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The production supervisor of Gupta Furniture was tasked with selecting a mode of production that not only met the demand for the company's best-selling product, the office interior chair, but also minimized the overall cost of production. The firm's operations manager had stressed that the chosen production strategy should enable the company to meet demand at the lowest possible cost. As such, the brief was to prepare a comprehensive aggregate plan based on the forecasted demand scenario, considering how much to produce and when to produce in addition to determining which strategy among those traditionally applied would give the best results. The major challenge lay in planning and scheduling inventory, and determining regular production, overtime production, subcontracting, and employment levels over a medium term of 9 to 15 months, though both the short-term and long-term implications of these quantitative decisions also had to be taken into account.

Rijul Jain, the operations supervisor at Grooves Distillery Records (Grooves), is trying to decide if and how to address capacity issues at this boutique vinyl record production facility after receiving a large contract that increased demand significantly. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the small business was started by Josephine “Fina” Leite and her wife, Theresa, to produce vinyl records of modern indie music for vinyl record enthusiasts. Jain must figure out where a bottleneck exists, balance Grooves' line of production workers, and increase production to meet demand.

In 2022, Adani Cement was in conflict with transport unions due to a dispute over freight costs. The company had recently acquired two new cement manufacturing plants in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, but abruptly closed their operations in December 2022 due to rising freight costs. The plant closures, aimed at seeking lower freight charges, surprised and angered thousands of truck drivers. It was imperative to resolve the deadlock between Adani Cement and the transport unions over freight rates.

Yasir Qureshi, the proprietor of the Indian cooking gas agency Universal Indane (UI), has asked the company’s operations manager, Shruti Bhargava, to review the financial statement for fiscal year 2021–22 and prepare a report on the functioning of the various divisions. Although both the manager of human resources and the marketing manager had presented their reports, Qureshi wanted Bhargava to holistically audit the current inventory system at UI in terms of customer satisfaction levels and cost perspectives. Qureshi wanted Bhargava to prepare a report based on the representative data available from the company’s headquarters in Jahangirabad. UI’s inventory turnover ratio was reportedly improving, but the increasing inventory costs, year-on-year, seemed to suggest that new standard inventory practices needed to be adopted. The total operational cost for holding the inventory was calculated based on all relevant cost elements, including ordering cost, inventory holding cost, cost of delivery, and material costs. Standard inventory management principles from operations management literature were used for investigating inventory systems in natural business settings.

This case looks at the issues involved in planning the 2022 convocation (graduation) ceremony at the Delhi-based Trident Institute of Management and Entrepreneurial Studies (TIMES). The dean of academics, who was responsible for piloting the convocation, needed to be certain that the ceremony could be completed within a limited time to accommodate the schedule of the chief guest (the leader of a multinational conglomerate). The convocation had two parts: the award of medals and certificates to outstanding students and the conferring of degrees and diplomas on the other graduands. The challenge faced by the dean of academics was determining whether the graduands could walk across the stage, collect their medal and/or certificate, and pose for a photo within the stipulated time. The case looks at the convocation from a process perspective, whereby a mismatch between supply and demand can result in waiting times and may also mean that an inventory is needed. The problem in the case is suitable for analysis using Little's law, which states that the average inventory equals the average flow time multiplied by the average flow rate. This short case is concerned with various process parameters such as bottlenecks, capacity, loading, inventory, flow rate, throughput rate, takt time, and cycle time.

Tony Rao, co-founder and director of Thorne Valley Meats (Thorne Valley), must decide whether to continue working with the family-run butcher shop that has been producing his high-quality grass-fed beef jerky, or to move to a new, but untested, facility. The butcher shop has been working with Thorne Valley for years and has produced jerky that is satisfactory, but recently it has been struggling to manage its own growth, employee turnover, and pandemic restrictions. These outside forces are causing a sharp decline in the quality of Thorne Valley’s jerky. The butcher shop has asked Rao if he would be willing to purchase a new piece of equipment on its behalf to help resolve the quality issues. The new processing plant, meanwhile, is located in a long-standing butcher shop recently acquired by entrepreneur Julie Martin. While Martin is passionate and ambitious, it is unclear how successful the new venture will be. She has no entrepreneurial experience and is looking to make significant changes to her product offering.

