Author: chris

Cheryl Montoya picked up the phone and called her boss, Wes Chan, Vice President of Marketing at Piedmont Fasteners Corporation.

Cheryl: “Wes, I’m not sure how to go about answering the questions that came up at the meeting with the President yesterday.” Wes: “What’s the problem?”. Cheryl: “The president wanted to know the break-even point for each of the company’s products, but I am having trouble figuring them out.” Wes: “I’m sure you can handle it, Cheryl. And, by the way, I need your analysis on my desk tomorrow morning at 8:00 sharp in time for the follow-up meeting at 9:00.”

Piedmont Fasteners Corporation makes three different clothing fasteners at its manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Data concerning these products appear below:

	Velcro	Metal	Nylon
Normal annual sales volume	100,000 units	200,000 units	400,000 units
Unit selling price	$1.65	$1.50	$0.85
Variable cost per unit	$1.25	$0.70	$0.25

Total fixed expenses are $400,000 per year.

All three products are sold in highly competitive markets, so the company is unable to raise its prices without losing unacceptably large numbers of customers.

 

The company has a very effective lean production system, so there is no beginning or ending work in process or finished-goods inventories.

 

Using the internet, research break-even point and costing systems. Analyze the case based on your research and what you have learned so far in the course.

 

Respond to the following:

 

• Calculate the company’s overall break-even point in total sales dollars. Explain your methodology (approximately 2 pages).
• Of the total fixed costs of $400,000: $20,000 could be avoided if the Velcro product were dropped, $80,000 if the Metal product were dropped, and $60,000 if the Nylon product were dropped. The remaining fixed costs of $240,000 consist of common fixed costs such as administrative salaries and rent on the factory building that could be avoided only by going out of business entirely (approximately 2 pages):
  • Calculate the break-even point in units for each product. Explain your methodology.
  • Determine the overall profit of the company if the company sells exactly the break-even quantity of each product. Present your results.
• Evaluate costing systems for this company. Explain if this company should be using a job-order or process-costing system to accumulate costs (1 page).

Be sure to include your calculations in Microsoft Excel format.

Problem 6-3A
Ziad Company had a beginning inventory on January 1 of 165 units of Product 4-18-15 at a cost of $18 per unit. During the year, the following purchases were made.
Mar. 15 440 units  at  $22 Sept. 4 385 units  at  $24
July 20 275 units  at  $23 Dec. 2 110 units  at  $28

1,100 units were sold. Ziad Company uses a periodic inventory system.

Cheryl Montoya picked up the phone and called her boss, Wes Chan, Vice President of Marketing at Piedmont Fasteners Corporation.

Cheryl: “Wes, I’m not sure how to go about answering the questions that came up at the meeting with the President yesterday.” Wes: “What’s the problem?”. Cheryl: “The president wanted to know the break-even point for each of the company’s products, but I am having trouble figuring them out.” Wes: “I’m sure you can handle it, Cheryl. And, by the way, I need your analysis on my desk tomorrow morning at 8:00 sharp in time for the follow-up meeting at 9:00.”

Piedmont Fasteners Corporation makes three different clothing fasteners at its manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Data concerning these products appear below:

	Velcro	Metal	Nylon
Normal annual sales volume	100,000 units	200,000 units	400,000 units
Unit selling price	$1.65	$1.50	$0.85
Variable cost per unit	$1.25	$0.70	$0.25

Total fixed expenses are $400,000 per year.

All three products are sold in highly competitive markets, so the company is unable to raise its prices without losing unacceptably large numbers of customers.

 

The company has a very effective lean production system, so there is no beginning or ending work in process or finished-goods inventories.

 

Using the internet, research break-even point and costing systems. Analyze the case based on your research and what you have learned so far in the course.

 

Respond to the following:

 

• Calculate the company’s overall break-even point in total sales dollars. Explain your methodology (approximately 2 pages).
• Of the total fixed costs of $400,000: $20,000 could be avoided if the Velcro product were dropped, $80,000 if the Metal product were dropped, and $60,000 if the Nylon product were dropped. The remaining fixed costs of $240,000 consist of common fixed costs such as administrative salaries and rent on the factory building that could be avoided only by going out of business entirely (approximately 2 pages):
  • Calculate the break-even point in units for each product. Explain your methodology.
  • Determine the overall profit of the company if the company sells exactly the break-even quantity of each product. Present your results.
• Evaluate costing systems for this company. Explain if this company should be using a job-order or process-costing system to accumulate costs (1 page).

Be sure to include your calculations in Microsoft Excel format.

Write a 5–6-page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Research a company that has been in the news due to ethical problems.  Evaluate the ethical dilemma under two ethical frameworks.  Analyze what part whistleblowers played in the exposure to the company.  Discuss how employment-at-will affected the employees and the company.  Evaluate whether the company used marketing or public relations successfully when trying to repair the damage caused by the reported lapse in ethics.

Reflect on the class discussions and the articles that you have read during the class and use the information, and other academic sources to write a 2500- 3000 word essay critiquing the company, its operations, and the ethical dilemma it caused.

