Discussion 4.1
Why might business customers generally be considered more rational in their purchasing behavior than ultimate consumers?
Discussion 4.2
If you were asked to provide a small tip (or bribe) to have a document approved in a foreign nation where this practice is customary, what would you do?
Discussion 4.1
Are any of the groups to which you belong too large or too small to get their work done? If so, what can the leader or the members do to alleviate the problem?
Discussion 4.2
When your alarm goes off each morning, you have a decision to make—whether to get up and go to school or work or to stay in bed and sleep longer. Is this a programmed or nonprogrammed decision? Why?
Chapter 5 assignment
Quincy Snodgrass Enterprises—Forecasting
Quincy Snodgrass is an entrepreneur and a lover of the outdoors. He has worked for various companies since he graduated college with his business administration degree in management. Over the years, he has saved every extra penny and now has the starting capital he needs; consequently, he plans to open his own business. Quincy plans to open a landscaping business. The primary services he’ll offer are grass cutting, edging, and bush trimming. Obviously, this will only provide income in the spring, summer, and early fall. Therefore, he plans to offer snow removal in the winter. His goal is to continue to provide those baseline services and expand into actual landscaping work.
Quincy’s initial challenge is to develop a forecast of how many customers he’ll have each month. This is essential to determine if he needs to hire any additional labor throughout the season. Unfortunately, none of the jobs Quincy has had involved forecasting. Quincy is digging deep into his memory to recall his supply chain management course and the chapter on forecasting. He knows he has two methods to choose from, qualitative and quantitative.
Quincy is a numbers guy and is partial to using a quantitative method if possible, but he doesn’t rule out the option of using one of the qualitative methods. He had worked many summers for other yardwork companies. Knowing he wanted to own his own business someday, Quincy took notes on how things went. Since his customer base would be in a series of small towns, Quincy knows he cannot charge as much as the companies that served larger communities. Consequently, volume is necessary to earn the revenue he will need.
Quincy focused on three small towns, Smithburg with a population of 700, Emeryville with 1,800, and Golf Creek with 2,500. He believes he can get 10 percent of the homes in each town to hire him. Quincy used information from the county files to estimate that on average, the number of homes is equal to about 25 percent of the population, meaning in Smithburg (700) the potential number of homes is about 175. Quincy believes his calculations are reasonable and could be the foundation for using a qualitative method to kick off his forecasting.
Discussion Questions
Quincy has been gathering data for over five years now. He has a record of how many customers he has each month. He also has information on the weather, for example, which month has the most rain. Quincy wants to use these data to improve his forecasting. He has a choice of cause-and-effect models. Based on what data he has and what he wants to do, what would be the best method from the choices he has? Explain the elements of the forecasting equation.
Midterm Exam due May 5
Answer both questions:
Question 1: It is inevitable that cloud computing will significantly affect how businesses and students use information technology in the next few years. If you have not done so, search on the Internet to sign up for free cloud storage on OneDrive, Google Drive, and/or Dropbox. Do not forget to sync your files to your local hard drives. (Provide examples and follow APA format.)
Question 2: Visit the website of EPCglobal, Inc., and use the information to write a brief report on RFID technology and the state of RFID implementation. (Provide examples and follow APA format.)
Chapter 5 discussion
What are the components of a time series? Explain the difference between a time series model and an associative model. Under what conditions would one model be preferred to the other?
Chapter 6 discussion question
Describe long-range, medium-range, and short-range planning in the context of materials plan and capacity plan. How are they related?
Discussion question Week 5
Describe and provide examples of dependent and independent demand.
CASES
Chapter #3
DQ- #17,#20- PAGE 102
Chapter #4
DQ- #12,#21,#37,#39 PAGE 136
