Electech, Inc. (EI) produces a line of semiconductors for electronics products manufacturers. These items range in price from $5-$100 and are used in products the buyer is producing. EI also designs and builds computer networking equipment. The prices of these items range from $5,000 to $100,000. These are used to control production equipment. Usually, they are custom-made to the specifications of the buyer-the firm that will use the product in its own production process.

EI sells nationally through independent sales reps-paid on commission-who work in the large industrial centers across the country. EI is more concerned with the quality of these reps than with the number of them. All of them also sell other lines. EI also uses five full-time salaried salespeople who work out of its corporate headquarters under a sales manager.

The home office salespeople are "technical specialists" who sell almost all the networking equipment, while the "reps" mostly sell the semiconductors. Sometimes, however, the reps will send in leads to customers who want networking equipment. EI also sells some of its semiconductors through a Los Angeles wholesaler who carries stock for West Coast customers.

There are many producers and importers of semiconductors in the U.S.-but several firms have captured large shares of the networking equipment market. EI has held its own, and in fact, over the past five years has increased its market share of these products to over 25 percent-because of its better technical designs.

Industry-wide prices of the more or less homogeneous semiconductors have been forced further and further down over the last seven years-as have industry profits. The price of networking equipment is set by adding a standard markup percent to the direct cost of the items-for overhead and for profit. Following industry practice, all prices are quoted at the seller's factory.
EI publishes a catalog, which is revised periodically. Also, it exhibits in most equipment trade shows.

1. In the EI case, in which stage of the product life cycle do semiconductors appear to be?

2. What kind of products are EI's networking equipment?

Toolkit Exercise 10.2

Reflecting on the Impact of Measures and Control Processes on Change

Think of a higher education change initiative that you are familiar with.

1.      What measures and control processes were employed in tracking and guiding the change initiative? Were they consistent with the vision and strategy of the change? Were they viewed as legitimate by those who would be using them?

2.      How was the measurement information captured and fed back to those who needed to use it? Was it a user-friendly process and did the information arrive in a useful and timely form?

3.      Did the change managers consider how the measures might need to evolve over the life of the change initiative? How was this evolution managed? By whom?

4.      Were steps taken to ensure that the measures used during the change would be put to proper use? Were there risks and potential consequences arising from their use that would need to be managed?

5.      Were goals and milestones established to plot progress along the way and used to make midcourse corrections if needed? Were the smaller victories celebrated to reinforce the efforts of others when milestones were achieved?

6.      What were the end-state measures that were developed for the change? Were they consistent with the vision and strategy? Were they viewed as legitimate by those who would be using them?

7.      How was the end-state measurement information captured and fed back to those who would need to use it? Was it a user-friendly process?

8.      Were steps taken to ensure that the measures would be put to proper use? Were there risks and potential consequences arising from their use that would need to be managed?

he best test of any question posed to a job applicant is whether the employer can demonstrate a job-related necessity for asking the question. Because both the intent behind the question and how the information is to be used by the employer are important, an employer should consider whether the answers to the question, if used in making the selection, will adversely affect and screen out minorities or members of one gender. This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature presented five improper interview questions below and should be avoided. Identify what the employer really wants to know by asking each question and come up with an alternative way to find out the same information.[i]

1. How many children do you have?

2. What is your native language?

3.To what clubs or organizations do you belong?

4. What is your height? What is your weight?

5. Are you able to work on Christmas Day?

The answers were given for this problem, but I am not sure how to derive them. Would need any kind of help

Suppose that you sell Christmas trees each holiday season for $30 a tree. Peak selling time is the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas, but since harvesting real pine trees takes time, your supplier requires a 1 month lead time.

Your purchase cost per tree is $20. Anytime a customer comes to your store requesting a tree and it is unavailable, you give them a $5 credit (per tree) to spend on other products. (You should assume they always use this credit.) Any trees not sold before Christmas are sold to a local lumber yard at $10/tree.

Demand for this Christmas is forecasted in the following table.

a) (3 points) To the nearest tree, what is the expected demand for this Christmas? (Remember, as with all questions, you should show work for full credit.) 750 trees

b) (3 points) Suppose you order exactly 800 trees, how many trees would you expect to sell? (Remember, as with all questions, you should show work for full credit.) 730 trees

c) (3 points) Suppose you order exactly 800 trees while the actual demand turns out to be 700 trees, what is your expected profit (including goodwill costs if there are any)? $6000

d) (3 points) What is the underage cost? What is the overage cost? Just by comparing the two costs, should we order more or less than the average demand? Briefly explain.

Underage: $15

Overage: $10

We should order more than average, but why? I don't understand the explanation

e) (3 points) What is the optimal order quantity given the demand in part a)? As with all questions, please show work for full credit. 800 trees

f) (1 point) What is the effective service level for the quantity you suggested in part e)? 80%

Max Z = 2x1 + 8x2 + 4x3

subject to

2x1 + 3x2     ≤ 8

2x2 + 5x3     ≤ 12

3x1 + x2 + 4x3         ≤15

and x1,x2,x3≥0;

Solve the LP you create by using the Simplex Method. You can use Big-M or Two-Phase Method if needed

Conceptional skill-The ability to think beyond the department in which you work to understand how the entire organization function as a whole.

