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Working capital management in heavy
engineering firms — A case study
Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay W
W AICWA, Associate professor
(Accounting & Finance), EIILM
School of Business, Kolkata, (EIILM
University).
Introduction : The importance of
working capital in any industry
needs no special emphasis.
Working capital is considered to be
life-giving force to an economic
entity. Management of working
capital is one of the most important
functions of corporate management.
Every organization, whether profit
oriented or not, irrespective of its
size and nature of business, needs
requisite amount of working capital.
Capital to keep an entity working is
working capital. The efficient
working capital management is the
most crucial factor in maintaining
survival, liquidity, solvency and
profitability of the concerned
business organisation. It needs
sufficient finance to carry out purchase
of raw materials; payment of day-today
operational expenses including
salaries and wages, repairs and
maintenance expenses etc. and funds
to meet these expenses are collectively
known as working capital.
In simplicity, working capital refers
to that portion of total fund, which
finances the day-to-day working
expenses during the operating cycle.
The term "working" here implies
continuity of production and
distribution of want removing goods
and services required by the society.
Working capital is necessary to finance
current assets which include
inventories, debtors, marketable
securities, bank, cash, short term loans
and advances, payment of advance tax
and so on. Fundamentally, there are
two concepts of working capital and
they are (i) Gross Working Capital and
(ii) Net Working Capital. Gross
Working Capital refers to financial
resource remaining invested in current
assets and Net Working Capital
represents the gulf between the Gross
Working Capital and Current Liabilities
or simply it is the difference between
Current Assets and Current Liabilities.
A business organization should
determine the exact requirement of
working capital and maintain the same
evenly through out the operating
cycle. It is worth mentioning that a firm
should have neither excess nor
inadequate working capital as both the
phenomena of over capitalization and
under capitalization of working capital
generate adverse effects on the
profitability and liquidity of the
concerned firm. The effective working
capital necessitates careful handling of
current assets to ensure short-term
liquidity and solvency of the business.
To be more specific, neither
understocking nor overstocking of raw
materials, careful maintenance and
trade off between credit receiving
period from sundry creditors and credit
allowing period to sundry debtors
(generally credit period from sundry
creditors should be more than credit
period allowed to sundry debtors and
the gulf between these two periods is
technically known as float of comfort),
maintenance of requisite cash and bank
balance including provision for
contingency and planning both the
short term and long term investment in
appropriate manner without allowing
any cash/bank balance to remain idle
in the business are strictly required to
be practiced by management. Practice
of judicious and effective system of
working capital management demands
Finance
An investigation into the effectiveness of working capital management of an
organization with particular reference to its short term liquidity and solvency
and impact on commercial operations of the organization.
hire of yeomen service and expertise
of hard-core finance professionals.
Keeping in view the pragmatic
importance of working capital
management as a gray area of corporate
finance function, an attempt has been
made to examine working capital
management practices and the
problems faced by the firms in working
capital management process
particularly in heavy engineering
industries. An engineering firm having
two hundred years old legacy of
culture and heritage and being located
in Eastern India has been selected for
the purpose of our research. The
company has two subsidiary
corporates. The corporate office of the
company selected for study is in
Kolkata and the name of the company
is being kept undisclosed as per the
request of the same and thus let the
firm be named as "M/S Heavy
Engineering Company Limited" for the
purpose of our study though the name
of the firm is hardly material here.
Profile of the Firm under Study:
The firm is incorporated under the
provisions of the Companies Act. 1956
and it is a multi-product company
belonging to the heavy engineering
industry group. It has cultural legacy
and strong heritage of two hundred
years or more and is,of course, well
known in the corporate world both in
India and abroad. It manufactures
railway wagons of various types and
incidental spare-parts and equipments
for the Indian Railways Authority,
ceramic products and refractories for
the Indian Steel plants. It functions
under oligopolistic market. The
company has several works across the
country including modern foundry
works located on the bank of the
Hoogly River. The principal components
of wagons are bogies and
couplers and the same is bought out/
sub-contracted from/to different
suppliers in spite of having in-house
infrastructure for production of the
same. Bogies and couplers constitute
30 to 40% of cost of manufacture
(excluding manufacturing profit), which
ranges between four lakhs to ten lakhs
depending on the category of wagons.
Our study period is ten years i. e. from
1993-94 to 2002-03 and total number
of work force of 12,000 as on 1993-94
has been reduced to 2,000 through
VRS and normal retirement in order to
make the company turn-around. The
company is a sick company within the
meaning of the Sick Companies
(Special Provisions ) Act, 1985 and
presently the company is running the
show by 2,000 work force and
outsourcing work force as and when
required. The company is an erstwhile
professionally managed one having
goodwill built up during last two
centuries. Today, the management of
the company is having no option other
than selling it off under the
circumstances, we have undertaken the
project to examine the process of
working capital management of the firm
for last ten years w.e.f 1993-94 to 2002-
03.
Objective of the Research:
Following are fundamental objectives
of the Study:
a. To examine the effectiveness of
working capital management
practices of the firm.
b. To assess short-term liquidity and
solvency of firm.
c. To find out how adequacy or
otherwise of working capital
affects commercial operations of
the company.
d. To prescribe remedial measures to
encounter the problems faced by
the firm.
Research Methodology: The Study
under reference is based on secondary
data i. e. Annual Reports/ Published
Accounts as well as primary data/
information obtained through personal
interview and discussions with the
concerned executives of the corporate.
It has already been mentioned earlier
that our period of Study is ten years
w.e.f 1993-94 and traditional method of
data analysis and application of
financial statement analysis tools and
techniques for examining the degree
of efficiency of working capital
management has been adopted in
systematic order. We show
componentwise Gross Working Capital
Analysis in EXHIBIT I and Working
Capital Ratio Analysis in EXHIBIT II.
Limitations of the Research: The
study suffers from the following
limitations:
a. The management of the firm is very
conservative and was found
reluctant to provide off balance
sheet information.
b. Operating cycle is not found to be
uniform and the same was found
to be varying from one period to
another due to several inherent
problems in production and
distribution system/delivery
system/logistic system prevailing
in the organization.
c. Non availability of necessary and
relevant data for assessing working
capital requirements due to VRS/
Retirement of the key personnels
and there was vacuum and lack of
proper interface between the firm
and the researcher.
d. Financial analyses are based on
historical data and information.
