The consumer-products division of a multinational company is facing a decision on the sourcing of product components: whether to stay in Taiwan or switch to Mexico. See also the supplement to this case, "Cost Analysis for Sourcing Alternatives for Emerson Electric Company ACP Division" (OM-0823).
This note serves as an introduction to the topic of inventory management. It covers ways to categorize inventories in measuring inventory performance, the financial implications of inventory, inventory-management systems, economic order quantities, decision rules for determining safety stocks, and the effect of multiple stocking points on average inventory.
This note reports the results of a study of 10 U.S. and Japanese companies with regard to their purchasing practices and vendor/buyer relationships. Particular attention is given to just-in-time practices in the purchasing area.
Describes the pet food industry in the mid-eighties prior to the breakout of a major competitive battle as manufacturers fight for share. Illustrates how when there are benefits to play in multiple markets, competitors will take action in one market to preserve their position in other markets. An example of multimarket competitive interaction. Covers competitor analysis and prediction, and economies of scope.
Describes significant developments in the pet food industry in 1987 and 1988, focusing on the competitive interactions among the industry's major players.
Describes important developments in the pet food industry in 1989, 1990, and 1991, focusing on competitive dynamics among the industry's major players.
Having acquired a 26% stake in Koito Manufacturing, a Japanese automotive parts supplier in the Toyota Group, T. Boone Pickens seeks a seat on Koito's board of directors. Koito's management resists, claiming Pickens is an unhelpful greenmailer, not a true long-term investor. The struggle between the two provides students with a chance to compare and contrast American and Japanese corporate governance practices. Debate centers on whether the Japanese system fosters efficiency or merely market power that reduces economic welfare.
This case discusses the so-called sophomore jinx: professional athletes who perform superbly as rookies never seem to do as well in their second--sophomore--season. The case gives performance data for Rookie of the Year award winners in major-league baseball through 2003 (29 pitchers and 83 nonpitchers). Data cover both the first and second years. Students must decide for themselves, based on the data, whether the sophomore jinx is real or imagined.
At the core of this case is a distribution, or sourcing, problem that can be modeled and solved using linear programming (LP). There are also issues of whether to build (a) new plant(s)--and if so, what the capacity should be--and whether to expand or close one or more of the existing plants. These latter issues can be analyzed using a 0/1 LP facility-location model. Alternatively, because the number of options is limited, they can be analyzed using the straight LP model of the distribution problem as a tool to facilitate analysis.
The manager of a large downtown hotel has to decide whether to accept 60 additional reservations or not. If she accepts, she will be overbooked and face certain costs if all the people holding reservations show up. The manager must forecast, based on historical data, how many of the people holding reservations will show up and then decide, after taking into account the cost involved, whether to take the additional bookings. The case can be used in a class on seasonality and exponential smoothing in time-series forecasting.
Galaxy Micro Systems is negotiating with a vendor about the cost of service support for the warranty on Galaxy's new workstation. The vendor has offered Galaxy a choice between a fixed-price, lump-sum contract or a deferred-payment scheme based on the number of units installed. Uncertainty in the sales forecast complicates the choice. All uncertainties are expressed in terms of discrete probabilities.
The president of a well-established manufacturer of mattresses has asked his assistant to recommend whether to consolidate plants of three different locations. He must decide not only which criteria are most useful in making such a decision, but also how to weigh the different criteria in coming up with a single decision.
This technical note considers how one makes choices in situations where there are multiple objectives and attributes that measure performance against these objectives. In some instances, given attributes may be important because they measure impacts of a choice on specific stakeholders. The note considers elimination of alternatives by aspects, dominance, and some decision rules that do not require compensatory tradeoffs (lexicographic, satisficing). Methods for "rate and weight" (linear additive scoring rules) are described and illustrated.
This note teaches the student how to account for seasonality in time-series data. All the necessary steps to (1) deseasonalize, (2) forecast with deseasonalized data, and then (3) re-seasonalize the forecast are illustrated with examples from the coal industry.
The president of a large and established manufacturer of laboratory equipment has to decide whether to invest $1 million for 30% equity in a start-up company in the field of lab robotics. The agreement would also allow his company the right to market the product. He already has a spreadsheet that projects the best guess of the future scenario and calculates several measures of performance (ROS, ROE, ROI, NPV, and IRR). He must decide which of the criteria are most useful. A relevant-cost issue that is introduced must be resolved, because it makes a big difference in the NPV. In the supplement, some background material is provided for a forecasting/judgmental assessment exercise based on this decision. The supplement could, assuming students have already been introduced to this topic, form the basis for a short workshop (an hour or less) on judgmental probability, or it could be used with a note on cumulative probability distributions for an introductory class on the topic. (The B case number is UVA-QA-0383, and a supplement to the A case is UVA-QA-0384.)
This reporting form accompanies the Sorensen Chevrolet (Harvard Case No. 9-175-258) and captures the student's assessments of the outcomes of the court case and the settlement reached (if any).