Friday, April 11, 2008

Informative bits and bytes

The New Supply Chain Lessons from Dell


Something quite extraordinary happened last week, and it has received relatively little attention from the supply chain world.
Gilmore Says:
"It’s “Back to the Future,” in a very real sense. Just a few years ago, Dell was positioned as the supply chain place where most of us needed to be."


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The headline news is that Dell is closing its world famous Topfer PC plant in Austin, TX, named for Mort Topfer, an ex-Motorola executive who in the mid-1990s became vice chairman and helped lead Dell out of an earlier slump.
To put it simply, Dell is significantly revamping its entire supply chain strategy and, in large measure, abandoning its make-to-order model. In addition, it will begin to make much greater use of contract manufacturers for the first time.
The strategy was outlined in a presentation by Mike Cannon, President of Global Operations – what is, in essence, a chief supply chain officer role. Interestingly, Cannon was previously CEO of contract manufacturer Solectron. Also interesting is that Cannon’s presentation started the meeting off – a pretty good indication of how important and dramatic these changes are.
I must admit to feeling that I made a good call with my column Time for New Supply Chain Icons in 2006, which said for many reasons we needed to look beyond the always cited Wal-Mart and Dell.
As Cannon noted, the Dell build-to-order and “do it all ourselves” model served the company well for almost 20 years, but “the environment has changed.”
I was debating whether to save this for the end, but I’ll say it now. It’s “Back to the Future,” in a very real sense. Just a few years ago, Dell was positioned as the supply chain place where most of us needed to be: almost no finished goods or parts inventory; negative cash-to-cash cycle (paid by customers before paying suppliers); “have it your way” flexibility/ the epitome of mass customization; sophisticated demand management techniques to drive buyers to what was most profitable or available in terms of PC configs; cut out the middleman.
Now, it appears, Dell itself doesn’t want to be there.
“Our supply chain needs to change dramatically,” Cannon said.
So I guess we can stop chasing the vision too, in part. Dell will still operate that model for the customers who value it, but obviously at very reduced levels (i.e., like a whole Austin plant’s worth), but its now more replicating the supply chains of its competitors, which just a few years ago were lambasted by most for being so far behind Dell: make-to-stock with some limited last minute config changes before shipping, often by distributors; use of contract manufacturers and low-cost country production; sales through retail channels.
Cannon certainly made a strong case.
Dell’s approach added a lot of complexity – and cost. He said, for example, that for many models, there were as many as 500,000 configuration options, though of course nowhere near that many were actually ordered.
Why do that? “Because we could,” Cannon said. “We had a very flexible supply chain that allowed us to offer that level of configuration choice.”
That approach, contrary to popular belief, in turn actually led to higher product costs in many cases. Here’s how. Base/entry models had to be built in a way that permitted all these add-ons to much higher end models. So, if/when customers configured their way up to a high-end unit, Dell made good money. But if a customer stayed with a basic offering, the company lost margin because the base unit versus the competition had extra costs to support the potential of high-end add-ons. And it certainly added to overall supply chain complexity.
One could say that the essence of Cannon’s comments and strategy is that now, in the computer world, cost trumps speed and flexibility. He said Dell is committed to leading the industry in delivering equipment “at the lowest total landed cost” anywhere on the globe. “That’s what drives our supply chain decisions,” Cannon stated.
That clearly means, in part, production in low-cost countries, not Austin. And the company believes there are a large segment of customers who just don’t need Dell’s traditional supply chain model.
“They are very happy with fixed configurations and extended cycle and delivery times,” Cannon said.
Dell has said it believes it can save $3 billion annually from various measures, and Cannon said most of that will come out of these changes to the supply chain over the next 2-3 years. It had sales of $61 billion last year, so that’s about a 5% reduction in total costs.
Like a growing parade of other companies, it also sees its future growth tied heavily to developing markets – where the price/cost structure must be radically different (See End of a Supply Chain Era).
When asked what his biggest insight was upon joining Dell about a year ago, Cannon said (after a moment’s reflection) that “I think we underestimated the capabilities of our supply chain partners.”
He said the company, understandably, in recent years kept trying to incrementally improve its existing model that had led it to market leadership. In reality, the model needed to be substantially transformed – or one might say blown up.
I have a number of other thoughts here, but am out of space. In next Tuesday’s SCDigest On-Target edition, we’ll run a transcript of Cannon’s full comments under our Manufacturing section. I’d love now or then to get your thoughts on this.
It’s another end of an era, though one we’ve seen coming for some time. It’s Back to the Future indeed. Dell is now like the rest of us.

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The History of Barcodes
Supermarkets are a perilous business. They must stock thousands of products in scores of brands and sizes to sell at painfully small mark-ups. Keeping close track of them all, and maintaining inventories neither too large nor too small, is critical. Yet for most of the 20th century, as stores got bigger and the plethora on their shelves multiplied, the only way to find out what was on hand was by shutting the place down and counting every can, bag, and parcel. This expensive and cumbersome job was usually done no more than once a month. Store managers had to base most of their decisions on hunches or crude estimates.

Long before bar codes and scanners were actually invented, grocers knew they desperately needed something like them. Punch cards, first developed for the 1890 U.S. Census, seemed to offer some early hope. In 1932 a business student named Wallace Flint wrote a master's thesis in which he envisioned a supermarket where customers would pierce cards to mark their selections. At the checkout counter they would insert them into a reader, which would activate machinery to bring the purchases to them on conveyor belts. Store management would also have a record of what was being bought.

The problem was that the card reading equipment of the day was utterly unwieldy and hopelessly expensive. Even if the country had not been in the middle of the Great Depression, Flint's scheme would have been unrealistic for all but the most distant future. Still, it foreshadowed what was to come.

The first step toward today's bar codes came in 1948, when Bernard Silver, a graduate student, overheard a conversation in the halls of Philadelphia' s Drexel Institute of Technology. The president of a food chain was pleading with one of the deans to undertake research on capturing product information automatically at checkout. The dean turned down the request, but Bob Silver mentioned the conversation to his friend Norman Joseph Woodland, a twenty seven year old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated Woodland.

His first idea was to use patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light, and the two men built a device to test the concept. It worked, but they encountered problems ranging from ink instability to printing costs. Nonetheless, Woodland was convinced he had a workable idea. He took some stock market earnings, quit Drexel, and moved to his grandfather' s Florida apartment to seek solutions. After several months of work he came up with the linear bar code, using elements from two established technologies: movie soundtracks and Morse code.

Woodland, now retired, remembers that after starting with Morse code, “I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them.” To read the data, he made use of Lee de Forest's movie sound system from the 1920's. De Forest had printed a pattern with varying degrees of transparency on the edge of the film, then shined a light through it as the picture ran. A sensitive tube on the other side translated the shifts in brightness into electric waveforms, which were in turn converted to sound by loudspeakers. Woodland planned to adapt this system by reflecting light off his wide and narrow lines and using a similar tube to interpret the results.

Woodland took his idea back to Drexel, where he began putting together a patent application. He decided to replace his wide and narrow vertical lines with concentric circles, so that they could be scanned from any direction. This became known as the “bull's eye code”. Meanwhile, Silver investigated what form the codes should ultimately take. The two filed a patent application on October 20, 1949.

In 1951 Woodland got a job at IBM, where he hoped his scheme would flourish. The following year he and Silver set out to build the first actual bar code reader in the living room of Woodlands house in Binghamton, New York. The device was the size of a desk and had to be wrapped in black oilcloth to keep out ambient light. It relied on two key elements; a five-hundred- watt incandescent bulb as the light source and an RCA 935 photo-multiplier tube, designed for movie sound systems, as the reader.

Woodland hooked the RCA 935 tube up to an oscilloscope. Then he moved a piece of paper marked with lines across a thin beam emanating from the light source. The reflected beam was aimed at the tube. At one point the heat from the powerful bulb set the paper smouldering. None the less, Woodland got what he wanted. As the paper moved, the signal on the oscilloscope jumped. He and Silver had created a device that could electronically read printed material.

It was not immediately clear how to transform this crude electronic response into a useful form. The primitive computers of the day were cumbersome to operate, could only perform simple calculations, and in any case were the size of a typical frozen food section. The idea of installing thousands of them in supermarkets from coast to coast would have been pure fantasy. Yet without a cheap and convenient way to record data from Woodland’s and Silver’s codes, their idea would be no more than a curiosity.

Then there was that five-hundred- watt bulb. It created an enormous amount of light, only a tiny fraction of which was read by the RCA 935 tube. The rest was released as expensive, uncomfortable waste heat. “That bulb was an awful thing to look at”, Woodland recalls. “It could cause eye damage.” The inventors needed a source that could focus a large amount of light into a small space. Today that sounds like a prescription for a laser, but in 1952 Lasers did not exist. In retrospect, hex codes were clearly a technology whose time had nowhere near come.

But Woodland and Silver, sensing the potential pressed on. In October 1952 their patent was granted. Woodland stayed with IBM and in the late 1950s persuaded the company to hire a consultant to evaluate bar codes. The consultant agreed that they had great possibilities but said they would require technology that lay at least five years off. By now almost half the seventeen-year life of Woodland’s and Silver’s patent had expired.

IBM offered a couple of times to buy the patent, but for much less than the inventors thought it was worth. In 1962 Philco met their price, and they sold. (The following year Silver died at age thirty- eight.) Philco later sold the patent to RCA. In 1971 RCA would jolt several industries into action; before then, the next advances in information handling would come out of the railroad industry.

