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Operations Management Case Studies

Operations Management

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Operations →

• 01 Apr 2024
• In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

Price increases might be tempering after historic surges, but companies continue to wrestle with pinched consumers. Alexander MacKay, Chiara Farronato, and Emily Williams make sense of the economic whiplash of inflation and offer insights for business leaders trying to find equilibrium.

• 22 Mar 2024
• Research & Ideas

Open Source Software: The $9 Trillion Resource Companies Take for Granted

Many companies build their businesses on open source software, code that would cost firms $8.8 trillion to create from scratch if it weren't freely available. Research by Frank Nagle and colleagues puts a value on an economic necessity that will require investment to meet demand.

• 27 Feb 2024
• Cold Call Podcast

How Could Harvard Decarbonize Its Supply Chain?

Harvard University aims to be fossil-fuel neutral by 2026 and totally free of fossil fuels by 2050. As part of this goal, the university is trying to decarbonize its supply chain and considers replacing cement with a low-carbon substitute called Pozzotive®, made with post-consumer recycled glass. A successful pilot project could jump start Harvard’s initiative to reduce embodied carbon emissions, but it first needs credible information about the magnitude and validity of potential carbon reductions. Harvard Business School professor emeritus Robert Kaplan and assistant professor Shirley Lu discuss the flow of emissions along the supply chain of Harvard University’s construction projects, the different methods of measuring carbon emissions, including the E-liability approach, and the opportunity to leverage blockchain technology to facilitate the flow of comparable and reliable emissions information in the case, “Harvard University and Urban Mining Industries: Decarbonizing the Supply Chain.”

• 02 Jan 2024

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

Employees may seek new approaches to balance, even as leaders consider whether to bring more teams back to offices or make hybrid work even more flexible. These are just a few trends that Harvard Business School faculty members will be following during a year when staffing, climate, and inclusion will likely remain top of mind.

• 12 Dec 2023

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

A global supply chain reshuffling is underway as companies seek to diversify their distribution networks in response to pandemic-related shocks, says research by Laura Alfaro. What do these shifts mean for American businesses and buyers?

• 25 Apr 2023

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

The platforms SHEIN and Temu match consumer demand and factory output, bringing Chinese production to the rest of the world. The companies have remade fast fashion, but their pioneering approach has the potential to go far beyond retail, says John Deighton.

• 21 Apr 2023

The $15 Billion Question: Have Loot Boxes Turned Video Gaming into Gambling?

Critics say loot boxes—major revenue streams for video game companies—entice young players to overspend. Can regulators protect consumers without dampening the thrill of the game? Research by Tomomichi Amano and colleague.

• 11 Apr 2023

A Rose by Any Other Name: Supply Chains and Carbon Emissions in the Flower Industry

Headquartered in Kitengela, Kenya, Sian Flowers exports roses to Europe. Because cut flowers have a limited shelf life and consumers want them to retain their appearance for as long as possible, Sian and its distributors used international air cargo to transport them to Amsterdam, where they were sold at auction and trucked to markets across Europe. But when the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge increases in shipping costs, Sian launched experiments to ship roses by ocean using refrigerated containers. The company reduced its costs and cut its carbon emissions, but is a flower that travels halfway around the world truly a “low-carbon rose”? Harvard Business School professors Willy Shih and Mike Toffel debate these questions and more in their case, “Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea?”

• 28 Mar 2023

The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

Expediting so-called breakthrough therapies has saved millions of dollars in research time without compromising drug safety or efficacy, says research by Ariel Stern, Amitabh Chandra, and colleagues. Could policymakers harness the approach to bring life-saving treatments to the market faster?

• 31 Jan 2023

Addressing Racial Discrimination on Airbnb

For years, Airbnb gave hosts extensive discretion to accept or reject a guest after seeing little more than a name and a picture, believing that eliminating anonymity was the best way for the company to build trust. However, the apartment rental platform failed to track or account for the possibility that this could facilitate discrimination. After research published by Professor Michael Luca and others provided evidence that Black hosts received less in rent than hosts of other races and showed signs of discrimination against guests with African American sounding names, the company had to decide what to do. In the case, “Racial Discrimination on Airbnb,” Luca discusses his research and explores the implication for Airbnb and other platform companies. Should they change the design of the platform to reduce discrimination? And what’s the best way to measure the success of any changes?

