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The case was written for an introductory business course, particularly the section on operations. It deals with managing capacity and demand. In early 2008, McKenzie Scott, manager of administrative services at Nipissing Bank (Nipissing) in Ottawa, Ontario, was trying to decide how to carry out a management initiative to add additional marketing materials to client mail-out packages. In particular, Scott was considering upgrading the bank's current envelope stuffing equipment, replacing it or outsourcing the activity entirely.

A partner and owner of the Sunset Grill at Blue Mountain in the village at Blue Mountain, Ontario had very mixed emotions. The restaurant had just finished its first year of operation and had broken even, and had been named Business of the Year in the counties of Simcoe and Grey. On the other hand, the owner knew that operations were still far from perfect. This case was written for courses on operations, particularly in the section on managing capacity and demand. It could also be used in a service management or service operation course.

Furniture Bank was an organization that collected and distributed donated, gently used furniture to those in need. After several years of tight financial circumstances, the interim executive director was relieved that the past year had provided relief via generation of record amounts of excess cash. He was preparing a report to be presented to the board of directors concerning his thoughts on what direction he thought the Furniture Bank should take, concerning opportunities for growth and the community's needs. With several thousand dollars of unrestricted reserves to access, but competing ideas for use of those reserves, the executive director realized the organization faced some difficult strategic and tactical decisions. All the ideas seemed to be important for Furniture Bank but the executive director was unsure if the organization had the capability to implement them; and he was unsure how to evaluate their relative priority. Any recommendation he made had to consider Furniture Bank's long-term direction and build on its recent financial success.

In March 2010, the owner of Anita Norris Model Management (ANMM) was trying to discern a strategic direction to best serve the growth of her company. Its quick growth in the past two years was due to the owners' efforts to pursue any revenue stream opportunity that presented itself. The owner was concerned that this pace was unsustainable in the long run and would in fact stretch the business too thinly. Currently, the business's revenue stemmed from four main areas: modeling workshops, signing and booking models, model development and speaking fees. The owner wanted to develop a future business strategy that would allow her to focus the business and spend the majority of her time on developing and managing her models. To do this she had to carefully analyze the strengths and weaknesses of her company within the context of her competitors and the industry as a whole.

In February 2009,the human resources associate at the Toronto office of advertising agency Ambrose & Bisaro (A&B) had just finished interviewing a candidate for one of eight summer internship positions. Due to the economic downturn, A&B anticipated a larger number of qualified applicants for these positions, especially notable in 2009 as many of their direct competitors had scaled back their internship programs. Throughout the interview, the candidate impressed the human resources associate with their demeanor, enthusiasm and extra-curricular activities; however, the candidate had no previous marketing experience. At the end of the interview the candidate revealed she had secured interviews at five competing advertising agencies and had three firm offers. Somewhat taken aback, the human resources associate realized she had to make a very quick decision: extend an offer to the candidate, or wait and interview the remaining applicants and risk losing this one?

Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics Centre (CSTAR) had had a successful year during which its new director had ensured that CSTAR's budget deficit was on target to be reduced by 50 per cent. CSTAR still faced significant hurdles to becoming financially stable and a leader in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The director wanted CSTAR to be financially self-sustainable within two years, and identified goals to overcome these hurdles: development of a sustainable financing plan that would support its annual operating budget; setting strategies for its four revenue streams; and development of an operating plan to support CSTAR's new educational facility. Additionally, the MIS sector had no clear leader to set clinical care standards or establish industry best practices. The director wondered how CSTAR could position itself to fulfill that leadership role and generate funding through its business development activities. As director of the centre, he had to design these strategies and design a financing plan to push CSTAR into the black.

The managing partner of Cooke & Rodak LLP was devising a recommendation to be presented to the executive committee regarding a significant change to the firm's program for articling students. The current program had a structured rotation system, and after interviews with several current articling students it had been suggested that a move to a more entrepreneurial-based approach, thus allowing students flexibility in choosing their work, would be welcomed. Would this entrepreneurial-based approach be seen as an opportunity to find their niche, or would it be seen as too unstructured and scare off potential candidates? Could the firm maintain its current strong reputation among students by choosing this strategy? It was thought that eliminating the rotation system would enhance development of the firm's students, but since no other firm had taken this approach, it was unknown how this change in strategy might affect recruiting efforts towards future candidates.

In April, 2009, the director of media strategy at henderson bas, a Toronto-based online advertising agency, was evaluating the current campaign for Primus Telecommunications (Primus). It had been two months since the Primus home phone bundle banner advertisement campaign had been launched, and initial results were not as expected. While there were a lot of visitors attracted to the Primus website, those visitors were not converted into paying customers at a high enough rate. This poor conversion rate had pushed the cost per acquisition of new Primus customers to uncomfortably high levels, threatening the campaign's future. By gathering form usage data from the website and subsequently implementing visitor-tracking software, the director focused her attention to analyze the results to determine why visitors to Primus' website were not converting into paying customers.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

In late 2006, the four partners of Oncidium Business Consulting disagree on a number of questions, such as the firm's future direction, the responsibilities of each partner and how profits are to be divided. The A1 case, 9B09D015, takes the viewpoint of the founding partner and majority holder of the firm's shares. The A2 case, 9B09D016, looks at the situation from the position of one of the minority partners.

A current franchisee of Marble Slab Creamery (producer of the self-proclaimed Freshest Ice Cream on Earth) was set to open his second location in Waterloo, Ontario. In a recent phone conversation with Marble Slab's Canadian president, the contentious issue of the corporate ice-cream weighing policy had come up. The franchisee was convinced that his managerial abilities and the growth potential of the new location would result in an ultimately successful franchise; however, the president had expressed hesitation at the franchisee straying from the policy. Two questions were foremost in his mind as he weighed his options: 1) What did customers truly value in the Marble Slab service concept? 2) How would the chosen weighing policy affect the customer experience? The franchisee had hopes of owning several Marble Slab franchises, and knew that his weighing policy decision could have lasting effects on his business operations and his relationship with head office.

