Carraway Seed Company Inc. has for many years cultivated and sold what are known as heritage plants and seeds. Forexample, the company has sought out older varieties of tomato plants that are no longer grown by commercial vegetable farmers since they either take too long tomature, do not shipwell, or do not hold up for long on the store shelf. The company has recently been considering ways to reduce its investment in working capital in order to make itself more profitable. At present the firm has an inventory conversion period of 82 days and the majority of its customers take advantage of its credit terms of 40 days. The company purchases its inventory items on credit terms that allow them 51 days to pay but has always followed a policy of making cash payments for invoices as soon as they arereceived, so the accounts payable deferral period is typically only 11 days.

a.What areCarraway's operating and cash conversioncycles?

b.If Carraway were to decide to take full advantage of its credit terms and delay payment until the last possibledate, how would this impact their cash conversioncycle?

c.What would be your recommendation to the company with regard to its working capital management practices andwhy?

a.Carraway's operating cycle is ______ days. (Round to the nearest wholenumber.)