Hypotheses : The research is based on
the following Hypotheses :
a. The firm under study suffers from
inadequacy of working capital.
b. There is poor and ineffective
working capital management
practice in the firm.
c. Non-performing assets dominate
and eclipse the working capital
finance of the Company.
d. Too much interference and
dominance of non-finance
professional affects systematic
working capital management
practice of the firm.
Data Analysis and Interpreta-tion
Finance
: Componentwise Gross Working
Capital and Net Working Capital is
depicted in EXHIBT I hereunder.
It is evident from EXHIBIT I that
the firm suffers from acute crisis of
working capital through out the period
under study. There is negative working
capital and short-term liquidity and
solvency of the company is in
jeopardy. Current liabilities in totality
are more than gross capital and the
excess of current liabilities over current
assets is negative net working capital.
Debtors & receivables and loans &
advances represent 60% or more of
gross working capital. Percentage of
inventory ranges from 22% to 37% of
the gross working capital. From this
circumstance, we may infer that the
firm is badly constrained to smoothly
run the day-to-day commercial
Exhibit I
Componentwise Working Capital Analysis (Rs. in Lakh)
Year Inventory Debtors Loans Cash Other Gross Current Net
& & & Current Working Liabilities Working
Receivables Advances Bank Assets Capital & Capital
Provisions
93-94 4069 3681 4600 1214 920 14482 19022 –4540
(28%) (25%) (32%) (8%) (7%) (100%)
94-95 3610 3237 3722 971 971 12511 27719 –15208
(29%) (26%) (30%) (7.5%) (7.5%) (100%)
95-96 5632 3308 4300 827 1158 15225 38211 –22986
(37%) (22%) (28%) (5%) (8%) (100%)
96-97 3816 4077 4933 1223 1630 15679 46961 –31282
(24%) (26%) (31%) (8%) (11%) (100%)
97-98 4078 3213 4016 642 803 12752 50781 –38029
(32%) (25%) (31%) (5%) (7%) (100%)
98-99 4121 2815 3660 900 563 12059 19716 –7657
(34%) (23%) (30%) (7%) (6%) (100%)
99-00 3477 3483 4388 696 1220 13264 17672 –4408
(26%) (26%) (33%) (5%) (10%)
00-01 3465 3643 4990 437 1012 13547 19791 –6244
(26%) (27%) (37%) (3%) (7%) (100%)
01-02 2981 3245 3764 1192 523 11705 17856 –6151
(25%) (28%) (32%) (10%) (5%) (100%)
02-03 3450 3990 5386 1270 1596 15692 20767 –5075
(22%) (25%) (34%) (8%) (11%) (100%)
operation. It may not be out of place
to state that the company simply
cannot afford to hold 20 to 40% of
gross working capital as inventory and
60% or more debtors & receivable and
loans & advances when it is having
negative working capital. Besides, the
firm's cash and bank balance comprises
5 to 11 % of gross working capital and
this is not at all a standard practice of
a manufacturing firm belonging to the
category of heavy engineering
industry. Moreover, the liquidity of
loans & advances and other current
assets is a very doubtful case, as it
remains more or less static in the
balance sheet through out the entire
period of study. Under the prevailing
situation, the company should not lock
up inventory to the extent of 40% or
more of gross working capital and Just-
In- Time (JIT) Approach of Inventory
Management is the sole answer to
appropriate inventory control for the
firm under study.
Major portion of current liabilities
includes salaries and wages, sundry
creditors for raw materials, expenses
& others, statutory liabilities towards
retired employees, short term loan from
holding company, deposits from
contractors, advances on- account -
billing against WIP and partial delivery
of goods, advances against orders etc.
Components of provisions include
dues towards gratuity payment; leave
encashment, cess & cess surcharges,
contingency provisions etc.
It can be observed in the
aforementioned table that 24% of
Finance
current liabilities were unrepresented
by current assets in 1993-94 and the
same is 55%, 60%, 67% and 74% in
1994-95 to 1997-98 respectively and
this was a very critical period for
maintaining sustainability of business.
However, thereafter it reduces to 39%
in 1998-99 and 24% in 2002-03 but the
volume of business has also been
drastically reduced during this period.
For instance, sales turnover for Rs.
16696 lakhs in 1993-94 has been
reduced to Rs. 8170 lakhs in 2002-03.
Thus, there is hardly any scope to
generate internal resource for working
capital from commercial operation of
the firm. Simply speaking, there has
been a vicious circle like, it cannot
generate sales due to lack of working
capital and it has no working capital
due lack of sales! The overall business
prospect is bleak and the company is
found to be in the state of financial
perplexity without any means to break
the aforesaid vicious circle for
effective working capital management.
Data Analysis and Interpreta-tion
of Working Capital Ratios: Working
Capital Ratios in order to examine
short-term liquidity and solvency of
firm is shown in EXHIBIT II.
Note: CR=Current Ratio,
QR=Quick Ratio, CA=Current Assets,
QA= Quick Assets, CL=Current
Liabilities, WCT= Working Capital
Turnover (times), S=Sales, D = Debtors,
IT=Inventory Turnover (times),
CAT=Current Assets Turnover (times),
DT=Debtors Turnover (times),
ACP=Average Collection Period
(days), WC=Working Capital.
Working Capital Ratios show the
financial ability of the firm to meet its
current liabilities as well as its
efficiency in managing currents assets
for generation of sales. It needs no
mention that cash/bank balance is
converted into raw materials, raw
materials is converted into work-inprogress,
work-in-progress into
finished goods, finished goods is
converted into debtors and receivables
through credit sales and finally debtors
to cash/bank and this cash to cash
phenomenon is technically known as
Exhibit II
Working Capital Ratios
Year 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03
CR= 0.76:1 0.45:1 0.40:1 0.33:1 0.25:1 0.61:1 0.75:1 0.68:1 0.65:1 0.75:1
CA/CL
QR. = 0.55:1 0.32:1 0.25:1 0.25:1 0.17:1 0.40:1 0.55:1 0.50:1 0.49:1 0.59:1
QA/CL.
