Classic Pen Co. Case Essays

Classic Pen Co. Case Essays Classic Pen Co. Case Essay Classic Pen Co. Case Essay Classic Pen Co. Case In the past Classic Pen Company had been the low-cost producer of black and blue pens and had profit margins over 20% of sales. Over the last five years Pen Co. decided to start producing red and purple pens. They require the same basic production technology but can be sold at 3% and 10% premium selling prices. Sales Manager Dennis Selmor is just seeing the financial results and is not happy with the numbers. The first issue that Pen Co. is facing is their decline in profitability. Even though the numbers show the red and purple pens are more profitable individually (red 14. %, purple 18. 2%), the overall return on sales is declining (13. 5%). A second issue that Pen Co. has is the issue of addition of resource costs. It requires a substantial amount of time for physical changeover of production from one colour pen to another. Particularly changing from another colour to red. The final issue Pen Co. faces is the increase of costs related t o scheduling and purchasing activities. Most of the indirect labour costs and computer system costs are related to scheduling and purchasing. Pen Company’s declining profitability could be based on the amount of the company’s overhead. They have determined overhead to be 300% of direct labour costs, when previously the overhead cost was only 200%. The make-up of this overhead is indirect labour, fringe benefits, computer systems, machinery, maintenance, and energy. The reason for such a large increase in overhead is because of the higher demand for indirect costs due to the addition of more complex and specialized products. While the cost for direct labour per one unit is the same for each colour of pen produced. The cost for indirect labour is made up of three different activities: 50% for handling production runs ($10,000), 40% for physical changeover or set up costs ($8,000), and 10% for maintaining records or parts administration ($2,000). The cost for computer systems is made up of two activities: 80% for production run activities ($8,000), and 20% for record keeping or parts administration ($2,000). Finally the remaining indirect costs are the machinery ($8,000), maintenance ($4,000), and energy ($2,000). These are all used to supply the machine with the capacity to produce the pens with a total of $14,000. Overall Classic Pen Co. must improve upon several areas of demand in order to increase its profitability similar to what it had been in the past. They need to increase their planning and try to adjust their current planning system and organizing. They could invest in more computers to increase the amount of scheduling being done by computers and as a result lower their indirect labour costs. Finally I recommend they should invest in some more machines to produce the different colour pens in. This would have a high cost of capital but would eventually save the company money in the labour cost and time required for the physical changeover between colours Calculation Page Indirect LabourMachine Support Handling Production Runs = 10,000Machinery = 8,000 Set Up = 8,000Maintenance = 4,000 Parts Administration = 2,000Energy = 2,000 Fringe Indirect Labour = 8,000Total = 14,000 Computer SupportFringe for Direct Labour Handling Production Runs = 8,000Fringe = 8,000 Parts Administration = 2,000 Total Overhead = 60,000 Calculating Activity Rate Activities| Activity Cost| Cost Driver #| Calculation| Activity Rate| 1) Handling PR| 22,000| 150| 22,000/150| 146. 67 / Run| 2) Set Up| 12,000| 526| 12,000/526| 22. 81 / Hour| 3) Parts Admin. | 4,000| 4| 4,000/4| 1000 / Product| 4) Machine Support| 14,000| 10,000| 14,000/10,000| 1. 4 / Hour| 5) Fringe DL| 8,000| 20,000| 8,000/20,000| 0. 4 / DL Cost| Total| 60,000| | | |

