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Managerial Accounting Topics |
Some of the tours require Shockwave. You
can download it by clicking on this button. |
 |
|
Tour # |
Topics |
Tour |
Brief Overview |
Relevant Topics |
Rating for In-Class Use or Homework Assignments |
|
1 |
Job Order Costing; Layouts |
ABBA Rubber International, Inc. |
A manufacturer of rubber rollers for
industrial use. This is an excellent tour of an industrial product manufacturing plant.
Images are clear with great descriptions. From the home page, first click on "what we
do" to get a perspective on what ABBA makes. Then go back to the home page and click
on "virtual tour." If you have the time to kill, check out their
"ridiculously exhaustive list" of everyday rubber products.
|
General manufacturing, machining, functional layouts, quality management. |
**** |
|
2 |
Cost Identification; Quality |
Air-x-changers |
A manufacturer of air cooled heat exchangers
used in air cooling systems. This is a good tour for exposure to manufacture of large
products. There are actually two tours here. One is a tour of the production processes,
the other is a tour of the quality control oriented functions. From the home page, check
out "About air-x-changers" first. Then, go back to the home page and go through
the process tour by clicking on "High-Tech Tour". After that tour, go back to
"home" and click on "ISO 9001 Tour".
|
ISO9000, functional layout, industrial products, metal fabrication. |
**** |
|
3 |
Capital Budgeting; Environmental Issues |
Anderson Lythograph |
An image and description tour of a
high-tech printing and lithograph company. Equipment and capabilities are
very sophisticated resulting in a firm that is very quality-oriented and attentive to
environmental impact. Click on "sales introduction and welcome" to start, and
then just follow the arrow.
|
Batch processing, service |
**1/2 |
|
4 |
Not Used; Too Technical |
Arlon Adhesives and Film Division |
A manufacturer of vinyl films and adhesives
for use in printed vinyl signs, etc. This tour is sort of technical in nature, but
informative and follows a process similar to that used in paper conversion. The weather
testing is particularly interesting. Click on "Calon® II Brand Films" and then
click on "Company History and Plant Tour. Check out the company history, then come
back and go to the plant tour.
|
Continuous processing, paper processing, quality testing. |
***1/2 |
|
5 |
Cost Identification; Quality; (Small Images) |
Aretesyn Technologies |
A manufacturer of computer components
such as CPU boards, controllers, etc. The tour is of a the manufacturing process for
circuit boards. The tour is informative with good descriptions and good, but small,
images. From the home page select "profile" then "tour our factory".
After the factory tour go back to the "profile" page and select "ISO
9000".
|
Quality Management, ISO 9000, advanced technology |
***1/2 |
|
6 |
Segmented Reporting; Decentralization |
Audio Research |
A manufacturer of high-end audio equipment
including amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, and CD players. This tour does not provide a great
deal about "how" things are done, but has good images and general descriptions
of the responsibilities for each department. From the home page click on "On-line
tour" and then "continue" at the bottom of each screen. |
Consumer electronics, functional layout.
|
*** |
|
7 |
Process Costing; Allocation of Overheads |
BIC USA |
A manufacturer of ink pens, sailboards,
and surfboards. This is a short tour of the pen manufacturing process, but the
manufacturing process is pretty simple, so it can be covered well in a concise tour. It
provides an excellent overview of the process with good images and descriptions. From the
home page click on "cool stuff" then on "How's it made?" Click on the
next footstep to proceed through the tour.
|
High volume, repetitive manufacturing, product layout, advanced manufacturing technology |
**** |
|
8 |
Capital Budgeting; Quality |
Buck Knives |
A manufacturer of knives and related
products. This tour provides a great overview of the knife manufacturing process with many
references to quality control, quality testing, and advanced manufacturing technology.
This is one of the best on-line tours. It is an interesting tour of recognizable product.
