Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques

Construction Productivity Measurement Techniques The construction industry remains one of the few most labour intensive industries in the developed world. It is therefore imperative to understand the measure of construction labour productivity. Furthermore, recent institutional and industrial calls for an increase in productivity suggest a desperate need to get the measurement of productivity levels right. The research reported in this paper forms part of an ongoing Ph.D. study into the issue of construction labour productivity. An earlier study highlighted that less than 50% of the industry actually actively measure and monitor productivity levels, with a majority of those companies that claim to measure go about measuring on the basis of the intuition of key site management personnel. This may seem alarming, however, it was argued that productivity measurement techniques could be perceived as theoretical, arduous and expensive for construction companies to adopt. This paper reviews the methods of productivity measurement availabl e and describes two case studies conducted during this research, with a view of reporting the problems and issues faced when attempting to establish productivity levels at a project level. Lessons learnt are then drawn from the experience. INTRODUCTION The quest for productivity improvements in the UK construction industry has been an especially important agenda over the last decade (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). However, what is found baffling is the fact that the measure of productivity is often conflated with the measure of performance. One only needs to turn to the Construction Productivity Network (CPN) to seek an instance of such misapprehension. Indeed, the very name of the network is misleading since it deals with such far wider issues as risk management and knowledge management. Clearly, the network might be more suited to have adopted the term Construction Performance Network as compared to the use of the term productivity, which traditionally refers to the quantifiable ratio between inputs and outputs in physical terms. Indeed, the industrial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) rightly recognise the clear distinction by acknowledging the measure of productivity as a subset of the wider measure of business performance. However, in the pursuit of convincing the industry to take on board improvement programmes and initiatives, recommendations have tended to represent simplistically improvements through headline measures such as reduction in construction time, defects, accidents etc., for instance, in the case of the Movement for Innovation (M4I) demonstration projects. Productivity, interestingly, was measured by the M4I by taking the median of the company value added in monetary terms per employee. This value added approach mirrors the value-added approach conventionally applied at the industrial (macroeconomic) level (see e.g. Jonsson, 1996). While it is understandable, from a marketing perspective, to report headline indicators per se, given the fact that embarking on any initiative undoubtedly needs corporate buy-in by senior managers, it is felt that capturing productivity measurements at the strategic level may be insufficient to guarantee that improvements actually occur at the operational level. Therefore, it is firmly believed that going back to the basics of measuring productivity at the project site level would be necessary in facilitating improvements. This is because the construction industry is largely project-based. Groà ¡k, for instance, issued a stern warning that there is an inherent failure to recognise that the site was the defining locus of production organisation (1994: 288) for construction. However, there lies a problem here. Apart from the formal measures propounded by such initiatives as the M4I stated above, many construction companies just do not have formal measures in place at the project level. For example, Chan and Kaka (2003), in a questionnaire survey to 400 UK contractors, found that of the 77 respondents, more than half of them do not monitor productivity levels at the project level. Furthermore, a third of those who claim to do so base their judgement of productivity on gut feeling and experience of dealing with contract schedules. Similar findings were noted in a large study commissioned by the Investors in People in the UK, which was aimed at examining productivity measurements inter alia across sectors including manufacturing, transport, service and construction. The Investors in People (2001) noted that while 22% of the respondents did not measure productivity levels at all, 36% and 22% of the respondents used formal and informal techniques to establish productivity levels respectively. Yet, past research have shown that the very process of formalising on-site productivity measurements itself delivers project improvements. For example, Winch and Carr (2001) notably identified a growing competitive spirit among the workforce as they progressed in their study investigating the benchmarking of on-site productivity, thus reinforcing an earlier comment made about the importance of measuring productivity levels at the project site level. Nonetheless, Chans and Kakas (2003) and the Investors in People (2001) reports beg the question as to why there is reluctance for formal productivity measurements, and which forms the premise of this paper. The chief aim of this paper is to explore the pertinent issues that would explain some of the reasons behind what we would call industrial inertia towards productivity measurement at the project level. In so doing, we would tackle it from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The next section briefly reviews the key textbook approaches to measuring on-site productivity and highlights the limitations in terms of reliability and relevance