The Pink

The pink sky.

Paint art by,
Hafsa Khurram

The Greedy Man

Paint art & Ms Word design by,
Asma Khurram

Long nose man

Paint art by,
Hafsa Khurram

The Flag

Paint art by,
Asma Khurram

5 marvelous constructors & architects in nature – Labors of Love

The nature encompasses spectacular configurations that are intelligently brought into existence with calculated and accurate engineered techniques. These arts of designing are part of our planet long before mankind knew how to configure or construct. These architectural wonders are created by the animal kingdom. Insects like honey bees, spiders, ants, termites, many species of birds, fish species, and mammals build the shelter to socialize and to take care of the nestlings. Take a look at following few out of millions of animal species who are excellent constructors naturally.

Birds

Nearly all the birds weave their nests. Some birds just put the twigs together so that their eggs stay stable in the nest. Others are more specific about how to artistically weave the nest using twigs, feathers, threads, leaves, petals, cotton, or whatever they can find that is light and appropriate for their little shelter. The male satin bowerbird constructs a standing nest made up of simple twigs and then decorates it with blue items. It uses any blue item it finds like blue feather, blue straw, blue key chain, blue paper, blue note, blue pen, blue toothbrush, or blue bottle cap. The whole purpose of this decoration is to lure a female bird to get to the nest.    

Bowerbird

Fish

Male pufferfish architects its dazzling and symmetrical seabed structure that looks like peaks and valleys. It wiggles around the fine sand, sea shell fragments, and coral fragments to make its nesting place called ‘crop circles’. Like birds, pufferfish is thrilled to make these circles and works day in and day out to offer the most alluring nest to the female pufferfish. These structures are highly engineered as they can nest the eggs efficiently without being scattered or getting destroyed by water current.   

Pufferfish

Mammals

Beavers are water rodents and are about size of dogs. Beavers make dams to survive in winters, to access and to stock food for winters, and to stay protected from predators. The food stock is the trees’ wood that beaver has chopped down into pieces. They construct dam in big and deep lakes. These dams are high-tech that even have underwater refrigerators for food storage. They use mud, stones, wood and rocks to make dam. A beaver can bring building material much heavier than its weight and larger than its size. A beaver can also dig feet & feet of the lake bed. Their dams are water tight. Their multi-chambered dam construction is deep and also many feet high above the lake’s level. These dams can stretch up to more than a thousand feet.     

Beaver

Beaver dam

Insects

Ants

There are 10,000 or more species of ants that exist in nature. Ants structure their complex nests by piling soil particles together. Ants’ nests can be found in grounds and in trees. Some species of ants are capable to construct super colonies that have many queen ants rather than one. These super colonies have various levels that are connected via helical ramps. Ants’ ingenious chambers and galleries are ventilated and interconnected. Black garden ants mark their construction plan into their nests while they are constructing. 

Ants' nest 

Spiders

Spiders weave the web in order to get other insects as their food.  Spiders’ silk has its own flexibility and strength. Generally a single material is either flexible or has strength but spiders’ web has both. Spiders’ silk has capability to vibrate to pass on information to the spider in order to locate its prey that sticks on the woven silk.  

Spider web 

What humans need to construct a spectacular structure?

We need architects, engineers, constructors, planners, managers, hired labor, site evaluation, drawing sheets & sheets, software & technology, cash, good grades, start-ups, medals, certificates, prizes, degrees, research, and what not to construct a small building. 

Are we genius or are we genius? 

Look at these brilliant creatures that fashion such flawless 

architectonics. We think we can conquer the world? We think we can do anything? We need to re-think and ponder upon what and why we should be doing at any given time and place.

After all;

A piece of construction matters at the time it matters! 

By,

Engr. Ayesha Alam Khurram

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT-2

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              iii.        RISK EVALUATION

Acceptable risk levels will be unique to each organization and supply chain. They may vary by commodity, product, or service, as well as over time. Different risk-tolerance levels may be set for different levels of the organization. While generally tied to financial impact, through which risks may best be understood and compared, risks may also be tied to other corporate assets such as reputation.

One means of evaluating risk is to use a “heat-map” showing risk-events on a matrix defining likelihood and consequence levels. This technique allows managers to easily see the relative likelihood and consequence of differing risks. To use this method effectively it is critical to have well-defined and consistently used criteria for the different likelihood and consequence levels.

              iv.        RISK TREATMENT

When an enterprise understands its supply chain and analyzed its potential risks, it can implement an effective supply-chain risk management program with its partners, that is, its suppliers, carriers, and logistics providers. Such a program should have at least three elements: protecting the supply chain, responding to events, and continuing business operations while recovering from events. We discuss each of these below. An effective supply-chain risk management program must ensure that an enterprise and its partners implement appropriate measures to fully secure goods and their components from the point of origin to final destination.

