Tag: United States

Career Review Going into the Philippine Call Center Industry

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The Philippine call center industry has truly grown in the past year. This is because the Philippines offer all that outsourcing offshore businesses need. First and foremost of these is the available competent workforce and relatively lower cost of labor as compared to an onshore operation. The industry has developed well and lead race in the global outsourcing industry. Every since the industry was went full swing in 1999, there was no turning back in development. A significant number of such businesses established in India moved or branched towards the Philippine archipelago when the large potential for the countrys geographic location was realized.

So are you Ready to Work in a Call Center?
Call centers, also called contact centers are great places to work in especially since one does not need any specific degree to get into one. A lot of Filipinos, according to surveys, have college degrees. However, you could have either finished mass media or nursing and it would not matter. All you need are the right skills especially in communicating with people and you could get hired right away. The best part about getting into this kind of career however, is the pay. This industry offers highly competitive salary rates even for the entry level applicants. This is why the call center has so many applicants.

However, it is not all fun and games. There are also a lot of challenges that one must face when getting into a career as a contact center agent. So what exactly are these challenges?

Challenges of Working in a Philippine Call Center
There are many challenges to working the contact center conditions. Filipinos basically love to wake up early in the morning to work (as opposed to say people in Hong Kong where the night is alive and people sleep till almost noon). But this will have to change because the call center industry requires one to work during the night. This is of course because the Philippines is almost at the opposite end of the globe to the U.S. where most of the customer calls will most likely come from. Thus, the time differential is immense. Day time in the United States is Night time in the Philippines. Conversely, night time in the Philippines is day time in the U.S.

There some dangers to working at night that one should first be aware of before considering going into the contact center industry game. Remember that the body has a natural circadian rhythm also commonly called as ones “body clock.” The body biological clocks time was determined by billions of years of evolution. Reversing this can have bad effects to some people with weak constitutions who cannot adjust well enough. Those with bad respiratory problems will exacerbate their problems. But those with heart diseases should not even consider going into such a career.

Other than these, working in a Philippine call center can be fun and comfortable if one can adjust well enough. The pay is good and there are always good medical benefits such as health cards.

The Pros And Cons Of Unionization In The Airline Industry

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For flight professionals and the general public alike, one of the most recognized parts of the airline industry is the strong union presence among its professionals. Major international and national airlines have been unionized for decades in order to protect flight professionals from excessive pay and benefit cuts meant to secure the bottom line. However, unions have been considered a mixed blessing by the media, the public, and airline executives. Striking flight attendants, pilots, and flight technicians sometimes hold up flights, drawing ire from customers. As well, airline executives by and large feel that unions ask too much from airlines when many companies are struggling to stay afloat financially. There are pros and cons to the union process for professionals, though it still benefits them to this day.

It is important to start with the negatives of unionization in the airline industry before speaking of its virtues. The decline of labor unions in the United States and North American countries has made the airline union appear like it is fighting a losing battle with public opinion. As well, the benefits of comradery amongst union members have been weakened by increasing competition for jobs in the airline industry. While the union advocates hard for workers and businesses have obliged in the past, many airline executives would rather concede optional health care plans and other benefits than give up the big paydays that unions often push for. Finally, the aforementioned problem of strikes among airline unions can often make flight professionals look selfish and unsympathetic.

However, the public should realize that unions have helped keep flights in the air for years by averting greater labor strife. Indeed, the airline unions are one of the last places in the American labor landscape where successful negotiations are still a common occurrence. Airline professional unions offer flight crews, pilots, and attendants an opportunity to develop relationships with colleagues in other companies while working toward competitive salaries. As well, companies and the public should look at how the union’s bargaining power not only benefits flight professionals but the overall business.

Unions are able to negotiate group health benefits for their members, which helps the company save on providing more expensive health options. The union-business relationship is not one sided and while unions push for higher wages, the compromise wages that are established in negotiations help keep experienced professionals in the industry. The unionization of airline workers benefits everyone involved but flight professionals need to be aware of these different pros and cons to gain a fuller picture.

