Case Problems

Donna Fredriks has been asked to pursue further options in the negotiations between Riverdale Nursery and its employees. Assume the role of Donna and perform the steps that she identifies. You may want to reread the chapter opening before proceeding.

1. Donna returns to her hotel room, turns on her notebook computer, and launches Microsoft Excel. She opens the EX09XTRA04 data file and then saves it as "Riverdale Nursery" to her personal storage location. With the meeting still fresh in her mind, Donna decides to perform some further analysis on the payroll figures.

2. Today, the Cranes played hardball and discussed the possibility of layoffs. They have asked Donna to prepare information on the total payroll expense based on laying off up to 5 laborers. To analyze the effects of these layoffs on total payroll expenses, Donna creates a one-input data table. For input values, she increments the number of laborers by one from 21 in cell D3 up to 26 in cell D8. Then, she references the worksheet formula used to calculate the total payroll costs in cell E2. After issuing the Data, Table command, Donna selects the required input cell and produces the data table. She then formats the table to appear similar to Figure 9.6. She saves the workbook before proceeding.

3. Next, Donna decides to calculate the impact of altering the number of laborers and altering the number of weeks that the business operates per year. She does this with a two-input data table. For the number of laborers, she enters columnar values from 21 up to 30. For weeks open, she enters row values from 27 up to 30. After formatting her data, her table appears similar to the one in figure 9.6. She remembers to save her work before proceeding.

Figure 9.6 Creating one-input and two-input data tables

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4. Donna decides to use the Scenario Manager to describe and then summarize the family’s initial offer and the union’s rebuttal. ( Hint: Name the input cells to facilitate data entry in the Add Scenario dialog box and to make the reports more readable.) The scenarios appear as follows:

Once completed, Donna prepares and prints a report (see Figure 9.7) summarizing the effects that the alternative scenarios have on the total payroll costs. She then saves the workbook.

Data File: ex09xtra04 (14.0K)