Analysis Al Khawaja V UK - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 2873 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Hearsay rule is among the remarkable rules of the law of evidence which was first developed in English-speaking countries during the second half of the eighteenth and the first years of the nineteenth century. The admissibility of hearsay evidence has been a controversial issue while some people asserted that it should be abolished. In fact, segregates those statements which possess high probative value from hearsay evidence as exceptions of hearsay will undoubtedly fit the development tendency of history. Remove the hearsay evidence completely could somehow go against the effectiveness of fact-finding. Meanwhile, unadmissible of hearsay could lead to dismissal of appeal when the fact in issue can reached the right conclusion by applying hearsay evidence. Since the new provision of hearsay evidence rule in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 finally came into force for the purpose of criminal proceeding, it is widely believed that the trend of hearsay rule began with ex cluded hearsay, set up exceptions of hearsay, restricted the exceptions and to extended the exceptions. Thus, development in hearsay rule had consequently gave rise to the difficulty of applications. Hearsay rule is one the oldest and prominent exclusionary rules of evidence in common law yet also the most complicated  [2]  . Instead of concerned with the detail of hearsay exceptions the ultimate purpose of this article is to criticize the admission of deceased witness written statement as decisive evidence in the case of Al-Khawaja v United Kingdom. The principal argument raised by the appellants was that, the conviction involved an infringement of the right to a fair trial under art.6, as the admission of hearsay evidence were based solely or to a decisive degree on the convictions, therefore, unsafe.  [3]  In this case the defendant was charged with two counts of indecent assault, one of the complainants (known as S.T) had died before the trial. During the trial the wr itten statement from S.T that she made to the police prior to her death had been taken into account as decisive evidence against the appellant.There are thousands of assumptions that the defence lawyer could make against an untested written statement. In this case, the credibility of the deceased written statement which had been considered as sole or decisive degree of statement remained to be proved. Assume that the written statement had made under intimidation or for some purposes as to incriminate the appellant, the veracity of the police report remained to be proved. Obviously, the appellant would not able to testify the origin of the statement unless he got the opportunity to confront with the witness himself. However, the problem here was the witness was deceased person and it was unjustifiable if the appellant appealed for the breach of right of confrontation. It is generally believed that a forceful direct evidence could lead to a guilty verdict but there was a doubt if t he appellant could be sentenced with only a piece of hearsay evidence which it admissibility have been questioned for centuries. Therefore, to some extend people believed that if written statements considered as first-hand hearsay, it was undoubtedly that a written statement made by deceased witness to the police which was then being read out in the court should be considered as second-hand hearsay. Ironically, in this case the appellant received a 12 months imprisonment on count two, but a 15 months imprisonment on count one (which involved deceased witnesss statement) which was 3 months longer than a charge with direct witnesses evidence! When traced back to the trial, the court stated that ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦We should also say that overall the evidence against the appellant was very strong. We were wholly unpersuaded that the verdicts were unsafe.  [4]   The word overall here meant the evidence from other witnesses in count two and the only evidence in this co unt which was a deceased written statement. Some people would have question on whether the two counts were separated and whether the evidence on count two was also the evidence on count one since the paragraph 10 of Al-Khawaja v United Kingdom (26766/05) indicated that The jury heard evidence from a number of different witnesses and the defence were given the opportunity to cross-examine other witnesses who had produced similar fact evidence, including the second complainant who had produced supportive evidenceÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦Ã‚  [5]  . In this case, the appeal court should not hold that the evidence in count two was sufficient to corroborate the complainer and refused the accused appeal. As the involvement in an earlier offence is irrelevant to proof of involvement in a latter one  [6]  . In Delta v France  [7]  , the applicant was convicted of robbery and his conviction was solely based on the written statements of the victim to the police. The accused complained that the conviction was in the contrary of paragraphs (1) and (3) (d) of the Article 6  [8]  and he had not had a fair trial. Beside the statements made by the two witnesses to the police, the evidence taken by the Paris Criminal Court and Court of Appeal was not based on any other evidence. The Commission, therefore, concluded unanimously that there had been a breach of paragraph (3) (d) of Article 6 taken together with paragraph (1). Also at the paragraph 40 of Lucà   v Italy  [9]  suggested that where the defendant had no opportunity to question the witness whether during the investigation or at any stage of the trial, the statement must not allowed to be read as sole or decisive evidence against the defendant. From other similar cases Unterpertinger v Austria  [10]  , Kostovski v Netherlands  [11]  , and Saidi v France  [12]  in European Court of Human Rights, the Court upheld the applicants arguments that they had been denied fair trials on t he basis of violation of Article 6(3)(d). In all of these cases, the out-of-court statements constituted the only evidence, or