Understanding Example of Narrative Essay Topics

Understanding Example of Narrative Essay Topics A superb ending is when it's linked to the very first portion of the start of the story, and it ought to be correlated to the whole regions of the story. So, it's a remarkable foundation for assorted epic stories! Every time that you are requested to tell a story you're expected to develop new, fresh ideas. A fantastic engaging story is dependent on words. The notion of a compelling first-person narration isn't the just one. You might opt to define an obscure word and relate it to the narrative you intend to tell. The climax ought to have the ability to draw the reader in and to carry on reading the story. Without dreams and hopes, folks lose their desire to reside and begin abandoning own plans. Remember a topic can help determine the result of a narrative. For starters, you should be aware that the ideal topic may be an event from your life. Writing in the very first person provides you with the chance to narrate events like they were happening at the exact same moment. The folks are extremely fond of their roots, and a lot of them are wearing vyshyvanka embroidered shirts. Give a concise introduction of all of the people that you write about including yourself. Some students utilize the very first idea that arrives in their head and work on it, but the outcome isn't successful. Frequently teachers will tell you exactly w hat they are searching for in your narrative piece. New Questions About Example of Narrative Essay Topics There's, clearly, a limit on the range of pages even our very best writers can produce with a pressing deadline, but generally, we figure out how to satisfy all the clients seeking urgent assistance. Such approach always pays off because it offers you a distinctive insight into the practice of essay writing that is directed at achieving excellent outcomes. The tricky thing about the narrative essay is there are always some limits to the sum of content it is possible to offer your readers with. With a profound sample, you'll be more mindful of what topic is more inclined to connect with your readers and what's going to miss the target. You only ought to describe the events and other details which can help your reader get a complete comprehension of your idea. All the details relate to the major point the writer is trying to make. It's personal enough, it enables you to play with words, and it's both interesting and edifying for the general public. When you want an example written by means of a student check out our vast selection of absolutely free student models. A narrative essay is thought to be among the most well-known kinds of tasks that students get all too often. Just make sure you're following your instructor's guidelines and understand how to construct a narrative essay from starting to end. Among the most widespread kinds of assignments that nearly every student gets is narrative essay writing. Don't forget that even though narrative essays seem a very simple job, it remains an assignment that should be ready on time. The debut of your essay can begin with a hook. Narrative essays serve wide range of purposes. Inside my experience, descriptive essays are only difficult in regards to deciding just what things to write about. There's more than 1 approach to compose a narrative essay. It is permissive in terms of choosing the topic. The decent narrative essay demands enough moment. A personal narrative essay is just one of the greatest tools to stop social issues that are frequently disregarded.

Topic Based on Life Experiences Essay Examples

Topic Based on Life Experiences Essay ExamplesI know that when it comes to the topic of topics based on life experiences, some people have a lot more faith in their subject. For example, I personally had no faith in my subject. However, thanks to this easy to follow guide, I now have faith in myself and my subject.You see, when you are having topics based on life experiences, it is important that you are able to follow directions. This may not mean that you need to follow directions all the time, but it does mean that if you have a particular word or phrase in your subject, you will want to make sure that you understand what you are saying. Since it is usually easier to follow directions than it is to remember the words that you are using, this can help to keep you from coming up with nonsense.When looking for topics based on life experiences, it is also a good idea to look into other sources as well. One of the things that I would recommend you do is find out more about online sourc es for teaching you topics based on life experiences. While there are a number of them, the two that I have found to be most effective for this purpose are DoAndroidsDance and SuccessTips. These sources are both filled with online videos that are meant to teach you some things, and they are filled with both audio and written materials that can teach you many things.In addition to the online courses, many teachers have also been known to use other resources such as: OneSource.com, Cnet, Yahoo Answers, and the like. Many teachers use these resources because they tend to be simple and easy to use. Since it is easier to learn from these sources, they tend to be more effective than some of the other sources.So how do you decide which sources to use? The best thing that you can do is look at what is commonly taught in colleges and what is commonly taught in high schools. There are always some people that tend to stick to one kind of content and the rest of the world tend to be moving towa rds the teaching of many different types of topics based on life experiences.As a result, many of the topics based on life experiences can also be easily found online. For example, many people find that learning about survival skills and how to go about doing them can actually help them to survive in the wild. In other words, the most effective way to learn about topics based on life experiences is to actually go about doing them.Finally, I would suggest that you use the resources that you have found as a way to try to figure out which topic is the best to teach you about. Remember that this is a method that has been found to work, so you will want to figure out if this method will work for you as well. Of course, if you find that you need to look at something else, you can always ask the person who found out about the resource.

