Case studies

The case of Bertelsmann China: Supply Chain for Books (A) focuses on one the world's leading media companies to illustrate a widespread problem in the supply chain strategy in extremely fast growing markets. Students learn about the basic challenges of supply chain strategy in an international context. The case covers important fields of management theory. Supply chain designs well as cost and performance drivers are revised by the use of frameworks.

The case of Bertelsmann China: Supply Chain for Books (B) is situated in China in the beginning of 2006. Bertelsmann Direct Group, the Chinese subsidiary of the worldwide Bertelsmann AG, is one of the leading book retailers in the country. Supply chain management is essential for success in retailing, which is why Bertelsmann puts a lot of effort into the optimization of its supply chain design. As costs are paramount to importance in the low-margin book retailing sector, linear programming methods are applied to optimize the network

This case study addresses a number of common transportation management issues. It provides an opportunity to analyse historical freight payment data in order to reduce transportation costs and improve customer service, allowing students to utilise real freight payment data and order shipment history data to make recommendations that have strategic implications for both cost and service performance.

BP has interest in both upstream and downstream segments in over 100 countries worldwide. The United States subsidiary of BP is the nation's largest producer of oil and gas. This case focuses on the upstream procurement activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

This case study has been developed to facilitate discussion about current supply chain management issues and potential solutions. The scenario presented in this case is very representative of the pressures experienced by supply chain managers. Namely, the need to reduce costs while maintaining quality and customer service. This case presents some unusual challenges and constraints that are unique to the cruise line industry. These constraints can provide an opportunity to explore new supply chain paradigms.

This case introduces offers the concept of cash-to-cash (C2C) and extension of the concept to facilitate supply chain finance improvements between trading partners by harvesting the inherent advantages (lower WACC, lower ICC) of one trading partner to reduce cost and benefit the entire supply chain.

This case illustrates the concept of consolidation and how freight forwarders use it to reduce transportation costs. The student must compare a ship-direct model against vehicular consolidation, then consider temporal consolidation, investigate the differences between a freight broker and a freight forwarder, and develop a rate analysis for use in negotiation.

DSM Manufacturing has been around for 100 years. In that time, the company has grown considerably in size and is now a global enterprise. With the global expanse, DSM is now facing new challenges, leaving executives to determine what the next steps are in running an efficient supply chain, those that a network analysis will not necessarily address. This case illustrates DSM's process

Goodwill Industries warehousing operations has increased as the Used Merchandise Store Sales in the US has also increased to a total spending of $17 billion in 2013. Goodwill Industries faces warehousing issues as their inventory fluctuates seasonally. As people do their spring cleaning in the beginning of the year and rush to get their tax-deductible donations in by the end of the year, the warehouses are overflowed but in the off-seasons they are scarce. The following case poses the issue of an efficient warehouse operation that also supports the company sales plan.

This case focuses on supplier management through quantitative and qualitative analysis of data from a real company. In the process of solving the case, students determine and operationalize what constitutes a critical supplier, analyse the data provided, and identify the most critical suppliers.

This case study follows GHP Bearings staff as they create a supply chain map. Students will understand the supply chain network as a whole: including the relationships between suppliers and extending beyond immediate suppliers and customers rather than seeing the supply chain as a linear connection. Students will then analyse the entire supply chain network for strategic purposes and decide where should receive the greatest emphasis of management to give a competitive advantage.

In this case, teams can compete in the real-life situation produced by Tommasso-Southwest Sport Machines. Teams will act as the buyer or the seller and will need to consider the cost implications, risk and responsibility, and price negotiation.

Today's competitive market is very dynamic. New rivals emerge and customer expectations change—sometimes overnight. This case illustrates the following elements of supply chain management: Offshoring, Global Network Design, Country Selection and Facility Location.

When established markets in the West are stagnating or in crisis, companies increasingly look to emerging markets, especially the so-called BRICs, for growth potential. However, these new markets also pose unique challenges, for which the best practices and assumptions of Western managers are not automatically suited. Setting up supply chains in new regions confronts firms with multiple challenges in terms of regulation, resources, culture, and infrastructure. In this case study, students will accompany a successful German FMCG manager as he plans his company’s expansion into Russia, and is forced to look at the opportunities and challenges from a new perspective.

AGL Energy operates in one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the world. Demand is volatile with high customer churn rates and supply procurement is real time with huge price variability. These characteristics make supply chain management difficult and the case study describes how information is used to match supply with demand.

The Megamart case study addresses demand planning challenges that retailers often face in categories that have bulky, seasonal, imported products. Historical point-of-sale data on gas grill SKUs is provided for analysis and developing appropriate product flow plan that meets the needs of all retail supply chain stakeholders.

This two-part case illustrates the use of economic order quantity to manage conflicting performance measures across different siloed functions in an organization. Part A requires students to assess the costs of various order quantities and quantify the concept of “robustness.“ Part B emphasizes managing the variables of annual demand, ordering cost, inventory carrying cost, and unit price to achieve strategic goals. The student must determine how to lower ordering costs to compensate for increases in the other variables as well as to help guide Just-In-Time implementation efforts.

Steel Corp has a large production capacity but a shrinking steel market in Europe. Reaching growing markets like China and U.A.E will be important to sustaining and growing revenue but is tough due to higher transportation costs. In this case, users must identify and use logistics data; logistics customer segmentation and related cost analysis.

The COO for Suape Container Terminal, the largest deep–water port in Brazil's Northeast must consider a proposal presented by the users' council that calls for the establishment of a reservation scheme that minimizes the risk of docking delays. Under this proposal, ocean carriers, on the one hand, agree to pay a reservation fee that significantly increases revenue for Tecon Suape. On the other hand, they expect Tecon Suape to compensate them financially when a berth is not available upon vessel arrival. Tecon Suape's management team must evaluate that suggestion, as the team prepares to enter contractual negotiations with the users.

The i-AM Tablet is an evolving gadget in a world of fast-paced technological change. Facing a new partnership with a major customer, the market for the i-AM is about to explode! This case explores the innovative concept of Supply Chain Resilience as the CEO of i-AM, Inc, develops a strategic plan for expansion. This case is based on theory and practices evolved at the Dow Chemical Company.