Office/Building #: 3R08A - Ivey
Phone Number: (519) 661-3288
E-mail: pbell@ivey.uwo.ca
Professor
BA (Hons.), MA (Oxford); MBA, PhD (Chicago)

The Morrice Collection (A) And (B): (9A92E006 and 9A92E007)The issue for investigation is whether data on past sales of paintings by the artist Morrice, collected by journalist Philip Mathias, provide a basis for a rigorous appraisal of a collection of 84 Morrice paintings donated to the nation. The collection had been appraised by two art experts at $15,000,000. (with I. Berdrow)

Available for instructor: Teaching note, Excel data files.

Northern Napa Valley Winery, Inc.:(9A98E046) The CEO of Northern Napa Valley Winery ('Northern') must forecast aggregate sales of red table wine for the 1996-97 product year (October, 1996 - September, 1997) as well as month-by-month sales for the same period. This case provides the student with the opportunity to try to forecast a time series characterized by distinct trend and seasonality with almost nine years of monthly data available.

Available for instructor: Teaching note, Excel data file.

Available for instructor: Teaching note, Excel data file.

SW Construction (Holding) Limited: (9B02E001) Ken Sung, Executive Director of SW Construction (Holding) Limited (SW), was concerned that his company had been generally unsuccessful in bidding for construction projects put out to tender by the Government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong (SAR). Since winning these contracts was now a high priority for SW, Ken wondered what the issue was and what he could do to win more contracts.  Ken has some data from previous auctions and wants to use this data to improve his success rate in bidding on these projects. (with K. Sham and R. Wong)

Visteon Inc: (9B02E002) Peter Sohn, a professional engineer at Visteon’s Markham Plant, was asked to examine Visteon’s manufacturing process for electronic crash sensors (ECS) to try to recommend changes that would reduce the failure rate at the final assembly pressure test.  Peter conducted some experiments and collected some data, and must now analyse the data and see what changes will improve plant throughput. (with P. Sohn and G. McAdam)

Available for instructor: Teaching note.

Brent-Harbridge Developments: (9A98E042) Sheila Harbridge, Chief Executive Officer of Brent-Harbridge Developments (B-H), had just received confirmation of several upcoming property auctions. B-H was currently "asset short" after some successful recent disposals, which made Sheila keenly interested in three of the properties being auctioned. She needed to prepare a bidding strategy in order to try to acquire at least one or perhaps more of the development properties being auctioned.

Don Smith (Revised): (9A96E006) Don Smith has been let down by a company (B.C.H.) with whom he thought had a legal contract to supply the cut lumber to build Don’s dream home. Time is short: Don has sold his house and has to move his (large) family. B.C.H. has said they will provide the lumber for an additional $30,000, but are there other options open to Don? (revision of a case by E.F.P. Newson, D. Smith, and K. Hill).

Gilbert & Gilbert: (9A98E027) Barb Gilbert, the proprietor of a retail store, has been advised by her lawyer to offer a former employee $5,000 to drop a racial discrimination claim. Should she follow this advice?

Listerine Lozenges (Revised): (9A99E016) Warner-Lambert Canada Limited (W-L) was considering introducing throat lozenges to the Canadian pharmaceutical market. Lozenges distributed under the Listerine brand name had sold well in the U.S. and become a profitable venture. The case concentrates on the decision to launch the product, and on the acquisition of some needed packaging equipment. Some market research can be conducted to help with the decision. (revision of a case by A. Grindlay and T. Moss)

Michigan Auto Products, Inc.: (9A98E031) Dave McGuire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Michigan Auto Products (MAP), together with the company's Executive Committee must decide whether or not to build inventory to hedge against a possible strike at the end of the existing union contract. He also wants to determine an appropriate strategy for the new contract negotiations to take place with the union over the next six months.

Mike’s Self Service: (9A98E032) Mike owned a retail liquor store that he operated from a leased building and lot. Faced with renewing his lease for five years at a significant increase, he was looking to build his own store on a nearby lot. In considering whether to buy the lot and build, Mike had to decide what kind of new store to build (and in effect, whether to enter the wine retailing business that was new to him).

PCB Manufacturing, Inc. (9A98E043) Management at PCB Manufacturing was concerned about the quality of printed circuit boards being shipped to customers. Should the testing system be changed?

