CS507 Assignment No. 1 Fall 2011 Solution

Assignment No. 01

SEMESTER Fall 2011

CS507- Information Systems

Total Marks: 10

Due Date: 31/10/2011

Q#1: A Shoe manufacturing company wants to transfer its manual working system into computerized based information system. Suppose you are in the design team who is developing a technology based information system.

What factors would you consider while developing a new system? Mention at least five factors. [5 marks]

Q#2: Given diagram belongs to a certain system. Identify that the diagram belongs to closed loop system or open loop system? Give three valid reasons to support your answer. [ 2+3 marks]


Solution:



Solution Q 1.

Information Systems


In modern age, there has been felt a growing need for the use of information being in the design team I will consider the following five important factors:

· Transforming Industrial Economies

· Transformed Business Enterprise

· Emerging Digital Firms

· Emerging Global Economies

· Effective and efficient utilization of resources


Emerging Global Economies
High level of foreign trade has resulted in imports and exports which require inter linkage for smooth coordination. Core business functions (manufacturing, finance and customer support) have been distributed in different countries.


Coordination
Transforming Industrial Economies
Industrial economies have started merging as knowledge-and-information-based economies. Manufacturing activities being shifted to low wage countries. More opportunities are available in education, health care, banks, insurance firms and law firms. More knowledge and information intense products are being created. Higher commitment expected from customer e.g. overnight package delivery, worldwide reservation systems.


Transformed Business Enterprise
The structure of business enterprise have also changed, initially the organizations used to be Hierarchical, Centralized, Structured following a Fixed Set of SOP’s. However, now the organizations are moving towards more Flatter, Decentralized and Flexible structures. Information Technology makes it convenient and efficient to promote this new culture.


Emerging Digital Firms
Firms where all significant business process and relationships with customers and suppliers and employees are digitally enabled and key corporate assets are managed through digital firms. This results in rapid response with more flexibility to survive and getting more global.


Effective and efficient utilization of resources
Effectiveness and efficient usage of resources has become a dire need of today’s organization and it cannot be ignored


Solution Q 2.
This system is a closed system because

· Input is manipulated in a controlled mechanism

· It is not connected with the environment

· Neither environment exerts any influence on the system nor does system influence the environment

Mgt613 Assignment No. 1 Fall 2011 solution

Semester “Fall 2011”

“Production and operations management” (MGT613)

Assignment No. 1 Marks: 20

FIFCO is a football manufacturing company in Sialkot, it has started its operations from January 2000 and since then the company is unable to gain ample profits and grab the expected market share. The major mismanagement noticed is especially in the area of inventory management. Due to this finished stocks are piling up in the warehouses. The situation is very drastic and company is unable to handle its stock. It seems that the company is facing problems in their forecasting, as the company is unable to assess and meet the actual market response that might affect the demand and fulfillment of customer’s orders. After analyzing the situational factors it seems that the company is unable to forecast demand effectively. The actual and forecasted demand of the past five years is given as under:

Years

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Actual demand (Units)

4000

3700

4000

4150

4050

Demand Forecasted (Units)

4500

4000

3500

3500

4200

The situation is very alarming for management and you as an operation manager of the company are required to examine and analyze all scenarios and give your recommendations that:

What would be the core areas you have to cover in order to have a most accurate forecast for the company?

What are the steps you would like to follow in the design of a most effective forecasting process? Give your suggestions after analyzing the variances in given table.

Important Tips

This Assignment can be best attempted from the knowledge acquired after watching video lecture no. 01 to lecture no. 09 and reading handouts as well as recommended text book).

Schedule

Oct 21st, 2011

Oct 28th, 2011

Note:

Only in the case of Assignment, 24 Hrs extra / grace period after the above mentioned due date is usually available to overcome uploading difficulties which may be faced by the students on last date. This extra time should only be used to meet the emergencies and above mentioned due dates should always be treated as final to avoid any inconvenience.

Solution:

Q. 1 answer is in lecture No. 9, and Q. 2's answer is on page 45. Kindly take the data from the said locations.



Question N0.1: What would be the core areas you have to cover in order to have a most accurate forecast for the company?

Answer:-
Forecasting is a natural extension to the types of data analysis typically performed on the historical data stored in analytic workspaces. Using Analytic Workspace Manager, you can quickly generate forecasts of your measures.


Here I discuses Some core areas for accurate forecast related to inventory management because in the above scenario the major mismanagement noticed is especially in the area of inventory management.


Counting current stock:-
All business must know what they have on hand and evaluate sock levels with respect to current and fore-casted demands. Company managers must know what they have in stock to ensure that they can meet the demands of the customers and production and be sure that you are ordering enough stock in the future. Counting is also important because it is the only way you will know if there is a problem with theft occurring at some point in the supply chain of inventory.


