Ahmed was waiting outside the cabin of his National Sales Manager, Ishfaq, for a meeting. Ahmed has been with cutting edge, a large company in office automation products. About a year back the company had launched high technology multipurpose products for the top end of the market and advertised for experienced sales executives in a leading newspaper. Ahmed, at that time was with a finance company and a star performer there. Due to economic crises and scams, the entire finance sector went in recession and he at the point was looking for a change. It was Ishfaq, who recommended Ahmed at all stages of the selection, he soon joined cutting Edge. Ahmed liked the challenge of the new job, the environment and thought that he had made a right and a good decision. Three months later, he had been called by Areej, his boss, the head of sales for the north region. He was told in the meeting that for the last 3 months Ahmed has not picked up any sales for the company. Areej briefed him about his targets and asked Ahmed to meet him next week with his projections. In the next meeting, Areej did not look at Ahmed’s report instead asked him to concentrate on his calls and work. Although 5 months have passed, Ahmed could not get any big order but yes managed to pick up small products and contributed good amount. Areej was not happy with these orders. He wanted Ahmed to sell new products. He wondered why Ahmed is selling old products in the market. Ahmed got disheartened and thought himself as a loser because everyone else in the office was making sales. He did not know what to do. “Saudi Television company is asking for a scanner free with 3 machines”, Ahmed shared with Areej. Areej, “ How can you allow customers to dictate terms to you like this Mr. Ahmed”? Areej was making appraisals at that time and was not happy with the performance of Ahmed and put his comments as” Not aggressive and shows no vision, he is slow and has not achieved his targets so far”. When Ishfaq read these comments, he asked Areej to give him some time. He said, “Ahmed has a good record and has picked up business. May be he need little training on negotiations. You must train him” Areej wondered how he can teach someone skills but decided to accompany him to certain calls and try to improve the situation. Next week, Areej accompanied Ahmed to a MNC and returned back office with an order of 13 big scanners and 5 printers. While driving back, Areej in an upbeat mood said, “Ahmed, what you have to do is to convince the customer that they have a need and do not be so rigid in negotiations, make ample leenway. Quote higher and come down slowly through the deal”. Next day Ahmed was been asked to visit an existing customer, Ultra Channels and had a need of 12 scanners and 7 fax machines. Ahmed went to the office and discussed at length about their requirements. He found that since it is a liaison office and also the work force is just 20, so instead of 12 scanners and 7 fax machines, 8 scanners and 4 fax machines will serve the purpose. The Branch Manager was impressed and appreciated Ahmed a lot over the phone to Mr Ishfaq. Listening to the whole story, Areej got angry, called Ahmed, “Look, I have targets for my region and I have to achieve them. How can I do with people like you who go to the client and recommend them to buy less products. I do not understand how can you be so stupid”. This was on for 20 minutes and finally Ahmed said, “This is our duty to build an honest rapport with the client and also suggest them the best so that we can look forward for a long term relationship. I think this is the right way”. Areej was upset and next week called Ahmed and a list of fixed clients. Areej said,” these clients were profitable at one point of time but because of competition have shifted. If will get extra incentive on bringing any order form these clients”. Areej was relieved on this shift as he was not keen to have Ahmed with him. Hearing this, Ishfaq called Ahmed in his cabin and asked him, “Are you not happy with your work?”

1. write Recommendations on Effective Solutions/Strategies for Ishfaq ?

2. Write a conclusion about the case study?

Think that the operations fail because the underlying processes do not match with the “products.” Now you are asked to come up with an example in the business world where the operations succeeds because the underlying processes match with the “products” (but you cannot use the examples that have been discussed in the classes such as Southwest Airlines). Please limit your answer within 300 words. - Hint: you may frame your analysis around the “operations frontier” (b) (10 pts) How would the recent COVID-19 outbreak affect the future global supply chains for personal protective equipment and products (such as N95 respirators, gowns, masks, gloves and face shields)? Elaborate your answer based on the role of lead time in SCM. Please limit your answer within 300 words.

1. What are the elements of brand? How do brands add value to an organization’s products and services?

Cars arrive at Hungry Fredrik’s drive-through window on a Saturday’s morning. Cars which are waiting for the order have to stay on the drive way; each car leaves the drive way immediately after receiving its order. The input and throughput rates (in terms of number of cars) between 7am-12pm are displayed in the following table.

(a) Suppose there are no cars on the drive way at 7am. Please fill up the “End-Period Inventory” in the last column and plot the inventory build-up diagram below. (b) On average, how many cars are waiting on the drive-way between 7am-12pm? (c) What is the “OM triangle”? Why can demand forecasting be critical in inventory management? Explain your answer.

Exercise 2: According to Forbes, a majority of Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple suffer from high turnover rates, meaning their average employee tenure is low. In your opinion, is this a healthy trend? Why or why not? What are the implications of a low average employee tenure?

