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After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand the concept of clustering and identify clusters for improving capacity utilization, analyse transport routes to optimize logistics resources, analyse the impact of a full truckload on resource optimization, evaluate unused capacity and ascertain the impact of reverse milk run to reduce the same and apply clustering and reverse milk run to optimize the logistics resources.

The case study is about a freight forwarding company that offered end-to-end logistics solutions for the exporters based in India. Within a short time span, the company became one of the sought-after service providers for its clients. However, when the company planned to expand its business by expanding its client base, the efficiencies reduced and hurt the profitability of the company. It was all excellent with the limited number of clients, but as the number of distantly located clients surged, the operating costs increased. Trucks were running with partial loads, thus reducing efficiency. The rate of increase in cost surpassed the rate of revenue every time. The cost per mile of transportation was on the rise. The surging fuel prices were adding to the heat. In spite of being one of the first choices for clients, the company could not generate good profit margins. If they chose to increase prices, the company would have lost customers to the cheaper unorganized players in the market. It was time to choose between growth and survival. The company could not sustain itself without devising a mechanism to reduce costs. The company would not have sustained itself without devising a mechanism to reduce costs. To sustain in the business, the company had to device a mechanism to reduce costs. Whether to continue operating the conventional way or to transform? Was there a logistics strategy that would have improved transportation efficiency and reduced the costs for the company?

The case study is suitable for teaching post-graduate management courses in operations and logistics, supply chain management and supply chain analytics, as well as entrepreneurship-related courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 9: Operations and logistics.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives to understand electric vehicle (EV) business, business environment, industry competition and strategic planning and strategy implementation.

The size of the Indian passenger vehicle market was valued at US$32.70bn in 2021; it was projected to touch US$54.84bn by 2027 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 9% during the period 2022–2027. The passenger vehicle industry, a part of the overall automotive industry, was expected to grow at a rapid pace, as the Indian economy was rising at the fastest rate. However, the Government of India (GoI) had put a condition on the growth scenario by mandating that 100% of vehicles produced would be EVs by 2030. Tata Motors (TaMo), a domestic player in the market, had been facing a challenging competitive environment. Although it had been incurring losses, it had successfully ventured into the EV business. TaMo had taken advantage of the first mover by creating an electric mobility business vertical to enable the company to deliver on its aspiration of providing innovative and competitive e-mobility solutions. TaMo leadership had been putting efforts to scale up the electric mobility business, thus, contributing to GoI’s plan for electric mobility. Shailesh Chandra, president of electric mobility business, had a big task in hand. He had to scale up EV production and sales despite insufficient infrastructure for charging and shortages of electronic components for manufacturing.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives for strategic management class. It is recommended that the case study is distributed in advance so that the students can prepare well in advance for classroom discussions. Groups will be created to delve into details for a specific question. While one group will make their presentation, the other groups will question the solution provided and give suggestions.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

To develop the case, the authors used secondary sources including company annual reports, industry reports, news articles, social media sites, academic journal articles and company websites. This case has been classroom tested with students in the MBA Program and Master of Science in Management and Technology Program, and with undergraduates in an operations management course.

Movado Group, which has been a fierce competitor in the luxury watch market, has been facing unprecedented challenges posed by consumers’ enthusiasm for smartwatches and by their love of shopping online. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified these problems and brought new setbacks. This case examines these challenges to the company’s current business model. It then explores opportunities that could transform Movado into an innovative, digitally oriented organization capable of reaching consumers in a dynamic market while combating intense competition from the smart wearable devices that threaten traditional watch companies. The case also discusses the importance of building a robust supply chain through the lens of Industry 4.0 to guard against future supply chain disruptions.

Instructors can use this case in operations and supply chain management classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The focus of the case aligns with discussions of supply chain management and Industry 4.0. In particular, the case uses supply chain innovation theory to investigate the implications of Industry 4.0 in the watch industry and dovetails into discussions of omni-channel experience and virtual reality in retail that integrate multiple points of contact to reach consumers efficiently.

