On these figures, the Japanese manufacturer wants to continue with the fourth edition of the Micra. As a so-called “world car”, he will in future be offered in at least 160 countries. We have in the Copenhagen European version has been thoroughly examined.

Longer and wider, but lower
Smart design, plenty of space and light weight – those were the objectives in the development of new so-called V-platform, which builds on the Micra. Compared to its predecessor, the new Micra has indeed grown, but also a little less brave and smart. In length (plus 61 millimeters) and width (15 millimeter) of small cars has risen, in the amount it has shrunk to two centimeters. But the trick with a rounder body shape of the previous model was inspired at least in part: The roof now runs precisely, but the upper window line is drawn when a new dome-like.

Lots of headroom in the rear

The longer drawn back roof section allows the passengers in the rear seats surprising amount of headroom. For the legs in the back of a small car is obviously not too much space, as well as the Micra is no exception. The interior is decorated rather objective. On the dashboard are highlighted on the round air vents. On fancy gimmicks design is otherwise waived Fortunately, what benefits the uncomplicated operation. Depending on trim level and features like automatic climate control, cruise control and navigation system are also available.The 265-liter trunk can be increased in two stages.If one of the rear seat backs, however, remains a significant step in the cargo floor. It disappears by the complete seat unit also folds forward – then hold up to 1132 liters of luggage into the compartment.

Three instead of four cylinders

To start the Micra will initially be only one engine type to have. The 1.2-liter gasoline engine as in the previous 80 PS content, but now with three instead of four cylinders. 110 Newton meters of torque, 13.7 seconds to accelerate to 100 km and 170 km / h top speed figures reveal that there is no dynamic at the start. But that will not be any of the Micra.But even in urban areas and cozy cross-country trip he shows motorized properly.

For the city, we recommend the CVT

The standard five-speed gearbox is notchy something. Who is traveling mostly in the city should, therefore, the choice of CVT automatic transmission should be considered. This ensures their continuous translation during stop-and-go traffic for very comfortable moving forward. With sometimes only 1,000 to 1,500 rpm it is also pleasantly quiet road. Only at full speed then affects the hard loud roar of engines. While the handset is content according to the manufacturer with exactly five liters of premium, needs the 0.4 liter version with CVT but more fuel.

2011 follows economical gasoline engine compressor

At a diesel Nissan Micra deliberately dispensed with, since the spring of 2011, a further variant of gasoline take the part of the fuel saver. Its 1.2-liter engine is also charged by a compressor which has a direct and is combined with a start-stop system.With manual transmission to the 98-hp version only consume four liters of fuel and emit only 95 grams of CO2. For this the most economical and cleanest gasoline Micra would be at all.

Handy and versatile

3.78 meters short of the Micra is designed primarily as a city car and turns in the urban environment as a handy, nimble runabout. Highlight is about the small turning circle of only nine yards. The chassis is designed for the European Micra version tailored to the local needs and presents a total daily use.Shocks are quite coarse, however, transferred directly to the passengers.

“Park Guide” helps to find a parking space

As a particularly useful option is the “Park Guide” advertised. If one looks a parking space, can be this wizard to enable either the left or right side.Recognize at speeds below 25 km / h then sensors, whether a parking space big enough for the vehicle.A distinction between the Park Guide “OK”, “difficult” and “unwise”. But in contrast to the parking assistants from VW, which then automatically takes over the steering, must take the Micra drivers complete the subsequent parking for themselves what makes the park guide is not essential in our eyes.

As standard with ESP

The Micra comes in late November 2010 at the dealership and is offered in three trim levels. The base model has as standard Visia ESP, six airbags, three headrests in the back seat and 14-inch wheels. The door handles and mirror housings are painted in unpainted plastic. The Micra Acenta has 15-inch wheels, color-keyed door handles, mirror housings and bumper guards. In addition, an automatic climate control, cruise control, a CD radio and a Bluetooth hands-free on board. The top version Tekna also has a navigation system, fog lamps, a large information display and a keyless entry and start system.