From the home page click on "fixed blades" or "folding lock blades"
and select a couple to get an idea of what the products look like. Go back to the home
page and select "About Buck Knives", then "Plant Tour". Click on
"Start Current Plant Tour" to begin, then "Forward" at the bottom of
each screen.
|
large product variety, functional layout, advanced technology, statistical process control, quality testing |
**** |
|
9 |
Information Needs in a Simple Environment |
Buell American Motorcycles |
A manufacturer of motorcycles. This is
one of my favorite tours. Its a relatively small shop (23 bikes per day). The descriptions
are excellent, great images, very understandable products and processes. For a brief
overview of the company, select FAQ. Go back to the home page and click on
"History" then at the bottom of the screen select "plant tour". When
you're done, check out some of the MPG videos.
|
Automotive manufacturing, line flow, quality control, quality testing. |
**** |
|
10 |
Service Type Manufacturing |
Canadian Springs |
A supplier of bottled water and
dispensers to homes, offices, etc. A clear, concise tour of the facilities, emphasizing
quality and cleanliness. At the home page click on "YES", then page down
through the bubbles and click on "white glove tour". Page down past the chemist
in the shower hat and click on "click here to start your tour".
|
Service-oriented manufacturing, quality emphasis. |
**** |
|
11 |
Information Needs in a Complex Environment |
Caseworks Healthcare Furniture |
A manufacturer of institutional furniture.
This tour is short on descriptions, but has very good graphics. It opens with an image of
the entire facility, and you click on the department you wish to see. Its a little
cumbersome having to go back to that image for each step in the tour, but it is pretty
fast loading. From the home page click on "factory tour". Start with #1
(engineering) and proceed chronologically.
|
Functional layout, wood products, advanced manufacturing technology |
*** |
|
12 |
Allocation of Overheads |
Coffman |
A manufacturer of hardwood stair parts,
such as handrails, posts, and balusters. An excellent tour, with great images and
descriptions of process steps. From the home page, first check out the "product
menu" to get a feel for what they make. Then go back to the home page, select
"About Coffman" and click on "The Coffman Plant Tour" at the bottom of
the page.
|
Make-to-stock and Make-to-stock assemble-to-order manufacturing, functional layout. |
**** |
|
13 |
Allocation of Overheads; Quality; (Small Images) |
Cold Point, Corp. |
A manufacturer of air conditioners. This
is a very comprehensive tour of the air conditioner manufacturing operation. The images
are a bit small, but text descriptions are excellent and combine to be very useful. This
company has won numerous awards for quality and service. From the home page, click on
"Factory Tour", then click on "steel department" to start the tour.
From then on, click on "continue tour".
|
Traditional manufacturing in a functional layout, quality awards |
**** |
|
14 |
Value Chain |
Corbin |
Manufacturers of high-performance motorcycle
saddles. From the home page click on "factory tour". At the
bottom of the next screen, click on "full tour". This is a short, but very
good tour, from design to manufacture. It provides excellent photos and descriptions for
each processing step.
|
Craftsmanship, quality, design |
***1/2 |
|
15 |
Inventory; Functional Layout |
Corona Clipper |
A manufacturer of tree pruning tools
for the professional and do-it-yourself market. This is an outstanding tour, with great
images, good description of processes and a very understandable product. From the home
page, first check out the product catalog to help visualize the products, then go back to
the home page and click on "virtual plant tour". Be sure to check out the images
that move, especially the laser!
|
Make-to-stock manufacturing, functional layout. |
**** |
|
16 |
Product/Period Costs; (Little Description) |
Coppley Apparel |
Makers of men's suits. From the home
page, click on "A virtual tour". The map shows three sites. Start with
"raw materials & cutting", then proceed to "offices and
manufacturing", then finish with "distribution centre." This tour
provides great photos of each processing step, but very little in the way of description
|
fabrication & assembly |
**1/2 |
|
17 |
Quality; (Short Tour) |
Dole Food Company |
A producer of fresh fruits and vegetables,
fresh-cut vegetables, and packaged foods. This is a tour of their salad-making factory. It
is short, but educational tour. Emphasis is given to quality control. Good images and
descriptions of the major steps in the process. Maybe not as fun as a cookie, candy, or
beer tour, but a lot better for you.
