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  • February 1996
  • Case

Spartan Stores Incorporated: Reengineering for Efficient Consumer Response

Describes an effort to rationalize operations at a leading grocery wholesaler, enabled by information systems. Spartan Stores, Inc., is cooperatively owned by its 238 retailers and, through training, consulting, systems support, and cost of goods efficiencies, strives... View Details
Keywords: Business or Company Management; Restructuring; Information Technology
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  • Article

Operations Research in the Public Sector and Nonprofit Organizations

By: Zilla Sinuany-Stern and H. David Sherman
Public sector and nonprofit organizations (NPO) have been growing substantially in number and size since the turn of the millennium. In light of the ongoing economic crises these sectors are expected to grow even more with expanded demands for services, increased need... View Details
Keywords: Third Sector; Operations; Public Sector; Nonprofit Organizations
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  • September 2009
  • Article

Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?

By: Robert S. Huckman
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
Keywords: Business Units; Business Growth and Maturation; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Operations; Performance Efficiency
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  • Article

Front-line Staff Perspectives on Opportunities for Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Hospital Work Systems

By: Anita L. Tucker, Sara J. Singer, Jennifer E. Hayes and Alyson Falwell

Objective To link safety-related concerns raised by frontline staff about hospital work systems (operational failures) to the safety and efficiency of hospitals, and to contrast these concerns with national patient safety initiatives.

Data... View Details

Keywords: Perspective; Opportunities; Safety; Performance Efficiency; System; Failure; Conferences; Employees; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Experience and Expertise; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States
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  • June 2007
  • Article

Efficient Kidney Exchange: Coincidence of Wants in a Structured Market

By: A. E. Roth, Tayfun Sonmez and M. Utku Unver
Patients needing kidney transplants may have donors who cannot donate to them because of blood or tissue incompatibility. Incompatible patient-donor pairs can exchange donor kidneys with other pairs only when there is a "double coincidence of wants." Developing... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Structure; Size; Emotions; Human Needs; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Infrastructure; Supply Chain Management; Fairness; Performance Improvement; Health Industry
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  • 2022
  • Article

Improving Efficiency and Reducing Costs of MRI-Guided Prostate Brachytherapy Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

By: Nikhil G. Thaker, Rajat J. Kudchadker, James R. Incalcaterra, Tharakeswara K. Bathala, Robert S. Kaplan, Ankit Agarwal, Deborah A. Kuban, Benjamin D. Frank, Prajnan Das, Thomas W. Feeley and Steven J. Frank
Integrated quality improvement (QI) and cost reduction strategies can help increase value in cancer care. We applied standard QI and TDABC methods to improve workflow efficiency and reduce costs for MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy. We constructed process maps,... View Details
Keywords: Brachytherapy; Quality Improvement; Prostate; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Health Industry
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  • 1992
  • Book

Revolutionizing Product Development: Quantum Leaps in Speed, Efficiency and Quality

By: S. C. Wheelwright and K. B. Clark
Keywords: Product Development
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  • 2013
  • Working Paper

The Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry

By: Albert W. Sheen and Shai Bernstein
What, if anything, do private equity firms do with businesses they acquire? We find evidence of significant operational changes in 101 restaurant chain buyouts between 2002 and 2012. Analysis of health inspections conducted for over 50,000 stores in Florida shows that... View Details
Keywords: Safety; Quality; Private Equity; Food; Management Practices and Processes; Leveraged Buyouts; Performance Efficiency; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Florida
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  • May 2004
  • Article

The Case for International Coordination of Electricity Regulation: Evidence from the Measurement of Efficiency in South America

A decade of experience has shown that monitoring the performance of public and private monopolies is the hardest part of electricity sector reform in South America—because operators control most of the information needed for effective regulation. South American... View Details
Keywords: Information; Mathematical Methods; Monopoly; Globalization; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; South America
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  • January 2002 (Revised February 2002)
  • Case

Postgirot Bank and Provment AB: Managing the Cost of IT Operations

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Nancy Bartlett
Describes a specific approach for measuring the efficiency of the groups of computers inside an organization and suggests ways this tool may be used to reduce the company's computing investment while maintaining service. It is a software-enabled industrial engineering... View Details
Keywords: Cost Management; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Style; Information Technology; Applications and Software
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  • Article

Efficiencies and Regulatory Shortcuts: How Should We Regulate Companies like Airbnb and Uber?

