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The newly appointed general manager of Alfonso's Department Store has initiated a review of Alfonso's newspaper marketing, in part to gain familiarity with the store's marketing practices, but also to look for ways to enhance both sales and market share. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A99E002.)

The comptroller at Four Star Fitness Club must set aside a financial reserve to cover possible refunds of initiation fees to new members. The comptroller has some historical data on refund payments to assist in estimating the size of the appropriate reserve.

Harry Lev was reviewing the recent sales reports for Bamberger's Department Store in an effort to assess whether or not the newly implemented Wednesday evening late openings had had a positive overall effect on sales. He was under some pressure to demonstrate that the sales during the extended hours were more than covering the added cost to the store of the late opening, since he had been instrumental in initiating this change despite strong employee resistance. If he could not clearly show a financial benefit, he could expect pressure to discontinue the experiment. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A99E006.)

The issue before the directors meeting of LanCo Catalogue Sales was the high level of product returns that the company was experiencing. These product returns were eroding profitability at a remarkable rate, however the directors were split into two camps over what to do about the problem. One camp believed that speeding up shipments would reduce the returned merchandise, while the other camp believed that this would merely increase shipping costs and reduce profits even further. LanCo management was determined that the returns problem must first be understood, then actions must be taken to reduce returns, in order to improve the profitability of the company. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A99E007.)

The proprietor of the Brooke Road 7-11 store was dismayed to learn of the shop's dismal financial performance the previous year. She knew that an employee had been caught stealing from the shop and had admitted taking $500 from the till over a period of about 4 months. The poor financial performance of the store could be explained if the actual amount stolen had been much larger than $500. The proprietor assembled weekly sales records in the hope of estimating the full impact and magnitude of the thefts. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A99E009.)

Ford Motor Company was concerned that five tug operators, each costing $100,000 annually over three shifts, was too many. Colin Cruji was hired to look into the tug operators and see if Ford could eliminate one or more of the five positions per shift. A supplement to this case is available, titled Ford Motor Company and Cruji Management Consulting (B), case 9A99E014. (A Microsoft Excel data file is available for use with this case, product 7A99E013.)

Agnes Insurance calls in KPMG Forensic to conduct a routine fraud and misconduct diagnostic requested by a potential merger partner. The diagnostic reveals a money laundering operation that has gone undetected for several years. The chief financial officer must decide what to do about the money laundering incident as well as how to ensure it does not happen again.

The research and development improvement manager at Shanghai Bell, a major telecommunications device manufacturer in China, has just finished a meeting with top management on strategic initiatives suggested in the corporate information systems plan report. One project that was suggested in the report — implementing a collaborative product commerce (CPC) system — is about to begin. The manager must review the project planning process and examine the extent to which the company, a European-Chinese joint venture, is ready to undertake the project.

BriLux develops early-stage high-speed data networking equipment. In recent month, BriLux customers have hinted that combining ARTRAN, the company's flagship optical data service platform, with a new fiber optic transportation product (tentatively referred to as FOT-320) would increase the market appeal of the company's portfolio. The research and development director must decide whether to support the development of this new product. Excel files are available upon request, products 7B04E018A, 7B04E018B and 7B04E018C.

Orion Bus Industries is a manufacturer of transit buses that are purchased by transit authorities across North America. The majority of Orion's sales are made through competitive bidding processes. The company's goal is to either increase margins while maintaining sales levels or to increase the total volume of sales. The chief executive officer would like to know whether historical contract bidding data can be used to improve the success of future bids for bus contracts.

Vytec Corporation is a subsidiary of Owens Corning, and manufactures extruded vinyl residential siding. In order to maximize the quantity and quality of the product, the operations analyst had to decide how best to use the available silos and extruder. He must determine the best way to configure the extruders to their respective material silos in order to ensure that each silo faced a similar demand for material. An Excel spreadsheet containing data and solver solutions is available (product 5B03E10).

Vytec Corporation is a subsidiary of Owens Corning and is a leading manufacturer of vinyl siding. The operations analyst wanted to determine if there was a more efficient way to organize the company's warehouse. After finding some high demand products being stored a long distance from the shipping dock, his first reaction was to move the product closer to the shipping area, reducing the time and distance required to retrieve the product for shipping. Doing so, however, would displace another product that should also be near the docks. Further research into the problem revealed many other issues. Two files are available - the case data file, product 7B03E013 and the solver model 5B03E13.

Craggier National Park is a typical game reserve located in South Africa. The game reserve's management is trying to determine the optimal mix of animal species to stock a game reserve. Jointly they are trying to determine the mix of hunting packages to promote to potential clients.

Osteria De Medici is a high-end restaurant located in the downtown core of a large Canadian city. The establishment has loyal customers with very little walk-in traffic, so the management of reservations becomes key. On peak days such as New Year's Eve, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, the restaurant would have vacant tables even though they were fully booked with advance reservations. Restaurant's management must determine if overbooking is an option, review the implications in overbooking and develop a model to determine a reservation schedule. An introduction to binomial distribution is provided.

Four Star Motorsports is a family owned and operated garage specializing in rally cars and the sale of rally tires. In the winter, the business would have sales on tires if there was excess inventory, however, the owner was recently made aware of new pricing concepts through associates. The owner must investigate various pricing options during the upcoming selling season to increase revenue and to develop a plan that will allow adjustments for customers who are unhappy with the new pricing policy or an excess of tire inventory.

The general manager of a janitorial wholesaling firm, Champion Products, is faced with a resignation letter from the company's network administrator and systems programmer. The general manager would not be disappointed to see the network administrator and his poor attitude leave the firm, but he wondered how easy it would be to replace him, particularly in the wake of the company's recent acquisition ISG Products. The general manager must decide whether to negotiate better terms with the network administrator or let him go.

A venture capital firm needs to allocate $50 million in capital. Due to the firm's below-average performance and the currently sluggish financial market, a strategic allocation of this capital is critical to the firm's survival. The chief executive officer turns to his senior management team for advice. One team leader identifies firms for follow-on investments, a second team leader recommends new investments and the third team leader proposes a buy-out opportunity. The chief executive officer must decide whether the restrictions on the number of new investments is too limiting, whether due diligence is required on additional new companies and what the impact will be on the firm's return if a balanced portfolio is maintained. (Data and Solver model are available, products 7B02E012 and 5B02E12.)

Palmyra Trading Company imports commodities from Europe and Asia for sale in the Syrian wholesale market. The vice-president has been advised that the company is still in contention in a tender bid, but has been asked to submit a new bid at a lower cost. The vice-president is aware that a competitor was in the same situation. The vice-president must determine the range of bids the company could make to secure the contract and perform a sensitivity analysis to determine his options under various assumptions about the actions of competitors in the bidding process. A simple model can be constructed to analyze the bidding problem and determine the bid range.

Ji'nan Broadcasting Corporation is a public television broadcaster in one of China's provinces. The company is working on a new market opportunity to provide data and voice telecommunication services to the majority of the province's businesses and inhabitants. Currently, no data services are provided in this province and only one competitor offers voice services. The project is behind schedule, over budget and under specification. The project manager must decide which steps to take next in order for the project to succeed.

ZS Associates is a consulting company with offices in the United States, Europe and plans to establish an office in Canada. The manager of scheduling realizes that the company's scheduling system would not be able to keep up with the needs of the firm. The current system tracks the consultant's skills and their assignments to various projects. An MBA student working as an intern with the firm must provide a recommendation whether to develop software in-house, have new software custom built externally or purchase off-the-shelf software. He must analyse the options while considering the growth needs of the firm, features required in the software and cost.