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Main Catalogs   Accounting Business Communication Business Law Economics Finance Insurance and Real Estate Management Information Systems Management and Organization Marketing Operations and Decision Sciences      Special Catalogs     Case Studies Text Chapters Mapped to Specific Cases How to Build a Book: Select Content Review & Arrange Personalize Request a Copy Keyword    Title, Author, Case #, Etc. ALEKS Homework Manager Discover Econ   Learning Solutions Group     Harvard Business Review Articles — Operations Management  • To include an item in your complimentary custom book, click the item’s Add link. If there is a View link next to an item, you can view the pages by clicking on the link.  • To review the list of items you have selected so far, click on Step 2 in the progress bar above. You have successfully added all of the items to your order. Either click here to review your order or continue to add content from another title.    How BMW Is Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Loch, Christoph H.; Sting, Fabian J.; Bauer, Nikolaus ; Mauermann, Helmut Publication Date: 03/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1003H Subjects: Work force management; Employee empowerment; Employees; Productivity Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: In June 2007, Nikolaus Bauer, the head of BMW's 2,500-employee power train plant in Dingolfing, Lower Bavaria, asked two of his production line managers, “How are we going to maintain our productivity as the workforce gets older and older?” BMW is not the only company with this concern. Corporate leaders, politicians, and labor economists in most developed nations are worried about the consequences of demographic change in their labor markets, which increasingly consist of older workers. Instead of turning to traditional approaches-firing older workers, forcing them into early retirement, or moving them to less physically demanding jobs-managers at the BMW plant let the workers themselves find a solution. The company staffed a production line with people who were, on average, 47 years old-reflecting the plant's projected demographic makeup in 2017. The workers on this pilot line, supported by senior management and technical experts, then developed and implemented 70 productivity-enhancing changes, such as managing health care and making small changes to the workplace environment. The total cost of the changes was just around 40,000 euros, but the result was a productivity increase of 7% in one year. BMW is now testing this worker-led approach in other types of plants in the United States, Germany, and Austria in order to develop standards for incorporation across the company's manufacturing organization. As global companies come to grips with the strategic challenges in the years ahead, they may find that the brainpowe    The Soot Opportunity   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Wallack, Jessica Seddon Publication Date: 03/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: F1003C Subjects: Global business; Environmental protection; Laws & regulations; Social enterprise Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Though CO2 reduction remains crucial in the fight against climate change, businesses and social entrepreneurs should also set their sights on the number-two contributor to global warming: black carbon. Scrubbing soot from your operations is often easier than reducing CO2 and can provide a quicker payback for the environment and the firm.    Innovative healthcare delivery   Add   View  13 pp.  Article Author(s): Berry, Leonard L.; Mirabito, Ann M. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH377 Subjects: Information & technology Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Critics of the American healthcare system recite a long list of problems, including rising out-of-pocket costs, inconvenient access, overuse of emergency departments, uncoordinated medical records, and declining numbers of primary care doctors. To address these issues, some new venues have evolved, such as retail and urgent care clinics; however, the emergency department has become the only service provider available to all patients on a 24/7 basis. It is time to reinvent the system. The concept of patient-centered medical homes offers a structure for integrating innovations that can transform the delivery of healthcare. In this model, each patient develops an ongoing relationship with a primary care physician supported by a team of caregivers. An integral feature is the electronic medical record, which facilitates coordinated communication and decisions. Access expands beyond the traditional physician office visit to satellite services tailored to individual needs. Services center on whole-person care, including wellness and preventive counseling, as well as acute and chronic care. Adoption of the patient-centered medical home transforms healthcare delivery into a system that benefits everyone.    Insights on the future of health information technology   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Hill, John W.; Mannweiler, Evan Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH371 Subjects: Technology; Information & technology Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This article is an interview conducted with Pamela J. Pure, former President of McKesson Technology Solutions. In the interview, Ms. Pure is asked about the role information technology plays in healthcare, and the role it will serve moving forward with healthcare in the United States and worldwide.    Driving health IT implementation success: Insights from The Christ Hospital   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Blake, R. Todd ; Massey, Anne P.; Bala, Hillol ; Cummings, Jeff ; Zotos, Angela Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH374 Subjects: Information & technology; Collaboration; Stakeholders Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The application of information technology to healthcare promises significant benefits, particularly with regard to innovations in improving both clinical and administrative processes. However, to date, few studies have been devoted to understanding the process of implementing a hospital's clinical and business systems and the drivers of success. In this article, we describe a major HIT implementation undertaken by The Christ Hospital (TCH). Specifically, we report on TCH's efforts to separate from a well-established, multi-facility healthcare delivery network and move toward providing world-class patient care on its own. Here, we examine how different stakeholder perspectives, rather than causing conflict, were capitalized on via a collaboration-intensive process. These stakeholders included administrators, physicians, nurses, and other hospital staff, as well as external vendors and TCH's consulting partner. This project is unique due to the speed and spirit of collaboration with which it was accomplished. Our findings have a number of generalizable lessons for practice and implications for research.    Measuring physician contribution to the healthcare safety net   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Author(s): Metzger, Lawrence M.; Andes, Steven ; Gans, David N.; Margolis, James W. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH380 Subjects: Health insurance Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: There are an estimated 46 million Americans without health insurance and an even larger number for whom health insurance does not cover all needed medical services. These individuals and families have to rely more and more on government programs and physicians' willingness to provide uncompensated services, most often described by providers as charity care. Previous studies have shown a downward trend in the percent of physicians willing or able to provide charity care. We extend this research by examining the results of the Medical Group Management Association's Cost Survey of Medical Group Practices for 2005, 2006, and 2007. It is important to examine the uncompensated care reported by medical groups because groups have policies that may govern how much, if any, charity care their physicians provide. This survey data shows that, overall, the number of medical practices providing charity care continues to decline. The results and analysis of the survey data indicate that uncompensated (charity) care is being offered by less than half of medical practices, and at less than 2% of total gross charges. We examined the results by potential explanatory variables: population density, practice size, physician practice specialty, practice ownership structure, payer mix, and practice financial performance. Results were consistent across all categories; charity care is declining. These results have major policy implications for both the federal government and all state governments, especially in light of the current recession and proposed healthcare reform legislation.    Paperless healthcare: Progress and challenges of an IT-enabled healthcare system   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Adler-Milstein, Julia ; Bates, David W. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH373 Subjects: Operating costs; Health insurance; Information & technology; Information sharing Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: For most Americans, a trip to the doctor's office or a hospital stay necessitates that medical personnel search through paper charts and records as care is administered. This remains the status quo, despite the increasingly large role that electronic communication plays in other aspects of our business and personal lives. The elevated use of information technology (IT) in healthcare settings-primarily via utilization of electronic health records (EHRs), which allow information to be readily communicated and shared among healthcare providers-has been advocated as a means of improving quality of care and helping to control healthcare costs over the long term. Yet, hastened implementation of healthcare IT will require considerable cost incursion in the near term, and will present various other challenges that must be addressed. Herein, we examine the merits and benefits of healthcare IT, as well as the costs and other challenges that may serve as obstacles to its wider implementation and use. We conclude with a set of recommendations designed to increase the likelihood that extensive expansion in the use of healthcare IT will yield the desired benefits.    The normalization of deviance in healthcare delivery   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Banja, John Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH375 Subjects: Information & technology; Safety Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Many serious medical errors result from violations of recognized standards of practice. Over time, even egregious violations of standards of practice may become “normalized” in healthcare delivery systems. This article describes what leads to this normalization and explains why flagrant practice deviations can persist for years, despite the importance of the standards at issue. This article also provides recommendations to aid healthcare organizations in identifying and managing unsafe practice deviations before they become normalized and pose genuine risks to patient safety, quality care, and employee morale.    The Sustainability Imperative   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Lubin, David A.; Esty, Daniel C. Publication Date: 05/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1005A Subjects: Sustainability; Strategy Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Executives know that how they respond to the sustainability challenge will profoundly affect the competitiveness of their organizations - and perhaps even their survival. Yet most are struggling with how to integrate environmental efforts into their core business strategies. Many have a hodgepodge of green initiatives but no overarching vision or plan. The problem is not that they don't see sustainability as a strategic issue. Rather it's that they think they're facing an unprecedented challenge. But there is a roadmap, say authors David Lubin and Dan Esty. They argue that sustainability is a “megatrend,” a transformative change in the competitive landscape - like the rise of the quality movement in the 1970s and IT in the 1980s and 1990s - whose course can be predicted. By understanding how firms won in prior megatrends, executives can craft the strategies and systems they'll need to gain advantage in this one. The key: Companies that pulled ahead in prior megatrends developed early capabilities in leadership, tools and assessment methods, strategy development, management integration, and reporting and communication.    What Every Leader Should Know About Real Estate   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Apgar,, Mahlon , IV Publication Date: 11/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0911J Subjects: Real estate investments; Location of industry Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Although real estate is the largest, or second-largest, asset for most companies, it rarely captures senior management's attention. And real estate decisions, many of which are made within business units and driven by short-term needs, don't usually reflect a company's broader strategy. Apgar presents five maxims that will help executives make the most of this critical resource. Manage the portfolio. Instead of making site-by-site analyses, executives need to cultivate an overall understanding of their holdings, including a snapshot of the company's existing footprint and a view of its future needs. Build in flexibility. Companies that prize flexibility own less and lease more. They favor space that can be subdivided and converted from one use to another, and they decrease their real estate costs by offering such workplace options as telecommuting. Cultivate intelligence. In order to connect real estate decisions to corporate strategy, executives need accurate data. And they must pay more attention to internal measures than to fluctuations in the real estate market. Team with professionals. Companies that maintain the most efficient and flexible real estate portfolios often do so by enlisting partners that offer expertise and efficiencies. Embrace sustainability. Companies of all types are transforming the buildings they use in order to reduce harmful emissions. Green buildings can cost more up front, but they deliver high returns over the long term.    Technology and Human Vulnerability   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Turkle, Sherry; Coutu, Diane L. Publication Date: 09/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0309B Subjects: Computers; Human behavior; Technology; Psychology; Robots; Internet Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: For most of the last 50 years, technology knew its place. It's very different today. Technology is not only ubiquitous but has become highly intrusive as well. On the Internet, people invent imaginary identities in virtual chat rooms. Children are growing up with interactive toy animals. If we want to be sure we'll like who we've become in 50 years, we need to take a closer look at the psychological effects of current and future technologies. The smartest people in technology have already started. Universities like MIT and Caltech have been pouring millions of dollars into researching what happens when technology and humanity meet. To learn more about this research, HBR senior editor Diane L. Coutu spoke with one of the field's most distinguished scholars — Sherry Turkle, MIT's Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the author of Life on the Screen, which explores how the Internet is changing the way we define ourselves. In a conversation with Coutu, Turkle discusses the psychological dynamics that can develop between people and their high-tech toys, describes ways in which machines might substitute for managers, and explains how technology is redefining what it means to be human. She warns that relatively small differences in technology design can have disproportionate effects on how humans relate to technology, to one another, and to themselves.    Supply Chain Challenges: Building Relationships   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Beth, Scott; Burt, David N.; Copacino, William; Gopal, Chris; Lee, Hau; Lynch, Robert Porter; Morris, Sandra; Kirby, Julia Publication Date: 07/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0307E Subjects: Globalization; Process innovation; Operations; Operating systems; Business processes; Process analysis; Suppliers; Supply chain management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Supply chain management is all about software and systems, right? Put in the best technology, sit back, and watch as your processes run smoothly and the savings roll in? Apparently not. When HBR convened a panel of leading thinkers in the field of supply chain management, technology was not top of mind. People and relationships were the dominant issues of the day. The opportunities and problems created by globalization, for example, are requiring companies to establish relationships with new types of suppliers. The ever-present pressure for speed and cost containment is making it even more important to break down stubbornly high internal barriers and establish more effective cross-functional relationships. The costs of failure have never been higher. The leading supply chain performers are applying new technology, new innovations, and process thinking to far greater advantage than the laggards, reaping tremendous gains in all the variables that affect shareholder value: cost, customer service, asset productivity, and revenue generation. And the gap between the leaders and the losers is growing in almost every industry. This roundtable gathered many of the leading thinkers and doers in the field of supply chain management, including practitioners Scott Beth of Intuit, Sandra Morris of Intel, and Chris Gopal of Unisys. David Burt of the University of San Diego and Stanford's Hau Lee bring the latest research f    Myth of Secure Computing   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Austin, Robert D.; Darby, Christopher A.R. Publication Date: 06/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0306J Subjects: Information management; Risk management; Information systems; Information & technology; Computer systems; Computer security Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Few senior executives pay much attention to computer security. They either hand off responsibility to their technical people or bring in consultants. But given the stakes involved, an arm's-length approach is extremely unwise. According to industry estimates, security breaches affect 90% of all businesses every year and cost some $17 billion. Fortunately, the authors say, senior executives don't need to learn about the more arcane aspects of their company's IT systems to take a hands-on approach. Instead, they should focus on the familiar task of managing risk. Their role should be to assess the business value of their information assets, determine the likelihood that those assets will be compromised, and then tailor a set of risk abatement processes to their company's particular vulnerabilities. This approach, which views computer security as an operational rather than a technical challenge, is akin to a classic quality assurance program in that it attempts to avoid problems rather than fix them and involves all employees, not just IT staffers. The goal is not to make computer systems completely secure — that's impossible — but to reduce the business risk to an acceptable level. This article looks at the types of threats a company is apt to face. It also examines the processes a general manager should spearhead to lessen the likelihood of a successful attack. The authors recommend eight processes in all.    Learning Across Lines: The Secret to More Efficient Factories   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Lapre, Michael A.; Van Wassenhove, Luk N. Publication Date: 10/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0210H Geographic Setting: Belgium Subjects: Process innovation; Operations; Productivity; Project management; Organizational learning; Factories; Plant management; Manufacturing; Production Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: In the quest to reduce waste on production lines, managers often find that the harder they work at improving their manufacturing processes, the more elusive the benefits become. The authors' study of data provided by Belgian manufacturer N.V. Bekaert S.A., the world's largest independent producer of steel wire, showed that only a quarter of process improvement projects delivered factorywide benefits; half had no bottom-line impact, and the remaining 25% had a negative impact on the plant's overall productivity. But it's possible to design projects that are more likely to improve the plant's bottom line. The key is making sure they deliver both conceptual and operational learning. Conceptual learning yields know-why: acquiring a better understanding of cause-and-effect relationships through statistics and other scientific methods. Operational learning yields know-how: implementing a theory and observing results. Projects that delivered high levels of both learning approaches were the only ones that enhanced the global rate of quality improvement. In such projects, teams drew on scientific insights to implement changes and produce replicable results.    Getting It Right the Second Time   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Szulanski, Gabriel; Winter, Sidney Publication Date: 01/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0201E Subjects: Operations; Knowledge management; Knowledge transfer Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Once a business performs a complex activity well, the parent organization often wants to replicate that success. But doing that is surprisingly difficult, and businesses nearly always fail when they try to reproduce a best practice. The reason? People approaching best-practice replication are overly optimistic and overconfident. Getting it right the second time (and all the times after that) involves adjusting for overconfidence in your own abilities and imposing strict discipline on the process and the organization. The authors studied numerous business settings to find out how organizational routines were successfully reproduced, and they identified five steps for successful replication. First, make sure you've got something that can be copied and that's worth copying. Second, work from a single template. It provides proof of success, performance measurements, a tactical approach, and a reference for when problems arise. Third, copy the example exactly, and fourth, make changes only after you achieve acceptable results. Fifth, don't throw away the template. If your copy doesn't work, you can use the template to identify and solve problems. Best-practice replication, while less glamorous than pure innovation, contributes enormously to the bottom line of most companies. The article's examples — Banc One, Rank Xerox, Intel, Starbucks, and Re/Max Israel — prove that exact copying is a nontrivial, challenging accomplishment.    Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Huckman, Robert S. Publication Date: 09/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0909K Subjects: Operations; Organizational structure; Plant management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article “The Focused Factory” (HBR May-June 1974), Wickham Skinner proposed that manufacturers whose product lines had proliferated create specialized units, each dedicated to a distinct task. To make this economically feasible, he suggested the plant within a plant, or PWP, model, whereby an existing facility is physically and organizationally divided into autonomous operations. Many organizations - from airlines to hospitals to department stores - have since adopted the model, in the form of focused units that share people, equipment, and other assets to some extent. But they've found it difficult to implement. That's because, the author writes, they don't give every unit narrowly defined objectives; they underestimate the challenges related to sharing resources; they don't fully consider to what degree best practices, knowledge, and talent should be shared; and they don't anticipate the political tensions that can arise. Huckman provides guidelines for setting clear objectives, getting the boundaries between units right, establishing rules for sharing, and customizing performance criteria. And, he says, leaders must continually remind units of their individual and collective goals and purposes whenever decisions about resources, performance measurement, and compensation are made.    When You’ve Got to Cut Costs — Now   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Coyne, Kevin P.; Coyne, Shawn T.; Coyne, Edward J. Publication Date: 05/01/2010 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R1005E Subjects: Operating costs; Financial management; Cost control Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: You've been ordered to reduce overhead by 10%, 20%, or even (wince) 30%. How do you do it? First, don't expect to reach your target with a single big idea; you'll need a combination of 10 or more separate actions. Second, match the kinds of opportunities you examine and implement to the degree of cost-reduction required. To cut 10%, use an incremental approach-for instance, reduce spending on department management, hold down pay increases, and repropose previously rejected cost-saving ideas. To get to 20%, think in terms of redesign or reorganization. Strive to eliminate any work for which the cost exceeds the value. This will involve changes in process, mind-set, and how departments serve one another. Finally, to reach 30%, you'll need to broaden your perspective even more. For example, try coordinating parallel activities in the organization, doing away with low-value meetings and forums, and eliminating entire programs.    The promises and constraints of consumer-directed healthcare   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Powell, Philip T.; Laufer, Ron Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH378 Subjects: Health insurance; Information & technology Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Consumer-directed healthcare promises to reduce costs and increase quality by expanding provider choice for prospective patients. High-deductible insurance, employer- or government-subsidized health savings accounts, transparent pricing, and accurate information on clinical performance help generate millions of patients shopping for healthcare. As in any other well-behaved market, when patients shop, there is a link between financial reward and value for the individual patient. Absence of price competition, agency problems, and high barriers to entry in local markets are market failures that currently break this link in U.S. healthcare. Consumer-directed health plans are already popular among many employers and have established a momentum that indirectly shapes discussion of reform by the Obama administration. Complexity of reporting clinical results, dependence of treatment success on at-home patient behavior, and scientific ignorance among consumers threaten delivery of results promised by theory. Successful implementation requires regulator attention to sophisticated data reporting that adjusts for clinical risk, avoidance of patient-focused marketing that leads to over-consumption, and adequate subsidy of health savings accounts. In the end, implementation shifts the locus of healthcare system control from cost-shifting negotiations between employers, providers, and payers to new-found purchasing power of prospective patients.    The brave new world of valuing life sciences and healthcare enterprises   Add   View  15 pp.  Article Author(s): Carden, Carol W.; Chamberlain, Travis ; Hill, John W. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH379 Subjects: Valuation Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Life sciences and healthcare enterprises represent the largest industry in the U.S. economy. Given the importance of this sector, there is increasing demand for financial valuation of both publicly and privately held companies. At the same time, accurate valuation is particularly difficult in light of shifting business models, the current economy, intellectual property rights issues, continuous innovation in the sector, changing population demographics, quality issues, and government involvement in healthcare debate, discussion, and regulation. Herein, we examine the changing and increasingly problematic valuation of life sciences and healthcare enterprises that have obvious importance from a social welfare perspective.    Mistake-proofing healthcare: Why stopping processes may be a good start   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Grout, John R.; Toussaint, John S. Publication Date: 03/15/2010 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana Univ. HBS Number: BH376 Subjects: Information & technology; Quality control Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Two significant concerns in healthcare are spiraling costs and medical errors. These two concerns are correlated: eliminating medical errors leads to significant cost reductions. We provide an example, ThedaCare Inc., where both problems are improved by providing mechanisms that stop healthcare processes. While businesses often view having their processes stopped as a negative, increasing the stoppages, or creating process failures, is often a precursor to improved performance. A good rule of thumb is: if in doubt, stop. This concept of creating or engineering stoppages in the processes is linked to two “lean” concepts that come from the Toyota Production System: jidoka and poka-yoke. A spectrum of methods for stopping processes is discussed, ranging from warnings in the work environment to mechanical devices designed to stop processes and empower humans to stop the process. The preliminary results achieved at ThedaCare demonstrate the financial and medical improvements that may be obtainable from utilizing these methods.    