Cyclical counting:-
Companies prefer to count inventory on a cyclical basis to avoid the need for shutting down operation while stock is counted. This means that a particular section of the warehouse or plant is counted at particular times, rather than counting all inventory at once. In this way, the company takes physical count of inventory, But never counts the entire inventory at once.


Controlling supply and demand:-
Whenever possible, obtain a commitment from a customer for a purchase. In this way, you ensure that the items your order will not take space in your inventory for long. When this is not possible, you may be able to share responsibility for the cost of carrying goods with the salesperson, to ensure that an order paced actually results in a sale.


Stock control:-
Approval procedures should be arranged around several factors. You should set minimum and maximum quantities which your buyers can order without prior approval. This ensures that you are maximizing any volume discount available through your vendor and preventing over-ordering of stock.


Keeping accurate records:-
Any time items arrive at or leave a warehouse, accurate paperwork should be kept, itemizing the goods. When inventory arrives, this is when you will find breakage or loss on the goods you ordered. Inventory leaving your warehouse must be counted to prevent loss between the warehouse and the point of sale. Records should be processed quickly, at least in the same day that the withdrawal of stock occurred.


Managing employees:-
Buyers are the employees who make sock purchases for your company. Reward systems should be set in place that encourage high levels of customer’s service and return on investment for the product lines the buyer manages. Incentives programs can help employees keep this in perspective. When they see a difference in their paychecks from poor inventory management, they are more likely to take precautions to prevent shrinkage.


Question N0.2
1. What are the steps you would like to follow in the design of a most effective forecasting process? Give your suggestions after analyzing the variances in given table.


Answer:-
Keys like to follow for most effective forecast.


Time series:-
Time series forecasting methods are based on the premise that you can predict future performance of a measure simply by analyzing its past results.


These methods identify a pattern in the historical data and use that pattern to extrapolate future values. Past results can, in fact, be a very reliable predictor for a short period into the future. You can generate this type of forecast very quickly and easily, and you do not need either forecasting expertise or an in-depth knowledge of your data.


The modeling techniques used by the time-series methods are relatively simple and run very fast. Time-series forecasting is extremely useful when hundreds or thousands of items must be forecast.


Use Scenario-Based Forecasts:-
One forecast is not enough. Consider what will happen if conditions change. For example, how might your forecast change if your competitors react strongly to your strategy? How might it change if they don’t react at all? If the government changes a policy that makes your product tax free. All of these factors will influence sales, so the smart executive considers multiple scenarios. While the executive may not expect the government to make something tax free, scenarios can be created that consider favorable government regulation, stable regulation, and negative regulation, just as one can consider light competitive reaction, moderate reaction, or strong reaction.


Use Multiple Methods:-
Since forecasts are estimates, the more estimates generated from various methods, the better. For example, combining expert opinions with a trend analysis could help you not only understand what is happening but also why. Every forecast results in decisions, such as the decision to hire more people, add manufacturing capacity, order supplies, and so forth. In addition, practice makes perfect, as they say. The more forecasts you have to make and resulting decisions you have to live with, the better you will get at forecasting.


Track Actual Results and Adjust:-
As time goes on, forecasts that have been made should be adjusted to reflect reality. You must have an annual forecast, the forecast changes regularly based on how well the company is doing. Further knows how strongly competition has reacted and can adjust the company’s estimates accordingly.


Use tools wisely:-
Many companies tend to rely solely on qualitative tools-the opinions of experienced manager and salespeople derive forecast ignoring such quantitative tools as regression and time-series analysis. The key is that both quantitative and qualitative tools are integral to effective forecasting problem. Without understanding where qualitative techniques, time series and regression do and do not work effectively, it is impossible it is impossible to analyze the cost and achieve the benefits of implanting new forecasting tools.


Measure:-
Obviously, before forecaster can be rewarded for excellence, a company must first develop system for measuring performance, tools for providing feedback, and standards and targets for what constitutes forecasting excellence. Without the ability to effectively measure and track performance, there is little opportunity to identify whether changes in the development and application of forecasts are contributing to business success.

Mkt630 GDB No. 1 Fall 2011 solution

Discussion Objective:

To understand distinct marketing approaches which are used for the same product in its different stages of product life cycle and to realize the difference in these approaches.

