1.Compute the two-period and four-period moving average predictions for the data set.

a. Prepare a line graph comparing the moving average predictions against the orig-inal data.

b. Do the moving averages tend to overestimate or underestimate the actual data? Why?

c. Compute forecasts for the next 2 years using the two-period and four-period moving average techniques.

2. Use regression analysis to fit a linear trend model to the data set.

a. What is the estimated regression function?

b. Interpret the R2 value for your model.

c. Prepare a line graph comparing the linear trend predictions against the original data.

d. What are the forecasts for the next 2 years using this technique?

Explain how the ANN model works. (use the steps listed below)

Step 1: Determine the Topology and Activation Function

Step 2: Initiation

Step 3: Calculating Error

Step 4: Weight Adjustment

Step 4: Weight Adjustment

Given a simple project illustrated in the following table

The required project completion time is 12. Assume that "Activity 1" actually finished at 3 weeks, and "Activity 2" actually finished at 2 weeks. Given the actual project progress, what is the LF (lastest time) of "Activity 4"?

A car rental company allows its customers to pick up a rental car at one location and return it to any of its locations. Currently, two locations (1 and 2) have 16 and 18 surplus cars, respectively; and four locations (3, 4, 5, and 6) each need 10 additional cars. Because 34 surplus cars are available at locations 1 and 2 combined, and 40 cars are needed at locations 3, 4, 5, and 6 combined, some locations will not receive as many cars as they need. Management wants to make sure all surplus cars are sent where they are needed, and that each location needing cars receives at least five. Management wants to do this with the lowest total miles added to the cars. The distance (in miles) from locations 1 and 2 to the other locations are summarized in the following table:

(1.1) Formulate a linear programming model for this problem

(1.2) Create a spreadsheet model for this problem and solve it using Solver. Submit your Excel file on iLearn.

(1.3) What is the optimal solution?

(1.4) Which location is receiving the fewest cars?

(1.5) Suppose location 6 must have at least eight cars shipped to it. What impact does this have on the optimal objective function value?

In 300 words answer the following questions

Assess whether Caterpillar Inc. leverages the appropriate value and cost drivers for their business strategy.

Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Caterpillar Inc’s competitive advantages.

questions

Study Discussion Questions

1. Whose perspective do you agree with—Sandy's or Grace's? Why?
2. Do you think there are important differences between the cases of Henrietta Lacks, Jean, and the Havasupai? Explain your answer.
3. Are there cases of advances in medical knowledge that do not, at least potentially, threaten to violate the privacy of individual patients?
4. Does a patient have the right to use the genetic information that belongs to her direct-lineage family members? Extended family or relatives? Other patients with a similar condition?
5. What moral, ethical, and legal protocols can be considered in guiding clinicians in this case?
6. What moral, ethical, and legal protocols can be considered in guiding researchers in this case?

imothy B. Patrick, Peter J. Tonellato, and Mark A. Hoffman

Two health sciences graduate students, Sandy and Grace, are discussing the value of clinical uses of genetic and genomic patient information.

Sandy: It's always the same story—the supposed trade-off between the benefits to society and the sacrificed rights of the individual! Just remember the case of Henrietta Lacks. HELA cells—cancer cells taken from Henrietta before she died—have been invaluable to medical science; they led to the polio vaccine and other medical “miracles.” But Henrietta was never told what was going to be done with her cells; she never gave her permission. Nor did her close relatives and family know or give their permission. It's a clear case of science overstepping its bounds to the detriment of the individual.

Grace: Sandy, you know that scientific research's benefit to society really means the medical care benefit to the individual. Don't you remember the recent case that took place here in our own hospital—the case of Jean, a 17-year-old who was visiting the home of a friend when she fell down, struck her head, and suffered serious injuries? She was raced to the emergency room, where she required emergency surgery, and neither her parents nor her relatives could be reached before the procedure. The mother of Jean's friend provided the hospital with Jean's name and home address, which allowed the ER personnel to associate Jean with her parents in the system. Using the hospital's healthcare information system, the surgeon entered an order for the protocol that she was planning to use to treat Jean. Among the details included in the protocol was the use of halothane, a type of anesthesia. Jean had never been the subject of genetic testing, but her father had had a genetic test that found a mutation in the ryanodine receptor gene. When people with this mutation are exposed to halothane, they can experience malignant hyperthermia, an often-fatal reaction that can cause the body's core temperature to reach 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

The hospital's information system used the demographic person–person relationship between the father and his daughter and embedded pharmacogenomics decision support capabilities to infer that Jean had a 50 percent risk of also possessing this rare mutation. The system flashed an interactive alert to the surgeon, who was unaware of this genetic association. The surgeon responded to the alert by activating an alternative surgical plan that did not include the use of halothane. It was only by taking advantage of the genetic information about Jean's father that a potentially catastrophic clinical event was averted!

