Summarize your findings and observations in a 2 page analysis Word document report. Provide recommendations for future decisions, supported by data from your Excel worksheets. Think about any potential areas for growth and ways to increase profits. Reread the case study in your text for context and ideas for areas you could address in your report.

Elizabeth Burke has recently joined the PLE management team to oversee production operations. She has reviewed the types of data that the company collects and has assigned you the responsibility to be her chief analyst in the coming weeks. She has asked you to do some preliminary analysis of the data for the company.

The following is all the data and findings:

The Case is the following:

Need a 2 page analysis of this research please. Will rate highly.

1 Mower Test Functional Performance Number of failure 61 Market Share Mower FiveYearMarketShare10.41%41.94%5.50%10.51%2.03%9.53% Market Share Tractor FiveYearMarketShare14.08%28.45%10.06%20.58%4.36%14.22% In each chapter of this book, we use a a fictitious com- For dealers, key requirements are high quality, parts and pany, Performance Lawn Equipment (PLE), within a case feature availability, rapid restock, discounts, and timeliexercise for applying the tools and techniques introduced ness of support. in the chapter. 31 To put the case in perspective, we first PLE has several key suppliers: Mitsitsiu, Inc., the provide some background about the company, so that sole source of all diesel engines; LANTO Axles, Inc., the applications of business analytic tools will be more which provides tractor axles; Schorst Fabrication, which meaningful. provides subassemblies; Cuberillo, Inc, supplier of trans- PLE, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a privately missions; and Specialty Machining, Inc., a supplier of owned designer and producer of traditional lawn mowers precision machine parts. used by homeowners. In the past ten years, PLE has added To help manage the company, PLE managers have another key product, a medium-size diesel power lawn trac- developed a "balanced scorecard" of measures. These tor with front and rear power takeoffs, Class I three-point data, which are summarized shortly, are stored in the hitches, four-wheel drive, power steering, and full hydrau- form of a Microsoft Excel workbook (Performance Lawn lics. This equipment is built primarily for a niche market Equipment) accompanying this book. The database conconsisting of large estates, including golf and country clubs, tains various measures captured on a monthly or quarresorts, private estates, city parks, large commercial com- terly basis and is used by various managers to evaluate plexes, lawn care service providers, private homeowners business performance. Data for each of the key measures with five or more acres, and government (federal, state, and are stored in a separate worksheet. A summary of these local) parks, building complexes, and military bases. PLE worksheets is given next: provides most of the products to dealerships, which, in turn, sell directly to end users. PLE employs 1,660 people world- - Dealer Satisfaction, measured on a scale of 1-5 wide. About half the workforce is based in St. Louis; the (1= poor, 2= less than average, 3= average, remainder is split among their manufacturing plants. 4= above average, and 5= excellent). Each year, sell directly to end users. PLE employs 1,660 people worldwide. About half the workforce is based in St. Louis; the (1= poor, 2= less than average, 3= average, remainder is split among their manufacturing plants. 4= above average, and 5= excellent). Each year, In the United States, the focus of sales is on the east- dealers in each region are surveyed about their overall ern seaboard, California, the Southeast, and the south satisfaction with PLE. The worksheet contains sumcentral states, which have the greatest concentration of mary data from surveys for the past five years. customers. Outside the United States, PLE's sales include End-User Satisfaction, measured on the same scale a European market, a growing South American market, as dealers. Each year, 100 users from each region are and developing markets in the Pacific Rim and China. surveyed. The worksheet contains summary data for Both end users and dealers have been established as the past five years. important customers for PLE. Collection and analysis of Customer Survey, results from a survey for customer ratend-user data showed that satisfaction with the products ings of specific attributes of PLE tractors: quality, ease depends on high quality, easy attachment/dismount of of use, price, and service on the same 1-5 scale. This implements, low maintenance, price value, and service. sheet contains 200 observations of customer ratings. Complaints, which shows the number of complaints Employee Retention, data from a study of employee registered by all customers each month in each of duration (length of hire) with PLE. The 40 subjects PLE's five regions (North America, South America, were identified by reviewing hires from ten years Europe, the Pacific, and China). prior and identifying those who were involved in Mower Unit Sales and Tractor Unit Sales, which pro- managerial positions (either hired into management or vide sales by product by region on a monthly basis. promoted into management) at some time in this tenUnit sales for each region are aggregated to obtain yeriod. world sales figures. Shipping Cost, which gives the unit shipping cost Industry Mower Total Sales and Industry Tractor for mowers and tractors from existing and proposed Total Sales, which list the number of units sold by all plants for a supply chain design study. producers by region. Fixed Cost, which lists the fixed cost to expand existUnit Production Costs, which provides monthly account- ing plants or build new facilities, also as part of the ing estimates of the variable cost per unit for manufactur- supply chain design study. ing tractors and mowers over the past five years. Purchasing Survey, which provides data obtained Operating and Interest Expenses, which provides from a third-party survey of purchasing managers of monthly administrative, depreciation, and interest customers of Performance Lawn Care. expenses at the corporate level. On-Time Delivery, which provides the number of Elizabeth Burke has recently joined the PLE mandeliveries made each month from each of PLE's major agement team to oversee production operations. She has suppliers, the number on time, and the percent on time. reviewed the types of data that the company collects and Defects After Delivery, which shows the number of has assigned you the responsibility to be her chief analyst defects in supplier-provided material found in all ship- in the coming weeks. She has asked you to do some prements received from suppliers. liminary analysis of the data for the company. Time to Pay Suppliers, which provides measurements in days from the time the invoice is received until payment is sent. - Response Time, which gives samples of the times taken by PLE customer-service personnel to respond to service calls by quarter over the past two years. - Employee Satisfaction, which provides data for the past four years of internal surveys of employees to determine their overall satisfaction with their jobs, using the same scale used for customers. Employees are surveyed quarterly, and results are stratified by employee category: design and production, managerial, and sales/administrative support. In addition to these business measures, the PLE database contains worksheets with data from special studies: Engines, which lists 50 samples of the time required to produce a lawn mower blade using a new technology. Transmission Costs, which provides the results of 30 samples each for the current process used to produce tractor transmissions and two proposed new processes. Blade Weight, which provides samples of mower blade weights to evaluate the consistency of the production process. - Mower Test, which lists test results of mower functional performance after assembly for 30 samples of 100 units each