Cheaper than before

With € 10 740 is the starting price for the Micra less than € 2,000 for a three-door VW Polo with 70-horsepower gasoline engine. Micra Acenta for at least 13 240 € are due, the Tekna is to have from 15 440 €. Thus, the base prices fall below the same period 480-1120 € than for the corresponding previous models with three doors.The new Micra is now only offered as a five-door hatchback. The exact prices for individual equipment details, Nissan announced soon. (Mn)

Nissan Micra positioned as a city car and is doing the absolutely right: Cities turns out the little Japanese as a straightforward, robust and handy runabout. In terms of body design, we would have liked the new Micra, though slightly more of the cleverness of its predecessor. But already now we wait eagerly for the economical three-cylinder compressor, comes in the spring of 2011.

Nissan Micra 1.2 Acenta

Motor and drive

Otto-line engine
3 cylinder, 4 valves per cylinder
Displacement: 1,198 cc
max. Power: 59 kW (80 hp) at 6,000 r /
max. Torque: 110 Nm at 4,000 r /
Front-wheel drive
5-speed manual transmission

Landing gear
Front track: 1,470 mm
Rear track: 1,475 mm
Front Suspension: Independent, MacPherson struts, coil springs
Suspension Rear: torsion beam axle with coil springs
Front brakes: ventilated disc brakes
Rear brakes: drum brakes
Turning radius: 9.0 m
Wheels and Tyres front: 175/60 ​​R 15 5.5J x 15
Rear wheels and tires: 175/60 ​​R 15 5.5J x 15
Steering: Rack and pinion steering with speed-sensitive electric power assist.

Dimensions and weights
Length: 3,780 mm
Width: 1,675 mm
Height: 1,520 mm
Wheelbase: 2,450 mm
Empty weight: 980 kg
Payload: 415 kg
Luggage capacity: 265-1132 liters
Fuel tank capacity: 41 liters

Readings

Maximum speed: 170 km / h
Acceleration 0-100 km / h: 13.7 sec
Total consumption: 5.0 liters per 100 km
Fuel consumption: city: 6.1 liters per 100 km
Extra-urban consumption: 4.3 liters per 100 km
CO2 emissions: 115 g / km
Fuel type: Super
Emission class: € 5

As a group, SMSF trustees control a staggering amount of money and we should start thinking as professional fund managers rather than as “mum and dad” retail investors. I had a look at the Education for Professionals section on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) website and I found a document on education for Australian Equity Fund Managers. Most of the presentations mentioned in this document are about using options to hedge risk and to generate additional income, which sound very much like what I have been doing for my SMSF.

Just knowing this has certainly boosted my confidence in my own investment management capabilities. I used to think that all professional fund managers would surely be more knowledgeable than me but if the ASX still needs to educate some of them on what I already know, that may not necessarily be the case. My suspicions have been further confirmed by this article “Aussie Super funds are Among the Worst” in the Herald Sun on 25 June 2009, which tells us that a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that Australian super funds turned in the second-worst performance of all 30 OECD countries, suffering losses of almost 27 per cent last year. I am really glad we decided to take control of our super savings by starting our own SMSF in 2007. Instead of losses, we are expecting a positive return for the last financial year.

There is a risk even in ‘safe’ investments such as bank deposits, because the earnings from interest may not be able to beat the rate of inflation. In financial matters risk can be translated as a state of uncertainty. It is a kind of deviation from the standard norms.

It is said that the more risk you take, the more income you can make. The deeper you dive into the ocean, the more valuable gems you can find. The opportunity to make profits from your investment is associated with the possibility of suffering losses as well. While this argument is true to a great extent, taking risk should not become a game of gambling.

You cannot work in a state of fear and uncertainty. Protecting yourself against excessive losses in stock trading is called risk management.

The risk in stock trading stems primarily from the unpredictability or the volatility of the stock market. You do not know when the price of your stock will suddenly fall. You have to live and work with the anxiety and fear of the unknown.

A shrewd stock trader takes risks and uses protective measures to reduce the possibility of losses. You should not dive into the ocean without protective life saving equipment.

