The Queuing Theory [LU]

This was a response to a classmates post regarding the queuing theory...

I am a very analytical person and any mathematical/analytical theory is interesting to me. The queuing theory is no exception. On top of that, I have worked in a couple of call center environments where this is of vital importance. You make a great point about understanding more than just the foundation of the theory. For instance, to make it an effective learning tool – one needs to know more than if customers have to wait for a certain amount of time they will hang up, which leads to reduction in productivity and sales, which leads to loss of business, which leads to ex-employees!

I was never a manager at either of these two jobs, so I am not sure how much the management really understood or utilized the theory. However, being an employee in those situations I know that 99% of the employees do not fully understand the why’s and how’s surrounding it. What I mean is that as an employee it was always drilled into our heads that we needed to provide great customer service but in a shorter amount of time. Most of the employees resented this part of their jobs. “How was this possible,” we thought. How are we supposed to provide excellent customer service, make a connection with the customer, and then have them off the phone within 1 minute and 15 seconds? While I was always fast on the phone this seemed an unattainable goal in most circumstances.

Additionally, most companies have key performance indicators and if you didn’t consistently meet these often lofty goals, your job was in jeopardy. So, in many cases the workers viewed the time goals as the most important, most often at the expense of customer service and connection. I believe the reason for this is because the queue goal was much more immediate and personal to the individual, whereas the loss of customers due to poor customer service was a community affect. Many employees in this situation will look out for themselves first and the company second. This is an unfortunate reality.

I think managers should use the queuing theory to not only map a plan of action for what is best for the business and the customers, but to also find a pathway to achieve such goals while keeping the employees attitude healthy as well. There is a lot of turn-over at any call center really and I personally believe that this is due, in part, to perceived impossibility on the part of the employees.

So that being said, while I believe the queuing theory is vital and necessary, I often question if it even gets used correctly. I say that in many cases it is not being used to its full potential and this in-turn makes it somewhat counter-productive.

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TELNET, SSH, FTP & SFTP [LU]

TELNET v. SSH

In an anecdotal way, the differences between Telnet and SSH (as well as SFTP and FTP) can be compared to the "changing of the times". I remember a time not too long ago when many people left their doors unlocked and the car keys in the ignition! Security was not really much of an issue because most people minded their own and did not infringe upon others' property and information. Certainly the times have changed and now we have complex security systems to protect our cars, homes, and even our computers now. There are lots of people out there who would love to get their hands on other people's information to exploit it for their personal gain. This same type of rationale can be applied to the differences between telnet and SSH.

According to RFC854 (Telnet Protocol Specification) TELNET protocol was created to provide general, bi-direction communications between networked devices. These connections were eight-bit byte oriented. "its primary goal is to allow a standard method of interfacing terminal devices and terminal oriented processes to each other (RFC854).

That being said, one of the biggest downfalls of TELNET is that it is not really transparent at all. It has long been considered a security risk because user names, passwords, and all subsequent commands are transmitted as easily-exploitable plain text (Brenner, 2007). However, TELNET is really a useful tool. So what to do? We need to be able to have the same essential functionality, but with some level of security.

Enter SSH...

According to RFC4251, Secure Shell(SSH) is a protocol for secure remote login and other secure network services over an insecure network. There are three major components:

1. The Transport Layer Protocol [SSH-TRANS] (provides server authentication, confidentiality, and integrity)
2. The User Authentication Protocol [SSH-USERAUTH] (authenticates the client-side user to the server and runs over the transport layer protocol.
3. The Connection Protocol [SSH-CONNECT] (multiplexes the encrypted tunnel into several logical channels and runs over the user authentication protocol). (RFC4251).

So, as one can see, the service that SSH provides is essentially the same as one would use with TELNET; however, SSH offers a mode of communication that is much more secure. Meaning the bad guys cannot get your information as easily.

FTP v. SFTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) was created to promote sharing of files; to encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers; to shield a user from variations in file storage systems among hosts; and to transfer data reliably and efficiently (RFC959). In layman terms, it is simply a protocol via which users can upload and download files from one networked resource to another.

