MD1998/English-for-beginners · Datasets at Hugging Face

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be in two weeks at the same time well i'm not convinced that the work is
as urgent as this report suggests so perhaps come on the building is
practically falling down sorry lin i don't think tan had finished we'll get
to you in a minute sorry as i was saying
perhaps we should get a second opinion before we spend any money
thank you tan what's your opinion walter
well as far as i'm concerned it's a question of safety so i think we should
go ahead are you suggesting that someone could
get hurt in my opinion yes if you ask me there is a serious risk of
an accident and it's not a recent problem
are you implying we should have done something earlier
much earlier it's a real concern here in that case i agree
we should do something now i think so too
thank you walter well if there's no excuse me madam
chairperson yes barbara what about the problem with parking there were no
places again this morning maybe if you got to work on time
all comments through the chair if you don't mind walter
parking isn't on the agenda for this meeting
perhaps you could suggest it for our next meeting barbara
well if there's no more discussion we'll put it to a vote here here
okay now we're looking at the options for
handling our online orders they're going through the roof and frankly the lead
time for delivery is blowing out we need to improve our performance in
this area any suggestions
well as i said we have three options the obvious one is to employ more people
to do the job another alternative is to automate the
system more cut down on the physical handling
and the third option we could outsource
what are the pros and cons well looking at increasing staff versus
automation we have to consider the cost automating has a higher capital cost
than putting on more staff on the other hand employing more people
is more expensive over a long term if we keep growing it'll cost more in
the long run how likely is it that we'll see
continued growth i'd say it's a certainty
oh i'd say a high probability nothing certain in business
so what about the third option outsourcing
it does take the problem off our hands but we lose contact with our customers
what about the bottom line outsourcing is the cheapest option and
the easiest in the short term but if we want to keep the operation in
house the best option is automating our system
the only downside is we're taking a risk that our business will keep growing
which we hope it will we certainly do today we're looking at our new widget
plant being built at south side i've asked barbara to report on progress and
bring us up to date and up to speed barbara thanks denise
i'll just outline the process we've been through identify some problems and give
you an estimate on completion time and the outcome financially is it good news
or bad news bear with me
now if you recall after a feasibility study we put the
project out to 10 to 18 months ago and selected easy build as our project
manager work commenced about 15 months ago and
it's been progressing to schedule until recently
what's the problem unfortunately there are
three firstly there's been a delay in materials
specifically steel because of industrial issues at the suppliers
secondly we've lost days due to the weather
and finally there's been a resulting cost blowout
so what are we going to do well they've managed to get another
supplier now i suggested moving the completion date
back that way there's no penalty and they agreed to redeploy their workers
until building can start again smart thinking
we've been waiting for the rain to stop but we can't control the weather
and the cost at this stage just a small overage but
i'll be watching it very closely over the next few months
with no more delays we're expecting to complete the project
just one month behind schedule good work barbara
now i'd like to refer to the first graph as you can see this is a bar graph
measuring net sales over the first 10 months of the year
you'll notice that sales rose steadily in the first few months
then there was a marked increase in april
they peaked in may at around 3.2 million and leveled off
then there was a dramatic drop in the following month
followed by a significant increase in august and this trend has continued up
until the present what was the reason for the sudden drop
in july this was mainly due to a drop-off in air
conditioner sales so it's a seasonal effect
could it be a consequence of the negative effect of the interest rate
rise possibly
now if i could draw your attention to this next diagram
this is a line graph of sales the blue line represents air conditioner
sales the red line shows heaters
as you'll note air conditioner sales dropped steadily from january to july
bottoming out then while heater sales experienced a sharp
increase from march to june then dropped markedly from june to july
then declined through to september with a pronounced drop in october
does this explain the fluctuation in total sales largely if we look at this
pie diagram you can see that air conditioners and
heaters together represent more than half of our total sales
but they vary seasonally while other appliances are fairly steady through the
year well we can't sell air conditioners when
it's cold what's the solution
export to europe and america easier said than done
today i'm going to look at the results of our customer survey
first i'll go through the survey questions
then summarise the results and finally i'll outline the conclusions
after that there'll be time for questions and discussion so
let's start with the survey questions turning to the results
as you can see from the diagram most people decided what to buy when
they saw the product at the showroom about one-third made their decision
based on what the salesperson said the others knew what they wanted to buy
already most of those made their decision on the