an important part of the evidence, against the applicant. The Court had reached to a same conclusion that, if the conviction relied to a large extent on untested witnesses evidence, in these circumstances, the use of this evidence involved such limitations on the rights of the defence that applicant cannot be said to have received a fair trial. There had thus been an violation of paragraph (3)(d), taken together with the paragraph (1), of Article 6. Some scholars believed that the prima facie exclusion of hearsay at common law rested on the generalisation that such evidence is potentially afflicted by dangers of misunderstanding or distortion in transmission or receipt, by the fact that the original maker of the statement was almost certainly not under oath and by the difficulty of challenging the truth or accuracy of a hearsay assertion when the person r epeating it to the court has no real knowledge of its truth  [13]  . The same principle was used in Sealey v. Trinidad and Tobago  [14]  , Lord Hutton had adopted this passage from Blackstones Criminal Practice 2002: [I]n the ordinary course of events, where the identifying witness has testified adequately against the accused at trial, the pre-trial identification serves to prove his consistency and his ability to make an identification under fair and objective circumstances. It is admissible, in other words, by way of an exception to the rule against previous consistent statements ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦. If the police officer who supervised the identification parade is called to testify as to the identification, he can do so only in support of the identifying witness. His testimony cannot go to the issue of the accuseds guilt, because he has no first-hand knowledge of itÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦Ã‚  [15]  . As what had illustrated above, it is sho wed that there is a risk to an unsafe conviction of relying solely or decisively on an untested hearsay evidence. However, it is better to put hearsay evidence in a supporting or corroboration position when it came into conviction. In other words, hearsay evidence should be banned on playing a role as the only evidence to a conviction as it admissibility would consequently lead to the infringement of the accused right to a fair trial under Article 6(1). Always bear in mind that a criminal conviction may never rest solely or to a decisive degree on the untested evidence of an absent witness  [16]  . Also in this case, the appellant complained that the admission of witness statements in evidence at his respective criminal trials had breached his right under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 article 6 where he had had no opportunity to cross-examine the witness. Right to confrontation is a right of the defendant to examine or have examined witnesses against him to obt ain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him. Different from Article 6(3) (d) of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, Section 116(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 permits hearsay statements to be admitted where the declarant is unavailable to testify as a witness for one or more of the five designated reasons: death, physical or mental illness, absence abroad, disappearance, and fear. For this reason it could not be denied that there was no violation on article 6(3)(d) since S.T the witness had died before the trial. However, it must be admitted that by the same time the appellant losing his opportunity of challenging the deceased statement, he was also losing his opportunity to defence himself from adverse evidence. Obviously, it was advantageous for the prosecution to persuade the jury with deceased statement as they did not know the admission of the statement would ultimately brought disadvantage t o the appellant  [17]  . As a result, the appellant was in double losses situation, while the prosecution was in double wins. It could not be said that the appellant had received a fair trial. In this situation, the prosecution would need to make every effort to present any other evidence against the appellant instead of taking the deceased statements as the only evidence in this case. It is clearly that the conviction was indiscreet yet not persuasive enough. Another issue arose in this case was that whether the deceased statement could prove the case beyond reasonable doubt as a sole and decisive evidence. In practice there may be objected that where hearsay evidence is the only evidence it would indeed have to prove the issue beyond the reasonable doubt. The English legal system always regarded as the paradigm of the adversarial system. In criminal cases, the state is a party; the accused is far less able to influence matters than the defendant in a civil case. Witnesses f or the prosecution are not in the position of the plaintiff as they may not choose whether or not to proceed, and they cannot select the charge. Meanwhile the most important is the prosecution carries the burden of proof and the accused is presumed innocent until proved.  [18]  J.Jackson takes the plea of guilty as an example, ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦adversary procedure is not concerned with the truth of the material facts but only the truth of facts put in issue by the accused. As a result pleas of guilty, if considered voluntary, are not investigatedÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦Ã‚  [19]   It is believed that unless there is sufficient of evidence to support the conviction otherwise the defendant cannot be convicted. Also when looking at the Scotland criminal law there is a corroboration rule that required each piece of evidence should be confirmed or supported or strengthened by other evidence before the case can go to the jury. And of course the question is th at whether the two evidences can back each other up. There is a real risk that an innocent person may be convicted unless the evidence against the accused is confirmed by other evidence.  [20]  As in Bisset v Anderson  [21]  , Lord Clyde expressly disapproved a statement by Lord Cooper that : the evidence of a single witness, however credible, is insufficient at common law to establish the truth of any essential fact required for a criminal conviction. Also Lord Justice-Clerk Thomson summed up the law on corroboration in Gillespie v Macmillan  [22]  as follows: I do not think that the sufficiency of proof of a criminal charge can be any more precisely defined than by saying that there must be facts emanating from at least two separate and independent sources. Although some scholars want to reject the corroboration rule because of the number of guilty people it allowed to escape and as it put an additional strain on scarce that it lengthens trials  [23]  , some believ ed that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer  [24]  , the standard of proof required is beyond the reasonable doubt. Justice has long arms, as long as the crime happened there is always other factors tending to identify the accused as the offender. However in this case we can see, when satisfied the need on interest of justice (closed the case in short time, avoided from lengthy trial) , on the other hand there came miscarriage of justice(put a man into jail with one piece of unconvincing deceased statement). Many would have doubted that whether the ultimate purpose of the legislation is to find the truth or just to shorten the length of trial. Above all, there are three requirements for admissibility under any of the hearsay exceptions,(a)proof of admissibility ;(b)credibility of the maker of a statement and (c) warning the jury. In regard of admissibility of the hearsay, the court should hear oral evidence on oath about the cause of the witne sss unavailability. Medical report should be read out in the court by prosecution or defence lawyer, if the witness is a deceased person. If there is disputed issue on admissibility during the trial, the judge has the right to ask for corroborative evidence. In deciding on the admissibility of a document, inferences may be draw from the face of the document about the personal knowledge of the person who supplied the information, the purpose of the document and its provenance  [25]  . In this case, neither the accused nor his lawyer had an opportunity to challenge with the authenticity of the deceased statements, the statements was then read out in the court without any convincing proof whether when and where and under what situation had it been taken. It remained a question if the statement was made under abetment of the police who was then presented the evidence on the court. Secondly, if a statement is admitted for a hearsay purpose under the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and the maker of the statement does not give oral evidence in connection with the subject matter of the statement, s124(2) permits evidence to be adduced which, had he given evidence, would have been admissible as relevant to his credit  [26]  . The judge should stop the case if the prosecution relies wholly or mostly on a hearsay evidence that is unpersuasive and obviously unfair to the party. In this case, the maker of the statement was the victim who made the statement before the trial prior to her death, the credibility of the maker was somehow reliable and should not be doubted. Thirdly, when evidence is admitted for a hearsay purpose, in trials on indictment the judge should give the jury a warning which, points out to the jury the absence of opportunity to cross-examine the declarant  [27]  . In this case, the judge directed the members of the jury, on two separate occasions, as to how they should regard the read statement of the deceased complainant. Howeve r, none of them concerned about the confrontation right of the accused. It was considered unjustifiable. To sum up, after the 19th century, the changes in exceptions of hearsay rules has showed an increasing trend, plenty of hearsay exceptions have been established while the strict and rigid rules of hearsay no longer exists. To some extent, the complicity of hearsay exceptions made hearsay rules the most complex exclusionary rules of evidence in common law countries. In order to prevent the misused of right to confrontation which might caused inefficiency and delay of litigation, it is reasonable to impose restrictions on it. Section 116 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 creates an exception to the hearsay rule for statements made by witnesses who are unavailable. It applies where the witness is unavailable for any one of five listed reasons: death, physical or mental illness, absence abroad, disappearance, and fear  [28]  , which means the defendants right to confrontation h as not been infringed under those five conditions. On the other hand, the premises of hearsay evidence are its credibility and necessity, however, it is all depends on the discretionary power of judge to direct an acquittal or discharge the jury because of the unconvincing hearsay evidence. Consequently, in the increasing of hearsay exception, the power of judge to direct the admissibility of hearsay rules became more flexible. Besides, the evidence of one witness will not in any case be sufficient. When these sorts of evidence are presented there is a natural tendency to look for other evidence from a different source which points forwards the same conclusion.  [29] In short, in trials on indictment, if the court is satisfied at any time after the close of the prosecution case that the case against a defendant is based wholly or partly on an out-of-court statement which is so unconvincing that, considering its importance to the case against the defendant, his conviction wou ld be so unsafe, the judge must either direct the jury to acquit the defendant or discharge the jury and order a retrial.  [30] Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Analysis Al Khawaja V UK" essay for you Create order

Mary Wollstonecraft vs. Jean Jaques Rousseau Essay

