The cash flow statement below is extracted from a company.

Required:

Using your own words, discuss the following relationships

a) between net income, working capital from operations, and cash flow from operations for the three years, and

b) between cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities for the three years.

Assignment specification — Case Study :IKEA Operations Management

IKEA is the one of the most successful furniture retailer globally. With 276 stores in 36 countries, they have managed to develop their own special way of selling furniture. Their stores’ layout means customers often spend two hours in the store – far longer than in rival furniture retailers. IKEA’s philosophy goes back to the original business, started in the 1950s in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. He built a showroom on the outskirts of Stockholm where land was cheap and simply displayed suppliers’ furniture as it would be in a domestic setting. Increasing sales soon allowed IKEA to start ordering its own self-designed products from local manufacturers. But it was innovation in its operations that dramatically reduced its selling costs. These included the idea of selling furniture as self-assembly flat packs, which reduced production and transport costs, and its ‘showroom-warehouse’ concept, which required customers to pick the furniture up them-selves from the warehouse (which reduced retailing costs). Both operating principles are still the basis of IKEA’s retail operations process today.

Stores are designed to facilitate the smooth flow of customers, from parking, moving through the store itself, to ordering and picking up goods. At the entrance to each store large notice boards provide advice to shoppers. For young children, there is a supervised children’s play area, a small cinema, and a parent and baby room so parents can leave their children in the supervised play area for a time. Parents are recalled via the loudspeaker system if the child has any problems. IKEA ‘allow customers to make up their minds in their own time’ but ‘information points’ have staff who can help. All furniture carries a ticket with a code number which indicates its location in the warehouse. (For larger items customers go to the information desks for assistance.) There is also an area where smaller items are displayed, and can be picked directly. Customers then pass through the warehouse where they pick up the items viewed in the showroom. Finally, customers pay at the checkouts, where a ramped conveyor belt moves purchases up to the checkout staff. The exit area has service points, and a loading area that allows customers to bring their cars from the car park and load their purchases. Behind the public face of IKEA’s huge stores is a complex worldwide network of suppliers, 1,300 direct suppliers, about 10,000 sub-suppliers, and wholesale and transport operations, including 26 distribution centres. This supply network is vitally important to IKEA. From purchasing raw materials, right through to finished products arriving in its

customers’ homes, IKEA relies on close partnerships with its suppliers to achieve both ongoing supply efficiency and new product development. However, IKEA closely controls all supply and development activities from IKEA’s hometown of Älmhult in Sweden. But success brings its own problems and some customers became increasingly frustrated with overcrowding and long waiting times. In response IKEA launched a programe ‘designing out’ the bottlenecks. The changes included:

• clearly marked in-store short cuts allowing those customers who just want to visit one area to avoid having to go through all the preceding areas;
• express checkout tills for customers with a bag only rather than a trolley;
• extra ‘help staff ’ at key points to help customers;
• redesign of the car parks, making them easier to navigate
• dropping the ban on taking trolleys out to the car parks for loading (originally implemented to stop vehicles being damaged);
• a new warehouse system to stop popular product lines running out during the day;
• more children’s play areas.

IKEA spokeswoman Nicki Craddock said: ‘We know people love our products but hate our shopping experience. We are being told that by customers every day, so we can’t afford not to make changes. We realized a lot of people took offence at being herded like sheep on the long route around stores. Now if you know what you are looking for and just want to get in, grab it and get out, you can.’ Operations management is a vital part of IKEA’s success IKEA shows how important operations management is for its own success and the success of any type of organization.

Of course, IKEA understands its market and its customers. But, just as important, it knows that the way it manages the network of operations that design, produce and deliver its products and services must be right for its market. No organization can survive in the long term if it cannot supply its customers effectively. And this is essentially what operations management is about – designing, producing and delivering products and services that satisfy market requirements. For any business, it is a vitally important activity. Consider just some of the activities that IKEA’s operations managers are involved in:

‑ Arranging the store’s layout to give a smooth and effective flow of customers (called process design).