Freight cars are nomads, wandering all across the country and often being lent from one line to another. Keeping track of them is one of the most complex tasks the railroad industry faces and in the early 1960s it attracted the attention of David J. Collins. Collins got his masters degree from MlT in 1959 and immediately went to work for the Sylvania Corporation, which was trying to find military applications for a computer it had built. Noting his undergraduate days Collins had worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and he knew that the railroads needed away to identify cars automatically and then to handle the information gathered. Sylvania’s computer could do the latter. All Collins needed was a means to retrieve the former. Some sort of coded label seemed to be the easiest and cheapest approach.

Strictly speaking the labels Collins came up with were not bar codes. Instead of relying on black bars or rings they used groups of orange and blue stripes made of a reflective material which could be arranged to represent the digits 0 through 9. Each car was given a four-digit number to identify the railroad that owned it and a six-digit number to identify the car itself. When cars went into a yard, readers would flash a beam of coloured light onto the codes and interpret the reflections. The Boston & Maine conducted the first test of the system on its gravel cars in 1961. By 1967 most of the kinks had been worked out and a nation-wide standard for a coding system was adopted. All that remained was for railroads to buy and install the equipment.

Collins foresaw applications for automatic coding far beyond the railroads and in 1967 he pitched the idea to his bosses at Sylvania. “What we'd like to do now is develop the little black-and-white- line equivalent for conveyor control and for everything else that moves”, he remembers. In a classic case of corporate short-sightedness the company refused to fund him. They said, “We don t want to invest further. We’ve got this big market and let's go and make money out of it.” Collins quit and co-founded Computer Identics Corporation.

Sylvania never even saw profits from serving the railroad industry. Carriers started installing scanners in 1970 and the system worked as expected but it was simply too expensive. Although computers had been getting a lot smaller, faster and cheaper they still cost too much to be economical in the quantities required. The recession of the mid-1970s killed the system as a flurry of railroad bankruptcies gutted industry budgets. Sylvania was left with a white elephant.

Meanwhile Computer Identics prospered. Its system used lasers, which in the late 1960s were just becoming affordable. A milli-watt helium-neon laser beam could easily match the job done by Woodland's unwieldy five-hundred- watt bulb. A thin light moving over a bar code would be absorbed by the black stripes and reflected by the white ones, giving scanner sensors a clear on/off signal. Lasers could read bar codes anywhere from three inches to several feet away, and they could sweep back and forth like a searchlight hundreds of times a second, giving the reader many looks at a single code from many different angles. That would prove to be a great help in deciphering scratched or torn labels.

In the spring of 1969 Computer Identics quietly installed its first two systems - probably the first true bar code systems anywhere. One went into a General Motors plant in Pontiac, Michigan, where it was used to monitor the production and distribution of automobile axle units. The other went into a distribution facility run by the General Trading Company in Carlsbad, New Jersey, to help direct shipments to the proper loading-bay doors. At this point the components were still being built by hand: Collins made the enclosures for the scanners by turning a wastebasket upside down and moulding fibreglass around it. Both systems relied on extremely simple bar codes bearing only two digits worth of information. But that was all they needed the Pontiac plant made only eighteen types of axles, and the General Trading facility had fewer than a hundred doors.

Computer Identics's triumph proved the potential for bar codes in industrial settings. But it was the grocery industry that would once again provide the impetus to push the technology forward. In the early 1970s the industry set out to propel to full commercial maturity the technology that Woodland and Silver had dreamed up and Computer Identics had proved feasible.

Already RCA was moving to assist the industry. RCA executives had attended a 1966 grocery industry meeting where bar code development had been urged, and they smelled new business. A special group went to work at an RCA laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Kroger grocery chain volunteered itself as a guinea pig. Then, in mid-1970, an industry consortium established an ad hoc committee to look into bar codes. The committee set guidelines for barcode development and created a symbol selection subcommittee to help standardise the approach.

This would be the grocery industry's Manhattan Project, and Alan Haberman, who headed the subcommittee as president of First National Stores, recalls proudly, “We showed that it could be done on a massive scale, that co-operation without antitrust implications was possible for the common good, and that business didn't need the government to shove it in the right direction.”

At the heart of the guidelines were a few basic principles. To make life easier for the cashier, not harder, bar codes would have to be readable from almost any angle and at a wide range of distances. Because they would be reproduced by the millions, the labels would have to be cheap and easy to print. And to be affordable, automated checkout systems would have to pay for themselves in two and a half years. This last goal turned out to be quite plausible. A 1970 study by McKinley & Company predicted that the industry would save $150 million a year by adopting the systems.

''It turns out there were massive savings that we called hard savings--out- of-pocket savings in labour and other areas,” Haberman says. “And there were gigantic savings available in the use of the information and the ability to deal with it more easily than we had before, but we never quantified that.” Hard, quantifiable savings were what would draw retailers. These included checking out items at twice the speed of cashiers using traditional equipment, which would mean shorter lines without staff increases.

Still, while early bar code systems would automate the checkout, they would not be useful for monitoring inventory, because at first too few items would come labelled with codes. Savings from using the collected information, instead of simply from cutting labour costs, would have to wait until most items bore codes. After that happened, management at every level would have to transform the way it operated.

In the spring of 1971 RCA demonstrated a bull's eye bar code system at a grocery industry meeting. Visitors got a round piece of tin and if the code on top contained the right number, they won a prize. IBM executives at that meeting noticed the crowds RCA was drawing and worried that they were losing out on a huge potential market. Then Alec Jabionover, a marketing specialist at IBM, remembered that his company had the bar code's inventor on staff. Soon Woodland - whose patent had expired in 1969 - was transferred to IBM's facilities in North Carolina, where he played a prominent role in developing the most popular and important version of the technology: the Universal Product Code (UPC).

RCA continued to push its bull's-eye code. In July 1972 it began an eighteen-month test in a Kroger store in Cincinnati. It turned out that printing problems and scanning difficulties limited the Bull's-eye's usefulness. Printing presses sometimes smear ink in the direction the paper is running. When this happened to bull's-eye symbols, they did not scan properly. With the UPC, on the other hand, any extra ink simply flows out the top or bottom and no information is lost. For a time such exotics as star burst shaped codes and computer-readable optical characters were considered, but eventually the technically elegant IBM-born UPC won the battle to be chosen by the industry. No event in the history of modern logistics was more important. The adoption of the Universal Product Code, on April 3, 1973, transformed bar codes from a technological curiosity into a business juggernaut.

Before the UPC, various systems had begun to come into use around the world in stores, libraries, factories, and the like, each with its own proprietary code. Afterward any bar code on any product could be read and understood in every suitably equipped store in the country. Standardisation made it worth the expense for manufacturers to put the symbol: on their packages and for printers to develop the new types of ink, plates, and other technology to reproduce the code with the exact tolerances it requires. Budgets for the bar-code revolution were on a scale to make the Pentagon blush. Each of the nation's tens of thousands of grocery outlets would have to spend at least $200,000 on new equipment. Chains would have to install new data processing centres and retrain their employees. Manufacturers would potentially spend $200 million a year on the labels. Yet tests showed that the system would pay for itself in a few years. Standardisation of the code meant a standardised system of numbers to go on it. “Before we had bar codes, every company had its own way of designating its products”, Haberman says. “Some used letters, some used numbers, some used both, and a few had no codes at all. When the UPC took over, these companies had to give up their individual methods and register with a new Uniform Code Council (UCC)”.

The code is split into two halves of six digits each. The first one is always zero, except for products like meat and produce that have variable weight, and a few other special items. The next five are the manufacturer’ s code the next five are the product code: and the last is a check digit used to verify that the preceding digits have been scanned properly. Hidden cues in the structure of the code tell the scanner which end is which, so it can be scanned in any direction. Manufacturers register with the UCC to get an identifier code for their company, and then register each of their products. Thus each package that passes over a checkout stand has its own unique identification number.

Two technological developments of the 1960s finally made scanners simple and affordable enough. Cheap lasers were one. The other was integrated circuit. When Woodland and Silver first came up with their idea, they would have needed a wall full of switches and relays to handle the information a scanner picked up by a microchip. On June 26, 1974, all the tests were done, all the proposals were complete, all the standards were set, and at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a single pack of chewing gum became the first retail product sold with the help of a scanner. Decades of schemes and billions of dollars in investment now became a practical reality. The use of scanners grew slowly at first. A minimum of 85 percent of all products would have to carry the codes before the system could pay off, and when suppliers reached that level, in the late 1970s, sales of the systems started to take off. In 1978 less than one percent of grocery stores nation-wide had scanners. By mid-1981 the figure was 10 percent, three years later it was 33 percent, and today more than 60 percent are so equipped.

Meanwhile, the technology has been creeping into other industries and organisations. Researchers have mounted tiny bar codes on bees to track the insects' mating habits. The U.S. Army uses two-foot-long bar codes to label fifty-foot boats in storage at West Point. Hospital patients wear bar-code ID bracelets. The codes appear on truck parts, business documents, shipping cartons, marathon runners, and even logs in lumberyards. Federal Express, the package shipping giant, is probably the world's biggest single user of the technology: Its shipping labels bear a code called Codabar. Along the way refinements of the basic UPC have been developed, including the European Article Numbering system (EAN), developed by Joe Woodland, which has an extra pair of digits and is on its way to becoming the world's most widely used system. Other codes, which are given such fanciful names as Code 39, Code 16K, and Interleaved 2 of 5, can sometimes contain letters as well as numbers.

Woodland never got rich from bar codes, though he was awarded the 1992 National Medal of Technology by President Bush. But all those involved in the early days speak of the rewards of having brought a new way of doing business to the world. “This thing is a success story on the American way of doing things,” Haberman says. “Our own initiative, take it on ourselves, inviting the world to join in. It has something to say about little guys with lots of vision”.

