EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The first section of this paper introduces the business which is Comfort Shoes Ltd. The introduction explains the location and how long the business is in operation. The second section discusses what is operations management? It then goes on to show the operation objectives. Which explain the five steps such as quality, dependability, speed, cost and flexibility, the paper then described the operational issues, the recommendation that should be applied and the impact of the recommendation and the characteristics of the operations process.
The last section is the conclusion. It has been concluded that the use of the supply chain decisions of disintermediation, re-location and capacity lead would improve the overall sales and profits of Comfort Shoes Ltd. If demand further increases then the company would be able to adjust its operations to ensure that they match the demand and supply because of their direct interaction with the supplier, this would ensure that the consumer obtain their product on time.
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………..2
1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………..4
2. WHAT IS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT………………………………………………4
3. PROCESS FLOW FOR COMFORT SHOES LTD…………………………………………5
4. OPERATION OBJECTIVES……………………………………………………………..6-7
5. OPERATION ISSUES……………………………………………………………………..7-8
6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOT COMFORT SHOES LTD………………………………..9-10
7. IMPACT OF RECOMMENDATIONS ON OPERATION……………………………..10-11
8. CHARACTERISTICS OF OPERATIONS PROCESS …………………………………….11
9. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………..12
10. REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………..12
Introduction
The Changing Roles of Archives and Archivists in the Twenty First Century.
• What is an Archival Institution? This is an agency responsible for selecting, acquiring, preserving and making available archives, also known as an archival agency or archives.
• What is Archival Repository? This is a building or part of a building in which archives are preserved and made available for consultation.
• What is Archives? This is records, usually but not necessarily non-current records, of enduring value selected for permanent preservation. Archives will normally be preserved in an archival repository.
• What is Archives Management? This is concerned with the maintenance and use of archives.
Archives are the record of the everyday activities of governments, organizations, businesses and individuals. They are central to the record of our national and local stories and are vital in creating cultural heritage. Their preservation ensures that future generations will be able to learn from the experiences of the past to make decisions about the present and future. In today’s rapidly changing information world the archive sector faces complex challenges, both in documentation and in delivering the core task of helping people to access and understand the past.
Being located in an inadequate buildingcan make the preservation environment too difficult to achieve, especially with escalating energy costs and may put some archive collections at risk of damage or destruction. Inadequate management of environmental risks such as temperature, humidity, pest control and danger from fire or flood contributes to the possible loss of important material. The buildings of many archive services are simply too small and not fit for their purpose in various ways. This imposes a real constraint on collection development.
Archivists’ duties include acquiring and appraising new collections, arranging and describing records, providing reference service, and preserving materials. In arranging records, archivists apply two important principles, provenance and original order. Provenance refers to the origin of records, essentially who created them. Original order is applied by keeping records in their order as established and maintained by the creator. Both provenance and original order are closely related to the concept of “respect des fonds” which states that records from one corporate body should not be mixed with records from another. Archivists process the records physically by placing them in folders and boxes, usually acid free to ensure their long-term survival. All in all archivists are the ones who will help us forge a better and more useful individual and collective memory, to tell the story of our lives and those of our ancestors in a full, truthful and unbiased manner.
History
The desire to keep and use records for knowledge and information can be linked to the earliest time of human history. History has showed how people of the ancient era kept records of their thoughts and experiences on items at their disposal such as clay-tablets, papyrus, cuneiform, palm-trees, tree bark, animal skins and stones.These items were used for some purposes and historical documentation. With the development of paper and other non-textual documentary forms such as films, photographs, still and motion pictures, videotapes and related machine readable forms, archival records then continue to appear on special physical characteristics.
Uduigwome (1989) considered archives as the official or organized records of governments, organizations, groups of people and individuals whatever their date, form and material appearance which are no longer needed to conduct current businesses but are preserved either, as evidence of origins, structure, functions and activities or because of the information they contain.Evans (1988) on the other hand described archives as having constituted one of the world’s primary sources of information that grew uniquely out of the activities of organizations, institutions, families and individuals. Archives according to him are “records of an entity that has been selected for preservation because they possess enduring value”.
