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Spreadsheet supplement to case IN1316.

In early December 2016, the owner of the Asian Grill restaurant in Henderson, Nevada, noticed that the restaurant had busy nights where customers left due to long wait times, yet there were empty seats due to small groups occupying large tables. She had a proposed new table layout before her and had to evaluate whether this would allow the restaurant to seat more customers on her busiest nights (Thursday to Saturday), or whether a different table layout would be even better.

Three years after launching his brick-and-mortar store, X Fire Paintball and Airsoft, Steve Herbert Sr. and his sons began selling products on Amazon.com's third-party Marketplace and online sales expanded rapidly. Over time, X Fire noticed that products of which it had once been the only seller were now being sold by Amazon straight from X Fire's suppliers, effectively cutting X Fire out. Amazon was also ignoring the minimum advertised price (MAP) set by manufacturers. How should X Fire defend itself? Now Amazon representatives were approaching X Fire to encourage them to sell on Amazon's smaller but growing Canadian Marketplace. How should X Fire respond to this opportunity?

This note describes virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, and describes the main consumer products on offer in 2016 and their manufacturers. It also surveys existing applications of virtual and augment reality technologies.

The case examines the role of IT in CEMEX, a giant Mexican building materials manufacturer in an industry categorized by low margins and high costs. In the early 1990s, CEMEX made significant investments in its IT systems, resulting in a data-based management operation that put it at the forefront of the industry. As the company grew through acquisitions, it integrated IT through "The CEMEX Way," a set of standardized processes, organizations, and systems implemented on a common IT platform. In 2007, when CEMEX acquired Rinker, a major Australian concrete company, aligning Rinker with CEMEX IT systems was critical to quickly streamline operations and realize efficiencies. The CIO of CEMEX had developed a new integration process called Processes & IT (P&IT) that he was considering using for the Rinker integration. However, P&IT required additional resources, including significant upfront fixed costs and investment in new personnel teams at a time when the company was already struggling with the integration of another acquisition. CEMEX could either align Rinker to The CEMEX Way or use the opportunity to invest significantly more in evolving to the new P&IT approach that focused on business process management.

The protagonist Jamie Brown had been working in the textile industry for 32 years. He was passionate about the industry and enthusiastic about improving Coats's operations, particularly in the Shenzhen, China, factory. At an operational level, Jamie was challenged by the conflict of business priorities. One of the key directives set by the board of directors was to maximize cash flow. Inventory was the significant contributor to cash constraints in this industry, and Coats began to reduce batch sizes for production, and to reduce inventory stockpiles. To meet customer requirements for short lead times, thread was produced in small lots, and after the order was filled, the remaining thread was placed in inventory. With his strong operational background in the textile industry, Jamie was aware that by following this procedure, Coats was sacrificing economies of scale that could hurt profitability which could also impact cash flows through the year. This sacrifice also raised the question of whether Coats should pursue a make-to-stock or make-to-order strategy, since a make-to-order strategy implied that lot sizes would be set in accordance with customer orders.

Following case study UST 1215-050 Coats (A): Responsive Production and Order Fulfillment, Coats (B) examines make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) strategies in more detail. First, it considers how strategic (especially cash flow) objectives affect MTS and MTO decisions and how decisions on lot sizing affect both fixed and variable production costs. In particular, it highlights the significance of the risk and costs of overstocking when facing a higher premium on cash flow tied up in the inventory of an unsold product. Secondly, on a tactical level, it suggests frameworks for determining aggregate production quantities prior to a sales season with the objective of minimizing the risks of overproduction and also conserving cash flow. Thirdly, it suggests a basic framework to determine minimum lot sizes based on some high level cost and demand data.

In June 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Parentune.com, a rapidly growing online parents' community based in Gurgaon, India, was feeling the pressure of keeping his parenting support service relevant to the changing needs of millennial parents. Parentune.com supported parents at all stages of parenting by networking parents and experts. Since Parentune.com launched in November 2012, more than one million parents had become members of the community, with another 6,000 added every month. Parentune.com was trusted by parents for its personalized, validated, and state-of-the-art parenting resources. However, many similar platforms began entering the niche segment of digital parenting services, capitalizing on growing Internet reach and social media penetration. In the wake of evolving parenting needs and mounting competition from look-alike platforms, Parentune.com needed to evaluate its plan for continuous improvement in its service delivery.

In June 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Parentune.com, a rapidly growing online parents’ community based in Gurgaon, India, was feeling the pressure of keeping his parenting support service relevant to the changing needs of millennial parents. Parentune.com supported parents at all stages of parenting by networking parents and experts. Since Parentune.com launched in November 2012, more than one million parents had become members of the community, with another 6,000 added every month. Parentune.com was trusted by parents for its personalized, validated, and state-of-the-art parenting resources. However, many similar platforms began entering the niche segment of digital parenting services, capitalizing on growing Internet reach and social media penetration. In the wake of evolving parenting needs and mounting competition from look-alike platforms, Parentune.com needed to evaluate its plan for continuous improvement in its service delivery.

