Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 35 ]

35- ] Spelling & Vocabular Enrichment 

Business In Use .

 

Innovation And Invention .

A-] Innovation and invention :

Verb                                                       Noun :concept                       Noun : thing          Noun : person

design : to make plans or drawings        design                                  a design                     a designer

 for how something is to be made .                                     

develop : to make a new idea           development                               a development      a developer

successful, for example by making or improving a product  .    

 innovate : to think of new ideas ,         innovation                            an innovation              an innovator

 methods products , etc.                         

invent :  to design and make                  invention                               an invention                 an inventor

 something for the first time .                

technology :  the practical or

                industrial use of scientific discoveries

B-] Research and technology :

- I am a head of ‘product development’ at a company . The company makes semiconductors , the components at the heart of every computer . I am in charge of ‘research and development’ at our ‘research center’. Our ‘laboratories’ are some of the most ‘innovative’ in the computer industry , and we have made many new discoveries and ‘breakthroughs’ .

- I love ‘technology’ , using scientific ‘knowledge’ for practical purposes . The ‘technology’ of semiconductors is fascinating . We are at the ‘cutting edge’ or ‘leading edge’ of semiconductor technology  : none of our competitors has better products than us . Everything we do is state-of-the-art , using the most advanced techniques available .

- Of course , the ‘hi-tech’ products of today become the ‘low-tech’ products of tomorrow . Products that are no longer up-to-date because they use old technology are ‘obsolete’ . It is my job to make sure that the company’s products never get into that situation .

C-] Patents and intellectual property :

- information or knowledge that belongs to an individual or company is ‘proprietary’ . A product developed using such information may be protected in a law by ‘patents’ so that others cannot copy its design .

- Other companies may pay to use the design ‘under license’ in their own products . These payments are ‘royalties’ .

- In publishing , if a text , picture etc. is ‘copyright’ , it cannot be used by others without permission . Payments to the author from the publisher are ‘royalties’ .

- The area of law relating to patents and copyright is ‘intellectual property’ .

Making things .

A-] Products :

- A product can be 1-] something natural . 2-] something made to be sold . 3-] a service .

- ‘Produce’ refers to agricultural products such as crops or fruit . For example , you can buy fresh produce at a farmers’ market .

- Something that is made is ‘produced’ or ‘manufactured’ .

- A country or company that produces something is a ‘producer’ of it .

- A company that manufactures something is a ‘maker’ or ‘manufacturer’ of ‘manufactured goods’ .

B-] Mass production :

- I am head of car production at a ‘manufacturing plant’ . ‘Plant’ sounds more modern than ‘factory’ or ‘works’ . On the ‘assembly line’ we ‘mass-produce’ cars . The plant is highly ‘automated’ : we use a lot of machinery . These machines are expensive to buy but very ‘cost-effective’ – we do not have to pay them wages ! We use ‘industrial robots’ . These robots are part of the ‘CADCAM’ system of computer-assisted design and manufacturing .

- I have a little ‘workshop’ where I produce furniture ordered by individual customers . We do not use machinery : the furniture is ‘hand-made’ . Producing furniture like this is a ‘crat industry’ . It is very ‘labor-intensive’ : it takes a lot of work to produce each piece . Many people dislike the furniture that big companies ‘churn out’ in large numbers on their ‘production lines’, so we have a lot of customers. 

C-] Capacity and output :

‘Output’ is the number or type of things that a plant , company , industry or country produces. ‘Productivity’ is a measure of how much is produced in relation to the number of employees .

High output per employee = high productivity .

The maximum amount that a particular plant , company or industry can produce is its ‘capacity’ . If it is producing this amount , it is ‘working at full capacity’ . If it is producing more than what is needed , there is  ‘overproduction’ or : ‘excess capacity’ , ‘overcapacity’ , ‘spare capacity’ , ‘surplus capacity’ . These expressions can also be used in service industries . 

- If far too many things are produced , there is a ‘glut’ of these things . If not enough goods are being produced , there is a ‘shortage’ .

Materials and supplies .

A-] Inputs :

The company makes vacuum cleaners . It takes ‘raw materials’ like steel and plastic and makes of the ‘components’ or ‘parts’ used in its products . Other components are made by other companies . Materials and parts are just some of the inputs . The others are ‘labor’ [ [workers  and managers ] and ‘capital’ [ money ] . ‘Knowledge’ is also important because the company is a leader in vacuum technology . Vacuum cleaners that are being made are ‘work-in-progress’ . At any one time , the company has ‘goods’ worth millions of dollars in its factories  and warehouses : the products that have been made – its ‘finished goods’ – and materials and components . Quantities of raw materials , components , work-in-progress and finished goods in a particular place are ‘stocks’ .

  B-] Supplies and outsourcing : The company receives materials and components from about 20 companies , its ‘suppliers’ or ‘partners’. The company is doing more ‘subcontracting’: using ‘outside suppliers’ to provide components and services that were previously supplied ‘in-house’ : within the company .

C-] Just-in-time :

Of course , it costs money to keep components and goods ‘in stock’ :stocks have to be ‘financed’ [ paid for] . ‘stored’ [ perhaps in special buildings : ‘warehouses’ and ‘handled’ [ moved from one place to another ] . So the company is asking its suppliers to provide components just-in-time’ , as and when they are needed . This is part of ‘lean production’ or ‘lean manufacturing’ making things ‘efficiently’ : doing things as quickly and cheaply as possible , without waste .

Business philosophies .

A-] Total quality management :

The company believes in ’quality’ : ‘The specifications’ or ‘specs’ of a product are exact   instructions about its design , including its ‘dimensions’ [ size ] , how it is to be made , the materials to be used etc.                                                                      he objective of ‘quality control’ is ‘conformity’ to ‘specifications’ , the idea that the product should be made exactly as it was intended , with zero ‘defects’ : no faults at all . Things should be done ‘right first time’ so we do not have to correct mistakes later in a process of ‘reworking. We do ‘spot checks’ every few minutes during production to ensure everything is going well .We have a system of ‘total quality management’  [TQM ] , including ‘quality circles’ : groups of employees who meet regularly to suggest improvements .

B-] Continuous improvement :

We are always making small improvements or ‘enhancements’; this is continuous improvement.

We refer to it by its Japanese name ‘kaizen’ .

- We use continuous improvement in our service industry . We look carefully at the overall customer experience . In retailing , they use ‘mystery shoppers’ , who pretend to be shoppers to check service in shops . We use ‘mystery travelers’ to report on the standard of service before , during and after the flight .

C-] Benchmarking :

I am a production manager at an electricity power station in the UK . We use a system called ‘benchmarking’ to compare our ‘performance’ to other power stations . We have recently been to the US to see how the best power stations operate – ‘best practice’ – and try to copy it . We

have managed to halve the number of workers , and increase productivity .

D-] Business process re-engineering :

I am a head of personal banking at an international bank . I think that ‘business process 

re-engineering’ , or [BPR] , applies in service industries as well as in manufacturing . We did not want to change existing things in small ways . We completely redesigned all our processes in management , administration and customer service . We eliminated three levels of management and installed a completely new computer system . The gains in productivity have been very good .

Verb