Archives have served personal and public, practical and symbolic uses. According to the type, value, and significance of the documents, the responsibility of maintenance might fall to scholars, religious figures, or minor government administrators. In Europe during the Middle Age, as feudal kingdoms consolidated into nations and laws they began to see the need and importance of record keeping. Gradually, the changing circumstances of European society and governments affected the manner in which records were used and preserved. By the time of the French Revolution it was widely accepted that records were critical because they protected the rights of the people, and that such records must be available for public scrutiny and use.
The first settlers in America brought with them the knowledge and practice of precise record-keeping. Records of marriages, births, and baptisms were saved by the Church, and often by individual families as well. Hunters and trappers listed their business transactions; merchants kept track of sales; homemakers and famous figures alike wrote letters, diaries, and memoirs; land titles were recorded and filed away for safe-keeping; and as settlements grew into towns and territories, civic documents increased. After the Revolutionary War, the first Continental Congress acknowledged that it was expected to keep official records on behalf of all citizens, and followed the practices they had learned in Europe. In 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first of its kind, was formed to “preserve the manuscripts of the present day to the remotest ages of posterity.” Similar local and national organizations soon followed, many concerned with collecting the private papers and memorabilia of famous individuals in addition to official documents.
Slowly, as more independent historical societies and archival repositories were created, they began to be even more concerned with the most efficient ways of preserving their materials. By the early 1800s one Ohio society developed a manner of protecting its holdings in “air-tight metallic cases, regularly numbered and indexed, so that it may be known what is in each case without opening it.” But each archive had its own system of organization and storage, with varying degrees of success. Napoleon 1 recognized the importance for archives to continue as a living institution.During 1808 he initiated a series of regulations on transfers by publishing a circular ordering the regular transfer of the papers of the Public Works Division of the Prefectures to the newly created Archives departementales. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that common archival theories and practices were shared among many separate societies and associations, ultimately leading to the formation of a distinct archives profession in the United States. The American Historical Association, created in 1884, took as its major focus the development of standardized systems of archival organization by helping to foster interaction among the various independent archives. The AHA spawned several subgroups, such as the Historical Manuscripts Commission, the Public Archives Commission and, in 1909, a Conference of Archivists. This latter group met annually and worked to establish new archives and to promote and improve those already in existence. During the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration created the Historical Records Survey and the Survey of Federal Archives, and then, in 1934, Congress established the National Archives as an independent federal agency.
Identifying Gaps
Arguing against archival participation, Jean Dryden responded to Reimer’saddress by insisting that active involvement in oral history is a dangerous departurefrom the traditional role of archivist.Archivists can identify “gaps” in theircollection, but they do not have the expertise, the funding, or the time neededto conduct extensive research or anticipate questions of future researchers.
Dryden believed that other archival activities such as reducing backlogs andestablishing active acquisition programs are far more important than “creatingrecords of marginal value.”23 Two years later, the role of the archivist in oral historywas the focus of debate at an International Association of Sound Archives(IASA) conference. Participants emphasized the need for documenting gapsin the archives, promoting deposit of interviews therein, and employing trainedhistorians in archival work.24 More to the point, participant Ronald Grele suggestedthat the question was not whether archivists could or should conductinterviews. They already were doing so with promising results.25By the mid- to late-1990s, new scholarship turned the archival impartialityargument on its ear. In a selection for The Oral History Reader (1998), Canadianarchivists Jean-Pierre Wallot and Normand Fortier suggested that archivists arenot neutral gatherers; they appraise records. Based on their biases and abilities,they choose which records and subject matter to collect and which to discard.
