Business Data Analysis

Business Data Analysis

Rewrite, imporove and add a 500 word reflective piece on the improvements made.

Resit Summative Assessment 2021

Fair CocoaBeans

Fair Cocoa Beans produces a variety of packeted chocolate products from its main factory in the UK. Two main packet sizes are available, a smaller one for snack-size sales and a larger one for home baking sales. Fair Cocoa Beans also sells other snack chocolate products (Mars and Ferrero) but both chocolates are by far the best sellers.

The Company imports chocolates mainly from USA and Italy.

Business has fared well since the Company set up production in 2018. Indeed, there has been a steady increase in net profits every year since start up. Recently the Company has noticed various trends among customers, including an increasing interest in healthy snacks. One of the older machines in the production line seems to be labouring and breaks down more regularly these days.

Accordingly, as a work placement from the University of Roehampton, you have been set a number of tasks, the results of which should be presented in business report format for Fair Cocoa Beans (word length 2000, excluding graphs/figures/references) and written in English.

These tasks are detailed in the following pages and generally concern (in alphabetical order):

• Customer information
• Production information
• Quality assurance information
• Recommendations for factory improvement
• Summary chocolate information

Your report should not be simply be a list of tasks. Rather, it should read as a professional business report with an introduction, sections, summary, references and appendices, all in Word format.

All tasks are worth ten marks each.

Please Note: Academic integrity and honesty are fundamental to the academic work you produce at the University of Roehampton. You are expected to complete coursework which is your own and which is referenced appropriately. The university has in place measures to detect academic dishonesty in all its forms. If you are found to be cheating or attempting to gain an unfair advantage over other students in any way, this is considered academic misconduct and you will be penalised accordingly.

Task 1

You have been asked to write a brief overview of Cocoa Beans and specifically the Switzerland Cocoa Beans industry and you have found a suitable report Exporting Cocoa to the UK Report (Note: This report is also available in Moodle).

Write a brief overview based on the two sections Cocoa Beans and Switzerland Cocoa Beans Industry. Your overview should be no more than two paragraphs. You should not copy verbatim the information contained in the report. The proper Harvard reference for this report should be included as one of your references in task 10.

Task 2

Fair Cocoa Beans has provided you with current information about Top Chocolate Sales locally and globally of chocolate suppliers’ volume of Cocoa Beans production, some of which goes into exports to the UK and some into local USA use. The figure below represents Top Chocolate Sales.

Using an EXCEL spreadsheet:

1. Generate a clustered column for Global Sale productions.

Having received further information about Nestle Global Potential Sales in particular and using the table below:

1. Produce an appropriate scatter diagram based on the Nestle table. Use your diagram to make a linear forecast of Global Sale productions.

Task 3

Having gained a better understanding of the cocoa beans market, you decide to start analysing the largest European cocoa bean importers Figure 3.  A good starting point can be found at CBI  website:  

https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/cocoa/trade-statistics#what-makes-europe-an-interesting-market-for-cocoa

Unfortunately, the chart (figure 3) contained in the website is not clear although it does contain good value information about main importers of Cocoa Beans. Therefore, you have decided to make your own table based on the Netherlands.  From your graph, create a line chart for Cocoa Beans.  Give a brief summary of the potential expansion to this country.

Task 4

Currently, all of Fair Cocoa Beans’ operations are carried out on two separate production lines, one driven by a new machine and the other by a relatively older machine. Recent monitoring of each machine show that the probability of failure in the new one is 0.2 % and in the old one is 0.8 %. Given that the quality assurance department insists on a probability of 99.999% that at least one machine is working at all times, advise Fair Cocoa Beans if this condition is being satisfied.

Task 5

The idea of buying a new machine to replace the older one arose at the last management team meeting. The older one would not be sold but could be used as backup if necessary. If Fair Cocoa Beans does decide to replace the older machine and buy a new one, the finance dept has indicated that the maximum monthly payment they could afford, based on current profit forecasts for the next six years, would be £2000 p.m. The Company’s bankers would be able to offer an interest rate of 7% to borrow the £98,000 cost of the new machine. What range of months would you recommend that the loan is taken over to keep within Fair Cocoa Beans’ budget?