Counseling Research Paper Topics

Counseling Research Paper TopicsCounseling research paper topics are research papers designed to provide information and ideas about topics of special interest to mental health counselors. Counseling research paper is important because it contains a mix of relevant facts and opinions that add up to make a solid argument. These information and opinions may be used as a basis for discussion and debate during a meeting or for writing a book or a movie script.Several counseling research paper topics are provided by the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Center for Education and Statistics, and the National Mental Health Association. Counseling research paper topics vary from academic concepts such as the benefits of leadership and diversity to topics such as teaching social skills to children, managing aggression in school, and understanding teenagers. The counselor will need to find a topic in which he or she feels comfortable and in wh ich he or she can provide reasonable proof to support his or her opinion.Common topics for counseling research papers include the development of effective communication skills, overcoming difficulties in terms of alcohol and drug abuse, problem solving, and the early identification of psychological disorders. Many counseling research papers also offer counseling services to under-served groups and families. For example, a counselor could document the skills needed to successfully assist the child of an alcoholic couple and their family. A member of the public who has an opinion about the effectiveness of counseling should report the details of his or her own experience in this regard.Most counselors begin their research on counseling research paper topics by asking friends and acquaintances questions regarding the topic. The consultant should also interview others who are knowledgeable on the topic. A consultant should have several references to back up his or her opinion, such as p revious clients and members of the public. These references will give the consultant an idea about the opinions of people who have worked with the consultant's topic.When reviewing the above information, the consultant should ask himself if he has any strong opinions, and if not, he may begin his research by asking other people. He or she should also be prepared to talk with counselors who work in other areas of the profession and to seek their opinion.One of the best ways to search for topics for counseling research paper topics is through online research. Websites can be found that provide a number of categories of counseling research papers. Some sites, for example, allow the user to narrow down the research subject to specific areas such as finding medical topics, drug addiction, adult substance abuse, and working in diverse fields of counseling.One of the best things about researching counseling research paper topics is that they provide additional support for the opinion of a person who expresses an opinion. This is especially true when the information available through these research papers contradicts one's opinion, in which case the source of the information must be considered.

Essay Writing Topics For Grade 3

Essay Writing Topics For Grade 3When writing an essay, there are certain topics for grades 3 that you have to focus on. These include subjects that you will be writing about, and the information that you are writing about. You will find that it can be quite easy to determine how to write an essay if you focus on these topics.For instance, if you want to look at a topic that is going to be outside of your studies, you can look at other things. You can look at some type of sport, or even just learn something about a person. One thing you can do is get involved in the area where you are going to be studying. If you want to look at a topic that is related to your career choice, you can look at the skills and talents that you need to have in order to be successful.You might even consider looking at some people who have a particular interest in a particular field. That way, you can look at some of the skills that they have and see what those may have to do with being successful.Another one of the topics that you will want to look at is how to decide what type of subject you are going to use in your essay. You may have to think about what types of topics you want to use, as well as what types of topics you want to avoid. Some topics you will be looking at will have to do with sports, while others may have to do with business.Be sure to look at what you have to say about this subject. What is the main thing that you are going to focus on? This will be important in that you will want to be able to write an essay that really has depth and clarity.You may also want to look at a special topic that you know someone in your family has experienced. That way, you can write an essay about the unique experiences that they have had. In this way, you can be able to write an essay that will not only be original but also interesting to read.Now, when you are writing an essay, it is going to be a good idea to make sure that you focus on topics that you have chosen. If you take time t o think about what topics you want to focus on, you will have a better chance of doing so. In addition, you will be able to write an essay that will be more concise and helpful in that it will be easier to understand.

