| 1 | Course Introduction | - Cohen, Stephen S., and John Zysman. Course Introduction. In Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy. Basic Books, 1988.
Background: This course overview will provide an introduction to competitive issues in today's global economy. Please prepare your thoughts on the following questions for class discussion: What determines a nation's viability as a competent manufacturer? What is required to achieve or maintain such viability? Where does the U.S. stand today with respect to manufacturing competitiveness?
| | Module I - Operations Analysis | | 2 | Operations Analysis - Service Operations | - Case: Sasser, Earl W., Jr., and David C. Rikert. McDonald's Corporation (Condensed). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1998. Case No. 9-681-044.
- Case: Sasser, Earl W., Jr., and David C. Rikert. Burger King Corporation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1998. Case No. 9-681-045.
- Garvin, David A. Types of Processes. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1981. Case No. 9-682-008.
The McDonald's and Burger King cases introduce the analysis of service operations in a well known environment. Please be prepared to address the following points: Draw a process flow diagram for assembling burgers. Analyze the peak hourly capacity vs. peak hourly demand for burger patties. Can they produce enough burgers? How does the management of operations at each company relate to its method of competing in the marketplace? What are the implications for the future of the company?
| | 3 | Operations Analysis - Job Shop Operations | - Case: Shapiro, Roy D. Donner Company. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1998. Case No. 9-689-030.
In this class we define the different types of processes employed by manufacturing companies and describe methods for analyzing operations. Prepare the Donner Company case for class discussion, including the answers to the following questions: What is the normal process flow for Donner? Which orders would you schedule on the Micronic Jr. CNC Drill? On the CNC router? With a normal process flow, what is the standard labor time required to produce an order of 8 circuit boards (one panel)? Of 40 circuit boards? Of 800? Does exhibit 2 reveal anything about Donner's operations? Does the manufacturing process work effectively? Are there any problems? What would you do about these problems?
| | 4 | Operations Analysis - Product and Process Matching | - Holstein, William K., Lawrence A. Benningson, and Linda G. Sprague. Fabritek Corporation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1997. Case No. 9-669-004.
- Hayes, Robert H., and Steven C. Wheelwright. Link Manufacturing Process and Product Life Cycles. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1979. Reprint No. 79107.
Background: The Fabritek case will allow us to put our process flow discussions into a strategic context. Prepare the following questions for discussion: What type of process do we see here? What are the possible causes of the high reject rate on the Pilgrim order? Look carefully at Exhibit 2 and the Fabritek Chart (separate from the case and included in your course packet) describing how the worker might use the four machines during a typical "cycle." How many units can Arthur Moreno produce each day? How fast must Arthur Moreno perform his tasks to earn 167% of standard? In the short run, what might be done to improve performance on the Pilgrim order? What are your long-term concerns about this situation?
| | 5 | Operations Analysis - Queuing systems | - Maister, David H. Inventory Buildup Diagrams. In Note on the Management of Queues. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1995. Note No. 9-680-053.
Background: - N: Sup2, sections 1-5, and 12
- H&S: 8.6
This class will cover major issues in queuing and its role in operations. Be prepared to discuss Problems 1, 5, and 7 from the exercises in the course reader.
| | 6 | Guest Lecture Video
(A video of Thomas Stallkamp, the CEO of MSX International, taped earlier in the year in the LFM class) | Note: This would be a good time to start reading The Goal in preparation for the class 9. | | 7 | Operations Analysis - Continuous Flow Processes | - Miller, Jeffrey G., and Paul R. Olsen. National Cranberry Cooperative. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1983. Case No. 9-675-014.
