Exam 18: Planning and Control Techniques

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Forecasting (Scenario) Imagine that you are a manager in the construction industry in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary has recently been experiencing rapid growth, bringing with it increased demand for construction services and more intense competition. The provincial government has been easing restrictions on public land use and has promoted a business-friendly environment to attract more corporations to the area. Furthermore, the oil business is booming, and there is a severe shortage of housing and worker accommodations in the oil-producing regions. However, you are also aware of how quickly these factors can change and the impact that a change in government or a decline in the price of oil can have on the construction industry. Given these considerations, you try to develop a forecast to help plan your company's future. -You begin to screen large amounts of information to anticipate and interpret changes in the environment. This is a technique called __________.

list and discuss three techniques that have been developed to help managers with the task of assessing the organization's environment.

Krazy Key Chains sell for $1.00 each. If variable costs are $0.50 each and total fixed costs are $2,500, what is the profit if 10,000 units are sold?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Breakeven Analysis at MRI (Scenario) Mike has just been hired as a sales manager at Mobile Research Inc. (MRI), makers of the popular Blueberry wireless phone. At his first management briefing, Mike is informed that the company is losing money, despite the immense popularity of the Blueberry phone. He learns that the company is facing intense competition from its main rival, Mandarin Communications, makers of the M-Phone. The M-Phone has the same popular features as the Blueberry and sells for $40 less. When Mike asked about the cost structure for the Blueberry he was informed that the selling price is $200, variable costs are $120, and total fixed costs are $800,000 per month. -Mike calculated the current breakeven point for the Blueberry to be __________ units per month.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Budgeting Bonanza (Scenario) Chuck Cartwright owns Ponderosa Video, a small chain of video stores based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The stores have been earning a modest profit, but Chuck needs to improve his budgeting process if he wants to compete against the big national chains. His financial advisor, Helga Hensler, suggested he develop a series of budgets for analysis. -Helga gave Chuck which of the following tips to improve budgeting?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Dave's Doughnuts (Scenario) Dave Glazer is the owner of Dave's Doughnuts, a five-store chain of doughnut shops located in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. At weekly management meetings, Dave asks each of the five store managers to report on local trends and new customer requests. -Occasionally, Dave will purchase a popular new doughnut from a competitor and send it to a food laboratory in Vancouver for analysis. The lab provides a breakdown of the ingredients so Dave can learn the competitor's secrets. Dave is engaging in which process?

define a scenario and discuss the concept of scenario planning and its importance in organizations.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Scheduling Tools (Scenario) Grace has just graduated from university and is totally overwhelmed by her first management job. When she was in school, she could work on projects one at a time; but now she must juggle several projects, each of which has multiple activities. Grace is amazed to find that her supervisor, Linda, has everything planned in a flow chart diagram. Linda's current project is to oversee the construction of an office building, and Grace is determined to understand all of the major activities and potential problems so that she can be more proactive. -The longest or most time-consuming sequence of events or activities time in Linda's flow chart is called __________.

A __________ is a consistent view of what the future is likely to be.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Breakeven Analysis at MRI (Scenario) Mike has just been hired as a sales manager at Mobile Research Inc. (MRI), makers of the popular Blueberry wireless phone. At his first management briefing, Mike is informed that the company is losing money, despite the immense popularity of the Blueberry phone. He learns that the company is facing intense competition from its main rival, Mandarin Communications, makers of the M-Phone. The M-Phone has the same popular features as the Blueberry and sells for $40 less. When Mike asked about the cost structure for the Blueberry he was informed that the selling price is $200, variable costs are $120, and total fixed costs are $800,000 per month. -MRI decided to reduce their selling price and match the M-Phone at $160. The next month they sold 32,500 Blueberry phones and earned a profit of __________.

Forecasting is critical and most effective under rapidly changing environmental conditions.

The Gantt chart is a bar graph that displays time on the vertical axis and the activities to be scheduled on the horizontal axis.

Environmental scanning is the screening of large amounts of information by an organization to anticipate changes in their internal environment.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Scheduling Tools (Scenario) Grace has just graduated from university and is totally overwhelmed by her first management job. When she was in school, she could work on projects one at a time; but now she must juggle several projects, each of which has multiple activities. Grace is amazed to find that her supervisor, Linda, has everything planned in a flow chart diagram. Linda's current project is to oversee the construction of an office building, and Grace is determined to understand all of the major activities and potential problems so that she can be more proactive. -In Linda's flow chart, the amount of time that an individual activity can be delayed without delaying the whole project is called __________.

The intent of scenario planning is to __________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Budgeting Bonanza (Scenario) Chuck Cartwright owns Ponderosa Video, a small chain of video stores based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The stores have been earning a modest profit, but Chuck needs to improve his budgeting process if he wants to compete against the big national chains. His financial advisor, Helga Hensler, suggested he develop a series of budgets for analysis. -Helga asked Chuck to develop a(n) __________ budget that projects future sales.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Scheduling Tools (Scenario) Grace has just graduated from university and is totally overwhelmed by her first management job. When she was in school, she could work on projects one at a time; but now she must juggle several projects, each of which has multiple activities. Grace is amazed to find that her supervisor, Linda, has everything planned in a flow chart diagram. Linda's current project is to oversee the construction of an office building, and Grace is determined to understand all of the major activities and potential problems so that she can be more proactive. -To help get organized, Grace prepares a bar graph that visually shows when her tasks are supposed to be done and compares that with the actual progress on each. Now she can easily assess which projects are ahead of, behind, or on schedule. Grace has used which scheduling technique?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Allocating Resources at Planning Plus Inc. (Scenario) Management from all levels of Planning Plus Inc. (PPI) has been making decisions about how to best accomplish next year's organizational goals. The production department has been making numerical plans to project such items as person-hours per machine, capacity usage, and production volume. Accounting has been trying to determine the production quantity at which total revenues will equal total costs. Purchasing has been establishing delivery dates for raw materials that meet the weekly inventory requirements of the production department. Finally, the marketing department has been planning the introduction of a new product. Marketing is essentially using a bar graph that displays time on the horizontal axis and activities to be completed on the vertical axis. -Top management has put together a chart that lists entire departments on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. This allows managers to schedule capacity by work areas. This is an example of which resource allocation technique?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Allocating Resources at Planning Plus Inc. (Scenario) Management from all levels of Planning Plus Inc. (PPI) has been making decisions about how to best accomplish next year's organizational goals. The production department has been making numerical plans to project such items as person-hours per machine, capacity usage, and production volume. Accounting has been trying to determine the production quantity at which total revenues will equal total costs. Purchasing has been establishing delivery dates for raw materials that meet the weekly inventory requirements of the production department. Finally, the marketing department has been planning the introduction of a new product. Marketing is essentially using a bar graph that displays time on the horizontal axis and activities to be completed on the vertical axis. -The production department's numerical plans are examples of which resource allocation technique?

Three techniques that help managers assess their organization's environment are __________.