|
Food processing, high volume, quality control, manufacturing technology |
**** |
|
18 |
Not Used, Long and Promotional |
Endot |
A manufacturer of polyethylene water pipe
and smoothwall innerduct. This is a short (about 12 images) easy tour that provides a nice
explanation of a line flow. The small images are thumbnails, so clicking on them
gives you a nice large version. The processing steps are very visible and
understandable. At the home page go to the bottom and click on "company
tour". Click on "next" to continue through the tour.
|
Line flow (almost continuous processing, but really probably batch). |
**** |
|
19 |
Examples of Capital Assets |
Eshed Robotec, Inc. |
A manufacturer of robotics
equipment. Not really a structured tour, but extensive images of robotics and
manufacturing technology-related products. Focus is on products, not on their manufacture
or descriptions of manufacturing processes. Products are interesting and images provide
very good examples of advanced technology. Go to "company profile" first and
learn about the company. Then go back to "home" and click on
"products". Check out any of the product lines such as "robotics" or
"CIM".
|
Advanced technology, robotics. |
* 1/2 |
|
20 |
Not Used, Long and Promotional |
Ferrara
Fire Apparatus |
A manufacturer of fire trucks and
emergency vehicles. This is a video/audio tour that uses VIVO/active software
which downloads automatically with MS Internet Explorer 3.0 or greater,but must be
downloaded and installed with Netscape (the link is right there). With Internet Explorer
you're viewing the video within seconds. The tour lasts approximately 10 minutes and
provides a nice example of an engineer-to-order, make-to-order, large-scale manufacturing
operation. Some of the video is promotional in that it stresses advantages that Ferrara
products have over competitor’s but there is significant footage of processes and the
manufacturing facility to make it educationally worthwhile.
|
Large-scale manufacturing, make-to-order, engineer-to-order, quality management |
***1/2 |
|
21 |
Combine With Tour 24 To Compare Steel Manufacturing In An Urban Center and Traditional Manufacturing |
Finkl Steel |
The world's only urban steel
maker, located in the Chicago area. This tour provides excellent images and
descriptions of the steel-making process. From the home page select "Take this photo
tour". The detail is not as specific as Geneva Steel, but makes for a nice
comparison or, when combined, provide an excellent overview of steel production.
|
continuous process industry, product-oriented layout, environmental impact |
**** |
|
22 |
Not Used, Pictures Not Good |
Gemeinhardt |
Producer of flutes and piccolos.
From the home page, click on "tour". Then click on the script "Start
the tour" on the left side of the page. This is a brief tour, with good description,
but weak on pictures.
|
quality, craftsmanship |
**1/2 |
|
23 |
Not Used, More About Products, Less About Process |
Genesis Technologies |
A manufacturer of speakers and audio
equipment. This tour is pretty light on process detail, and high on product and product
characteristics. If you're into audio equipment, it will be interesting. It also
emphasizes quality testing. From the home page select "factory tour".
|
quality control, testing. |
** |
|
24 |
Combined with 21 |
Geneva Steel |
A manufacturer of steel products for
industrial and agricultural machinery, pipelines, ships and barges, rail cars, storage
tanks, structural tubing, highway guardrails, etc. This is an in depth tour of a steel
manufacturing plant. It starts with an image map diagram of the entire process. Clicking
on each step takes you to a description of that step. This tour is short on graphics, and
a little technical, but it provides a great description of the steel producing process.
Check out "sales" first to view sample products. Then go back to the home page
and click on "plant tour".
|
continuous process industry, product-oriented layout |
**** |
|
25 |
Maybe ABC, and/or C-V-P Analysis |
Golden Cheese Company of
California |
A manufacturer of cheese. This is a
tour of the largest cheese, whey, and alcohol plant in the world, processing over a
billion (yes, that’s a "b") pounds of milk per year. This is a very
informative and well-designed tour. The images are great, and the text descriptions are
among the best of any plant tours. From the home page, click on "plant overview and
tour". Click on the "control room" image for the first step in the tour,
from then on click on the image for the next stop.
