Question 4

Foxcomp, an electronics and computer manufacturer with a global supply chain, wants to add a new supplier for some of its component parts, and the suppliers it's considering are in Taiwan, India, Thailand, the Philippines. As part of its risk management program, Foxcomp wants to assess the possible impact of a supplier shutdown in the event of a natural disaster, such a flood, fire, tsunami, or an earthquake. The following payoff table summarizes the losses (in millions of dollars) for an extended supplier shutdown, given different levels of event severity and recovery in each country.

1. Determine the best decision using each of the following criteria.

1. Minimim
2. Minimax
3. Minimax Regret (You need to create an opportunity loss table)

2. Determine the best decision using expected value.
3. Determine the expected value of perfect information (EVPI).

Explain who should be involved in the evaluation of risk management treatments. Sometimes external auditors can be called in to evaluate risk management plans and strategies. What are three advantages of using external auditors?

Will Safeway or Loblaws have the higher inventory level if both have identical cost structure and equal average demand. Safeway has a higher standard deviation in forecast than Walmart, please detail arguments and your reasoning clearly .

What are the dynamic capabilities of suppliers and customers in the Indian IT management industry?. What competencies are needed to exploit those capabilities? Can a competitor imitate those capabilities? Explain why.

The primary difference between demand management and demand forecasting is

1) forecasting is only possible when quantitative data are available.

2) demand management is proactive, while forecasting attempts to predict.

3) a firm cannot execute both approaches simultaneously.

4) one approach deals with uncertainty, while the other deals with known demand.

what are the Impacts of COVID 19 on PESTLE on Asia countries, and what are actions were taken and recommended actions?

Consider product A and product B who have independent demands from one another. Now assume that both demands are normally distributed with same cost structure. Using the newsvendor model (how to make inventory decisions under uncertainty of demand) - if the demand is combined or pooled for products A and B, will the TOTAL inventory increase or decrease vs. making separate decisions for the two products? Show work and arguments very carefully. (25 marks / 100)

Please help - this is all the information provided.

Select a company with which you are familiar. Discuss how you think it uses a balanced scorecard or other strategic focus to achieve superior results and to create a competitive advantage.

A hospital does many surgeries in a day. A standard hospital is open 24 hours with no breaks in a day. In examining patient flow and surgery process in a 2 hour period. Let us assume a long lineup of over 1000 people waiting for surgery. Surgery involves the following steps:
A. Check driver's licence, 60s on average exponential distribution.
B. Talk with patient about preexisting health problems, which is 90s.
C. Doing the surgery, which takes 180s or 3 minutes, again on average exponential distribution.
D. Patient, post operation, will rest immobile for 30 seconds.
Consider that there are 4 doctors with one doctor taking each step A, B, C, D. These doctors are not flexible and will only do the step they are assigned to. Each step can at most have 1 patient at a time. In a 120 minutes, how many patients can the clinic help operate? (2 hours). 20 marks/100 - Show your work.

Discussion: Managing Risks Associated with Compressing the Project Schedule

What are the options for the project team when it becomes clear from the network/PERT diagram and critical path that the project is scheduled to take longer than the sponsor and senior stakeholders expect? This is a common situation and it is important for project managers to prepare themselves to address this situation and systematically consider the options.

We will start our schedule compression analysis with the assumption that all the work packages and associated activities currently in the schedule should remain as part of the project scope. Project managers can consider two techniques; fast-tracking and crashing. You began your study of these techniques in Week 3. We continue to focus on them this week, and you will be applying them to your project schedules in Week 5.

How can you decide, which, if either, technique to use? What are the strengths and limitations of each technique? What are the risks associated with each technique?

Using operation and process management principles, explain why would an accident on the highway right in the middle of traffic rush hour result in more traffic jams than during non-rush hour times?

[MNG] is a large engineering organisation situated in Brisbane, Queensland. Innovative practices have placed the organisation at the top of the engineering industry within Australia and Asia. The organisation is fast becoming known as the "employer of choice". Some of the best-engineering graduates have recently been employed as part of the organisations growth strategy.

