLAC is one of these companies that do focus on the niche areas of the industry and have the competitive advantage. It seems that they are going to be fine when it comes to other companies offering substitutes. The fifth and final aspect of this model is the competitive rivalry. This is the most important part of the model. This describes the intensity of the various companies in the insurance industry (â€Å"Porter’s Five Forces Analysis†). It is becoming a very highly competitive industry. The difference between one insurance company and another is not all that different (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). As a result, it seems that insurance has become a commodity, which means an area in which the insurance company with a low cost structure, greater efficiency, and good customer service will beat out the competitors (â€Å"Industry Handbook†). AFLAC has the historical characteristics of having a low cost structure and good efficiency, but the customer service is still â€Å"Up in the air. † In the long run, I believe we may see more consolidation in the insurance industry. Other companies may prefer to take over or merge with smaller companies, but AFLAC’s approach is to advertise and market with the AFLAC duck and so far it has been a success over the years these commercials have aired. V. Product or Service for Improvement (House of Quality, DMAIC) There is not one company out there in the world that cannot improve. Even if you are considered a â€Å"perfect company,† there will always be room for some type of improvement on a product or service. In AFLAC’s case, they have been a successful company, but at the same time, they have many concerns within their organization. Within AFLAC, there are multiple changes that could be made to their product or service. The most important thing to fix in their system is that it seems that the company does not pay the customers claims in an efficient amount of time. This can mean a certain wide of things, but more importantly needs to be fixed before this company loses more and more customers. Paying the claims on certain individuals and families have been delayed for as long as two years, which seems to be an unreasonable amount of time. Moreover in this, it seems the customer service is lackluster and needs to be improved as well. Building an improvement plan so this company can get better reviews and even improve financially is important. I believe the first aspect of this is to build what is called a House of Quality. The House of Quality is â€Å"A set of matrices used to relate the voice of the customer to technical features and production planning and control requirements (Evans, 294). The House of Quality relates the attributes of the customer to the technical features. This requires six basic steps needed to be successful. When it comes to AFLAC, building a House of Quality will be reliable in their organization. The first step of this model is to identify the customer attributes. The manager must apply Quality Functional Deployment, which is used to ensure custo mer requirements throughout the product or improvement design process (Evans, 293). It is vastly important to use the notion of â€Å"The voice of the Customer† so it is not misinterpreted by any type of designers or engineers. For AFLAC,I have developed three customer attributes that AFLAC deals with. The first one is the basic attribute, which also can be called the â€Å"Must haves†(â€Å"AFLAC Attributes†). These are expected by the various customers. The second attribute is the â€Å"Linear Satisfiers† (â€Å"AFLAC Attributes†). If this company uses this attribute more effectively, this will increase the customer satisfaction, which at some points, is lacking. The third customer attribute is the â€Å"Energizers† (â€Å"AFLAC Attributes†). This means that it is not expected or required, but creates high customer satisfaction when present and can make the difference in choices for the consumer. For AFLAC, the different type of customers might include single individuals, families, working unions, and government officials (Evans, 295). Therefore, there are many classes that need to be considered. The second step of this model is to identify the technical features that are necessary to meet the requirements of customers (Evans, 295). These technical features expressed the language of the designer and engineer. These are the people that form the basis for design and service activities in an organization. In AFLAC, these must be measurable to track the positive or negative results and the output will be compared to the goals of AFLAC. The roof of the House of Quality (Evans 297) shows the interrelationships between any pair of technical features. These technical features can include the premiums, fees, allocated income, less claims, and less operating expenses. They are classified into either a very strong relationship, strong relationship, and a weak relationship (Evans, 296). The third step of this model is to relate the customer attributes to the technical features. The customer attributes is applied to using Quality Functional Deployment. The customer attributes is to have a better â€Å"experience† than they have had in the past with AFLAC. As set up on the House of Quality chart, the customer attributes are listed down the left hand column with the technical features listed across the top (Evans, 296). Using a relationship matrix is the most effective way to show this. AFLAC’s customer attributes must show whether the final technical features adequately address the customer attributes. These technical features can affect several of the customer attributes. â€Å"The lack of a strong relationship between a customer attribute and any of the technical feature suggests that the attributes are not being