|
Food processing, large batch manufacturing, quality management |
**** |
|
26 |
Process Costing |
Great Divide Brewing Company |
A brewery producing 16,000 barrels per
year and selling beer in twelve states. This is an interesting and informative tour that
starts out with a great overview of the brewing process. It provides nice photos and
descriptions of the brewing process in a small-scale facility that adds to the
understanding. From the home page click on "Brewery", then click on "Take
the tour".
|
Food processing, batch processing |
**** |
|
27 |
Standard Costing |
Hershey's Chocolate Tour |
The candy manufacturer. A fun and
interesting tour that has excellent images and descriptions of the processing steps. Start
the tour by clicking on "Cacao" and then click "next" at the end of
each screen to proceed through the tour.
|
High volume, repetitive manufacturing, food processing, varying quality of raw materials |
**** |
|
28 |
Process Costing |
Jelly Belly |
A manufacturer of gourmet jelly bean candy.
A short, fun tour with interesting processes, good graphics and text. From the home page
click on "factory tour" and just move through the process with your mouse. Check
out the freebies.
|
High volume food processing, batch processing. |
**** |
|
29 |
Inventory Chapter |
Jøtul |
A manufacturer of woodburning stoves.
This is a clear, short tour of the manufacturing process, from raw materials (scrap iron)
to casting, finishing, and assembly. At the home page click on "virtual factory
tour".
|
Functional layout, metal casting, batch processing. |
**** |
|
30 |
Not Used, Few Details |
Kinetco
Incorporated |
A producer of water conditioning
systems for residential and commercial use. Learn about the company, its
products, and take the virtual tour. The tour provides some good images of various
manufacturing departments. No process detail, but a nice overview of departments. From the
company page, click on "virtual plant tour".
|
General manufacturing |
*1/2 |
|
31 |
Traditional Costing Chapter |
Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company |
A manufacturer of art glass using
traditional, century-old techniques. A traditional batch processing operation using hand
mixing and manual techniques. The tour includes descriptions of each processing step
accompanied by "artsy" line drawings that emphasize the time tested traditional
approaches used to make their product. Click on "tour our plant" and go.
|
Batch processing, process industries |
**1/2 |
|
32 |
Not Used, No Pictures Inside The Plant |
Konica |
A manufacturer of photographic
film, office equipment, etc. An excellent tour, with or without
Shockwave. From the main page click on "virtual factory tours". Then
page to the bottom, under the facility drawing, and select the Shockwave or non-Shockwave
version. (the Shockwave version only adds music, and given the music, I'd go with the
non-shockwave version). This tour consists of a step-by-step explanation, with
drawings of the manufacturing process. Clear and well-done, but no photos inside the
plant.
|
Batch processing, clean-room manufacturing |
*** |
|
33 |
Quality |
Linetec |
A custom finisher (paint,
anodizing, etc.) of aluminum, vinyls, etc., on-site or off. A very nice,
structured plant tour, illustrative of batch processing. Clear step-by-step descriptions
and images of processes. Very quality-oriented. An excellent tour. Read the home page to
learn about the company, then click on "plant tour".
|
Batch processing, quality management, flexibility, manufacturing technology |
**** |
|
34 |
Benchmarking and Innovative Manufacturing |
L.L. Bean |
A mail order retailer. This
is not a tour, per se, but as close as can be had. Click on "About L.L.
Bean" and then on "The Company behind the store". Check out "The
story of LL Bean" first to get a feel for the volume and background. then click on
"Creating and testing products" to see examples of how product quality is
monitored and tested. Then click on "Made in Maine" for some great
examples of innovative manufacturing approaches used by L.L. Bean.
|
Service, product quality testing |
**** |
|
35 |
Service Departments |
Malloy Lithographing, Inc. |
A manufacturer of books. An extensive
and very descriptive tour of a book making process, by department and within each
department. A good tour of the manufacture of a product all students are familiar with.
