Exam 4: Cost Advantage
BizTechno Inc.has always retained competitive advantage over its competitors.The company has offered customer satisfaction for many years by providing the best services and benefits for them.The resources, capabilities, and the organizational structure of the organization have also created an increased edge over its competitors.Which of the following does this scenario best illustrate?
A
Define learning curve, experience curve, and scale curve.Compare them with each other.
Scale curve is a graphic representation of the relationship between cost per unit and scale (volume) of production in a given time period.Learning curve is the concept that labor costs per unit decrease with increases in volume due to learning.New skills or knowledge can be quickly acquired initially, but subsequent learning becomes much slower.Experience curve is a representation of the relationship between cumulative volume and product cost.
The learning curve is a tool that managers can use to determine the contribution of human learning on the part of employees to reductions in costs per unit.Learning curve advantages are also relevant in service industries such as accounting, consulting, legal services, and even personal services like hair styling.
The learning curve is more complex than a scale curve to calculate because it requires gathering data on the cumulative volume of a given product or service produced, the total amount since the company started making the product or providing the service.The scale curve shows how costs per unit change with increases of volume of production during a given time period, such as a quarter, half-year, or year.It is easier for companies to obtain cost information from specific time periods.
An experience curve does a better job of capturing learning effects than a scale curve, because it is based on cumulative volume, like the learning curve.But, it also does a better job of capturing the effects of economies of scale than a learning curve does, because it includes all costs, not just labor.However, if data from the same time period are used to calculate a scale curve and experience curve, both analyses produce the same result.Like scale curves, experience curves are applicable to service, as well as manufacturing, industries.
A strategy in which the unique value offered to customers is lower-priced products or services is known as _____.
cost advantage strategy
MediDose Inc., a pharmaceutical company, has been studying and experimenting with a few drugs.After 10 years of conducting and standardizing tests, the company comes up with positive results that would help many patients.These drugs become popular and effective among millions of patients and enable the company to expand its operations across the globe while spreading out the cost of the studies.Which of the following is the subject of economies of scale in the described scenario?
Nirvana Publishing House invested on high-end printing equipment.After a year of production, the company had to double the amount of production of its newspapers and weekly magazine because of high customer demand.However, the company did not have to invest in another similar equipment to meet demands.This is an example of a _____.
Vladimir, the CEO of Autumn Inc., claims that a learning curve is a better option of identifying the growth of the company.His assistant, Mark, states that growth can be better assessed if a scale curve is used as it reflects reliable and validated results and moreover it shows results of a specific time period.Which of the following statements strengthens Vladimir's claim?
Attire Corp., a garment manufacturing company, explains to its employees why its previous year's sales had not met the required standards.The management uses a diagram of the cost acquired for each item manufactured against the volume of items produced in a particular period of time.The pictorial representation is an example of the _____.
Mention the four ways that companies achieve cost advantage through lower-cost inputs and explain bargaining power over suppliers.
Lavender Inc., a computer manufacturing company, sells its products at costs that are lesser than its competitors as it wishes to gain profits in order to cover more of the competitive market.The company follows this method as it has high unit volumes.The scenario best illustrates the _____.
Rinkon Inc., an automobile company, purchased its competitor TrackRoads Inc.that had similar production quantities and a sufficient amount of raw materials.This takeover was done to decrease the unit cost production of Rinkon and to increase its production using more equipment in Rinkon.This strategy led to record profits and more customers investing their finances on cars manufactured by Rinkon.The scenario best illustrates the:
Information that is not public and that is viewed as the property of the holder is called _____.
The increased efficiency that results when employees perform a narrow range of tasks over and over again leading them to acquire specialized knowledge that helps them complete the task more efficiently accurately defines the term _____.
TrueBiz Corp.follows a system wherein all the activities of the company are directed toward converting parts of a product into an entire finished good.These activities are done in tandem so that a perfected product can be created which can be sold to a prospective customer.This is an example of a _____.
Connections Communications Inc.has been able to achieve optimal efficiency by identifying a task for each employee and enabling them to become thoroughly proficient in their tasks.The company has realized that employees develop an expertise in their specified job profile over time and they gradually begin to work faster than when they started the job.This is an example of _____.
DFN Inc.expanded its manufacturing plant to employ more equipment because the management of the company thought this would help them attain more sales.Unfortunately, this affected the cost of each unit produced because the company invested more finances for better equipment.This also led to a decrease in sales as customers were not willing to buy the product for an increased price.This scenario best illustrates _____.
The board of directors of Colors Corp., a new startup, chalked out a list of resources that would be needed to optimize the efficiency of the company.It needed a human resources department to take care of recruitment, a few suppliers to provide raw materials, a few data recording equipment such as computers to store and manage data, and a large geographical area to start the company.The board stated that these provisions would help the company obtain desired profits.The resources and provisions mentioned in this scenario are examples of _____.
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