個案總覽

SkySpecs is a company that helps the wind energy industry optimize performance of wind farms to improve productivity and efficiency and minimize downtime. It has developed a proprietary drone system to automate the task of inspecting wind turbine blades. This core technology allows rapid turbine blade inspections and provides analytics capability. The case first describes the stakeholders in a wind energy ecosystem and the challenges the industry faces. It then presents SkySpecs' product strategy and explores how the company brings value to different stakeholders in the wind energy ecosystem. Looking to the future, SkySpecs is exploring two options for growth. These are broadly classified as pursuit of depth, offering a broader set of solutions within the wind energy industry, or pursuit of breadth, leveraging its expertise to offer similar solutions within other industries. Students will discuss the pros and cons of these two directions and make a recommendation.

This case study highlights the opportunities and economic, environmental, and social value generated by one of the nation's largest college dining operations, the University of Michigan's MDining. The case describes the MDining leadership team and their holistic approach to implementing local and sustainable food sourcing initiatives. The team's challenges in implementing an aspirational local sourcing program and gaps in the ecosystem encourage students to discuss potential solutions. The case covers the important role a university can play in improving food sustainability on campus, especially through student clubs, projects, and employment and research opportunities. More broadly, the case highlights challenges that large institutions can face in implementing local sourcing and what role institutions can play in ensuring sustainable food services procurement.

This case focuses on Dell's efforts to develop an open-source, scalable, and cost-effective supply chain capable of delivering ocean plastics waste to its production facilities, and potentially to those of partnering companies through a consortium. Piyush Bhargava, vice president of global operations at Dell and leader of Dell's Ocean Plastics Initiative, must deliver a strategic plan for how to proceed with the initiative but has three primary challenges: (1) how to deliver "additionality", (2) how to operationalize an ocean plastics supply chain at scale, and (3) how Dell should approach developing a consortium to ensure meaningful demand for the material. The case presents scientific information on the causes, scale, and impact of the ocean plastics problem and provides background on Dell's involvement in other sustainable packaging initiatives. Students will learn why Dell chose this cause and how it came to be a leading initiative within the company. The case is based on a 2017 Tauber Institute for Global Operations (University of Michigan) summer internship project.

This case tackles the issue of recycling of poly-coated beverage cartons in the United States. In 2008, recycling access to the commodity was low, putting the industry at risk of losing market share to other forms of packaging. The protagonist of the case Alan Murray, then CEO of Tetra Pak North America, pulled industry leaders together under the Carton Council of North America (CCNA) to attempt to boost recycling access in communities across the U.S. to 60%, an amount that would allow the producers of products to carry the unconditional Federal Trade Commission logo on their packages. Still, improving access in small local communities would be difficult. In reading and discussing the case, students analyze the reverse supply chain for recycled cartons, the rationale behind lackluster access to recycling, and CCNA programs designed to reconstruct the reverse supply chain.

Boeing originally was scheduled to deliver the Dreamliner to airline customers in mid-2008. However, after five announced delays over two years, the company was forced to postpone the first test flight. One driver for the delay was an industry-wide shortage of aerospace fasteners, the hardware that held the aircraft together. Engineers at Boeing never could have imagined that fasteners, which comprise approximately 3% of the total cost of an aircraft, would become such an issue. To address the fastener issue, Boeing's management knew that it could not just use a band-aid solution; rather, it had to drive sweeping changes to the way the industry and supply chain functioned. Boeing's solution: the fastener procurement model (FPM).