Author: joyce

Discuss the importance of having the right inventory at the pipe distributor when the customer calls in with an order.

When CDC acquired BirdTech, Inc. out of bankruptcy they received the following assets:

 

  • A PVC Pipe plant in Louisiana that was the last of the PVC pipe operations BirdTech owned. At one time BirdTech was a major competitor in the production of PVC pipe.Details on the PVC Pipe Plant follow.
  • An overfunded pension plan valued at $3.4 million. It took the management of CDC over two years to work through the IRS regulations to liquidate the pension plan and collect the $3.4 million. The IRS stipulated that the PVC plant must continue operating until the overfunded pension plan was closed.
  • A Gulfstream jet. This gave CDC two corporate airplanes, one a turbo-prop from the previous major stockholder and the Gulfstream. Both planes were sold by the CDC management team. We used the turbo-prop a couple of times, but after looking at the condition of the PVC Pipe Plant, we decided that the maintenance on the Gulfstream  might be suspect, so we let it set in the hanger until the sale.
  • Several season tickets to the professional football team in Houston, which were sold to one of the partners of the CPA firm. Like good auditors, they covered their increased expenses by billing CDC a few extra hours to cover the cost of the tickets.

 

The PVC Pipe Plant

 

The PVC Pipe plant was a 24/7 operation and produced PVC pipe for the construction industry in sizes from 1”-14” diameter and in standard lengths. The pipe was formed in an extrusion machine, where PVC pellets were fused by heat and then extruded over a mandrel to produce to appropriate diameter pipe. The time required to change the extrusion head, which determined the PVC pipe diameter, was close to 24 hours. So, to achieve maximum efficiency/lower costs it was desirable to run the extrusion machines for as long a period as possible without changing the size of pipe being produced (say on the 1-1/2” PVC pipe which is a standard for residential plumbing).

 

The alternative to changing the machinery on a frequent basis was to have long runs in excess of current demand and put the finished pipe in inventory. The pipe could be stored in racks, and the pipe had a very extensive shelf life. Then when the construction project for the new shopping center needed the drain pipe (larger diameters/often colored blue) tomorrow (general contractors are notoriously poor planners), the pipe would be in inventory and it would be loaded on a truck and taken to the job site the next day.

 

Note the problem. If management wanted to have pipe on hand (in inventory) when the customer placed an order, then the cost of carrying the inventory would be high. Do you recall that inventory is a use of cash?? If management wanted to minimize inventory (maximize cash flow), then PVC Pipe would be at a disadvantage when a company with more production lines (50 lines was the norm for a medium sized plant and some companies had over 150 lines on average in production) and greater sales was able to carry the inventory and/or have the capability to switch out a line for a special order.

 

Another limiting factor in the PVC pipe industry is the distance you can transport a load of pipe on an 18 wheeler. The shipment is light in weight and a great portion of the volume of the shipment is air. The larger the pipe diameter, the more air is being shipped. The customer does not pay for the air, only the pipe on the truck. Hence, PVC pipe plants were located close to large metropolitan centers, where there was a lot of construction.

 

The competition was fierce. The pipe producers usually employed their own salesmen, who sold to distributors who maintained contact with the contractors. Since there is almost no product differentiation between suppliers, the sales effort became a ‘good ol’boy’ network between the sales staff and the pipe distributors.

 

The industry is similar to the USMC Aviation motto—‘On Target. On Time’. The product had to be at the job site when the trench was dug and at the lowest price

 

Obviously, the larger producers (many parallel production lines at one location) had an advantage of the smaller producers. All of the BirdTech pipe companies operations had been sold before the acquisition of the bankrupt BirdTech, and the remaining plant in Louisiana was left to compete with the big boys—with only 3 production lines!

 

A significant competitor is The Evansville Pipe Company in Indiana.  Evansville Pipe has several plants in the Midwest and in the Mississippi-Texas corridor. Evansville Pipe is a well-managed mid-sized competitor and along with the larger producers makes life difficult for the PVC Pipe Plant.

 

The Status of the Company in 1987

 

The structure of PVC Pipe Plant is as follows:

  • The organization chart is as follows:
    • General Manager. Compensation $65,000. Company car.
    • Sec to GM. Compensation $16,000.
    • Sales Manager. Compensation $50,000
    • Two salesmen. Compensation $40,000 each + car
    • Operations Manager. Compensation $45,000
    • 5 Supervisors for 5 shifts. 24/7. Compensation $25,000
    • Warehouse Manager. Compensation $26,000
    • 3 shift supervisors for warehouse. Compensation $19,000
    • Accounting Manager. Compensation $38,000
    • Three accounting clerks. Compensation $18,000
    • Purchasing clerk. Compensation $17,000
    • Fringe benefits at 32% of salary

 

The other costs are detailed on the P&L statement for 1987-1989. The division, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC, has losses that range in the $1.1 million annually.

