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The purpose of this technical note is to introduce and illustrate the use of Microsoft Excel's built-in advanced logic functions. Excel's advanced logic functions add logical capabilities to normal descriptive statistics functions. The note includes practice exercises and their solutions, and a supporting Excel workbook for students.

Student spreadsheet for case W16406.

The purpose of this note is to illustrate the use of Microsoft Excel functions for generating descriptive statistics for continuous data. These functions are common when analyzing data to provide insights for decision making. The note includes practice exercises and their solutions, and a supporting Excel workbook for students.

Student spreadsheet for case W16411.

Student spreadsheet for case W16413.

Student spreadsheet for case W16415.

Student spreadsheet for case W16417.

Student spreadsheet for case W16419.

In January 2016, the program director of Royal FloraHolland and a supply chain consultant met to develop a supply chain strategy that would allow Royal FloraHolland to adapt to the changing competitive environment that jeopardized its business model. Royal FloraHolland was the largest floriculture auction organization in the world, selling more than 30 million flowers and plants daily. Located in the Netherlands, Royal FloraHolland was a co-operative owned by 4,500 growers. A century-long tradition, where buyers purchased flowers and plants through the Dutch flower auction clock, was being threatened. Pressures facing Royal FloraHolland included emerging global competition, industry consolidation, and customers bypassing the auction process to buy directly from the growers. The two supply chain experts considered opportunities and challenges that lay ahead for the organization.

Most business transformation projects fail. Over the past 30 years, countless studies have shown that transformation program managers face the dangers of being sucked into a transformation trap, along with buckets of wasted money. Based on the author’s experience, programs continue to fail at an alarming rate because there are actually three problems that need to be addressed: unengaged leadership, weak governance, and misunderstanding change. Because all transformation projects are business projects, there should be a business leader in charge with an expectation of positive business outcomes. The primary jobs of the leader or business sponsor are to ensure the transformation is defined in terms of business outcomes; sell the vision of the transformation; keep the team focused on the business objectives; engage the team and leadership to drive the transformation; facilitate getting the right information up to the sponsor and back down to the team executing the transformation; and break down the barriers that form when the status quo is challenged. While transformation projects require an engaged senior sponsor, success also depends on having a program manager who can coach the business sponsor. Such managers have five key jobs: build a plan that translates the strategy into an achievable plan with clear milestones and deliverables; coach the sponsor; engage all stakeholders; build an environment of open, honest communication; and manage day-to-day governance.

In January 2016, the program director of Royal FloraHolland and a supply chain consultant met to develop a supply chain strategy that would allow Royal FloraHolland to adapt to the changing competitive environment that jeopardized its business model. Royal FloraHolland was the largest floriculture auction organization in the world, selling more than 30 million flowers and plants daily. Located in the Netherlands, Royal FloraHolland was a co-operative owned by 4,500 growers. A century-long tradition, where buyers purchased flowers and plants through the Dutch flower auction clock, was being threatened. Pressures facing Royal FloraHolland included emerging global competition, industry consolidation, and customers bypassing the auction process to buy directly from the growers. The two supply chain experts considered opportunities and challenges that lay ahead for the organization.

In November 2005, World Peace Industrial Group was at an important milestone as it prepared to join two other major electronics components distributors to form the WPG Holdings and become a dominant player in its industry. As its chief executive officer prepared for the merger, it became apparent that the company’s financial position was threatened by inventory management and forecasting problems. Although sales and market share were increasing, profit margins were dropping as a result of increasing inventory costs. The chief executive officer asked the director of the Business Effective Promotion Group to resolve the worsening problem. How would the director identify the sources of weakness and recommend a plan of action as soon as possible?

In September 2014, a real estate and procurement expert was preparing his notes for an upcoming strategic meeting with the management team of the Regional Council of Lombardy (RCL), the governing body of one of the 20 regions in Italy. The RCL wanted to analyze the procurement process for two of its most important projects: the construction of Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXIII, a new cutting-edge, high-technology public hospital; and the construction of the hospital's surrounding parking area. During the construction of the hospital, a number of scope changes had been introduced and a major issue emerged. Construction had concluded at the end of 2012-€156 million over budget. The surrounding parking area was also subject to some issues, but with relatively minor economic and reputational impacts. Two years after the end of construction, the RCL was performing post-project reviews with the intent of improving future project procurement performance.

Student spreadsheet for case W16347.

<p>Nissan&rsquo;s Strategy in Operations Management&nbsp;</p> <p>Nissan's resilience strategy&nbsp;in&nbsp;international&nbsp;business&nbsp;had been considered an exemplary response to the triple disaster in Japan in March 2011. The Japanese automobile industry made their respective recovery efforts to resume production and delivery of vehicles after suffering damage from an earthquake, tsunami, and a nuclear crisis, but it took months before they could reach pre-disaster levels of operations. Nissan's resilience practices,&nbsp;operations management,&nbsp;and supply chain disruption management were acknowledged as superior to those of their peers and were appreciated by experts and analysts. Nonetheless, it took Nissan more than a month to resume production, and each day of lost production cost Nissan $25 million.&nbsp;</p>

Nissan's resilience strategy had been considered an exemplary response to the triple disaster in Japan in March 2011. The Japanese automobile industry made their respective recovery efforts to resume production and delivery of vehicles after suffering damage from an earthquake, tsunami, and a nuclear crisis, but it took months before they could reach pre-disaster levels of operations. Nissan's resilience practices and supply chain disruption management were acknowledged as superior to those of their peers and were appreciated by experts and analysts. Nonetheless, it took Nissan more than a month to resume production, and each day of lost production cost Nissan $25 million.

Henry Tam, the logistic director at 7-Eleven's Combined Distribution Centre (CDC), is considering how to tackle a high employee turnover rate. This challenge is partially the result of a shortage of labor in Hong Kong. Over the years, Henry has taken several steps to address the issue. These include collaborating with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train and employ disabled workers; adjusting the use of cold storage for perishable goods; how to handle bakery products; how bulk goods are packed and distributed; and adopting new technologies to improve employee productivity. Moreover, Henry offers the staff three hours of overtime per day, allowing them to earn more. Henry doesn't know what else he can do to decrease the high turnover and retain his employees.

The Boeing Company, one of the dominant players in the aerospace industry, aimed to construct a supply chain architecture that was effective both domestically and globally, while simultaneously building its capacity to enter into agreements with small and diverse suppliers. A top executive at Boeing, who was responsible for both corporate supplier relationships and small business liaisons, needed to determine the approach that would yield the most optimal results for the company. Should she adapt supply chain principles to incorporate diversity, or should she view supply chain management as one element in an overall drive to increase diversity at the company?

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride as opposed to the 20-30% commission charged by its competition, would help differentiate it and gain the necessary traction in an ostensibly concentrated market between Uber and Lyft. Despite both Uber's and Lyft's valuations skyrocketing to $50 billion and $5.5 billion respectively, heavy investment in top notch Silicon Valley software developers and technological innovations such as autonomous vehicles, aggressive marketing strategies, and cutthroat poaching practices-all of which forced number three competitor Sidecar out by January 2016-Fasten's leadership felt confident their 17 years of experience in Russia's car services industry positioned them well to truly understand their customers and ultimately expand to other major cities. But with limited budgets to acquire talented and expensive platform developers, Fasten needed to ensure its core IT services could compete, and that its word-of-mouth approach to attract the essential network of drivers and passengers could get it the vital foothold it would need to grow.