Exercise 1: An Engineering company has a total of 100 employees. Out of 100; 4 employees have been in the company for 1 year 11 employees have been in the company for 2 years 19 employees have been in the company for 3 years 40 employees have been in the company for 4 years 20 employees have been in the company for 5 years 4 employees have been in the company for 6 years 1 employee has been in the company for 8 years 1 employee has been in the company for 10 years Find out the average employee tenure. In your opinion, is it a good average employee tenure?

(a) What do we mean by the ABC inventory classification? (b) In a firm’s inventory management, it often treats a few items with the “fixed-order quantity” inventory model, while many other items with a “fixed-time period” model. Explain the rationales of this practice from the perspective of inventory management. (c) A manufacturer keeps a continuous inventory review system on the key component, part X. The annual demand on part X is 12,000 units and the demand rate is constant. The supplier charges $50 for each unit of part X. Each order costs $150 to process and annual holding cost per unit is 20% of the purchase price. What is the economic order quantity? How many orders will be placed each year (365 days)? If the lead time is 3 days, what is the reorder point?

An industry is a group of companies producing similar products or services (e.g., fast food, higher education, automotive, etc.). An industry is not limited to a small geographic area. Your Industry Analysis should consider the entire industry within the United States in which your company belongs. Include additional information about regional factors if appropriate.

The following subheadings are suggestions for organization of your memo (followed by sufficient and well-cited analyses):

• Industry Size and Growth Trends
• Maturity of the Industry
• External Economic Factors and their Effect on the Industry
• Seasonality
• Technological Factors
• Regulatory, Political, and Legal Concerns
• Competitive Environment and Changes in the Competitive Environment
• Key Challenge(s) Facing the Industry
• Company’s Steps to Meet One Key Challenge

You must use information from at least five unique sources as part of your analysis. Published sources that you might consult include trade journals, industry publications, and U.S. Department of Commerce publications.

What are ratios, budgeted financial statements and cash management in a business? Why are they so important to the success of a business? What can happen if these things are not done properly?

How do companies learn what incentives are valued by the employees they want to be attracting to participate in the internal crowdsourcing program?

Hospitals are very commonly encountered with the need of upgrading medical equipment due to technological advancements, customer satisfaction, and quality improvement. But the change of equipment comes with a price, and the expenses of purchasing & installing the equipment is just the tip of the iceberg. Preparing and training the staff for executing new high-tech equipment is the major issue that hospitals face, and this issue often becomes a huge obstacle in the implementation of new procedures. You are required to create a Force Field Analysis for such a situation where the hospital needs to introduce new equipment but the staff is reluctant. After analyzing the forces for & against this change, propose at least three HR strategies

Please use the table below to make your own Force Field Analysis.

(a) What do we mean by a “postponement strategy”? Why can it be an effective strategy for a firm engaging mass customization? (b) Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the B/L (“bill of lading”) of container shipments from Asian factories to the United States (US) has increasingly specified US gateway ports, rather than the local RDCs (regional distribution centers) of final markets, as the stopping points (as opposed to through points). What are the main reasons behind this development, and why? (c) Following part (b), should the phenomenon happen more often for high-value products or for low-value products? Explain your answer.

Supply Chain disruptions cause by covid-19

question 1

The following table provides a description for the project Z.

1. What is the critical path of this project?

2. What is the duration of this project? (before crashing)

3. If your task is to crash this project by 2 days, what is the most efficient cost of doing it? (Just input the number with no decimals or dollar signs

question 2

The expected duration of the project (average) is 30 days and variance is 16.

1. What is the probability that the project will be completed on day 32 or earlier?

2. Suppose the official deadline for the project is 34 days. What is the probability that the project will be delayed?

question 3

A restaurant has tracked the number of meals served at lunch over the last four weeks. The data show little in terms of trends, but do display substantial variation by day of the week. Use the following information to determine the seasonal (daily) indices for this restaurant.

You are the director of admission office. Your job every year is to decide the number of offer letters to issue to undergraduate degree applicants. For the academic year 2016/2017, the school has a capacity to enroll 7,200 undergraduate students, but the school is so popular that you received more than 20,000 applications. However, you know from past year records many students not only got offer from UBC but also from other good schools in Canada and the US. The yield rate for the school is far less than 100% (the ‘yield rate’ refers to the proportion of students accept the school offers among all the students to whom UBC issue the offer letters). Assume the school has spent large amount of sunk cost in its undergraduate program for a designed capacity to enroll 7,200 students, such as upgrading classrooms, expanding residential houses, hiring additional teaching instructors and administration staff. (a) Will you issue more than 7,200 offer letters for 2016/2017 academic year? (b) What is the trade-off between issuing more than 7,200 offer letters and issuing exactly 7,200 offer letters?(c) How to determine the optimal number of offer letters to issue? What information do you need, and how to get such information?