Pages

Case Overview

There are approximately 20 cases in this course. Each person should write up three of these during the term. A write-up is a three-page analysis of the case, guided by the discussion questions, any readings for the session, and any ideas discussed previously in the course.

Write-up Guidelines

Assume you are writing to someone (e.g., a senior person with responsibility in the organization) who knows the facts; keep it succinct; many senior executives don’t want to read long reports. The write-up is not to exceed three single-spaced pages of typed text (not smaller than 12 pt. font, please), with up to three supporting exhibits.

A good paper should clearly and succinctly state recommendations in the first paragraph. The remaining paragraphs should present the rationale for the recommendations, including expected consequences (both desirable and undesirable). Each case has a set of questions (found below), which are a guide to help you with the analysis – however, you should not limit your analysis to narrowly answering these questions. A good report is not a chronology of analysis, but a clearly articulated statement of recommendation and support. If there are options under consideration in the case that you reject, a clear rationale for your decision should be provided. Facts stated in the case need not be restated unless used to make a point. Do not summarize the case in your paper.

Grading

Write-ups will be graded with the following items considered:

  • Broad discussion of relevant strategic, operational and environmental issues.
  • Analysis
  • Qualitative analysis of all factors relevant to the problem.
  • Quantitative analysis (if appropriate) and explanation of approach.
  • Explicit recommendations, reasoning, and implications of such, including discussion of implementation and expected consequences of the recommendations.
  • Clarity, logic, creativity, exposition.

Discussion Questions

SES # TOPICS QUESTIONS
1 Introduction to service operations

Case: Benihana

  1. How would you describe Benihana’s business model? What’s your assessment of it?
  2. What operational issues are well addressed by the Benihana operating system?
  3. What weaknesses do you see in the system?
  4. What from this system is replicable or transportable to other service businesses?
2 Process design: Order fulfillment

Case: CVS

  1. What are the key features of the existing fulfillment process at CVS? What parts are in the greatest need of redesign?
  2. Does pharmacy fulfillment process improvement represent a significant (financial) opportunity for CVS? How might you assess this?
  3. What changes would you recommend to CVS’s pharmacy fulfillment process?
  4. What IT changes, if any, would be required to implement your changes?
  5. What general principles would you propose for process redesign based on your analysis of the CVS system?
3 The role of the employee in service operations

Case: Ritz-Carlton

  1. What is the essence of the Ritz-Carlton experience? What is Ritz-Carlton selling?
  2. How does the Ritz-Carlton create “Ladies & Gentlemen” in only seven days?
  3. Do you think the seven-day training period should be lengthened?
  4. Alternately, should McBride revamp the entire hotel opening process? If so, how?
  5. What’s your assessment of the Ritz TQM system?
4 The role of the customer

Case: Zipcar

  1. Where is Zipcar positioned in its competitive landscape? Is the service model sound? What are the critical success factors going forward?
  2. What role do customers have within the Zipcar service model? With what other companies do customers have a similar role?
  3. In which instances might Zipcar want to manage customer behavior? What mechanisms should the company use to get these desired outcomes?
  4. In general, how have companies managed to influence your behavior as a customer? Which are the most effective techniques? The most ineffective? The most creative?
5 Refining retail business models

Case: McDonald’s

  1. What were the key operations strategy milestones of McDonald’s over the past 50 years?
  2. What are the new challenges McDonald’s faces in the 1990s and beyond?
  3. What’s your assessment of McDonald’s performance over the decades?
  4. How can McDonald’s avoid losing share to new entrants like Starbucks?

Case: Starbucks

  1. What factors accounted for the extraordinary success of Starbucks in the early 1990’s?
  2. Why have Starbucks customer satisfaction scores declined?
  3. How does the Starbucks of 2002 differ from that of 1992?
  4. Describe the ideal Starbucks customer from a profitability standpoint. How valuable is he/she to Starbucks? What would it take to keep such customers highly satisfied?
  5. Should Starbucks make the $40 million investment in labor in the stores? Why/Why not?
6 Clockspeed and disruptions

  1. What is an “operations strategy”?
  2. How should we define and identify “excellent” operations?
  3. What companies particularly impress you with their operations? Why?
  4. What’s the “recipe” for a winning operations strategy?
  5. (How) do these answers differ for service vs. manufacturing companies?
7 Disruptive service models