Allison Link Global History 2 Honors – McIvor Enlightenment Essay 10/1/12 The late 18th century can be known as the historical period of the Enlightenment. During this time, society was undergoing drastic changes that would impact people even today. These changes were known as â€Å"reforms,† and played a big role in politics and ruling during this time period. One of the bigger reforms of this time was that which would grant women a higher education and place them in a position closer to their male counterparts. The enlightenment authors, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft, took part in a debate in which they argued about the purpose and education of women. In an article recently written in The New York Times by Nicholas†¦show more content†¦While men who read his writings might agree with Rousseau, the majority of women will find his works distasteful and biased. He also only used his own opinions in his arguments, as opposed to incorporating those of other Enlightenment authors or authors on the subject. Because Rousseau only used his own biased opinions and directed them towards the male audience, what he wrote was not entirely persuasive. Mary Wollstonecraft’s, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, is another example in which an Enlightenment author exhibits their opinion on the education and purpose of women. Contradictory to Rousseau’s writing, Wollstonecraft believed that women have a greater purpose than to serve man, and that is to be independent and care for others while they also care for themselves. She stated that unlike in Emile, women should be seen as and act independently and take care of themselves. She believed that women are not on this Earth for the purpose of serving men, and that they can stray away from these duties if they wish. Education wise, Wollstonecraft believed that a woman should not be limited to caring for their families, but may choose to pursue a higher learning, such as nursing and healing. But, she also said that caring for their children and husbands i s not to be seen as a lesser job that women take part in, and that it is to be respected. Although Wollstonecraft incorporated some

International operation management Free Essays

string(79) " also be another challenging for the organization \(Process Analysis Model, n\." INTRODUCTION IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in the year 1943. It started as a small town Swedish furniture company that was founded on the principles low prices and good quality. This simple idea was able to transform the organization along with strategic management and excellent decision making. We will write a custom essay sample on International operation management or any similar topic only for you Order Now It now has over 250 stores and a presence in 30 countries. IKEA has become an international giant with whom local furniture companies have to struggle against. The fundamentals of the organization did not change drastically with expansion however the organization did adapt to the culture and practices in the host countries. The strategy was simple, give the people lower price compared to the peers, allow them to check the quality, do no compromise on the quality, save on costs from every possible angle and make them feel happy about the purchases they made (10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices, 2009). This made their brand strong and helped in vertical and horizontal integration and expansion. IKEA maintained strong ties to its home country. Its colors are a representation of the Swedish flag and its name is the initials of its founders name along with the initials of the town he was born in. The organization has used policies that have baffled researchers and lead to various analyst studying its reasons for success. TASK 1 APPLICATION OF THEORIES AND STRATEGIES When IKEA was first created, its owner had the vision of making it an international giant. He had started international meetings and proceeded for a quick expansion strategy of the organization. No other furniture company has had such an exponential growth in only a few years. First, it expanded from a small town to chains all over Sweden. This was not an easy task. The organization had no means of managing so many stores however through the excellent entrepreneurship of its founder, his strategy and global vision, the organization grew strong. The stores’ main concern would be to find ways in which they could decrease costs. They started with lowering electricity costs during day time by opening windows; they used energy saving lights and did not have a large profit margin in the start. They then expanded to Germany, France and other European nations. Once they expanded to other countries, they maintained the same policies and store strategies in every store. This was done th rough impeccable management practices, which further helped the organization open stores in other continents. IKEA’s business model became famous and the store called for publicity. Their process analysis and operational strategies are unique. All of their decisions have been successful and their management of inventory, staff and stores is one of the best in the world. IKEA used to purchase raw materials from manufacturers but after it expanded internationally, it started its own production company. This resulted in saving costs as well as making new designs reach the stores faster with the least amount of compromise on quality (Ikea: How the Swedish retailer became a global cult brand, 2005). They started economies of scale by starting a production company near its stores. These companies were generally located in areas where labor was cheap and it would be cheaper to ship the goods. They also used a very different style of marketing technique which concentrated on making people happy and reaching out on their base emotions. Most of the stores which sold products at lower prices were considered to have cheap quality like Wal-Mart; therefore IKEA had to use a lot of advertising to put the simple message across that the quality was not compromised in the deal. They did so by hosting customer parties, sending free samples, giving huge discounts and maintaining a happy customer care service. This increased their goodwill. They also took active participation in local events and helped the community, increasing their goodwill and sales. IKEA believed in constant innovation which is one of the reasons for its strong presence. It comes up with furniture pieces that are classic and as well as new. This adds