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Just in Time for the Holidays (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
McNulty, Eric; Johnson, M. Eric; Brandstatter, Horst; Hausman, Warren H.; Omrod, AnneArticle HBS-R0512A-EService and Operations ManagementIt's the busiest time of year for North Pole Workshops. Production is in high gear, and the elves are on overtime in the sprint toward Christmas. But an unexpected spike in demand for one toy may leave children around the world disappointed on Christmas morning, whether they've been naughty or nice. At the same time, another toy's popularity threatens to plummet, leaving Santa and his elves faced with the prospect of millions of unloved plaything...Starting at €8.20
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Tug-of-War (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Sheffi, Yossi; Mozaffar, Shakeel; Moffat, Robert W., Jr.; Blascovich, John D.; Lahowchic, NickArticle HBS-R0509A-EService and Operations ManagementJack Emmons, the CEO of Voici Brands, knew his apparel company needed a supply chain overhaul. Over the past couple of years, sales had dropped because of late deliveries, stock-outs, and other supply problems. Meanwhile, a major competitor had significantly reduced its time to market and boosted its bottom line by outsourcing all its product lines to a dazzlingly efficient "supply chain city" in Shanghai. Unfortunately, Jack's company was just t...Starting at €8.20
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Mumbai's Models of Service Excellence
Thomke, StefanArticle HBS-R1211K-EService and Operations ManagementThink you need exceptional employees, advanced IT, or rigid controls to build a high-performance organization? The dabbawalas of Mumbai prove otherwise. Six days a week, these 5,000 self-managed, semiliterate workers deliver upwards of 130,000 lunches from customers' homes to their offices with astonishing precision--negotiating the crowded city by train, bicycle, and handcart, without the aid of any technology or even cell phones. The 100-year-o...Starting at €8.20
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When Failure Looks Like Success
Zolli, Andrew; Healy, Ann MarieArticle HBS-F1104Z-EService and Operations ManagementEfforts to bring clean water to Bangladesh by installing tube wells appeared to be a huge success, but over time they led to epic failures: widespread arsenic poisoning, a rise in crime and prostitution, a projected increase in diarrheal diseases as villagers resume using groundwater. Due to the highly graphical nature of the Vision Statement, we offer this reprint in color, PDF format only. We recommend printing it out in color to maximize its ...Starting at €8.20
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Using Gifts and Trees to Make Recyclers of Indian Consumers
Bakaya, Ambrish; O'Connell, AndrewArticle HBS-R0909G-EService and Operations ManagementRapid advances in technology and enormously increased numbers of cell phones in use in emerging markets give urgency to Nokia's newly launched effort to expand its worldwide phone-recycling initiatives. Ambrish Bakaya explains, in this interview with HBR associate editor Andrew O'Connell. This HBR Spotlight article offers a framework for determining your company's green opportunities and an overview of what other organizations are doing with cle...Starting at €8.20
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Subsidies and the China Price
Haley, Usha C.V.; Haley, George T.Article HBS-F0806C-EService and Operations ManagementNew research suggests that Chinese companies' price advantage comes not from low-cost labor but from massive government subsidies. That finding has major implications for foreign firms that compete with, or source from, those companies.Starting at €8.20
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3-D Printing Will Change the World
D'Aveni, Richard A.Article HBS-F1303E-EService and Operations Management3-D printing, also known as additive printing, is ushering in a new era--of flexible, just-in-time, customized manufacturing. And as it revolutionizes manufacturing, it will tip the East-West balance, so that China is no longer the manufacturing powerhouse of the world.Starting at €8.20
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Inventory-Driven Costs (Spanish version)
Callioni, Gianpaolo; De Montgros, Xavier; Slagmulder, Regine; Van Wassenhove, Luk N.; Wright, LindaArticle HBS-R0503JService and Operations Managementcomponent devaluation costs for components still held in production; price protection costs incurred when product prices drop on goods distributors still have on their shelves; product return costs that have to be absorbed when distributors return and receive refunds on overstock items; and obsolescence costs for products still unsold when new models are introduced. By developing metrics to track those costs in a consistent way throughout the PC...Starting at €8.20
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Eliminate the Middleman? (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Huang, Ming-Hui; Riggs, Bruce K.; Lynn, Barry C.; Dongsheng, Wang; Gaffney, PaulArticle HBS-R0603A-EService and Operations ManagementGreg Jamison, the head of global sourcing at USTech, has a complicated situation on his hands. The U.S. consumer electronics giant has long outsourced much of the design and production of its branded offerings to TaiSource, an original design manufacturer, or ODM, in Taiwan. TaiSource, in turn, has moved most of its manufacturing to Beijing, giving USTech many of the cost benefits--and none of the hassles--of sourcing in China. But commodity prod...Starting at €8.20