be in two weeks at the same time well i'm not convinced that the work is

as urgent as this report suggests so perhaps come on the building is

practically falling down sorry lin i don't think tan had finished we'll get

to you in a minute sorry as i was saying

perhaps we should get a second opinion before we spend any money

thank you tan what's your opinion walter

well as far as i'm concerned it's a question of safety so i think we should

go ahead are you suggesting that someone could

get hurt in my opinion yes if you ask me there is a serious risk of

an accident and it's not a recent problem

are you implying we should have done something earlier

much earlier it's a real concern here in that case i agree

we should do something now i think so too

thank you walter well if there's no excuse me madam

chairperson yes barbara what about the problem with parking there were no

places again this morning maybe if you got to work on time

all comments through the chair if you don't mind walter

parking isn't on the agenda for this meeting

perhaps you could suggest it for our next meeting barbara

well if there's no more discussion we'll put it to a vote here here

okay now we're looking at the options for

handling our online orders they're going through the roof and frankly the lead

time for delivery is blowing out we need to improve our performance in

this area any suggestions

well as i said we have three options the obvious one is to employ more people

to do the job another alternative is to automate the

system more cut down on the physical handling

and the third option we could outsource

what are the pros and cons well looking at increasing staff versus

automation we have to consider the cost automating has a higher capital cost

than putting on more staff on the other hand employing more people

is more expensive over a long term if we keep growing it'll cost more in

the long run how likely is it that we'll see

continued growth i'd say it's a certainty

oh i'd say a high probability nothing certain in business

so what about the third option outsourcing

it does take the problem off our hands but we lose contact with our customers

what about the bottom line outsourcing is the cheapest option and

the easiest in the short term but if we want to keep the operation in

house the best option is automating our system

the only downside is we're taking a risk that our business will keep growing

which we hope it will we certainly do today we're looking at our new widget

plant being built at south side i've asked barbara to report on progress and

bring us up to date and up to speed barbara thanks denise

i'll just outline the process we've been through identify some problems and give

you an estimate on completion time and the outcome financially is it good news

or bad news bear with me

now if you recall after a feasibility study we put the

project out to 10 to 18 months ago and selected easy build as our project

manager work commenced about 15 months ago and

it's been progressing to schedule until recently

what's the problem unfortunately there are

three firstly there's been a delay in materials

specifically steel because of industrial issues at the suppliers

secondly we've lost days due to the weather

and finally there's been a resulting cost blowout

so what are we going to do well they've managed to get another

supplier now i suggested moving the completion date

back that way there's no penalty and they agreed to redeploy their workers

until building can start again smart thinking

we've been waiting for the rain to stop but we can't control the weather

and the cost at this stage just a small overage but

i'll be watching it very closely over the next few months

with no more delays we're expecting to complete the project

just one month behind schedule good work barbara

now i'd like to refer to the first graph as you can see this is a bar graph

measuring net sales over the first 10 months of the year

you'll notice that sales rose steadily in the first few months

then there was a marked increase in april

they peaked in may at around 3.2 million and leveled off

then there was a dramatic drop in the following month

followed by a significant increase in august and this trend has continued up

until the present what was the reason for the sudden drop

in july this was mainly due to a drop-off in air

conditioner sales so it's a seasonal effect

could it be a consequence of the negative effect of the interest rate

rise possibly

now if i could draw your attention to this next diagram

this is a line graph of sales the blue line represents air conditioner

sales the red line shows heaters

as you'll note air conditioner sales dropped steadily from january to july

bottoming out then while heater sales experienced a sharp

increase from march to june then dropped markedly from june to july

then declined through to september with a pronounced drop in october

does this explain the fluctuation in total sales largely if we look at this

pie diagram you can see that air conditioners and

heaters together represent more than half of our total sales

but they vary seasonally while other appliances are fairly steady through the

year well we can't sell air conditioners when

it's cold what's the solution

export to europe and america easier said than done

today i'm going to look at the results of our customer survey

first i'll go through the survey questions

then summarise the results and finally i'll outline the conclusions

after that there'll be time for questions and discussion so

let's start with the survey questions turning to the results

as you can see from the diagram most people decided what to buy when

they saw the product at the showroom about one-third made their decision

based on what the salesperson said the others knew what they wanted to buy

already most of those made their decision on the