Section B – TWO questions ONLY to be attempted
Perkin manufactures electronic components for export worldwide, from factories in Ceeland, for use in smartphones and hand held gaming devices. These two markets are supplied with similar components by two divisions, Phones Division (P) and Gaming Division (G). Each division has its own selling, purchasing, IT and research and development functions, but separate IT systems. Some manufacturing facilities, however, are shared between the two divisions.
Perkin’s corporate objective is to maximise shareholder wealth through innovation and continuous technological improvement in its products. The manufacturers of smartphones and gaming devices, who use Perkin’s components, update their products frequently and constantly compete with each other to launch models which are technically superior.
Perkin has a well-established incremental budgeting process. Divisional managers forecast sales volumes and costs months in advance of the budget year. These divisional budgets are then scrutinised by the main board, and revised significantly by them in line with targets they have set for the business. The finalised budgets are often approved after the start of the accounting year. Under pressure to deliver consistent returns to institutional shareholders, the board does not tolerate failure by either division to achieve the planned net profit for the year once the budget is approved. Last year’s results were poor compared to the annual budget. Divisional managers, who are appraised on the financial performance of their own division, have complained about the length of time that the budgeting process takes and that the performance of their divisions could have been better but was constrained by the budgets which were set for them.
In P Division, managers had failed to anticipate the high popularity of a new smartphone model incorporating a large screen designed for playing games, and had not made the necessary technical modifications to the division’s own components. This was due to the high costs of doing so, which had not been budgeted for. Based on the original sales forecast, P Division had already committed to manufacturing large quantities of the existing version of the component and so had to heavily discount these in order to achieve the planned sales volumes.
A critical material in the manufacture of Perkin’s products is silver, which is a commodity which changes materially in price according to worldwide supply and demand. During the year supplies of silver were reduced significantly for a short period of time and G Division paid high prices to ensure continued supply. Managers of G Division were unaware that P Division held large inventories of silver which they had purchased when the price was much lower.
Initially, G Division accurately forecasted demand for its components based on the previous years’ sales volumes plus the historic annual growth rate of 5%. However, overall sales volumes were much lower than budgeted. This was due to a fire at the factory of their main customer, which was then closed for part of the year. Reacting to this news, managers at G Division took action to reduce costs, including closing one of the three R&D facilities in the division.
However, when the customer’s factory reopened, G Division was unwilling to recruit extra staff to cope with increased demand; nor would P Division re-allocate shared manufacturing facilities to them, in case demand increased for its own products later in the year. As a result, Perkin lost the prestigious preferred supplier status from their main customer who was unhappy with G Division’s failure to effectively respond to the additional demand. The customer had been forced to purchase a more expensive, though technically superior, component from an alternative manufacturer.
The institutional shareholders’ representative, recently appointed to the board, has asked you as a performance management expert for your advice. ‘We need to know whether Perkin’s budgeting process is appropriate for the business, and how this contributed to last year’s poor performance’, she said, ‘and more importantly, how do we need to change the process to prevent this happening in the future, such as a move to beyond budgeting.’
Required:
(a) Evaluate the weaknesses in Perkin’s current budgeting system and whether it is suitable for the environment in which Perkin operates. (13 marks)
(b) Evaluate the impact on Perkin of moving to beyond budgeting. (12 marks)
第1题:
A. Linux kernel
B. routing protocol daemon
C. session-based forwarding module
D. separate routing and security planes
第2题:
A. Linux kernel
B. routing protocol daemon
C. session-based forwarding module
D. separate routing and security planes
第3题:
As the Ezonexam network administrator, you are required to have a firm understanding of the OSI model. Why does the data communication industry use the layered OSI reference model? (Choose two)
A.It enables equipment from different vendors to use the same electronic components, thus saving research and development funds
B.It encourages industry standardization by defining what functions occur at each layer of the model
C.It divides the network communication process into smaller and simpler components; thus aiding component development, design and troubleshooting
D.It provides a means by which changes in functionality in one layer require changes in other layers
E.It supports the evolution of multiple competing standards and thus provides business opportunities for equipment manufacturers
第4题:
What are the two components of HTTP acceleration? ()(Choose two.)
第5题:
What are two components of the Cisco Lightweight WLAN solution?()
第6题:
A. from a zone to the router itself
B. from a zone to the same zone
C. from a zone to a different zone
D. from one interface to another interface
第7题:
A. caching
B. prefetch
C. header caching
D. content or entity caching
第8题:
● Serialization delay and (71) delay are the two components of network delay that are improved by increasing bandwidth. Serialization delay, i.e. the amount of time it takes to put the (72) on the wire, and queuing delay (depth of the queue) are improved by increasing the (73) from a 128Kbps circuit to a T1. However, three other components of delay, routing/switching delay, distance delay, and protocol delay are components that can not be positively affected by an (74) in bandwidth. If the circuits are not over-utilized, then increasing the bandwidth to improve the (75) of the application will only result in an increased bandwidth with no positive effects on performance.
第9题:
Which two table types are CEF components?()
第10题:
What are two components of the Junos software architecture? ()(Choose two.)