• 29 Nov 2022

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

Economic worries will make pricing strategy even more critical this holiday season. Research by Chiara Farronato reveals the value that hip consumers see in hard-to-find products. Are companies simply making too many goods?

• 18 Oct 2022

Chewy.com’s Make-or-Break Logistics Dilemma

In late 2013, Ryan Cohen, cofounder and then-CEO of online pet products retailer Chewy.com, was facing a decision that could determine his company’s future. Should he stay with a third-party logistics provider (3PL) for all of Chewy.com’s e-commerce fulfillment or take that function in house? Cohen was convinced that achieving scale would be essential to making the business work and he worried that the company’s current 3PL may not be able to scale with Chewy.com’s projected growth or maintain the company’s performance standards for service quality and fulfillment. But neither he nor his cofounders had any experience managing logistics, and the company’s board members were pressuring him to leave order fulfillment to the 3PL. They worried that any changes could destabilize the existing 3PL relationship and endanger the viability of the fast-growing business. What should Cohen do? Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Rayport discusses the options in his case, “Chewy.com (A).”

• 12 Oct 2022

When Design Enables Discrimination: Learning from Anti-Asian Bias on Airbnb

Airbnb bookings dropped 12 percent more for hosts with Asian names than other hosts during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, says research by Michael Luca. Could better design deter bias, particularly during times of crisis?

• 22 Aug 2022

Can Amazon Remake Health Care?

Amazon has disrupted everything from grocery shopping to cloud computing, but can it transform health care with its One Medical acquisition? Amitabh Chandra discusses company's track record in health care and the challenges it might face.

• 12 Jul 2022

Can the Foodservice Distribution Industry Recover from the Pandemic?

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, US Foods struggled, as restaurant and school closures reduced demand for foodservice distribution. The situation improved after the return of indoor dining and in-person learning, but an industry-wide shortage of truck drivers and warehouse staff hampered the foodservice distributor’s post-pandemic recovery. That left CEO Pietro Satriano to determine the best strategy to attract and retain essential workers, even as he was tasked with expanding the wholesale grocery store chain (CHEF’STORE) that US Foods launched during the pandemic lockdown. Harvard Business School Professor David E. Bell explores how post-pandemic supply chain challenges continue to affect the foodservice distribution industry in his case, “US Foods: Driving Post-Pandemic Success?”

• 05 Jul 2022
• What Do You Think?

Have We Seen the Peak of Just-in-Time Inventory Management?

Toyota and other companies have harnessed just-in-time inventory management to cut logistics costs and boost service. That is, until COVID-19 roiled global supply chains. Will we ever get back to the days of tighter inventory control? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 May 2022

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

Markups on household items started climbing years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies have realized just how much consumers will pay for the brands they love, says research by Alexander MacKay. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

• 31 Mar 2022

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

Not all companies need to scale. Ashish Nanda explores a crucial choice that leaders of professional services firms face as their organizations grow. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 28 Feb 2022

How Racial Bias Taints Customer Service: Evidence from 6,000 Hotels

Hotel concierges provide better service to white customers than Black and Asian customers, says research by Alexandra Feldberg and colleague. They offer three strategies to help companies detect bias on the front line. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 10 Feb 2022

Why Are Prices So High Right Now—and Will They Ever Return to Normal?

And when will sold-out products return to store shelves? The answers aren't so straightforward. Research by Alberto Cavallo probes the complex interplay of product shortages, prices, and inflation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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Operations strategy

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Introduction to Operations Management

Cases and readings.

The required readings for this course include:

• Cases listed in the Cases/Readings column below
• Goldratt, Eliyah M., and Jeff Cox. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement . 2nd revised ed. North River Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780884270614.
• [MSD] = Cachon, Gerard, and Christian Terwiesch. Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management . 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill, 2012. ISBN: 9780073525204.

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Operations Management

A primary challenge for governments and organizations is to manage their resources as efficiently as possible. The teaching cases in this section challenge students to become decisive managers through a host of topics including budgeting and finance, infrastructure, regulatory policy, and transportation.

