Monsanto Company

Running head: MONSANTO: INPUT, PROCESS AND OUTPUT 1

MONSANTO: INPUT, PROCESS AND OUTPUT 12

Monsanto: Input, Process and Output

Citlali Castillo

Mohammed Alsudays

Zaki Alabdulbagi

Abdulaziz Alateeq

Liliana Gutierrez

Shima Abudawood

Dr. Catalina Zarate

Group #2

October 15, 2016

II. Executive Summary

Mission Statement – Monsanto is an agrochemical and biotechnology company committed to sustainable solutions to fulfill the agricultural needs of large-scale and small-scale farmers across the globe. Monsanto’s goal and commitment is to improve farming efficiency, while at the same time minimizing costs and environmental impact to create sustainable solutions.

Company Background – Monsanto is a Fortune 500 multinational company headquartered in St. Louis Missouri, Unite States. Monsanto’s products include a list of agricultural seeds, biotechnology modified crops and plants, as well as an array of efficient crop protection chemicals. Monsanto has over 20,000 employees globally, over 400 facilities spread across the globe in 66 countries. Monsanto is committed to the application of science and technology to create a sustainable environment.

Financial Background- Monsanto had a 15 billion USD revenue for the 2015 fiscal year and a gross income of 8.28 billion for that same year. Monsanto spent about 1.58 billion in research and development, which is vital for an innovative biotechnology company. The R&D department is crucial to the success of Monsanto.

Company Forecast- Monsanto will continue its strong commitment to provide sustainable solutions to the agricultural sector across the globe, while promoting positive community interactions and minimize environmental impact. Monsanto will create a three-model process to create a renew strategy to improve internal efficiency, implement an improved marketing strategy and improve processes to reduce waste. Monsanto is committed to innovation and environmental adaptability.

III. Table of Contents

I) Cover Page--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1

II) Executive Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

III) Table of Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3-4

IV) Company Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------5

a. “IPO” Summary--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6

b. Organizational Issues -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------6-7

c. Description of 3-Model System--------------------------------------------------------------------------7

V) Model One -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Purpose for the Model-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Data Required for the Model-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

c. Solution for the Model-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

d. Interpretation of the Model--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VI) Model 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Purpose for the Model-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Data Required for the Model-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

c. Solution for the Model-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

d. Interpretation of the Model--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VII) Model 3---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Purpose of the Model--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Data Required for the Model-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

c. Solution for the Model-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

d. Interpretation of the Model -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VIII) 3-Model System Development and Strategy-------------------------------------------------------

IX) Strategy Implementation--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

X) Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

XI) References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix “A” – Model One Solution----------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix “B” – Model Two Solution----------------------------------------------------------------------

Appendix “C” – Model Three Solution--------------------------------------------------------------------

IV. Company Introduction

Monsanto is a Fortune 500 multinational agrochemical and biotechnology company with a focus on creating sustainable farming solutions through technological and scientific research and development. Monsanto’s customer base is composed of large and small scale farmers, agricultural companies, landscaping companies and individual consumers, who purchase an array of pesticides and herbicides. Monsanto and Bayer, a chemical and pharmaceutical company, recently announced a merger to integrate superior agricultural solutions and innovation. Bayer will be acquiring Monsanto.

In recent years Monsato has been involved negative controversies over its extensive applications of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and has experienced aggressive reaction by concerned citizens, non-profit organizations supporting organic agriculture, the media, government entities and the general public. Three problems currently faced by Monsanto are negative publicity, increasing concern over the use of chemicals and GMO’s, global warming, promoting reckless use of pesticides, health and environmental implications with the use of herbicides, and falling short on promoting agricultural sustainability equally across the globe to reduce world hunger.

a. IPO Summary

An Initial Public Offering (IPO) entails the launching process of the stock of a private company made available to the public for the first time. Regarding the IPO of Monsanto Company dealing with the sale of agrochemical and biotechnology inputs, the company is aiming at creating improved and sustainable farming techniques through the employment of both scientific and technological research as well as development (Robin & M.-M, 2010). The company is thus set to merge its agricultural production and marketing of genetically engineered crops with Bayer, implying that the Bayer will be acquiring the Monsanto Company. This happened in this year, 2016 when Bayer offered to buy Monsanto Company for US$65 billion but finally ended with an agreement of $66 billion bid.

b. Topic Statement/Issue

The Monsanto organizational issue involved adverse controversies related to extensive GMO'S application. The company in recent years has been experiencing lots of vigorous reaction from the citizens who are concerned with supporting the company's organic production of agricultural goods. Based on the deal that Bayer has with the Monsanto Company, there is a fact that the case will reshape the Bayer's portfolio by shifting it further from the operations it is set to fulfill in health-care sector of crops production. In contrary, the Monsanto Company will end up being faced with three primary challenges; negative publicity increased concerns on the use of chemicals in its production of GMO's, reckless use of indicated chemicals and falling victim of not being in a position to promote agricultural sustainability across the globe so as to curb the hunger issues (Louv, 2013).