Human Skill-The soft skills of connecting and interacting with people.

how does language and discourse shape and formulate strategy within an organization? explain fully and provide some examples

Do you think labor unions are generally good for employees? In 200 words or less

Agnes Hammer is a senior majoring in management science. She has interviewed with several companies for a job when she graduates, and she is curious about what starting salary offers she might receive. She asked 12 of her classmates at random what their annual staring salary offers were, and she received the following responses

1. Compute the sample mean and sample variance for these data. (Please write down the calculation process)
   

2. Suppose the starting salaries are normally distributed, the mean is the same as the sample mean and variance is the same as sample variance that you calculate from the previous question. What is the probability that Agnes will receive a salary offer of less than $27000? (For probability of normal distribution, please use the probability table posted on Blackboard)
   

3. Suppose the starting salaries are normally distributed, the mean is the same as the sample mean and variance is the same as sample variance that you calculate from the previous question. What is the probability that Agnes will receive a salary offer of between $27000 and $40000 (meaning 27000<= salary <= 40000)? (For probability of normal distribution, please use the probability table posted on Blackboard)

Last month, there was a mechanical breakdown on the cable gondola that takes passengers from the base of Marvellous Mountain to the restaurant at the top. The system, which is operated by Marvellous Mountain Cable Corp. (Marvellous), has two large gondolas, one of which is going down the mountain when the other goes up. The breakdown took place in late afternoon and it soon became apparent that it could not be repaired until the following morning, so the passengers needed to be evacuated from the stationary gondolas.

The evacuation itself was not hazardous but, in the case of one of the gondolas, the passengers would have to walk a long distance over rough terrain after rescue personnel lowered them to the ground. It was considered unsafe for the passengers to be walking over this terrain with heavy items. As a consequence, the passengers were instructed over the public announcement system built into each gondola that for safety’s sake they were to leave any heavy bags and backpacks in the gondola, from which Marvellous personnel would remove them when the gondola was moving again and keep them to be reclaimed.

Two passengers in that gondola suffered serious consequences from these events. One Randolph, was claustrophobic. As long as the gondola was moving Randolph had no problem, but during the hour and a half that elapsed from when the gondola shuddered to a halt to when the passengers were evacuated, Randolph was reduced to a state of serious debilitation and, since the incident, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The other, Rhonda, had in her backpack a small but heavy scientific instrument that she used in her job as a geologist. The instrument, which belonged to her, was worth $40,000. She left the backpack on the gondola as instructed and it was returned to her the next day, but the instrument was gone. It cannot be determined who removed it from the backpack or when, other than that it must have occurred after the luggage the passengers had left behind in the gondola was unloaded the next day by Marvellous personnel.

Each passenger, when buying a ticket for the gondola, had received a receipt in large font stating, “THIS TICKET CONTAINS CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE — SEE BACK”. On the back, in a smaller but still readable font, were three conditions, one of which read:

“LIABILITY — PASSENGER ASSUMES RISK — By accepting this ticket,  passenger expressly agrees that Marvellous Mountain Cable Corp. shall not be liable for any personal injury or loss of property from any and all causes, including our negligence, that occurs in the gondola terminals or on the gondola.

It comes out, some time after the incident, that Marvellous had failed to arrange for the annual safety inspection and re-certification of the gondola system that was due the week before the incident. As a result, the gondola was operating without a current safety certificate. It appears that the standard inspection would have spotted the wear in a particular gear that experts later determined had caused the breakdown.

Discuss the contract claims that Randolph and Rhonda may have against Marvellous.

Question one:

Define "Sustainable Supply Chain Management" and discuss how a specific company uses it.

Question two;

Define the following terms AND give an example of each - a)   Franchise b) Gross Margin c) Direct Marketing.

Question three:

Define "Customer Relationship Management and give an example of how a specific company uses it.

Question 3

Compose a literature review surrounding the debates on " The impact of a good marketing strategy on an organization's performance". This submission will serve as part of your motivation or presentation to your manager, pending on how well you gather and present the information to the above theme. (25)

Explain additional research is required (reference as per the Harvard style of referencing). Use the rubric (below) to develop a literature review based on the topic.

The following table provides monthly sales ($1000) at a college bookstore. The sales show a seasonal pattern, with the greatest number when the college is in session and decrease during the summer months.

Calculate all seasonal factors? Then calculate the forecasted sales per month for year 5 - third quarter only. Given that a fiscal year starts in January and ends in December. In year 5 the expected to be a total of $3,600,000

Consider the following LP model.Max  Z = 3x1 - 4x2 + x3

subject to     x1 + x2 + x3 >= 9

           2x1 + x2 + x3<= 12

x1 + x2         = 5

      x1, x2, x3 >= 0

1. Change it to standard form.

2. Obtain all the basic solutions and indicate which ones are basic feasible solutions and write down the corresponding corner points. For each basic solution, you have to obtain the values of all the variables.

3. Obtain the solution of the LP problem, that is, obtain the values of the decision variables corresponding to the optimal solution as well as the optimal value of the objective function.

A quality control activity analysis indicated the following four activity costs of a hotel:

Sales are $3,000,000. Prepare a cost of quality report. Round percent of sales to one decimal place.