Friday, December 28, 2012

Introduction


Much work has been done in the area of sustainability in manufacturing in the United States. Virtually everyone agrees that much more needs to be done to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing, reduce waste, improve the development and management of the workforce, and design and manufacture products that use our scarce material and human resources in a more optimal manner. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) states on its website:


The NAM and our member companies are committed to working with Congress to establish sensible federal climate change policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining a competitive playing field for U.S. companies in the global marketplace.


However, on the NAM website as of December 30, 2008 there is not one paper telling manufacturers about any best practices they could adopt to promote sustainability. It appears that NAM has no such task force studying how manufacturing concerns can create their current products in a more sustainable manner or begin to advance the state of the art in designing and producing the next generation of products that are more sustainable, efficient, effective, and less harmful to the environment. Possibly NAM and state associations promoting manufacturing and technology could undertake and publish detailed research across the tens of thousands of manufacturers to identify the sustainability oriented practices that have helped improve the environment, helped improve the productivity of their workers, and helped improve their bottom line.


The Current Situation


Much information already exists on "green manufacturing." Conferences are being held. Books are being written. Engineering schools are focusing on sustainable engineering to attract students who can find great jobs in meeting the future manufacturing environments which will be embracing sustainability principles. A guick GoogleTM search reveals the following:


Green Manufacturing News
ManagingAutomation.com/Green.Mfg The Latest News on Technologies, Business Practices and Trends!


IndustryWeek - Connecting Manufacturing's Leaders
Making Green: Sustainability In Manufacturing And The Clean-Tech Economy. Now that the green marketplace has firmly taken root, many manufacturers are...


Sustainability is good business
The main business drivers of sustainability for manufacturing firms make a good strategic concept for improving business performance:...


Amazon.com: Sustainability in Manufacturing: Recovery of Resources...
Amazon.com: Sustainability in Manufacturing: Recovery of Resources in Product and Material Cycles: Günther Seliger: Books.


Sustainable Manufacturing
Dec 10, 2008... Australian manufacturing firms are being placed on a more sustainable footing by our research in eco-efficient technologies and engineering...


SUSTAINABLE LEAN MANUFACTURING
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
This set of slides is a brief introduction to the perspective Act Now brings to Sustainable Lean Manufacturing. This is not intended as actionable advice....


Tips for sustainability in manufacturing - 11/18/2008 - Control...
Nov 18, 2008... Controls engineers have quietly done sustainability related efforts for years; we call them "lean initiatives," says Pack Expo speaker.


The Sustainable Manufacturing Summit provides the opportunity to find out how top manufacturers and their customers are lowering their carbon emissions and...


Fifty Sustainability Experts To Speak At Sustainable Manufacturing...
Jan 21, 2008... Sustainability experts are looking forward to sharing their carbon reduction strategies on April 8th and 9th at the upcoming Corporate...


Green Manufacturing Expo 2009
Sustainable manufacturing, defined as the "creation of manufactured products that use processes that are non-polluting, conserve energy and natural...


Information and Progress


The existence of information, conferences, books, tips, be it from the U.S. or Australia in the examples is an excellent first step in promoting the improvement of manufacturing based on sustainability principles. However, information alone is not sufficient to propel manufacturing concerns throughout the U.S. to begin adopting on a large scale more sustainability oriented manufacturing practices.


One challenge to securing broader and more rapid adoption of sustainability oriented manufacturing processes is that there is no universal agreement as to what "sustainability" really means. Tremendous work has been done on creating very useful sustainability "scorecards" and measures, and this is very helpful. In an effort to give a simple, yet direct definition of sustainability in manufacturing, we offer the following definition.


"Sustainable manufacturing processes deploy the optimal use of material and human resources for the long term to produce the desired product."


That is the official definition adopted by the Sustainable Business Group concerning manufacturing and sustainability. It is simple and direct and focuses on one key term: Optimal.


When a manufacturing concern can shave one kilowatt or one cubic foot of natural gas use through energy conservation, without creating an inferior product or inferior work conditions, then it is not operating in a sustainable manner because it is not operating in an optimal manner. Even when it can use less energy in peak times, it becomes a more sustainable manufacturing enterprise since peak energy use is by far the most costly (in dollar and environmental terms) type of energy use that exists.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

If you're planning a live event and you've selected your venue, there are things you can do to make your event run smoothly without stressing on the day.