Like with TELNET, FTP is unsecure. Whenever a user opens a regular FTP session using a TCP/IP connection, the entire transmission between the host and client is sent in plain text. Anyone who has the ability to snoop on the network packets can read the data, including the password information. If an unauthorized user can login, they have the opportunity to compromise the system (University of Kentucky).

SFTP was created to eliminate this issue. The purpose and functionality is essentially the same; however, the entire login session, including transmission of password, is encrypted. It is therefore much more difficult for an outsider to observe and collect passwords from a system using ssh/sftp sessions. Therefore, SFTP is a much more relevant transport protocol in this day and age of cyber-criminals.

References

Brenner, B. (February 16, 2007). Solaris flaw a reminder of why telnet is toast. Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/column/0,294698,sid14_gci1244019,00.html

Postel, J. & Reynolds, J. (1983). RFC854 - Telnet protocol specification. Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc854.html

Postel, J. & Reynolds, J. (1985). RFC959 - File transfer protocol. Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc959.html

Lonvick, C. & Ylonen, T. (2006). RFC4251 - The secure shell (SSH) protocol architecture. Retrieved January 21, 2009, from http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc4251.html

University of Kentucky: Center for Computational Sciences (n.d.). Secure file transfer. Retrieved January 21, 2009, from https://www.ccs.uky.edu/machines/sftp.html

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DNS Caching & IPv6 - [LU]

It is safe to assume that most internet users have no idea what DNS caching is or how it helps the flow of information on the WWW. That being said, I suppose for the average user, knowledge of DNS caching is not important; however, to anyone involved in the IT field it is an important concept to know.

DNS Caching

While it is probably hard to determine, it is safe to assume that there are probably millions, if not billions of DNS requests going on at any one point in time. If every time a DNS lookup is requested the request has to work itself all the way to the top of the DNS hierarchy, there would obviously be a large bottleneck that occurs within nanoseconds. This would cause the entire internet to effectively shutdown in short order. It would also make the responses incredibly slow.

To avoid this situation, DNS caching is used. This way the information is stored lower in the hierarchy so that DNS requests can be handled and responded to in an orderly and efficient fashion. In contrast to the former situation, when a user makes a DNS request, it may only have to go to their local DNS server (in the office, or even on their computer) to get the correct IP address of the domain they are looking for. Not only does this reduce the probability of a bottleneck, it also allows for much faster browsing - no matter what speed of internet the user has.

IPv6

Theoretically, even with the advent of NAT, IPv4 addresses will run out within the next couple of years. With hundreds of millions of pieces of technology that require an IP address, IPv4 addresses are now becoming very scarce.

While it is not known if the IPv6 convention is the best idea, or easiest to use and implement, the number of possible addresses is, as far as we can fathom, sufficient in terms of addresses.

As St. Sauver points out in his article, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which should allow for address assignment for virtually any conceivable address allocation scenarios. A complicated mathematical equation shows that it is possible to assign "3.7X10**21 addresses per square inch of the earth's surface"(Sauver, 2001, para. 11)!! I could not possibly imagine that ever being necessary.

References

St. Sauver, J (2001). What's IPv6....And Why Is It Gaining Ground? Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://cc.uoregon.edu/cnews/spring2001/whatsipv6.html

Karrenberg, D. (February 2004). The internet domain name system explained for non-experts. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.isoc.org/briefings/016/index.shtml

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Span of Control (Lean Management) - [LU]

Definition

In “Essentials of Management: Core Principles, Concepts, & Strategies”, the author defines span of control as “the number of subordinates who report directly to a management.” Span of control also refers to the leanness of the organization, which depends on how many different layers of management a company in proportion to the total number of employees. That being said, an organization that has a smaller ratio of managers to subordinates (with many layers) is said to be fat; conversely, a company that has managers with large number of subordinates (in less layers) is considered lean.

Satterlee, A. (2006). Essentials of Management. Roanoke, VA: Synergistics Publishing.

