SECTION A: CASE STUDY

QUESTION 1

This is an extract describing a fashion house noted for custom-made gowns in Ghana. Use the case information to answer the questions that follow. Pistis is a Ghanaian based fashion house headquartered in Accra. The company currently stands at the frontline of the fast growing African fashion industry while making major strides on the international markets. Pistis, at the core, prides itself on creating master pieces for every client and, as result, has garnered a name as the leader in special occasion clothes. From their unique hand beaded bridal gowns to their creative use of African fabrics such as kente, the brand aims at making every woman standout as royalty in a Pistis gown. All clothing are specially made to order and the organisation does not stock clothing. There are minimum slots per month for the clothes that can be made so its best to confirm an order when you are certain with the dates to start the process. The organisation has only one facility in Ghana but has a website where orders can be placed online. Pisits was started in 2008 by Kabutey and Sumaya right after graduating from Vogue Style School of School and Design in Accra, Ghana. The brand was founded on a common vision of uniquely providing the perfect fit and style to a fast evolving woman who exuberates ambition, reveres culture and embraces innovation. By acknowledging the demand in the growing African and global market, the brand, through the years, has grown expediently by focusing on providing customers with the best service through rigorous product development in regard to originality and quality. Pistis has been featured in various shows such as the Runway Dubai Season III, Glitz Africa Fashion Week 2013, Radiance Bridal Show and headlining 3 seasons of the Vlisco Fashion Show in Ghana. In addition, Pistis has had the opportunity to dress the finalists for the Miss Malaika Pageant Ghana for 2012, 2013, and 2014 seasons. Through the years, Pistis has had the opportunity to dress dignitaries, celebrities, corporate executives, religious leaders and most importantly, the hardworking everyday woman.


a. If a key need of the customer segment the organisation aims to fill is increase rate of innovation, how would the key customer need identified influence the implied demand uncertainty? (3 Mark) b. Which capabilities of responsiveness (mention 2) does the organisation’s supply chain possess (use information from the case to explain why)? c. How can the organisation use the pricing driver to a. Match supply and demand b. Increase responsiveness c. Increase efficiency?

SECTION B: APPLICATION QUESTION 2

ADJ Company Limited is an organisation that deals in the manufacturing of bespoke cars in Ghana. Its cars are held by distributors/retailers in intermediate warehouses and package carriers are used to transport the cars from the intermediate location to the final customer.   
As an expert in supply chain management, you are to analyse the operations of the company and submit a report detailing the following to management of the company:
a. Indicate the distribution design in use

b. An evaluation of the performance of the current distribution network compared to Manufacturer Storage with Direct Shipping (compare along 4 dimensions).
c. The types of customers and products (mention 2 each) which are more suited to the type of distribution design being used by the company than retail storage with customer pickup and why?

SECTION C: ESSAY TYPE QUESTION 3

The Internet has affected the structure and performance of various distribution networks in a supply chain. Using the case of Jumia or other relevant example state and critically discuss how online sales impacts on a supply chain’s ability to meet customer needs (discuss 4 elements)

How a Welsh jeans firm became a cult global brand

With a look of concentration on her face, a worker guides the sheet of denim through the sewing machine, and a pair of jeans starts to take shape.

As the needle goes up and down in a blur of movement and rattling noise, a line of stitching starts to form a neat trouser leg.

When most people think about the global fashion industry it is safe to say that a sleepy town in far west Wales does not immediately spring to mind.

Yet Cardigan, on Wales' Irish Sea coast, has for the past five years been home to a high-end jeans-maker - the Hiut Denim Company.

Beloved by a growing number of fashionistas from New York to Paris, and London to Melbourne, Hiut ships its expensive jeans around the world.

As orders arrive via its website, Hiut's workforce of just 15 people gets to work hand-cutting and sewing the trousers from giant rolls of indigo-coloured denim that the company imports from Turkey and Japan.

Despite only making around 120 pairs of jeans a week, founder and owner David Hieatt has big ambitions to expand.

