What should a multinational company consider when defining boundary and belief systems?

Sometimes organizations that can make a lot of money are nonprofits (e.g. private universities and hospitals). Why do they choose to classify themselves as nonprofit organizations?

Case: Titan Electric Company

The Titan Electric Company (TEC) manufactures and distributes electronic transformers used to distribute electric power throughout the US. The company started with a small manufacturing plant in Reno and gradually built a customer base throughout the Southwest. A distribution center was established in Denver, and later, as business expanded, their second and third distribution centers were established in Tucson and Sacramento. To date, the company operates two plants, three distribution centers and nine warehouse locations. Manufacturing costs differ between the company’s production plants. The cost of each transformer produced at the Reno plant is $1200. The newer Las Vegas plant utilizes more efficient equipment; as a result, manufacturing costs $1050 per transformer.

The cost of shipping a transformer from each of the two plants to each of the three distribution centers is shown in Table 1, below. Note that due to lack of Interstate highways, no shipments are allowed from Reno plant to the Tucson distribution center. The annual production capacity is 30,000 transformers at the Reno plant and 20,000 at the Las Vegas plant.

The company serves their nine warehouses from the three distribution centers. The forecast of the number of meters needed in each warehouse for the next quarter is shown in Table 2, below.

The cost per unit of shipping from each distribution center to each warehouse is given in Table 3, below. Note that some distribution centers cannot serve certain warehouses. These are indicated by a dash, “—”. Titan is interested in developing manufacturing plans for its plants, and shipping plans for its distribution centers that result in the lowest overall costs.

Assignment Questions

1. With the current supply chain design, how many transformers are produced at each plant and how many are shipped from each distribution center?
   
2. What is Titan’s total manufacturing costs for the year? What is Titan’s total distribution costs for the year?
   
3. How much could Titan save if they could produce more transformers at the Las Vegas plant? How many more transformers could they produce and ensure that the same set of binding constraints remain binding?
   
4. Which warehouse is the most expensive to stock one additional transformer?
   
5. Over the next five years, Titan is anticipating moderate growth in demand of 5000 transformers. Would you recommend that Titan consider plant expansion at this time? If so, at which plant and why?
   

6.Titan is considering a proposal to ship up to 2000 transformers directly from its Las Vegas plant to the Salt Lake City warehouse. The cost of shipping directly is estimated to be $50 per transformer, with no change in manufacturing costs. Under this new plan, what are the new manufacturing and shipping plans? How much would Titan save?

A furniture factory produces two types of desks. Type I and type II, in the cutting and assembly departments. the number of hours available in each department is: in department A 624 hours and in department B it is a third (1/3) more hours than in department A. To manufacture a type I desk unit it takes 3 hours in department A and 8 hours in department B. To manufacture a type II desk unit, 10 hours are required in department A and 5 hours in department B. If the utility for each type II desktop is $ 500,000.00 and the utility of the desk Type I is 20% less than Type II. How many units of each type of desk should be manufactured to MAXIMIZE utility.

Question: If a new restriction is given: 2x₁ + x₂ < (less or equal) 404 , Is the solution still optimal feasible? If not, what is the new feasible solution? (explain your answer)

Chapter 13 discusses ways in which people to react to conflicts. Some of these reactions are beneficial to a person or an organization, but others can be harmful. In this discussion you will have the opportunity to reflect on these methods and to decide with methods are most appropriate in a given situation.

Read the situation below and then write how you would react to the situation if you were using each of the common reactions to conflict.

Joe Hunter has been with the San Angeles Police Department for the past 6 years. After graduating second in his class at the state police academy, Hunter was hired as a patrol person with San Angeles. He quickly moved up in the ranks to corporal in his second year and sergeant in his fourth. All of the officers consider Hunter to be the best cop on the force because of his high level of intelligence as well as his uncanny ability to work with the public by anticipating problems in the community.

Everything was going along well for Sergeant Hunter until the spring of 1988. During this time, he started dating a girl that he quickly fell in love with. What he didn’t know until 5 months after they began dating was that she had once been engaged to his captain.

When Hunter’s captain discovered the relationship, he was furious with Hunter, but knew that legally he could not control the private life of his employee. However, even though he could not directly tell Hunter what to do, he decided to make his life miserable at work. Captain Webb constantly gave Hunter the worst assignments, kept him away from the public contact that made him such a good officer, and started to lower Hunter’s performance evaluations.

Hunter was frustrated, then hurt, and finally angry. He finally reached a point where one day he was so angry, that he had to do something. If Hunter were to apply each of the common reactions to conflict in this situation, what would he do in each case? Which one would be the most appropriate?

Please address each of these reactions to conflict in your discussion of the above situation. Don’t forget to discuss which of these reactions you think would be most effective in this situation and why.

• Withdrawal
• Accommodation
• Win at all costs
• Collaboration
• Third party intervention

1. In engineering drawing what are hidden lines used for?

2. What is sectioning used for and how is it represented?

3. Why are three phase power systems represented using only single lines?

4. What is CAM, Briefly explain what it is?

5. In one sentence explain what Finite Element Analysis (FEA), name three advantages of using FEA.

Match each of the following questions with the correct answer.

