個案總覽

International Decorative Glass (IDG) is a small manufacturer of glass panels which are inserted into exterior steel doors. While their primary market is in the U.S., most of IDG's manufacturing is done in China through a joint venture arrangement. In response to rapidly growing customer demand, the vice president of operations, is considering the expansion of either their Chinese or Canadian manufacturing operations. Alternatively, he has been approached by a supplier to form a new joint venture manufacturing operation in Vietnam. Financial, political and infrastructural considerations must be weighed, in addition to any signal that would be sent to their current Chinese partners.

The basics of project management are described and applied to a simple tutorial problem. Microsoft Project, as one software tool, is used in the context of the tutorial project. The steps for project management, as well as the calculation of the critical path, using Critical Path Method, are presented.

A product development manager must plan the launch of a new toy for the upcoming Christmas season. This exercise provides a basic introduction to applying project planning techniques and associated calculations, and can be used in conjunction with computer project planning software. Activity times and their precedence relationships are explicitly given, and the students can plan and replan the project to meet the schedule deadline. (A Microsoft Project files, products 7A97D002A, 7A97D002B and 7A97D002C are available for use with this case.)

Simulation is commonly used as a decision tool by managers in marketing, engineering, production, finance and many other disciplines. Managers simulate processes to gain a better understanding of their processes, diagnose problems, train new employees, and explore possibilities. Both the advent of powerful personal computers and the development of graphically driven simulation packages have contributed to this greater adoption. This note describes process simulation and illustrates the techniques with a tutorial model of a deli operation. (An Extend simulation file, product 7A96D009, is available for this case.)

A manufacturing manager has been asked to develop an estimate of the production cost of a therapeutic wrist exerciser prototype. Automated assembly was possible long-term, but a manual assembly and test procedure was necessary until the product was firmly established. Teams of students can be asked to develop an assembly process for the new product using either an assembly line or single operator configuration. Hands-on experience in job design can be provided to the students. Students must use job design and work measurement methods to estimate overall product cost and propose alternative prototype designs that might reduce assembly costs. The performance of the two process configurations can be compared during an in-class student demonstration. Subsequent discussion can focus on the challenges of work design for an assembly line or single operation configuration, along with the quality, cost and management challenges implicit in each.

The environmental coordinator at the Chatham Assembly Plant of Navistar International Corporation, must develop a total waste management program which addresses both corporate waste reduction objectives and regulatory requirements. At the time of the case, a plant-wide waste audit had just been completed by an outside contractor in response to the introduction of provincial legislation, referred to as 3R Regulations. The environmental coordinator must assess the competitive implications of different alternatives, design the program, decide which materials will be recycled, identify who will be involved in implementation, and take into account the reaction of different stakeholder groups. (A sequel to this case titled Navistar: Environmental Management (B), case 9A96D002, is available.)