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Seng Hua Hng (SHH) Foodstuffs Pte Ltd, the largest nuts manufacturer in Singapore, was the company behind Camel Nuts, a trusted household brand name in nut snacks in the country. Camel had a prominent brand presence both domestically and internationally in 29 countries. Aspiring to continued growth, in 2016, the company set a strategic target of 100-100-10, which stands for S$100 million (US$72 million) revenue, geographic presence in 100 countries and a profit of S$10 million (US$7 million) by the year 2020. In late 2017, a year into his new role as Head of Group Finance at SHH, Colin Chin commissioned a team of SMU accounting students to build data analytics capability in-house to help the company achieve its strategic goals. In the past, SHH as a traditional family business would rely on ballpark estimates to make key strategic decisions, for example, to determine annual production capacity. The practice of using past years' demand in current year's production planning had continued throughout the decades. Some of the key challenges SHH faced was the lack of accurate demand forecasting on a periodic basis and the absence of important financial information that would support the risk assessment of expansion to new foreign markets. By leveraging the power of predictive analytics, Colin wanted to find answers from the data insights to help him overcome some of the challenges the organisation was facing. How could SHH grow its existing markets, both domestically and overseas, and by how much? What are some of the new markets SHH can enter? Will there be any potential cannibalisation of existing products if SHH were to introduce a new product line? Could data analytics help decision-making at SHH to become data-driven, hence enabling the company to better assess if the goals of 100-100-10 were within or out of reach?

In the aftermath of the Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami in 2018, lives are at stake, infrastructure is damaged, coordination is limited and information is scarce. It is in this environment that humanitarian organizations have to operate in order to assist affected people in disaster-struck areas. The case follows the complex challenges confronting an international non-governmental organization (INGO) organizing a disaster response from HQ to provide aid to the victims in Indonesia.

The director of operations at Canadian Pharmaceutical Distribution Network (CPDN), located in Mississauga, Ontario, had been asked by the company's president to develop recommendations that would address the growing problem of drug shortages. Managing shortages was taking up a significant amount time, which in turn negatively affected CPDN's customer service levels and drove up its distribution costs. There were also broader implications for patient care and total costs to the Canadian health care system. It was Friday, January 18, 2019, and the president was expecting to present the director of operations' recommendations to the board of directors the following month.

The director of operations at Canadian Pharmaceutical Distribution Network (CPDN), located in Mississauga, Ontario, had been asked by the company’s president to develop recommendations that would address the growing problem of drug shortages. Managing shortages was taking up a significant amount time, which in turn negatively affected CPDN’s customer service levels and drove up its distribution costs. There were also broader implications for patient care and total costs to the Canadian health care system. It was Friday, January 18, 2019, and the president was expecting to present the director of operations’ recommendations to the board of directors the following month.

Tucker Company Worldwide Inc. (TCW), located in Haddonfield, New Jersey, specialized in providing supply chain logistics solutions to companies in the energy, pharmaceuticals, and food sectors; and to government organizations. On Friday, June 1, 2018, TCW’s president and chief operating officer received a bidding solicitation from a refinery in Reading, Pennsylvania. He tasked his most responsible carrier sales manager with responding to the bid. Both men knew that winning this bid was important for the company and would be a valuable gain. However, the bid needed to be submitted by the end of the day, and the sales manager was challenged with how to effectively showcase TCW's value, address all practical transport options, and remain consistent with the company’s core practices.

Presentation to accompany product 8B19D002.

In April 2017, Butterfly Edufields Pvt. Ltd., in Hyderabad, India, was experiencing a rapid growth in demand and needed to find ways to expand its capacity to meet this demand without significantly increasing costs. The company created innovative teaching and learning products for students in grades 1 through 10. Working with these products hands-on helped students understand various mathematics and science concepts such as magnetism, light, and sound. The founder and chief executive officer asked the head of production and stores to evaluate the company's existing production processes and capacity and to suggest options for improvement at a senior management meeting, scheduled for a week later.

In July 2018, MICA, Ahmedabad, one of the leading management institutions in India, was experiencing bottlenecks in its dining hall that were delaying regular operations during peak lunch hours. The lunch break was for about 75 minutes between classes. The dining hall catered to 480 people at any given time-not only students but also faculty members and other MICA staff. After eating lunch at the dining hall, many students had to rush to post-lunch class sessions, and they risked missing attendance. Most faculty members had zero tolerance for late entrants. A MICA faculty member from the business management area was entrusted with studying the situation, determining the cause for delay, and proposing remedial measures. He needed to identify the weakest link in the chain and then propose an infusion of resources that would buffer this constraint, thereby reducing the total time students and other members of the MICA community spent in the dining hall during lunch hours.

The director of World Tailors, a small Canadian manufacturer that employed immigrant and refugee women to sew high-quality aprons, napkins, and market bags, wondered how all of the needed products would be completed for the 2017 December holiday season. During the past seven years, demand for World Tailor products had steadily increased from craft markets, online orders, and retail stores. How could the capacity of its current operations be better managed and expanded? World Tailors was more than a local manufacturer: it supported courageous women, who had recently arrived in Canada as refugees and immigrants, to integrate into the community. Would reorganizing as a business co-operative better balance the unique social mission of the organization?