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221 Shortcut keys for Microsoft Word

1
Ctrl + Shift + A
AllCaps
Makes the selection all capitals (toggle)

2
Alt + Ctrl + 1
ApplyHeading1
Applies Heading 1 style to the selected text

3
Alt + Ctrl + 2
ApplyHeading2
Applies Heading 2 style to the selected text

4
Alt + Ctrl + 3
ApplyHeading3
Applies Heading 3 style to the selected text

5
Ctrl + Shift + L
ApplyListBullet
Applies List Bullet style to the selected text

6
Alt + F10
AppMaximize
Enlarges the application window to full size

7
Alt + F5
AppRestore
Restores the application window to normal size

8
Ctrl+B
Bold
Makes the selection bold (toggle)

9
Ctrl + PgDn
BrowseNext
Jump to the next browse object

10
Ctrl + PgUp
BrowsePrev
Jump to the previous browse object

11
Alt + Ctrl + Home
BrowseSel
Select the next/prev browse object

12
Esc
Cancel
Terminates an action

13
Ctrl+E
CenterPara
Centers the paragraph between the indents

14
Shift+F3
ChangeCase
Changes the case of the letters in the selection

15
Left arrow
CharLeft
Moves the insertion point to the left one character

16
Shift + Left arrow
CharLeftExtend
Extends the selection to the left one character

17
Rt arrow
CharRight
Moves the insertion point to the right one character

18
Shift + Rt arrow
CharRightExtend
Extends the selection to the right one character

19
Alt + Shift + C
ClosePane
Closes the active window pane (if you are in Normal View and have, for example, the Footnote pane open)

20
Alt+Drag (or press Ctrl + Shift + F8 and drag, but Alt + Drag is far easier!)
ColumnSelect
Selects a columnar block of text

21
Ctrl +Shift+C
CopyFormat
Copies the formatting of the selection

22
Shift + F2
CopyText
Makes a copy of the selection without using the clipboard (press Return to paste)

23
Alt + F3
CreateAutoText
Adds an AutoText entry to the active template

24
Ctrl+ Backspace
DeleteBackWord
Deletes the previous word without putting it on the Clipboard

25
Ctrl + Del
DeleteWord
Deletes the next word without putting it on the Clipboard

26
Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F4
DocClose
Prompts to save the document and then closes the active window. (But doesn't intercept the menu command)

27
Ctrl + F10
DocMaximize
Enlarges the active window to full size

28
Ctrl + F7
DocMove
Changes the position of the active window

29
Ctrl + F5
DocRestore
Restores the window to normal size

30
Ctrl + F8
DocSize
Changes the size of the active window

31
Alt + Ctrl + S
DocSplit
Splits the active window horizontally and then adjusts the split

32
Alt + Shift + F9
DoFieldClick
Executes the action associated with macrobutton fields

33
Ctrl + Shift + D
DoubleUnderline
Double underlines the selection (toggle)

34
Alt R, G
DrawGroup
Groups the selected drawing objects

35
Alt R, I
DrawSnapToGrid
Sets up a grid for aligning drawing objects

36
Alt R, U
DrawUngroup
Ungroups the selected group of drawing objects

37
Ctrl+Shift+F5 (Or: Alt I, K)
EditBookmark
Brings up the bookmark dialog

38
Del
EditClear
Performs a forward delete or removes the selection without putting it on the Clipboard

39
Ctrl+C
EditCopy
Copies the selection and puts it on the Clipboard

40
Ctrl+X
EditCut
Cuts the selection and puts it on the Clipboard

41
Ctrl+F
EditFind
Finds the specified text or the specified formatting

42
F5, Ctrl+G
EditGoTo
Jumps to a specified place in the active document

43
Alt E, K
EditLinks
Allows links to be viewed, updated, opened, or removed

44
Ctrl+V
EditPaste
Inserts the Clipboard contents at the insertion point

45
Alt E, S
EditPasteSpecial
Inserts the Clipboard contents as a linked object, embedded object, or other format

46
Alt + Shift + Backspc
EditRedo
Redoes the last action that was undone

47
F4
EditRedoOrRepeat
Repeats the last command, or redoes the last action that was undone (unfortunately, doesn't work for as many commands in Word 2000 as in Word 97 and below, but this is still one of Word's most useful shortcuts, if not the most useful)

48
Ctrl+H
EditReplace
Finds the specified text or the specified formatting and replaces it

49
Ctrl+A
EditSelectAll
Selects the entire document

50
Ctrl+Z
EditUndo
Reverses the last action

51
Alt + PageDn (to select to end of column, use Alt + Shift + PgDn)
EndOfColumn
Moves to the last cell in the current table column

52
Ctrl+Shift+End
EndOfDocExtend
Extends the selection to the end of the last line of the document

53
Ctrl+End
EndOfDocument
Moves the insertion point to the end of the last line of the document

54
End
EndOfLine
Moves the insertion point to the end of the current line

55
Shift+End
EndOfLineExtend
Extends the selection to the end of the current line

56
Alt+End
EndOfRow
Moves to the last cell in the current row

57
Alt + Ctrl + PgDn
EndOfWindow
Moves the insertion point to the end of the last visible line on the screen

58
Shift + Alt + Ctrl + PgDn
EndOfWindowExtend
Extends the selection to the end of the last visible line on the screen

59
F8 (press Esc to turn off)
ExtendSelection
Turns on extend selection mode and then expands the selection with the direction keys

60
Alt + F4 (<9>)
FileCloseOrExit
Closes the current document, or if no documents are open, quits Word. Horrible command, as it makes it a long winded business to quit Word. But there's a simple solution - assign Alt+F4 to FileExit instead.

61
Alt + F4 (Word 97)
FileExit
Quits Microsoft Word and prompts to save the documents (does intercept the menu item, but not the keyboard shortcut, or the x button. An AutoExit macro is usually a better way of intercepting this).

62
NOT Ctrl+N!!
FileNew
Creates a new document or template (brings up the dialog). Note that: Word pretends that Ctrl+N is assigned to FileNew but it isn't, it's assigned to FileNewDefault You can fix this in Word 2000 by assigning Ctrl+N to the FileNewDialog command. In Word 97 the only way to fix it is to create a macro called FileNew (to do this, press Alt + F8, type "FileNew" without the quotes and Click "Create". The macro will automatically contain the code needed to make it work).

63
Ctrl+N
FileNewDefault
Creates a new document based on the Normal template.

64
Ctrl+O
FileOpen
Opens an existing document or template

65
Alt F, U
FilePageSetup
Changes the page setup of the selected sections

66
Ctrl + P
FilePrint
Prints the active document (brings up the dialog)

67
Ctrl+F2
FilePrintPreview
Displays full pages as they will be printed

68
Alt F, I
FileProperties
Shows the properties of the active document

69
Ctrl+S
FileSave
FileSave

70
Alt F, A (or F12)
FileSaveAs
Saves a copy of the document in a separate file (brings up the dialog)

71
Ctrl+Shift+F
Font
Activates the Fonts listbox on the formatting toolbar

72
Ctrl+Shift+P
FontSizeSelect
Activates the Font Size drop-down on the formatting toolbar

73
Alt + Ctrl + K
FormatAutoFormat
Automatically formats a document (or sometimes, automatically screws it up)

74
Alt O, B
FormatBordersAndSha ding
Changes the borders and shading of the selected paragraphs, table cells, and pictures

75
Alt O, E
FormatChangeCase
Changes the case of the letters in the selection

76
Alt O, C
FormatColumns
Changes the column format of the selected sections (brings up the dialog)

77
Alt O, D
FormatDropCap
Formats the first character of current paragraph as a dropped capital (must select it first)

78
Ctrl+D
FormatFont
Brings up the Format + Font dialog

79
Alt + Shift + R
FormatHeaderFooterL ink
Links the current header/footer to the previous section (but does not intercept the button on the Header Footer toolbar)

80
Alt O, P
FormatParagraph
Brings up the Format Paragraph dialog

81
Alt O, S
FormatStyle
Applies, creates, or modifies styles

82
Alt O, T
FormatTabs
Brings up the Format Tabs dialog

83
Shift + F5
GoBack
Returns to the previous insertion point (goes back to up to 3 points, then returns to where you started; this is one of the most useful shortcuts of them all. Also useful when opening a document, if you want to g straight to where you were last editing it)

84
Ctrl + >
GrowFont
Increases the font size of the selection

85
Ctrl + ]
GrowFontOnePoint
Increases the font size of the selection by one point

86
Ctrl + T (or drag the ruler)
HangingIndent
Increases the hanging indent

87
F1
Help
Microsoft Word Help

88
Shift + F1
HelpTool
Lets you get help on a command or screen region or examine text properties

89
Ctrl + Shift + H
Hidden
Makes the selection hidden text (toggle)

90
Click on it
HyperlinkOpen
Connect to a hyperlink's address

91
Ctrl + M (or drag the ruler)
Indent
Moves the left indent to the next tab stop

92
Alt + Ctrl + M (or Alt I, M)
InsertAnnotation
Inserts a comment

93
F3
InsertAutoText
Replaces the name of the AutoText entry with its contents

94
Alt I, B
InsertBreak
Ends a page, column, or section at the insertion point

95
Alt I, C
InsertCaption
Inserts a caption above or below a selected object

96
Ctrl + Shift + Return
InsertColumnBreak
Inserts a column break at the insertion point

97
Alt + Shift + D
InsertDateField
Inserts a date field

98
Alt + Ctrl + D
InsertEndnoteNow
Inserts an endnote reference at the insertion point without displaying the dialog

99
Alt I, F
InsertField
Inserts a field in the active document

100
Ctrl+F9
InsertFieldChars
Inserts an empty field with the enclosing field characters

101
Alt I, L
InsertFile
Inserts the text of another file into the active document

102
Alt I, N
InsertFootnote
Inserts a footnote or endnote reference at the insertion point

103
Alt + Ctrl + F
InsertFootnoteNow
Inserts a footnote reference at the insertion point without displaying the dialog

104
Ctrl + K
InsertHyperlink
Insert Hyperlink

105
Alt I, D
InsertIndexAndTable s
Inserts an index or a table of contents, figures, or authorities into the document

106
Alt + Ctrl + L
InsertListNumField
Inserts a ListNum Field

107
Alt + Shift + F
InsertMergeField
Brings up a dialog to insert a mail merge field at the insertion point. (It does not intercept the button on the Mail merge. toolbar)