Mayoral Transitions: How Three Mayors Stepped into the Role, in Their Own Words

Publication Date: February 29, 2024

New mayors face distinct challenges as they assume office. In these vignettes depicting three types of mayoral transitions, explore how new leaders can make the most of their first one hundred days by asserting their authority and...

Shoring Up Child Protection in Massachusetts: Commissioner Spears & the Push to Go Fast

Publication Date: July 13, 2023

 In January 2015, when incoming Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker chose Linda Spears as his new Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, he was looking for a reformer. Following the grizzly death of a child under DCF...

OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain Epilogue

Publication Date: October 20, 2021

This epilogue accompanies HKS Case 2233.0. The blood supply chain is under pressure from COVID-19. How should the 3rd largest blood bank in the US, OneBlood, respond? Is adopting an agile supply chain philosophy an effective...

OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain

The blood supply chain is under pressure from COVID-19. How should the 3rd largest blood bank in the US, OneBlood, respond? Is adopting an agile supply chain philosophy an effective approach? The case provides an overview of the...

“A Difficult Lady”: Shutting Down Pollution in Kampala, Uganda Practitioner Guide

Publication Date: October 15, 2021

This practitioner guide accompanies HKS Case 2231.0. In 2011, sanitation and environmental management expert Judith Tumusiime joined the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), where she and KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi quickly became...

“A Difficult Lady”: Shutting Down Pollution in Kampala, Uganda

In 2011, sanitation and environmental management expert Judith Tumusiime joined the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), where she and KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi quickly became a dynamic team, working together to execute a mandate...

“Pressing the Right Buttons”: Jennifer Musisi for New City Leadership Epilogue

Publication Date: September 9, 2020

This epilogue accompanies HKS Case 2186.0. Jennifer Musisi, a career civil servant most recently with the Uganda Revenue Authority, was appointed by President Museveni as executive director (equivalent to city manager) of a new governing body...

“Pressing the Right Buttons”: Jennifer Musisi for New City Leadership Practitioner Guide

This practitioner guide accompanies HKS Case 2186.0. Jennifer Musisi, a career civil servant most recently with the Uganda Revenue Authority, was appointed by President Museveni as executive director (equivalent to city manager) of a new...

“Pressing the Right Buttons”: Jennifer Musisi for New City Leadership

Jennifer Musisi, a career civil servant most recently with the Uganda Revenue Authority, was appointed by President Museveni as executive director (equivalent to city manager) of a new governing body for Uganda’s capital, the Kampala...

The “Garbage Lady” Cleans Up Kampala: Turning Quick Wins into Lasting Change Practitioner Guide

Publication Date: June 30, 2020

This practitioner guide accompanies HKS Case 2181.0. In 2011, at the newly formed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Judith Tumusiime, an impassioned technocrat who prided herself on operating outside of politics, was charged with...

The “Garbage Lady” Cleans Up Kampala: Turning Quick Wins into Lasting Change (Epilogue)

This epilogue accompanies HKS Case 2181.0. In 2011, at the newly formed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Judith Tumusiime, an impassioned technocrat who prided herself on operating outside of politics, was charged with transforming a...

The “Garbage Lady” Cleans Up Kampala: Turning Quick Wins into Lasting Change

In 2011, at the newly formed Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Judith Tumusiime, an impassioned technocrat who prided herself on operating outside of politics, was charged with transforming a “filthy city” to a clean, habitable,...

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Cases in Operations Management Building Customer Value Through World-Class Operations

• Robert D. Klassen - University of Western Ontario, Canada
• Larry J. Menor - University of Western Ontario, Canada
• Description

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I will uses the case studies for the course and have given the details to our library to order. The cases are very good. Thanks, Qeis Kamran

First of all I'd like to say this book is an excellent book in the field, as cases books for academic education are very rare. But the only reason why I did not adopt is because that this book needs updating. The latest version was published in 2006 and a lot has happended in the field since then.

Very good book giving detailled information about all aspects of OM. Bit too heavy for my student groups but no fault of the author.

Good range of case studies presented although the two column page layout seems very old fashioned in its style.