WCT=
S/WC –3.68 –0.69 –0.49 –0.63 –0.43 –2.61 –3.74 –2.66 –1.49 –1.61
IT = 4.10 2.90 2.00 5.12 4.01 4.85 4.74 4.80 3.08 2.37
S/I
DT = 4.54 3.23 3.41 4.80 5.09 7.10 4.74 4.56 2.83 2.04
S/D
CAT = 1.15 0.83 0.74 1.25 1.28 1.66 1.24 1.23 0.78 0.52
S/CA
ACP 81 113 106 76 72 52 77 80 130 179
=(D/S) Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days
X
365
Days
operating cycle and shorter the
operating cycle, greater the degree of
efficiency in working capital
management Now, let us offer our
analyses on each item of EXHIBIT II
under the forthcoming discussion.
Current Ratio: It can be observed
in EXHIBIT II that Current Ratio of
Heavy Engineering Company Limited
varied between 0.25: 1 and 0.76: 1
during the period from 1993- 1994 to
2002-2003. It is evident that, on an
average, per every one rupee of current
liability, the company has been
maintaining 0.563 rupee of current
assets as a cusion to meet the shortterm
liabilities. Usually, a Current Ratio
of 2:1 is considered to be the standard
to indicate sound liquidity position but
in the case of the firm under study, it is
far below the standard Current Ratio
meant for the industry.
Quick Ratio : The Quick Ratio of
the firm for the study period ranges in
between 0.17: 1 to 0.59:1. Normally, 1:1
is considered to be the standard Quick
Ratio. Current Assets minus Inventory
Finance
are Quick Assets and on an average, it
has been maintained at Re. 0.407 for
every rupee of quick liabilities.
The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio
of Heavy Engineering Company
Limited reflect that short-term liquidity
and solvency is in danger and it of
course doubtful how the short-term
financial obligation of the firm would
be met under such unsound financial
position. The combined interpretation
of these two ratios reflects that the
interest of short-term creditors is not
at all protected by inadequate solvency
and liquidity of near money assets.
Working Capital Turnover Ratio:
Working Capital Turnover Ratio
indicates the efficiency of the firm in
utilizing the working capital in the
business. Working Capital Turnover
Ratio has been found to be negative
through out the period under study. It
varies between -0.43 times and -3.74
times. This ratio signifies that on an
average, a rupee of negative working
capital fails to generate Rs. 1.80 worth
of business/sales of the firm, which is
obviously an alarming situation for the
management of the firm.
Inventory Turnover Ratio:
Inventory Turnover Ratio declines
from 4.10 times in 1993-94 to 2.37 times
in 2002-2003. It indicates that, on an
average, a rupee invested in inventory
generates Rs. 3.80 worth of sales,
which is moderately good. But
Inventory Turnover Ratio in 2002-2003
is not at all satisfactory in comparison
to the earlier years, say, in 1996-1997
(highest i. e.5.12 times). 1998-1999,
2000-2001, 1993-1994 and 1997-1998.
However, on overall analysis, it may
be opined that inventory management
is moderately satisfactory.
Debtors Turnover Ratio : The
Debtors Turnover Ratio is highest
(7.10 times) in 1998-1999 and lowest
(2.04 times) in 2002-2003 and average
is 4.234 times. Debtors and Receivables
management appears to be satisfactory.
However, average Debtors Turnover
Ratio should be six times or more
during a financial year. Simply
speaking, more the number of times
debtors' turnover, better the liquidity
position of the firm. The combined
effect of better management of
inventory and debtors & receivables
has enabled the firm to generate
reported business of the firm.
Current Assets Turnover Ratio:
The Current Assets Turnover Ratio
varied between 0.52 times and 1.28
times during the entire period of
study. This ratio indicates that, on
an average, the firm has generated
sales of Rs. 1.07 with the current
assets worth Re. 1.00 and this is
indeed a very low ratio in comparison
to the standard norms of the industry.
Moreover, current assets worth Re.
1.00 has been able to generate only
Re. 0.78 and Re. 0.52 worth of sales
in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003
respectively and this is obviously a
frustrating and discouraging picture
of inefficient utilization of current
assets of the firm in these two years.
Average Collection Period: Finally,
the average collection period is 97
days and it indicates that the firm has
to wait for 97 days for receiving
collection from debtors on account of
credit sales. On year-wise analyses, it
can be observed that the lowest
collection period was 52 days in 1998-
1999 and the worst suffering years are
2001-2002 and 2002-2003 when the
collection period is 4.5 months to 6
months and this has badly injured
short-term solvency of the firm during
these two years under the study
period. It indicates that the marketing
functionary of the firm is very weak,
inactive and ineffective.
On the basis of overall analysis, it
is therefore pertinent to state that the
company has been suffering from
acute crises of working capital. Shortterm
liquidity and solvency of the firm
is in alarming position. Interest and
financial security of the short-term
creditors is at high risk. Utilization of
current assets should have been made
in much more effective manner. Under
the prevailing circumstances, average
inventory and debtors turnover should
have been in between 6 to 9 times if
not 12 times. Current Assets consisting
of "Loans & Advances" and "Other
Current Assets" are practically "nonperforming
assets". Current Assets
under these two Heads include
escalation, residual and claim for extra
work, loans and advances to the
subsidiary companies of the firm under
study and the subsidiaries of the firm
under study have become chronically
sick long ago and they are just about
to receive order of winding up from the
appropriate authority. It can thus be
inferred that "Loans & Advances" and
"Other Current Assets" have hardly
any role to contribute in sales/
business generation of the firm during
the period under study. Last but not
the least, working capital is the blood
and life-giving force to the company
and negative working capital cannot
save the life of the firm in any way.
Suggestions and Conclusion: We
have studied and analyzed the Balance
Sheet of the company for a period of
ten years viz. 1993-1994 to 2002-2003
and it has been observed that the
company has under its possession
huge real estate including land in the
most posh locality in Kolkata and
industrial belts across the country
.The firm holds legacy of culture and
heritage of more than two hundred
years of existence in industrial map of
the country and as a consequence, it
has built up "Goodwill" to a remarkable
extent. It has a modern foundry works.
Reduction of huge employment cost
and fixed overhead has been achieved
through drastic reduction in manpower
from 12,000 in 1993- 1994 to 2,000 in
2002-2003 through VRS/Normal
retirement and all these steps
essentially constitute valuable
strength of the company. Real estate
and land is shown in the Balance Sheet
at nominal historical cost. Moreover,
Finance
it has huge idle assets in the form of
plant and machineries, material
handling equipments and other assets.