From the home page, go to the site index, then click on "plant tour". Click on
the arrows at the bottom of each screen to proceed through the tour.
|
High volume, make-to-order, batch manufacturing |
**** |
|
36 |
Not Used, Too Long |
Merlin Bikes |
A manufacturer of high quality moutain bikes. This
site has an informative tour, but it is short on visuals. The overall site is very
nice, however. Go to the home page, click on "tour" and proceed.
|
Low volume, high quality |
*** |
|
37 |
Assembly Line Manufacturing |
Monitor Sugar Company |
A manufacturer of sugars from sugar
beets. This site has two great tours. One is a very slick animated tour with excellent
detail of product flows and descriptions for each step in the sugar manufacturing process.
The other is a photo tour of the processing steps. To really understand the process, do
the animated tour first. From the home page click on "tour" and then on
"Animated Demonstration Tour". When completed, come back to the "tour"
page and click on "Behind-The-Scenes Photo Tour".
|
Continuous process, food processing. |
**** |
|
38 |
Service and Quality |
Morgan Motor Co... |
A manufacturer of sports cars. This
is a great site for students to get a real feel for a process-oriented layout assembly
plant. Cars are made in low volumes, from the ground up. This is one of the
best tours on the net. From the home page select either the frames or non-frames version.
Then click on "Factory". The layout is worth a good look to get a feel
for the departments. Although it is an image map, clicking on the list of departments
below it guarantees that you do the tour in the best sequence. Start with the
Reception, then Parts Department, then Service Department, etc. After viewing each,
click the "back" button on your browser and select the next one.
|
Process-oriented layout, automobile assemble, |
**** |
|
39 |
Not Used, Too Long (30 Minutes) |
Paris Health Care Linen Service |
A cleaning service for hospitals
and health care linens and operating room supplies. This is a very high
quality, understandable tour with excellent graphics, and great process descriptions. A
very educational tour of a service firm with a quality-oriented mission and a high-volume
service-factory type of focus. From the home page select "Paris Healthcare Linen
Service", check out the mission statement and product review to learn about what the
company does, then go back and click on "plant tour".
|
Service, health care, quality management |
**** |
|
40 |
Not Used, Limited Time Availability |
Peavey |
A manufacturer of musical instruments and equipment,
this is a tour of their guitar factory (a tough tour to get to, but worth
it). You'll know how guitars are manufactured after completing this tour with steps
described and photographed. From the home page, click on "Take a multimedia
tour" near the bottom of the page. Then click on "start the tour".
An outstanding full-audio tour that takes approximately 30 minutes.
|
Quality management, quality control, functional layout |
****+ |
|
41 |
Traditional Manufacturing, and Overhead Allocation |
PEZ |
Yes, believe it or not, this is a tour of the candy
factory in Austria. It is a fun tour, put out there by the PEZ Collector's
Newsletter. Its a bimonthly publication, though, so the tour will probably disappear soon.
The images are thumbnails, so click on them to get the big picture. The large images are
slow to download, but very good. The tour is a little weak on description, but its a fun
diversion definitely worth a visit. From the home page, click on "PEZ factory
in Austria" and you're there.
|
Food processing, high volume |
** |
|
42 |
Life Cycle Costing |
Rickenbacker |
A producer of electric guitars. This is
another interesting tour of a company that utilizes real craftsman in a traditional
production process that does not include conveyors and automation. Three departments are
toured. From the home page, click on "English" and then on "factory
tour". The best order to tour is: "Visit The Wood Shop", then "Visit
The Finish Department" then "Visit The Assembly and Inspection Department"
|
Low volume traditional manufacturing, skilled craftsmen, quality control |
*** |
|
43 |
Cost Identification and Cost Behavior |
Roco |
A manufacturer of toy trains. This is a
short, simple tour, but it provides a nice overview of their process, from initial product
concept to quality testing. From the home page, click on "Take a Cyberspace Tour of
the Roco Factory in Salzburg, Austria" and page through the tour.
|
Functional layout, quality testing |
*** |
|
44 |
Not Used, Too Much PR |
Royal Cake Company |
A cookie manufacturer. This is a tour
of the manufacturing process used to make their hallmark product--the Oatmeal Creme Filled
Cookie. Its a short tour for a simple process, but the graphics and descriptions are high
quality. From the home page, check out "products" first. Then go back to the
home page and click on "Plant Tour". OOOOH! COOKIES! mmmmfffffmmrrrrrmmmm. . . .
