QUESTION $1(40$ Marks$)$

A leading consumer electronics company, Datawave, has been known for its high$-$quality smartphones in the Southern

African market. Recently, market research and customer feedback have indicated a significant shift in customer

requirements. Customers are now demanding more sustainable and eco$-$friendly products, extended battery life, and

advanced features for remote work and health monitoring due to the increasing trend of working from home and health

consciousness. Max Ka$-$Zwangendaba the operations executive has briefed the produce development team that there is an

urgent need to design a new smartphone that addresses these changing customer requirements while maintaining the

company's reputation for innovation and quality.

$1\mathrm{.}1$ In response to this, analyse the activities that the design and engineering teams will undertake to

achieve this goal

$(20$marks$)$

Your response should relate to the provided scenario and include relevant examples and illustrations.

$1\mathrm{.}2$ Max Ka$-$Zwangendaba has asked the design and development team to provide a report for executive

management detailing the cycle that the new smartphone will go through upon its market inception.

$(20$marks$)$

The report should analyse each stage, including the interventions of the operations team and other

functions. Please include illustrations in your response.

QUESTION $2(20$ Marks$)$

Mact Manufacturing, a firm specializing in eco$-$friendly home appliances, has been experiencing issues with inventory

management. The company currently holds large quantities of raw materials and finished products in its warehouses,

leading to high carrying costs and occasional stockouts of critical components. The operations manager Allen Redfurn has

outlined that the organisation has been purchasing scrum a major raw material in batches of $960$ units, which equates to a

quarterly supply. The cost of scrum per unit has been estimated to be R$14,$ the cost of placing and managing an order R$18$

and the carrying costs are estimated to be $25\%$ of the purchase cost. In addition, the firm for most of its supplies uses

fredish a copper pipe as a primary raw material. The manufacturing demand for this pipe is approximately normal,

averaging $20$ units per week, with a standard deviation of $6$ units per week. Cost per unit is estimated to be R$24$ ordering

costs are R$25$ per order$$ inventory handling cost is R$4\mathrm{.}00$ per unit per year. Acquisition lead time is four weeks. The

company works $50,5-$day weeks per year. The manager is determined to address any inefficiencies associated with

inventory management and is therefore looking to adopt a more efficient inventory ordering model.

$2\mathrm{.}1$ Advise the operations manager on the total cost that can be potentially saved annually from procuring

scrum using the EOQ model. Provide the relevant calculations for your response.

$(15$

marks$)$

$2\mathrm{.}2$ Advise the operations manager on the optimal size of the pipe order, if minimisation of inventory system

cost is the objective.