Thus the company may make
revaluation of real estate including
land and other assets and make
valuation of goodwill and disposal of
idle assets and selling off certain
percentage of company goodwill can
enable the company infuse fresh blood
in the form of working capital to run
the show. Goodwill of the company
may also attract strategic stakeholder/
s in the business and they can join the
firm through the process of merger and
/or corporate restructuring. The
company should make trade off
between "Make and Buy". The core
product/spare-parts etc. can be
manufactured with the assistance of
in-house infrastructure and stop going
for outright buying-out/subcontracting
so that the work force on
the pay roll can be effectively utilized
and at the same time, a full-fledged
management accounting system
should be installed for efficient and
effective information generation for
management planning and control
purpose. During the course of personal
interview sessions with the executives
of the company, we came to know that
a multi-product engineering firm has
been functioning year after year
without having a sound management
accounting system under the control
and supervision of a qualified
management accountant. The
company needs to make SWOT
Analysis and frame the business
strategy accordingly. During the
course of interview and discussion, it
has been revealed that there is too
much interference of non-finance
professionals in day-to-day financial
management practices in the
organization. It is thus strongly
recommended to arrange for periodical
workshops/seminars/educational
circle on "Finance for Non-Finance
Executives" so that they can
understand the relevance and
importance of financial management by
finance professionals only.
Thus to sum up, the firm under
study is strongly recommended to
adopt the fo1lowing measures
immediately for its revival and
overcoming working capital crisis
including operational sickness:
a. To identify and locate the idle
assets of the firm and dispose off
the same at competitive price in
order to meet the present working
capital needs of the company.
b. To value goodwill of the company
and a certain percentage of the
same may be sold off at competitive
price and it can be utilized to
finance the working capital
requirement. Though finance
raised by selling off goodwi1l and
utilization of the same for working
capital purpose is not a healthy
financial management practice but
this may be permissible under the
prevailing situation when the firm
has no other source of finance to
meet working capital needs.
c. To value goodwi1l built up during
last two centuries and attract the
strategic stakeholders who would
form the part of management
against adequate consideration
including premium for goodwill and
the same can be the source of
working capital finance and run the
show with the help of fixed assets
remaining sufficiently under the
possession of the firm. Although
utilization of premium for goodwi1l
and sale value of business for the
purpose of working capital is not
permissible practice under normal
condition but it can be practised
as an exceptional case since the
company should not have such a
large business empire without
doing any business and thus
restructuring of the same is
prescribed and finance working
capital from its own source
because none including bank and
financial institutions shall finance
its working capital requirement
under the prevailing circumstance
in absence of collateral security
when the net working capital of the
firm is negative. Merger and
corporate restructuring is another
way for revival of the company
d To strengthen the marketing cell for
sale of products and quick
collection from the debtors. Credit
period for debtors should be one
month and from creditors it should
be two months so that the float of
comfort is one month.
e. To install management accounting
system and allow it function
independently under the
supervision and control of a
qualified management accountant
who can provide relevant and
significant information to the
management for the purpose of
efficient and effective decisionmaking.
f. To make SWOT Analysis for
determining appropriate revival
strategy for the firm.
g. To decide "Make or Buy" on the
basis of relevant cost analysis.
h. To adopt fixed cost reduction
programmes by outsourcing certain
activities after making cost-benefit
analysis.
i. To introduce immediately cost
audit/management audit/quality
review board and increase the
effectiveness of the management
after ascertaining where it goes
wrong. In a nutshell, it is the
management whose
ineffectiveness is responsible for
the present crisis in working capital
management The firm under study
has been suffering from negative
working capital for last ten or more
years and management is simply in
the passive role of spectators
j. To make periodic review of
business strategy, against the
behavior of the competitors and
Finance
Finance
declines too in step to prevent
accumulation of inventories.
n. The management is finally advised
to follow the principles of "THREE
Es" to manage liquidity, solvency,
profitability, survival and growth of
the business. Following are the
messages of "THREE Es":
(i) E1 stands for Economy i. e. at what
minimum cost it can produce the
goods.
(ii) E2 stands for Efficiency i. e. to do
the thing right and finally
(iii) E3 represents Effectiveness i.e. to
do the right thing only.
Working Capital Management
should not be treated as an isolated
management function but it is the part
and parcel of overall corporate
management functions and impact of
corporate management policy and
strategy effects working capital
management practice of the firm. It is
thus necessary to work out and analyze
cause-effect relationship of every
function of the management to assess
its impact on the working capital
management.
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Indian Commerce Association
27. Indian Management- All India
Manage-ment Association
28. The Management Accounting - CIMA
29. The Accountancy-ICAEW
30. The Chartered Financial Analysts-
ICFAI
31. Bank Quest-Indian Institute of Bankers
32. The Economist.
33. The Economic Times
34. The Financial Express
35. The Business Standard q
rivals, adopted by the management
and take up corrective measures on
on-going process as per the
demand of the situations.
k. To introduce the philosophy of
Responsibility Accounting and
each Responsibility Centre Head
should be made accountable for
cost control and profitability of the
responsibility center concerned.
l. To make commercial, financial and
economic feasibility -studies and
cash flow analysis before going for
any new project. If net present
value of future cash flows
(discounted at a rate not less than
the opportunity cost) is positive,
then the management should go for
the project after receiving "go
ahead" signal from the
management accountant of the firm
m. Inventory level should be fixed up
scientifically and introduction of
JIT is prescribed so that inventorycarrying
cost can be reduced to the
minimum extent. No inventory
should be allowed to accumulate,
as the inventory is the graveyard
of business. Practising JIT reduces
inventories at all stages of purchasing
just in time to produce
and producing just in time to sell.
Traditional practices call for
infrequent orders of large lots of
materials and supplies, well in
advance of when the same is
needed for production. Such
practices intend to minimize
ordering and transportation costs
and allow time for late delivery and
inspection of goods upon arrival.
In contrast, JIT purchasing calls for
frequent orders of small lots of
materials and supplies just in time
to produce. Upon delivery, material
and supplies are made available
directly onto assembly line. The
firm under study should produce
goods continuously at roughly the
same rate the goods are sold thus
if sales declines, production
engineering firms — A case study
Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay W
W AICWA, Associate professor
(Accounting & Finance), EIILM
School of Business, Kolkata, (EIILM
University).