Case: Southwest Airlines

  1. Describe the traditional business model, operations strategy, and enterprise architecture of Southwest. What was the role of the airplane turnaround process in the operations strategy?
  2. In what sense was the Southwest business model disruptive?
  3. What is your assessment of the evolution of the Southwest model and the decisions Southwest has made over the past decade?
  4. What would you recommend to Southwest regarding the opportunity to add slots at LaGuardia airport? Why?
8 Process design: Health care systems

Case: Shouldice Hospital

  1. How would you measure the degree of success of Shouldice Hospital? To what do you attribute this success?
  2. Why does this hospital run so smoothly? What are its key processes?
  3. Is this (Canadian) success surprising to you given the state of the U.S. health system?
  4. Propose a set of recommendations and an implementation plan for Shouldice.
9 Service operations frameworks I  
10 Service operations frameworks II  
11 Retailing and logistics capabilities I

Case: Seven-Eleven Japan

  1. What accounts for Seven-Eleven Japan’s remarkable growth?
  2. What is SEJ’s value proposition to the customer?
  3. What must SEJ excel at in order to continue to fulfill its value proposition?
  4. See also the questions on page 9 of the case.
12 Retailing and logistics capabilities II

Case: Wal-mart

  1. What operations innovations did Wal-mart develop in its march to competitive advantage?
  2. To what degree do you think Wal-mart’s advantages are based on operations?
  3. Are Wal-mart’s innovations easy to copy? How have they sustained their advantage?
  4. What’s your assessment of Wal-mart’s planning and performance for disaster management?
  5. How sustainable do you think Wal-mart’s system is?
  6. What might disrupt them?
13 Employee involvement and data mining

  1. In general, what is the relationship between the amount of labor at a retail store and store profit?
  2. What are the challenges associated with optimizing staffing levels at this setting?

Case: IBM at Dillard’s

For the following three questions, please feel free to use the following data: Exhibit 5 & Traffic data (XLS)

  1. What is the relationship between conversion rates and labor?
  2. Jim Mount, the manager of the Dillard’s store in the case, is given the goal of having $120 sales per labor hour spent. Is he doing a good job of managing staffing levels?
  3. Given the variability in traffic, what strategy would you use to staff the stores and schedule employees?
  4. What are the costs and benefits of providing employees their schedules one month in advance?
14 The last ten yards of supply chain delivery

Case: Mercadona

  1. How is Mercadona able to provide the lowest price to customers and at the same time invest heavily in its store employees? What are some of the strategy, supply chain, and operations choices they made that allows for this to happen?
  2. What are the trade-offs of Mercadona’s model?
  3. Compare Mercadona’s approach of using largely full-time employees and fixed employee schedules, which are provided one month in advance, versus heavy use of part timers and providing schedules one week in advance.
  4. Compare Mercadona’s model of prescribing necessary products to customers versus the traditional retail model of offering larger variety to customers. Given Mercadona’s model, what principles should they follow in reducing product variety?
  5. What is your recommendation for employee bonuses for 2008?
15 Consumer insurance

Case: Progressive

  1. How does Progressive’s performance as an auto insurer compare to that of typical insurance companies? How has its performance changed over time? What explains the difference in performance?
  2. Customers of auto insurers are very price sensitive. How problematic is it to Progressive that customers almost always select the insurer that offers the best price?
  3. Assess the viability of the Autograph system. What level of consumer acceptance will it take to make Autograph successful? What are the barriers to consumer acceptance? Should Autograph be expanded nationwide?
16 Internet as disruptive vs. sustaining

Case: Citibank

  1. How has the Internet changed banking?
  2. What is Citibank’s business model? Sources of differentiation?
  3. What is their operations and IT strategy?
  4. How does Citibank deliver value to its customers?
  5. What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Case: Charles Schwab

  1. What is Charles Schwab’s business model?
  2. What is their operations and IT strategy?
  3. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
  4. What is your assessment of their response to Internet disruption?
17 Business-to-Business (B2B) supply chain platforms

