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AQA Business studies - 5/06/06

Excellent - Thanks Michael, cleared it up now.

Just been on that Wikinotes site and I'm not sure on this 'long lead time' bit.

In the following weeks, S4U was besieged with orders from other athletes. The business took on five extra staff and bought more machinery. Business was booming, with orders more than doubling from the usual 500 to 1100 pairs a month.

However, the extra demand had taken them by surprise and the factory was struggling to cope. All the staff were working overtime and the old machinery would often break down. Worryingly, customers were beginning to complain about the length of time that they were having to wait for their orders.

Note: long lead time, possible need for lean production

What does long lead time mean and how does it relate to that part of the Case Study?

Reply 61

dups45

8

i havent even started revising, damn biology!

Reply 62

Chiraag

8

michaelbenson

You might not need all these in the actual examination, but these are mentioned somewhat in the specification so best to be aware of them;

•

Calculating percentage market share;
(Brand Sales / Market Sales) * 100

•

Calculating percentage increase
(Change in Value / Original Value) * 100

•

Capacity Utilisation
(Existing Output / Maximum Possible Output) * 100

•

Price Elasticity of Demand
Percentage change in quantity demanded / Percentage change in price

•

Income Elasticity of Demand
Percentage change in quantity demanded / Percentage change in income

•

Breakeven Output
Fixed Costs / Contribution per unit

•

Contribution per unit
Price per unit - Variable cost per unit

•

Total Contribution
Contribution per unit * Number of units sold

Thanks, but isnt capacity utilisation calculation for unit2 and not needed for unit1?

Reply 63

maxzara

1

Simultaneous engineering is also known as Concurrent Engineering (CE). It is a systematic approach to integrated product development that emphasises the response to customer expectations.
It emphasises team values of co-operation and sharing resources and knowledge in such a manner that decision making is by consensus, involving all perspectives (input from different departments, e.g. marketing, production) from the beginning of the product life-cycle."
Essentially the simultaneous engineering working environment provides a collaborative, co-operative approach to new product development.
The concurrent engineering approach is based on five key elements:

* a process
* a multidisciplinary team
* an integrated design model
* a facility (production / development)
* a software infrastructure

The stuff below in green is from Bized. It refers to a past paper.

DEFINITION - simultaneous engineering involves research and development and organising product development so that the different stages are carried out in conjunction with each other instead of in sequence. This can shorten production and new product development times.

POSSIBLE BENEFITS TO S4U -

1) Allows s4u to be quicker to market with new products and so maintain market position and reputation for innovation and new product ranges. This has been vital to the success of s4u and Billy and Michelle greatly emphasise this.

2) Shorter time span will reduce costs to s4u as research and development process is faster. This will improve cash flow of the business.

3) If they manage to get the products to market quicker, it should mean quicker returns on their investments

4) First to market with a product generally means there is an opportunity to set prices to skim the market - first mover advantage.

Reply 64

vultac

Er s4u product is PRICE inelastic only right? they didnt mention abt being income elastic yeah?

:confused:

Reply 65

Mikael06

I am soooo going to fail this :biggrin:

i only revised for AQA B psychology the day before, a full 12 hours :frown:

But i think i've got a B :biggrin:

This on the other hand.. is poo.

So much to learn so little time, good look to evryone at :tsr2:

though!

I'm hoping 2 blag my way through all the exams with just common sense and intelligence... worked for the gcses :biggrin:

Mikey

Reply 66

moonspoon

1

PaulK89

Excellent - Thanks Michael, cleared it up now.

Just been on that Wikinotes site and I'm not sure on this 'long lead time' bit.

What does long lead time mean and how does it relate to that part of the Case Study?

The lead time is the time it takes from when the customer places the order and when they receive the product. Here there is a long lead time as customers are having to wait a long time. Lean production including approaches like time based management will help to reduce the lead time (they use this type of production later on in the case study).

Reply 67

Biznessteacher

If anyone is interested - I have added some free resources which I have created for my own students at www.tes.co.uk/resources/ - type in "S4U" and they should come up.

Theres a couple of mock exam papers with mark schemes and some revision powerpoints (I'm also an examiner for units 1 and 2 so know the score).