How to Stop the Logging Industry from Losing its Youthful Appeal!

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People have many assumptions about the status of the logging industry. This could be due to the number of layoffs in the industry resulting from the economic downturn of the past few years. It is difficult to get exact information about the number of people who have lost their jobs because of the recession. This has created big differences between the number of people terminated and those that are being recruited. Moreover, it is undeniable that there are many problems in the logging industry that have caused a critical situation to exist.

Worker Enticements

In spite of this ongoing crisis, the logging industry is attempting to find creative ways to make it more enticing and appealing. In fact, future projections in Washington are expected to show progress being made, which is quite the opposite of what had been projected. The effort of logging companies to cope with the recession is actually praiseworthy and the annual revenue of the logging industry is reaching billions of dollars. To be exact, Atlanta is making $28 billion annually.

Common Problems

Some of the more common problems that are encountered by many workers when applying for jobs within the logging industry include the monthly salary, insurance premiums, health benefits, retirement packages, and compensation packages. On top of this, most potential employees have the impression that this is not a lucrative field in which to earn a good salary; yet the fact is that some logging companies are booming and will continue to grow in the global market.

There is also the problem of the effect of testing for drug abuse. For whatever reason, drug testing in this industry is putting a heavy price tag on keeping a reliable workforce. Contractors are finding it increasingly difficult to retain employees due to this one issue. On the plus side, those companies and contractors that enforce a drug-free workforce will pay reduced worker compensation premiums.

Increased Core Compensation

Five years ago, new employees shied away from applying for jobs in the logging industry because they were required to pay for certification programs and training for safety awareness just to work with forestry equipment without receiving any type of compensation for those incurred expenses. Additionally, the wages were rather low. The annual mean salary for a typical logger in United States ranges from $30,260 to $33,269.

Currently, the anticipated yearly salary for all logger jobs is expected to increase due to the tight competition in the global arena. The core annual compensation amount could reach up to $50,041 per employee. Core compensation includes: base salary; social security; 401K/403B plans; disability insurance; healthcare insurance; pension; and paid time off.

The logging industry has been clouded with negative notions brought on by the economic recession and the future remains uncertain for this particular business. Perceptions have existed that this was an unstable working environment because the monthly salary was low with minimal benefits and too many requirements to be certified to do this work. This type of business is losing its appeal because of the upswing battle against the global market. Yet, due to new regulations, strategies, employee benefits, innovations such as bio-fuels and better forestry equipment, working in the logging industry has become more appealing. This can only hope to give the logging industry a brighter future!

Can A Mattress Pickup And Delivery Cottage Industry Work

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Transportation of discarded mattresses to the mattress recycling facility is one of the largest cost centers of doing business and is quite complicated for a sole proprietor running the mattress recycling facility. That sole proprietor has his hands full focusing on recycling mattresses in his facility. In today’s business world these necessary but difficult and labor intensive tasks are often “outsourced.” While the United States policies which have resulted in millions of American jobs being sent off shore under the label of outsourcing has recently gained negative opinions – the work at home cottage industries have thrived for centuries.

Going back as far as the 1400s the putting-out system or the workshop system or the domestic system were manufacturing models where jobs were contracted by a single manufacturer to subcontractors who completed the work in their own facility, usually their own home.

This subcontracting served as a way for manufacturing entrepreneurs to have subcontractor workers work in their homes manufacturing individual articles that when finished were brought to the contractor’s central place of business, such as a marketplace or a factory in a larger town, to be assembled and sold as finished goods.

These cottage industries flourished in the European cloth production as well as in various other industries, including the manufacture of wrought iron ironware such as pins, pots, and pans. The the manufacturer frequently provided the raw materials to their subcontractors to process in their homes.

Then, as now, the cottage industry conducted in individual’s homes had a lot to do with people’s desire to work at home rather than in a centralized factory or other location. Normally, instead of mass produced products, these home based businesses focus on unique or distinctive products in niche markets where large manufacturers can not find an economy of scale. When economy of scale can be achieved, then the cottage industries face serious competitive disadvantages from large manufacturers.