Selecting a venue is only the first step to preparing the venue for your event. You must also do some planning, and a little networking can make your life a lot easier as your event approaches. Here are five must-know tips to make the venue work for you:


1. Visit the venue before the event.


If possible, visit the venue a couple of times prior to your event. Check out the venue each time. Is there enough lighting at all points during the day? Does the room get too dim or too bright at any point? Does the venue have all of the supplies you'll need for the event? Are there any noises or problematic interruptions throughout the day? Once you've booked a venue, it's time to start planning all of the little details you'll need to manage during your event.


2. Do a "dummy run" on the setup.


Ask the conference manager if it's possible to do a 'dummy run' on the setup before the actual event. Decide how you want to lay out your room, and practice laying out the room that way to ensure it will work. When you do a 'dummy run,' you can spot potential problems with the layout, as well as show the staff directly how you want the room laid out. This can help avoid any problems with miscommunications that result in the room being set up incorrectly.


3. Get to know the staff.


Get to know the staff at the venue. The people setting up the room for you are vital to the success of your event; especially if they're setting up things like coffee or snacks. Ask the staff names, and give them your name to build a bit of warmth and friendliness. If you get to know the staff prior to running your event, and offer them a bit of warmth, they're more likely to help you if something comes up with the event.


4. Set up your event the night before.


When possible, set up your event the night before. This frees you up from running around like a crazy person on the day of the event trying to set things up. You'll already have a thousand details to attend, but knowing that the room is set and the materials you need are available is invaluable.


5. Arrive early to ensure you have all of your materials.


Arrive early on the day of the event to ensure you have all of your materials. Do you have all of your handouts and supplies you'll need for the event? If you don't arrive early, you may discover too late that you're missing vital supplies, and have to take time out from your event or scramble to find a helper to locate the supplies for you.


Free Yourself Up to Focus on the Event


By utilizing these tips to make the venue work for you, you can free yourself up from common venue-related concerns and worries and focus on the event itself. Simple things like getting to know the staff and doing a dummy run on the setup can save you a ton of stress and hassle on the day of the event.

Saturday, December 22, 2012



Frozen yogurt has been popular in the market. Many people like frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt industry is growing. This industry seems to be a prospective business for you who want to start your entrepreneurship. If you are interested in starting frozen yogurt franchise, you can start to learn about frozen yogurt business plan. There are various aspects, which you should know about this business, such as the store and its design, yogurt mix selection, and the equipment. You have to understand the important things in those major aspects before you open a business. This is to make sure that your business will be a blast and you can earn much profit instead of loss.


First of all, you need to learn about the place and the right design of your store. Make sure that you choose the comfortable place and unique design for your store. There are several things to consider related to store and its design. Maybe, you can consider having contemporary furniture, outdoor seating, and wireless internet. These are aimed at making your customer comfortable and enjoy their yogurt. As for the equipment and the supplies, you can get them from donper frozen yogurt supplies. There, you will find equipment with high quality. This is the right place to get the qualified equipment to finally produce yummy yogurt.


Moreover, donper america is well known. This means that you will never get the unqualified products from this supplier. As for the price, you can get affordable price for high quality equipment for your frozen yogurt business. After you have the equipment, you can start creating your own yogurt mix selection. If you say about a franchise, you will have standard mix of the treats. Yet, it does not mean that you cannot be creative in mixing the ingredients to give delicious and affordable treats to people.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

First, I am going to give you the view from Novelis and tell you how we are doing things. I am going to introduce myself. So my mother always says you should never take the jacket off until you've introduced yourself. She also says make sure you got a coat hanger, so there we go. OK, so Novelis is part of the Birla Group. Has anybody ever heard of the Birla Group? It's not so blank-there's a few-Collins has heard of them. I thought, you might have.


Yeah, like I said, June 2007, Novelis was bought by the Birla Group of companies, which immediately increased their end-to-end leverages across a number of markets, cement, aluminum, carbon black, copper, retailing, cell phones-India's biggest cell phone provider, I think, as the numbers go: 13 countries, big market capitalization, more than 100,000 employees, and 20 countries over the globe. So, not a small organization, and one with which bringing Novelis's purely aluminum industry focused business into Birla was very interesting.