addressed and that the final service will have difficulty meeting customer needs (Evans, 296). If the technical feature does not match customer attribute, then the designer might have missed something important. † For instance, in AFLAC the â€Å"Voice of the Customer,† all input is appreciated with expert experience, customer surveys or overviews, or any type of controlled experiments (Evans 296). AFLAC should implement customer surveys and overviews to see what the customers have to say about their experience. Within many companies, especially restaurant establishments, they give out survey cards and rate the service of the waiter and restaurant staff. AFLAC should implement this and read over these surveys so at each AFLAC branch, they can see what they are excelling in and what they are struggling in. This would be beneficial to the company as a whole and to the customers as well. The next step of the House of Quality is evaluating the competitive products or services. This evaluation helps highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the problem. In AFLAC’s instance, the strengths of this company is that they have a strong financial strength within the company, the coverage it provides, the portability, the cost, and the direct payment (Hartman 1). The weaknesses include delays on paying customer’s claims, poor customer service, and more concerned about processes than progresses (Hartman 1). This step enables the designers to seek the opportunities for improvement. This links Quality Functional Deployment to a company’s strategic vision and allows priorities to be set in the design process (Evans, 297). † Some customer attributes become key selling points and help establish promotional strategies. The next step is the evaluation of the technical features of competitive aspects and development of targets. This step is usually accomplished through internal testing and translated into measurable results (Evans, 297). With AFLA C, these evaluations are compared with the competitive evaluation of customer attributes to find inconsistencies. The inconsistencies with AFLAC is their customer service. Targets for each technical feature are set on the basis of customer importance ratings and the existing products strengths and weaknesses (Evans, 298). The final step in building the House of Quality is selecting the technical features to be deployed in the remainder of the process. This means â€Å"identifying the characteristics that have strong relationships to customer needs, have poor competitive performance, or are strong selling points (Evans, 297). † The cost and direct payments with AFLAC are the proper actions and controls to maintain the voice of the customer. Also, on the negative side, the poor customer service and the delay of paying customer claims are critical as well and do need the attention. The House of Quality shows the six steps and how they are to be evaluated in sequential order. They will either be a very strong relationship, strong relationship, or weak relationship. We have to focus to make sure AFLAC improves its processes. It is important AFLAC improves as a company as a whole or could face the financial crisis as AIG did in September of 2008. They need to improve on what they have been criticized for in the past. Using a six sigma approach would be beneficial to their improvement plan. This is an approach to measuring product and service quality (Evans, 93). â€Å"The late Bill Smith, a reliability engineer at Motorola, is credited with originating the concept during the mid 1980s and selling it to Motorola’s CEO, Robert Galvin (Evans, 94). † He wanted to improve product and service quality in his organization and wanted to achieve six sigma capability by 1992. The key concepts of this was think, focus, emphasize, ensure, provide, Create highly qualified improvement experts, and set stretch objectives for improvement (Evans, 94). Today, Six sigma is used as a quality framework and in service organizations. As part of the improvement plan, AFLAC needs to implement a six sigma approach called DMAIC methodology. â€Å"This is a standard problem solving approach used in Six Sigma (Evans, 264). The DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. AFLAC can use this methodology to help solve their problem of not dealing with the insurance claims in an efficient amount of time and the customer service that goes along with it. It is explained that the six sigma project selected is dealing with the insurance claims in a sufficient amount of time without any delays. Therefore, the first step is to define the process that needs to be solved or needs â€Å"help. † The problem must be described in operational terms. As an example for AFLAC, this company has history of poor customer service and not paying the claims in time. Therefore, this six sigma project is to improve customer service reliability. Along with this problem, shows that the various insurance agents that are employed with AFLAC seem to not be motivated enough to satisfy the customer. In most organizations including this one, the main job is to satisfy the customer and make sure he or she got the experience with the company and is walking away happy with the customer service. This drills down to a more specific process which is called project scoping (Evans, 264). The customers must be identified that have the most impact on this negative performance, errors or the customer complaints. This phase also needs to address project management issues. In a more timely effort, these AFLAC agents may need some motivation whether it be more of an incentive or extensive training practices to make sure every customer walks out happy. The next phase is the measuring phase. This phase main focus is on how to measure the internal