Category: Operations Management homework help

 
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 9: The Time Value of Money in the Foundations of Financial Management textbook.
In this discussion forum, you will determine the rate of return of your MBA degree.
Initial Response:
For this discussion forum,
The first step is to calculate the cost of your MBA. If your employer sponsors the cost of your education, you can either use what you would have paid or use opportunity costs as a basis.
After you determine your initial investment, determine the net present value (NPV) of that investment. As an example, let us say “Joe” will be changing jobs when he achieves his MBA and will make 10% more annually as a result. Joe plans to work for 20 more years. His MBA cost was $50,000. Do you forecast that pursuing an MBA is worth the financial investment? Be sure to show all your calculations.

 Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Week 2 Weekly Lecture (see attached)   the article The Challenge of Exceptional CommunicationLinks to an external site.; and the webpage Self-Assessment, Career Exploration, and PlanningLinks to an external site..  
In preparation for the Final Paper and having real-world applicability, this week’s assignment is a PowerPoint presentation that will allow you to create a career skills inventory and associated gap analysis. Using the article, The Challenge of Exceptional Communication as a guide, the goal for this assignment is to professionally present your current skills and identifiable gaps in existing skills to promote yourself as an ideal candidate for the career of your choice. The information derived from this assignment should accurately reflect your existing skills.
In your presentation,
Describe the skills you possess that make you an ideal candidate for your chosen career.
Identify any gaps in your existing skill set that an employer may require.
Explain how you plan on honing these gaps in your existing skill set.
Explain how you would effectively and persuasively communicate this gap in a manner that would still qualify you for your career choice.
The Making PowerPoint Slides: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad SlidesLinks to an external site. PowerPoint is a good resource to use for tips and guidelines for creating an effective PowerPoint presentation.
The Skills Inventory and Gap Analysis presentation
must be five to six double-spaced slides in length (not including title and references slides and formatted according to APA StyleLinks to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center’s How to Make a PowerPoint PresentationLinks to an external site. resource.
must include a separate title slide with the following in title case:

title of presentation project in bold font

Space should appear between the title and the rest of the information on the title page.

student’s name
name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus)
course name and number
instructor’s name
due date

must utilize academic voice. See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.

For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. and Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site., refer to the Writing Center resources.

must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text (three in total).

The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source.

 
Watch the video, Dividend Discount Model (DDM)Links to an external site..
Select a publicly traded company that pays dividends. You may select any publicly traded company that pays dividends, or choose one of the companies discussed in 65 Best Dividend Stocks You Can Count On in 2021Links to an external site..
Determine the most recent stock price and the total dividends paid over the past year.
Calculate the current dividend yield on the stock.
Calculate the required rate of return (Ke) for an investment in the common stock. You should use formula 10-9 in the textbook to do this calculation and use an assumed growth rate of 5%.
Identify the current P/E ratio for the company from a source such as Yahoo! Finance or Barron’s.
In your post,  
Show your calculations of the dividend yield and required rate of return (Ke), and present the P/E ratio.
Explain the relationship between your chosen company’s Ke and P/E ratio and what that relationship indicates about the risk of the company’s future cash flows.
Explain whether the general relationship between a high Ke and a low P/E ratio (or low Ke and high P/E ratio) is supported by the data for your chosen publicly traded company.
Predict the impact on the company’s stock price based on your forecast that the company will grow its dividends by a rate higher than 5%.
Compare your company’s P/E ratio with the P/E ratios of two other companies in its industry.
Hypothesize which company in this industry should have the lowest Ke based on the P/E comparisons.
Summarize the connection between a company’s growth rate, its required rate of return, and its value (stock price).
Be sure to think strategically and apply the concepts from the course textbook.
Your initial response should be a minimum of 200 words. Graduate school students need to learn how to assess the perspectives of several scholars. Support your response with at least one scholarly and/or credible resource in addition to the text.

 
Chapter 7: Mass customization of products has become a common approach in manufacturing organizations. Explain the ways in which mass customization can be applied to service firms as well.
Chapter 7: A top executive claimed that superior management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles (such as handling personnel, interpreting the environment, and coping with unusual situations that have to be learned through experience). If this is true, is it appropriate to teach management in a business school? Does teaching management from a textbook assume that the manager’s job is analyzable and, therefore, that formal training rather than experience is most important?
Chapter 8: Do you believe that technology will eventually enable high-level managers to do their job with little face-to-face communication?
Chapter 9: Look through several recent issues of a business magazine (Fortune, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, etc.) and find examples of 2 companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Explain the techniques that these companies are applying.
Chapter 9: Do you believe that a no growth philosophy of management should be taught in business schools?

