Brunswick Parts is a small manufacturing firm located in eastern Canada. The company, founded in 1947, produces metal parts for many of the larger manufacturing firms located in both Canada and the United States. It prides itself on high quality and customer service, and many of its customers have been buying at least some of their parts from Brunswick since the 1950s.

Production of the parts takes place in one of two plants. The older plant, located in Fredericton, was purchased when the company was founded, and the last major improvements to the plant took place in the 1970s. A newer plant, located in Moncton, was built in 1995 to take advantage of the expanding markets. The same part can be produced in either plant, and the final scheduling decision is based on capacity, transportation costs, and production costs.

At a weekly production meeting, Sara Hunter, the manufacturing manager expresses her frustration at trying to schedule production.

Something isn’t right. We build a new plant to take advantage of new manufacturing technology and we struggle to keep it filled. We didn’t have this problem a few years ago when we couldn’t keep up with demand, but with the current economy, marketing keeps sending orders to the old plant in Fredericton. I know manufacturing, but I guess I must not understand accounting.

The latest order that generated discussion among plant management was placed by Lawrence Machine Tool Company, a long-time customer. The order called for 1,000 units of a special rod (P28) used in one of its many products. The order was received by the marketing department. Following the established procedure at Brunswick, the marketing manager checked the product costs for both plants. Because quality and transportation costs would be the same from either plant, a decision was made to produce and ship from the Fredericton plant.

The cost system at Brunswick is a traditional manufacturing cost system. Plant overhead (including plant depreciation) is allocated to products based on estimated production for the period. Separate overhead rates are computed for each plant. Corporate administration costs are allocated to the plants based on the estimated production in the plant for purposes of executive performance measurement. Production is measured by direct labor-hours. Cost and production information for P28 follows.

Corporate and plant overhead budgets are as follows:

Required:

a. What would be the reported product cost of P28 per unit for the two plants?

b. At what plant should the P28 units for the Lawrence order be produced?

• Moncton

• Fredericton

A project is represented by the activity duration (in days, estimated at 90% likelihood of completion) and precedence requirements shown in the table. How many feeder buffers are needed if this project is managed using critical chain methodology?

Options:

0

1

2

3

The sales staff would take orders on paper and, nightly, bring the orders to the office for processing. This proved to be too costly and time consuming, and in response, the sales people were provided with portable fax machines to send the orders after each visit. This, too, was inefficient because the orders had to be transcribed from the faxes, which were often illegible. The IT department, led by Cedric James, decided that wireless technology had become reliable and secure enough to begin equipping the sales team with hand-held devices. Since Cedric had a Pear P-Phone, he decided that this would be the platform on which to build a new order entry system. Cedric brought his idea to Chuck Hernandez, who began developing a business case. Chuck spoke with Sarah Stein and Rafael Colon to get some initial feedback on the current sales system. He also met with several members of the field sales force to determine which technologies would make their sales efforts more efficient. Chuck completed the business case and conceptual design. He presented it to Cedric, who forwarded it to Sarah and Rafael with a recommendation that they approve it.Cedric, Sarah and Rafael held a 10-minute meeting in which the project was discussed. Cedric presented his representation of the operational benefits and financial savings, using his assumptions and cost estimates. After limited discussion, based on Cedric’s representations of the savings and benefits, Rafael approved the US $20 million project, which included systems development and acquisition of the equipment. Because of the desire to implement the project development quickly, the project was not presented to the executive committee, comprised of the CEO, CFO, chief operating officer (COO) and general counsel. It was decided that Sarah, Cedric and Chuck would oversee the project as an ad hoc committee. Rafael would sit in on meetings affecting financial issues. No chairperson was established. In preparation for the later rollout, Cedric decided to replace the sales team’s mobile phones with the P-Phone to save the expense of replacing the phones later. At the last status meeting, involving Rafael, Sarah, Chuck and Cedric, the following issues were raised: • The project team has spent US $8 million, but reports that only 25 percent of the project plan has been completed. The original plan was to spend US $3.5 million by this point in the project. • The project team was having internal difficulties: • The business subject matter experts were only available in the late afternoon, after they had finished their routine responsibilities. • The IT project team feels that the business is not providing enough resources or attention. • The project team reports that the sales team has been complaining about phone service at the • locations they visit. • The IT project team suggests that the signal is good enough and that the sales team members can always find a place with an adequate signa Questions As the internal audit team lead for IT Audit, you have been asked to utilize COBIT as a framework to Case Exercise: Student Book COBIT: IT_Gov_Using_COBIT_and_ValIT_Student_Book_2ndEd_Research.pdf 1.Identify which processes were ineffective and allowed this situation to occur, using COBIT to justify your responses. 2.Suggest the steps management should take to assess the situation and create an action plan. 3.Identify which governance processes should be initiated to prevent reoccurrence of a project failure such as this one. 4.What are the five steps required for the IT assurance of a specific area? 5.Based on the results of question 4 and your understanding of the control environment, identify the high-risk areas requiring audit attention. As an IT auditor, suggest the steps senior management should take to assess the a failed IT implementation using COBIT and IT governance and create an action plan.

