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Two facilities owned by a large U.S.-based multinational enterprise (one in Canada, one in the United States) are competing for a regional manufacturing and distribution mandate. The head of Firstwell’s global operating committee must decide whether the proposal from Firstwell Canada is best not only for the Kingston, Ontario, plant but also for Firstwell Corporation worldwide. The decision could signal a major shift in parent–subsidiary relations.

This case highlights a recent and important type of new sustainability project for existing buildings commonly referred to as an integrated energy retrofit (IER) project. Anthony Malkin of Malkin Holdings, owner of the Empire State Building (ESB), acknowledged the importance of making the existing building stock, particularly in New York City, more energy efficient, as it comprises a large part of the real estate in most cities. Taking a bold leadership position, Malkin vowed to make the ESB the most energy-efficient, sustainable, "green" pre-war office building through an IER project that examined several facets of the building's systems, operations, and tenant behaviors. In addition to making the ESB a green icon in Manhattan, Malkin also stated the importance of making the project transparent and economical so other pre-war buildings could copy the model. This case study examines in depth the process that Malkin Holdings underwent in attaining its goal of establishing the ESB as a leader in existing building sustainability.

The case investigates the impact of the increasing trend of pharmaceutical firms to outsource core research activities to biotech firms and other contract research organizations. The fluid nature of supply chain design in evolving industries is highlighted, and robust supply chain policies to respond to this evolution are proposed.

The case examines the impact of variability in demand and the supply chain on the operations of an oil refinery. The impact of external financial metrics by other stakeholders in the refinery is discussed, and policy measures for the improvement of the operations of the oil refinery are proposed.

Spreadsheet Supplement for INS176

Spreadsheet Supplement for INS176

Supply chains consume vast amounts of capital and are responsible for most of a firm's cost of goods and operating expenses. Supply chains also create significant value and can be the deciding factor in whether a firm will keep its customers. Through concrete examples, this case introduces students to an inventory model that shows how to quantify the often-subtle impact of both operational and structural changes in a supply chain.

The founder and CEO of Edison2 and his internationally renowned team of designers, engineers, and professional race car drivers had worked tirelessly for three years to design and build the Very Light Car (VLC), which won the 2010 X Prize competition. Now the CEO is considering what path Edison2 would follow. The only thing he had decided is that Edison2 should not attempt to become a traditional auto manufacturer, given the large amount of new capital it would require and the likelihood that it would have to compete long-term with the established behemoths in the industry. The CEO has narrowed his choices to two possible paths: Edison2 could enter the specialty fleet market in the United States or seek out partners to reach the consumer vehicle market in the developing world. The company's dwindling supply of money is an issue so he needs to decide which direction to take the company and how to go about doing it.

Pearson Plc is an education company that operates worldwide, with headquarters in London, England. Its six primary business units are North American Education, International Education, Professional, The Financial Times, Interactive Data, and Penguin Publishing. The vice president of product management within the Digital Learning division of the North American Education unit based in Chandler, Arizona, begins to transform the product development processes to better meet the needs of his customers in the education market, specifically in transitioning from using an off-shored Waterfall software development model to an on-shore Agile model.<br><br><br><br>When the vice president first joined Pearson a year earlier, the Digital Learning unit had spent significant resources developing a major upgrade for one of its educational software products. The first version of this new product was challenged by the disconnect between what the software development group was delivering and what the vice president’s customers desired. He is now faced with a decision to continue focusing on the specific methodology the group had implemented (Scrum) or move to a new one (Kanban). Additionally, he has to consider expanding his focus to help drive Agile methodologies both with other groups in his business unit and outside his business unit. These decisions must be made at a potentially critical time for his products as his organization deals with the growing pains associated with the shift to Agile.

Introduction to Supply Chain Management, published by Business Expert Press in February 2013, is a ten-chapter book written by Edmund Prater, Professor of Operations and Logistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. Developed for students of supply chain management, executives seeking a primer, and practitioners, the text offers an overview of SCM and provides a framework for subsequent, more detailed study. The book reviews the evolution of SCM concepts and discusses trends in global markets and strategic competitiveness. It focuses on the major issues involved in managing a competitive supply chain including forecasting, inventory management, distribution, dealing with uncertainty, reverse logistics, and customer service. In Chapter 5, the authors introduce inventory management and its implications for the organization. Tools and techniques used in inventory management, including the Economic Order Quantity Model (EOQ), and the factors directly impacting inventory - cost, order size, forecasting, capacity planning, and production scheduling - are explored. Inventory management practices and trends in inventory control are discussed. The chapter concludes with an example highlighting how to perform an EOQ analysis.

Riverside District Memorial Hospital is a small rural hospital that must work within an operational budget that is determined by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. This case identifies the emergence of concerns for patient safety related to medication administration, and the challenges of ensuring that professional services are maintained by the pharmacy department to serve patients admitted to hospital. The chief nursing executive must decide what steps should be taken to reduce medication errors, in the context of the complex relationships at Riverside.

After spending two years as the vice president internal for Making Waves London (MWL), Brianna Murphy was ready to assume her elected position of president for the 2011-2012 year. MWL had a mandate to provide affordable and accessible swimming instruction to children with special needs. Her time spent as vice president had convinced her that changes were needed — MWL had grown in recent years and faced a multitude of service issues, from capacity to quality. Largest among these were difficulty in attracting qualified instructors; higher than expected enrolment resulting in waiting lists; lack of pool capacity; and funding problems. Murphy wanted to ensure that MWL was the best adaptive aquatic program possible, but was unsure how to address and prioritize the issues.

