Teaching Note for product 9B21D011.

Guillaume Laverdure, chief operating officer at Medicom Group (Medicom), was evaluating a potential investment in a new facility that would manufacture melt-blown polypropylene (melt-blown PP), a key raw material for surgical and respirator masks. It was February 2021, and the previous 12 months had been eventful for the company, one of the largest suppliers of medical masks in the world, as the COVID-19 pandemic had led to a staggering increase in .....more

Teaching note for product 9B20D013.

On Monday, July 23, 2018, the operations manager at Sorel Life Insurance Company in Montreal, Quebec was preparing for a meeting scheduled for Friday. The meeting was called by her boss, the vice-president of operations, to discuss Sorel’s second quarter financial results. Performance of Sorel’s underwriting department was continuing to decline; market share had dropped, policy completion time had increased, and fewer applications were being processed. .....more

Teaching note for product 9B19D008.

This case focuses on the supply chain strategy of Walmart. Set in 2019, it provides a detailed description of the company’s supply chain network and capabilities. Data in the case allows students to compare Walmart’s source of competitiveness with those of other retailers—both online including Amazon.com and traditional brick–and-mortar retailers, such as Target—to develop insights into the management of a large, complex, global supply chain network. .....more

Teaching note for product 9B19D013.

Teaching note for product 9B19D007.

This case describes the journey of a Chinese snack food company, LYFEN, as it developed supply-chain processes and capabilities to compete successfully in a highly competitive market. It provides detailed information about LYFEN’s quality-control processes and supply-chain management practices. A particularly interesting aspect of the case is the challenges faced by the company to deliver on customer expectations for food safety and the associated .....more

The president and chief executive officer of Romet Limited, was preparing for a project team meeting that would start at 1:00 p.m. that afternoon. It was Friday April 27, 2018, and he had just finalized the architectural design and layout for the company’s new plant. The lease for the current plant would expire at the end of that year, and he was reviewing the activities required to complete the facility relocation project. The plant relocation was .....more