CRITICAL ISSUES
What are the strong points of Stewart Box company’s current sytem?
Marketing
Stewart Box company differentiated itself from competition by focusing on custom-made orders and targeting a small niche market only. By doing this they are able to actively cater to its customer’s individual wishes, and strictly adhere to promised delivery dates.
What are the weak points of Stewart Box company’s current sytem?
Marketing Reach
Stewart Box Company has a very limited customer base. They only market their products within a radius of about 500 miles from its factory, which was located in a fairly small town. A limited customer base results to low volume of orders which will lead to the carton factory operating below its capacity
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Therefore, it is very important for Stewart Box Company to be have slightly lower prices than its competitors to be competitive in a very cutthroat industry.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Expand Market Reach
To address the underutilization of the carton factory, Stewart Box company needs to increase the volume of their orders. They can do this by going beyond the their existing 500 mile marketing radius. They can also further increase their volume by catering to not only custom made orders but also catering to standard packaging sizes. By increasing sales, the capacity of the carton factory is fully utilized, cost efficiency is improved, thereby improving the bottom-line figures of the company.
Improve efficiency of factories
Stewart Box Company needs to address the Carton Factory operating under capacity. The underutilization of this plant may cause inefficiencies in the company’s operations thereby increasing its standard costs. This inefficiency in operations is evident in the unfavorable variances in the company’s Income Statement and Spending Report.
Reevaluate Costing Method
The company should reevaluate their costing process. Costing based on estimates of annual standard costs may be result to inaccurate cost estimates as cost of raw materials and manufacturing equipment fluctuate within a year. The company needs to be more dynamic in their costing
Assuming that the company’s goal is to maximize profits, the current cost system is not an appropriate tool for strategic planning. The ambiguity of the overhead costs per product makes it difficult to accurately analyze the cause and effect relationships of changes and/or improvements to specific product line.
After closely reviewing the financial and production data, our accounting team has found that your traditional cost allocation is faulty and misleading. The costs of products A and C were over allocated and products B and D were under allocated causing deceptive information on the true profits of the company. Also, product B appears to be
This report will provide insight on what your management team should do concerning production costs. We will examine 2 different scenarios and provide our decision as to which makes most sense. In the first scenario, the total fixed cost of the production is 1,000,000. In the second
Essentially, with the current cost system, the managerial analysis is highly flawed due to a lack of crucial in-depth cost information, as indicated by:
with a number of strategic issues facing a capital-intensive, mature industry. Their product costing system was
Hardee Transportation is a small truckload business, and it is currently faced with a problem that practically every company has; how to better serve its customers, and maintain a profitable return. It is essential that companies such as these evaluate their operations to ensure that it possesses the most efficient way to manage their assets. There is a great concern for these companies considering that the competition is out there, providing the same services at a lower cost, or accommodating their customer needs more fittingly. Hardee Transportation must take a look at their operations and come up with some plausible solutions to increase their revenue operations,
Essentially, with the current cost system, the managerial analysis is highly flawed due to a lack of crucial in-depth cost information, as indicated by:
When offers of reduced pricing are accepted for equipment, meeting delivery expectations becomes an important part of enhancing the customer experience to maintain satisfied loyal customers. An inventory specialist in the current distribution center would be given the additional task of segregating and maintaining inventory levels to meet the needs of the customer loyalty department.
The management of FedEx gives particular emphasis on the initial purchasing and installation cost of new systems. In line with this, the firm's top managers are supposed to explain LCC of various solutions prior to the installation of new equipment. The initiation of strong LCC is essential in assisting FedEx achieve high financial strategies in the competitive market. Therefore, to maintain a competitive edge, the organization constantly initiates cost savings to improve its profitability (Hsu, 2012).
Packaging and labeling of products are other key essential parts of the Cooper Company logistics to provide satisfaction to their customers. Accurate packaging and labeling can have a direct impact on the Cooper Company logistical productivity and efficiency (Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., Cooper, M. B., & Bowersox, J. C. p.251. 2013). The company’s packaging accounts differs for each channel this entail the retail accounts 80 percent of the packaging cost and Foodservice of 20 percent (Bowersox, D. J., Closs, D. J., Cooper, M. B., & Bowersox, J. C. p.465. 2013). “The retail channel requires “labeling” to accrue the company a 2,000,000 expense includes materials, labor, and depreciation of the machine.
Activity-based management, activity-based costing and continuous improvement, all these help in the improvement of the efficiency in manufacturing, better control of overhead costs and the accurate costing of products. With this in mind, We disagree with the advice that Chuck Davis, the firm’s controller, gave Leonard Bryner. The traditional way of costing produce average costs that severely overstated or understated. Without the accurate costs, the firm would not be able to price properly their products and that would be damaging to the firm. With activity-based costing and management, all costs are accounted for with the help activity-drivers and overhead costs are decreased. In turn, the costs that the firm has for their products are more accurate and pricing is much easier.
Under the new cost system, two broad sources of costs were identified: manufacturing and SM&A. All costs within these categories were reclassified as either volume driven or order driven. Hence, four cost pools were set up.
The case study detailing the dilemma faced by the organization known as Box, Inc., is one concerned with the challenge of maintaining organizational culture in the face of rapid growth. The organization began as a classic start-up company that evolved out of a garage by a few friends. Beginning as a simple organization with few team members paved the way for the successful culture that would permeate the company for years to come. The challenge facing Box, Inc. in the study is not one of loss, but, rather, one of gain. The organization has rapidly expanded in the last few years, now hosting multiple sites around the globe and over a thousand employees. This rapid change presents the top executives, such as CEO Aaron Levie with the difficult task of preserving their start-up culture that breeds ingenuity and success. One managerial solution the top executives implemented was their institution of a rigorous and highly selective hiring process. This solution was highly effective in maintaining the organizational culture within Box, Inc., in light of the multiple organizational behavior theories that describe the strong correlation between selective hiring and cultural sustainability within a company.
We will examine the given data from the case and compare the unit costs from the company’s current costing system (traditional costing) and from activity-based costing. We will also highlight other qualitative data in consideration with the numerical factors that may result to a significant change on our recommendation.
Tambu did not care about her brother’s death. She does not mourn her brother’s death. The book started out with Tambu saying “I was not sorry when my brother died” (pg.1). Throughout the beginning of the story her brother treated her as if she were trash, and she was tired of it to the point that she did not care anymore. After her brother’s death, she was introduced to more opportunities. He said “I go to school, you go nowhere”(pg.16). He basically said that while he would become successful and get and education, she would be doing nothing with her life, which was true at the time. When he died Tambu was able to go to school, and all she wanted was to be educated. Nhamo was always mean to his sister, Tambu. Therefore, Tambu did not care about