case study question

Miss Yinnary is one of the many women who own their own businesses and her experience is not very different from others, who must contend with being a mother, a spouse and a family cheerleader in addition to owning and operating a business. She is the owner of the famous Y-Hotel. It was her first business, though she had some family background in this business. Her two sisters were also in the same line of business. But she borrowed some money, put in some of her savings and started her own venture. She was the first woman ever to enter into this business, most of her clients could not understand that a woman could be interested in the hospitality industry. To Step up her game in the hospitality Industry , Miss Yinari is seeking someone who understands innovative entrepreneurship to assist her.

During her rise to success and in management of her hotel business, she also needs to manage a family, stay teaching in university and dealing with community affairs. In her mind, there is nothing more exhilarating than owning her own business, and for her, the fun is in facing the challenges of turning the hotel into a first ever hotel that provide customers an unforgettable experience with innovation

In the present time, more women are making this choice, pursuing entrepreneurship rather than staying as housewives or traditional careers. For the past few years, the number of women starting new ventures is three times as large as the number of men. There are several good reasons for this trend. Some women find that owning a business is the only way to combine a decent income with time for their children by having the flexibility to control their schedules. Others see themselves as unlikely corporate managers and recognizing the gender problem that exists for achieving success, they choose the entrepreneurial route. Still others see entrepreneurship as a way of controlling their lives, pursuing interests that would be impossible in a corporate job.

The dual roles of mother and entrepreneur often conflict, and husbands and wives

tend to develop separate career tracks that often cannot be reconciled. Women can

also find it lonely in a business world, especially if clients are predominantly men,

this was a problem for Yinari too.

Many women, however, have businesses that fit well with their interest and with

women customers. These include services in beauty care, nutrition, education,

entertainment etc. Nevertheless, being in business often exacts a double price for

women, yet for those with determination like Yinari, the rewards are always waiting.

Your Task as Business Consultant , Prepare a report regarding the following issues below :

c. Explain what is your IKIGAI Concept behind the innovation that you suggest ?

d. Draw a Lean Canvas for the Innovation that you come up with?

NOTE : PLEASE DO IN THE PIECE OF PAPER / SCREEN SHOT AND TAKE PIC MORE CLEARLY AND PLEASE SEND IT HERE THANK YOU

for number D you need to draw and to explain that were based on study case but you must draw on piece of paper

Based on the information below, create a project schedule (Gantt Chart). Assign tasks to either Workgroup or Individual.

Project: Vacation
Team: "Workgroup 1", "Individual"
Start/End: February 19 - May 26

