Explores the issues surrounding the determination of the product cost of a subassembly in a firm that has never had to determine subassembly costs. Asks students to change the cost system by adding allocation bases and developing a step-down allocation process.
Explores the obsolescence of a cost system when technology changes. In particular, it asks students to increase the number of cost center and allocation bases. The firm moves from a one-center, direct labor-hour system to a three-center, direct labor-hour and machine-hour systems.
Raises powerful issues concerning product warranty policy as a strategic marketing variable. Also raises several exciting issues concerning the role of product policy in competitive battles, product line issues, interfunctional coordination issues, and some ethical issues. Ford Motor Co., America's third largest industrial organization, is faced with the question of how to respond to a major change in the warranty policy and philosophy of its major competitor--General Motors. Ford executives realize that their decision will have implications not only for sales, costs, and profitability, but also for several departments (such as manufacturing, quality assurance, parts and service, and extended service plans) and their dealer network.
An information systems vice president has one hour to make an ethical decision: should a software program, left inadvertently on the company's computer, be copied and stored? Copying the program would protect clients' assets, but it seems to violate the vendor contract. Thus, responsibilities to various stakeholders (customers, vendors, and stockholders) can be examined in an information systems context.
To be competitive in an increasingly complex international environment, companies with worldwide operations must achieve global coordination and national flexibility simultaneously. Traditional organizational forms, however, have tended to provide one or the other attribute. The authors illustrate this point through the experience of two major competitors in consumer electronics: Philips, a classic "multinational" company whose decentralized federation structure is well-suited to facilitating national flexibility, and Matsushita, a "global" company with a centralized hub configuration that provides it with great efficiency. The authors then describe an emerging model--the "transnational" organization whose structure is based on an integrated network of worldwide operations. The transnational firm requires both effective corporate management that does not impede national flexibility and efficient country management that does not prevent global coordination.
The management of a small manufacturer of circuit boards faces a number of production and operations management problems. The first day on this case is used to analyze the production capacity of various stages in the process and to examine bottlenecks and key production flow decisions. The emphasis is on physical flows. The second day the emphasis is on information flows. We look in detail at the problems faced by the company, discuss the tools and techniques of process analysis that can be used to determine the relative importance of those problems, identify solutions, and discuss implementation issues.
Mrs. Fields Cookies is a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage of MIS resources. The company uses information systems extensively in its processing, communications, and other management functions, including operations of the stores and hiring sales employees. Teaching objectives include discussion of information technology architecture, organizations, management control, and strategy.
The portable electric power tool market in the United States was approximately $1.1 billion in 1979. There were about a dozen manufacturers competing in the U.S. market, of which five were U.S. companies. Skil was the third largest U.S. competitor. Skil was acquired by Emerson Electric in 1979. Skil was a turnaround situation from Emerson's perspective. The company faced intense competition from Black & Decker and emerging foreign competitors.
Suzuki and advertising agency executives are debating the product positioning and accompanying copy strategy alternatives for the Suzuki Samurai prior to its U.S. introduction.
Describes the progress of a new product launch (HCS-100, a hospital communication system). Ring Medical has sold only five systems in six months against an annual target of 30. There is a lack of agreement internally on how the new product effort should be organized. In addition, there are differences of opinion on which distribution channels are most appropriate. These issues must be resolved before the board meeting scheduled for the following day.
Mike Blumenthal, CEO of Burroughs, successfully executes the merger of Burroughs and Sperry in 1986. The case discusses the putting together of the two firms in a fast time period in order to achieve cost savings, high earnings, and an integrated culture. Blumenthal calls in two post-merger consultants to assist in the process as well as a large consulting firm. After one year it appears the new company, Unisys, is off to a good start, yet the integration of the MIS systems seems to remain as a looming concern.
Reveals that Vicks chose a multi-condition positioning for the product. Describes testing of name and concept, and extensively reports on a four-city test market. Students are expected to evaluate both the design and results of the test, and face options ranging from termination to going national. A rewritten version of two earlier cases by J.R. Williams under the supervision of G.S. Yip.
Today corporate education is a vast and complex undertaking that costs U.S. business $30 billion a year and occupies most workers for a significant part of their lives. Unfortunately, much of this time and money is thrown away. To carry out effective corporate education, companies must: have a clear strategic vision; analyze their needs and priorities; learn to distinguish between training and development; learn how to choose teachers and locations for instruction; involve top executives in T&D; and conduct a continuing evaluation of educational worth and cost-effectiveness.
Managers in companies selling multiple products are making strategic decisions about pricing and product mix with distorted cost information, detecting the problem only after their competitiveness and profitability have deteriorated. An alternative is activity-based costing. Virtually all of a company's activities exist to support the production and delivery of today's goods and services. Companies need not scrap their official cost systems to use activity-based methods. The two can exist simultaneously.
The truly important challenges managers face are caused by the success of management itself. Management has transformed the economic and social fabric of the developed world by applying knowledge to every aspect of work. Knowledge, not bricks and mortar, is the center of capital investment and society's chief resource. Amid so much change, management's essential task remains the same--to enable people to work together so that their strengths are magnified and their differences minimized.
Few U.S. companies are absorbing the advanced production technologies - such as CAD, CAM, FMS, or CIM - they need to stay competitive. Many are put off by the stringent demands of programmable automation. Most manufacturers are inhibited by organizational structures and practices. Also, approaches to plant construction and capital improvement are incremental, which often precludes investing in advanced, integrated plants.
Some U.S. companies have moved manufacturing operations overseas to take advantage of lower wage rates, defending the practice as the only way to stay competitive. For many companies, offshore manufacturing is a poor option for gaining competitiveness. It involves extra transportation, communication, and paperwork; these costs can offset any potential savings. Also, when direct labor is a small percentage of total costs, as it is for much of manufacturing, labor savings are less critical to the bottom line. The only sure way to get more competitive is to strengthen the business as a whole.
Technology has combined with a fragmented culture to create an array of products, services, and markets. It is a world of variety and options, niches and small batches, increased competition and changing company structure. Because niche markets cannot be identified easily in their infancy, managers must keep one foot in the technology to know its potential and one foot in the market to see the opportunity. The product isn't just the item itself--the product is an experience the customer learns to trust--which is why everything from perfume to software samples come inside magazines. Old, established giants and small start-ups need each other--the future is in relationships that create new products tailored to customers' demands.