Department of Public Works and Government Services – Canada
Project type : New payroll system
Project name : Phoenix
Date : Jul 2016
Cost : $50M
Synopsis :
A Phoenix is supposed to rise from the flames. Instead of rising, Canada’s new federal government payroll system (called Phoenix) seems to be stuck firmly in the flames. According to reports from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), since the deployment of a new payroll system started in Feb 2016, as good percentage of public servants have been incorrectly paid. Some have received too little, some too much and some have received no pay at all.  Some employees have reported receiving no pay for a full five months resulting in people having to borrow, dip into retirement savings or simply not pay their bills. The CBC has been championing the cases of the affected workers and has collated sample stories in the following links…
Phoenix problems make public servant feel ‘penalized’Links to an external site.
Public servant not getting any health or dental benefitsLinks to an external site.
Cancer survivor unpaid since return to workLinks to an external site.
Single mom maxed out after 2 months without payLinks to an external site.
Without pay, student caught in desperate catch-22Links to an external site.
The breadth of the problem and the fact it has endured for 5 months has forced the issue up the political agenda to the point where the Prime Minister has been forced to comment on the problems (“you know your project is in trouble when … the Prime Minister has to address the issue”)…
As soon as the system was launched it was clear there were problems. As many as 7,000 calls per day were received by the system help desk. Being sized for a maximum of 2,200 calls per day the help desk was quickly overcome. By July of 2016, the number of outstanding problems reported by government employees had reached a staggering 82,000 cases. An analysis of the problems by government staff and IBM (the IT systems provider) found that the costs to address the ousting issues could be as a high as $50M).
Contributing factors as reported in the press:
Failure to provide users with adequate training. Failure to cleanse data prior to migration to the new system. Software quality issues. Failure to have sufficient resources on hand to address launch glitches and problems.
Links:
PHOENIX FALLING – Public servant who wasn’t getting paid quits in disgustLinks to an external site.
TIMELINE – How the Phoenix pay system rose and fellLinks to an external site.
Liberals agree to emergency meeting Thursday over Phoenix payroll messLinks to an external site.
Cost to fix federal government’s Phoenix pay system jumps to $25MLinks to an external site.
Payroll fix could cost $50M this year, government saysLinks to an external site.
Government of Canada provides an update on Phoenix, the federal public service’s new pay systemLinks to an external site.
The Prime Minister has asked you to come in with your team and try to figure out what went wrong.  Answer the below questions in depth and number questions as answered.
1.  Explain how you would start building your case with executives including the Prime Minister to ensure that you received all of the resources you might need?
2.  You are asked to hold a briefing to explain what your action plan is going to be.  What senior leadership, managers, or workers would you ask to attend?  And why?  I am really interested to see who you would pull together to start building the network you need .
3.  Suppose you find out capacity planning was the issue as the organization wasn’t nearly mature as they think they are.  Using the content you read in chapter 21 of the Textbook “Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2018). Project management: the managerial process (7th ed.). New York Mcgraw-Hill Education.” what do you do to get executives to understand this?  Just set your approach up.  You don’t have to dive into the details at this point.  I want to know what your major points of intererest and focus are.
You MUST provide original answers using your own words and justification. You MUST provide proper citation if you use other’s works. You MUST provide a coherent writing with NO grammatical errors and typos. APA rules for paper format and references must be in order. Think of providing the wording/assignment to your boss.

Part II
In addressing the positive aspects, students may want to stress on the interrelationship/interconnectedness between the destination’s positive sustainable economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects and their implications on its tourism industry (example: More local economic gains leading to a better ability for local authorities to invest in green projects, savings, and also a better ability/funding to develop programs that preserve locals’ cultural identities and heritage).
In your assessment, you may want to shed light on the human role in their interaction with the natural assets at the destination and its impacts on sustainability (with implications on its tourism industry) (provide evidence and/or examples) (example: local fishing practices and impacts on ecosystems or other recreational practices and impacts on forests – deforestation? or the opposite?).
You may need to address the destination’s historic, cultural and political systems and their impacts on its sustainability in general and the sustainability of its tourism industry (please make sure to present the views of different stakeholders with evidence/examples) (example: the destination’s political system and its policies and their impacts on sustainability-related policies. Consequences and penalties associated with pollution – strict or laxed?).
 . Your paper should have the following: a title page, table of contents and the differences sections (including headings and sub-headings see the different categories in the guidelines specified above – (sections 1-3).
You are expected label each section and subsection. You should never leave your reader guessing!
This report should not exceed 7 double-spaced pages (not less than 4 pages) (12 Times New Roman, plus a title page, table of contents, references, tables, graphs and pictures if applicable.
You need to check your paper’s format, spelling, grammatical and punctuation before submission using Turnitin.

