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In March 2021, Greensill Capital, the UK-based leading supply chain financing provider, with 16 offices across the world, filed for insolvency; its Germany-based bank closed by regulators. Less than two years earlier, Greensill had received a $1.5 billion investment from SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. By 2020, the company was targeting a $7 billion valuation with a potential IPO. Supply chain finance was a centuries-old method that enabled companies to better manage their working capital. Greensill had ridden the wave of technological advances to bring supply chain finance into the 21st century, but it had spectacularly failed. The repercussions of this failure touched SoftBank, Credit Suisse and the steel empire of Sanjeev Gupta, and stretched across the globe, potentially putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. The failure also revealed one of the biggest lobbying scandals to hit the UK Government. What caused the epic fall of Greensill? And how would it affect the future of supply chain finance?

This brief note provides a description of the A3 communication tool using classic problem-solving methodology associated with the Toyota Production System. A3 thinking may be used to assist communication of all aspects of problem solving, including proposal writing and status reporting. The six most common elements of an A3 report are described briefly.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the soon-to-be completed CUHK Medical Centre Ltd. (CUMC) in Hong Kong must make a decision regarding health care logistics services. The hospital's tender board is scheduled to meet in June 2019, and the CEO must recommend whether the logistics services needed by the hospital should be provided internally or by a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, and, if a 3PL provider, which provider should be awarded the business.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the soon-to-be completed CUHK Medical Centre Ltd. (CUMC) in Hong Kong must make a decision regarding health care logistics services. The hospital’s tender board is scheduled to meet in June 2019, and the CEO must recommend whether the logistics services needed by the hospital should be provided internally or by a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, and, if a 3PL provider, which provider should be awarded the business.

The Asia sourcing manager at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a humanitarian organization working in conflict areas, had contributed to the 2009 creation of an ethical procurement policy to respond to urgent needs around the world. Her mandate was in line with the ICRC's strategy of improving the flexibility, cost effectiveness, and sustainability of its supply chain. Ethical procurement could not be enforced, however, when sudden conflicts or natural disasters relied on local purchasing or cash transfer programs to meet the needs of distressed populations. Ten years later, despite efforts to systematize and expand the ethical procurement policy, emergency relief items were still being procured from local and regional markets through traders or cash transfer programs not covered by the policy. How could the ICRC address this gap and promote the ethical procurement of relief items at the local level in emergency situations?

Guillaume Laverdure, chief operating officer at Medicom Group (Medicom), was evaluating a potential investment in a new facility that would manufacture melt-blown polypropylene (melt-blown PP), a key raw material for surgical and respirator masks. It was February 2021, and the previous 12 months had been eventful for the company, one of the largest suppliers of medical masks in the world, as the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a staggering increase in demand for its products. Raw material supply shortages had been a major problem during 2020, and Laverdure was exploring opportunities that would make the company’s supply chain more resilient. Laverdure was scheduled to meet with Medicom’s chief executive officer the following week to review alternatives and to make a decision regarding melt-blown PP supply.

In November 2020, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. (A&W Canada) had a difficult decision to make. As a fast-food chain with a track record on advancing sustainability issues, the company could not ignore the mounting public concern about plastic and packaging waste or the continuously evolving regulatory environment regarding waste in Canada. The company had already taken steps in this direction by introducing paper straws and compostable burger bags, for example. However, it was the large number of beverage cups that stood out as generating the largest amount of disposable waste. Regulations on extended producer responsibility were being introduced across Canada, although the details in each province varied. New materials were constantly being developed, which provided various potential alternatives. A&W Canada had to make a decision but was unsure what criteria to apply. How would this decision affect key stakeholders? How could the company make a more informed decision?

In November 2020, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. (A&W Canada) had a difficult decision to make. As a fast-food chain with a track record on advancing sustainability issues, the company could not ignore the mounting public concern about plastic and packaging waste or the continuously evolving regulatory environment regarding waste in Canada. The company had already taken steps in this direction by introducing paper straws and compostable burger bags, for example. However, it was the large number of beverage cups that stood out as generating the largest amount of disposable waste. Regulations on extended producer responsibility were being introduced across Canada, although the details in each province varied. New materials were constantly being developed, which provided various potential alternatives. A&W Canada had to make a decision but was unsure what criteria to apply. How would this decision affect key stakeholders? How could the company make a more informed decision?

The case discusses the opportunity for Thulasi Pharmacy to develop an online sales model, thereby transitioning from a sole store format to omnichannel retailing. Thulasi Pharmacy was most prominently present in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India, with 69 stores and an annual turnover of $16.5 million. With the advent of e-pharmacy in India, riding on growing internet penetration and a positive change in consumers' preferences toward online shopping, Thulasi was contemplating on whether extending their services into e-pharma was the next step in expansion. The case also introduces change management in the context of organizational changes required to build a hybrid business model. It describes the situation at Thulasi Pharmacy, challenges students to understand an industry in-depth, and explains the importance of core competencies to a retail organization. While discussing how a company can leverage digitalization to move into omnichannel retailing, the case encourages the students to think about the various new stakeholders and organizational changes required to bring synergy between the offline and online business models.

