Assignment 3: Complete Round 1 in CAPSIM – Company Performance
Hide Assignment Information
Instructions
Background
- If you have not already done so, you will need to register for the Competition Round of CAPSIM now that you have completed the Practice rounds.
You will work in the same teams as you did in Module 1. In Module 2, you will begin serious competition with the other teams in the course – the game is afoot!
The focus of this assignment is to begin the Competition Industry in the CAPSIM simulation and analyze the results from this round to report on the Key Performance Indicators you identified.
This was the beginning of the competition industry. You will be making decisions that position your team’s products against customer requirements, building a production process that allows you to meet the market demands for your products, how to finance those operations, and how to improve processes and products through Research and Development.
You should have received a License Code from your Instructor, so you can join your instructor’s specific section of the CAPSIM simulation. If you have not received this information, please contact your Instructor. For your convenience, registration instructions are attached to this week’s books and resources section.”
The focus of this assignment is to begin the Competition Industry in the CAPSIM simulation and analyze the results from this round to report on your Key Performance Indicators you identified.
This is the beginning of the Competition Industry. You will be making decisions that position your product against customer requirements, building a production process that allows you to meet the market demands for your products, how to finance those operations and how to improve processes and products through Research and Development and Total Quality Management.
Finally, you will learn to read and interpret a full set of performance documents, including Cash Flow Statements, Income Statements, Production and Sales summaries, and the Balanced Scorecard. For Round One, you will have access to functional areas R&D, Marketing, Finance, and Production for decision making.
Remember, what you want to do for each product, at the minimum, is make incremental increases to Performance in R&D and incremental decreases in Size in R&D. You will also note that the Price Range in the Customer Buying Criteria decreases slightly every round. You made the calculations for PFMN and Size in the training segment “Perceptual Map – Ideal Spots”, but here’s a refresher. If you look at how those numbers changed between Rd.0 and Rd.1 and then Rd.1 and Rd.2 in the practice industry (See pp.5-9 in the Courier, Customer Buying Criteria), you will be able to figure out how much those changes should be for each product.
For example, in Rd.1 Able has 5.7 for Performance and 14.3 for Size. In Rd2, performance increases to 6.4 and size decreases to 13.6 – an increase of .7 for performance and a decrease of .7 for size. This industry has continuous linear growth, so those changes in customer expectations will be the same in every round. Do the same calculations for the other five products. Remember to focus on the customer and the Perceptual Map drift!
Instructions
The instructor will check the simulation dashboard to confirm that you have completed this round and will also provide feedback to you to help you with the remainder of the competition industry.
Please note that your grade in the course does not depend on how well you do in the simulation. In that sense, the “competition rounds” are a misnomer. You can do well or poorly in the rounds. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you can understand and explain the effects that your decisions had on the financial results, which you will track weekly as you report on your Key Performance Indicators that you identified in Week 1. You will also report on a new financial measure that you have not yet examined.
• Examine your three financial measures (KPIs) that you will track through your simulation (note – this assignment will repeat for every round that you run). Financial Measures can be found in the various reports that Capsim creates after you have completed a round.
o Include a 4th financial measure of your choice that adds to your understanding of the company’s performance. See page 1 of the Courier for some ideas for different financial measures to examine.
• In each round, you are making some of your decisions based on the Customer Buying Criteria – what do the customers expect in the products that they purchase? This information for each of your products in the five product segments can be found on pages 5-9 of the Courier.
o Report on a different Customer Buying Criteria each week. For example, for look at Size for your product Able in the Traditional segment. Identify the criteria, define the criteria (the Capsim Help & Support can help with this). Then explain what the customer expectations are and what you set for your product on that dimension. Finally, compare your position with the Customer expectations and how the competitors set that number for their products.
Length: 1-3 pages
References: Include a minimum of 2 scholarly references.