Achilles’ Heel of Supply Chain Management   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Raman, Ananth; DeHoratius, Nicole; Ton, Ze Publication Date: 05/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Ever since retailers equipped their cash registers with bar code scanners, we've been promised a brave new world of supply chain management, one free of stockouts and overstocked warehouses. But inaccurate data are sabotaging this vision. HBS Number: F0105C Subjects: Business processes; Logistics; Operations management; Retail stores; Retailing industry; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Agile Product Development: Managing Development Flexibility in Uncertain Environ   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Thomke, Stefan; Reinertsen, Donald As product complexity and the rate of market change have dramatically increased over the last years, firms find it increasingly difficult to forecast product requirements in their development processes. This article redefines the probl HBS Number: CMR130 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 10/1/1998 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Forecasting; Product development Publisher: California Management Review    Aligning Incentives in Supply Chains   Added   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Narayanan, V.G.; Raman, Ananth Publication Date: 11/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0411F Subjects: Activity based costing; Competitive advantage; Contractors; Globalization; Incentives; Inventory; Networks; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Suppliers; Supply & demand; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Most companies don't worry about the behavior of their supply chain partners. Instead, they expect the supply chain to work efficiently without interference, as if guided by Adam Smith's famed invisible hand. In their study of more than 50 supply networks, V.G. Narayanan and Ananth Raman found that companies often looked out for their own interests and ignored those of their network partners. Consequently, supply chains performed poorly. Those results aren't shocking when you consider that supply chains extend across several functions and many companies, each with its own priorities and goals. Yet, all those functions and firms must pull in the same direction for a chain to deliver goods and services to consumers quickly and cost effectively. According to the authors, a supply chain works well only if the risks, costs, and rewards of doing business are distributed fairly across the network. In fact, misaligned incentives are often the cause of excess inventory, stock-outs, incorrect forecasts, inadequate sales efforts, and even poor customer service. The fates of all supply chain partners are interlinked: If the firms work together to serve consumers, they will all win. However, they can do that only if incentives are aligned. Companies must acknowledge that the problem of incentive misalignment exists and then determine its root cause and align or redesign incentives. They can improve alignment by, for instance, adopting revenue-sharing contracts, using technology to track previously hidden information, or working w    Aligning Incentives in Supply Chains (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Added   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Narayanan, V.G.; Raman, Ananth Publication Date: 11/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: 8363 Subjects: Competitive advantage; Globalization; Incentives; Networks; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Suppliers; Supply & demand; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0411F, originally published in November 2004. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Most companies expect the supply chain to work efficiently without interference, as if guided by Adam Smith's famed invisible hand. In their study of more than 50 supply networks, V.G. Narayanan and Ananth Raman found that companies often looked out for their own interests and ignored those of their network partners. Consequently, supply chains performed poorly. According to the authors, a supply chain works well only if the risks, costs, and rewards of doing business are distributed fairly across the network. In fact, misaligned incentives are often the cause of excess inventory, stock-outs, incorrect forecasts, inadequate sales efforts, and even poor customer service. The fates of all supply chain partners are interlinked: If the firms work together to serve consumers, they will all win. However, they can do that only if incentives are aligned. Companies must acknowledge that the problem of incentive misalignment exists and then determine its root cause and align or redesign incentives. They can improve alignment by, for instance, adopting revenue-sharing contracts, using technology to track previously hidden information, or working with intermediaries to build trust among network partners. It's also important to reassess incentives periodically, because even top-performing networks find that changes in technology or busine    Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Lee, Hau Publication Date: 04/01/2002 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Today's supply chain managers have been bombarded with a wide variety of the so-called leading-edge supply chain strategies. New terminologies and initiatives are being developed constantly. However, not all of these initiatives or strategies are appropriate for all firms. Companies need first to understand the uncertainties facing the demand and supply of its products and then try to match these uncertainties with the right supply chain strategies. Based on an analysis of the uncertainties of supply and demand facing the firm, this article develops a framework that can assist managers in developing the right supply chain strategy for their products. HBS Number: CMR230 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Supply & demand; Supply chain; Uncertainty Academic Discipline: Operations management    Architecture and Communication among Product Development Engineers   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Allen, Thomas J. Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR356 Subjects: Facilities; Facilities planning; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Summarizes some quantitative measures and qualitative observations regarding the effect of architecture on technical communication. Shows how the probability that two engineers or scientists in an organization will communicate declines rapidly with the distance between their work locations. Also addresses several objections to these observations and examines the relationships among different media, (i.e., face-to-face, telephone, electronic mail) and how each is affected by separation. Finally, discusses some examples of architectural strategies for managing communication.    Are You Ready for a Blackout?   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Navarro, Peter Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The California electricity market is a mess, no doubt about it. But these five lessons may help executives shield their companies from the kind of power shortages that California businesses are suffering. HBS Number: F0104C Subjects: Contingency planning; Electric power; Risk management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Are You the Weak Link?   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Mitnick, Kevin D. Publication Date: 04/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Companies are more security conscious than ever, but they've neglected their greatest vulnerability: ordinary employees. Former hacker Kevin Mitnick tells companies that every employee is part of the problem--and had better be part of the solution. HBS Number: F0304A Subjects: Employee problems; Information systems; Risk management; Security Academic Discipline: Operations management    Are You the Weakest Link in Your Company’s Supply Chain?   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Slone, Reuben E.; Mentzer, John T.; Dittmann, J. Paul Publication Date: 09/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0709H Subjects: Supply chain optimization; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Supply chain management (SCM) is a competitive differentiator for many types of businesses, and CEOs who neglect it may be putting their firms in jeopardy. So say Slone, the executive vice president of supply chain at OfficeMax, and two of his colleagues at the University of Tennessee. The authors identify key areas where CEOs can influence their supply chains and show them how to assess the influence they currently exert. Good SCM starts with finding the right people to lead a company's supply chain operation, from the most senior on down the ranks. CEOs need to participate in hiring a top-notch supply team that will use customer-focused metrics and best-practice benchmarking to bring about cross-functional alignment and achieve efficiencies, which the CEOs should personally review. Articulating the strategies to reach those goals — including effective use of supply chain technologies — and rewarding the employees, suppliers, and customers who make positive contributions are part and parcel of SCM success. Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is an essential component of SCM. A well-devised S&OP process can eliminate cross-functional disconnects and thereby reduce product complexity and obsolete inventory — two serious threats to the supply chain. This approach should also extend to business planning, promotional programs, and customer-contract negotiations, with their inherent supply chain ramifications. Even the best supply chain planning can be undermined, however, if its scope is only short-term. For example, sales strategies that don't align monthly and quarterly goals with long-term SCM objectives can lead to    Are Your Engineers Talking to One Another When They Should?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Sosa, Manuel E.; Eppinger, Steven D.; Rowles, Craig M. Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0711J Industry Setting: Aviation industry Subjects: Communication in organizations; Product design Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Communication may not be on managers' minds at companies that design complex, highly engineered products, but it should be. When mistakes take place, it's often because product-component teams fail to talk. The consequences can be huge: Ford and Bridgestone Firestone lost billions by not coordinating the design of the Explorer with the design of its tires. The major delays and cost overruns involved in the development of Airbus's A380 “super jumbo” — which most likely led to the CEO's exit — were a result of unforeseen design incompatibilities. To help managers mitigate such problems, the authors present a new application of the design structure matrix, a project management tool that maps the flow of information and its impact on product development. Drawing on research into how Pratt & Whitney handled the development of the PW4098 jet engine, they have developed an approach that uncovers (a) areas where communication should be occurring but is not (unattended interfaces, usually bad) and (b) areas where communication is occurring but has not been planned for (unidentified interfaces, usually good). After finding the unattended and unidentified interfaces, the next step is to figure out the causes of the critical ones. If a significant number of unattended interfaces cross organizational boundaries, executives may need to redraw organizational lines. Executives can then manage the remaining critical interfaces by extending the responsibilities of existing integration teams (those responsible for cross-system aspects, such as a jet engine's fuel economy)    Are Your Incentives Working Against You?   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Consider what may now be the classic case of misaligned incentives -- Cisco Systems' 2001 $2.5 billion inventory write-off, which resulted in a whopping $2.69 billion loss for the quarter. The culprit was the incentive structure Cisco used with its contract manufacturers. Because Cisco paid suppliers a premium for quick delivery, the manufacturers stockpiled inventory so that when demand spiked for a particular item, they could ramp up fast and receive the premium price. But then the unexpected happened: Demand plummeted, and Cisco found itself on the hook for the mountains of excess raw materials their manufacturers had stockpiled. It doesn't have to be that way, however. Several innovative companies have developed incentive systems that both encourage supply chain partners to work toward a common goal and result in big gains for all involved. The process of analyzing and instituting such a system can be costly and complex, requiring a major commitment from top management and a great deal of intercompany trust. Still, supply chain experts cite several companies that have successfully revamped the incentives built into their supply chains, creating a system that benefits everyone involved. HBS Number: P0505B Subjects: Incentives; Strategic intent; Strategic planning; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Avoid Hazardous Design Flaws   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Bapuji, Hari; Beamish, Paul W. Publication Date: 03/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0803F Subjects: Product design; Product liability; Product recalls; Product safety Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The vast majority of product safety recalls are due not to problems with Chinese manufacturing processes but to highly preventable design mistakes that Western companies keep making over and over again.    Avoiding the Dark Side of Strategic Sourcing   Added   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Ross, Judith Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: When strategic sourcing came to the forefront of supply chain management in the 1990s, the concept held all the hope of new love. Buying firms would integrate their strategic decisions with those of key suppliers -- building long-term relationships that would benefit both parties. But many firms jumped in and tied the knot without giving enough thought to what the commitment actually entailed. And when the burdens of the relationship grew inconvenient, note Arizona State University professor Thomas Y. Choi and doctoral student Christian Rossetti, buyers tossed aside their commitments, acted in their own short-term self-interest, and left spurned suppliers angry, disappointed and, sometimes, lusting for revenge. The blinding drive to cut costs is the most obvious form of self-interest, but there is a variety of shortsighted activities buyers engage in that undermine the long-term value of relationships. And in doing so, they end up hurting not just their suppliers but also themselves. With manufacturers now buying up to 70% of their parts and materials from outside sources, they had best upgrade their thinking. To that end, there are several pitfalls that buying firms can avoid to help keep their relationships with suppliers on track and help maximize the overall health of their organizations. HBS Number: P0506D Academic Discipline: Operations management    Balancing Global Risk and Return   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Bovet, David Publication Date: 08/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: No matter the risks, global supply chains continue to grow longer and more complex as companies push deeper into uncharted territory in search of lower costs. As a result, the questions surrounding what managers should do about risk have never been more pressing. Do you add tons of inventory? Build myriad backup plans? Or rethink the whole thing and retreat from the cost-saving sourcing deals that are driving you into far-flung lands in the first place? While there are no easy answers -- and, in most cases, no ``right'' answers -- there are frameworks for thinking about how to manage risk more effectively and to reach the right balance with potential return that will bring benefits to supply chain managers, strategic planners, and C-level executives alike. Learn to examine your basic supply-to-market strategy to ensure you're following the course that best supports your business and to determine the right tactics to support your strategy. HBS Number: P0508C Subjects: Decision analysis; Outsourcing; Risk management; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Before You Sign That Lease...   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Manley, Marisa An office lease can create financial difficulty if a tenant ignores provisions that landlords can use to gain extra income. The author points out some of the more arcane clauses and tells you how to protect yourself. HBS Number: 88309 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1988 Subjects: Leasing; Operations management; Real estate    Behind the Growth in Materials Requirement Planning   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Miller, Jeffrey G.; Sprague, Linda G. Materials requirements planning (MRP) is a computer-based system of coordinating materials supply, demand, inventory, and production scheduling for manufacturing operations. In addition to the master production schedule 'drive file,' files are created for bill of materials, inventory status and the materials requirements planning package. The value of MRP depends on an operation's size and the efficiency of its current materials system. Its adaptability, however, promises new applications in other areas. HBS Number: 75510 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1975 Subjects: Computer systems; Inventory management; Materials management; Production planning    Best Buy’s Customer-Facing Supply Chain   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 01/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Consumer giant Best Buy had a problem — its supply chain model was no longer meeting customer needs. So the organization undertook the task of reimagining the retail concept, replacing its high-volume, one-size-fits-all system with one that emphasizes agility, responsiveness, and accuracy, pinpointing smaller, sales floor-ready deliveries to meet the changing desires of specific customer segments. Read this article to learn how moving to a customer-centric supply chain, far from undermining the economies of scale at the heart of the big-box model, drove up Best Buy's profits. HBS Number: P0601A Industry Setting: Consumer electronics; Retail industry Subjects: Models; Operations management; Process innovation; Strategic intent; Strategic planning; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Beware the Forces that Affect Your Supply Chain   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Fawcett, Stanley E.; Magnan, Gregory M. Publication Date: 08/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: The demands of managing complex global supply chains make it challenging for even the most senior supply chain leaders to keep the bigger strategic picture constantly in focus. And, yet, to build a winning supply chain, managers must never lose touch with the key market factors that threaten to impact their business. To aid in this effort, the authors have put forth the idea of supply chain scanning -- the process of analyzing your supply chain environment in light of a set of key forces. This requires asking yourself some hard questions: How often do you think about the impact of these forces on your supply chain strategy? How well are you living up to the rules? Where in the supply chain can you adopt new practices to better address the present and future needs of the business in light of these forces? The answers you find may well surprise you. HBS Number: P0508D Subjects: Market analysis; Operations management; Strategy formulation; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Beyond the Exchange: The Future of B2B   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Wise, Richard; Morrison, David Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Using the Internet to facilitate business-to-business commerce promises many benefits, such as dramatic cost reductions and greater access to buyers and sellers. Yet little is known about how B2B e-commerce will evolve. The authors argue that changes in the financial services industry over the past two decades provide important clues. Exchanges, they say, are not the primary source of value in information-intensive markets; value tends to accumulate among a diverse group of specialists that focus on such tasks as packaging, standard setting, arbitrage, and information management. Because scale and liquidity are vitally important to efficient trading, today's exchanges will consolidate into a relatively small set of mega-exchanges. For many companies, traditional skills in such areas as product development, manufacturing, and marketing may become relatively less important, while the ability to understand and capitalize on market dynamics may become considerably more important. HBS Number: R00614 Subjects: Business to business; Electronic commerce; Internet; Purchasing; Sourcing; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Beyond Toyota: How to Root Out Waste and Pursue Perfection   Add   View  13 pp.  Article Author(s): Womack, James P.; Jones, Daniel T. Publication Date: 09/01/1996 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: 96511 Subjects: Continuous improvement; Operations management; Order processing; Organizational design; Organizational structure; Process analysis; Reengineering Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Many managers have grasped the power of individual lean techniques — such as just-in-time deliveries and kaizen, or continuous improvement — pioneered by Toyota and other Japanese companies. However, they have stumbled in trying to put them all together into a coherent business system. In an effort to show managers how they can create a powerful whole, the authors studied 50 lean companies in a variety of industries around the world. The companies included Toyota, Porsche, and Pratt & Whitney. On the basis of their study, the authors identified five critical steps that they believe will be useful to all managers interested in applying lean thinking. Lantech, a small manufacturer of stretch-wrapping machines in Louisville, Kentucky, provides an example of how a company can make the leap.    Biosphere Rules   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Unruh, Gregory C. Publication Date: 02/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0802H Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Materials management; Product life cycles; Production processes; Sustainability Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Sustainability, defined by natural scientists as the capacity of healthy ecosystems to function indefinitely, has become a clarion call for business. Leading companies have taken high-profile steps toward achieving it: Wal-Mart, for example, with its efforts to reduce packaging waste, and Nike, which has removed toxic chemicals from its shoes. But, says Unruh, the director of Thunderbird's Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management, sustainability is more than an endless journey of incremental steps. It is a destination, for which the biosphere of planet Earth — refined through billions of years of trial and error — is a perfect model. Unruh distills some lessons from the biosphere into three rules: Use a parsimonious palette. Managers can rethink their sourcing strategies and dramatically simplify the number and types of materials their companies use in production, making recycling cost-effective. After the furniture manufacturer Herman Miller discovered that its leading desk chair had 200 components made from more than 800 chemical compounds, it designed an award-winning successor whose far more limited materials palette is 96% recyclable. Cycle up, virtuously. Manufacturers should design recovery value into their products at the outset. Shaw Industries, for example, recycles the nylon fiber from its worn-out carpet into brand-new carpet tile. Exploit the power of platforms. Platform design in industry tends to occur at the component level — but the materials in those components constitute a more fundamental platform. Patagonia, by recycling Capilene brand performance underwe    Blue-Collar Green-Building Boom   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Lockwood, Charles Publication Date: 05/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0805E Subjects: Green buildings; Work environments Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Most of the green buildings constructed over the past decade in the United States have been white-collar workplaces such as office buildings and schools. The greening of blue-collar workplaces, from warehouses to factories, has lagged far behind — but that's beginning to change.    Break the Paper Jam in B2B Payments   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Berez, Steve; Sheth, Arpan Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0711D Subjects: Business to business; Process improvement; Purchasing Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Many companies still overlook the virtues of electronic invoice and payment systems: Some 70% of U.S. business-to-business transactions involve paper invoices and checks, and managing them costs about $116 billion a year. Electronic systems can help cut accounts payable overhead by more than 50% — but suppliers need to be converted quickly.    Breaking the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Service   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Frei, Frances X. Publication Date: 11/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0611E Industry Setting: Service industries Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer self-service; Customer service; Loyalty; Operations management; Service management; Services; Variability Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: For manufacturers, customers are the open wallets at the end of the supply chain. But for most service businesses, they are key inputs to the production process. Customers introduce tremendous variability to that process, but they also complain about any lack of consistency and don't care about the company's profit agenda. Managing customer-introduced variability, the author argues, is a central challenge for service companies. The first step is to diagnose which type of variability is causing mischief: Customers may arrive at different times, request different kinds of service, possess different capabilities, make varying degrees of effort, and have different personal preferences. Should companies accommodate variability or reduce it? Accommodation often involves asking employees to compensate for the variations among customers — a potentially costly solution. Reduction often means offering a limited menu of options, which may drive customers away. Some companies have learned to deal with customer-introduced variability without damaging either their operating environments or customers' service experiences. Starbucks, for example, handles capability variability among its customers by teaching them the correct ordering protocol. Dell deals with arrival and request variability in its high-end server business by outsourcing customer service while staying in close touch with customers to discuss their needs and assess their experiences with third-party providers. The effective management of variability    Breaking the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Service (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Frei, Frances X. Publication Date: 11/01/2006 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 1498 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer retention; Customer self-service; Customer service; Loyalty; Service management; Services Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: For manufacturers, customers are the open wallets at the end of the supply chain. But for most service businesses, they are key inputs to the production process. Customers introduce tremendous variability to that process, but they also complain about any lack of consistency and don't care about the company's profit agenda. Managing customer-introduced variability, the author argues, is a central challenge for service companies. The first step is to diagnose which type of variability is causing mischief: Customers may arrive at different times, request different kinds of service, possess different capabilities, make varying degrees of effort, and have different personal preferences. Should companies accommodate variability or reduce it? Accommodation often involves asking employees to compensate for the variations among customers — a potentially costly solution. Reduction often means offering a limited menu of options, which may drive customers away. Some companies have learned to deal with customer-introduced variability without damaging either their operating environments or customers' service experiences. Starbucks, for example, handles capability variability among its customers by teaching them the correct ordering protocol. Dell deals with arrival and request variability in its high-end server business by outsourcing customer service while staying in close touch with customers to discuss their needs and assess their experiences with third-party providers. The effective management of variability often requires a company to influence customers' behavior. Managers attempting that kind of interv    Build Contractor Relationships that Are Mutually Beneficial   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Field, Anne Publication Date: 02/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Companies entering into relationships with contract manufacturers know they're vulnerable to these vendors. And, too often, contractors have become adept at taking advantage of companies desperately seeking to pare supply chain costs through outsourcing. But just as you don't want a contractor to get the upper hand, you also don't want the contractor to suffer; the aim is to structure a relationship in which both parties thrive. To that end, supply chain managers and chief executives alike can take steps to ensure that partnerships with contract manufacturers are successful and prevent their companies from falling prey to one-sided deals. Read this article to learn about the steps a company can take to ensure a successful partnership with a contract manufacturer. HBS Number: P0602B Subjects: Contractors; Manufacturing; Operations management; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Risk management; Supply chain; Vendors Academic Discipline: Operations management    Building a Resilient Supply Chain   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Sheffi, Yossi Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Threats to your supply chain and, therefore, to your company abound -- natural disasters, accidents, and intentional disruptions -- their likelihood and consequences heightened by long, global supply chains, ever-shrinking product lifecycles, and volatile and unpredictable markets. No sure way exists for overcoming all such risks, but some organizations cope far better than others with both the prospect and the manifestation of unquantifiable risk. They don't have in common a secret formula or even many of the same processes for dealing with risk, but they share a critical trait: resilience. Read more about how organizations can and should build resilience. HBS Number: P0510A Subjects: Process innovation; Resilience; Risk management; Strategy formulation; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Can One Green Deliver Another?   