Most companies have digital platforms that support specific functions, such as supply chain management, product design, or operations, and they tightly regulate who may join the platform. The Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier has extended its supply chain management platform to facilitate a broader range of collaborations from innovation and design to supplying materials and components to solving technical problems and providing new services. The platform allows Haier to capitalize on the expertise and resources of its ecosystem, rapidly exploit new business opportunities, respond quickly to disruptions, and achieve efficiencies in a wide range of activities.

This case focuses on the actions of Beijing Baman Technology Co., Ltd. ("Baman") to improve supply chain performance to support its innovative "boundaryless dining" business model. These actions included defining supply chain strategies and roles, and driving upstream and downstream collaboration. As a start-up, Baman served authentic Hunan Changde beef rice noodles, earning its restaurant chain great popularity online through successful community marketing. It then innovated its business model by breaking time and space restrictions of traditional eateries and diversifying its portfolio to include dine-in, take-away and retail products. However, after expanding its retail SKUs, Baman suffered from a bloated inventory and faltering cash flow at the end of 2017. Company founder Zhang Tianyi then realized the importance of supply chain management and the different characteristics between restaurant and retail supply chains. Since 2018, Baman has made relentless efforts to build on supply chain management capabilities by clearly defining supply chain strategies, tactically segmenting the management of restaurant and retail supply chains, and improving supply chain efficiency while reducing costs through upstream and downstream collaboration. The case ends with an open discussion: how could Baman manage more complex supply chains to boost efficiency with lower costs? By depicting the story of a start-up, this case expands on how a company can improve its supply chain to facilitate business model innovation, which may serve as a reference for supply chain management of small and medium-sized enterprises in other sectors of the real economy.

Yiliu Tech was established in 2006 to reform road freight in China and address its lack of transparency with information technology. Its philosophy was built on the concept of "logistical transparency", i.e., providing digitalized services to road freight suppliers and customers. These services use real-time positioning and other physical vehicle data collected via various devices and sensors. Of the three stages of logistical transparency, Yiliu Tech has undergone stages 1.0 and 2.0 in the past ten years and is now transitioning from business digitization to data-driven services. How important is logistical transparency, and what do Logistical Transparency 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 actually mean? How should Yiliu Tech use logistical transparency and logistics big data to optimize logistical decision-making, design more innovative services and make them widely accessible? Against the backdrop of industry-wide transformation and upgrading and the opportunity presented by strategic investment from Cainiao Network Technology (hereinafter "Cainiao"), what path should Yiliu Tech take to pursue its goal of Logistical Transparency 3.0?

Starting from a humble beginning of being a manufacturer of down feather products owned by Shunde Township, Galanz Enterprises Group Co. Ltd. (Galanz) had transformed itself into a world class manufacturer of microwave ovens producing about 50 per cent of the global output in 2003. This case describes the competitive and operational strategies that Galanz used to achieve such a meteoric growth. The company started out with a clear competitive strategy based on cost leadership. It designed and implemented operations system to help achieve lower cost through economy of scale, the transfer of production capacity from developed countries and full utilization of the available production capacity.

Starting from a humble beginning of being a manufacturer of down feather products owned by Shunde Township, Galanz Enterprises Group Co. Ltd. (Galanz) had transformed itself into a world class manufacturer of microwave ovens producing about 50 per cent of the global output in 2003. This case describes the competitive and operational strategies that Galanz used to achieve such a meteoric growth. The company started out with a clear competitive strategy based on cost leadership. It designed and implemented operations system to help achieve lower cost through economy of scale, the transfer of production capacity from developed countries and full utilization of the available production capacity.<br><br>The case aims to: 1. introduce students to the concepts of order winner, order qualifiers, operations priorities/objectives. 2. show how operations priorities should reflect customer requirements and affect the way a company wants to compete. 3. demonstrate how a company can gain competitive advantages through low cost strategy and how to support business strategy using operations strategy and capabilities. 4. show students how a company can build multiple capabilities over time and how a company's strategy and operational capabilities can change over time. 5. provide students with the opportunity to analyze trade-offs involved in making strategic, operational and marketing decisions as a business expands from the domestic to the global market and from OEM to ODM and OBM. 6. challenge students to develop coherent action plans that address future growth objectives. 7. help understand the tremendous opportunities and challenges of managing operations and supply chain activities in China.