The owner and operator of Elizabeth's Country Wares (ECW), a decorative country housewares and ceramic pottery business based in Woodstock, Ontario, was trying to find a way to increase capacity. Because ECW was her primary occupation and source of income, the owner was eager to take advantage of the growing interest in one of her product lines from some of her primary customers - member stores of a national pharmacy chain. She was unsure whether she should purchase new equipment or outsource part or all of the production of these pieces. The owner was uncertain whether ECW could meet the forecasted demand of 3, 000 units for the coming year, and she did not want to miss out on selling more of the line. However, she also believed there was more earnings potential if she could focus her attention elsewhere in the business.

A current franchisee of Marble Slab Creamery (producer of the self-proclaimed "Freshest Ice Cream on Earth") was set to open his second location in Waterloo, Ontario. In a recent phone conversation with Marble Slab's Canadian president, the contentious issue of the corporate ice-cream weighing policy had come up. The franchisee was convinced that his managerial abilities and the growth potential of the new location would result in an ultimately successful franchise; however, the president had expressed hesitation at the franchisee straying from the policy. Two questions were foremost in his mind as he weighed his options: 1) What did customers truly value in the Marble Slab service concept? 2) How would the chosen weighing policy affect the customer experience? The franchisee had hopes of owning several Marble Slab franchises, and knew that his weighing policy decision could have lasting effects on his business operations and his relationship with head office.

In February 2008, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Fly Open Sky Ltd. was finalizing a business plan for Etrip, a proposed online travel startup in the European travel market. He wanted to use the plan to convince investors to commit $100,000, which would provide the first round of financing in a lead up to a further investment of $500,000. The CEO had a vision of developing Etrip as a superior online travel reservation system and desired to implement higher value propositions over other companies' products in this crowded and competitive market. Prior to launching a bid for capital the CEO had to make concrete decisions about an appropriate marketing plan, devising an accurate revenue model, and satisfying intellectual property rights with regards to Etrip's domain name.

In April 2008, the owners of the Cambridge, Ontario-based Cerny Hospitality Group (CHG) were considering the purchase and implementation of OpenTable's reservation management software in three of their restaurants, including the Blackshop Restaurant. It was thought that the software could aid in more effectively managing customer demand due to its ability to allow on-line reservations and its data-gathering capability, an improvement over its current manual reservation system. CHG was a family-owned and operated business and had achieved considerable success with its personal touch with clients. When considering the purchase of the software, CHG had concerns about the potential cost and return on investment, in addition to the strategic fit for this company that placed much emphasis on the human-touch and personal interaction with customers.

The director of client services at henderson bas, an interactive advertising company, was trying to decide how to set a price for the newly proposed campaign for Halpernia Industries, one of her clients. Though the strategic direction of the campaign had been agreed upon, Halpernia had rejected the two creative proposals already presented to it. The director was unsure how to set a price for the campaign. She needed to balance the need for the company to be profitable with the importance of maintaining the client relationship with Halpernia by deciding whether or not to charge Halpernia for the significant amount of work that had gone into the rejected proposals.

The QiLing Research Hospital (QiLing), located in Beijing, China, headed by Dr. Tien Tzu, CEO, is in a partnership with the China Research Network (CRN). This partnership was formed in an effort to mutually benefit both parties in terms of becoming a leader in health-care quality standards and creating more effective health-care techniques. Due to the intertwined nature of this relationship, the acquisition of human capital for specific positions within the hospital requires CRN to provide the candidates. Dr. Tien Tzu is increasingly concerned that CRN's hiring conditions are hindering QiLing's potential - specifically referencing the latest batch of candidates CRN has provided to fill a key spot in the neurology department. She is aware that the right people are the key to maintaining QiLing's growth and loyalty and has analyzed how the candidate selection process, overall compensation, and job retention efforts affect the quality of the human capital pool. She is entertaining thoughts about overhauling the process for the benefit of QiLing, and is unsure how CRN will respond to any proposals she might make.

In April, 2008, the president of Tiburon, a manufacturer of camouflage components based in the Dominican Republic, met with Tiburon's parent company and sole customer, GMA. GMA, based in Guelph, Ontario, was an equipment supplier to the United States Army. Tiburon had only been in business one month, and the president was analyzing the current production process in each of the Dominican and Guelph plants. There were noted differences between the two plants' production methods, which could affect Tiburon's ability to meet monthly capacity demands of GMA. The president wanted to present and implement her own ideas to improve the efficiency, quality and cost effectiveness of the production line in the Dominican Republic. In doing so, she had to balance the high expectations of GMA and Tiburon's investors with the plant managers' cultural observations about employees and their work.

In April 2008, the owners of the Cambridge, Ontario-based Cerny Hospitality Group (CHG) were considering the purchase and implementation of OpenTable's reservation management software in three of their restaurants, including the Blackshop Restaurant. It was thought that the software could aid in more effectively managing customer demand due to its ability to allow on-line reservations and its data-gathering capability, an improvement over its current manual reservation system. CHG was a family-owned and operated business and had achieved considerable success with its personal touch with clients. When considering the purchase of the software, CHG had concerns about the potential cost and return on investment, in addition to the strategic fit for this company that placed much emphasis on the human-touch and personal interaction with customers.

This note explores four fundamental aspects of all organizations in order to help students develop an effective operating point of view and decision-making skills related to operations. The basic components of operating systems are outlined as well as key tasks for operations managers, types of operations systems and tools to help diagnose and solve common operations problems.