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Manufacturers and retailers traditionally have seen each other as adversaries, but the benifits generated by trusting relationships between such old foes as Procter & Gamble Co. and Wal-Mart Stores show that fear and intimidation may not be the most effective way for manufacturers and retailers to deal with each other after all. Studies of manufacturer-retailer relationships in a variety of industries reveal that exploiting power has three major drawbacks: it can come back to haunt a company if the balance of power changes; victims will ultimately seek ways to resist such exploitation; and working as partners allows retailers and manufacturers to provide customers with greater value than they can when they try to exploit each other. Moving a relationship from the power game to the trust game is difficult, requiring a change in culture, management systems, and attitudes. But the success of organizations such as Marks & Spencer, Kraft, and E.J. Ekornes all testify to the benefits of making the effort. In rapidly changing environments, success will go to those who learn to make the leap of faith.

An ICS consultant considers issues at the start of a full-scale implementation of SAP software for a large client. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will integrate previously fragmented business processes and so must be supported by the entire client organization.

A small school-uniform manufacturer wrestles with seasonal demand. The company is saddled with excess inventory when it is bought by a leveraged buyout firm. Students are required to identify ways to analyze and solve the problem.

The case describes the development process used by Team New Zealand to design their two yachts for the 1995 America's Cup. During development, the team makes extensive use of simulation and physical prototyping to improve the initial design concept. As they approach construction, they must decide whether to build both boats at the same time and, if so, whether to vary their designs. The decision hinges on evaluating the benefits of different experimentation strategies. Includes color exhibits.

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Supplements the (A) and (B) cases.

Presents the results of a national survey of environmental manufacturing practices. Efforts by firms to improve manufacturing processes and increase productivity create substantial opportunities for environmental improvement. The adoption of advanced manufacturing process innovations provides incentives for the adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies. Close relationships across the production chain, between end-users and suppliers in particular, facilitate the adoption of this related bundle of environmental and industrial innovations. Firms and plants that are R&D-intensive and manufacturing innovators possess the capacity to both improve productivity and reduce environmental costs and risks.

This brief problem can be used to cover the concepts discussed in UV0415, "Process Performance Measures." Calculations required include capacity, bottlenecks, utilization, the effects of setup reduction, and batch size.

This note defines a variety of performance measures that are useful in process analysis. It explains the meaning and usefulness of these concepts through a list of definitions followed by examples.

After the release of the "Challenge" computer in 1993, Silicon Graphics executives meet to discuss the follow-up project. Should they pursue an incremental improvement to the Challenge, or opt for a radically new design recently demonstrated at Stanford University?

A manufacturing manager has been asked to develop an estimate of the production cost of a therapeutic wrist exerciser prototype. Automated assembly was possible long-term, but a manual assembly and test procedure was necessary until the product was firmly established. Teams of students can be asked to develop an assembly process for the new product using either an assembly line or single operator configuration. Hands-on experience in job design can be provided to the students. Students must use job design and work measurement methods to estimate overall product cost and propose alternative prototype designs that might reduce assembly costs. The performance of the two process configurations can be compared during an in-class student demonstration. Subsequent discussion can focus on the challenges of work design for an assembly line or single operation configuration, along with the quality, cost and management challenges implicit in each.

Simulation is commonly used as a decision tool by managers in marketing, engineering, production, finance and many other disciplines. Managers simulate processes to gain a better understanding of their processes, diagnose problems, train new employees, and explore possibilities. Both the advent of powerful personal computers and the development of graphically driven simulation packages have contributed to this greater adoption. This note describes process simulation and illustrates the techniques with a tutorial model of a deli operation. (An Extend simulation file, product 7A96D009, is available for this case.)

A descriptive manual for how to manage the process of project management. Major sections are: 1) define and organize the project, 2) plan the project, and 3) track and manage the project. 12 processes are described in detail.

Many managers have grasped the power of individual lean techniques--such as just-in-time deliveries and kaizen, or continuous improvement--pioneered by Toyota and other Japanese companies. However, they have stumbled in trying to put them all together into a coherent business system. In an effort to show managers how they can create a powerful whole, the authors studied 50 lean companies in a variety of industries around the world. The companies included Toyota, Porsche, and Pratt & Whitney. On the basis of their study, the authors identified five critical steps that they believe will be useful to all managers interested in applying lean thinking. Lantech, a small manufacturer of stretch-wrapping machines in Louisville, Kentucky, provides an example of how a company can make the leap.

This case exercise enables an understanding of applying Queuing models in the context of Queues in a post office. The issues of universalization of country due to computerization, appropriate segmentation of client system to help demand analysis are also highlighted.

A regional producer of baked goods faces the challenge of developing and bringing to market as quickly as possible a new nonfat cookie. The project manager decides to use CPM (critical path method) to coordinate the product's introduction. The case provides the necessary planning data to create and schedule the project network diagram. The case is designed to be used with the note "Network Planning/Scheduling Techniques for Project Management," (UVA-OM-0294) or similar reading.

Two business partners of Hempline Inc. are trying to re-establish hemp as a feasible agricultural product in Canada. Their first request from a wood processing mill in Oregon, USA, has left them with a number of decisions to be made. Among the decisions, they must determine the number of labour hours, the number of machines to rent and the amount of land to rent for this specific order. Alternatives to renting machinery include purchasing new and used equipment. As well, they wanted to calculate the cost per ton of this experimental crop to meet effectively with the Oregon firm.

Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing and profitable business. The owners must now decide what new business opportunities to undertake given that they have achieved market share leadership in their niche.

Many U.S. managers want to enlist their suppliers in their efforts to develop products faster and to reduce manufacturing costs. But they have wondered whether they can have the sort of mutually supportive relationship that characterizes manufacturers and suppliers in a Japanese keiretsu. Chrysler Corp. shows that the model can indeed be adapted successfully. Chrysler's relationship with its suppliers used to be one of mutual distrust and suspicion. At the end of the 1980s, however, dire financial straits convinced the company that it had to rethink its supplier relations. The resulting new model has played a major role in Chrysler's stunning revival.

By now, the monolithic factory was supposed to have given way to the virtual factory: a community linked by an electronic network that would enable numerous partners to operate as one. But for most companies, that promise has been elusive. The traditional technologies--electronic data interchange, proprietary groupware, and wide-area networks--are proving inadequate. Traditional systems cannot meet the three basic requirements of a large-scale virtual factory. First, an internetwork must be able to accommodate members whose IT sophistication varies enormously. Second, it must, while maintaining tight security, cope with partners in both transient and long-term relationships. Finally, it must provide a high level of functionality, including letting partners operate programs on one another's computers.