Currently, workers – many of them women with children – desire to remain at home while concurrently satisfying their need to make money has rapidly expanded the Internet based cottage industries. Examples of successfully Internet spun cottage industries are the popular iPhone applications where programmers develop “apps” and then sell them to iPhone . eBay is a giant source for cottage industries with work at home individuals buying and selling collectibles and other goods and service on the eBay website. Even some small manufacturers and craftspeople use eBay as a central site for selling their finished goods and services. Work at home authors can write their ebooks in the comfort of their living room and then use the Internet to market their products on websites such as Amazon. These authors may well do their background research at home or at their local library instead of at a centralized office.

In the 1400’s, the cottage industry served as a means for entrepreneurs to bypass the cumbersome and inflexible guild system. Today’s motivation may well be that there are simply no traditional jobs to be found that pay well enough to support the worker’s family or the worker wants to avoid the stresses of corporate jobs by working at their own speed and on their own schedule. For Mothers wanting to avoid the perils of daycare, their motivation is that they can work at home while watching their own children.

The European domestic system is often credited as being a source of the large amount of profits enjoyed by common people which made them less dependent on wealthy land barons. This increase in wages also led to a much wealthier peasantry with more personal belongings, with higher quality food to eat, with more fashionable clothing and with a better education than they had enjoyed prior to entering into cottage industries.

The cottage industry model has worked very well in the past and is definitely working well on Internet related businesses today. Could it also work today as a way to resolve the mattress recycler’s headache of getting unwanted mattresses out of homes and into the mattress recycling facility? Has economy of scale already been reached by the curbside trash haulers?

Every area is different, but the visual key to initially evaluating how well the curbside trash haulers are doing with mattress pickup and disposal – is noticing how many discarded mattresses lie on the roadsides. If there are none, someone has already figured out and implemented a working mattress pickup and disposal process. If you see mattresses everywhere along the roadsides, opportunity for a cottage industry mattress pickup system exists. Like moving furniture, two men and a truck might be all that is needed to implement a mattress pickup and disposal cottage industry.

If you Google “Junk Haulers” you will quickly see that the mattress pickup cottage industry has already been implemented by a host of junk hauling companies helping individual homeowners unclutter their residences by coming to their homes and removing – among other things – unwanted mattresses, box springs and stuffed furniture. These cottage industry people do a wonderful job of assisting home owners and getting mattresses off their premises. What is missing in the majority of cities is the mattress recycling facility where these current day entrepreneurs can deliver the mattresses, box springs and stuffed furniture for recycling. Thus today, cottage industry people with strong backs and a truck or trailer are indeed able to pickup mattresses from home owners and haul them off to the landfill.

So, the real question is where are the mattress recyclers?

Rapid Prototype Mold Industry Outlook And Trend Analysis

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In recent years, steady and rapid economic development, stimulating rapid growth in fixed assets investment, China Mould market demand. As the industry improve its competitiveness and national policy support, domestic rapid prototype Shenzhen mold industry output value and sales revenue for many years to maintain the growth rate of 20%. Die Network CEO, Shenzhen Institute of Deputy Secretary-General Luo Baihui mold technology recently introduced to the Dongguan Daily News the latest developments in the mold industry.

1, mold development prospects of the industry

1, mold market prospects in China

Mold applications continues to expand, the field has been applied to the mold that the larger and higher demand of industrial development to mold faster than the speed of development of other manufacturing industries has become a universal law, mold the world market demand, in recent years, the market total has been between 600 ~ 65 billion U.S. dollars, while China’s export was not mold to 8%, “during” can expand this share, and with the development trend of economic globalization has become more evident, mold manufacturing industry gradually China and the multinational corporations to transfer mold our country has become more evident towards the procurement of foreign and private capital to continue to favor China’s mold industry, China’s mold industry more opportunities than challenges, the future market prospects of international mold, China mold is still large room for development.