 

That was the problem that I inherited as CEO of CDC. We had two years of losses at the $1.1 million figure, and we had taken the steps to re-organize the facility with a new sales manager, new general manager, trimming expenses and trying to get an understanding of the business. We were in the last steps of re-capturing the $3.4 million in the over-funded pension plan. The most memorable thing about the town of Slidell was the great food one could get in the local restaurants. There was nothing memorable about the PVC Pipe Plant.

 

We had contacted our competition in the industry to see if we could arrange a sale of the facilities. There were no takers and we could not sell the company due to the IRS regulations. We had developed a good relationship with the Evansville Pipe executive team, but they did not have the financial resources to purchase a PVC pipe plant.

 

During a dinner one night in Slidell, crayfish and beer, with the Evansville management, we developed a strategy that offered the only way to reverse the $1.1 million dollars of loss to a small operating profit in one year. What we had to do was to turn the strategy into an operating plan and make it happen. We did this, and the next year the PVC Pipe Plant had a $36,000 profit at the operating income level. Your assignment is to develop a strategy that puts the company in the black. I am sure that no one will be able to duplicate the successful strategy. In fact, I am so confident that there will be a 1 point bonus for the first person who develops the appropriate strategy. In addition to reversing the loss, we were able to reverse the negative cash flow.

 

You can do research on the PVC pipe industry, you will find nothing of value to assist in developing the correct strategy. If you want to do research I would do the following.

  • Find out who the producers of PVC pipe are in the US and call up the plant and talk to the plant manager or the sales manager.
  • Analyze the structure, giving special attention to the plant locations, size of plant (# of operating lines), range of product produced, market served (customers and geographic) and suppliers of the raw material.
  • See if you can get an idea of the disadvantage a 3-line plant would have in the market. Find out about the suppliers of the resin and the stability of the price of raw material. Discuss the 24/7 operation and the problem of line changes (from one diameter of pipe to another).
  • You will probably find that the raw material is 75-78% of the COGS and there is no chance of a price reduction. There are a limited number of suppliers and they are not willing to negotiate price.
  • Discuss the importance of having the right inventory at the pipe distributor when the customer calls in with an order.
  • GM% and operating income %.
  • Price stability. Discounts offered to suppliers for quantity purchases.
  • Unions. Not a significant factor, since most of the plants are in the southern US.
  • Any financial information which can be reduced to ratios, such as gm%,
  • Approximately 74% of the industry employees were laborers, operatives or service workers.
  • Approximately 14% were officials, general managers and professionals.
  • Approximately 12% were technicians, salespeople or office workers.
  • The average hourly earnings of production workers were $15.78/hour in 2005.
  • PVC pipe and other plastic piping is part of SIC 3079: Miscellaneous Plastics Products in 1972, and the workforce figures were calculated on the 1972 SIC basis.)
  • 75-78% of sales price is material. See if you can gather data as to the stability of the raw material price as a % of sales. If the price is relatively stable as a % of sales, then another way to reduce costs and achieve profitability is eliminated.
  • You cannot exist as a supplier of PVC by only producing a few sizes of pipe. You must produce all sizes and maintain some inventory to be competitive.
  • Therefore, it is a waste of time in contacting producers of PVC pipe.

 

Modified Deal Structures covers the structure of the strategy to save PVC pipe.  Your assignment is to build on the Modified Deal Structure strategy and develop specific actions that will insure an operating strategy. Do not worry about playing ‘what if’ and changing sales/costs etc. It cannot be done. The answer to think outside the box on how you would structure a deal to save this company. Think about optimum lowest cost/maximum productivity for a 24/7 operation/limitations that come with must three machines/pricing of the product/working closely with a partner and what results in a good deal for both sides. There is a hugh cash flow bonus once the operations are established.

 

You do not need a complete financial statement. You can play what if with the existing balance sheet and the numbers established for assets and liabilities. Once you develop the strategy, the financials will all into place.Create a pro-forma year showing how the deal is structured. Contact me if you have trouble with the financial statement and I shall assist—however you must have a strategy that we can discuss.

 

Your assignment is to develop the strategy and explain it in a few pages. Say 2-3 pages

Compare all three methods with current stock price of the company, mentioning advantages and disadvantages for each method.