Case Study for Management Accounting Essay Example

Case Study for Management Accounting Essay Editor’s Remarks I am pleased to present the nine teaching cases presented at the 2002 Conference of the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association. These cases provide a wide range of topics and contexts for use in upper level undergraduate and MBA classes. Here is a list of the cases, authors and topics discussed. Bal Seal Engineering, by Robin Cooper, discusses alternative cost management approaches: traditional, ABC, and TOC. Bill’s Custom Planters, by William Stammerjohan and Deborah Seifert, discusses production and cash flow projections, developing pro forma statements and sensitivity analysis. Dublin Shirt Company, by Peter Clarke in association with Paul Juras and Wayne Bremser, discusses customer profitability analysis. ECN. W, by William Lawler, discusses ABC in a service organization. Endesa, by Gary M. Cunningham, Scott Ericksen, Francisco J. Lopez Lubian and Antonio Pareja, discusses strategy and control issues in a changing organization. Kincaid Manufacturing, by Jon Yarusso and Ram Ramanan, discusses supply chain management. Osram. NA, by John Shank, Lawrence Carr, and William Lawler, discusses economic value to customer and related life cycle costing issues. Pleasant Run Children’s Home, by Brooke E. Smith, Mark A. McFatridge, and Susan B. Hughes, discusses dealing with the financial condition of a not-for-profit organization. University Bottom Line, by Enrico Uliana, discusses management control issues in a university. I thank these authors and all of the other authors who submitted cases to the conference. I also thank members of the editorial board for their help in reviewing cases: Tom Albright, Wayne Bremser, Paul Juras, Ken Merchant, Gary Sundem and, especially, Larry Carr and Jim Mackey. I am grateful to the other conference organizers, Steve Hansen, K. Sivaramakrishnan and Naomi Soderstrom for their advice and help. We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Management Accounting specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Management Accounting specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Case Study for Management Accounting specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer I am grateful for the help of Leslie Estelle at the IMA for her work in putting these cases into Management Accounting Quarterly. And on behalf of the members of the Management Accounting Section of the AAA, I thank the IMA for its support. Bal Seal Engineering Company, Inc. Peter Balsells and his late wife Joan founded Bal Seal Engineering Company, Inc in 1958. From humble beginnings, the firm grew steadily primarily based upon a strategy of selling the most innovative products in the industry. In particular, Bal Seal’s products were characterized both by the high value they provided and the technical manufacturing challenges they overcame. The initial invention that formed the basis for the firm’s success was a canted-coil spring in a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) jacket (Figure 1). The advantage of the canted-steel coil spring, over a conventional one, was its ability to produce near uniform force over its operating range. In contrast, a conventional spring provided a linearly increasing force as deflection increased (Figure 2). This property of a canted coil spring was critical in ensuring both an effective seal and an extended operating life. The firm considered itself an industry leader and standard setter in providing customers worldwide with innovative solutions to their industrial sealing problems. The firm, over its 40-year life, had created in excess of 60 active patents and numerous other innovations that had helped shape the seal and spring industry. This innovative history had provided the firm with, what top management considered a sustainable competitive advantage. The firm’s profit margins were historically higher than industry average reflecting both its advantageous patent position and high level of engineering skills. In 2000, sales were just under $25 million. The company’s customers were primarily in the medical equipment, analytic equipment, industrial OEM, and semiconductor industries. The company sold directly from the factory with the assistance of independent manufacturer’s representatives who covered the territories of Canada and the United States. Internationally, the company had a sales office in Western Europe and had contracted with several distributors who provided coverage of the Japanese and Australian markets. Product Development The firm had developed its own approach to product development that consisted of three steps; design, fast prototyping, and production. In the design phase, the firm’s engineers concentrated on understanding the customer’s requirements. The firm’s products were used in a wide variety of applications and most were custom designed. Many of these applications presented state-of-the-art challenges in sealing technology. Without careful attention to the underlying requirements, the firm could easily fail to design an effective seal. Fast prototyping consisted of rapidly creating a working example of the new product. Fast prototyping had two advantages. First, the customer could, early in its own product development process, test the new seal to ensure that it would be effective in the specific application for which it was designed. Second, the fast prototype enabled the manufacturing engineers to designate specific quality control