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Assignment/Coursework Remit

Assignment:

Module Learning Outcomes:

LO 1. Explain the main concepts of management accounting and business analytics and the context in which they operate

LO 3. Apply the basic concepts, techniques and practices of business analytics and management accounting, to solve structured problems in managing organisations

LO 5. Discuss the use of management accounting and other information in organisational management and the strengths of varying approaches

LO 6. Assess the potential of analytic techniques in addressing business issues

LO 7. Identify and apply a range of analytical techniques to business cases

Grading Criteria:

Feedback to Students:

Both Summative and Formative feedback is given to encourage students to reflect on their learning that feed forward into following assessment tasks. The preparation for all assessment tasks will be supported by formative feedback within the tutorials/seminars. Written feedback is provided as appropriate.  Please be aware to use the browser and not the Canvas App as you may not be able to view all comments.

Plagiarism:

It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand correct referencing practices. You are expected to use appropriate references and keep carefully detailed notes of all your information sources, including any material downloaded from the Internet. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are not vulnerable to any alleged breaches of the assessment regulations. More information is available at https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/registry/policy/conduct/plagiarism/index.aspx.

Use of Generative AI:  

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, students should assume that the use of generative AI within an assessment or assignment is not permitted.  Any assessment submitted that is not a student’s own work, including that written by generative AI tools, are in breach of the University’s Code of Practice on Academic Integrity (https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/registry/policy/conduct/plagiarism/index.aspx

Wellbeing Extenuating Circumstances:

The process for Extenuating Circumstances is to support students who have experienced unforeseen issues that have impacted their ability to engage with their studies and/or complete assessments. Students should notify Wellbeing of any extenuating circumstances as soon as possible via the online form, following the guidance provided.

https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/social-sciences/college-services/wellbeing/index.aspx

Decision Making and Control 2023-24

07 31281

Coursework Group Assignment (40%)

Motor Ideal Ltd is an automobile manufacturer based in the West Midlands that manufactures and sells new-energy passenger cars to UK customers. The company was formed in 2012, as an early entrant into the UK market for cars powered by new-energy technologies. Its key objective is to develop and manufacture its own energy efficient engine and battery. It has developed an efficient manufacturing system to keep costs down and quality high. One key feature is a Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory system which aligns raw material orders from suppliers directly with production schedules. Now that all the major automotive companies are making major commitments to switching production to the low-emission vehicle market, Mr Richard White, the Managing Director of Motor Ideal, is keen to know more about the company’s current and future position in the UK automotive market.

UK automotive market share 2019-2024 (new ICE, hybrid and electric cars)

Note: The predicted annual new car sales in UK during 2019-2024 is approximately 2m.

As consumers become more aware of the need to switch from petrol and diesel vehicles, the company predicts that in 2024 the market demand for each hybrid car will be 10% higher than the 2023 sales; whereas the demand for fossil fuel cars is expected to be the same as the 2023 sales (to simplify your calculation round all 2024 car predictions to the nearest 1,000 e.g. 11,500 is rounded to 12,000; 11,499 is rounded to 11,000). In addition, Motor Ideal’s marketing department reports that customers are increasingly interested in pure electric cars, which has led the company to plan to manufacture 5,000 Star-V, a new brand electric car, in 2024. The following table contains cost and other relevant information for each car model that Motor Ideal has manufactured in 2023:

* Each car has four main tyres plus one spare tyre.

** One metric tonne = 1,000 kg. In this essay please assume tonne to be metric tonne only.

The UK’s highest inflation in modern history has brought several impacts on Motor Ideal’s business. Motor Ideal has secured long-term trading agreements with its existing suppliers in tyres & window glasses, engines and other parts & components that supplier’s prices remain constant until 2025, which enables Motor Ideal to acquire ample supplies from the above materials/components. In line with its JIT approach, Motor Ideal works with one sole supplier of steel resources, ABC Co, because of the quality of their products and the reliability and timeliness of their JIT deliveries. Due to the inflation, ABC Co has increased its retail price 20% compared to 2023, with a guaranteed 17,000 tonnes of steel to meet Motor Ideal’s maximum demand in 2024. To cope with the increasing living crisis and National Union of Vehicle Builder’s strike actions during 2023, Mr Joseph White, Motor Ideal’s executive director, has agreed to give a £5 pay raise per labour hour for manufacturing workers (direct labour). However, Mr White has been advised by HR remuneration team that the expenditure on direct labour cannot exceed its direct labour budget £3,800,000.

As one of the major global environmental crises, climate change has forced the global automobile industry to restructure their product range and manufacturing systems towards the production of ‘green’ vehicles via a ‘lean and green’ production process. This stems from the need to halt global warming, mainly through reducing the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the whole process of vehicle design, manufacture and operation. Motor Ideal has already succeeded over the past decade in developing lean and green design and production processes and developing efficient green engines and batteries at a competitive cost and retail price, in which Mr White decides to remain the same retail price for each mode in 2024. This has now become more significant since the UK government has passed the net zero emissions law to bring all GHG emissions to net zero by 2050, and has made a commitment to requiring all cars sold in the UK from 2035 to be hybrid and electric. However, Motor Ideal now faces a significant potential problem that could negatively impact its planned vehicle production targets. Motor Ideal is required under the current requirements of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to meet a new and lower cap on their total carbon emission allowances for the coming year (i.e. tonnes of CO2 emission) to cap its carbon emission at 194,000 tonnes in 2024, including the purchased emission allowances and its existing emission cap.