Because firm valuation is an overriding concern in M&A transactions, you have been asked to conduct a company valuation analysis using all three methods covered in class: DCF, comparable transactions and multiples (relative valuation).

For the DCF analysis. You can either use cash flow estimation (using analysts’ forecast or your own) or the formula approach (seen in Weston et al handout). Be clear as to what your main assumptions are regarding  terminal value calculation and operating cash flow estimations. 

Compare all three methods with current stock price of the company, mentioning advantages and disadvantages for each method for the case being and write up your conclusions and recommendations regarding the firm’s true value (stating whether you feel the company is overvalued or undervalued and why).

This term paper is an individual effort and should be no longer than 4-6 slides (ppt format) not including appendix

What is your plan to gain the knowledge you need? What are some ELL resources for educators?

Consider the ELL as you read the following quotes and watch the accompanying YouTube video prior to posting a response to the discussion board.

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow”. – John Dewey

“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative.” – John Dewey

John dewey quote – http://viewpure.com/kM2fefI2s78

How much do you know about ELL’s? What kind of instructional strategies will you need in your teacher toolkit to ensure success for students whose first language is other than English? What is your plan to gain the knowledge you need? What are some ELL resources for educators?

During the span of his lifetime, 1859-1952, John Dewey was an advocate for educational reform. His writing from the early 1900’s continues to be applicable to education today.

Create your own genre movie character and write a goal for your character, a conflict he or she encounters, and how he or she resolves the conflict and achieves the goal.

Watch your selected comedy, horror, or science fiction film; select one genre to work with; select one short film to screen that corresponds to the selected genre.

Create a minimum of a 10-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation discussing your selected genre and how the corresponding short film fits or does not fit the standard model for the genre.

Include images from the short film itself to help illustrate your presentation.  Strike a fair balance with your image use.

Include the following:

  • Discussion of each of your selected genre
  • Discussion of the following components in your selected film:
    • Summary of the film’s story
    • Setting
    • Acting
    • Lighting
    • Costumes
    • Makeup
    • Music
    • Sound
  • Discussion of the film’s theme(s) and how the components discussed above support the theme(s) you have determined for the film.

Address fictional aspects of film as discussed in Ch. 6 of Film by writing the following for inclusion on one slide:

  • Create your own genre movie character and write a goal for your character, a conflict he or she encounters, and how he or she resolves the conflict and achieves the goal.

Include detailed speaker notes.

Reference and incorporate readings from Film: An Introduction into your arguments as well as a minimum of two references from the course’s ERRs.  THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL

Because this is an academic analysis, this presentation will include an introduction, body consisting of the above topic points, and a conclusion.

Include a References Slide(s) with APA formatted reference entries and speaker notes.

If the enrollment for Fall ’15 is 7,450, how many courses should be scheduled?

)  The director of a national research institute believes that faculty at larger, more comprehensive institutions have lighter teaching and advisory responsibilities and more time for research and scholarly writing.  The director develops a measure of institutional comprehensiveness and a measure of scholarly productivity for psychology departments.  In a pilot project, the director selects 18 colleges and universities and determines the institutional comprehensiveness and scholarly productivity of the psychology departments in these institutions.  The data were as follows:

 

Institution Comprehensiveness Scholarly Productivity
1 162 82
2 250 88
3 89 78
4 115 92
5 165 75
6 150 75
7 54 70
8 180 62
9 185 65
10 194 70
11 200 81
12 210 94
13 210 83
14 222 82
15 240 84
16 242 77
17 74 62
18 270 86

 

  1. Determine the regression equation for predicting scholarly productivity (Y) from institutional comprehensiveness (X).

 

  1.          For an institution with a comprehensiveness score of 175, predict the psychology

department’s scholarly productivity score.

 

 

2) Enrollment and Courses Projection

 

This is a real world example.  I need your help in helping the Registrar’s office in calculating how many courses should run for the Fall ’15 semester.  Using enrollment and courses that ran, I need you to do two things:

 

  1. a) Identify the regression equation for the data to estimate the number of courses.

 

 

 

  1. b) If the enrollment for Fall ’15 is 7,450, how many courses should be scheduled?

Write a carefully worded, arguable claim identifying your thesis and give three reasons why it is correct.

Now it is your turn to use the new rhetorical skills you have used. Because of the declining economy, fewer jobs are available. As a result, thousands of people in your area have recently become homeless through no fault of their own. Imagine that a large group of people without homes has set up a temporary camp near your house.

 

Many people who live in your community are furious about this. They want the government and police to send these people away using legislation, intimidation, or force. Others support allowing those without homes to stay and even suggest helping them by giving supplies and facilities.

