BUSINESS PRACTICE ASSIGNMENT

CONSUMER GUARANTEES ACT:

The Consumer Guarantees Act is a legislation created for the protection of consumers.

The Act covers goods - like new and secondhand goods purchased for personal, domestic or household use - and covers almost everything in and around the home - even gas, electricity and water.

The Act also covers services. Basically, if you pay for a service, including plumbers, painters (anything worked on by a tradesman), professional services (dentist, doctor etc) plus all other services (insurers, travel agents etc) you are covered by the Consumers Guarantee Act.

The Act also applies to gifts, and it applies to hired goods.

The Act does not cover private sales or goods sold by auction or tender.

So - in general, this piece of legislation has been put in place to give protection to the consumer in purchasing goods and services. It holds the seller accountable for the quality of the goods/services they are selling/offering. The seller cannot contract out of the Act.


FAIR TRADING ACT:

The Fair Trading Act prohibits false and misleading consumer information.

The Fair Trading Act has been implemented to promote fair competition to all New Zealanders. It stops certain conduct in Trade, promotes safety and provides for the disclosure of consumer information in the relation to the supply of goods and services. The goal of the Act is so that consumers can be confident in the accuracy of information they get when making choices. Businesses are obliged to provide accurate information so that consumers can make the right choices.

The Acts primary focus is on trade - from banks' to a local plumber. It applies to all aspects of promotion and sale of goods and services. Business cannot contract out of their obligations under the Act.

Basically - all people in business need to be transparent and have knowledge about what they are selling. They need to be knowledgable in any services provided to the public. It is protection for the general public.

To help business owners' understand if their services offered comply under the Fair Trading Act, the Commerce Commission publishes fact sheets and guidelines for businesses and consumers to help understand their obligations and rights.


HEALTH AND SAFETY IN EMPLOYMENT ACT

The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 is to promote the prevention of harm to all people at work, and others in and around the vicinity of places of work.

This Act applies to all New Zealand workplaces and places duties/responsibilities on employers, self employed, employees, principals and others who are placed in a position to manage or control hazards.

The law promotes systematic management of health and safety at work. It requires employees to maintain safe working environments, and implement these in a sound practice.

The Act is about making workplace and activities safe and healthy for everyone that is connected with them.

The Act requires that work place look to the general information and regulations, code of practice and best practice guidelines.

The standard expected to have achieved is that of having taken all reasonably practicable steps achieved to make work safe - what can be responsibility accepted. They aren't expected to deal with occurances that they couldn't have possibly known or controlled.

The Act does not set out to tell people how to make particular work situations safe and healthy - but provides all of the information  for work places to get the knowledge they need and to approach this systematically.

DANGEROUS GOODS ACT

A workplace must comply with the Dangerous Goods Act 1988. These regulations are designed to ensure that dangerous goods are stored and handled appropriately.

Dangerous Goods are substances that may be corrosive, flamable, explosive, spontaneously combustable, toxic, oxidising, or water reactive. These goods can be deadly and can seriously damage property and the environment. Therefore it is important to read the code if you handle, store or transport these goods. The legislation effectively ensures the control of associated risks.

The employer has the responsibility to ensure that people carry out these duties under the regulation on their behalf   and that people have the appropriate competencies to enable them to perform these tasks correctly. These are obtained through training, education or experience or a combination of these.

business practice

Warrantees
A written guarantee given to the purchaser of a new appliance, automobile, or otheritem by the manufacturer or dealer, usually specifying that the manufacturer willmake any repairs or replace defective parts free of charge for a stated period of time.

Quarantees
A promise or assurance, especially one in writing, that something is of specified quality,content, benefit, etc., or that it will perform satisfactorily for a given length of time.

Quotations
A quote is a written agreement, given to a customer before the required work is done. Once a company has given a customer a written quote; it becomes a legal document, in which the given price for the job is not allowed to change. This includes things like labour, materials and parts.

Estimates
To form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size,weight, etc.

Charge-out Rate
When providing a service as a small business, it is crucial to determine your charge-out rate. This is the amount you charge a consumer for the services you have provided. This rate depends on a number of factors, including the market value of the work, experience, type of work performed, the price of the competition, and the amount of overhead that is coming in. Your charge-out rate will vary with various conditions, but it is important when starting a business to have a fair rate to attract customers.