1. How is a Limited Partnership formed?
2. How is a Partnership formed?
3. How is a Sole Proprietorship formed?
4. How is an LLC formed?
5. How is a Corporation formed?

• A. By filing Articles of Incorporation with the state
• B. No formal formation
• C. By filing Articles of Partnership Participation with the state
• D. By filing a certificate of partnership expenses with the state
• E. By agreement, contract, implied formation, or no formal formation
• F. By filing articles of organization with the state
• G. By filing a certificate of limited partnership

Facts:

Christian Smalls was an employee for five (5) years at the Amazon Fulfillment Center, Staten Island, New York. Mr. Smalls was in a management level position with a job title of Process Assistant. He was terminated on Monday, March 30, 2020, for “violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk.” All Amazon employees are at-will workers.

On March 13, 2020, the Staten Island Fulfillment Center began taking the temperature of all employees reporting to work as a precaution against COVID-19. Barbara Chandler is an Amazon employee at the Staten Island Fulfillment Center and has the title of Associate. Ms. Chandler was supervised by Mr. Smalls. Ms. Chandler reported to work on Tuesday, March 24th after having been tested for COVID-19 (Corona Virus) on Monday, March 23. She had not received the test results, did not have a fever, but definitely was not feeling well.

Mr. Smalls observed that Ms. Chandler did not appear well. She informed Mr. Smalls that she had been tested for COVID-19 and he told her to go home. Ms. Chandler received a positive COVID-19 test result on Wednesday, March 25th and informed the company. At that point, Amazon told Mr. Smalls about the positive result and sent him home to self-quarantine for fourteen (14) days, with pay. This was based on his contact with Ms. Chandler. None of Ms. Chandler’s co-workers were sent home to self-quarantine.

Mr. Smalls did not report to work. He did, however, organize and attend a protest with other workers in front of the Staten Island Fulfillment Center on Monday, March 30. There were two issues that the workers wanted Amazon to address: (1) to temporarily shut down the Fulfillment Center for a deep cleaning because at least one worker was known to have tested positive for COVID-19; and (2) to provide paid sick leave for employees who had not reported to work during the month of March because they were vulnerable based on age or preexisting condition if they were in contact with COVID-19.

After the protest, on Monday, March 30, Amazon terminated Mr. Smalls for “violating social distancing guidelines and putting the safety of others at risk” by coming to the Fulfillment Center for the protest and violating self-quarantine conditions. When asked about Mr. Smalls’ termination, Amazon stated: “Our employees are heroes fighting for their community and helping people get critical items they need in this crisis.” Further, “[w]e have taken extreme measures to keep people safe, tripling down on deep cleaning, procuring safety supplies that are available, and changing processes to ensure employees in our buildings are keeping safe distances.” Evie Fordham, FOX Business, March 30, 2020..

Provide an IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, and Conclusion) analysis based on the above facts. Please check also National Labor Relations Act site for more information. There are no other materials or research needed to analyze this situation.

Using the IRAC structure and the facts stated above, provide an analysis of any and all charges that Mr. Smalls could file with the National Labor Relations Board. Be sure to include the following in the analysis:

• Identify the section(s) of the National Labor Relations Act that Mr. Smalls would charge and the facts to support each charge;

• Explain Amazon's response to each charge;

• Explain your conclusions as to whether Mr. Smalls can prove any Unfair Labor Practice against Amazon.

1. Identify a marketing campaign that has used at least two communication tools, for example, Popeye's new chicken sandwich campaign used advertising via mass media (TV), social media, as well as PR.  
2. Evaluate the marketing campaign on the following aspects:
   • Appropriateness of using these tools given its target market in terms of experiences and benefits sought, and the nature of the product in terms of its complexity, service requirement, etc.
   • Integration of the tools with regard to the coordination among the tools used and the consistency of the message that is delivered across the communication tools.

A furniture factory produces two types of desks. Type I and type II, in the cutting and assembly departments. the number of hours available in each department is: in department A 624 hours and in department B it is a third (1/3) more hours than in department A. To manufacture a type I desk unit it takes 3 hours in department A and 8 hours in department B. To manufacture a type II desk unit, 10 hours are required in department A and 5 hours in department B. If the utility for each type II desktop is $ 500,000.00 and the utility of the desk Type I is 20% less than Type II. How many units of each type of desk should be manufactured to MAXIMIZE utility? Find the feasibility intervals for R1 and R2

Form groups of three or four people, and appoint one member as the spokesperson who will communicate your findings to the whole class when called upon by the instructor. Then discuss the following scenario.