to its brand presence along with rotation of furniture so that the customers are never viewing the same thing each time they visit. Another strategy that IKEA came out with was to keep huge inventories in its stores. This would mean more space and more wastage as well as high inventory management costs however compared to the costs of maintaining the stores, the predicted sales were higher. This made them even more famous because they were the only store which was capable of holding huge inventories allowing customers to buy any product by jus t entering the store. They managed to do so by holding flat line products. These products would them have to be assembled by the customer hence they were made in an easy to assemble manner. By holding flat ling products, the organization could store millions of product. These strategies enabled them to increase their market share (Ikea Components is Setting practical Business Targets, 2011). COST ANALYSIS OF CURRENT OPERATIONS IKEA is a privately held organization. It has seen an increase in costs over the last couple of years and is struggling to survive given the recent global recession and low sales turnover. Although its new and innovative strategies have increased sales and helped them earn profits, the margin of profits and the sales turnover has decreased along with increase in the cost of raw materials and operations. An increase in sales from Euro 21534 million in 2008 to a Euro 21846 million in 2009 is considered slow however considering the marking conditions, it is above its peers. IKEA needs to find more ways to cut costs in order to generate healthier results. It has started doing so by creating solar powered lamps etc and using solar power and saving on electricity. Its costs increased from Euro 7078 million in 2008 to Euro 7198 million in 2009. Reducing its costs will also be another challenging for the organization (Process Analysis Model, n. You read "International operation management" in category "Essay examples"d.) OPERATION MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN PRODUCT DESIGN OPERATIONS IKEA is strongly linked to its product and organization design. The process from which production starts until it reaches the stores and makes sales is very commendable for an international giant like IKEA. Although the operation process has been commendable there are still a few loopholes in the process. The main problem concerning IKEA is its inventory storage. Warehousing costs are on the high. The organization cannot afford to store thousands of products for each different store. This would not only mean high cost of storage but also wastages in products. Once the product gets old, it needs to be replaced by other more innovative products. This makes the lifecycle of the furniture short and increases the wastages that the organization will have to incur. Currently IKEA ships the unwanted goods to other stores where it might have a high demand however this not only adds to the risks of no sale but also increases the cost of shipping. Since it produces flat line furniture, the place taken up is not a lot but the store has expanded into all departments of housing and office furniture hence has to bear a high cost of storage. A good option available to the organization is to display goods in the store and ship the goods later to the customers through mail. This would help in preventing storage costs, cost to keep inventory management and save on any kind of wastages. The organization can also concentrate on re using the unsold furniture into other products. Since the organization owns its own production company, it can re use the unsold pieces of furniture and make other innovative products. Currently it does not pay too much attention into re using and re cycling however if it wants to keep costs low it needs to consider this alternativ e (SWOT Analysis and Sustainable Business Planning, 2011). Another Operation management issue with IKEA is that the organization is extremely large. It not only needs to concentrate on maintaining the current stores but also on expansion into other countries. IKEA’s expansion into India and other developing countries is on the hold. It has been extremely conservative in its approach to expansion and trying to be overly cautious. A good example is its indecision over opening stores in China. Once the company decided that China would be a good market, its management was scared to take the risk of entering a market where consumers were traditional and other furniture retails offered cheaper products. However, the expansion went very well and China has been a very good turnover for the organization. The government too was pleased with IKEA. Hence IKEA’s management needs to take more risks and consider global expansion while maintaining the quality of products and service given and lowering costs. By using process model analysis on the organization’s approach to its day to day operations, the following flow chart was developed. A process flow chart is required in order to recreate the design of the organization and understand the process in a simplified manner. The flow chart contains these symbols and meaning: Flowchart The above flowchart shows that there is a lot of time that is wasted in the transportation of the goods as well as in inspection of the products. Waste recovery has not been given a lot of attention as required and time spent on planning needs to be increased in order to develop products that lead the furniture market. Analysis models using classifier analysis, location analysis, cost and duration analysis and resource analysis have shown that the organization has been using all possible forms of increasing business however there is more scope and a lot it can do to improve its current standards. It does not utilize its resources like space for storage, marketing for customers and training employees for better customer satisfaction and higher sales. It is very conservative in its approach to location and store openings and production company locations. It needs to get more aggressive in order to build a stronger more stable and more profitable brand. The overall design of the organization is excellent with importance