While it may seem a little incongruous that a posh jeans business is based in west Wales, Cardigan (population 4,000) actually has a long history of jeans-making.

For almost 40 years the town was home to a factory that made 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for UK retailer Marks & Spencer. But in 2002 the facility closed with the loss of 400 jobs when production was moved to Morocco to cut costs.

Fast forward 10 years, and when Mr Hieatt - a proud Welshman - was looking to open a factory to start making jeans, he chose Cardigan. The company name is a combination of the first two letters of Mr Hieatt's surname and the word "utility".

"Where better to locate ourselves than in a town with a history of jeans-making, where the expertise remains?" he says.

Employing machinists who had previously worked in the old factory and not lost their years of jeans-making skills, Mr Hieatt says he was confident that Hiut could be successful if it concentrated on selling directly to consumers around the world via its website.

"Without the internet we'd have been dead within 12 weeks," he says. "But the internet has changed only everything. The internet allows us to sell direct and keep the [profit] margin... it enables us to compete."

Now exporting 25% of its jeans, it takes Hiut about one hour and 10 minutes to make one pair, compared with 11 minutes at a highly mechanised jeans industry giant.

And rather than staff doing just one part of the manufacturing process, such as sewing on the pockets, each machinist at Hiut makes a pair of jeans from start to finish.

Mr Hieatt refers to the workers as "grand masters". This is in reference to the fact that some of them have more than 40 years of jeans-making experience, and new joiners have to train for three years before they can start making jeans for customers.

In running Hiut Mr Hieatt and his co-owner, wife Clare, have benefited from their experience of previously owning a clothing firm called Howies, which they sold to US firm Timberland for £3.2m in 2011.

But what has also been invaluable is Mr Hieatt's previous career working in advertising.

This advertising nous has enabled him to very effectively market and promote Hiut, from its snazzy website, to its extensive use of social media; both adverts in people's Facebook feeds and arty photos of people wearing its jeans.

"The interesting thing about social media for me is that up until Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat you had to have a huge budget in order to tell your story," he says.

"In effect you were locked out of telling that story because the costs [of advertising and wider marketing] were too high. But social media has actually allowed the smaller maker [small firms that manufacture things] to go and tell his story.

"And actually, if David wants to beat Goliath, the best tool in the world is social media."

Mr Hieatt also sends out free jeans to what he calls "influencers", either fashion bloggers or famous people, in the hope that they will write or talk positively about the brand.

Successful examples of this have been an increase in orders from Denmark after Hiut sent a pair of its jeans to celebrated Danish chef Rene Redzepi, and also UK TV presenter Anthony McPartlin of the duo Ant & Dec tweeting about the company.

As Hiut continues to win overseas orders for its jeans costing up to £230 ($300) a pair, Mr Hieatt admits that one negative issue the company has to deal with is a return rate of "about 14%" - people sending them back because they don't fit.

To counter this problem Hiut is exploring using technology that can accurately tell from a photo a person's perfect jeans size.

Dr Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas, fashion marketing course leader at London College of Fashion, says that if Hiut wants to expand its overseas sales it needs to "have the website in different languages" and consider partnerships that will see its jeans listed on other websites.

Back at Hiut's small factory on the edge of Cardigan, Mr Hieatt says the long-term aim remains to recreate 400 jeans-making jobs in the town.

"Our aim is to get 400 people their jobs back. If you ask me when is that going to happen, the honest answer is I don't know.

"But I believe in compound interest. Small things over time gather huge numbers."

QUESTION:

What international marketing strategy would you recommend to the firm?

As the YPP is a new program, a strategy is needed to provide information and promote the program to potential clients of the service. Challenges have been identified as:

•   Gaining the interest of the target interest
•   Using a media that the audience will access
•   Significant diversity in culture and ethnicity of target audience.

Using the template provided, develop a digital media strategy for promoting the program to young parents or potential young parents at risk.

