Menu

Monthly Archives2016 December

Home

How To Make A Beautiful Candy Paint Job

[ad_1]

Close your eyes and imagine a radiant candy orange sports car glimmering at a car show. Now picture yourself in a gallery and you open your eyes to see the most beautiful sunset painting with a silhouette of palm trees in the background. Today I’m going to tell you how you can make a beautiful candy paint job. I’ve painted radiant red candy racing stripes on a dodge truck, blazing realistic fire, awe inspiring silhouette on tail gates, and relaxing beach sunset paintings on canvas. The one thing these all have in common is I used candy colors.

You will need a small list of art workshop supplies depending on what you want to paint. First with candy paint you need a base color. There is an unlimited combination of base colors but the three most popular are white silver and gold. For instance I mix white with a little yellow to make real flames, and if I want a light metallic candy color I use silver as a base and if I want a dark metallic candy color I use gold as my base. Candy colors and candy concentrates can be mixed with a transparent base, integrated clear coat or even regular clear coat. I don’t recommend using a regular clear coat because it is mixed with a catalyst or hardener which will shorten the life of the candy and must be used right away. House Of Kolor uses an integrated clear called SG100 which when mixed with the candy will still have a very long pot life because it does not use a hardener. House Of Kolor uses solvent based materials that work well but are toxic. If you want a similar product that is non toxic or a waterborne paint you should use Auto Air Colors products. Auto air colors uses a non toxic transparent base. When mixing your paints you will need to add a reducer to thin the paint to a desired level. Reducer usually comes in either fast medium or slow. Fast is a quick drying reducer that should be used when it is cold painting conditions. Medium is an average drying reducer approximately 70 degrees in painting area. Slow is a slow drying reducer that works well in hot painting conditions. Well now that you have a base color, candy colors, integrated clear, and reducer you can prepare for the next project.

You can paint on anything from t-shirts to canvases to automobiles. Candy colors can darken with more coats of candy so you will want to spray as consistent as possible to avoid a cloudy or blotchy look. When candy is sprayed correctly your beautiful paint jobs will stand out like a sore thumb. Almost any clear coat can be sprayed over your candy paint job. Can just anyone make a great candy paint job? No!, I’m just kidding. Anyone who is willing to put in enough time to read this article has the determination to to create an amazing candy paint job. Do you know what always makes me want to do something? When people tell me I can’t do that. It makes me want to prove that I can even more whether I originally wanted to or not. My only problem I have now is convincing people I’m the one who painted it. I remember shortly after I graduated high school I told my friend I want to paint a car and you know what he said?” You can’t paint a car.” After that I went to Sears bought an air compressor, a paint gun, bought a 1981 Z28 Camero project car, and some paint. Well unfortunately that project didn’t go so well but it did motivate me to go to college and learn the right way to paint cars and since then I’ve taken custom painting classes and now I teach custom painting.

Its my turn to teach you its never too late to learn. I’m telling you to get off your computer get some candy paint and lets go paint something. I love painting. In fact this week I ‘m going to paint a 1984 Toyota p/u. I wish it was a custom or a candy paint job but sometimes people want plain paint jobs too. For $25 per hour I teach airbrushing, painting or just about anything auto body related you want to learn.So if you have questions you can always e-mail me or come visit my shop. In just a few sentences I’m going to teach some tricks to help you along the road to your artistic side. I don’t care if you have never painted at all because now is the time you start and your going to be great.

Lets paint a nice sunset or beautiful silhouette. I’m going to paint a tailgate but you can start with a canvas or a piece of sheet metal if you want. first paint your background black or use a really dark color. second cut out a stencil or a paper of a tree, some grass, or even a elk or deer. There should be just an outline but no inside detail of these. Third place your stencils over the bottom of your project and spray a white over the sky area of the stencils. Fourth spray the painting with candy yellow followed by candy sunset leaving some traces of candy yellow. Finally spray some candy apple red leaving some traces of both the candy yellow and candy sunset. Protect your picture with a clear coat. Another tip to help you avoid runs is to paint with your project flat and help keep gravity on your side.With these 3 candy colors and white you can also paint some flaming hot realistic flames. If you would like to paint a complete vehicle keep your spray patterns consistent and evenly overlapped as possible. Painters make mistakes or sometimes get a run but with a little knowledge any of these can be fixed. Never be scared of a challenge but hit it head on and if you ever get asked “How can I make a beautiful candy paint job?” Tell them with candy paint, a base color, some transparent base to mix with the candy, reducer, a clear coat to protect it, and a little bit of knowledge to help you along the way.

[ad_2]

Source by Joe Warner

Roof Rack – Advantages and Disadvantages of Carriers

[ad_1]

Do you happen to see bars attached on top of vehicles? That is a roof rack that gives extra storage and permits safe transfer of bulky items like luggage and large containers. It could also support the transport of sports equipments like bicycle, canoes, skis and others.

