HARRIS-STOWE STATE UNIVERSITY,

Anheuser-Busch School of Business,

BSAD0455-01 Production and Operations Management,

Summer II 2020 Semester,
Section: 01,

Instructor

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad.

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By
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Malik Simmons
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An in-class article presentation cum assignment project presented to

The Anheuser-Busch School of Business,
Harris-Stowe State University, St. Louis, Missouri – USA
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in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the degree

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Bachelor's in finance with a minor in Entrepreneurship

July 13, 2020
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St. Louis, Missouri – USA.

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 1. Reading: “Gazing at the Crystal Ball,”Chapter # Three - Page #
113 to 114.

Gazing at the Crystal Ball

Summary It’s no secret that the IT sector has felt the brunt of the
economic downturn. Caught up in the general disillusionment
with IT has been demand forecasting technologies. Many
companies blame DF technologies fir supply chain problems
such as excess inventory. Pinning the blame on and
discontinuing DF TECH. Is the equivalent of throwing out the

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bathwater. The Manufactuing company and its supply chain are

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able to benefit from sharing info about the change market

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conditions. Despite best practices embedded in DF and SCM
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technologies to support this manner.
Q1: What is DF and why is it important?
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Answer: DF is part science and part art (or intuition) having

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the potential to significantly impact a company’s bottom line.

DF is crucial to minimizing working capital and associated
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expenses and extracting maximum value from a company’s

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capital investments in property, plant and equipment (PPE) . It

takes a Manufactuing company a lot of lead time to assemble
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and stage the raw materials and company.

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Q2: Why might a company executive make bold predictions

about future demand to Wall Street analysts?
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Answer: A company executive may make bold predictions

because its been incredible pressure , among other reasons, may
cause Manufactuing company executives of publicly traded

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 companies to keep up stock prices. This pressure , among other
reasons may cause Manufactuing company . When the company
realizes this disparity between the initial projection and the
forecast, the forecast is changed to reflect the projections made
by the company’s officers.
Q3:How might an executive comments to Wall Street analysts
affect demand forecasts, and what are the consequences?
The company arbitrarily sets sales targets for various regions to
meet wall street numbers that are totally out of sync with input

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provided by the regional sales manager for the DF process.

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Even though the regional sales managers input may have a

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qualitative element they tend to be more accurate. The results is

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often excessive inventory build up starting at the distribution
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channels to the upstream supplies.
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2.Reading: “Do You Want Pickled Beets with That?”- Chapter # Four,
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Page # 143.
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Summary: Mcdonalds are all over the world changing diet

plans and the culture at the same time. The first on opened in
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the US in 1955 , the fast food restaurant has spread around the
world. As of 2002 it was estimated around 121 countries and
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30,000 around the globe.

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Question 1:What effects do culturing differences have on the

design of fast food offerings in this reading?
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Answer: Based on the location of a McDonalds it will be based

off their traditions . Nothing out of the norm because it wouldn’t
sale as much . The food you can order at many of these

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 locations is different from the other. For instance Italy and
Greece meals are vastly differently.
Question 2: What functions in the organization are impacted
by the differences in product offerings among different
countries?
Answer: As far as functions go I believe nothing it truly affected.
The bottom dollar is being met by providing the customers with
their unique taste buds supplying the demand over 121
countries.

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3.Reading: “My Compliments to the Chef, Buyer” - Chapter #

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Five,

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Page # 196.
Summary: When I visit restaurants I never thought ill be
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eating half frozen foods. Thrown in microwave ovens and

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served on a hot plate . It was my belief freshly made simply

meant that , which isn't the case because companies outsource
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the preparation task for meals and receive half cooked frozen
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meals to keep up with the number of customers.

Question 1: Explain the meaning of the phrase “Hours versus ours”.
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Answer:
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Many great tasting restaurant entrée or desserts are prepared

half way in a distant kitchen and frozen and shipped to the
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selected restaurant
Question 2: What advantages are there when restaurants
outsource ? .