This case follows the journey of Amagi, founded by three entrepreneurs, as an Indian company founded in 2008 with a technological solution for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry. Amagi was set up as a technology company that leveraged its geo-targeting technology to work with broadcasters and advertisers to reach audiences regionally and globally. The company started facing challenges due to the inherent market structure along with various other external forces, posing questions about the existing business model and the need for diversification. The M&E industry, at this point, was also rapidly transforming on account of technological evolutions as the linear broadcasting businesses were being overtaken by the incoming OTT players providing video-on-demand services both in terms of customers and advertisement dollars, further pushing Amagi to rethink its strategy. The case outlines the geo-targeting business model and its evolution during the journey of Amagi over the past decade. It also highlights the various challenges the company was facing in the existing set-up along with laying down the management's expectations from a successful business. The case also outlines the evolving industry structure, business landscape and the value chain where Amagi was playing within the industry and how different players were responding to the changes in the market scenario. The case shows what firms need to consider while evaluating future business strategies; and how their activities, ideologies, and core capabilities influence the firm's choice of path.

This case is based on the situation that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) had been facing in 2021 as the world economy attempted to return to normal in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. To get a better sense of crisis that the company was facing, a year earlier SMIC had received tremendous scrutiny from the US government due to concerns that the company's increasing dominance in this industry threatened US interests. Through the discussions of the SMIC case, students will learn how to analyze the competitive situation of a company given the prevailing geopolitical factors as well as how to determine a company's strategic positioning in its respective industry and then use this analysis to evaluate future strategic moves.

Lexoo, a UK-based online marketplace for legal services, was facing the strategic choice of how to grow from early start-up to mature platform. Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo's CEO, and web developer Chris O'Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo to help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to find legal advice at low prices. At the time of the case in 2018, Lexoo had just started attracting larger companies in need of specialized legal advice as new customers. Larger companies had higher value and more frequent needs. Lexoo could become their "go-to" place across a broad range of legal services. Nevertheless, larger companies also required a more personalized approach and were more difficult to acquire than SMEs. Van Binsbergen and O'Sullivan were debating whether Lexoo should diversify to serve both SMEs and larger companies, or whether to pivot their focus toward larger companies altogether.

This case is an opportunity to apply the methods of the Toyota Production System (TPS) to the analysis of an everyday service application: administering Covid-19 vaccines. It describes the start-up of a drive-up Covid-19 mass vaccination site at the Texas State Fair Grounds on the east side of Dallas, Texas. The challenge facing Jamie Bonini and Bita Behgooy, the protagonists, is to help the Dallas County staff raise the vaccination output rate to 1000 cars per hour, but they also are not in charge so they have to influence the site leadership.

This case is an opportunity to apply the methods of the Toyota Production System (TPS) to the analysis of an everyday service application: administering Covid-19 vaccines. It describes the start-up of a drive-up Covid-19 mass vaccination site at the Texas State Fair Grounds on the east side of Dallas, Texas. The challenge facing Jamie Bonini and Bita Behgooy, the protagonists, is to help the Dallas County staff raise the vaccination output rate to 1000 cars per hour, but they also are not in charge so they have to influence the site leadership. This is the (B) case, which accompanies the (A) case.

Intenseye was a Turkey-based technology startup that deployed machine learning algorithms to workplace camera feeds in order to identify unsafe worker actions and unsafe working conditions, in order to help improve worker safety. The case describes how Intenseye's technology solution was developed, how it works, and their target clients. The case highlights the tradeoffs associated with facial recognition and privacy, and the challenges measuring the value created by Intenseye and how the firm can capture more of the value it was creating.

One of the most significant challenges in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States was the shortage of test capability. At the beginning of April 2020, fewer than 200,000 tests per day were being performed, much less than public health experts had recommended. Also, in many cases, it often took several days or even weeks for a person to receive the test result. Many experts believed the testing turnaround time was one of the most significant failure points to contain COVID-19. Heading into fall 2020 and winter of 2021, U.S. healthcare experts continued to cite testing capability (and fast results) as the first necessary condition of getting back to everyday life. One solution to increase the testing capacity was called a pooled test. In this case, the government of Ann Arbor is considering whether the city should use pooled COVID-19 testing and, if so, how the test should be designed since there are several different versions. Students are asked to apply probability theory and develop Excel models that can help decision makers.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W13C61

This spreadsheet supplement contains case Exhibits 14-17 of the case 621115 Coats: Supply Chain Management

The key objective of this case is to review an innovative product's supply chain, so as to identify its supply risks and to improve its supply chain resilience. When COVID-19 caught the world off guard in early 2020, Germagic Biochemical Technology (HK) Ltd. (GBT) was ready to introduce its disinfectant products that demonstrated long-lasting properties to eliminate more than 99% of infectious viruses and bacteria. Through testing and certification from different government authorities and health bureaus, the protagonist of this case, Hamilton Hung, co-founder of GBT has been working with partnering firms to build international recognition while exploring the export market. As a family run industrial business, Chiaphua Industries Ltd. faces many challenges in promoting Germagic products. Without global uniform standards and protocols in long-lasting disinfectant products, some customers are skeptical about their effectiveness. Exploiting the market need, different suppliers have flooded the market with certain products that are less effective than what they claim, while COVID-19 continues its devastation for the foreseeable future. On the flip side, it is also possible that COVID-19 may just disappear like many previous pandemics in human history, and that will cause a big drop in demand of such products. Facing all these challenges and market uncertainties, how could GBT expand into the local and regional markets by creating a more forward-looking, resilient supply chain that allows the company to stay ahead of its competitors? And how can it improve the distribution channels to promote customer products?