Author: chris

Assume that your company is considering the replacement of an automated milling machine with one of the new machines offered by three different manufacturers.  Each of the three machines under consideration is expected to have an economic life of five years and will result in greater daily production capacity and therefore increased sales volume. The increased volume will require an increase in working capital during the first year to a level that will remain constant until the end of the five years.  The decision of which specific machine to select will depend on a net present value analysis.  The old machine has reached the end of its estimated useful life and can be sold at the salvage value that was projected when the machine was first installed.

Listed below are factors that may be essential for inclusion when estimating project cash flows.  The factors may be required to correctly calculate either the initial investment, the operating cash flows, or the terminal value that would be analyzed to determine the net present value of the project.   It is also possible that certain factors could be used in more than one of the three categories of cash flow.  Another possibility is that the factor listed is not relevant to cash flow estimation for this specific scenario.

Your task is to identify whether the factor would be included in the calculation for the initial investment, or the operating cash flow, or the terminal value, or is not relevant to this decision.  You must also explain whether failure to appropriately include the factor in the calculation would result in overstating or understating the net present value of the project.

FACTORS

Purchase price of capital asset

Incremental annual depreciation expense

Total company sales revenue

Cash realized from sale of the old machine at its estimated salvage value

Interest on the loan used to finance the asset purchase

Total annual depreciation expense

Increase in working capital

Decrease in working capital

Total net income before tax

Incremental net income before tax

Marginal income tax rate

Investment tax credit

Cost of shipping and installing the new equipment

Directions and Grading Criteria

To complete this assignment, you are to develop a Powerpoint presentation.  You should create  1-3 slides that identify the factors used to  determine the initial investment,  2-5 slides that identify the factors used to  determine the operating cash flow estimates, and  1-3 slides that identify the factors used to   determine the terminal value estimate.  You must also indicate on the slides whether failure to appropriately include the factor in the calculation would result in overstating or understating the net present value of the project.  Additional explanations or comments should appear in the speaker notes for each slide.  APA standards for writing style must be applied to the speaker notes.  Factors that are not relevant to the NPV calculation should not be included on any slide.

You work for a popular consumer electronics company that sells products such as cell phones, tablets, and personal computers. The director of operations has asked you to establish a warehousing operation for the reception and distribution of goods manufactured outside of the United States to the company’s primary install base located in North America. Sales of the company’s product are most significant in the Northeast and Western parts of the United States. Sales in North America also include products sold in Canada. Complete the following:

• Because this venture is a new endeavor for the company, you need to research the market and industry trends for warehousing.
• Write a white paper to report your findings and to give your recommendations about which warehousing activities and systems your business should employ.

Read the case under HR Oops! (in Chapter 4 of your textbook). Use the Argosy University online library for additional research, and do the following in a Word document:

• In 1–2 paragraphs, summarize the case and your research that relates to the case.
• In 2–3 pages, answer the following:
  • What would be the consequences to an employer of having highly demanding jobs with low security, unfair pay, and little control? Explain and justify your answer.
  • How could fish-processing plants like the one described here improve jobs so they can fill vacant positions profitably? Explain and justify your answer.
  • Based on your research, explain at least three HR trends and practices that might help the organization analyze work, design jobs, and job flow. Explain and justify your answer.

Apply the current APA guidelines to your work and use at least three resources in your response.

Must answer all questions, APA standards, in-text citations, quality references.

In a five-page essay, you will explore the mind–body connection in chronic illness. In your paper, you will address the following issues:

What impact does chronic illness have on an individual and their families? According to your textbook, why are addictions considered a chronic illness?

How do you preserve relationships during and after treatment of a substance use disorder, since it is a chronic illness? Describe the long-term treatment process for the substance user and the support systems needed to remain on the spiritual journey of recovery.

Each Paper should include:

Due Week 4 and worth 200 points

Select one (1) of the following publically traded health care organizations: Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS) or Health Management Associates (NYSE: HMA).