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Wilkerson, Taylor Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: If your attitude toward the idea of a ``green'' supply chain lies somewhere between indifference and contempt, it is time to think again. You may be missing out on a great opportunity to increase supply chain efficiency and deliver real savings to the bottom line. Green supply chain management (GSCM) involves a fundamental rethinking of supply chain management practices and how they can be integrated with your company's environmental strategy. While that may sound like a huge effort, the payoffs can be substantial. Learn about the way GSCM can lead to process innovations, improve alignments with your extended supply chain, and improve your company's reputation. HBS Number: P0509D Subjects: Business philosophy; Environmental protection; Process innovation; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Capabilities for Managing a Portfolio of Supplier Relationships   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Wagner, Stephan M.; Boutellier, Roman Publication Date: 11/15/2002 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Because companies can no longer possess all competencies themselves, strategic partnerships between customers and suppliers are becoming more and more essential. In fact, firms rely on strategic partners to achieve and sustain a competitive position. Theory helps explain the choice between arm's-length and cooperative relationships, and practice provides some valuable examples. Strategic partnerships, however, need to be set up and managed--a process not yet well understood. Companies often lack strategic thinking and the necessary supplier management capabilities. Advanced corporations continuously improve internal and external collaboration. Moreover, they allocate their scarce resources and time by selectively managing the full range of relationships--from "discrete exchange" to "relational exchange"--across the supplier portfolio. HBS Number: BH083 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Partnerships; Production; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Case for Electronic Business Communities   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Peypoch, Ramon J. Despite the popular attention given to marketing consumer goods on the Internet, the market for business-to-business commerce via the Web is potentially huge and estimated at ten times the volume of Internet sales of consumer goods. El HBS Number: BH042 Type: Business Horizons Article Publication Date: 9/15/1998 Subjects: Business to business; Information systems; Information technology; Sourcing; Telecommunications; Virtual communities Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University    Case of the Machinists’ Mutiny   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Chew, W. Bruce The management at Trail Manufacturing was so excited about installing new flexible machining equipment in their factory that they neglected to guage the impact it would have on the workers who actually ran the machines. Mike Trail, the company's owner and president, is torn between his chief engineer who encourages radical changes, and his machinists who believe the company is making a huge mistake. Four experts in operations management comment on the choices Trail must consider. HBS Number: 90602 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1990 Subjects: Conflict; HBR Case Discussions; Management of change; Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Technological change    Case of the Quality Crusader   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Leonard, Frank S. When George Mansfield was hired to run Segal Electric's quality operation, he was sure the company was serious about regaining its reputation for high-quality products. Now, only a month later, he's not so sure. While George was away at a seminar, Sharon Morse, the production supervisor, shipped some defective fans. George went to the general manager for support, but was told to work it out on the factory floor. Four business people--William A. Golomski, president of W.A. Golomski & Associates; Ray J. Rogal, director of quality for the Ford Motor Co.; Keith Larson, general manager of the Eastern Operation for Barry Controls; and Michael T. Cowhig, vice president of manufacturing at Gillette's Personal Care Group--offer observations about what went wrong in quality control at Segal. HBS Number: 88308 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1988 Subjects: Conflict; HBR Case Discussions; Leadership; Production planning; Quality control; Supervision    CEO’s Common Sense of CIM: An Interview with J. Tracy O‘Rourke   Add   View  8 pp.  Article O'Rourke, J. Tracy; Avishai, Bernard In an interview with HBR, Allen-Bradley CEO J. Tracy O'Rourke talks about the decisions that led up to the construction and development of the peopleless, paperless plant. He demonstrates how his management team went to computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), not because of any desire for technological revolution, but as the best way to confront a potentially devastating competitive challenge. HBS Number: 89107 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1989 Subjects: Information systems; Interviews; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning    Cheetah Teams   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Engwall, Mats; Svensson, Charlotta Publication Date: 02/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Your crucial new product is on the fast track, when suddenly a problem develops that threatens to derail it. Time to bring in the cheetah team. HBS Number: F0102A Subjects: Corporate strategy; Management of crises; Organizational design; Problem solving; Product development; Teams Academic Discipline: Operations management    Coal Cleans Up Its Act   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Salzhauer, Amy Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Coal is looking better as an energy source, says Amy Salzhauer of Ignition Ventures. HBS Number: F0506L Subjects: Innovation; Academic Discipline: Operations management    Cold Competition: GE Wages the Refrigerator War   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Magaziner, Ira C.; Patinkin, Mark In 1981, both Matsushita and Necchi began to offer high-quality compressors--the heart of the refrigerator--that were cheaper than those GE made for itself. Instead of sourcing to stay competitive, GE's appliance group renewed its compressor capability and stayed competitive in refrigerators. It made large, long-term investments in a new technology and in extensive computer training for employees. The result is that, in its Columbia, Tennessee plant, GE makes compressors that are 20% cheaper than any made by its dollar-an-hour competitors. HBS Number: 89211 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1989 Subjects: Competition; Manufacturing strategy; Product development    Coming Soon — to an Office Near You   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Donahue, Kristen B. Publication Date: 11/01/1998 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: It may not happen this month or even this year. But it will happen: Your unit's workspace will be rebuilt, reorganized, refurnished, or moved to entirely new quarters. Be prepared: new offices don't look much like the old. This isn't just about aesthetics--it's the realization that old-style offices don't suit the work being done in today's jobs. Companies believe a redesigned environment can simultaneously boost productivity and keep the inhabitants happy. HMU guides you through some common redesigns and the trends behind them. Includes a sidebar on the newly designed offices of the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation. HBS Number: U9811D Geographic Setting: Industry Setting: Subjects: Facilities; Operations management; Work environment Academic Discipline: Operations management    Communities of Creation: Managing Distributed Innovation in Turbulent Markets   Add   View  32 pp.  Article Author(s): Sawhney, Mohanbir; Prandelli, Emanuela Publication Date: 07/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR178 Industry Setting: Computer industry Subjects: Community development; Innovation; Models Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: A new model for managing distributed innovation, the community of creation is a governance mechanism for managing innovation that lies between the hierarchy-based (closed) mechanism and the market-based (open) mechanism for innovation management. The community-centric model shifts the focus of innovation beyond the boundaries of the firm, to a community of individuals and firms that collaborate to create joint intellectual property. A community of creation requires an identified sponsor, a set of ground rules for participation, and a system for managing intellectual property rights. The community of creation model allows innovation to proceed in a complex environment by striking a balance between order and chaos. This article presents detailed case studies from the computer industry to highlight the differences among the different approaches to innovation management. It also discusses the opportunities and the unresolved issues of the community of creation model for practitioners as well as for academics.    Competing for Supply   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Stolle, Bryan; Fryer, Bronwyn Publication Date: 02/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: The Internet was supposed to make it possible for anybody anywhere to get anything anytime. Instead, it's magnified suppliers' miscalculations into global shortages. But if the Net caused these supply chain woes, it's also the solution, says the CEO of a supply-chain software manufacturer. HBS Number: F0102D Subjects: Forecasting; Internet; Interviews; Manufacturing; New economy; Sales forecasting; Suppliers; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Garvin, David A. Traditional programs of quality control in the United States have emphasized mainly defensive actions--preventing defects--and even these programs have been pursued halfheartedly. But high quality means pleasing consumers, not just pro HBS Number: 87603 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1987 Subjects: Consumer behavior; Market research; Production planning; Quality control; Total quality    Competing Through Manufacturing   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Wheelwright, Steven C.; Hayes, Robert H. The different roles that manufacturing can play in a company's efforts to formulate and achieve its strategic objectives can be described in terms of a developmental continuum. At the lowest "internally neutral" stage, top managers regard production as a low-tech operation, incapable of influencing competitive success. Stage 2 companies seek an "externally neutral" parity with major competitors on the manufacturing dimension. This attitude is often found in America's smokestack industries. Stage 3 organizations, on the other hand, expect production to support and strengthen the company's competitive position, and manufacturing investments are screened for consistency with the business strategy. The fourth and most progressive stage arises when competitive strategy rests to a significant degree on a company's production capability. HBS Number: 85117 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1985 Subjects: Competitive decision making; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning    Concept of Workplace Performance and its Value to Managers   Add   View  19 pp.  Article Author(s): Vischer, Jacqueline c. Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR358 Subjects: Facilities; Facilities planning; Performance measurement; Productivity; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Managerial decisions about office design and the performance of work are frequently cost-based. Replaces the commonly asked question of how to “measure” the effect of environmental design on productivity with a practical framework that values workspace environmental features in human terms. This integrative model of environmental comfort enables decision makers to organize and classify, in a coherent and sensible fashion, the wide array of information available about how workers are affected by the space in which they work. The model is illustrated by one company's experience applying this approach to practical decisions during a major office design, construction, and move.    Control Your Inventory in a World of Lean Retailing   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Abernathy, Frederick H.; Dunlop, John T.; Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: As retailers adopt lean retailing practices, manufacturers are feeling the pinch. Retailers no longer place large seasonal orders for goods in advance--instead, they require ongoing replenishment of stock, forcing manufacturers to predict demand and then hold substantial inventories indefinitely. Manufacturers now carry the cost of inventory risk--the possibility that demand will dry up and goods will have to be sold below cost. And as product proliferation increases, customer demand becomes harder to predict. Most manufacturers apply one inventory policy for all stock-keeping units in a product line. But the inventory demand for SKUs within the same product line can vary significantly. SKUs with high volume typically have little variation in weekly sales, while slow-selling SKUs can vary enormously in weekly sales. The greater the variation, the larger the inventory the manufacturer must hold relative to an SKU's expected weekly sales. By differentiating inventory policies at the SKU level, manufacturers can reduce inventories for the high-volume SKUs and increase them for the low-volume ones--and thereby improve the profitability of the entire line. HBS Number: R00601 Subjects: Inventory management; Manufacturing policy; Product differentiation; Product portfolio management; Production scheduling Academic Discipline: Operations management    Corporate Architecture from the Outside In   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Kay, Jane Holtz A primer for executives and architects, Thomas Walton's Architecture and the Corporation: The Creative Intersection comes at the right time. Walton's details are helpful, but he looks at buildings as single structures, not part of an entire environmental setting. The result is a book that defines good design too narrowly. In City: Rediscovering the Center, William H. Whyte supplies the importance of context. He also argues that companies which isolate themselves in the country hurt themselves as well as the environment because they lose the energy that comes from the spontaneous interactions of city life. HBS Number: 89208 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1989 Subjects: Architectural services; Business conditions; Location of industry    Corporations, Communities, and Conservation   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Author(s): Pratt, D. Jane Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: In the late 1990s, The Mountain Institute (a small, nonprofit environmental organization) began working with the Antamina Mining Co. (one of the world's largest mining companies) to help it revise its plans for a large zinc and copper mine. The collaboration produced a road design that not only protected a fragile ecosystem, but was more cost effective than the firm's original plan. This article explains the important role that financial institutions played in enabling The Mountain Institute to engage Antamina's attention and establish its credibility as a source of objective expertise for and a valuable partner in the mine planning and development process. Raises issues that corporations, government policymakers, and environmental organizations must resolve for such collaborations to succeed over the long term. HBS Number: CMR198 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Environmental protection; Mining; Nonprofit organizations Academic Discipline: Operations management    Creating and Testing Workplace Strategy   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Kampschroer, Kevin; Heerwagen, Judith; Powell, Kevin Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR361 Subjects: Facilities; Facilities planning; Organizational behavior; Organizational design; Performance measurement; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The growing demand for new approaches to support the changing nature of work and organizational structure has spawned innovations from both manufacturers and space designers. The result is a multitude of new concepts and designs, but little data on how well and under what circumstances these innovations are effective. New products, technologies, and concepts are frequently implemented without knowledge of their impact on work, much less their value to high level organizational goals. The measurement most commonly used is still cost, or even less sensibly, square feet. To remedy this shortcoming, the U.S. General Service Administration's Public Buildings Service assembled an interagency research team and recognized academic and private sector leaders to identify “best practice” workplace strategies and the research tools holding the most promise for evaluating their impact. They evaluated the linkages among organizational performance (Business), the physical attributes of the workspace (Building), and the changes in work processes, perceptions, and attitudes that result from changes to this physical space (Behavior). Provides an overview of the GSA program and preliminary results from two pilot projects.    Creating Demand-Responsive Supply Chains   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Sheffi, Yossi Publication Date: 04/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article HBS Number: P0504A Subjects: Business growth; Change management; Forecasting; Risk management; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The main challenge facing supply chain managers is to provide the right products in the right quantity at the right place and time. Where there is too little inventory, customers walk away empty-handed and unsatisfied; too much, and discounting and disposal costs mount. The problem is that, by necessity, products are designed, produced, and ordered before demand is known. Plenty of robust statistical models exist to help forecasters, but there are no sure things. And given the increasing complexity of global markets, the future of forecasting promises to grow only murkier. But companies can mitigate the risks inherent in forecasting by building supply chains that assume demand will change and have the built-in capabilities to respond quickly to those changes. Read about the steps necessary to provide a framework for doing so.    Creating Lean Suppliers: Diffusing Lean Production Throughout the Supply Chain   Add   View  35 pp.  Article Author(s): MacDuffie, John Paul; Helper, Susan Publication Date: 07/01/1997 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Honda of America has developed a comprehensive approach to teaching the principles of lean production to its suppliers, in which Honda and the supplier work intensively on narrowly targeted improvement projects in the supplier's plant. Called BP (for ``Best Process,'' ``Best Performance,'' ``Best Practice''), this approach has been quite successful in enhancing supplier performance; suppliers participating in the program in 1994 averaged productivity gains of 50% on lines reengineered by BP. However, Honda has found there is high variation in the extent to which suppliers were able to transfer the lessons taught beyond the line or plant where the BP intervention occurred. Drawing on case studies of three of Honda's U.S. suppliers, this article explores how the BP process interacts with the broader relationship between customer and supplier in terms of organizational learning, technology transfer, and the transplantation of Japanese management practices to the United States. These cases illustrate the dynamics of the learning process and the complex relationship that emerges between the ``teacher'' (provider) of valuable knowledge and the ``student'' (recipient). HBS Number: CMR090 Subjects: Automobiles; Production planning; Productivity; Suppliers; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Creating Strategic Alignment and Readiness for IT   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Author(s): Norton, David P. Publication Date: 09/15/2002 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Twenty years ago, the biggest problem information technology executives were facing was how to align IT investments with enterprise strategy. Today, little has changed. IT executives are still finding it difficult to coordinate diverse activities in complex organizations, and most organizations don't use the basic tools that were developed for the purpose of creating that alignment. The best way for alignment in your organization is through a shared model of the enterprise strategy--namely, the Balanced Scorecard strategy map. HBS Number: B0209A Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Corporate strategy; Information technology; Strategic planning Academic Discipline: Operations management    Creating the One-Touch Supply Chain   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Gary, Loren Publication Date: 07/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Most supply chains for network computing servers encompass three steps, or ``touches,'' between the time a product is manufactured and the time it arrives at a customer's doorstep. But as far as Eugene McCabe and his team at Sun Microsystems are concerned, that's two too many. Today Sun is midstream in an ambitious plan to reduce the number of its supply chain touches to one. Learn about how Sun is remaking its business by aggressively pushing more and more of its most closely held operations further up the supply chain. HBS Number: P0507C Subjects: Computer networks; Logistics; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Creating Value in an Economic Crisis   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Clinton, Bill Publication Date: 09/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0909N Subjects: Recessions; Social responsibility; Sustainability; Value creation Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Renewable energy, eco-friendly construction, and many other green initiatives are markets that promise to generate jobs and profits. Former U.S. president Bill Clinton issues a call to CEOs to embrace sustainability and apply it to their operations, since that's where the growth is.    Cummins Engine Flexes Its Factory   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Venkatesan, Ravi In 1986 Cummins Engine's product line had greatly expanded. Its factories were producing an unprecedented amount of lower value parts. Cummins had already reorganized from job-shop (batch) manufacturing to dedicated machining cells. But total factory throughput was down because of the time it took cells to change over from one kind of part to another. Cummins focused the factory by volume as well as by part type. It developed five general classes of engine components, building a different manufacturing environment for each. The key in most cases was to add a computer-numerically-controlled machine to dedicated cells to handle eccentric changes in similar parts without the need for changeover. HBS Number: 90214 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1990 Subjects: Machinery; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning    Dangers of Modularity   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Sorenson, Olav; Fleming, Lee Publication Date: 09/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Much has been made about how efficient it is to develop new products from independent, modular components. But 350 billion calculations on U.S. Patent Office data reveal that the true breakthrough products are more likely to come from designs that employ the far messier and more unpredictable interdependent parts. HBS Number: F0108A Subjects: Innovation; Inventions; Product design; Product development; Research & development; Standardization; Technology Academic Discipline: Operations management    Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Spear, Steven J.; Bowen, H. Kent Publication Date: 09/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: 99509 Subjects: Work force management; Operations; Product planning & policy; Process improvement; Manufacturing; Production processes; Workflows; Toyota production system Academic Discipline: Operations management Supplementary Materials: Case Teaching Note, (604086), 16p, by Steven J. Spear Product Description: This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. The Toyota Production System is a paradox. On the one hand, every activity, connection, and production flow in a Toyota factory is rigidly scripted. Yet at the same time, Toyota's operations are enormously flexible and responsive to customer demand. How can that be? After an extensive four-year study of the system in more than 40 plants, the authors came to understand that at Toyota it's the very rigidity of the operations that makes the flexibility possible. That's because the company's operations can be seen as a continuous series of controlled experiments. Whenever Toyota defines a specification, it is establishing a hypothesis that is then tested through action. This approach — the scientific method — is not imposed on workers, it's ingrained in them. And it stimulates them to engage in the kind of experimentation that is widely recognized as the cornerstone of a learning organization. The Toyota Production System grew out of the workings of the company over 50 years, and it has never actually been written down. Making the implicit explicit, the authors lay out four principles that show how Toyota sets up all its operations as experiments and teaches the scientific method to its workers. The first rule    Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Spear, Steven J.; Bowen, H. Kent Publication Date: 01/18/2006 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 2904 Subjects: Manufacturing; Operations management; Product planning & policy; Production processes Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The Toyota Production System is a paradox. On the one hand, every activity, connection, and production flow in a Toyota factory is rigidly scripted. Yet at the same time, Toyota's operations are enormously flexible and responsive to customer demand. How can that be? After an extensive four-year study of the system in more than 40 plants, the authors came to understand that at Toyota it's the very rigidity of the operations that makes the flexibility possible. That's because the company's operations can be seen as a continuous series of controlled experiments. Whenever Toyota defines a specification, it is establishing a hypothesis that is then tested through action. This approach — the scientific method — is not imposed on workers, it's ingrained in them. And it stimulates them to engage in the kind of experimentation that is widely recognized as the cornerstone of a learning organization. The Toyota Production System grew out of the workings of the company over 50 years, and it has never actually been written down. Making the implicit explicit, the authors lay out four principles that show how Toyota sets up all its operations as experiments and teaches the scientific method to its workers. The first rule governs the way workers do their work. The second, the way they interact with one another. The third governs how production lines are constructed. And the last, how people learn to improve. Every activity, connection, and production path designed according to these rules must have built-in tests that signal problems immediately. And it is the continual response to those problems that makes this seemingly rigi    Deep Change: How Operational Innovation Can Transform Your Company   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Hammer, Michael Publication Date: 04/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Breakthrough innovations -- not just steady improvements -- in operations can destroy competitors and shake up entire industries. Just look at Dell, Toyota, and Wal-Mart. But fewer than 10% of large companies have made serious attempts to achieve operational innovation. Why? One reason, contends the author, is that business culture undervalues operations -- they're not as sexy as deals or acquisitions. In addition, many executives who rose through the ranks of finance or sales aren't familiar with operations -- and they aren't interested in learning more. Finally, because no one holds the title vice-president of operational innovation, it doesn't have a natural home in the organization, so it's easily overlooked. Fortunately, all of these barriers can be overcome. This article offers practical advice on how to develop operational innovations, such as looking for role models outside your industry to emulate and identifying -- and then defying -- constraining assumptions about how work should be done. The author also discusses the best way to implement operational innovations. For instance, because they are disruptive by nature, projects should be concentrated in those activities with the greatest impact on enterprise strategic goals. Operational innovation may feel unglamorous or unfamiliar to many executives, but it is the only lasting basis for superior performance. HBS Number: R0404E Subjects: Business processes; Competition; Competitive advantage; Innovation; Leadership; Management of change; Operations management; Organizational structure Academic Discipline: Operations management    Deep Change: How Operational Innovation Can Transform Your Company (HBR OnPoint)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Hammer, Michael Publication Date: 04/01/2004 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 6573 Subjects: Business processes; Competition; Competitive advantage; Innovation; Leadership; Management of change; Operations management; Organizational structure Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0404E, originally published in April 2004. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Breakthrough innovations — not just steady improvements — in operations can destroy competitors and shake up entire industries. Just look at Dell, Toyota, and Wal-Mart. But fewer than 10% of large companies have made serious attempts to achieve operational innovation. Why? One reason, contends the author, is that business culture undervalues operations — they're not as sexy as deals or acquisitions. In addition, many executives who rose through the ranks of finance or sales aren't familiar with operations — and they aren't interested in learning more. Finally, because no one holds the title vice-president of operational innovation, it doesn't have a natural home in the organization, so it's easily overlooked. Fortunately, all of these barriers can be overcome. This article offers practical advice on how to develop operational innovations, such as looking for role models outside your industry to emulate and identifying — and then defying — constraining assumptions about how work should be done. The author also discusses the best way to implement operational innovations. For instance, because they are disruptive by nature, projects should be concentrated in those activities with the greatest impact on enterprise strategic goals. Operational innovation may feel unglamorous or unfamiliar to many executives, but    Delivering on the Promise: Maximizing Payback from Supply Chain Technology Investments   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Weinberg, Jim; Cooke, Mike; Chen, Stephen Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: When first introduced, the new wave of supply chain management (SCM) software and tools held great promise. But vaporware, overstated capabilities, and delayed implementations have removed much of their luster. Indeed, a recent survey of nearly 200 global companies found that almost half of respondents were disappointed with the implementation of their SCM systems. Perhaps most eye-opening, business-related issues accounted for the majority of the reasons for their displeasure. Among the concerns: implementation delays caused by problems on the business side, the inability to define technology needs across the company, and lack of participation by the extended enterprise. These findings show that while corporate IT groups must shoulder much of the blame for implementation mishaps, the business side cannot neglect its critical role. Learn four principles that help you get the most value from your supply chain technology investments. HBS Number: P0506E Academic Discipline: Operations management    Designing Corporate Ventures in the Shadow of Private Venture Capital   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Chesbrough, Henry W. Publication Date: 04/01/2000 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Private venture capital casts a long shadow over corporate ventures, in part because they compete for the same entrepreneurial talent. Corporate venturing may improve its performance by emulating certain practices of private venture capital but will never achieve the structures that private venture capital can create. Instead, the design principles for corporate ventures should embrace potential structural advantages of corporate venturing and leverage those advantages. These potential advantages include: an indefinite time horizon, the ability to commit very large sums of capital, the ability to coordinate complementarities with non-tradable corporate assets, and the ability to retain greater group and organizational learning from failed venture experiences. Lucent's New Ventures Group adopts many useful practices of private venture capital, but retains some of the potential structural advantages of venturing within an established firm. HBS Number: CMR171 Subjects: Entrepreneurial management; Organizational design; Organizational structure; Product development; Venture capital Academic Discipline: Operations management    Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Bower, Joseph L.; Christensen, Clayton M. Publication Date: 01/01/1995 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: 95103 Industry Setting: Computer industry Subjects: Competitive advantage; Disruptive innovations; Innovation; Product development; Technological change Academic Discipline: Operations management Supplementary Materials: Teaching Note, (699125), 15p, by Clayton M. Christensen Product Description: One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change. Why is it that established companies invest aggressively — and successfully — in the technologies necessary to retain their current customers but then fail to make the technological investments that customers of the future will demand? The fundamental reason is that leading companies succumb to one of the most popular, and valuable, management dogmas: they stay close to their customers. To remain at the top of their industries, managers must first be able to spot disruptive technologies. To pursue these technologies, managers must protect them from the processes and incentives that are geared to serving mainstream customers. And the only way to do that is to create organizations that are completely independent of the mainstream business. May be used with: (397114) Teradyne: The Aurora Project.   