Jim runs a plant that produces cosmetics and uses a flexible manufacturing production process, while his brother bill runs a plant that manufactures basic household appliances using a mass production system. the benefit jim's plant has over bill's plant is that jim's : a) can produce products with slight variations
b) produces goods according to individual customers' needs
c) produces a large quantity of goods quickly
d) is rigid and therefore significantly less expensive
e) stops or slows production down to customize small batches when customization is desired

The treasurer for pittsburgh iron works wishes to use financial futures to hedge her interest rate exposure. she will sell five treasury futures contracts at $139,000 per contract. it is july and the contracts must be closed out in december of this year. long-term interest rates are currently 7.30 percent. if they increase to 9.50 percent, assume the value of the contracts will go down by 20 percent. also if interest rates do increase by 2.2 percent, assume the firm will have additional interest expense on its business loans and other commitments of $149,000. this expense, of course, will be separate from the futures contracts. a. what will be the profit or loss on the futures contract if interest rates increase to 9.50 percent by december when the contract is closed out

The lee family is looking to buy a house in one of two suburban areas just outside of a major city, and air quality is a top priority for them. overall air quality is calculated by taking measures in 100 locations within each suburb and then calculating a measure of central tendency. in one suburb, there is a major bus station that creates very poor air quality at its location but has no impact in the surrounding parts of the suburb. in this situation, which measure of overall suburb air quality would be most useful?

Alpha industries is considering a project with an initial cost of $8 million. the project will produce cash inflows of $1.49 million per year for 8 years. the project has the same risk as the firm. the firm has a pretax cost of debt of 5.61 percent and a cost of equity of 11.27 percent. the debt–equity ratio is .60 and the tax rate is 35 percent. what is the net present value of the project?