Suppose you are a newly appointed CFO of your chosen health care organization. One of your first tasks is to conduct an internal financial analysis of the organization. Conduct a brief financial analysis and review of the chosen company’s financial statements for at least three (3) consecutive years. After conducting the analysis, interpret the data contained within the statements.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

1. Based on your review of the financial statements, suggest a key insight about the financial health of the company. Speculate on the likely reaction to the financial statements from various stakeholder groups (employee, investors, shareholders). Provide support for your rationale.
2. Identify the current industry trend that has the most significant impact on your chosen organization’s financial performance. Indicate the trend’s impact on the financial performance of the organization. As the CFO, suggest at least one (1) way that you might minimize the impact of the trend on the organization.
3. As the CFO, suggest one (1) key strategy that you might use in order to improve the financial performance of the organization. Recommend an approach to implement the suggested strategy. Provide support for your recommendation.
4. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Evaluate the financial statements and the financial position of health care institutions.
• Analyze the role of important financial reporting statements – income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows – and explain how they relate to one another and to the underlying sources of data.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health financial management.
• Write clearly and concisely about health financial management using proper writing mechanics.

This is a benchmark assessment. Study “Getting Started with Project 2010” http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/getting-started-with-project-2010-RZ101831071.aspx

Based on this resource, write an overview on Project 2010, and its potential applications to health care project management. Include the following:

1.An explanation of how it can be used for project management in health care.

2.An evaluation of how useful it would be in health care project management.

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This OPTIONAL assignment can be completed to raise your Discussion Board grade. It is somewhat similar to the “intro definitions” post in that you must find an article in which the authors conducted a hypothesis test as part of the research reported on in the article. Usually, authors just give a few details of the test conducted. I want you to fill in the details. You should formally state the Ho and Ha, compute a test statistic and/or a p-value, showing the formula and some intermediate steps. And finally you should write out the conclusion as I have mandated for all hypothesis tests with both a statement about Ho and Ha and a statement that is context-specific. I have provided a sample post. This can boost your discussion board grade, but again is not required.

–
This is the sample post:
sample post
COLLAPSE
http://music.arts.usf.edu/rpme/effects.htm

Does listening to classical music during a mathematics test improve students’ test performance?
I had heard rumors that studies had found this to be true- that listening to classical music at a low volume level somehow caused students to do better on math tests. Looking at this article made me doubt that. I refer specifically to what is shown in Table 5. The mean test score for a sample of 64 students with no music was 12.0152 with a standard deviation of 2.754 and the mean of 64 students while listening to classical music was 11.8485 with a standard deviation of 2.707. So actually the “no music” or control group scored higher. It would not make sense to test whether listening to music significantly improves performance (although that is what the authors of the study actually did. I will look at, more realistically given what was determined) whether listening to music is DETRIMENTAL to math test performance.
Hypothesis test:
Ho: µControl ≤ µMusic or µControl – µMusic ≤ 0
HA: µControl > µMusic or µControl – µMusic > 0
Tcrit = 1.998 ( α = 0.025 in one tail and df = n – 1 = 64 – 1 =63 using the smaller of the sample sizes)
(Computed in Excel using =tinv(0.025,65) )

p-value = p(t > 0.345) = 0.365 > α
Conclusion: Fail to reject Ho. The small difference between the mean test score of students not listening to music and the mean test score of the students who were listening to music is not sufficient evidence to prove that the music was detrimental to the students’ performance.

Siemens’ Simple Structure

There is perhaps no tougher task for an executive than to restructure a European organization. Ask former Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld.

Siemens, with 77 billion euros in revenue in 2008, some 427,000 employees, and branches in 190 countries, is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. Although the company has long been respected for its engineering prowess, it’s also derided for its sluggishness and mechanistic structure. So when Kleinfeld took over as CEO, he sought to restructure the company along the lines of what Jack Welch did at General Electric. He has tried to make the structure less bureaucratic so decisions are made more quickly. He spun off underperforming businesses. And he simplified the company’s structure.