Add     15 pp.  Teaching Note For use with 95103 HBS Number: 5-699-125 Subjects: Computer industry; Disruptive technologies; Future; Innovation; Product development; Technological change    Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Bower, Joseph L.; Christensen, Clayton M. Publication Date: 05/01/2000 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of the HBR article 95103, originally published in January/February 1995. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change. Why is it that established companies invest aggressively — and successfully — in the technologies necessary to retain their current customers but then fail to make the technological investments that customers of the future will demand? The fundamental reason is that leading companies succumb to one of the most popular, and valuable, management dogmas: they stay close to their customers. To remain at the top of their industries, managers must first be able to spot disruptive technologies. To pursue these technologies, managers must protect them from the processes and incentives that are geared to serving mainstream customers. And the only way to do that is to create organizations that are completely independent of the mainstream business. HBS Number: 3510 Industry Setting: Computer industry Subjects: Disruptive technologies; Innovation; Product development; Technological change Academic Discipline: Operations management    Do Trade-offs Exist in Operations Strategy? Insights from Stamping Die Industry   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Author(s): Pagell, Mark; Melnyk, Steve; Handfield, Ro Publication Date: 05/15/2000 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Must firms compete on all dimensions of value simultaneously? Or can managers pick and choose among market segments and deploy a variety of strategies to meet customer needs? Operational systems cannot simultaneously excel on all dimensions of value--cost, lead time, quality, and flexibility. The authors examine three companies similar in product, geographic location, shop floor equipment, employee skills, and customers; all three firms have survived for at least 20 years and are among the top 25 companies in their industry group. Comparing the three in terms of key strategic advantages, disadvantages, fixed costs, lead time, and employee commitment strongly supports the need to make trade-offs in competing dimensions of value in operations (although all three realize they must satisfy certain industry norms, such as quality and on-time delivery). Thus, not only do trade-offs exist, but they have significant competitive implications--trade-offs are strategic in nature. Eventually a firm hits the "productivity frontier," beyond which it cannot continue to improve all dimensions of performance simultaneously. HBS Number: BH049 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Productivity Academic Discipline: Operations management    Does Manufacturing Need a JIT Revolution?   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Ziplin, Paul H. Many companies have embraced the Just-In-Time manufacturing method because of the zeal with which its successes were reported. But JIT is a simple idea, and therefore often complicated to implement. In its pure form, JIT emphasizes low cost, high quality, and the consolidation of the product line--a smaller number of products and fewer options. It does not mean recklessly slashing inventories without having inventory buffers in place. HBS Number: 91111 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1991 Subjects: Inventory management; Manufacturing strategy; Production controls    Drive Complexity Out of Your Supply Chain   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Hoole, Rick Publication Date: 01/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: An explosion in product variety and available configurations affects virtually every facet of a company, from R&D through sales, but nowhere is the impact greater than on the supply chain. Complexity makes a supply chain inflexible and inefficient. Fortunately, companies manage supply chain complexity by using metrics that track complexity, controlling the number of product offerings and prioritizing them in terms of market strategy and customer requirements, and designing products to simplify planning, supply, manufacturing, and distribution. Managers who can educate others about these issues also raise the corporate profile of supply chain management. HBS Number: P0601B Subjects: Complexity; Metrics; Operations management; Problem solving; Process innovation; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Drive the Right Supply Chain Behaviors   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Fein, Adam J. Publication Date: 08/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: For supply chains to operate at their best, partners need incentives to perform their roles as efficiently as possible. This has not always been the case in the pharmaceutical industry, where drug distributors were long motivated to engage in behaviors that, at best, added no value to the supply chain and, at worst, ran counter to it. Today this is changing, to the benefit of an entire industry. Learn more about how the industry is switching to fee-for-service compensation. HBS Number: P0508E Industry Setting: Pharmaceutical industry Subjects: Industry structure; Operations management; Supply chain; Supply chain optimization Academic Discipline: Operations management    Driving the Supply Chain into Your Customer’s Business   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Deploying supply chains inside customer territory requires that companies venture beyond traditional commercial boundaries. In these relationships, delivering products efficiently and providing conventional customer services is only the first step. Companies must acquire an intimate knowledge of the buyer's business and find creative ways to improve that business to the mutual advantage of both buyer and seller. There are countless ways to project supply chains beyond business-as-usual transactions. And after an organization has opened the door, new opportunities emerge as relationships with trading partners become more innovative and amenable to change. HBS Number: P0509A Subjects: Creativity; Innovation; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Strategic alliances; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Dynamics of Process-Product Life Cycles   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Hayes, Robert H.; Wheelwright, Steven C. The process-product matrix can be used to explain company failures due to lack of coordination and focus on marketing and manufacturing functions. More importantly, however, it provides a framework for describing alternate business strategies. The matrix provides insight for planning product and process changes, coordinating marketing and manufacturing goals and functions, and avoiding internal problems brought about by evolving markets and technologies. HBS Number: 79201 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1979 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Product management    Dynamics of Samsung’s Technological Learning in Semiconductors   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Kim, Linsu Publication Date: 04/01/1997 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Samsung leapfrogged from a mere discrete device producer to the largest and most vibrant memory chip producer in the world. It managed effectively the two antecedents of technological learning: prior knowledge base and the intensity of efforts. Samsung used technology licensing and the recruitment of high caliber scientists and engineers in building its prior knowledge base and crisis construction as a strategic means for increasing the intensity of its efforts. Samsung also used internal competition to accelerate technological learning. HBS Number: CMR083 Subjects: International operations; Korea; Semiconductors; Technology Academic Discipline: Operations management    E-Enabled Closed-Loop Supply Chains   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Zuidwijk, Rob A.; van Nunen, Jo A.E.E. Publication Date: 02/01/2004 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Information and communication technology can help companies realize new, innovative business opportunities in the area of closed-loop supply chains. Examines closed-loop supply chains from three perspectives: processes, customers, and products. Exploiting the possibilities of closed-loop supply chains involves handling uncertainties by providing adequate information. Information on recovery options for a product, product preferences of the customer, and the state of the product can be used to reduce uncertainty. Data that is retrieved from the closed-loop supply chain by new technologies can be transformed into management information in a systematic way. Presents a framework to address uncertainty reduction strategies. HBS Number: CMR275 Subjects: Electronic commerce; Information technology; Innovation; Supply chain; Uncertainty Academic Discipline: Operations management    E-Hubs: The New B2B Marketplaces   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Kaplan, Steven; Sawhney, Mohanbir Electronic hubs--Internet-based intermediaries that host electronic marketplaces and mediate transactions among businesses--are generating a lot of interest. Companies like Ariba, Chemdex, and Commerce One have already attained breatht HBS Number: R00306 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Business to business; Purchasing; Sales strategy; Sourcing; Suppliers    E-Hubs: The New B2B Marketplaces (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Kaplan, Steven; Sawhney, Mohanbir HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, a HBS Number: 469X Type: HBR OnPoint Article Publication Date: 9/1/2000 Subjects: Business to business; Purchasing; Sales strategy; Sourcing; Suppliers    Emerging Theory of Manufacturing   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Drucker, Peter F. Four concepts--statistical quality control, the new manufacturing accounting, the "flotilla" organization of the manufacturing process, and systems design--are transforming manufacturing theory. This new theory sees the factory as little more than a wide place in the stream of producing value, rather than as a collection of machines isolated from the rest of the business. Manufacturing and business decisions are one and the same. Though these concepts represent different constituencies with different agendas, together they are reconciling classic conflicts of twentieth century mass production. HBS Number: 90303 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1990 Subjects: Manufacturing policy; Manufacturing strategy; Production processes; Quality control    Enabling Customization Using Standardized Operations   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Swaminathan, Jayashankar M. Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: This articles presents four standardization techniques--product, part, procurement, and process--that help mitigate the negative impact of product variety on a firm's operations. The ability of a firm to use these standardization approaches depends on the following: degree to which it can modularize its products and processes, what it is trying to achieve for its customers, and the costs associated with standardization. Presents a framework for thinking about these options and choosing among them. HBS Number: CMR203 Subjects: Customization; Operations management; Product design; Standardization Academic Discipline: Operations management    Enterprise Logistics in the Information Era   Add   View  25 pp.  Article Greis, Noel P.; Kasarda, John D. The emergence of the extended enterprise, a group of strategically aligned companies focused on new market opportunities, signals a fundamental change in the nature of competition, a rethinking of traditional supply chain relationships HBS Number: CMR088 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 7/1/1997 Subjects: Information technology; Innovation; Logistics; Suppliers; Supply chain Publisher: California Management Review    E-Procurement at Schlumberger   Add   View  4 pp.  Article DiamantBerger, AlainMichel; Ovans, Andrea The world's largest oil-service company has revolutionized the way it buys supplies: instead of a central purchasing office, its e-procurement system lets employees buy goods from their desktops. HBS Number: F00302 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/2000 Subjects: Automation; Internet; Interviews; Operations management; Petroleum industry; Purchasing    Everyday Problems of Global Sourcing, The   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Gary, Loren Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: When Hitachi High-Technologies expanded its sourcing program internationally, it discovered that the devil can indeed be in the details. Some issues that it has encountered, such as increased use of costly expedited freight services, can be fairly easily identified and analyzed. Other challenges are more difficult to pinpoint and resolve -- for instance, cultural differences among countries. Overcoming such glitches can take much effort and some creativity, but as Hitachi experience shows, managers who enter the international fray with a heightened awareness of the potential pitfalls have a decided advantage. HBS Number: P0510B Subjects: Competitive advantage; Cross cultural relations; Outsourcing; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Experience Trap   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Van Wassenhove, Luk N.; Sengupta, Kishore; Abdel-Ham, Tarek K. Publication Date: 02/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0802F Subjects: Management development; Organizational learning; Project management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: When companies put seasoned managers in charge of important projects, they don't expect missed deadlines, budget overruns, and rampant defects. However, that's what researchers found when they tested hundreds of experienced project managers with computer games that simulated software development projects. The study, conducted by two professors from Insead and one from Naval Postgraduate School, strongly suggests that veterans in complex environments suffer a breakdown in the learning process. The research reveals three reasons for the breakdowns: Time lags between causes and effects make it difficult to see how they're connected; fallible estimates color the chain of decisions that determine a project's outcome; and a bias toward the initial goals prevents managers from setting revised, more appropriate, targets when project circumstances change. Sticking to an initial low budget goal after a project grew in scope, for instance, led subjects to ignore quality assurance, which led to soaring defect rates — and costs. Companies can take practical steps to fix the learning cycle. They can provide feedback that shows the relationships between important variables in the environment. Such feedback might reveal, say, the 20-day ramp-up that a new quality assurance team needs before becoming fully effective. Tools that apply formal models to calculate such things as the effect of turnover on team productivity also help. Setting goals for behavior, instead of targets for performance, is critical as well. Finally, firms can create project “flight simulators” that mimic actual learning e    Fallacy of the Overhead Quick Fix   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Blaxill, Mark F.; Hout, Thomas M. Many large manufacturing companies are finding themselves at a cost disadvantage in markets they have dominated for years. This is because of excessive overhead structures and the emergence of the "robust" competitor, comparable in size and product scope but able to produce at a lower unit overhead cost. High-overhead companies should not cut overhead by outsourcing or downsizing. If they expect to retain their size and also become more cost competitive, they must rethink their manufacturing systems. HBS Number: 91403 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1991 Subjects: Competition; Cost control; Manufacturing strategy; Production controls; Production processes    Fast, Global, and Entrepreneurial: Supply Chain Management, Hong Kong Style: An   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Fung, Victor; Magretta, Joan In this interview, Li & Fung Chairman Victor Fung explains both the philosophy behind supply-chain management and the specific practices that Li & Fung has developed to reduce costs and lead times, allowing its customers to buy "closer HBS Number: 98507 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1998 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Family owned businesses; Globalization; International operations; Interviews; Multinational corporations; Sourcing; Southeast Asia; Suppliers; Supply chain

Fast/Global/Entrepreneurial: Supply Chain Management (HBR OnPoint Enhanced)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Fung, Victor; Magretta, Joan Publication Date: 10/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 2020 Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Family owned businesses; Globalization; International operations; Interviews; Multinational corporations; Sourcing; Southeast Asia; Suppliers; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 98507, originally published in September/October 1998. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article, plus a synopsis and annotated bibliography. In this interview, Li & Fung Chairman Victor Fung explains both the philosophy behind supply-chain management and the specific practices that Li & Fung has developed to reduce costs and lead times, allowing its customers to buy “closer to the market.” Li & Fung, Hong Kong's largest export trading company, has been an innovator in supply-chain management — a topic of increasing importance to many senior executives. Li & Fung has also been a pioneer in “dispersed manufacturing.” It performs the higher-value-added tasks such as design and quality control in Hong Kong, and outsources the lower-value-added tasks to the best possible locations around the world. The result is something new: a truly global product. To produce a garment, for example, the company might purchase yarn from Korea that will be woven and dyed in Taiwan, then shipped to Thailand for final assembly, where it will be matched with zippers from a Japanese company. For every order, the goal is to customize the value chain to meet the customer's specific needs. To be run effectively, Victor Fung maintains, trading companies have to be small and entrepreneurial. He describes the organizational approaches that keep the company that way despite its growing size and geographic scope: its organization around small, customer-focused units; its incentives a    Fast-Cycle Benchmarking   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Publication Date: 04/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: The once lengthy and cumbersome process of benchmarking is undergoing a kind of metamorphosis and is emerging as a fast, flexible tool useful to any company looking for a leap on the learning curve. This new version of benchmarking often provides the powerful insight that allows companies to transform the way they operate. Unlike formal, recipe-driven benchmarking projects, which typically take six to nine months, are costly, and often result in a report that is presented to senior management and then filed away, the new benchmarking is less elaborate and more tactical. Companies identify specific operational problems or opportunities. They seek out a range of other organizations they think they may be able to learn from. The focus is not on copying the practices of other companies, but on generating creative ideas for their own operations. For example, Graniterock Co., a manufacturer of construction and road-building materials that was having trouble making on-time deliveries of concrete to work sites, studied Dominos' pizza delivery practices. The result was an increase to 95% on-time delivery within two years. Like all powerful tools, however, benchmarking is frequently misused, resulting in high hopes and meager results. This article presents six key tips on how to help your company or unit approach benchmarking. Includes an annotated section on benchmarking resources and a sidebar on the benchmarking practices of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Army. HBS Number: U9904A Subjects: Benchmarks; Operations management; Operations research; Process analysis Academic Discipline: Operations management    Faster Innovation?: Try Rapid Prototyping (Guest Column)   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Schrage, Michael Publication Date: 12/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Rapid prototyping--quickly turning ideas or insights into tangible models--helps companies move from the abstract to the concrete faster. And it's not just because design errors and opportunities are revealed sooner--it's because of the increased human interactions among developers themselves and between developers and customers and suppliers. Michael Schrage, a research associate at the MIT Media Lab and author of the recently published Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Stimulate to Innovate, identifies three best practices for getting the most out of rapid prototyping. HBS Number: U9912D Subjects: Innovation; Product development; Prototypes Academic Discipline: Operations management    Fixing Health Care from the Inside, Today   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Author(s): Spear, Steven J. Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0509D Geographic Setting: United States Industry Setting: Health care industry; Hospital industry Subjects: Change management; Corporate culture; Health organizations management; McKinsey Award winners; Operations management; Problem solving; Process innovation; Quality management; Risk; Safety; Toyota production system Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Today, you are about as safe in a U.S. hospital as you would be parachuting off a bridge or a building. But it doesn't have to be that way. Right now, some hospitals are making enormous short-term improvements, with no legislation or market reconfiguration and little or no capital investment. Instead of waiting for sweeping changes in market mechanisms, these institutions are taking an operations approach to patient care. In case after detailed case, this article describes how doctors, nurses, technicians, and managers are radically increasing the effectiveness of patient care and dramatically lowering its cost by applying the same capabilities in operations design and improvement that drive the famous Toyota Production System. They are removing ambiguity in the output, responsibilities, connections, and methods of their work processes. These changes — which can be done in the course of an ordinary workday, sometimes in a matter of hours — are designed to make the following crystal clear: Which patient gets which procedure (output)? Who does which aspect of the job (responsibility)? Exactly which signals are used to indicate that the work should begin (connection)? And, precisely how is each step carried out (method)? Equally important, managers are being transformed from rescuers who arrive with ready-made solutions into problem solvers who help colleagues learn the experime    Fixing Health Care from the Inside, Today (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  24 pp.  Article Author(s): Spear, Steven J. Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 1738 Industry Setting: Health care industry; Hospital industry Subjects: Change management; Corporate culture; Health organizations management; Operations management; Problem solving; Process innovation; Toyota production system Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Today, you are about as safe in a U.S. hospital as you would be parachuting off a bridge or a building. But it doesn't have to be that way. Right now, some hospitals are making enormous short-term improvements, with no legislation or market reconfiguration and little or no capital investment. Instead of waiting for sweeping changes in market mechanisms, these institutions are taking an operations approach to patient care. In case after detailed case, this article describes how doctors, nurses, technicians, and managers are radically increasing the effectiveness of patient care and dramatically lowering its cost by applying the same capabilities in operations design and improvement that drive the famous Toyota Production System. They are removing ambiguity in the output, responsibilities, connections, and methods of their work processes. These changes — which can be done in the course of an ordinary workday, sometimes in a matter of hours — are designed to make the following crystal clear: Which patient gets which procedure (output)? Who does which aspect of the job (responsibility)? Exactly which signals are used to indicate that the work should begin (connection)? And precisely how is each step carried out (method)? Equally important, managers are being transformed from rescuers who arrive with ready-made solutions into problem solvers who help colleagues learn the experimental method. Thus, these hospitals are breaking free of the work-around culture that routinely obscures the root c    Fledgling Firms Offer Hope on Health Costs   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Adler-Milstein, Julia; Jha, Ashish Publication Date: 03/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0803H Industry Setting: Health services Subjects: Business to business; Computer networks; Data management; Information systems Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Regional health information organizations — RHIOs — are springing up in the United States to meet a vital need: to connect the nation's disparate patient-health information systems. If RHIOs can find a viable business model, they stand to improve the quality and decrease the cost of U.S. health care dramatically.    Focused Factory   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Skinner, C. Wickham U.S. business considers the "productivity crisis" a competition problem. One solution to the problem is the use of the "focused" factory system to increase productivity. This type of plant concentrates on performing a couple of manufacturing tasks extremely well. Overhead costs are lower and quality higher than in the typical factory. Current high factory costs are a result of "professionalism" in the plant and product proliferation. A manufacturing focus can be achieved through explicitly outlining corporate strategy, translating this strategy into manufacturing functions, examining the product system carefully, and reorganizing the system to produce a "congruent" focus. HBS Number: 74308 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1974 Subjects: Manufacturing; Productivity    Four Faces of Mass Customization   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Gilmore, James; Pine, B. Joseph, II Virtually all executives today recognize the need to provide outstanding service to customers. Focusing on the customer, however, is both an imperative and a potential curse. Companies around the world have embraced mass customization in an attempt to avoid pitfalls. But many managers have discovered that mass customization itself can produce unnecessary cost and complexity. They are realizing that they did not examine thoroughly enough what kind of customization their customers would value before they plunged ahead. In this article, the authors provide a framework to help managers determine the type of customization they should pursue. HBS Number: 97103 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1997 Subjects: Customer service; Marketing strategy; Operations management; Organizational design; Organizational structure; Product design; Service management    Four Habits of Highly Effective Supply Chains   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Author(s): Lapide, Larry Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: As master practitioners such as Dell and Wal-Mart have so ably demonstrated, supply chain excellence is a powerful competitive weapon. But trying to replicate a Dell or a Wal-Mart will probably consign a company to oblivion: The supply chains that propelled these icons to market supremacy specifically serve their strategic goals and no others. Instead of focusing on how the Dells and Wal-Marts of the world are using their own supply chains to dominate the competition, companies should instead be looking at what all top-performing supply chains have in common at a more basic level. By stripping away the details and developing an understanding of the traits that underscore high-functioning supply chains, companies will be well on their way to building their own models for supply chain excellence. HBS Number: P0505A Subjects: Business conditions; Competitive advantage; Process analysis; Strategic planning; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Four Steps to BSC Software Selection   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Palazzolo, Christopher; Smack, Kent Publication Date: 11/15/2002 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: With the proliferation of Balanced Scorecard software applications--and notable advances in their functionality--selecting the right software solution requires planning, resources, and most important, an adequate time line. Two BSC consultants--experienced in helping BSC users choose BSC software--offer their proven four-step selection framework, along with practical, timesaving tips. HBS Number: B0211F Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Corporate strategy; Decision making; Product differentiation; Software; Strategic planning Academic Discipline: Operations management    Four Steps to Making RFID Work for You   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Clarke, Robert H.; Tazelaar, Jeff; Twede, Diana; Boyer, Kenneth K. Publication Date: 02/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags, everyone knows, can dramatically improve supply chain efficiency and increase profitability. But too many companies are implementing the technology only because it is the current thing to do — not because they have mapped out compelling commercial reasons for using it. And they won't reap the benefits without a sound approach to implementing or using the technology. The authors outline four steps for successfully using RFID to achieve fundamental supply chain improvements. HBS Number: P0602D Subjects: Operations management; Process innovation; Profitability; Radio frequency identification; Supply chain; Supply chain optimization; Technology & operations Academic Discipline: Operations management    Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Frei, Frances X. Publication Date: 04/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0804D Subjects: Customer relationship management; Customer service Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Many of the management tools and techniques used in service businesses were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies. Although they are valuable to service managers, they aren't sufficient for success. In this article, Harvard Business School's Frei explains why and urges companies to add some new ones to the mix. After years of extensive research and analysis, she offers an approach for crafting a profitable service business based on four critical elements: the design of the offering, employee management, customer management, and the funding mechanism. Just like a product that's going to market, a service needs to be compellingly designed, and management must field a workforce capable of producing it at an attractive price. Additionally, however, service firms must manage their customers, who do not simply use the service but also can be integral to its production: Because customers' involvement as producers can wreak havoc on costs, companies must also develop creative ways to fund their distinctive offerings, by providing a self-service alternative, for example, or by offsetting expenses with operational savings. A close look at successful service businesses — Wal-Mart, Commerce Bank, the Cleveland Clinic, and others — reveals that effective integration of the four elements is key. There is no “right” way to combine them; the appropriate design of one depends upon the other three. If managers don't get all four pulling together, they risk pulling the enterprise apart. Incumbents can fend off attacks from highly focused upstarts by becoming multifocused — that is, by pursuing multiple niches through optimized    Framework for Analyzing Environmental Voluntary Agreements   Add   View  21 pp.  