If you are fond of taking camping trips and out-of-town vacations, a roof rack can solve your worries of how you could bring everything you need by providing maximum capacity for all your belongings. If you have company, they would be spared from the hassle of being clogged inside the vehicle with things that could not fit anymore in the usual vehicle compartment.

When there is no available spot in the camping area where you can throw your rubbish, the roof top is a good place to keep it. Just be sure that the trash is kept on a separate bag so its smell will not spread on your things and have it securely tied on the bars to avoid falling on the road.

Having mentioned some of the advantages, this luggage system also has its disadvantages. One very noticeable disadvantage is the additional height it would give to your vehicle. You should always check the clearance when passing an underground car park to ensure clear passage. Consider also the height of your own garage! Furthermore, the weight of the baggage on top of the car and the weight itself of the bars provide extra burden on the capacity of the vehicle. It may affect the performance of the vehicle on the road. It may also make the vehicle to wobble while moving.

Be concerned also of the things you will place on the rack. Liquids, like fuel and water should be reduced to a minimum level because the weight load shifts as the vehicle moves. As the weight of the liquids shift, it may cause an undesirable swaying of the vehicle as it turns on every corner of the road. The driver may not safely handle such situation.

Another consideration is the type of material you will choose. Some are made of steel, others are made of aluminum. Steel racks are very strong; however, these are also very heavy. Those made of aluminum may not be able to carry the load the steel bars can. But, it also has an advantage; it does not corrode unlike steel. Make use of roof rack storage bags to shield your things from dust, rain, and other elements. The bags would also keep the things in order and organized.

You could buy ready-made racks that come as one complete unit and the one with detachable luggage tray. The type with a luggage tray that is detachable would help you transport some long and big items during your everyday driving. You could also carry along your sporting equipment anytime you want.

After learning the advantages and disadvantages and the types of available roof racks, you could now decide which one to install on your vehicle.

[ad_2]

Source by Brian Tim

Trick My Truck & SUV – Chevrolet Tahoe Add Ons to Increase Horsepower and Gas Mileage

[ad_1]

Chevrolet has perfected a huge selling success with its Tahoe and Suburban SUV. With a wide array of trim packages and powertrain choices, there’s a little of everything for folks of all walks of life. But as gas prices start to climb and more people looking for more fuel efficient alternatives, owners are looking for cheap ways to enhance what they’ve got without going to the extreme of trading or downsizing into something less favorable. The aftermarket world for performance enhancing parts is huge with the Chevrolet Tahoe and is certainly worth the research to find the right products for your SUV. Here is a brief list of inexpensive do-it-yourself items you can buy and install in an afternoon.

First, an easy to find item is a higher flowing performance air filter. Manufactured by well known companies such as K&N, airaid and AEM, these products can be purchased at any auto retailer like Wal-Mart, AutoZone and Pep Boys. What a performance filter does is replace your existing restrictive stock filter with a higher flowing unit. The better the engine can breathe, the more horsepower and better gas mileage. Tests have shown a 8-10 HP increase and a 1-3 mpg upswing in a 5.3 V8 Tahoe. Aside from the gains, maintenance will be cut down as well as these filters are cleanable and reusable too. In essence, don’t leave this cheap part off your list, they only retail for $35-55!

Next, a performance exhaust system is another cheap way to free up some more of those HP’s and overall gas mileage in your old or new Tahoe. Kits are available from manufacturers like flowmaster, borla, and Bassani for all engine size Tahoes from the early 1995 models to the newer 2010’s. Kits come complete with all the hardware and instructions. All you have to supply are basic hand tools and an afternoon’s amount of time to get it all together. Your Tahoe will thank you because the engine will dispel all of the burnt gases easier and you will get that nice deep throaty sound once made popular in muscle cars. Gain more power and a few more mpg’s with this must have modification.

And lastly, no Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon will come complete without a performance chip from Hypertech or Superchips. Performance chips retail at around $80-100 and only take about 20 minutes to install using basic handtools. What a performance chip does for your ride is that it will enhance your transmission’s shift points for better efficiency and less wear and tear. A good performance chip will also enhance your truck or SUV’s fuel curve to gain more mpg’s too. A performance chip will compliment the other performance parts and won’t void any existing warranty.

And so, that is a brief list of some of the most popular and tested parts one must buy for their Tahoe or Yukon. Altogether, you should see about a 30-40 horsepower increase and about a 5-7 mpg gain with all the mods. With summer just around the corner, motorists could use more of their hard earned bucks toward more important activities. But if you want to take modifications a step further, drivers have been converting their truck and SUV into hybrid type vehicles. I’ve seen water/gas conversions and the popular electric/gas hybrid conversion made popular by Toyota and Honda. The IRS will even pay you tax credits for driving a clean fuel vehicle, nothing but positive money savings here. For more information on how you can convert your truck and SUV now, please feel free to visit my site below.