In the US, airlines and hotel companies use different types of generic strategies. What types of generic strategies do airlines and hotel companies use, and why? (Short Essay)

a) “Sometimes obtaining a feasible solution is enough, and there’s no need to strive for reaching the optimal solution.” Please evaluate this statement and report: In which case would this statement hold true? Why?

b) “Solving a problem with modeling is a team effort.” Explain why this is a true statement. (Hint: You can refer to the different roles/information necessary for successful modeling).

Imagine that you are a project manager who was just assigned to a new project. You received no additional information except that your primary constraint is time and the initial cost estimates should be based on previously completed projects. Assume that you were able to find ways to gather the information you needed, and that you have already created a project plan and schedule.

Now imagine that your team discovers discrepancies in the material and resource costs. Since you used predetermined cost estimates, how would you manage this problem to move forward?

For your organization, identify two core strategies and the appropriate assumptions used to establish those strategies. please elaborate and references.

State positive procedures for coaching employees in a hospitality industry.

Examples of reinforce proper behavior and the correction of negative performance?

How do you maintain communication with your staff?  

A retail chain has eight stores in a region supplied from four supply sources. Trucks have a capacity of 40,000 units and cost $1,000 per load plus $100 per delivery. Thus, a truck making two deliveries charges $1,200. The cost of holding one unit in inventory at retail for a year is $0.20.

• The vice president of the supply chain is considering whether to use direct shipping from suppliers to retail stores or setting up milk runs from suppliers to retail stores. • What network do you recommend if annual sales for each product at each retail store are 960,000 units?

• What network do you recommend if sales for each product at each retail store are 120,000 units?

please provide me a step by step detailed solution in excel

What type of organizational structure should Sony adopt? Why? (Short Essay)

What is the main (mandatory) things that should be in scrum project? how we count that the project is implement scrum successfully, describe everything in details  

Please Use your own words to answer the questions.