Article Author(s): Delmas, Magali A.; Terlaak, Ann K. Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: In the 1990s, Environmental Voluntary Agreements (VAs) involving regulatory agencies and industry have emerged as the promise of the future in environmental policy circles. The collaborative mechanisms of VAs can be conducive to the development of innovative solutions, which regulators or firms would have been unlikely to develop alone. From a business perspective, participation in VAs can reduce the burden of regulation, facilitate the communication of environmental improvements, and allow firms to be ahead of competition for environmental products. However, the benefits of participating in VAs can be outweighed by high transaction and administration costs if VAs are not properly designed. This article discusses when participation in a VA offers strategic opportunities and when joining a VA might turn into a costly enterprise. HBS Number: CMR199 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Environmental protection; Environmental regulations; Regulation Academic Discipline: Operations management    Framework for Risk Management   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Michelman, Paul Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: The lessons are legion: Manage risk as an ongoing part of your business and you win. Give it short shrift and you lose. Nowhere is a lack of preparedness more worrisome than in a company's supply chain, where a mismanaged approach to risk could spell catastrophe. The most effective approaches to risk don't simply prepare a company to recover quickly from unexpected disaster, they encompass the everyday unexpected -- the blips in market conditions, the hiccups from suppliers -- in one cohesive risk management strategy. With this in mind, Hau Lee, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has developed a six-step framework for evaluating and managing risks that can affect the supply chain. Both supply chain leaders and other senior executives would be wise to see how their risk management strategies address each of Lee's areas of focus. Does your organization have a robust and ready approach for each of these elements? HBS Number: P0505D Subjects: Risk assessment; Risk management; Strategic planning; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    From Garbage to Goods: Successful Remanufacturing Systems and Skills   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Ferrer, Geraldo; Whybark, D. Clay Publication Date: 11/15/2000 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Mastering the art of recovering and rebuilding products from the world's waste stream is a big step toward achieving sustainable development. Drivers of remanufacturing include not only legislation but also the prolonged economic life of equipment and strategic opportunities. Key issues in the reverse logistics of remanufacturing include transportation and storage, handling and packaging, sorting, and disassembly. Understanding disassembly involves capabilities for inspection and sorting, knowing what to disassemble, feedback to designers, inventory control, and scheduling. Finally, there is the matter of reassembly. When remanufactured products are completed, they must be introduced back into consumer channels and forward logistics. Also of importance are the development of market awareness and appreciation; here, issues of target markets, pricing, and warranties must be addressed. Successful remanufacturing requires the development of skills that currently are not a major part of the manufacturing portfolio. Development of skills in reverse logistics will move us closer to the ideal of sustainable development. HBS Number: BH056 Subjects: Logistics; Operations management; Product design; Product development; Production planning Academic Discipline: Operations management    Frugal Manufacturing   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Schonberger, Richard J. American manufacturers have long sought to lower costs by increasing the scale of production--using faster lines to feed bigger machines. But bigger is not necessarily better. A better approach to competitive manufacturing is to think frugally. Approach mass production with highly focused minifactories--factories within factories--where machines are small, easily moved, highly dedicated, and organized according to the flow of work. The result will be high-quality, low-priced products, which most consumers value over variety. It will also allow quick changeover to the production of new and market-sensitive goods, which is important given shrinking product life cycles. HBS Number: 87512 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1987 Subjects: Manufacturing; Manufacturing strategy    Future Space: A New Blueprint for Business Architecture   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Huang, Jeffrey Publication Date: 04/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0104L Subjects: Architectural services; Design management; Electronic commerce; Information technology; Internet; Retail stores; Virtual communities Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Although the Internet is an essential conduit for many business activities, it isn't rendering the physical world any less important, as the failures of many Web merchants demonstrate. People need social and sensual contact. The companies that succeed will be those best able to integrate the physical and the virtual. But that requires a new kind of business architecture — a new approach to designing stores, offices, factories, and other spaces where business is conducted. The author, a faculty member at Harvard Graduate School of Design, provides practical guidelines to help managers and entrepreneurs think creatively about the structures in which their businesses operate. He outlines four challenges facing designers of such “convergent” structures, so-called because they function in both physical and virtual space: matching form to function, allowing visitors to visualize the presence of others, personalizing spaces, and choreographing connectivity. Using numerous examples, from a fashion retailer that wants to sell in stores as well as through a Web site to a radically new kind of consulate, the author shows how businesses can meet each challenge. For instance, allowing customers to visualize the presence of others means that visitors to a Web site should be given a sense of other site visitors. Personalizing physical and virtual spaces involves using databases to enable those spaces to adapt quickly to user preferences. The success of companies attempting to merge on-line and traditional operations will depend on many factors. But without a well-designed co    Get Leverage from Logistics   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Shapiro, Roy D. Competition in the industrial marketplace is growing steadily more intense. Consequently, managers are beginning to take a close look at the logistics systems of their companies as a means of gaining competitive advantage. A well-designed system can help advance a company's strategic goals - and a poorly designed system can lead a company to disaster. HBS Number: 84313 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1984 Subjects: Inventory management; Logistics; Materials management    Getting Control of Just-in-Time   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Karmarkar, Uday Many proponents of just-in-time manufacturing see MRP II systems as a thing of the past, believing that true JIT leaves control of production to computerless systems such as kanban. Many MRP II advocates fear that computer automation is under attack and perceive kanban as a replay of older systems. Advanced manufacturing companies do best with hybrid systems, both kanban and MRP. Managers must ask basic questions of manufacturing strategy to get the best mix. HBS Number: 89505 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1989 Subjects: Inventory management; Manufacturing policy; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning    Getting IT Right   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Feld, Charlie S.; Stoddard, Donna B. Publication Date: 02/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Modern information technology started four decades ago, yet in most major corporations, IT remains an expensive mess. This is partly because the relatively young and rapidly evolving practice of IT continues to be either grossly misunderstood or blindly ignored by top management. In this article, the authors say a systematic approach to understanding and executing IT can and should be implemented, and it should be organized along three interconnected principles: First, Long-Term IT Renewal Plan Linked to Corporate Strategy. Such a plan focuses the entire IT group on the company's overarching goals during a multiyear period, makes appropriate investments directed toward cutting costs in the near term, and generates a detailed blueprint for long-term systems rejuvenation and value creation. Second, Simplified, Unifying Corporate Technology Platform. Instead of relying on vertically oriented data silos that serve individual corporate units (HR, accounting, and so on), companies adopt a clean, horizontally oriented architecture designed to serve the whole organization. Third, Highly Functional, Performance-Oriented IT Organization. Instead of functioning as if it were different from the rest of the firm or as a loose confederation of tribes, the IT department works as a team and operates according to corporate performance standards. HBS Number: R0402E Subjects: Competitive advantage; Cost analysis; Information technology; Return on investment; Strategic planning; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Operations management    Getting IT Right (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Feld, Charlie S.; Stoddard, Donna B. Publication Date: 02/01/2004 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 5905 Subjects: Competitive advantage; Cost analysis; Information technology; Return on investment; Strategic planning; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0402E, originally published in February 2004. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Modern information technology started four decades ago, yet in most major corporations, IT remains an expensive mess. This is partly because the relatively young and rapidly evolving practice of IT continues to be either grossly misunderstood or blindly ignored by top management. In this article, the authors say a systematic approach to understanding and executing IT can and should be implemented, and it should be organized along three interconnected principles: First, Long-Term IT Renewal Plan Linked to Corporate Strategy. Such a plan focuses the entire IT group on the company's overarching goals during a multiyear period, makes appropriate investments directed toward cutting costs in the near term, and generates a detailed blueprint for long-term systems rejuvenation and value creation. Second, Simplified, Unifying Corporate Technology Platform. Instead of relying on vertically oriented data silos that serve individual corporate units (HR, accounting, and so on), companies adopt a clean, horizontally oriented architecture designed to serve the whole organization. Third, Highly Functional, Performance-Oriented IT Organization. Instead of functioning as if it were different from the rest of the firm or as a loose confederation of tribes, the IT department works as a team and operates according to corporate performance standards.    Getting It Right the Second Time (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Szulanski, Gabriel; Winter, Sidney Publication Date: 03/01/2002 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of the HBR reprint R0201E, originally published in January 2002. HBR OnPoint Articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. Once a business performs a complex activity well, the parent organization often wants to replicate that success. But doing that is surprisingly difficult, and businesses nearly always fail when they try to reproduce a best practice. The reason? People approaching best-practice replication are overly optimistic and overconfident. Getting it right the second time (and all the times after that) involves adjusting for overconfidence in your own abilities and imposing strict discipline on the process and the organization. The authors studied numerous business settings to find out how organizational routines were successfully reproduced, and they identified five steps for successful replication. First, make sure you've got something that can be copied and that's worth copying. Second, work from a single template. Third, copy the example exactly, and fourth, make changes only after you achieve acceptable results. Fifth, don't throw away the template. If your copy doesn't work, you can use the template to identify and solve problems. HBS Number: 9357 Subjects: Knowledge management; Knowledge transfer; Learning; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Getting Unusual Suspects to Solve R&D Puzzles   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Lahkani, Karim R.; Jeppesen, Lars Bo Publication Date: 05/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0705H Subjects: Problem solving; R&D Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Your problem solvers could not only be out in the wider world, but also in the wide reaches of your own organization.    Going, Going, Gone   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Jap, Sandy Publication Date: 11/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Reverse auctions certainly look like a good deal for buyers. Who wouldn't want hoards of suppliers bidding one another's prices down? But a new study reveals important downsides that should make buyers beware. HBS Number: F00606 Subjects: Auctions; Bids; Business to business; Internet; New economy; Purchasing; Sourcing; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Operations management    Graphic Indicators of Operations   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Janson, Robert L. Although financial statistics for a company are readily available, measurements of manufacturing operations are scarce and often vague. A monitoring system called Key Indicator Management (KIM) graphs the measure of a specific indicator on a monthly basis and compares it to a target. A realistic determination of standards and targets is necessary for proper implementation. KIM provides managers with the information to assess strengths and weaknesses and encourages better control of operating functions. HBS Number: 80605 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1980 Subjects: Information systems; Operating systems; Production planning; Productivity; Statistical analysis    Group Technology and Productivity   Add   View  11 pp.  Article Hyer, Nancy L.; Wemmerlov, Urban Group technology (GT), the concept of exploiting similarities in recurring tasks and grouping like problems, is drawing increasing interest from manufacturers because of its ability to boost productivity in three ways: 1) by performing similar activities together, thereby cutting setup time; 2) by standardizing closely related activities, thereby eliminating unnecessary proliferation of similar parts; and 3) by storing and making accessible information related to recurring problems, thereby cutting time spent searching for information or solving problems. HBS Number: 84404 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1984 Subjects: Logistics; Manufacturing strategy; Production processes; Productivity; Technology    Growing Strategic Importance of End-of-Life Product Management   Add   View  30 pp.  Article Author(s): Toffel, Michael W. Publication Date: 04/01/2003 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Requiring manufacturers to manage their products when they become waste is an innovative form of regulation, one that countries in Asia, Europe, and North America have adopted on a variety of products, ranging from vehicles to appliances to batteries. However, even in many unregulated industries, some manufacturers are voluntarily assuming more responsibility for their end-of-life products, driven by customer demand and cost efficiencies. Explores various forms of take-back regulation and highlights some of the key features of the institutions that emerge in response. Also presents seven strategic product recovery alternatives and discusses some factors managers should consider in developing a take-back strategy. HBS Number: CMR256 Subjects: Environmental regulations; Product life cycle; Product management; Recycling; Regulation Academic Discipline: Operations management    Hidden Factory   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Miller, Jeffrey G.; Vollmann, Thomas E. To reduce high manufacturing overhead, companies should look beyond their direct labor and materials costs to the costs of transactions. These transactions are the exchanges of materials and/or information that are necessary to move production along. They do not directly result in physical products but instead in a kind of "augmented product" that the customer buys--on-time delivery, quality, variety, and design improvement. Three approaches to managing the costs of these transactions are to analyze which transactions are necessary and improve the methods of carrying them out, to increase the stability of operations, and to rely on automation and systems integration. HBS Number: 85510 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1985 Subjects: Cost accounting; Manufacturing policy; Production controls    Hidden Risk in Cutting Retail Payroll   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Ton, Zeynep Publication Date: 03/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0803E Industry Setting: Retail industry; Wholesale Subjects: Downsizing; Risk analysis Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: When retailers' sales slip, the biggest opportunity to boost profits comes from improving execution. To do that, research shows, managers may actually need to increase staff.    High-Tech Ways to Keep Cupboards Full   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): McGoldrick, Peter J.; Barton, Peter M. Publication Date: 03/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0703B Subjects: Inventory management; Product management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Makers of nondurable goods should focus on keeping customers' — not just retailers' — shelves fully stocked.    Holding Up the Mirror: The Impact of Strategic Procurement Practices on Account Management   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Ryals, Lynette J.; Rogers, Beth Publication Date: 01/15/2006 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Procurement has grown up. It is now a strategic business function that increasingly recognizes the importance of strategic supplier relationships, a reflection of key account management. Assesses the impact of this shift on the profession and practice of account management. Examines customer adoption of strategic procurement and discusses the implications for account managers at the suppliers serving these customers. New techniques are emerging in these special relationships, including the use of psychological contracts and co-measurement and monitoring. Perceived fairness will also have a major impact on the customer's view of their suppliers. Account managers must recognize these changes or fall victim to supplier delusion: the belief that they are performing better than they really are. HBS Number: BH183 Subjects: Accounting; Purchasing; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    How Chrysler Created an American Keiretsu   Added   View  12 pp.  Article Dyer, Jeffrey H. Many U.S. managers want to enlist their suppliers in their efforts to develop products faster and to reduce manufacturing costs. But they have wondered whether they can have the sort of mutually supportive relationship that characterizes manufacturers and suppliers in a Japanese keiretsu. Chrysler Corp. shows that the model can indeed be adapted successfully. Chrysler's relationship with its suppliers used to be one of mutual distrust and suspicion. At the end of the 1980s, however, dire financial straits convinced the company that it had to rethink its supplier relations. The resulting new model has played a major role in Chrysler's stunning revival. HBS Number: 96403 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1996 Subjects: Automobiles; Competitive bidding; Manufacturing; Manufacturing strategy; Purchasing; Sourcing; Suppliers    How Northern Telecom Competes on Time   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Merrills, Roy A few years ago, Northern Telecom, Inc. (NTI) set up a council of division heads and headquarters managers to devise a manufacturing plan for the 1990s. It began by listing things NTI had to do--surprisingly, all items had to do with meeting customer needs faster. New pay incentives, profit-and-loss statements, and training sessions supported the new direction. NTI's experience shows that time-based strategy is achievable and rewarding; the receiving cycle is shorter, inventories and defects are down, and customer satisfaction is fast approaching the 1990 goal. HBS Number: 89409 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1989 Subjects: Communications industry; Competition; Corporate strategy; Manufacturing strategy    How Should You Organize Manufacturing?   Add   View  15 pp.  Article Hayes, Robert H.; Schmenner, Roger W. The structure and management of manufacturing should reinforce corporate priorities. The company's "manufacturing mission" is to help the company do what it wants to without wasting resources in lesser efforts. Any shift in corporate strategy usually requires changes in both the infrastructure and facilities of manufacturing. Approaches to the design of an appropriate manufacturing system range from a "product-focused" to a "process-focused" organization. While simplicity of organizational design is important, both can be allowed to operate in the same company if the operations are separated to avoid cross purposes. The proper choice between these organizational types smoothes a company's growth by lending stability to its operations. HBS Number: 78106 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1978 Subjects: Manufacturing; Manufacturing strategy    How Soft Metrics Can Make Hard Choices Easier   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken; Gary, Loren Publication Date: 01/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Companies seeking to wring ever more competitive advantage from supply chain partnerships often overlook the role creativity, trustworthiness, and flexibility play in the process. But these difficult-to-quantify ``soft'' characteristics make the difference between extraordinary and substandard performance from your manufacturing facilities, suppliers, and partners. This article offers questions to ask and a template for assigning values to these elusive qualities so that you can use them to enhance your supply chain relationships. HBS Number: P0601C Subjects: Creativity; Decision analysis; Flexibility; Metrics; Performance measurement; Strategic alliances; Suppliers; Supply chain; Trust Academic Discipline: Operations management    How Supply Chains Drive M&A Success   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Herd, Tom; Saksensa, Arun K.; Steger, Terry W. Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: After a lull of several years, the mergers and acquisitions market is heating up. Yet, historically, M&A deals have often fallen short of expectations. M&A investors are frequently shortchanged for various reasons, but one of the most critical is that companies involved neglect the important role that supply chains can play in allowing deals to bear the ripest fruit. Learn the actions that merging companies need to take -- in establishing supply chain leadership, identifying goals, developing implementation plans, and measuring success -- to squeeze more value from their merging supply chains and, so, quickly achieve more robust overall benefits. HBS Number: P0510D Subjects: Mergers; Mergers & Acquisitions; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    How to Measure Yourself Against the Best   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Tucker, Frances Gaither; Zivan, Seymour M.; Camp, Robert C. The Logistics and Distribution unit of Xerox's Business Systems Group was gaining 3% to 5% a year in productivity - not good enough in light of industrywide price cuts in business machines. One solution, benchmarking, measures L&D's warehouse and distribution performance against comparable activities in other industries. After a search, L&D found the best warehousing and materials handling organization was at L.L. Bean. By looking closely at the operation of Bean and other noncompetitors, L&D has raised its productivity 10% each year and gained a better position against its real competition. HBS Number: 87112 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1987 Subjects: Logistics; Operations management; Productivity; Warehousing    How to Reengineer Your Unit   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Publication Date: 05/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Forget reengineering's bad press--when technology and markets are changing as fast as they are today, you can't afford to keep doing things in the same old way. Reengineering used to involve major companywide initiatives. Now it's more common to see reengineering efforts in a single department or business unit. This article offers a seven-step process to get started on improving processes in your unit. HBS Number: U0005A Subjects: Organizational design; Reengineering; Strategic planning Academic Discipline: Operations management    How Velcro Got Hooked on Quality   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Krantz, K. Theodore Velcro USA received a complaint from a customer that it was inspecting quality into its products rather than manufacturing it in. Velcro was given 90 days to start putting its house in order. The company installed statistical process control for data feedback, drew up a quality manual, put its employees through a quality course, and set up a management steering committee. In the first year of the program, Velcro reduced waste by 50%; in the second year, by 45%. HBS Number: 89508 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1989 Subjects: Employee training; Manufacturing policy; Production planning; Production processes; Quality control; Statistical analysis    Human Costs of Manufacturing Reforms   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Klein, Janice A. Just-in-time and statistical process control increase the production responsibility of workers and work teams. But this does not mean greater autonomy for workers. Because they emphasize predetermined methods of analysis and cooperation, JIT and SPC can turn workers into extensions of a system no less demanding than an assembly line and limit opportunities for initiative. HBS Number: 89209 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1989 Subjects: Inventory management; Job satisfaction; Production planning; Working conditions    Implementing Reverse E-Auctions: A Learning Process   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Author(s): Hur, Daesik; Hartley, Janet L.; Mabert, Vincent A. Publication Date: 01/15/2006 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Reverse e-auctions, which enable suppliers to compete online in real time, are changing the way organizations select their suppliers. Explores how five large firms in different industries learned to use e-auctions and how e-auctions were integrated into their purchasing processes. To implement e-auctions successfully, organizations should: build e-auction competencies; organize for knowledge management; create a holistic sourcing process; focus on the total cost of ownership; and experiment with e-auction designs. Draws key observations from the case studies and presents implications for supply managers. HBS Number: BH181 Subjects: Auctions; Bids; Organizational learning; Purchasing; Sourcing; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Operations management    Improve Your Return on Returns   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): O'Connell, Andrew Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0711F Subjects: Finished goods; Inventory management; Logistics; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: A “reverse logistics” value chain strategy — what you do with goods your customers send back — can strengthen your company's competitiveness according to the authors of a recent article in the “Academy of Management Perspectives.” Estee Lauder built a $250-million product line from returned cosmetics.    