of these approaches that restrict industrial adoption. Thereafter, we will report on the relevant findings of two live projects observed as part of a wider study into understanding the concept of construction labour productivity, revealing some of the practical issues encountered when measuring on-site productivity. Conclusions are then draw n from both the review and the case studies that lead to the recommendations for future research that would hopefully encourage the industry to measure on-site productivity. PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES Construction textbooks are awash with details of key productivity measurement techniques and it would be inappropriate to replicate the explanation of these techniques within the constraints of this paper. According to Noor (1998), productivity measurement techniques fall within a spectrum between two broad categories of observational methods, namely continuous observation (e.g. direct observation and work study) and intermittent observation (e.g. audio-visual methods, delay surveys and activity sampling). Noor recognised that while continuous observations such as direct observation and work study provide high levels of accuracy and detailed data for understanding productivity, these are often time-consuming, arduous and costly. Given the operational imperative of construction projects and the ever increasing time pressures exerted on project schedules, the cost of employing personnel to conduct such observations both in terms of the monetary cost of wages and the time value of observation that does not result in the physical growth of buildings (i.e. non value added) would deter companies from adopting such measurement techniques. Furthermore, the benefits of continuous observations are marred by the inexorable restriction of scope and thus, would make it difficult for large projects to pursue this approach. Where the use of technical equipment for audio-visual methods is concerned, Winch and Carr (2001) were especially cautious that the workers might feel that the surveillance was un necessarily intrusive. As such, they avoided the use of such methods to observe the workers and opted instead for direct observation where the researchers got to know the individual workers on a personal level. Therefore, while the absence of the workers uneasiness was achieved, the inability to observe the whole construction process became an evident trade-off. With respect to intermittent observations, Noor noted that these are prone to errors in determination since the data tends to be aggregated statistically through the observation of a representative sample. To add to this, Radosavljevic and Horner (2002) recently revisited formwork and masonry productivity data sets across eleven sites in the USA and the UK, only to confirm their suspicion that productivity is not normally distributed, thereby implying that some basic statistical diagnosticsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ may give misleading results and are not applicable (p. 3). Accordingly, this questions the dubious reliability of conventional productivity measurement techniques. Serendipitously, Radosavljevic and Horner made a brief comparison of the data with volatility studies in econometrics to reveal surprising similarity with Pareto distributions, which are typical of chaotic systems. They concluded therefore that using test statistics that rely on normality usually have been taken for grant ed, and consequently not much could have been done to achieve a better understanding of the ubiquitous complexity (p. 11) as they call for a paradigm shift to understand the complexities of construction labour productivity, possibly through chaos theory. However, it is felt that such complex methods of analysing productivity levels might further discourage companies to measure productivity since this would mean additional investment of statistical expertise. Another problem with many of the conventional productivity measurement techniques is the reductionistic approach in analysing work time (see e.g. Drewin, 1982). To put simply, much of the analysis of productivity data had been concerned with the binary relationship between productive (or value-adding) time and time loss. However, contenders such as Thomas et. al. (1990) challenged this underlying assumption the inverse relationship between productive and non-productive time, and that reducing time loss leads to productivity improvements as they claimed while these assumptions seem sensible and logical, they will be shown to be unsupportable for most construction operations (p. 712). In fact, a later study (Thomas, 1991) provided evidence that would cast doubts on the assumption of the binary relationship between productive and non-productive time, and hence on the productivity measurement techniques. A further limitation relates to the application of productivity measurement techniques in past research. A review of the literature revealed that measurement techniques were mainly concentrated, in past research, on a number of key construction operations: namely concrete works (Proverbs et. al., 1999; Winch and Carr, 2001), masonry projects (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987; Olomolaiye, 1990), structural steel (Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) and electrical works (Thomas, 2000). Evidently, with the exception of electrical works, much of the studies were concerned with the structural elements, i.e. elements that contribute to the structural frame of the building. This means there is an overwhelming lack of research aimed at studying such other aspects of the building process as architectural elements (e.g. plastering, internal fit-out, painting and decoration) or services installations (e.g. mechanical and sanitary installations). Indeed, the studies surrounding electrical works were related t o the effects of schedule acceleration, in