Vicoty has received five proposals for capital investment projects. Your job is to evaluate these proposals and rank them in the order in which they should be funded. Begin your

analysis by computing the average rate of return and cash payback period for each proposal. Any project that has an average rate of return of less than $15$ percent or a cash

payback period of longer than five years should be eliminated from further consideration. After this initial screening, compute the net present value $($using a $15$ percent discount

rate from the appropriate table from the book$)$ for the remaining projects. Rank the projects based on both their profitability first and overall merit to the company $($qualitative

factors$).$ Justify $($SHOW$)$ the calculations and any explanations. Round your answers to $2$ decimal places for ARR and Payback.

Project A: Currently, Victory Company's paychecks are processed by an outside payroll service company. This proposal requests funds to purchase hardware and software

that will allow the accounting department to process payroll in$-$house.The annual increase in net income and cash flows will result from cost savings if the payroll function is no

longer contracted to an outside company.

Project B: This proposal is to use funds for new manufacturing equipment. This equipment will allow Victory to make containers as large as ten gallons. Currently, Victory cannot

make containers that are larger than three gallons.

Project C: This proposal requests funds for equipment to make stick$-$on labels that are applied to the plastic containers. Currently, all stick$-$on labels are ordered from another

company. This supplier has not proven very reliable in meeting delivery deadlines.

Project D: Victory's cycle time is currently seven days. This proposal requests funds for automated manufacturing equipment that will reduce the cycle time from receipt of a

customer order to delivery of that order. The automated equipment will reduce that time to four days while saving costs due to the elimination of five jobs. It will also make Victory

more competitive; the company's major competitor currently has a cycle time of five days.

Project $E$ : This proposal requires funds for computerized drafting and design equipment that will allow engineers to complete manufacturing instructions on special orders more

quickly. This equipment should reduce Victory's cycle time from seven to five days.