In 2016, the chief operating officer (COO) of InteraXon Inc., a Toronto-based technology start-up in the health and wellness sector, needed to put together a revised supply chain that was consistent with the company’s new strategic plan. InteraXon’s flagship product was a lightweight headband called Muse, aimed at measuring the wearer’s brain activity. The COO needed to keep in mind two major requirements of the new plan: a) the company would be relocating the production of Muse from China to the United States and b) it needed to quickly scale up its manufacturing and marketing operations. What plan of action should the COO develop?

Why are consumers increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of help they get from customer service departments? The authors' surveys and interviews with contact center personnel worldwide suggest that companies don't hire the right people as frontline reps, nor do they equip them to handle the increasingly complex challenges that come with the job. Every rep can be classified as one of seven types, say the authors. Supportive "Empathizers" constitute the largest group, and managers prefer them. But take-charge "Controllers," who make up only 15% of all reps, actually do best at solving customers' problems. To expand their numbers, companies need a fresh approach to hiring--one that involves crafting job postings and screening applicants differently. Companies should also revamp their training practices, using new curricula and on-the-job coaching to help all types of reps learn to act more like Controllers. Another key step is building a culture that values and rewards Controller behavior. That might mean evaluating reps on their ability to use good judgment rather than follow a script, and soliciting their ideas to improve the organization.

Large companies spend millions, or billions, of dollars directly on energy each year--and millions more indirectly, on supply chain, outsourcing, and logistics costs. Yet outside the most energy-intensive industries, the majority of firms approach energy as merely a cost to be managed. This is a strategic mistake that overlooks enormous opportunities to reduce risk, improve resilience, and create new value. Today energy is climbing up the corporate agenda due to sweeping environmental, social, and business trends, including climate change and global carbon regulation, increasing pressures on natural resources, rising expectations about corporate environmental performance, innovations in energy technologies and business models, and plummeting renewable energy prices. To respond to these shifts, companies must develop a robust energy strategy. This article offers a framework comprising five steps: Create a C-level mandate, integrate energy goals into the vision and operations, track progress companywide, tap new technologies, and engage stakeholders. These steps are not revolutionary--but systematically applying them to a company's energy use is.

SATTVA eTECH is an electronics company involved in design and development of embedded new products. The company designs and manufactures client's requirements ranging from nuclear control systems to industrial automation systems. The company is analyzing the three potential design orders received from clients of different industry segments. One of the managers (Samidth in the case) has been assigned the responsibility to present his independent assessment of this order selection dilemma and present the entire detailed analysis to the company's top management.

The forestry industry unit (UFI) of ZENI, an important business area that carried out its own felling operation and featured high levels of investment in timber processing equipment and technology was run by one of the Founder son Patricio Zeni. Despite strong growth in recent years, UFI's profitability had gradually declined, partly due to the domestic economic situation which was marked by cost increases as a consequence of inflation between 15% to 20% annually, with an almost fixed exchange rate and, partly because the industry was becoming more globally competitive, prices in the USA market were set by two major competitors. Although internal operations seemed to run smoothly, General Manager of UFI -Patricio- was sure that better results in terms of profits could be achieved with more accurate diagnosis especially focus in production balance. The case explores whether UFI should implement a pull-based production planning system to improve company commercial performance and meet future demand or a push-based production system to maximize operational efficiency. Also, the case looks into the feasibility of implementing a control and monitoring system with operational indicators to reduce production problems. Finally, the case introduces the concern about the current organizational structure and how to reorganize the planning management function, possibly turning it into an independent area.

The case deals with the unforeseen uncertainties faced by Reva, the first electric car of India, while entering the Indian market. The company was able to take up the challenge of making an energy efficient car. As a new product, Reva achieved operational success, developing an electric, low energy car. Its marketing strategies had limited consumer pull and had to be strengthened to gain consumer acceptance. The ecosystem worldwide is looking for support from governments on the concept and the infrastructure of this product category.

In 2016, blockchain, the technological innovation behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin, was gaining traction as companies began to integrate blockchain-based technology into their existing business models. While blockchain technology was still in its infancy, it could potentially transform the US$40 trillion global supply-chain industry. Ultimately, the emergence of blockchain would challenge market positioning in established businesses. Some advantages would become obsolete with the introduction of blockchain into the supply-chain network. How would vertically integrated companies compete with multiple participants that specialized in a particular task linked by blockchain? Would the key to future businesses be providing value-added services rather than seeking information asymmetry in the market? What kinds of firms could leverage this technology to better position their brands and value creation?

In 2016, blockchain, the technological innovation behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin, was gaining traction as companies began to integrate blockchain-based technology into their existing business models. While blockchain technology was still in its infancy, it could potentially transform the US$40 trillion global supply-chain industry. Ultimately, the emergence of blockchain would challenge market positioning in established businesses. Some advantages would become obsolete with the introduction of blockchain into the supply-chain network. How would vertically integrated companies compete with multiple participants that specialized in a particular task linked by blockchain? Would the key to future businesses be providing value-added services rather than seeking information asymmetry in the market? What kinds of firms could leverage this technology to better position their brands and value creation?

In this exercise the manager of Café 67 asks for help dealing with the large queues of students during the Darden school's second coffee (approximately 20 minutes) who all want lunch at the same time.

This is a technical note that describes the history of Lean and explains why it is not just a manufacturing tool. It is used in Darden's "Management of Service Operations" course elective.