Introduction : The importance of
working capital in any industry
needs no special emphasis.
Working capital is considered to be
life-giving force to an economic
entity. Management of working
capital is one of the most important
functions of corporate management.
Every organization, whether profit
oriented or not, irrespective of its
size and nature of business, needs
requisite amount of working capital.
Capital to keep an entity working is
working capital. The efficient
working capital management is the
most crucial factor in maintaining
survival, liquidity, solvency and
profitability of the concerned
business organisation. It needs
sufficient finance to carry out purchase
of raw materials; payment of day-today
operational expenses including
salaries and wages, repairs and
maintenance expenses etc. and funds
to meet these expenses are collectively
known as working capital.
In simplicity, working capital refers
to that portion of total fund, which
finances the day-to-day working
expenses during the operating cycle.
The term "working" here implies
continuity of production and
distribution of want removing goods
and services required by the society.
Working capital is necessary to finance
current assets which include
inventories, debtors, marketable
securities, bank, cash, short term loans
and advances, payment of advance tax
and so on. Fundamentally, there are
two concepts of working capital and
they are (i) Gross Working Capital and
(ii) Net Working Capital. Gross
Working Capital refers to financial
resource remaining invested in current
assets and Net Working Capital
represents the gulf between the Gross
Working Capital and Current Liabilities
or simply it is the difference between
Current Assets and Current Liabilities.
A business organization should
determine the exact requirement of
working capital and maintain the same
evenly through out the operating
cycle. It is worth mentioning that a firm
should have neither excess nor
inadequate working capital as both the
phenomena of over capitalization and
under capitalization of working capital
generate adverse effects on the
profitability and liquidity of the
concerned firm. The effective working
capital necessitates careful handling of
current assets to ensure short-term
liquidity and solvency of the business.
To be more specific, neither
understocking nor overstocking of raw
materials, careful maintenance and
trade off between credit receiving
period from sundry creditors and credit
allowing period to sundry debtors
(generally credit period from sundry
creditors should be more than credit
period allowed to sundry debtors and
the gulf between these two periods is
technically known as float of comfort),
maintenance of requisite cash and bank
balance including provision for
contingency and planning both the
short term and long term investment in
appropriate manner without allowing
any cash/bank balance to remain idle
in the business are strictly required to
be practiced by management. Practice
of judicious and effective system of
working capital management demands
Finance
An investigation into the effectiveness of working capital management of an
organization with particular reference to its short term liquidity and solvency
and impact on commercial operations of the organization.
hire of yeomen service and expertise
of hard-core finance professionals.
Keeping in view the pragmatic
importance of working capital
management as a gray area of corporate
finance function, an attempt has been
made to examine working capital
management practices and the
problems faced by the firms in working
capital management process
particularly in heavy engineering
industries. An engineering firm having
two hundred years old legacy of
culture and heritage and being located
in Eastern India has been selected for
the purpose of our research. The
company has two subsidiary
corporates. The corporate office of the
company selected for study is in
Kolkata and the name of the company
is being kept undisclosed as per the
request of the same and thus let the
firm be named as "M/S Heavy
Engineering Company Limited" for the
purpose of our study though the name
of the firm is hardly material here.
Profile of the Firm under Study:
The firm is incorporated under the
provisions of the Companies Act. 1956
and it is a multi-product company
belonging to the heavy engineering
industry group. It has cultural legacy
and strong heritage of two hundred
years or more and is,of course, well
known in the corporate world both in
India and abroad. It manufactures
railway wagons of various types and
incidental spare-parts and equipments
for the Indian Railways Authority,
ceramic products and refractories for
the Indian Steel plants. It functions
under oligopolistic market. The
company has several works across the
country including modern foundry
works located on the bank of the
Hoogly River. The principal components
of wagons are bogies and
couplers and the same is bought out/
sub-contracted from/to different
suppliers in spite of having in-house
infrastructure for production of the
same. Bogies and couplers constitute
30 to 40% of cost of manufacture
(excluding manufacturing profit), which
ranges between four lakhs to ten lakhs
depending on the category of wagons.
Our study period is ten years i. e. from
1993-94 to 2002-03 and total number
of work force of 12,000 as on 1993-94
has been reduced to 2,000 through
VRS and normal retirement in order to
make the company turn-around. The
company is a sick company within the
meaning of the Sick Companies
(Special Provisions ) Act, 1985 and
presently the company is running the
show by 2,000 work force and
outsourcing work force as and when
required. The company is an erstwhile
professionally managed one having
goodwill built up during last two
centuries. Today, the management of
the company is having no option other
than selling it off under the
circumstances, we have undertaken the
project to examine the process of
working capital management of the firm
for last ten years w.e.f 1993-94 to 2002-
03.
Objective of the Research:
Following are fundamental objectives
of the Study:
a. To examine the effectiveness of
working capital management
practices of the firm.
b. To assess short-term liquidity and
solvency of firm.
c. To find out how adequacy or
otherwise of working capital
affects commercial operations of
the company.
d. To prescribe remedial measures to
encounter the problems faced by
the firm.
Research Methodology: The Study
under reference is based on secondary
data i. e. Annual Reports/ Published
Accounts as well as primary data/
information obtained through personal
interview and discussions with the
concerned executives of the corporate.
It has already been mentioned earlier
that our period of Study is ten years
w.e.f 1993-94 and traditional method of
data analysis and application of
financial statement analysis tools and
techniques for examining the degree
of efficiency of working capital
management has been adopted in
systematic order. We show
componentwise Gross Working Capital
Analysis in EXHIBIT I and Working
Capital Ratio Analysis in EXHIBIT II.
Limitations of the Research: The
study suffers from the following
limitations:
a. The management of the firm is very
conservative and was found
reluctant to provide off balance
sheet information.
b. Operating cycle is not found to be
uniform and the same was found
to be varying from one period to
another due to several inherent
problems in production and
distribution system/delivery
system/logistic system prevailing
in the organization.
c. Non availability of necessary and
relevant data for assessing working
capital requirements due to VRS/
Retirement of the key personnels
and there was vacuum and lack of
proper interface between the firm
and the researcher.
d. Financial analyses are based on
historical data and information.