 

 

Volkswagen is the company I am researching

 

 

Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal widened Friday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the German automaker used software to cheat on pollution tests on more six-cylinder diesel vehicles than originally thought.

Volkswagen told the EPA and the California Air Resources Board the software is on about 85,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter engines going back to the 2009 model year. Earlier this month the regulators accused VW of installing the so-called “defeat device” software on about 10,000 cars from the 2014 through 2016 model years, in violation of the Clean Air Act.

 

 

 

Whistleblowers were the California Regulators who informed EPA

 

Employee At will (explain what it means how it would affect VW employees if job cuts were implemented as a resul of the scandal)

 

Mr. Müller, who was appointed chief executive last month after his predecessor, Martin Winterkorn, resigned, did not rule out job cuts stemming from the damage that Volkswagen has suffered financially and to its reputation.

The company will do everything it can to preserve jobs, Mr. Müller said, but he added: “This will not be a painless process.”

Volkswagen has almost 600,000 workers worldwide, including about 270,000 in Germany. The German work force is concentrated in the state of Lower Saxony, including 72,000 people at the Wolfsburg factory.

Mr. Müller said a substantial number of high-ranking managers had been suspended in connection with what he promised would be a ruthless inquiry into who was responsible for the scandal.

 

 

Obtain approval from your instructor for a company that you will analyze for this project. The company must be from this list.

Download the most recent Annual Report from your chosen company’s Web site; this is commonly located on the Investor Relations page. Prepare a report analyzing business mathematics concepts. Be sure to include the following in your report:

• Explain how mathematics is used in the preparation of financial statements.
• Discuss examples of business problem solving using mathematics from the Annual Report.
• Explain the cost recovery methods used in the Annual Report, and indicate how these are factored into the Balance Sheet and Income Statement.
• Discuss the types of indebtedness reported on the Balance Sheet and how the interest is computed.
• Prepare and explain a horizontal analysis of the Balance Sheet for all years presented in the Annual Report.
• Prepare and explain a vertical analysis of the Income Statement for all years presented in the Annual Report.
• Explain the importance of using ratios and percentages in communicating financial results

 

In a Maryland county, 180 baseball fans have been surveyed about the baseball teams they watch on TV. 85 fans watch the Washington Nationals, 127 fans watch the Baltimore Orioles and 162 watch the Washington Nationals or the Baltimore Orioles or both.

(a) How many of the fans watch both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles? Show work.
(b) How many of the fans watch the Baltimore Orioles and not the Washington Nationals? Show work.
(c) Complete the following Venn diagram, filling in the number of fans belonging in each of the four regions. Circle W = {fans who watch Washington Nationals} and Circle B = {fans who watch Baltimore Orioles}. (no explanation required)
2. (25 points)
A company makes two raisin-nut mixtures. Each box of mixture A contains 4 ounces of peanuts and 3 ounce of raisins, and sells for $4. Each box of mixture B contains 2 ounces of peanuts and 6 ounces of raisins, and sells for $6. The company has available 2,000 ounces of peanuts and 3,300 ounces of raisins, and will try to sell the amount of each mixture that maximizes income. If x is the number of boxes of mixture A and y is the number of boxes of mixture B, list the inequalities that must be satisfied and state the objective function. Obtain x and y that maximizes the objective function.

(a) Tabulate the given data as follows:

Per Box A Per Box B Available amount (oz) (total)
Peanuts (oz)
Raisins (oz)
Income

(b) State an expression for the total income J from selling x boxes of mixture A and y boxes of mixture B.
(c) Using the data in (a), state two inequalities that x and y must satisfy because of the company’s total availability limits of peanuts and raisins. Show work.

(d) State two inequalities that x and y must satisfy because they cannot be negative.
(e) State the linear programming problem which corresponds to the situation described. Be sure to indicate whether you have a maximization problem or a minimization problem, and state the objective function and all the inequalities. (This part is mostly a summary of the previous parts)
(f) Solve the linear programming problem. You will need to find the feasible region and determine the corner points. You do not have to submit your graph, and you do not have to show algebraic work in finding the corner points, but you must list the corner points of the feasible region and the corresponding values of the objective function. Show work in evaluating J in the following table:

Corner Point (x, y) Value of Objective Function J
(g) Write your conclusion with regard to the word problem. State how many boxes of mixture A and how many boxes of mixture B should be sold, in order to earn the highest income possible. State the value of that maximum income.
3. (10 points)
Using the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, all possible 3 digit numbers are formed, excluding 0 as the first digit and assuming the digits may be repeated in each number.

(a) How many of these numbers are odd? Show work.

(b) How many of these numbers are even? Show work.
4. (5 points)
Use the given information to complete the following table.
n(U) = 60 , n(A) = 23, n(B) = 20, n(A B) = 6. (No work/explanation required)
A A Totals

B

B

Totals

5. (10 points)
An advisory board of 5 students is to be chosen from a group of 13 students.

(a) In how many ways can the advisory board be chosen? Show work/explanation.

(b) Now suppose that the group of students consists of 7 seniors, 4 juniors, and 2 sophomores. In how many ways can the advisory board be chosen if it must consist of 2 seniors, 2 juniors, and 1 sophomore? Show some work/explanation.