 Q1: Using the exchange rates cited in the case, what is the INITIAL PURCHASE COST  PER UNIT (in US Dollars; do not include transportation costs) paid to: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany?
 Q2: What is the AVERAGE TIME for an order filling a TEU container to come from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China to IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution  Center?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska to IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution Center? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany to IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution Center? 
Q3: Using the exchange rates cited in the case, what is the COST (in US Dollars  including tariffs and duties) to ship a TEU container from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China to IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution  Center?  b. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany to IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution Center? 
Q4: What is the ECONOMIC ORDER QUANTITY (use unit price only; do not include  transportation costs when you calculate economic order quantity) if we purchase everything from: This document is available from our site and provided for your personal use only and may not be retransmitted or redistribute d without written permission from the  Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). You may not upload any of this site’s material to any public server, online service, network, or bulletin  board without written permission from CSCMP. A Total Cost Approach to Understanding Supply Chain Risk 8 a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q5: How many units of SAFETY STOCK will we need to hold if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q6: Inventory Carrying Costs are based on the value of the product at the time it is held in inventory. What is the IN-TRANSIT CARRYING COST PER UNIT (in dollars and cents) if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q7: What AVERAGE INVENTORY LEVEL (in units; be sure to consider both safety stock and cycle stock) will we hold at the IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution Center if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q8: Inventory Carrying Costs are based on the value of the product at the time it is held in inventory. When the product is sitting in the IDC AllianceTexas®  Distribution Center, its value is a combination of purchase price PLUS any  transportation costs to get it from the supplier to the DC PLUS in-transit carrying  This document is available from our site and provided for your personal use only and may not be retransmitted or redistribute d without written permission from the  Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). You may not upload any of this site’s material to any public server, online service, network, or bulletin  board without written permission from CSCMP. A Total Cost Approach to Understanding Supply Chain Risk 9 costs. What is the TOTAL ANNUAL INVENTORY CARRYING COST (in dollars) for  the safety stock and cycle stock inventory held at the AllianceTexas® Distribution  Center if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q9: Inventory Carrying Costs are based on the value of the product at the time it is  held in inventory. When the product is sitting at IDC’s AllianceTexas® Distribution  Center, its value is a combination of purchase price PLUS any transportation costs  to get it from the supplier to the DC plus in-transit carrying costs. ON A PER-UNIT  BASIS (in dollars) what is the TOTAL ANNUAL INVENTORY CARRYING COST for  the safety stock and cycle stock inventory held at IDC’s AllianceTexas®  Distribution Center if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? 
Q10: Let’s put it all together to determine the total cost of ownership. We have  determined the unit price, the in-transit carrying cost, the transportation costs,  and the IDC AllianceTexas® Distribution Center’s inventory carrying cost. If we  also consider the Annual Ordering Cost, what is the TOTAL LANDED COST OF  OWNERSHIP PER UNIT (in dollars) if we purchase everything from: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? This document is available from our site and provided for your personal use only and may not be retransmitted or redistribute d without written permission from the  Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). You may not upload any of this site’s material to any public server, online service, network, or bulletin  board without written permission from CSCMP. A Total Cost Approach to Understanding Supply Chain Risk 10 
Q11: If we change our strategy to “near-sourcing,” ANNUALLY WHAT IS THE  ADDITIONAL COST OF NEAR-SOURCING? 
Q12: After we make our initial sourcing decision based on the lowest total (landed)  cost, we get hit with unexpected supply chain disruption which clogs the port of Long Beach and delays shipments adding 89 days to receive a shipment from our Chengdu supplier as cargo ships “drift” in San Pedro Bay waiting to unload. If we shift from ocean shipping to air, flying from Shanghai to DFW, we can  bypass the port congestion, but at a much higher cost. Doing so will speed the  shipment to 1 day loading in Shanghai, 2 days air shipping, and 1 day to clear  customers at AFW and deliver from the Alliance airfield to our warehouse; but at a cost 17 times that of ocean shipping for the same volume of freight. A. How does this change your sourcing decision in terms of: a. Dong Hai Supply in Chengdu, China?  b. CousinsAg in Wahoo, Nebraska? c. Staberhofer Supply in Freising, Germany? B. AT WHAT ADDITIONAL COST? 
Q13: After considering the new information contained in Q12, based on LOWEST  TOTAL LANDED COST should we “near-source” or should we shift to air for  shipments from Chengdu supplier? WHAT IS THE LOWEST TOTAL LANDED COST?
 