The National Cranberry Case will allow us to integrate the learning from the first several class sessions as we analyze a continuous flow process in depth. Prepare the following questions for class discussion: What are the problems facing Receiving Plant No. 1 (RP1)? What industry trends are likely to affect cranberry processing and how? What are the sources of variability to which NCC is subjected? Develop a process flow diagram showing the capacities of the various stages in barrels per hour. Suppose that a peak harvest-season day involves 18,000 barrels of berries, 70% of them wet-harvested, arriving over a twelve-hour period from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Would trucks have to wait to unload? When during the day would trucks be waiting? How much truck waiting time would you expect? How would the various actions contemplated by Hugo Schaeffer affect peak day performance? Suppose the cost of renting cranberry trucks with drivers is $10.00/hour. What would you recommend? Why?
| | 8 | Coordination and Planning - Reengineering | - Hammer, Michael. Re-Engineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1990. Reprint No. 90406.
Dr. Michael Hammer (President, Hammer and Company and author of four books on process reengineering) will give a guest lecture. | | 9 | Operations Analysis - Managing Queues | - Maister, David H., Shauna Doyle, and Rocco Pigneri. University Health Services: Walk-In Clinic. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1999. Case No. 9-681-061.
The University Health Services case will allow us to test the models presented in Class 5 on a health-care service organization. Prepare the following questions for discussion: Draw a process flow diagram that reflects the current UHS walk-in clinic operations. What are the sources of variability in the UHS system? Using the average service rate for nurse practitioners given in the case, compute their utilization rate averaged over the whole week. Compute their utilization rate for the peak hour, Mondays from 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. What assumptions did you make to get these answers? Perform the same analysis for the doctors, assuming that the clinic operates without allowing patient requests for specific providers. Can you alternatively use the queuing models to compute the service rates? Try to explain any discrepancies you find. How can theoretical queuing models provide additional insight? What recommendations would you make to improve service at the walk-in clinic?
| | 10 | Forecasting Techniques | - H&S: 13.3
- Chambers, John C., Satinder K. Mullick, and Donald D. Smith. How to Choose the Right Forecasting Technique? Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1971. Reprint No. 71403.
Background: Accurate demand forecasting is a fundamental skill in managing inventory levels throughout the supply chain. This session provides an overview of prevalent forecasting techniques. | | Module II - Coordination and Planning | | 11 | Coordination and Planning - Inventory Policy, EOQ Model and Newsvendor Problem | - Maister, David H. A Note on Incremental Analysis. In A Note on Production Inventories. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1983. Note No. 9-683-065.
Background: - H&S: 2.2, 2.4
- N: 4.1-4.6, 5.1-5.5
In this session we will turn our attention to the management of inventories and production scheduling in manufacturing operations. | | 12 | Operations Analysis -Management of Constraints | - Goldratt, Eliyahu M. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement.
Goldratt's bottleneck focused view of plant management had a profound impact on modern manufacturing management, summarized in The Goal. Prepare a summary of the wisdom of Jonah and be able to critically evaluate his wisdom in class. | | 13 | Coordination and Planning - Enterprise Resource Planning | - Austin, Robert D., Richard L. Nolan, and Mark Cotteleer. Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2002. Case No. 9-699-022.
- Cotteleer, Mark, Robert D. Austin, and Cedric X. Escalle. Enterprise Resource Planning, Technology Note. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1999. Note No. 9-699-020.
- Miller, Jeffrey G., and Linda G. Sprague. Behind the Growth in Materials Requirements Planning. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1975. Reprint No. 75510.
Background: - N: pp. 355-358, 7.1-7.5, 7.8
- H&S: 3, 5.3
This session reviews the evolution of resource planning systems from MRP to ERP. The case exhibits the nature of ERP, implementation of ERP and its role within the IT architecture. Prepare for the following questions: What is the basic purpose of an MRP system? What documents does it produce? How is master scheduling and shop floor control accomplished? Why might MRP generate discrepancies between physical inventories and paper records? How do MRP ("Material Requirements Planning"), MRPII ("Manufacturing Resources Planning"), and ERP differ? To what degree do they address the problems of their respective "predecessors"? Why are consultants so often part of ERP implementations? What are major drawbacks of implementing ERP? Of running it? What can an ERP implementation project manager learn from the Cisco case?
| | 14 | Coordination and Planning- Just-in-Time Manufacturing | - Mishina, Kazuhiro. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1995. Case No. 9-693-019.
