DANCEST 805 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Operations Management, Lead Time, Risk Management
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Question 1
In order to compete effectively in todayâs increasingly globalised market, many companies have used features related to environmental sustainability to âwinâ new customers.
In relation to the company you work in or one that you are familiar with,
(a) Explain the term âsustainable business strategyâ and how this strategy relates to operations and supply chain management.
(8 marks)
(b) Identify an operations and supply chain-related "disruption" that impacted the company. What could the company have done to minimise the impact of this type of disruption prior to it occurring?
(7 marks)
(c) You have recently been appointed as the production manager of the company. To meet the demands of its global market, the company has set up production locations in two different countries. One is located in the USA while the other is located in a Southeast Asian country. You want to find out what is the productivity of the current operations at the two production locations. You have obtained the following results from the production supervisor (Table 1).
Table 1
*FC â Foreign Currency where $1 = FC 10
| USA | Southeast Asia | |
| Sales (units) | 100,000 | 20,000 |
| Labour (hours) | 20,000 | 15,000 |
| Raw materials (currency) | $20,00 | *FC 20,000 |
| Capital equipment (hours) | 60,00 | 5,000 |
(i) Calculate the multifactor productivity figures for labour and capital together. Do the results make sense?
(5 marks)
(ii) Calculate raw material productivity figures (units/$) and explain any differences in these figures.
(5 marks)
Question 2
(a) A Japanese fast food restaurant, OiShi is concerned about its ability to provide quality service as they continue to grow and attract more customers. Its management has collected data from Friday and Saturday nights, its busiest times of the week. During these nights, about 75 customers arrive per hour for service. Given the number of tables and chairs, and the typical time it takes to serve a customer, the restaurant can serve on average about 100 customers per hour.
Analyse the restaurant service process in these nights where the data are collected and comment on whether the services are in the zone of service, the critical zone, or the zone of non-service? (Refer to Figure 2 when providing your answers)
Figure 2: Relationship between the Rate of Service Utilisation (r) and service quality
(4 marks)
The management anticipates that the restaurantâs demand will double in one year as long as it can provide good service to its customers. How much will the restaurant have to increase its service capacity to stay out of the critical zone?
(4 marks)
(b) Describe the characteristics of service processes of a typical fast food restaurant based on your service encounters.
(10 marks)
(c) Examine the strategies to manage service encounters. You should provide details on any TWO (2) possible customer-introduced variability in the service processes and propose THREE (3) accommodating strategies to effectively address these variabilities.
(7 marks)
Question 3
(a) Consider your organisation or one that you are familiar with that plays a role in the global supply chain network. This organisation can be a supplier, manufacturer, distributor, logistics service provider or retailer in a particular industry (e.g. fast-moving consumer goods, electronics, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals). In your answer, you should relate the concepts and strategies in operations and supply chain management to the work environment.
Explain how the aggregate operations plan can help match supply with demand and optimise operational costs in this organisation.
(4 marks)
Provide TWO (2) strategies that can be used to influence demand and TWO (2) strategies that can be used to adjust capacity to match demand.
(8 marks)
(b) The development of web-based tools has allowed companies to collaborate on a larger scale and perform its operations and supply chain activities with greater ease. Demonstrate how collaborative techniques can be used to forecast demand. You should provide details such as the various stages of activities that are involved.
(8 marks)
Discuss the risks of being too reliant on the internet as a collaboration tool in demand forecasting and management.
(5 marks)
Question 4
Kee Wah Store sells a variety of exquisite European cookies and candies to the consumer market. The demand for cookies and candies is volatile and varies from month to month. The store orders from its suppliers. The lead time is normally one month, mainly consisting of the sea freight transportation time from Europe to Singapore. The store keeps a certain level of inventory at its warehouse.
The total demand for chocolate cookies is estimated to be 7,200 packets a year. The chocolate cookie packet is sourced from the supplier at $5 per packet and is sold to the end consumer at $15 per packet. It costs $100 to place an order to the supplier, and costs 20% of unit cost to store a packet of chocolate cookies for one year.
(a) Give FOUR (4) reasons why Kee Wah Store needs to maintain some inventory at its warehouse.
(8 marks)
(b) Examine the inventory situation for Kee Wah Store by applying the EOQ model to solve for order quantity and reorder point. What is the annual ordering cost, annual holding cost and total annual cost?
(10 marks)
(c) One supplier, Nee Ann Import Inc., approaches Kee Wah Store and proposes that it could shorten the lead time from one month to one week using airfreight.
What are the factors that Kee Wah Store needs to consider before deciding to accept or reject Nee Ann Importâs offer?
----- END OF PAPER -----
(7 marks)
I have a essay written up already, the problem is that I submitted it and received a 62% return from turnitin, which is totally unacceptable. It must be below 20%. Is it possible for you to look over it, make any corrections or suggestions to re-submit it. The majority of the repetitiveness was from my intro paragraph and the definitions I used in the essay. Sent at 04:42 AM The essay is attach. I will need this by this evening if that's possible. thanks
Identify the type of corporate restricting that fits with common theories of what are assumed to be causes of mergers and acquisitions.