There is a typo in the case study on page 4.
CousinsAg’s price is $8.25 per unit – Incorrect
CousinsAg’s price is $82.5 per unit – Correct
You will want to reference calculations in the Chapter 4 and Fixed Distribution Course Discussion Decks
You will want to reference the Incoterms chart in the Fixed Distribution Course Discussion Deck.  

 
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 4: Financial Forecasting in the textbook, and review the Personal Budget Resource. Watch the Week 1 Journal video with Brenda Forde, CPA, MBA.
For this journal, complete two months of the Personal Budget Template. Then, evaluate your personal budget information and numbers from your completed Personal Budget Template. You may complete the template using your own personal financial data, which will make the activity more meaningful, or hypothetical numbers. Discuss the most important concepts and facts you learned. For example, were there any surprises in the amount or category of your expenses? Your reflection should be a minimum of 350 words.

  
This project will have you work together in groups to practice and demonstrate your leadership skills and team decision making in a 3 to 4-week production simulation during our regular class time that will involve daily team huddles, assigning resources, data collection, data monitoring, and data reporting on your production performance. (. Improvement methods that were discussed in class are expected to be applied to improve performance of your production line.The final week of this project will have each team present their results, findings, and interesting things learned throughout.
 Project Details – Outputs and successes include:   
You must measure, record, and report out upon the following KPIs:
1. Throughput (units/min)
2. First Time Yield (FTY)
3. WIP (units in process)
4. Productivity (min/unit)
5. Direct vs. Indirect Labor ratio. Please refer attached document for your refere.

 
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read Chapter 4: Financial Forecasting in the textbook, and review the current financial statements of Starbucks through Yahoo! Finance Links to an external site.or the EDGAR | Company Filings Links to an external site.database in the Filings and Forms page. You can access the financial statements by going to the Yahoo! Finance webpage, typing in the stock symbol of Starbucks, and then clicking on the “Financials” tab. Watch the Week 1 Assignment video with Dr. Kevin Kuznia, DBA, CSSBB, PMP, available in the online classroom.
Reviewing the previous quarter’s financial statements will provide you with data to construct pro forma financial statements for Starbucks and make some basic projections. This week, you will be charged with constructing two pro forma financial statements and addressing some questions about your projections. The two financial statements will include an Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
To begin your assignment, download the Financial Forecasting Template.
Part 1
Use the EDGAR | Company Filings Links to an external site.or Yahoo! Finance Links to an external site.database to download the last 10-Q from Starbucks into Excel. Use the downloaded data to complete the Income Statement and Balance Sheet on the appropriate tabs in the Financial Forecasting Template. Assume the following:
Sales will increase for the next quarter by the same percentage increase from the previous quarter to the last reported quarter. For example, if sales increased 8% from the last quarter to the current reported quarter, you will use 8% as the sales increase for your pro formas.
Calculate the expenses to determine what will change and what will remain the same.
Note: Not all costs are associated with the cost of sales. It will be up to you to determine which line items need to be increased and which ones need to be left alone. This will require you to distinguish between fixed and variable costs. For a reminder of the difference between fixed and variable costs, please watch the video Business Costs (Fixed Costs and Variable Costs) ExplainedLinks to an external site..
Within each line item expense explain your rationale, as well as provide a brief summary.
Part 2
Then, calculate a quarterly variance analysis using the Variance Analysis tab of the Financial Forecasting Template (the same template you used for Part 1). Complete the following in your variance analysis:
In the Excel template, insert the line items.
In Column C, (Q4, 20NN) enter the previous quarter’s numbers as the budget.
In Column D, (Q1, 20NN) enter the current quarter’s actual numbers.
In Column E, the spreadsheet will calculate the dollar difference between the budget and actual numbers.
In Column F, the spreadsheet will calculate the percentage change.
In Column G, analyze and speculate the rationale for the variances.