Case: Alibaba

  1. What has been the historic strength and strategy of Li & Fung?
  2. Contrast Alibaba’s model with Li & Fung’s.
  3. Interpret each business model in terms of multi-sided platforms.
  4. Could Alibaba be a threat to L&F? Under what conditions?
18 Information technology outsourcing and consulting  
19 Web services, cloud computing and digital media

Case: Amazon

  1. What is Amazon’s strategy and its approach to IT?
  2. Do you agree that creating Amazon Web Services makes strategic sense for Amazon? Why or why not is it consistent with its strategy?
  3. What does Amazon need to do to be successful with Web Services?
  4. What recommendations would you make to Amazon regarding AWS?
  5. How should Sony Music address the issues it faces?
20 Disruptions and servicization in the auto industry

  1. How would you describe the key disruptions of Ford and Sloan and Toyota/Ohno? Think partly in terms of the product, process, and supply chain (3-D concurrent engineering in Clockspeed) that each firm engineered.
  2. What’s your assessment of the servicization proposal of Better Place?
  3. What would Henry or Alfred or Taiichi do? Or, does industry require a very different vision and model?
  4. Do you think Better Place could have a disruptive effect on the industry and further, on the current industry leader, Toyota?
  5. What is the role of operations strategy in your approach?
21 Homebuilding: A complex network of services

  1. Why is the industry structured the way it is? Could it be structured differently? What are the roles of the other value chain members (e.g., mortgage lenders)?
  2. Where are the opportunities for disruptive change?
  3. Finally, assuming that United Building Supply brings a solid commitment and a lot of financial muscle to the task, what must they do to disrupt and transform this industry? What should the end game look like? What are the critical success factors they should focus on? Is this task insurmountable?
  4. What might Henry Ford or Alfred Sloan or Taiichi Ohno do? Or, does industry require a very different vision and model?
22 Supply chain systems: Social responsibility

Case: IKEA (A)

  1. How should Marianne Barner respond to the invitation for IKEA to have a representative appear on the upcoming broadcast of the German video program?
  2. What actions should she take regarding the IKEA supply contract with Rangan Exports?
  3. What long-term strategy would you suggest she take regarding IKEA’s continued operation in India? Should the company stay or should it exit? (Describe the impact of such a decision and how you would manage it.)
  4. For those recommending that IKEA continue to source carpets in India, would you suggest that she:
  • continue IKEA’s own monitoring and control processes or sign-up to Rugmark?
  • continue to focus only on eliminating the use of child labor in IKEA’s supply chain or engage in broader action to address the root causes of child labor as Save the Children is urging?

Case: IKEA (B)

  1. How appropriate were the various actions as IKEA management took in response to the crisis of 1995 as described in the (A) case?
  2. What is your evaluation of the IWAY policies and practices that have redefined IKEA’s relationship with its suppliers? What benefits do you see? What concerns do you have?
  3. What does the recent audit of Venkat Industries tell us about the effectiveness of IKEA’s overall approach to dealing with the problem of child labor in its supply chain?
  4. What should Marianne Barner recommend to Kaisa Mattson in dealing with Venkat Industries’ recent audit result?
  5. What long-term changes in IKEA’s philosophy, policies, and practices should she recommend to Anders Dahlvig?
23 Organizational change; Government services

Case: IRS

  1. Who are the IRS’s customers and what services does the IRS provide? What role do customers play in maintaining service quality? What role does the IRS play in ensuring service quality?
  2. What instigated the change effort at the IRS and what, specifically, was targeted for change? How does the “new” IRS differ from the “old” IRS?
  3. In your view, how effective was the change management process?
  4. In the year or so following the case, the Wall Street Journal reported that the IRS was considering outsourcing “collections” (overdue or delinquent taxes) to collection agencies. Do you recommend the outsourcing of collections? Why or why not?
  5. What is the key managerial challenge facing Charles Rossotti going forward?

This course is heavily based on discussion of the case assignments. However, slides are available for select sessions below.