‑ Designing stylish products that can be flat-packed efficiently (called product design).

‑ Making sure that all staff can contribute to the company’s success (called job design).

‑ Locating stores of an appropriate size in the most effective place (called supply network design).

‑ Arranging for the delivery of products to stores (called supply chain management).

‑ Coping with fluctuations in demand (called capacity management).

‑ Maintaining cleanliness and safety of storage areas (called failure prevention).

‑ Avoiding running out of products for sale (called inventory management).

‑ Monitoring and enhancing quality of service to customers (called quality management).

‑ Continually examining and improving operations practice (called operations improvement).

And these activities are only a small part of IKEA’s total operations management effort. But they do give an indication, first of how operations management should contribute to the business’s success, and second, what would happen if IKEA’s operations managers failed to be effective in carrying out any of its activities. Yet, although the relative importance of these activities will vary between different organizations, operations managers in all organizations will be making the same type of decision (even if what they decide is different).

Question:

1. How is the IKEA operations design being different from that of most furniture retail operations?

Hypothesis test

It is often useful for companies to know who their customers are and how they became customers. In a study of credit card use, random samples were drawn of cardholders who applied for the credit card and credit card holders who were contacted by telemarketers or by mail. The total purchases made by each last month were recorded. Can we conclude from these data that differences exist on average between the two types of customers? Test the claim at alpha= 0.05 The following table contains means and standard deviations for both samples. Assume unequal population variances.

employe sample mean standard deviation sample size

customers who

applied $130.93 $31.99 35

Customers

contacted $126.14 $26.00 30

HINT: use test statistic   

4. Customers enter a store at a rate of 3 customers per hour.

a) Compute the probability that at least two, but no more than five customers enter the store in a given hour.

b) Compute the probability that it takes more than 30 minutes for the first customer to enter the store this hour.

c) Suppose you know that exactly 1 customer entered the store during a given hour. Compute the probability that the customer entered the store between minute 10 and minute 30.

d) Let Xk be the number of customers that enter a store during hour k. Suppose you recorded how many customers entered the store each hour for the last 60 hours. What is the approximate distribution of X¯? Make sure to specify the parameter(s) of the distribution.

1. The new ASC Topic 606 provides a model for revenue recognition that includes:

Multiple Choice

• two steps.

• four steps.

• five steps.

• three steps.

2. Which of the following statements is true regarding the five-step model in the ASC Topic 606 guidance for revenue recognition?

Multiple Choice

• The transaction price is not relevant.

• If a sale is not paid for on time, the seller should not recognize revenue.

• The performance obligations in the contract need to be identified.

• The sale itself is the sole criterion for recognizing revenue.

12/31/03 had the following balances in its S.E section of the B.S:

Common Stock, $.50 par $300k

APIC - Common Stock $4 million

APIC - Share Repurchase $50k

R.E $2 million

Treasury Stock, at cost, 30k shares $(600k)

During 2004 completed the follwing transactions:

2/20: Issued40k shares of common stock (with a $.50 par value) in exchange for a machine w/ an appraised value of $800k

6/17: Resold 15k shares of treasury stock for $240k (The treasury stock was resold relates to common stock that was originally issue for $18 per share & was reacquired for $20 per share during 2003.)

12/2: Issued 10k shares of common stock for $24 per share. Share issue costs to promote the stock issuance totaled $15k

12/31: Reported NI of $1.5 million and other comprehensve income of $200k on the companys statement of comprehensive income.

Using the info provided above, what would they report within its 12/31/2004 S.E section of the B.S.

Provide the following amounts as they would appear in the B.S at 12/31/2004.

