Assignment: PIVOT TABLE AND MULTI-ATTRIBUTE DECISION ANALYSIS

You are the lead consultant for the Diligent Consulting Group. It is mid-October. One of your top clients, Sunshine Floor Barn, has just closed the books for the first three quarters of the year (January through September). Sunshine Floor Barn requests that you analyze the sales performance of its 5 product lines over this 3-quarter period. From past consulting work you have done for the company, you know that Sunshine Floor Barn has 4 regions and 18 total store locations. Each Regional Manager at the company has compiled the data for his/her region. The raw data provided consists of the sales revenue for each of the 5 premium flooring lines for all 4 regions and 18 locations for the first three quarters of the current year.

Case Assignment

The data have been provided in list format. Generate a Pivot Table Report with Charts. Use the Pivot Table and Charts to analyze the data. Following your in-depth analysis of the data, write a report to Sunshine Floor Barn in which you discuss and analyze the data, and make appropriate recommendations relative to how Sunshine Floor Barn should improve its sales performance going forward.

Assignment Expectations

Data: To begin, download the list data here: Data chart for BUS520 Case 3

Excel Analysis:

Provide accurate and complete Excel analysis (Pivot Table with Charts).

Written report:

• Length requirement: 4-5 pages minimum (not including Cover and Reference pages). NOTE: You must have 4-5 pages of written discussion and analysis. This means you should avoid use of tables and charts as "space fillers."

• Provide a brief introduction to/background of the problem.

• Using the Pivot Table and Pivot Charts, discuss and analyze the data, noting key highs and lows, trends, etc.

• Include charts from your Pivot Table to support your written analysis. (Please do not use charts as "space fillers." Instead, use them strategically to support your written analysis.)

• In a "Recommendations" section, give clear, specific, and meaningful recommendations that Sunshine Floor Barn should use to improve overall company sales.

• Be sure to consider highs, lows, and trends in the data. Which cities are the highest performers? Lowest? Which regions and quarter had the highest sales? Lowest sales? Consider what may be driving the numbers: Poor marketing? Outstanding marketing strategies? Inventory management? Seasonal sales? Other? There are innumerable possibilities. Your role is to reflect on the data, and ultimately, to use the data to give useful recommendations.

• Write clearly, simply, and logically. Use double-spaced, black Verdana or Times Roman font in 12 pt. type size.

• Have an introduction at the beginning to introduce the topics and use keywords as headings to organize the report.

• Avoid redundancy and general statements such as "All organizations exist to make a profit." Make every sentence count.

• Paraphrase the facts using your own words and ideas, employing quotes sparingly. Quotes, if absolutely necessary, should rarely exceed five words.

Pivot Table

Data analysis and decision making are accomplished by people, often with the aid of computing devices and software or information technology (IT). Pivot Table is a table of data in rows and columns in an Excel spreadsheet that is organizes the data in such a way that it can be viewed from several different viewpoints. Pivot table is considered to be one of Excel's most powerful features. In this module, you will learn how to create and utilize a Pivot table in a decision making process.

Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM)

This decision method assumes certainty. The decision maker wants to determine which of several options is the best to achieve some set of goals or fulfill a set of criteria or attributes. The decision consists of determining a set of criteria that the object must have or meet with some level of satisfaction. The step for this decision is to search for and find the choices (alternatives or options) to be considered. The search for alternatives usually generates choices in a serial manner. Specific alternatives are identified normally one at a time.