As the YPP is a new program, a strategy is needed to provide information and promote the program to potential clients of the service. Challenges have been identified as:

• Gaining the interest of the target interest
• Using a media that the audience will access
• Significant diversity in the culture and ethnicity of the target audience.

Using the template provided, develop a digital media strategy for promoting the program to young parents or potential young parents at risk.

As the YPP is a new program, a strategy is needed to provide information and promote the program to potential clients of the service. Challenges have been identified as:

•   Gaining the interest of the target interest
•   Using a media that the audience will access
•   Significant diversity in culture and ethnicity of target audience.

Using the template provided, develop a digital media strategy for promoting the program to young parents or potential young parents at risk.

Challenges

(List at least three)

After the high school group finishes their tour, Dr. Wayne sees two patients. Jeff Slater is a biochemist working for a biowarefare lab at the CDC. He is currently working on a project to develop a new neurotoxin and is using sarin as a model substance. Suddenly while working the lab alarms go off and Jeff accidentally knocks a vial of sarin over and a bit of the liquid splashes onto his arm between his gloves and lab coat. He suddenly starts to feel dizzy, his heart starts pounding harder than ever, and he has shortness of breath. He feels incredibly sluggish and tries to get to the exit. As he approaches the lab door, his muscles cramp up and he falls down and hits his head, knocking him unconscious. His colleague from across the hall happens to see him fall and calls for help. Jeff is given oxygen and taken to the nearby hospital, which happens to have a neuromuscular specialist. The sounding of the alarm turns out to have been just routine testing of a new system.

1. Dr. Wayne looks over the results and finds that the acetylcholinesterase activity is lower than normal. The normal range is 100% and Jeff's range is 44%. Dr. Wayne knows from Jeff ’s colleague that he is a bioweapons biochemist. Dr. Wayne figures out that Jeff has been working on synthesizing a new sarin-like biochemical weapon and suspects Jeff has a type of poisoning that is similar to that of sarin. What is the mechanism of action of sarin or a sarin-like chemical? How would exposure to a sarin-like poison affect the amount of sodium going into the muscle cell? What needs to happen to Jeff's post-synaptic membrane to remedy his paralysis. Physiologically what do we need more of and where?

I and my husband Jose have total amount of $150,000 in our savings account. We have 3 school going kids. We want to buy a new home, a new car and keep funds for children higher education.

We finalized to buy a home for $760,000. We may use $120,000 of our savings as a down payment on it. For balance financing the mortgage specialist/agent gave us the following options:

1. Option 1: a 25-year mortgage/loan, with semi-monthly payments (at the end of each period). The interest rate on the mortgage is 3.26% APR (annual percentage rate) compounded semi-annually.

Ques 1. What will the semi-monthly payment be on the Option 1 mortgage?

Please use (display + name) the excel function/ formula. Also please attach the screenshots/ photos of the excel sheet solution.

Option 2: a monthly payment of $2,900 to be made at the end of each period. The interest rate with this option would be 3.60% APR (annual percentage rate) compounded semi-annually.

Ques 2. How many years will Option 2 mortgage be amortized over?

Please use (display + name) the excel function/ formula. Also please attach the screenshots/ photos of the excel sheet solution.

Ques 3. To buy a new car of $45,000 (including taxes). In exchange of our old car for $10,000 and $10,000 from our savings as a down payment, the car dealer would provide the $25,000 balance as a 5-year loan paid semi-monthly at 4.8% APR compounded semi-monthly. What will the payment be on the loan for the car as per below information?

Please use (display + name) the excel function/ formula. Also please attach the screenshots/ photos of the excel sheet solution.

A college graduate earns about $1,500 per month more than someone that only has a high school diploma. If a “working life” starts next month and lasts 45 years, how much is a college degree worth today if market interest rates are 3.91% APR, compounded monthly?

​75% of students who enroll in summer school only take one class. We believe the proportion may be different. Use alpha​ = 0.02, beta​ = 0.02 and the maximum allowable error of 0.05 to find the sample size for a hypothesis test.

A.

1339

B.

1507

C.

1258

D.

1170