The Student Room Group

F292 Practice Papers

Scroll to see replies

Original post by ATCAdam

Your essays are looking good man just don't forget to the define the terms in your introduction. :smile: e.g. Investment appraisal techniques are ways for a firm to asses the likely return on any investments they make. Using investment appraisal techniques is crucial for TSL if they are to gain a better understanding of their financial situation in whether or not to invest in the second production line.


Cheers dude, I've only started compiling them now and I'm just typing the whole essay straight into this forum using my bullet points haha. Guess it's just down to remembering the bulk of the essays and hoping to god a random essay doesn't pop up which i know nothing about
Reply 41
In Terms of the operation management section what do you expect to come up ?
Here's my take on 'Assess ways in which Matthew might seek to motivate the staff more effectively'

Job Rotation/enrichment

Empowerment

Matthews Leadership Style



Introduction
There are many ways which Matthew can use to motivate TSL's workforce more effectiveley.

Main Body
Job rotation provides the ability for the workers to view a different aspect of their job at TSL. It would be worthy to note that from the anonymous comments (appendix 2) there is a worker who shares concern for doing the 'same job everyday' and that it's 'boring'. Rotating workers jobs would dramatically reduce the boredom which seems present in the workforce, it means they are more likely to be alert and actually enjoy coming to work on a morning. However, it does entail certain costly training issues which may be apparent to some of the workers having to transition to another persons job all of a sudden. It could also negativeley affect labour productivity growth in the issue that productivity levels will initially fall whilst workers are finding out the best ways to perform the new jobs they are given. This can also lead to wastage rates increasing which are costly and innefficient for TSL.

Empowerment is also another possible way to motivate staff at TSL. We can see that one anonymous worker states that 'theres a good group of people who could achieve so much more' (appendix 2). This leads to the fact that staff at TSL are currently performing below their capabilities and this would demoralise them in terms of motivation (self actualisation & esteem). The benefit of this however would be that managers are freed up to concentrate on planning and organisational development rather than supervision. I would suggest that workers are given a trial in which they are allowed to make any suggestions they like and even implement them without managerial consent. This would greatly restore self esteem for workers and help them realise their full potential (self actualisation , Maslow)

Quite a long essay, probably wouldn't include leadership styles unless I had a lot of spare time by this point

Conclusion
Overall, I would advise Matthew to take note of this new approach to the way in which he manages TSL's workforce. Enabling workers to see their full potential is crucial in terms of motivation, workers will not respond well to being underpowered every day at work. Staff would be more effective in their jobs by using their full potential.
Reply 43
This is how I would typically structure my essays, due to how its probably easier to read for the examiner and its split into different sections. Nothing wrong with your approach though sean they look good now, don't forget to consider time-scale in your conclusions where ever it is applicable.

QUESTION: Assess the extent to which TSL demonstrates a customer orientation.

DEFINE:
‘Customer orientation’ is where a business focuses more heavily on its customers’ needs and wants than on the actual product. It is a complete contrast to the ‘Product orientation’ style which adheres to focusing more on the actual designing and developing of the product regardless of whether the customer’s needs or wants are met and is generally a more risky approach in comparison. It is clear from the case study that TSL are looking to operate with a more customer-orientated style in comparison to its past where it has typically operated with a product-orientated approach.

APPLY:
By reading through the case study it suggests that from Lines 78-80 TSL are looking to focus more heavily on market research and it states that “early market research” has been carried out. However, this also suggests that TSL has in the past been operating a more product-orientated style due to how only very recently has market research become used by TSL.

Also, this is backed up by Lines 6-8 where Matthew Tipton indicates that TSL’s main objective is to “see that TSL evolves into a more ‘up-to-date’ business.” This can be directly associated with the early market research because this switch of marketing style from originally being product-orientated to customer-orientated could be a sign of this objective being applied to TSL’s marketing department whereby they are now looking to focus more heavily on customer needs and wants rather than just on the products they produce.

This is furthermore suggested by Lines 98-99 where the case study states that the travel sweets market is “being increasingly attacked by large producers using price as the main weapon.” This could have effected this decision to adjust marketing styles because of the need to focus more on TSL’s own customers instead of their own products because despite their quality this product-orientated approach would struggle against larger firms offering lower prices and so by focusing on customer needs and wants there demand should remain consistent and safe from the potential dangers possessed by these larger producers.

ANALYSE:
By focusing on customer needs and wants there demand should remain consistent and ultimately, safe from the potential dangers possessed by these larger producers. The initial approach of TSL being product-orientated would be a very risky approach had TSL decided to maintain this in the future they would have struggled especially under the current economic state which affects demand in many of TSL’s markets.

