One consumer research exercise asks consumers to say the first things that occur to them when they hear a brand name. for example, for the brand "coca-cola," someone might respond, "red and white cans, sweet, carbonated." these are examples of

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600

Which of the following best describes the advantage of living in a suburban area? a. suburbs give people access to city jobs along with more living space. b. suburbs give people easy access to cultural attractions and high-paying jobs. c. suburbs have the widest availability of low-cost housing of any living area. d. suburbs have the lowest population density of any living area.

Q3. loral corporation manufactures parts for an aircraft company. it uses a computerized numerical controlled (cnc) machining center to produce a specific part that has a design (nominal) target of 1.275 inches with tolerances of ± 0.020 inch. the cnc process that manufactures these parts has a mean of 1.285 inches and a standard deviation of 0.005 inch. compute the process capability ratio and process capability index, and comment on the overall capability of the process to meet the design specifications.