By: Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin
New software platforms use modern information technology, including full-featured web sites and mobile apps, to allow service providers and consumers to transact with relative ease and increased trust. These platforms provide notable benefits including reducing... View Details
Keywords: Platforms; Regulation; Sharing Economy; Uber; Airbnb; Universal Service; Insurance; Market Platforms; Service Delivery; Software; Service Industry
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  • 2024
  • Working Paper

Dusting Off the Old Ones: Drug Licensing to Startups, Innovation Success and Efficiency

By: Mosab Hammoudeh, Joshua Lev Krieger and Jiajie Xu
This paper investigates whether moving R&D from incumbents to startups can increase innovation. Using comprehensive drug development data, we examine the outcomes of drug projects licensed from large firms to startups. We find that these projects licensed to startups... View Details
Keywords: Product Development; Innovation and Invention; Business Startups; Research and Development; Performance Efficiency; Pharmaceutical Industry
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  • Summer 2014
  • Article

Designed for Workarounds: A Qualitative Study of the Causes of Operational Failures in Hospitals

By: Anita L. Tucker, W. Scott Heisler and Laura D. Janisse
Frontline care providers in hospitals spend at least 10% of their time working around operational failures, which are situations where information, supplies, or equipment needed for patient care are insufficient. However, little is known about underlying causes of... View Details
Keywords: Supply Chain; Health Care and Treatment; Failure; Business Processes; Health Industry
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  • February 1998
  • Article

'A Matter of Trust': Effects of Communication on the Efficiency and Distribution of Outcomes

By: K. L. McGinn, J. Moag and M. H. Bazerman
Keywords: Trust; Communication; Outcome or Result; Distribution
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  • January 2015 (Revised October 2015)
  • Case

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell
In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details
Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan
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  • October 2015 (Revised February 2020)
  • Teaching Note

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan Buell
In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details
Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan
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  • October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
  • Case

The Transformation of Mudo

By: Anthony J. Mayo, Esel Çekin and Çiğdem Çelik
After 16 years in management consulting, Barış Karakullukçu left to become the CEO of Mudo in 2012, one of the best-known names in Turkey's retail industry. She was tasked with leading Mudo's transition from a family business to a more institutionalized, corporate... View Details
Keywords: Leadership; Management Challenges; Emerging Market; Retail; Second-generation; Operational Efficiency; Performance Management; Corporate Culture; Growth; Leading Change; Family Business; Organizational Culture; Emerging Markets; Family Ownership; Transformation; Performance Improvement; Growth and Development Strategy; Retail Industry; Turkey
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  • Article

Cooks Make Tastier Food When They Can See Their Customers

By: Ryan W. Buell, Tami Kim and Chia-Jung Tsay
While existing theory suggests that increased contact between customers and employees diminishes efficiency, recent research demonstrates that when employees can see their customers, the beneficiaries of their efforts, the quality and efficiency of the service they... View Details
Keywords: Operational Transparency; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Service Management; Service Industry
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  • January 2025
  • Technical Note

Get Cool: Air Conditioning Industry Background

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small
The “air conditioning paradox” is tied to climate change: the more the planet warms, the greater the need for cooling (due to the dangers of extreme heat as well as comfort within buildings), but the use of electricity-powered AC contributes to further warming. There... View Details
Keywords: Appliances; Global Warming; Energy Efficiency; Climate Change; Venture Capital; Demand and Consumers; Distribution Channels; Green Technology; United States; Asia
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  • March 2016
  • Supplement

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell
In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details
Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan
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