Questions
Terminal 5 (T5), built by British Airways for $8.6 billion, is London Heathrow Airport's newest state-...

Terminal 5 (T5), built by British Airways for $8.6 billion, is London Heathrow Airport's newest state- of-the-art facility. Made of glass, concrete, and steel, it's the largest free-standing building in the United Kingdom and has more than 10 miles of belts for moving luggage. At the terminal's unveiling in March of 2008, Queen Elizabeth ll described the facility as an important of Britain’s future. Alas the accolades didn't last long! After two decades in planning and 100 million hours in manpower, opening day didn't work out as planned. Endless lines and major baggage handling delays led to numerous flight cancellations stranding many irate passengers. Airport operators said the problems were triggered by glitches in the terminal's high-tech baggage-handling system.

With its massive automation features, T5 was planned to ease congestion at Heathrow and improve the flying experience for the 30 million passengers expected to pass through it annually. With 96 self-service check-in kiosks, more than 90fast check-in bag drops, 54 standard check-in desks, and miles of suitcase-moving belts estimated to be able to process 12,000 bags per hour, the facility's design seemed to support those goals.

However, within the first few hours of the terminal's operation, problems developed. Presumably understaffed, baggage workers were unable to clear incoming luggage fast enough. Arriving passengers waited more than an hour for their bags. Departing passengers tried in vain to check in for flights. Flights left with empty cargo holds. Sometime on day one, the airline checked in only those passengers with no luggage. And it didn't help that the moving belt system jammed at one point. Lesser problems also became apparent: a few broken escalators, some hand dryers that didn't work, a gate that wouldn't function at the new Underground station, and inexperienced ticket sellers who didn't know the fares between Heathrow and various stations on the Piccadilly line. By the end of the first full day of operation, Britain's Department of Transportation released a statement calling for British Airways and the airport operator BAA to get the problem fixed so customers would not be inconvenienced.

You might be tempted to think that all of this could have been prevented if British Airways had only tested the system. But thorough runs of all systems "from toilets to check in and seating" took place six months before opening, including four full-scale test runs using 16,000 volunteers.

Although T5’s debut was far from perfect, things have certainly changed. A recent customer satisfaction surveyshowed that 80 percent of passengers waited less than five minutes to check in. And those passengers are extremely satisfied with the terminal's lounges, catering, facilities, and ambience.

With the Summer Olympics in London, London’s Heathrow (and T5) grappled with a record passenger surge. As competitors, spectators, and media arrived. To cope with the deluge, some 1000 volunteers greeted arrivals, and special teams were assigned to deal with the athletes’’ oversize items like javelins, bikes, and other sports equipment. Despite the chaotic ‘birth’ of T5, it’s become a valued component of Heathrow and British Airways.

Please answer the following questions:

1- Define the main issues of this case study.

2- What type of control – feedforward, concurrent, or feedback- do you think would be most important in this situation? Explain your answer.

3- How might immediate corrective action have been used in this situation? How about basic corrective action?

4- What could companies learn from the smooth handling of the throngs of arrivals and departures for the Summer 2012 Olympics?


In: Operations Management

Kim Hotels is interested in developing a new hotel in Seoul. The company estimates that the...

Kim Hotels is interested in developing a new hotel in Seoul. The company estimates that the hotel would require an initial investment of $25 million. Kim expects the hotel will produce positive cash flows of $4 million a year at the end of each of the next 20 years. The project's cost of capital is 14%.

  1. What is the project's net present value? Do not round intermediate calculations. Enter your answer in millions. For example, an answer of $1.23 million should be entered as 1.23, not 1,230,000. Round your answer to two decimal places.

    $    million

  2. Kim expects the cash flows to be $4 million a year, but it recognizes that the cash flows could actually be much higher or lower, depending on whether the Korean government imposes a large hotel tax. One year from now, Kim will know whether the tax will be imposed. There is a 50% chance that the tax will be imposed, in which case the yearly cash flows will be only $2.9 million. At the same time, there is a 50% chance that the tax will not be imposed, in which case the yearly cash flows will be $5.1 million. Kim is deciding whether to proceed with the hotel today or to wait a year to find out whether the tax will be imposed. If Kim waits a year, the initial investment will remain at $25 million. Assume that all cash flows are discounted at 14%. Use decision-tree analysis to determine whether Kim should proceed with the project today or wait a year before deciding.

In: Finance

Marilyn Helm Retailers is attempting to decide on a location for a new retail outlet. At...

Marilyn Helm Retailers is attempting to decide on a location for a new retail outlet. At the​ moment, the firm has three​ alternatives: stay where it is but enlarge the​ facility; locate along the main street in nearby

Newbury​;

or locate in a new shopping mall in

Hyde Park.

The company has selected the four factors listed in the following table as the basis for evaluation and has assigned weights as​ shown:

                                                                                                                                                                       

Factor

Factor Description

Weight

Present Location

Newbury

Hyde Park

1

Average community income

0.30

40

60

50

2

Community growth potential

0.15

20

20

80

3

Availability of public transportation

0.20

30

60

50

4

Labor​ availability, attitude, and cost

0.35

80

50

50

​a) Based on the given​ information, the best location for Marilyn Helm Retailers is to open the new retail outlet in

Hyde Park

​, with a total weighted score of

54.5054.50.