Risk management, first involves understanding the risks and then devising measure to secure against them. You need to properly evaluate the market risks and the level of uncertainty surrounding them. Once you understand the nature of the risk and the level of your tolerance, the element of fear associated with risk is substantially reduced.

Here are some examples of risks that are an inevitable accompaniment of stock trading.

The sudden ‘crash’ in stock market price is often cited as an example of risk. The implications of crash, however, differ from investor to investor.

Suppose you bought a stock at $ 100 per share. Its value increased to $200 in 15 months. Suddenly there was a correction in stock prices. The price of your stock fell to, say, $50 per share. This was a crash for you.

On the other hand if the price of your stock rose substantially above your buy price and fell down a little, it would not be a crash for you.

In another example, the price of your stock has risen substantially over your buy price. Then there is news in the media about a strong and imminent correction. There is a kind of stampede among the shareholders in selling off their stock. Obviously the prices of the shares will fall. The next day, the correction does happen, but it comes as a far cry from being a potential collapse. It was like a straw that hit the camel’s back.

How should you manage your risk in stock trading?

1. The first and most important step in managing your risk in stock trading is to diversify your portfolio. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. If you lose in one stock, you gain from the other. The loss will be nullified to some extent.

Diversification means that not only should you invest in a variety of stocks, but you should also invest in different types of investment plans. For example, you may invest in ETFs, dividend reinvestment plans-DRIPs-scheduled investment plans, retirement plans, and education plans and so on.

2. Price fluctuations are a characteristic feature of stock trading. You must take a long-term horizon in investment. It has been found that despite ups and downs in stock prices that occur almost on daily basis, the value of good quality stock rises over a period of time. Patience and forbearance are matchless virtues in stock trading. Don’t let you heart beat fast or slow with every rise or fall in price of your stock.

3. If you are a short-term investor, you must learn to fix an achievable target on the profit margin on your investment. You may, for example, fix a return of 10% to 20% on your investment. As soon as the price of your stock rises to this level, you must sell off your stock even if its price appears to be shooting through the roof. Do not be taken in by the greed to let your investment double or treble before you decide to sell it. The price of the stock may crash down any moment dashing your dreams to dust.

We consider these to be the domain of experienced traders only, particularly as they are leveraged products which work both ways – they have the potential to magnify losses as well as gains.

We suggest that traders should learn how to successfully trade stocks profitably for a few years first – to master their skills in analysis, money and risk management – before you consider trading leveraged products.

It was with great concern that we received the following from one CFD trader this week:

“Hi,

I have decided to stop trading for 6 months due to “blowing out” my CFD trading account through some poor position sizing and risk management. Nothing I couldn’t afford to lose, but I can’t afford to lose any more.

As such – I wish to remove all possible trading distractions and hence I request to cancel my subscription as per your one month notice policy. I liked the newsletter and was considering signing up for Boot Camp, but I am afraid I no longer have the funds to trade and really need to reset.

I can see now why CFD’s are not much better than poker machines for those people who understand the odds against putting hundreds of dollars into a poker machine and don’t play them. (Like myself)

CFD’s seemed like a good way to trade on a small account ($5K), but the ease of trading, the commissions on trades (I spent $1000 on commissions when I totalled it all up last week – 20% of my account), the large share parcels on small stop/losses, slippage from gaps all contributed.

The major factor though was some false confidence that I thought I knew what the market was going to do next and so what I thought was trading was probably more punting. In addition, some seminars, trading books, newsletters and software packages added another $5K to the losing experience.

I have decided to step away from trading for 6 months (I have to – my wife won’t give me any more of our holiday savings at the moment) – save some capital and re-launch with some education… I will keep an eye out on your web site for the next Boot Camp later in the year.

I will contact you in the future and perhaps re-launch my trading with one of your Camps.

Thanks and regards

John M

PS Thanks again for your interest which I do appreciate – you are no doubt extremely busy… to take the time to personally respond for a $30/mth subscription cancellation email has been one of the positives in my current trading career to date. I look forward to joining you again in the future.

PPS There may be an idea there for an article for your newsletter about the challenges for new traders, psychology and CFD’s….

The stock market can provide the most expensive education possible.