START

A. February 19: Vacation participation must be confirmed
Time allotted: 7 days

i. Confirm participation
Time needed: 1 day

ii. Research vacation deals
Time needed: 1 days

iii. Decide on destination
Time needed: 2 days

iv. Create travel list
Time needed: 1 day

Slack available: 2 days

B. February 26: Lodging and excursion reservations must be made
Time allotted: 18 days

i. Research lodging options
Time needed: 3 days

ii. Make lodging reservation
Time needed: 1 Day

iii. Research and reserve excursions
Time needed: 5 days

iv. Make payment
Time needed: 1 days

Slack available: 8 days

C. March 16: All travel must be booked and confirmed
Time allotted: 57 days

i. Payment Status
Time needed: 3 days

ii. Reservation Status
Time needed: 1 day

iii. Pack
Time needed: 3 days

Slack available: 50 days

D. May 11: Check in to flights early
Time allotted: 1 day

i. Check into airport online
Time needed: 2 hours

ii. Receive itinerary/tickets
Time needed: 2 hours

iii. Call and reserve cab to airport
Time needed: 1 hour

Slack available: 20 hours, 30 minutes

E. May 12: Travel, Arrive at hotel (no later than 6:00 PM)
Time allotted: 18 hours

i. Board plane and fly to destination
Time needed: 6 hours

ii. Arrive at destination and grab luggage
Time needed: 2 hours

iii. Take shuttle to hotel and check in
Time needed: 3 hours

Slack available: 7 hours

F. May 12- May 25: Arrive at destination (Relax!)
Time allotted: 12 days

i. Unpack and get acquainted with hotel and surroundings
Time needed: 3 hours

ii. Relax, eat, dance, shop, explore
Time needed: 4-12 days

iii. Excursions
Time needed: 4-12 days

Slack available: 0-4 days

G. May 26th: Travel, Shuttle departs to airport at 11:00 AM (G)
Time allotted: 11 hours

i. Pack up all belongings and check out of hotel
Time needed: 3 hours

ii. Board shuttle at 11am at designated area
Time needed: less than 5 minutes

Slack time: 7 hours and 55 minutes

H. Arrive at airport and fly home

END

XWS Company produces machinery.
Information on sales and quality costs - relating to parts A, B & C:
Sales   $1,250,000
Inspection   $40,000
Scrap   $5,000
Rework   $22,500
Quality training   $10,000
Warranty work   $50,000
Customer complaints   $15,000
Information relating to a proposed new machine - relating to all parts other than A, B & C:
Direct materials costs (per machine)   $5,000
Direct labor costs (per machine)   $1,500
Overhead costs (per machine)   $2,000
Estimated selling price (per machine)   $10,000
Target profit (as a percentage of selling price)   13
SQ4
Required
A.   classify and aggregate (total-up) each of the quality-related costs under the four cost of quality (COQ) categories.
B.   the percentage of sales that is accounted for by quality-related costs; total & per CoQ category
C.   the profit increase the company could have achieved if its quality-related costs could have been reduced from your calculation in question part B to the following a CoQ as a percentage of sales result: 5%
D.   the company's target cost for the new machine   Activate Windows
E.   comment on whether the company should manufacture the new machine - specify “yes' or 'no' and in one sentence justify your conclusion
F.   list 2 potential benefits and 2 potential risks of just in time production

1) Consider two products A and B that have identical cost, retail price and demand parameters and the same short selling season (the summer months from May through August). The newsvendor model is used to manage inventory for both products. Product A is to be discontinued at the end of the season this year, and the leftovers will be salvaged at 75% of the cost. Product B will be re-offered next summer, so any leftovers this year can be carried over to the next year while incurring a holding cost on each unit left over equal to 20% of the product's cost. How do the stocking quantities for these products compare?  

a) Stocking quantity of product A is higher. b) Stocking quantity of product B is higher. c) Stocking quantities are equal. d) The answer cannot be determined from the data provided.

2) Customers arrive at a mountain bike rental store in Moab, Utah, between 10 am and 12 pm at a rate of 12 customers per hour. From 12pm to 6pm, the arrival rate is at 6 customers per hour. The average time it takes a staff person of the bike rental store to help a customer get set on the bike, charge their credit card, and chat about the dangers of local riding is 50 minutes and the coefficients of variation for both the inter-arrival time and the service time is equal to one. All customers patiently wait until they are served. Assume that 8 staff members are working in the rental store throughout the day.

How much idle time, on average, will a staff member have from 10 am and 12 pm?
a. 0 mins b. 5 mins c. 10 mins d. 15 min e. 20 mins f. None of the above


3) A recent article on GM said that the company had a target of 91 days of supply of cars. When viewed thru the lens of Little’s Law, this statement is staying
a. T = 91 b. 1/T = 91 c. R = 91 d. I = 91

4) If a process is demand constrained, then adding capacity to the bottleneck is likely to have the following impact:
a. the flow rate will increase

b. utilization of the bottleneck will increase

c. both inventory turns and days of supply will increase

d. all of the above e. none of the above

5) A construction company has signed a contract to build an office tower. The contract stipulates that the project will be completed in 1500 days from today and also includes a penalty on the construction company of $30,000 per day if the project is late. In addition, the construction company estimates that its internal cost is $60,000 for each day the project is late. However, completing the project early is costly to the firm as well: each day the project is early costs the firm $45,000. (This includes the opportunity cost of capital and idle capacity.) The firm estimates the project’s completion time is Normally distributed with a mean of 1400 days and a standard deviation of 60 days.  
Given this data, how many days should the firm wait to begin construction?

Choose the closest answer.
a. 0 days, they should start immediately

b. 50 days c. 75 days

d. 100 days

e. 125 days


6) In the National Cranberry Case, the trucks were forced to wait due to which of the following factors (circle all that are correct)
a. The dryer was the bottleneck

b. The holding bins had limited capacity

c. The dry berries had to wait behind the wet berries on trucks.

d. The destining machine was a full capacity

e. There was uncertainty in the arrival process.

7) In the Virginia Mason Medical Center case, the practices of Lean Manufacturing allowed for the following changes to take place within the hospital


a) Computer automation of processes

b) Standardization of process

c) Elimination of non-value added activities

d) Removal of all inventory within the hospital

e) Involvement of all employees in the waste elimination process

You are the marketing manager for a sail manufacturing company that produces two sizes of sails: small and large. You are asked to help price the products so that the company is able to make a profit AND the customer is happy.

Based on last year's sales, you expect to sell 15,000 small sails and 6,500 large sails in the upcoming year. The accounting department reports a total fixed cost for producing the small and large sails of $750,000 and $800,000 respectively. The variable cost per small sail is $800 while the variable cost per large sail is $1,200.

Your pricing objective surrounds maximizing profit. Because of this, you have a target return on investment of 30% profit for each sail. Consider the following formulas as you proceed forward on this exercise:

Markup on cost percentage = (Markup ÷ Cost) x 100
Average cost of a single unit = All costs ÷ Total number of units
Target return price per unit = [(Fixed Costs + Target Return) ÷ Units] + variable cost per unit

Complete the spreadsheet below and use it to answer the questions that follow.