• strong decision orientation of real-world cases
• clear development of the linkages between business processes and customer value
• diversity of international case settings 
• mixture of cases, simulations and in-class exercises

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1. Developing World-Class Operations

Chapter 3. Planning and Control

Chapter 5. Quality

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The case is centered around the timeline of the Telangana graduates’ MLC elections 2021, which were held against the backdrop of a known unknown: the COVID-19 pandemic. The electoral officials had to be mindful of the numerous security protocols and complexities involved in implementing the election process in such uncertain times. They had to incorporate additional steps and plan for contingencies to mitigate risks while executing the election process. Halfway through the election planning process, it became clear that the number of voters and candidates was unprecedentedly large. This unexpected development necessitated a revision of the prior plan for conducting the elections. Shashank Goel, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), and M. Satyavani, Deputy CEO, were architecting the plan for conducting the elections with an unexpectedly large number of voters and candidates under pandemic-induced disruptions. Goel was also reflecting on how to develop contingency plans for these elections, given the uncertainty produced by unforeseen external factors and the associated risks. Although he had the mandate to conduct free and fair elections within the stipulated timelines and was assured that the required resources would be provided, several factors had to be considered. According to the constitutional guidelines for the graduates' MLC elections, qualified and registered graduate voters could cast their vote by ranking candidates preferentially. Paper ballots had to be used because electronic voting machines (EVMs) could not handle preferential voting. The scale and magnitude of the elections necessitated jumbo ballot boxes. To manage the process, the number of polling stations had to be increased, and manpower had to be trained. Further, the presence of healthcare workers to ensure the safety of voters and the deployed staff was imperative. The Telangana CEO’s office had to meet the increased logistical and technical requirements and ensure high voting turnouts while executing the election process.

Postponing the election was not an option for the ECI from the standpoint of the legal code of conduct. The Telangana CEO's office prepared a revised election plan. The project plan was amended to incorporate the need for additional resources and logistical support to execute the election process. As the efforts of the staff were maximized effectively, the elections could be conducted smoothly and transparently although a large number of candidates were in the fray.

Teaching and Learning Objectives:

The key case objectives are to enable students to:

• Appreciate the importance of effective project management, planning, and execution in public administration against the backdrop of uncertainties and complexities.
• Understand the importance of risk identification, risk planning, and prioritization.
• Learn strategies to manage various project risks in a real-life situation.
• Identify the characteristics of effective leadership in times of crisis and the key takeaways from such scenarios

The case is designed to be used in courses on Nonprofit Operations Management, Data Analytics, Six Sigma, and Business Process Excellence/Improvement in MBA or Executive MBA programs. It is suitable for teaching students about the common problem of lower rates of volunteerism in nonprofit organizations. Further, the case study helps present the importance and application of inferential statistics (data analytics) to identify the impact of various factors on the problem (effect). The case is set in early 2021 when Shefali Sharma, the Strategy and Learning Manager with Teach For India (TFI), faced a few challenging questions from a professor at the Indian School of Business (ISB) during her presentation at an industry gathering in Hyderabad, India. Sharma was concerned about the low matriculation rate of TFI fellows, despite the rigorous recruitment, selection, and matriculation (RSM) process. A mere 50-60% matriculation rate was not a commensurate return for an investment of INR 6.5 million and the massive effort put into the RSM process. In 2017, Sharma organized focused informative and experiential events to motivate candidates to join the fellowship, but it was not very clear if these events impacted the TFI matriculation rate. After the industry gathering at ISB, Sharma followed up with the professor to seek his guidance in performing data analytics on the matriculation data. Sharma wondered if inferential data analysis could help her understand which demographic factors and events impact the matriculation rate.

Learning Objective

• Illustrate the importance of inferential statistics as a decision support system in resolving business problems
• Formulating and solving a hypothesis testing problem for attribute (discrete) data
• Visually depicting the flow of work across different stages of a process