Its times like these that traders have to make the decision to quit and walk away completely …….. or pull themselves away from physically trading, consider what they did, what lessons they learnt, then very importantly seek out the education to put themselves back on track .

As we have shown in our newsletter, through the work of Dr Brett Steenbarger, Brian McAboy and Catherine Taylor, the subject of trading psychology is a cornerstone to trading and investing success. Over the past year we have particularly come to appreciate the coaching work of Catherine in helping traders around the world understand themselves better, set goals and strive to achieve more.

Following up on John’s suggestion for an article about the “….. challenges for new traders, psychology and CFD’s”, we invited Catherine to comment on John’s situation from her perspective. We thank her for her reply:

Dear John

Ouch! My heart hurt when I read your story. It reminded me of two famous quotes:

“Men are disturbed not by things that happen, but by their opinions of the things that happen.” Epictetus (55-135) and

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Henry Ford

It’s painful to see someone withdraw from trading or any game due to some poor decisions and lack of knowledge.

The way I see it is if you could actually attend Boot Camp and stay with the newsletter, you could not only turn your trading around with time, but also your esteem, confidence and life in general.

The following is from Robert Kiyosaki, who literally slept in his car after his first business failed and before he wrote his best selling book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’:

“Most people choose not to be rich. For 90% of the population, being rich is ‘too much of a hassle.’

So they invent sayings that go, ‘I’m not interested in money.’ Or ‘I don’t have to worry, I’m still young.’ Or ‘When I make money, then I’ll think about my future.’ Or ‘My husband/wife handles the finances.’

The problem with those statements is they rob the person who chooses to think such thoughts of two things: one is time, which is your most precious asset, and two is learning.

Just because you have no money, it should not be an excuse not to learn. But that is the choice we make daily, the choice of what we do with our time, our money and what we put in our heads. That is the power of choice. All of us have choice. I just choose to be rich, and I make that choice every day.

INVEST FIRST IN EDUCATION. In reality, the only asset you have is your mind, the most powerful tool we have dominion over.”

I think you have to admit Robert has got a great point there. I have personally worked with Robert and I know he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge. Knowledge is fundamental to winning in any game. By allowing yourself the opportunity to attain more knowledge, you then have the opportunity of turning your game of trading around.

Success is the goal of any trader in the market with visions of increased income, ever increasing capital and a lifestyle to their making.

By definition, success is the condition or fact of achieving the desired objective. It’s purely about achieving your target, objective or intention. Success is an extremely personal state of being.

When you started out trading, you had a target that you wanted to reach, It was your personal goal. Okay, so on this occasion you have experienced the opposite to success, a ‘learning experience’ that unfortunately is more frequently labelled failure.

Congratulations! Why? Because you have discovered what didn’t work and therein lays a pot of gold. Your ‘learning experience’ is something of incredible value. Embrace it!

Failure is often the doorway to success – dependent upon what you do with it. Ceasing to trade is admirable and I really acknowledge your action of no longer trading and taking the time to reset at this point in time.

Total withdrawal does not support you nor get you any closer to fulfilling your original intention.

Most of us withdraw from an area after a learning experience because contact with the area that we didn’t achieve success in (be it trading, relationships, business or health goals to name a few) causes us pain and discomfort.

The more Present we are with something or someone, the closer we are to it. The more withdrawn or Absent, the further away we get. After a learning experience it is paramount we draw closer to the area, embrace it, get really Present – be there!

Why? So you can extract a wealth of wisdom, correct on and add to some of your existing knowledge.

Use your innate resilience to be Present and capitalise on what you have already spent in losses, commissions, courses and software plus the time, energy and attention that you have invested to date.

You have already started on laying a foundation and now that foundation just needs some work. Continue to invest in yourself and your education.

And finally, here’s another secret that all the successful people I have worked with have as part of their fundamental philosophy; take on the mindset of an apprentice.
Acknowledge that there is much to learn, much that you don’t know. Allow yourself to make mistakes – manage your risk and grant yourself the time necessary to work toward a level of mastery.

Here is to your capitalising on your knowledge and learning experiences to date. I wish you every success John, both in your trading and personally.

