Tom Emory and Jim Morris strolled back to their plant from the administrative offices of Ferguson & Son Manufacturing Company. Tom is manager of the machine shop in the company’s factory; Jim is manager of the equipment maintenance department. The men had just attended the monthly performance evaluation meeting for plant department heads. These meetings had been held on the third Tuesday of each month since Robert Ferguson, Jr., the president’s son, had become plant manager a year earlier. As they were walking, Tom Emory spoke: “Boy, I hate those meetings! I never know whether my department’s accounting reports will show good or bad performance. I’m beginning to expect the worst. If the accountants say I saved the company a dollar, I’m called ‘Sir,’ but if I spend even a little too much—boy, do I get in trouble. I don’t know if I can hold on until I retire.” Tom had just been given the worst evaluation he had ever received in his long career with Ferguson & Son. He was the most respected of the experienced machinists in the company. He had been with the company for many years and was promoted to supervisor of the machine shop when the company expanded and moved to its present location. The president (Robert Ferguson, Sr.) had often stated that the company’s success was due to the high-quality work of machinists like Tom. As supervisor, Tom stressed the importance of craftsmanship and told his workers that he wanted no sloppy work coming from his department. When Robert Ferguson, Jr., became the plant manager, he directed that monthly performance comparisons be made between actual and budgeted costs for each department. The departmental budgets were intended to encourage the supervisors to reduce inefficiencies and to seek cost reduction opportunities. The company controller was instructed to have his staff “tighten” the budget slightly whenever a department attained its budget in a given month; this was done to reinforce the plant manager’s desire to reduce costs. The young plant manager often stressed the importance of continued progress toward attaining the budget; he also made it known that he kept a file of these performance reports for future reference when he succeeded his father. Tom Emory’s conversation with Jim Morris continued as follows: Emory: I really don’t understand. We’ve worked so hard to meet the budget, and the minute we do so they tighten it on us. We can’t work any faster and still maintain quality. I think my men are ready to quit trying. Besides, those reports don’t tell the whole story. We always seem to be interrupting the big jobs for all those small rush orders. All that setup and machine adjustment time is killing us. And quite frankly, Jim, you were no help. When our hydraulic press broke down last month, your people were nowhere to be found. We had to take it apart ourselves and got stuck with all that idle time. Morris: I’m sorry about that, Tom, but you know my department has had trouble making budget, too. We were running well behind at the time of that problem, and if we had spent a day on that old machine, we would never have made it up. Instead, we made the scheduled inspections of the forklift trucks because we knew we could do those in less than the budgeted time. Emory: Well, Jim, at least you have some options. I’m locked into what the scheduling department assigns to me and you know they’re being harassed by sales for those special orders. Incidentally, why didn’t your report show all the supplies you guys wasted last month when you were working in Bill’s department? Morris: We’re not out of the woods on that deal yet. We charged the maximum we could to other work and haven’t even reported some of it yet. Emory: Well, I’m glad you have a way of getting out of the pressure. The accountants seem to know everything that’s happening in my department, sometimes even before I do. I thought all that budget and accounting stuff was supposed to help, but it just gets me into trouble. It’s all a big pain. I’m trying to put out quality work; they’re trying to save pennies.

Review the case. Respond to the following:

• Identify the problems that appear to exist in Ferguson & Son Manufacturing Company’s budgetary control system and explain how the problems are likely to reduce the effectiveness of the system. (approximately 1 page)
• Explain how Ferguson & Son Manufacturing Company’s budgetary control system could be revised to improve its effectiveness. (approximately 1–2 pages)
• Explain how the use of an activity-based costing system could change the results of the budget, if utilized. (approximately 1 page)
• As stated in the case, many employees have “quit trying” and have altered behavior on the job. Provide specific ways for how you would use a budget to change employee behavior and align goals in the organization. Explain how goal alignment can improve profitability and overall return to the shareholders of the company. (approximately 1 page)
• Synthesize data to explain the concept of ROI and describe how the use of an activity-based costing system can improve the company’s ROI and the potential impact on free cash flow. (approximately 1 page)