steps and to establish guidelines for cost-efficient production. The final step, production consisted of ensuring that very high quality products were produced on a timely basis. The firm’s commitment to quality was necessarily extreme because its products were relatively inexpensive compared to the customers’ end products in which they were used. However, since seal malfunction could lead to disastrous failure of the customer’s product, long-term consistent performance of the firm’s products was essential. Consequently, Bal Seal’s manufacturing process was geared to produce products that had exceptionally long meantimes between failures. Production Process A spring-energized seal consisted of a plastic U-cup ring and a canted-coil spring. The purpose of the plastic ring was to ensure that metal to metal contact did not occur between a piston and its housing. In addition, the seal was often designed to provide the piston with both support and guidance. The seal could either be mounted on the piston (Figure 3) or on the housing (Figure 4). The springs and plastic rings were manufactured independently and then assembled to create the seal. While springs were sold separately, plastic rings were only sold as part of a completed seal. Products were produced to order, only a small number of items were retained in finished goods inventory. For small orders, only one production run was required. However, for larger orders it was necessary to break production into multiple production runs so that other orders were not excessively delayed. The production process consisted of three major stages; spring production, ring production, and final production and assembly (Figure 5). Ring production required 5 major steps. The first step consisted of taking powdered PTFE and mixing it. Subsequently the mixture was placed in an oven where it was pressed under high pressure to form the desired shape. The shaped pipe was then removed from the mold and cooked in a sintering oven to harden it. After sintering, the sintered pipe was ground to the desired size and specifications. The completed seal blank was then placed in the buffer inventory that was maintained before the computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines. Blanks are machined to customer specifications to create rings soon after receipt of the customer order. Spring production was proprietary and only senior executives and the specially trained workers were allowed to enter the area of the factory where springs were produced. Bal Seal senior management was convinced that the firm had created a sustainable competitive advantage from the proprietary technology associated with spring production. Consequently, intense security was applied to this production area to ensure that competitors could not learn anything from visiting Bal Seal or hiring its normally trained employees. Computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment was used to create the seal. The part was then inspected to ensure that it was up to specifications. Assembly consisted of three major steps. In the first step, the spring and seal were assembled to create the completed product. In the second step, the part was inspected to ensure that it met specifications. In the final step, the completed seal was tested to ensure that it provided the near uniform resistance that was characteristic of canted coil spring technology. The completed part was then released to shipping and sufficiently early to insure on-time delivery. Only a few standard parts were maintained in finished goods inventory to ensure that unexpected demand for such items was met in a timely fashion. Total finished goods inventory accounted for only two days of average production of stocked items. Theory of Constraints The theory of constraints emerged in the mid-eighties as a way to better manage constrained resources and hence increase firm profits. Bal Seal had adopted the theory of constraints as both its production philosophy and its product costing methodology in 1997. In the theory of constraints, a single machine, or class of machines, is identified as the bottleneck. The bottleneck machine or machine class is the one that limits the overall level of production of a product, product family, or product line. To maintain maximum output, the bottleneck machine, or as it is more formally known the capacity constrained resource, is kept busy at all times. Any other machine or production operation could be idle as long as it does not lead to the bottleneck machine being starved. The theory of constraints has its own language. The throughput of a system is the revenue generated in the period of analysis. Throughput = Revenue The throughput contribution is the revenue generated by an order minus the totally variable costs associated with it. Throughput Contribution = Throughput – Totally Variable Costs The operating expenses are all of the costs that are not totally variable with production volume. Profit is given by subtracting operating expenses from total throughput contribution: Profit = Total Throughput Contribution – Operating Expenses Ensuring that the maximum throughput contribution is generated maximizes the profit generated. That objective is achieved by manufacturing products that have the highest throughput contribution per constrained minute for which bottleneck capacity is available. The throughput contribution margin per constrained minute is the throughput margin generated by the order divided by the time it takes on the bottleneck machine measured in minutes. Throughput Contribution/ Constrained Minute =  © 2001 by Robin Cooper 3 Throughput Contribution / Time on Bottleneck Machine The objective of the theory of constraints is to maintain as high an average throughput margin per constrained minute as possible, while keeping the bottleneck machine fully loaded. If this objective is achieved, according to the theory of constraints, profits will be maximized. Five simple rules govern the approach: 1. . 