For the set of tasks given below, do the following:

b. Determine the minimum and maximum cycle times in seconds for a desired output of 500 units in a seven-hour day. (Round your answers to 1 decimal place.)
  

c. Determine the minimum number of workstations for output of 500 units per day. (Round up your answer to the next whole number.)
  
Minimum number of workstations            

d. Balance the line using the greatest positional weight heuristic. Break ties with the most following tasks heuristic. Use a cycle time of 50 seconds.

e. Calculate the percentage idle time for the line using the 50 second cycle time. (Round your answer to 1 decimal place. Omit the "%" sign in your response.)
  
Percentage of idle time             %

Case Study 2: SAP Eliminates Annual Performance Reviews

he annual performance review is a main feature of HR programs in most companies. Yet, a handful of companies such as Accenture, Adobe, Medtronic, Gap and Microsoft are moving away from the traditional annual performance review and pursuing other methods. SAP is a very successful global company headquartered in Germany. The company provides support for cloud-based management software that enables thousands of clients to deliver performance feedback to millions of employees. While SAP will continue to provide support for performance feedback for other companies, it has decided to eliminate annual performance reviews for its own workers in the United States. SAP’s chief HR officer for Germany, Wolfgang Fassnacht, told Reuters that. “Grading workers did not work. People are open to feedback, also to harsh criticism, until the moment you start giving scores. Then the shutters go down.” This change does not mean that SAP is abandoning all performance feedback, just the annual reviews are slated to go away. The plan is to replace them with regular check-in discussions to provide feedback in real time and foster dialogue that can lead to better performance.

Questions

1. Why do companies conduct annual performance reviews?
2. What are the challenges with conducting annual reviews?
3. What changes do you think would improve the annual review process?
4. What do you think of SAP’s plans? Will they be successful? Why or why not?

Please give 10 conditions to be a successful supervisor. Then, select and explain the 5 most important conditions from the 10 conditions. Why the 5 conditions are such important? How to satisfy the conditions?.

Write paragraphs on each question:

1) Gerrymandering: partisan, incumbent, and the Citizen’s Redistricting Commission. How affects political behavior.

2) What is judicial review, and what are some (in)famous examples of Supreme Court rulings?

f Nokia decided to embrace the change and move from the old slate (Nokia phones in 2005) to the future slate (smartphones similar to apple and Samsung smartphones in 2020), bearing in mind the lesson learned stated in the last page in the case, propose suitable levers throughout Lewin’s three phases of managing change which in your opinion could have saved Nokia from failure. The levers should cover the four organisational subsystems. (at least 2 levers in each subsystem).

Please respond to the following questions based upon these course objectives: Analyze the impact of organizational structure including cross-border alliances on international human resource management. Describe the issues surrounding expatriate recruitment, selection, training, and development for international assignments. Describe repatriation activities, practices, and issues. Identify the drivers of globalization and localization. Please answer the following questions with supporting examples and full explanations. For each of the learning objectives, provide an analysis of how the course supported each objective. Explain how the material learned in this course, based upon the objectives, will be applicable to the professional application.

The local supermarket buys lettuce each day to ensure really fresh produce. Each morning any lettuce that is left from the previous day is sold to a dealer that resells it to farmers who use it to feed their animals. This week the supermarket can buy fresh lettuce for $7.00 a box. The lettuce is sold for $18.00 a box and the dealer that sells old lettuce is willing to pay $2.00 a box. Past history says that tomorrow's demand for lettuce averages 255 boxes with a standard deviation of 40 boxes.

How many boxes of lettuce should the supermarket purchase tomorrow? (Use Excel's NORMSINV() function to find the correct critical value for the given α-level. Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to the nearest whole number.)

Research and identify what types of ads are particularly effective in each of these social networking sites, and why: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Give an example for each site

Samsonite generally follows a value-based pricing strategy. Explain the type of value-based pricing strategy Samsonite is using. And briefly explain the different internal and external factors impact marketers pricing decision.

1. Selection methods used for international assignments are probably not much different from the methods used in domestic staffing decisions. However, culture has an impact in terms of how these procedures are applied and in the focus of each procedure.  
   1. True
   2. False
2. Think and act globally means that a global enterprise must think about and prepare for a presence in a favored few select markets, not just its home region.
   1. True
   2. False
3. Repatriating refers to the _________ of bringing the international assignee and family back “home” from the foreign assignment.  

Complete a case analysis of Ford (Case 17) (case study section of your text). A formal, in-depth case analysis requires you to utilize the entire strategic-management process. Assume your group is a consulting team asked by Ford to analyze its external/internal environment and make strategic recommendations. You will be required to make exhibits/matrices to support your analysis and recommendations. The case analysis must encompass 1-2 pages plus the reference page. The cover page must include the company name, your group name, and the date of submission. The completed case must include: Proposed Alternative Strategies and Recommended Strategies for Ford Company!

Beckett Organics

John Beckett enjoys vegetables, so much so that he has given up his full-time job as a lawyer to concentrate on growing and marketing organic vegetables. He started growing vegetables 20 years ago in his back garden and eventually became fully self-sufficient in supplying vegetables for the family. Partly bored with his legal job and tempted by an attractive severance package, John decided he would try to establish his own vegetable supply business. Eighteen months ago he looked around for two fields to lease in which he could grow organic vegetables.

Organic products including vegetables, is a growth market in the UK. Growers must adhere to strict guidelines in order to gain organic certification. Increasing awareness of the problems associated with many pesticides and fertilizers, coupled with an increased interest in healthy eating habits and ‘wholesome’ food, has meant that many consumers are now either purchasing or interested in purchasing organic vegetables. This is true not only of household customers, but in addition, many restaurants are using the lure of organic produce to give them a distinctive edge in the market place.