part, due to the effects of productivity-related problems of the earlier structural phase of projects (see e.g. Noyce and Hanna, 1998; and Thomas, 2000). One of the possible reasons for this phenomenon is the lack of previous studies (unlike where areas such as bricklaying and concrete operations are concerned) or industrial productivity data for comparison. Notably, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) in the US has been deeply keen in examining productivity issues ever since the late 1960s (Thomas et. al., 1990) and have been actively developing labour consumption curves (NECA, 1983) to inform the industry for possible applications on different project types (Thomas, 2000), offering perhaps an explanation as to why productivity on electrical projects are examined. Olomolaiye (1990) is one of the few who explains his decision to focus on bricklaying as he attributed his preference to the predominance of bricks as one of the main construction materials in the UK. He added a bulk of construction manpower still goes into bricklaying as it remains highly labour-intensive (p. 302). On the decision to focus on concrete operations, Winch and Carr (2001) cited Horners and Zakiehs (1996) claim that studies of estimating have shown that the largest items in the bill can be used to determine overall outputs very closely. Furthermore, they expounded that data on concrete deliveries by ready-mix trucks for any given period are easily obtained from site records, and because concrete is perishable, we can infer that deliveries on a day have been poured that day (p. 581). It is argued, however, that concentrating on the predominant or largest activity results in a reductionistic approach, which fails to take into account the entire construction process. Intere stingly, Kazaz and Ulubeyli (2004) in a recent study aimed at reconciling governmental statistics and real project data on productivity rates in Turkey elected to examine only 82 work items deemed to be used most in practice, thus affirming the researchers observation, although they acknowledged that these only constitute 6.11% of all possible work items. In this respect, conclusions made in past studies are limited in their scope in offering plausible recommendations for implementation for the improvement of construction labour productivity. The limitations of productivity measurement techniques discussed hitherto, to some extent, help to explain the low industrial uptake within construction. These encompass the issues of reliability and relevance of existing techniques that would inhibit the ability of companies to meaningfully analyse their project productivity so as to bring about improvements to the entire construction process. Furthermore, there are the investment constraints of time and expertise in implementing the existing productivity techniques. These emerging issues from the brief review explains some of the general difficulties claimed by the participants of the Investors in People (2001) study, particularly the difficulties in obtaining accurate information, the varied nature of individual job roles and the complex nature of productivity that is dependent on several intervening factors (p. 6). CASE STUDIES AND PRELIMINARY FINDINGS Having briefly discussed the theoretical issues surrounding existing productivity measurement techniques, this section now turns to the two projects, hereinafter known as projects A and B, observed during the course of the study. The purpose of the case studies is to explore the issues faced by practitioners when measuring project productivity. The two projects were selected because project participants had either attempted to measure productivity (project A) or claimed to have a formal method of measuring productivity in place (project B). Each case will begin with a brief synopsis of how the researchers got involved with the projects and an account of the observational process. This will then be followed by a succinct report of the key issues involved in the implementation of the productivity measurement techniques in the two projects. Project A: Multi-storey Car Park Background to project A Project A is the construction of a multi-storey car park for a Scottish airport. This was initially selected as a pilot study at the onset on the basis of convenience, access and geographic proximity as instructed in Yin (1994: 75). It is perhaps worthwhile, at this point, to provide an insight into how and why access was given to this project in the first place. A marketing flyer accompanied by a cover letter was sent to companies to seek collaboration and access to projects, people, data etc. at the start of the research. A positive response from the main contractor executing project A then resulted from this initial call for participation. The contractor was a fast growing company at that time that aimed both to penetrate the Scottish construction market and to succeed in gaining repeat business with British Airports Authority (B.A.A.). Because the company had not undertaken any on-site productivity measurement, they were therefore keen for the researchers to assist in the develop ment of on-site productivity measures. And so, access to the project was granted on a two-days-a-week basis and the project quantity surveyor of the company was involved with the researchers in developing the measurement technique. To overcome the problems discussed in the previous section regarding the isolation of construction activities in measuring productivity, a decision was made to measure productivity levels using the existing company worker timesheets. Timesheets were found to be extremely useful mainly because timesheets were used for the purpose of calculation of hourly wages and linking this to productivity measurement would probably show meaningfully the notion of a fair wage. Furthermore, measuring productivity on a daily basis was considered to be the most appropriate technique