Blackberry Hill Farm (BHF) has developed two businesses to complement their traditional farming activity over the last 6 years. The first is a service operation opening up the farm to paying visitors who can observe farming activities and enjoy tours, walks and exhibits; the second is a facility manufacturing preserves. The case allows students to explore capacity constraints in a service business, and to compare the capacity with demand forecasts. The teacher will be able to highlight the dangers of ignoring changes in ‘mix’ of demand, and the inappropriate use of averaged data. Students can explore options for flexing capacity, managing demand and target marketing to achieve better balance between capacity and load in a very seasonal business. They can also examine the role of inventory, personnel issues and seasonality in the manufacture and supply of preserves in which there are constraints in production. The case should allow students to focus on trade-offs between conflicting organisational priorities, forcing them to examine compromises and make appropriate decisions that may (or may not) please differing stakeholder groups. Questions: 1. What are the current capacity constraints of the farm? 2. How would you improve the operation of the farm? Focus on the following issues: a. Long-term strategic issues. b. Medium-term planning and control. c. Short-term operation issues as appropriate. 3. What are the strengths and weakness of the proposed new ventures (School room vs. Maize maze)? What advice would you give Jim and Mandy regarding this year’s new venture? 4. How do you rate their preserving operation in terms of: (a). Inventory control. (b). Productivity. (c). Capacity planning. (d). Awareness of staff issues. (e). Availability for visitors. 5. What improvements would you recommend?
> Why do we still have transform the following problem statement into a researchable topic for investigation? The introduction of flexible work hours has created more problems than it has solved.
> Below are three scenarios. Indicate how the researcher should proceed in each case; that is, determine the following, giving reasons: a. Type of research question (exploratory, descriptive, or causal). b. The extent of researcher interference. c. The s
> Discuss the interrelationships among the research questions of a study (exploratory, descriptive, and causal), study setting (no contrived or contrived), researcher interference, research strategy, and time horizon of study.
> Why is the unit of analysis an integral part of the research design?
> A field study is often more useful than a lab experiment.” Discuss this statement
> Is a field study totally out of the question if one is trying to establish cause and effect relationships?
> Why is it important to consider basic research design issues before conducting the study and even as early as at the time of formulating the research question?
> What are the basic research design issues? Describe them in some detail.
> Daniel Lourenço is a Portuguese student of International Business. Born in Reguengos de Monsaraz, he is an active sportsman, excelling in football and swimming. As a young man Daniel developed a keen interest in aviation. He read everything he was able t
> For the following case: a. Identify the problem b. Develop a diagram representing the conceptual model c. Develop the hypotheses. Concerned about her current customer base, manager Andersen started to think of factors that might affect the attractiveness
> In recent decades, many service markets have been liberalized. For this reason, incumbent service firms are facing new competitors and must address customer switching. You are discussing the determinants of customer switching with a service firm manager.
> It is advantageous to develop a directional hypothesis whenever we are sure of the predicted direction. How will you justify this statement?
> There is an advantage to stating the hypothesis both in the null and the alternate; it adds clarity to our thinking about what we are testing. Explain.
> In an applied research context you do not need to explain the relationships between the variables in your conceptual model. Discuss this statement.
> Good models are complex. What’s more, a good model should include both moderating and mediating variables. Discuss this statement.
> Develop a theoretical framework for the following case. Once given, perks are extraordinarily hard to take away without sapping employee morale. The adverse effects of these cuts far outweigh the anticipated savings in dollars. Research has shown that wh
> Because literature survey is a time-consuming exercise, a good, in-depth interview should suffice to develop a theoretical framework. Discuss this statement.
> Why is appropriate citation important? What are the consequences of not giving credit to the source from which materials are extracted?
> After studying and extracting information from all the relevant work done previously, how does the researcher know which references, articles, and information should be given prominence in the literature survey?
> The (over)consumption of calories is one of the most important determinants of the obesity problem in Europe and the United States. Governments promote the consumption of healthy alternatives and try to support consumers in making healthy choices, for in
> What is the purpose of the literature survey?
> Should a researcher always find information on structural and job characteristics from those interviewed? Give reasons for your answer with examples.
> Why is it important to gather information on the background of the organization? Whys is it important to review the literature on your topic?
> Describe the functions of preliminary data gathering.
> Below is the gist of an article from BusinessWeek. After reading it: a. identify the broad problem area b. explain how you would proceed further. Two years ago, Electronic Arts, the second-largest U.S. video game company, ran on promises. Developers pitc
> Define ‘problem’ and provide an example of a problem you have encountered in your daily life. Discuss how you have used research to solve this problem.