2, mold product market and increase their competitiveness

At present, China is facing the technological advantages of the developed countries and developing countries, the dual pressures of price advantage. Industrial countries die with its technological and business strengths, in the high-end molds a competitive advantage, as they are gradually entering the country, the mold industry in China becomes a tremendous challenge; India, Thailand and Eastern European countries in recent years, industrial mold developed very rapidly and the price of its mold also has a strong competitive advantage, China’s mold industry, the cost and price advantage will gradually weaken and eventually disappear. Luobai Hui said that China must die enterprises technology, management and personnel training efforts, and actively introducing foreign advanced mold manufacturing technology to enhance the ability of high-end product development die, adjusting product structure mold, mold products, continuously improve our international competitiveness.

3, mold growth rate of industry

China’s national economy in the “Eleventh Five-Year” period will continue to maintain relatively fast growth rate, to the mold industry, the development of a reliable macro support. Automotive, IT, electronic information, household appliances, OA office equipment, machinery and building materials industry, aerospace, mold needs are large power tools, home appliances and electronic information industries only example of a refrigerator Xu Yong mold about 150 parts , requiring a total of about 350 sets of molds; a need for automatic washing machine more than 150 sets of molds; one air conditioner, only to be 20 sets of plastic mold; die each model takes more than 30 sets of computers, along with its matching printer need to die more than 20 single deputy; also notebook computer, the network will have tens of millions of units set-top box market. As much as the current models developed abroad, mold import more, as China developed its own capabilities in this regard will be greatly increased demand for mold. China’s mold industry can be expected in a good macro environment of rapid development.

4, mold industry opportunities and challenges

On the one hand for the mold industry, domestic and international situation provides an unprecedented development in the development of space, while the other mold will also face more intense competitive challenges, in addition to international competition, at home, Xiaoshan, Shanghai and Shenzhen, will develop mold industries, such as Xiaoshan You into the mold company’s annual sales revenue reached 2 billion, as Friends of the Japanese professional mold factory mechanic’s wholly-owned enterprises, mainly engaged in automotive and appliance dies production, is currently being planned for the support of Xiaoshan City Hong Kong GEM; Huangyan mold industry in management, equipment, technology has also been taking the forefront in the province; mold more than 30 million annual production value of Wenzhou City, is preparing the further development of the mold industry, the five leading enterprise jointly set up mold Constant Field mold company 200 million yuan investment mold built based technology centers were the focus of government support; once the dominant player in the country mold industry in Shanghai, want to revive the former glory of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission, the main control center is in full swing mold to build an area of 1,500 acres, modern industrial park will soon die show in front of people; Suzhou New District proposed building a high level with international standards of modern industrial base mold the idea of an area of 2,000 acres ; South China University and the Guangdong Fonda Group signed an agreement, prepared to die city of Changan Town, Dongguan City, played an important cause of mold in southern China R & D base; Shenzhen City in the industrial structure adjustment, the clear will die as the head of the advanced manufacturing industry, investment about 6 billion yuan industrial park building mold; invest 5 billion yuan in Chongqing to build China’s largest, highest standard of automobile, motorcycle mold industrial park, planned in 2035, the annual output value of 3.0 billion; Shantou Plastic Machinery Mould total annual output value of over 10 billion yuan, currently about plastics, machinery and related tooling enterprises with 3,000, most of the companies complete the introduction of Germany, France, Italy and Taiwan, the region’s new CNC mold processing equipment, greatly improved product performance and quality grade . There are a number of other provinces and cities in China (Nanchang, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Xi’an, Dalian, Yantai, Shandong, Hebei Botou) have to seize our country is becoming a “world factory” great opportunity to create molds Park, brewing industry further escalation of the mold.

Second, analysis of industry trends mold

1, mold market globalization, the mold further reduce the production cycle

Mold the globalization of markets is the most important features of today’s mold industry is one of the mold buyers and manufacturers all over the world, the globalization of the development of tooling industry to the production process is simple, low precision mold processing enterprises to the technology is relatively backward in productivity than Countries with low migration, mold manufacturing enterprises in developed countries are located in the production of high levels of mold, mold manufacturing enterprises have to face global competition, manufacturers have to die while doing everything possible to speed up the production progress, efforts to simplify and abolishes necessary to the production process, the mold production cycle will be further reduced.