In response to the uncontrollable second wave of COVID-19 in the south Indian state of Telangana in April 2021, a few like-minded social activists in the capital city of Hyderabad came together to establish a 100-bed medical care center to treat COVID-19 patients. The project was named Ashray. Dr. Chinnababu Sunkavalli (popularly known as Chinna) was the project manager of Project Ashray. In addition to the inherent inadequacy of hospital beds to accommodate the growing number of COVID- 19 patients till March 2021, the city faced a sudden spike of infections in April that worsened the situation. Consequently, the occupancy in government and private hospitals in Hyderabad increased by 485% and 311%, respectively, from March to April. According to a prediction model, Chinna knew that hospital beds would be exhausted in several parts of the city in the next few days. The Project Ashray team was concerned about the situation. The team met on April 26, 2021, to schedule the project to establish the medical care center within the next 10 days. The case is suitable for teaching students how to approach the scheduling problem of a time- constrained project systematically. It helps as a pedagogical aid in teaching management concepts such as project visualization, estimating project duration, float, and project laddering or activity splitting, and tools such as network diagrams, critical path method, and crashing. The case exposes students to a real-time problem-solving approach under uncertainty and crises and the critical role of NGOs in supporting the governments. Alongside the Project Management and Operations Management courses, other courses like Managerial decision-making in nonprofit organizations, Health care delivery, and healthcare operations could also find support from this case.

Learning Objectives:

To learn: Time-constrained projects and associated scheduling problems Project visualization using network diagrams Activity sequencing and converting sequential activities to parallel activities Critical path method (early start, early finish, late start, late finish, forward pass, backward pass, and float) to estimate a project's overall duration Project laddering to reduce the project duration wherever possible Project crashing using linear programming

The case goes on to describe the enormous challenges involved in building the 4.94 km long Bogibeel Bridge in the North Eastern Region (NER) of India. When it was finally commissioned in 2018, it was hailed as a marvel of engineering. With two rail lines and a two-lane road over it, the bridge spanned the mighty Brahmaputra river. The Bogibeel Bridge was India's longest and Asia's second-longest road and rail bridge with fully-welded bridge technology that met European codes and welding standards. The interstate connectivity provided by the bridge enabled important socio-economic developments in the NER that included improved logistics and transportation, the growth of medical and educational facilities, higher employment, and the rise of international trade and tourism. While the outcomes of the project were significant, the efforts that went into constructing the Bogibeel Bridge were equally so. This case study is designed to teach the importance of effective risk planning in project management. Further, the case introduces students to earned value analysis and project oversight in managing large projects. The case centers on Indian Railways' need to quickly discover why the Bogibeel project was not going according to plan. The case also serves as a resource to teach public operations management where the focus is on projects and operations that result in socio-economic outcomes.

• Appreciate the importance of risk planning and risk prioritization and learn strategies to manage various project risks
• Understand earned value management (EVM) and the associated metrics and calculations for project evaluation on time and cost schedules.
• Identify social impact outcomes in public/infrastructure projects.

Access to clean water is so critical for development and survival that the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal number 6 (SDG-6) was to ensure availability and sustained management of water and sanitation. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2006 estimated that 97 million Indians lacked clean and safe water. Fluoride and total dissolvable solids (TDS) in drinking water were dangerously high at many parts of rural India, with adverse impacts. On the other hand, buying clean drinking water from commercial vendors at market rates was not a realistic alternative, a costly recurring expense that much of India's rural population could not afford. The case tracks the efforts of Huggahalli, head of the technology group of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations (SSSO), to devise a sustainable solution to the drinking water problem in rural India that is low on cost, high on impact. They eventually develop a model that satisfies all these criteria and becomes the basis for a project called Premamrutha Dhaara. Funded by Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, the project aims to install water purification plants in more than 100 villages spanning six states in India, with the ultimate goal of turning over plant operations to the beneficiary villages and setting up a welfare fund in each village from the revenue generated. Social service projects, particularly in developing countries, have their unique challenges. The case highlights the importance of performing feasibility analysis as part of the project planning in social projects. The case also describes how the financial and operational dimensions of sustainability could lead to a self-sustainable system. The social innovation framework used to deploy the water purification project to achieve broader rural welfare has wider implications for project management, social innovation and change, sustainable operations management, strategic non-profit management, and public policy.