Task 6

Fair Cocoa Beans makes packets of chocolates in its factory in the UK and currently uses two machines to fill the packets. A sample of 30 packets from the first machine has a mean weight of 180 g and a standard deviation of 40 g. A sample of 40 packets from the second machine has a mean weight of 170 g and a standard deviation of 10 g.

State the six-point procedure for hypothesis testing and test if the two machines are comparable in terms of putting the same amount in packets?

Task 7

The company has asked you to complete a Pros & Cons table similar to the one shown in figure T7) to help in deciding about buying a new machine to replace the old one. Update the table and include it in your report.

Figure T7.   A ‘pros and cons method’ table for buying a new machine.

Task 8

The company monitors customer satisfaction via social media and through its website. Each customer is asked to complete a short survey containing the questions shown in figure T8.

Figure T8. A short customer questionnaire.

Latest results are contained in the Excel File “Task 8” contained in Moodle. Use Excel to calculate respectively the average values for freshness, tastiness and recommendation for each type of chocolate and briefly summarise your findings.

Task 9

Fair Cocoa Beans has considered possibly expanding its product lines to include Nestle and Mondelez snacks. Prepare a brief initial SWOT analysis about this possible expansion (only two issues in each of the SWOT categories).

Task 10

Based on all the data you have considered in Tasks 1-9, summarise in just one or two paragraphs your most important findings. Also, check the overall structure and presentation of your report (see the Brief in Moodle for more details), including your key references in Harvard style.

Resit in formation

Resit submission date: Please see the announcement on the Moodle site once the dates for resits are confirmed

For students who are offered a resit you are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary discussing what you have learned from the process. You must resubmit your work using the specific resit Turnitin link on Moodle.

You should:

1. Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.
2. Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process
3. Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece (500 words) on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:
4. i) Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback
5. ii) Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit

iii) Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments

If you did not submit work at the first opportunity you cannot reflect on your feedback. However, you are still required to submit a reflective piece in which you identify your reasons for non-submission, the implications of non-submission for your future success and how you propose to address this in the future. If you have issues with confidentiality of your reasons for non-submission then you could reflect on how you have met the learning outcomes for the module, how you can use what you have done on the module to support your future career and what skills/employability attributes you feel the module has helped you to develop.

If you were deferred at the first assessment opportunity you do not need to include the reflective piece as this is a first submission at a later date, not a resit.

The original marking criteria will still apply (see marking grid provided below) except that the 10% weighting for presentation will be awarded instead to your reflective piece.

How will we support you with your assessment?

• A dedicated briefing session on the assessment
• Resources on improving report-writing
• Feedback on your draft plan
• Links to the assessment throughout your seminars
• FAQs on Moodle and assessment discussion forum
• Sample reports of Moodle
• Exercises on Moodle with instructions

How will your work be assessed?

Your work will be assessed by a subject expert who will use the assessment criteria provided in this assessment brief.  When you access your marked work it is important that you reflect on the feedback so that you can use it to improve future assignments.

Referencing

You MUST use the Harvard System.  The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

Assignment submissions

The Business School requires a digital version of all assignment submissions.  These must be submitted via Turnitin on the module’s Moodle site.  They must be submitted as a Word file (not as a pdf) and must not include scanned in text or text boxes.  They must be submitted by 2pm on the given date.  For further general details on coursework preparation refer to the online information via StudentZone http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/howtostudy/index.html.

Mitigating circumstances/what to do if you cannot submit a piece of work or attend your presentation

The University Mitigating Circumstances Policy can be found on the University website –  Mitigating  Circumstances Policy

Marking and feedback process

Between you handing in your work and then receiving your feedback and marks within 28 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below.

• Step One – The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.
• Step Two – A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.
• Step Three – A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback
• Step Four – Work goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair
• Step Five – Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.