Choose an item that you would like to manufacture. You do not actually
need to manufacture...

Question

Choose an item that you would like to manufacture. You do not actually 
need to manufacture something, but will proceed through the assignment 
as if you were planning on manufacturing the item you have selected. 
The product should require materials and labor and be something that you
 are familiar with in process from start to finish. The product must be
 useful and marketable. You can choose something as simple as making 
chocolate chip cookies, a type of craft, or something more complicated. 
Consider production as if you were making the product from beginning to 
end, and not as if using a kit.
Perform the following steps:
Choose a product to manufacture and to describe the manufacturing process.Prepare the following budgets for 1 quarter broken down monthly 
regarding your chosen item: estimated sales budget, estimated direct 
materials budget, estimated direct labors budget, estimated 
manufacturing overhead budget, estimated selling and administrative 
expenses and an estimated income statement.Classify all manufacturing costs and selling and administrative expenses as either variable or fixed.Prepare a contribution margin income statement separating all variable and fixed costs into their own categories.Determine the breakeven point in units and dollars. Also, 
determine the number of units and dollars that need to be sold to make a
 target profit of $5,000 a month.Identify what types of trends you should be aware of in the industry and who the primary competitors are.Answer the following question: If you had to improve the bottom 
line, what would you do and what concerns would you have going forward.Choose a piece of equipment that you might consider purchasing to 
increase production of your item and address the following questions: 
What types of capital budgeting factors would you look at when deciding 
whether to do this? What would be the relevant costs that you would 
consider in this decision?
Your final project should be in the form of a paper using Microsoft Word
 that addresses each of these different areas. Steps #1, 6, 7 and 8 
will be in paragraph form and Steps #2, 3, 4 and 5 will involve 
numerical calculations that should be put into the form of a table in 
proper format and included as part of the paper. You should show any 
calculations in either a table within Word or you can copy and paste 
your calculations directly from Microsoft Excel into Microsoft Word. 
Your paper should be 3-6 double-spaced pages (body of the paper) and 
should follow CSU-Global APA formatting. You should also cite any 
references that you use.

David · Accepted Answer

1. Product: CHOCOLATE 
Manufacturing Process: 
The Manufacturing process can be summarised in three stages: 
 Growing and Harvesting 
The manufacturing process starts with growing and harvesting of Cocoa beans. 
Generally, the cocoa trees for are found in deep tropical jungles at twenty degrees 
north and south of the equator running from Brazil to Indonesia, mainly in the areas of 
South and Central America and West Africa. On the trees are grown a melon-like fruit
 
inside which we will find the cocoa beans. A skilled and efficient worker can open 
around 500 pods in an hour. Each pod contains 20-40 beans. After the beans are 
removed from the pod, the beans are fermented. It takes around one week for the 
whole process of fermentation. The whole process is accomplished manually. 
 Selecting and controlling the Beans 
After the harvesting and fermentation process, the beans are send to the 
manufacturing plants for further processing. Now, the beans are selected after the 
removal of rocks, twigs, rope, etc. Also, various Laboratory tests and controls are 
established to check the quality of the beans.  
 Manufacturing Chocolate 
The process of manufacturing chocolate involves the following steps: 
i) Roasting: the process is the most critical step for flavouring of the chocolate. 
The beans after cleaning are roasted over heat to produce the chocolate 
flavour.  
ii) Winnowing: The beans shells or outer husks are removed leaving the inside 
roasted bean named as nibs.  
iii) Milling: The process involves grounding the nibs to chocolate liquor. 
iv) Pressing: From some of the cocoa liquor, the cocoa butter is extracted. After 
the extraction a solid mass is left which is minced into cocoa powder. The 
remaining cocoa liquor is directly used to make chocolates.  
v) Blending: Now, the chocolate liquor, sugar and few minor ingredients are 
blended together and stirred thoroughly.  
vi) Refining: The above mixture is rolled in heavy rollers until it is refined into a 
dry flake.  
vii) Conching: The process is further kneading in order to generate further 
flavours. The process takes from few hours to up to seven days.  
viii) Tempering: In this process, the mixture is heated, cooled and reheated, in 
order to make it smoother.  
ix) Moulding: The process involves cooling the mixture in moulds. 
x) Finally:  once the chocolate is cooled,

Choose an item that you would like to manufacture. You do not actually need to manufacture something, but will proceed through the assignment as if you were planning on manufacturing the item you have...

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