> Discuss the most important differences between positivism and constructionism.
> If research in the management area cannot be 100 percent scientific, why bother to do it at all? Comment on this question.
> Discuss the following statement: Good research is deductive in nature.
> Is there a specific perspective on research that appeals to you? Why?
> The growing use of social network sites (such as Facebook) and online communities (such as for instance the Apple Computer community, the community of Harley-Davidson riders, and the community of Starbucks customers) provides exciting opportunities for o
> This case exercise covers many issues found in new product and service development projects. In particular, the case examines a new type of product that is to be launched in an uncertain and unpredictable market and also carries some development risks. A
> The example of the bullwhip effect shown in Table 7.2 shows how a simple 5 per cent reduction in demand at the end of supply chain causes fluctuations that increase in severity the further back an operation is placed in the chain. Table 7.2: (a). Using
> Described as having ʻrevolutionised the concept of sandwich making and eatingʼ, Prêt A Manger opened their first shop in the mid-1980s, in London. Now they have over 130 shops in UK, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. They say that their secret is to focus c
> The manager of a sweet shop decides to sample batches of sweets to check that the weight is reasonably consistent. She takes 9 samples, each with 10 bags. The data below shows the average mean weight for each sample and the weight range. What control lim
> An animal park in Amsterdam has decided to samples 50 visitors each day (n) to see how many visitors are from overseas. The data below is for the last seven days. If it decided to continue recording this data and plot it on a control chart for attributes
> A local shop has a relatively stable demand for tins of sweetcorn throughout the year, with an annual total of 1,400 tins. The cost of placing an order is estimated at £15 and the annual cost of holding inventory is estimated at 25 per cent of the produc
> The environmental services department of a city has two recycling services – newspaper collection (NC) and general recycling (GR). The NC service is a door-to-door collection service that, at a fixed time every week, collects old newspapers that househol
> Supplies4medics distributes a range of around 4000 SKUs of medical and safety item supplies across Europe. The case highlights increasing problems with inventory shortages and declining service levels, at the same time that total inventory levels were at
> Some (even relatively experienced) project managers neglect stakeholders in the project management process, preferring to ‘manage them at a distance’ rather than allow them to interfere with the project. Others argue that the benefits of stakeholder mana
> The activities, their durations and precedences for designing, writing and installing a bespoke computer database are shown in Table 15.3. Draw a network diagram (activity-on-node) for the project and calculate the fastest time in which the operation mig
> Revisit the six examples of failure described at the beginning of the chapter. Compile a table that summarises your view of: (a). The reasons for the main failure. (b). How it might have been prevented. (c). The result (damage) of the failure.
> It is week 35 of a busy year at Ashby Architect’s and Jo Ashby is facing a big problem. Both her two junior partners have been diagnosed with a serious illness contracted on a trip to scope out a prospective job in Lichtenstein. So Jo h
> Find a copy of a financial newspaper (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, etc.) and identify one company that is described in the paper that day. What do you think would be the main operations issues for that company?
> The Fast and Efficient (FAC) transport Group is reviewing its fleet maintenance operations. ‘Our lease on our current maintenance and repair facilities site will expire in a year, and we need to decide how to operate in the future. Currently we have the
> Mark Key is an events coordinator for a small company. Returning from his annual holiday in France, he is given six events to plan. He gives them the codes A–F. He needs to decide upon the sequence in which to plan the events and wants
> Write down five services that you have ‘consumed’ in the last week. Try and make these as varied as possible. Examples could include public transport, a bank, any shop or supermarket, attendance at an education course, a cinema, a restaurant and so on. F
> Visit an IKEA superstore and a smaller furniture store. Observe how the shop operates, for example, where customers go, how staff interact with them, how big it is, how the shop has chosen to use its space, what variety of products it offers and so on. T
> The Managing Partner of The Branding Partnership (TBP) describes her business. ʻIt is about four years now since we specialized in the small to medium firms’ market. Before that we also used to provide brand consultancy services for anyone who walked in
> Quentin Cakes make about 20,000 cakes per year in two sizes, both based on the same recipe. Sales peak at Christmas time when demand is about 50 per cent higher than in the more quiet summer period. Their customers (the stores who stock their products) o
> A company that produces concrete paving slabs is introducing a new range of ‘textured’ nonslip products. To do this it must invest in a new machine. Demand is forecast to be around 10,000 units per month for the first year and approximately 24,000 units
> A data centre is ‘a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organisations use to organise, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and
> Consider the music business as a supply network. How did music downloads and streaming affect to artists’ sales? What implications did electronic music transmission have for record shops?
