Introduction to Operations Management

Cases and Readings

The required readings for this course include:

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

SES #	TOPICS	CASES/READINGS
1	Introduction and class overview	Readings Course syllabus [MSD] Chapters 2.2–3, and 3.1.
2	McDonald’s and Burger King cases	Case Sasser, Jr., W. Earl, et al. “McDonald’s Corp. (Condensed).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-681-044, December 1, 1980. ———. “Burger King Corp.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-681-045, December 1, 1980. Readings [MSD] Chapter 2.6. Van Ryzin, Garrett J. “Production Processes.” Columbia Business School Case. Columbia Caseworks. Case: 080212, Winter 2008.
3	Capacity I: Capacity analysis & queuing	Readings Katz, Karen L., Blaire M. Larson, et al. “Prescription for the Waiting-In-Line Blues: Entertain, Enlighten, and Engage.” Sloan Management Review 32, no. 2 (1991): 44–53. [MSD] Chapters 3.2–5, and 9.
4	The Goal	Reading Goldratt, Eliyah M., and Jeff Cox. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement. 2nd revised ed. North River Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780884270614.
5	Capacity II: Process re-engineering + CVS case	Case McAfee, Andrew. “Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-015, December 14, 2005. Reading Hammer, Michael. “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate.” Harvard Business Review 68, no. 4 (1990): 104–12.
6	PATA case	Case McCarty, Kelsey, Jérémie Gallien, et al. “Massachusetts General Hospital’s Pre-admission Testing Area (PATA).” MIT Sloan Case. MIT Sloan School of Management. Case: 11–116, January 3, 2012.
7	Inventory I: EOQ & cycle stocks	Reading [MSD] Chapter 7.
8	Supply chain strategy + HP DeskJet case	Case Kopczak, Laura Rock, and Hau Lee. “Hewlett-Packard Co.: DeskJet Printer Supply Chain (A).” Stanford Graduate School of Business Case. Case: GS-3A, March 8, 2004. Readings Magretta, Joan. “The Power of Virtual Integration: An Interview with Dell Computer’s Michael Dell.” Harvard Business Review 76, no. 2 (1998): 73–84. Fine, Charles H. “The Primacy of Chains: Capability Chains Make a Business.” Chapter 5 in Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Basic Books, 1999. ISBN: 9780738201535.
9	Inventory II: newsvendor & safety stocks	Readings [MSD] Chapters 12 and 14.
10	Sport Obermeyer case	Case Hammond, Janice H., and Ananth Raman. “Sport Obermeyer Ltd.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-695-022, October 13, 1994. Readings Fisher, Marshall L., Ananth Raman, et al. “Rocket-Science Retailing Is Almost Here: Are You Ready?” Harvard Business Review 78, no. 4 (2000): 115–24. [MSD] Chapter 15.
11	Toyota production system + Toyota case	Case Mishina, Kazuhiro. “Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-693-019, September 8, 1992. Readings Spear, Steven, and H. Kent Bowen. “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System.” Harvard Business Review 77, no. 5 (1999): 96–106. [MSD] Chapter 11.
12	Apparel supply chains + Marks & Spencer and Zara case	Case Pich, Michael, Ludo Van der Heyden, et al. “Marks & Spencer and Zara: Process Competition in the Textile Apparel Industry.” Insead. Case 602-010-1, January 1, 2002. Readings Fung, Victor. “Fast, Global and Entrepreneurial: Supply-Chain Management, Hong Kong Style.” Harvard Business Review 76, no. 5 (1998): 103–14. [MSD] Chapter 10.
13	Amazon case	Case Hammond, Janice H., and Claire Chiron. “Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-605-002, June 30, 2005.
14	Littlefield Technologies simulation game Guest Lecturer: James Miller, MIT Leaders for Global Operations (formerly Leaders for Manufacturing) 1993, Vice-President of Worldwide Operations for Google.	For an overview of the game, go to Littlefield Technologies simulator.
15	Littlefield Technologies simulation game	For an overview of the game, go to Littlefield Technologies simulator.
16	European recycling platform case	Case Lee, Hau, and Maria Shao. “The European Recycling Platform: Promoting Competition in E-waste Recycling.” Stanford Graduate School of Business Case. Case: G-S67, August 28, 2009.
17	Operational risk management I
18	Quality management + Hank Kolb case	Case Leonard, Frank S. “Hank Kolb, Director, Quality Assurance.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-681-083, March 1, 1981. Readings Berwick, Donald M. “Controlling Variation in Health Care: A Consultation from Walter Shewhart.” Medical Care 29, no. 12 (1991): 1212–25. Weisz, William J. Video transcript of “What is Six Sigma?” Motorola, Inc. [MSD] Chapter 10.
19	Operational risk management II + Wal-Mart case	Case Rosegrant, Susan, and Dutch Leonard. “Wal-Mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina: Striving for a Public-Private Partnership.” Harvard Kennedy School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 1876.0, August 28, 2007.
20	Revenue management I	Reading Netessine S., and R. Shumsky. “Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Yield Management.” INFORMS Transactions on Education 3, no. 1 (2002): 34–44. [MSD] Chapter 16.
21	Revenue management II + Break.com case	Case Roels, Guillaume, and Tyler Skowrup. “Break.com.” (PDF) UCLA Anderson School of Management Case. UCLA. October 2008.
22	Supply chain contracts + Barilla case	Case Hammond, Janice H. “Barilla SpA (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-694-046, May 17, 1994. Reading [MSD] Chapter 17.
23	Course wrap-up