This case presents some of the entrepreneurial challenges faced by a female leader in the technology sector who conceived a new product based on her passion to help others especially those most disadvantaged.

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to prepare supply chain and distribution analysis that considers ethics and sustainability, integrate philanthropic efforts as part of an organizational strategy and recognize strategies to promote equity within and beyond an organization.

Connie Stacey (she/her) is an entrepreneur and president of Growing Greener Innovations, an award-winning battery energy storage company based in Alberta, Canada, with a mission to end energy poverty globally. With the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic in 2020, Stacey turned her attention to an innovation called Project Rescue, a ventilator that uses non-identifying patient vitals to track data. It serves as a pandemic early warning system, addressing two key challenges: pandemic data are prone to error, and real-time information is non-existent after the pandemic has spread. This new product was conceived based on her passion to help others, especially those most disadvantaged. This multi-faceted case focuses on the many challenges that Stacey and her team needed to address. The dilemma in this case centres on establishing supply chains amid a pandemic, as well as prioritizing the corporate social responsibility elements of philanthropy and equity within her organization (and beyond).

This case is appropriate for third- or fourth-year undergraduate or graduate-level students.

In addition to “call out boxes” throughout the case and teaching note, additional readings/links/videos are outlined below. (These supplementary materials, “Teaching Tips”, are included in the teaching notes as well.)

CCS 11: Strategy.

The learning outcomes of the case are as follows:

1. Students will understand the interdependency of functional areas, such as operations, marketing, human resources (HR) and finance, in a manufacturing firm.

2. Students will analyze the conventional factory to focus on factory frameworks (Skinner, 1974).

3. Students will learn to analyze (associate) a company's performance reports (key performance indicators and profit and loss reports) with operations, marketing and sales functions.

4. Students will relate the concept of strategic resonance (Brown and Fai, 2006) to functional strategies.

Tariq Khattabi, a mechanical engineer with an MBA, joined Flexi Pack Dubai, UAE, as a general manager on 1 April 2019. During the recruitment interview, he learned that the company was struggling to maintain its breakeven point, and his first responsibility was to develop a strategy to ensure the growth of the organization. From the initial meetings with the production, finance and senior marketing managers, he identified problems related to the plant’s operations and sales. Although Flexi Pack enjoyed a good market reputation and profits, of late, the company needed help to make it profitable. Tariq's dilemma was to develop a strategy to put the organization back on the growth path.

He wondered whether the operations and marketing problems could be solved simultaneously. He had to present his strategic approach to the board within two weeks. Through this case study, management students can understand the interdependency of functional areas, such as operations, marketing, HR and finance. Students will learn the focused factory concept and a plant within a plant. They will be able to identify and appreciate dissonance and resonance between functional strategies and the importance of aligning functional strategies. Moreover, students will learn about consumer packaging types, material and their converting processes, which are the essential aspects of the fast-moving consumer goods business.

The target audience can be an Executive Program in Operations Management, BBA and Postgraduate Diploma in Management students who have opted for Operations Management or Operations Strategy as their major/minor specialization.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Founded in 2004, OPPO has experienced the boom of the Chinese mobile phone market, the trend of mobile Internet and the prosperity of the smartphone market. While adjusting its business structure based on changes in the market environment, it has transitioned itself from an audio device manufacturer to a smart-phone manufacturer that offers hardware, software, and service.

This case study focuses on OPPO's evolution and strategy, and provides an insight into its history, competition, and strategic choices based on whether or not OPPO should release a feature phone with a foldable display at the MWC 2019, and discusses the core competitiveness that helped OPPO succeed against the market downturn. This case study helps students understand the development of corporate strategies and the process of building core competitiveness in the microcompetition in the red ocean market. We also wish to help students understand how to come up with the most appropriate decision-making framework and conduct a critical analysis on the issues based on the internal and external factors of their businesses while they make strategic decisions. When it comes to different dimensions and indicators coming to contradictory conclusions in particular, what should the manager of a business do to make the correct strategic decision?