Innovation at the Speed of Information   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Eppinger, Steven D. Publication Date: 01/01/2001 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Conventional project-management tools--PERT charts and Gantt charts, for example--were created to help manage sequences of discrete tasks that make up large construction projects. Yet these tools don't capture clearly the back-and-forth of information that takes place in innovative processes, such as product development. Conventional tools are designed to answer the question, "What other tasks must be completed before I begin this one?" But product development planners, especially in high-tech businesses, need tools that answer a very different question: "What information do I need from other tasks before I can complete this one?" The author describes the Design Structure Matrix (DSM), a project management tool that focuses on representing the information flows of a project rather than its work flows. He explains how the DSM works and how to use it to make development processes more efficient. A project DSM can show which information exchanges involve design iteration and how well a process anticipates the need for rework. In addition, the author suggests four ways to improve a company's information flows: rearranging the sequence of tasks, reconsidering the organization of tasks, reducing the number of information exchanges, and managing unplannable work. By stripping away the mystery around information exchange during innovation, the DSM can give managers far more control over their most risky and expensive projects. HBS Number: R0101L Subjects: Innovation; Operations management; Organizational design; Process innovation; Product design; Product development Academic Discipline: Operations management    Internet Economy?: No More Golf (Guest Column)   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Rohall, Douglas D. Publication Date: 04/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Douglas D. Rohall, a director of the Monitor Group, discusses how the abolition of human intermediaries-sales people, call center staff, brokers--will change your business, and how firms once again need to reinvent themselves. HBS Number: U0004C Subjects: Contracts; Outsourcing Academic Discipline: Operations management    Inventory-Driven Costs   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Callioni, Gianpaolo; de Montgros, Xavier; Slagmulder, Regine; Van Wassenhove, Luk N.; Wright, Linda Publication Date: 03/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: In the 1990s, Hewlett-Packard's PC business was struggling to turn a dollar, despite the company's success in winning market share. By 1997, margins on its PCs were thin, and some product lines had not turned a profit since 1993. The problem had to do with the PC industry's notoriously short product cycles and brutal product and component price deflation. A common rule of thumb was that the value of a fully assembled PC decreased 1% a week. In such an environment, inventory costs become critical. But the standard ``holding cost of inventory'' accounted for only about 10% of HP's inventory costs. The greater risks, it turned out, resided in four other, essentially hidden costs, which all stemmed from mismatches between demand and supply leading to excess inventory: component devaluation costs for components still held in production; price protection costs incurred when product prices drop on goods distributors still have on their shelves; product return costs that have to be absorbed when distributors return and receive refunds on overstock items; and obsolescence costs for products still unsold when new models are introduced. By developing metrics to track those costs in a consistent way throughout the PC division, HP has found it can manage its supply chains with much more sophistication. Now, each product group chooses the supply chain configuration that best suits its needs. HBS Number: R0503J Subjects: Inventory management; Operations management; Supply & demand; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Involving Suppliers in New Product Development   Add   View  25 pp.  Article Author(s): Handfield, Robert B.; Ragatz, Gary L.; Peterson, Kenneth; Monczka, Robert M. Publication Date: 10/01/1999 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Organizations have been quick to realize that involving suppliers in new product/process/service development efforts has the potential for significant results. Numerous studies have shown that supplier participation in product development projects can help reduce cost, reduce concept-to-customer development time, improve quality, and provide innovative technologies that can help capture market share. However, not all efforts are successful. Supplier integration is most successful when driven by a formalized process that considers supplier capabilities, level of complexity of the technology, and degree of risk. Leading companies conduct a formal in-depth supplier evaluation and risk assessment prior to supplier involvement on the project team. HBS Number: CMR161 Subjects: Product development; Risk assessment; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Operations management    Is Boeing’s 787 the New Camry?   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Cizmeci, Daglar Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Toyota's lean supply chain has become synonymous with efficient manufacturing. Aircraft builders now need to streamline their supply chains, which are laden with excessive costs and long lead times. Is it too far-fetched to imagine partially built Boeing 747s moving serenely down a Toyota-like assembly line? No, given that the market forces that helped shape Toyota's industry-leading supply chain are now driving similar changes in aircraft manufacturing. HBS Number: P0509E Industry Setting: Aircraft industry Subjects: Manufacturing; Operations management; Supply chain; Toyota production system Academic Discipline: Operations management    Is Outsourcing After-Sales Services Threatening Your Brand?   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 10/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article HBS Number: U0710E Subjects: Brand management; Outsourcing; Risk management; Sales management; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Outsourcing after-sales services — from product repair, transportation, and warehousing to call center support and returns processing — has helped many companies slash costs and sharpen their focus on core competencies. But, as too many firms have discovered, it can also backfire loudly and put reputations at risk if executives mismanage the process. Yet despite the apparent risks, managers in a widening range of industries are exploring after-sales outsourcing. So how do you leverage the advantages of outsourcing post-sales services for both your company and customers while avoiding the pitfalls? This article provides valuable advice for what you should do before spinning off repairs, parts distribution, or customer call centers.    It Takes a Village to Run a Supply Chain   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 11/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Distributed decision making -- where decisions that affect the company are being made by more and more different people within the organization -- is increasingly common. When a company adopts distributed decision making, the supply chain itself becomes more open, less formal and rigid, and more responsive to influences from across the firm. The challenge for supply chain managers is to facilitate access to the supply chain while continuing to maintain effective control over it. But supply chain executives are also likely to gain a great deal more influence and will eventually evolve into coordinators for the involvement of sales and marketing people and others in the supply chain. The result: an agile, demand-driven supply chain that can react to decisions made at widely distributed localities, not just at centralized higher levels. HBS Number: P0511B Subjects: Change management; Decision making; Demand planning; Operations management; Organizational behavior; Process flow; Process innovation; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    It’s in the Army Now: The U.S. Army‘s Scorecard-Based Transformation   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Downing, Laura M.; Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 09/15/2003 Product Type: Balanced Scorecard Report Article Product Description: Ever wonder what a scorecard launch would look like in an organization of more than 1.5 million people that operates all over the world? Take a peek at the U.S. Army's scorecard initiative. HBS Number: B0309B Subjects: Balanced scorecard; Government agencies; Management development; Organizational management; Performance measurement; Strategic planning; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Operations management    It’s More Than a Desk: Working Smarter Through Leveraged Office Design   Add   View  23 pp.  Article Author(s): Elsbach, Kimberly D.; Bechky, Beth A. Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR359 Subjects: Creativity; Facilities planning; Group dynamics; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Telecommunications; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Current trends in telecommuting and non-territorial office design have changed what it means to work in an on-site office and, subsequently, have increased the number of functions office design is expected to serve. At the same time, innovations in technology and design provide today's managers more choices than ever when outfitting their offices. Offers a framework of leveraged office design that illustrates how managers can make design choices that both capitalize on the newest innovations in office design and serve the emerging needs of corporate workers. The framework specifically explores three functions of workplace design: instrumental functions, such as improving decision making and inter-group collaboration; symbolic functions, such as affirming individual distinctiveness and group status; and aesthetic functions, such as allowing for desired sensory experiences and promoting a sense of place attachment. This framework illustrates how organizations can capitalize on all three functions through their choices in office decor and layout.    It’s the Distribution, Stupid!   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Thomas, Andrew R.; Wilkinson, Timothy J. Publication Date: 03/15/2005 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: The American system of distribution is dysfunctional, favoring the interests of huge retail chains at the expense of manufacturers. Accustomed to working in this imbalanced system, American managers think they have no choice but to cede control of distribution by placing it into the hands of megadistributors and, for the most part, they are correct. However, in high-growth emerging markets, distribution channels are still malleable, providing manufacturers with the opportunity to shape and mold the way distribution takes place. Argues that firms should lay aside their dysfunctional patterns of dealing with distributors when they leave America and regain control over their products and operations in international markets. HBS Number: BH116 Subjects: Distribution; Emerging markets; International business; Manufacturing; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Keep Your Sourcing Options Open   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 01/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: No matter how good your demand forecasts are, a supply chain that is stretched internationally is exposed to a great deal of risk — and even the best-laid offshoring plans go awry. But why should a decision to outsource be an all-or-nothing proposition? Consider a hybrid sourcing strategy — a mix of ``reactive'' manufacturing capacity located near end markets to meet unexpected demand surges — and a slower, less flexible ``base'' capacity in countries that can take advantage of mass production operations. The result? A sliding scale that allows you to balance the advantages of both systems. HBS Number: P0601E Subjects: International business; Operations management; Outsourcing; Risk management; Strategic planning; Strategy formulation; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Leading from the Factory Floor   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Gnamm, Joerg; Neuhaus, Klaus Publication Date: 11/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Fixing a dysfunctional plant isn't easy, but it can be done if you involve everyone in the overhaul. HBS Number: F0511D Geographic Setting: Germany Subjects: Employee morale; Factories; Manufacturing; Operational effectiveness; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Lean and Green: The Move to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing   Add   View  26 pp.  Article Author(s): Florida, Richard Publication Date: 10/01/1996 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR068 Subjects: Environmental protection; Innovation; Manufacturing; Manufacturing strategy Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Presents the results of a national survey of environmental manufacturing practices. Efforts by firms to improve manufacturing processes and increase productivity create substantial opportunities for environmental improvement. The adoption of advanced manufacturing process innovations provides incentives for the adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies. Close relationships across the production chain, between end-users and suppliers in particular, facilitate the adoption of this related bundle of environmental and industrial innovations. Firms and plants that are R&D-intensive and manufacturing innovators possess the capacity to both improve productivity and reduce environmental costs and risks.    Lean Assets: New Language for New Workplaces   Add   View  18 pp.  Article Author(s): Price, I Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR360 Subjects: Communication in organizations; Facilities; Facilities planning; Performance measurement; Productivity; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: The knowledge economy produces wealth through “conversations.” Accordingly, workplaces that encourage and facilitate a variety of conversations represent an important dimension of corporate strategy. While there is considerable evidence of enhanced productivity in adaptive workplaces, too many discussions about workplaces remain bound up in patterns of meaning inherited from a manufacturing era. The dominant discourse of Facility Management remains focused on cost-per-unit area, an approach to performance management that lean manufacturing has outgrown. Moreover, users of offices and managers still tend to take the workplace for granted or leave it to Facility Management to sort out. Instead, the geography of the organization should come to be seen as a facet of general management and leadership. To fully engage users, especially where workplace changes are planned, new offices must transcend the standard — and sterile — debate about “open plans” versus private cellular offices.    Lean Consumption   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Womack, James P.; Jones, Daniel T. Publication Date: 03/01/2005 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0503C Subjects: Consumer behavior; Customer retention; Manufacturing; Models; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: During the past 20 years, the real price of most consumer goods has fallen worldwide, the variety of goods and the range of sales channels offering them have continued to grow, and product quality has steadily improved. So why is consumption often so frustrating? It doesn't have to be — and shouldn't be — the authors say. They argue that it's time to apply lean thinking to the processes of consumption — to give consumers the full value they want from goods and services with the greatest efficiency and the least pain. Companies may think they save time and money by off-loading work to the consumer but, in fact, the opposite is true. By streamlining their systems for providing goods and services, and by making it easier for customers to buy and use those products and services, a growing number of companies are actually lowering costs while saving everyone time. In the process, these businesses are learning more about their customers, strengthening consumer loyalty, and attracting new customers who are defecting from less user-friendly competitors. The challenge lies with the retailers, service providers, manufacturers, and suppliers that are not used to looking at total cost from the standpoint of the consumer and even less accustomed to working with customers to optimize the consumption process. Lean consumption requires a fundamental shift in the way companies think about the relationship between provision and consumption and the role their customers play in these processes. It also requires consumers to change the nature of their relationships with the companies they patronize. Lean producti    Lean Consumption (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Womack, James P.; Jones, Daniel T. Publication Date: 03/01/2005 Product Type: HBR OnPoint Article HBS Number: 9432 Subjects: Consumer behavior; Customer retention; Manufacturing; Models; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This is an enhanced edition of HBR article R0503C, originally published in March 2005. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. During the past 20 years, the real price of most consumer goods has fallen worldwide, the variety of goods and the range of sales channels offering them have continued to grow, and product quality has steadily improved. The authors argue that it's time to apply lean thinking to the processes of consumption — to give consumers the full value they want from goods and services with the greatest efficiency and the least pain. Companies may think they save time and money by off-loading work to the consumer but, in fact, the opposite is true. By streamlining their systems for providing goods and services, and by making it easier for customers to buy and use those products and services, a growing number of companies are actually lowering costs while saving everyone time. In the process, these businesses are learning more about their customers, strengthening consumer loyalty, and attracting new customers who are defecting from less user-friendly competitors. The challenge lies with the retailers, service providers, manufacturers, and suppliers that are not used to looking at total cost from the standpoint of the consumer and even less accustomed to working with customers to optimize the consumption process. Lean consumption requires a fundamental shift in the way companies think about the relationship between provision and consumption and the role their customers play in these processes    Lean Service Machine   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Swank, Cynthia Karen Publication Date: 10/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Jefferson Pilot Financial (JPF), a life insurance and annuities firm, was looking for new ways to grow. Its top managers recognized that JPF needed to differentiate itself in the eyes of its customers, the independent life-insurance advisers who sell and service policies. To establish itself as these advisers' preferred partner, it set out to reduce the turnaround time on policy applications, simplify the submission process, and reduce errors. JPF's managers looked to the ``lean production'' practices that U.S. manufacturers adopted in response to competition from Japanese companies. Lean production is built around the concept of continuous-flow processing -- a departure from traditional production systems, in which large batches are processed at each step. JPF appointed a ``lean team'' to reengineer its New Business unit's operations, beginning with the creation of a ``model cell'' -- a fully functioning microcosm of JPF's entire process. This approach allowed managers to experiment and smooth out the kinks while working toward an optimal design. The team applied lean-manufacturing practices, including placing linked processes near one another, balancing employees' workloads, posting performance results, and measuring performance and productivity from the customer's perspective. The results were so impressive that JPF is rolling out similar systems across many of its operations. HBS Number: R0310J Subjects: Business processes; Growth strategy; Insurance; Operations management; Organizational change; Organizational structure; Process analysis; Process flow; Process innovation; Production processes; Productivity Academic Discipline: Operations management    Learning from the Quality Movement: What Did and Didn’t Happen and Why?   Add   View  33 pp.  Article Cole, Robert E. There is a striking disjunction between the views of many academics who believe the quality movement has sunk without a trace and practitioners who believe that they basically mastered the secrets of quality improvement. This article traces the path by which large American manufacturing firms came to terms with the Japanese quality challenge of the early 1980s. It explores both the barriers that delayed effective responses as well as the nature of the emergent infrastructure that eventually facilitated sustained quality improvement. The legacy of the quality movement is more than its detractors allow but less than its zealots proclaimed. HBS Number: CMR136 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 10/1/1998 Subjects: Business history; Corporate strategy; Manufacturing strategy; Total quality Publisher: California Management Review    Lessons from the Leaders of Retail Loss Prevention   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Beck, Adrian; Peacock, Colin Publication Date: 11/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0711H Industry Setting: Retail industry Subjects: Inventory management; Shrinkage Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Arresting thieves and investing in technology, the main approaches to retail loss prevention, haven't managed to diminish it over the past 15 years. A study of companies that have successfully reduced shrinkage uncovers nine practices behind their success, beginning with organizational and senior management commitment to making loss prevention a priority.    Light Fantastic   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Salzhauer, Amy Publication Date: 10/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Solid-state is the first new lighting technology in 100 years. Soon it may drastically reduce your costs. HBS Number: F0410F Subjects: Costs; Electric power; Energy; Operating costs; Operating systems; Technology Academic Discipline: Operations management    Limits of the Learning Curve   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Abernathy, William J.; Wayne, Kenneth It is important for managers to realize that they cannot receive the benefits or cost reduction provided by a steep learning-curve projection and at the same time accomplish rapid rates of product innovation and improvement in product performance. Managers need to exercise care in choosing between the learning curve approach, which shows that manufacturing costs fall as volume rises, and the experience curve approach, which traces declines in the total costs of a product line over extended periods of time as a volume grows. When selecting a strategy, management investigates: the practical limit to volume/cost reduction, the pattern of changes in the organization which accompany progress along the learning curve, and the expected results when the practiced limits of cost reduction are reached. HBS Number: 74501 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1974 Subjects: Experience curves; Learning curves; Production planning    Link Manufacturing Process and Product Life Cycles   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Hayes, Robert H.; Wheelwright, Steven C. Focusing on the manufacturing process gives a new dimension to strategy. The "process life cycle," related but distinct from the product life cycle, facilitates the understanding of strategic options available. Most companies occupy a particular region on a natural, diagonal matrix of the stages of the product life cycle and the choices of production process for that product. A company may seek competitive advantage off the diagonal, but should understand the implications of each move. HBS Number: 79107 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1979 Subjects: Product management; Production planning; Strategic planning    Listening to Overcapacity: Lessons from the Auto and Health Care Industries   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Billington, Jim Publication Date: 06/01/1998 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Chronic overcapacity is prevalent in both the automotive and health care industries. These two industries demonstrate that capacity is not always a simple economic question of supply and demand--often, various noneconomic factors, the lack of normal market forces, and deliberate business decisions play significant roles. This article first examines the differences between cyclical or episodic overcapacity and chronic or structural capacity, then, using examples from the health care and auto industries, offers guidance for managers who must deal with this issue. HBS Number: U9806B Geographic Setting: Industry Setting: Subjects: Automobile industry; Business cycles; Capacity analysis; Capacity planning; Demand analysis; Health services; Supply & demand Academic Discipline: Operations management    Logistics - Essential to Strategy   Add   View  13 pp.  Article Heskett, James L. To employ logistics as an effective competitive lever, management should adapt logistics programs to support ongoing corporate strategies in the short-term and factor logistics into the design of business operating strategies on a continuing long-term basis. Steps necessary for factoring logistics into strategy include the performance of a logistics strategy audit, possible logistics systems redesign, and the maintenance of procedures to ensure continued attention to logistics as an integral part of corporate strategy. HBS Number: 77604 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1977 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Logistics    Look Beyond the Obvious in Plant Location   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Schmenner, Roger W. Companies must decide to relocate or to open branches when on-site expansion becomes impractical. An examination of the relative advantages of relocation and new branches helps companies evaluate their expansion options and understand why relocation to the cheapest site is often the poorest solution for a growing company. HBS Number: 79112 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1979 Subjects: Location of industry; Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Plant location    Make Your Back Office an Accelerator   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Rogers, Paul; Saenz, Hernan Publication Date: 03/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0703G Subjects: Operations; Resource allocation Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: A new study identifies exactly how much bang for the buck a firm can get when it makes targeted cuts in back-office costs and takes steps to boost efficiency.    Making Operational Innovation Work   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Hammer, Michael Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Operational innovation is notoriously difficult. The power of creating and deploying new ways of performing fundamental business processes is indisputable; it has been the springboard to success for leading companies in virtually every industry. But many firms have failed at their efforts to make operational innovation work. What is the secret to success? The experiences of Schneider National, a transportation and logistics firm based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, provide an object lesson in how to get operational innovation right. (This article first appeared in the April 2005 issue of Harvard Management Update.) HBS Number: P0510C Geographic Setting: Green Bay, WI Industry Setting: Transportation industry Subjects: Competitive advantage; Outsourcing; Process innovation; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Making Supply Meet Demand in an Uncertain World   Added   View  14 pp.  