- Hayes, Robert H. Why Japanese Factories Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1981. Reprint No. 81408.
Background: In this class we will examine the Toyota Production System and Just-in-Time manufacturing in a case describing their operation in a Toyota plant in the US. The plant is experiencing quality problems with seats, allowing us to observe how TPS affects how a manufacturing operation responds to a serious quality problem. What is Just-in-Time? What is the Toyota Production System? Review each element making up TPS. As Doug Friesen, what would you do to address the seat problem? Where would you focus your attention and solution efforts? What options are feasible? What would you recommend and why? They have made the decision not to stop the line when a seat is defective, which appears to contradict basic TPS principles. What are the arguments for and against stopping the line? Is there a way to fix the problem without stopping the line?
| | Module III - Quality Management | | 15 | Quality Management - Taguchi Techniques | - Clausing, Don, and Genichi Taguchi. Robust Quality. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1990. Reprint No. 90114.
This lecture introduces the concept of Taguchi Methods with the help of an in-class exercise. | | 16 | Quality Management - Quality Tools and Philosophies | - Garvin, David A., and Artemis March. A Note on Quality: The Views of Deming, Juran, and Crosby. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1990. Note No. 9-687-011.
- The Memory Jogger (to be distributed in class)
- What Is Six Sigma? (Motorola Publication)
Background: This session provides an overview of the most prevalent concepts of quality and compares different quality philosophies. Prepare for the following questions: What are the common elements/differences of the quality philosophies? Under what circumstance are the individual approaches likely to be successful? Why does Motorola strive for 6σ? Why not 3σ, 5σ, or 7σ?
| | Module IV - Project Management | | 17 | Project Management - PERT/CPM and Product Launch | - Robertson, Andrew, and Stefan Thomke. Project Dreamcast: Serious Play at Sega Enterprises Ltd. (A). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1999. Case No. 9-600-028.
- Levy, Ferdinand K., Gerald L. Thompson, and Jerome D. Wiest. The ABCs of the Critical Path Method. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1963. Reprint No. 63508.
The case illustrates the strategic importance of large development projects, the criticality of launching decisions as well as a base for introducing PERT/CPM. How would you evaluate Sega's development process? Draw a CPM diagram for the Dreamcast Project. Based on the qualitative information in the case, what do you think will be the critical path? What are the possible failure modes for the Dreamcast project? Should Sega launch as scheduled or postpone?
| | 18 | Project Management as a Competitive Tool | - Garvin, David A., Lee C. Field, and Janet Simpson. Boeing 767: From Concept to Production. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1991. Case No. 9-688-040.
Successful project management is crucial for Boeing's success in the market place. The case shows how Boeing employs Project Management as a competitive tool, and how Boeing manages the considerable risk inherent to each of its projects. What are the basic elements in Boeing's approach to project management? Its strengths, its weaknesses? What types of risk does Boeing management face? How does it manage these types? Which method should Boeing use to convert the first 30 Boeing 767s from 3-person to 2-person cockpits?
| | 19 | Managing Development Projects: The Design Structure Matrix | - Eppinger, Steven D. Innovation at the Speed of Information. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 2001. Reprint No. R0101L.
- Adler, Paul S., Avi Mandelbaum, Vein Nquyen, and Elizabeth Schwerer. Getting the Most Out of Your Product Development Process. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, 1996. Reprint No. 96202.
In this lecture we present a more recent tool to manage the dynamics of large Product Development Processes. | | Module V - Logistics and Supply Chain Management | | 20 | Supply Chain Management - Inventory Positioning | - Kopczak, Laura Rock, and Hau Lee. Hewlett-Packard: DeskJet Printer Supply Chain (A). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2001. Case No. GS3A.