Spreadsheet supplement for case IMB761

Organizations large and small must source a variety of items and services in order to sustain their quotidian operations. This activity takes centerstage with retail outfits, where sourcing constitutes a primary business activity. This case illustrates the problems faced by a fledgling online start-up called Fiesta Gifts, which caters to a clientele of retail stores that are spread across continental United States. Under pressure from its investors, the firm's management is faced with the option of turning around the loss-making operation or shutting shop. The case begins by familiarizing the reader with the context of the US gifting and novelty sector. It then describes the complexities of Fiesta's operations, which involves sourcing thousands of items from hundreds of suppliers and routing them to customers through distribution centers that are located across the country. Despite fulfilling a steady stream of customer orders all year round, the company has accrued substantial losses; inefficiencies in its supply chain are largely to blame. Taking note of this, the CEO has demanded concrete action steps from the senior management. The CFO and CPO have initiated a strategic sourcing exercise, with a vision to curtail spend by rationalizing item categories and suppliers, and to improving lead times. Working from a dataset of purchases that have been made by Fiesta's customers since the launch of the online portal, the duo has employed analytical tools like ABC analysis to arrive at a grand list of decisions; implementing them could address the problems that the firm is facing. The CEO must deliberate the proposal points and decide on further action.

The case describes the contract selection issue by an embedded product manufacturing company towards the procurement of a component. The manufacturing manager is evaluating various procurement contracts. Currently, the company sources the component through a long-term wholesale contract combined with sourcing it from an alternate online platform. The supplier firm has suggested an options-based contract. The manufacturing manager is also planning to discuss buyback-based sourcing contract with the supplier.

Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the scenes, causing them to place a lower value on the product or service being offered. To address this problem, managers should experiment with operational transparency--the deliberate design of windows into and out of the organization's operations to help customers understand and appreciate the value being added. Witnessing the hidden work performed on their behalf makes customers more satisfied, more willing to pay, and more loyal. It can also make employees more satisfied by demonstrating to them that they are serving their customers well. However, managers should be aware of certain conditions in which transparency can backfire.

This case asks students to consider questions about where and how to implement Statistical Process Control (SPC) within the fictional Topco Pharmaservices company. Topco's documentation process for outsourcing clinical drug manufacture was experiencing high rates of errors. By constructing and interpreting a p-chart for SPC, students can begin to address Topco's challenges.

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B18D026.

On Monday, July 23, 2018, the operations manager at Sorel Life Insurance Company in Montreal, Quebec was preparing for a meeting scheduled for Friday. The meeting was called by her boss, the vice-president of operations, to discuss Sorel’s second quarter financial results. Performance of Sorel’s underwriting department was continuing to decline; market share had dropped, policy completion time had increased, and fewer applications were being processed. In addition, Sorel was receiving complaints from insurance agents about poor turnaround times. During Friday’s meeting, the operations manager was expected to provide specific recommendations to address the problems in the underwriting department.

Akshaya Patra was founded by ISKCON (religious foundation) in 2000. It started by serving Mid-Day Meals to about 1,500 students in 5 government schools. By 2017, it was serving ~ 1.7 million children in 33 locations across 11 states in India. Akshaya Patra had built state-of-the-art "mega-kitchens" along with a well-developed food supply chain. The meals were prepared in a hygienic environment but, to ensure safety and taste, a quality check was also carried out for every batch, before dispatching the same for consumption. However, the exponential growth was a cause of concern. The cost of meal preparation after reimbursement by the government kept increasing, but the donations that had helped bridge this gap in the past were not keeping pace. In addition, the organization had set an ambitious "Mission 2020" to reach 5 million children daily by 2020. It was this challenge of scaling up that forced Akshaya Patra to look at various options and led to the setting up of Akshaya Nidhi, a for-profit organization in support of Akshaya Patra. Over a period of 3 years, Akshaya Nidhi had grown steadily and entered various businesses. In such a scenario Vinay, CEO, Akshaya Nidhi, was wondering about the appropriate path forward, that is, which opportunities to pursue, and the related organization structure that was needed to support the same.

Stellar Auto Ltd. (SAL) is upgrading its current Galaxy product to Galaxy X. With pricing expected at a 20% discount to the current Galaxy model, Galaxy X is expected to generate sales of approximately 26,000/year. To achieve financial feasibility, SAL plans to increase the local content from the existing 12% in Galaxy to 75% in Galaxy X. To meet the sales requirements, SAL plans to operate its plant at the rate of 120 cars/day for 236 days/year, giving itself a capacity of 28,320 cars/year. Feasibility studies have shown that this target can be achieved with the current setup in the body and paint shops, but cannot be achieved as per current arrangements in the final assembly area (FAA). FAA comprises 84 work stations in three areas - trim, chassis, and final (assembly and testing). To meet the increased production requirements, various sub-assemblies needed capacity enhancement and there was no space lineside for the same. The matter was further complicated by the fact that since Galaxy X was being introduced in 6 variants, significant space was also needed to store inventory. After significant analysis and negotiations, the final open issue was with regard to the cockpit subassembly which the supplier Instruments Sophistiques D'auto (ISD) agreed to do. The cockpit subassembly is planned to be installed at station 9 in the FAA, and could not be shifted to a later station. So SAL, along with ISD, had to design a system to make the cockpit subassembly at ISD and deliver the same, in right sequence at the right time, at station 9. The system design required the determination of various factors. This case study identifies and determines the various system parameters that are needed to design such a system.

Spreadsheet supplement for case ISB128.

First National Healthcare (FNH) runs a large network of hospitals and has worked to systematically reduce waiting times in its emergency departments. One of FNH's regional networks has run a successful marketing campaign promoting its low ED waiting times that other regions want to emulate. The corporate quality manager must now determine whether to allow these campaigns to be rolled out and, if so, which waiting time estimates to use. Are the numbers currently being reported accurate? Is there a more accurate way of estimating patient waiting time that can be easily understood by consumers?