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The president of a well-established manufacturer of mattresses has asked his assistant to recommend whether to consolidate plants of three different locations. He must decide not only which criteria are most useful in making such a decision, but also how to weigh the different criteria in coming up with a single decision.

One of the major reasons of layout-related difficulties faced by manufacturing industries is non-value-adding and redundant work. Plant layout study aims at economic production with larger volumes and variety as well. Method studies focus on the effectiveness with efficiency by a systematic critical scrutiny of work being done. The intention is to identify logical sequence of activities highlighting and eliminating the unnecessary mudas. Time and motion study is a combination of time study and motion study analysing and eliminating any unnecessary movement for productivity optimization of that job or process. Thus, through the elimination of unnecessary motions, times for performing the processes may be reduced and productivity increased. The intention is to subdivide the different operations of a job or process into measurable elements. Hence this case has been developed based on the primary data. The primary data was collected using Industrial Engineering Studies like layout study, method study and time and motion study. This case has been classroom tested with MBA students in their Lean Management Course.

Arin Synthetics Ltd. (ASL) though had installed modern machinery in its facility, process efficiency and optimization were a concern. Top Brass at ASL believed that ASL was overstaffed and its processes had creep as far as efficiency is concerned. This case focuses on ways to improve the process efficiency to rationalize the manpower at ASL. Presence in large growing global markets put cost pressure on ASL, thus mandating improvement in the efficiency of its processes through manpower rationalization. This case, therefore, discusses one of the highly staffed process of waste collection. Could ASL achieve reduction in the manpower in waste reduction without affecting the overall process? Was there a strategic mistake in the thought process of disposing of the waste generated by the manufacturing complex?

Operations management, Productivity and performance, Quality management, Lean management.

Cummins Generator Technologies India Limited (CGTIL) was in the process of setting up a world-class factory at Ranjangaon based on “lean” production principles. The project team, however, went a step ahead and married “green” with “lean”. While lean is about taking the system inefficiencies out, the green is about harmony with nature. The case is about CGTIL's journey of deriving synergies between seemingly conflicting objectives of lean and green.

Leadership, change management, knowledge transfer, quality, car manufacture, organisational culture, staff training and development.

This case study is intended for undergraduate courses on principles of management, cross-cultural management and organisational behaviour; postgraduate and MBA courses as above in addition to leadership studies and change management courses.

Globalisation inevitably led to attempts to transfer know-how and expertise to markets in different locations and cultures, where the particular organisation is willing to begin to operate. Hence, the need for understanding the conditions for successful knowledge transfer is especially important. The globalisation process in the Eastern bloc, which began in 1990, is a good example of knowledge transfer where the mutual meaning creation played a crucial role. This case study illustrates the process of international knowledge transfer between Western Europe and an emerging economy using the example of DAK Corporation and quality transfer to Poland. The case is especially useful for undergraduate and postgraduate students, including MBA students, studying general management as well as more specialised courses stemming from international management, for example, cross-cultural management and organisational behaviour. Since the material focuses on people management and development as well as organisational culture creation, current and future practitioners from the human resources department will find it particularly useful. Students considering a career in a multinational company can also use this case in their preparation for the challenges of operating in a global business environment.

These include: understanding of the process of international and cross-cultural knowledge transfer; identification of key cultural and organisational factors contributing to the success of international knowledge transfer; understanding of the organisational culture creation process; and exploration of the process of new staff development and training.

Teaching notes are available.

Raymond was lagging behind in their customer order fulfillment process due to inefficiencies in their warehouse operations. Further, slotting of stock keeping units to the right bins was not in order. As a result, the warehouse capacity was limiting company's growth. This case draws lessons about how warehousing technology and scientific warehouse management practices can significantly improve warehouse pick efficiencies and have a positive impact on other business performance indicators.

This case should facilitate participants to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on a growing company in the dairy, agro and food industries; analyze the drivers of a company’s competitive advantage; evaluate the relevance of the company in the new product-markets; and propose growth strategies for the expansion of the business beyond the core markets.

