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Spreadsheet supplement for case 699-043.

One month after "going live" with a new information system, Rich-Con Steel is in crisis. The new system was intended to give the company basic visibility and control over its business processes, but instead, visibility and control appear to have evaporated. Marty Sawyer, Rich-Con's president, must decide what action to take.

The Mongolian Grill is a concept restaurant faced with a decision of whether to expand its capacity. The manager's objective is to optimize the restaurant's profitability without compromising the dining experience of its customers. This case is intended to introduce students to operations issues in a service environment (as opposed to a manufacturing environment). The concept of line balancing is central to the case. The case is also intended to explore capacity expansion issues and to demonstrate how expansion options can affect capacity, profitability and service quality. The case requires students to conduct a quantitative analysis of capacity and profitability while evaluating possible negative effects on service quality.

Xerox has established a new spinoff that utilizes software technology developed at its PARC research facility. This spinoff, Inxight Software, is formulating its plans to commercialize PARC's technology via an OEM component business model.

Describes an innovating start-up company with a disruptive technology to the large, expensive echocardiography machines that leading cardiologists use to create images of heart functions for diagnostic purposes. Ecton's machine is small, cheap, portable, and can't create images as clear as those that large, expensive instruments can make. The entrepreneur is searching for a market for his product, and wonders whether he should sell out or try to build a successful commercial organization.

Describes the emergence and growth of i2 Technologies and the supply chain planning software industry. In December 1998, i2's market capitalization was in excess of $2 billion; the supply chain planning software industry had annual sales of approximately $1 billion and was expected to grow at 57% annually. By describing i2's products and the process that the company followed to sell and implement its software at companies, the case provides students with the background needed to understand why i2 was successful. This understanding enables students to address issues like what i2 should do in the future, and whether new competition such as SAP poses a substantial threat to i2's future success.

Xerox has established a process to spin out technologies it develops that do not fit with its current business needs. To structure these "spinouts," a number of issues arise on how to treat people and intellectual property. PlaceWare is the first technology to go through this process.

Trilogy is a rapidly growing company that is taking a highly unusual approach to capturing an enterprise software market (the "selling chain") that is also the target of much larger competitors. The case offers students an opportunity to assess the company's methods, which the company sees as necessary to satisfy extremely ambitious goals but that some may consider chaotic and unwise.

The president of Joong-Ang Development Company was concerned with the level of service quality at Yongin Farmland, the company's theme park located just south of Seoul, South Korea. Despite the service quality program he had initiated since he assumed his present position 14 months ago, service quality seemed to be less than that of its competitors. He wondered if he had made the right moves, how Farmland could achieve international service quality standards, whether it would be worth doing, and if it would really provide a sustainable competitive advantage. This case and its companion (B) case, 9A97D017, are intended for use in a service quality module of a service management course.

The owner of Jeffries Hardwood Flooring is examining whether his current production set-up can handle an increase in output. He will have to evaluate his operation: examine the production process and identify it appropriately; given data, calculate the capacities of each workstation; identify the capacity/production constraints and bottlenecks; and make recommendations. This exercise should be used after an introduction to process identification and process analysis.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes a key decision-making process within Microsoft's Office products division. At a time when the PC software business has a great deal of uncertainty, Microsoft's management has to make a key decision regarding the future of software suites. A strengthening of suite development as a common platform would require significant organizational, process, and strategic alignments that may weaken the individual software divisions. Focuses on: 1) software development, with an emphasis on multi-applications suites; 2) different models of product innovation (common platform versus individual elements); 3) managerial challenges in aligning processes and the organization of several independent development units.

Describes how the German automotive firm BMW is trying to reduce its development time by half with the aid of computer-aided technologies. To leverage these technologies fully in the very competitive automotive industry, BMW is faced with the challenge of changing its processes and organization, gradually building new development capabilities. This tension between the old and the new is played out in BMW's design area, which has historically been responsible for much of BMW's strategic product positioning. Focuses on: 1) managing automotive development, with an emphasis on exterior styling; 2) new computer-aided technologies and their potential impact on development performance; and 3) the organizational and process changes required to gradually build a firm's development capability.

A new firm is being created to speed up the process of mapping humans, animals, and plants by combining gene technology with rapid gene identification to improve the health and well being of the human population and the productivity of crops and animals. How does one manage this process?

Examines the CompUSA organization, focusing especially on the operations and the company culture. Highlights the economics of PC retailing and the importance of a responsive supply chain for their product category. The description of company culture emphasizes the role of people-management and incentives in achieving responsiveness.

This case may be taught singly or used as a merger-negotiation exercise with "Chrysler Corporation: Negotiations between Daimler and Chrysler" (UV0085). Set in February 1998, the case places students in the position of negotiators for the company; their task is to value both firms, assess the potential earnings dilution of a combination, and negotiate a detailed agreement with their counterpart. The case can be used to explore such interesting negotiation issues as determination of a share-exchange ratio, treatment of major stockholders, and structuring a deal. Also, the case and exercise can be used to spark a discussion of acquisition in comparison with strategic alliance, or other less formal models of combination.

The long-term trend of manufacturing management to adopt "best practice" has had an expressed preference for Japanese production systems as a means of generating industrial success. While commentators have noted the lack of correlation between imitation and competitive advantage, one of the reasons for this failure--namely, the very range of operating methods among Japanese producers--has not been so fully explored. This article uses evidence from the U.K. automobile industry to illustrate the disappointing impact of Japanization and best practice, and it suggests that managers should concentrate on the development of strategic competencies and the aligning of manufacturing with corporate strategy.

As product complexity and the rate of market change have dramatically increased over the last years, firms find it increasingly difficult to forecast product requirements in their development processes. This article redefines the problem from one of improving forecasting to one of increasing product development agility and thus reducing the need for accurate long-term forecasts. It introduces the notion of development flexibility, shows how it can be measured, and presents results from a large empirical study on integrated systems development, which found that projects using flexible technologies outperformed projects using inflexible technologies by a factor of 2.2 (in person-months). Finally, the article proposes three major strategies for introducing flexibility into organizations. These strategies can help firms increase their agility and position themselves to succeed in accelerating and more turbulent markets.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 699-022.