Hypotheses : The research is based on
the following Hypotheses :
a. The firm under study suffers from
inadequacy of working capital.
b. There is poor and ineffective
working capital management
practice in the firm.
c. Non-performing assets dominate
and eclipse the working capital
finance of the Company.
d. Too much interference and
dominance of non-finance
professional affects systematic
working capital management
practice of the firm.
Data Analysis and Interpreta-tion
Finance
: Componentwise Gross Working
Capital and Net Working Capital is
depicted in EXHIBT I hereunder.
It is evident from EXHIBIT I that
the firm suffers from acute crisis of
working capital through out the period
under study. There is negative working
capital and short-term liquidity and
solvency of the company is in
jeopardy. Current liabilities in totality
are more than gross capital and the
excess of current liabilities over current
assets is negative net working capital.
Debtors & receivables and loans &
advances represent 60% or more of
gross working capital. Percentage of
inventory ranges from 22% to 37% of
the gross working capital. From this
circumstance, we may infer that the
firm is badly constrained to smoothly
run the day-to-day commercial
Exhibit I
Componentwise Working Capital Analysis (Rs. in Lakh)
Year Inventory Debtors Loans Cash Other Gross Current Net
& & & Current Working Liabilities Working
Receivables Advances Bank Assets Capital & Capital
Provisions
93-94 4069 3681 4600 1214 920 14482 19022 –4540
(28%) (25%) (32%) (8%) (7%) (100%)
94-95 3610 3237 3722 971 971 12511 27719 –15208
(29%) (26%) (30%) (7.5%) (7.5%) (100%)
95-96 5632 3308 4300 827 1158 15225 38211 –22986
(37%) (22%) (28%) (5%) (8%) (100%)
96-97 3816 4077 4933 1223 1630 15679 46961 –31282
(24%) (26%) (31%) (8%) (11%) (100%)
97-98 4078 3213 4016 642 803 12752 50781 –38029
(32%) (25%) (31%) (5%) (7%) (100%)
98-99 4121 2815 3660 900 563 12059 19716 –7657
(34%) (23%) (30%) (7%) (6%) (100%)
99-00 3477 3483 4388 696 1220 13264 17672 –4408
(26%) (26%) (33%) (5%) (10%)
00-01 3465 3643 4990 437 1012 13547 19791 –6244
(26%) (27%) (37%) (3%) (7%) (100%)
01-02 2981 3245 3764 1192 523 11705 17856 –6151
(25%) (28%) (32%) (10%) (5%) (100%)
02-03 3450 3990 5386 1270 1596 15692 20767 –5075
(22%) (25%) (34%) (8%) (11%) (100%)
operation. It may not be out of place
to state that the company simply
cannot afford to hold 20 to 40% of
gross working capital as inventory and
60% or more debtors & receivable and
loans & advances when it is having
negative working capital. Besides, the
firm's cash and bank balance comprises
5 to 11 % of gross working capital and
this is not at all a standard practice of
a manufacturing firm belonging to the
category of heavy engineering
industry. Moreover, the liquidity of
loans & advances and other current
assets is a very doubtful case, as it
remains more or less static in the
balance sheet through out the entire
period of study. Under the prevailing
situation, the company should not lock
up inventory to the extent of 40% or
more of gross working capital and Just-
In- Time (JIT) Approach of Inventory
Management is the sole answer to
appropriate inventory control for the
firm under study.
Major portion of current liabilities
includes salaries and wages, sundry
creditors for raw materials, expenses
& others, statutory liabilities towards
retired employees, short term loan from
holding company, deposits from
contractors, advances on- account -
billing against WIP and partial delivery
of goods, advances against orders etc.
Components of provisions include
dues towards gratuity payment; leave
encashment, cess & cess surcharges,
contingency provisions etc.
It can be observed in the
aforementioned table that 24% of
Finance
current liabilities were unrepresented
by current assets in 1993-94 and the
same is 55%, 60%, 67% and 74% in
1994-95 to 1997-98 respectively and
this was a very critical period for
maintaining sustainability of business.
However, thereafter it reduces to 39%
in 1998-99 and 24% in 2002-03 but the
volume of business has also been
drastically reduced during this period.
For instance, sales turnover for Rs.
16696 lakhs in 1993-94 has been
reduced to Rs. 8170 lakhs in 2002-03.
Thus, there is hardly any scope to
generate internal resource for working
capital from commercial operation of
the firm. Simply speaking, there has
been a vicious circle like, it cannot
generate sales due to lack of working
capital and it has no working capital
due lack of sales! The overall business
prospect is bleak and the company is
found to be in the state of financial
perplexity without any means to break
the aforesaid vicious circle for
effective working capital management.
Data Analysis and Interpreta-tion
of Working Capital Ratios: Working
Capital Ratios in order to examine
short-term liquidity and solvency of
firm is shown in EXHIBIT II.
Note: CR=Current Ratio,
QR=Quick Ratio, CA=Current Assets,
QA= Quick Assets, CL=Current
Liabilities, WCT= Working Capital
Turnover (times), S=Sales, D = Debtors,
IT=Inventory Turnover (times),
CAT=Current Assets Turnover (times),
DT=Debtors Turnover (times),
ACP=Average Collection Period
(days), WC=Working Capital.
Working Capital Ratios show the
financial ability of the firm to meet its
current liabilities as well as its
efficiency in managing currents assets
for generation of sales. It needs no
mention that cash/bank balance is
converted into raw materials, raw
materials is converted into work-inprogress,
work-in-progress into
finished goods, finished goods is
converted into debtors and receivables
through credit sales and finally debtors
to cash/bank and this cash to cash
phenomenon is technically known as
Exhibit II
Working Capital Ratios
Year 93-94 94-95 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 02-03
CR= 0.76:1 0.45:1 0.40:1 0.33:1 0.25:1 0.61:1 0.75:1 0.68:1 0.65:1 0.75:1
CA/CL
QR. = 0.55:1 0.32:1 0.25:1 0.25:1 0.17:1 0.40:1 0.55:1 0.50:1 0.49:1 0.59:1
QA/CL.