Article Fisher, Marshall L.; Hammond, Janice H.; Obermeyer, Walter R.; Raman, Ananth Faced with an unprecedented number and variety of products on the market, managers are finding it more difficult to predict demand and plan production and orders accordingly. As a result, inaccurate forecasts are increasing and, along with them, the costs of those errors. A new approach to the entire forecasting, planning, and production process, accurate response entails first figuring out what forecasters can and cannot predict well. Then supply chains must be made fast and flexible so that managers can postpone decisions about their most unpredictable items until they have some market signals--like early-season sales results--to help correctly match supply with demand. Accurate response enables companies to use the power of flexible manufacturing and shorter cycle time much more effectively. HBS Number: 94302 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1994 Subjects: Demand analysis; Forecasting; Production planning; Scheduling; Supply & demand    Making the Most of Foreign Factories   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Ferdows, Kasra Many companies are not tapping the full potential of their foreign factories. They establish and manage foreign factories to benefit only from tariff and trade concessions, cheap labor, capital subsidies, and reduced logistics costs. They therefore give these factories a limited range of work, responsibilities, and resources. But there are companies that expect much more from their foreign factories and, as a result, get much more. They use them to get closer to their customers and suppliers, to attract skilled and talented employees, and to create centers of expertise for the entire company. The author provides a framework to help mangers classify the current role their foreign factories play. HBS Number: 97204 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1997 Subjects: Foreign investment; International operations; Manufacturing; Manufacturing policy; Manufacturing strategy; Plant location; Resource allocation    Making the Move to Low-Cost Countries   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Author(s): Vestring, Till; Rouse, Ted; Reinert, Uwe Publication Date: 06/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Companies today have unprecedented opportunities to move functions to low-cost countries and tap into the capabilities of new overseas suppliers. But the plethora of options at their disposal poses difficult challenges. Managers have to determine which links in their supply chain -- from materials supply to research and engineering to manufacturing and assembly -- are best suited to relocation, and they have to weigh the various risks and benefits that different regions and countries present. The danger is that the very complexity of the decisions can lead to paralysis. The question for executives is no longer whether to move costs to low-labor cost countries -- that's now a given -- but what to move, where to move, and how to move. Many managers lack, however, a framework for making these decisions, one that puts the relative benefits and risks of options in the proper context and allows executives to make informed decisions that are consistent with corporate strategy. Learn how to choose which links in the supply chain to relocate and to where. HBS Number: P0506A Academic Discipline: Operations management    Manager’s Guide to Supply Chain Management   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Stuart, F. Ian; McCutcheon, David M. The received wisdom--which many practitioners rigidly follow--assumes that competitiveness in a global economy requires companies to focus on core competencies, reduce their number of suppliers, and develop strong partner relationships HBS Number: BH044 Type: Business Horizons Article Publication Date: 3/15/2000 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Suppliers Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University    Managing Suppliers Up to Speed   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Burt, David N. U.S. manufacturers spend, on average, 56 cents of every sales dollar on purchased goods. They need fewer, smarter suppliers whom they can turn into production partners. At companies such as Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, and Ford buyers put together interfunctional teams of engineers, quality specialists, and purchasing agents to evaluate suppliers. When negotiating price, buyers need as much information as possible about production costs. However, they must not abuse this access by shaving suppliers' margins to the bone. HBS Number: 89401 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1989 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Partnerships; Production planning; Purchasing; Sourcing; Suppliers    Managing Vendors: Tips for Success   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Publication Date: 03/01/2000 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: With the growth of outsourcing, more and more businesspeople are responsible for managing relationships with suppliers. But what happens when the vendor doesn't deliver on time? What happens when it screws up on quality? Disaster can be avoided by managing your vendor as if it were a department in your company, making sure the contract allows you to get the information you need to judge the vendor's performance, and monitoring the relationship and changing the contract as necessary. Includes a sidebar entitled "When Things Go Wrong." HBS Number: U0003C Subjects: Contracts; Outsourcing; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Operations management    Manufacturing - Missing Link in Corporate Strategy   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Skinner, C. Wickham Corporate strategy affects manufacturing goals and processes. Manufacturing must pay attention to the cost, time, and quality factors that go into production. Trade-offs in efficiency, cost and productivity become necessary in pursuing specific markets. As a result, product quality suffers. Computer specialists have replaced efficiency experts as the reigning technical experts in manufacturing. Top management shies away from both of these technical areas. Companies must develop and use a management policy for manufacturing. HBS Number: 69312 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1969 Subjects: Corporate strategy; Manufacturing strategy; Production controls    Manufacturing by Design   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Whitney, Daniel E. Multifunctional teams are the most effective way for companies to design products strategically. The team needs to: determine the product's character; subject the product to a rigorous functional analysis; design parts for productibility, exploiting the best available materials and methods; design the assembly sequence to facilitate the parts' and quality control testing; and design a factory system stressing standard work methods, quick repair of equipment, and employee motivation. HBS Number: 88412 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1988 Subjects: Cost control; Manufacturing strategy; Organizational structure; Product design; Product introduction; Teams    Manufacturing Offshore Is Bad Business   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Markides, Constantinos C.; Berg, Norman A. Some U.S. companies have moved manufacturing operations overseas to take advantage of lower wage rates, defending the practice as the only way to stay competitive. For many companies, offshore manufacturing is a poor option for gaining competitiveness. It involves extra transportation, communication, and paperwork; these costs can offset any potential savings. Also, when direct labor is a small percentage of total costs, as it is for much of manufacturing, labor savings are less critical to the bottom line. The only sure way to get more competitive is to strengthen the business as a whole. HBS Number: 88510 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1988 Subjects: International business; International operations; Manufacturing strategy    Manufacturing Strategy Regained: Evidence for the Demise of Best-Practice   Add   View  14 pp.  Article Pilkington, Alan The long-term trend of manufacturing management to adopt "best practice" has had an expressed preference for Japanese production systems as a means of generating industrial success. While commentators have noted the lack of correlation between imitation and competitive advantage, one of the reasons for this failure--namely, the very range of operating methods among Japanese producers--has not been so fully explored. This article uses evidence from the U.K. automobile industry to illustrate the disappointing impact of Japanization and best practice, and it suggests that managers should concentrate on the development of strategic competencies and the aligning of manufacturing with corporate strategy. HBS Number: CMR132 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 10/1/1998 Subjects: Automobile industry; Corporate strategy; Japan; Manufacturing strategy Publisher: California Management Review    Manufacturing: The New Case for Vertical Integration   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Kumpe, Ted; Bolwijn, Piet T. The solid corporation will continue to view vertical integration as a critical part of manufacturing reform. Though assemblers realize high profits mainly from innovations in distribution and marketing, the most dramatic gains in quality, price, and flexibility result at the subassembly and component levels, where research and development costs are very high and margins are comparatively lower. HBS Number: 88206 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 3/1/1988 Subjects: Competition; High technology products; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning; Vertical integration    Manufacturing’s Crisis: New Technologies, Obsolete Organizations   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Hayes, Robert H.; Jaikumar, Ramchandran Few U.S. companies are absorbing the advanced production technologies - such as CAD, CAM, FMS, or CIM - they need to stay competitive. Many are put off by the stringent demands of programmable automation. Most manufacturers are inhibited by organizational structures and practices. Also, approaches to plant construction and capital improvement are incremental, which often precludes investing in advanced, integrated plants. HBS Number: 88507 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1988 Subjects: Management of change; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning; Technological change    Manufacturing’s New Economies of Scale   Add   View  9 pp.  Article McGrath, Michael E.; Hoole, Richard W. Manufacturing companies now face the challenge of globally integrating their operations. Multinationals can no longer rely on sheer size and geographic reach to dominate the volatile global arena. By integrating far-flung plants into tightly connected, distributed production systems, companies can seize the opportunity for a new manufacturing scale advantage. In becoming globally integrated, companies must balance the tension between a central authority and independent units. They must also focus specific changes in functions by articulating a vision shared by the entire organization. HBS Number: 92306 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1992 Subjects: International operations; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning    Mass Customization at Hewlett-Packard: The Power of Postponement   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Feitzinger, Edward; Lee, Hau In many mass markets, companies are facing a predicament: customers are demanding not only ever faster order fulfillment but also highly customized products and services. The authors show how the Hewlett-Packard Co. and others have proved that one indeed can deliver customized products quickly and at a low cost. The key to mass-customizing effectively is postponing the task of differentiating a product for a specific customer until the latest possible point in the supply network. Instead of taking a piecemeal approach, companies must rethink and integrate the designs of their products, the processes used to make and deliver those products, and the configuration of their entire supply network. By adopting such a comprehensive approach, they can operate at maximum efficiency and quickly meet customers' orders with minimum amount of inventory. HBS Number: 97101 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1997 Subjects: Cost benefit analysis; Customer service; Manufacturing strategy; Organizational design; Organizational structure; Product design    Metrics That Speak to the C-Suite   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Gary, Loren Publication Date: 04/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: As companies have shifted from integrated, vertical business models to horizontal models that rely on outside vendors and suppliers, making sure that their supply chain is strategically aligned has become a preeminent concern for executives. Trying to pinpoint the source of a performance breakdown or making decisions about the trade-offs between, say, inventory levels and customer service is incredibly hard when it's outside organizations that are performing critical activities that the company itself used to handle. How do you ensure not only that everyone — including internal departments and outside partners — has the same priorities but, more fundamentally, that they're speaking the same language? The answer lies in large part in the strategic use of performance metrics. But the hallmark of a truly effective measurement system is that it speaks to the needs of both senior corporate executives and managers up and down the supply chain. The key, in other words, is to understand which aspects of supply chain performance are most important to the C-suite and to translate this into more detailed, tactical measures that lower level managers can use to fine-tune their interventions. HBS Number: P0504C Subjects: Executives; Performance measurement; Strategy formulation; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    MG Rover’s Supply Chain Disruption   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Rice, Jr., James B. Publication Date: 07/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: MG Rover was forced to suspend operations at its Longbridge, England, automobile plant in April 2005 because of a parts shortage (and soon thereafter the carmaker's business collapsed altogether.) At the time, company executives blamed the shortage on supplier reactions to negative media coverage about the state of a possible takeover by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Suppliers were worried about MG Rover's cash flow, and hindsight says they were certainly right to be. But if the automaker had had better and deeper relationships with its suppliers, would parts deliveries still have been withheld? And could such healthy relationships have forestalled MG Rover's collapse? Clearly, the company's financial picture was dire, but it's not unreasonable to speculate that better supplier relationships could have been an asset to the company, even in its most difficult times. Read more about the need to build collaborative relationships with members of your supply chain. HBS Number: P0507D Industry Setting: Automotive industry Subjects: Collaboration; Strategic alliances; Strategic intent; Suppliers; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    MRP, JIT, OPT, FMS?   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Aggarwal, Sumer C. Manufacturing companies are confronted today with an array of new systems to improve production efficiency. Chief among these are: materials requirements planning (MRP), kanban (the Japanese just-in-time system), Israel's optimized production technology (OPT), and the latest approach, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). A rundown of each methodology explains strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs to help managers choose a system to match their needs. Examples of applications of each system worldwide are included. HBS Number: 85501 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1985 Subjects: Information systems; Inventory management; Manufacturing strategy; Production processes    Next Killer App? It’s Your Supply Chain   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Sheffi, Yossi; Michelman, Paul Publication Date: 04/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article HBS Number: P0504E Subjects: Change management; Mergers; Supply chains Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: For any senior manager who isn't yet convinced that supply chains are becoming the new basis of competition, let IBM's sale of its PC business and the impending merger between Gillette and Procter & Gamble be your wake-up call. What's noteworthy is not simply that these moves were driven largely by supply chain management considerations but that they were driven by the success of the supply chain operations of companies not even involved in the deals. For the P&G/Gillette merger, the supply chain at work was Wal-Mart's. For IBM, it was Dell's. In both cases, one company's high-performing supply chain substantially reshaped a competitive landscape and pushed successful organizations to make drastic moves in response. The lesson here: In an era of commoditized products, volatile markets, and expanding arenas of competition, supply chains are becoming one area where distinction is possible, powerful, and increasingly difficult to replicate. Read more about the potential of combined supply chains.    Nudge Your Customers Toward Better Choices   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Goldstein, Daniel G.; Johnson, Eric J.; Herrmann, Andeas; Heitmann, Mark Publication Date: 12/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0812H Subjects: Consumer behavior; Customer relationship management; Decision making Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: When car rental companies sign you up for insurance unless you actively decline it, or software vendors recommend you click “next” for a quick install, they're choosing default options for you — covertly or overtly guiding your choices. Well-designed defaults benefit both company and consumer, simplifying decision making, enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing risk, and driving profitable purchases. Ill-conceived defaults can leave money on the table, fuel consumer backlashes, put customers at risk and trigger lawsuits — costing companies dearly. Despite those high stakes, management pays little attention to default policies. Setting defaults requires companies to balance a complex array of interests, including customers' wishes and the company's desire to maximize profits while minimizing risk. At a basic level, defaults can serve as manufacturer recommendations, and more often than not we're happy with what we get. Most companies also strive to set defaults in ways that align with customers' preferences. In its online auto configurator, for example, Audi preselects silver metallic as the default color because it's the most popular. Of course, defaults can be nefarious as well. They have caused many of us to purchase unwanted extended warranties or to inadvertently subscribe to mailing lists, for example. The authors provide a taxonomy of default types and guidance on when — and when not — to use each type. They range from “benign defaults,” representing a company's best guess about which single product configuration would be most acceptable    On the Horizon: Six Sources of Limitless Energy?   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Morse, Gardiner Publication Date: 09/01/2009 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0909F Subjects: Energy; Technological change Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Trying to keep up with the world's insatiable appetite for energy, scientists and entrepreneurs are exploring six innovative concepts: high-altitude wind turbines, genetically engineered algae for biofuel, wave power from the ocean, nuclear fusion, enhanced geothermal systems, and solar cells in space. They all have serious backing; not one is a sure bet.    One More Time: Eight Things You Should Remember About Quality   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Mello, John P., Jr. Publication Date: 05/01/1998 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: After your organization has defined quality standards and has made the commitment to quality, there is still the task of implementation. Quality is about more than reaching goals--in order for a company to improve quality, the concept must be fully integrated throughout the organization. This article offers eight suggestions for the pursuit of continuous quality improvement. HBS Number: U9805C Geographic Setting: Industry Setting: Subjects: Continuous improvement; Quality control; Total quality Academic Discipline: Operations management    One of Dot-Com’s Lasting Legacies   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 10/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: The dot-com bubble may be receding into corporate history, but it is still reshaping supply chains and will continue to do so for years to come. Companies such as Amazon, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2005, have shifted the focus of supply chain management from delivering products to delivering on customer needs -- a change that is profoundly affecting not only supply chain strategy but also corporate strategy at both ``new'' and ``old'' economy companies. HBS Number: P0510E Subjects: Corporate strategy; Knowledge transfer; New economy; Process flow; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Operations-Based Strategy   Add   View  19 pp.  Article Hayes, Robert H.; Upton, David Although most companies confine their operations organizations to restricted, tactical roles, in some of the most successful firms operations has served as the foundation for--indeed, the driver behind--successful strategic attacks and defenses. This is most clearly seen in cases where small companies--although lacking the advantages of size, market position, and proprietary technology--take on big companies and in a relatively short time push their way to industry dominance. In such cases, the key to success often is an operations-based advantage. The peculiar nature of this advantage provides insight into the reasons many former industry leaders did not react more promptly and vigorously to such attacks, and why others, in contrast, were able to defend themselves successfully. HBS Number: CMR123 Type: CMR Article Publication Date: 7/1/1998 Subjects: Competitive advantage; Corporate strategy; Market positioning; Operations management Publisher: California Management Review    Organizational Ecology and Knowledge Networks   Add   View  21 pp.  Article Author(s): Becker, Franklin Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR357 Subjects: Communication in organizations; Facilities; Facilities planning; Interpersonal behavior; Interpersonal relations; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Largely missing in the study of knowledge management has been examination of the role the physical environment of the workplace plays in creating opportunities and barriers that influence the development and flow of a variety of types of information and knowledge. Introduces the concept of organizational ecology as a frame of reference for thinking about the workplace as a complex web of interdependent social and organizational factors that, in combination, influence informal communication, interaction, and learning patterns. Specifically, proposes the concepts of “dynamic constraint” and “dynamic harmony” to explain why organizational interventions involving manipulation of only social or physical factors often fail to achieve their desired objectives. Also examines how the spatial aspects of an organization's ecology can contribute to more effective communication and interaction patterns that support informal learning.    Organizing for Manufacturable Design   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Dean, James W., Jr.; Susman, Gerald I. Managers who commit their companies to designing more manufacturable products encounter the problem of how to organize their professional staff. How should design and manufacturing engineers be encouraged - or made - to work together? What changes does the team approach to design entail? Here are four organization approaches to designing for manufacture, each with advantages and drawbacks: 1) the manufacturing sign-off approach; 2) the integrator approach; 3) the cross-functional team approach; and 4) the product-process design department. Hybrid approaches may well be better than any individual one. HBS Number: 89103 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1989 Subjects: Cross functional management; Manufacturing strategy; Organizational structure; Product design; Product development; Teams    Outsourcing Postsales Service: Is Your Brand Protected?   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 07/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Outsourcing after-sales services -- from product repair, transportation, and warehousing to call center support and returns processing -- has helped many companies slash costs and sharpen their focus on core competencies. But, as too many firms have discovered, it can also backfire loudly and put reputations at risk if executives mismanage the process. Yet despite the apparent risks, managers in a widening range of industries are exploring after-sales outsourcing. So how do you leverage the advantages of outsourcing postsales services for both your company and customers while avoiding the pitfalls? Read more to find out what you should do before spinning off repairs, parts distribution, or customer call centers. HBS Number: P0507B Subjects: Brand management; Outsourcing; Risk management; Sales management; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Pain in the (Supply) Chain   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Butman, John Publication Date: 05/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: It's the end of the quarter, and the sales staff at Exceso Corp. is scrambling to meet CEO R. Foley Vinton's overheated 9% sales target. Sure, the sales team has always hit its target in the past, and yes, that number was based on its forecast data. But the fact is, the projection was based on raw data. And as Martin Wu, the company's head of sales, warns Vinton, sales will do well to hit 3%. Vinton remains unconvinced. He has already given that number to the analyst community, and, he thinks, if he keeps up the pressure, Wu will find a way to make it, just like he always does. So Wu and his sales team do what they have done in the past — discount the heck out of their product and load up the distribution channel. That's great news for Alice Dias over at Flemings ValuMart. She just stocked up on 3,000 cases of ClickZipPlus at a 6% discount to the standing price, with the idea of shipping most of it to diverters and to other ValuMarts in regions that haven't been offered such a good deal. But it's bewildering to analyst Andrea Valdini who, after Vinton has just shepherded her through a plant cranking at full production, can't find any eight-packs at a store near the very offices where she and her colleagues are pondering the health of Exceso's stock. “They can't keep this up much longer,” suggests a ValuMart manager, pointing to the empty shelves that are the ClickZipPlus display. As he falls asleep that night, Vinton thinks they'll be able to kick the loading habit — someday, when the timing's better. But should they? HBS Number: R0205A Subjects: Operating systems; Operations management; Production scheduling; Supply & demand Academic Discipline: Operations management    Pandemic Preparedness: Who’s Your Weak Link?   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Abercrombie, George Publication Date: 12/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0712B Subjects: Crisis prevention; Disasters; Emergencies; Supply chain optimization Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: A company's ability to function during a flu pandemic is only as good as the weakest link in its supply chain. Hoffman-La Roche, the maker of a frontline antiviral drug, works closely with its suppliers to ensure that their preparedness plans are as robust as its own.    Performing a Project Premortem   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Klein, Gary Publication Date: 09/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0709A Subjects: Project audits; Project planning; Project strategy Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: In a premortem, team members assume that the project they are planning has just failed — as so many do — and then generate plausible reasons for its demise. Those with reservations may speak freely at the outset, so that the project can be improved rather than autopsied.    Plumbing Web Connections   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Sutor, Bob; Morse, Gardiner Publication Date: 09/01/2003 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: IBM director of web infrastructure software, Robert Sutor, is a key leader in the arcane world of web services. In this interview, he says it's just a matter of time before companies seamlessly connect their systems and software via the Internet through all-but-invisible applications. Web services will change the way we do business. HBS Number: F0309B Subjects: Information services; Information technology; Internet; World Wide Web Academic Discipline: Operations management    Postindustrial Manufacturing   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Jaikumar, Ramchandran For more than ten years, U.S. manufacturers have tried to narrow their competitive gap with Japan by investing in flexible automation. But having the technology and using it well are two different things. A study of more than half the installed systems in both countries shows that American companies are using computerized manufacturing for the same old-fashioned, high-volume, low-variety production they have always pursued, while the Japanese are utilizing the new technology in remarkably flexible and effective ways. HBS Number: 86606 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1986 Subjects: Automation; Japan; Manufacturing strategy; Production processes

Power of Trust in Manufacturer-Retailer Relationships   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Kumar, Nirmalya Manufacturers and retailers traditionally have seen each other as adversaries, but the benifits generated by trusting relationships between such old foes as Procter & Gamble Co. and Wal-Mart Stores show that fear and intimidation may n HBS Number: 96606 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1996 Subjects: Distribution; Distribution planning; Logistics; Manufacturing; Power & influence; Retailing; Suppliers    Prevent Disasters in Design Outsourcing   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Parker, Geoffrey; Amaral, Jason Publication Date: 09/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0809E Subjects: Collaboration; Outsourcing; Platforms; Product design Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: When outsourcing the design of a platform-based product, avoid three common perils: misaligned objectives, unanticipated rivalry between design partners, and poor version control. If you don't elude these dangers, your planned cost savings — and even your entire platform — could be in jeopardy.    Procurement as Strategy   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Niezen, Carlos; Weller, Wulf Publication Date: 09/01/2006 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0609D Subjects: Corporate strategy; Innovation; Purchasing; Sourcing; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Procurement has increasingly become central to companies' strategies — and even drives innovation.    Product Defects and Productivity   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Gitlow, Howard S.; Hertz, Paul T. Management has the power and the responsibility to achieve a high-quality product by improving the manufacturing process. Managers can distinguish between normal and abnormal variation statistically by constructing a control chart that shows the process average and the upper and lower control limits. Top management should stop expecting inspection to solve the quality problem; stop awarding business to the lowest bidder; eliminate targets, numerical goals, slogans, and posters that urge people who lack the power to make changes to increase productivity; eliminate work quotas; and institute training programs in statistics for managers and supervisors. HBS Number: 83506 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1983 Subjects: Productivity; Quality control; Statistical analysis    Product Development Partnerships: Balancing the Needs of OEMs and Suppliers   Add   View  10 pp.  Article Author(s): Swink, Morgan L.; Mabert, Vincent A. Publication Date: 05/15/2000 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: As products become more complex and global in scope, product development managers rely increasingly on suppliers for help. Limited resources necessitate developing close, long-term relationships with a few of the most important suppliers. But partners often struggle in these relationships because of conflicting needs and objectives. The OEM's wish list consists of providers with scarce resources and capabilities, including turnkey solutions, a shared strategy, and contributions to new product development; support of global product strategies (market knowledge or access and local presence); and minimized risks (assurance of good design, confidentiality, and demonstrated ability). The supplier's wish list consists of rewards for up-front involvement, protected business interests, and a share in the payoffs. OEM and supplier needs can be balanced by honoring the Ten Commandments for their relationships: three for OEMs (don't manage all suppliers equally, realize that good suppliers are hard to find, demand more of suppliers but learn to be a good customer as well); three for suppliers (recognize that competition is getting tougher and broader based, explore new business sourcing arrangements, use speed to alleviate the need to maintain propriety in NPD); and four for both parties (don't let distance hamper performance, keep score, be creative in using capabilities of global partners, and develop and encourage trust). HBS Number: BH048 Subjects: Operations management; Product development; Suppliers Academic Discipline: Operations management    Product Modularity and the Design of Closed-Loop Supply Chains   Add   View  18 pp.  