Posted: February 4th, 2015

Finance: Answer Question 1 and 2

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

Answer Question 1 and 2，both

Question 1:

A project requires different numbers of employees on different days of the week. Each employee must work 5 consecutive days, and then have 2 days off. We want to minimise the number of employees to be hired.

The number of employees required each day is:

Sun 17; Mon 14; Tue 14; Wed 14; Thur 18; Fri 18; Sat 12.

Using Excel Solver, calculate the minimum number of employees to be hired, and list the number actually hired each day. Explain carefully how we ensure that the solution does not include negative or fractional numbers of employees.

On some days there will be more people employed than are actually required. For example, if our solution involves employing 15 people on Saturday, the number of “excess” workers on that day is 3. While a small number of excess workers can contribute usefully to the project, it is undesirable to have a large number on any particular day. As a secondary objective we would like to minimise the largest number of excess workers employed on any day. Modify your solution to include that extra constraint. What is the largest number of excess workers in your final solution?

Question 2:

The Excel workbook “Orders” (available on Blackboard) contains two worksheets, “Orders” and “Customers”. “Orders” contains details of 673 orders, including the date of the order and the shipping address. OrderID is a unique identifier for each order. The CustomerID identifies the customer, referencing the field of the same name in the “Customers” sheet, where it identifies uniquely the contact person for that customer. The contacts are not necessarily based in the same city as the shipping address.

We wish to invite all contacts based in London to a reception, and to facilitate this we need a printout of all orders where the contact has a London address.

Import the Excel worksheets into Access as tables, defining suitable primary keys, and establish a suitable “relationship” between the CustomerID fields in the two tables, enforcing the referential integrity. Then create a Query to produce a table of orders with contacts based in London. Include the following fields: Company Name, OrderID, Order Date, Contact Name, Phone Number, and the City to which the order must be shipped. [Note that you will also need to include the “City” field for the Contact in the query, in order to select the London based ones, but that field should not be printed out.] Finally export the resulting table to a Word File (in rtf format) for inclusion in your submitted work.

Key Marking criteria will include:

• Accuracy of the numerical solutions
• Appropriateness of the methodology
• Clarity and conciseness of the descriptions of the methodology

Word Limit

The word limit for this individual assignment is 1000 words.

The School of Management’s detailed word-limit policy, including the penalties relating to breaches of the specified word limit, are incorporated into the electronic cover sheet for coursework (available from the Assessment and Feedback folder on the Blackboard site for this module).

Submission

The School of Management operates a late penalty systems as follows: when work is submitted late with no prior authorisation, a penalty of 10% will be deducted from the actual mark for each calendar day, or part of a day, by which the deadline is exceeded. After seven days from the initial deadline, a mark of zero will be awarded. Late work should be submitted electronically in the usual way.

An extension to the submission date for coursework can be granted by the Extenuating Circumstances Committee where an application is made in advance of the due date. All applications must be supported by independent evidence e.g. medical circumstances must be supported by a doctor’s certificate. Computing failure is not considered to be an extenuating circumstance, and nor is pressure of work.  Students are expected to make backup copies of their work, manage their time efficiently and to meet deadlines. Please see the School’s policy on Extenuating Circumstances for more information. Details of how to make a claim for extenuating circumstances are available from the Client Experience Office.

Notes on Style

The assignment should be in extended essay format (ie. use headings/sub-headings). Full academic referencing using the APA (6^th Edition) referencing style should be used throughout the assignment. Guideline on how to reference using the APA style can be found at

APA Referencing Short guide: http://tinyurl.com/pn9oaxt

APA Referencing Long Guide: http://tinyurl.com/bwdj2mk

All sources should be correctly identified – students are reminded the University enforces strict penalties for plagiarism and collusion (up to and including withdrawal from the University).

Correct English spelling and grammar should be used at all times. Assignments should be typed or word processed – hand-written assignments will not be accepted.   Students who have been formally diagnosed with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) and assessed by the Disability Office should indicate ‘SpLD’ on the front cover of their coursework before submission.

Feedback Policy

Feedback to the coursework will be provided within three calendar weeks of the submission deadline date. All feedback for the coursework assignment will be provided through GradeMark. Marks will be made available via Grade Centre in Blackboard and your university student portal. Please note that all marks are provisional until they have been ratified by a progression or award board and are therefore subject to change. Anonymous examples of good and bad practice may be shown in the final week of the module.