What to do if I have this problem and how to solve it for next year in Capsim:

CONTRIBUTION MARGIN: You earned no stars because your corporate contribution margin is $25\mathrm{.}1\%.$ Contribution margin is defined as:

Sales $-($Direct Labor $+$ Direct Materials $+$ Inventory Carry$)$

Sales: It is reported on Page $1$ of the Capstone Courier as an aggregate average of each team's product portfolio. A good benchmark for contribution margin is $30\%.$ A product$-$by$-$product margin computation is available on the Income Statement portion of your company's annual reports.

ANALYSIS $-$ Watch your margins. It's difficult to maintain long$-$term success with contribution margins below $30\%.$ Investments in cost There is downward pressure on price across all market segments $(50$ cents per year$).$ reduction strategies $($automation$/$capacity expansion$)$ should be considered, as should price increases. Also check your MTBF against the Customer Buying Criteria on segment analysis pages of the simulation reports. You may be offering customers more reliability than they care about.

EMERGENCY LOANS: You earned no stars, because you had an emergency loan of $ $26,698,637.$ Emergency loans are listed on Page $1$ of the Capstone Courier. The simulation gives you every benefit of a doubt, but if you are out of cash at the end of the year, "Big Al$"$ arrives to give you just enough cash to bail you out $--$ at a $7\mathrm{.}5$ percentage point premium, of course. In the real world we often refer to emergency loans as "a liquidity crisis", "Chapter $11",$ or simply "Bankruptcy."

INVENTORY: You earned no stars for your year$-$end inventory position. The ideal year$-$end inventory position is one unit in each product line. In that case you would know that every potential sale was made, and that inventory carrying cost was minimized. This is the goal of "Just In Time" inventory systems. In the simulation, however, you cannot adjust production during the year to meet demand. Therefore, you must balance the risk of losing sales to competitors because of stock outs against the cost of carrying additional inventory should your demand exceed your expectations. At some point inventories become excessive. A good benchmark would be$,$ "inventory levels should not exceed $60$ days $($two months$)$ of Sales." For example, if your product's sales are $$12$ million, inventories should not exceed $$2$ million.

STOCK PRICE: You earned no stars because your stock price fell last year by $$-17\mathrm{.}48.$ Stock price is affected by performance, asset base, debt, dividend policy, and number of shares outstanding. In a year of aggressive investment in plant expansion and automation, you would expect that the necessary debt load would cause some uneasiness on the part of shareholders. But, if the stock price dips more than $$15\mathrm{.}00,$ it may be a warning sign of too much debt. The stock price can also suffer in profitable years. For example, liquidation of plant brings in cash, but makes shareholders wonder about the long term competitive ramifications. Paying dividends in excess of profits, or obtaining a Big Al emergency loan, will have a negative effect on stock price.