Kleinfeld’s efforts drew angry protests from employee groups, with constant picket lines outside his corporate offices. One of the challenges of transforming European organizations is the customary active participation of employees in executive decisions. Half the seats on the Siemens’ board of directors are allocated to labor representatives. Not surprisingly, the labor groups did not react positively to Kleinfeld’s GE-like restructuring efforts. In his efforts to speed those efforts, labor groups alleged, Kleinfeld secretly bankrolled a business-friendly workers’ group to try to undermine Germany’s main industrial union.

Due to this and other allegations, Kleinfeld was forced out in June 2007 and replaced by Peter Löscher. Löscher has found the same tensions between inertia and the need for restructuring. Only a month after becoming CEO, Löscher was faced with a decision whether to spin off the firm’s underperforming 10 billion-euro auto parts unit, VDO. He had to weigh the forces for stability, which want to protect worker interests, against US-style pressures for financial performance. One of VDO’s possible buyers is a US company, TRW, the controlling interest of which is held by Blackstone, a US private equity firm. German labor representatives have derided such private equity firms as “locusts.” When Löscher decided to sell VDO to German tire giant Continental Corporation, Continental promptly began to downsize and restructure the unit’s operations.

Löscher has continued to restructure Siemens. In mid-2008, he announced elimination of nearly 17,000 jobs worldwide. He also announced plans to consolidate more business units and reorganize the company’s operations geographically. “The speed at which business is changing worldwide has increased considerably, and we’re orienting Siemens accordingly,” Löscher said.

Since the switch from Kleinfeld to Löscher, Siemens has experienced its ups and downs. Since 2008, its stock price has fallen 26 percent on the European stock exchange and is down 31 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. That is better than some competitors, such as France’s Alcatel-Lucent (down 83 percent) and General Electric (down 69 percent), and worse than others, such as IBM (up 8 percent) and the Swiss/Swedish conglomerate ABB (down 15 percent).

Though Löscher’s restructuring efforts have generated far less controversy than Kleinfeld’s, that doesn’t mean they went over well with all constituents. Of the 2008 job cuts, Werner Neugebauer, regional director for a union representing many Siemens employees, said, “The planned job cuts are incomprehensible nor acceptable for these reasons, and in this extent, completely exaggerated.”

When asked by a reporter whether the cuts would be controversial, Löscher retorted, “I couldn’t care less how it’s portrayed.” He paused a moment, then added, “Maybe that’s the wrong term. I do care.”

Based on the above reading and the knowledge gained from your assigned readings, respond to the following questions:

• What do Kleinfeld’s efforts at Siemens tell you about the difficulties of restructuring organizations?
• Why do you think Löscher’s restructuring decisions have generated less controversy than did Kleinfeld’s?
• Assume a colleague read this case and concluded “This case proves restructuring efforts do not improve a company’s financial performance.” How would you respond to this statement?
• Do you think a CEO who decides to restructure or downsize a company takes the well-being of employees into account? Should he or she do so? Why or why not?
• What were the forces for change?
• What were the restraining forces? How would you overcome them?
• Use Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for implementing change and explain how you would implement this change at Siemens. Be sure to include any organizational development tools that you might use (Davidson, 2008; Esterl & Crawford, 2007; Ewing, 2007; Frey, 2008 ).

Support your responses with examples.

Cite any sources in APA format.

References:

Davidson, A. (2008. June 29). Peter löscher makes siemens less german. The

German Times, Retrieved from http://www.german times.com/ index.php?

option=com_content&task=view&id=3212&Itemid=82

Esterl, M., & Crawford, D. (2007, July 23). Siemens CEO put to early test. Wall

Street Journal, p. A8.

Ewing, J. (2007, January 29). Siemens’ culture clash. Business Week, pp. 42–46.

(Judge 515-516)

Frey, G. (2008, July 8). Siemens cutting 17K jobs worldwide to cut costs. USA

Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/ economy/

2008-07-08-812302383_x.htm