​(Enter your response rounded to two decimal​ places.)

​b) A new subway station is scheduled to open across the street from the present location in about a​ month, so its third factor score should be raised to

40.

​Then, the best location for Marilyn Helm Retailers is to open the new retail outlet in

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Newbury

Present Location

​, with a total weighted score of

nothing.

​(Enter your response rounded to two decimal​ places.)

In: Economics

Kim Hotels is interested in developing a new hotel in Seoul. The company estimates that the...

Kim Hotels is interested in developing a new hotel in Seoul. The company estimates that the hotel would require an initial investment of $20 million. Kim expects that the hotel will produce positive cash flows of $3 million a year at the end of each of the next 20 years. The project's cost of capital is 13%. While Kim expects the cash flows to be $3 million a year, it recognizes that the cash flows could, in fact, be much higher or lower, depending on whether the Korean government imposes a large hotel tax. One year from now, Kim will know whether the tax will be imposed. There is a 50% chance that the tax will be imposed, in which case the yearly cash flows will be only $2.2 million. At the same time, there is a 50% chance that the tax will not be imposed, in which case the yearly cash flows will be $3.8 million. Kim is deciding whether to proceed with the hotel today or to wait 1 year to find out whether the tax will be imposed. If Kim waits a year, the initial investment will remain at $20 million. Assume that all cash flows are discounted at 13%. Use the Black-Scholes model to estimate the value of the option. Assume the variance of the project's rate of return is 7.32% and the risk-free rate is 6%. Enter your answer in millions. For example, an answer of $1.2 million should be entered as 1.2, not 1,200,000. Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answer to two decimal places.

In: Finance

Anil is planning a birthday party at an amusement park for his younger daughter and her...

Anil is planning a birthday party at an amusement park for his younger daughter and her friends. The manager of the park is considering whether to use uniform pricing or two-part-pricing. Anil's willingness to pay for rides for the party is p = 25 - 0.5Q, where p is the ticket price per ride and Q is the number of rides. The amusement park has a marginal cost of $5 for each additional ride. Its fixed cost for handling the party is $20.

a. Create a spreadsheet with quantity, price, consumer surplus, revenue, marginal revenue, cost, marginal cost, and profit as column headings. Fill in the spreadsheets cells for Q = 5 to Q = 50 in increments of 5 units. If the manager uses uniform pricing, what is the profit maximizing ticket price per ride, the number of rides, and the profit earned by the park?

b. Suppose that the manager uses two-part pricing: an entry fee for the entire party of young girls and price per ride. Calculate the profit-maximizing entry fee if the price per ride is the same as the monopoly price that you determined in part a. Calculate the total profit earned by the park.

c. Now suppose the manager uses two-part-pricing with a per-ride price equal to marginal cost and a profit-maximizing entry fee. Determine the price per ride, the number of rides, and the total profit (including profit from ticket sales and the entry fee) in this case.

In: Economics

Michael Wilson entered into a new business, hotel ownership, by buying a small 24 room hotel...

Michael Wilson entered into a new business, hotel ownership, by buying a small 24 room hotel and café. The hotel is located in a remote area of Minnesota that is popular for tourists. Michael has hired you for advice.

Michael hired a young couple to run the hotel and café on a daily basis and plans to pay them a monthly salary. They will live for free in a small apartment adjacent to the office. The couple will be responsible for hiring and supervising five part-time personnel who will help with cleaning the rooms, cooking, waiting on customers in the café. The couple will maintain records of rooms rented, meals served, and payments received. They will also make weekly deposits.

Mike is concerned about his lack of control over the records and operations. Mike lives 5 hours away and will only be able to make periodic visits. Mike trusts the couple but wonders if it makes sense to place so much trust in employees.

Mike needs your help to identify possible ways that his motel and café could be defrauded and especially wants assistance to devise creative internal controls to help prevent or detect fraud.

Required

  1. What are your two biggest concerns related to possible fraud for the hotel part of the business.   For each concern describe two controls that could reduce the risk.
  2. What are your two biggest concerns related to the café part of the business. For each concern describe to controls to reduce risk.

In: Accounting

Suppose that there are only three people that live in a (very) small town: Eric, Greg,...

  1. Suppose that there are only three people that live in a (very) small town: Eric, Greg, and Katie. The town is thinking of building a park which you can assume is a public good for these three individuals in the town. Based on the individuals’ demand schedules for the park, which are given below, calculate and graph the social marginal benefit curve for the park.