The case offers four possibilities for central objectives:

• To perform feasibility analysis in a Project Management course
• To design a social innovation framework in a Social Innovation and Change course
• To understand the dimensions of self-sustainability in a Sustainable Operations Management course
• To measure social impact in Strategic Non-profit Management and Public Policy courses

During the Indian general election of 2019, the Nizamabad constituency in Telangana state found itself in an unprecedented situation with a record 185 candidates competing for one seat. Most of these candidates were local farmers who saw the election as a platform for raising awareness about local issues, particularly the perceived lack of government support for guaranteeing minimum support prices for their crops. More than 185 candidates had in fact contested elections from a single constituency in a handful of elections in the past. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had declared them to be "special elections" where it made exceptions to the original election schedule to accommodate the large number of candidates. However, in the 2019 general election, the ECI made no such exceptions, announcing instead that polling in Nizamabad would be conducted as per the original schedule and results would be declared at the same time as the rest of the country. This presented a unique and unexpected challenge for Rajat Kumar, the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and his team. How were they to conduct free and fair and elections within the mandated timeframe with the largest number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) ever deployed to address the will of 185 candidates in a constituency with 1.55 million voters from rural and semi-urban areas? Case A describes the electoral process followed by the world's largest democracy to guarantee free and fair elections. It concludes by posing several situational questions, the answers to which will determine whether the polls in Nizamabad are conducted successfully or not. Case B, which should be revealed after students have had a chance to deliberate on the challenges posed in Case A, describes the decisions and actions taken by Kumar and his team in preparation for the Nizamabad polls and the events that took place on election day and afterward.

To demonstrate how a quantitative approach to decision making can be used in the public policy domain to achieve end goals. To learn how resource allocation decisions can be made by understanding the scale of the problem, the various resource constraints, and the end goals. To discover operational innovations in the face of regulatory and technical constraints and complete the required steps. To understand the multiple steps involved in conducting elections in the Indian context.

Set in April 2017, this case centers around the digital technology dilemma facing the protagonist Dr. Vimohan, the chief intensivist of Prashant Hospital. The case describes the critical challenges afflicting the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. It then follows Dr. Vimohan as he visits the Bengaluru headquarters of Cloudphysician Healthcare, a Tele-ICU provider. The visit leaves Dr. Vimohan wondering whether he can leverage the Tele-ICU solution to overcome the challenges at Prashant Hospital. He instinctively knew that he would need to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis to resolve this dilemma.

The case study enables critical thinking and decision-making to address the business situation. Assessing the pros and cons of a potential technology solution, examining the readiness of an organization and devising a framework for effective stakeholder and change management are some of the key concepts. Associated tools include cost-benefit analysis, net present value (NPV) analysis, force-field analysis, and change-readiness assessment, in addition to a brief discussion on SWOT analysis.

Set in 2016 in Hyderabad, India, the case follows Puvvala Yugandhar, Senior Vice President at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (DRL), as he decides what to do about an underperforming production policy at their plants. Adopted a decade earlier, the policy, called Replenish to Consumption -Pooled (RTC-P), had not delivered the expected results. Specifically, the plants had been seeing an increase in production switchovers and creeping buffer levels for certain products, which had led to higher holding costs and lost sales for certain products. A senior consultant had suggested that DRL switch to a demand estimation-based policy called Replenish to Anticipation (RTA), which attempted to address the above concerns by segregating production capacity and updating buffer levels using demand estimates. However, Yugandhar, well aware of the challenges of changing production policies, wanted to explore a variant of RTC-P called Replenish to Consumption -Dedicated (RTC-D), which followed the same buffer update rules as RTC-P but maintained dedicated capacities for a subset of products.

By studying and solving the decision problem in the case, students should be able to better appreciate the challenges involved in making long-term operational changes. It gives them an opportunity to: (1) understand how each input might impact the final decision, and (2) how to weigh each of these inputs in arriving at the final decision.

We crafted the case study "Software Acquisition for Employee Engagement at Pilot Mountain Research " for use in Business Marketing, Buyer Behavior, or Operations Management courses in undergraduate, MBA, or Executive Education programs. The Pilot Mountain Market Research (PMMR) case study provides students with the opportunity to examine how buying decisions can be made utilizing online digital tools that are increasingly available to business-to-business (B2B) purchasing managers. To do so, we created fictitious research studies and data to realistically portray the kinds of information that are publicly available to B2B purchasing managers on the Internet today. In this case study, we introduce students to fit analysis, coding quality technical assessment, sentiment analysis, and ratings & reviews analyses. Students are challenged to integrate findings from these diverse analytical tools, combining both qualitative and quantitative data into concrete employee engagement software (EES) purchasing recommendations.