SES # TOPICS LECTURE NOTES
1 Introduction to service operations (PDF)
2 Process design: Order fulfillment (PDF)
6 Clockspeed and disruptions (PDF - 2.0MB)
9-10 Service operations frameworks II & III (PDF - 1.0MB) (Courtesy of Gabriel R. Bitran. Used with permission.)
19 Web services, cloud computing and digital media (PDF)
22 Supply chain systems: Social responsibility (PDF)

The course project is an opportunity to apply course concepts and to perform an in-depth analysis of operations strategy issues that are of interest to you. The final project can be done individually or in groups of up to three people. The project is to write a paper and make a presentation on an operations “comparison study.” Identify a pair of organizations in the same (or similar) industry and compare their operations strategies, systems design and operations, and/or performance. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each company and give your opinions on the appropriateness of the operations approach of each. Give your opinions on the relative competitive strengths of each company going forward in time and the role that operations plays in each company’s competitive strengths and weaknesses. You may use public or private companies, large or small, foreign or domestic.

The paper should be 15-20 pages in length (double-spaced, 12 point font with one-inch margins on each side). Examples of company pairs might be: McDonald’s/Burger King, JetBlue/Delta, Starbucks/Au Bon Pain, Fedex/UPS, Fidelity/Vanguard, Mass General Hospital/Beth Israel, etc. The paper is due on Ses #24. Student teams will give short presentations on their papers during Ses #23 and 24.

Student Project Examples

All student project examples are courtesy of MIT students and are used with permission.

Vapiano vs. Trattoria Il Panino (PDF) (Courtesy of Dori Davari, Terence Lam, Iulian Pogor, and Joao Violante. Used with permission.)

Trader Joe’s vs. Whole Foods (PDF)

Cleveland Clinic vs. CVS MinuteClinic (PDF - 1.5MB)

Discussion questions for all assigned readings and cases can be found in the Assignments section of this course. Students must read all the assigned case studies, but are required to complete write-ups for only three of their choosing. A list of optional reading materials can be found in the Syllabus.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to service operations

Frei, Frances. “Breaking the Trade-off Between Efficiency and Service.” Harvard Business Review 84, no. 11 (2006): 92-101.

Case

Sasser Jr, W. Earl, and John R. Klug. “Benihana of Tokyo.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-673-057, Rev. July 10, 2004. 

2 Process design: Order fulfillment

Pink, Daniel H. “Who Has the Next Big Idea?Fast Company Magazine, August 31, 2001.

Hammer, Michael. “The Process Enterprise: An Executive Perspective.” Hammer and Company, June 2001.

Case

McAfee, Andrew. “Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-015, Rev. October 20, 2006.

3 The role of the employee in service operations

Hemp, Paul. “My Week as a Room-Service Waiter at the Ritz.” Harvard Business Review 80, no. 6 (2002).

Case

Sucher, Sandra J., and Stacy McManus. “The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-601-163, Rev. July 11, 2002.

4 The role of the customer

Frei, Frances X. “The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right.” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 4 (2008): 70-80.

Case

Frei, Frances X. “Zipcar: Influencing Customer Behavior.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-605-054, Rev. June 30, 2005.

5 Refining retail business models

Cases

Upton, David M. “McDonald’s Corporation (Abridged).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-603-041, Rev. June 16, 2005.

Moon, Youngme, and John A. Quelch. “Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-504-016, Rev. Februrary 3, 2004.

6 Clockspeed and disruptions Fine, Charles H. Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Basic Books, 1999. ISBN: 9780738201535.
7 Disruptive service models

Case

Heskett, James L., and Early Sasser Jr. “Southwest Airlines: In a Different World.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-910-419, Rev. June 15, 2010.

8 Process design: Health care systems

Spear, Steven J. “Fixing Health Care from the Inside, Today.” Harvard Business Review 83, no. 9 (2005).

Case

Hallowell, Roger, and James L. Heskett. “Shouldice Hospital Limited (Abridged).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-805-002, Rev. January 21, 2005.

9 Service operations frameworks I Bitran, Gabriel R., and Maureen Lojo. “A Framework for Analyzing Service Operations.” European Management Journal 11, no. 3 (1993): 271-282.
10 Service operations frameworks II  
11 Retailing and logistics capabilities I

Lee, Hau. “The Triple-A Supply Chain.” Harvard Business Review 82, no. 10 (2004): 102-112.

Case

Chopra, Sunil. “Seven-Eleven Japan Co.” Kellogg School of Management Case. Case: KEL-026, Rev. February 14, 2005. 

12 Retailing and logistics capabilities II

Cases

Bradley, Stephen P., Pankaj Ghemawat, and Sharon Foley. “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-794-024, Rev. November 6, 2002.

