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March 2024
Case

From 'BIG' Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In the summer of 2023, Eduard (“Eddie”) Croitoru, Vice President (VP) of ICL Group (“ICL”) Corporate Initiatives, was reflecting on ICL’s internal ideation program, the Business Innovation for Growth (BIG) Accelerator. When Raviv Zoller became the CEO of ICL in 2018,... View Details

March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
Supplement

From 'BIG' Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

In August 2023, Raviv Zoller, CEO of ICL Group, discussed his upcoming business trip to St. Louis with Eduard Croitoru, VP of ICL Corporate Initiatives, to commemorate the construction of ICL's new $400 million advanced manufacturing facility. In preparation for the... View Details

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Ball: EVA Driving the World's Leading Can Manufacturer (A)

By: Jonas Heese and Susan Pinckney

The case describes Ball’s multi decade history of using Economic Value Added to drive decision making and workforce compensation. In 2016, the company acquired Rexam PLC and became the world’s leading metal beverage container company. Consumer demand for varied... View Details

May 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens

This case describes the motivation for and the development of Siemens' digital manufacturing enterprise vision, which became the foundation for its implementation of Industrie 4.0. While the effort started with a purely defensive move by Anton Huber, head of the... View Details

September 2014 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Samuel Colt: An American Gun Maker

By: Tom Nicholas and Casey Verkamp

Samuel Colt not only perfected and patented the technology for a gun that could fire multiple times without reloading, but he also developed and applied early principles of mass production more completely than anyone had done before. Until the nineteenth century,... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Positioning; Machinery and Machining; Production; Independent Innovation and Invention; Manufacturing Industry; United States

January 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

Samuel Slater & Francis Cabot Lowell: The Factory System in U.S. Cotton Manufacturing

By: Tom Nicholas and Matthew Guilford

At the time of the American War of Independence (1776-1783) and for several decades after it, Great Britain dominated the global production of cotton textiles. In fact, Britain became so dominant in textile manufacturing and trading that Manchester, its industrial... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Production; Business History; Manufacturing Industry; Great Britain; Massachusetts

February 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

The LEGO Group: Publish or Protect?

By: Willy C. Shih and Sen Chai

Senior managers at the LEGO Group are faced with a quandary: Should they patent inventions coming out of their manufacturing process development work, should they keep them as trade secrets, or should they publish them so that they would go into the public domain and... View Details

September 2011
Supplement

TopCoder (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Eric Lonstein and Stephanie Pokrywa

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Production; Machinery and Machining; Planning; Quality; Competition; Diversification; Technology Adoption; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Manufacturing Industry

July 2011 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (A)

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Machinery and Machining; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Planning; Quality; Opportunities; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Segmentation; Technology Adoption; Theory; Manufacturing Industry

February 2011 (Revised July 2013)
Case

A123 Systems: Power. Safety. Life.

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

A123 Systems, the largest manufacturer of lithium ion batteries in North America, is producing and selling batteries for electric vehicles in China and electric buses in Europe and America. It just opened two plants in Michigan, partially funded by a grant from... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Diversification; Machinery and Machining; Renewable Energy; Transportation; Management Skills; Corporate Finance; Auto Industry; Battery Industry

April 2010
Case

Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Ellen Knebel

CEO Bill Nichol must somehow negotiate a surprise ultimatum from Walmart, his largest customer, about his largest and most profitable product line: “We're dropping it.” Among its hosiery products, the Kentucky Derby Hosiery Co. produces and sells a branded line of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Crisis Management; Negotiation Tactics; Conflict Management; Apparel and Accessories Industry; North America

January 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

General Electric Healthcare, 2006

By: Tarun Khanna and Elizabeth Raabe

In January 2006, Joe Hogan, head of General Electric (GE) Healthcare Technologies, prepared to step into William Castell's shoes as CEO of GE Healthcare, the world's leading manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment. In 2004, former CEO Jeff Immelt acquired Amersham... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Cost vs Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Machinery and Machining; Global Range; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Design; Technological Innovation; Expansion; Value Creation; Business Subsidiaries; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

September 2004 (Revised December 2004)
Case

Metso Paper: Globalization of Finnish Metal Workshops

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Marikka Heikkila and Kalle Lyytinen

Metso Paper, the world's largest producer of paper machines, aims to transform itself into a knowledge- and information-based service and solution provider for the paper industry by aggressively exploiting information technologies. In the fall of 2002, Jorma Hujala, a... View Details

Keywords: Production; Customer Value and Value Chain; Information Technology; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Management; Machinery and Machining; Expansion; Service Delivery; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Finland

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June 1998 (Revised April 2000)
Case

GM Powertrain

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Mikelle Eastley

Discusses a young MBA plant manager who is improving the operations of a small General Motors components plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At 29 years old, Joe Hinrichs is the youngest plant manager at GM, and in his new assignment, he is faced with the daunting... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Labor Unions; Problems and Challenges; Technological Innovation; Change Management; Machinery and Machining; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

May 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Komatsu and Dresser: Putting Two Plus Two Together

By: Ashish Nanda

In 1987, Komatsu Ltd., looking to expand its presence in the U.S. earth-moving equipment (EME) industry, enters into a 50-50 joint venture with Dresser. The management of the Komatsu Dresser joint venture faces difficulty in bringing the two halves together. The rift... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Machinery and Machining; Restructuring; Joint Ventures; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Japan; United States

March 1998 (Revised November 2004)
Case

FAG Kugelfischer-A German Restructuring

By: Stuart C. Gilson

A large German manufacturer of ball bearings and precision machinery experiences severe financial difficulty brought on by poor management practices, an ill-conceived acquisition of a former East German ball-bearings company, and an industry recession. The company... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Acquisition; Restructuring; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Machinery and Machining; Policy; Resignation and Termination; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Evaluation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Europe; Germany; United States

August 1997 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Fabritek, 1992

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes a large-volume automotive parts contract in a high-quality machine work company. Quality and delivery problems arise when one of the four men on the job is replaced with a high producer who cannot earn a substantial bonus because of machine interference. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Compensation and Benefits; Selection and Staffing; Production; Quality; Manufacturing Industry

July 1996
Case

Bayside Controls, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Jennifer Kochman and Sylvie Ryckebusch

Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Leveraged Buyouts; Machinery and Machining; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Production; Personal Development and Career; Sales; Aerospace Industry

November 1995 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Transformation of Pratt & Whitney North Haven (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Linda A. Hill, Andrew P. Burtis, Sylvie Ryckebusch and John Schiavone

As part of the restructuring effort underway at the Pratt & Whitney North Haven plant, Ed Northern and a group of Japanese consultants are transforming the manufacturing process from a batch process to a single-piece flow, and are organizing the machines and workers in... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Business Processes; Production; Machinery and Machining; Human Resources; Product; Connecticut

June 1994
Case

Green Marketing at Rank Xerox

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Xerox Corp. is on the verge of launching a new line of photocopiers made largely from refurbished or recycled parts. In spite of this reclaimed content, the company intends to position the machines as "new." The move is a response to growing environmental pressures in... View Details

Keywords: Product Positioning; Machinery and Machining; Environmental Sustainability; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Europe

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