A U.S. manufacturing organization and a Eurobank swap fixed and floating rate obligations to reduce their financing costs.

Presents a general approach to diagnosing and solving problems in management, especially in production situations with ambiguous problems.

The student is starting his or her own business, baking make-to-order cookies. Basic times of each operation are laid out and the student is asked to determine the consequences for the operating system. Serves as an exercise and review of concepts such as capacity, bottlenecks, and throughput times. Students should be able to make several useful suggestions for improving the system. The case ends with a series of open-ended questions.

Describes the evolution of a company's manufacturing strategy over an eight-year period. Copeland had pursued a strategy of building freestanding focused plants devoted to single processes or product lines, and then moving products from the home plant at Sidney, Ohio to the new facility. Sidney is now left with a jumble of unrelated products and processes, and management must decide whether it should be reorganized by product line or manufacturin...

In the preceding case, Copeland had to choose between two alternative plant layouts for organizing its Sidney plant. Now it must get work force approval for a change in "bumping" rules before proceeding with the change. Management must decide how to proceed--to continue with the reorganization, delay the moving of equipment and personnel, or drop the project completely.

A major Korean firm has begun production of televisions in the United States. Output and quality are below Korean standards. Students must determine why and suggest ways to improve.