Author: chris

Create a communication plan for the Riordan Manufacturing Go Green campaign, using the WBS and project organization chart.

 

Research various software packages, such as Microsoft® Enterprise or SharePoint, and select one that has the most useful tools to coordinate data, resource management, scheduling, and communication. In no more than 350 words, explain why this software is appropriate.

 

Navigate to http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm. Download the free Power/Interest Grid .pdf file. Reproduce the grid in a Microsoft® Word document. Brainstorm various stakeholders of this project and plot them on the grid. Identify and categorize stakeholders according to reporting needs.

 

Create a communication plan matrix, using Microsoft® Excel. Indicate the frequency and type of communication appropriate for each stakeholder and which team member would be responsible for overseeing each communication.

 

Write an executive summary of no more than 1,050 words in which you explain how the communication plan and software will enable the project leader to effectively manage communication on the project.

 

Combine the software recommendation, Power/Interest Grid, communication plan matrix, and executive summary into a cohesive report.

 

Format your report consistent with APA guidelines.

Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your assignment.

Read Case 9: Capital State Arena in the text (pg. 473-475). In a three- to four-page paper, excluding the title and reference pages, provide a brief summary of the case and main points, and address the following prompts, using qualitative and quantitative data where necessary to provide support.

• You are the purchasing agent for CSU. Your manager has asked you to design evaluation criteria for purchase of the new lighting system. Develop a supplier selection and evaluation model for this purchasing decision. Justify the reasoning for your response.
• Part of your role in selecting the lighting system will be to satisfy the needs of the university purchasing team and the end users. Develop a university purchasing team/ end users’ needs matrix to help with this purchasing decision. Explain the needs for each user and how you determined the needs, in addition to providing examples.

Your paper must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center

Assignment 2: Discussion—Your Carbon Footprint and the Future

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that each individual produces. Calculating your carbon footprint can give you a new perspective concerning how much you are really contributing to the greenhouse effect.

In this assignment, you will apply what you have learned about taking personal responsibility for your environment and calculate your own carbon footprint.

Using The Nature Conservancy Web site, calculate your carbon footprint. You can calculate this by clicking on the calculator and filling out the estimated values. Access this Web site using the following link:

• The Nature Conservancy. (2011). Carbon footprint calculator: What’s my carbon footprint? Retrieved from http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm

Respond to the following:

• Describe your final carbon footprint.
• Classify where most of the carbon you generate comes from.
• Considering all you have learned in this course, state if you feel you have a new appreciation for your role in the environment.
• Examine how you impact the environment. Do you think you impact the environment more than you should?
• Describe the part of your life that is contributing the most carbon.
• Propose how you can reduce this number. In your opinion, explain if it is realistic for you to try and reduce this number.

Write your initial response in approximately 300–350 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

By Sunday, November 22, 2015, post your response to the appropriate Discussion Area. Through Wednesday, November 25, 2015, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses. Consider the following:

• How does your carbon footprint differ from theirs?
• Suggest ways in which your classmates can reduce their carbon footprint.

Note: All discussion assignments in this course will be graded using a rubric. Download the discussion rubric and carefully read it to understand the expectations.

Discussion 7 “Evolution”

 

Using the internet and Strayer databases choose three (3) recent advances in genetics, development, and geology and explain two (2) ways your chosen advances have enriched our understanding of evolution. Next suggest two (2) ways that new sources of evidence for evolution can help to corroborate observations that were made by early evolutionary thinkers

 

Discussion 8  “Evolution of Disease, Humans, and Animals”

 

In your own words explain the concept of rRNA then suggest three (3) reasons why scientists choose to use rRNA as an Evolutionary Chronometer

 

 

Discussion 9 “Evolution of Animals and Population of Humans”

 

Consider three (3) problems out of control population growth will create in regards to the environment. Next discuss three (3) effects of China’s one child rule. In your response please consider social, ethical and environmental sides of the effect

Final Paper

You’ve just been hired onto ABC Company as the corporate controller. ABC Company is a manufacturing firm that specializes in making cedar roofing and siding shingles. The company currently has annual sales of around $1.2 million, a 25% increase from the previous year. The company has an aggressive growth target of reaching $3 million annual sales within the next 3 years. The CEO has been trying to find additional products that can leverage the current ABC employee skillset as well as the manufacturing facilities.