108
Ctrl + Return
InsertPageBreak
Inserts a page break at the insertion point

109
Alt + Shift + P
InsertPageField
Inserts a page number field

110
Ctrl + Shift + F3
InsertSpike
Empties the spike AutoText entry and inserts all of its contents into the document

111
Alt + Shift + T
InsertTimeField
Inserts a time field

112
Ctrl + I
Italic
Makes the selection italic (toggle)

113
Ctrl + J
JustifyPara
Aligns the paragraph at both the left and the right indent

114
Ctrl + L
LeftPara
Aligns the paragraph at the left indent

115
Down arrow
LineDown
Moves the insertion point down one line

116
Shift + down arrow
LineDownExtend
Extends the selection down one line

117
Up arrow
LineUp
Moves the insertion point up one line

118
Shift + up arrow
LineUpExtend
Extends the selection up one line

119
Ctrl + F11
LockFields
Locks the selected fields to prevent updating

120
Alt + Shift + K
MailMergeCheck
Checks for errors in a mail merge

121
Alt+Shift+E
MailMergeEditDataSo urce
Lets you edit a mail merge data source

122
Alt + Shift + N
MailMergeToDoc
Collects the results of the mail merge in a document

123
Alt Shift + M
MailMergeToPrinter
Sends the results of the mail merge to the printer

124
Alt + Shift + I
MarkCitation
Marks the text you want to include in the table of authorities

125
Alt + Shift + X
MarkIndexEntry
Marks the text you want to include in the index

126
Alt + Shift + O
MarkTableOfContents Entry
Inserts a TC field (but it is far better to use Heading Styles to generate your Table of Contents instead)

127
Alt or F10
MenuMode
Makes the menu bar active

128
Alt + Shift + F11
MicrosoftScriptEdit or
Starts or switches to Microsoft Development Environment application, allowing you to view the HTML/XML source code that would be behind the document if it were in ..htm format (or that is behind it if it already is in .htm format).

129
Alt + Ctrl + F1
MicrosoftSystemInfo
Execute the Microsoft System Info application

130
F2
MoveText
Moves the selection to a specified location without using the clipboard (press Return to execute the more)

131
Tab
NextCell
Moves to the next table cell

132
F11
NextField
Moves to the next field

133
Alt + F7
NextMisspelling
Find next spelling error

134
Alt + down arrow
NextObject
Moves to the next object on the page

135
Ctrl + F6
NextWindow
Switches to the next document window, equivalent to selecting a document from the Window menu.

136
Ctrl+Shift+N
NormalStyle
Applies the Normal style

137
Ctrl + 0
OpenOrCloseUpPara
Sets or removes extra spacing above the selected paragraph

138
F6
OtherPane
Switches to another window pane in Normal View (for instance, if you have if you have a Footnotes pane open in Normal view and want to switch to the main document and back without closing the pane).

139
Alt + _
OutlineCollapse
Collapses an Outline in Outline View by one level

140
Alt+Shift+rt arrow
OutlineDemote
Demotes the selected paragraphs one heading level

141
Alt + +
OutlineExpand
Expands an Outline in Outline View by one level

142
Alt+Shift+down arrow
OutlineMoveDown
Moves the selection below the next item in the outline

143
Alt+Shift+up arrow
OutlineMoveUp
Moves the selection above the previous item in the outline

144
Alt+Shift+left arrow
OutlinePromote
Promotes the selected paragraphs one heading level

145
Alt + Shift + L
OutlineShowFirstLin e
Toggles between showing the first line of each paragraph only or showing all of the body text in the outline

146
Ins
Overtype
Toggles the typing mode between replacing and inserting

147
PgDn
PageDown
Moves the insertion point and document display to the next screen of text

148
Shift+ PgDn
PageDownExtend
Extends the selection and changes the document display to the next screen of text

149
PgUp
PageUp
Moves the insertion point and document display to the previous screen of text

150
Shift + PgUp
PageUpExtend
Extends the selection and changes the document display to the previous screen of text

151
Ctrl + down arrow
ParaDown
Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph

152
Shift + Ctrl + down arrow
ParaDownExtend
Extends the selection to the beginning of the next paragraph

153
Ctrl + up arrow
ParaUp
Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph

154
Shift + Ctrl + up arrow
ParaUpExtend
Extends the selection to the beginning of the previous paragraph

155
Ctrl+Shift+V
PasteFormat
Applies the previously copied formatting to selection

156
Shift + Tab
PrevCell
Moves to the previous table cell

157
Shift + F11
PrevField
Moves to the previous field

158
Alt + up arrow
PrevObject
Moves to the previous object on the page

159
Ctrl + Shift + F6
PrevWindow
Switches back to the previous document window

160
Sfift+F4
RepeatFind
Repeats Go To or Find to find the next occurrence

161
Ctrl+Spacebar
ResetChar
Makes the selection the default character format of the applied style

162
Ctrl+Q
ResetPara
Makes the selection the default paragraph format of the applied style

163
Ctrl +R
RightPara
Aligns the paragraph at the right indent

164
Ctrl + *
ShowAll
Shows/hides all nonprinting characters

165
Alt + Shift + A
ShowAllHeadings
Displays all of the heading levels and the body text in Outline View

166
Ctrl + <
ShrinkFont
Decreases the font size of the selection

167
Ctrl + [
ShrinkFontOnePoint
Decreases the font size of the selection by one point

168
Ctrl + Shift + K
SmallCaps
Makes the selection small capitals (toggle)

169
Ctrl + 1
SpacePara1
Sets the line spacing to single space

170
Ctrl + 5
SpacePara15
Sets the line spacing to one-and-one- half space

171
Ctrl + 2
SpacePara2
Sets the line spacing to double space

172
Ctrl + F3
Spike
Deletes the selection and adds it to the "Spike" AutoText entry (which allows you to move text and graphics from nonadjacent locations)

173
Alt + PgUp
StartOfColumn
Moves to the first cell in the current column

174
Ctrl+Shift+Home
StartOfDocExtend
Extends the selection to the beginning of the first line of the document

175
Ctrl +Home
StartOfDocument
Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the first line of the document

176
Home
StartOfLine
Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the current line

177
Shift+Home
StartOfLineExtend
Extends the selection to the beginning of the current line

178
Alt+Home
StartOfRow
Moves to the first cell in the current row

179
Alt+Ctrl+PgUp
StartOfWindow
Moves the insertion point to the beginning of the first visible line on the screen

180
Shift+ Alt+Ctrl+PgUp
StartOfWindowExtend
Extends the selection to the beginning of the first visible line on the screen

181
Strl + Shift + S
Style
Activates the Style drop-down on the Formatting toolbar

182
Ctrl + =
Subscript
Makes the selection subscript (toggle)

183
Ctrl + +
Superscript
Makes the selection superscript (toggle)

184
Ctrl + Shift + Q
SymbolFont
Applies the Symbol font to the selection

185
Alt A, F
TableAutoFormat
Applies a set of formatting to a table

186
Alt A, H
TableHeadings
Toggles table headings attribute on and off

187
Alt + click
(Alt + drag to select several)
TableSelectColumn
Selects the current column in a table

188
Click in left margin
TableSelectRow
Selects the current row in a table

189
Alt + double-click
TableSelectTable
Selects an entire table

190
Alt + Ctrl + U
TableUpdateAutoForm at
Updates the table formatting to match the applied Table Autoformat settings

191
Shift + F9 (Alt + F9 toggles all field codes on or off)
ToggleFieldDisplay
Shows the field codes or the results for the selection (toggle)

192
Alt T, C
ToolsCustomize
Allows you to customizes the Word user interface (menus, keyboard and toolbars) and store the customizations in a template (defaults to Normal.dot, so be careful!)

193
Alt + F8
ToolsMacro
Runs, creates, deletes, or revises a macro

194
F7
ToolsProofing
Checks the spelling and grammar in the active document

195
Ctr.l + Shift + E
ToolsRevisionMarksT oggle
Toggles track changes for the active document

196
Shift + F7
ToolsThesaurus
Finds a synonym for the selected word

197
Ctrl+U
Underline
Formats the selection with a continuous underline (toggle)

198
Ctrl + Shift + T
(or drag the ruler)
UnHang
Decreases the hanging indent

199
Ctrl + Shift + M
(or drag the ruler)
UnIndent
Moves the left indent to the previous tab stop

200
Ctrl+Shift+F9
UnlinkFields
Permanently replaces the field codes with the results

201
Ctrl + Shift + F11
UnlockFields
Unlocks the selected fields for updating

202
F9
UpdateFields
Updates and displays the results of the selected fields

203
Ctrl + Shiift + F7
UpdateSource
Copies the modified text of a linked file back to its source file

204
Hover over comment
ViewAnnotations
Show or hide the comment pane

205
Dbl-click the endnote reference
ViewEndnoteArea
If in Normal View, opens a pane for viewing and editing the endnote (toggle). If in Page/Print Layout View, switches from the body text to the endnote or vice versa

206
At + F9
ViewFieldCodes
Shows the field codes or results for all fields (toggle)

207
Dbl-click the footnote reference
ViewFootnoteArea
If in Normal View, opens a pane for viewing and editing the footnote (toggle). If in Page/Print Layout View, switches from the body text to the footnote or vice versa.

