Production and Operations Management Essay

required return of 24% for a project of it's risk. The dilemma for General Foods was to

1. What recommendations would you make to John Wolf with respect to structuring the supplier relationship process for the Wolf Motors dealership network?

To organize and prioritize the current and future projects in the pipeline in a way that fits into the PMB budget of $5B, and ensures projects that increase sales, growth, and stockholder value are of top priority, whereas projects that are not beneficial are either put on hold or discarded.

Problem 1: Jonathon Barrs is a manager for Easy Manufacturing, LLC. He wishes to evaluate three possible investments. These investments are for the purchase of new machine tools from Germany, Japan, and a local US manufacturer. The firm earns 10% on its investments and they have a risk index of 5%. The chart below lays out the expected return and expected risks of the three projects.

E[RA ] = 0.3 × 0.07 + 0.4 × 0.06 + 0.3 × (−0.08) = 0.021 = 2.1%,

EEC calculated the amount of time involved the anticipation of its cost ($3 million). The timeline in recovering their cost of investment ($2 million) initially for the foundation of this investment any profit made in the future of this investment will be justified as a profit for the company. If EEC can anticipate a fast return on its investment it is a profitable wise decision in making the investment financial, it is considered to be an easier way of formulating investments financially. On the basis of one year all cash flows is added together equal to the sum of $2 million originally invested, then it is divided by the annual cash flow of $500,000. The calculation of the payback period would equal four years. After this time frame any financial proceeds will be considered profitable for the company. I conclude that the timeframe is adequate in comparison of the investment in this worthwhile investment financial venture for the company.

In our second assumption, instead of using the cost of goods per cases in 1986, we try to use the percentage it counts in the total expenses which is 50.4% and to find the sales needed to break-even. The detail of the calculation is shown in the answer for questions d. The result is that 95,635, a little bit higher than the estimated sales of 90,000.

Peter’s Peripherals assembles multimedia upgrade kits --- sets of components for adding sound and video to desktop computers. The demand for their kits for the next four quarters is estimated in the table below. Unit manufacturing cost for each kit is $160. Holding costs on each kit is $80 per quarter. Any kit that must be delivered late is assessed a backorder cost of $120. Each worker is capable of finishing 10 kits per quarter. If the company chooses to vary work force levels, it will incur costs of $400 for each additional worker; $600 for each termination. The company currently has 28 employees.

4.) What would the capital allocation plan look like if an additional $100,000 is made available?

30. The manager of the local National Video Store sells videocassette recorders at discount prices. If the store does not have a video recorder in stock when a customer wants to buy one, it will lose the sale because the customer will purchase a recorder from one of the many local competitors. The problem is that the cost of renting warehouse space to keep enough recorders in inventory to meet all demand is excessively high. The manager has determined that if 90% of customer demand for recorders can be met, then the combined cost of lost sales and inventory will be minimized. The manager has estimated that monthly demand for recorders is normally distributed, with a mean of 180 recorders and a standard deviation of 60. Determine the number of recorders the manager should order each month to meet 90% of customer demand.

Operations management (OM) is that phase of an organization where inputs are put into operations to acquire required output (services) without compromising on quality. In other words operations management is also described as combining and transforming various resources in the operations sub-system into value added services in line with formulated policies of the organization. (Kumar and Suresh, 2009)

b. Plot the CAL along with a couple of indifference curves for the investor type identified above. c. Use Excel’s solver to maximize the investor’s utility and confirm that you get a 50% allocation in stocks. 3. You can invest in a risky asset with an expected rate of return of 20% per year and a standard deviation of 40% per year or a risk free asset earning 4% per year or a combination of the two. The borrowing rate is 9% per year. a. What is the range of risk aversion for which a client will neither borrow nor lend, that is, for which the allocation to this risky investment is 100%? b. Draw the Capital Allocation Line. Indicate the points corresponding to (i) 50% in the risk-less asset and 50% in the risky asset; and (ii) -50% in the riskless asset and 150% in the risky asset. c. Compute the expected rate of return and standard deviation for (i) and (ii). d. Suppose you have a target risk level of 50% per year. How would you construct a portfolio of the risky and the riskless asset to attain this target level of risk? What is the

1. It has been said that forecasting using exponential smoothing is like driving a car by looking in the rear-view mirror. What are the conditions that would have to exist for driving a car that are analogous to the assumptions made when using exponential smoothing?

Operations management focuses on managing the processes of producing and distributing products and services. Operations activities often include product creation, development, production and distribution. It deals with all operations within the organization. Related activities include managing purchases, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. The nature of how operations management is carried out in an organization depends very much on the nature of products or services in the organization, for example, retail, manufacturing, wholesale, etc.

Q2. Provide a full-page plot of the Capital Allocation Line for the case in Q1. Label the axes and locate cash, D. Equity, D. Bonds, and your optimal complete portfolio clearly on the plot. You may draw this plot by hand.