You are hired as a consultant to decide if your client should purchase a new, highly specialized piece of equipment. The product to be produced by this equipment is forecast to have a total worldwide demand of 15,000 units over the entire product life. The initial investment to acquire and install the equipment is $256,000. The variable cost to produce each unit will be $15, and the selling price for the finished product will be $30. Which of the following best describes the situation the firm is facing? The company's total margin will be its investment. The company will recover its initial investment. The break-even is lower than the 15.000 units that are expected to sell. It is a good investment. We would expect to see in a manufacturing cell layout which of the following? More in-process inventory Long production setup times None of these A small team of workers who turn out complete units of work Large teams who collectively do a small part of a finished product Which of the following basic types of production layout formats is one in which equipment or work processes are arranged according to the progressive steps by which the product is made? Process layout Job-shop layout Functional layout Group technology layout Assembly line output Which of the following is a reason that there are disparities between a firm's learning curve rate and that of its industry? There may be procedural differences in the manner that different firms collect and report data The cumulative number of units produced is different. The starting points for different firms were different. Learning curves don't reflect organizational learning. Companies don't always report sensitive data to outside agencies accurately