Question

Please study the article below and choose one specific corporation & business at your choice from the most unstable industries in the U.S. right now, in April 2020 due to corona virus impact and discuss in a word document the following topics (please do a brief research using external internet resources, website of the corporation, annual or quarterly company reports or your required book and OSM 311 power points):

-Company products & services

-The impact on sales or revenue or profit for this corporation of the corona virus effect on customers, supply chain, operation & employees, distribution, shelter in place government & state decision.

-What should you decide on inventory management (Anticipation inventory or Seasonal Inventory and safety inventory) as an operation manager for this company

-How can you reduce the inventory cost (slide 14) and Total cost minimization (slide 22-25).

-Losses & how to maximize the gross profit (review the break-even point)?

-Operations Strategies that your recommend for this business & corporation in this difficult situation of the economy (required book, page 581).

Airlines

With people around the world being asked to stay home and travel bans preventing people from entering and leaving certain countries becoming more common, the airline industry has been suffering major losses. Vertical Research Partners said that passenger revenues could decline to zero by the end of the first quarter and stay there for the whole year, Reuters reported.

Many major airlines have taken a hit. For example, Lufthansa has idled 700 of its 763 aircraft, and Qantas made plans to cut all international flights, which means 30,000 of its workers would need to take paid or unpaid leave.

The airline industry has been asking for government aid to get through the crisis, and on March 27, the U.S.’s coronavirus aid package passed, which would provide $58 billion to the American airline industry, Business Insider reported. The bill protects airline employee jobs through Sept. 30.

Many stakeholders see this as a win, including Delta Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants.

“This is an unprecedented win for frontline aviation workers and a template all workers can build from,” Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson said in a statement obtained by Business Insider. “The payroll grants we won in this bill will save hundreds of thousands of jobs and will keep working people connected to healthcare many will need during this pandemic.”

However, other experts think the bailout won’t be enough to save the industry, which relies on passengers to make revenue.

“We have an airline industry right now that is flying empty planes,” airline consultant Mike Boyd told CNN. “This isn’t going to save the industry unless we get back in [the] business of flying people.” And it’s unknown when that time might come.

“We’re talking about at least six to eight months down the road before flying starts to resume at anything approaching normal,” Boyd said. “And even then, we’re likely to see a significant reduction. One way or another, we’re going to have a smaller airline industry.”

Auto Manufacturing

Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai have all shut down manufacturing plants amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, ABC News reported. The closing of  Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler’s Detroit facilities will leave 150,000 workers without jobs, though they are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.

However, the slowdown in demand for cars as a result of the coronavirus could have major ripple effects. According to one projection, for every seven-day period that consumers stop buying new vehicles, the U.S. economy would lose roughly 94,400 jobs and $7.3 billion in overall earnings, NBC News reported.

Construction

Although the construction industry is pushing to be seen as “essential” to keep their projects running, there could still be some major impacts to the industry. The shutdown of the production of construction materials in China could lead to material delays and more expensive materials stateside, Construction Dive reported. It could also lead to fewer projects, especially in the realm of hospitality, as clients and lenders pull back on funding and expansion in these times of uncertainty.

“My gut tells me we’re going to see higher prices and projects canceled, although I can’t point to the extent of it,” Joe Natarelli, national construction industry leader at accounting services firm Marcum, told Construction Dive.

Cruises

All the major cruise lines have ceased operations as countries continue to close their ports. Thousands of workers have lost their jobs — both those who work on the cruise ships and those who work at the ports — and the values of the three biggest U.S. cruise lines — Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian — have all plummeted, The Guardian reported.

“This will be a disastrous time for the industry,” Dr. Christopher Muller, a senior professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, told The Guardian. “When you have 3,500 people booked on one of these mega cruises and the boat doesn’t go, it’s an enormous expense. Someone’s paying for that boat that’s sitting idle in the harbor and it’s very hard to recapture those ongoing fixed-cost losses.”

However, he believes the industry will be able to bounce back eventually.

“The logical thing is they will have to have very deep discounts, and those deep discounts will be especially present in the next cycle of cruise seasonality in September,” Muller said. “By August and September, the consuming public will be enticed to go back on cruises because the pricing is going to be outrageously good with enormous discounts.”

Film and TV Production

Major networks and film studios have put a halt on production as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Netflix has stopped production on all shows in the U.S. and Canada, including “Stranger Things” season four; NBC Universal has suspended production on 35 or more shows; and Warner Bros., Disney +, Apple TV +, CBS, AMC and Viacom have all also paused production on their shows, Forbes reported.

The release dates of several major films have also been pushed, including “Wonder Woman 1984,” “In the Heights,” “Black Widow” and “A Quiet Place Part II,” while others have been released straight to streaming.

Over 100,000 entertainment industry workers have lost their jobs, while studios, networks and producers face major losses, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“There may be irrecoverable losses to the movie and entertainment industry,” Brian Kingman, who helps film and television companies find insurance policies, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s going to take a long time to sort out.”

Gambling

As a result of the coronavirus, 92% of all of the casinos in America are now closed, including those in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. In addition, the legal sports betting industry is also suffering as live sporting events have been canceled or postponed, Business Insider reported.

These closures not only affect the hospitality and gaming employees who are now out of work, but also the U.S. economy as a whole. If casinos remain closed for two months, it would rob the U.S. economy of $43.5 billion in economic activity, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Gyms

Many gyms and fitness studios have temporarily closed as a result of the coronavirus. But the pandemic hasn’t been bad for all sectors of the fitness industry — it’s actually been good news for Peloton, which has seen an increase in share prices, CNBC reported. But as people invest more in their at-home gyms while traditional gyms and fitness studios are closed, they might be reluctant to go back once they are open, feeling that they need to justify the thousands they just spent on new equipment.

Answer 1

Coronavirus is an epidemic it has affected a lot of industries in US and around the world. Construction is one of the industry which have been affected a lot by this virus during April 2020. As most of the construction equipments are bought from China but due to Corona virus all the shipments have been cancelled. Products like Steel, HVAC equipments, Plumbing fixtures, Flooring tiles and marbles, electrical and light fixtures, mill works all are stopped in coming to US Which is delaying all the projects who are running right now. It is because of epidemicw hich has close all the production lines and all other materials are at the ports and there is no way of transportation to United States. To overcome these things contractors have to use alternative materials against the products which are not coming which will surely increase the cost of the project as well as delay in running projects. Construction is the backbone of economy of any country ,coronavirus has broken backbone economy of every country in the world. Most of the daily wages worker earn their living by working at construction sites there earning have been stopped as almost no construction projects are running in any part of any country. Construction companies are finding a lot of difficulty in paying salaries to the Employees as there is no profit gain during these months due to Corona virus.