[ad_2]

Source by Shaun Patrick Davidson

My Personal Testimonies of the Power of Gratitude and Attracting Wealth and Abundance

[ad_1]

My Sequel Post about How the Power of Gratitude can Work for Attracting Wealth and Abundance…

Since my last post about attracting wealth and abundance through the power of gratitude, I have been blessed with a lot of good things, which of course has inspired me to write another post about this incredible power dictated by physics.

For all you doubters out there, let me remind you that the power of gratitude is part of the law of attraction, which is a physics law, the same as the “universal law of gravitation” and “relatively theory” (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction), Sir Isaac Newton. The law of attraction has to do with the relativity theory, and the “reaction” that you get is generated by the thoughts, which is what generates your feelings. The reason why gratitude is such a universal positive force is that it is virtually impossible to feel true and genuine feelings of gratitude about anything without emitting a positive frequency.

Timeless Technique of Attracting Wealth and Abundance…

This power is not at all new, although many of the people of today’s society have fallen away from these beliefs, I’m guessing because many people are so fed up with religious teachings, and controversy about which religion is “right”. But this is not a religious teaching (although you can find phrases in the Bible to back up the theory). It is a physics teaching. And it’s real.

I recently learned that Wallace Wattles wrote a book about the law of attraction in 1910, “The Science of Getting Rich”, where he went into detail on the technique of using gratitude in your life as a way of getting rich. I have since read other current books that mention the technique of “giving back in value more than the dollar amount you receive” as a method of getting rich.

Furthermore, Einstein made it a daily practice to say “thank you” hundreds of times each day, as a practice of gratitude for all that had been given him. And, having started out in a poor environment, look at all he accomplished!

Since my last post about attracting wealth and abundance through the power of gratitude, I have been blessed with a lot of good things, which of course has inspired me to write another post about this incredible power dictated by physics.

1 – Although I was not aware of the power of gratitude in 2007, I do believe it came into play when we had our house fire. Initially, I was afraid that we didn’t even have fire coverage on our homeowner’s policy. When I learned that, not only were we covered, but we could have another residence on the beach paid for in full while our house was under construction, I remember telling everyone how thankful I was that I was able to stay on the beach for the entire summer for free, and I even had a shorter drive to work.

Much to my surprise, my house was reconstructed all over, not just the areas that I thought were damaged. They told me that due to the “smoke damage” all throughout the house, I should pick out new ceiling fans, furniture, kitchen countertops, carpet throughout the entire house… and we even wound up much better audio equipment and TVs!

2 – 2007 had been a rough year for us because of the fire, but I remained thankful for all that the “silver lining” had brought us, and I wound up getting a job that paid much higher in December of 2007. I didn’t even search for this job; it “found me” when I got a call from someone I had previously known who wanted to hire me!

3 – I was grateful that this new job would allowing me the money I needed to keep us afloat since my husband was out of work and unable to work due to a disability. We had filed for disability twice and been turned down. But I believe it was my feelings of gratitude that generated a winning legal case, because the judge in charge at the time just “happened” to have had friends with the same disability as my husband, and granted us the case. By 2011 we received thousands of dollars to compensate for previous losses.

4 – Prior to being disabled, my husband was an established musician. However, he had fallen away from all of his contacts and was working any job he could find prior to his disability. But after we started receiving disability payments and felt true feelings of gratitude for the money coming in, well know musicians from all over just seemed to come out of the woodwork to hunt him down to have the opportunity to play with him. He even met a new acquaintance bass player who used to play with George Benson!

5 – I learned about the power of gratitude in 2010 and started to make it a daily practice. I’d always wondered what I might do in my senior years to carry us through financially, since my whole life up until recently was living paycheck to paycheck. I asked my daughter to move back from California so we could establish an online business together in network marketing.

Imagine my excitement and gratitude when she decided to do that! It was through her coaching me with online strategies and article marketing and SEO techniques that I have now begun to build a successful business online! And the more I remain thankful to her and those folks whose techniques I’ve adopted, the more money flows into my account!

6 – Just last year I was driving a “P.O.S.” 1992 Toyota. Although not the car of anyone’s dreams, I remained thankful for the ice cold air conditioning and the fact that it had remained a dependable car for me. I did, however, hold onto my dream for a “real car” one day. Then one day I was in an odd accident where I was side-swiped by another car. We both got out and looked at our cars. By some “miracle”, although my car was completely wrecked on the drivers’ side with a lost hubcap, the other car did not even have a scratch! So I took this as my message from the universe that it was time for me to get my new car, and within 2 months I had enough finances and credit line available to get my 2008 Honda Civic dream car!