You are a team of managing partners of a large firm of accountants. You are responsible for auditing your firm’s information systems to determine whether they are appropriate and up-to-date. To your surprise, you find that although your organization does have an email system in place and accountants are connected into a powerful network, most of the accountants (including partners) are not using this technology. You also find that the organizational hierarchy is still the preferred information system of the managing partners. Given this situation, you are concerned that your organization is not exploiting the opportunities offered by new information systems to obtain a competitive advantage. You have discussed this issue and are meeting to develop an action plan to get accountants to appreciate the need to learn, and to take advantage of, the potential of the new information technology. 1. What advantages can you tell accountants they will obtain when they use the new information technology? 2. What problems do you think you may encounter in convincing accountants to use the new information technology? 3. Discuss how you might make it easy for accountants to learn to use the new technology

READ the scenario pasted below then answer the following 4 questions:

Elaine Bridgewater, the former professional golfer you hired to oversee your golf equipment company's relationship with retailers, knows the business inside and out. As a former touring pro, she has unmatched credibility. She also has seemingly boundless energy, solid technical knowledge, and an engaging personal style. Unfortunately, she hasn't been quite as attentive as she needs to be when it comes to communicating with retailers. You've been getting complaints about voice-mail messages gone unanswered for days, confusing e-mails that require two or three rounds of clarification, and reports that are haphazardly thrown together. As valuable as Bridgewater's other skills are, she's going to cost the company sales if this goes on much longer. The retail channel is vital to your company's survival, and she's the employee most involved in the channel.

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1. List specific areas where her performance must improve. Consider possible causes for performance problems and whether they are rooted in ability (skill gaps, unclear objectives, etc.) or mentality (i.e. personality, attitude, etc.).

2. Identify reasons improving performance is important (costs of low performance, benefits of improved performance).

3. Describe target performance quality.

4. Identify areas in which performance is strong.

A furniture factory produces two types of desks. Type I and type II, in the cutting and assembly departments. the number of hours available in each department is: in department A 624 hours and in department B it is a third (1/3) more hours than in department A. To manufacture a type I desk unit it takes 3 hours in department A and 8 hours in department B. To manufacture a type II desk unit, 10 hours are required in department A and 5 hours in department B. If the utility for each type II desktop is $ 500,000.00 and the utility of the desk Type I is 20% less than Type II. How many units of each type of desk should be manufactured to MAXIMIZE utility? Find the optimal solution and the optimizational intervals c1 and c2(approximate solutions are not accepted)

STEPS IN THE CAPITAL RATIONING PROCESS

Step 1:  Identify potential capital investment projects.

Step 2:  Establish a minimum average rate of return and/or a maximum desired cash payback period to screen the projects. Eliminate any project that fails to meet these standards, unless the project has overriding qualitative benefits.

Step 3:  Evaluate the remaining projects, using net present value and/or internal rate of return techniques.

Step 4:  Consider the qualitative benefits of each project.

Step 5:  Rank the projects, based on the results of Steps 3 and 4.

Step 6:  Allocate available funds, beginning with the top-ranked project.

Handout 25(11)-1

Capital Rationing

Plasticon manufactures plastic containers used to package a variety of liquid consumer products (such as fabric softener, cleaners, shampoo, hair spray, and liquid soap). The containers are manufactured on a job-order basis to customer specifications.

Plasticon has received five proposals for capital investment projects. Your job is to evaluate these proposals and rank them in the order in which they should be funded. Begin your analysis by computing the average rate of return and cash payback period for each proposal. Any project that has an average rate of return of less than 15% or a cash payback period of longer than five years should be eliminated from further consideration. After this initial screening, compute the net present value (using a 15% discount rate) and internal rate of return for the remaining projects. Rank the projects based on both their profitability and overall merit to the corporation (qualitative factors).

                                                Project A       Project B      Project C       Project D      Project E

Cost                                          $200,000       $250,000      $325,000       $500,000       $400,000

Expected useful life                     8 years        10 years       10 years        10 years          8 years

Residual value                                    $0                  $0                 $0                  $0                  $0

Annual project income               $17,000         $18,000        $33,000         $55,000         $45,000

Annual net cash inflow               $42,000         $43,000        $65,500       $105,000         $95,000

Project A: This proposal requests funds to purchase hardware and software that will allow the Accounting Department to process payroll in-house. Paychecks are currently processed by an outside payroll service company. The annual increase in net income and cash flows will result from cost savings if the payroll function is no longer contracted to an outside company.

Project B: This proposal requests funds for new manufacturing equipment. This equipment will allow Plasticon to make containers as large as ten gallons. Currently, Plasticon can not make containers that are larger than three gallons.

Project C: This proposal requests funds for equipment to make stick-on labels that are applied to the plastic containers. Currently, all stick-on labels are ordered from another company. This supplier has not proven very reliable in meeting delivery deadlines.

Project D: This proposal requests funds for automated manufacturing equipment that will reduce the cycle time from receipt of a customer order to delivery of that order. Plasticon’s cycle time is currently seven days. The automated equipment will reduce that time to four days while saving costs due to the elimination of five jobs. It will also make Plasticon more competitive; the company’s major competitor currently has a cycle time of five days.

Project E: This proposal requests funds for computerized drafting and design equipment that will allow engineers to complete manufacturing instructions on special orders more quickly. This equipment should reduce Plasticon’s cycle time from seven to five days.

                  Present Value of an Annuity of $1 at Compound Interest           

Period        12%         13%           14%           15%         16%         17%      18%

                 8          4.968       4.799         4.639         4.487       4.344       4.207    4.078

               10          5.650       5.426         5.216         5.019       4.833       4.659    4.494

please use excel to complete.