個案總覽

Miguel Haro, director of Control Systems in Casturn's Transmission Division, had returned to his desk after witnessing an online reverse auction for O-rings. Although supplier training for the event had been rushed, Haro's Global Commodity Manager Mary Konchesky was confident that the event would yield significant cost savings. One bid stuck out from the rest: the incumbent supplier placed a bid that was 70% less than the current price they were charging for Casturn O-rings. Haro knew this seemed too good to be true. A few hours later, Haro's phone rang. It was Konchesky, calling to tell him that she had just finished a call with the incumbent. Haro's suspicions had turned out to be justified. Haro asked himself, "Would auctions ever work at Casturn?"

Despite initial concerns about the electronic reverse auction process, Casturn Director of Control Systems Miguel Haro decided that he was going to put all his weight behind the initiative and ensure that it succeeded, even if it was only to answer all the questions about how to run auctions. After a series of initial missteps, Haro began building a convincing business case for the auctions. A strategic mistake would erode any remaining support for auctions as a sourcing tool.

This year, television service provider Oz TV's financial figures are troubling, despite steady demand. Is operational performance hurting financial performance? Oz customers rent a set-top box when they buy their programming package. Set-top boxes drive Oz's key performance indicator: utilization. Students examine Oz's box-return process in order to discover the link between financial performance and operational flow measures.

Kellogg Company, one of the largest cereal companies in the world, is struggling with inefficient production flows. The popular Raisin Bran and Frosted Flakes cereals are produced on the same production line. The process is often starved of cereal, which is costing Kellogg thousands of dollars every day in lost revenue. John A. Bryant, Kellogg's chief executive officer, must come up with a viable solution before next week's board meeting. This simple production process shows how complications can arise when a resource requires setup time.

Petro Refinery LLC, a crude oil refinery, faces an issue common in many production and service industries: finding the optimal product mix or input mix. A central difficulty is that each product consumes different amounts of the firm's shared resources, but contributes different revenues toward the firm's fixed costs. Managers do not necessarily want to sacrifice the production of one product for another just because one has a higher contribution. Even so, the best utilization of the firm's resources toward a good product mix should drive the firm's marketing strategy-what mix of products will result in the most profit? Petro Refinery is a simple but realistic exercise to illustrate product mix decisions.

Petro Refinery LLC, a crude oil refinery, faces an issue common in many production and service industries: finding the optimal product mix or input mix. A central difficulty is that each product consumes different amounts of the firm's shared resources, but contributes different revenues toward the firm's fixed costs. Managers do not necessarily want to sacrifice the production of one product for another just because one has a higher contribution. Even so, the best utilization of the firm's resources toward a good product mix should drive the firm's marketing strategy-what mix of products will result in the most profit? Petro Refinery is a simple but realistic exercise to illustrate product mix decisions.

You and your roommate are launching a calligraphy business out of your two-bedroom apartment. Will this business be profitable? That is the question students evaluate with "Creative Calligraphy Invitations (CCI)." CCI creates one-of-a-kind handwritten invitations, which are in high demand for weddings, holidays, parties, and corporate functions. Calligraphy requires special talent, but the company's business operations are fairly simple. Students analyze CCI's business operations to identify the bottleneck-the step that is the slowest or has the least capacity.

This case study teaches students about lean process improvement projects at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the world's leading hospital systems. The majority of the case focuses on one lean improvement project and leads the student step-by-step through the Kaizen events, and the tools, approaches and outcomes of the project. The case study ends with two short mini-cases on additional process improvement projects at the Cleveland Clinic. The detailed and concise case is ideal for a discussion about lean process improvement in the services industry.