WCT=
S/WC –3.68 –0.69 –0.49 –0.63 –0.43 –2.61 –3.74 –2.66 –1.49 –1.61
IT = 4.10 2.90 2.00 5.12 4.01 4.85 4.74 4.80 3.08 2.37
S/I
DT = 4.54 3.23 3.41 4.80 5.09 7.10 4.74 4.56 2.83 2.04
S/D
CAT = 1.15 0.83 0.74 1.25 1.28 1.66 1.24 1.23 0.78 0.52
S/CA
ACP 81 113 106 76 72 52 77 80 130 179
=(D/S) Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days Days
X
365
Days
operating cycle and shorter the
operating cycle, greater the degree of
efficiency in working capital
management Now, let us offer our
analyses on each item of EXHIBIT II
under the forthcoming discussion.
Current Ratio: It can be observed
in EXHIBIT II that Current Ratio of
Heavy Engineering Company Limited
varied between 0.25: 1 and 0.76: 1
during the period from 1993- 1994 to
2002-2003. It is evident that, on an
average, per every one rupee of current
liability, the company has been
maintaining 0.563 rupee of current
assets as a cusion to meet the shortterm
liabilities. Usually, a Current Ratio
of 2:1 is considered to be the standard
to indicate sound liquidity position but
in the case of the firm under study, it is
far below the standard Current Ratio
meant for the industry.
Quick Ratio : The Quick Ratio of
the firm for the study period ranges in
between 0.17: 1 to 0.59:1. Normally, 1:1
is considered to be the standard Quick
Ratio. Current Assets minus Inventory
Finance
are Quick Assets and on an average, it
has been maintained at Re. 0.407 for
every rupee of quick liabilities.
The Current Ratio and Quick Ratio
of Heavy Engineering Company
Limited reflect that short-term liquidity
and solvency is in danger and it of
course doubtful how the short-term
financial obligation of the firm would
be met under such unsound financial
position. The combined interpretation
of these two ratios reflects that the
interest of short-term creditors is not
at all protected by inadequate solvency
and liquidity of near money assets.
Working Capital Turnover Ratio:
Working Capital Turnover Ratio
indicates the efficiency of the firm in
utilizing the working capital in the
business. Working Capital Turnover
Ratio has been found to be negative
through out the period under study. It
varies between -0.43 times and -3.74
times. This ratio signifies that on an
average, a rupee of negative working
capital fails to generate Rs. 1.80 worth
of business/sales of the firm, which is
obviously an alarming situation for the
management of the firm.
Inventory Turnover Ratio:
Inventory Turnover Ratio declines
from 4.10 times in 1993-94 to 2.37 times
in 2002-2003. It indicates that, on an
average, a rupee invested in inventory
generates Rs. 3.80 worth of sales,
which is moderately good. But
Inventory Turnover Ratio in 2002-2003
is not at all satisfactory in comparison
to the earlier years, say, in 1996-1997
(highest i. e.5.12 times). 1998-1999,
2000-2001, 1993-1994 and 1997-1998.
However, on overall analysis, it may
be opined that inventory management
is moderately satisfactory.
Debtors Turnover Ratio : The
Debtors Turnover Ratio is highest
(7.10 times) in 1998-1999 and lowest
(2.04 times) in 2002-2003 and average
is 4.234 times. Debtors and Receivables
management appears to be satisfactory.
However, average Debtors Turnover
Ratio should be six times or more
during a financial year. Simply
speaking, more the number of times
debtors' turnover, better the liquidity
position of the firm. The combined
effect of better management of
inventory and debtors & receivables
has enabled the firm to generate
reported business of the firm.
Current Assets Turnover Ratio:
The Current Assets Turnover Ratio
varied between 0.52 times and 1.28
times during the entire period of
study. This ratio indicates that, on
an average, the firm has generated
sales of Rs. 1.07 with the current
assets worth Re. 1.00 and this is
indeed a very low ratio in comparison
to the standard norms of the industry.
Moreover, current assets worth Re.
1.00 has been able to generate only
Re. 0.78 and Re. 0.52 worth of sales
in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003
respectively and this is obviously a
frustrating and discouraging picture
of inefficient utilization of current
assets of the firm in these two years.
Average Collection Period: Finally,
the average collection period is 97
days and it indicates that the firm has
to wait for 97 days for receiving
collection from debtors on account of
credit sales. On year-wise analyses, it
can be observed that the lowest
collection period was 52 days in 1998-
1999 and the worst suffering years are
2001-2002 and 2002-2003 when the
collection period is 4.5 months to 6
months and this has badly injured
short-term solvency of the firm during
these two years under the study
period. It indicates that the marketing
functionary of the firm is very weak,
inactive and ineffective.
On the basis of overall analysis, it
is therefore pertinent to state that the
company has been suffering from
acute crises of working capital. Shortterm
liquidity and solvency of the firm
is in alarming position. Interest and
financial security of the short-term
creditors is at high risk. Utilization of
current assets should have been made
in much more effective manner. Under
the prevailing circumstances, average
inventory and debtors turnover should
have been in between 6 to 9 times if
not 12 times. Current Assets consisting
of "Loans & Advances" and "Other
Current Assets" are practically "nonperforming
assets". Current Assets
under these two Heads include
escalation, residual and claim for extra
work, loans and advances to the
subsidiary companies of the firm under
study and the subsidiaries of the firm
under study have become chronically
sick long ago and they are just about
to receive order of winding up from the
appropriate authority. It can thus be
inferred that "Loans & Advances" and
"Other Current Assets" have hardly
any role to contribute in sales/
business generation of the firm during
the period under study. Last but not
the least, working capital is the blood
and life-giving force to the company
and negative working capital cannot
save the life of the firm in any way.
Suggestions and Conclusion: We
have studied and analyzed the Balance
Sheet of the company for a period of
ten years viz. 1993-1994 to 2002-2003
and it has been observed that the
company has under its possession
huge real estate including land in the
most posh locality in Kolkata and
industrial belts across the country
.The firm holds legacy of culture and
heritage of more than two hundred
years of existence in industrial map of
the country and as a consequence, it
has built up "Goodwill" to a remarkable
extent. It has a modern foundry works.
Reduction of huge employment cost
and fixed overhead has been achieved
through drastic reduction in manpower
from 12,000 in 1993- 1994 to 2,000 in
2002-2003 through VRS/Normal
retirement and all these steps
essentially constitute valuable
strength of the company. Real estate
and land is shown in the Balance Sheet
at nominal historical cost. Moreover,
Finance
it has huge idle assets in the form of
plant and machineries, material
handling equipments and other assets.
