MANAGERIAL COMPUTING ASSESSMENT

PGP1 2017 - IIM AHMEDABAD

Please attempt the following questions based on the data given in the excel file:

i) Use column V to create a new character variable of length 10- ABCDEFGHIJ where AB=Region,
CD=Province, E=Product Category, FG=Customer Segment, H=Ship Mode, I=Order Priority,
J=Product Container. (Youre free to use your own nomenclature. Specify the same in the
assumptions sheet. Eg- Use initial 1(or 2) characters of the corresponding variable.)
ii) Summarize the data using a pivot table by region and province. Subsequently, find the province
with highest profit per shipment and highest profit per Unit.
iii) Create a pivot table where you provide a summary of sales, cost and profit statistics. How will
you summarize? State the variables used as row labels, column labels and filters. Justify your
selections. Do you think it would make sense to use some of the statistics variables in
percentage terms? If yes, create those variables in the pivot table. (Note: The new variables are
to be created in the pivot table itself. Youre not supposed to create the variable in the raw
dataset and then using it in the pivot table).
iv) Find the month which had the highest overall profit-
a. Per shipment (in Currency terms)
b. Per Unit (in Currency terms)
c. As a percentage of total price (excluding shipping cost) of the products delivered
v) Find a linear relationship which explains the dependency of profit on sales, unit price, order
quantity, discount and shipping cost. Would you like to remove any of the variables mentioned
from analysis? If yes, why?
vi) Mr. RG Verma wants to come up with the policy that all orders must be shipped within a
specified time duration given in table below:

Priority Ship Before
Critical 1 day
High 2 Day

Medium 3 Days
Low 5 Days

If any of the orders fail to meet above ship times, the company will pay the shipping cost on
behalf of the customer. Bases on the data given and additional information given in this
question -
 i) Find out whether the firm can meet the deadlines internally by showing % of fulfilled orders in
each priority level.
ii) How much shipping cost would be paid by the company? (Assume that all orders who are
within timelines, customers are being charged for shipping)
vii) Find the overall revenue loss due to returned shipments. (Hint: Use opportunity cost of
returned shipments and the Shipping Cost incurred).
viii) Pick a combination of region, province, Customer Segment and Product Category of your choice.
For the chosen combination, generate a data table which would use discount rate and product
base margin to provide the profit data. Henceforth, identify the optimum combination to be
offered. (Use your judgement to select the ranges and the step-size).