 

Everyone has been invited to the town hall for a meeting to resolve this issue. People who wish to speak must submit a proposal outlining what they intend to say. The town council will select five speakers from each side of the debate to present their arguments at the meeting. You feel strongly about this issue, so you decide to submit a proposal.

 

To prepare your proposal, you must do the following:

  • Decide which side of the issue you support and think carefully about why. With respect to all viewpoints and using respectful, thoughtful language, take a stand. Think carefully about your reasons. Make sure your judgment of the situation is based on adequate knowledge of the facts.
  • Write a carefully worded, arguable claim identifying your thesis and give three reasons why it is correct. Then add facts and other details to support your reasons.
  • To help you respond to counterclaims the other side might make, list facts that do not support your reasons and tell how you will respond to them.
  • Write a strong conclusion that restates your thesis in a memorable way.
  • Complete this proposal formby filling in each box with a complete sentence.
  • Review the council’s selection criteria (grading rubric) to be sure your proposal scores highly.

 

  • Writing Assignment: Prove It

 

As you know, a large group of people without homes has set up a camp near your home, and some people who live in your community want the government and police to send these people away. Others support allowing them to stay, so the community can help them.

 

You submitted a proposal to present the side of the issue you support at the Town Hall meeting. Your proposal was one of five chosen to be presented at the Town Hall Meeting next week. The presentations are required to have the following components:

  • An Introduction
  • 3 supporting sections
  • A conclusion
  • An arguable thesis (stated in the introduction and conclusion)
  • At least 5 rhetorical devices
  • All 3 types of appeals
  • At least 3 different types of evidence
  • Refutation
  • Fewer than 3 obvious logical fallacies

 

Use your proposal from the “Stake Your Claim” assignment, and do the following:

PART 1: Your presentation may be delivered in one of 4 ways according to the council rules:

  • You may write out your presentation in the form of a 5-paragraph essay that you submit.
  • You may submit an mp3 audio file of the dramatic delivery of your presentation.
  • You may create a PowerPoint Presentation of 14-25 slides with text and graphics that support your position.
  • You may create a media presentation with audio, video, photographs, animation and/or art work that supports your text and develops your thesis clearly.

 

Choose one of these options and create your presentation.

PART 2: Presentation must be accompanied by your evidence chart that identifies:

  • Rhetorical devices
  • Appeals
  • Refutation
  • Types of evidence

 

Complete your evidence chart and save it as a separate document.

 

PART 3: Submit both your presentation and your evidence chart to the Writing Assignment: Prove It assignment link for grading.

Describe what structures the bullet passed through and the function of each structure.

Topics:  Select either one of the two topics presented below.

 

Topic 1: The Virtual Neurologist. In this exercise, you are going to assume the role of a neurologist who ultimately must describe to a client the nature and outcome of a bullet wound to the head. Assume that you are a neurologist who is seeing a client who has survived a gunshot wound to the head. An MRI scan revealed that a small caliber bullet entered the head about 1 cm superior to the right auditory canal, and followed a relatively straight projectile before exciting the cranium about 1 cm superior to the left auditory canal. Address each of the following in your presentation:

 

  1. Describe what structures the bullet passed through and the function of each structure. (8 points)

 

  1. Describe what the patient can expect in terms of behavioral, cognitive, sensory, and or motor deficits and recovery of function. (8 points)

 

  1. Include a picture or diagram of the bullet projectile illustrating which structures have been damaged. Label important structures. (4 points)

 

OR

 

Topic 2: The Ultimate Urban Brain. In this exercise you are going to design a brain that is well suited to life in the busy, information laden, urban environment. Data would suggest that the human brain has not changed much over the past few thousand years. Yet, in industrialized nations such as the U.S., horticultural changes have been explosively rapid. This would suggest that society has evolved more quickly than has our biology. One implication of this is that humans, in fast-paced urban regions, are neurologically ill equipped to adapt to the environment in which they live. Answer each of the following questions in your presentation:

 

  1. Identify 3 areas or behaviors that are likely to be a result of poor adaptation, e.g., the increased incidence of various psychopathology such as depression and ADHD, road rage, violence, illness, etc. (5 points).

 

  1. Identify and describe specific brain structures that you would modify to increase the probability of successful adaptation related to the behaviors put forth in number one above. Be specific. For example, if you say that depression is an issue, you must then modify the brain circuits that are involved in depression. (10 points)

 

  1. Design a brain incorporating all of the changes suggested in number two above. Include a drawing that indicates and explains the suggested changes. (5 points)