I'm sure you'll all be fine! Good luck! :smile:

(my most important pieces of advice is to learn the definitions of everything on the AQA syllabus and know how they relate to S4U)

Reply 68

vultac

yah i had a look at them yesterday very good stuff thank thank :smiles:

Reply 69

Barnaby

Hi there. I am also doing AQA AS Business studies tomorrow and have been revisig very hard. Anyone have any good suggestions about possible questions?

Barnaby

Reply 70

PorchMonkey

Just a few questions:

S4U now had an established customer base, predominantly from athletics, but it was gaining interest from sports such as football, hockey and rugby

Am I right in saying that is market diversity?

Also - which part of the Case Study is when S4u change from a Functional Organisation into a Matrix Org and where is HRM mentioned?

Reply 71

Mellanie

1

HRM is mentioned when there is a meeting held by Billy about whether to diversify into the children's shoes market (?) and the HRM director speaks up (near the end of section E?)

Ermmm I dunno if you can say that that is market diversity really? It's still in the sports market segment isn't it? Couldn't you just say that 'S4U had a customer base with an interest in a range of sports' or something?

Reply 72

rambo8521

Yeah, I'd say its more product diversity than market diversity - they are introducing more similar products into the same market. Therefore they are spreading the risk of their operations - if the athletics market begins to deflate, their production can be switched to making more of the football or childrens shoes they talk about.

Reply 73

PorchMonkey

Thanks - thats cleared it up well.

Another question - when the HRM advisor says that they will be moving from labour intensive to a more capital intenvise, why would they be?

They are starting off with Job Production as the product they are making is unique, but surely when the representative from Production says 'we can offer a modular design but the customer can select from a range of colours and materials' - isn't that job production too, or would that be classified as flow production?

Reply 74

gemgems89

15

Paul0489

Thanks - thats cleared it up well.

Another question - when the HRM advisor says that they will be moving from labour intensive to a more capital intenvise, why would they be?

They are starting off with Job Production as the product they are making is unique, but surely when the representative from Production says 'we can offer a modular design but the customer can select from a range of colours and materials' - isn't that job production too, or would that be classified as flow production?

It's flow production (that's what the case study says anyway) - that quote is simply stating the process that the customer must go through to get their desired shoe.

The reason they are more capital intensive is because of the new technology and the flow production. It requires less labour as it is no longer job production.

Reply 75

gemgems89

15

Biznessteacher

If anyone is interested - I have added some free resources which I have created for my own students at www.tes.co.uk/resources/ - type in "S4U" and they should come up.

Theres a couple of mock exam papers with mark schemes and some revision powerpoints (I'm also an examiner for units 1 and 2 so know the score).

I'm sure you'll all be fine! Good luck! :smile:

(my most important pieces of advice is to learn the definitions of everything on the AQA syllabus and know how they relate to S4U)

Thanks for the site - the only problem is it needs a login and there doesn't seem to be an option to register... ? :confused:

Reply 76

Biznessteacher

Hi, if you go to here: http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Login.aspx?page=Submit& - it says if you don't have an account "register here".

You should then be able to register and search for resources. Also just worth adding - if you want to access any resources you will need to "save" them to your pc instead of just opening them otherwise it will come up with access denied!

Good luck and hope the resources help, just me a shout if you can't access anything. :smile:

Reply 77

gemgems89

15

Biznessteacher

Hi, if you go to here: http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Login.aspx?page=Submit& - it says if you don't have an account "register here".

You should then be able to register and search for resources. Also just worth adding - if you want to access any resources you will need to "save" them to your pc instead of just opening them otherwise it will come up with access denied!

Good luck and hope the resources help, just me a shout if you can't access anything. :smile:

Yeah - I just figured that out now. :biggrin:

Thanks so much - they really are amazing resources. I recommend them for anyone. You must have put a lot of work into that. :smile:

I'm especially liking the last minute revision slide show - pretty much has everything in it. The only topic I'm still not confident on is (besides most of module 3 :p:

) the competition legislation.

Reply 78

vultac

yah that competition legislation thing :/ cant really come up with anything with that topic lol

Reply 79

Biznessteacher

I have told my students to make sure they have a sound knowledge of all the laws on the syllabus but in particular they need to know The Competition Act and the Fair Trading Act. If anyone has a copy of Anderton AS Level BS for AQA - pages 254-255 should be useful! Just think how the law could apply to S4U - and for evaluation marks what would happen in reality. This: http://www.bized.ac.uk/educators/16-19/business/external/presentation/regulation.ppt might be useful.

AQA Business studies - 5/06/06

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