In January 2020, Ashwani Gupta took over as COO at Nissan Motor Corporation, and several weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Nissan's Business Continuity Plan (BCP) had been key to the resilience of Nissan's supply chain. It had enabled Nissan to recover from past supply chain disruptions, mainly natural disasters, sooner than its competitors. This case describes the BCP, within the context of Nissan's production methods, organizational principles and current financial position. It relates how Gupta managed the rapidly-evolving restrictions that the coronavirus pandemic required as it spread from China to other countries where Nissan's assembly plants and suppliers were located. Based on his experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, Gupta considers how to improve the BCP. This case also covers a specific situation in India, where Nissan had to quickly find an alternate supplier for a unit of dashboard gauges. The team in India developed four options that can be evaluated by students.
Companies that experience big fluctuations in demand can incur significant costs: overtime and lost sales when demand is too high, and idle capacity and excess inventory when demand slumps. But it's possible to better manage this variability by looking at one's customer list as a portfolio and targeting new customers whose demand patterns are complementary to those of existing customers.
Traditional methods of managing supply chain risk require estimations of how likely a disruption is to occur. For fairly common risks--poor supplier performance, forecast errors, transportation breakdowns--the traditional methods work quite well. But it's a different story for rare, high-impact events such as megadisasters, pandemics, and political upheavals. These risks are hard to quantify using traditional models, and as a result, many companies do not adequately prepare for them, which can have calamitous consequences when catastrophes do strike. A new model allows managers to quantify the "impact" of a supply chain disruption on a company's operational and financial performance, rather than focusing on the "cause" or "likelihood" of the disruption. This type of analysis obviates the need to determine the probability of any specific risk's occurring--a valid approach since the mitigation strategies are equally effective regardless of what caused the disruption. In this article, the authors describe how companies can use the model to reduce their exposure to all types of supply chain risk.
Merck is known for its commitment to investing in basic R&D. Are Merck's long-term investments justifiable when the firm faces extreme earnings pressure?
Baria Planning Solutions (BPS) is a consulting firm that specializes in using spend analysis to help companies identify savings through reduced procurement costs and improved supplier performance. Management is concerned about the disappointing performance of the sales team in attaining new clients and renewing existing ones. The Sales directors feel they do not get the help they need from Sales Support to close new deals, while the Sales Support directors believe they could provide better support by organizing into industry-specific divisions. The consulting industry is becoming increasingly competitive and inefficiencies in the sales process at BPS may interfere with the company's ability to win new business. The recently hired director of North American Sales Support must analyze the current process flow for Sales Support and identify the problems facing the sales organization. The president of the company has asked her to present a proposal for improving the performance of the entire group.
Scientific Glassware is a fast-growing, privately held company that provides specialized glassware for laboratory and research facilities. Excess inventory is tying up extra capital needed to fund the company's expansion plans. The newly hired Manager of Inventory Planning is tasked with developing an effective strategy for managing inventory without requiring additional capital investment. The company has launched several initiatives, such as adding a dedicated domestic sales force, which directly affect inventory requirements. At the same time, the company has announced a commitment to improve customer responsiveness and reduce the "fill rate," the time it takes to fulfill new orders. These changes may require adding warehouses or outsourcing fulfillment services. This case focuses on the business challenges of inventory control and order processing, particularly the tradeoffs between centralized and decentralized inventories. Students must complete a quantitative analysis of the costs and benefits of several alternatives.
Multiple delays of the Airbus A380 have shocked analysts and investors alike. What are the causes of these delays and how should investors respond to the signals they may be sending about the company's outlook?