As the controller of ABC Company, the CEO has come to you with a new opportunity that he’s been working on. The CEO would like to use the some of the shingle scrap materials to build cedar dollhouses. While this new product line would add additional raw materials and be more time-intensive to manufacture than the cedar shingles, this new product line will be able to leverage ABC’s existing manufacturing facilities as well as the current staff. Although this product line will require added expenses, it will provide additional revenue and gross profit to help reach the growth targets. The CEO is relying on you to help decide how this project can be afforded  Provide details about the estimated product costs, what is needed to break even on the project, and what level of return this product is expected to provide.

In order to help out the CEO, you need to prepare a six- to eight-page report that will contain the following information (including exhibits, but excluding your references and title page). Refer to the accompanying Excel spreadsheet (available through your online course) for some specific cost and profit information to complete the calculations.

Final Paper Spreadsheet

1. 1. An overall risk profile of the company based on current economic and industry issues that it may be facing.

 

1. 1. Current company cash flow

 

1. 1. 1. You need to complete a cash flow statement for the company using the direct method.
      2. Once you’ve completed the cash flow statement, answer the following questions:
         1. What does this statement of cash flow tell you about the sources and uses of the company funds?
         2. Is there anything ABC Company can do to improve the cash flow?

            Can this project be financed with current cash flow from the company? Why or why not?

         3. If the company needs additional financing beyond what ABC Company can provide internally (either now or sometime throughout the life of the project), how would you suggest the company obtain the additional financing, equity or corporate debt, and why?

 

1. 1. Product cost: ABC Company believes that it has an additional 5,000 machine hours available in the current facility before it would need to expand. ABC Company uses machine hours to allocate the fixed factory overhead, and units sold to allocate the fixed sales expenses. Bases on current research, ABC Company expects that it will take twice as long to produce the expansion product as it currently takes to produce its existing product.
      1. What is the product cost for the expansion product under absorption and variable costing?
      2. By adding this new expansion product, it helps to absorb the fixed factory and sales expenses. How much cheaper does this expansion make the existing product?
      3. Assuming ABC Company wants a 40% gross margin for the new product, what selling price should it set for the expansion product?
      4. Assuming the same sales mix of these two products, what are the contribution margins and break-even points by product?

 

1. 1. Potential investments to accelerate profit: ABC company has the option to purchase additional equipment that will cost about $42,000, and this new equipment will produce the following savings in factory overhead costs over the next five years:

      Year 1, $15,000

      Year 2, $13,000

      Year 3, $10,000

      Year 4, $10,000

      Year 5, $6,000

      ABC Company uses the net-present-value method to analyze investments and desires a minimum rate of return of 12% on the equipment.

      1. What is the net present value of the proposed investment (ignore income taxes and depreciation)?
      2. Assuming a 5-year straight-line depreciation, how will this impact the factory’s fixed costs for each of the 5 years (and the implied product costs)? What about cash flow?
      3. Considering the cash flow impact of the equipment as well as the time-value of money, would you recommend that ABC Company purchases the equipment? Why or why not?

 

1. 1. Conclusion:

 

1. 1. What are the major risk factors that you see in this project?
   2. As the controller and a management accountant, what is your responsibility to this project?
   3. What do you recommend the CEO do?

Writing the Final Paper

1. Must be six to eight double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
2. Must include a title page with the following:
   1. Title of paper
   2. Student’s name
   3. Course name and number
   4. Instructor’s name
   5. Date submitted
3. Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
4. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
6. Must document at least three, but no more than five sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
7. Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Application: Patient Safety Risks

As noted in the Institute of Medicine report, To Err is Human, “It may be part of human nature to err, but it is also part of human nature to create solutions, find better alternatives, and meet the challenges ahead” (Institute of Medicine, 1999, p. 15).