You are part of a team that senior management has asked to discuss the advantages of introducing a performance management system [PMS] into the organisation. They are particularly interested in the benefits, responsibilities and expectations a PMS would provide for their employees. Additionally, they seek guidance on the role and responsibilities that management might consider if a PMS is introduced.

Discuss the major issues you would investigate. ------ 1500 words

Managing, Organizing & Negotiating for Value

Need an outline for a MGT course. Here are the specifics:

Select an actual current event that has ethical, legal and professional implications and has taken place in the context of a negotiation. An example might be the North Korean events on their atomic nuclear activities. Based on chapters 1 through 8 create an essay in the ESSAY FORMAT describing all of the relevant issues and aspects highlighting specific facts that you can attribute to the topics cover the negotiations of the issues. Be sure to cover examples of how your readings helped to resolve the final resolution or agreement. Please submit in APA compliant style.

Text is Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes. Harvard University Press. 0-6740-1231-3. Authors: Mnookin, Robert H., Tulumello, Andrew S., and Peppet, Scott R. (2004).

Chapters 1-8 cover:

- the dynamics of negotiation (tensions between: creating and distributing value; empathy and assertiveness; and principals and agents

- the challenges of dispute resolution/deal making; and psychological and cultural barriers

- a problem-solving apporach (behind the table/across the table)