Rosegrant, Susan. “Wal-mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina: Striving for a Public-Private Partnership.” Harvard Kennedy School Case. Harvard Kennedy School Case Program. Case: C16-07-1876.0, August 28, 2007.

13 Employee involvement and data mining

Case

Ton, Zeynep. “IBM Retail Business Assessment at Dillard’s, Inc.: Managing Staffing Levels to Improve Conversion.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-610-051, February 26, 2010.

14 The last ten yards of supply chain delivery

Case

Ton, Zeynep, and Simon Harrow. “Mercadona.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-610-089, Rev. April 14, 2010.

15 Consumer insurance

Loveman, Gary. “Diamonds in the Data Mine.” Harvard Business Review 81, no. 5 (2003): 109-113.

Case

Frei, Francis X. “Innovation at Progressive (A): Pay-As-You-Go Insurance.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-602-175, Rev. April 29, 2004.

16 Internet as disruptive vs. sustaining

Cases

Farhoomand, Ali, and Minyi Huang. “Citibank’s e-Business Strategy for Global Corporate Banking.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: HKU797, October 24, 2008.

Burgelman, Robert A., and Philip Meza. “The Charles Schwab Corporation in 2007: Fixing and Redefining the Core Business.” Stanford Graduate School of Business Case. Case: SM-35C, January 03, 2008.

17 Business-to-Business (B2B) supply chain platforms

Magretta, Joan. “Fast, Global, & Entrepreneurial: Supply Chain Management, Hong Kong Style.” Harvard Business Review 76, no. 5 (1998): 102-114.

Eisenmann, Thomas, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall W. Van Alstyne. “Strategies for Two-sided Markets.” Harvard Business Review 82 (2006).

Case

Wulf, Julie M. “Alibaba Group.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-710-436, Rev. April 26, 2010.

18 Information technology outsourcing and consulting

Case

Burgelman, Robert A., and Aneesha Capur. “Infosys Consulting in 2006: Leading the Next Generation of Business and Information Technology Consulting.” Stanford Graduate School of Business Case. Case: SM-151, May 16, 2006.

19 Web services, cloud computing and digital media

Overby, Stephanie. “The End of IT Outsourcing As We Know It.” CIO, August 11, 2010.

Case

Huckman, Robert S., Gary P. Pisano, and Liz Kind. “Amazon Web Services.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-609-048, October 20, 2008. 

20 Disruptions and servicization in the auto industry

Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. Chapters 1-3 in The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. Harper Collins, 1991. ISBN: 9780060974176.

Watch:

CBS. “Making the World a ‘Better Place’.” March 19, 2009. YouTube. Accessed February 10, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXfqGL3C2uI&NR=1&feature=fvwp.

TEDtalksDirector. “Shai Agassi: A Bold Plan for Mass Adoption of Electric Cars.” April 13, 2009. YouTube. Accessed February 10, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcoJt2KLC9k&feature=related

21 Homebuilding: A complex network of services  
22 Supply chain systems: Social responsibility

Cases

Bartlett, Christopher A., Vincent Dessain, and Anders Sjoman. “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-906-414, May 3, 2006.

———. “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (B).” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-906-415, May 3, 2006.

23 Organizational change; Government services

Case

Edmondson, Amy C. and Frances X. Frei. “Transformation at the IRS.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-603-010, Rev. November 12, 2002.

24 Student project presentations and wrap-up  

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Overview

The course takes an operations point of view to look at companies and industries in the service sector. The course will be primarily case based and will include cases from industries and sectors such as fast food, retailing, government, health care, financial services, internet services, humanitarian services, entertainment, hospitality. Cases will be supplemented with lectures and readings, with some guest lectures as well.

Prerequisites

The recommended prerequisite for this course is 15.760/15.761 Introduction to Operations Management. However, students who have not taken 15.760 should be able to get up to speed with not much difficulty.