Summary

Paul Glader is an experienced journalist who currently works for the Wall Street Journal. His specialties include General Electric Company, industrial companies, and management issues. In his article “It’s not easy being lean, “ Glader discusses how a small steel manufacturer, Nucor Corporation, ended up becoming the largest steel production plant based on shipments in the country simply by keeping their organization lean. The author also discusses how maintaining a lean organization is not always easy to do; in fact, as a company starts to grow it becomes near impossible. For the longest time, Nucor prided itself on its three management layers that separated the CEO from the hourly workers. However, they were soon forced to add an addition (fourth) layer to the mix with the placement of five new executive vice presidents. At Nucor, there was a bottleneck begging to develop for the CEO’s time. He constantly had people wanting to talk to him about mergers and acquisitions, development of new technology, and business machine sales people. This is just a small sample of the many vying for his time. When the attention demands from the plant managers were also added in, one can see that help was needed. This was an instance where too lean was causing missed opportunities, increased competition, and inefficiency simply based on limitations of one human being.

The determination of whether or not a company is lean enough can be concluded from profits. In many cases a company that is not lean enough will not be consistently hitting the profit margins they are looking for. The reason for this is because decisions take too long (as there are too many to be made) and time is spent wasted while the lower layer waits for these decisions. Efficiency is increased in Nucor’s lean model because the general managers are able to work with employee input to decide important issues that involve their layer – decisions such as how to set up the work shifts, how to spend maintenance money, and which products to make. This allows for a faster turnaround and also helps boost the workers’ morale as they feel that they are making a difference towards meeting company goals.

Being lean is not always a choice; however, Glader feels that corporations should do what they can to be as lean as possible. Nucor seems to be on the right track, as their profits show. They had to add the new executive layer merely out of necessity. It is important to note that these new Executive VPs are not another blanket layer between the CEO and the workers; rather, each one has a specific role, like chief financial officer and merger and acquisition VP. So in a sense, they are not fattening up the structure – they are merely performing specialized functions so that the CEO can still be in touch with the workers only a few layers down.

Discussion

Many people know that in business wasted time, resources, and work is not part of the profit equation. Many companies do everything they can to reduce waste. However, one of the most important things a company should focus on is not wasting management and time on decisions. A lean structure is essential in increasing productivity and profits. In Glader’s article, he stated that some steel mills that were competitors of Nucor had upwards of 35 layers of management! Once you understand what lean is, having 35 layers of management would seem a sure fire way to have business movement come to a grinding halt. When a decision has to travel 35 levels up and then 35 layers back down that makes for a lot of downtime! However, that does not mean that a company that is fat is bound to fail. As our text pointed out, Peters and Townsend believe that most of the Fortune 500 companies are over-managed, so it is possible to be profitable while not being so lean. However, I would be willing to bet that if they got rid of some management layers, they could cut wasted time and costs significantly thereby increasing the bottom line.

The layers of management differ from business to business. For instance, a small company may be forced to have a fatter structure simply out of responsibility. However, just because a company gets larger does not mean that the number of levels of management need to as well (Satterlee, 2006).

When it comes to the benchmark for using a lean structure, most experts agree that Toyota is the leader in this regards. Glader briefly mentions Toyota’s TPS (or Toyota Production System), which was inspired by the teachings of management expert Edwards Demming. The TPS system aims for the total elimination of waste and mistakes by continually improving the process. This includes total elimination of waste in those regards caused by too many layers of management. In another article, written by Susan Hassler, it is shown that the TPS method works, but only when the entire system is implemented.

In searching for more information on this topic, I found an article that was about how health care was attempting to lean down their structures to eliminated cost both for the company and the consumer, as well as eliminate errors which are literally make a difference in life or death. This article reviewed some shocking statistics on how a lean model makes a huge difference. Here are a few: Toyota was producing a product in 30 percent less time, with 25 percent less defects, in 25 percent less space than its competitors. They did all of this with 1/30th of the materials on hand. In addition to all of this, Toyota enjoys half the absenteeism rate because of the rotating staff and obtaining suggestions from employees 60 times more than a comparable company.