Point of discussion:

Assume that a group of business editorial writers related to leading newspapers of Pakistan are discussing the current business practices in Pakistan. You are there as a third party observer of this discussion and have to closely observe what they are talking. The description of discussion is as following. One of them initiated the discussion by saying that in the recent past it has been observed in the IT equipments market of Pakistan that used IT equipment are being imported and traded in local market at a massive level. The major IT equipments being traded are personal computers (both the desktop systems and laptops), printers, monitors, key boards and mouse pointers. Then he put forth a question that what can be the possible reason behind importing these used equipments? Are most of these products faulty and out of order and so these are firstly repaired and then sold in Pakistan or there is any other reason. Another question was raised that if these products are still usable then why the foreign countries sell these to Pakistan? One editor came up with the point that might be these products are exported to Pakistan because these products were at the last stage of their product lives and were declared outdated in the foreign countries. You have now been welcomed by them to bring your own flavor in discussion and to bring the discussion to a conclusive level as they are not clear about the whole happening.

Discussion Agenda:

You have to give your opinion by responding to the questions raised and opinions given by them.

Solution:

Small scale surveys and focus groups are low cost ways to gather information from potential and existing customers. Also most of the secondary data (statistics, demographics, etc.) is available easily to the SMEs to analyze according to their needs.

Eco403 GDB No. 1 fall 2011 solution

According to CIA World Fact Book, current population growth rate of Pakistan and China are 1.57% and 0.493% respectively. In both countries, ratio of females is more than males. Logically discuss that how this increasing ratio of females will affect the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of both countries?

Solution:

In these two countries (as well as others) women are given a lower standard of education and are usually either at home or doing low paid work. So unless they get their act together really soon there will be many vacancies for skilled workers which cannot be filled , the result will be a lower rate of increase of the GDP over the coming years compared to the rate it would rise if women were properly educated and had access to skilled work.

Course Selection for Fall 2011 for VU Students

Published On: Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Course Selection for Fall 2011 (Commencement of classes October 3, 2011) (Course selection option for MSCS students will be announced later for detail email mscs@vu.eud.pk ) Last Date to Add / Drop / Replace course(s): October 10, 2011 The Course Selection link will remain open up to Monday, October 10, 2011 under Student Services; students are advised to login to their respective VU LMS account and select their courses immediately failing which their student status will be considered as “INACTIVE STUDENT”. Classes for fall 2011 will commence on October 3, 2011. Note: 1. Existing students may Select/Add/Drop/Replace course(s) themselves through ‘Student Services’ Course Selection link 2. Newly admit students enrolled in the 1st semester of their Study Programme are given preselected courses; however, they have an option to drop course(s) from course selection link available at LMS through ‘student services’ or via email to course_selection@vu.edu.pk on or before October 10, 2011. (Note: This practice will eventually increase the duration of the study program and fee). 3. Students with blocked VU LMS (due to non-payment of fee) are not allowed to make course selection/semester enrolment unless they deposit their outstanding dues. 4. No course Add/Drop request is acceptable after October 10, 2011. In case a student fails to appear in Final Term examination of course (s), s/he will be treated as ‘F (Absent)’ just like Drop course (s) with no fee refund/adjustment. 5. Fee voucher once issued will not be re-issued if a student drops course(s). 6. Request of student to relax/waive off any offered assignment/Quiz will not be accepted. 7. To apply for VU scholarships, the eligibility criteria also include selecting and qualifying courses according to respective semester wise study scheme. 8. Students are required to strictly follow while enrollment of maximum credit hours limit for a semester including ‘F’ or ‘D’ grade course(s), if any. 9. In any of the subsequent semesters a student may repeat once, those courses of the previous semester(s) in which s/he had secured the lowest grade i.e. ‘D’ only. However, a student is not allowed to improve ‘D’ grade of a deficiency course qualified. Any improved grade will substitute ‘F’ and ‘D’ grades of the previous semester for calculating CGPA. 10. A student, who fails to achieve the required CGPA for award of diploma/degree, upon the completion of entire prescribed course work program, may be allowed to repeat, once the course (s) of the previous semesters in which s/he had obtained the ‘D’ grades, in order achieve the minimum CGPA required for the award of diploma/degree, failing which s/he shall cease to be on the rolls.” 11. Specialization certificate students’ are not allowed to improve ‘D’ grade course(s). 12. Regular MBA 2-year program students that have earned 18 to 54 credit hours are directed to complete their degree on or before spring 2013 semester. Whereas those who have earned 57 to 72 credit hours with low CGPA are encouraged to complete their degree requirements on or before fall 2012 semester. 13. Students are instructed to follow strictly the Rules and Procedure given in Student Hand Book under - Course Selection link in LMS account. Declaration: I hereby acknowledge that I have completely read and understood the above rules including semester enrollment, course selection etc. I understand that I shall be responsible for the consequence and thus promise to abide by the University rules framed out from time to time.