This focus on customer needs and wants should also impact TSL because customer demands will increase leading to a safer approach in contrast to the product-orientated marketing style which is unpredictable and very risky because there is no understanding of whether the customer needs or wants the product being produced. A potential drawback of the customer-orientated style for TSL is that market research can be reasonably expensive and could be costly to TSL as they don’t know how successful this style of approach could be.

EVALUATE:
It is clear that based on evidence contained within the case study TSL are looking to adjust their marketing style from a product-orientated style to a more customer-orientated style as is suggested by Lines 78-80, 6-8 and 98-99 which all hint at the adjustment of TSL’s current policies which have existed for roughly 90 years. This would have positive implications for TSL because this adjustment to a customer-orientated style will mean that although in the short term market research will be expensive for TSL, in the long-term it should mean that TSL are more likely to be safe from the risk possessed by the larger producers and should ultimately benefit from increased customer demands due to more customer needs and wants being met on a regular basis which could lead to an increase in sales revenue due to demands being met at TSL.
(edited 11 years ago)
You know on your practice paper 2.. calculate the payback for project 1..

Cost of project: 60,000

yr 1 - 10,000
yr 2 - 20,000
yr 3 - 20,000
yr 4 - 30,000
yr 5 - 30,000

Can anyone help me calculate the payback period what to do step by step? I'm so confused :frown:

And for the same figures would the accounting rate of return be either 16.67 or 36.67? Or neither of those? :smile:
Reply 45
Original post by frannnn_x
You know on your practice paper 2.. calculate the payback for project 1..

Cost of project: 60,000

yr 1 - 10,000
yr 2 - 20,000
yr 3 - 20,000
yr 4 - 30,000
yr 5 - 30,000

Can anyone help me calculate the payback period what to do step by step? I'm so confused :frown:

And for the same figures would the accounting rate of return be either 16.67 or 36.67? Or neither of those? :smile:


I don't know if this is right, could someone clarify?

I've done

Cost of project: 60,000

Yr 0 0 - (60,000)
yr 1 - 10,000 (50,000)
yr 2 - 20,000 (30,000)
yr 3 - 20,000 (10,000)
yr 4 - 30,000 20,000
20,000 / 30,000 = 0.66666667 = 3 years and 7 months it will take to payback the investment
Reply 46
Original post by SkrillaGB
This is how I would typically structure my essays, due to how its probably easier to read for the examiner and its split into different sections. Nothing wrong with your approach though sean they look good now, don't forget to consider time-scale in your conclusions where ever it is applicable.


I've been taught to structure mine in a similar way to Sean's, with each different point in the main body and then coming to a judgement on which point is the most significant/suitable at the end.
Reply 47
Original post by frannnn_x
You know on your practice paper 2.. calculate the payback for project 1..

Cost of project: 60,000

yr 1 - 10,000
yr 2 - 20,000
yr 3 - 20,000
yr 4 - 30,000
yr 5 - 30,000

Can anyone help me calculate the payback period what to do step by step? I'm so confused :frown:

And for the same figures would the accounting rate of return be either 16.67 or 36.67? Or neither of those? :smile:


Work with the totals so... if you add those years together.
£110,000 = Total.

Then take away the initial cost of project...
£110,000 - £60,000 = £50,000.

Then divide this by the total number of years...
£50,000 / 5 = £10,000.

Now turn this number into a percentage to get ARR so...
£10,000 x 100 / £60,000 = 16.6% recurring.

The payback period is how long it takes for TSL to pay back the sum so it's quite easy really...
£60,000 = Yr1 + Yr2 + Yr3 = £50,000 then... Yr4(£30,000), you need only £10,000 so the payback period would be like 3.33 years recurring.
Reply 48
Original post by al0
I've been taught to structure mine in a similar way to Sean's, with each different point in the main body and then coming to a judgement on which point is the most significant/suitable at the end.


Fair enough, still works the same way just comes down to preference I find to easier to organise it so evidence is displayed together then summarising this evidence into the impact it will have on TSL then evaluate. The introduction and conclusion are pretty much the same though. Good luck! :smile:
Original post by SkrillaGB
Work with the totals so... if you add those years together.
£110,000 = Total.

Then take away the initial cost of project...
£110,000 - £60,000 = £50,000.

Then divide this by the total number of years...
£50,000 / 5 = £10,000.

Now turn this number into a percentage to get ARR so...
£10,000 x 100 / £60,000 = 16.6% recurring.

