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Andy Youmans, executive vice president of CSSC, joins a group of U.S. executives on a tour of Japanese factories that practice the TPS. Three of the factories produce products similar to CSSC's, and even though they use similar equipment, they are significantly more productive. Once he returns to the United States, Youmans needs a plan to dramatically change his company, knowing that the three Japanese firms have significantly better performance (more than four times the revenues per employee). How can he replicate the Japanese companies' capabilities?

Founded in 1984, Cisco Systems made the Fortune 500 list and surpassed the significant $100 billion mark for market capitalization in 1997. Cisco, whose core technology is routers that allow disparate computer networks to "talk to one another," has become the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Acquisitions have been an integral part of Cisco's corporate strategy--one industry analyst estimated that 40% of Cisco's 1997 revenues came from acquired businesses. Cisco undertakes acquisitions to enable it to quickly tap into new market opportunities and offer customers end-to-end networking solutions. The case discusses Cisco's background and founders, its philosophy toward acquisitions, its stringent acquisition criteria, and its well-documented and tested approach to integrating manufacturing processes and organizations. Also describes a recent acquisition and poses the question of how to integrate the acquired company's manufacturing organization.

The vice president and general manager of Mitel's semiconductor division is faced with a rapidly growing market for the company's business communication chips, but has limited capacity at the semiconductor plant. There is little industry capacity to outsource production. He must determine how to pursue the growing market and how to secure additional capacity. Options include modifications to the current facility, construction of a new facility, or the acquisition of a plant from another company.

A large medical electronics firm is refining its outsourcing policies and the new ways in which it needs to work with its suppliers. The firm begins with an objective to purchase assemblies instead of components. This objective evolves until the supplier takes over a large part of the engineering design as well as the product database creation and maintenance. Many problems are encountered, but the product comes to market and is successful. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

A large medical electronics firm develops correct policies for outsourcing. The company develops noncore technology clusters, cluster teams to manage each cluster, and an evolutionary plan for how to interact with supplier partners. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

A large medical electronics firm's policy could not be applied as easily as the company expected. Some adjustments were necessary--depending on the items purchased, existing relationships with suppliers, and the availability of alternative suppliers. A 1999 EFMD award winner.

Describes the concept of postponement of product variety and how it may be used to match supply and demand better while lowering inventories. Discusses situations where postponement is more or less valuable. Also looks at several industry examples of postponement.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Wriston Manufacturing is a broad-line maker of components for the automotive industry. It has developed a network of nine plants as its product line has grown. Newer, higher-volume products tend to be made in newer, focused, high-volume plants, while older product lines tend to be assigned to the Detroit plant, the oldest one in the system. Because Detroit produces such a wide variety of products, its overhead costs are very high. Management needs to decide whether to close the Detroit plant or find a way to make it profitable. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 698049.

Examines the choices Guidant must make in research and development spending and new product development. More specifically, CEO Jay Graf considers the payoffs and tradeoffs of using product development skills that he learned in CPI's core business when applied to a complementary business. The company's marketing strategies contribute highly to the discussion.

Supplements the (A) case.

In 1994, Mr Olano, special projects manager of Mega Corp., must make a recommendation to Mega's owner, Mrs. Lim, about Mega's investment in a television production facility at Clark Special Economic Zone, the Philippines. Initially the investment was to have been Mega's venture into being an OEM television manufacturer, sourcing parts and selling the output on its own. Recently, however, Aiwa and Mega have had negotiations about the plant becoming a sole supplier for Aiwa's new initiative into television production. Under the arrangement, Mega would assemble televisions for Aiwa from parts either sourced through Aiwa or sourced on its own--if these parts were less expensive yet met Aiwa's standards. Mega's profits would be about $2 per unit plus 50% of any cost saving on the components it sourced.

Describes how Eli Lilly and Co. tries to accelerate its new drug development process with the aid of "combinatorial chemistry"--a rapidly emerging and revolutionary approach to preclinical drug discovery. The product manager of a potential blockbuster migraine drug faces the decision of "racing" the drug to market or spending additional time to refine an already promising drug candidate. Focuses on: (1) the new drug development process with an emphasis on pre-clinical drug discovery; (2) radical innovations ("combinatorial chemistry") in the drug discovery process; (3) the managerial challenges of introducing such innovations into a large organization with multiple stakeholders; (4) the financial value of time-to-market; and (5) the changing competitive environment in the pharmaceutical industry.

After a substantial devaluation of Mexican currency, a major automaker attempts to reduce the price it is paying to a Mexican-based supplier. The supplier (Ventramex) is put in a difficult position because a large portion of its costs are based in U.S. dollars. The company must decide how to respond to the automaker while considering options that would increase the proportion of its costs that are based in Mexican pesos.

Celestica's memory products group is considering relocating and/or reconfiguring its production facilities. The Memory Products' general manager, has asked the process control engineer, to investigate the possibilities. One option being considered is moving from a process to a cellular layout. Both moving and reorganizing have attractive benefits as well as significant risks and costs.

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.

VBF Tubing, a Dutch firm, is facing increased demand for its products, high inventory levels, and expensive setup costs. In light of these problems, the logistics manager must decide how to respond to a proposal that longer production runs be scheduled. The production, cost and market data supplied permit the students to explore the necessity and implications of changing production batch sizes on these competing priorities. In particular, the application of the traditional Economic Order Quantity can be assessed based on other facility-wide operating practices.

Unilever, one of the world's largest food product manufacturers, has achieved impressive growth in Europe, primarily by acquiring local food companies. Initially Unilever allowed each acquired company to manage its own product development in a way that was tailored to local tastes and competition. This case describes the struggles that European managers confronted in trying to establish stronger central direction over Pan-European product development, branding, and marketing.