3. 4. 5. Identify the constraint. Decide how to exploit the constraint. Subordinate everything else to the above decision. Elevate the constraint. If the constraint has been broken, go back to step 1 Under these five rules, the majority of continuous improvement efforts are focused upon increasing the output of the bottleneck resource; only reduced attention is p aid to making the non-constraint activities more efficient. At the heart of theory of constraints is the drum-buffer-rope scheduling system. In this approach to scheduling, a protective buffer is maintained in front of the machine that creates the constraint. This capacity constrained resource (CCR) buffer is designed to be sufficiently large that it ensures that the bottleneck is never starved. Theoretically, the size of the buffer is determined as a trade-off between security versus lead-time. In practice, as was the case at Bal Seal, it is often determined from experience. At Bal Seal, the conversion to the theory of constraints went extremely smoothly and within three months the firm’s manufacturing performance had improved dramatically with overall production levels higher and production costs lower. As the firm smoothed out its production process, the firm’s cash flow became more predictable. Senior management was very pleased with the ease of the transition to theory of constraints and identified it as one of the major strengths of the approach. For example, they compared their experience favorably to the length of time other firms had taken to shift to lean production. In their opinion, the shift to lean production, typically took longer because it required balancing most, if not all, of the firm’s production processes, not just the bottleneck ones. In addition, they felt that the cultural changes under the theory of constraints approach were much less demanding than those required by the adoption of lean production. The non-bottleneck resources could be managed much the same as they always had been thus reducing the amount of learning that had to be achieved to bring the new production approach on line. The theory of constraints was also adopted, at Bal Seal, as the basis for product costing. Under the theory of constraint approach, with the exception of the costs that are totally ariable with the number of units produced, all other costs (operating expenses) are assumed to be fixed in the short term. In most settings, the only significant totally variable cost is material, other totally variable costs such as the electricity required to run the machines are typically ignored as they are small compared to material costs and instead, they are treated as part of operating expenses. At Bal Seal only material, freight, and sales co mmissions were treated as totally variable costs and hence subtracted from revenues to give the throughput contribution for the period. In the firm’s traditional cost system, the freight and sales commission costs were treated as indirect costs and assigned to products using direct labor dollars. Activity-Based Costing Activity-based costing emerged in the mid 1980s as a way to report more accurate product costs than was possible by traditional cost systems. Activity-based cost systems differed from their traditional counterparts in two ways. First, the cost pools represented activities performed and not types of production processes. Second, the way costs were assigned to products was more sophisticated. In traditional systems only unit-level cost drivers were utilized. Unit level drivers were those drivers whose driver quantities doubled when the number of units produced of a product doubled. Examples of frequently used unit-level cost drivers in traditional systems include direct labor hours and dollars, machine hours, and material dollars. In contrast, in activity-based cost system two other types of cost drivers were utilized. The first type was batch-level drivers and the second type was product-level drivers. Batch-level drivers were used to assign the costs of activities that were performed every time a batch was produced. Examples of this type of activity include machine setup, material movement, and production scheduling. Examples of batch-level drivers include setup hours, number of setups, and number of batches or production runs. Product-level drivers were used to assign the cost of activities that were performed to sustain the ability to manufacture particular products. Examples of product-level activities include parts administration, process engineering, and bill-ofmaterial maintenance. Examples of product-level cost drivers include number of parts, number of part numbers, and number of engineering change notices. Proponents of activity-based costing argue that it provides a more accurate picture of the cost of the resources consumed by different products than traditional cost systems. In particular, activity-based cost systems are sensitive to batch size and overall production volume and thus report higher costs for the same product if it is made in small batches or overall low volume than if it is