At the end of the session, learners are expected to be able to evaluate the detrimental impact of stress on blue-collar workers’ well-being in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; develop effective strategies to improve stressful conditions experienced by blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse and select appropriate approaches that can help maintain the motivation levels of blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse the impact of Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd’s extensive investment in training new blue-collar workers, alongside the subsequent high turnover rate, on the decline in sales and profit; identify the critical changes that the managing director should have implemented to prioritize employee retention among blue-collar workers at Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; discuss the strategic implementation of mechanization, specifically in the context of automating repetitive processes, as an innovative solution to address the challenges faced by the ship repair and maintenance service industry heavily reliant on blue-collar workers in emerging markets; cultivate thoughtful debates on ways to keep blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, as well as active learner participation and group interaction; develop learners’ analytical and critical thinking skills by guiding them through the analysis of a real-world case study in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, concentrating on the difficulties and potential solutions for blue-collar worker retention; and equip learners with practical knowledge and insights on implementing effective human resources strategies for retaining blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, emphasizing the conversion of theoretical concepts into workable solutions.

This teaching case study centres on Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian conglomerate that bestows ship repair and maintenance services. Regrettably, the corporation has been subjected to a decrease in profitability and productivity owing to its high turnover rate of blue-collar workers. The ship repair and maintenance service industry is accountable for delivering comprehensive repair and maintenance services to ships, including their engines, hulls, machinery and other related components. The fundamental aim of this case study is to ascertain the rudimentary factors that contribute to this issue and foster effective strategies to enhance the motivation and retention rate of blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service corporation, using appropriate management theories, models and concepts. The case study brings to light the importance of discovering the most suitable approaches to retain blue-collar workers in the corporation to improve its profitability and productivity in a highly competitive market. This teaching case study will be beneficial for students and practitioners who want to grasp the disputes associated with retaining blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service industry and learn how to apply management theories, models and concepts to address these disputes effectively.

This case discussion would be highly suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate university students who are pursuing their studies in management or related fields and are eager to delve into the nuances of the ship repair and maintenance service industry. Furthermore, trainers from both private and public agencies who are keen on gaining a deeper understanding of the issues pertaining to retaining blue-collar workers in this particular industry and devising result-oriented strategies to tackle these concerns would also find this case discussion immensely helpful.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: learning about the concept of informal innovation in comparison with the formal innovations; understanding the drivers and barriers of informal innovation in an organisation; identifying the enablers of informal innovation in an organisation; and analysing the outcomes of informal innovation in non-monetary/non-financial/non-pecuniary terms.

The case study emphasises the importance of informal innovations in the manufacturing industry. The case is an attempt by the authors to bring about a clear distinction between the formal and informal open innovations.

The teaching case can be used for undergraduate- and post-graduate-level courses such as BBA, MBA and executive MBA.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Madan Mohanka set up Tega Industries Ltd in 1976 to manufacture abrasion-resistant rubber mill lining products used in the mining and mineral processing industries. In 2006, as part of its inorganic expansion strategy, Tega bought a mill-liner company in South Africa. Buoyed by this growth, two acquisitions were made in Australia and Chile in the year 2011. However, post-acquisition, several managerial, legal and commercial problems crept up in its manufacturing facilities in Chile, leading to financial downturn in Tega's fortunes in 2016 and compelling it to either plan a revival or divest its interest in its Chilean Plant.

Sai Coating, a small entrepreneurial firm, was one of the three firms that had received the license from ARCI for marketing the Detonation Spray Coating (DSC). Sai Coating made and sold the detonation gun (D-Gun) to three sectors, namely: Wire Drawing, Textiles and Aero components. The coating enhanced the life of the coated wire or surface and its functionality in some ways. The firm had a turnover of INR 4,500,000 and was looking to generate scale and maximize its revenues. The case revolves around the pricing strategy to be adopted by Sai coating to extract value from different set of customers. What should be the price levels given the nature of the product?