The payback period is how long it takes for TSL to pay back the sum so it's quite easy really...
£60,000 = Yr1 + Yr2 + Yr3 = £50,000 then... Yr4(£30,000), you need only £10,000 so the payback period would be like 3.33 years recurring.


Thankyou so much :smile: how did you get the .33 on the 3.33 years recurring? :smile:
Reply 50
Original post by frannnn_x
Thankyou so much :smile: how did you get the .33 on the 3.33 years recurring? :smile:


Because the 4th year is £30,000 in total. When you have added years 1, 2 & 3 the total is £50,000 and in order to fully repay the initial sum you only require £10,000 of this £30,000 sum. So...

1 + 2 + 3 = £50,000
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = £80,000
1 + 2 + 3 + 1/3 of 4 = £60,000.

The calculation would be like 10,000 / 30,000 = 1/3 = 0.33.
Reply 51
Original post by SkrillaGB
Fair enough, still works the same way just comes down to preference I find to easier to organise it so evidence is displayed together then summarising this evidence into the impact it will have on TSL then evaluate. The introduction and conclusion are pretty much the same though. Good luck! :smile:

Thanks Skrilla, expecting you to get an A :wink: I'm still trying to remember all the formulas, advantages/disadvantages and definitions, so much content!!! And then I need to revise the case study so I know all the facts...even then, I haven't gone over essays but hopefully if I know content well, then I can figure out a quick plan in the real exam.
Original post by frannnn_x
Thankyou so much :smile: how did you get the .33 on the 3.33 years recurring? :smile:


There is a mathmatical formula which you can use to get the .33 recurring or to put this figure into months or days.
.33 would be 33% of the way into year 4


Calculate the payback period:

Table 1. Project 1 income streams
Cost of Project 1: £60,000
yr1 10,000
yr2 20,000
yr3 20,000
yr4 30,000
yr5 30,000

First we add up year 1, year 2, and year 3, this will give us 50,000
Now we need another 10,000 to make up to the 60,000 initial capital

Using this math formula will make it easy when working with ANY figures:
We want 10,000 from year 4 which contains a total of 30,000
So we simply divide 10,000 by 30,000 to give us 0.333333333

Now all you do to this 0.3333333 is either multiply it by 12 to get the answer in months: which is exactly 4

Or you can multiply the 0.333333 by 365 to get the answer in days: which is 121.66666 days

Therefore, the overall payback period is 3 years and 4 months :smile:
This method works with ANY hypothetical figures
Reply 53
Original post by seanaffleck
There is a mathmatical formula which you can use to get the .33 recurring or to put this figure into months or days.
.33 would be 33% of the way into year 4


Calculate the payback period:

Table 1. Project 1 income streams
Cost of Project 1: £60,000
yr1 10,000
yr2 20,000
yr3 20,000
yr4 30,000
yr5 30,000

First we add up year 1, year 2, and year 3, this will give us 50,000
Now we need another 10,000 to make up to the 60,000 initial capital

Using this math formula will make it easy when working with ANY figures:
We want 10,000 from year 4 which contains a total of 30,000
So we simply divide 10,000 by 30,000 to give us 0.333333333

Now all you do to this 0.3333333 is either multiply it by 12 to get the answer in months: which is exactly 4

Or you can multiply the 0.333333 by 365 to get the answer in days: which is 121.66666 days

Therefore, the overall payback period is 3 years and 4 months :smile:
This method works with ANY hypothetical figures


Good point, I forgot that part out haha! Yeah, the 0.33 is basically 4 because it's a third of a year which is 4 months... just me being a dumbass. :smile:
Reply 54
I hope ratios doesn't come up
Here's my take on 'Assess how economies of scale may be achieved if TSL invests in the second production line'

Potential Economies of Scale

Potential Diseconomies of Scale



Introduction
Economies of scale is vital for TSL to achieve lower unit costs and will be a challenge for Matthew to introduce a second production line whilst still maintaining healthy growth of the business.

Main Body
Whilst TSL may suffer from higher fixed costs in their addition of the new production line, variable costs will be significantly lower considering TSL are able to buy raw materials in bulk which is very important as the average output of sweets per day will increase by 1.4M (66.7%) increase, this results in achieving economies of scale. However this does assume that TSL will be using the same ingrediants for their sweets as Matthew wants to introduce a whole new range of confectionary (line 6). TSL already benefits from managerial economies - with individual managers specialising in different areas (Izak, Penny, Hamza). This is important for TSL because managers need to resolve current issues with the workforce due to their comments concerning managers (appendix 2)

TSL will have to take into account that unit costs will start to increase as it suffers from diseconomies of scale. Although there is no HR manager at TSL (line 104), it doesn't seem to be having a negative effect on economies of scale other than slightly increased absenteeism rates and labour turnover relating to job dissatisfaction. Beyond a certain point, co-ordinating the workforce will become significantly difficult such as organising the most efficient ways in which to complete work and meeting deadlines. Matthew and the other managers will have to find ways in which they can overcome this by careful planning.

