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Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited is an example of a business that delivers superior customer service with continuous logistics design innovation. The case provides details of a leading logistics and solution provider for household goods relocation who in past was facing problems due to increase in number of customer complaints and claims and also increase in packaging costs. APML believed that mistakes could be avoided and defects could be prevented. Solutions were offered by modifying the processes through innovation in its services resulting in customers' delight. As a result of continuously improving capabilities, people, processes, and technology; the services improved too. The case gives an insight on how the company improved its services by innovating and how these innovations were sustained by such a large organization with many branches throughout India.

ACC Limited, under Project 30-30, had targeted to produce and sell 30 million tons (mt) of cement in the year 2011. In May 2011, the Head of Central Logistics had found the target of the project to have become increasingly difficult to achieve. He believed that to sell 30 mt of cement, 30 mt had to be transported, thereby, advancing the role of the logistics function from that of a mere facilitator to a critical actor. As possible opportunities to increase sales, issues at the Bulk Cement Corporation (India) Limited (BCCI), and the plant at Wadi are being discussed in the case. The head of BCCI had raised concerns about the decreased logistical capacity of BCCI post a mandate from the Indian Railways on transporting 58-wagon rakes against 41-wagon rakes. A common belief was that with more wagons per rake, the quantity transited from Wadi would be higher. However, this was not the case and a capacity addition was being proposed. The President of Wadi Cluster had expressed that as an effort to reduce the transit time between Wadi and BCCI, priority was given to loading for BCCI. Though an improvement was observed with the introduction of 58 wagons per rake, Wadi was facing issues. This had affected Wadi's ability to serve other markets. The focus of the case is on analysing the options being considered by ACC to increase market presence, logistics capacity at BCCI, and the overall throughput at Wadi.

Cristo Rey St. Martin College Preparatory (CRSM), a school with a unique educational model, has built a culture of accountability and student achievement. Founded in 2004 with a mission of serving “young people of limited economic means,” the school had a rocky start. It was plagued with student failure, high teacher turnover, and a total lack of accountability on the part of both students and teachers. In 2008, a new principal, Michael Odiotti, was hired to turn around the school. During his early years as principal, Mr. Odiotti faced many challenges, including poor academic results, lack of discipline, the threat of bankruptcy, and insufficient employers to support the school's work-study program. By 2018, the school had overcome some of these obstacles, and its metrics were exemplary. The question CRSM currently faces is how it can bolster a new culture of continuous improvement to avoid complacency while continuing to push accountability to achieve even greater results.

This case (though it may stand on its own) is a continuation of the events described in “Creating a Culture of Empowerment and Accountability at St. Martin de Porres High,” Cases #5-410-755(A) and (B) (KEL514 and KEL515) (Kellogg School of Management, 2010).

Strategy.

Post-Graduate and Executive Programmes in Management.

Mr Srinivas Kesineni has been chairman of Kesineni Tours and Travels for the last 19 years. Kesineni Tours and Travels is one of the fastest growing bus travel and transport organisations. The case describes the journey of Kesineni Tours and Travels since its inception. It also outlines different strategies adopted by the Chairman to reach newer heights, to survive and to grow in the turbulent times of changing technology and rising competition from different means of transportation. This unique organisation is run by family, friends and well-wishers of the owners, yet it is professional in its approach in operations. The board of directors of Kesineni Tours and Travels has approved the financial results of 2010, which shows 55 percent growth and Rs 86.71 crores turnover. This is a remarkable achievement and recognition for a company that has been in the business since 1992. In early 1992, entrepreneur Mr Srinivas Kesineni thought of a bus transportation business when he started with just two buses, and today when the organization is the largest tour and travel company in the region serving approximately 15 lack customers in a year covering 75 destinations with around 425 daily schedules. He and his team have been working tirelessly and the company has a remarkable presence in the tour and travel business in India with occasional innovative moves from optimising bus routing, initiating sleeper coaches, introducing Volvo buses to the fleet, entering the cargo transportation business and more. This business has grown at CAGR of 24.07 percent since 2000-2001. Students reading this case may come to the class with preconceived views that the journey of the organisation since its beginning is an ordinary story, but this case creates an opportunity for students to come to their own conclusion how different strategies and the synthesis is important for achieving desired outcomes form time to time. This case facilitates the deductive learning process by identifying different strategic elements form the case and to understand its synergy to explain McKinsey 7s framework.

These include: understanding different strategies and policies adopted by the organisation and its impact on performance; understanding the importance of alignment of processes and departments in achievement of organisational strategy; and analysing and understanding the concept of the McKinsey 7S Framework, which is a helpful tool to understand the performance of the organisation.