I guess the key thing there was that the Birla group does do world class manufacturing processes. They do have programs to deliver that. So Lean Six Sigma and the kind of stuff we were doing was a good fit, but a bit like some of the Toyota things. They wondered why it needed to be special. They just said, "Well, that's how you work, isn't it? Why do you need a special program with special people driving it? Isn't it just something that you do?" So it was a good fit. It's good for Novelis and it's good for the Birla group, and that's pretty much it for the corporate intro.


So Novelis, Europe then-yeah, we've got 6,000 FTs, 14 plants. In 2007 we shipped a million tonnes of aluminum, and that's like a lot, that's like all of it. That's like 20 percent. We have the world's largest hot-rolling aluminum plant in the world. Actually it's in Alunorf in Düsseldorf, a joint venture with Hydro. So the assets that we have around Europe, they're quite diverse in their location. Transport and logistics are obviously interesting with all the different supply chains and there are lots of different cultures in there too. So thinking about a supply chain transformation against that backdrop starts to get quite interesting, quite quickly.


So then the Alunorf is-I think it's the size of 70 or 80 football fields. The footprint of the factory-it's like, when you fly into Düsseldorf, it's the thing you can see from the aircraft. It's that big, it's huge, it has its own railway. This is all kind of run from a HQ point of view from Zurich. So plant-wise, you've got lots of mergers and acquisitions that have come together, you've got diverse equipment, you've got geography, you've got all of the stuff in there. So it's a good one to take as a case study for the transformation.


What do we supply and who to supply? Well, Lots of people actually, with lots of products, maybe not the end-user product. You can see some of the vehicle applications here and general purpose and specialties and what not. The North American operations are more about the sort of the common side with the Anheuser-Busch's and Cokes and those people, but beverage can, food can and all those product ranges. There are a lot of supply chains in there.


The interesting thing about it from my point of view was that when you see an aluminum ingot cast, they actually look very similar-one aluminum ingot looks a lot like another one. It's only when they get to codify weight and the supply chain that they actually start to look like something different that you can recognize as an end-user customer. That's been one of the challenges with our supply chain transformation is to stop bundling material at the start of the supply chain and just hoping that it'll figure its way by the time it gets to the end in the right customer application channels. We have had to work quite hard about that.


As you know, I mean anybody that's involved with automotive, particularly Toyota, things like stopping production lines because of poor OTIF and bad delivery performance just doesn't happen. You can't do that. Also with cane makers and people like...don't take it. Don't take it great, if you phone them often and say you've got to shut down your lines and that is just-it just doesn't happen.


So the behavior that you tend to drive there of course is you get the just-in-case orders that go in and the just-in-case inventory and the just-in-case buffer stock. So you get this whole propagation across the chain with all the geography that goes with it, and you end up with 60 million Euros-100 million Euros spent on transportation-and all your inventory is in trucks, and then in trains and boats and on the Rhine and all these places. It's a huge challenge, huge challenge.


To give you a bit of background, a bit of scene setting, in terms of scale of transformation and the diversity of the products coming through the product lines, in terms of our specific supply chain challenges, I mean in these fluctuating times of metal prices, aluminum has gone anything from nearly $3,500 on the LME down to $2,000 at the moment, and it's like a pogo-ing thing anywhere in between. So your inventory holding value, when you've got a large kilo tonnes in the chain can be hugely significant and punitive.


So in terms of our particular challenges, primary metrics, really for the transformation of our supply chain, are to deliver the OTIF. We can sell OTIF as a business. We can sell it because if customers don't need buffer stocks and they don't need all these intermediate things that protect their supply chain. If we can deliver the OTIF, we can lower those buffer stocks, and we can get commercially better arrangement. It works like that. That's how it is.


Minimize the inventory in the supply chain. A thousand KT of aluminum is a huge number to ship. When you look at the inventory terms that we had within the system, the width we were holding on a month-by-month basis is some colossal numbers, colossal numbers you know. It's lottery number stuff. I'll come onto that in a minute, but yeah, basically the two primary drivers that deliver the OTIF and minimize the inventory in the chain.