St. Swithin’s Hospital: (9A92E003) Dr. Susan Smith, a physician who was director of Internal Medicine at St. Swithin’s Hospital (SSH), had to decide whether to recommend purchase of new IPG diagnostic testing capability. Dr. Smith decided to review the options available for the diagnosis and/or treatment of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) at SSH, and to use the results of this review as the basis for her recommendation. (with C. Haehling von Lanzenauer)

AT&T Telemarketing Site Selection: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): In 1986 AT&T found itself in a very different market from the one in which it had held a monopoly position during the 1970s. In response to this dramatic change, AT&T developed a new strategy focused on targeting opportunities for new communications "products" which would exploit AT&T’s ability to package complex communications systems. AT&T identified the rapidly expanding telemarketing industry as an ideal communications market segment to target. How could AT&T develop a "telemarketing product" which would provide a competitive advantage and enable AT&T to attract new telemarketing clients? (with D. Roth)

AT&T Telemarketing Site Selection (B): (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/) The (B) case presents a small scale telemarketing site selection problem that can be solved with Excel Solver.

Bishop’s University: Class Scheduling:(9A98E024) Professor Taseen, a faculty member at the Business School at Bishop’s University is looking to schedule next semester’s classes within the Business School. If his efforts are successful, his approach might be extended to other divisions of the University. (with A. Taseen)

Dofasco: Fuel Management: (9A98E025) A steel producer is looking to reduce the costs of fuels by using fuel gases produced as by-products of steel manufacture to meet some of the fuel requirements of the steel works.

Harris Corporation - Semi Conductor Sector: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): In late 1988, Harris Corporation acquired the GE Solid State (GESS) semiconductor product lines and manufacturing facilities from General Electric. Prior to the purchase, Harris’ semiconductor sector enjoyed a profitable business producing sophisticated niche products. However, shortly after the acquisition, on-time delivery emerged as a crisis issue. The sector had many delinquent orders and customers judged delivery performance inferior compared to other semiconductor vendors. Throughout 1989, the percentage of ordered line items delivered within one day of the promised delivery date hovered around 75 percent. One survey indicated that 60 percent of Harris’ customers wished to replace it as a vendor. Potential sales of $100 million had been lost in 1989, and sales continued to decline in the following years. What was once a profitable division of the corporation reported a loss of $75 million in fiscal year 1991. Jon Cornell, sector president pulled no punches: "The sector will not survive unless we solve our delivery problem." (with B. Koshy)

Harris Corporation - Semiconductor Sector (B): (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/ ): John Cornell, President of Harris Semiconductor, had spoken to the entire sector on company-wide closed-circuit television, and had given his strong support to a project to build a new planning system by stating "…[this] is the most important project in the sector, and everyone must do whatever is necessary to expedite the project and to insure its success. (Harris Semiconductor) sector will not survive unless we solve our delivery problem." (with B. Koshy)

Hooker Group Insolvency: (9B00E004) The Administrator of the Hooker Group insolvency had to decide how to resolve the financial affairs of 27 of the Hooker companies that formed the cross-guarantee group. The cross-guarantee provision that bound this group of companies together required each company in the group to guarantee the debt of all other members of the group.

Interactions ’98: (9A99E018) Betsy Little, Executive Director of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, is wondering if there is an easier approach to assigning conference slots to students. The current approach manually assigns students to available session places, trying to satisfy as many desired slots as possible while providing an advantage or priority to those students who submit their forms early. (with C. Anderson)

Kuwait's Al-Manakh Stock Market: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/ ): The Kuwait al-Manakh Stock Market crash in 1982 resulted in outstanding debts of some $94 billion and left the country in a state of economic panic. The Kuwaiti judicial system faced the near impossible task of assigning criminal and financial liability among the 6,000 investors caught in a web of 29,000 "bounced" post-dated checks and IOUs with the associated bankruptcies and business failure. Developing a method to disentangle the web of outstanding debt could save many years, and nearly $10 billion in court and attorney fees. In addition, the disentanglement would "net out" offsetting debts, and reduce the magnitude of the total outstanding debt resulting from the crash, thereby reducing the negative impact of the market crash on the economy. The government of Kuwait recognised that this complex web had to be disentangled quickly, fairly, and in a way most beneficial to the economy. His Excellency Shaikh Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, Minister of Finance and Oil turned to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research for help. (with S. Ridesic)