manufactured in large batches or high overall volume. In contrast, traditional systems reported the same product costs irrespective of the batch size or overall production volume of a product. Thus, activity-based cost systems were sensitive to scale economies while their traditional counterparts were not. Product Costing at Bal Seal In 2000, Bal Seal did not utilize either traditional or activity-based costing to determine product costs; instead it relied solely upon its theory of constraints system to support its pricing and order acceptance decisions. Prior to the adoption of the theory of constraints, the firm had developed a traditional costing system. This system consisted of the direct assignment of material, labor, and setup costs and the indirect assignment of all other costs. The indirect costs were assigned to the products using a single cost pool using direct labor dollars as the cost driver. In 1999, the overhead burden rate that would have been used in the traditional costing system was 500%. Bal Seal’s traditional costing system was slightly unusual in that it isolated the costs of setups from normal run costs. Setup costs were assigned to the batch as a lump sum and then divided by the number of units in the batch to develop a unitized setup cost. The sum of the run cost and the unitized setup cost was the total unit cost of the product. The advantage of this approach was that it reported different costs for the same product depending upon batch size with reported unit costs dropping as batch size increased. Thus, Bal Seals’ old traditional costing model, because of the way it incorporated setup costs, was somewhat sensitive to batch size. However, since it ignored the implications of non-setup related batch-level costs and all of the product-sustaining costs, it was at best a partial activity-based cost system. In 1999, a specialist in activity-based costing visited Bal Seal. He was interested in the relationship between theory of constraints and activity-based costing and wanted to study an active theory of constraints implementation. Many theory of constraints advocates believed that activity-based costing was a misleading costing approach that led to poor decisions. At the heart of this perspective was the inability of the activity-based costing approach to identify bottlenecks and thus ensure that they were kept fully loaded. Since any failure to keep the bottleneck fully and efficiently loaded resulted in lower profits, the position adopted by advocates of the theory of constraints was that activity-based costing led to inferior performance. In contrast, most activity-based costing advocates had a different opinion; they believed that theory of constraints was the appropriate solution for short-term decisions in which the firm’s infrastructure (their term for operating expenses) could not be modified. However, they believed that over the long run, the firm’s infrastructure could be modified in ways that led to overall superior performance. Thus, they perceived the optimum solution to be to use theory of constraints for short-term decisions and activity-based costing for long-term decisions. To help understand the relationship between the two approaches, the specialist identified five orders that the firm had recently received for different members of its Mark IV family of Balance Seal products (Exhibit 1). The primary difference between the orders was the number of units ordered. He chose these five orders because he felt that, despite being from the same family of products, they covered the entire spectrum of orders received by the firm. In particular, they captured small, medium, and large volume orders. Furthermore, the selling prices of the Mark IV product family were relatively easy to estimate despite being dependent upon the size of the order and the industry in which seals were to be utilized. Mark IV seals were primarily used in medical equipment industry and the historical bidding information was sufficiently detailed to enable quite accurate estimates of probable selling prices to be developed. Such detailed information was not available for many of the firm’s other product families. The specialist asked Bal Seal management to determine the profitability of the five orders using the theory of constraints. To provide a basis for comparison, he designed a simple activity-based cost system for Bal Seal. This system identified two additional indirect cost pools to the one that was used in the firm’s old traditional cost system. The first additional cost pool was a batch-level one. It captured the costs of ensuring that a production order was processed. The second additional cost pool captured the cost of the product-level activities. In particular, it identified the parts administration costs associated with each member of the Mark IV family. Removing the batch-level and product-level costs from the direct labor cost pool reduced the direct labor dollar burden rate to 115%. This burden rate also excluded the freight and sales commission costs which the expert felt should be treated as costs of the order in addition to the setup and order processing costs. Management’s Reaction Bal Seal top management was not convinced that even experimenting with activity-based costing was a good idea. They justified this perspective based upon several deeply held views. First, the success of theory of constraints, at Bal Seal, was such that they were unwilling to risk disrupting it with even an experiment. Second, they believed that the theory of constraints