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2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 10 Variations on the Theme of Flow Production

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to explore how technologies and organizations engaged in flow production evolve over time. To allow for an apples-to-apples comparison, I examine organizations using essentially the same physical technologies, making similar products, and... View Details

Keywords: Flow Production; Ford; General Motors; Competitiveness; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Production; Auto Industry

August 2017 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Flex Hungary: Launching Production (A)

This case examines design choices in the construction of flow lines. Flow lines are a popular way of arranging production because they are simple and inherently efficient. Equipment or workstations are arranged according to the sequence of steps in which a product is... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Line-balancing; Flow Line; Conveyor-paced Line; Consumer Goods; Consumer Products; Production Management; Production Planning; Production Scheduling; Operations; Production; Management; Supply Chain; Design; Analysis; Goods and Commodities; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; European Union

March 2011
Case

Cash Flow Productivity at PepsiCo: Communicating Value to Retailers

PepsiCo developed a new metric that better measured the value added by Pepsi products than did gross margin, the traditional metric used by retailers to determine shelf space and promotional activity. The new metric, cash flow productivity, captured the value of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Cash Flow; Measurement and Metrics; Distribution; Performance Productivity; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

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September 2017 (Revised March 2023)
Background Note

Production Processes

By: Willy Shih and Michael W. Toffel

This note describes four broad categories of process architectures and then examines the nature of task assignment that typically would be found in a factory organized along the lines of each process type. It then delves more deeply into work flow policies, materials... View Details

Keywords: Production Management; Production Planning; Production Scheduling; Process Analysis; Process Maps; Processing Times; Process Improvement; Production; Management; Product; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

2019
Working Paper

Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 8 Rationalizing Flow Processes

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the value structure of flow production processes and to explain why it is necessary to rationalize flow processes using the tools of systematic management. I first explain the problems facing managers of multi-step flow... View Details

Keywords: Flow Processes; Bottlenecks; Systematic Management; Production; Management; Problems and Challenges

October 2014
Article

Sovereigns, Upstream Capital Flows and Global Imbalances

By: Laura Alfaro, Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan and Vadym Volosovych

We construct measures of net private and public capital flows for a large cross-section of developing countries considering both creditor and debtor side of the international debt transactions. Using these measures, we demonstrate that sovereign-to-sovereign... View Details

Keywords: Current Account; Aid/government Debt; Reserves; Puzzles; Productivity; Sovereign Finance; Developing Countries and Economies; Macroeconomics

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August 2020
Article

Workplace Knowledge Flows

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

We conducted a field experiment in a sales firm to test whether improving knowledge flows between coworkers affects productivity. Our design allows us to compare different management practices and to isolate whether frictions to knowledge transmission primarily reside... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Sharing; Interpersonal Communication; Employees; Performance Productivity; Sales; Motivation and Incentives

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October 1997 (Revised June 2000)
Exercise

Capital Budgeting: Discounted Cash Flow Analysis

By: Thomas R. Piper

This exercise comprises seven problems that collectively allow students to work through each type of cash flow that is encountered in capital budgeting. The instructor can also address such issues as product cannibalization and real options. View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cash Flow

Research Summary

Sovereigns, Upstream Capital Flows and Global Imbalances

By: Laura Alfaro

We construct measures of net private and public capital flows for a large cross-section of developing countries considering both creditor and debtor side of the international debt transactions. Using these measures, we demonstrate that sovereign-to-sovereign... View Details

11 May 2017
News

Going with the Flow

come to fruition and become real, productive companies. “I remember my dad visiting ViaCord in the early days, when I had only 10 employees. He came in and said, ‘Where’s your cash register? I don’t hear the cash register ringing.’ That... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley

September 2023
Teaching Note

Shad Process Flow Design Exercise: Kick-Off Class

By: Willy C. Shih

The Shad Process Flow Design Exercise is a simulation designed to help students cement what they learn in the process fundamentals section of the RCTOM course by giving them the opportunity to translate classroom concepts into actual physical processes and experience... View Details

Keywords: Production; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry; United States

February 1999 (Revised September 2006)
Exercise

"Shad" Process Flow Design (B)

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Provides detailed instructions to prepare for factory demonstration day. A rewritten version of an earlier exercise. View Details

Keywords: Production

December 1989 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Destin Brass Products Co.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A specialized manufacturer of brass valves, pumps, and flow controllers is troubled by competitive pricing in pumps and higher than expected margins for flow controllers. Managers suspect that cost accounting and cost allocations to products may be to blame. Two... View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Activity Based Costing and Management; Five Forces Framework; Customer Value and Value Chain; Competition; Business Strategy; Design; Inflation and Deflation; Asset Pricing; Governance Controls; Manufacturing Industry

February 1999 (Revised June 2003)
Exercise

"Shad" Process Flow Design (C)

By: Roy D. Shapiro

Provides detailed instructions to prepare for factory demonstration day. A rewritten version of an earlier exercise. View Details

Keywords: Production

2020
Working Paper

The Real Exchange Rate, Innovation and Productivity

By: Laura Alfaro, Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger and Yanping Liu

We evaluate manufacturing firms' responses to changes in the real exchange rate (RER) using detailed firm-level data for a large set of countries for the period 2001–2010. We uncover the following stylized facts about regional variation of manufacturing firms'... View Details

Keywords: Real Exchange Rate; Firm Level Data; Innovation; Productivity; Exporting; Importing; Credit Constraints; Currency Exchange Rate; Innovation and Invention; Performance Productivity

14 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Keeping Credit Flowing to Consumers in Need

credit crunch? Nicolas P. Retsinas: In 2007 the nonprime mortgage market crumbled. Many of these products were predicated on ever-rising home values, which would enable owners to sell, pay off, buy again-a cycle toward ever-bigger,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Construction; Real Estate

June 2008 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Patient Flow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (A)

By: Anita L. Tucker and Jillian Alexandra Berry

Brigham and Women's Hospital challenged a team of physicians to improve patient flow from the Emergency Department to Intensive Care Units (ICUs). One of the team members, Selwyn Rogers, Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Brigham and Women's... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Operations; Business Processes; Performance Productivity; Conflict and Resolution; Health Industry; Massachusetts

June 2014 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

October 2015
Teaching Note

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

09 Aug 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

Productivity Tips You Probably Haven't Considered Before

taking breaks help or hinder getting things done? The researchers also address questions you've likely never considered, such as how weather affects productivity and why collaboration may make you less able to solve problems. Hiding From... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

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