National Car Rental: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): In 1992 National Car Rental (National) was losing millions of dollars every month. General Motors (GM), National’s parent company, was forced to take a $744 million charge against the ownership of National. GM stated that if National did not become profitable, so that it could be sold, it would be liquidated and all 7500 employees would lose their jobs. Turnaround specialists Jay Alix and Associates were called in and Larry Ramaekers was assigned to lead the turnaround and act as president. Looking to the airline industry, Ramaekers noted the success of their new "yield management" or "revenue management" technology. He decided to go for a revenue-based turnaround as opposed to a cost-cutting turnaround: if "revenue management" technology could be successfully applied at National, revenues would be increased without a significant increase in costs. National turned to Aeronomics, a consulting company from Atlanta that employed several former airline revenue management specialists. Aeronomics assignment was straightforward: save the company. (with D. Roth)

Nesbitt Thomson: Monthly Payment Plan: (9A89E009) Mike Mackasey, a Vice President at Nesbitt Thomson, must assemble a portfolio this evening, or by working all night if necessary. An order to purchase the required bonds which make up the portfolio must be submitted before the market opens tomorrow, so that the bonds can be purchased at today’s closing prices. Mike had been given a list of 27 high-grade corporate bonds and knew what characteristics he wanted in the portfolio. He had to get his "buy" orders in for tomorrow morning before he leaving the office. (with K. Korpan-Frosst)

Northwest Newsprint, Inc: (9A98E035) Northwest was a major producer of newsprint with pulpmills in the Pacific Northwest and Canada from which they supplied various North American markets. John Smithers was reviewing which mill supplied which market in an attempt to find some opportunities for cost savings, and planned to develop and use a model to investigate both the immediate newsprint allocation problem, and also some longer term "strategic" issues. (with J. Hulland)

New England Feed Supply: (9A98E034) New England Feed Supply (NEFS) uses linear optimization to find least-cost feed mix formulations. Raw material supply restrictions are not generally included, unless the solution obtained without these constraints proves to be infeasible. Jeff Smith has formulated next week’s requirements for three feed mixes and found that NEFS has insufficient of one ingredient, Meat Meal, to implement the planned formulations. Smith now needs to determine what to do next. Should he modify the formulations, or try to obtain additional Meat Meal at a significantly higher price? (with D. Parker)

Petro Pipe Lines Corporation: (9A98E038) David Anderson, a management scientist, has been asked to develop a model to allocate gas supplies to Petro Pipe Lines (PPL) amongst the various suppliers in order to minimize the penalties imposed. (with S. Al-Hudhaif)

Procter and Gamble: North American Supply Chain Restructuring: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): Procter & Gamble (P&G) was a worldwide consumer products company that had grown steadily over the past 159 years. Pressure from the increasingly competitive marketplace led the company to undertake a major restructuring called SGE (strengthening global effectiveness). Consumers were demanding better value and if P&G were not able to offer this, numerous competitors worldwide were standing by to fill the need. A key element of SGE was a reexamination of P&G’s North American product supply chain with an emphasis on plant consolidation and customer service. Restructuring North American operations was extremely complex, but central to this problem were two fundamental issues: first, what were the best locations and scale of operations for manufacture of each of its products, and second, where should P&G choose to locate its distribution centers? (with B. Koshy)

The Professor Selects a Portfolio: (9B01E009)  How should a professor of management science build an equity portfolio made up of common shares of General Motors, General Electric, Oracle, and Microsoft? In particular, what fraction of the portfolio should be devoted to each of these four issues?

The Professor Selects a Portfolio of Chinese Stocks: (9B01E010)

How should a professor of management science build an equity portfolio made up of common shares of five Chinese companies: Huangshan Travel, Jiangsu Craft, Qingdao Haire, Tsing Hua Tongfang, and Xidan Mall?  In particular, what fraction of the portfolio should be devoted to each of these five issues?