6. (25 points)
An urn contains 25 balls of which 15 are red 10 are white. A sample of 5 balls is to be selected.

(a) How many different samples are possible?
(b) How many samples have all red balls?
(c) How many samples contain 3 red balls and 2 white balls?
(d) How many samples contain at least 4 red balls?

Read this week’s required article: “What You Don’t Know About Apple”.

In a three- to four-page paper (not including the title and reference pages):

• Discuss if Apple will continue its path to be the frontrunner in revolutionizing the digital marketplace.
• Discuss if Apple’s competition has increased their share of the marketplace at Apple’s expense.
• Discuss if Apple will succeed without Steve Jobs.

The paper

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least three scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library, one of which must be peer reviewed, in addition to the textbook.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

The personal statement should be well written in your own words answering the following questions in a three to five page narrative and adding any additional information that may be helpful to the Admissions Committee:

1. What are your reasons for applying to the Rutgers University School of Social Work?

2. Discuss your personal values, philosophy, knowledge of social issues, and the professional and community experiences that have influenced your decision to enter the profession.

3. Comment on your skills, strengths, and weaknesses.

4. Describe your reasons for choosing a particular focus in the field of social work.

5. Discuss your plans for a career in social work.

6. What skills/characteristics do you have or will develop that will ensure your success as an online student? These may include time management and organizational skills, learning style, writing ability, comfort with computer technology, and self-directedness.

Please write a detailed response to the three supplemental questions below at the end of your personal statement:

1. Tell us why you are choosing an online program over a traditional, on-campus MSW program.

2. Why do you think you will be a successful online student and what challenges might you face as an online student?

3. We are also interested in your ability to fulfill the field education requirement. After carefully reviewing the field education requirements, please describe any challenges you foresee in meeting the field education requirement and how you plan to manage the field education hours with your other life commitments.

As you have learned, one way to involve families is to use storybooks. For this assignment you will first review theHarvard Family Research Project Storybook Corner and read the overview regarding the Family Involvement Network Project and the Family Involvement Storybook Project. Read Tomasito’s Mother Comes to School and the accompanying activities.

Choose a book from Harvard Family Research Project: Family Involvement Storybook Selections or fromReading is Fundamental: Multicultural Booklist.

Then, from the resources above and your readings from the text, create a lesson to engage children and their families. Your lesson should include the following elements and should be four-six pages in length not including the title and references page. You will need to include at least three credible sources, one of which must be your text. Use all three sources to cite your work and be sure to use correct APA formatting as per the Ashford Writing Center Guidelines.

• Summarize the text in your own words.
• Describe your rationale for choosing the book and state what you hope to accomplish by using it with your students and their families. Write a family letter about your chosen story book and invite families to attend school to take part in group activities related to the book.
• Create at least five discussion questions to use with your students and their families.
• Describe two different activities that can be completed by families and their children in the classroom. Be sure to cite your source(s) for these activities.
• Describe one activity that can be completed by the family at home. Be sure to cite your source for this activity.
• Create an evaluation form to solicit feedback from parents and students to assess the value of this program.

For this project you need to plan ahead.

Please note the date at the bottom of this assignment by which the report is due. However, in addition to that date, please write and submit your report WITHIN A WEEK of attending the concert you choose. This is so the experience is still fresh in your mind.

Your assignment is to attend a symphony, opera, ballet, or choral concert. I suggest that you choose as professional an experience as possible since the goal is to experience the very best that live performance has to offer. Venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Los Angeles Music Center, or the Orange County Performing Arts Center and performing groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, and Los Angeles Master Chorale are all good places to search for appropriate performances. The Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times is also a good place to locate concerts.

While performances of this caliber can be expensive, they do not have to be. Many venues give discounts to students. Often, an hour before the concert, there is a “student rush” in which remaining tickets are sold to students at very low prices. It is a good idea to call ahead and see if this is available.

In some cases, a major musical in Los Angeles or Orange County is acceptable. However, these vary greatly in quality and may not be acceptable. Check with me first.

Whatever your choice, the performance must include a full, live orchestra and you must be able to observe them. This is often difficult in opera, ballet, or musicals since the orchestra may be sitting in the “pit,” an area in front of and below the stage. If this is the case, simply go down to the front of the theater during the intermission and observe them.

After you have attended the concert, please write a 2-3 page report (a minimum of 1,000 words) answering the eight questions below. Please NUMBER and ANSWER the questions in order.

Finally, remember that your report must be in your own words, not simply copied from other sources.

1. List the TITLE and COMPOSER of each piece performed.
2. Write at least a paragraph about each composer including a brief biography of their life.
3. From what period (Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, or Contemporary) does each piece of music come? In other words, when was the piece written?
4. What are the stylistic qualities of that period of music?
5. What was the instrumentation of the orchestra? Draw or describe the seating arrangement of the orchestra.
6. What kind of listener were you? Why?
7. Discuss the music drawing on the following criteria from the Course: Unity and Variety, Structure, Purpose, Form, Tempo, Volume, Rhythm, Melody, and Harmony.
8. Finally, did you enjoy the concert? Why or why not?