Investing $2,000,000 in TQM's Channel Support Systems initiative will at a minimum increase demand for your products 1.7% in this and in all future rounds. (Refer to the TQM Initiative worksheet in the CompXM.xls Decisions menu.) Looking at the Round 0 Inquirer for Andrews, last year's sales were $163,085,264. Assuming similar sales next year, the 1.7% increase in demand will provide $2,772,449 of additional revenue. With the overall contribution margin of 34.1%, after direct costs this revenue will add $945,405 to the bottom line. For simplicity, assume that the demand increase and margins will remain at last year's levels. How long will it take to achieve payback on the initial $2,000,000 TQM investment, rounded to the nearest month?

1) 17 months

2) 9 months

3) TQM investment will not have a significant financial impact

4) 25 months

2) Looking forward to next year, if Baldwins current cash amount is $20,132 (000) and cash flows from operations next period are unchanged from this period and Baldwin takes ONLY the following actions relating to cash flows from investing and financing activities:

Issues $2,000 (000) of long-term debt

Pays $4,000 (000) in dividends

Retires $10,000 (000) in debt

Which of the following activities will expose Baldwin to the most risk of needing an emergency loan?

1) Issues 100 (000) shares of common stock

2) Sells $7,000 (000) of long-term assets

3) Purchases assets at a cost of $15,000 (000)

4) Repurchases $10,000 (000) of stock

Digby's product manager is considering lowering the price of the Dim product by $2.50 and wants to know what the impact will be on the products contribution margin. Assuming no inventory carry costs, what will Dim's contribution margin be if the price is lowered?

1) 34.00%

2) 31.57%

3) 29.99%

4) 32.30%

According to information found on the production analysis page of the Inquirer, Baldwin sold 1125 units of Buddy in the current year. Assuming that Buddy maintains a constant market share, all the units of Buddy are sold in the Nano market segment and the growth rate remains constant, how many years will it be before Buddy will not be able to meet future demand unless the company adds production capacity? Exclude any existing inventory.

4 year(s)

2 year(s)

3 year(s)

1 year(s)

Which description best fits Andrews? For clarity:

- A differentiator competes through good designs, high awareness, and easy accessibility.

- A cost leader competes on price by reducing costs and passing the savings to customers.

- A broad player competes in all parts of the market.

- A niche player competes in selected parts of the market.

Which of these four statements best describes your company's current strategy?

Andrews is a broad differentiator

Andrews is a niche differentiator

Andrews is a niche cost leader

Andrews is a broad cost leader

Refer to the HR Reports in the Inquirer. Through past investments in recruiting and training Chester has obtained a productivity index of 109.5%. This means that Chester's labor costs would be increased by 9.5% if it did not have these productivity improvements. This is a competitive advantage that Chester can sustain or even widen further if its competitors have no HR initiatives. Now, refer to the Income Statement in Chester's Annual Report. How much did Chester's productivity improvements save it in direct labor costs (in thousands) last year?

$29,644

$806

$3,084

$3,160

Dart is a product of the Digby company. Digby's sales forecast for Dart is 2079 units. Digby wants to have an extra 10% of units on hand above and beyond their forecast in case sales are better than expected. (They would risk the possibility of excess inventory carrying charges rather than risk lost profits on a stock out.) Taking current inventory into account, what will Dart's Production After Adjustment have to be in order to have a 10% reserve of units available for sale?

2287 units

2273 units

2079 units

2065 units

Baldwin's Elite product Bat has an awareness of 72%. Baldwin's Bat product manager for the Elite segment is determined to have more awareness for Bat than Andrews' Elite product Abby. She knows that the first $1M in promotion generates 22% new awareness, the second million adds 23% more and the third million adds another 5%. She also knows one-third of Bat's existing awareness is lost every year. Assuming that Abby's awareness stays the same next year (77%), out of the promotion budgets below, what is the minimum Baldwin's Elite product manager should spend in promotion to earn more awareness than Andrews' Abby product?

1M

Nothing

3M

2M

Demand is created through meeting customer buying criteria, credit terms, awareness (promotion) and accessibility (distribution). According to the Thrift segment's customers, which of these products was the most competitive at the end of last year?

Dart

Cure

Camp

Alan

Buddy is a product of the Baldwin company which is primarily in the Nano segment, but is also sold in another segment. Baldwin starts to create their sales forecast by assuming all policies (R&D, Marketing, and Production) for all competitors are equal this year over last. For this question assume that all 1125 of units of Buddy are sold in the Nano segment. If the competitive environment remains unchanged what will be the Buddy products demand next year (in 000s)?

1283

1125

2566

1204