Article Author(s): Krikke, Harold; le Blanc, Ieke; van de Velde, Steef Publication Date: 02/01/2004 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: Although companies spend much effort on the design, analysis, and management of their forward supply chains, they need to pay the same attention to their reverse supply chain. Pioneering firms have learned that making product returns profitable relies on good design of the reverse chains' business processes, including integration with the forward chain. Product modularity offers new possibilities for supply chain design. Optimal closed-loop supply chain management requires three things. First, the type of return needs to be matched with the appropriate closed-loop supply chain. Second, through modular reuse, it is possible to regain optimal value in closed-loop applications. Third, the value of reuse information may in some cases be higher than the value of the returns themselves. HBS Number: CMR274 Subjects: Manufacturing; Product life cycle; Product management; Product planning & policy; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Productivity Paradox   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Skinner, C. Wickham For more than ten years, American manufacturers have been trying to improve productivity--and thereby enhance their international competitiveness--through cost-cutting programs. But costs have not declined enough, nor has international competitiveness much improved. Instead, our decline has intensified. Real productivity improvement is not easy. Approaches that pare down direct labor costs and make factory workers more efficient have proven fundamentally flawed. Manufacturers need to direct their thinking away from straight cost cutting toward quality enhancement, strategy, and product technology. McKinsey Award Winner. HBS Number: 86414 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1986 Subjects: Cost control; McKinsey Award Winners; National competitiveness; Production planning; Productivity    Programs du Jour: Why Don’t They Work?   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Olson, John R.; Aase, Gerald R. Publication Date: 05/15/2002 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: JIT, TQM, reengineering, lean manufacturing, supply chain management, and ERP are just some of the major programs that have been adopted by many companies and then abandoned without achieving the expected results. Why are programs that receive accolades at some companies trashed at others? Sustained effort is often the difference. If programs are to endure the test of time, they must be given the chance to do so. Managers must be willing to learn from difficulties encountered early during implementation and adapt the program for the firm's own unique situation. Here we share the lessons learned by a manufacturer that successfully implemented a new process improvement program. Key to its success was monitoring organizational and operational indicators over time with good measures that reflect program actions. New programs do not improve bottom-line results right away. Patience is well served if valid measures show that relevant effects in processes are in a favorable transition mode. If those effects are not realized when expected, adaptation of the program to the firm's unique context might be what is needed and worth exploring. HBS Number: BH076 Subjects: New process; Operations management; Success Academic Discipline: Operations management    Purchasing Must Become Supply Management   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Kraljic, Peter Threats of resource depletion and raw materials scarcity, political turbulence and government intervention in supply markets, intensified competition, and accelerating technological change can upset supply and demand patterns suddenly. Companies must shift their perspective from purchasing (an operating function) to supply management (a strategic one) to ensure continued supply of materials. Companies must integrate purchasing with other elements of the business system. HBS Number: 83509 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1983 Subjects: Inventory management; Manufacturing strategy; Materials management; Purchasing; Sourcing    Purchasing’s Role in New Product Development   Add   View  9 pp.  Article Burt, David N.; Soukup, William R. Increasingly, corporate prosperity survival depends on how quickly a company can develop and introduce new products. The enormous changes taking place in product and process technologies calls for new approaches to the product development process. Integrating purchasing expertise with engineering, marketing, and other functions at the outset can result in raised quality, earlier market availability, reduced investment in inventories, and significantly reduced costs. HBS Number: 85505 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1985 Subjects: Competition; Product development; Product introduction; Purchasing; Sourcing    Put the Right Decisions in the Right Hands   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Jacobs, Peter Publication Date: 05/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Allocating decision rights in ways that maximize organizational performance is an extraordinarily difficult and controversial management task. And therein lies a big problem, because how effective an organization is at making high-quality decisions consistent with its mission and objectives, the experts note, is a prime determinant of its ability to compete in the marketplace. To understand better how the distribution of decision rights drives performance and what companies can do to allocate them more effectively, Supply Chain Strategy spoke with leading authorities and practitioners, who say that although the barriers to effective decision-rights distribution can be high, several best practices promise to lower them. A version of this article appears in the May 2005 issue of Harvard Management Update. HBS Number: P0505C Subjects: Decision analysis; Decision making; Process analysis; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Putting the Organization on Wheels: Workplace Design at SEI   Add   View  17 pp.  Article Author(s): West, Alfred P., Jr.; Wind, Yoram (Jerry) Publication Date: 02/01/2007 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review HBS Number: CMR362 Subjects: Creativity; Facilities; Facilities planning; Innovation; Organizational behavior; Organizational design; Work environments; Working conditions Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: To create an environment to embody a culture of flexibility, egalitarianism, teamwork, and entrepreneurship, SEI Investments built a distinctive headquarters. The offices are open and desks are on wheels, making it easy for teams to interact and quickly reorganize. The walls are lined with an extensive collection of contemporary art to invite creativity and debate. Building an environment that embodies its culture has helped SEI achieve rapid financial growth and facilitated business model innovation. Examines some of the lessons from this bold experiment in how physical structure can follow strategy.    Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work (HBR Classic)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Heskett, James L.; Jones, Thomas O.; Loveman, Gary W.; Sasser, W. Earl, Jr.; Schlesinger, Leonard A. Publication Date: 07/01/2008 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publisher: Harvard Business School Publishing HBS Number: R0807L Subjects: Profitability; Employee retention; Customer retention; Service management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: This article was originally published in March-April 1994 and was republished in July-August 2008 as an HBR Classic. This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In exemplary service organizations, executives understand that they need to put customers and frontline workers at the center of their focus. Those managers heed the factors that drive profitability in this service paradigm: investment in people, technology that supports frontline workers, revamped recruiting and training practices, and compensation linked to performance. They also express a vision of leadership in somewhat unconventional terms, referring to an organization's “patina of spirituality” and the “importance of the mundane.” In this article, Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser, and Schlesinger take a close look at the links in the service-profit chain, which puts hard values on soft measures so that managers can calibrate the impact of employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity on the value of products and services delivered. Managers can then use this information to build customer satisfaction and loyalty and assess the corresponding impact on profitability and growth. Describing the links in the service-profit chain, the authors explain that profit and growth are stimulated by customer loyalty; loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction; satisfaction is    Quality on the Line   Add   View  13 pp.  Article Garvin, David A. A multi-year study of production operations of virtually all the producers of room air conditioners in the United States and in Japan reveals a failure rate of products from the lowest quality manufacturers some 500 to 1000 times greater than that of products from the highest quality manufacturers. Quality is measured by the incidence of internal and external failures. Internal failures include all defects observed, either during fabrication or along the assembly line, before the product leaves the factory. External failures include all problems incurred in the field after the unit has been installed. Measured by either criterion, Japanese companies were far superior to the U.S. counterparts. HBS Number: 83505 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 9/1/1983 Subjects: Japan; McKinsey Award Winners; Operations management; Quality control    Rapid-Fire Fulfillment   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Ferdows, Kasra; Lewis, Michael A.; Machuca, Jose A.D. Publication Date: 11/01/2004 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0411G Subjects: Clothing industry; Competitive advantage; Outsourcing; Partnerships; Spain; Suppliers; Supply & demand; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Would you send a half-empty truck across Europe or pay to airfreight coats to Japan twice a week? Would you move unsold items out of your shop after only two weeks? Would you run your factories just during the day shift? Is this any way to run an efficient supply chain? For Spanish clothier Zara it is. Not that any one of these tactics is especially effective in itself. Rather, they stem from a holistic approach to supply chain management that optimizes the entire chain instead of focusing on individual parts. In the process, Zara defies most of the current conventional wisdom about how supply chains should be run. Unlike so many of its peers, which rush to outsource, Zara keeps almost half of its production in-house. Far from pushing its factories to maximize output, the company focuses capital on building extra capacity. Rather than chase economies of scale, Zara manufactures and distributes products in small batches. Instead of outside partners, the company manages all design, warehousing, distribution, and logistics functions itself. The result is a superresponsive supply chain exquisitely tailored to Zara's business model. Zara can design, produce, and deliver a new garment to its 600-plus stores worldwide in a mere 15 days. So in Zara's shops, customers can always find new products — but in limited supply. Customers think, “This green shirt fits me, and there is one on the rack. If I don't buy it now, I'll lose my chance.” That urgency translates into high profit margins and steady 20% yearly growth in a tough economic climate. Some of    Read a Plant — Fast   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Author(s): Goodson, R. Eugene Publication Date: 05/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: In the early 1980s, visitors on an hour-long tour of a factory headed by Eugene Goodson reported surprisingly accurate details about the plant, its technology, and even its cost of sales. Meanwhile, the author's managers took part in short tours of a competitor's plants and learned next to nothing. With that, Goodson resolved to do better and, over time, developed a tool to assess a plant's strengths and weaknesses. The tool, the Rapid Plant Assessment (RPA) process, allows small tour teams to gauge factory's leanness accurately solely from visual cues and conversations with employees. Since 1998, Goodson, his colleagues, and his students have used the tool hundreds of times to evaluate their own plants, their competitors', and those of possible acquisition targets. At the heart of the RPA process are two assessment tools: the rating sheet and the questionnaire. The first contains 11 categories--including safety, scheduling, inventory, teamwork, and supply chain--that determine a plant's leanness. The second features 20 yes-or-no questions that focus thinking within the categories. The article explains how to rate a plant's practices in each category and how to choose team members. It also outlines how to use the tool to assess cost of sales. Even with varying levels of manufacturing experience, different teams touring the same plants have produced consistent results with this tool. It's easy to learn, quick to put into practice, and it produces results in a day or less. HBS Number: R0205H Subjects: Acquisitions; Factories; Operations management; Plant management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Real Virtual Factory   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Upton, David; McAfee, Andrew By now, the monolithic factory was supposed to have given way to the virtual factory: a community linked by an electronic network that would enable numerous partners to operate as one. But for most companies, that promise has been elusive. The traditional technologies--electronic data interchange, proprietary groupware, and wide-area networks--are proving inadequate. Traditional systems cannot meet the three basic requirements of a large-scale virtual factory. First, an internetwork must be able to accommodate members whose IT sophistication varies enormously. Second, it must, while maintaining tight security, cope with partners in both transient and long-term relationships. Finally, it must provide a high level of functionality, including letting partners operate programs on one another's computers. HBS Number: 96410 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1996 Subjects: Aerospace industry; Information technology; Manufacturing strategy; Production planning; Production processes; Sourcing    Reengineering Dead? Don’t Believe It: An Interview with James Champy   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Champy, James L. Publication Date: 03/01/1999 Product Type: Harvard Management Update Article Product Description: Many today take on the "been there, done that" attitude when it comes to business-process reengineering. The common perception is that it's dead. James Champy, however, feels differently and argues that the market for process change never really went away. In addition to explaining the aims of reengineering, he talks of the many possibilities and challenges for companies to do more reengineering. "Reengineering asks the question, How do you rethink the way you do business? How do you rethink your operations in order to grow? That's what it is." HBS Number: U9903E Subjects: Operations management; Process innovation; Reengineering Academic Discipline: Operations management    Remake Your Supply Chain to Support Innovation   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): O'Marah, Kevin Publication Date: 11/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Companies are under increasing pressure to rapidly read buyers' signals and develop products attuned to their needs. Because product development is no longer a linear process, it requires a supply chain that responds and adapts to customer and company input. To facilitate demand-driven innovation and truly become a partner in marketing, supply chain managers must constantly communicate with salespeople, marketers, and designers -- even downstream partners and product servicers -- and collaborate with them. And they must learn to expect and adapt to constant change. Are you ready for the challenge? HBS Number: P0511A Subjects: Change management; Collaboration; Communication; Innovation; Operations management; Process flow; Product development; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Remanufacturing: The Next Great Opportunity for Boosting U.S. Productivity   Add   View  8 pp.  Article Author(s): Giuntini, Ron; Gaudette, Kevin Publication Date: 11/15/2003 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Although many remarkable labor and material initiatives have received considerable attention over the past century, a golden opportunity has remained relatively hidden, limited primarily to a handful of industries, such as capital goods, automotive parts, and the Department of Defense. Today, remanufacturing represents perhaps the largest untapped resource for productivity improvement in American industry. The reasons for its limited use are varied, but they can all be attributed ultimately to a lack of awareness of the potential benefits -- and challenges -- involved. The solutions offered here can aid companies in reaping those benefits and overcoming those challenges. HBS Number: BH098 Subjects: Manufacturing; Operations management; Productivity; Recycling Academic Discipline: Operations management    Reverse Auctions in Industrial Marketing and Buying   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Author(s): Smeltzer, Larry R.; Carr, Amelia Publication Date: 03/15/2002 Product Type: Business Horizons Article Publisher: Business Horizons/Indiana University Product Description: Reverse auctions have been a popular topic in recent years because they can achieve huge savings for buyers and new markets for sellers. But they also carry risks. Three primary motivations, three potential disadvantages, and four conditions and related guidelines for success are reported here. If a reverse auction is to succeed, the product or service specifications must be clear and comprehensive, the purchase must be large enough to provide an incentive for the supplier to participate in the auction, the appropriate supply market conditions must exist, and the appropriate organizational infrastructure must be in place. HBS Number: BH073 Subjects: Information systems; Information technology; Manufacturing strategy; Operations management; Sourcing Academic Discipline: Operations management    Reverse Supply Chain   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Guide, V. Daniel R., Jr.; Van Wassenhove, Publication Date: 02/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Companies should make design and manufacturing decisions with eventual recycling and reconditioning of their products in mind. Here are the five key activities for establishing a reverse supply chain. HBS Number: F0202D Subjects: Manufacturing; Manufacturing policy; Manufacturing strategy; Recycling Academic Discipline: Operations management    Reverse Supply Chains for Commercial Returns   Add   View  18 pp.  Article Author(s): Blackburn, Joseph D.; Guide, Daniel R., Jr.; Souza, Gilvan C.; Van Wassenhove, Luk N. Publication Date: 02/01/2004 Product Type: CMR Article Publisher: California Management Review Product Description: The flow of product returns is becoming a significant concern for manufacturers. Typically, these returns have been viewed as a nuisance, resulting in reverse supply chains that are designed to minimize costs. These minimum cost reverse supply chains often do not consider product return speed. The longer it takes to retrieve a returned product, the lower the chances that there are financially attractive reuse options. Unlike forward supply chains, design strategies for reverse supply chains are unexplored and largely undocumented. The most influential product characteristic for reverse supply chain design is the marginal value of time. Responsive reverse supply chains are the appropriate choice when the marginal value of time for products is high, and efficient reverse supply chains are the proper choice when the marginal value of time for products is low. Product returns and their reverse supply chains represent a potential value stream and deserve as much attention as forward supply chains. HBS Number: CMR273 Subjects: Manufacturing; Product life cycle; Product management; Product planning & policy; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Reversing Course   Add   View  6 pp.  Article Author(s): Johnson, Lauren Keller Publication Date: 08/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: Companies are bombarding the marketplace with an ever-widening array of product types -- many of which have shrinking life cycles. Return policies are becoming increasingly liberal. Green laws are placing more and more of the burden for dealing with a product's afterlife back on the manufacturer's shoulders. The message for supply chain executives? Your reverse supply chain can no longer be the afterthought it once was. In the face of today's business realities, the most successful firms view their reverse supply chain as a core part of their overall supply chain management strategy. More than that, they are rethinking the very premise of the supply chain's role in the company by viewing the supply chain not as a one-way street to the customer, but as a closed loop. Learn how to manage your reverse supply chain as a source of value. HBS Number: P0508B Subjects: Process analysis; Product life cycle; Strategic intent; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Road Map for Natural Capitalism   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Lovins, Amory B.; Lovins, L. Hunter; Hawken, Paul No one would run a business without accounting for its capital outlays. Yet most companies overlook one major capital component--the value of the earth's ecosystem services. It is a staggering omission; recent calculations place the va HBS Number: 99309 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 5/1/1999 Subjects: Automobiles; Electric power; Energy conservation; Energy resources; Environmental protection; High technology products; Manufacturing; Materials management; Natural resources; Pollution; Pollution control    Road Map for Natural Capitalism (HBR Classic)   Add   View  20 pp.  Article Author(s): Lovins, Amory B.; Lovins, L. Hunter; Hawken, Paul Publication Date: 07/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0707P Subjects: Automobiles; Electric power; Energy conservation; Energy resources; Environmental protection; HBR Classics; High technology products; Manufacturing; Materials management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: No one would run a business without accounting for its capital outlays. Yet in 1999, when this article was originally published, most companies overlooked one major capital component — the value of the earth's ecosystem services. It was a staggering omission: Calculations at that time placed the value of those services — water storage, atmosphere regulation, climate control, and others — at $33 trillion per year. Not accounting for that cost has led to waste on a grand scale, the authors maintain. This article shows how a few farsighted companies, like DuPont and Xerox, were able to find powerful business opportunities in conserving resources on a similarly grand scale. Their early embrace of natural capitalism is even more important to emulate today. Natural capitalism comprises four major shifts in business practices. The first involves dramatically increasing the productivity of natural resources — by as much as 100-fold. In the second stage, companies adopt closed-loop production systems that yield no waste or toxicity. The third stage requires a fundamental change of business model — from selling products to delivering services. For example, instead of selling light bulbs, a manufacturer sells lighting services, with both the seller and the customer benefiting from the development of extremely efficient, durable bulbs. The last stage involves reinvesting in natural capital to restore, sustain, and expand the planet's ecosystem. Because natural capitalism is both necessary an    Robust Quality   Add   View  13 pp.  Article Taguchi, Genichi; Clausing, Don Product "robustness" is a function of good design. Still, most traditional quality programs concentrate on the factory. Zero Defects says that when parts come in within tolerances, the product will be fine. But parts just within tolerances have no advantage over those that just miss; it is better to miss a target consistently than to hit it haphazardly. Robust products maximize "signal-to-noise" ratios of component parts. Product designers can maximize these ratios by running experiments according to orthogonal arrays, which reckon the average effect of each variation on all other variations. HBS Number: 90114 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 1/1/1990 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; Product design; Production planning; Quality control    Rocket Science Retailing Is Almost Here—Are You Ready?   Add   View  12 pp.  Article Fisher, Marshall L.; Raman, Ananth; McClelland, Anna Despite all the data that retailers and e-tailers can now gather about point-of-purchase information, buying patterns, and customer tastes, they still haven't figured out how to offer the right product, in the right place, at the right HBS Number: R00404 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/2000 Subjects: Data bases; Forecasting; Information management; Merchandising; Retailing; Sales forecasting; Supply & demand; Supply chain    Safeguarding Your Critical Business Information   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Rosenoer, Jonathan Publication Date: 02/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article Product Description: Media companies have used digital rights management to protect their copyrighted materials from infringement. These technologies may also help companies shield proprietary information from digital attacks. HBS Number: F0202B Subjects: Information management; Information technology; Intellectual capital; Intellectual property; Operations management Academic Discipline: Operations management    Same Old Principles in the New Manufacturing   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Hounshell, David A. According to this book reviewer, the management tradition of Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford is increasingly under attack as a root cause of the decline in U.S. competitiveness. Where U.S. manufacturing is Taylorist (rigid, mechanistic, hierarchical, and functionally divided), Japanese manufacturing companies are presumably more holistic (flexible, agile, and organic). Japanese workplaces treat workers as contributors to corporate knowledge, and U.S. companies should follow suit, the argument goes. HBS Number: 88603 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 11/1/1988 Subjects: Manufacturing strategy; National competitiveness; Organizational structure; Production planning    Security Knocks on the C-Suite’s Door   Add   View  3 pp.  Article Author(s): Cottrill, Ken Publication Date: 02/01/2006 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: The U.S. government's Customs Trade Partner Against Terrorism program encourages CEOs to become more involved in ensuring that their companies are secure trading entities. At first this might seem an expensive effort. But tightening the security of supply chains can provide significant competitive advantages, including streamlined border crossings, expedited restoration of supply chains disrupted by terrorist activity, even improved visibility of day-to-day supply chain activities. Learn how reducing terrorist risks can also reduce your business risks. HBS Number: P0602E Subjects: CEO; Competitive advantage; Operations management; Security; Supply chain; Supply chain optimization; Terrorism; Trade Academic Discipline: Operations management    Selecting Management Tools Wisely   Add   View  4 pp.  Article Author(s): Rigby, Darrell; Bilodeau, Barbara Publication Date: 12/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: F0712E Subjects: Management techniques; Strategy implementation Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: With so many management tools out there, from benchmarking to outsourcing, it's hard to decide which ones to try. To help executives make informed choices, the authors compare levels of use and satisfaction for the most popular tools, and chart the evolution of a select few.    Service Factory   Add   View  7 pp.  Article Chase, Richard B.; Garvin, David A. Manufacturers that thrive into the next generation will compete by bundling services with products. The factory will be the hub of their efforts to get and hold customers. Some companies are already exploiting their factories' service potentials. Upstream activities like marketing, design, and quality, are folding into downstream activities like sales, repair, and aftersales support. HBS Number: 89402 Type: Harvard Business Review Article Publication Date: 7/1/1989 Subjects: Customer relations; Customer service; Manufacturing strategy; Marketing strategy; Services    Shifting into High Gear   Add   View  5 pp.  Article Author(s): Phull, Seema Publication Date: 09/01/2005 Product Type: Supply Chain Strategy Article Product Description: In 2004, Enterasys Networks, the $357 million builder of secure enterprise networks, faced a critical situation: it had to transform itself rapidly into a lean, responsive enterprise before it was overtaken by competitors in the fast-moving global market for network technology. To do so, leaders quickly had to shift the company out of the survival mode it had adopted over the previous several years and focus on implementing the processes necessary to compete in a growth economy. For any company turning the corner from the downturn, these challenges may well ring a familiar bell. HBS Number: P0509B Industry Setting: Networking equipment Subjects: Competition; Growth strategy; Operations management; Organizational transformations; Outsourcing; Supply chain Academic Discipline: Operations management    Simplicity-Minded Management   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Ashkenas, Ron Publication Date: 12/01/2007 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0712H Industry Setting: Packaged food industry Subjects: Organizational change; Organizational structure; Process improvement; Product management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description: Large organizations are by nature complex, but over the years new business challenges — globalization, innovative technologies, and regulations, to name a few — have conspired to add layer upon layer of complexity to corporate structure and management. Organizations have become increasingly ungovernable and unwieldy: Performance is declining; accountability is unclear; decision rights are muddy; and data are crunched repeatedly, often with no clear purpose in mind. To avoid frustration and inefficiency, executives need to systematically attack the causes of complexity in their companies. Ashkenas and his partners at Robert H. Schaffer & Associates have worked with dozens of firms to help them develop strategies for simplification. In this article, the author details the elements of a simplicity-minded strategy: Streamline the structure; prune products, services, and features; build disciplined processes; and improve managerial habits. ConAgra Foods' experience illustrates how one company turned itself around through careful execution of a simplicity strategy. The packaged-food supplier had become enormously successful by acquiring well known brands and then allowing them to operate autonomously, evolving into a $14 billion organization with more than 100 brands, a food services business, and a commodity trading operation. ConAgra, however, had no common method for reporting, tracking, or analyzing results. Over time, therefore, it became a highly unwieldy enterprise, riddled with inefficiencies and unable to communicate adequately with investors and othe    Six IT Decisions Your IT People Shouldn’t Make   Add   View  16 pp.  Article Author(s): Ross, Jeanne W.; Weill, Peter Publication Date: 11/01/2002 Product Type: Harvard Business Review Article HBS Number: R0211F Industry Setting: Information services Subjects: Decision making; Information technology; Investments; Return on investment; Strategic intent; Strategy implementation; Technology management Academic Discipline: Operations management Product Description:</