With TFC profitability suffering in October 1992, General Manager John
one began to question the appropriateness of the distribution charges.
"The Business Forms Division in 1988 earned a 20 percent Return
Vestment (ROI). But returns have been dropping for several years. TFC is
jected to earn an ROI of only 6 percent for 1992. Something tells me the
are not managing this business very well! Mt seems to me that the charge
services needs closer scrutiny. I believe we should charge our clients for
services they use. It doesn't seem fair that if two clients buy the same
of product from us, but one keeps a lot of inventory at our distribution
and is constantly requesting small shipments and the other hardly bother
at all, both should pay the same service fees."
John looked through his records and found two accounts of similar size
Counts A and B, which were handled by different sales people. Accounts A
Both had annual sales of $79,320 with the cost of the product being $50