208
Alt V, F
ViewFootnotes
If in Normal View, opens a pane for viewing and editing footnotes and endnotes (toggle). If in Page/Print Layout View, switches from the body text to the footnotes/endnotes or vice versa.

209
Alt V, H
ViewHeader
Displays header in page layout view

210
Alt V, N
(or Alt + Ctrl + N)
ViewNormal
Changes the editing view to normal view

211
Alt V, O
(or Alt + Ctrl + O)
ViewOutline
Displays a document's outline

212
Alt V, P
(or Alt + Ctrl + P)
ViewPage
Displays the page more-or-less as it will be printed, and allows editing (In Word 2000 the menu item is called Print Layout, but fortunately the command hasn't changed.

213
Alt + F11
ViewVBCode
Shows the VB editing environment (Tools + Macro + Visual Basic Editor)

214
Alt + left arrow
WebGoBack
Backward hyperlink (useful if you clicked on a page number hyperlink in the table of contents and then want to return to the TOC)

215
Alt + rt arrow
WebGoForward
Forward hyperlink

216
Alt W, A
WindowArrangeAll
Arranges windows as non-overlapping tiles

217
Ctrl + left arrow
WordLeft
Moves the insertion point to the left one word

218
Shift + Ctrl + left arrow
WordLeftExtend
Extends the selection to the left one word

219
Ctrl + rt arrow
WordRight
Moves the insertion point to the right one word

220
Shift + Ctrl + rt arrow
WordRightExtend
Extends the selection to the right one word

221
Ctrl + Shift + W
WordUnderline
Underlines the words but not the spaces in the selection (toggle)

----------------------------------------------
Emerging Stars
Antoine van Agtmael, who coined the term "emerging markets," chooses the 10 new multinational companies he thinks shine the brightest.
Though Western investors have been pouring billions of dollars into emerging markets for some 20 years, most still think of the success stories in terms of countries—plays on the rise of China or oil in Russia—not companies. It is long past time, however, to start naming corporate names. So, at newsweek's request, Antoine van Agtmael, who coined the term "emerging markets" in 1981 and runs the $25 billion Emerging Markets Management Fund, winnowed down the roster of new multinationals from his recent book "The Emerging Markets Century" (Free Press, 2007). Here's the killer class of 10 from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan.
1. Samsung Electronics - South Korea
The premier emerging market brand is already better known than Sony, with an R&D budget larger than Intel's and number one global market shares in memory chips and flat screens.

2. Hyundai Motor - South Korea
Known less than a decade ago as the butt of Jay Leno's jokes on "The Tonight Show," Hyundai last year passed Toyota in the J.D. Power car quality survey. Now it is a global producer, with plants in the United States, China, India and Korea.

3. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) - Taiwan
The largest independent fabricator of wafers for logic semiconductors, TSMC's plants are state-of-the- art with the lowest break-even operating level in its industry.

4. Hon Hai -Taiwan
Still largely unknown, Hon Hai is the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer with most of its huge factories in China. Hidden behind a veil of anonymity, and with rapidly growing earnings, it makes laptops for Dell, Playstations for Sony, handsets for Nokia, iPods for Apple and numerous other everyday electronics.

5. Lenovo -China
The largest computer brand in the fast-growing Chinese market, Lenovo gained the spotlight two years ago after its daring purchase of IBM's PC division, making it into the number three global PC producer after Dell and HP.

6. Infosys - India
Infosys is a leading player in the global IT outsourcing trend, leveraging the huge pool of cheap brainpower coming out of India's elite technology institutes.

7. Cemex - Mexico
Originally based in Mexico, it is now the world's third-largest cement producer (and largest in the U.S.) after a string of acquisitions around the world with ambitions to become even bigger.
8. CVRD - Brazil
Privatization and a surge in demand for iron ore from China's expansion of steel production turned a once sleepy iron ore company into a global mining giant with interests in manganese, nickel and copper. It just took over Inco in Canada.
9. Embraer - Brazil
The world's fourth largest airplane-maker, Embraer beat out European, Canadian, and Japanese rivals with two successive, popular series of regional jets.

10. Grupo Modelo - Mexico
This maker of Corona and other beers has become a wildly popular importer in the United States and many other countries.
------------------------------------------------

Here are a few suggestions, off the top of my head, that might help you land the job.

1) Ask a few questions implying you're sure you'll get hired, like 'Will I be working in a cube or an office?' or 'Will I have to do any travelling?' or (best of all) 'What training am I entitled to in this job?'

2) If asked whether you know a particular language or system, say 'Naturally' with a slight smile, to discourage further questions of this nature.

3) Listen really well to the interviewer and echo back to him what he's saying in a few terse words. For example, if he tells you in 100 words about the project, you say back, 'Hmmm.. quite an interesting project.' If he gives you a hundred words on how great the company is, you fire back, 'Sounds like this is a good place to work.'

4) It's about whether the guy hiring you likes you or not, more than about your tech skills. He's probably not technical enough to judge your tech abilities, either. He's judging you.

5) Don't brag. You built a reliable system for XYZ INC., not an incredible one. No-one likes a bragger.

6) Watch your posture. Sit in the chair like a CEO, not like a delivery boy.

Good luck!

7) A kind of mental aikido can be performed by asking the interviewer if he gets to hire many people each month. Since he probably doesn't, he may decide to hire you just to prove that he does.
--------------------------------------------------
New Product Development – The Fuzzy Front End
In our highly competitive markets, new products are thought by many to be the key to business growth and profitability. The problem developing successful new products is not a shortage of ideas, but rather the expense in producing and marketing new products without any guarantee of success. Sadly, this is a fact that is little known to individual inventors and is a tremendous hurdle for a manufacturer. Consequently much time and effort has been devoted to developing a systematic approach to new product development.
Individual inventors are free to go wherever their imagination and their pocket book will take them. Existing companies, however, have learned to restrict new product development to product ideas that are in line with the strategic direction of the company and the needs of the marketplace they currently serve or plan to serve in the future. In new product development there are steps that are common to most all-new product development.
Step 1. Gather new product ideas. Ideas can come from individual inventors looking to sell their ideas or gather a royalty on the sale of the product. Many companies encourage individual inventors to submit ideas on their websites. Ideas can also come from within the organization. Sometimes ideas come from a formal research effort or sometimes from people on the factory floor. The more product ideas you have, the more options you have and without good options to choose from, it is impossible to make a good decision.
Step 2. All new ideas need to be screened to insure that the idea supports the strategic direction of the company. Even though an idea looks interesting, if it doesn’t support the strategic direction of the company, it must be discarded.
Step 3. Make a business assessment of where best to spend time, money and effort in product development. Wendell Leimbach of MLE Consulting uses a matrix for strategically evaluating new product ideas, which I have modified slightly below:

This product matrix divides ideas into four quadrants based on ease of entry into the market on one axis and uniqueness on the other. Ideas below the line should be discarded unless there is some way to move them above the line. Ideas above the line should be evaluated for intellectual property protection.
Step 3 is a decision point that frequently is the end of the decision process about which product ideas to pursue. They stop here because efforts beyond this point become much more expensive and until recently, there have not been many alternatives. If this is the last step, then the likelihood of failure is extremely high. It also helps to explain why so many people refer to the process as the “Fuzzy Front End” of product development as there is little to help predict the success or failure of the idea at this point.
Step 4. Take the ideas and turn them into product concepts. It involves researching customer requirements. It also involves testing the concept to determine if the concept will meet the needs of the customer. Marketing will analyze market potential and possible price points. This is also the step where engineering gets involved in producing concept drawings, models and possibly even prototypes. It also involves the engineers and accountants working together to develop estimated product costs and possibly even tooling costs. All this is done in an effort to determine whether or not it makes economic sense to continue to explore the development of an particular idea.
Step 4 has become more feasible with the introduction of new technologies (like 3D CAD Modeling, Stereo lithography, Room Temperature Vulcanization, Reaction Injection Molding and Rapid Solidification process) that allow for the rapid production of prototypes and economical, small production runs. This step is iterative in that a prototype is produced and put in the hands of a statistically significant number of end users. Feedback on the product is obtained that provides an opportunity to enhance the new product and it’s acceptance. This information is fed back to the designers of the product. New prototypes are developed and the process is repeated until the product attains a level of statistical success that can be projected against the target audience or the idea is dropped before huge sums of money are spent on production tooling, inventory and expensive market introductions.
My experience and recent research confirm that most companies spend more money determining the cost to produce an item than they do on researching customer acceptance. I believe this is one reason why many new products fail to achieve commercial success. Rapid change, increasing competition, complexity, organizational stress and high customer expectations have combined to make successful new products a key to profitability for inventors and manufacturer alike. The pace of the market provides less time to overcome new product failures and reestablish credibility. Speed to market is important, but Step 4 (The Product Accelerator Process) is critical to financial success with new products.


----------------------------------------------------------
Supply Chain and $200 Oil
It hardly seems that long ago, but in 2005 I wrote a column called “Supply Chain and $100 Oil.” At the time, I believe oil prices had increased to more than $60 per barrel, Goldman Sachs analysts had just predicted we might see $100 per barrel oil soon.
Gilmore Says:
"Think about that for a second. It’s possible we could get a doubling from today’s level of staggeringly high fuel costs. The impact to supply chain strategy would be substantial."

