Final Project Instructions and Case Study

Assignment: Final Project

The Final Project requires you to bring into play all aspects of the course.

For the Final Project you will given a brief business case to analyze. Your analysis includes three parts: an analytic section via Excel, a graphic section via PowerPoint, and a narrative via Word.

You may preview the business case in Doc Sharing. Your assignment is in three parts:

1. An analytic section that you will submit as an Excel spread sheet
2. A PowerPoint presentation of 3 to 5 slides.
3. A narrative section that you will submit as a two to three page Word document.

First, read the business case and identify the business decisions that need to be made. Then, using the case datasheet, perform a statistical analysis of the data and obtain the required statistics. Submit your analysis as an Excel spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet will contain numerical data. You will then submit a PowerPoint file to showcase graphical information. Finally, in a narrative of about two to three pages, describe the business situation and the decisions that the business must make. Explain, based on your findings, a recommended course of action for the business. Refer to the statistics you calculated and the graphs you created in the spreadsheet. Submit your narrative as a Word document.

The Ther m oStar Case

ThermoStar has been producing residential thermostats for over 50 years.

Looking over the past 20 quarters (5 years) of the different product lines, the general manager has been trying to get a handle on sales, costs, and production, and has asked for your help.

Your response to the general manager will be in three parts: An Excel spreadsheet that details your analysis, a 3 slide PowerPoint presentation that shows some key graphs, and a two to three page report on the situation that addresses the company’s operations, cites your analysis, and provides recommendations. You need to use the data to describe the business, plus give your personal recommendations on what the business seems to be doing right, what needs to change, and/or what the manager might need to be concerned about. Write your report with the intention that the general manager will view your complete product as your deliverable, that is, your report should use your Excel and PowerPoint analysis as "attachments" that provide evidence to your narrative.

Instructions

Answer the following using Excel and refer to your datasheet.

1. Calculate the descriptive statistics (summary statistics) for total sales (in K units), and report the mean, median, and standard deviation.
2. Using the unit data by product line, compile a breakdown of sales by product. Also, show the expected sales by product for 100,000 total units.
3. ThermoStar tests thermostats so they are calibrated with a mean of 70 degrees, with an associated standard deviation of 2 degrees. Given this mean and standard deviation what percentage of thermostats will test below the inspector’s cutoff value and thus need to be recalibrated? (See the data sheet for the cutoff and assume that the test results are normally distributed.)
4. A sample of 40 employees showed the average time spent in training per year to be 40 hours, with the associated standard deviation as noted in the datasheet. Construct a 95 percent confidence interval for the training program.
5. Do a simple regression for the total costs. Report the regression equation, as well as the R ² and t-statistic. Is this model suitable for business decision making? Explain why. (Hint: copy and paste special, transpose the data into columns, then run the regression tool.)
   

PowerPoint

Using your Excel analysis, graph your answers to numbers 2 and 5. Additionally, provide a third slide that shows your key recommendation graphically.

Narrative Report

See the description (above). Submit it as a Word file.

Price: $6.42

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 3 pages, 342 words.
Deliverable: Word Document