Corporate reconstructing is more often defined as re-designing organizationâs practice and structure; so to remain competitive and sustainable in the market (s). There may be several reasons for corporate restructuring. These includes, but not limited to, re-positioning in the market, discovery of a new market or becoming more profitable and/or economical. The corporate restructuring is generally classified into or two different categories: operational reconstructing and financial reconstructing. This entails changes in the alignment of firmâs asset structure by acquiring new business outright, by partial sale, by a spin-off of companies or via product lines. This can also include downsizing through closure of non-profitable units. Financial reconstructing deals with the changes in the capital structure of the firm. Share repurchase or adding debt in capital structure; just to name. Financial limiting hardly deals with mergers and acquisitions, hence we will discuss the cause of mergers and acquisitioning and how it is related to that the operational restructuring only.
Omit the chart in the question!
There are several types of Restructuring are given below:
A merger is a combination of two or more firms who combine all operations, officers, structure and other functions of business to form a new entity. Desired effect being not just the accumulation of assets and liabilities of the distinct entities, but also to achieve several other benefits such as: economics of scale, acquisition of new technologies and having access to new markets. Additionally, the merger allows for one company giving shareholders in the other stock in exchange for surrounding the stock of the first company. And it allow for the entities to retain its original identity.
Mergers can be classified into the following categories:
Horizontal Mergers
Two merged units were doing the same business i.e. TMobile and Sprint they were competitors with one another in the market. The basic motive in this type of merger is to consolidate in the market so as to gain advantage in negotiating with customers as well as having better position with respect to other competitors.
Vertical Mergers
This type of mergers is conducted between customer and suppliers of a value chain process and main motive in this type of merger is gain maximum efficiency in supply chain and minimization of transaction cost.
Congener Mergers
In this type of mergers, the two firms will be sharing similar kind of industry structure at least in one form of their operation and therefore try to combine operation in that one form and get efficiency benefit in supply chain and other operations.
Conglomerate
A conglomerate merger is a merger between two firms having unrelated business. The motive behind a conglomerate is a.) Better utilization of financial resources b.) Increase in debt capacity, c.) Increase in the share price by increased EPS with decreased cost capital d) Cross selling and e.) Synergy
Cash-out merger
In this type of merger the share of one unit involved in merger donât want to retain their share in the merged unit and therefore are compensated with cash in place of the share.
Acquisitions or take-over has said to have happened when the acquirer company buys out majority of the shares of the acquired company and the ownership of the assets and liabilities of the acquired company get transferred to the acquirer company. The process of acquisition or take-over may be conducted in both friendly and hostile manner depending upon the specific strategy of the acquirer.
Friendly takeover
In a friendly takeover, the targetâs board and management recommend shareholdersâ approval. To gain control, the acquiring company usually will offer a premium to the current stock price. The excess of the price over the targetâs premerger share price is called a purchase premium and can vary widely by country, which reflects the perceived value of obtaining a controlling interest in the target, the value of expected synergies resulting from combining the two entities and any overpayment of the target firm. Acquirers often prefer friendly takeovers because the post-merger integrations process in usually more expeditious when both parties are cooperating fully and customer, employee attrition is less.
Hostile takeover
A Hostile takeover occurs when the offer is unsolicited, the approach was contested by the targetâs management and control changed hands. The acquirer prefers hostile mode rove the friendly mode only when it becomes possible to acquire the shares in a friendly mode. The acquirer may attempt to circumvent management by offering to buy shares directly from the targets from the targetâs shareholders and buy shares in a public stock exchange. A hostile takeover can be accomplished through either a tender offer or a proxy fight.
The Pros to a merge and an acquisition is that both types of transactions include the potential increase in the competitiveness, cost-efficiency and stock value of the new enterprise. And with everything pro there has to be Cons. One disadvantage of these transactions; it could be very expensive. A significant amount of capital typically must be raided before entering negotiations. Another mergers drawback is that there is now a new owner, co-owners, in which they must now collaborate.
In conclusion any entity or entities that have chosen to merge or entering an acquisition should consider prior to move. Identify the goals of acquisition clearly, if the move is a good fit and what conditions must be met for the pursing the merge or the acquisition. An in-depth due diligence must occur; the financial records must be thoroughly examined, is the marketplace a profitable absolute, as well as the senior executives should also be conducted. There could be potential for disaster if all areas are not explored. Negotiation process is should have clear written rules and guidelines before following through with the merger or acquisition. Assembling an acquisition team can be very valuable to the success of the new owners. The team will be able to define the responsibilities of each company; considering all parties are in agreement with the new implementations such as computer systems, new HR policies and so forth. Lastly, be flexible and ready for unexpected surprises and have a supplemental plan in case of potential disasters.