.
|
High volume, continuous processing, food processing. |
***1/2 |
|
45 |
Traditional Manufacturing, Compare With The Manufacturing in 46 |
Sentry Manufacturing
Company |
A leading manufacturer of quartz
crystals and electronics components. Not a lot of processing detail, and sort of
"PR" oriented, but has an image of each processing department and good
descriptions of departmental roles. Click on "tour the plant" and begin.
|
High-tech manufacturing, quality management |
** |
|
46 |
Compare With 45 |
Statton Furniture Company |
A traditional "one-at-a-time"
producer of solid cherry furniture. This is a tour of the shop, with
descriptions of each step in the process from cutting rough-sawn lumber to length, to
staining and finishing. A nice tour of a very traditional furniture production facility,
the way everyone used to do it. Very fast-loading images and good descriptions. From the
home page, check out the catalog first to see the kind of products these craftsmen
produce. Then go back to the home page and click on "Tour the factory".
|
Functional layout, job shop "craft" manufacturing, quality management |
**** |
|
47 |
Not Used, Limited Feel for Facilities |
Stickley Furniture |
A producer of traditional furniture.
This is a tour of the furniture manufacturing facility. In many ways it is similar to the
Statton Furniture tour, but there are different steps in the processing because the
furniture is quite different. Its a very good tour--good description, nice photos. From
the home page, check out "A Tradition of Quality" first to get a feel for the
company. Then go back home and click on "Take A Virtual Tour of our Factory".
Start with "lumber stacks" and then click on "forward" at the bottom
of each screen to move through the tour.
|
Functional layout, job shop "craft" manufacturing, quality management. |
**** |
|
48 |
Not Used, Incomplete Tour In Terms of Detail |
Steinway & Sons |
Producers of pianos. This is a great
description of the piano-building process, with nice photos and descriptions. The
construction is more like large-scale manufacturing, so your really don't get much of
impression of the facilities. At the home page, go down to "factory tour" and
click on it. Then click on factory tour again. The images in the tour are
"thumbnails", so if you click on them you get the full size version. A
"different" sort of tour that will be very interesting to some, boring to
others.
|
Large-scale manufacturing, quality management, skilled crafts. |
**** |
|
49 |
Compare With Books Manufacturing In 35 |
Taylor Country Farms |
A jerky manufacturer and internet
server. TCF offers a very superficial tour with an image of each department in the
manufacture of jerky and sausage. No descriptions available, but from the pictures you get
a reasonable idea of their operation. An interesting combination of businesses! From the
home page select "Take a Virtual tour of the Jerky Plant!!"
|
Batch processing, food processing |
* |
|
50 |
Not Used, Limited Value Addition |
Thomson-Shore |
A manufacturer of books. This is
one of the best tours on the net. It goes into excellent detail about each
department and what the workers do. The illustrated overview of book making is worth
a visit from the first tour page. It'll help you understand the process. At
the home page click on "factory tour".
|
Functional layout, batch processing. |
**** |
|
51 |
Service Industry |
Welded Tubes, Inc. |
A manufacturer of steel tubes for
a variety of uses. A nice example of a large volume make-to-order manufacturer. The tour
provides clear images and descriptions of major processing steps in a tour that takes
about 5 minutes. At the home page, first learn a little about the firm by clicking on
"more". Then go back to the home page, view down to the bottom of the left
frame, and select "plant tour".
|
Make-to-order, batch manufacturing, quality management |
**1/2 |
|
|
|
West Park Hospital |
A hospital focussing on rehabilitation
and continuing care. This is a relatively short tour of the facility, showing and
describing various attributes of the facility and its capabilities. From the home page
click on "Take a Tour of West Park".
|
Service, health care |
*** |
