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Linda Metzler, newly appointed production planning manager, is drafting an aggregate production plan for the company's refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners for the next year. She has considered three plans. Students are asked to devise better plans and to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative factors favoring them. Ultimately, the use of linear programming to construct aggregate plans will be introduced.

Frederick Taylor's traditional scientific approach to management promised to provide managers with the capacity to predict and control the behavior of the complex organizations they led. But the world most managers now inhabit often appears to be unpredictable and even uncontrollable. In the face of this more volatile business environment, the old-style mechanisms of "scientific management" seem positively counterproductive. Just as managers have become more preoccupied with the volatility of the business environment, scientists have also become preoccupied with the inherent volatility--the "chaos" and "complexity"--of nature. They are developing new rules for complex behavior in physical systems that have intriguing parallels to the kind of organizational behaviors today's companies are trying to encourage.

Charles River Jazz Festival must decide whether to press a compact disk (CD) of Friday's jazz performance for sale on Saturday and Sunday. The idea to press CDs is novel, so there is considerable uncertainty about how receptive customers will be. The festival must decide whether to press CDs only on Friday or pay for an option to press them on Friday and Saturday. A simulation is performed to help estimate Saturday and Sunday CD demand. One input of the simulation is a regression relating Saturday and Sunday attendance to Friday attendance and weekend weather conditions. The case illustrates how several different quantitative techniques--decision analysis, regression, and simulation--can be integrated in an analysis of a managerial decision problem. Provides practice in decision analysis; illustrates use of simulation and regression in obtaining probability estimates.

Consists of five exercises. Using simplified decision problems, the exercises illustrate how to value perfect information in decisions under uncertainty.

Nopane is a proprietary drug that sells in much of the United States. It faces substantial competition. The brand manager is undertaking an experiment to determine whether ad copy should be emotional-based or rational-based. The data and associated regression results are included. Useful for an introductory course on statistics, market research, or regression analysis.

A two-party, integrative, negotiation exercise involving several pre-specified issues to be resolved. Each party is given a pre-specified scoring system in monetary units. Side payments, within limits are possible. Face-to-face negotiations take place with no restrictive time limit. The negotiation is between Riverside Lumber Co., who is allegedly polluting the Blue River, and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

This case describes the start-up and the early trials and tribulations of the Magasco Paper Mill. Originally designed to be a state-of-the-art operation, old customs and habits have inhibited the expected performance of the mill. The case ends with a labor dispute, a strike, and a period of enormous tension and conflict. This case should be accompanied by the B case (UV0636).

This case follows the A case (UV0634) and describes the people and events that transformed a strike and tension-ridden situation into a "world-class operation." The case outlines the issues and personalities that created this remarkable change. This case should be used with the A case.

Two-party, single-issue negotiation between two neighbors regarding the potential sale of a vacant lot. The Parkers and the Gibsons own homes on adjacent plots of land. The homes are separated by a 1/2 lot the Parkers purchased years ago in hopes of building a tennis court, which they never got around to. The Parkers are now moving out of state and are interested in selling the half lot, as the buyer of their home is not interested in it. The Parkers have approached the Gibsons (who have interest in the lot for home improvements they have planned) about purchasing the lot. Neither party knows much about the other's interests. The Parkers and Gibsons are meeting to explore whether a mutually beneficial transaction is possible.

Two-party, single-issue negotiation between two neighbors regarding the potential sale of a vacant lot. The Parkers and the Gibsons own homes on adjacent plots of land. The homes are separated by a 1/2 lot the Parkers purchased years ago in hopes of building a tennis court, which they never got around to. The Parkers are now moving out of state and are interested in selling the half lot, as the buyer of their home is not interested in it. The Parkers have approached the Gibsons (who have interest in the lot for home improvements they have planned) about purchasing the lot. Neither party knows much about the other's interests. The Parkers and Gibsons are meeting to explore whether a mutually beneficial transaction is possible.

Two-party, single-issue negotiation between two neighbors regarding the potential sale of a vacant lot. The Parkers and the Gibsons own homes on adjacent plots of land. The homes are separated by a 1/2 lot the Parkers purchased years ago in hopes of building a tennis court, which they never got around to. The Parkers are now moving out of state and are interested in selling the half lot, as the buyer of their home is not interested in it. The Parkers have approached the Gibsons (who have interest in the lot for home improvements they have planned) about purchasing the lot. Neither party knows much about the other's interests. The Parkers and Gibsons are meeting to explore whether a mutually beneficial transaction is possible.

This case and its companion, "Centralia Construction Corporation" (UV0345), constitute the materials for an excercise in role playing and negotiating. The exercise is a distributive-bargaining situation surrounding the negotiation of the price for the construction of a building (some minor opportunities exist for creating mutual value). Myerson is the purchaser of the building.

This case and its companion, "Myerson Industries" (UV0428), constitute the materials for a negotiating exercise. The excercise is a distributive-bargaining situation surrounding the negotiation of the price for the construction of a building (some minor opportunities exist for creating mutual value).

Recent developments in the software business point to some of the reasons why companies offer their products or services in bundles. One is the opportunity to leverage market power, as Microsoft arguably has done by bundling applications software with its operating systems. Another reason for bundling is the economics of scope, as indicated by the emergence of software suites and the shift toward broad-line players (Microsoft, Lotus, and Borland-WordPerfect). But there appears to be still more to bundling: individual software programs continue to be offered in addition to suites, and suites are priced at a steep discount to the total price for the separate programs.

Provides a relatively simple introduction to multivariate regression analysis.

Gives some simple examples to illustrate the concept of the value of information in decision making. Both perfect and imperfect information are considered.

Illustrates different issues in the analysis of a bidding situation, including the celebrated problem of the winner's curse.

Explains a method for deciding upon inventory levels when demand is uncertain.

Describes the race to develop human insulin.

Three-party scoreable negotiation among three firms regarding the joint construction of an off-street parking facility. Three firms (Arundel Products, Bartel Publishing and Chiptech) are building new facilities in a recently developed part of town. The city requires each of them to construct off-street parking for their employees. The firms have jointly hired financial analysts, architects and other specialists to describe and price their options. The firms recognize that if they pool their capital and operating resources, they can build one parking garage to serve all employees. However, if all three firms cannot come to an agreement, various joint ventures between any two of the firms would still save some money for the two participants, though not as much. The climate for coalitions are unstable because the goal of each company is to maximize its own interests and financial well-being.