Eric’s Demand

Greg’s Demand

Katie’s Demand

Price per Acre

Number of Acres

Price per Acre

Number of Acres

Price per Acre

Number of Acres

$14

1

$11

1

$18

1

$13

2

$10

2

$17

2

$12

3

$9

3

$16

3

$11

4

$8

4

$15

4

$10

5

$7

5

$14

5

$9

6

$6

6

$13

6

$8

7

$5

7

$12

7

$7

8

$4

8

$11

8

b. Assume that the supply curve for the park is shown in the following chart. Graph this supply curve on your graph from part b. What is the socially optimal size of the park (in acres)?

Supply Curve

Price per Acre

Number of Acres

$13

1

$17

2

$22

3

$27

4

$31

5

$35

6

$39

7

$44

8

In: Economics

Devos Inc. is building a hotel. It will have 4 kinds of rooms: suites where customers...

Devos Inc. is building a hotel. It will have 4 kinds of rooms: suites where customers can smoke, suites that are non-smoking, budget rooms where the customers can smoke, and budget rooms that are non-smoking. When we build the hotel, we need to plan for how many rooms of each type we should have. The following are requirements for the hotel:

  1. We want to figure out how many rooms of each type to build based on maximizing revenue if we fill up the hotel. We expect to charge $190 for a suite that is non-smoking and $140 for a budget room that is non-smoking. Smoking room customers for both suites and budget rooms will have to pay an additional $20 per night.
  2. We can spend up to $7,500,000 on construction of our hotel. The cost to build a non-smoking budget room is $12,000. The cost to build a non-smoking suite is $15,000. It is $3,000 additional for a smoking room of either type for smoke detectors and sprinklers.
  3. We require that the number of budget rooms be at least 1.5 times the number of suites, but no more than 3 the number of suites.
  4. There needs to be at least 80 suites, but no more than 200.
  5. Industry trends recommend that smoking rooms should be less than 50% of the non-smoking room and in addition, we require our builder gives us at least 4 smoking rooms.

In: Operations Management

The accompanying table, MultiLinear Regression 5, provides data for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide (CO) contents...

The accompanying table, MultiLinear Regression 5, provides data for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide (CO) contents in a certain brand of cigarette. All measurements are in milligrams (mg).

MultiLinear Regression 5

Nicotine (Y) Tar (X1) CO (X2)
0.4 5 3
0.9 9 11
0.7 12 18
0.8 13 18
1 16 18
0.6 6 6
0.9 15 18
1.1 15 15
0.8 13 18
1.2 17 16

Part a) Run the Multilinear Regression Analysis in Excel with both predictor variables. What is the adjusted R2 value to the nearest hundredth of a percent (i.e. 45.67%)?
Adjusted R2 =

Part b) What is the p-value for the full model? Round answer to nearest thousandth of a percent (i.e. 0.123%).
Model p-value =

Part c) What are the p-values for the variable coefficients? Round answers to the nearest hundredth of a percent (i.e. 0.12%)
Tar p-value =

CO p-value =

Part d) Run simple linear regression for just Nicotine & Tar and then for just Nicotine & CO. Write down the R2
values and p-values for those two models.

Model

R2 value

(hundredth percent, i.e. 12.34%)

Model p-value

(thousandth percent, i.e. 0.123%)

Nicotine & Tar
Nicotine & CO

Part e) Using your analyses from parts a) through d), determine the model that is the best fit for these data. Use a significance level of 0.05, and consider each model’s p-value, R2 value (or adjusted R2 value), the p-values for each of the coefficients to determine the best fit model. Use that model to estimate the Nicotine level in a cigarette having 9 mg of tar and 9 mg of CO. Round answer to nearest hundredth of a milligram (i.e. 0.81 mg).
Predicted Nicotine Level =

In: Statistics and Probability

3. Apple’s Worldwide Revenues from 2004 to 2019 is as follows: Year Worldwide Revenue in Billions...

3. Apple’s Worldwide Revenues from 2004 to 2019 is as follows:
Year Worldwide Revenue in Billions
2004 8.2
2005 13.9
2006 19.3
2007 24.6
2008 37.5
2009 42.9
2010 65.2
2011 108.2
2012 156.5
2013 170.9
2014 182.8
2015 233.72
2016 215.64
2017 229.23
2018 265.6
2019 260.17

a. Enter the data above into the tab labeled Apple. Graph the data in Excel and use your graph to determine what kind of time series pattern exist. Put your answer in your spreadsheet.
b. Make the following forecasts for 2020. For all of them, use Mean Squared Error to determine which of the forecasts is the best. Make sure your answers are clearly labeled.
i. Naïve forecast from one prior time period
ii. Calculate a 4-period moving average
iii. Calculate a 3-period moving average with the following weights for time t: time period t-1=0.8, t-2 = 0.15, t-3=.05
c. In the tab called Apple Smoothing, use the data from 3. to forecast 2020 using an alpha equal to 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9. Using MSE, which one offers the best estimate for 2020?
d. In the tab called Apple Regression, use the information from 3. and run a regression to determine your forecast for 2020
i. Put your regression output in F1 of the same workbook.
ii. Calculate what your forecast is for 2020 in F21.
iii. How does well does this regression equation predict revenue? Write your answer in F22. In addition, explain what your numerical answer means in words.

In: Statistics and Probability