What do you say?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send us your comments here
That prediction turned out to be somewhat premature, but here we are. Those views were certainly more accurate than the predictions of many others who said in 2005 that oil would drop back to the $45 per barrel range. As oil went to $70 and then $80 per barrel in 2006 and 2007, many more said that wouldn’t last.
This week, of course, the price is $107 per barrel or so. That’s up something like 65% from the start of 2007. It’s already causing havoc in our supply chains. Transportation costs are rising despite significant overcapacity in most truckload and less than truckload markets, as we’re stung by the fuel surcharges that have enabled the carriers to push all of the fuel risk on to shippers.
How long will it last, and where is it headed from here? If I knew that for sure, I’d be trading oil futures on a beach somewhere, but all of us in the supply chain need to start thinking through what the impact will be on our costs and operations if we go further north from here.
Legendary investor and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who has made billions understanding the energy markets, said a couple of weeks ago he thought oil prices would drop back to $85 or so for awhile, due to economic slowdown, but had a real chance of getting to $150 per barrel by the end of the year.
Last week, the same Goldman Sachs analyst team now says prices could be headed as high as $200 if the world economy gets revved up again and/or any monkey wrench is thrown into the world oil supply.
Think about that for a second. It’s possible we could get a doubling from today’s level of staggeringly high fuel costs. The impact to supply chain strategy would be substantial.
I think it’s good to understand how we got here.
World oil production is basically flat, at something like 86 million barrels per day for a few years now. This is consistent with the “Peak Oil” theorists, who believe that oil production globally has or will soon hit a maximum and then begin to decline. Though there are some fringe elements sometimes involved in Peak Oil topics, there are also many knowledgeable people who agree, and we’re seeing whole industry conferences on the topic.
We are adding very little in the way of new oil reserves world wide.
The buffer between capacity and demand that used to exist is gone – just a million barrels per day slack or something, as India, China and other developing countries consume more and more oil and reserves and production don’t budge.
The reduction of this capacity slack naturally leads to general upward price pressures, and means the slightest supply disruption (let alone a major) sends prices soaring.
The price of oil is fundamentally unhinged now from core supply and demand, and is controlled basically by what are called futures traders. One expert recently said there was a $10-15 premium in oil prices from the futures trading versus core supply and demand factors.
So, let’s look at a number of factors. I am going to use $200 per barrel as a potential point, in part because as mentioned, that has now become the new upper target, and because it makes for some easy math in terms of doubling from the $100 level of late. I am also not considering the impact on the economy, which could/would be substantial.
Obviously, the first and probably largest impact is on transportation costs. In order, rising fuel costs impact air carriers the hardest, followed by trucking and then rail. I am not quite sure, but would think ocean would be similar to rail.
Transportation analysts at Bear Stearns believe rising trucking fuel surcharges are the key factor in the increased recent diversion they are seeing of trucking freight going to rail despite the favorable environment overall for companies in the TL market (See Quarterly Bear Stearns Shippers Survey Suggests Trucking Capacity Glut may be Reaching Bottom.)
I have recently spoken with both a high tech company and a consumer soft goods company that both moved most product by air, but which are looking at how they can make ocean shipping work in the face of rapidly rising air cargo costs.
On the trucking side, Tiffany Wlazlowski, press secretary for The American Trucking Associations, told me this week “that for the first time, carriers in some cases are telling us that fuel costs are exceeding labor [driver] costs.” She says that for truckload carriers, fuel costs can now be 25% or more of total operating costs.
Also consider that by my estimate, based on available data, oil costs represent about two-thirds of the price of a gallon of diesel fuel.
So, this means that if oil goes to $150 (a 50% increase), truckload shipping costs, however they get there (base rates or fuel surcharges), would rise about 8.5%. If it goes all the way to $100 (a 100% increase), TL costs would rise about 17% - an incredible number. Think of the impact on the bottom line of most shippers. For those interested, here’s how I got there for scenario 1: .25 (fuel as percent of TL carrier cost) x 50 (percent increase if oil goes to $150) x .67 (percent of oil in current diesel cost).

-----------------------------------------------
Five Myths of Managing Up
by Geoffrey James
Tags: management, team, business skills, CEO, E-mail, Telecommuting, Instant messaging, ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS, INTERNET
Like just about everything else in the workplace, the conventional wisdom about how to manage the boss has evolved considerably in recent years. If you hope to climb the career ladder by impressing your boss, these are the new and revised rules of the road.
Myth #1: Always be in the office before your boss arrives.
Conventional wisdom:
If you're even five minutes late, the boss will think you're a slacker.
Why it's a myth:
In an age of flex time, telecommuting, Blackberries, and instant messages, bosses care more about whether you're getting the job done than whether you're warming your seat.
Try this instead:
Make sure the boss knows you're putting in extra hours at home or on the road, both by maintaining a rapid-response email or instant message presence, and by hinting at when you're putting in those extra hours.
Example:
"I had to work over the weekend on this report, but I think you'll agree the extra effort was worth it."
Myth #2: Ask for permission before bringing up difficult issues.
Conventional wisdom:
You want your boss to be in a good mood when you deliver bad news.
Why it's a myth:
Thanks to email and cell phones, word travels faster than ever. If you don't tell your boss the bad news, somebody else will, and then you'll look evasive or stupid—or both.
Try this instead:
Deliver bad news in the context of what you're doing to fix the situation or make it better.
Example:
"The Acme sale fell through, so we're launching a quick sales campaign with the other customers to make up the revenue loss."
Myth #3: Suggest ways to make the boss more popular with the team.
Conventional wisdom:
The boss will appreciate your efforts to improve morale and teamwork.
Why it's a myth:
If your boss is unpopular, there's very little you can do to change that perception.
Try this instead:
When boss-bashing takes place beyond his earshot, don't join the fray. Instead, give the boss credit for things he does well. When the department spy (there always is one) reports back to the boss, he'll learn that you're an ally.
Example:
"Yeah, Joe loses his temper sometimes. But he's really good at defending our interests in front of the budget committee."
Myth #4: Protect your boss from your underlings, and vice versa.
Conventional wisdom:
If your boss talks directly to your team members, information could be revealed that you'd rather keep under wraps.
Why it's a myth:
Attempting to control the flow of information inside today's wired-up corporations is utterly pointless.
Try this instead:
Cue your underlings to reinforce the message you're giving the boss.
Example:
"When the big boss asks what you're doing, be sure to point out how well you're supporting our group's quarterly sales goal. She likes that kind of thing."
Myth #5: Never say anything to the boss when you're angry.
Conventional wisdom:
If you're hot under the collar, you're likely to say things you'll later regret.
Why it's a myth:
Your emotions aren't the problem; the issue is how you express them.
Try this instead:
Don't lose your cool. When you're frustrated or angry, say so—but without blowing up or exploding. Avoid whiny complaining. Instead, focus on fixing the things you want to change, and ask for the boss's help in changing them.
Example:
"Okay, I understand we need to get the report done. But let's come up with a plan that doesn't involve everyone working over the holiday."

