[Joey952]

Do you think there will be a question comparing payback period with ARR

[SkrillaGB]

(Original post by seanaffleck)
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

Just define any key terms, so in this case it's economies of scale:

'Economies of scale' is the increase in efficiency of production because of the rising number of goods being produced.

What examiners always want, is for you to show understanding. Like I said before about including knowledge from the case study, you have to pretend they're basically retarded and you have to explain thoroughly to them every aspect of the question.

So define, apply knowledge from the case study, show the impact this has on TSL both positively and negatively (Benefits & Drawbacks) and evaluate by coming to a balanced judgment of the best option for TSL.

[Bethan1]

hi, im really stressed about this exam tomorrow!
not about the case study but about the first short handed questions before.
Is there anybody out there that can have a guess or estimate in what questions that they think will come up:P
will be appreciated sooooooooooooooooooo much
thank you pleaseeeeeeeeeee x

[ATCAdam]

(Original post by Bethan1)
hi, im really stressed about this exam tomorrow!
not about the case study but about the first short handed questions before.
Is there anybody out there that can have a guess or estimate in what questions that they think will come up:P
will be appreciated sooooooooooooooooooo much
thank you pleaseeeeeeeeeee x

Section A practice questions for ya

http://ge.tt/6m0hG5H

[ATCAdam]

(Original post by al0)
I hope ratios doesn't come up

No mention of it on the AS specification only on A2 Strategic management

[seanaffleck]

Here's my take on 'Discuss quality initiatives that might benefit TSL/Recommend how TSL might ensure the consistent quality of its products'

• Kaizen Groups/Quality Circles
• Issues with involving TQM
• Maybe Lean Production Methods?

Introduction
Quality should represent the business as a whole, not just their products. Total quality management which is the attempt for TSL to eliminate errors and waste from occuring at all levels within the organisation.

Main Body
Kaizen groups are already present with in TSL unofficially, Carl and Andrea meet up with Matthew on a monthly basis to discuss problems within TSL (line 105). The benefit to this is that Matthew actually listens to the workforce regularly to decide what the next step ahead for the business entails. It also gives Matthew a chance to discuss and set straight rumors which have been floating around TSL (line 110). It's suggested that Matthew should be making these meetings more formal to prevent rumors and oversee any problems which the entire workforce has which could be preventing quality within the production lines. Maybe TSL's workers aren't trained well enough to cope with their jobs as one anonymous worker mentions he doesn't know what to do when machinery breaks down (appendix 2). Giving these workers the correct training will allow TSL to increase production.

There are many issues however involved with implementing TQM to the workforce. It requires every member in the workforce to be 100% committed to improving quality within their own jobs. We can see that most workers aren't satisfied with their jobs (appendix 2) and would require a change in management before TQM can be fully implemented properly. When implementing TQM there is also the fact that there may be an initial hold on production whilst the workforce is organised to be more involved with TQM. Such as using quality circles would require workers to be pulled from the production line for short periods of time which over a longer period of time will have a negative effect on production.

Conclusion
Overall, I would highly recommend TSL to introduce TQM into their workforce, however it should be pointed out that the current workforce needs to be more involved with the process as the issues raised in implementing TQM are just too concerning. A de-motivated work force will not take care in TQM and result in a back fire when Matthew tries to force them to implement TQM.

[Bethan1]

(Original post by ATCAdam)
Section A practice questions for ya

http://ge.tt/6m0hG5H

Hi thank you so much for these! Im still really confused are these the practice questions for the last coupe of years?!

[has87]

(Original post by ATCAdam)
What I wrote about:

TSL pushing through without having done enough market research into the likely level of demand to justify the new production line. "TSL’s Production Manager, Penny Bagley, agrees with Matthew that growth is only possible with the introduction of a new, additional production line." Line 50-49

As there is no justification for why they are appealing to a younger market, is it growing? is there demand for TSLs goods? It suggests they may have not researched whether this is a good market to develop into. As the UK is a top heavy population with an increasing elderly population would following a market penetration strategy be much more effective?

Izak only thinks the smaller tins will be a good idea, they are suggesting building an entirely new production line on an assumption. Which Hamza noted.

It seems to me they are demonstrating a production orientation focusing on their own internal needs/wants rather than the customers.



However.