7 – The last time I wrote a blog post about the power of gratitude, there was something very strange but wonderful that happened in the way of “attracting wealth and abundance” my way. Earlier in the day, I received a message that one of my internet customers had terminated his account. I elected not to worry too much about it, because I knew I am getting more people hopping on board all the time anyway. I proceeded to write a post which mandated that I call to mind how much I’m grateful for everything in my past and in what ways it has changed my life.

Later that same day, I received another email notification that the same person who had “terminated payment” actually sent $100 to my account. Obviously, the first email was just an error. In addition to that, I received another $100 from another customer where the payment had previously been “skipped”. And, in addition to that, I received another email notifying me of a new customer! Hence, you can imagine why I’ve elected to write another post about of power of gratitude!

8 – Of course, wealth and abundance isn’t just money. I had a new type of wealth and abundance come to me in the form of a strange power of attraction friendship initiated by my online business. By the shear power of attraction, a woman on the other side of the country called me to talk, and it turns out that we have everything in common, from our age, children’s ages, type of business we’ve had experience in, likes and dislikes, right down the type of food we like to eat! The law of attraction truly is a perfect force! And, of course, I remain thankful for my new friend!

I really think that you would experience the same “luck” when you practice the power of gratitude. Because, after all, it’s really not “luck” at all… it’s the quantum physics law of attraction! Learn more about attracting wealth and abundance in your life from the power of gratitude.

[ad_2]

Source by Nancy Harnell

Five Success Principles For Coaching Your Client To An Extraordinary Life And Career

[ad_1]

It’s fair to say that most people go through life with little or no awareness of the essential life skills that enable them to get along well with people, thrive in difficult times, and live successful, productive, even extraordinary lives.

If you are a coach working with people to change the quality of their lives and work, you have an incredible opportunity to teach them some key distinctions about the way they are living, and to give them the gift of understanding themselves in a new way so they can start to make changes for the better.

Just remember that everything you suggest or offer should be done from the heartspace of wanting to serve and to add value to your client’s life.

Here are five coaching principles I learned from a multi-millionaire business owner, trainer, coach, author and philanthropist.

First, identify and break through boundary conditions

Your client’s thinking patterns have three levels: things that they know that Ihey know, things that they know they don’t know, and things that they don’t know they don’t know. The ‘edge of thinking’ is what we call the line between what I know I don’t know, and what I don’t know I don’t know. At this edge or boundary is a ‘boundary condition’, a belief or set of beliefs the client is clinging to that if bridged, will enable your client to change his thinking, his attitude and his behaviour, and produce a positive outcome in the way he lives his life around a particular issue.

Your job as a coach is to identify your client’s boundary conditions and take him over the line on at least two conditions to the other side.

Why is two the recommended minimum for effective transformation? Think of it this way. If your client breaks through one boundary condition, he has made some change. But there’s always the risk that he might fall back into his old ways out of fear of change. However, if he has broken through two or three boundary conditions, he would be able to see for himself the tremendous transformation that he has said yes to. Don’t you agree he will be more motivated to sustain this new way of thinking than go back to his old pattern of thinking and behaviour?

So how do you identify your client’s boundary conditions?

There are four indicators or clues you can gain from noticing how your client responds to your questions.

One is where the client keeps saying “I don’t know”. The second indicator is confusion. The third is looping, where the client keeps going around and around skirting the edges of the issue but not answering your question directly. The fourth is silence.

So how do you help a client break through his boundary conditions?

Here are some great questions to get the client thinking differently.

You could say to the client who uses “I don’t know” to avoid committing himself: “If you did know the answer, what would it be?”

You could say, “Make it up”.

You could ask, “What’s in it for you?” or “What do you gain by (doing/not doing this)?” or “How is this working for you?”

You could invite him to brainstorm by asking “How can you (the action)?” and “How can you do (the action) even more?” The latter is powerful because it contains a presupposition that the client is already doing the right thing.

You could challenge him with: “What are you pretending to not know?”

Second, living ‘at cause’ vs. ‘at effect‘

There are two kinds of people, people whose lives are ‘at cause’ and people whose lives are ‘at effect’.

People who live ‘at cause’ take 100% responsibility for what happens in their lives. They believe that they are the cause of what happens in their lives. They actively co-create their outcomes by using their power to make choices and decisions that will contribute to the quality of their lives.

People who live ‘at effect’ are forever blaming external factors for the poor quality of their lives. Stuff happens to them. The economy. The government. Their parents. There’s no choice. It’s not their fault. And so on.

If you have a client who is living ‘at effect’, your job is to show them how they actually have choice and that they have more choices than they think.

Third, the map is not the territory

The human brain can only take in between 3 and 7 chunks of information at a time before it experiences information overload. You know the feeling. How much are you taking in of the information that is coming at you in an average day? You skim, read headlines, look at the first line of each paragraph, pick out keywords that seem important or relevant. You are constantly filtering information in and out using your internal criteria of what is worth retaining and remembering. This internal criteria includes things like beliefs, values, experiences and defining moments.