-----------------------------------------
Lean Government: Crazy Dream or Absolute Necessity?
Wanted: Brave politicians, appointed officials, and career civil servants to join together to pioneer the application of lean management to municipal, state, and federal government services.
By Bob Emiliani
The Center for Lean Business Management, LLC
Kensington, Conn.
Your property and payroll taxes keep going up, but your salary does not. Important government services are underfunded or cut, but your needs remain the same or may even expand. It does not seem to you that government services, overall, are getting any better. But don’t worry, the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics predicts that between 2002 and 2012, the combined increase in federal, state, and municipal government employment will grow by over 2.5 million jobs – with most of the increase coming from state and municipal governments [1]. Do you have confidence that hiring more people will help improve government services? Probably not.
Conventional wisdom says the problem is “big government,” and the answer is “small government.” Among the cognoscenti, the best pathway to smaller government is obvious: privatization (i.e. outsourcing) . Just turn over government services to private enterprises who, through the twin miracles of less government regulation and free market competition, will deliver the needed service at much lower cost. But is privatization always the best answer? A Lean thinker would closely examine the “big government” problem by asking “why?” several times to discover the root cause and identify countermeasures.
In some cases, privatization, through a well-executed procurement process, could be an appropriate countermeasure. But the more likely outcome is transfer of waste-filled government processes to private enterprises that operate their own waste-filled processes, in part because few leaders – whether in the private sector or municipal, state, and federal government – know much, if anything, about Lean management.
So where would the lower costs from privatization of government services come from? They’d come from the two usual sources: 1) reductions in wages and benefits for the private enterprise workers that deliver the services, and also likely from outsourcing certain tasks to subcontractors in low wage countries; and 2) measuring unit cost savings – not total cost savings – a defective metric that is easily gamed and thus yields a misleading representation of the savings actually achieved (i.e. one that is far too optimistic) [2]. So what would we, as individuals and as a society, really gain? In most cases, it will turn out to be lower unit cost services that do not meet needs, resulting in higher total costs, as well as a lot of frustration among customers.
If I knew nothing about waste, as Taiichi Ohno defined it [3], then privatization of government services would seem like a great idea to me too. After all, isn’t it an accepted fact that private enterprises can do anything a government can do, better, and at lower cost? Lean people, of course, like to question accepted facts. They would scrutinize the actual data and witness first-hand (i.e. “go see”) both government and private enterprise service processes before committing to such a comprehensive view.
Let’s take a practical, real-world example: the post office. Government-run postal services in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada and the United States face similar problems in recent years:
Reduced volumes of first-class mail (the cash flow generator) due to the Internet
Low shop floor and office worker productivity
High costs (personnel, computer systems and automated machinery, fuel, retail outlets, etc.)
Financial losses
Greater customer expectations (less waiting in line for retail customer and lower costs for magazine publishers and other bulk mailing organizations)
How are postal services responding to these challenges? Since 1996, Canada Post has pursued the application of Lean principles and practices and has achieved remarkable results [4,5]. Japan Post will become privatized starting in October 2007, and has for the last few years been focused on process improvement led by consultants from Toyota Motor Corporation [6].
What about the U.S. Postal Service? They are taking a different approach to improve operational performance, one that is much more conventional and thus likely to yield conventional (i.e. mediocre) results. Their strategic plan is focused on responding to cost pressures, principally through standardization and innovation. They will invest in new equipment and technology, rationalize facilities, seek higher mail volumes from key customers, improve logistics, and outsource non-core competencies [7]. The plan also highlights the need for employee involvement and to improve the work environment.
Page 27 of the U.S. Postal Service’s 96-page strategic plan says: “Quality control methods such as Six Sigma and Lean Management will be used to reduce variation and improve critical processes.” This is the only place in the strategic plan that mentions Lean and Six Sigma. Further, the authors of the document – and likely most of postal service management – understand Lean management and Six Sigma narrowly, as quality improvement programs. This illustrates a depth of misunderstanding that will cause these important efforts to become another “flavor of the month.”
If I knew nothing about kaizen, I’d think that an organization’ s strategies, reports, and presentations would be an effective way to recognize problems, understand the true nature of problems, and identify effective solutions. But unfortunately, I do happen to know about kaizen and the power of genchi genbutsu – “go to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions” [8]. It seems that U.S. Postal Service executives need to improve their understanding of Lean management [9] – what “continuous improvement” and “respect for people” really mean – and participate in kaizen [10]. Last time I checked, U.S. Postal Service managers had not talked to Canada Post managers about their approach to operational improvement.
It is worth noting that some progress is being made at applying Lean principles and practices within some state and municipal government departments, including Connecticut’s Department of Labor [11], Iowa’s Department of Economic Development [12], and the City of Milwaukee’s fleet services department [13].
What might be some other benefits of Lean principles and practices correctly applied to municipal, state, and federal government services? Well, it could create a shared sense of purpose that all political parties and government departments could rally around; clearer and more consistent direction (both short- and long-term); improved information flows; better decision-making; fewer mistakes and re-work; reduce barriers for interacting with other people; better workplaces; provide better focus on the taxpaying customers’ wants and needs; and help reduce costs.
Lean management could actually help give people what they want such as: right-sized government, lower taxes, effective security and strong defense, appropriate levels of funding for needed domestic and international activities, no-hassle services, better education for our children, and no spin.
Finally, it could deflate the unhealthy rhetoric that has plagued both the left and the right in recent decades, and bring weary citizens back into processes that identify and elect leaders, prioritize activities, and establish policy and laws. It could make politics more pleasant to participate in or follow, as the wasteful behaviors that add cost, but do not add value, dissipate. Does this sound like a crazy dream?
There would, of course, be many challenges to confront, including:
Educating elected officials, appointed officials, and career government workers in Lean principles and practices, and ensuring they understand that Lean is not a program or initiative, or a means to lay people off.
Turnover of elected and appointed officials every 2-4 years, and thus the need to train new leaders often [14]
Making sure that Lean efforts do not become ruined through politicization, labeling, misunderstanding, or misuse [15].
Avoiding common Lean implementation errors [16]
These challenges suggest that Lean principles and practices should be taught much earlier than when most people become exposed to it – which is later in life, as adults in the workplace. We’d likely need to begin teaching Lean fundamentals as early as elementary school, and reinforcing those fundamentals through subsequent years of schooling.
An obvious question needs to be asked: “Why would any politician, appointed official, or career government worker risk doing something so different, so unfamiliar as Lean?” The answer is, to better serve their constituents – their taxpaying customers. But it’s not likely much will happen until there is pull for Lean government from U.S. taxpayers, and until that pull is recognized and acted upon by government officials. Maybe someday it will happen, because it could become an absolute necessity.
___________
Bob Emiliani is President of The Center for Lean Business Management, LLC and an associate professor in the School of Technology at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. Bob has worked 20 years in manufacturing and service industries, and has implemented Lean principles and practices on the manufacturing shop floor, in supply networks, and in higher education. Bob is the principal author of the 2003 Shingo Prize winning book Better Thinking, Better Results, which chronicles The Wiremold Company’s Lean transformation from 1991 to 2000. For more information, please visit http://www.theclbm. com. Copyright © 2006 by The CLBM, LLC.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

My thoughts through My Poems !!

Urmilar Hridoyor Botora

Ram dadai sita bouk nibo paare,
tumi muk kiyo ninila,
choudhya bosor bonot bash koribo
tumi maatho kio muk eri gusi gola.....

Mur ki kunu astitwa naai
tumar jeebonot,
saha dharmini kori tu
tumie muk loi anisila

aru bidhir ei bishmoi chaknoiyat
muk eri thoi khali gusi gola
mur monor bedona,
mur asha, mur hiya
enedore kio tumi surmar korila....

Moi jaano dadar karone bou gol,
tumio golagoi bhair dharma mani,
kintu muk ei sasti
ki karonot di gola?

pratigoraki naarir manubancha
swamir hoite jeevan kotuwa
sukh dukhar bhagi hua
tumar premor binimoyat
kio ei biroh bedona jasila
bhatri premor ahbanot
kio tumi swami dharmar kotha
ebaaru nabhabila

muk rakhi gola ayodhyat
tumar baabe byakul bedanat
tumar hoite kidore
preron koro moi mur dukhor botora?

botaahor hoite pothaisu
mur monor botora
tumi parile abaar aahi juwa
birohot joli thoka
dehatuk ebaar mathu saboti juwa

aru jodi aahibo nuwara
tenehole kom tumi
khatriya nuhuwa
homok sakhi kori
mur sote gutei jeevon kotuwar
kio tumi korisil
mithya protigya???

$


$#

Proyaashor Ahbaan...

..aha..
..aguwai aaha....
..bhabi nathakiba
..nija swarthaor kotha....
..kiba puwa nupuwar bichar bibesona...
..pahori peluwa
......puroni bipholotar kotha
......bhai-bhair major purona kajia
......pahar bhoyyam adibashir baishamyar kotha


dorodi goya raij
aaji baanot akranto
medhavi lorar haatot porhiboloi naai dhon
paathsalar ting ura,
chatror mejot paanir dunga
baat poth uduli muduli
rang ghar khono aaji phat mela...
majulir xotro bur jao bur jao awastha...
axomot aaji xuniba
kewal hotash humuniah aru nirobota
kaak kaak aru kio
kenekoi nu tumi dukh diba?
Nije jodi akuwei nokoro
nohom jonu aami bhagwanor usorot
kapurush, jogoria??

paara jodi aag bhag luwa..
.....axomi aair babe
..paara jodi kiba kori jua
..dhon diya
..kapur diya
..kitab diya
.............aku nathakile
para jodi
tumar niswartho shram diya

aagantuk projonmok
ekhon ujjal axomor aadhar diya
sahoshere aag barhiboloi
biswar anyar protibhar kishoror logat
somaane fer maribo porakoi
sihotok prastut kora


ji dore paara
tumi upojukto dukhiya
axomiya bhai bhonik
tumar saharjya diya

saharjya keitimaan haahir baabe !!
Axomi aair buku jurabor baabe !!

soisobot Axomi aaiye diya
pratitu swash praswashok
ati nogonya dhanot axomot pua
sei prathomik sikkhyak
protitu bukur moromok
ebaar suworon kori
axomor Bahirot thoka khiniye
tumalukor samortho anusaare
ji para
kori jua......

Jaaga jaaga
axomiya deka gabhorur dol
lakhya tumar
akhon ujjal Axom !!!
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$
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মালবিকা, তুমি মোহিনী
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মালবিকা, তুমি মোহিনী

সৌন্দয্যৰ তুমি অনুপম আকৰ

মোৰ ‍স্বপ্ন সম্ভৱা মৃগাৰন্যত

বিচৰণ কৰা তণ্বী নিতম্বিনী তুমি মৃগনয়নী !


তোমাৰ প্রতিটো ৰন্ধ্ৰে ৰন্ধ্ৰে

উতনুৱা যৌৱনৰ উত্তাল তৰংগ

কুসুম কোমল দেহাটিৰে

তুমি যেন এক স্বৰ্গীয় অপ্সৰা !


আলুলায়িত কেশেৰে তুমি

অনন্ত যৌৱনৰ অমৃতকুম্ভ

অশৰীৰী কোনো শাৰীৰিক আকৰষণেৰে

তুমি প্রতিজন পুৰুষৰে স্বপ্নৰ অমৰাবতী !


সমুদ্রৰ গভীৰতা বিচাৰি পাব পৰা

তোমাৰ নীলিম নয়নজুৰিৰে সেই চাৱনি

গুলপীয়া উঠদুটিত ফুটি উঠা

তোমাৰ সেই প্রাণচঞ্চল হাহি !


তুমি সচাকৈয়ে যৌৱনৰ লীলাভুমি

সৰ্বগুণাকৰ তোমাৰ এই স্বচ্ছ শৰীৰ

প্রতিটো ভাজতে যাৰ পোৱা যাব

কোনো শিল্পীৰ নিখুত হাতৰ নিদৰ্শন !


উৰ্মিল নিতম্বিনী তুমি

প্রতিটো খোজতে তোমাৰ

প্ৰশান্ত মহাসাগৰৰ গভীৰতা

চেতনা হেৰুৱাব পৰা এক অদ্ভুত মাদকতা !


তোমাৰ সান্নিধ্য্ই বিলীন নিয়াই

ভদকাৰ দৰে মদিৰাৰ মাদকতা

সচাকৈয়ে জানো তুমি কোনো মানবী

নে শাপভ্রষটা কোনোবা স্বৰ্গৰ তিলোত্তমা !


ধৰাৰ বুকুলৈ শাপখণ্ডন কৰিবলৈ

নামি অহা হয়তো তুমি ৰম্ভা উৰ্বশী নতুবা মেনকা

মোৰ বুকুৰ প্রতিটো স্পন্দনত তোমাৰে অবস্থিতি

মোৰ বাবে তুমি মাথো তুমি; তুমি মালবিকা !