TSL have a wide product range which demonstrates they seek to meet a wide range of customers needs. They have also done market research into the idea of charging the same price for their smaller tins


TSL can afford to be production focused less and less as time goes on because although the Travel Sweet market is a niche for the moment, it is increasingly being attacked by larger firms using price as a weapon. Therefore TSL will need to differentiate its products and meet the customer's needs/wants better if it hopes to gain or retain sales in this market.

Concluding

Ultimately TSL demonstrate a mainly customer orientation, having products in the market already to cater to different market subsets. The most important factor is how TSL can ensure customers needs/wants can be met in the face of an increasingly competitive market. To do this they will have to adopt a more customer orientated approach before making the large investment into a production line, which if not backed up by demand will result in spare capacity and diminished profit margins. Meeting customer needs better than competitors will enable TSL to maintain or ever drive up their market share leading to higher profit margins.

aah okay i really hope this question doesn't come up! what did you get in january?

[Bethan1]

Hi aparetnly this question is going to come up so does anybody know how to work it out or what to do please?! the help would be really appreciated as im really struggling!

Using the figure of £3.5m as the turnover of TSL in 2011 and the figures for profit margin percentages presented in Table 1 calculate
a) the actual net profit
b) the actual gross profit

THANK YOU SO MUCH

[SkrillaGB]

(Original post by Bethan1)
Hi aparetnly this question is going to come up so does anybody know how to work it out or what to do please?! the help would be really appreciated as im really struggling!

Using the figure of £3.5m as the turnover of TSL in 2011 and the figures for profit margin percentages presented in Table 1 calculate
a) the actual net profit
b) the actual gross profit

THANK YOU SO MUCH

The new net profit or the old profit without production line?

Before you are able to calculate these sums, you have to know the new salves revenue too. This can be calculated doing the following:

OLD = £3.5 Million @ 2.1 million sweets
NEW = £5.835 Million @ 3.5 million sweets

To calculate the new, you have to calculate the overall difference between the 1.4 million sweets which are made with the new production line...

1.4 (Difference in sweets) / 2.1 (Original sweets produced) = 0.667

So in order to find the new sales revenue, you do the following:

£3,500,000 x 1.667 = £5.835 Million in total.

Then with this new sales revenue figure, you can continue on to finding the new and old net profits & gross profit margins.

OLD
a) Net profit = 5% = (£3.5 Million / 100) x 5 = £175,000

b) Gross profit = 45% = (£3.5 Million / 100) x 45 = £1,575,000

NEW
a) Net profit = 6% = (£5.835 Million / 100) x 6 = £350,100

b) Gross profit = 48% = (£5.385 Million / 100) x 48 = £2,801,000

They may ask you to calculate differences as well, so the differences in net profit are £175,100 and gross profit is £1,226,000.

[Bethan1]

(Original post by SkrillaGB)
The new net profit or the old profit without production line?

Before you are able to calculate these sums, you have to know the new salves revenue too. This can be calculated doing the following:

OLD = £3.5 Million @ 2.1 million sweets
NEW = £5.835 Million @ 3.5 million sweets

To calculate the new, you have to calculate the overall difference between the 1.4 million sweets which are made with the new production line...

1.4 (Difference in sweets) / 2.1 (Original sweets produced) = 0.667

So in order to find the new sales revenue, you do the following:

£3,500,000 x 1.667 = £5.835 Million in total.

Then with this new sales revenue figure, you can continue on to finding the new and old net profits & gross profit margins.

OLD
a) Net profit = 5% = (£3.5 Million / 100) x 5 = £175,000

b) Gross profit = 45% = (£3.5 Million / 100) x 45 = £1,575,000

NEW
a) Net profit = 6% = (£5.835 Million / 100) x 6 = £350,100

b) Gross profit = 48% = (£5.385 Million / 100) x 48 = £2,801,000

They may ask you to calculate differences as well, so the differences in net profit are £175,100 and gross profit is £1,226,000.

oh my gosh thank you so much may i just ask you cause you seem to know a lot hahaha what would be the average rate of return for wether or not to invest in the new production line? x

[has87]

Evaluate the importance of market segmentation to TSL in formulating a marketing plan to attract
a younger market / Discuss how knowledge of market segmentation may assist TSL in developing
its future marketing strategy.
how would you evaluate?