Conclusion
Overall, it would appear that the best route to take in this situation is to expand using the new production line, but keeping growth at a steady rate in order to avoid diseconomies of scale, it may also require training for managers to help them organise the new larger workforce and make it as efficient as possible. However I do think that this operation should not go ahead until the workforce comments (appendix 2) are resolved as a incompetent workforce will most certainly lead to lower labour production growth and also diseconomies of scale.
Reply 56
Original post by seanaffleck
Here's my take on 'Assess how economies of scale may be achieved if TSL invests in the second production line'

Potential Economies of Scale

Potential Diseconomies of Scale



Introduction
Economies of scale is vital for TSL to achieve lower unit costs and will be a challenge for Matthew to introduce a second production line whilst still maintaining healthy growth of the business.

Main Body
Whilst TSL may suffer from higher fixed costs in their addition of the new production line, variable costs will be significantly lower considering TSL are able to buy raw materials in bulk which is very important as the average output of sweets per day will increase by 1.4M (66.7%) increase, this results in achieving economies of scale. However this does assume that TSL will be using the same ingrediants for their sweets as Matthew wants to introduce a whole new range of confectionary (line 6). TSL already benefits from managerial economies - with individual managers specialising in different areas (Izak, Penny, Hamza). This is important for TSL because managers need to resolve current issues with the workforce due to their comments concerning managers (appendix 2)

TSL will have to take into account that unit costs will start to increase as it suffers from diseconomies of scale. Although there is no HR manager at TSL (line 104), it doesn't seem to be having a negative effect on economies of scale other than slightly increased absenteeism rates and labour turnover relating to job dissatisfaction. Beyond a certain point, co-ordinating the workforce will become significantly difficult such as organising the most efficient ways in which to complete work and meeting deadlines. Matthew and the other managers will have to find ways in which they can overcome this by careful planning.

Conclusion
Overall, it would appear that the best route to take in this situation is to expand using the new production line, but keeping growth at a steady rate in order to avoid diseconomies of scale, it may also require training for managers to help them organise the new larger workforce and make it as efficient as possible. However I do think that this operation should not go ahead until the workforce comments (appendix 2) are resolved as a incompetent workforce will most certainly lead to lower labour production growth and also diseconomies of scale.


Don't forget to define!
Original post by seanaffleck
There is a mathmatical formula which you can use to get the .33 recurring or to put this figure into months or days.
.33 would be 33% of the way into year 4


Calculate the payback period:

Table 1. Project 1 income streams
Cost of Project 1: £60,000
yr1 10,000
yr2 20,000
yr3 20,000
yr4 30,000
yr5 30,000

First we add up year 1, year 2, and year 3, this will give us 50,000
Now we need another 10,000 to make up to the 60,000 initial capital

Using this math formula will make it easy when working with ANY figures:
We want 10,000 from year 4 which contains a total of 30,000
So we simply divide 10,000 by 30,000 to give us 0.333333333

Now all you do to this 0.3333333 is either multiply it by 12 to get the answer in months: which is exactly 4

Or you can multiply the 0.333333 by 365 to get the answer in days: which is 121.66666 days

Therefore, the overall payback period is 3 years and 4 months :smile:
This method works with ANY hypothetical figures


Thankyou so much, big help! Actually pretty easy so it's alright! :smile:

Thanks :smile:
Original post by SkrillaGB
Don't forget to define!


I don't think I'm good at this introductory business

Is defining not explaining what in this case; 'economies of scale' is?

like economies of scale = business expanding and reducing costs per unit right?

So if i were to put:

Economies of scale is vital for TSL to achieve lower unit costs and will be a challenge for Matthew to introduce a second production line whilst still maintaining healthy growth of the business.

Is mentioning the lower unit costs for TSL and mentioning the healthy growth of the business not defining the economies of scale? I'm a tad confused
Original post by frannnn_x
Thankyou so much, big help! Actually pretty easy so it's alright! :smile:

Thanks :smile:


No problem, you should practice with loads of hypothetical figures so that you can do it within a minute tomorrow morning :smile:

Hopefully it comes up!

Quick Reply

Latest