In 2022, Adani Cement was in conflict with transport unions due to a dispute over freight costs. The company had recently acquired two new cement manufacturing plants in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, but abruptly closed their operations in December 2022 due to rising freight costs. The plant closures, aimed at seeking lower freight charges, surprised and angered thousands of truck drivers. It was imperative to resolve the deadlock between Adani Cement and the transport unions over freight rates.

Yasir Qureshi, the proprietor of the Indian cooking gas agency Universal Indane (UI), has asked the company's operations manager, Shruti Bhargava, to review the financial statement for fiscal year 2021-22 and prepare a report on the functioning of the various divisions. Although both the manager of human resources and the marketing manager had presented their reports, Qureshi wanted Bhargava to holistically audit the current inventory system at UI in terms of customer satisfaction levels and cost perspectives. Qureshi wanted Bhargava to prepare a report based on the representative data available from the company's headquarters in Jahangirabad. UI's inventory turnover ratio was reportedly improving, but the increasing inventory costs, year-on-year, seemed to suggest that new standard inventory practices needed to be adopted. The total operational cost for holding the inventory was calculated based on all relevant cost elements, including ordering cost, inventory holding cost, cost of delivery, and material costs. Standard inventory management principles from operations management literature were used for investigating inventory systems in natural business settings.

This case looks at the issues involved in planning the 2022 convocation (graduation) ceremony at the Delhi-based Trident Institute of Management and Entrepreneurial Studies (TIMES). The dean of academics, who was responsible for piloting the convocation, needed to be certain that the ceremony could be completed within a limited time to accommodate the schedule of the chief guest (the leader of a multinational conglomerate). The convocation had two parts: the award of medals and certificates to outstanding students and the conferring of degrees and diplomas on the other graduands. The challenge faced by the dean of academics was determining whether the graduands could walk across the stage, collect their medal and/or certificate, and pose for a photo within the stipulated time. The case looks at the convocation from a process perspective, whereby a mismatch between supply and demand can result in waiting times and may also mean that an inventory is needed. The problem in the case is suitable for analysis using Little's law, which states that the average inventory equals the average flow time multiplied by the average flow rate. This short case is concerned with various process parameters such as bottlenecks, capacity, loading, inventory, flow rate, throughput rate, takt time, and cycle time.

E-commerce as a share of retail continues to grow, accelerated by the pandemic. This is particularly true of the online grocery market. As one of the largest online grocery markets in the world, the UK has many players, but two of the most dynamic are the market leader - Tesco - and Ocado. These two companies have taken markedly different approaches to executing and fulfilling online grocery orders from customers. Tesco has an extensive network of stores and primarily uses them as picking locations to prepare and ship customer orders. Ocado has no retail stores and uses highly automated distribution centers to prepare and ship customer orders. This case describes the UK online grocery market, the two companies and invites students to consider the different approaches: In what ways do they offer advantages to the company and customer and, ultimately, which one is better suited to the UK online grocery market?

Bay Towel Linen and Uniform Rental Inc. (Bay Towel) was a family-owned business based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that had been serving the state and growing organically for about 100 years. The company provided uniform and linen rental and laundry services from its head office in Green Bay and two distribution centres in central and southern Wisconsin. But in the wake of disruptions to global supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Bay Towel faced challenges in serving customers better while reducing operating costs. The company had a few options to do so, but how could it choose the most cost-effective solution with the least investment?

On April 24, 2019, the founder and owner of Lifely Wellness Ltd. in the village of La Jolla, near San Diego, California, received a call from a customer who wanted to purchase some Jordan’s Oil, Lifely Wellness Ltd.’s best-selling product. Jordan’s Oil was an activated hemp-based cannabidiol tincture named after the founder’s son. However, the shop could not supply the product immediately to the customer because the delivery from its supplier was late—again. The founder had been investigating possible alternative sources of supply and wondered whether this was the right time to act. After sourcing two new suppliers, she faced a pressing business operations dilemma. Should she continue working with her current supplier, which controlled a significant part of the supply chain? Or should she develop a new relationship with one or two smaller suppliers? The founder knew that this decision could determine the future and survival of her operation; therefore, she needed to take an in-depth look at her business options, from a strategic perspective.