Teaching notes are available. Bradach, Jaffrey, Organisational Alignment: The 7S Model, Harvard Business School Publishing are useful for further reading.

The dilemma falls within the Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Development subject areas. In addition, the case highlights typical issues in “green” or sustainable supply chain, corporate social responsibility and sustainability courses.

The target audience is includes post-graduate diploma-level or master’s level students, such as in Masters in Business Administration.

The case focuses on the dilemma that Phiwokuhle Mhlangu in Mpumalanga, South Africa, faced when his company’s board had not signed off on capital expenditure to improve his colliery’s clean coal technology initiatives. He had to influence his colleagues’ mindsets to adapt to changes in the environment. The case highlights the global coal landscape and South African mining industry’s challenges in terms of infrastructure and strained labour relations, as well as the focus of the South African Government to enhance alternative energy resources. Although a clear business case for investment in clean coal technologies was evident, Mhlangu could still not persuade his colleagues to support these initiatives. A different approach was required […]

The learning objectives in this case are: gaining insight into the dilemmas of sustainability in coal mining by exploring various interest groups in difficult sustainability situations and enhancing understanding of getting a buy-in from various stakeholders when leading change in the coal-mining sector.

A teaching plan and particular teaching methodologies is included. The two learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided and to relevant literature.

CSS 7: Management Science

In 2012 several retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, experimented with same-day delivery. Home delivery of pizzas had been a very successful model in the United States and had been copied all over the world. In contrast, home delivery attempts by companies like Kozmo and Urbanfetch had failed and both companies went bankrupt. The goal of this case is to build a framework that helps students identify the factors that influence the success or failure of home delivery models.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to:

• Build a basic framework identifying supply chain drivers that are influenced by a firm's decision to offer same-day home delivery

• Understand the tradeoffs that influence the success of a same-day home delivery model

• Identify qualitative factors to be considered when deciding between non-U.S. facility locations, including transportation time variability, consumer perceptions, and cultural differences

Build a basic framework identifying supply chain drivers that are influenced by a firm's decision to offer same-day home delivery

Understand the tradeoffs that influence the success of a same-day home delivery model

Identify qualitative factors to be considered when deciding between non-U.S. facility locations, including transportation time variability, consumer perceptions, and cultural differences

East Texas Oxygen (ETOX) delivered high-pressure cylinders of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen to twelve wholly-owned branches scattered throughout East Texas and Louisiana. Employees loaded and unloaded individual high-pressure cylinders off of and onto trailers manually and the firm had never had a related accident. Robert Jenkins had been challenged to decrease the cost of supplying the branches with cylinders and other supplies. He was considering recommending the palletization of delivery operations which required numerous changes within the organization. This case required students to determine the best routing for the delivery truck(s) and to determine whether or not the number of trucks and drivers could be reduced under palletization. Students were then required to do a capital budgeting analysis and make a recommendation of whether or not to palletize.

Ahmedabad Container Depot (ACD) was a fast growing inland container depot (ICD) in Ahmedabad. The area of the depot was 15 acres and it had a monthly turnover capacity of approximately 25,000 containers. The primary processes at the facility were imports, exports, and transshipments. ACD had been facing various challenges due to inefficient manual container tracking system at the facility. Due to good business, the company was able to reach 90–95% of its capacity which was also the main problem ACD had to deal with. The management wanted to increase efficiency by reducing the number of moves required to locate a container by implementing a technology solution. The Head IT of ACD, Bhavik, was examining proposals from vendors and had identified a few alternatives. He was also considering the options that other large container yards had used successfully. His dilemma was to determine the feasibility of the alternatives, particularly those which had not been tested by any other firms in the country. Also, implementing technology could cause a change in roles and responsibilities; dealing with that situation was another area of concern.

Rivigo, a new entrant in the trucking business in India, believed that a new paradigm in the trucking/logistics industry could be brought about that would not only improve the quality of service dramatically, but also upgrade a truck driver's lifestyle. While the industry faced driver shortage largely due to long stays away from home, Rivigo hoped to attract drivers by offering them roles which would bring them back home in 24 hours. Drivers would be part of a relay, handing over the truck at pit stops. Further, they leveraged an IT-enabled IoT platform on a fleet of owned trucks. All this revolutionized most of the traditions then followed in the industry. The entrepreneur and his core team comprised professionals from premium institutes of the country, with experience in professional organizations in related domains. By offering services like assured delivery at half the time and full shipment visibility, Rivigo had to charge a premium to market segments that would value this. The case raises the question of sustainability in the future.

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.