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Quality
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- October 1993 (Revised July 1994)
- Case
A Brush with AIDS (A)
By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem
A product manager at a health products company is responsible for marketing sharps containers, which hospitals use to store used needles in order to protect medical workers from being pricked with AIDS-contaminated needles. After hospitals report repeated instances of... View Details
- September 1993
- Background Note
The Private Label Movement
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ray A. Goldberg
Private labels, previously weak in the U.S. market, are making inroads in the United States and Canada. Reasons for this include a weak economy, better quality of private label goods, and a desire by retailers to increase profitability. View Details
- May 1993
- Case
Patient Transfusion Services Lab of Central Blood Bank
By: James L. Heskett
The vice president of the Lab and Clinical Services at Central Blood Bank is faced with the challenge of convincing a hospital to use economical shared patient transfusion testing services. View Details
- January 1993
- Article
Models for Measuring and Accounting for Cost of Conformance Quality
By: P. Nandakumar, S. Datar and R. Akella
- December 1992 (Revised March 1997)
- Case
Peoria Engine Plant (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details
- November 1992 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Process Control at Polaroid (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright
Describes the initial efforts at a film production plant to shift from a traditional QC inspection mentality to a worker-based process control mentality. Students can prepare SPC charts, propose actions needed, and combine steps into an overall action plan. View Details
- November 1992
- Case
Process Control at Polaroid (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright
The plant manager of a film production operation wants to create and implement a new approach to quality within the next 12 months. Issues of personnel (and their roles), production processes (and their control), and quality standards must be addressed. View Details
- October 1992 (Revised December 1993)
- Case
ServiceMaster Co.: The Quality Services Network
By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell
Keywords: Service Industry
- October 1992 (Revised September 1996)
- Case
McDonald's Corporation
By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis
McDonald's has over many years built an operating strategy based on consistency and quality through a limited product range. Competitive forces have drawn the company into a much wider variety of foods and services in order to maintain growth. Now, new competitors... View Details
- May 1992
- Supplement
Fabtek (B)
By: Rowland T. Moriarty Jr. and Benson P. Shapiro
Presents an urgent order for repair service from an important customer who had purchased an item from a competitor. The item, which TiFab had bid on, went out at a price that TiFab predicted was below the amount necessary to ensure quality manufacture. Now the customer... View Details
- March 1992 (Revised April 1995)
- Teaching Note
BMW: The 7-Series Project (A), Teaching Note
By: Gary P. Pisano
Teaching Note for (9-692-083). View Details
- February 1992 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
BMW: The 7-Series Project (A)
By: Gary P. Pisano
Explores BMW's decision about how to manufacture prototype vehicles. Historically, BMW's prototypes were handcrafted by highly skilled artisans in the company's shop. A proposal has been made to alter the process so that prototypes are made in a way that can better... View Details
- February 1992 (Revised September 2003)
- Case
Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation (A-1)
By: Lynn S. Paine
The CEO of Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. must decide what to do when he receives information that the company's supply of apple juice concentrate may be adulterated. The concentrate is used in many of the company's juice products. It appears that others in the company may... View Details
- November 1991 (Revised June 1997)
- Case
Micom Caribe (A)
By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis
Describes the Puerto Rican manufacturing plant of a transnational company. The award-winning plant has dramatically improved the quality of flexibility of its operations, by taking a radical approach to manufacturing. The methods center on the use of specific... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
- Case
Maxwell Appliance Controls
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details
- autumn 1991
- Article
The Topic of Quality in Business School Education and Research
By: Robert S. Kaplan
- 1991
- Article
Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Jeffrey Zornitsky
Survey data from 1,277 employees and 4,269 customers of a personal lines insurance organization were analyzed with the following results: (a) employee perceptions of service quality are positively related to both job satisfaction and self-perceived service capability;... View Details
- July 1991 (Revised May 1993)
- Case
Fairfield Inn (B)
By: James L. Heskett
The manager of a Fairfield Inn located near a family entertainment center is requesting special consideration for a falling quality rating caused, in his opinion, by unusually high occupancy rates at his unit. The case raises questions about quality measurement,... View Details