practices of the problems (Evans, 265). It does require an understanding of relationships between process performance and the value of the customer. In AFLAC, every customer is important. Once this is understood, collecting good data, observation, and careful listening should be implemented (Evans, 265). With AFLAC, the high managers and CEO should be doing this type of aspect of this cycle. They should be doing the observation part of every AFLAC branch. Hiring a team of auditors would most likely be the smartest idea. The careful listening part should be by the various AFLAC agents. The auditors and CEO should be giving the individual feedback and the agents should listen on how they can improve their working practices. The third phase is the analyze phase. A huge flaw that happens in problem solving teams and approaches is a lack of emphasis on the analysis portion (Evans, 266). A lot of the time, companies just want to jump into a solution and miss the step of understanding how serious the problem is and identifying where it is coming from. This phase focuses on why defects and errors occur in the organization. The AFLAC auditors need to conduct experiments to be one hundred percent sure that the scope of the problem is accurate. These experiments generally consist of formulating some type of hypothesis and then collecting data and analyzing it (Evans, 266). AFLAC needs to implement a statistical thinking tool. This tool is a philosophy of learning and action based on three principles. These principles include all work occurring in a system of interconnected processes, variation exists in all processes, and understanding and reducing variations are keys to success (Evans, 323). Analyzing statistical thinking in AFLAC would be an immense of help regarding not paying the claims in a timely manner. Variation must exist in this process and AFLAC does not have variation in this type of process. This is why statistics is an important part of the Six Sigma training. Also, what also needs to be analyzed in AFLAC is to see if their also is a computer problem regarding the claims not going through their system. AFLAC pays all their claims online and doing a computer simulation of all computers in the offices would scope out if there is a possible problem with the computer. Once the cause is determined, the analyst, auditors, and teams needs to generate ideas for removing or resolving the problem and improve the performance measures (Evans, 266). One of the difficulties in this section of the DMAIC phase is the natural instinct to prejudge ideas before thoroughly evaluating them in full detail. â€Å"Effective problem solvers must learn to defer judgment and develop the ability to generate a large number of ideas at this stage of the process, whether they are practical ideas or not (Evans, 266). AFLAC needs to improve their customer service and paying their claims in a timely fashion. One idea that needs to be implemented is to have an online website to file the claims to AFLAC. This would be a big convenience to all AFLAC’s clients. On the website, it should also have a spot where you can track the status of your claim. This would save AFLAC lots of money and it would cause less hassle on the customer service line of all the customers asking if their claim has been paid or not. Switching it to online would be more efficient, save money and also would be easier to keep track of every claim. It is way more efficient being on the computer and being well organized than searching through a person’s file looking for it. Implementing the websites to file claims will make the turnover be lower of the amount of complaints regarding the customer service, but there still needs to be improvements. As for the poor customer service, their needs to be extensive training for the many insurance agents that are employed with AFLAC. It has become apparent that these agents were not trained fully on the job when they were originally hired. Implementing a plan where training must exist upon hiring an agent and it should be done every two years to ensure quality in these individuals. The final phase of DMAIC is the control phase. This focuses on how to maintain the improvements AFLAC has implemented. This means putting tools in place to ensure the key variables remain within the maximum acceptable ranges under the modified process (Evans, 266-267). Controlling these plans are vastly important. AFLAC should hire an individual outside of the organization to solely work and monitor the website where claims are filed and to see the status of the claims that are filed. The company will be paying the individual, but in the end, it will save them money and turnover will have gone down significantly. The individual will control these websites and make sure there are no downturns or technical difficulties in the operation of this website. As for the training process improvement, the individual will be trained by top management on an individual basis once every two years. This might seem to be a lot of training by retraining them every two years. Technology changes from year to year and different programs will most likely be established in the near future and it is very important that the agents learn the new development in technology to help them do their jobs on the computer. Training the individual might seem like a hassle to the co-worker, but in the end they will become a more positive individual because they will know that they are doing their job in the most efficient and successful way possible. VI. Identify Management Planning Tools (Tree Diagram, Process Decision Program Chart) Planning is one of the basic functions of every manager out there. The complexity of the business environment today means that planning is not always the easiest thing to do (Evans, 302). However, many different types of tools have been developed by several Japanese companies over the last half century as part of their planning processes (Evans, 302). These tools can be used to address problems typically faced by managers in an everyday role. There are all different types of management tools that can be used to show the improvement in a chart or just explaining it in words. These help the manager understand what exactly needs to be done to improve the process it is struggling or needs â€Å"help† in. With AFLAC, showing these different management tools to management and the lower level employees will help them understand what AFLAC is trying to do as a company and is finding many ways to improve themselves in the