This is a real project as well. This isn't like a theoretical thing that we've done here. I wanted to give you a real example and you always walk a fine line between what you can say commercially, and there are all customers in the room, but I think people would rather know that we are improving something than just leaving it to go to the state of dilapidation. So this is a real example.


When you take the map of Europe if you'd like and then you put the metal flows on the top of it. You can see Alunorf there, which really is a huge engine right in the middle: two hot mills, five cold mills, heat-treatments, remount facilities, ingot casting, recycling centers, its own railway. It's a huge engine. Then you look at the geography between all the different plants, different applications, and you look at the kind of metal flows reach for the customers, where do you begin. I mean, do you try and figure out orders in one particular customer application? Do you take a bunch of them? Do you take, try and segment some of them together? Do you do it by plant basis? Do you do it by assets? I mean, you have to do something. So I am going to tell you what we did.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

For the past three decades, one of the biggest frustrations I have confronted in evaluating organizations and organizational management is what I refer to as "dysfunctional operations." The vast majority of organizations do not learn from their past, and even when they do similar tasks, events, etc., on an ongoing basis, they do not use the previous experiences as a guideline, or at least a starting point in doing the task this time around.


I am constantly shocked, for example, about how poorly most organizations negotiate contracts when they hold meetings, conferences or conventions. Effective organizations create and adapt a R.F.P. (Request for Proposal) that they submit to properties, carefully describing their needs and expectations. Almost as bad, however, is often organizations that believe they are using an R.F.P., but that the R.F.P. that they are using does not adequately meet their needs. Numerous organizational leaders have insisted to me that they use an outside professional company to organize their conferences, or at least to negotiate on their behalf. However, in most cases, these organizations are using professional hotel booking companies, whose interest is in booking the hotel rooms, that they receive a commission on. Organizational leaders have often pointed to the contracts that state that the hotel is offering the best rate to the organization, and that using the booking agent in no way adversely impacts the organization's purchase power or pricing. However, experience and logic both indicate that if a hotel is paying a ten percent commission, that is money that they will not offer the organization in terms of areas such as Food and Beverage, concessions, etc.


Organizations should develop and constantly update a manually that will be used often as a reference to getting things done more effectively. One section of that manual might be a listing of vendors that have been used, reason for using the particular vendor, and whether or not the experience with the vendor has been satisfactory.


Another best practice area would include an Annual Calendar of items that need to be done every year. Organizations should create adequate forms and reporting documents, as needed.


If an organization runs an annual conference, meeting, or convention, an in-depth section should be kept as to the requirements needed, so that each year's organizers do not need to "reinvent the wheel."


If the organization has local chapters, chances are that some chapters are more successful than others, and some projects, meetings and ideas have also been more successful than others. There should be a way that local chapters use a reporting form so that other chapters can learn from both the successes and failures of their peers.


Organizations should also track programs run, and evaluate them in terms of costs (both financial, time and personnel), and revenues. Organizations should regularly review this to determine its future efforts and priorities.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012



When it comes to running a successful business or nonprofit organization, having a good human resources management department in place will help you go far. When you are a nonprofit organization, everything you do must be approved by the government as they are basically paying to keep your organization afloat. There are many HR indicators for government nonprofits that should be implemented in your organization already. The first thing the government will look for is whether or not you have an employee handbook or policy written up. This handbook should describe recruitment processes, termination requirements, job descriptions, and the many ACTS, like the family leave ACT, that the organization supports. This handbook or policy should either be given to each employee or posted in a public place that they have access to at all times. The nonprofit should also follow all recruitment and hiring requirements in a non discriminating way. The government also likes to see indicators like giving performance reviews on each employee regularly. This not only is a way for them to monitor your organizations progress but also a way to keep your volunteers and employees motivated.

The nonprofit also has to have some type of compensation plan and a review of the plan in place as well, as most nonprofit are ran either by volunteers or very few employees that are actually getting paid a salary. The organization should also be able to fill needed positions in a timely manner to avoid getting behind or slacking on any of the other important indicators mentioned. Keeping good records is the most important thing any business, especially nonprofits, need to train them to do. Tax papers, HR documents, receipts, memos, emails, you name it, you save it! It is always better to be over prepared than under prepared, especially when handling your HR indicators for government paperwork. All of these indicators are rated on a 3 letter scale system. If the indicator is rated "E" that means it is essential to the core HR department and caseload of the organization. An "R" stands for recommended and while these indicators are not mandatory, they are highly recommended to have in place for any nonprofit. The last rating, "A", are the indicators that are additional features that can dramatically help strengthen all of the organizations activities.