as corrective action could be taken as quickly as possible. For data collection purposes, foremen were instructed to complete time inputs and physical outputs for each worker under their charge within a set time sheet on a daily basis. Table 1 below shows a simplified example of a recording on the activity of pouring concrete by a gang of concrete labourers. Based on the data presented in table 1, a total of 66 man-hours w ere used to produce 232m3 of concrete, yielding a productivity rate of à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ » 3.5m3 of concrete per man-hour. Emerging issues A number of issues arose whilst attempting to measure on-site productivity levels for project A in this way. The desire for a speedy construction process meant that many proprietary systems, e.g. in the case of formwork, were used as part of the construction techniques. These were undertaken by specialist subcontractors (with whom access was not granted). What was observed was that the core labourers used by the main contractor were general operatives who were often mobile in terms of the task they did. So, for example, an operative could be involved in general housekeeping on day n, shifting what is known as tables (a proprietary form of the conventional birdcage scaffolding that is on wheels to support the formwork) on day n + 1, and putting stop ends along the perimeter of a plot prior to concreting to prevent the concrete from spilling over on day n +2 and so on. Perhaps the only stable groups of workers were those who were relatively more skilled, e.g. concretors and steelfixers , who tended to stick within the task of their trades. Even so, these workers moved to other projects in the vicinity when their tasks were not scheduled for project A. Therefore, while measuring productivity levels in this way appear to be more holistic and probably closer to reality than the methods highlighted in the previous section, the mammoth task of tracking workers posed an immense challenge. Moreover, although the data was collected at the gang level (through the foremen), the boundaries of the gang were found to be arbitrary because of the volatile movement of the workers. This resulted in high variability of the productivity data obtained, which supports Radosavljevics and Horners (2002) observations, but which implies that discerning the factors affecting productivity especially those related to the workforce issues was particularly problematic. Administering the measurement was also not without problems. To start with, foremen were not akin to filling out forms and throughout its implementation, the project quantity surveyor discovered that there was a need to constantly explain to the foremen the mechanisms of recording. Two reasons accounted for this. The first relates to the inevitable problem with determining output quantities given that construction operations are often associated with work-in-progress that can be difficult to ascertain. Rules of credit (see e.g. Thomas and Yiakoumis, 1987) may go some way to facilitate this process, although time and manpower is needed to maintain a database of such information for which the project quantity surveyor did not have. In fact, the project quantity surveyor resigned in the middle of the project and the measurement of productivity halted due to the absence of a willing successor. To exacerbate the problems of measurement, the project quantity surveyor had identified a compl ex list of more than 170 task descriptions, thus causing further confusion for the foremen in the recording process. This enormous list of task descriptions is believed to be due to the fact that many proprietary systems were used in the construction process. Still, as the predicted trend for the construction industry is towards greater outsourcing and use of innovative technology in the production of buildings (see e.g. CRISP, 2001), it would be sensible to take into account such complexities when measuring productivity. It is here that project B sheds some light. Project B: Headquarters of a Commercial Bank Background to project B Project B involves the construction of the headquarters of a commercial bank on a greenfield site just outside Edinburgh. Access was given to interview senior project managers and to conduct questionnaire surveys with the site operatives. During the interviews, the researchers were struck by the ability of the managers to report what they allege to be the precise number of man-hours expended on the project to date, a phenomenon that was non-existent in other projects observed during the study. Inquisitively, the researchers investigated how project participants captured this data through further probing during the interviews. According to the project managers, project B utilised what is known as The Last Planner system, a planning system that has gradually gained recognition and refinement since its inception in 1994. Much has been written about the system (see e.g. Ballard, 2000), although this is really related to planning and never intended to be used as a means of measuring on-site productivity. However, one of the KPIs resulting from this system, known as the Percent Plan Complete (PPC), was thought to be extremely valuable by the project participants for them to gain an informed view of the on-site productivity levels. Basically, the PPC refers to how much of the planned work on a weekly basis is actually completed. In a similar vein, this ostensibly is comparable to the earned value analysis used in project management (see Project Management Institute, 2000). Figure 1 above shows an extract from a weekly progress update, which enables project Bs participants to keep track of how productively the wo rk packages were performing to plan. To help improve the PPC, the progress meetings were used as a platform to understand what went wrong, i.e. what intervening events or factors resulted in a low PPC (e.g. weather, lack