c. "3 Model Systems" That Will Handle the Problem

To end the problem, the company needs to employ three models of production through farming efficiencies, time and costs minimizing and environmental sustainability models. If the three are combined, the Monsanto Company will create strategies that will improve internal efficiency, improved marketing, reduced wastes and commitment towards innovation as well as environmental adaptability. For instance, the farming efficiencies model through chemical-intensive strategies and with the combination of environmental sustainability model will help in improving pure organic farming of GMO's that is environmentally friendly. On the other hand, the time and costs minimizing model will enhance pure outputs of uncontaminated crops that will increase the profits maximization (Robin & M.-M, 2010).

VI. Model Two- PERT/CPM Project Scheduling for GMO corn seeds that will be sent to client distribution center in Oxnard, California.

a) Purpose of the model: The purpose of the PERT/CPM scheduling model is to coordinate all activities necessary to complete the project on time (Anderson et al., 2016, p. 419). Monsanto has signed a new contract with a major agricultural distribution center located in Oxnard, California. The new client is requesting distribution of 300 tons of corn seeds in the first 3 months. The client will then sell the pest resistance seeds to local farmers. Monsanto wants to ensure the new client’s demands are met in a timely manner. There was even a discussion on the possibility of purchasing other seeds from Monsanto, such as soybeans and canola seeds.

b) Data required for the model: In order to complete the scheduled project on time, Monsanto will need to ensure scientists’ commitment to the project. In addition, Monsanto will need to provide an appropriate environment for the research. The table below highlights the activities needed to complete the project.

Activity	Description	Predecessor	Activity Time
A	Analyze the details of the contract	None	6
B	Identify an appropriate research environment	None	2
C	Gather a group of skilled food scientists	A	3
D	Gather quality corn seeds	A	5
E	Develop the desired type of pest resistance	A	3
F	Insert the desired genetic trait to seed	C	2
G	Research and observe the GM corn seed	D	3
H	Test the final product for safety	B, E	4
I	Complete inspection and packaging	H	2
J	Ship to client distribution center	F, G, I	2
Total Time			32

C) Solution for the Model: After analyzing the data and estimating the project completion time in weeks for each activity, Monsanto came up with the following PERT/CPM scheduling times:

					C	6	9		F	9	11
				→	3	10	13	→	2	13	15	→		→
			↑												↓
	A	0	6		D	6	11		G	11	14		J	15	17
	6	0	6	→	5	7	12	→	3	12	15	→	2	15	17	→	FINISH
START				↘										↑
					E	6	9		H	9	13		I	13	15
				→	3	6	9	→	4	9	13	→	2	13	15
	B	0	2
	2	7	9	→		→		→	↑
Anderson, D. R. (2016). An introduction to management science: Quantitative approaches to decision making (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

D. Interpretation of the model: Monsanto estimates the project completion time at 17 weeks. The critical path method consists of activities A, E, H, I and J (see appendix A for Management Science 6.0 PERT/CPM solution).

Activity	ES	LS	EF	LF	Slack	Critical Path
A	0	0	6	6	0	Yes
B	0	7	2	9	7	No
C	0	10	9	13	4	No
D	6	7	11	12	1	No
E	6	6	9	9	0	Yes
F	6	13	11	15	4	No
G	11	12	14	15	1	No
H	9	9	13	13	0	Yes
I	13	13	15	15	0	Yes
J	15	15	17	17	0	Yes
Critical Path: A-E-H-I-J. Completion time: 17 weeks.
Anderson, D. R. (2016). An introduction to management science: Quantitative approaches to decision making (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

With a variance sum of all activities equal 2.72, the square root of the variance will equal to 1.65. The Z scores of five probability completion times reveal the following percentages: 0.9656 for a 20- week completion time, 0.8859 completion time for 19 weeks, 0.7257 for 18 weeks, 0.9922 for 21 weeks and 0.9988 for 22 weeks.

Monsanto can reduce the time for each activity in the project scheduling in order to achieve a 30% reduction in overall project completion time by reducing 15 minus 5.1, which will equal to 11.90 days.

References

Louv, J. (2013). Monsanto vs. the world: Monsanto, GMOs and our genetically modified future.

San Bernardino, CA: Ultraculture Press.

Robin, & M.-M. (2010). The world according to Monsanto: Pollution, corruption, and the control

of the world's food supply. New York: New Press.

Anderson, D. R. (2016). An introduction to management science: Quantitative approaches to

decision making (14th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Appendix A- Model One Solution PERT/CPM

Management Science 6.0 software confirms the critical activities for the corn seed scheduling project and provides earliest start times, latest start times, earliest finish times and latest finish times for each the 10 activities needed to complete Monsanto’s GMO project. The total project completion time is estimated at 17 weeks.