2, Die CAD / CAM to the integration, intelligence, and network development

More complete software modules, while the function module using the same data model and implement integrated management and sharing of information, support mold design, manufacturing, assembly, inspection, testing and production management of the entire process. Some series software includes a surface / solid geometric modeling, engineering drawing complex geometry, advanced rendering industrial design, mold design expert system, complex physical CAM, artistic design and sculpture automatic programming system, reverse engineering system and the complex physical-line measurement system ; mold design, analysis, manufacturing three-dimensional technology, paperless new generation of software to three-dimensional mold, intuitive sense to design the mold, using three-dimensional digital model can be easily used in the product structure of the CAE analysis, mold can produce evaluation and CNC machining, forming process simulation and information management and sharing; the same time as competition, cooperation, production and management of globalization and internationalization, and rapid development of computer hardware and software technology, network Shide Zai die industry virtual design, agile manufacturing technology both necessary and possible.

3, mold technology to high speed machining, hard milling and compound machining direction

With the precision mold to develop in the direction of and large, ultra-precision finishing technology over 1m and collector, chemical, ultrasonic, laser processing technology integrated with the composite mold in the future will have broad prospects. High-speed machining to the workpiece surface was smooth, save processing time, typically only a step away from 0.0254mm, and sharp point only 0.001mm high, after the majority of high-speed machining of the workpiece surface is very smooth, no fitter further processing. Currently, machine tool manufacturers are keen on the production process and the specially designed high-speed machining center, high-speed processing technology in the United States to reduce or eliminate fitter process is a considerable efficiency measures, this technology in Europe and Japan popular. In addition, hardening of the material processing with a full mold cavity mold processing industry is another important trend. High spindle speed and a small tool radius cutting carried out by the formation of mildly enough torque, can be used to process up to 64HRC hardness of metal materials, because no need for heat treatment, conventional heat treatment and tempering after the offset caused by the heat treatment carried out by the geometric deformation of grinding also do not need, and the technology in Japan, the acclaimed, now in the United States has also been a lot of attention and positive spread in Europe.

With the rapid development of new technologies, foreign countries have emerged mold automatic processing system that the rational combination of multiple machines, with accompanying positioning fixture or positioning disk, a complete equipment, tools and CNC numerical control database synchronization system of flexible with real-time quality monitoring and control system.

4, mold will be large, precision, standardization direction

On the one hand increasingly large part of molding and to improve production efficiency development of “a multi-cavity mold,” led to mold growing large, the other electronic information industry, medicine, rapid development has brought parts of miniaturization and precision, some tolerance precision mold requires less in the 1m. Another multi-functional composite mold will develop further, in addition to the new multi-functional composite mold Stamping parts, also responsible for layers, tapping, riveting and assembly tasks such as locking, to further improve production efficiency.

Mold standard parts used in developed countries generally cover about 80%, as China’s mold industry, mold will enhance standardization, standardization will be further enhanced mold, mold standard parts of the application and production in the “Eleventh Five-Year” will be greater during the development.

5, the hot runner mold species, mold and adapt to the high-pressure gas-assisted injection molding direction

Mold with hot runner technology can improve productivity and quality of workpiece, and can produce significant savings of raw materials, many foreign plastic mold factory produced more than 50% of plastic molds using hot runner technology, and some have more than 80% The effect is obvious; Gas-assisted injection molding with injection pressure is low, Warpage small, good surface quality and easy-to-wall forming larger products, such as differences in advantages in the premise of ensuring product quality and substantially reduce costs; high-pressure injection molding of resin shrinkage can be forced to increase the dimensional stability of plastic parts; another injection compression molding technology, enables forming a small piece of local internal strain can be less thick Molding shrinkage, while the narrow components for plastic parts can also be injected resin, and used a small injection of power to get good products, these technologies are gradually promoting the use of.