Gyan Dairy began its journey in 2007 and operated in the business-to-business segment by supplying skimmed milk powder and white butter to other dairy players. Then, the company launched its packaged milk brand in Lucknow – the capital city of Uttar Pradesh – one of the largest provinces in India. By the end of 2020, Gyan was the leading private dairy brand in Uttar Pradesh. The company’s vision was to become one of the top dairy brands in India by 2035. While deliberating on the growth choice, the company’s senior management debated whether to strengthen the company’s position in the existing markets or expand operations in adjacent locations. Increasing market share would have led to price wars or advertising costs. Diversifying into product categories involved the risk of product–market misfit and new product development and marketing costs. However, pursuing these options would further strengthen the company’s position in the North Indian market. Expanding into new locations would help establish the company’s presence across different parts of India. However, both these options were replete with various challenges. Expanding into new markets needed one of the promoters of the Gyan Diary, to relocate, build new markets and institutional connections and build a completely new localized economy of scale, which would create a financial burden on existing operations until the new operation was self-sustainable. However, in this journey, they would find and build a model to help expand their operations in other countries as well. Ideally, the company could pursue all the options, but this was not possible due to constrained resources.

This case allows students to discuss and evaluate alternate growth options associated with operationalizing the growth strategy choices in perishable branded food categories beyond existing markets and products. In addition, it also helps discuss how to arrive at such decisions after analyzing the focal firm’s market opportunities and existing capabilities. This case is helpful for the “growth strategy” module in the strategic management core course in a general MBA program and in specialized MBA programs in food and agri-business management.

This case is suitable for graduate-level courses on strategic management courses in general management programs and agri-business management programs. In a strategic management course, the case will help cover topics such as analysis of the internal and external environment of the firm and growth and expansion strategies. This case will help teach how to build competitive advantage in dairy and agro-food industries and the strategic analysis needed while pursuing growth decisions. Emerging markets, including India, are the growth markets for leading multinational companies in the food and dairy industries.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case details the rise of a hard-disk storage manufacturer in the mid-1980s and the company's demise after executives manipulated the financial information.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: ■ understand organizational turnaround and its sustainability;■ applying the understanding of turnarounds to distinguish between operational and strategic levers of a turnaround strategy; ■ analyze and evaluate past and present turnarounds from a sustainability perspective; and ■ formulate managerial actions to make turnaround sustainable.

Braithwaite Company Ltd. (Braithwaite) was a specialized engineering firm headquartered in Kolkatta, India. It primarily undertook structural steel fabrication to make railway wagons and bridge structures. It was incorporated as a private enterprise almost a century back. However, since its nationalization five decades ago, it has been operating as a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the aegis of Indian Railways, a department of the Government of India. The case documents the past three decades of the firm’s journey, during which it experienced three episodic turnarounds. Details of the first two turnarounds are presented as the background, in light of which sustainability of the third turnaround is to be examined. The case explores the sustainability of organizational turnarounds from the perspective of the current Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), the case protagonist. Braithwaite underwent financial and operational distress in 1992, 2005 and 2015 and negotiated them under different leaders. These leaders from diverse backgrounds used distinct tactics and strategies to bring about organizational turnarounds. The case provides data and information to assess the sustainability of the third turnaround. Hence, it allows a class to explore the paradoxical observation that while “turnaround” inherently implies sustenance of good performance over time, turnaround sustainability is not spontaneous in the real world. The case deals with the performance issues of PSUs, which make significant contributions to the national economy in the case of emerging economies (for example, 5%–8% of the Indian National gross domestic product is contributed by PSUs; https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/psus-are-crucial-for-indias-growth-but-only-if-they-play-a-strategic-role). Under government ownership and management, the poor performance of PSUs is often attributed to bad decision-making by its top management. In contrast, Braithwaite’s top management’s sound contextual decision-making resulted in a jump in its performance during each turnaround phase, but unsound fundamentals resulted in the unsustainability of the turnarounds. Hence, the case enables an exploration of the unique challenges faced by PSU that emanate from legacy roles, monopolistic markets and dual purpose – the concurrent pursuit of profits and social welfare. Consequently, the case allows an examination of the reasons for the distress of PSUs and the viability of turnaround strategies in the context of the broader Business–Government–Society landscape in emerging economies.

The case is written for use in the MBA elective course covering “Strategic Revival and Turnaround Strategies.” It can be used at the beginning of the course to identify reasons for organizational failure/distress or in the later part of the course to discuss the implementation of operational and strategic turnaround strategies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

Describes how UPS created UPS Supply Chain Solutions, an entirely new business, with carefully selected target market segments for which unique and extensive value offerings were designed. To build this business UPS made numerous acquisitions and successfully resolved post-acquisition integration challenges in compensation, information systems, personnel policies, and organizational culture.

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.