Sandy: But you make my case for me. The potential for abuse of genetic data is magnified by the existence and use of sophisticated healthcare information systems. There's no mystery about the potential for abuse. Jean's father was the one who had the test, not Jean. Yet the information produced by the test was also about Jean. Sure, revealing that information happened to help Jean, but the principle is that the information was about Jean as much as it was about her father. And Jean never gave her permission for that information to be used or revealed! It's her body and her genome, not her father's, right? So it's her right to privacy that was violated.

Grace: It might be her body, Sandy, but given the genetic data and information, we are bound by our Hippocratic oath to do no harm—primum nil nocere in Latin.¹ In practice and in effect, Jean's life was ours to save. What other choice did we have?

Sandy: What about consent and protecting her privacy? And what about Jean's father? Did he give permission to release the information from his genetic test to be used in ways other than for his diagnosis and treatment? How is that different from the Havasupai tribe's lost-blood case?

Grace: Remind me about that case.

Sandy: Arizona State University researchers asked the Havasupai if they would provide blood for studies to discover clues about the tribe's incredible rate of diabetes, presumably to help the Havasupai. But the researchers used the collected blood for other purposes. They used the extracted DNA for studies on mental illness. The initial diabetes studies seem to have led nowhere, but even if that effort helped save lives, it would have been lives saved without the Havasupai's consent.

Grace: Sandy, for goodness sake, it was only blood!

Sandy: Not at all, Grace, not at all.

Note

1.The following Hippocratic oath is reprinted from North (2002):

I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement: To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art. I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone. I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

Read the scenario. Highlight the type of control described for each scenario. In other words, is it a behavior or an output control and is it a feedforward, concurrent or feedback control mechanism?

2. Employee drug use is a serious problem for employers. Possible consequences include injuries, illness, absenteeism, breakage, theft, and reduced productivity. Illegal drug use by employees costs U.S. industry an estimated $25 billion a year. The extent of this problem has challenged managers to find ways to discourage and prevent employee drug use. One approach is to implement a drug-testing program, most commonly based on urinalysis. (The employee supplies a urine sample that is chemically tested for traces of drugs in his or her system.) For example, Home Depot routinely tests all job applicants and all employees receiving promotions.

1. Is this method of controlling employee drug use an example of behavioral control or output control?
2. Assume drug testing programs serve as a deterrent and that employees are less likely to use illegal drugs due to fear of detection. Based on this assumption, are drug testing programs an example of a feedforward, concurrent, or feedback control mechanism?

You received a letter of recommendation from a teacher. Write a thank-you note.

You will respond to two case scenarios in this module. Both are drawn from real situations I've been involved in through some capacity though some details have been changed to preserve privacy for the parties involved.

These are both related to discipline and termination. In each case you are a leader with ultimate authority to decide if you terminate or not, as well as how to handle all details related to the termination. You should answer:

1. Do you terminate this person? Why or Why not?

2. If you don't terminate, what alternative would you do and why? What are the possible draw backs to this option?

3. If you do terminate, what are the possible risks? Do you offer any kind of severance package and if so, how much? To help with this consideration assume each employee makes $50,000 a year.

You may want to review the lecture on termination before writing your reply but you don't have to - if you opt to reply before reviewing the lecture I'd like to see you include some commentary in your feedback to peers that reflects an understanding of concepts from that lesson. Also remember, with regard to the concept of a severance package that you may be fully justified in your termination decision but even if that is the case, there are very real time and cost considerations to defending your position against any future appeals or litigation the employee may pursue.

Scenario 1:

Jane works in a position where being on time is extremely important; being even a minute late has a significant impact on her colleagues and with repeated incidents costs your company a good deal of money over time through overtime and other ripple effects.