Protection of Supply Chain includes:

ü  Physical Security

ü  Access Controls

ü  Personal Security

ü  Education and Training

ü  Procedural Security

ü  IT Security

ü  Business Partner Security

ü  Conveyance Security

Crisis Management comprises the overall strategic and tactical responses of an organization to recognize and respond effectively, efficiently and comprehensively to actualize threats. It involves proactive measures to detect, respond to, and recover from a crisis event. Crisis Management preparation and response activities are characterized by several phases:

ü  Preparation

ü  Response (consisting of Risk Assessment, Critical Incident Planning, Risk Mitigation, Emergency Response and Communications to Internal and External Stakeholders and Media Relations)

ü  Recovery and Business Resumption

ü  Testing, Training and Plan Maintenance

     To be effective, business-continuity planning (also referred to as business-continuity management) should be an integrated management process supported from the top levels and managed at both organizational and operational levels. A business-continuity planning team should also establish company risk-tolerance levels and recovery priorities, validate business-recovery strategies, designate team members from each critical business function, ensure planning and documentation meets established timelines, and conduct periodic evaluation of the business-continuity planning program as based on performance objectives. 

SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT-1

1.  DEFINITION:

Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) is the implementation of strategies to manage both everyday and exceptional risks along the supply chain based on continuous risk assessment with the objective of reducing vulnerability and ensuring continuity. (Source: Cranfield University, School of Management).

Risk= Probability of Occurrence x Consequences

2.  Risk Management Process:

The process begins with identifying internal and external environments. Mapping its supply chain can help an enterprise identify the risks it faces and how best to prioritize and address them. Once a firm understands how to identify risks, it may undertake risk identification and assessment, which includes risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. If a firm has identified and prioritized the risks that it faces, it can devise risk treatment plans. This includes measures to protect the supply chain from risks, plans to respond to events that these risks may cause, and plans to continue operations in the face of disruptions and fully recovering from them. This may also involve determining ways to measure risks and the effectiveness of plans to limit them or to respond to disruptions.

              i.        RISK IDENTIFICATION

Risk identification might begin with brainstorming sessions, previous risk assessments, surveys, or still other efforts to identify and list potential risks within supply-chain processes. In any project risk can be categorized as:

-        Supply Risk

-        Process Risk

-        Demand Risk

-        Network/ Control Risk

-        Environmental Risk

-        SUPPLY RISK

Supply risk comes from dependency on key suppliers. It includes quality of supplied raw material, management of raw material and delay in provision due to transport, environmental or other accidental issue.

-        PROCESS RISK

Process risk comprises of productivity issues of both material and man power. A faulty equipment or machinery will affect the manufacturing process. Similarly ineffective staff or work crew will delay the process. Electric power failure, problem in computers or software and capacity shortage is classified as Process Risk.

-        DEMAND RISK

Inaccurate forecasts and unrealistic deadline may lead into quality issues which may cause loss of major customers. Innovative competitors in market may also lead a firm at shortage of demand.

-        NETWORK/CONTROL RISK

Lack of communication and collaboration, poor planning and security risk can be referred as Network/ Control Risk. Wrong administrator or rule maker and hierarchy levels in a firm/team create communication gap between employee and team player. Loss of data whether electronic or hard copy file can risk a firm a long time loss.

-        ENVIRONMENTAL RISK

Natural disasters and calamities are considered as Environmental Risk. Earthquake, hurricane or snow may cause destruction as well as long term delay of a project. Changes in government policies, economic recession and unavailability of technology are also categorized as Environmental Risk.

              ii.        RISK ANALYSIS

The risk analysis process should estimate the likelihood and consequence of risks facing a firm and accordingly prioritize them for ultimate treatment. Once an enterprise has identified its top risks, it may use more sophisticated methods, such as the bow-tie method, to fully understand the nature of the risk and to rate the likelihood and consequence of inherent risk (i.e., risk in the absence of any treatment) and residual risk (i.e., level of risk remaining after treatment).

Probabilistic studies of disaster such as earthquake or wind snow help out in planning. For example, we have charts for percentage increase of earthquake event over 50 years or 100 years. Also we have charts for maximum capable earthquake for an area. Similarly, we have charts for winds available.

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