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 Answer: The advantages will include a decrease in wait time for
customers as well as cutting the labor and production cost to a
minimal. Also longer shelf life and more space for more food
due to the decrease in ingredients.
Question 3: What are some important disadvantages or
limitations of outsourcing?
Answer: It can hurt the client because ill born diseases in meat
for example is risk. The quality of the products are not known
until its too late. As well as the micro radiation levels produced

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in microwaves .

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Question 4: Do you consider restaurant outsourcing to be

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dishonest? Unethical ? Explain
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Answer: I don’t believe its anything wrong with it because the
rigorous demands in that industry is time based. The faster you
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can provide results the better your reputation goes and more
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people will be producing word of mouth.

Question 5:Does outsourcing increase capacity?
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Answer: Is does in more ways imaginable

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4. Operations Tour: “Morton Salt”-

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Chapter # Six, Page # 242 to 243.

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Summary: Morton salt is a subsidiary of Morton International ,

which specialize in chemicals , air bags , and salt products.
Annual round of production averages roughly 3.8 million .
There are two parallel , high speed production lines. The two

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 lines share common progresses at the beginning of the lines, and
then branch out into two identical lines.
Question 1:Briefly describe salt production , from brine
production to finished round cans?
Answer: The process of salt goes through an assembly line of
steps to assure its quality . They inject water into salt caverns
that are located 2,400 feet below surface levels. As it boils salt
rises and then to the drying process which last about 6 weeks.
The salt is stored in silos until it is needed for production.

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Question 2:Briefly describe quality assurance efforts in round

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can production.

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Answer: The plant produces both the salt and the cans the salt is
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packaged in. The cans are essentially a cylinder with a top and
a bottom; they are made of cardboard, except for a plastic pour
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spout in the top. The cylinder portion is formed from two sheets.
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Question 3:What are some of the possible reasons why the

company continues to use old processing equipment instead of
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buying new , more modern equipment?

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Answer: The equipment on the line is sensitive to misshapen or

damage cans and frequently jams, causing production delays.
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The plant has its own tool shop where skilled workers repair
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parts or make new ones.

Question 4: Where would you place salt production in the
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product process spectrum?

Answer: I would place salt production in the step next to filters
and the 6 week drying process.

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 Question 5:Detiremine the approximate number of tons of salt
production annually?
Answer:75,000 pounds
Question 6:What improvements can you suggest for the plant?
Answer: I can just say try to eliminate if not remove the labor
cost by automating everything and or outsourcing to other
companies instead of spreading countless dollars on machine
repair , maintenance and workers comp.

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Reading: “Foxconn Shifts Its Focus to

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Automation”- Chapter # Six,

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Page # 246.
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Summary: Foxconn operates a network of factories across the

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Chins mainland, employing 1.2 million people , that makes

products for tech companies that include Apple. Foreign
manufactures in China are also viewing upgrades as vital to
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their operations in the country.

Question 1: As Foxconn cuts jobs as it shifts to greater use of
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automation , jobs will be created in other compaines. In what

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types of companies would expect to see jobs created?

Answer: I expect jobs in the tech industry like Facebook ,
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Instagram , Google etc. I also expect more online stores as well

and virtual jobs.

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 Question 2: Many companies outsourced their manufacting
activities to Foxconn due to its low labor cost. Does Foxconns
shift to automation make it likely that some of those companies
will reconsider outsourcing in favor of shifting to automation?
What are some reasons for staying with Foxconn , and what are
some reasons that favor shifting to their own automated
processes?
Answer: Well that is all contingent upon the prices with the
automation system will this jump up the labor cost or will it stay
the same . Some people may feel that robots are more quicker

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and dependable as long as there's no shortage no where. It can

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reduce cost and you wont have to deal with a language barrier

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nor rude customer service
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