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Manufacturing, Western management theories and Japanese management practices.

This case can be used in project management or management-related courses at tertiary institutions at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level.

This case provides students with an opportunity to find out what make Toyota so successful in manufacturing through its famous production system as well as the underlying Toyota Way principles. All students are expected to understand the Toyota Way model with a balanced view that goes beyond a set of lean tools such as just-in-time. This case opens a historical account for the Toyota Way model by connecting with possible Western management theories and Japanese management practices.

It is expected to significantly benefit students with industry experience with the intention of initiating appropriate changes in their own industry and/or organization by applying what they have learnt from the Toyota Way, through bridging with Western management theories.

Teaching notes.

Critical analysis of observed practice.

Field study.

To expose accounting and MBA students to Lean management and the performance measures that support Lean management by presenting a case of a comprehensive and very successful Lean transformation; to give accounting and MBA students the opportunity to construct a strategy map and a balanced scorecard based on a rich case description; and to critically assess the suitability of balanced scorecards for a company that embraces Lean management.

The case describes a comprehensive transformation from conventional management to Lean management and business practices, with an emphasis on the largely non-financial performance measures used to support the transformation. Around the time of the Lean transformation, the balanced scorecard, a multi-dimensional measurement approach, was introduced to address the problems of excessive reliance on financial performance measures. Students are asked to compare and contrast Wiremold’s approach to the balanced scorecard.

Graduate or upper level undergraduate courses in cost accounting, managerial accounting and strategic management.

Lean thinking and organizational culture

MBA, Executive Education, Post Graduate Diploma

The case details the adoption of lean thinking at K-Way, a contemporary technical textile manufacturer of outdoor apparel and accessories. The case covers the 12-year journey at K-Way, detailing the process and cultural improvements the company underwent. The case closes as Bobby, the General Manager at K-Way, thinks about his new challenges. The CEO of K-Way’s parent company, Cape Union Mart, wants Bobby to start devolving the lean thinking approach to other units within Cape Union Mart, in particular a newly acquired and under-performing children’s clothing business. Bobby is excited at the prospect, but simultaneously anxious about the work that still needs to happen at K-Way and more importantly, whether the organization is ready for his, and his key consultant-coach’s withdrawal as the primary “voices” of lean thinking. Would there be a reversal of progress in their absence and how can they counter this?

Understanding lean thinking as a management system and not a mere set of tools for waste reduction, while recognizing the importance of waste reduction. An understanding of how to entrench lean thinking in an organization after initial adoption with specific emphasis on the following: Kata and scientific thinking – what it is and how it can be employed; Hoshin Kanri/Strategy Deployment – what it is and how it can be used; Leader Standard Work, what it is and how it can be used. Consider responses for a company that has been on a lean journey for 10 years, with a focus on how (or if) lean leaders can withdraw from the operation.

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: 9: Operations and logistics

Production management and personnel management.

Production management modules of undergraduate business and management courses.

The case describes the implementation of 5S by a Polish production company, namely Bianor. It presents not only the literature base and benefits of 5S but, in particular, shows the specificity of the implementation process, taking into consideration attitudes of employees; moreover, the study devotes some attention to aspects of organizational culture.

The case shows how to implement the 5S method in a production company, and how effective communication of processes is essential to implementing business change.

Teaching note.

An instructor could link the case to lean production principles and Kurt Lewin’s change management model, key reading materials on these theories are, namely,  Lewin, K (1947) Frontiers in group dynamics: concept, method and reality in social science; equilibrium and social change. Human Relations 1(1): 5–41  Stewart, J. (2012). The Toyota Kaizen continuum: a practical guide to implementing lean. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Wickramasinghe, V. and Wickramasinghe, G. L. D. (2020). Effects of human resource management practices, lean production practices and lean duration on performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(11), 1467–1512.

This case was developed from both primary and secondary sources. The primary source included three face to face meetings with Mr CK in University Putra Malaysia (two meetings) and WSAE factory (Rawang, Malaysia – one meeting), respectively. Interviewed three workers at Rawang factory. The secondary source was taken from the company website and company reports.

Dr Wan, the Chief Executive Officer of WSA Engineering Sdn Bhd (WSAE) accepted the invitation from Small Medium Industries Development Corporation to participate in a Malaysian-Japanese Industry Cooperation program that focused on Lean Production System (LPS). Dr Wan was worried about Malaysia’s culture incompatible with Japanese-originated LPS. The case shares how the organization and behavioral change took place, for LPS buy-in. Successes and challenges WSAE faced in the 10-year journey of implementing LPS were elaborated.

This case was written for use in an operations management course, on the topic of lean production. It can also be used as a training material targeting the operation managers of a manufacturing company aiming to implement lean production or any change management process.

By reading and understanding this case study, students are expected to: 1.Able to understand and review the impact of unethical practices from accounting perspective; 2.Able to make an analysis of how one unethical act triggers a series of forced unethical acts (ripple effect); 3.Identify the unfair practices as well as be proactive in preventing unfair practices in the business day to day affairs; 4.Able to relate the function of various ratios (current ratio, quick ration, debt to asset ratio, debt to equity ratio etc.) and its impact on the business performance; and 5.Able to apply various lean quality tools, doing the root cause analysis in identifying and solving problems.