#1: APIC - Common Stock __________

#2: Retained Earnings __________

#3: Treasury Stock __________

#4: Common Shares Issued __________

You are the owner of a lawn service company (LawnCo) which provides grounds and maintenance services to a range of corporate customers. Customers are expected to pay on the first of each month, in advance of receiving services. One of your corporate customers is an eldercare facility whose grounds you have maintained for many years. The customer has not paid for the last three months of services (from Oct.–Dec. 2020); nevertheless, to maintain a positive relationship, your company continued to provide mowing and weed control services to the eldercare facility during that time. Your company ceased providing services in January 2021 and found out in that same month that the eldercare facility filed for bankruptcy in September. Your company now believes that collection of the missed payments is extremely unlikely.  Your company has already issued financial statements to lenders (for the period ending 12/31/20) which reflected revenue and a corresponding account receivable related to this customer of $10,000 per month for services provided to this customer. Those financial statements also reflected the company’s standard allowance (reserve) amount on receivables, of 4% of sales. In total, your company’s average monthly sales amount to $500,000.

Required:

1. Evaluate whether receipt of this information indicates you have a change in accounting estimate or whether the customer’s bankruptcy should result in this event being considered an error in previously issued financial statements.

2. Next, describe the accounting treatment (as required by the Codification) for each alternative, then support your explanations with draft journal entries.

3. Finally, briefly state which treatment appears to be more appropriate given the circumstances. If you must make any assumptions in reaching this conclusion, state these.

Change in Estimate versus Error Correction- LandCo is a lawn service company which provides grounds and maintenance services to a range of corporate customers. Customers are expected to pay on the first of each month, in advance of receiving services. One of LandCo’s corporate customers is an eldercare facility whose grounds the company has maintained for many years. The customer has not paid for the last three months of service (from October – December 2019); nevertheless, to maintain a positive relationship, LandCo continued to provide mowing and weed control services to the eldercare facility during that time. LandCo ceased providing services in January 2020 and found out in that same month that the eldercare facility filed for bankruptcy in September. LandCo now believes that collection of the missed payments is extremely unlikely.

LandCo has already issued financial statements to lenders (for the period ending 12/31/2019) which reflected revenue and a corresponding account receivable related to this customer of $10,000 per month for services provided. Those financial statements also reflected the company’s standard allowance (reserve) amount on receivables, of 4% of sales. In total, LandCo’s average monthly sales amount to $500,000.

Required:

1- Evaluate whether receipt of this information indicates you have a change in estimate or the customer's bankruptcy results in this event being considered an error in previously issued financial statements. Describe the accounting treatment required by the Codification for each alternatives with draft journal entries.

2- Research US accounting standards to determine the proper treatment for the service receivable/customer bankruptcy on LandCo’s financial statements, assuming it is headquartered in the United States.

3- Research international accounting standards to determine the proper treatment for LandCo’s transactions, assuming it is headquartered in France.

Five to six times a year, Kicker puts on tent sales in various cities throughout Oklahoma and the surrounding states. The tent sales are designed to show Kicker customers new products, engender enthusiasm about those products, and sell soon to be out-of-date products at greatly reduced prices. Each tent sale lasts one day and requires parking lot space to set up the Kicker semitrailer; a couple of show cars; a disc jockey playing music; a tent to sell Kicker merchandise, distribute brochures, and so on.

Last year, the Austin, TX tent sale was held in a corner of the parking lot outside the city exhibition hall where the automotive show was in progress. Because most customers were interested more in the new model cars than in the refurbishment of their current cars, foot traffic was low. In addition, customers did not want to carry speakers and amplifiers all the way back to where they had originally parked.   Total direct costs for this tent sale were $14,300. Direct costs included gasoline and fuel for three pickup trucks and the semitrailer; wages and per diem for the five  Kicker personnel who traveled to the show; rent on the parking lot space; and depreciation on the semitrailer, pickups, tent, tables (intent), sound equipment; and the like.   Revenue was  $20,000. The cost of goods sold for the speakers was  $7,000.

QUESTION: Explain how does the company accounts for the cost of the tent sales? What income statement items are affected by tent sales? What do you think Kicker might do to make it more profitable in the future? Why?