> It sounds like a joke, but it is a genuine product innovation. It’s green, it’s square and it comes originally from Japan. It’s a square watermelon. Why square? Because Japanese grocery stores are not large and space cannot be wasted. Similarly a round w
> A janitor called Murray Spangler invented the vacuum cleaner in 1907. One year later, he sold his patented idea to William Hoover whose company went on to dominate the market. Now, the Dyson vacuum cleaner has jumped from nothing to a position where it d
> According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy is ‘one that is restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between tech
> Innovation becomes particularly important at the interface between offerings and the people that use them. Consider two types of website: (a). Those which are trying to sell something such as Amazon.com. (b). Those primarily concerned with giving informa
> We have to get this new product and fast’, said the Operations Director. ‘Our competitors are close behind us and I believe their products will be almost as good as ours when they launch them.’ She was talking about a new product that the company hoped w
> One product for which customers value a very wide range of product types is that of domestic paint. Most people like to express their creativity in the choice of paints and other home decorating products that they use in their homes. Clearly, offering a
> This case uses publicly quoted information (usually from the companies’ own websites) to compare three well-known fashion retailers, all based in Europe. These three retailers are Benetton, based in Northern Italy, H&M, based in Sweden, and Zara, based i
> Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) development firm that develops algorithms for various on-line services. As part of its client services it has a small (10 person) help-desk call centre to answer client queries. Clients could contact th
> DSD designs, makes and supplies medical equipment to hospitals and clinics. Its success was based on their research and development culture. Although around 50 per cent of manufacturing was done in-house, their products were relatively highly priced, but
> Examine this simple domestic project. The project definition is to make ‘breakfast in bed’ consisting of a boiled egg, toast and orange juice, using the minimum staff resources and time, and to a high quality (egg fres
> In the oil industry, project teams are increasingly using virtual reality and visualisation models of offshore structures that allow them to check out not only the original design, but any modifications that have to be made during construction. (a). Why
> Funding comes from a variety of sources; to restore the literally irreplaceable buildings we work on. We try to reconcile historical integrity with commercial viability, and rely on the support of volunteers. So we need to involve all stakeholders all th
> Revisit the two examples towards the beginning of the chapter describing the type of projects undertaken by Disney Imagineering and the Crossrail project. Using, the three methods of distinguishing between projects that are described in the chapter (thei
> An automated sandwich-making machine in a food manufacturer’s factory has six major components, with individual reliabilities as shown in Table 14.2. Table 14.2: Component ……………………………………………………………………………………. Reliability Bread slicer ………………………………………………………
> The light bulb in the men’s lavatories of a factory finally burnt out after 70 years of operation. The manager at the firm said, ‘It is actually a little bit sad. I joined the firm when I was fifteen (he is now sixty-three) and it was there then.’ In fac
> One cause of aircraft accident is ‘controlled flight into ground’. Predominantly, the reason for this is not mechanical failure but human failure such as pilot fatigue. Boeing, which dominates the commercial airline business, has calculated that over 60
> Wyco is a leading international retailer selling clothing and accessories with stores throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The countries from which it sources its products include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. It was shoc
> Action Response is a London-based charity dedicated to providing fast responses to critical situations throughout the world. The charity receives requests for cash aid usually from an intermediary charity and looks to process the request quickly and prov
> Look again at the example, ‘The Four Seasons Canary Wharf’. (a). The company has what it calls its Golden Rule; ‘Do to others (guests and staff) as you would wish others to do to you’. Why is this important in ensuring high-quality service? (b). What do
> Look again at the example, ‘Tea and Sympathy’. (a). Why do you think ‘Nicky’s Rules’ help to make the Tea and Sympathy operation more efficient? (b). The restaurant’s approach to quality of service seems very different to most restaurants. Why do you thi
> Understanding type I and type II errors is essential for surgeon’s quality planning. Consider, for example, appendectomy operations. Following a diagnosis of appendicitis, removal of the appendix is necessary because of the risk of it bursting, causing p
> Ryanair, the best-known budget airline in Europe, focusing on a popular routes and very low operating costs. For years, the boss of the airline, Michael O’Leary’s policy on customer service was clear. ‘Our customer service’, he said ‘is about the most we
> The owner of a small wedding photography business realises that the market is changing. ‘I used to take a few photos during the wedding ceremony and then formal group shots outside. It rarely took more than two hours. Around 30 photos would go in a stand
> Human error is a significant source of quality problems. Think through the times that (with hindsight) you have made an error and answer the following questions. (a). How do you think that human error causes quality problems? (b). What could one do to mi