What are the most common—or most significant—risks to patient safety? How do these risks vary in different health care settings or with disparate groups of patients? What can be done to address these risks? You will explore these questions and more in this Application Assignment.

To prepare for this Application:

• Begin by brainstorming types of health care organizations and groups of patients (e.g., geriatric patients requiring chronic care, pediatric patients admitted for acute care). Identify a particular type of setting and/or patient population to help you pinpoint your focus for the following step.
• Review the National Patient Safety Goals, the CDC’s NHSN Web site, and the information on patient safety concerns presented in the other Learning Resources. Select a specific patient safety risk (e.g., patient falls, medication reconciliation) to focus on for this assignment.
• Analyze the systems errors and/or human factors errors that should be considered with regard to this safety risk.
• Reflect on related insights that could be gained from high-reliability organizations. What approaches do these organizations use that might be applicable within a health care organization?
• Consider the strategies and tools (e.g., Six Sigma, Lean) that could be used to assess and reduce this particular risk.
• Evaluate the potential benefits of patient and family involvement and steps that could be taken to ensure that they are included in this endeavor.

Write a 4- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:

• Briefly summarize the patient safety risk you have selected, and provide a rationale for why it deserves particular attention.
• Analyze the influence of systems errors and human factors errors with regard to this risk.
• Discuss related insights that could be gained from high-reliability organizations and how they might be applied within a health care organization.
• Propose strategies and tools for assessing and reducing risk related to this safety issue.
• Describe how patients and patients’ families can be involved in addressing this issue.

This Application is due at the end of Week 5. See the Week 5 Application area for submission instructions.

Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and from additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct.

Here are your team’s instructions for the practice round. This should help augment what we covered in the Chat yesterday.

 

1. Register for CapSim. Go to http://www.capsim.com, find our class, register. I think most of you have completed this step.
2. I have already assigned you to your CapSim team.
3. Complete the Rehearsal tutorial; try making decisions for more than one round.
4. The decisions audit tab will show current status.
5. Click on the decisions tab – use Web or Excel – your choice.
6. Make decisions for the product for which you are VP; you worked with your team to determine roles. Your products have names that start with the same letter as your company name.
7. As an example, for the Traditional product:
   1. Select R&D display.

5. Your product is presently positioned at (5.5, 14.5) on the perceptual map. Move your product by changing its performance to something between 5.0 and 6.5, and its size to something between 15.0 and 13.5.
6. Change its reliability or MTBF from its present value of 17,500 hours by plus or minus 1000 hours.

1. 1. Select the Marketing display.

28. Your product is currently priced at $28.00. Change the price by up to plus or minus $1.50. ($26.50 to $29.50.)
29. Your promotion budget is currently $1000. Change the promotion budget by up to plus or minus $500. This relates to customer awareness of your product.

• Your sales budget is currently $1000. Change the sales budget by plus or minus $500. This relates to how much access customers have to purchase your product.

9. Last year you sold about 1000 (actually 1,000,000 since most numbers are presented in thousands) units of your product. The Traditional segment is growing at 9.2%. If nothing else changed in the market, you might expect to sell 1092 units this year. Let’s be pessimistic. If you think your sales this year will be worse than average, enter a number between 800 and 1092 in the “Your Sales Forecast” column. If you think your sales will be average or better, enter 1092 in column.

1. 1. Select the Production display.

1. The first row contains your sales forecast for your product. Multiply your sales forecast by 125% and enter this value in the “Production Schedule” row. If your marketing display contained your pessimistic “worst case scenario” forecast, you are now planning to make enough units to meet demand 25% above that worst case. Note that you already have “inventory on hand”, too. If demand is really high you hope to sell these units, too.
2. In the Buy/Sell Capacity row, leave at its present value of 0.

• In the “New Autom. Rating” row, enter a new automation rating value between 4.5 and 5.5.