This activity is important because marketing managers benefit from understanding how optimal price is calculated in order to set an exact price for an offering.

The goal of this activity is to demonstrate an understanding of the role of price and apply different pricing tactics and strategies to a pricing model.

Washington County’s Board of Representatives is considering the construction of a longer runway at the county airport. Currently, the airport can handle only private aircraft and small commuter jets. A new, long runway would enable the airport to handle the midsize jets used on many domestic flights. Data pertinent to the board’s decision appear below.

Cost of acquiring additional land for runway $ 63,000

Cost of runway construction 305,000

Cost of extending perimeter fence 19,880

Cost of runway lights 32,000

Annual cost of maintaining new runway 16,000

Annual incremental revenue from landing fees 25,000

In addition to the preceding data, two other facts are relevant to the decision. First, a longer runway will require a new snowplow, which will cost $115,000. The old snowplow could be sold now for $11,500. The new, larger plow will cost $7,000 more in annual operating costs. Second, the County Board of Representatives believes that the proposed long runway, and the major jet service it will bring to the county, will increase economic activity in the community. The board projects that the increased economic activity will result in $76,000 per year in additional tax revenue for the county. In analyzing the runway proposal, the board has decided to use a 10-year time horizon. The county’s hurdle rate for capital projects is 12 percent. Use Appendix A for your reference. (Use appropriate factor(s) from the tables provided.) Problem 16-47 Internal Rate of Return; Sensitivity Analysis (Section 1) (LO 16-1, 16-3) In analyzing the runway proposal, the board has decided to use a 10-year time horizon. The county’s hurdle rate for capital projects is 12 percent. The County Board of Representatives believes that if the county conducts a promotional effort costing $30,500 per year, the proposed long runway will result in substantially greater economic development than was projected originally. However, the board is uncertain about the actual increase in county tax revenue that will result. Required: Suppose the board builds the long runway and conducts the promotional campaign. What would the increase in the county’s annual tax revenue need to be in order for the proposed runway’s internal rate of return to equal the county’s hurdle rate of 12 percent? (Round your intermediate calculations and final answer to the nearest whole dollar.)

How do you figure out the required increase in tax revenue?

Marketing concept is to place your unique product on the global platform. This includes the availability of goods and services to customers at affordable prices (Webster & Lusch, 2013). The entire product cycle, right from manufacturing to modifying it in accordance to the preferences of the majority consumers. My experience with marketing strategy is that there are wide variety of products available. As compared to earlier days when theme park meant only those in the western world now there are more theme parks in the global market for same purpose. It then created diversity to some extent and notice consumers will go for the brand that hit the market, example Disneyland and Universal Studio. However, this may not be true to all products, as I personally have changed my preferences as time goes by. Another example, toothpaste still brings one name to my mind, even though there are several options available for day to day usages. Organizations began to conduct markets survey, study consumer behavior and eventually the result help to create products that suits the needs of the customers. So far there are no products has ever fail to meet my expectations even with something new in market that hits the store. Sometimes it is the mindset that restricts us from using another product from what we had been using for ages. Again, it does not restrict me from trying other products, however it sometimes so happens that after using a certain new product the satisfaction level is not as much as I had derived from the previous one which takes me back. The value of the brands in a competitive market can vouch for its survival. Value is subjective to how much the consumers would perceive the brand prior to making that decision. Therefore, it’s perceive as regard to the superiority of the brand as compared to unknown brand in the market. The way of marketing concepts has also changed a lot and because of many organizations are trying to be innovative and creative so that they are effective in the industry. There are various ways through which a business organization uses marketing strategies to help them in the business perspective, there are many platforms if we look at the trend of business marketing we will see that social media has emerged as one of the popular platforms in this context and the output has been surprisingly good. Social media has been selected as a platform because it exhibits each and daily, and the number can be high, therefore the platform is effective and will yield results. Using social media has been the most accepted way of marketing because organizations today are spending almost in this avenue because it is convenient and yielding proper results for the organization. In my own work experience, I learned organization need to be flexible and depending upon the demand of the industry and consumer demand, in order to sustain and excel in theme park business globally, using social platform ought to gain its popularity and Universal Studio Park in Beijing is using it as the platform of marketing, this is the future and the need to be available to sustain in the theme park industry. Consumers will evaluate the creditability based upon previous reviews in terms of how honestly it illustrates its model and quality features. Consumers comprehending in terms of the performance and brand’s expectations so long ensuring a long-term inspiration to consumers. Initially it was something new but today it is very common and with the Smart Phones and Tablets advancing every minute the process has become convenient for end users, and they have got used to this convenience to feedback. Therefore, social media is still the big thing in marketing and will rule the future of marketing.

