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正确答案：
(b) In many ways Six Sigma started out as a quality control methodology. It focused on measurement and the minimisation of
faults through pursuing Six Sigma as a statistical measure of some aspects of organisational performance. However, Six Sigma
has developed into something much more than a process control technique. It includes a problem-solving process called
DMAIC and a comprehensive toolkit ranging from brainstorming to balanced scorecards and process dashboards. It also has
defined team roles for managers and employees, often with martial arts names such as Black Belt, Green Belt and Master
Black Belt.
Six Sigma was first used in organisations in the early 1990s. However, it was its adoption and promotion by Jack Welch, the
CEO of GE that brought Six Sigma wider publicity. He announced that ‘Six Sigma is the most important initiative GE has ever
undertaken’. As Paul Harmon comments, ‘Welch’s popularity with the business press, and his dynamic style, guaranteed that
Six Sigma would become one of the hot management techniques of the late 1990s’.
Six Sigma uses an approach called DMAIC in its problem solving process. This stands for Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve
and Control. Three aspects of this are considered below in the context of how they would address the problems at UPC.
Defining the problem
Part of defining the problem is the identification of the customer. It is important to understand what customers really want
and value and one of the main themes of Six Sigma is its focus on the customer. Six Sigma explicitly recognises the ‘voice of
the customer’ (VOC) in its approach. In the UPC situation quality requirements are currently defined by the physical condition
of the goods and by the alignment of the image. However, this may be a limiting view of quality because there is no evidence

of any systematic investigation of the requirements of the customer. Solving these problems may not lead to any significant
long-term gain; they may be quickly replaced by other ‘quality issues’. Furthermore, the customer is also perceived in a limited
way. These quality requirements are in the eye of the gift shop owner who is interested in saleable products. The end customer
– the consumer – who buys and uses the product may have other requirements which can also be addressed at this time.
By considering the VOC the problem and scope of the project becomes re-defined and the solution of the problems potentially
more valuable.
Measurement
Measurement is fundamental to Six Sigma. This includes the gathering of data to validate and quantify the problem. The
creation of the inspection team was based on initial evidence about an increase in breakages. This needs to be quantified.
The inaccurate printing of the image had been quantified as 500 units per month, out of the 250,000 shipped out of the
company. This equates to a failure rate of 0·2%, so that 99·8% of items are shipped with a correctly aligned image. This
sounds quite reasonable but it still raises issues and complaints that have to be dealt with, as well as creating wastage costs
of $10,000 per month. The problem is that even a relatively low percentage of defects can lead to a lot of unhappy customers.
Aiming for Six Sigma would reduce defects down to about one faulty item per month, reducing the wastage cost to $20.
Analysis
Analysis is concerned with understanding the process to find the root cause. Six Sigma focuses on processes and their
analysis. Analysis concerns methods, machines, materials, measures, Mother Nature and people. The alignment problem
needs investigation to find out what causes the imaging machine to irregularly produce misaligned images. Management
currently appear to blame the machine but it may be due to the way that certain people load the machine. The analysis of
the breakages is particularly important. It is unclear at present where these breakages occur (for example, are some of the
items broken before they leave UPC’s despatch facility) or are they all broken in transit? Neither is it understood why the
breakages occur. Management appear to blame the packers for packing incorrectly and not following the correct method.
However, it may be that the material is just not strong enough to withstand heavy handling by couriers who are outside the
control of UPC. Additionally, the breakages may be due to some manufacturing problem or raw material imperfection in the
items that break. Six Sigma stresses understanding the problem before solving it.
Although DMAIC has been selected as the framework for the sample answer, focusing on other aspects of Six Sigma would
be acceptable – as long as they are presented in the context of the UPC scenario.