> Step 1(a). – As a group, identify a ‘high visibility’ operation that you all are familiar with. This could be a type of quick service restaurant, record stores, public transport systems, libraries, etc. Step 2(b). – Once you have identified the broad cla
> A transport services company provides a whole range of services to railway operators. Its reputation for quality was a valuable asset in its increasingly competitive market. ‘We are continually looking for innovation in the way we deliver our services be
> For over 10 years a hotel group, had been developing self-managed improvement groups within its hotels. At one hotel reception desk, staff became concerned about the amount of time the reception desk was left unattended. To investigate this, the staff be
> Develop cause–effect diagrams for the following types of problem: (a). Staff waiting too long for their calls to be answered at their IT helpdesk. (b). Poor food in the company restaurant. (c). Poor lecturing from teaching staff at a university. (d). Cus
> McPherson Charles, based in Bristol in the West of England, has grown rapidly to be one of the biggest law firms in the region. Comprising 21 partners and a total of 400 staff it is an ambitious partnership aiming to maintain its impressive growth record
> Everything we do can be broken down into a process’ said Lucile, COO of an outsourcing business for the ‘back office’ functions of a range of companies. ‘It maybe more straightforward in a manufacturing business, but the concept of process improvement is
> Go back to Chapter 10 and re-read the description of the Theory of Constraints (ToC). Now consider the similarities and differences between ToC and lean synchronisation in terms of their overall objectives, measures of effectiveness, improvement method a
> • Examine the value-added versus non-value-added times for some other services. For example: (a). Handing-in an assignment in for marking if you are currently studying for a qualification. (What is the typical elapsed time between handing the assignment
> An insurance underwriting process consists of the following separate stages. What is the ‘value-added’ percentage for the process? (Hint – use Little’s law to work out how long ap
> Consider this record of an ordinary flight. ‘Breakfast was a little rushed but left the house at 6.15. Had to return a few minutes later, forgot my passport. Managed to find it and leave (again) by 6.30. Arrived at the airport 7.00, dropped Angela off wi
> Re-examine the description of the Toyota production system at the beginning of the chapter. (a). List all the different techniques and practices that Toyota adopts. Which of these would you call just-intime philosophies and which are just-in-time techniq
> Think through the following three brief examples. What type of control (according to Figure 10.13) do you think they warrant? 1. The Games Delivery Authority (GDA) was a public body responsible for developing and building the new venues and infrastructu
> Read the following descriptions of two cinemas. Kinepolis in Brussels is one the largest cinema complexes in the world, with 28 screens, a total of 8,000 seats, and four showings of each film every day. It is equipped with the latest projection technolo
> It takes six hours for a contract laundry to wash, dry and press (in that order) a batch of overalls. It takes three hours to wash the batch, two hours to dry it and one hour to press it. Usually each day’s batch is collected and ready for processing at
> Revisit the example on the Blood and Transplant service at the beginning of the chapter. (a). What are the factors that constitute inventory holding costs, order costs and stock-out costs in a National Blood Service? (b). What makes this particular inven
> Aarens Electronic (AE) produces ‘precision custom coating and laminating services to a wide range of customers, amongst the most important being, Phanchem to whom it supplied dry photoresist imaging films, a critical step in the manufacturing of microchi
> Our suppliers often offer better prices if we are willing to buy in larger quantities. This creates a pressure on us to hold higher levels of stock. Therefore, to find the best quantity to order we must compare the advantages of lower prices for purchase
> A fruit canning plant has a single line for three different fruit types. Demand for each type of tin is reasonably constant at 50,000 per month (a month has 160 production hours). The tinning process rate is 1,200 per hour, but it takes two hours to clea
> A supplier makes monthly shipments to ‘House & Garden Stores’, in average lot sizes of 200 coffee tables. The average demand for these items is 50 tables per week, and the lead time from the supplier three weeks. ‘House & Garden Stores’ must pay for inve
> Revisit the example, ‘United drags passengers off its plane’. (a). How should the airline have handled the situation? (b). After the incident attracted so much negative publicity, United announced a new upper limit of $10,000 in compensation for passen
> Seasonal demand is particularly important to the greetings card industry. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and other occasions have all been promoted as times to send (and buy) appropriately designed cards. Now, some card manufactur
> A German car manufacturer defines ‘utilisation’ as the ratio of actual output for a process to its design capacity, where design capacity is the capacity of a process as it is designed to operate. However, it knows tha
> In a typical 7-day period, the planning department of the pizza company programs its ‘Pizzamatic’ machine for 148 hours. It knows that changeovers and set-ups take 8 hours and breakdowns average 4 hours each week. Waiting for ingredients to be delivered