given on lowering costs; the only problems are inventory management and cautious expansion. MODULE 2 QUALITY MANAGEMENT IKEA’s simple business strategy of low prices has created a lot of trouble for the organization. By lowering prices, the quality of products offered lowered and although the organization has been thriving to maintain its quality it has sometimes been unable to meet international standards. The products are also a little below quality but their quest for lowering prices has also affected their quality of service offered. Customer care does not get proper attention and the workers do not have the time or resources for proper international training (Levine, 2010). The organization is barely scrapping through with the quality required which has adversely affected the business. The sales have gone down and prospective sales from elite consumers have seen a sharp decline. Another noticing factor on quality management is the advertising campaigns that the organization holds. They are unable to research well on the market because of being very cost conscious and have therefore missed out on their target customers in their marketing plan. Because IKEA is an international brand, it not only has to consider international policies but in order to do well in the host country, the organization also needs to pay special attention to the customs and traditions of the host country. It has been failing to do so correctly resulting in profits dwindling below expectations in certain regions and countries like the United States (Levine, 2010). IKEA is a privately held organization, hence information on IKEA is difficult to attain. IKEA follows a very difficult return service with delays and sometimes refusal to take back the goods purchased by consumers. This reflects back on their credibility and goodwill. For any organization that works directly with customers, service needs to be impeccable especially for an international organization like IKEA however IKEA has not been very good with its quality management approach. The organization has however taken a lot of steps to maintain its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and taken many steps to make a difference in the host country. IKEA can take many steps to improve quality. The organization can adopt TQM (Total Quality Management) in its operations in order to ensure quality. It needs to spend money on its processes however the returns it could possibly earn are potentially higher than the costs. The organization needs to adopt a six sigma approach to management and strategically increase the quality of products and service provided. This should increase collectively in all the stores. It has been seen that most of the sales come from EU nations which makes up of about 50% of its sales with only 5% coming from North America. This is a potentially untapped market and IKEA needs to improve quality and assure the consumers of its products and quality so as to increase its potential in not only the markets it already has a presence in but also the markets in which it plans to open stores. IKEA can use the theories for quality improvement in order to manage the quality. Management stresses on the following important principles and theories for quality improvement that IKEA can use to its advantage. 1. Develop customer focus in each step of the process and train employees to provide the best customer satisfaction. IKEA depends on its consumers and it needs to prove to the consumers that they can depend on IKEA as well. Customer focus is very important internally as well as externally in the workings of the organization. 2. Leadership. The international size of the organization makes it difficult for them to manage and lead the process. Leadership is required for each different store and all the leaders need to have a similar set of rules, aims and objectives. This can be done by training each leader of the store together. With the values that needs to be used in the organization. 3. Process based quality management. One theory of quality management states that if each process in the organization deals with the optimum use of resources and time, the overall outlook of the organization will be much different. 4. Decision making approach of the organization needs to change. The management needs to realize that they can no longer be over cautious in their approach if they want to gather all the market share and potential sales if they continue being conservative. They need information that is correct and they need to work slowly because of their mere size but they also need to take an aggressive role in this slow recession filled economy in order to survive and compete. 5. Continual improvement in quality. Quality management is not a onetime approach, the organization has to imbibe it into its day to day workings, control the quality and give feedback on the improvements done. The constant feedbacks would be supplied along with the advantages that the organization achieved due to the process of quality management. IKEA can also use the Crosby theory of quality management which stresses on zero errors, prevention of errors, quality being an adherence to requirement and quality as being a price paid for non conformity. It sets goals for lower period of days so that the results would show, it requires total commitment from the upper management, encouragement to the employees, training given accordingly, creating incentives for high sales, determining the costs for quality etc. TASK 3 IKEA being the world’s leading furniture retailer does not utilize its capacity or use capacity management to its advantage. It uses Data Core Virtual Storage Solutions globally considering its size. The new version uses auto provisioning which is allocation of products to its demand, auto failover which is mirroring and using high availability in its products and snapshot functions which means creating backup for all the information that is feed from all its stores worldwide. The software is the latest and expected to improve the management of inventory. Before the implantation of the software, IKEA struggled with its supply chain management. It sometimes had over supplied products and sometimes there was a lag in products which diminished demand. Since it is not an internet based supplier, it needs to keep a good amount of product as reserves. It needs to create a balance between oversupply and under supply so as to reduce wastages. IKEA has tried to take advantage of the te chnological improvements to sort out its supply chain management. The organization had earlier used JDA system in 2006 to solve its problems in supply chain management (IKEA Services, 2011). For an organization like IKEA the primary concern in capacity management are as follows: 1. It needs a technology that can forecast with a great level of accuracy based on past results and future market environment the market demand and supply movements. This forecasting accuracy will help the organization improve its functions and save millions of dollars in shipping, storage and recycling. 