approach was philosophically superior and that activity-based costing would simply cause people to focus excessive attention on non-bottleneck resources. Attention that they felt was better directed to increasing the throughput of the capacity constrained resource. Third, they believed that it would be confusing to have two sets of reported product costs â€Å"floating† around the firm – one based on theory of constraints and the other based on activity-based costing. In particular, they felt that this confusion would be particularly serious if one of the two approaches recommended selling a product that the other indicated was unprofitable. Bal Seal Assignments It will help considerably to work in Excel or another spread sheet program, as many of the calculations are identical except for the price list. The following graphs will also be beneficial in helping you gain insights into the capabilities of the various costing approaches; traditional profit margin versus ABC profit margin, unit contribution or profit versus volume, and ABC unit profit versus TOC unit contribution per minute. Price Lists – Pair 1 1. Determine the cost and profitability of the five selected orders using the firm’s traditional cost system, TOC system, and the activity-based cost system proposed by the visiting specialist. 2. Bal Seal has only a small amount of bottleneck resource available. It receives an order for 1,000 P5 Mark IVs and 35 orders for 10 units each of 35 different products that have the same overall production characteristics as the P1 Mark IV Balance Seal. The high volume order or all of the small volume orders will consume the remaining bottleneck resources. Which of the orders would the three costing approaches suggest accepting? 3. Which orders would you recommend be accepted? Repeat the above calculations assuming that the selling prices are: Product Identification Order Volume Selling Price $100. 00 $20. 00 $4. 75 $3. 00 $2. 0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 10 50 200 500 1,000 Would your recommendations about which orders to accept change? 4. Analyze the pricing strategies that are being used in this industry based upon the two sets of prices. Hint, it will help if you look at the rankings of profit in each pricing scenario. Price Lists—Pair 2 5. Repeat the calculations assuming that the selling prices are: Product Identification Order Volume Selling Price $69. 50 $16. 50 $9. 50 $8. 50 P1 P2 P3 P4 10 50 200 500 P5 1,000 $8. 25 Would your recommendations about which orders to accept change? 6. Repeat the calculations assuming that the selling prices are: Product Identification Order Volume Selling Price $47. 50 $22. 40 $19. 25 $18. 00 $17. 75 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 10 50 200 500 1,000 Would your recommendations about which orders to accept change? 7. What is the best way to integrate TOC and ABC? 8. If your recommendations include computing both TOC and ABC costs, how would you explain your solution to Bal Seal management given their concerns about the potential resulting confusion? 9. Analyze the pricing strategies that are being used in this industry based upon the last two sets of prices. Hint, it will help if you compare the unit ABC profits and TOC contributions generated in each price scenario. Exhibit 1 Information on the Mark IV Family of Balanced Seals Order Information Product Identification Number Order Volume Unit Selling Price $50. 00 $9. 00 $5. 00 $4. 00 $3. 75 Number Of Production Runs for Order 1 1 2 3 5 Estimated Annual Production Volume 10 75 500 2000 5000 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 10 50 200 500 1,000 Cost Information Material Costs Labor Costs Order Processing Costs Set-Up Cost/Run Parts Administration/Product Freight Sales Commission $0. 40 $0. 33 $75. 00 $45. 00 $500. 0 5% of selling price 10% of selling price Processing Time Information for CNC Machines Run time per unit Setup Time per run 1. 5 minutes 30 minutes Figure 1: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Canted-Coil Spring Seal Figure 2: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Canted-Coil Spring Performance Normal Working Deflection Force Conventional; Spring Canted-Coil Spring 5% Deflection 35% Figure 3: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Piston Mounted Seal Piston Figure 4: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Housing Mounted Seal Piston Figure 5: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Production Process Final Proprietary Inspection Spring Production Ring Production Shipping Material Production Figure 6: Bal Seal Engineering Company Inc. Production Timeline Shipping Buffer Post-Constraint Processing Constraint Process Constraint Buffer Pre-Constraint Processing Bill’s Custom Planters1 William Stammerjohan, Washington State University Deborah Seifert, Washington State University Bill’s Custom Planters (BCP) manufactures a line of decorative wooden planter boxes that are sold to both retail and wholesale customers. Dr. Bill started building custom planter boxes in his garage as a hobby/business about ten years ago. His custom planter boxes were so popular that he quit his â€Å"day job† seven years ago and began to manufacture planter boxes full-time. Dr. Bill rarely builds a planter box himself anymore because he is now the full time manager, production supervisor, sales force, and bookkeeper. The word â€Å"custom† no longer truly describes the planter boxes because BCP now offers only one model that is available in four, very similar, variations. Several