In a sense, archival collections reflect their collectors. For Wallot and Fortier,involvement in oral history, then, was not a matter of “abdicating archival principles.”Instead, it meant “influencing the creators of oral history and followingprocedures themselves if creating oral history.”26This argument is tied to anearly strand of scholarship that focused on collection development in light ofsocial history scholarship interests.The social history movement of the 1970s called archival neutralityinto question by bringing to the forefront issues concerning collectiondevelopment and appraisal and legitimizing the use of oral history. Historiansin the movement turned their attention from studying prominent political
leaders and organizations to focusing on understanding society through theexperiences of groups underdocumented by “mainstream” repositories, suchas women, minorities, civil rights and peace activists, and laborers. To do so,historians needed materials about these subjects that the archives did not contain.As early as 1975, SAA president Gerald Ham called for a more active andcreative role for archivists in documenting history, as their “soundness of judgment and keenness of . . . perceptions about scholarly inquiry” will determinethe “scope, quality and direction of research in an open-ended future.”One component in the making of an activist archivist was using oral history to“fill in” gaps and address the less-documented social aspect of history.27In 1981, Frederic Miller addressed this issue by arguing that the newhistorical movement required archivists to “adapt” their practices to addresscurrent historical research needs. Miller argued that archival principles andpractices were not immutable but were instead the “product of the understandingof the historical research at the time they were formulated.” Sincethis understanding mirrors societal and technological changes, archivistsneeded to re-evaluate conventional archival wisdom by “discarding what hasbecome outmoded, reordering priorities, and retaining what remains useful.”28Dale Mayer pointed out that oral history could be an excellent means for documentingsocial history. In 1985, he emphasized that new research interestsrequired archivists to “discover new ways of thinking about their most basic responsibilities.”29
By the late 1990s, the social history movement created new implications forarchivists. As Reimer and Wallot had suggested, archivists were judged by the collectionsthey had or had not acquired. In 1999, Francis Blouin described a newline of scholarship that focused on “archives” as the object of study. Historiansand others seeking to examine the underrepresented social aspects of historyfound little documentation of relevance in the archives. Blouin illustrated howthese gaps in documentation affirmed certain historical realities and reflectedarchivists’ biases as well as the constitutive role that status quo institutionsplayed in defining both the historical record and history itself. He imploredarchivists to think more carefully about appraisal practices and their role asmediators of information. He argued, furthermore, that archivists needed toknow how to respond to new questions being asked of the profession.30Most recently, Mark Greene, Thomas Nesmith, and others have evaluatedthe role of archives, and indirectly the role of oral history and other memorybaseddocumentation, within a postmodernist framework. At the heart of these
discussions is the old debate concerning archivists’ role as creator of materialsor as objective curator of documents. Greene argues for the adoption of an“archives paradigm” which embraces Bruce Dearstyne’s definition of records as“any type of recorded information, regardless of physical form or characteristics,created, received, or maintained by a person, institution or organization”and embraces the idea that all records—including those of transactional andinstitutional nature—are subject to archival mediation and subjective evaluation.Those who propose a “record-keeping paradigm” do not approve ofmemory-based documentation as oral history is not a transactional record ofevidential value and does not satisfy legal requirements of evidence. Greeneapplauds Adrian Cunningham’s assessment that the “elevation of the transactionalrecord above all other sources of memory, evidence and storytellingimpoverishes us all and makes us look plain silly in the eyes of the wider community.”Oral history matters in piecing together history.31Tom Nesmith also focuses on postmodern theory to understand the roleof archivists in “mediating and thus shaping, the knowledge available inarchives.” Postmodernism shatters the notion that archivists are or can be objectivecaretakers of documents as their bias, interests, and backgrounds shape theways in which they collect and maintain archival holdings. Nesmith asserts thatarchivists “help author records by the very act of determining what authoringthem means and involves, or what the provenance of the records is.”32 Oral historyis no longer the only type of documentation under scrutiny. Postmodernists have placed archival practice under the microscope and concluded that boththe individuals who use the archives and those who provide access its holdingsconstruct and author the meanings and “truths” of documents. Whether or notthese arguments are valid, as Nesmith suggests, they offer a new lens throughwhich to consider the archivist’s role as collector or as creator.