[has87]

(Original post by seanaffleck)
Here's my take on 'Discuss quality initiatives that might benefit TSL/Recommend how TSL might ensure the consistent quality of its products'

• Kaizen Groups/Quality Circles
• Issues with involving TQM
• Maybe Lean Production Methods?

Introduction
Quality should represent the business as a whole, not just their products. Total quality management which is the attempt for TSL to eliminate errors and waste from occuring at all levels within the organisation.

Main Body
Kaizen groups are already present with in TSL unofficially, Carl and Andrea meet up with Matthew on a monthly basis to discuss problems within TSL (line 105). The benefit to this is that Matthew actually listens to the workforce regularly to decide what the next step ahead for the business entails. It also gives Matthew a chance to discuss and set straight rumors which have been floating around TSL (line 110). It's suggested that Matthew should be making these meetings more formal to prevent rumors and oversee any problems which the entire workforce has which could be preventing quality within the production lines. Maybe TSL's workers aren't trained well enough to cope with their jobs as one anonymous worker mentions he doesn't know what to do when machinery breaks down (appendix 2). Giving these workers the correct training will allow TSL to increase production.

There are many issues however involved with implementing TQM to the workforce. It requires every member in the workforce to be 100% committed to improving quality within their own jobs. We can see that most workers aren't satisfied with their jobs (appendix 2) and would require a change in management before TQM can be fully implemented properly. When implementing TQM there is also the fact that there may be an initial hold on production whilst the workforce is organised to be more involved with TQM. Such as using quality circles would require workers to be pulled from the production line for short periods of time which over a longer period of time will have a negative effect on production.

Conclusion
Overall, I would highly recommend TSL to introduce TQM into their workforce, however it should be pointed out that the current workforce needs to be more involved with the process as the issues raised in implementing TQM are just too concerning. A de-motivated work force will not take care in TQM and result in a back fire when Matthew tries to force them to implement TQM.

Evaluate the importance of market segmentation to TSL in formulating a marketing plan to attract
a younger market / Discuss how knowledge of market segmentation may assist TSL in developing
its future marketing strategy.
How would you evaluate?

[Bethan1]

(Original post by has87)
Evaluate the importance of market segmentation to TSL in formulating a marketing plan to attract
a younger market / Discuss how knowledge of market segmentation may assist TSL in developing
its future marketing strategy.
How would you evaluate?

Hi what is TQM?! please help! btw you are on the exam board for ocr as level business arent you x

[Bethan1]

Is everyone here on the ocr business studies as level exam tomorrow just dont want to be doing different questions for another course thank you :d

[has87]

(Original post by Bethan1)
Hi what is TQM?! please help! btw you are on the exam board for ocr as level business arent you x

TQM is total quality management: its when there are small continuous changes in the production process which improves quality and is backed by employees. e.g. Kaizen, quality circles, benchmarking...
and yeah im doing OCR.. btw you know the question you posted about 2011.. is 2011 the current year of TSL ?

[al0]

(Original post by has87)
TQM is total quality management: its when there are small continuous changes in the production process which improves quality and is backed by employees. e.g. Kaizen, quality circles, benchmarking...
and yeah im doing OCR.. btw you know the question you posted about 2011.. is 2011 the current year of TSL ?

I thought TQM is where every single employee of the workforce is responsible for quality control and work should be top quality the first time round for every piece.

[Bethan1]

(Original post by has87)
TQM is total quality management: its when there are small continuous changes in the production process which improves quality and is backed by employees. e.g. Kaizen, quality circles, benchmarking...
and yeah im doing OCR.. btw you know the question you posted about 2011.. is 2011 the current year of TSL ?

ahh thank you so much hahaha yeah its the most up to date information that we have on TSL and their money x

[has87]

(Original post by al0)
I thought TQM is where every single employee of the workforce is responsible for quality control and work should be top quality the first time round for every piece.

yeahh it is... I didn't mention all of it but yeah

[youngkhalifia]

Originally Posted by has87
TQM is total quality management: its when there are small continuous changes in the production process which improves quality and is backed by employees. e.g. Kaizen, quality circles, benchmarking...
and yeah im doing OCR.. btw you know the question you posted about 2011.. is 2011 the current year of TSL ?

The figures on table 3 show that 2011 has already been accounted for suggesting that TSL must be trading in 2012. Hope I answered your question!