of materials etc.). Emerging issues While this paper is not aimed at analysing whether this system constitutes a credible means for measuring on-site productivity, it was felt that this system provided an effective way for managers to establish how progress was being made. Hence, this allowed project participants to get a feel of the productivity of the workers by complementing the measure of PPC with the number of man-hours expended. To show a simplistic example, using figure 1 above, let us assume that work package 1 utilises the same amount of man-hours throughout the project. Therefore, one can safely deduce that achieving 100% PPC in say week 13 and 76% PPC in week 14 would signify a dip in labour productivity. In other words, PPC can be viewed as an output in the productivity ratio and so alleviate the problems of complexities involved in construction operations and sub-contracted work packages experienced in project A above. Furthermore, such information should provide useful feedback to the workforce regarding their performance. Implementing this system for the project participants was also met with a number of challenges. For instance, the system is largely paper based and therefore archiving such information and managing it within a database would still require the deployment of manpower. Nonetheless, as compared with the attempts in project A, this is perceived to be relatively more straightforward. It would also be tempting to proclaim that running this system commenced from the first day of the project. In fact, the project managers had attempted to implement such a system on a previous project six years ago but faced immense resistance from the project workers as it was then thought to create a blame culture so that fault could be apportioned when things went wrong. Interestingly, another project observed, which involved the construction of an office block in central London and built by the same contractor running project B, had initially tried to adopt the system. However, it was abandoned as soon as it started on the same basis of resistance. Still, project B participants learnt from their previous experience from six years ago and thus, made a conscious effort to allay fears of a blame culture right from the very start of the project through constant reassurances given during early briefing sessions. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the paper raised the issue of the importance of, and lacklustre attitude of companies towards, measuring on-site productivity. Thereafter, a review of the limitations behind the key textbook approaches to measuring productivity was provided and these represent some of the problems, which contribute to the industrys reluctance to measuring productivity. We have then taken the reader on a journey through two projects observed and summarised here some of the practical issues faced in the implementation of an on-site productivity measurement system. These include the time and expertise needed in handling the complexities of productivity data and resistance from the workforce. In essence, the underlying theme throughout the experience is that a productivity measurement system has to be comprehensive enough to take into account the complexities of todays construction operations and ever increasing emphasis on sub-contract work packages as seen in project A; but simple enough to be effective as portrayed in The Last Planner system in project B. However, the reliability of using The Last Planner system to measure productivity was beyond the remit of this current study. Nonetheless, the experience of project participants in project B shows that it works in reality to help provide that informed view of on-site productivity levels needed to bring about improvements. Therefore, further work is required to establish the feasibility of using such a system in measuring productivity.

Food Safety Illness

Jeremiah went grocery shopping on a hot summer day. He bought food for an upcoming family BBQ; ground beef for hamburgers, a couple of steaks, and the ingredients for making potato salad.When he left the store, he put his groceries in the trunk and stopped by the sports outlet store to pick up a Frisbee and croquet set. It took about 10 minutes at the sports store, and then Jeremiah headed home to prepare the food. He was concerned that it had been too hot in the car, but everything was still cold when he got home.Jeremiah took the groceries home and put everything in the refrigerator. The meat fit well on the top shelf, right above the potato salad ingredients.Later on, he got the groceries out to prep everything for the BBQ. He cooked the potatoes and used a sharp knife to trim some excess fat off of the raw steaks. Then he cut up the rest of the vegetables for the potato salad with the sharp knife on a cutting board.Jeremiah formed the hamburger patties, seasoned the steaks, and f inished making the potato salad. With only about 45 minutes to go before leaving for the BBQ, Jeremiah left everything sitting out on the counter while he showered and got ready.When he arrived at the BBQ, he set the potato salad on the picnic table and went to grill the steaks and burgers. He cooked both to about medium doneness, meaning both were pink in the middle.Jeremiah enjoyed one of the steaks he prepared and gave one to his cousin. The other family members enjoyed the burgers and potato salad; in fact, Jeremiah didn’t have a chance to try the salad. A couple of days after the BBQ, Jeremiah learned that everyone at the BBQ, with exception of himself and his cousin, experienced a bout of flu-like symptoms the following day.Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.1. Based on Scenario 1, what are the possible sources of food-borne illness? The possib le sources of food-borne illness could be cross-contamination from Jeremiah cutting off the fat from the steaks and cutting up the vegetables for the potato salad. If the same knife was used or if the same surface was even used to prepare both the meat and vegetables it could have contaminated the vegetables or the ground beef.2. Although Jeremiah did not get sick, there were several areas throughout Jeremiah’s day that could have led him to a serious case of food-borne illness. Point out these areas and briefly explain why they are of concern and what Jeremiah could have done differently. One time that a food-borne illness could have been obtained when Jeremiah put the groceries in the trunk of his car, typically the trunk of a car is the hottest part of a vehicle, so the groceries could have gone below the appropriate temperature to store it at.If Jeremiah would have been in the store more than twenty minutes, all depends on the temperature outside; it could have spoiled th e meat. Secondly, if Jeremiah bought mayo or any type of dressing for the potato salad it could have spoiled and therefore made the guest sick. Also Jeremiah never got to eat any of the potato salad so if it was cross contaminated than he would have not gotten sick.3. Why is it safe for steak to be pink in the middle, but potentially dangerous for a hamburger not to be cooked all the way through? It is safe for steak to be pink in the middle compared to the hamburger due to the hamburger being processed through a machine and being handled human beings  so therefore the meat can be contaminated more easily. With cooking the hamburger to being well done with no pink than it can kill some bacteria. For example some companies do not cleanse or clean their machines to cut down on the bacteria and any contamination that might have occurred.Scenario 2:After enjoying a delicious dinner of lasagna, Martha cleaned up the kitchen and left the covered tray of leftover lasagna on the counter t o cool. Since the lasagna was so dense and thick, it took about 4 hours for it to feel cool enough to go into the fridge for the night. The next day, Martha served leftover lasagna for lunch. She heated the lasagna thoroughly and it was finished.Within about 2–3 hours, everyone who ate the lasagna developed stomach cramps, fever, and nausea; most eventually started vomiting. The illness was pretty awful, but thankfully relatively short-lived.Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.1. How could this illness have been prevented? The illness could have been prevented by having the lasagna uncovered while it was cooling so that condensation would have not built up on the cover. Then the water went into the lasagna, which was bacteria, and made the employees sick that ate it. The other thing that could have been done is had the lasagna put into the oven until it was thoroughly cooled.2. Based on the incubation period and symptoms of the illness, what is the most likely microorganism responsible for this illness? E-coli would be the most reasonable reason for the illness. Because Martha did not reheat the lasagna properly for the second time around the bacteria was never killed off. If she would have reheated the lasagna in the oven at the proper temperature the bacteria would have been killed off.3. Describe the temperature danger zone. It would have to cook at a certain temperature to cook all the bacteria and the microorganisms out of the lasagna. Harmful bacteria such as E-coli contaminate food without physical signs, smells or tastes. Temperatures hotter than 165 °F not just the outside but making sure the inside is also cooked correctly.4. How could Martha have sped up the cooling process of the lasagna? If she would have left the lasagna uncovered on the counter it would have cooled down a lot faster. As soon as it would have bec ame room temperature she could have covered it and put it in the refrigerator.5. If the leftover lasagna was thoroughly reheated, (which it was), how did it still lead to food-borne illness? When Martha put the lasagna into the microwave it wasn’t hot enough for the bacteria to be cooked out of the lasagna. If she would have reheated in the lasagna would in the stove instead all the bacteria would have been cooked out and no one would have gotten sick.Scenario 3:Sally was making marinated shish-kabobs to grill for dinner. She made a beautiful marinade and then cut up the raw chicken on a cutting board. She put the chunks of chicken in the marinade and let it sit on the counter for about 3 hours until it was time to cook.While the chicken was marinating, Sally prepared the vegetables. She cut them using the same cutting board and knife; she rinsed both off with warm water between cutting the chicken and the vegetables.Once the chicken had marinated, Sally put the chicken and v egetables on skewers to be grilled. She also started rice in the rice cooker to go with the shish-kabobs.As the shish-kabobs were grilling, Sally put the marinade in a serving dish for extra sauce to put over the rice.Several hours later, Sally and her family members all developed nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headache, and abdominal pain.Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.1. What could be the cause of Sally and her family members’ illness? Would be improper food preparation by leaving chicken out on the counter more than allotted time as it developed bacteria and salmonella. She also prepared vegetables on the cutting board without proper cleaning with hot water and soap. Also reusing the marinated sauce on the rice, she should have been cooked so all the bacteria could have been cook out.2. How could this illness have been prevented? This illn ess could have been prevented with proper cleaning of all preparation and utensils materials. With proper washing with soap and hot water it would not cross contaminate the chicken, vegetables and the marinate. The illness could have also been prevented if she would have properly stored the chicken in the kitchen to make sure that bacteria would have not been growing.