In this era of “faster, cheaper and better”, companies are focusing on improving the product development process. New business strategies, new organizational approaches, new business processes and new enabling technology are being used by many forward-thinking companies to continually improve their product development process. How does a company keep up with these fast-paced changes? Some of the improvement opportunities are obvious to personnel within an organization. Other opportunities may not be obvious, or there are so many things to do that it becomes a question of where to start. Management will typically have a number of questions on the their minds: How do we compare with the rest of industry? With the best in industry? What are our strengths and weaknesses? Is our development process aligned with our strategic objectives? What improvements need to be made? Where do we start? What are our priorities given the resources that we have available? What benefits can we expect? How can we figure this out quickly so that we can get started?

ASSESSMENT

No organization can improve all aspects of product development at once. The implementation of product development best practices can best be viewed as a journey (continuing process improvement) rather than a destination. Priorities need to be developed for implementing the best practices of product development. The organization must start by understanding what practices should be adopted (what is possible). Next it must consider its strategic direction (e.g., time-to-market, being the low cost producer, the most innovative producer, the highest quality/reliability producer, flexibility to respond to new products and markets) given its market, its objectives, and its competitors. Next, the organization must assess its strengths and weaknesses. By focusing on the “gap” between where a company is and where it needs to be, priorities can be set for making improvements. This is represented in below.

No organization can improve all aspects of product development at once. The implementation of product development best practices can best be viewed as a journey (continuing process improvement) rather than a destination. Priorities need to be developed for implementing the best practices of product development. The organization must start by understanding what practices should be adopted (what is possible). Next it must consider its strategic direction (e.g., time-to-market, being the low cost producer, the most innovative producer, the highest quality/reliability producer, flexibility to respond to new products and markets) given its market, its objectives, and its competitors. Next, the organization must assess its strengths and weaknesses. By focusing on the “gap” between where a company is and where it needs to be, priorities can be set for making improvements. This is represented in below.

Several years ago, we led a consortium to identify product development and time-to-market best practices. These practices were derived from: corporate visits, consulting assignments, conferences, workshops and meetings, literature review, telephone discussions, technology vendors, the Navy Best Manufacturing Program, the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Capability Maturity Models (CMM), the AT&T Handbook series, and other corporate handbooks. This practices are continually being updated as new best practices emerge and are identified and as current best practices become standard practice and are no longer noteworthy.

These practices were organized into a framework with five major dimensions: strategy, organization, process, design optimization and technology and twenty-eight best practice categories (equivalent to Process Areas in CMM Terminology). In excess of 270 best practices have been identified . These are described in a commercially-available benchmarking tool, the Product Development Best Practices and Assessment (PDBPA) software. This software tool is used to provide an understanding of these best practices, to enable rapid and inexpensive benchmarking, and to support business process improvement. These best practices are organized into the following categories for summarization and reporting purposes:

8.9 Emphasize design re-use of modules, parts, cores, cells, part models, requirements documents, plans, technical documentation, simulation models, fixtures, tooling, etc. to minimize development cost and schedule.

11.8 Tightly manage requirements to minimize changes that will require redesign cycles. Consider addressing new requirements in the next release or next generation product.

13.4 Get suppliers involved early to collaborate and utilize their ideas and suggestions and to develop a design that is compatible with their process capabilities.

23.7 Use product data management systems to both control product data and streamline the process through workflow capabilities. This speeds and controls the flow of information.

24.4 Use electronic mock-up and assembly modeling capabilities rather than building physical mock-ups.

25.1 Emphasize early analysis and simulation to minimize build and test cycles with physical hardware.

By looking at the level of performance related to these strategic levers, a competitive strategy is implied. The question becomes whether this implied strategy is in agreement with the intended strategy.

One way to view the overall implied strategy is to look at the weighted average of the performance ratings for the best practices that are strategic levers associated with each of six competitive dimensions or strategies. A high weighted average performance rating for a particular strategic dimension compared with the weighted average performance ratings in other strategic dimensions suggests that the product development process has been strategically aligned to that strategic dimension. Ideally, the rankings of these weighted average performance ratings should be aligned with the intended strategy priorities. If not, the product development process needs to be improved by applying the best practices that are strategic levers for the desired strategy.

ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT

In addition to the performance rating against each best practice and for each higher level category, an overall performance rating is developed by again assigning a weighting factor to each category based on their importance given the nature of the business and the product. This performance rating, when compared to that of other companies, gives an indication of the urgency of improving the development process.

Gap analysis is then employed to focus attention on the improvement opportunities that will yield the highest payoff. The categories with high weighting factors (indicating their importance to your product development success) and relatively low performance ratings yield the largest gaps between what is important to the organization and what it does well. These are the areas that require the highest priority in improving the development process and will likely have the largest payoff. On the other hand, categories with low importance ratings and relatively high performance ratings indicate low priority areas not deserving as much attention.

The strategic alignment analysis and gap analysis become the basis for identifying implementation actions and priorities. The concept is to pick a manageable number of improvement initiatives to focus your attention on. An example of this performance summary and gap analysis is shown:

Once the large gap categories are identified, an examination of the individual best practices with lower performance ratings will help identify the specific areas that require attention. In addition, identify and focus on the strategic levers that have low performance ratings and that are associated with the organization’s intended strategy. Therefore, as a prerequisite, executive management must define a vision for product development and determine the competitive strategy as a basis for for aligning product development practices and developing implementation priorities. This analysis becomes the basis for developing priorities and, eventually, an improvement or implementation plan.

In addition, the expertise of an internal manager or outside consultant very knowledgeable in integrated product development concepts and improvement strategies can aid in identifying priorities. This expertise is important because of natural relationships and sequences with the implementation and use of these best practices. For example, moving to a digital product model as a replacement for paper drawings is not realistic until there is a certain level of CAD capability, workstation access to the model, product data management system, and network infrastructure in place. Experience and good project planning is needed to translate these high priority improvement needs into specific actions, responsibilities, schedules and assignments.

Personnel resources to support implementation or improvement activities are required. If the overall performance rating is low, a critical mass of personnel within the organization needs to develop an understanding of the concepts of IPD. These people can then refine the implementation plan, perform various implementation activities, be involved in defining the desired way to develop new products based on IPD approaches, and assist in communicating the desired approach to the rest of the organization.

The implementation plan should begin with the low cost activities that yield high payoffs. In the absence of any other indications of strengths and weaknesses, we believe these initial actions should include forming product development teams as the basis for product development, establishing effective product/project planning and resource management, and utilizing the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology as a method for capturing and understanding the voice of the customer. As these steps begin to generate savings, the organization can move on to other IPD elements and self-fund the initiative.

There are two elements of implementation planning that must be addressed. The first one that has been described is the implementation plan for the enterprise activities. It covers all the activities to create the IPD environment for all development projects  the activities that cannot cost effectively be done by an individual development project. This would include defining a streamlined product development process, developing manufacturability guidelines, installing appropriate CAD/CAE/CAM and product data management system tools, etc.

The second plan element, the project deployment plan, the IPD actions that will be taken to support an individual product development project. This plan would be developed with the participation of the member of management responsible for the development effort, e.g., engineering manager, program manager, product line manager, etc. This plan would address the team structure required to support the project, a staffing plan supporting early involvement, the training requirements, facilities and collocation implications, the technical resources required (workstations, software, etc.), the use of techniques such as quality function deployment, supplier/subcontractor involvement, the development methodology, establishment of project policies and strategies, etc.

SUMMARY

Many organizations take totally different directions in the evolution of their product development process. While some of these differences are the result of legitimate differences in their business strategy, business environment, organization, and the nature of their products, a frequent problem is the lack of a common framework of the best practices of product development. With extensive investment of time, an organization could develop the broad, internal expertise necessary to produce an effective improvement plan for product development. This would require significant training, attendance at conferences, and extensive benchmarking. This structured Product Development Best Practices and Assessment methodology based on these 270 best practices of product development provides an inexpensive alternative to identifying strengths and weaknesses relative to a common framework of an extensive set of best practices. This enables an organization to more quickly develop an action plan for improving the development process.