This article illustrates the political economy of international trade and the concept of comparative advantage. Explain Who are the "Winners" and "Losers" and why as described in this article and the effect of "arbitrary government intervention" that circumvents the workings of free trade initiated by Senator Trent Lott as described in the article? Use the economic concept of comparative advantage in your explanation. (5 points). Viet Catfish Case Sixteen years after the end of the Vietnam war, the United States and Vietnam signed a free trade agreement. In December 2001, Vietnam agreed to lower import tariffs and restrictions on U.S. investments in that nation. In return, the U.S. agreed to dismantle discriminatory trade barriers on Vietnamese exports. The trade pact was an instant success. Vietnamese exports to the U.S. more than doubled in the first year after the trade pact was signed, led by exports of textiles, seafood, shoes, furniture, and commodities. U.S. investments in Vietnam also surged. Catfish farmers in the Mississippi Delta weren’t happy about this surge in Viet-U.S. trade. In fact, they were downright angr y. For well over a decade, catfish farmers in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana had been struggling to preserve their profits. As reported in Chapter 23 of The Economy Today (Chapter 8 in The Micro Economy Today) low entry barriers kept persistent pressure on prices and profits. The early entrepreneurs in the industry had to contend with a stream of cotton farmers who sought higher returns in catfish farming. Despite an impressive rise in market demand, prices and profits stayed low as the industry expanded. Surging Imports The Viet-U.S. pact intensified competitive pressures on Delta catfish farmers. In 1998, only 575,000 pounds of Vietnamese catfish were imported into the United States, mostly in the form of frozen fillets. Viet imports surged to 20 million pounds in 2001 and jumped again to 34 million pounds last year. That was more competition than domestic catfish farmers could bear. The price of frozen fillets fell by 15 percent in 2001, to a low of 62 cents a pound. Prices kept falling in 2002, hitting a low of 53 cents a pound at years end. With average production costs of 65 cents a pound, U.S. catfish farmers were incurring substantial economic losses. Suddenly, cotton farming started looking better again. Comparative Advantage Shifting domestic resources from catfish farming back to cotton farming is consistent with the principle of comparative advantage. Most farm-raised U.S. catfish are grown in clay-lined ponds filled with purified waters from underground wells. The fish are fed pellets containing soybeans and corn and are subject to regular USDA health inspections. Vietnamese catfish, by contrast, are grown in giant holding pens suspended under the free-flowing Mekong river and other waterways. The Vietnamese production process is much less expensive, giving Vietnam’s catfish farmers an absolute advantage over U.S. farmers. Given the relatively high costs of cotton farming in Vietnam, the Vietnamese also have a decided comparative advantage in catfish farming. Because of this, both the U.S. and Vietnam could enjoy more output if the U.S. specialized in cotton farming and Vietnam specialized in catfish farming. That is exactly the kind of resource reallocation the surging Vietnamese catfish exports was causing. Trade Resistance The 13,000 workers in the U.S. catfish industry don’t want to hear about comparative advantage. They simply want to keep their jobs. And their employers want to regain economic profits. They aren’t willing to sacrifice their own well-being for the sake of cheaper fish and so-called gains from trade. Economic theory may not be on the side of the domestic catfish industry, but U.S. politicians certainly are. At the urging of Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader from Mississippi, the U.S. Congress decided that of the 2,000 or so varieties of catfish, only the North American channel variety of catfish could be labeled as “catfish.” Vietnamese catfish had to be labeled as “basa” or “tra,” as in the Vietnamese language. To further discourage consumption of imports, the Catfish Farmers of America, an industry lobbying group, ran advertisements warning American consumers that “basa” and “tra” “float a round in Third World rivers nibbling on who knows what.” Arkansas C o n g ressman Marion Berry warned that Viet fish might even be contaminated by Agent orange-- a defoliant sprayed over the Vietnamese countryside by U.S. f o rces during the Vietnam war. None of these nontariff barriers halted the influx of Viet catfish however. Dumping Charges U.S. catfish farmers decided to mount a more direct attack on Viet catfish. The Catfish Farmers of America filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of C o m m e rce, charging Vietnam of “dumping” catfish on U.S. markets. Dumping occurs when foreign producers sell their p roducts abroad for less than the costs of producing them or less than prices in their own market. On its face, the complaint seemed to have no merit. Export prices were no lower than domestic prices in Vi e t n a m . Plus, Vietnamese farmers were evidently e a rning economic profits. Hence, neither form of dumping seemed plausible. The Department of Commerce found a loophole to resolve this contradiction. C o m m e rce officials decided that Vietnam was still not a “market econom y.” As a “nonmarket economy” its prices could not be regarded as re l i a b l e indices of underlying costs. Instead, the U.S. Department of Commerce would have to independently assess the “true ” costs of Vietnamese catfish production. To determine the “true” costs of Vietnamese catfish farming, U.S. investigators went to Bangladesh! Bangladesh is widely regarded as a market economy, with a level of development similar to Vi e t n a m ’s. So Bangladesh prices were assigned to Vietnamese farmers. With no fully integrated firms and fewer natural resource advantages, Bangladesh ended up with hypothetical costs in excess of Vietnamese prices. With this “evidence” in hand, the Commerce Department concluded in January 2003 that Vietnamese catfish were indeed being dumped on U.S. markets. Anti-Dumping Duties To “level the playing field,” the U.S. Commerce Department leveled temporary import duties (tariffs) of 37-64 percent. Importers of Viet catfish had to deposit these duties into an escrow account until the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) reviewed the case. The ITC must not only affirm the practice of dumping, but must also determine that U.S. catfish farmers have been materially damaged by such unfair foreign competition. If the ITC so rules, then the duties become permanent and payable. If the ITC rejects the dumping or damage charges, the duties are rescinded and the escrowed payments are refunded. The odds are never good for foreign producers: The Commerce department ruled in favor of domestic producers 91 percent of the time and the ITC concurred 80 percent of the time. The catfish case was similarly decided: on July 23 of this year the ITC unanimously ruled that Viet catfish had injured U.S. catfish farmers. The temporary duties of 37-64 percent were made permanent and retroactive to January. With your knowledge of comparative advantage and international trade – explain who were the winners and losers and why in this Catfish Case? Use economic terms and concepts to explain and support your answer. (5points)

Walmart and Superstore have identical cost structure and equal average demand. Walmart has a higher standard deviation in forecast than Superstore. Will Walmart or Superstore have the higher inventory level? Explain arguments and reasoning clearly .