The Appeal of Relevant Topics for Essay Writing

The Appeal of Relevant Topics for Essay Writing When you're perusing the greater study, there's a significant significance to the compare and contrast essays to become decent control over your lesson. Many trustworthy writing services are eager to provide essay help. It's possible to visit a library and search for relevant books. In the event the student has contacted with the skilled essay helpers, inch should be certain the assistant is ready to fulfill every one of the parameters demanded. The Advantages of Relevant Topics for Essay Writing You've approached the last portion of your essay. Essay proudly occupies a distinct hole in the realm of journalism. Essay Writing Services Essay writing services may be one of the cheap and easy strategies to find reference when writing essays on various topics. Writing a superb persuasive essay is not a simple job, however, it's achievable. As with any other essay, a definition one has its peculiarities and content requirements that should be met to be successful in the writing. You can also lack enough knowledge on the subject, or you aren't good in using English language for writing essays. A very clear essay needs to be correctly structured. Among the different sorts of essay, there's a definition essay that could appear to be among the most simple assignments. What's Truly Happening with Relevant Topics for Essay Writing There are many questions written each year you may discover your practice answering a variety of questions on various topics. It is indispensable to use reliable on-line sources that directly support your principal point. The very first step is to produce a terrific topic. If you've ever had problems with finding the most appropriate research paper topic, you're at the appropriate site reading the correct line! The Basic Facts of Relevant Topics for Essay Writing High school research pap er topics are extremely simple to write after you've completed the essential research. There's a particular procedure of how essays ought to be written. If you purchase essays online, it's really important to understand whether the work is still in process or has been finished. Although writing essays is a difficult endeavor, many of the folks have the ability to compose a Term Paper Writing term paper is a standard assignment for those students that are obtaining their undergraduate and graduate studies. Who Else Wants to Learn About Relevant Topics for Essay Writing? Research writing is a task that ought to be written in prime quality as it can influence students' internal marks. In marginal situations, the essays are utilised to determine whether an applicant is going to be selected. Students lead busy lives and frequently forget about a coming deadline. The students are must to obtain some great quantity of knowledge on the best way to compose a paper so they can write t heir assignments by themselves with no trouble. What You Can Do About Relevant Topics for Essay Writing Starting in the Next 8 Minutes You would like to register for a Google account before getting started. The actual men and women highly praise our essay help site. You can trust the ideal essay help online. A Real Estate company unlike any other centered on the mission of constructing a network of career-minded pros who strive to cultivate their small business and their future. The Little-Known Secrets to Relevant Topics for Essay Writing Just consider it how many fantastic things you may do instead of boring writing. Each paragraph introduces one significant idea. Furthermore, it's an excellent idea to read any appropriate material, like articles of prewritten academic work, in order to offer you some additional inspiration. The central intention of any introduction is presenting the principal idea of your definition essay, in different words, you are to state clearly w hat it is you are likely to define.

The Task of an International Marketer - 2314 Words

The International Marketers task is more complicated than that of the domestic marketer because the international marketer must deal with at least two levels of uncontrollable uncertainty instead of one. Discuss. Introduction Domestic marketing deals with any marketing activities within the boundaries of a nation. This should be directly contrasted with the term International marketing, which refers to all marketing activities that go beyond the confines of a domestic economy. For Zimbabwe, this would be consumers, workers, businesses, and governments that lie beyond the Zimbabwean national boundaries. How both the international marketer and the domestic marketer should know the 4Ps (Product, price, promotion and place) or the†¦show more content†¦This is particularly true of foodstuffs. Sadza in Zimbabwe, a staple food made from maize meal, would not go down well in United Kingdom or United States of America. Only products of a more technical nature, like computers on the other hand, have a universal appeal. The marketer can study culture in a number of ways including the anthropological approach, Maslows hierarchy of needs, the self reference criterion, diffusion theory, high and low context culture, and perception approaches. Culture itself is made up of a number of learned characteristics including aesthetics, education, religion and attitudes and values. One of the principal researchers on culture and its consequences is Hofstede, who, as a result of his studies, offers many insights and guides to marketers when dealing with diverse nationalities. Ignoring differences, or even similarities, in culture can lead to marketers especially international marketers making and executing decisions with possible disastrous results. Trade agreements Since 1945, there have been eight major trade agreements. The first five were bilateral agreements, where only two countries made treaties with one another. These were not an efficient way to reduce tariffs, as other countries were able to take advantage of the spillover effects of the reductions. All subsequent trade negotiations have been multilateral, or involving many countries. 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