UCONN MBA OPIM 5110: Suggested Questions for Cases Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting: 1.

What is the current demand forecasting method? Who uses the demand forecast? What are the consequences, if any, if the forecast is inaccurate? 2. How accurate was the demand forecast for the first quarter of 2005? 3. Create a demand forecast for the PVB product family for the next three quarters. How does your demand forecast compare to Wilkins demand forecast? 4. As Bernie Barge, What would you recommend to management and why? How should Barge convince management to follow his recommendations? Develop an action plan. 5. Suggest a web/online strategy for the firm. Barilla SpA (A) 1. Diagnose the underlying cause of the difficulties that the JITD program was created to solve. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this program? 2. What conflicts or barriers internal to Barilla does the JITD program create? What causes these conflicts? As Giorgio Magggiali, how would you deal with these? 3. As one of Barillas customers, what would your response to JITD be? Why? 4. In the Environment in which Barilla operated in 1990, do you believe JITD (or a similar kind of program) would be feasible? Effective? If so, which customers would you target next? How would you convince them that the JITD program was worth trying? If not, what alternatives would you suggest to combat some of the difficulties that Barillas operating system faces? 5. Suggest a web/online strategy for the firm. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S. A., Inc. : 1. As Doug Friesen, what would you do to address the seat problem? Where would you focus your attention and solution efforts? 2. What options exist? What would you recommend? Why? 3. Where, if at all, does the current routine for handling defective seats deviate from the principles of the Toyota Production System? 4. What is the real problem facing Doug Friesen? Excel Logistics Services: 1. Help Stalk organize the data by preparing a run chart. 2. Prepare appropriate process control charts to see if the process is in control. Is the receiving process in or out of control? 3. Customer service requirement determine that receiving process error should never exceed 2 percent on any given day. What percentage of the days is likely to exceed 2 percent error, given the current performance at receiving? Assume a total of 8,000 transactions per day, 4,000 in each module. 4. Prioritize the set of actions you would take to ensure that more than 99 percent of the days have less than 2 percent receiving process error. 5. Can you think of a continuous improvement framework that Stalk can use as an engine to improve performance in the receiving process and other processes at Springfield? 6. Suggest a web/online strategy for the firm.