For HR indicators for government nonprofits with only volunteer members, the indicators are much less strict. As always job descriptions and business plans must be clarified for everyone in the organization and posted for all to see. As volunteers do not get paid, the government at least requires an indicator where you set up some type of compensation reward system. Whether this be by planning more activities, providing gifts and certificates, or giving the volunteer more freedom, something has to be done. Research organizations are a good example of a nonprofit with nothing but volunteers. The volunteers are usually passionate about the cause which is why they do not require any pay. Make sure all of your indicators have been met so you can stay on the good side of the government.

Friday, December 7, 2012

This Video Production Company San Francisco certainly is your best option if you are on the run of some campaign programs for your new company’s products. That’s because what this video company could offer as the results will easily surpass many of those regular or conventional products’ campaigns could offer. For one, this video company could make you quite an attractive and interactive contents for your products’ or services’ campaigns. This means that your business campaigns will not just address your potential customers, but they will also ask them to communicate with your campaigns.



If you compare such a highly effective campaign with those of the conventional ones, like the merchandizer for instance, these conventional methods could only do one thing: display your messages or for the most, make people carry them all around. But even when people do walk around carrying or using your conventional merchandizer, such as pens, plastic bags, pins, or t-shirts, you may have doubted whether these people really, for instance, do wear your company T-shirt (thus, flaunting your campaigns to other), or they just wear a T-shirt which happen to bear your company’s logo or message on it! And the latter, of course, could mean some trouble for your campaigns’ success rates.



But when you ask these professionals in this San Fransico video company to make you the interactive video program for your campaigns, at the very least then, you could make sure that these people are spending some amount of specific time to actually watch your program! They, thus, may like your program or not, but the important thing is they watch, and watch them quite attentively! Even if they don’t like or not agree with your program, these people really give response to your campaigns, right? And for all the best purpose of a campaign, that response is the first thing matters, right?

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Last week I told you about a recent report from The Conference Board that has a lot of big company CEOs concerned about competition from smaller, more innovative and entrepreneurially-minded companies. To refresh your memory, The Conference Board's CEO Challenge 2004 reported that 87% of the 540 global businesses surveyed cited innovation and enabling entrepreneurship as priorities for their companies, and 31% considered these issues of "greatest concern."


These CEOs understand that their big company status no longer guarantees that they will win contracts and retain market share based solely on their size and track record. They understand that the greatest threat to their businesses is not coming from the boardrooms of their largest competitors, but from small companies born in garages, on kitchen tables, and in tiny, rented offices.


It's a fact that smaller companies, by need and design, are more innovative, more flexible, more decisive, and faster to move than their larger brethren who are entrenched in operational processes and corporate procedures. Small companies are typically not led by career executives for whom every decision must be predicated by hours of meetings and mounds of documentation. Most small companies are led by their founders; men and women who were cut from an entrepreneurial cloth that has yet to fade. It is when a company grows to the point that the founder steps aside to make way for professional managers that the company loses its innovative nature and entrepreneurial flair.


The good news for large companies is that they have definite advantages over small companies, especially when it comes to resources and funding. Turning a Goliath into a raging horde of David's is never easy, but it can be done if the company is willing to make changes to internal processes and attitudes, and commit the time, money, and personnel to make it happen.


Since size and number of years in business are no longer differentiators in the competitive marketplace what must large companies do to become more innovative and entrepreneurial? To begin they must do three things: shorten the process time, cut through the red tape, and promote innovative and entrepreneurial thinking from the top down. If the board, the CEO, executives, managers, supervisors, and employees are not dedicated 100% to making the changes necessary to transform the company, the effort will fail and the giant will lumber on.


Shorten The Process Time


At large companies everything is done by the book, i.e. by established processes and procedures. Very little gets done at large companies without what I call the "Multiples of M." Multiple Meetings to discuss the issue; Multiple Memos to reiterate the issue; and Multiple Management approvals required to sign off on the issue. To become more innovative and entrepreneurial large companies must streamline the decision-making process down to a single set of M's: Move on or Make it happen.