Intended Audience

This class is for anyone interested in operations and/or the service sector, with a focus on second-year MBA students, particularly those aspiring to careers in (1) operations, (2) service sector, (3) entrepreneurship, (4) strategy, or (5) management consulting. A working knowledge of operations, which, for many firms, employs the greatest number of employees and requires the largest investment in assets, is often indispensable for general managers and entrepreneurs.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Class participation 35%
Final project 25%
Case submissions 40%

Class Participation

You will be graded on your contributions to create and enhance a positive learning environment for this course. This includes enhancing the atmosphere and quality of classroom discussions, as well as interactions outside the classroom. Grading will be based on the quality and impact of your contributions, not primarily on quantity (although a minimum amount of the latter is necessary to deliver on the former).

In a typical class session, one or more students will be asked to begin the discussion by addressing specific questions, found in the Assignments section of this course. If you have thoroughly prepared the case or reading, you should have no difficulty in handling such a leadoff request. After the leadoff initial analysis and recommendations, the discussion will be opened to the rest of the class, sometimes with cold calling mixed in. Some of the criteria for judging effective class participation include

  1. Relevance,
  2. Insightfulness (in analysis, observation, or questions),
  3. Constructiveness in the context of the class discussion flow,
  4. Depth of analysis,
  5. Clarity and brevity.

Please plan to attend class on a regular basis and come to class prepared to participate fully.

Final Project

The final project for this course is an opportunity to apply course concepts and to perform an in-depth analysis of operations strategy issues that are of interest to you. You may do this in a team (up to three people). More information can be found in the Projects section of this course.

You should make very clear what part of your write-up is based on your own thinking and what part summarizes pre-existing outside sources. Please cite all significant external sources used for your report. This applies in particular to papers you may have written for other classes, to documents you may have received from the company you are analyzing, interviews with industry experts, etc. Building on external sources is by no means a “bad thing”–solid work is typically aware of and builds on what others have done. Ideally though, you should take this external information and add the filter of your own critical thinking and the concepts studied in this class to synthesize it, critique it, etc.

Case Write-ups

There are approximately 20 cases in this course. Each person should write up three of these during the term. The first case write-up is worth 10% of the course grade, and the two subsequent cases are worth 15% each. A write-up is three-page analysis of the case, guided by the Assignment Questions, any Readings for the session, and any ideas discussed previously in the course.

Electronic versions of the write-ups are due by noon of the day of class. Write-ups should be done individually. Please do not discuss with others (in or out of the class) the cases you choose to write up. Also, please do not seek outside (i.e., Internet) sources related to the details or analysis of the case.

Course Workload

My expectation is that you will spend approximately nine hours per week in total for this course. Your weekly schedule should plan for roughly

  • three hours in class,
  • three hours doing individual reading and case preparation before group meetings,
  • three hours for group discussions to prepare the weekly case assignments and/or the ongoing final project.

Course Textbooks

The required text for this course is:

Fine, Charles H. Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Reading, MA: Basic Books, 1999. ISBN: 9780738201535.

There are some textbooks that discuss operations strategy that may be of interest:

Slack, Nigel, and Michael Lewis. Operations Strategy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. ISBN: 9780130313867.

Hill, Terry. Manufacturing Strategy: Text and Cases. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN: 9780256230727.

Miltenburg, John. Manufacturing Strategy: How to Formulate and Implement a Winning Plan. New York, NY: Productivity Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781563273179.

Hayes, Robert H., Steven C. Wheelwright, and Kim B. Clark. Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization. New York, NY: Free Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780029142110.

Garvin, David A. Operations Strategy: Text and Cases. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. ISBN: 9780136389170.

Other business books that may be of interest to students taking this course:

Hammer, Michael. The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group, 2001. ISBN: 9780609609668.

Hammer, Michael, and Steven Stanton. The Reengineering Revolution. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1995. ISBN: 9780887307362.

Pine II, B. Joseph. Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780875843728.

Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1991. ISBN: 9780060974176.

Klein, Janice A. Revitalizing Manufacturing: Text and Cases. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780256068092.

Buy at MIT Press Dertouzos, Michael L., Richard K. Lester, and Robert M. Solow. Made In America: Regaining the Productive Edge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780262041003.

Cohen, Stephen S., and John Zysman. Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988. ISBN: 9780465043859.

Laseter, Timothy M. Balanced Sourcing: Cooperation and Competition in Supplier Relationships. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass, 1998. ISBN: 9780787944438.

Course Info

As Taught In
Fall 2010
Level
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Notes
Projects with Examples
Written Assignments