All this has meant that many of the larger supermarkets in the UK have begun to stock more and more organic produce from what was a relatively specialized market in the 1990s; the market has grown to where overall organic produce accounts for some 12% of the total UK grocery market and in worldwide terms as of January 2010 it accounts for approximately 3% of all food sales. The market for organic vegetables has grown more rapidly than other organic products and it is estimated that by 2014 some 25% of all vegetables marketed in the UK will be organic. This growth has been sustained at a rate of around 20% per year in developed countries. However, organic yields are between 10% and 20% lower than conventional agriculture, with crops like potatoes some 40% lower. Unsurprisingly, this makes organic produce on average around 40% more expensive than non-organic produce.

A.C.Nielsen Co. cite the case of the United States where organic sales eased in the second half of 2009 as middle- and upper-income families have felt the strain of layoffs and declining investment portfolios. Sales in December 2009 were up 5.6 percent, year on year, against a 25.6 percent rise a year earlier.

Organic vegetables offer several advantages over their non-organic counterparts:

• They are generally tastier, and because they are not treated in the same way, are usually fresher than nonorganic products.
• They are good for a healthy lifestyle as they contain no pesticides and chemicals.
• The fact that no pesticides or herbicides are used in their production means that they are much ‘greener’. For example, they help to reduce the problems associated with nitrates in the soil and water supplies.
• On the downside, organic vegetables are generally less uniform, and as far as some consumers are concerned, are less attractive in appearance. This lack of uniformity has also been a problem in the past with supermarket buyers who have traditionally looked for uniformity in fresh products to aid merchandising and marketing in retail outlets.

• Generally, organic vegetables are more expensive than their non-organic counterparts. Currently, on average they are somewhere in the region of 40% more expensive.

In the UK, anyone wishing to claim that their produce is organic, and market it in this way, needs to obtain the approval of the Soil Association, which checks the organic credentials of a supplier. For example in this case, they check the conditions under which the produce is grown and how the seeds used.

Two interesting developments are taking place in the organic produce market. One is the growth of home supplies. This is where the producer supplies direct to the householder. There are a variety of ways of doing this. Some smaller growers use mail-shots and leafleting to build up a client base. They then deliver locally to customers who order from a list. Very often the supplier will simply make up a box of a pre-determined value or weight containing a selection of vegetables which are in season and ready for picking. Other suppliers are using a similar system, but take their orders via the Internet. This is particularly suitable for this type of product as customers can check on a regular basis what is available and order from home. The produce is then delivered at a pre-arranged time.

The second development in the organic produce market is the growth of farmers’ markets. These markets are usually run by local authorities, often on Saturdays or Sundays. Local and other producers attend these markets, paying a small fee for a stall and then sell their produce direct to the consumer. These farmers’ markets partly came about as a result of the frustration felt by many farmers and growers at the way they were being treated by retailers and at the margins they were receiving. In addition, such markets have been successful because consumers feel they are getting fresh produce at lower prices than they might be able to obtain through supermarkets.

Despite the growth in the market for organic vegetables, after 18 months in his business, John is worried. Quite simply, his business has not been as successful as he envisaged it would be, and as a result he is not earning enough to make a living. The real worry is that he is not sure why this is the case. His produce, he believes, is as good as anything in the business. He is a very good grower and the land he has leased is perfect for the range of produce he wishes to grow. Starting with organic potatoes he now produces a range of organic vegetables including beans, sprouts, carrots, lettuce and his latest venture organic tomatoes and corn grown in poly-tunnels. Although customers he currently supplies are very loyal to John, indeed many are friends and acquaintances he has known over the years when he grew vegetables in his back garden, there are simply not enough of them.

As a result, his turnover which increased rapidly over the first year of the business has for the last six months has stagnated. He mainly supplies locally and has tried to increase his customer base by taking leaflets out and posting them through letterboxes in the area. He has done this by dividing up the housing areas in a ten mile radius around his growing area and dropping leaflets throughout the area to as many houses as he can cover on a systematic basis. Only some 2% of customers have responded with an order, usually contacting by telephone. These customers seem to come from the middle class areas. He has considered taking a stall at one of the farmers’ markets, the nearest of which is some 40 miles away and operates one day per month, but he realises this would not be enough to reach the turnover levels he requires. He has in the past supplied one or two local restaurants and hotels, but usually only when they have contacted him because they have had a problem with their existing supplier.

He has never followed these up. His growing area is currently too small to supply a major retailer, although he has been approached on an informal basis by the buyer of a voluntary chain of local grocers representing some 40 retail outlets in the county.

John is wondering where he goes from here. He cannot understand why his superior products are not selling well. A friend has suggested that John needs a more strategic approach to marketing. John is not convinced. He feels his business is too small to warrant any kind of marketing, never mind strategic marketing, and he has always felt that a good product should sell itself. He is, however, anxious to grow the business and become a leading organic vegetable supplier.

Questions 4:

What in your opinion should be the marketing strategy that an organization of this type should indulge in? Bring out the advantages and disadvantages of the strategy

.

It was noted in the text that big data makes it harder to keep secrets. Provide examples (e.g. a person undergoing genetic testing for dementia markers, an unfaithful partner using a ride service to visit their paramour), both good and bad, where individuals may prefer to keep secrets? Analyze the potential impact of exposing this private information to the individuals and businesses.

Using the Home Depot company, how could strong team cohesion at the firm both enhance and hinder performance.

Describe in detail the several common entry strategies for international operations (The most common entry approaches are: wholly owned subsidiaries, mergers and acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures, licensing agreements, franchising, and basic export and import operations).

Thank you!