TransTech Venture Partners: (9B02E012 ):  Dr. Peter Yen, CEO and President of TransTech Venture Partners (TTVP), and his senior management had to decide how the partnership should place $50,000,000 in new capital that had to be invested in the next four months.  TTVP was one of the oldest and most prominent venture capital firms in Asia with about one billion US dollars under its management.  Recently, TTVP’s performance had been below average as a consequence of the sluggish financial markets and the Asian financial crisis, but TTVP had raised $50,000,000 in new investment funds that had to be vested within the next four months.  Dr. Yen had emphasized that an appropriate use of these new resources was critical for the fund’s survival. (with F.Zhong)

South African National Defense Force: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/) The Republic of South Africa was to become a full democracy on the April 27 1994. Security for the "new" South Africa was in the hands of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF).  In the absence of a conventional military threat, accompanied by pressure to lessen the tax burden, South Africa was reducing its expenditures on defense. In January 1994, General George Meiring, the first chief of the SANDF, posed the following question to the defense planning team: Given a limited budget, how should the SANDF decide what its size and shape should be, and what main equipment was required? (with B. Koshy)

Babcock and Wilcox: Consolidated Forecasting: (9A98E023) Mr Jan D’Ailly, Manager, Marketing Services, at Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) had determined that: "Despite being quite sophisticated in our analysis, we are not quite getting the information we need for our shop-load planning and scheduling. Our sales projections also drive our accounting and business forecasts, so we need to improve the way we develop our basic forecasts". How can B&W improve its forecasting? (with M. Brudzynski)

Birmingham Megatron, Inc.: (9A98E044) Caroline Miller, plant manager at Birmingham Megatron's (BM’s) manufacturing operation, was looking to modify an existing production unit in order to expand output for an additional contract. This new contract was still at the bidding stage, and cost accounting had proposed a bid of $64.00/block for the required 1,400 blocks/week. Caroline wondered if she could afford to offer a more competitive price in order to win this contract.

Columbus-America Discovery Group And The SS Central America: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/) In 1857, while carrying passengers and gold from California to New York, the SS Central America sank in a hurricane, taking gold bars and coins worth an estimated $400 million to the ocean floor. One hundred, twenty-eight years later, the Columbus-America Discovery Group was formed with the objective of locating, exploring, and recovering the remains of the SS Central America. In the summer of 1985, Thomas G. Thompson, director and founder of Columbus-America assigned the task of directing the finding of the wreck to Dr. Lawrence Stone. (with B. Koshy)

Dofasco Lance Desulfurizing Plant: (9A79E002) The superintendent of blast furnaces at Dofasco, had to decide whether or not to recommend that engineering modifications costing $600,000 be made to the lance desulfurizing plant.

Research and Development at ICI: Anthraquinone: (9A98E029) ICI research division had discovered a new use for anthraquinone (AQ) and had to decide whether to accelerate research on a process to synthesize AQ and develop the commercial application, or to terminate the modest R&D effort.

Ohio Polymer, Inc.: (9A98E036) Ohio Polymer is about to negotiate a contract with ProBut Hydrocarbon, Inc. for the purchase of ethylene gas. The contract will require Ohio to purchase a fixed daily quantity of the gas at a set price per ton. Ohio Polymer's senior management is looking for advice on how much gas they should try to obtain and what price they should be willing to pay.

Superior Grain Elevator: (9A98E040) Mike Armstrong, manager of port facilities for Superior Grain Elevator, Inc., must decide whether to construct a third wharf (at a cost of $1.5 million) following a grain sale to Poland that will increase the number of shipments.

Vilpac Truck Company: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): In 1990, Vilpac Truck Company faced near certain bankruptcy following the agreement to open Mexico’s border to the rest of the world within two years. Vilpac had been protected for years by Mexican trade barriers and government ownership, but in the future Mexico’s largest truck manufacturer would be forced to compete in the highly competitive North American Free Trade Area. This coming pressure from world class foreign competition meant that Vilpac had two years to become a globally competitive truck manufacturer. To do this, Vilpac had to lower costs, improve quality, increase flexibility and product mix, and most importantly, more than triple capacity to gain the economies of scale necessary to compete effectively.

Chief Executive Officer Don Gustavo Vildosola championed Vilpac’s initiative to become a world class manufacturing facility. The challenge was to bring this inefficient company to global competitiveness and success in two years. (with S. Ridesic)

CONTEST: An Expert System at a Steel Works: (9A98E039) Jack Davidson, superintendent of casting at a continuous casting machine was asked to install an expert system to help diagnose and repair faults. Should he give the go ahead for installation?

