Assessment & Analysis

Benchmarking Reports – website only:

Top Ten Rankings

Round Analysis

Analyst Report

The Round Analysis & Analyst Report also provide coaching

Capstone® Provides Several Tools to Assist in Results Assessment & Analysis

•Industry & Team Reports – both website & capstone.xls:

Capstone Courier

Annual Reports

Benchmarking

Compare your team’s results with thousands of Capstone® users at other schools – at your professor’s discretion

Average Profits, Stock Prices, ROE, ROS, ROA, Asset Turnover, and Market Capitalization results are all reported

Top Ten Rankings

Benchmarking & Coaching

Round Analysis Report•The Round Analysis Report uses five simple benchmarks for Profit, Margins, Emergency Loan status, Inventory Management, & Stock Price.

•Students are quickly pointed towards potential problem areas.

•Uses a “Morningstar” style rating system to award stars for meeting the benchmarks.

Benchmarking & Coaching

Analyst Report

• Comprehensive scoring for each team for every round of competition.

• The Analyst provides detailed coaching on each of ten categories:

1) Margins

2) Profits

3) Emergency Loans

4) Working Capital

5) Market Share

6) Forecasting

7) Customer Satisfaction

8) Productivity

9) Financial Structure

10) Wealth Creation

Capstone® Courier•Page 1 and Page 2 report the “big picture” headline-grabbers -- Sales, Profits, Margins, Market Share, Return Measures, Stock Prices, Earnings Per Share, etc.

•What constitutes good or bad results? Benchmarks are provided on the website in the “Analyst Report,” the “Round Analysis” report, and the Top Ten rankings report.

•Compare your results against competitors, and the Round 0 Courier. Remember - Round 0 reflected mediocre performance. Also remember that overall customer demand is growing at somewhere around 14% a year, which means Sales -- and Profits -- should likewise be on the increase.

Page 1- Front Page

Pages 1 & 2 report “what” as opposed to “why.” Pages 3-12 illustrate “why.”

Capstone® Courier

Page 2 - Stocks & Bonds

Closing Stock Price

Earnings Per Share (EPS)

Market Capitalization

Dividend Payouts

Bond Rating (S&P)

S&P rating of BBB and higher - considered a good credit risk

BB and below is “junk” bond rating

The “Analyst Report” on the website (Wealth Creation category) provides extensive coverage of Stock Price issues

Capstone® Courier

Page 3 – Financial Analysis•Cash Flow Statement helps diagnose Emergency Loans and analyze use of working capital. Numbers in parenthesis? Money is being sucked out of the cash account. Excessive inventory and un-funded Plant & Equipment investments are the two primary causes for Emergency Loans.

•What does a large $ value for the Plant & Equipment line on the Balance Sheet Survey suggest? Either that team wants to be a cost leader (automation increases/capacity expansions), or they have added new products.

•Income Statement Survey allows teams to compare cost structures and R&D/Marketing expense return rates against competitors. More detailed Income Statement provided as part of team’s private Annual Reports (Annual Report Page 2 under “Last Year’s Reports”).

Capstone® Courier

Page 4 – Production Analysis

•Assess plant utilization, inventory management, analyze competitors plant automation and capacity changes, and compare unit sales figures.

•Good number for plant utilization? At least 100%, 150% to 180% is better (as long as it doesn't end up in a warehouse as excess inventory).

•Ideal inventory position? One unit in each line - rarely happens. About 10% worth of sales is a good benchmark for inventory when developing sales forecasts. If you sold 1M units, about 100K in inventory would be fine.

• Stockouts are costly: 1) The SG&A costs have already been recovered, so missed sales would have gone more heavily towards profit; 2) Competitors often pick up additional sales as a result of your stockout.

Capstone® Courier

Pages 5-9 Market Segment Analysis•Assess market penetration, effectiveness of Marketing expenses, competitor R&D revision dates.

•Get a consumer’s perspective on products in the market (December Customer Survey).

•"Statistics" box - was all customer demand met? If not, how much missed opportunity was left on the table? (Unmet demand doesn't carry forward to the next round).

•Market Share Actual vs. Potential graph shows the impact of stockouts.

•Detailed product comparison (bottom portion).

Capstone® Courier

Page 10 – Market Share Report

Quick reference for checking whether market customer demand was met (chart on the left), and assessing where each team is placing emphasis (chart on the right).

Capstone® Courier

Page 11 – Perceptual Map •Shows where all products are positioned at the end of the round. The more products, the more intense the competition.

•Products positioned outside the parameters of all segments will generate zero customer demand.

•Products positioned outside the solid line, but inside the dotted line, will generate decreased demand within that segment.

•Products that straddle the fence between segments may be sofa-beds: not great sofas, not great beds.

•Products positioned at the trailing-edge of any given segment will have lower material costs than they would have at the leading-edge of the segment (given an identical MTBF rating).

Capstone® Courier

Page 12 – HR/TQM Report

HR & TQM are optional modules (Professor’s Discretion)

• If Complement exceeds Needed Complement, workers get paid for doing nothing.

•Productivity Index driven up by extra spending in Recruiting & Training. Diminished returns apply.

•Spending under $500K or over $2M on any one TQM initiative in a given round is a waste. Above $5M total on any single initiative for all rounds is also a waste.

Annual Reports

Company Annual Reports are provided on the website and in the capstone.xls spreadsheet program

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

Income Statement

Same Format as Proforma Reports

Annual Reports

Income Statement

Detailed by product

An indispensable tool for all Managers

Compare to Proforma Income Statement to identify tactical mistakes

Help Files & FAQ’s

Hundreds of Q&A and coaching tips can be accessed directly from the website or through capstone.xls

MSI Support Staff

Submit questions to the MSI Support Staff via the on-line system

or

Call 1-888-472-7554