Mr White and the operation team are currently negotiating potential investments on a new factory in Vietnam with cheaper labour costs (the average monthly salary in Vietnam is 6.1m VND equivalent to approx. £200), however this seems to be a long-term strategic version that is expected to be implemented until 2028. Mr White has been provided with a dataset containing various information relevant to decisions on whether/how having a Vietnam factory would impact Motor Ideal’s business. Mr White is therefore keen to know if there is a limiting factor that currently constrains the company from maximising its productivity.

Required

You will be working as a group to write a group essay, addressing the following information:

1. Data analytics:

Use an appropriate data analytical tool (Excel or Data Wrapper) to visualise Motor Ideal’s 2013-2023 sales trend, Motor Ideal’s 2019-2024 market share, and UK overall CO2 emission 2002-2022 with brief overview on the data visualised:

Ÿ Show Motor Ideal’s 2013-2023 sales trend and 2019-2024 market share, with brief overview on Motor Ideal’s sales trend and market share: market share is calculated by Motor Ideal’s annual sales divided by UK’s predicted annual car sales.

Ÿ Show UK’s cars registered by fuel type from 2015-2019, with brief overview on the trend of cars registered by fuel type in the UK.

Ÿ Show UK’s CO2 emissions from 2002-2022 in terms of total overall trend (total emission with breakdown of every sector) and CO2 emissions in transportation, with brief overview on UK’s CO2 emissions overall and in transportation sector.

Ÿ Explain any data cleaning/parsing process on the used dataset where applicable.

2. Decision making: 

Explain the purpose and process of identifying a limiting factor. Prepare the optimum production plan with all calculative workings. Your discussions should be tailored to the case of Motor Ideal.

Ÿ Explain what limiting factor means and the purpose of conducting limiting factor analysis.

Ÿ Explain the step-by-step procedure how limiting factor analysis and the determination of optimum production is carried out in Motor Ideal. Note: there is no need to display calculations, but you need to literally explain how limiting factor analysis works.

3. Social and environmental impacts

Evaluate the extent to which the identified limiting factor has any social/environmental impact on Motor Ideal’s business strategy. Your discussions could cover, but not limited to, the following:

Ÿ How could the identified limiting factor be removed?

Ÿ How would building factory in Vietnam resolve the identified limiting factor?

Ÿ Are there any social/environmental concerns for building a factory in Vietnam?

Ÿ Will there be any clash(s) between your limiting factor decision and wider social/environmental goals?

4. Evaluation on the analytical and decision making tools

Critically evaluate the usefulness of analytical tools you used (visualisation tools, limiting factor analysis) in Motor Ideal’s decision making. Note: your discussions should be tailored to the case of Motor Ideal. To assist in your evaluation consider the following issues:

Ÿ Your choice of data visualisation tools: why they are the best visualisation tools used in the essay? Any alternatives can be used for the same purpose?

Ÿ Consider both advantages and disadvantages of limiting factor analysis in Motor Ideal’s decision-making process.

Additional Guidance

Ÿ This group assessment should be written in form of an academic essay, in which it should follow the basic structure of an essay instead of an attempt on exam questions i.e. an essay should typically contain effective introduction, logical presentations in the main body, natural flow of arguments and a summative conclusion. Please refer to Canvas resource in ResourceList ‘Writing for University’.

Ÿ All calculations must be presented in tables and included in the appendix (not in the main text), or your calculations will not be marked.

Ÿ You may use some of the following, but not limited to, reading to evaluate the social and environmental impacts of your identified limiting factor:

Ÿ Gold, S., Trautrims, A. and Trodd, Z. (2015). Modern slavery challenges to supply chain management. Supply Chain Management, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-02-2015-0046

Ÿ MacKenzie, D. (2009). Making Things the Same: Gases, Emission Rights and the Politics of Carbon Markets. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 34, No. 3/4, 2009, pp. 440-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2008.02.004

Ÿ UNFCCC. What is Kyoto Protocol? https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol

Ÿ Each group member must make your own contribution to the group assessment by participating/undertaking certain missions i.e. data visualisation, calculations, writing up certain parts of essay. Individual student who does not contribute sufficiently to the group essay will be deducted 10 marks from the score given to the group essay. Individual students who do not contribute at all will get zero for this group assessment.

Ÿ Your group assignment should be in structured essay format with reasonable academic presentation and reference styles, within the word limit of no more than 3000 words excluding reference. Your score will be deducted if your total word count exceeds 3000.

Ÿ In-text references will be included in the total word count. Reference list (bibliography) will not be included in the total word count.

Ÿ In-text citations and bibliography should strictly follow Harvard (author-date) referencing system here.

Ÿ For further information please visit Canvas page: FAQ Group report.

Ÿ Each group leader will submit your group essay by 12.00 noon, 11 March 2024. Penalty will apply to late submission. Group lead will also need to submit ONE separate Canvas progress survey containing your group details and progress by 12.00noon 26 February 2024 to help module team identifying potential issues/disputes; otherwise, module team will be unable to deal with later disputes and award equal marks to every group member.