1. Evolving criteria for selecting a software package for organization-wide procurement in a B2B purchase decision context 2. Appreciate increasing digitalization of businesses 3. Understand importance of employee engagement in organizations and what an organization could do to enhance employee engagement among its workforce 4. Understand decision making processes in the context of digitalisation of businesses

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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No Match Found

Operations strategy case studies

Customer operations.

A leading US non-profit health insurer focused on service as a key differentiator. It wanted to gain insight into current operational performance, and develop customer-centric capabilities like self-service and digital competency. PwC's Strategy& was engaged to evaluate and address gaps in customer and member engagement.

Leveraging our health insurance expertise, proprietary market research databases, and best practices to help the client develop its differentiated customer-centric capabilities, we identified quick wins included outsourcing of manual activities, automation of macros/scripting, and standardization of call center work-from-home policies. We delivered a plan to enhance workforce management, consolidate provider data claim, and move to pre-pay policy. Additional recommendations addressed network rationalization, timely issuance of ID cards, and reducing SG&A expenses.

The project identified $25M investment in provider engagement, flexible network design, personalized member service, and real-time enrollment to achieve the desired differentiating capabilities.

Innovation and product development

A global chemicals specialty company with multiple business units and several existing embedded R&D teams was challenged by stagnating growth in difficult market conditions and the client was seeking to reinvigorate the portfolio. The client sought to consolidate R&D capabilities and establish a corporate innovation function to coordinate and drive its long-term R&D agenda and drive growth.

Strategy& was asked to design the innovation operating model, define the collaboration with business units, and develop a concept for R&D partnerships and venturing to drive growth.

We established a target operating model, refocused product innovation into clusters and developed a venturing approach. The client experienced a significant upswing in R&D productivity, new record numbers of patents filed, and breakthroughs innovations in a number of focus areas. Overall, improved R&D coherence led to 13% direct top line growth and 15% EBITDA improvement.

Strategic supply management

A global lighting company with over $5B sales revenue across more than 130 countries was faced with tremendous market disruptions resulting from the transition from traditional lighting to LED. To successfully play in this significantly different market, the company sold off its traditional business and refocused on the technically driven, fast-cycled LED business. To enable this, the client had to adopt new business models. Within this context, the procurement function had to undergo a major transition towards strategic supply management to effectively support the businesses going forward.

Strategy& supported the client in identifying the new requirements resulting from the changed business models, developing the procurement transformation program based on prioritized 4-6 focus areas (e.g. SRM, Supplier and Innovation Scouting), including appropriate KPIs, and designing a comprehensive change management concept and roadmap to ensure engagement and buy-in from the client team.

The transformation delivered significantly improved service levels for the BUs based on nine key strategic supply management capabilities and an adapted operating model with an improved split of roles and responsibilities between corporate headquarters and business units.

Competitive manufacturing

A global product company with $10B sales revenue across more than 130 countries was suffering from a highly complex manufacturing footprint which was not aligned with the client’s main markets. The client was losing sales and profitability due to high order fulfillment cycle times, high manufacturing costs, and low productivity performance in its key operations.

Strategy& designed the global manufacturing footprint strategy based on clearly defined customer and market requirements. As a consequence, the team agreed to realign the operations footprint from 23 to 15 operations by implementing a more balanced global footprint closer to key customers and/or distribution centers.

The transformation delivered shorter order fulfillment cycle times while simultaneously reducing manufacturing costs by up to 10% and improving overall productivity and flexibility. These results led to a gross margin improvement by 5%.

Capital assets

A leading oil field services and equipment company’s financial performance was lagging its peers, and the company had committed to a 3% improvement in North American net margin. Management believed there was an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of their >$1B equipment maintenance spend, but was unclear on where and how to achieve savings.

Strategy& helped the client pinpoint inefficiencies in their maintenance operating model, shifting from a highly reactive and siloed operation to an integrated team using advanced techniques to deliver maintenance when and where needed based on data. The changes were substantial as the client reorganized to break down functional barriers and create a maintenance process focused on customer performance.

Results were impressive — the maintenance transformation program was implemented at the top 80% of locations by revenue, resulting in a ~2% boost to net margins. It also drove a 20% reduction in maintenance cost, 50% reduction in maintenance related downtime, and improved customer service.

