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Describes the continuous flow process used to generate orange juice concentrate. Production involves several tightly coupled process steps with varying production rates and setup times. Given production constraints and customer requirements, management choices must be made to maximize the greatest contribution.

Designed to be used after Natural Blends, Inc.

Describes a large-volume automotive parts contract in a high-quality machine work company. Quality and delivery problems arise when one of the four men on the job is replaced with a high producer who cannot earn a substantial bonus because of machine interference. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

In response to a recent incident the supervisor of administration services was trying to decide how best to prevent the company from sending out mail with insufficient postage. The case describes how the company determines how much postage is required and the process Canada Post uses in dealing with mail with insufficient postage. The supervisor is examining two options. One involves a software solution to calculate envelope weight, the other involves mechanically weighing each envelope.

Illustrates how a new management team at Medtronic's Cardiac Pacemaker business reversed a steep decline in market share by adopting certain management principles for new product development: clarifying strategy, aggregating project planning, accommodating the number of projects to match development capacity, and establishing a platform/derivative product architecture, and others. This case is useful in both MBA courses and executive programs.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 698-004.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Three forces are changing the customary rules of distribution channel management: proliferating customer needs, shifts in the balance of power in channels, and changing strategic priorities. Many firms are outsourcing the distribution function to third parties. Others, using IT, direct marketing, database marketing, and other variations, contact customers directly, so the roles of the distributor or dealer are evolving. And some firms are simultaneously experimenting with a number of distribution options before committing to one system. Firms are also dealing through specialists rather than generalists, because specialists tend to be more focused and nimble than the manufacturer in a turbulent environment. The authors propose a strategic approach to planning for future channel configurations, control of the channel, and resource commitment. The channel must address customer needs, ensure that the customer sees the value in the company's offering, be cost efficient, and handle any new products and services that emerge. The authors suggest that a company first assess its current distribution channels, each channel's profitability, its market coverage, and the cost of each channel function. Next, a company should choose a channel arrangement based on sound design principles that recognize that the distribution strategy must contribute to the business' overall objectives.

Honda of America has developed a comprehensive approach to teaching the principles of lean production to its suppliers, in which Honda and the supplier work intensively on narrowly targeted improvement projects in the supplier's plant. Called BP (for "Best Process," "Best Performance," "Best Practice"), this approach has been quite successful in enhancing supplier performance; suppliers participating in the program in 1994 averaged productivity gains of 50% on lines reengineered by BP. However, Honda has found there is high variation in the extent to which suppliers were able to transfer the lessons taught beyond the line or plant where the BP intervention occurred. Drawing on case studies of three of Honda's U.S. suppliers, this article explores how the BP process interacts with the broader relationship between customer and supplier in terms of organizational learning, technology transfer, and the transplantation of Japanese management practices to the United States. These cases illustrate the dynamics of the learning process and the complex relationship that emerges between the "teacher" (provider) of valuable knowledge and the "student" (recipient).

Once the CABG care path is implemented and other care paths begun, hospital staff and administration examine the resulting data. Further methods of improving care and reducing cost are presented for analysis.

Focuses on the auto supply industry and especially the relations between Johnson Controls (JCI) Automotive Systems Group's Georgetown plant and its main customer, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Toyota's U.S. assembly plant, for which JCI supplies seats on a just-in-time basis. Can be used to investigate the differing patterns of supplier relations that were traditional in the U.S. and Japanese auto industries, to examine the adaptations that Toyota made to its traditional methods to deal with a U.S. supplier, and to study the very high degree of coordination and cooperation that is achieved between the two companies. JCI's adoption of a version of the Toyota Production System is also discussed.

Supplements the (A) case.

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.)

Almost everyone who leads, works for, or interacts with a manufacturing company can benefit from seeing a factory firsthand, David Upton and Stephen Macadam advise. For example, plant visits allow senior executives to understand a site's performance potential, to assess a competitor, or to rally the frontline workforce. Shop floor operators can assess another plant's operations and apply what they've learned in their own factories. But even people who know that plant tours are valuable can find putting them to effective use difficult. First, unclear objectives often turn touring into tourism. Second, many people lack an organizing framework with which to structure observations and accelerate learning. Upton and Macadam show visitors how to set clear objectives and apply an organizing framework in order to make sense of what they see and hear on a plant tour. In this way, visitors will develop a deep understanding of the plant's manufacturing capabilities--and how best to exploit them.

The general manager of Elliot Lake Retirement Living (ELRL), was trying to decide whether to adopt the recommendations in a student report to broaden the organization's service activities by expanding into assisted living. Although success would allow the organization to grow, failure might threaten the survival of the very town. ELRL was unique; it had been established as a not-for-profit enterprise to try to save the isolated northern Ontario town of Elliot Lake, whose almost exclusive raison d'etre was about to disappear with the impending closure of the area's last uranium mine. Its purpose was to establish the town as a retirement centre. Students have to analyze how the proposal will affect the company's ability to deliver the new service concept. The general manager was considering several options in addition to assisted living. A reasonable course of action must include a consideration of ELRL's status as a not-for-profit entity with a number of significant stakeholders.

Display Technologies, Inc. (DTI) is a new joint venture between Toshiba and IBM Japan that is manufacturing the most advanced form of flat panel displays. With success in achieving significant production volumes, DTI has been asked to double its output as quickly as possible. Mr. Shima, DTI's president, must decide among three options, each of which has immediate and long-term strategic consequences.

In late 1994, James Down, member of Mercer's Executive Committee, has to decide whether or not he should push ahead with the writing and publication of a book on growth--at a time when the more successful business publications focus on reengineering and cost cutting. He sees this as an opportunity to position Mercer in the consulting market and align the organization--itself a result of several mergers--around a common platform. He is facing resistance within the firm, however, especially from the firm's European offices, which see little need for this knowledge product. Proceeding without Europe could result in an incomplete product and a divided firm. If he waits, though, he may miss a critical market window. The case provides early versions of the growth framework. The product in this case is built from the firm's knowledge assets, and is very different from manufactured hardware or software.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.

Samsung leapfrogged from a mere discrete device producer to the largest and most vibrant memory chip producer in the world. It managed effectively the two antecedents of technological learning: prior knowledge base and the intensity of efforts. Samsung used technology licensing and the recruitment of high caliber scientists and engineers in building its prior knowledge base and crisis construction as a strategic means for increasing the intensity of its efforts. Samsung also used internal competition to accelerate technological learning.