Write a 5–6-page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M5_A2.doc

Task Name:	Phase 2 Individual Project
Deliverable Length:	850–1,100 words
Details:	Weekly tasks or assignments (Individual or Group Projects) will be due by Monday and late submissions will be assigned a late penalty in accordance with the late penalty policy found in the syllabus. NOTE: All submission posting times are based on midnight Central Time. Your company is currently engaged in business activities both nationally and internationally.  A country you are operating in is experiencing riots, strikes by its citizens, unconfirmed violence against its people by the government, and other atrocities. Your physical facilities and products are insured and protected, and your company is attempting to ensure the safety and well-being of your employees. There is talk that possible sanctions may be enforced against the government of this country to halt its activities against its people. Financial performance in this country has been solid, and the forecast is equally looking up. It is your task to write a statement to be presented to your CEO regarding the future of the company’s operations in this country.   Should the company continue regular operations, halt operations based upon the actions of the government, or leave this country as a public show of support for the people? Assignment Guidelines: Using the Internet and the library, select a country of your choice that is unfortunately experiencing some of the same issues cited in the description of the assignment. Document your findings and how they could relate to your current business situation. Find at least 2 examples of how international organizations and acts could protect your interests as a foreign-based business and what legal actions you could pursue if your rights were violated. Explain and document your findings. State your opinion regarding the impact of conducting business with this country and the ramifications of doing so or not doing so. State what your recommendations will be to the CEO of your company, and support your recommendation. Compose your findings in a Word document (850–1,100 words), and be sure to cite your sources in APA format.

Please help me. Requires spss which should be turned in .sav format with assignment 

Name:

 

Directions:

 

·         In this project you will be using the Salary Data file that is found in Doc Sharing under the Instructor-Graded Projects:

·         Steps for accessing the Salary Data file:

1.    Open your Excel with PhStat2

2.    Click File—Open

3.    Select the Salary Data file

·         Not all questions require the use of technology or the Salary Date file.

·         You may insert your answers, including any charts, graphs, or output, on this document.

·         Be sure to put your name on this document and save it to your computer.

 

 

1. For each the following variables from the Salary Data Set provide the measures of location and measures of dispersion for the following variables:

1.    Previous Experience

2.    Education

3.    Which variable has the greatest relative variability?

 

2. You are the manager of a high-end ladies fashion store.  For the past few months you have been gathering data and found that 45% of persons entering the store actually make a purchase. Assume these data follow a Binomial Distribution and use Excel to calculate the following binomial probabilities:

1.    If 15 people enter the store, what is the probability that 9 of them will make a purchase?

2.    What is the probability that at least 6 of the 15 people will make a purchase?

 

3. Using the Salary Data Set what is the probability of randomly selecting one individual (male or female) with a current annual salary of over $55,000?

 

4. The time required to complete a project is normally distributed with a mean of 80 weeks and a standard deviation of 5 weeks.  The construction company must pay a penalty if the project is not finished by the due date of the contract. If a construction company bidding on this contract wishes to be 90 percent sure of finishing by the due date, use the NORMINV Excel Function to determine what due date (project week #) should be negotiated?

 

5. In a state lottery participants select 6 numbers between 1 and 49. At the end of the week, the state lottery commission randomly draws 6 numbers between 1 and 49. How many different possible winning number combinations could be drawn by the lottery commission?

 

 

6. From the Salary Data Set and assuming that the salary data is a random sample from the population of salaries from the multi-national company use the 90% confidence level in PHStat to estimate the mean current salary for company executives.

1.    The 90% confidence level is:

2.    If you were to change the confidence level to 95%, what would happen to the confidence interval?

 

7. Using the Salary Data Set,

 

1.      Create a scatter plot to show this relationship between education and beginning salary

2.      Determine the correlation between the variables

 

8. Explain why rejecting the null hypothesis does not make the alternative hypothesis true.

 

9.  What is the purpose of statistical inference?

10. What is the difference between sampling error and the standard error of the mean?

 

11. You are a consultant working for Kaplan Consulting. The Director of Human Resources for a multi-national company has requested help in investigating a pay discrimination complaint brought by a female executive. The company provided the data in the Salary Data Set. Use PHStat and the appropriate t test, to investigate the claim of pay discrimination in the current salaries. Be sure to include:

1.    Your null and alternative hypotheses;

2.    The level of alpha you elect to use and why in terms of Type I or Type II error;

3.    Show the output from the analysis;

4.    Your interpretation of the results; and

5.    A written statement to the director of Human Resources as to whether they should be concerned about the complaint.