Assignment 1

Please note that simply writing answers in point form will not make you score marks. Need detailed and critical answers. Only relevant examples are welcome. You also need to show all the workings done; marks will not be awarded for answers that do not show clear workings.

Question 1

Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow:

Norwegian Salmon Processing Facility, Trondheim

NorSal Trondheim operates a salmon processing facility where fish are purchased from local sources along the North Sea, processed at the facility, and sold to customers for distribution. The plant manager, Inger Hansen, is contemplating a plant modernization to upgrade the technology in the plant. While the plant performs well enough now, modernizing equipment would allow the plant to increase capacity per hour, which is particularly advantageous because the factory has enough demand to cover the additional capacity. Currently, the plant operates five days a week, two shifts of 30 workers per shift. The workers are paid $10 per hour. Adding a third shift is not possible because the plant is cleaned during the third shift.

The firm is contemplating a plant modernization to upgrade existing equipment, which should increase the plant's output while lowering energy costs. Using the current equipment, around 1.500 pounds of salmon can be processed each hour, while the new plant would be able to processed each hour, while the new plant would be able to process 2.000 pounds per hour. The updated equipment is made by the same manufacturer as the existing equipment, and the new equipment quickly. For this reason, costs to train personnel are assumed to be negligible. The production manager, Bjorn Pedersen, is skeptical about undergoing the plant modernization. The older equipment, he argues, is already paid for, and new equipment would cost $10.000 per week. This cost is comprised of both principal and interest, and includes manufacturer installation of the equipment. The controller, Maret Karlsen, cautions that all decisions related to costs should be included in the analysis and that because the energy consumption would be different, this must also be accounted for in the decision. Energy costs are presently $10 per unit, and the existing plant uses 1.000 units of energy per week. With the modernized plant, the consumption of energy would fail by 50%.

1. Determine the productivity of the processing facility, with the equipment currently in use?

2. Show what would the productivity of the plant become if the new system were purchased and implemented?

3. Determine the amount of additional expense on equipment that would make productivity of the two systems equal?

4. Explain what might happen if energy costs increase in the future?

Question 2

Productivity growth will increase gross domestic income as a result of the surplus value, and employment opportunities will be created by increase in investment. However, at the same time, increasing productivity may result in an increase in unemployment levels, because of the same production levels can be achieved with less use of labor and salary increase. Critically discuss how can a sustainable balance of growth and level of prosperity be set up?

Question 3

a. Identify and explain any 5 strategic operations management decisions

b. Within the food service industry in Namibia (restaurants that serve meals to customers, but not just fast food) find and explain with examples of firms that have sustained competitive advantage by competing on the basis of cost leadership, response and differentiation. In your response, you are supposed to cite one example in each category. Do not use fast-foods chains for all categories

c. Identify and explain how changes in the external business environment affect the operations management strategy, using a company of your choice operating in Namibia

Assignment 2

Question 1

Debonair's Pizza is a small restaurant catering to patrons with a taste of African pizza. One of its specialties is Namib Desert Prize Pizza. Martha Hamutenya, manager of Debonair's Pizza, must forecast weekly demand for these special pizzas so that she can order the correct amount of pizza shells weekly. Recently, the demand has been as follows:

Required

a) Forecast the demand for Namib Desert Prize Pizza for September 22 - October 6, using the 3 period moving average method. Note: Round up all the forecasts to two decimal places.

b) Forecast the demand for September 22 - October 6, using weights of 0.5, 0.3, 0.2 for the most recent, next recent, and most distant data, respectively.

c) Assume that the forecast for September 1 to be 55. Forecast the demand for September 8- October 6 using the exponential smoothing method with α = 0.3.

d) Now, forecast the demand for September 8-October 6 using the exponential smoothing method with α = 0.6. How do they compare to that in part (c)?

Question 2

The Windhoek Central hospital is considering the purchase of a new ambulance for its patients. The decision will rest partly on the anticipated mileage to be driven next year, 2019. The kilometers driven during the past 5 years are as follows:

a. Forecast the mileage for the next year using a 2 year moving average.

b. Find the MAD based on the 2 year moving average forecast in part a (Hint: You will only have 3 years of matched data).

c. Use a 2 year weighted moving average with weights of .4 and .6 to forecast next year's mileage. The weight of .6 is the most recent year. What MAD results from using this approach to forecasting?

d. Compute the forecast for the sixth year using exponential smoothing, an initial forecast for the year is 3000 kilometers and α = .5

Question 3

Zimmerman Garage's popular Tiguan's sales have grown steadily during the past 5 years as shown in the Table below. The sale manager had predicted in 2012 that 2013 sales would be 410 Tiguan cars.

a. Using an exponential smoothing weight of α =.3, develop forecasts for 2014 through 2018.

b. Using the trend projection method, develop a forecast for the sales of the VW Tiguan through 2018.

c. Determine the MAD, MAPE using the same data.

Question 4

The following table gives the map coordinates and the shipping loads for a set of cities that we wish to connect through a central hub in Namibia.

a. Near which map coordinates should the hub be located.

b. If the shipments from Arandis city triple, how does this change the coordinates.