個案總覽

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Tremendous variability in orders along the supply chain can plague companies trying to eliminate excess inventory, forecast product demand, and simply make their supply chain more efficient. What causes the bullwhip effect that distorts information as it is transmitted up the chain? The authors identify four major causes: Demand forecast updating, order batching, price fluctuation, and rationing and shortage gaming. The authors suggest several ways in which companies can counteract the bullwhip effect. First, avoid multiple demand forecast updates. Companies can make demand data from downstream available upstream. Or they can bypass the downstream site by selling directly to the consumer. Also, they can improve operational efficiency to reduce highly variable demand and long resupply lead times. Second, break order batches. Companies can use electronic data interchange to reduce the cost of placing orders and place orders more frequently. And they can ship assortments of products in a truckload to counter high transportation costs or use third-party logistics companies to handle shipping. Third, stabilize prices. Manufacturers can reduce the frequency and level of wholesale price discounting to prevent customers from stockpiling. They can also use activity-based costing systems to recognize when companies are buying in bulk. Finally, eliminate gaming in shortage situations. In shortages, suppliers can allocate product based on past sales records rather than on orders, so customers don't exaggerate their orders. They can also eliminate their generous return policies, making it less likely for retailers to cancel orders.

Deals with the logistics and incentives at Tong Yang Cement Corp.

The director of purchasing and financial systems at The University of Western Ontario notices that paper pulp prices are rising and realizes that both of the University's paper suppliers would like to pass along increasing costs. Moore is forced into a precarious situation when one of the suppliers unilaterally raises prices despite a fixed contract. Moore faces a range of options, from placidly accepting this increase to taking legal action. The case demonstrates issues of bargaining (including strategic signaling) and control.

The European organization of Alden Products, Inc. is contemplating a doubling of unit sales over the next ten years. Their largest plant, located in Holland, was set up 25 years earlier to supply all demands of the EEC countries on the continent. It has since expanded six times. Should it expand again? Should it build a new plant in Southern Europe? Or should it increase subcontracting?

The vice-president Operations of Spartan Plastics, is facing a trade-off. As an avid proponent of the Toyota production system, just in time manufacturing (JIT), ISO 9001, and continuous improvement, he has reduced setup times, batch sizes, and throughput times. On the other hand, the scrap rate has shot up. This case would be appropriate for use in a production and operations course, to introduce students to the concepts of JIT and world class manufacturing.

On February 9, 1995, the purchasing officer at Fisher & Paykel Limited in Auckland, New Zealand, was preparing for the next meeting of the evaporator pad cover team. Recent supply problems had threatened to close down the refrigerator assembly line and the purchasing officer's task was to propose a workable and cost effective solution.

Hospital Equipment Corp. is a very successful maker of hospital beds. Due to outstanding performance in new product development, it grew to dominate its primary market and is searching for other opportunities to grow through new product development. It discovers that its internal system for identifying new, high-growth markets actually screens out some exciting growth possibilities.

Many companies are not tapping the full potential of their foreign factories. They establish and manage foreign factories to benefit only from tariff and trade concessions, cheap labor, capital subsidies, and reduced logistics costs. They therefore give these factories a limited range of work, responsibilities, and resources. But there are companies that expect much more from their foreign factories and, as a result, get much more. They use them to get closer to their customers and suppliers, to attract skilled and talented employees, and to create centers of expertise for the entire company. The author provides a framework to help managers classify the current role their foreign factories play.

Never has so much technology and brainpower been applied to improving supply chain performance. But the performance of many supply chains has never been worse. Why haven't the new ideas and technologies led to improved performance? Because, Marshall Fisher says, companies lack a framework for deciding which ones are best for their particular situation. Fisher offers such a framework to help managers understand the nature of the demand for their products and devise the supply chain that can best satisfy that demand.

Provides a framework for maximizing the value of a plant tour, or a single visit to an operation. There are three principal types of plant tours within this framework tht can provide information about four broad types of operational performance.

After a substantial devaluation in the value of the 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 is based in US 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.

Discusses the role of distribution intermediaries in the electronic components industry, and describes operations at two of these distributors. Serves as a vehicle to discuss the functions provided by distributors in the channel. Also lets students understand the differences between the distributors and discuss how each of them is going to deal with issues like consolidation and the rapid growth of the Internet. Also introduces students to the complexity of managing operations at a small distributor.

Describes the efforts of a manufacturer of scientific instruments to implement new methods of managing new product development, which its executives had learned in a Harvard Business School seminar. The executives left the seminar excited to implement a new way of working, but, through a series of seemingly logical steps, got little accomplished.

In many mass markets, companies are facing a predicament: customers are demanding not only ever faster order fulfillment but also highly customized products and services. The authors show how the Hewlett-Packard Co. and others have proved that one indeed can deliver customized products quickly and at a low cost. The key to mass-customizing effectively is postponing the task of differentiating a product for a specific customer until the latest possible point in the supply network. Instead of taking a piecemeal approach, companies must rethink and integrate the designs of their products, the processes used to make and deliver those products, and the configuration of their entire supply network. By adopting such a comprehensive approach, they can operate at maximum efficiency and quickly meet customers' orders with minimum amount of inventory.

Virtually all executives today recognize the need to provide outstanding service to customers. Focusing on the customer, however, is both an imperative and a potential curse. Companies around the world have embraced mass customization in an attempt to avoid pitfalls. But many managers have discovered that mass customization itself can produce unnecessary cost and complexity. They are realizing that they did not examine thoroughly enough what kind of customization their customers would value before they plunged ahead. In this article, the authors provide a framework to help managers determine the type of customization they should pursue.

Supplements the (A) case.

Studio Realty created an "electronic open house" technology, by which home buyers sitting in a comfortable setting, could tour a home, viewing its rooms, its exterior, and surroundings, by clicking on digital images. Studio Realty attempted to sell or license its system to realtors, but found that none were interested. Ultimately, its owners had to establish their own real estate agency in order to create demand for the technology. The case closes with the question of whether homes can be sold with this technology over the Internet.

Carol Wittenberg's first major task as president of the Asia/Pacific business for Parker's Biscuits is to set up a joint venture to manufacture biscuits in China. The team that Wittenberg has put together to find a joint venture partner has narrowed the choice down to two quite different Chinese enterprises. One partner is larger, has broader product lines, and offers a better estimated financial payback on the investment. The other appears to be much more open to Parker's manufacturing management methods. Either choice will represent the company's largest single investment in a joint venture to date.

The Mexico City office of a large U.S. bank is asked by clients to develop currency swaps, a derivative financial product. This case deals with the new product development process in financial services, and the problems and issues that are raised in product development in a volatile environment.

Describes how four companies in the Internet software market approach product development. Drawing upon short case studies of three recent projects, students are invited to synthesize the common attributes of development practice in turbulent environments.