After spending two years as the vice-president internal for Making Waves London (MWL), Brianna Murphy was ready to assume her elected position of president of MWL for the 2011-2012 year. MWL had a mandate to provide affordable and accessible swimming instruction to children with special needs. Her time spent as vice-president had convinced her that changes were needed. MWL had grown in recent years and faced a multitude of service issues, from capacity to quality. Largest among these was difficulty in attracting qualified instructors; higher-than-expected enrolment resulting in waiting lists; lack of pool capacity; and funding. Murphy wanted to ensure that MWL was the best adaptive aquatic program possible, but was unsure how to address and prioritize the issues.

This case traces the history and growth of Forbes Marshall (FM), a family-owned company in India. FM provides steam engineering and control instrumentation solutions for the process industry. The company has evolved into a leader in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie-ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research. Its joint ventures with the world's leading firms enable it to deliver quality solutions in 14 countries. Forbes Marshall's business practices and processes have combined into a unified philosophy of being trusted partners who provide innovative solutions.

Inventory-based lending is a form of asset-based lending used by retailers and wholesalers. This note describes the development and the current state of the inventory-based lending industry.

Green-Tech Inc., a Canadian company founded in 2006, was dedicated to developing, manufacturing, and marketing portable and stationary systems for the production of bio-oils and bio-char from biomass residues and wastes. Green-Tech was a recent spinoff from a large university research centre with a very good reputation for providing bio-energy solutions. Although focused and well positioned, Green-Tech had to manage relationships with large companies such as Shell that controlled vast and complete supply chains of oil-related businesses, as well as small firms and clients that were unable to manage their waste effectively. Large firms could provide plenty of business opportunities for Green-Tech, but could also jeopardize the company’s autonomy. Small customers on their own might not bring in enough cash flow, but could give Green-Tech sufficient freedom to pursue its own strategic goals. Both relationships seemed to lead to a promising future for this entrepreneurial start-up company, but also created serious risks. At the time of the case in 2011, Fernando Bruteque, vice president and one of the principal engineers of Green-Tech, was seeking the appropriate growth approach for Green-Tech. Being in charge of business operations, Bruteque also had to maintain a balance between research and development (R&D), investor and client concerns, and business opportunities. What would be the appropriate growth strategies and business operation strategies for a resource-constrained firm such as Green-Tech? How should it proceed?

Dr. Mak Lap Ming, an obstetrician and gynecologist who operated two clinics in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, was contemplating retirement. Now that his own child was financially independent and thus relieved some of the pressure on Mak, he was wondering if it made financial sense to retire soon. He also wondered what the immediate consequences of retirement would be and if semi-retirement was a viable option. To that end, he could work with a partner and shift control to that partner at some point; he could work at his clinics part-time; or he might be able to close one clinic completely and practice out of the remaining one. Mak also thought of retiring completely at the end of the year. Evaluating his options brought Mak significant internal conflict: part of him longed to attain the freedom to travel, yet he experienced great emotional satisfaction when he attended a birth and saw the joy that birth gave to the parents. Mak wondered whether, in his particular case, the pros of retirement outweighed the cons.

This case describes the organizational and strategic challenges of outsourcing research and development (R&D) activities from Denmark to China. Nokia Denmark was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of the Nokia Corporation and contained the largest Nokia R&D unit, concentrating on the development of mobile phones, outside Finland. In 2007, Nokia Denmark received instructions from corporate headquarters to drastically increase the number of mobile phones developed. Motivated by the need to alleviate pressure on its in-house capacity, Nokia Denmark outsourced certain product development projects to the Taiwanese company Foxconn in a joint R&D (JRD) setup. Foxconn, one of the world’s largest electronic component manufacturers, which was also developing products for many of Nokia’s competitors, was given the responsibility of developing and testing selected standardized and less complex mobile phones. However, by 2010 Foxconn had become a central figure in Nokia Denmark’s product development process with responsibility for increasingly complex projects. <br><br>Given the growing importance of Foxconn for Nokia Denmark, the rising pressure from the corporate headquarters, and the competitive market environment, Nokia Demark thus faced the question of how to proceed with the JRD. Three alternatives were outlined for the future of Nokia Denmark’s JRD with Foxconn: the management could decide on scaling up, phasing out, or continuing the status quo.

Sugar and Spice and Sparkles are two companies in the high-end cupcake market that have chosen two different competitive and operating strategies. Sugar and Spice has configured its operations to emphasize a high level of customization. Sparkles has a strategy that emphasizes a narrower range of products. Based on data collected by Sugar and Spice, the question is whether its position is at risk. The case focuses on Sugar and Spice and the defensibility of its position using its current operating system. The issue requires students to compare the competitive and operating strategies of both companies and to identify and evaluate the sources of cost differences in their operations.

Roger Osayende, a former management consultant, must advise the Ministry of Health of Ektu, a fictional country in Central Africa, on how to implement a new point-of-care diagnostic test for infants with HIV. In Ektu, mothers often transmitted HIV infection to infants during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding due to inadequate resources to invest in prevention efforts. The existing procedure to diagnose infants with HIV required collecting dried blood samples at more than two hundred healthcare facilities around the country and transporting them to a central laboratory in the capital for testing. This process was characterized by significant delays due to long transportation times, batching of samples in transportation and processing in the lab, and concomitant congestion in the lab. This delay resulted in loss to follow-up, that is, lost patients due to mothers not collecting their infants' results. A new point-of-care device was about to be introduced, which would obviate the need for this centralized processing and the resulting diagnostic delay. The key decision under consideration is where to place the devices to maximize their effectiveness.