Thus the company may make
revaluation of real estate including
land and other assets and make
valuation of goodwill and disposal of
idle assets and selling off certain
percentage of company goodwill can
enable the company infuse fresh blood
in the form of working capital to run
the show. Goodwill of the company
may also attract strategic stakeholder/
s in the business and they can join the
firm through the process of merger and
/or corporate restructuring. The
company should make trade off
between "Make and Buy". The core
product/spare-parts etc. can be
manufactured with the assistance of
in-house infrastructure and stop going
for outright buying-out/subcontracting
so that the work force on
the pay roll can be effectively utilized
and at the same time, a full-fledged
management accounting system
should be installed for efficient and
effective information generation for
management planning and control
purpose. During the course of personal
interview sessions with the executives
of the company, we came to know that
a multi-product engineering firm has
been functioning year after year
without having a sound management
accounting system under the control
and supervision of a qualified
management accountant. The
company needs to make SWOT
Analysis and frame the business
strategy accordingly. During the
course of interview and discussion, it
has been revealed that there is too
much interference of non-finance
professionals in day-to-day financial
management practices in the
organization. It is thus strongly
recommended to arrange for periodical
workshops/seminars/educational
circle on "Finance for Non-Finance
Executives" so that they can
understand the relevance and
importance of financial management by
finance professionals only.
Thus to sum up, the firm under
study is strongly recommended to
adopt the fo1lowing measures
immediately for its revival and
overcoming working capital crisis
including operational sickness:
a. To identify and locate the idle
assets of the firm and dispose off
the same at competitive price in
order to meet the present working
capital needs of the company.
b. To value goodwill of the company
and a certain percentage of the
same may be sold off at competitive
price and it can be utilized to
finance the working capital
requirement. Though finance
raised by selling off goodwi1l and
utilization of the same for working
capital purpose is not a healthy
financial management practice but
this may be permissible under the
prevailing situation when the firm
has no other source of finance to
meet working capital needs.
c. To value goodwi1l built up during
last two centuries and attract the
strategic stakeholders who would
form the part of management
against adequate consideration
including premium for goodwill and
the same can be the source of
working capital finance and run the
show with the help of fixed assets
remaining sufficiently under the
possession of the firm. Although
utilization of premium for goodwi1l
and sale value of business for the
purpose of working capital is not
permissible practice under normal
condition but it can be practised
as an exceptional case since the
company should not have such a
large business empire without
doing any business and thus
restructuring of the same is
prescribed and finance working
capital from its own source
because none including bank and
financial institutions shall finance
its working capital requirement
under the prevailing circumstance
in absence of collateral security
when the net working capital of the
firm is negative. Merger and
corporate restructuring is another
way for revival of the company
d To strengthen the marketing cell for
sale of products and quick
collection from the debtors. Credit
period for debtors should be one
month and from creditors it should
be two months so that the float of
comfort is one month.
e. To install management accounting
system and allow it function
independently under the
supervision and control of a
qualified management accountant
who can provide relevant and
significant information to the
management for the purpose of
efficient and effective decisionmaking.
f. To make SWOT Analysis for
determining appropriate revival
strategy for the firm.
g. To decide "Make or Buy" on the
basis of relevant cost analysis.
h. To adopt fixed cost reduction
programmes by outsourcing certain
activities after making cost-benefit
analysis.
i. To introduce immediately cost
audit/management audit/quality
review board and increase the
effectiveness of the management
after ascertaining where it goes
wrong. In a nutshell, it is the
management whose
ineffectiveness is responsible for
the present crisis in working capital
management The firm under study
has been suffering from negative
working capital for last ten or more
years and management is simply in
the passive role of spectators
j. To make periodic review of
business strategy, against the
behavior of the competitors and
Finance
Finance
declines too in step to prevent
accumulation of inventories.
n. The management is finally advised
to follow the principles of "THREE
Es" to manage liquidity, solvency,
profitability, survival and growth of
the business. Following are the
messages of "THREE Es":
(i) E1 stands for Economy i. e. at what
minimum cost it can produce the
goods.
(ii) E2 stands for Efficiency i. e. to do
the thing right and finally
(iii) E3 represents Effectiveness i.e. to
do the right thing only.
Working Capital Management
should not be treated as an isolated
management function but it is the part
and parcel of overall corporate
management functions and impact of
corporate management policy and
strategy effects working capital
management practice of the firm. It is
thus necessary to work out and analyze
cause-effect relationship of every
function of the management to assess
its impact on the working capital
management.
References/Bibliography/Journals/
Dailies :
1. Fundamental of Financial Management-
J. C. Van Home. J. M Wachowicz (JR).
Prentice Hall of India (PHI)
2. Global Development Finance-Building
Coalition for Effective Development
Finance, World Bank (2001).
3. Multinational Business Finance-David k.
Eiteman, Arthur I Stonehill. Michael H.
Moffett. Addison Wesley.
4. Financial Management-S.B. Rao. Vikas
Publishing Pvt. Ltd (VPPL)
5. Banking Strategy, Credit Appraisal and
Lending Decisions-A Risk -Return
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rivals, adopted by the management
and take up corrective measures on
on-going process as per the
demand of the situations.
k. To introduce the philosophy of
Responsibility Accounting and
each Responsibility Centre Head
should be made accountable for
cost control and profitability of the
responsibility center concerned.
l. To make commercial, financial and
economic feasibility -studies and
cash flow analysis before going for
any new project. If net present
value of future cash flows
(discounted at a rate not less than
the opportunity cost) is positive,
then the management should go for
the project after receiving "go
ahead" signal from the
management accountant of the firm
m. Inventory level should be fixed up
scientifically and introduction of
JIT is prescribed so that inventorycarrying
cost can be reduced to the
minimum extent. No inventory
should be allowed to accumulate,
as the inventory is the graveyard
of business. Practising JIT reduces
inventories at all stages of purchasing
just in time to produce
and producing just in time to sell.
Traditional practices call for
infrequent orders of large lots of
materials and supplies, well in
advance of when the same is
needed for production. Such
practices intend to minimize
ordering and transportation costs
and allow time for late delivery and
inspection of goods upon arrival.
In contrast, JIT purchasing calls for
frequent orders of small lots of
materials and supplies just in time
to produce. Upon delivery, material
and supplies are made available
directly onto assembly line. The
firm under study should produce
goods continuously at roughly the
same rate the goods are sold thus
if sales declines, production