Cut Through The Red Tape


Here's a true example from my corporate days that illustrates how procedures and red tape get in the way of efficient operations A fluorescent bulb in my office blew, which made the other bulb in the fixture flicker like a strobe light at a discotheque (causing flashbacks that we won't discuss). I assumed getting a new bulb would be a simple matter of calling down to the facilities office and reporting the problem. My assumption was wrong. I was told that I would have to come to the facilities office, which was in another building 2 miles away, fill out a facilities request form, and take the form back to my immediate supervisor, who was required to stick his head in my office to confirm that the bulb was indeed out before signing the form. I assume this was to make sure that I was not trying to commandeer a fluorescent bulb under false pretenses.


Once my supervisor confirmed that I really did need a new bulb, he signed the form and I took it back to the facilities office, foolishly thinking that they would hand me a bulb that I could take back to my office. Oh no, that would have been too simple. I was told that once my form was approved by the facilities manager a maintenance worker would be dispatched to my office and would replace the bulb for me. Great, I said. When can I expect that to happen?


"I can have someone over there a week from Tuesday between noon and 5pm," the man at the facilities desk replied. I suddenly felt like I was dealing with the cable company. How many big company employees does it take to change a light bulb? I lost count at four.


Encourage Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking


Next, you must create an environment in which innovation and entrepreneurial thinking are encouraged and rewarded. If your employees feel that their opinions, thoughts and ideas don't matter, they will not submit them to you, but may take them elsewhere.


Again, based on my own experience, I can tell you that innovation, especially innovation that occurs below the management level, is often ignored, ridiculed, and in some cases, used as an excuse to give employees the boot. The perfect example of this was when I took an idea on how to improve an internal system to my manager and was told, "Knox, you think too much." Now this was a new one on me. I had been accused of thinking too little and of not thinking at all, but never had I been accused of thinking too much. I do recall my dad telling me when I was young, "Son, if you had a brain you'd be dangerous." I suppose my manager was simply trying to relay the same message. "Shut up and go to your room/cubicle like a good little boy/company drone before you get on my nerves and get spanked/fired." Within a few months I decided to take my overactive brain and put it to work for myself. After 10 years of business success, I think I made the right decision.


To promote innovation and entrepreneurship big companies must encourage everyone to think like innovators and entrepreneurs. Make it a company policy that such thinking is required, expected and rewarded. Pose these questions: (1) How can we improve our current products and services; (2) What new uses can you think of for current products or services; (3) What new products and services can you think of that would be good additions to our current offerings or perhaps even launch a new line; (4) What new opportunities do you see in the market place that might be worth pursuing?


Get Outside Help


Most large companies find it difficult to develop and implement an innovation plan simply because they refuse to devote the time and resources to getting it done. And since most executives have never been entrepreneurs, they do not know how to encourage entrepreneurial thinking among their ranks. If your company needs help with innovation and entrepreneurship, bring in someone from the outside to direct and manage the effort for you.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Nowadays, we can find much joblessness around the world. They don not have job to do that makes them became the joblessness. Such this case can be caused by some reasons for instance having no skills that can support their selves to get job, the laziness to work hard, or the limited job field that need some skills for the workers. As we know, there is some information that joblessness can be found easily in some countries. It is a general truth since rate of the joblessness increase day by day. Right, are you included as one of the joblessness? If you say yes, and it means an agreement, you may not be worried because there is work of money online. It means that you can earn much money through online. So, it is a very simple way in making money online in your daily time.


Making money online can be used as your enjoyable job, or we can call it as a useful hobby. Naturally, you need not go someplace or office to earn money. In working online, you have to know some ways of making money as well as possible in order that you can develop or increase your business. In addition, you should be creative and skillful in operating online work. As a result, if you have both important aspects, you will find the ways to earn money as much as possible. Conveniently, making money online is a big opportunity as the job field. It will also be the big business opportunities for sale. In other words, making money online will not waste your time and energy since you can do all in your stay. So, you can enjoy your day easygoing, and you just focus online in your seat while gathering with your family or friends.

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