Virtual Team Successes and Stresses A Case Study

8/8/2016

As widespread as diverse and dispersed teaming is these days, leading a virtual team can be a challenge. This case study offers ideas on making the best of diverse and dispersed team structures. Virtual teaming, that is, working on teams whose members are not present in the same location, is a fact of our modern, globalized business world. Virtual (or diverse and dispersed) teams are prevalent not only in multinational companies with offices in different countries, but also in academic and non-governmental institutions with bases across the world. In such team structures, members often have to communicate and collaborate with others who could be thousands of miles and many time zones apart. As widespread as diverse and dispersed teaming is these days, leading a virtual team can be a challenge. Team leaders need to not only account for practical matters such as scheduling across time zones, but also technical issues such as varying rates of connectivity and access to communication platforms. However, one of the biggest factors in creating successful collaboration among diverse and dispersed teams is culture – specifically, tailoring the team’s mission, plans and procedures to the preferences of the different cultures represented on the team. The following is a case study provided by a Cultural Navigator subject matter expert in diverse and dispersed teaming: “A virtual team leader named Rebecca, originally from the United States, recently led a virtual project team with members from Japan, Mexico, Germany, Korea and the US. Rebecca was focused on setting the team up for success, and although she deliberately used strategies and tools made available by her company, she learned some valuable lessons along the way. “Before initiating the project with a kick-off meeting, Rebecca made sure that everyone filled out their Cultural Orientations Indicator (COI) assessment to get to know their own work-style preferences. She then invited all members into a team message board on the Cultural Navigator, and encouraged them to share their profiles to better understand each other’s work-style preferences. “The team was not able to have a face-to-face kick-off meeting, so during their first virtual meeting, every team member took time to introduce him or herself. The members talked about the different preferences in their team using the non-judgmental vocabulary of the Cultural Orientations Approach. At the end of the call, the team agreed on some ground rules for their upcoming teleconference and then closed the call. “As the project continued, the team leader noticed that key team members were regularly not sharing their sales pipelines during their calls as agreed upon. Rebecca used humor during their sessions to lighten the mood, thinking some of the team members were nervous. However, she noticed the same people began to skip the calls, and were reluctant to speak when they were in attendance.” In the above case study, the team leader Rebecca had done her due diligence in preparing the team to accommodate different cultural preferences among its members. But then she hit a snag. What had she done wrong? The subject matter expert offered this reading of the situation: “In retrospect, Rebecca realized that even though she had set ground rules, she could have had an individual talk with each member before finalizing the team structure and processes. Perhaps in those discussions she would have understood that Woo-jin, her Korean colleague, worked in a strict hierarchical office environment and had to clear most decisions with his direct supervisor before sending anything to her. Woo-jin had hoped his team leader realized he did not have this approval, however Rebecca was not aware of this. Similarly, the Japanese team member named Kamiko was concerned about the strict data protection laws in Japan, so she did not feel comfortable sharing her sales pipeline information. Kamiko had tried to indirectly convey this limitation to Rebecca, who wasn’t able to understand this message. As for Rebecca’s use of humor during teleconferences, she did not realize how many cultural references she was using in her jokes, which her colleagues from outside her own culture had little understanding of.” In essence, while Rebecca began the team’s collaboration with most of the components necessary for success, throughout the project duration, she learned the hard way that cultural mishaps often stall even the best plan. While cultural due diligence and careful preparation are necessary components of working with a virtual team, the team leader and members need to exercise cultural awareness and cultural competence all along the way. Though there can be challenges to working in diverse and dispersed teams, they are a fact of modern work life. The good news is that, when managed well, virtual teams can be as effective and productive as their traditional equivalents.

Questions:

What did the team leader notice during the team meeting (calls) and what did she tried to do to enhance the situation?

What should Rebeca had to do for each virtual worker and why?

What were the special situations with the Korean and the Japanese workers?

What the virtual leaders and the virtual members need to exercise?

How can the virtual teams be as effective and productive as their traditional equivalents?

Explain whether "best practice" recommendations and self-monitoring by brokerage firms can be as effective as government regulations in preventing churning. What are some possible obstacles to effective government regulation of the practice?

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One instance I have used data to make decisions is the forecasting of ammunition for major training exercises or gunnery densities, relates to major program management. The military provides manuals and computer programs to assist in this task. The manuals are updated yearly to dictate ammunition allocations for a specific unit for a fiscal year of training. I regularly utilize past ammunition consumptions paired with the dictated quantities from the manuals to forecast the requirement for a specific exercise or gunnery. Business research is crucial to the success of a business or another organization as well. There are multiple functions that are inputted to execute varies business research functions. Overall the purpose of business research is the utilization of data to support an organization’s multiple functions such as planning, reviewing, company performance, improving operations, and comparing company performance with competitors (Evans, 2013). The collection of the data inputted into the research required must be meticulously interpreted and the accuracy of the data scrutinized to ensure outputs and results are true. One major contributor to overall business research is statistics. Statistics are summary measures of population characteristics decided on from samples (Evans, 2013). The use of statistics enables business professionals the ability to visualize data in a simple form. The two biggest roles of statistics is the evaluation of the company’s operations and their business strategy (Bianca, 2019). The evaluation of the business operations can directly correlate to the effectiveness of the business strategy utilizing statistics. Decision Models are another critical contributor to the overall success of a business or any other organization that collects data for the most part. Decision models are logical or mathematical representations of a problem or business situation that can be made through theory or observation (Evans, 2013). These decision models are very useful as inputs to very important business decisions in support of business operations or the overall business strategy. Decision models can fuel business decisions that focus on the long term, what someone actually knows, and overall accomplishing more (Kim, 2017).