Align Technology is a four-year-old medical products company that has invented a new product requiring new manufacturing processes. Demand for the new product has grown more slowly than initial forecasts predicted, and the cost structure is preventing the company from becoming profitable. The manufacturing process involves six different operations located in California, Pakistan, and Mexico. The first dilemma requires downsizing the capacity until the demand grows. Increasing capacity in the future requires consideration of the time lags, costs, and incremental units of added capacity inherent in each of the six processes. Given the uncertainty of accurate sales forecasts as the company carries out new marketing initiatives, the manufacturing organization has been challenged to create a capacity plan to meet demand while lowering its fixed costs.

Martin Stein, a recent business school graduate, is the new owner of Quality Imaging Products (QIP), a $10-million-a-year remanufacturer of printer and copier ink cartridges. Within weeks of buying the company, QIP's vp for finance, gives an ultimatum: a raise or he walks, leaving Stein with the burden of straightening out a nonfunctional financial system while customers, suppliers, product managers, and production staff compete for his attention. Presents Stein as an example of a small-company manager who must juggle a far broader range of issues in greater depth than his big-company counterparts to meet the needs of customers profitably.

QuickMedx has created a chain of small kiosks, located in drugstores and shopping malls in the Minneapolis area, that cater to patients with a limited range of very simple primary care conditions. Service is rapid and cheap and patients wait only a few minutes to be seen. The kiosks provide an alternative to the primary care physician's office and the emergency room. Clinical care itself is highly standardized and is delivered by nurse practitioners whose decisions are governed by detailed protocols. The company is now considering its expansion strategy. Should it increase the number of kiosks or widen the currently restricted range of conditions treated?