No abstract

Reactions of alkyl aryl sulfoxides H-CRR'S(O)Ar with n-BuLi-TMEDA (TMEDA = N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine) afforded α-sulfinyl functionalized alkyl aryl lithium compounds of the type [Li2{CRR'S(O)Ar}2(TMEDA)2] (1, R/R' = H/H, Ar = Ph; 2, R/R' = H/H, Ar = p-Tol; 3, R/R' = Me/Me, Ar = Ph; 4, R/R' = H/Ph, Ar = Ph; 5, R/R' = Me/Ph, Ar = Ph). The compounds were characterized by (1)H, (13)C and (7)Li NMR spectroscopy and, except for 5, by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. In crystals of 1, 2, 3 and 4 ·Et2O dinuclear molecules with four-membered Li2O2 rings were found. There are no LiCα contacts, thus, "free" carbanions are the main structural feature. Reactions of 1-6 (6, R/R' = H/Me, Ar = Ph) with benzaldehyde and benzophenone afforded the corresponding sulfoxides of the type ArS(O)CRR'CHPhOH (1a-6a) and ArS(O)CRR'CPh2OH (1b-6b), respectively. The reactions yielding / and / proceeded with high diastereoselectivities. By X-ray diffractometry it has been shown that in the case of and the diastereomers consisting of the two enantiomers SSRC and RSSC were formed.

Target costing is a well-established strategic cost management tool in theory and practice. The original target costing model implies independence of customer preferences resulting in additive utility functions for the customer-oriented optimization of cost structures. We argue that this independence of preferences is not given until a minimum variant of a product is reached that provides its inherent functionality. This is reasonable since one cannot assign customer utility to a product that does not function in its most basic way. Our modified model accounts for the dependency of customer preferences and differentiates between the costs necessary to produce a minimum variant and those related to product features beyond this minimum variant. The customer-oriented optimization of the cost structure is then conducted only for those costs that exceed the costs of the minimum variant. This modification justifies the preference independence assumption in target costing and allows for a more reasonable assignment of required adjustments in costs per product component.