6, very broad prospects for rapid economic mold

Many varieties of small batch production era, people asked mold production cycle as short as possible, so rapid economic development of mold will have broad prospects. Expected in the 21st century, with various superplastic materials to produce molds with epoxy, polyester, or in which the filler metal and glass reinforcement and making simple molds and other production means the ratio of total industrial production will reach 75%. Rapid economic mold include rapid prototyping, surface forming tooling, casting forming tooling, extrusion mold technology and ultra-molded shape, multi-point forming technology, KEVRON steel blanking blanking tooling , mold blank rapid manufacturing technology.

7, high-quality mold materials and advanced surface treatment technology attention

Due to improper selection and use of materials, causing premature die failure, which accounts for more than 45% failure die, so choose the appropriate application of high-quality steel and surface treatment technologies to improve the life of the mold is very important to improve the purity of steel, isotropic , the density and uniformity, and development of more high-performance or performance of a special mold steel, mold steel specifications development, expansion of other high-quality mold materials such as carbide, ceramic materials, composite materials, the application of such a major research focus; use aluminum alloy for mold materials to shorten the molding cycle, reducing die costs, will be faster in the rapid economic development of mold.

Mold surface is the main trends: the infiltration of a single element to the multi-element penetration, complex permeability development, from the general diffusion to CVD, PVD, PCVD, ion penetration, the direction of ion implantation, etc., can be used in the coating are: TiC, TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, CrN, Cr7C3, W2C, etc., while heat means heat from the atmosphere to the development of vacuum heat treatment. Currently laser strengthening, glow plasma nitriding and electroplating (plating) enhanced anti-corrosion technologies are also more and more attention.

8, auto, IT development impact the electronics industry market sentiment dies

China imported the first negative mold growth, mold industry by the “one large and one small” pull, the development of really good the last two years. “A major” refers to the automotive industry, automobile industry refers to not only vehicle, as well as automotive components, such as the United States at present in China for the first time the second largest auto parts exporter, which means that China’s auto mold market has played an irreplaceable role. Its rapid development of mold plays an important role in driving, “a small” refers to the IT electronics industry. Die in 2006 for the 2.047 billion U.S. dollars of total imports, 2.068 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 reduced the 21 million U.S. dollars, for the first time negative growth, stopped the momentum of the expansion of imports increased every year; exports totaled 1.041 billion U.S. dollars, more than an increase of 41.06 percent in 2005, for the first time over 10 billion dollars and imports to reduce the deficit down, is very gratifying.

9, the mold need to further adjust the industrial structure

Although the mold industry and previous years has made significant progress, but there are still many problems. For example, the phenomenon of irrational industrial structure still exist. Structure, including product mix, technological structure, import and export structures, there are different degrees of problems. For example, in the import and export structure, due to the mold design and manufacturing standards and capabilities can not meet the market demand, therefore, die every year a large number of imports, especially high-end products. In 2006 the import and export stamping die, if by weight, priced at 14,913 U.S. dollars / t, and 5,869 U.S. dollars / t, much higher than the import export; while for plastic rubber mold, in 2006 imports and exports were 413,715 units and 1,217,772 units, exports is far greater than imports, while the unit is very different from the poor: the import price of 2532 U.S. dollars / set, the export price 602 U.S. dollars / set, a difference of four times, although the export volume was nearly 3 times the amount of imports, but still below the total amount of imports . That we are still importing large quantities of high quality molds, exports are dominated by middle and low. Therefore, in the long run, the rationalization of import and export trends should be expanded exports and reduce imports, making exports more than imports. Obviously, this also needs to want to be a period of time.

10 management companies restrict the development of mold

Unlike mold manufacturing process management product management, it is the face of unit production of the mold industry, and how digital information management, is very learned. If the mold is not a scientific management, dynamic management approach, we can not guarantee orderly mold manufacturing, rapid prototype Shenzhen mold supplier in time. Meanwhile, each company’s mold products are different, so they need individual management. Those who do well die business, they have a set of unique, for their own management, but that too few companies. Luobai Hui pointed out that the mold business if we do not focus on management development will not continue, and this has seriously constrained the mold enterprise development bottlenecks.