Your client is doing exactly the same. To cope with life, he deletes, distorts and generalizes what happens so that it fits in with how he sees himself and the world. In the process, he loses some information that may be valuable and useful. Your job as a coach is to help him recover what he has conveniently deleted, reverse or undo what he has distorted and become aware of what he is generalizing. This is done by entering respectfully into your client’s world with one aim: understanding him and understanding his map.

Fourth, what we focus on is what we get – to the exclusion of everything else

Have you noticed that when you are expecting, you suddenly see babies and pregnant women everywhere? Or when you decide that your dream car is a Toyota Camry Sportivo, every other car you see on the road is a Sportivo?

Your client is doing the same thing. He is completely absorbed in his current reality: his problems, challenges, feelings of helplessness. He is doing overwhelm. He is not aware that he has filtered in things that are unhelpful or untrue or both, and filtered out things that are helpful and beneficial.

So your job is to help him recover those deletions, adjust his filtering system and change his perception of reality. Help him see that he has the power to choose, and that he has more choices than he thinks.

Fifth, there is no such thing as failure, only feedback

When one thing doesn’t work, your client may perceive that he has failed. If there has been a pattern of failure, he may be inclined to feel that this is a waste of time and he should just give up. Worse, he associates not achieving a goal with a personal sense of failure, and his self-worth takes a hammering.

However, if he is taught to view success as a progressive realization of a worthy goal, he begins to see that success is a series of small steps rather than about achieving a goal in one huge effort. He also sees that he will get more value out of his effort if he sees feedback as a way to verify if he is moving towards or away from his goal, without getting too personal or emotional about the result.

Another way to make this key distinction work for your client’s benefit is to explain that failure is ‘at effect’ thinking, and feedback is ‘at cause’.

I trust that these five success principles help you add value to your coaching sessions and enable your clients to take those crucial transformative steps forward.

[ad_2]

Source by Serena Tan

Par Versus Kanban: How To Manage Variable Usage

[ad_1]

The great majority of hospitals in the United States manage hospital supplies using what is called the “Par Level” method. One of the strengths of this method, it is claimed, is that it works well in the face of variable usage. The actual usage of a hospital supply item is unlike that of a manufacturing part, in that the rate of use is dependent on the patient need at the time, which is difficult to control or forecast. A factory can predict with good accuracy how many widgets it will need, based on a production plan and a Bill of Material. A hospital can certainly analyze historical usage data, but cannot control that pesky variable, the patient, very well. Defenders of the Par Level method therefore make the case that it is the only replenishment method for the variable usage environment. In this article I will describe how the Par Level method works, how the Par Level method could be replaced using a method called Kanban, and how a Kanban system could be used properly to respond to the admitted challenge of high variability of usage.

On the face of it the Par Level method makes good sense. The basic idea is to set a target quantity of a given item that you want to stock at the place where it is used. A rule of thumb of, say, a two-day supply based on average usage, would be a reasonable goal when setting these target or “par” quantities. As the supplies are consumed, based on actual need during the day, the quantity on hand will decrease. The heart of the Par Level method is to have a supplies handler review the on-hand quantity, and restock the items that are needed to bring the total quantity back “up to par”. If the item is consumed more quickly than usual, having a supplies handler review the inventory daily will help to ensure that the item is not depleted completely. The key to the success of the Par Level method in the face of uncertain usage is to check stocking levels frequently, usually once a day.

The Kanban system, mentioned above as an alternative, is the material replenishment method used by leading manufacturing companies around the world, including the Toyota Motor Company. It is similar to the Par Level method in that a target level of material is calculated, based on average usage and a certain number of days of usage. In this sense the methods are virtually identical. The difference is in the method for refilling items that have been used. Instead of physically looking and counting every day, the Kanban method sets up a signal (the literal meaning of the word Kanban) for replenishment that eliminates totally the need for counting or assessing inventory quantities. This is done in a variety of ways, with the most common one being to divide the item quantity into two, and signal for replenishment when the first quantity has been used up. Details of how a Kanban system works are readily available elsewhere, and the method is well-known, so I don’t need to repeat it here. The benefits compared to the Par Level method are substantial, including a reduction in the number of resupply trips, the elimination of counting, a potential reduction in overall inventory levels, and a reduction in supply shortages.

The focus of this article, however, is on one critical issue: what happens when the actual usage of an item exceeds the planned usage? How do the Par and Kanban systems respond to unplanned consumption? After all, if usage were known with total certainty ahead of time, there would be no excuse for ever running out of an item. Is daily checking and counting the only alternative available to hospitals? Let’s compare the two methods.