General and administrative (G&A) operations

The securities servicing division of a global banking group sought to address business challenges like reduced productivity, sub-optimal operating model for its Center of Excellence (CoE), lack of process standardization, cost escalation, process fragmentation, and duplication. Strategy& was asked to help in accelerating execution and benefits delivery through process optimization, offshoring and redesign of operating model.

Strategy& developed initial hypothesis through a detailed current state analysis, using both quantitative and qualitative tools, and conducted workshops to identify quick win opportunities. We proposed a redesigned operating model for the CoEs, and suggested in-depth implementation plan to drive the changes.

The project identified potential cost saving of $10M per annum and recommended lean FTE allocation across locations. The project also identified opportunities to achieve process efficiency and provided detailed target state structure of the CoE, including team size, shift patterns, and processes performed.

Enterprise-wide operational excellence

A leading tier-1 automotive supplier for the production and processing of rubber, plastics and metal with $680MM. sales revenue faced significant growth rates, but structures, process efficiency and financial performance did not follow accordingly and significant refinancing/cash flow complications evolved.

Strategy& was tasked with reshaping the company starting from product-market-strategy, developing the organizational structure and optimizing the entire process and operations landscape. An overall restructuring concept based on two pillars was developed: 1) Urgent short-term actions focusing on firefighting to ensure customer satisfaction and 2) sustainable long-term measures facilitating the optimization of the company’s footprint, product creation process, sales initiatives as well as lean production initiatives and the definition of an overall production system.

Continued success of these measures was ensured through the implementation of a common reporting structure and escalation process to track progress and define counter measures in case of deviations. The highly successful project identified cost saving initiatives worth more than $135MM. and had the client achieving EBIT margins of 6-8% during the project.

Strategy&'s global footprint

View the complete list of Strategy& worldwide offices

Partner, Strategy& Germany

Harald Dutzler

Partner, Strategy& Austria

Principal, Strategy& US

Haroon Sheikh

Senior Executive Advisor, Strategy& Middle East

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, case research in operations management.

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN : 0144-3577

Article publication date: 1 February 2002

This paper reviews the use of case study research in operations management for theory development and testing. It draws on the literature on case research in a number of disciplines and uses examples drawn from operations management research. It provides guidelines and a roadmap for operations management researchers wishing to design, develop and conduct case‐based research.

• Operations management
• Methodology
• Case studies

Voss, C. , Tsikriktsis, N. and Frohlich, M. (2002), "Case research in operations management", International Journal of Operations & Production Management , Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 195-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570210414329

Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited

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Watch: Romark Logistics and Gather AI: A Case Study

A case study about the application of drones employing artificial intelligence to the warehouse operations of Romark Logistics .

Romark Logistics is a third-party logistics provider with a focus on serving the consumer goods, pharmaceutical and retail sectors. It places a heavy emphasis on technology, with significant investment in automation and robotics, according to chief information officer Joe Warakomski.

Even with its reliance on technology, Romark was facing labor shortages, Warakomski says. At the same time, it needed a system that would maintain high levels of inventory accuracy. Romark turned for help to Gather AI , a specialist in warehouse drones for inventory management, because of the latter’s similarly intensive focus on automation, he adds.

Sean Mitchell, vice president of customer success with Gather AI, noted that the company’s drones perform autonomous inventory data gathering. The units take images of product at every location, using artificial intelligence to read barcodes, then compare the information directly with the facility’s warehouse management software (WMS) system.

Introduction of the Gather AI drones into Romark’s warehouse happened in phases. “We started small but were thinking big,” Warakomski says. Following a successful pilot program, the provider was able to rapidly expand the drones’ coverage to some 64,000 pallet positions.

It’s always a challenge to bring new systems into an ongoing operation, which can’t afford to slow for an instant. “Gather worked around our schedule,” Warakomski says. “And the amount of technology needed was fairly low.”

Mitchell says Gather AI was able to get the drones up and running, and complete worker training on the units, in just three weeks.

Romark was skeptical at the outset about Gather AI’s ability to get the drones into place in such a short time. In the end, though, the company experienced “a 5x improvement in our inventory process” with 99.9% accuracy, Warakomski says.

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