Objective Function vs Constraints in Linear Programming Essay

Linear Programming Model in Operation Research study is usually mathematical type of model which contains set of equations that represent objective function and constraints. The keywords in this article are Objective Function and Constraints, according to Heizer & Render (2008) Objective Function are mathematical expression expressed in linear programming designed to maximizes or minimizes some quantity, for example profit can maximized while the cost might be reduced. The objective function is also called effectiveness function, it is the mathematical expression of the objectives which may be cost of operation or profit on operation (Kumar and Hira, 2008). Constraints which is also known as restrictions are mathematical expressions of the limitations that are involved in fulfilling the objectives; they are caused by scarce or limited resources which may include money, space, manpower, materials and so on. Heizer & Render (2008) defined constraints as restrictions which limit the ext ent to which a manager can pursue an objective The objective function is more important than the constraints in a linear programming model under the circumstances in which the controllable variables which is also called the decision variables forms the major components of the linear programming model. Controllable variables are the variables that are directly under the control of the operations analyst; their values are determined by the solution of the problem. Using the stock control or inventory as an example, the controllable variables are the order size and the interval between the placed orders (Kumar and Hira, 2008). On the other hand the constraints are more important than the objective function in linear program model when the models function depends largely on the uncontrollable variables of the model. They are variables that are the function of the external environment and over which the operations analyst has no control, such variables are known as state of nature. Using the transportation system as an example, the per unit transportation cost is known as uncontrollable variable because it is subjected to continuous, unceasing change. In conclusion, it is imperative to understand and analyses the situation carefully before applying one linear programming over the other in other to improve or optimize current operations (Heizer & Render, 2008). Furthermore, it is difficult to predict or choose without examining several samples, the more reason why it is important to define variables which represent the problem  from the real world, then based on the variable determine the most applicable method (Heizer & Render, 2008). References: Heizer, J. & Render, B. (2008) Operations Management and Principles of Operations Management. PowerPoint presentation, 7th Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J. 07458 Kumar, G.P. and Hira D.S. (2008). Operations Research, Revised Edition. Chand and Company Ltd., New Delhi.

The Accountable Nurse Practitioner - 1428 Words

In this essay I intend to examine the issues surrounding nurses accountability in relation to the scenario discussed, and to Adult nursing. From the group sessions and further reading I have broaden my understanding of what being an accountable practitioner involves. Nurses are highly responsible for their own actions and care they provide. Consequently they are professionally accountable to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, (NMC) as well as their employer, public, patient, families and to themselves. Nurses have to justify why specific care was given in a particular way, (Royal College of Nursing, 2008). And they are required to use their professional knowledge, judgement and skills to make decisions continually throughout their†¦show more content†¦The group session was based around the discussion of a particular scenario in relation to accountability. Our session studied the story of Emma a newborn receiving positive pleasure ventilation treatment. On one particular occ asion nursing staff incorrectly attached her nebuliser to the ventilator consequential causing the over-inflation of the patient s lungs, as a result the patient sadly died. This scenario lends itself to analysing standards of care. Legally nurses have a duty to act vigilantly when treating their clients, nurses are expected to achieve at least the minimum standard of care consistently. If a nurse fails this they will be judged as negligent (McHale and Tingle 2007). When analysing the scenario within our sessions, it was discussed that the nurse providing care was negligent, if so they would have been held accountable. Chitty and black (2005) inform the reader that negligence is ‘the failure to act as a reasonable careful practitioner would, in particular circumstances . To assess how particular practitioner would act in a certain situation in relation to another is more complex and hard to resolve. 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