Sure it sounds good on paper, but how easy is it to achieve - That all depends on the situation. Many industry experts state that it is much easier to start a new company lean than it is to turn an existing company into a lean one; although the latter is not always impossible. The bottom line is that quantity does not always equal quality. Before I did this research, I had assumed that the bigger a company was the more managers and levels of management were necessary. However, I was naïve, like many others probably are about this fact. I am now in total agreement that lean is the way to go. I should have known better though. I have worked for start-ups and I have worked for big names like Bell Atlantic with what I perceived to be a fat organization. At Bell Atlantic I always felt like I did not matter – like I was a drone and my work probably suffered for it. On most days, I simply showed up for work and did the minimum amount of work required and went home. I felt like I had more vested in the company than they did in me. My opinion did not matter. However, when I worked for the start-up I found that because I was interfacing with the CEO everyday that we were moving forward together – that I was actually making a difference. I was working extended hours for no extra pay and working on the weekends as well. I was passionate about my work. I never once put two and two together and realized that it was the span of control, not necessarily the size of the company that made the difference. Perhaps I would have enjoyed working at Bell Atlantic more if there were fewer layers to get to the top!

References

Castle, A. (2007, October 31). Lean thinking on the wards. Nursing Standard, 22(8), 16-18. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Glader, P. (2006, June 19). It's Not Easy Being Lean. Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, 247(142), B1-B3. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Hassler, S. (2008, May). spectral lines: It's Not Easy Being Lean. IEEE Spectrum, 45(5), 9-9. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

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I Think I Am Getting Stupider

Well, here it is folks - my very first ever blog. While I have so much to say on many topics, I can never seem to a.) find the time or b.) to synthesize them into rational and understandable thoughts.

I was not like this, that I can remember, when I was younger. Heck, I say younger like I am old and I am hoping 30 is far from old. However, up until my mid to late 20s, I had the, what you call, the "gift of gab" (I hate that 'ism). Here lately though there are more times than not that I cannot seem to get the thoughts that I have either out of my mouth on in writing. Then again, there are other times that I can deliver a prose deserving of a Nobel Prize. Actually, I am not that narcissistic - rather, I am just sarcastic.


So this has gotten me thinking - why is this happening to me? Is there some sort of degenerative medical disease that has me devolving? Nah, I doubt it. The only things I can really attribute it to is either a.) getting older (which I can feel in more ways than just that), or b.) a simple result of having so many things going on in my life that I cannot focus on one particular item for too long. Like this post for instance - I am already bored with it and am thinking of like 20 other things at the moment. Usually the things I think about are not really other tasks I have, but my mind seems to move faster than I can keep up with. Meaning - I have already thought about what the last sentence of this post will be before I wrote this current sentence. Weird, huh? Do I have adult ADD? Yeah, the drug manufacturers would love that (that is another post altogether). Again, the signs point to no. Could it be the linger effects of all the partying and drugs that I used to do when I was a "kid"? Possibly, but again, I doubt it because there are times, like I said, that I can think very clearly. Not to mention, it has been many years since I have done anything like that or have even taken a drink.

Actually, I think that the reality is that this imaginary syndrome I think that I am experiencing is more related to my perfectionist mental attitude. Here is an example - in addition to my job, family, coaching, and all my other responsibilities, I am a FT student - yeah at my age! Along with that of course is homework, including research papers. Now, one of my BIGGEST flaws is that I am a HORRIBLE planner. I generally tend to be the type of person who thinks planning is a waste of time and that those planning minutes and hours could be spent actually doing the work. Yes, even though I run into all sorts of problems that planning would have averted, I still hold firm to my convictions in that area. Anyhow, I am one of those types of people who wait until the last weekend to finish a paper that was assigned 3 weeks prior. I hate myself for this, but it is who I am.

Miraculously, I manage to throw something together just in time for the 11:59 PM deadline (usually turning it in at 11:58), all the while kicking myself for writing the worse paper that I have ever written. However, I am usually presently surprised with a near perfect grade. <--side note--->Another one of my problems is being succinct. I get to going and have a hard time concluding. The assignment will be for at least 7 pages or something like that. I will think at the start of the assignment that there is no way I can write 7 pages on something like "The History or Java Programming." (Yes that was an actual assignment). Then, when I am writing the paper and I look down and see that I am on page 13 I start to get worried about how I am going to bring this rambling to an end, and usually end up with a paper that is great in the beginning and middle, but them comes to an abrupt stop like an excited dog chasing a squirrel and reaching the end of her chain, causing her to yelp and choke and fly through the air - yeah, just like that.

See, I am doing it again with this post, so be prepared... Continue Reading*