INTEGRATED SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT
FINC 300, INFO 300, MGMT 300, MKTG 300
INSTRUCTIONS:
The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the
Finance, Operations, Management, and Marketing disciplines work, and how they integrate their
functioning in the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well you
understand this integration. It is worth 10% of your course grade in each of the four disciplines.
Please read all the instructions carefully before beginning to answer the questions. Contact your
instructor if you don’t understand the assignment’s requirements. You will lose points if you fail
to follow the instructions or if the submission is formatted incorrectly.
• The assignment should be prepared as a Word document, 3-4 pages in length for each
discipline separately.
• The document should be double-spaced, use font size 12.
• Add any appendices or references at the end of the Word document for each discipline
separately.
• Upload the appropriate Word file through the link on Canvas to each of your Integrated
Semester courses separately by the due date (i.e. the Finance assignment should only be
uploaded to your Finance class).
• Your reference sources, in addition to the base case and question sets, should be online sites
and articles, Bloomberg terminals, your Integrated Semester textbooks, PowerPoint slides,
and other sources your professor assigns.
• Turnitin and other software that prevent plagiarism will be used to assess your
sourcing of information. Do your own work.
OPERATIONS ASSIGNMENT
Please read the Walmart case study carefully to complete this assignment. You should mainly use
the Walmart case study. However, you are strongly encouraged to do some research about
Walmart’s operations to answer the questions. Please refresh your understanding of the six key
operations management (OM) functions (listed below for your convenience) discussed in the
course:
Forecasting
Project Management
Quality Management
Process Design
Inventory Management
Supply Chain Management
Question 1:
Walmart is known for offering “Every Day Low Prices” to its customers. One way it is able to do
this is by focusing on efficiency and automation in its supply chain operations. How does
Walmart’s focus on efficiency and automation in their supply chain operations allow them to
offer everyday low prices while still hitting their financial targets? (100-150 words)
Question 2:
“Walmart delegated the pricing and merchandising decisions to store managers who reacted
quickly to changes in local market conditions.”
Assume that you are the store manager of a Walmart, and you would like to introduce multiple
new high-end apparel items to the customers in your store.
Describe any interactions you would have with the regional managers at Walmart Finance,
Marketing, and HR as you get ready for the introduction of those items in your store. For what
issues would you need their help and support? (200 – 250 words).
Question 3:
Assume that you are now the advisor to the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer for Walmart U.S., Chris Nicholas. In this role, you are responsible for providing
recommendations in all aspects of Walmart’s U.S. Store Operations and Supply Chain. This
includes but is not limited to strategy, innovation, automation, store operations, inventory
management, distribution center and fulfillment center operations, and last-mile delivery
capability. Your objective is to assist in boosting in-store sales and profit over the next three
years. Pick two out of six OM functions and provide operational recommendations to Chris
Nicholas for those functions. (250 – 300 words)
Question 4:
Background:
Monitoring daily sales is a critical aspect of retail operations for Walmart. As one of the largest
retail chains in the world, Walmart places significant emphasis on this practice for several
reasons:
By monitoring sales, the store can identify fast-moving and slow-moving items and adjust
inventory levels accordingly. Furthermore, tracking daily sales allows each store to evaluate its
performance on a daily basis. This data helps the store management identify trends, patterns, and
potential issues in sales and customer behavior. Finally, analyzing daily sales data helps in
generating sales forecasts for future periods. Accurate sales forecasts are vital for planning
promotions, setting staffing levels, and making inventory purchase decisions.
Question:
You are given the daily sales of a Walmart store from May 26 to June 29 in Sales_Data.xlsx
dataset. Forecast the daily sales from June 30 to July 6. Make sure your forecasts include any
adjustments for trend and seasonality.
· Draw a line chart of your data.
· Calculate the seasonality indexes. What do the seasonality indexes tell you?
· What are the forecasted sales amounts, after including any adjustments for trend and
seasonality from June 30 to July 6.
· How will Walmart use your forecasts in planning and managing store operations for the
week of June 30th? (100 – 150 words).
Note:
The data on the Excel file is dynamic and changes every time you hit a key on the
keyboard or when you reopen the file. Please copy the entire dataset, paste it as “Values” on a
separate sheet, and work on the data on the new sheet. This will allow you to work on static data.