T.M. Exports (TME) was an India-based privately owned and operated enterprise. The company had a brilliant employee named Sanjay, who was a 12-year veteran. TME’s Business Intelligence (BI) department at TME head office, Kanpur, India, ostensibly learned on April 8, 2019, from the rumors about a brand-new vehicle dished out to Sanjay by his friend who made fortune worth of millions from certain transactions. To add fuel to the fire, another incident surfaced concerning a warehouse keeper, Mohit, who was also involved in embezzlement in one of the sales offices. On May 16, 2019, BI reported these two incidents to the internal auditor who launched an internal investigation to get to root of this case. Consequently, the company owner, Tariq Mahmood got himself caught up in a dilemma to fire both Sanjay and Mohit only or restructure the organization for better transparency and integrative approach in future. Moreover, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer had the dilemma of keeping high safety stock to maximize service level or keeping conservative safety stock and rely on-spot market-buying if demand spiked. He decided and instructed all the warehouses to keep higher inventories to meet the forecasted demand, considering unexpected spikes in demand witnessed historically. Thus, increase in inventory caused panic in the sales department as demand was sluggish. He, therefore, offered high discounted prices to liquidate the stock. This study integrated the theories of accounting/financial ratio metrics, accounts reconciliation, business ethics and lean tools. It was demonstrated in this case that the irregularities in sales accounting and their inability of reconciliation had a serious impact on business performance. The concept of total reward was also invoked to understand the disruptive and unscrupulous practices.

This case has been particularly focused on undergraduate and postgraduate early-stage-level students pursuing business or commerce program, particularly those specializing in accounting (sales accounting) and human resource management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Operations Management Quality Management.

The case can be used in a number of course contexts, including undergraduate and graduate courses in operations management and quality management.

Central Tobacco Plant (CTP) is a tobacco processing and packaging company, operating in the Central America and Caribbean region. This case focuses on a waste measurement exercise conducted in the cigarette production department of CTP, which was commissioned by George Edwards, the Secondary Manufacturing Department Manager. The reason for the exercise was the announcement that CTP could possibly face a plant audit, where a poor result could cause the shifting of manufacturing of some products, or, in the worst case scenario, all of it product lines, to one of the larger, and more efficient manufacturing plants in the Central America and Caribbean region. The waste measurement exercise is carried out as a three-week student–industry project by two students pursuing an MSc programme at the local university, who are mentored by both Edwards and by a university supervisor. At the end of the exercise, Edwards needs to consider the appropriateness of the current waste measurement system, the quantities of waste produced and opportunities to reduce waste.

The case has four primary learning objectives: to illustrate the role of performance measurement in process improvement, to explore the perspective of lean manufacturing in waste management, to apply basic quality tools in the analysis of a manufacturing process and to identify opportunities for process improvement.

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 9: Operations and Logistics

Global Connect, a major telecommunications service provider, partners with national cable providers to bundle media and telecom services offered through voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). Global Connect provides the VoIP physical infrastructure that enables cable providers to offer VoIP phone service to their end customers. VoIP cable services are growing at a faster rate than anticipated, leaving Global Connect incapable of meeting contractual agreements with the cable partners and preventing them from capturing substantial VoIP market opportunities. Students are asked to improve the configuration of work at this service organization by identifying the types of waste in the current process. Process improvements use lean tools and their impact is quantified using time and capacity analysis.

To view a service business as a process and to understand where to find the constraints regarding customer responsiveness (flow time) and sales (throughput). This requires a rather subtle capacity analysis.

The case introduces students to aspects of operations management (OM) and management theory and provides examples of the real-world challenges facing a practitioner. It requires students to think about the operational manager’s responsibilities and how organisational context influences choices and possibly even fit within an organisation.

In this case, a factory lead protagonist presents her OM challenges and choices within a for-purpose, rather than for-profit, a social enterprise in South Africa. The context presented unusual constraints that required thoughtful adaptation and judicious choices. The case introduces students to aspects of OM and management theory and provides examples of the real-world challenges facing a practitioner. It requires students to think about the operational manager’s responsibilities and how organisational context influences choices and possibly even fit within an organisation.

The case is aimed at postgraduate business students studying OM.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The Namaste case is a story of how Kellogg alumni couple Gary and Denise Gardner grow their Namaste branded hair care line from production at the family's kitchen table into a formidable $80 million empire within a 14-year period. The Gardners come from a longtime hair-care business lineage, the Soft Sheen dynasty, started by Gary's father decades earlier. Soft Sheen was ultimately sold to hair care giant L'Oreal for over $100 million. The Gardners claim Namaste's growth occurred through listening to the needs and desires of customers for healing hair care products that reminded them of nourishing household remedies. The hair care line became a leader in its industry but faced the dilemma of how to expand sales in new markets, especially international markets such as South Africa and Nigeria.

Students learn to develop new business opportunities including international expansion and tools of the internet to exploit the tools of vision, innovation and change resulting in new customer services and solutions. Students will focus on the basic fundamentals of sales and review the relationship of customer need identification and the reasons that make people buy. Students will assess the entrepreneurial strategies applied to fuel future growth based on an idea or product. Students will focus on the sales fundamentals that can be applied to entrepreneurial environments.