Another component of the criticism of archivists’ involvement in oral historyis the argument that it adds to the mountain of paper documentation createdby twentieth-century recordkeeping practices. In 1972, historian BarbaraTuchman took archivists and others to task for adding to the “explosion of modernpaperwork” with questionable oral history documentation. For her and others,a large number of oral history projects provided unreliable documentationbased on faulty memory and addressed insignificant subject material.33 James
Fogerty answered this criticism by pointing to the poor quality of existingdocumentation.
DIGITAL ARCHIVING
Archives are a vital part of our cultural heritage. They help people, communities and nations make known of their present and discover their past. They are evidence of events and decisions, of past, ideas and finding out people’s own identities. Primary archival research is important not only to the historical, social and economic study, but also to the world that is constantly changing. Together they can both protect and develop this rich resource in the best possible way by keeping some basic principles such as always thrive for excellence,secure services, sustainability, always be resilient and innovative and that the workforce is diverse.Though there are tough times within the archives body particularly with regard to funding in the public sector, Archivists always seem to make the best of it and always do their best. Digital archivesare essential to meet the growing public needs of access to resources and information. This will help unlock the culture and add value of our heritage. Archives are achieving this through digitisation which is in high demand, by working with groups and volunteers to catalogue and tag records it helps the process to become clearer and easier to achieve. Through the digitisation, partners offer support and advice on how to help archives exploit its potential of digitization.
DIGITAL ACCESS FOR ARCHIVES SHOULD;
• Work with commercial partners and funding bodies to create opportunities for digital projects
• Explore the potential of philanthropic and academic partnerships to fund cataloguing projects based on priorities identified by partner or organizations
• Explore ways to build infrastructure to enable the re-use of online collections, and expose the information to the widest possible audience
• Complete the conversion of existing catalogues into electronic form within a period of time, so that archives can make all their catalogue data available online.
• Promote and facilitate the sharing of best practice and new ways of working with archives
• Complete the commercial digitization with the Archives and Records Association
• Promote and encourage the collection and preservation of records from the point of creation
• Provide support and guidance on the amended European Directive on the Re-use of Public Sector Information, and ensure that any amendments to copyright law take account of online access to archival material
CHALLENGES OF MANAGING DIGITAL INFORMATION
Ensuring valuable digital information remains a key challenge for archives and it is vital that this is addressed to ensure that the administration, accountability and transparency of organisations is maintained and enhanced. The quality of the services provided by public and other bodies could be equally affected if their information is not safeguarded for future use.
Digital assets can either be born digital, they can be digitised records where the physical record no longer exists or they can be digital surrogates (a digital copy of the original item). Advice is available from a number of sources to ensure that practical, uncomplicated, inexpensive preservation can be undertaken within this framework. Partners such as the Digital Preservation Coalition support bodies in designing their digital preservation strategies, and with The National Archives, communicate good practice in making use of existing technology to address digital preservation needs.
ADVANTAGE OF DIGITAL ACCESS
The advantage of digital access is immediate accessibility anywhere. Giving an international audience the chance to explore some of the content in which they have immediate accessibility at any time of day. Items that were previously only available to those within the museum’s walls, libraries and organization are now there for anyone with an internet connection to see, hear, watch and interact with. And the benefits go beyond access. A digitised archive collection is an educational tool too teachers and students who can access the collections with ease to enrich lessons or their research. It also enhances the audience experience, with visitors able to access items of their choice, before or after their stay. Above all, new and existing visitors can do the above from the comfort of their own homes at all hours of the day, on any day of the week. Digitising archives has internal and external benefits. A good archive eases work for staff, saves space and preserves objects for future generations to enjoy. Richard McDonough, sound curator at IWM notes that the recent digitisation of the museum’s sound archives have made for easier documentation and cataloguing: “Rather than having to dig out a cassette or draw an archive from an open reel, archives are now easier to transfer into a user-friendly format.”