Carpenter Electronics Limited: (9A91E007) Marcel Seres from the Process Engineering department at Carpenter Electronic’s manufacturing plant, was designing the plant that would be used to build the new ZQ8000 multi-function turbo-PC booster board. As Marcel began he recalled the objectives set by the Vice President, Manufacturing Operations. "We think the ZQ8000 products are better than anything that the competition may come up with, but we cannot survive if we are not the low-cost producer in this market". He was keenly aware of the time constraints: a plant design had to be ready for engineering to take over by January 1, 1991. (with P. Chau)

Harrison, Young, Pesonen, and Newell, Inc.: Direct Response TV, The Super-Tel Campaign:(9A98E028) Jacqueline Murdoch, of Harrison, Young, Pesonen and Newell Inc. (HYPN), had developed the media plan for the Super-Tel campaign and was supervising its execution. Today marked the start of week eight of the twelve-week direct response television campaign, and Jacqueline had been monitoring customer response data from the telemarketing contractor in order to judge the performance of the advertising plan, with the objective of making adjustments to improve the plan. Jacqueline could cancel ads that looked like they would perform poorly, and/or she could try to get the ads moved to better times of the day. She might also be able to buy additional advertising time on stations that had performed well. By studying the incoming data on customer responses, Jacqueline hoped to fine-tune the final weeks of advertising in order to maximize the number of customer orders received by Super-Tel, while minimizing the costs of obtaining those orders. (with D. Kolterman)

Janice McCallum, R.N. Manager - Nursing Services: (9A85E018) Janice McCallum has been authorized to hire two additional nurses increasing her staff from 12 nurses to 14. She needed to develop a new work schedule to accommodate the change. (with G. Hay)

Keycorp: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): KeyCorp, with over 1300 branches from Maine to Alaska, was one of the largest bank holding companies in the United States KeyCorp’s vision was to become the first choice of those seeking world-class financial products and services, however, increased competition forced KeyCorp to rethink and restructure its retail branch franchise. The branch teller was the primary bank contact, representing 95 percent of customer contacts at KeyCorp branches. A fundamental problem facing KeyCorp’s branch managers was figuring out how to improve customer service (defined primarily as reduced customer wait time) while still providing cost-effective staffing. KeyCorp Executive Vice President Robert G. Jones emphasized the importance of continuously improving customer service: "we have 150 million moments of truth taking place every year … and it takes every one of us at KeyCorp to make those moments of truth come out in the customers’ favor." (with B. Koshy)

Merit Brass Company: (Available from Wiley and Sons website http://www.wiley.com/college/informscases/): Merit Brass Company (Merit) was a supplier of pipe, valves, and fittings that was serving an increasingly competitive marketplace. Merit believed that customer service and price were the key success factors in this commodity industry, but the company relied on people-intensive systems to plan and control its operations, and to provide customer service, but Merit’s people could no longer keep up with the volume of work. Sheldon Schlessinger, President and CEO, and Edward R Waters, Vice-President and General Manager recognized the need for Merit to change the way it operated and were prepared to support this initiative. How could Merit respond to the market pressure to improve customer service in order to remain competitive, while reducing or, at a minimum, not increasing costs? (with S. Ridesic)

ProBut Hydrocarbon, Inc.: (9A98E037) This companion case to Ohio Polymer, Inc. presents the negotiation for an ethylene supply contract from ProBut=s perspective. ProBut has excess ethylene to sell and is interested in a Atake-or-pay@ contract with Ohio as a vehicle to smooth out its demand for ethylene. (with C. Haehling von Lanzenauer)

Pro-Forms, Inc.: "JB" Bryson, General Manager of Pro-Forms, Inc., is contemplating conducting a thorough review of Pro-Forms operations.

The Stephen B. Roman: (available from the author) Dan Wight of Essroc (Canada) was reviewing last year’s operations. The Picton plant had produced some 700,000 tons of cement, most of which had been delivered to Essroc’s distribution centers around the Great Lakes by the lake freighter, the Stephen B. Roman. The Roman was operating below capacity and there appeared to be an opportunity to reduce shipping costs by making better use of the vessel. Dan, however, noted that shipping was only one part of a complex manufacturing and distribution process. How could Essroc make better use of the Roman without incurring higher costs elsewhere in manufacturing or distribution? (with A.J. Taylor)