The Par Level Method. A supplies handler will visit a supplies stocking area daily, with a clip-board or hand-held device, and assess the current stocking level of each item. Items that need to be “brought up to par” will be noted, and these items will be refilled on a subsequent trip, usually later the same day. If during the day an item is consumed at a rate higher than planned, such that the entire supply is consumed in a day, the item balance will either go to zero, or someone will need to notify the material department and an expedited delivery will need to be done. The intention is that this will happen infrequently, and that a daily check will be sufficient to cover variability of usage.

The Kanban Method. Under a Kanban system the supplies handler does not count or assess item quantities at all. As the initial supply quantity is consumed and depleted (the “primary quantity”), the nurse or tech will create a signal by placing a reorder card in a collection box, raising a flag indicator, placing the empty container in a collection spot, or posting some other kind of simple signal. The supplies handler simply responds to the signal, and refills a standard quantity every time. While the supply is being refilled, nurses and techs will be consuming the second quantity of the item. No time is wasted eyeballing or counting supplies, and once a regular replenishment cycle is set up there is no need for a separate trip to the stocking area to evaluate what is needed. Kanban cards or bins can be picked up as a part of the routine replenishment trip, or what is called the “milk run”.

If supplies are used more quickly than planned, because of a temporary emergency or some other reason, they will need to be replenished more quickly than planned, as with the Par Level method. The difference is this: under a Kanban system you will set up a routine replenishment cycle (the milk run) that will be more frequent than the Par Level cycle. Whereas the Par Level frequency is typically one cycle per shift or one cycle per day, the Kanban system will plan to deliver twice per shift, or even more frequently. This becomes possible without adding to your supplies handler headcount because no counting is required. The milk run cycle involves picking up Kanban cards (or not even that if the Kanban system is automated), picking standard quantities from a “supermarket” or Central Stores, and delivering these full Kanban quantities to the correct stocking locations. This process is many times more efficient than the typical Par Level process, and will enable a supplies handler to double or triple the number of replenishment trips that he/she is able to complete.

How does this help in responding to variable demand? Let’s explain. If the milk run cycle is four hours, and you do three milk runs a day, and the Kanban quantity represents a two-day supply based on average usage, the actual usage would need to exceed the average by 600% before we would need to be concerned about running out completely. While the milk run method will not guarantee that you will never ever run out of a supply, the chances of doing so are remote. The manpower to support this system could be less than you have today, since you are doing no counting trips, no counting, and no picking of variable quantities.

Let’s go through this again, so you’re 100% clear about the example above. If you consume a given supply at an average two-day rate, you will receive a signal to refill a Kanban quantity every two days or twentyfour working hours. If you consume the supply at double the planned rate, you will receive the signal after only one day, or twelve working hours. If you consume the supply at four times the average usage, you will receive a replenishment signal in six hours. Finally, if you consume the supply at six times the normal rate, you will receive the replenishment signal in four hours, equal to your replenishment cycle. Your supplies handler and milk run cycle should be able to handle that without expediting or running out. Of course, in this example if you consume the supply faster than 600% of your average consumption rate, you do run the risk of running out. Kanban is not magic.

The winner in this comparison of Par Level versus Kanban on the issue of responsiveness to variable usage is: Kanban. As we have seen, the key to responsiveness to change is a short replenishment cycle, and the Par Level system is too labor intensive to permit a high number of replenishment cycles without blowing your material management budget through the roof. Kanban, on the other hand, requires no counting, standardizes the replenishment quantities, eliminates the very undesirable practice of “eyeballing” supplies quantities, and permits a higher number of replenishment cycles without driving up material handling cost.

[ad_2]

Source by Richard Rahn

Rationale For Print Ads

[ad_1]

There are substantial advantages in getting your clients through print advertising. The most obvious one is that whoever contacts you from print ads has automatically qualified themselves as a hot prospect for the purchase of your product or service. From that point all you need to have is a solid sales process in place convert the prospects into buyers. To maximise the desired outcome of people contacting you from print ads, the best approach your campaign is though the “3 Ms”: Market, Media, Message.

Your target market is always the first consideration when it comes to choosing the right media. Who are your target clients? Where do they live? What are the main age groups and are they likely to read print ads? What is they main socio-economic make up. What problem or condition can you solve for them? what are the 6 main objections that they have and how can you address them? What frustrations or disappointments have they experienced with you or your competitors? The list goes on but you must take the time to walk a mile in their shoes before you even choose the publication for your print ads.

Now you have studied the market and chosen the media, what is your message going to be, and which form is it going to take? The most crucial part of your rationale for print ads starts with deciding on the style of advertising that you are going to use. The majority of small business owners still choose to do what we call the “Branding Style” of advertising… And that’s where we get excited don’t we? How cool is the ad going to look, how clever and creative is our one liner going to be? How are we going to make people remember it or even better, talk about it?

But wait! Isn’t it where we get totally confused? Where we miss the opportunity to generate the desired outcome: the phone to ring, people coming through the door and buying. As you start spending time and money (lots of it) on the coolness of your print ad, all the work you did on your target market identification gets diluted in a frantic bid to satisfy the ego of the business owner and the ego of the graphic designer. Suddenly your print ad has nothing to do with getting new clients but is merely aiming for a design award.