2. It needs an approach that improves the sales forecasts and predicts consumer behavior. The predictions need to be translated into sales figures so that the organization can plan on expansion and innovation. All the departments in the organization are interrelated and using capacity management to its highest level could help create more potential from the other departments as well. 3. Another area where IKEA needs to focus on is the anticipation of problems before they occur. A large organization is prone to have problems in its supply chain management and capacity management however if it is in a position to predict the changes and challenges well ahead of time, it can be better prepared for the threat or even to a certain extent help prevent it. This is an integral part of management function through which the organization can gain further market share and capital. 4. Transportation and logistics methods need to be simplified with each consignment being traceable so that the management can better predict the product whereabouts and avoid loss in transportation. With the rise in fuel costs the management needs to carefully lay out its supply chain management as well as logistics problems. With over 12000 products and 250 stores in 30 countries the organization needs better capacity management solutions (Supply Chain Management, 2006). IKEA store layout is in the form of a maze. The consumers need to walk through different custom rooms build to give them an idea of the product they might like. The stores are therefore multi layered with additional space given for storage. This has proven to be a good thing because this marketing strategy makes the customers view all the products and increases sales. It does however have the following disadvantages: It wastes a lot of its store space It confuses the customers who find it difficult to return to the product they liked before It irritates consumers who are looking for a particular product and have to go through the entire store for it and it wastes a lot of time which consumers do not prefer. However, this marketing strategy is important but it can be improved upon to avoid the above hindrance. There are many other store formats that the organization can select from instead of its free flow layout. An image of the store layouts is mentioned below. Therefore IKEA can select a grid layout or a spine layout to avoid confusion. Having different layout on each store can also be helpful and avoid any wastage of space. Since the organization has 20000 products they need to be displayed in an arranged format with utmost importance given to layout so that they appear attractive for the customers to buy. The lighting also should be set up in a way that enhances the qualities of the products. The benefits of having a store layout are that it helps the customers organize their wants. It has been proven in countless studies that a good display of the products makes the customers more inclined to buy the products. This means that a layout can make or break a sale hence needs attention from the upper management (Waters, 2011). CONCLUSION IKEA has a great future ahead. It needs to take an aggressive role in this market because its sales are now stagnant and costs are on a rise. It has used the best method for inventory management along with supply chain management it can further expand its dominance over the other furniture retailers by becoming a public company instead of staying private and add additional funds to its disposal. The has been orthodox and conservative in its approach to management so far but it needs to change its policies into being more innovative not only in the products it makes but also in the strategies it follows. The company has great potential and a business plan that matches no other organization in the world. It size and its success by far have been commendable. It company also needs to change into being more web based which would reduce the cost of transportation and logistics. It has a lot of potential and a goodwill that precedes every country it decides to open a store in, however marketing is also an important feature IKEA needs to look into. Its current marketing strategies were effective in an expanding economy where people where ready to spend however in this current recession the only way IKEA can make more sales is through advertising its fundamental business objective; low cost. It needs to cash into the recession and increase sales by lowering prices and making its products quality checked. IKEA also has a lot of improvement to do in the customer care area where it is lacking behind due to its policy to lower costs. The organization needs to train its employee so that they are more efficient and better equipped to make a sale. To conclude I would like to add that IKEA has great potential not only in its existing countries but other countries where it does not have any stores. It needs to tap into the sales before some other organization does. BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices. (2009). Personalizing the IKEA experience. [Online] http://www.ikeafans.com/ikea/ikea-why-ikea/10-keys-to-ikeas-low-prices.html [last accessed April 02, 2011] Ikea Components is Setting practical Business Targets. (2011). Business Management. 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