Critically analyze perspectives on the operations management profession, expressing why operations is the key for long-term survival, in terms of cost, speed, dependability, sustainability, and maintaining a competitive advantage within the global market?

Nordic Industrial Park: bridging distance across international markets

When a resource-constrained firm enters a high-distance market, it helps greatly if it can utilise a low- distance entry point.

The lure of the Chinese market has led several Western companies to venture into a context that is unfamiliar and bewildering, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lacking the deep pockets of large multinationals. It is useful for SMEs to have a ‘bridge’ into a high-distance market. One way to accomplish this is to use a foreign-owned industrial park (i.e. a space designated for industrial use).

Consider the case of the Nordic Industrial Park (NIP) that provides a physical space for offices and light-manufacturing facilities, and a range of value-added services to set up a business in China. These include legal services (e.g. registering the company and drafting contracts), human resource management (e.g. recruitment, payroll and expat relocation), accounting (e.g. financial reporting), and information and communication technology (e.g. internet access). NIP was co-founded by Ove Nodland, a Norwegian who first came to China in 1994 to manage different ventures. Nodland learnt that even though rules were set in Beijing (the national capital and political centre of China), they were implemented by local officials – and so they mattered greatly. Over the years he invested considerable energies in building close relationships with various officials, and took care to ensure that the ventures he worked for complied with local regulations and aligned themselves with local governmental priorities. Nodland’s local guanxi (network connections) grew rapidly.

After a decade’s experience in China, Nodland realised he was well placed to help European SMEs enter China more broadly. He chose to focus on what he knew best: firms from the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) setting up a base in Ningbo, a port city in Zhejiang province just south of Shanghai (the commercial centre of China) and renowned for its entrepreneurialism. Thus was born the concept of NIP in 2002, which was sold to Silver Rise Hong Kong Pte Ltd, part of China’s Yinmao Group, in 2013, with Nodland staying on as consultant. In 2015, NIP was selected by the Zhejiang provincial government as one of the first designated ‘international industrial cooperative parks’ which further strengthened its local standing. Going forward, NIP has signalled its intent to attract projects from Nordic universities and achieve an output value in excess of RMB 2bn (€280m, £224m, $364m) by 2017.

From the perspective of a European SME entering NIP, there are multiple benefits:

• Process: L ower start-up costs. NIP leverages its knowledge of the Chinese business environment by hand-holding clients through the complexities associated with starting and running a business in China, thereby allowing firms to focus their time and energies on core business activities.

• Physical environment: A familiar ambience. NIP’s architecture and design mimics Scandinavian features that set it apart from standard Chinese buildings. Not only does this give expat managers a sense of the familiar, it is also a symbolic reminder to Chinese employees that they are part of a Western organisation.

• People: A like-minded community. By virtue of being part of the largest concentration of Nordic companies in China, expat managers have the opportunity to share experiences with and pick up ‘tricks of the trade’ from other managers with a similar cultural background through hallway conversations and lunchtime meetings. Of course, entering a facility like NIP comes at a cost, but offers benefits in terms of ‘reducing distance’.

Questions

1 Consider NIP’s services in light of the CAGE framework and analyse how they may help reduce distance.

2 What might be the drawbacks in being located in an industrial park?

Unibloc Inc. currently sells 3.2 million construction set toys per year at a price of $39.95 each. The company has $13.9 million in debt with an average coupon rate of 9% and 15 million shares outstanding, which trade at $59.81. The company's average tax rate is 29%.

The company plans to modernize its production process. The new machines will cost $8.3 million and will reduce the variable cost per unit to $29.96, while increasing fixed costs, including depreciation, to $18.4 million. Sales will be unaffected. They company could raise $8.3 million by borrowing at an interest rate of 9% or by selling more shares at the current stock price.

a) What would be EPS if the investment is financed with debt?

b) What would be EPS if the investment is financed with equity?

c) What number of units sold will lead to the same EPS with debt financing and equity financing (in million)?

1) Jackmaster Equipment is an up-scale, higher-priced, specialty road construction equipment maker based in Irvine, California. The management accountant for Jackmaster compiled information for various levels of output in units, the relevant range for this company is estimated from 0 – 9,000 units. Production above this output incurs additional variable cost per unit of $15,000, additional fixed selling costs of $2,000,000 and additional fixed manufacturing costs of $20,000,000. : OUTPUT 3,000 5,000 8,000 10,000 Variable mfg. costs $182,000,000 Fixed mfg. costs 255,000,000 Variable sell. costs 56,000,000 Fixed sell. costs 12,000,000 Total costs Sales price per unit 160,000 160,000 160,000 160,000 Unit cost Profit per unit Required: Rounding all calculations to the nearest dollar, complete the missing information with the correct figures