She has been employed for about three years. She did fine the first year and is no longer a probationary employee. In her second year she started having issues with being late; she'd often come in 2 or 3 minutes late but sometimes up to 5 minutes late. Her supervisor coached her on this and while she agreed to do better, did not seem to see the big deal about being late because "it's only a few minutes", despite her supervisor explaining how it impacts others.

The tardiness improved briefly after the first coaching but did not take long to regress to the point where Jane had 5 more tardies in a two month span. This led to her being suspended for one day without pay. She was irate about the suspension but agreed to do better. She did do better for a few more months but eventually started to regress again. She was coached again when the supervisor saw this happening and she corrected for a few weeks but then was 4 minutes late again for one shift. She was suspended for 3 days this time. At each stage her attitude continues to be poor about the issue of being on time but she gives cursory promises to do better. She has opined that she is being picked on for this issue, that it isn't a big deal she is late now and then, and has a few peers who encourage her to feel victimized by management for being "harassed" over such a trivial matter.

Her performance aside from the tardiness is mediocre; there isn't anything you can take corrective action about per se and certainly nothing to discipline over but she really does the bare minimum and her peers view her as little more than a "warm body" with regard to her value to the team.

After the 3 day sanction she did well for four months but regressed again to the point of being late twice in a one week span. Her supervisor coached her again about this, got the same tepid promise, and she was five minutes late a week following the coaching session.

Using the questions at the top of this module as a guide, what do you do now?

Scenario 2

Bill is an employee who has been with you for 7 years. He has many strengths and has been able to provide some real added value to your unit and agency at times. He's also had some emotional and health problems at times that have impacted availability to work and you suspect, at times, has impacted performance. That said, Bill has never identified a specific medical condition that requires workplace accommodations and overall Bill has been pretty vague about his health situation.

With regard to work, Bill has had significant problems with organization and has a reputation with his peers for not being reliable. At times it has impacted his clients as well which has led to some coaching situations. He typically responds with some defensiveness when coached but after a day or two will come back and identify where the feedback has value and with some specific changes he'll make to remedy it. The changes do seem to work to a modest degree but are rarely long lasting and really only scratch the surface of the overall issues with organization and reliability.

One day you get a report from some informal channels that Bill was cited for driving with a suspended license. His job requires him to be insured through the agency policy and does involve some driving on occasion, though it isn't a main feature of his position. You are concerned so you check into it further and find that Bill has not had a valid license for over three months. This was no reported to you nor his supervisor at any point and he drove to work during that span. He never drove an agency vehicle with a suspended license but drove during the course of work hours and for work purposes.

Further compounding factors, it turns out that Bill was ticketed for driving while suspended at a time in day where he reported being on duty, working. He was not in the midst of doing any work related activity while driving, per his own report he was returning from a personal errand. You investigate this issue further and discover through a combination of his own report and time stamps on your surveillance cameras that there were at least 40 hours in the last two weeks he reported being at work but in fact was not working. He did not have any excuse other than struggling with organization and acknowledging he needs to do better.

Though your video feed does not go back farther than two weeks colleagues familiar with Bill offer their opinion that he has likely been fabricating hours on his time sheet for some time. There are no punch clocks in your workplace - employees are expected to be professional and honest about their time worked.

With regard to not having a license to drive, Bill states it is related to a medical condition and that he has been appealing it through the DOT. He says he didn't know it was suspended because he appealed the decision but documentation he provided did have clear statements that he was not to drive while the DOT considered the appeal. The documentation did confirm the basis for the suspension was a medical situation that rendered driving potentially dangerous. Your insurance company says that any employee with a suspended license cannot be insured for three years subsequent to that happening.

Based on these alarming facts, considering this employee has NEVER been disciplined, and replying to the questions posed at the start of this module, what do you do now?

As an entrepreneur running a business that is experiencing stalled growth, you want to institute exit strategies. Critically discuss the possible business exit strategies that you know that can be used by your company if you decides to leave the business?

“The balance score card is a well-known tool for evaluating performance of a business organization”.

Critically discuss the performance management indicators that can be used to measure performance of the organization of your choice using the balanced scored method?

(Maximum words 3000)

If you fail to discuss and apply legal concepts from the text and only write posts based on personal/business/professional experience, you will not receive full class participation

What privacy or publicity concerns might a company have about the discovery process in traditional litigation?