factors have contributed to increased popularity, increased demand, and increased production volume for the planters over the last few years. A feature article in a regional home improvement magazine, â€Å"Northwest Home and Garden† got the ball rolling for the planters a couple of years after Dr. Bill went into business full-time. A monthly display ad in the same magazine appears to have contributed to increases in both retail sales and wholesale customer demand. Dr. Bill significantly increased production capacity almost four years ago when he moved BCP into a new rented building and bought all new equipment. Like many small businesses, BCP’s growth has not been without setbacks. The sale of planters is seasonal by nature and shortly after the move into the new building, BCP was suddenly faced with new price competition from a much larger supplier of garden supply products. The â€Å"custom† planters that BCP was building at that time were priced a lot higher than the current more generic model. The market seemed to become â€Å"price sensitive† overnight and the sales volume dropped precipitously. It took Dr. Bill several months to realize that he had to simplify his product line and become competitive if BCP was going to survive. It seems that BCP has now weathered this storm, but there are some lingering scars from this period. Dr. Bill’s credit rating is now far from perfect. This is the result of several very late interest and principal payments on the equipment loan, and an inability to make timely interest payments on a former credit line balance. After his former bank canceled his credit line, several other local banks refused to extend credit to either Dr. Bill or BCP. Dr. Bill feels fortunate that his current bank, No Heart Trust Co. NHTC), agreed to extend a small line of credit during BCP’s darkest days and has grudgingly agreed to some small increases in the credit limit over the last two years. The NHTC credit line currently has a $60,000 credit limit. NHTC requires BCP to maintain a minimum cash (checking account) balance of $6,000, or 15% of the We would like to thank Tom Albright for his insightful discussion comments at the 2002 AAA-MAS Conference. 1 outstanding credit line balan ce, whichever is greater. NHTC requires a minimum payment of the accrued credit line interest on the last day of each month (12% annual rate). The now current equipment loan requires a minimum principal payment of $2,000 plus accrued interest on the last day of the month (8% annual rate). The key factors describing BCP’s current operations include the fact that all retail sales are mail order and the wholesale customers are either home improvement or garden supply stores. Retail customers pay for their purchases by credit card and all wholesale sales are on account. The retail price is $70. 00 plus $8. 00 shipping and handling. Wholesale customers receive a $20 per planter discount off the retail price and all wholesale shipments are sent freight collect. On an annual basis, about 30% of the planters are sold retail and 70% are sold wholesale. NHTC deducts a 3% service charge on credit card sales and credits BCP=s account almost instantaneously. Wholesale customers are billed on the last day of each month and are given terms of 2%-10th/net 30. Forty percent of all credit sales are collected during the discount period, 20% within the net 30 period, 25% one month late, and 13% two months late. Roughly 2% of credit sales are never collected. BCP has the capacity to produce 800 planters per month using one shift. BCP has eight employees that each work 160 hours per month performing direct labor. Wood is purchased from a local supplier on an â€Å"as-needed† basis. The local supplier has a very good record for both quality and on-time delivery, but will only deliver on a COD basis. The COD arrangement is another remnant of the period when Dr. Bill was not able pay BCP’s bills on a timely basis. While Dr. Bill has re-established credit with the hardware supplier, BCP must buy hardware in lots of 1,500 sets to receive competitive pricing. Hardware delivery takes about one month from the time an order is placed. The hardware supplier pays the shipping cost, but requires full payment within ten days of receipt of the hardware. Selling and Administrative expenses are $2,500 per month plus $3. 40 per planter sold. All cash overhead costs, rent, shipping and handling costs, and selling and administrative expenses are paid in the month incurred. Dr. Bill’s current estimation of the cost per planter is as follows: Bill’s Custom Planters Schedule of Planter Cost For 2003 Direct Materials: Wood Hardware (1 set per planter) Direct Labor: (1. 6 hours @ $11. 00 per hour) Variable Overhead ($2. 00 per direct labor hour) Fixed Overhead (based on 800 lanters per month) Cost Per Planter $10. 00 5. 00 17. 60 3. 20 5. 25 $41. 05 The shipping and handling cost per planter sold retail is $6. 00. The $4,200 per month in fixed overhead is comprised of: building rent, $1,000; equipment depreciation (12 year/straight-line), $2,000; and casualty and liability insurance, $1,200. BCP’s expected f inancial condition is reflected in the 12/31/02 Pro Forma Balance Sheet. Although Dr. Bill has returned BCP to profitability, and although all the interest and other liabilities are now current, the equity balance is mostly the result of money that Dr. Bill contributed to the corporation when he â€Å"cashed out,† his former day job retirement account. Dr. Bill does not draw a regular salary, but was able to