Hewlett-Packard has been very successful with their line of deskjet printers. Inventory, however, has reached a very high level. The company needs to find both a short- and long-term solution to this problem. Describe the characteristics of the industry, product, and supply chain. Why are inventory levels so high? How much inventory should they be carrying to achieve desired service levels in Europe? Suggest an optimal ordering policy for the 6 European options. Aside from holding safety stock, what options are available to address the inventory and service problems? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option? Do you expect product proliferation to increase or decrease? What impact would this have on the inventory levels?
| | 21 | Supply Chain Management - Technology Supply Chains (Prof. Charles Fine) | - The Ultimate Core Competency (to be distributed in class).
In this class, we will introduce the concepts of the technology supply chain, which deals with who supplies technology and product in the supply chain, and who controls the various parts of the supply chain. Various industries have had different dynamics of control and ownership in the supply chain. The speed of technological change has also tended to vary throughout the supply chain. All of these have important implications for management. | | 22 | Supply Chain Management - Customer Service, Rapid Response and Supply Chain Management | - Hammond, Janice H., and Ananth Raman. Sport Obermeyer, Ltd. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1996. Case No. 9-695-022.
Sport Obermeyer manufactures skiwear in Hong Kong and China to take advantage of low labor costs. This has resulted in long lead times, and mismatches between skiwear produced and final demand. In this class, we will look at various approaches to reducing these supply chain mismatches, from making better use of existing forecasting data, to rethinking the supply chain. What is the lead time for production of skiwear? What are the factors that contribute to lead times being so long? What are the operational and competitive results of these long lead times? The company has just realized that they can use differences in individual forecasts made by members of the buying committee to estimate the standard deviation of demand for various products, styles, and colors. How are they able to use this information to make better production decisions? To give you a feeling for the analysis, the case presents a simplified sample problem looking at 10 styles, all of which are made in Hong Kong. In class, we will present one heuristic that was developed by a group of consultants. In preparation for class, think about what kind of heuristic you might suggest, and develop a first period production plan for the 10 styles. Aside from making better use of available data, what other operational changes might you suggest to Wally? What are the pros and cons about producing in Hong Kong? In China? How does this sourcing strengthen Sport Obermeyer competitively? How does it weaken them?
| | 23 | Supply Chain Management - Logistics Systems Design (Prof. Don Rosenfield) | - Wheelwright, Steven C., and Gary Crocker. Sorenson Research Co. (Abridged). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1992. Case No. 9-677-257.
This case will introduce logistics and supply chain management. Many companies today are struggling with supply chain management, which implies that they are attempting to integrate their operations from supplier through customer. In this module of the class we will address many of their issues. Prepare the following questions for class discussion: What are the problems faced by Sorenson in December, 1976? What are the causes of these problems? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Federal Express option? What are the other options for management of the logistics system? What would you do?
| | 24 | Supply Chain Management - Coordinating Supply Chain Companies | - Hammond, Janice H. Barilla SpA (A). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 1994. Case No. 9-694-046.
Background: This case will explore the challenges in coordinating different companies in a supply chain. Prepare to answer the following questions for class: Diagnose the underlying causes of the difficulties that the JITD program was created to solve. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this program? What conflicts or barriers internal to Barilla does the JITD program create? What causes these conflicts? As Giorgio Maggiali, how would you deal with these? As one of Barilla's customers, what would your response to JITD be? Why? In the environment in which Barilla operated in 1990, do you believe JITD (or a similar kind of program) would be feasible? Effective? If so, which customers would you target next? How would you convince them that the JITD program was worth trying? If not, what alternatives would you suggest to combat some of the difficulties that Barilla's operating system faces?
| | 25 | Review of Class and Wrap Up | In this class we will look back at what we learned throughout the course and establish unifying themes. Please be prepared to critically evaluate individual sessions. |
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