1. Financial structure.
   1. Select the Finance display.
   2. Match your “Total Investments” with financing that is split between a stock issue and a bond issue. For example, if your total investments are $20,000 ($20 million), you might issue $10,000 ($10 million) of stock and $10,000 of long term debt.
   3. After matching Total Investments, if your projected cash position is negative, “Borrow ($000)” enough current debt to bring the cash position to a positive value.
2. Additional product changes.
   1. Repeat #5 for your four remaining products, making reasonable decisions for the product. Continue until finished or until the deadline.
   2. After making decisions for each product, check your projected cash position. If  it becomes negative, borrow enough current debt to bring it back to a positive number.
3. Remember to save your decisions to the website when you finish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deliverable Length:  PowerPoint presentation of 4–5

 

 

As you begin the simulation round, there are six strategies that need to be considered. As a team, you will need to discuss these strategies before you make any decisions. Each member of the team should review the strategy for his or her role. A consensus decision will be made by the team on the overall strategy for the practice round.

For the first round, you will need a leader in the following roles: Research and development, marketing, production, and finance.

Task Assignment Part 1: Team Participation in the Simulation Round

• Log in to your account from the CAPSIM home page.
• Click on the Capstone® logo.
• Click on Launch the Web Spreadsheet
• Enter your User ID and password.
• Begin the simulation round.
• Go to “Decisions,” and start making decisions.

Task Assignment Part 2: Yearly Summary Report

As a team, use your textbook(s), course materials, and Internet sources to prepare a PowerPoint presentation of 15–20 slides that justifies your strategic decisions from year one. The team will need to provide an executive summary, a synopsis of the key decisions from each organizational role, the overall impact of your decisions, and the strategic adjustments that are being considered for year two.

Note: 10% of your grade will be based on your group performance ranking in CAPSIM.

Please submit your assignment.

• Log in to your account from the CAPSIM home page.
• Click on the Capstone® logo.
• Click on Launch the Web Spreadsheet
• Enter your User ID and password.
• Begin the simulation round.
• Go to “Decisions,” and start making decisions

Drunk driving is one of the largest social problems related to alcohol use. Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol is involved in 40–45% of all fatal traffic accidents. As a result, legislators, educators, and law enforcement officers are continually attempting to find ways to prevent driving under the influence of alcohol.

Select one of the following age groups: teens (13–17 years), college-age (18–25 years), adults (26–60 years), or seniors (61 years and up).

For your selected age group, develop a plan to reduce driving under the influence. The plan could include (but not be limited to) educational, legislative, and community support; and social advertising. Present at least three action points in your plan. Be sure to include:

• The format of the plan
• Who will deliver the information and how
• Specific tactics used to target the selected group
• Methods used to measure the success of the plan

Be sure to include an introduction and summary for your plan. Support your recommendations using authoritative sources.

Write a 2–3-page plan in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M4_A2.doc

• Using your preliminary research, identify several of Toyota’s existing organizational processes at the time of the accelerator crisis. You will be developing an OIP that would replace some (or one) of these processes.
• For each process you identify, write a short summary addressing the following specific topics. Your analyses should be as thorough as possible. Be sure to cite your resources for this information.
  • Importance: What is the importance of the process to the Toyota organization?
  • Scope: What is the scope of this process (what is the breadth of its reach)?
  • Parties involved: What customers, as well as internal and external suppliers, are affected by this
  • process?
  • Priority: What is the timeliness or urgency for resolving the issues involved in this process?
  • Benefits: What is the overall impact or benefit for Toyota in improving this process?
  • Cost: What are the costs to Toyota if the process is not improved?
• Select one of the processes you have identified as needing improvement to use as the basis for your operations improvement plan (OIP). Select a process that lends itself to an in-depth analysis and that is important to the Toyota corporation. Be sure to focus on a process that you will be able to evaluate and address within the scope of your OIP, given the relatively short duration of this course. Take into account the amount of time required to complete the OIP.
• Explain why you think this process should be addressed, focusing on your analysis of its importance to the organization and how the process would benefit from improvement.