Bay Towel Linen and Uniform Rental Inc. (Bay Towel) was a family-owned business based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that had been serving the state and growing organically for about 100 years. The company provided uniform and linen rental and laundry services from its head office in Green Bay and two distribution centres in central and southern Wisconsin. But in the wake of disruptions to global supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Bay Towel faced challenges in serving customers better while reducing operating costs. The company had a few options to do so, but how could it choose the most cost-effective solution with the least investment?

In summer 2021, School of Rock was a youth-oriented music education company with 291 franchise- and company-owned schools globally. Before CEO Rob Price's hire in 2017, School of Rock's nonconformist rock 'n' roll culture led to variability in teaching styles, educational outcomes, and risks for copyright violations. The previous administration's attempts to standardize curriculum and processes led to friction with franchisees. Price smoothed over the tension by better listening to franchisees and clarifying core policies while giving franchisees freedom in certain areas. One of Price's major initiatives was the Method App which provided a structure to empower and guide work at the school branches, featuring nearly 100 show programs and 1,000 copyright-compliant song choices tagged with the associated skill levels, musical concepts, and corresponding show programs. When the app launched as a minimum viable product (MVP) in October 2019, it struggled to gain traction. Some franchisees felt the MVP's functionality was flawed; others worried that the app threatened their pedagogical independence. Price's team considered several options to increase adoption: a listening tour to communicate the app's value and collect feedback for improvements; an exclusive marketing campaign for schools with a minimum level of app usage; and incentives based on School of Rock's balanced scorecard that measured performance and other metrics. Which one or more of these options would drive app adoption without reigniting tension between franchisees and the corporate office?

In September 2022, Price and his team evaluated the past year's strategies to increase Method App adoption and discussed new initiatives to consider.

The production supervisor of Gupta Furniture was tasked with selecting a mode of production that not only met the demand for the company’s best-selling product, the office interior chair, but also minimized the overall cost of production. The firm’s operations manager had stressed that the chosen production strategy should enable the company to meet demand at the lowest possible cost. As such, the brief was to prepare a comprehensive aggregate plan based on the forecasted demand scenario, considering how much to produce and when to produce in addition to determining which strategy among those traditionally applied would give the best results. The major challenge lay in planning and scheduling inventory, and determining regular production, overtime production, subcontracting, and employment levels over a medium term of 9 to 15 months, though both the short-term and long-term implications of these quantitative decisions also had to be taken into account.

Instructor spreadsheet to accompany product W30150.

The chief general manager (Retail) at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) was reviewing the sites that had been shortlisted for network expansion. The company needed to select three sites out of six on the short list where it could expand its retail operations. Traditionally, the sales potential for HPCL’s main products—motor spirit and high-speed diesel—was an overarching factor for site selection. However, the company had to also now take into account the strategic requirement to expand the current retail fuel network while considering the energy transition as well as other growth avenues. As such, the network expansion strategy and site selection process had to be in alignment with the aspirational targets set by the company. For selecting the most suitable sites, a set of criteria was identified that aligned with HPCL’s targets. However, no single shortlisted site provided the maximum benefit across all criteria, so selecting the right sites for expansion would be a difficult task.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W34149.

One afternoon on January 10, 2020, Zhengting Chen, the chief executive officer of Sichuan Zhiyuan Digital Finance Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Zhiyuan), was reading an internal report on the company’s performance. Founded in 2013 in Chengdu, Zhiyuan was one of the first platform companies to provide traditional supply chain financial services in southwest China. Zhiyuan had experienced a decrease in both annual revenue in 2019 and year-over-year growth rate of membership. So, Chen wondered how the Zhiyuan’s digital transformation could help attract customers and sustain the company's long-term growth by ensuring the authenticity and transparency of transactions.