Well here is my tip: if this sounds familiar, and if your ad creation process is at risk of being hijacked somewhere along the lines by the egos in presence you will have to match the advertising budgets of the likes of Toyota, McDonald’s and so on. So this is where you would be well inspired to take control back and re focus on your target market. From that point you have a much better chance to create print ads that produce real return on investment

[ad_2]

Source by Eric Billoud

Ford And Mazda: A Strong International Relationship

[ad_1]

During the 1990s, Ford Motor Company went on an international buying spree snapping up small automakers around the globe. Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin all were brought within the Ford fold, and Mazda, by default has become part of Ford’s line up even though the Japanese automaker is “only” partly owned by Ford. Ford parts and Mazda parts are sometimes interchangeable as well as are some of their vehicles. Let’s examine closely the relationship between the two automakers and how their synergies benefit both companies.

The relationship between Ford and Mazda has been growing over the years, but is well known by auto historians as having started in the early 1970s when the Mazda pick up truck was imported to the North American market by Ford and called the Courier. From 1972 to 1983, the Courier was part of the Ford line up, but in reality it was a Mazda.

From 1984 on, Ford decided to build its own small pickup truck and the Ranger was born. Mazda, meanwhile, redesigned their truck and sold it separately until 2002. When time came for a new Mazda truck, Mazda tapped Ford and the current Ranger was rebadged as the Mazda “B” series.

From 1991 to 2001 Ford’s Explorer was rebadged and sold as the Mazda Navajo. Only a two door version was available and the line was eventually dropped as Mazda concentrated on their own SUV, namely the Tribute.

Are you confused yet? Don’t be as the two automakers have exchanged parts and vehicles for decades.

In the early part of this decade, Ford, which has a very strong truck division, needed a vehicle that was smaller and less costly than the pricey midsize Explorer to complement the fleet. Enter Mazda. Mazda designed and released the car-like Tribute for their own division, and a Ford version of the SUV, the Escape, was built by Ford in the US. Together, the vehicles have competed successfully against Toyota’s RAV4 and Honda CR-V.

For 2006, the Ford/Mazda relationship really heats up with the release of three cars based on the highly touted Mazda 6 platform: the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, and the “near luxury” Lincoln Zephyr. All three sedans share similar components and borrow heavily from Ford’s relationship with Mazda.

If you purchase a Ford or Mazda product that has in fact been rebadged will the Ford parts and the Mazda parts be the same? Good question! Major sections like the frame are likely to be the same, but many key components including suspension parts, brakes, and electrical parts, may be different. A better thing to do when purchasing replacement Ford or Mazda parts is to check your vehicle’s owners manual or visit a reputable online store, such as Car Parts Stuff, for the right parts for your make and model. You may think you are getting the same parts, but you can only be certain if you verify that information.

Ford and Mazda have a relationship that appears to be mutually beneficial to the two automakers. Judging by the new products being offered, the relationship is certain to grow stronger in the coming years.

[ad_2]

Source by Matthew Keegan

What is Lean Manufacturing? An Overview

[ad_1]

This is a comprehensive overview of the main aspects of lean manufacturing, which is a very popular approach to help businesses, especially manufacturing, to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

The old way of thinking was to work harder, and produce more. The Lean approach is focused much more on eliminating waste and inefficiencies, which will increase quality and production as a result.

Main areas of focus

  • Lean manufacturing
  • 5S
  • Six sigma
  • Kaizen
  • Value Stream mapping

Lean manufacturing is the general term that encompasses the other topics. Each of the various aspects of lean are like spokes of a wheel, each one supports the other to make the wagon roll.

5S

By far, the easiest program to begin the lean journey is 5S. This is because of the straight-forward nature of the application. Once a company embraces 5S in an integrated manner, the benefits are readily apparent.

5S is much more than slogans and banners, as are all the lean programs. It takes a huge commitment on the part of everyone involved to make it work. Once the decision has been made to move forward, top management needs to become visibly and actively involved. This direct involvement will act as a reinforcement for the workforce so they will feel a part of the program.

Six Sigma

Six sigma teaches how you can monitor and measure your progress, or lack thereof. It is a more scientific and specialized methodology than 5S.

Many lean consultants specialize in the application of six sigma. With their help, you can reap huge rewards by eliminating scrap and waste of all type. The rate of defects will dramatically decrease as the monitoring system is implemented.

The Motorola Corporation is actually the creator of this very useful and popular program. When the name Six Sigma is capitalized, it is because it is a registered trademark of Motorola.

Value Stream Mapping

Value stream mapping is a powerful tool to help visualize the entire lean manufacturing process. It might appear complicated at first, but, as with other aspects of your program, when it is broken down into small steps it is really quite simple.