Grauballe Man (Denmark) - European Iron Age Bog Body

Grauballe Man (Denmark) - European Iron Age Bog Body The Grauballe Man is the name of an extremely well-preserved Iron Age bog body, the 2200-year-old body of a man pulled from a peat bog in central Jutland, Denmark in 1952. The body was found at depths of more than one meter (3.5 feet) of peat. The Story of Grauballe Man Grauballe Man was determined to have been about 30 years old when he died. Physical inspection indicated that although his body was in near-perfect preservation, he had been brutally murdered or sacrificed. His throat had been cut from behind so deeply that it nearly beheaded him. His skull was bludgeoned and his leg was broken. Grauballe mans body was among the earliest of objects dated by the newly invented radiocarbon dating method. After his discovery was announced, his body displayed in public and several photographs of him published in newspapers, a woman came forward and claimed that she recognized him as a peat worker she had known as a child who had disappeared on his way home from a local pub. Hair samples from the man returned conventional c14 dates between 2240-2245 RCYBP. Recent AMS radiocarbon dates (2008) returned calibrated ranges between 400-200 cal BC. Preservation Methods Initially, Grauballe man was investigated by Danish archaeologist Peter V. Glob at the National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen. Bog bodies had been found in Denmark beginning in the first half of the 19th century. The most striking characteristic of bog bodies is their preservation, which can be close to or surpass the best of ancient mummification practices. Scientists and museum directors tried all sorts of techniques to maintain that preservation, beginning with air or oven drying. Glob had the Grauballe mans body treated to a process similar to tanning animal hides. The body was kept for 18 months in a mixture of 1/3 fresh oak, 2/3 oak bark plus a .2% of Toxinol as a disinfectant. Over that period, the concentration of Toxinol was increased and monitored. After the 18 months, the body was immersed in a bath of 10% Turkish-red oil in distilled water to avoid shrinkage. New bog body discoveries in the 21st century are kept in wet peat in refrigerated storage at 4 degrees celsius. What Scholars Have Learned Grauballe Mans stomach was removed at some point during the process, but magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigations in 2008 discovered plant grains in the vicinity of where his stomach had been. Those grains are now interpreted as remnants of what likely was his last meal. The grains indicate that Grauballe man ate a type of gruel made from a combination of cereals and weeds, including rye (Secale cereale), knotweed (Polygonum lapathifolium), corn spurrey (Spergula arvensis), flax (Linum usitatissimum) and gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa). Post-Excavation Studies The Irish Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney often wrote poems for and about bog bodies. The one he wrote in 1999 for Grauballe Man is quite evocative and one of my favorites. As if he had been poured / in tar, he lies / on a pillow of turf / and seems to weep. Be sure to read it yourself for free at the Poetry Foundation. The display of bog bodies has ethical issues discussed in many places in the scientific literature: Gail Hitchens article The Modern Afterlife of the Bog People published in the student archaeology journal The Posthole addresses some of these and discusses Heaney and other modern day artistic uses of bog bodies, specifically but not limited to Grauballe. Today Grauballe mans body is kept in a room at the Moesgaard Museum protected from light and temperature changes. A separate room lays out the details of his history and provides numerous CT-scanned images of his body parts; but Danish archaeologist Nina Nordstrà ¶m reports that the separate room keeping his body seems to her a calm and contemplative reburial. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to Bog Bodies and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Granite G. 2016. Understanding the death and burial of northern European bog bodies. In: Murray CA, editor. Diversity of Sacrifice: Form and Function of Sacrificial Practices in the Ancient World and Beyond. Albany: State University of New York Press. p 211-222.Hitchens G. 2009. The Modern Afterlife of the Bog People. The Post Hole 7:28-30.Karg S. 2012. Oil-rich seeds from prehistoric contexts in southern Scandinavia: Reflections on archaeobotanical records of flax, hemp, gold of pleasure, and corn spurrey. Acta Paleobotanica 52(1):17-24.Lynnerup N. 2010. Medical Imaging of Mummies and Bog Bodies – A Mini-Review. Gerontology 56(5):441-448.Mannering U, Possnert G, Heinemeier J, and Gleba M. 2010. Dating Danish textiles and skins from bog finds by means of 14C AMS. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(2):261-268.Nordstrà ¶m N. 2016. The Immortals: Prehistoric individuals as ideological and therapeutic tools in our time. In: Williams H, and Giles M, editors. Archaeologists and t he Dead: Mortuary Archaeology in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p 204-232. Stà ¸dkilde-Jà ¸rgensen H, Jacobsen NO, Warncke E, and Heinemeier J. 2008. The intestines of a more than 2000 years old peat-bog man: microscopy, magnetic resonance imaging and 14C-dating. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(3):530-534.Villa C, and Lynnerup N. 2012. Hounsfield Units ranges in CT-scans of bog bodies and mummies. Anthropologischer Anzeiger 69(2):127-145.