How to calculate a charge-out rate

1.  Figure out how much money you need to make to cover your expenses. Expenses include materials, wages, advertising and anything else that will take away from your profit base.
2. Look at what your competitors are charging for similar services. You should look into how long they have been in the business and how well they are rated throughout the community.
3. Determine whether or not your charge-out rate will be based on an hour or daily rate. An hourly rate allows for a more controlled wage, especially if you have overtime hours. A daily rate may entice customers who want a firm grasp on what they are going to pay.
4. Understand the current market factors that may determine a charge-out. If the economy is not doing well or if unemployment is high, then you may not be able to sell your services at a higher rate.
5. Take into account the amount of workable days in the year. There are 365 days in a year, but actual working days are whittled down by weekends, vacations, holidays and possible sick days. On average, the amount of work days comes down to somewhere in the 230 range.
6. Calculate your charge-out rate from here. Set your goal income for the year. Divide that goal income by the amount of days you will work. Then divide the amount from that by the amount of hours per day you wish to work. This will be your charge-out rate for your customers.

Courtesy Service
Business courtesy is a very important act of expression in a business setting. Overflow people with politeness and kindness. Use your words generously to everyone around you. To be courteous is to be liked and remembered. 


Be courteous in words and in actions to generate a positive force that everyone will be attracted to. People are attracted by positive energy like a moth to a flame and your etiquette will be the generator, and motivator for people to come to you. In business, courtesy is too important to ignore and those who do will be cast out eventually.

Cultural Issues
New Zealand is a multicultural nation and because of this, there will always be cultural issues in the work place. Some of the issues that are most evident; are the different languages and accents of  people in the workforce. While each person has a different accent; when interacting with paying customers, the best will be to speak clearly and listen carefully. When this is achieved, both customer and employee will have an understanding of what the job entails.

ignition systems

The ignition system is one of the most important systems on the internal combustion engine. The purpose of the system is to ignite the fuel-air mixture in the combustion chamber. There are several components in the system which are used to create spark and regulate timing. Diesel systems do not have an electronic ignition system as pressure is used to ignite the fuel, however glow plugs are used to preheat the combustion chamber. Virtually all petrol engines have spark ignition.

What two substances are mixed together to form electrolyte a battery?

An automotive battery has lead plates and an electrolyte solution which is made up of Sulfuric acid and distilled water. This cause a chemical reaction and releases electrons and produce electricity.

What three elements are required to make a petrol engine run effectively?

For a petrol engine to run effectively and efficiently it requires: Spark, Air, and Fuel. This include the quality and delivery of these elements. The spark needs to be powerful to overcome the compression in the cylinder and ignite the fuel. it also has to be delivered at precisely the right moment. The flow of air into the engine has to be consistent and the amount of air has to sufficient otherwise the engine will not run. Fuel must also be delivered consistently and in the right amounts. to little and the engine will not run or will run poorly, too much fuel and the engine will flood.

Explain the operation of a 'kettering ignition system', including all components from the battery to the spark plug

The Kettering ignition system is a mechanical ignition timing system used on outboard motors and early cars. Electricity from the battery travels to the coil and charges it up there are capacitors on the line which stop voltage spikes , the release of spark is controlled by a cam on the crankshaft which opens a contact breaker and creates a spark. the spark is distributed to the spark plugs by a distributor or on multi coil engines through a C coil on cylinder head. disadvantages of the Kettering system is the potential for wear on the contact breakers and cam lobe, which in turn affects sparking.

Give an explanation of dwell angle in a distributor

Dwell angle is a measurement of the amount of time that a coil has to charge before it releases another spark. An average dwell angle on a 4 cylinder engine is 52 degrees. Which means that the coil has 52degrees to recharge and fire a spark on the distributor. if the dwell angle is too small the spark may not be fully charged and if it is too large the engine may misfire. Dwell angle can be adjusted on a distributor engine with a mechanical adjustment ( a screw, or movement). Dwell angle is adjusted on electronic ignition systems through a computer.

 

Explain why the 'Heat range' of a spark plug is so important.

A spark plug operates in a specific heat range to maximise efficiency some plugs have more thermal efficiency than others. If a spark plug is not hot enough when it is idling then the spark plug can be fouled up quite easily. If a spark plug is not 'cold' enough when the engine is at high RPM then the tip of the spark plug make cause detonation or knocking  because of high temperature. The spark plug needs to operate in the heat range that is required by the engine.

What is a capacitor discharge system and how does it operate? 

Capacitor discharge is a type of electronic ignition. It is used widely in outboard motors. It operates on similar principles to other electronic ignition systems. The voltage in the system is increased to about 400-600 V by a transformer in the capacitor module. This system has a large capacitor which stores a high amount of voltage and then fires this voltage to a coil when it is triggered. When the release is triggered a rectifier allows current to flow to the coil and voltage is increased further from the 400-600V of the capacitor discharge to about 40kV at the spark plug. This system is quite simple and reliable with no parts that can wear and affect the ignition. it also has a very fast recharge time for the capacitor reducing the dwell angle. however the limited spark duration can be too short to provide reliable ignition in some engines.

The capacitor module contains the transformer and capacitor.