Willow Company is must reduce its inventory levels and sell inventory at a faster rate to improve the inventory turnover closer to 30 days. Due to the negative cash flow, Willow must explore the opportunity to manage its inventory levels relative to sales. The greater the inventory levels, the higher sales must be, otherwise additional storage and other holding costs will be incurred to cause further deterioration in its cash position. Cash will be invested into unsold inventory that is generating no return while remaining unsold. In addition, there will be the opportunity cost of not having cash available for more useful requirements i.e.
Total revenue equals price time’s quantity. It reflects total receipts obtained from selling a certain output or quantity of goods. Total costs is different it’s equal to fixed costs and variable costs. Fixed costs include building and equipment costs, regulatory fees and salaried personnel and remain stable, especially in the short term, but may vary with a longer time horizon. As the time horizon increases, variable costs rely less on existing factors and restrictions and therefore will begin behaving differently which will in turn affect the cost of production (Wright, 2007).
The changes in the government’s macroeconomic objectives depends on where we are on the AS curve as shown below. If we are on the horizontal part of the AS curve, we will experience economic growth (from Y1 to Y2) without an increase in inflation so our competitiveness in the global market will remain the same so our trade deficit could improve. However, if we are on the curved part of the AS curve, we will have an increase in economic growth and there will be a demand pull inflation from P1 to P2. If we are at the vertical part of the AS curve, inflation will get higher but our economic growth remains the same as we have reached full productive
Although the current assets have increased, the currently liabilities have increased as well. Target it utilizing its assets wisely by continuing to make investments and take risks. The quick ratio provides a more rigorous test of the company’s solvency position, where inventories and prepaid expenses are removed from the calculation of current assets. The quick ratio was at 0.94 for 2008 and .68 for 2009. This shows Targets improvement over time to pay its current liabilities based on available cash, short term investments, and receivables.
Internal and external customers provide business with information about how their products are used, new opportunities for their business, trouble-shoot issues with their product, and organise workloads. Operational plans include customer service processes and product development. These plans include: * Understanding customer needs (internal/external – current/future) * Expectations of Customers * Research results -target markets , sampling and profiling, market segmentation, needs * Collection and analysis of information collected Customer needs can continually change being influenced by the economy, social and political events, trends and movements. Organisations use change management practises to pre-empt changes wherever possible, and also to be ready for change. To do this, organisations need to be aware of the following: * Identify what customers are buying and what benefits they purchase * Understand why customers will or do purchase * Know when customers are likely to buy By knowing the customer, organisations can plan to meet their needs.
By using this method the income statement shows a higher income due to the lower value of the cost of goods sold. The balance sheet would also show a higher value for the inventory that is on hand. ABC Company wanted to show that their expenses were lower and their income was higher than what it actually was, resulting in a higher retained earnings value at the end of the period. To the public, it would look as though the company is thriving and paying out larger dividends to stockholders. Stockholders may assume when reading the financial statements that they would be receiving a higher return each month or quarter when in reality that would not be the case especially if they are planning on switching to LIFO.
When the sales are increased for his division, bonuses could be paid to the managers. Frank Campbell reviewed the purchase orders received from November and December. He wanted to determine if any shipments to the customers before December 31 may increase their sales. The alternative way to report sales was to increase sales by sending out two shipments to customers. Although the customers only needed the shipment the following year, this would be a way to exceed the targeted budget.
This reduces the carrying costs of the inventory that is ordered as well as insuring that unused items are not held from month to month. A third way to increase working capital is to realign the billing and payment schedules for the company. Currently products are invoiced to customers at the end of the month with terms of net30. Suppliers invoice the company at the end of the month with terms of net15. This disparity of terms can impact working capital as money flows out in the middle of the month but does not flow in until the end of the month.
Controls need to be in place to prevent fraud and error from occurring. The number of vendors a company purchases goods or supplies from should be limited. Repeat purchases from the same vendors and suppliers will provide routine transactions that are much easier to track and will provide a faster cycle time. Using the same vendors will provide familiarity of the company to the vendor allowing more accurate quantity. When the vendor is familiar with the needs of the company it will reduce fraud and the number of transactions, which will make purchasing goods easier to track.
In this type of decision making process, the various types of constraints that affect the decision are financial, legal, market, human, and organizational. Each of these constraints potentially can affect another, which in turn affects the organization. Another technique used to assist in the simulation was Pareto Analysis. In this technique the team was able to prioritize the possible changes by identifying the problems that would be resolved once the changes were implemented. Proposing a new variable pay scale, will affect how the employees are performing, sales, profitability, attrition, as well as the overall well-being of the store.