Many things that are taken for granted take on a totally unique perspective once seen in a new light. Value stream mapping does just that: it helps you to visualize where you currently are and where you ultimately intend to arrive. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you ever get there?

Kaizen

This is Japanese for continuous improvement. Actually, there are subtle meanings to this, but for our purposes, this is what it means.

One very popular methodology is the Kaizen blitz. These are like mini-events that strive to bring about lean changes. This is a great way to make incremental progress in your quest for perfection.

The Toyota car company is credited with the continuous improvement idea, and it has made them the most efficient automotive company in the world.

Lean manufacturing is here to stay and will increase in popularity with all types of companies, not just manufacturing.

[ad_2]

Source by Randy Hough

The Kia Optima Hybrid Stands Up to a True North Winter

[ad_1]

Many people love the idea of a hybrid but are concerned about the hybrid performance in the dead of winter. In order to answer this question I took a Kia Hybrid on an extended 2 day demonstration. Lots of people write about how the Kia Hybrid operates in winter in places like Vancouver, or Chicago, but Winnipeggers will only trust a true Winnipeg test so now we are giving it the true Winnipeg in January test. By the way average Winnipeg temperature in January is between -23 and -13 degrees C.

The Kia Optima Hybrid that I drove was a 2012 hybrid that carried a MSRP of $30,895 plus freight, fees and taxes. Currently at time of writing Kia is showing a $3400 rebate on this vehicle which brings it level with its non hybrid counterpart.

When I was given the keys to this vehicle, it was 6pm at night, so it was dark already. The car was parked in the back lot where it had been sitting unused for the last 30 days or so. It was a cold January evening (-18 degrees C) and the car was sitting under 6 inches of snow and parked behind a plow windrow that was 8 inches high. After clearing the windshield and the drivers door I hopped in and pushed the quick start button. It started up right away and the seat quickly adjusted to the preset position. I let it warm up for a minute while I brushed the rest of the snow away from the top of the vehicle. When I hopped back in the vehicle I turned off the traction control and spun my way out of the snow that I was parked in. I drove the car up to the building and put a license plate on it. When I returned to the car it had already heated up. This was much quicker than I had expected and I was impressed.

The number one thing that customers want to know when dealing with a hybrid is what is the fuel economy. Will it save enough fuel to pay for itself? The second is how long will the battery last and how much will it cost to replace it?

Let me address the second point first. In Canada, Kia has put a 96 month 160,000 km limited warranty on the entire hybrid system. So if your battery fails within the first 8 years or 160,000 km it will be covered. This will mean that for the majority of consumers, battery life, and replacement value are non-issues.

Kia Optima Hybrid is in the Guinness Book of World records for “Lowest fuel consumption, 48 U.S. states: gasoline hybrid car” verified by a Guinness World Records adjudicator. In this display they achieved an average of 3.3l/100km. The one thing that we find in Winnipeg in January driving through the heart of the city is that you can throw energuide ratings out the window. No matter what vehicle you drive, ratings will actually be about 75% of actual gas mileage. Others may argue this but with my driving style and vehicle use I generally find these numbers are accurate no matter what vehicle I drive. This was true with the Optima Hybrid. Energuide ratings for this vehicle are 5.8 l/100km for city driving. Energuide ratings for the non-hybrid Optima are 8.6l/100km. The true mileage that I found for these two vehicles under this condition were 8.1 for the Hybrid and 11.7 for the GDI Optima. The Optima Hybrid still saves considerable fuel in Winnipeg in winter over its non-hybrid brother. One disclaimer though is that the vehicle did not run as an electric vehicle until about 17km into the trip so it was sitting between 11 and 12 l/100km until the last km in which it started running completely off the EV and average gas consumption plummeted.

So for those who ask the question if the Hybrid will pay for itself, in this application the answer is resoundingly yes. Current rebates on the Hybrid make this vehicle priced about the same as the Optima EX. Therefore, costs of purchasing are approximately the same regardless whether you choose Hybrid or Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI). If the vehicle is driven 100,000km with this difference in fuel consumption, the savings will amount to $3780. This number is based on fuel at $1.05/liter. Savings will be greater at a higher gas price. Remember that this is based on winter driving alone. This will increase for anyone who commutes more than 20km per trip. As stated the EV motor started running after 17 km so gas mileage started to improve considerably. At the other end of the spectrum, if you are using your car just to go to the store and get a loaf of bread, you may not notice any winter savings. I will note that while driving the Hybrid in summer, I was running on full EV by the time I went around the block.

So for all those that ask me if a Hybrid can stand up to our Winnipeg winters I will say “definitely”. It cold weather started after a long sit, it handled well on snow covered roads, it saved fuel over the long run, and it is priced competitively with the non-hybrid version.

[ad_2]

Source by Darren P Somersall