正确答案：
(a) In order to assess the attractiveness of the option to enter the market for spirally-wound paper tubes, the directors of BPC
could make use of Michael Porter’s ‘five forces model’.
In applying this model to the given scenario one might conclude that the relatively low cost of the machine together with the
fact that an unskilled person would only require one day’s training in order to be able to operate a machine, constitute
relatively low costs of entry to the market. Therefore one might reasonably conclude that the threat of new entrants might be
high. This is especially the case where the market is highly fragmented.
The fact that products are usually purchased in very large quantities by customers together with the fact that there is little real
difference between the products of alternative suppliers suggests that customer (buyer) power might well be very high. The
fact that the paper tubes on average only comprise between 1% and 2% of the total cost of the purchaser’s finished product
also suggests that buyer power may well be very high.
The threat from suppliers could be high due to the fact that the specially formulated paper from which the tubes are made is
sometimes in short supply. Hence suppliers might increase their prices with consequential diminution in gross margin of the
firms in the marketplace.
The threat from competitive rivals will be strong as the four major players in the market are of similar size and that the market
is a slow growing market. The market leader currently has 26% of the market and the three nearest competitors hold
approximately 18% of the market.
The fact that Plastic Tubes Co (PTC) produces a narrow range of plastic tubes constitutes a threat from a substitute product.
This threat will increase if the product range of PTC is extended and the price of plastic tubes is reduced.
The fact that a foreign-based multinational company is considering entering this market represents a significant threat from a
potential new entrant as it would appear that the multinational company might well be able to derive economies of scale from
large scale automated machinery and has manufacturing flexibility.
Low capital barriers to entry might appeal to BPC but they would also appeal to other potential entrants. The low growth
market, the ease of entry, the existence of established competitors, a credible threat of backward vertical integration by
suppliers, the imminent entry by a multi-national, a struggling established competitor and the difficulty of differentiating an
industrial commodity should call into question the potential of BPC to achieve any sort of competitive advantage. If BPC can
achieve the position of lowest cost producer within the industry then entry into the market might be a good move. In order
to assess whether this is possible BPC must consider any potential synergies that would exist between its cardboard business
and that of the tubes operation.
From the information available, the option to enter the market for cardboard tubes appears to be unattractive. The directors
of BPC should seek alternative performance improvement strategies.

正确答案：
Totalsalesrevenue=(280,000x$55)+(420,000x$45)=$15·4m+18·9m=$34·3m.NoteTheexpectedprofithasbeencalculatedusinglifecyclecostingnotrelevantcosting.Hence,the$20,000salarycostincludedinpatentcostsshouldbeincludedinthelifecyclecost.Similarly,theopportunitycostof$800,000isnotincludedusinglifecyclecostingwhereasifrelevantcostingwasbeingusedtodecideonaparticularcourseofaction,theopportunitycostwouldbeincluded.Working1Expectedmarketingcostinyear1:(0·2x$2·2m)+(0·5x$2·6m)+(0·3x$2·9m)=$2·61mExpectedmarketingcostyear2:(0·3x$1·8m)+(0·4x$2·1m)+(0·3x$2·3m)=$2·07mTotalexpectedmarketingcost=$4·68m

正确答案：
(b) Benchmarking
Benchmarks enable goals to be set that may be based on either external measures of ‘best practice’ organisations or internal
cross-functional comparisons which exhibit ‘best practice’. A primary aim of the traditional budgeting process is the setting of
realistic targets that can be achieved within the budget period. The setting of realistic targets means that the extent of
underperformance against ‘best practice’ standards loses visibility, and thus short-term financial targets remain the
predominant focus of the traditional budgeting process. It is arguable that because the budgetary reporting system purports
to give managers ‘control’, there is very little real incentive to seek out benchmarks which may be used to raise budgeted
performance targets. Much depends upon the prevailing organisational culture since benchmarking may be viewed as an
attempt by top management to impose impossible targets upon operational managers. The situation is further exacerbated
where organisations do not measure their success relative to their competition.
Balanced scorecard
The Balanced scorecard is often misunderstood as a consequence of the failure by top management to ensure that it is
implemented effectively within the organisation. Thus it may be viewed as the addition of a few non-financial measures to
the conventional budget. In an attempt to overcome this misperception many management teams now establish a
performance-rewards linkage based upon the achievement of Scorecard targets for the forthcoming budget period.
Unfortunately this can precipitate dysfunctional behaviour at every level within the organisation.
Even in situations where the Scorecard has been well-designed and well-implemented it is difficult for it to gain widespread
acceptance. This is because all too often there exists a culture which places a very high value upon the achievement of the
fixed annual targets in order to avoid the loss of status, recognition and rewards.
A well-constructed Scorecard contains a mix of long-term and short-term measures and therefore drives the company in the
direction of medium-term strategic goals which are supported by cross-functional initiatives. On the other hand, the budgeting
process focuses the organisation on the achievement of short-term financial goals supported by the initiatives of individual
departments. Budgets can also act as an impediment to the acceptance of responsibility by local managers for the
achievement of the Scorecard targets. This is often the case in situations where a continued emphasis exists on meeting shortterm
e.g. quarterly targets.
Activity-based models
Traditional budgets show the costs of functions and departments (e.g. staff costs and establishment costs) instead of the costs
of those activities that are performed by people (e.g. receipt of goods inwards, processing and dispatch of orders etc). Thus
managers have no visibility of the real ‘cost drivers’ of their business. In addition, it is probable that a traditional budget
contains a significant amount of non-value-added costs that are not visible to the managers. The annual budget also tends
to fix capacity for the forthcoming budget period thereby undermining the potential of Activity-based management (ABM)
analysis to determine required capacity from a customer demand perspective. Those experienced in the use of ABM
techniques are used to dealing with such problems, however their tasks would be much easier to perform. and their results
made more reliable if these problems were removed.