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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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মানসী , তোমাৰ স্মতি

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মানসী, তুমি আজি

দেহে প্রাণে

মোৰ ওচৰত নাই 1

নাই আজি তোমাৰ সেই

প্রানচঞ্চল হাহি

নাই লেডী ডায়েনাৰ সেই

চিৰ পৰিচিত গোন্ধ !

কিন্তু আছে তোমাৰ

বহুতো মিঠা স্মতি

পাহৰিব নোৱাৰা

সেই কলেজীয়া দিনবোৰ !

মনত আছে মোৰ

তোমাৰ প্রতিটো কথা

মনত আছে মোৰ

তুমি দিয়া প্রতিটো গালি !

তুমি দিয়া সেই উসাহ

মোৰ কান্ধত দিয়া প্রতিটো স্পৰ্শ

তুমি কৰা ধেমালিবোৰ

মনত আছে “আমাৰ” প্রতিটো মুহুৰ্ত !

সেয়াই যে বহুত

আৰু একো নালাগে মোক

বুকুত অকা আছে তোমাৰে ছবি

সময় কটাবলৈ তোমাৰে সেই স্মতি !



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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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ভালপোৱাৰ অনুভুতি
------------------



ভালপোৱাৰ অনুভুতি ক্ৰমা বাঢ়িব ধৰিছে

একেবাৰে নিশব্দে

সকলো বাধা নেওচি

সম্পুৰ্ণতাৰ দিশত আগবঢ়া

হৃদয়ত গঢ় লোৱা সেই

কোমল ভাৱানুভূতিৰ বেগ

আজি ভীষণ ত্বৰান্বিত

গন্তব্য স্থান ইযাৰ সুদুৰ ধেমাজি !



পদে পদে বাধা

সমুখত ইতিহাস

বৰফেৰে ঢকা ৰাজপথত

ৰঙা গোলাপৰ দীঘলীয়া কাইট

যাত্ৰাৰ সংগী বুলিবলৈ

উৰি ফুৰা কপৌ জনী

খালী ভৰিৰেই খোজ দিব লাগিব

সতী জয়মতীৰ স্মতিয়ে গৰকা জেৰেঙা পথাৰত !



হেৰা চাউদাঙ ! শুনি লোৱা

তোমাৰ মামৰে ধৰা দাখনত

পাৰা যদি ধাৰ দিয়া

প্রেমৰ বেদীত

বলি যাবলৈ

শিতানৰ অভাৱ নাই

শতাব্দীৰ বান্ধোন চিগি

আজি প্রেমে পাইছে সঞ্জৱনী !


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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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এক সপোন

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সপোন দেখি ভাল লাগে

দিন দুপৰতে

সুস্থ মগজুৰে

দুয়ো চকু মেলি

আগন্তুক ভৱিষ্যতৰ

এখন উন্নত সমাজৰ

যত নিজা স্ৱাৰ্থপৰতা

অতি তুচ্ছ আৰু ঘৃণনীয়

সবাৰে লক্ষ্য মাথো

এখনি উন্নত মেদিনী !

জাতি ধৰ্মৰ উৰ্দ্বত

মানবতাৰ জয়ধ্ৱনি

সবাৰে হাতত সৃষিটকামী হাথিয়াৰ

কাচি, নাঙল আৰু কুঠাৰ

চৌদিশে হালধীয়া পথাৰ

ঘৰৰ চালত মাথো কোমোৰা আৰু পাৰ চৰাই

আকাশত কলা ডাৱৰ আৰু নাই !


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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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গোলাপৰ কলি

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তোমালৈ যাচিবলৈ

মোৰ হাতত আজি

এটি মাথো গোলাপৰ কলি !

কলিটিৰ ঠাৰিডাল

পাতল আৰু নিমজ

তাৰ কাইটখিনি অতৰাই

মই চিকুণাই দিছো !

কলিটিত দেখিবা

মোৰ তেজৰ উতনুৱা ৰঙ

বুকুত দি চাবা

পাবা মোৰ প্ৰতিটো স্পন্দন !

কলিটিত লগা নিয়ৰে

তোমাক জনাব মোৰ প্রেমৰ গভীৰতা

প্ৰতিটোপাল নিয়ৰকণাতে

ভিজি আছে মোৰ হৃদয়ৰ বতৰা !

আজিৰ বাবে তুমি

কলিটো চুলিত গুজি লবা

শুকাই গলেই তাক

তোমাৰ ডায়েৰীৰ ভিতৰত সাচি থবা !


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$$$$$$$$$$

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জীৱন বৰ্ণনা

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মানব জীৱন

এক কঠোৰ যাত্ৰা

পদে পদে কাইট

ক'ৰবাত দলিছা !

অনৰ্গল এক সংগ্রাম

সকলোৱে অকলসৰীয়া

সমুখত বিভীষিকা

জয় পৰাজয়ৰ একাংকিকা !

জন্মৰ গৰ্ভতে মৃ্ত্যুৰ সত্যতা

বয়স বাঢ়ে মানে

আয়ুস কমাৰ প্রবনতা

মায়ামোহৰ জালত অনাহক ব্যস্ততা !

শৈশৱৰ শিখৰত উঠি

আনন্দ উপভোগ কৰাৰ অন্তত

যৌৱনৰ ন ন জটিলতা

ভবিষ্যতৰ নানান পৰিকল্পনা !



যৌৱন পাৰ হলেই

আকাংক্ষিত এক গতানুগতিকতা

জীৱনৰ কঠোৰ দায়িত্বৰ বোজাত

কেনিবা হেৰাই শৈশৱৰ সৰলতা !


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$$$$$$$$$$$

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মনৰ বতৰা

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আজি মন আকাশ মোৰ ডাৱৰেৰে ভৰা

নযনজুৰিত মোৰ প্লাৱনৰ ঢল

পুৰ্ণিমাৰ জোনাকো আজি আউসীৰ ছাৰে আৱৰা

মনত আজি মোৰ আবেগৰ ওখল মাখল !

কাইটীযা জীৱনৰ মৰুত

তুমিযেই নাছিলানে মোৰ তৃষ্ণাৰ নীৰ

কিন্তু মৰুভুমিৰ মৰীচিকাৰ দৰে

তুমিযো মোক কিয হতাশ কৰিলা ?

নি্যৰ কণাটো দেখিছো মই তেজৰহে ৰঙ

স্বাস প্ৰস্বাসত যেন ড্ৰেগনৰ জুই

মোৰ বাবে এই পৰিবেশ যে বিষাক্তকৰ

সবান্ধৱৰ মাজতো যে আজি মই দ্বীপান্তৰ !



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নিসংগতা আৰু মই

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সকলোকে জনাই থোৱা হ'ল

নিসংগতাক মই ভাল পাও

সীমাহীন এই ভাল পোৱা

যত নিবিচাৰো কাৰোৰে হস্তক্ষেপ !

যৌৱনৰ কোনো এক মুহুৰ্তত

হঠা ভাল পাই পেলালো

তেতিয়াৰে পৰা আজিলৈকে

নিসংগতাই মোৰ প্রাণে বিচৰা সংগী !

বিবাহত বহাৰ মোৰ মন নাই

একমাত্ৰ নিসংগতাক হেৰুৱাৰ ভয়ত

মোৰ আৰু নিসংগতাৰ মাজত

কাৰোবাক অনাৰ মোৰ হাবিয়াস নাই !




নিসংগতাই মোৰ পৰা একো বাঞ্চা কৰা নাই

মই হলে বিচৰামতে পাইছোও বহুতো

প্রতিটো দিনৰ ব্যস্ততা কোলাহলৰ অন্তত

পাইছো অৱসাদ গুচাব পৰা মানসিক শান্তি !


নিসংগতাই কেতিয়াও মোৰ সতে পেচ পতা নাই

নিতৌ একে ৰূপতে মই লগ পাও

কি সেই প্রেম যে ক্ৰমাত বাঢ়িব ধৰিছে

নিসংগতাৰ অবিহনে যে মই একেবাৰে অসহায় !


আমাৰ দুয়োৰে যি সম্পৰ্ক হয়তো আচহুৱা

কিন্তু মোৰ বাবে যে ই যৌৱনৰ প্রথম প্রেম

ভয় হয় কেৱল মই থকা সমাজ খনলৈ

হয়তো আমাকলৈ উঠিব পাৰে বহু প্রশ্ন !


হয়তো এই প্রেম পৰিণতিহীন

কিন্তু মোৰ এই ভালপোৱা অতিকে পবিত্ৰ

নাই ইয়াত কোনো কলুষ কালিমা

মোৰ প্রেমকলৈ বিচাৰিছো

কেৱল মাথো সমাজৰ সহযোগ

নতুবা সম্পুৰ্ণ নিৰ্লিপ্ততা !


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নিসংগ এই জীৱন

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মোৰ এই জীৱন

কিয় যে অকলসৰীয়া

নাই কোনো বন্ধু বান্ধব

অভাৱ অনুভূত হয় প্রিয়জনৰ !

ভাবিলে বেয়া লাগে

কিন্তু তথাপি মোৰ ভাল লাগে

এই নিৰৱতা, নিস্তব্ধতা

এই নিঃস্ব পৰিবেশ !

সমাজ পৰিয়াল হেনো

মানুহৰ বাবে প্রয়োজনীয়

কিন্তু মোৰ হৃদয়ত

এইসৱাৰ বাবে স্পন্দনৰ অভাৱ !

কোনো সংগীৰ বাবে

নকৰে হৃদয়ে আবেদন

মোৰ ভাল লাগে

অমাবস্যাৰ আগনিশাৰ নিৰ্মল ৰজনী !

অন্ধকাৰ নিস্তব্ধ নিশা

সহস্র ঢৌৰে ভৰা সাগৰৰ পাৰ

মোৰ প্রাণৰো প্রিয়

কামনাভৰা এক অমানবীয় সংগী !