個案總覽

McDonald's has over many years built an operating strategy based on consistency and quality through a limited product range. Competitive forces have drawn the company into a much wider variety of foods and services in order to maintain growth. Now, new competitors threaten to beat McDonald's at its own, original game. In addition, McDonald's faces unprecedented challenges in its environmental policy. The case teaches approaches and dangers arising from flexibility, and the identification of capabilities that support different types of flexibility. The integration of environmental concerns with operations strategy is also addressed.

Updates the (A) and (B) cases.

Describes the outcome of the (A) case.

Describes the Puerto Rican manufacturing plant of a transnational company. The award-winning plant has dramatically improved the quality of flexibility of its operations, by taking a radical approach to manufacturing. The methods center on the use of specific techniques along with a building of trust with the workforce. This generates broad participation and creates a strong commitment to continuous improvement throughout the plant. In 1987, the plant was held responsible for quality problems which marred the launch of an important product. Four years later, a new product is to be launched and the plant must develop a plan to ensure that this launch is a success, as well as develop a strategy for the future. Examines, in detail, the development of a manufacturing infrastructure for quality and flexibility and introduces students to the challenges of managing manufacturing in a transnational environment.

Describes events that occur after the decision point in Australian Paper Manufacturers (A). With these facts and more detailed market projections, this case intensifies the long-term financial, strategic, and ethical decisions confronting the invader.

Describes a company which has broken an unwritten cordial agreement amongst the three Australian paper manufacturers to split the domestic market three ways by market segment. The company invades another's "territory" with advanced technology, quality, and, importantly, by using the other company's poor environmental record to protect itself against retaliation. The defender finds itself unable to respond by adding capacity as public pressure denies it the ability to add capacity and upgrade the technology. Having won a large share of the market, and having successfully introduced a new recycled paper product, the invader is now considering the financial, strategic, and ethical issues of further expansion.

Describes the improvement of manufacturing performance in a job shop through the application of a variety of techniques such as group technology, manufacturing cells, and CAD-CAM. As well as exploring the limitations and merits of these methods, the case explores the conflict between computer-integration and shop-floor autonomy. The teaching objectives are to provide an understanding of computer techniques available in modern small-batch manufacture, sources of manufacturing improvement, and the implementation of computer-integrated manufacturing.