Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(623)
- Faculty Publications (111)
- 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
- 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
- December 1998
- Background Note
Cash Management Practices in Small Companies
By: H. Kent Bowen, Andrew R. Jassy, Laurence E. Katz, Kevin E. Kelly and Baltej Kochar
Most small business managers claim that cash management is their leading concern. Often walking a tightrope between growth and illiquidity, small business managers face different cash management challenges than their counterparts in larger companies. Compared to larger... View Details
- 1998
- Article
Alternative Models of Uncertain Commodity Prices for Use with Modern Asset Pricing Methods
By: Malcolm Baker, E. S. Mayfield and John Parsons
This paper provides an introduction to alternative models of uncertain commodity prices. A model of commodity price movements is the engine around which any valuation methodology for commodity production projects is built, whether discounted cash flow (DCF) models or... View Details
Keywords: Asset Pricing; Goods and Commodities; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Production; Projects; Cash Flow
- 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
- August 1997
- Background Note
Accounting for Manufacturing Companies
By: Srikant M. Datar
The accounting for a manufacturing company is examined, including the flow of costs from raw materials to work in process to finished goods and the distribution between an inventoriable or product cost and a noninventoriable or period cost. View Details
Keywords: Cost Accounting; Product; Cost; Distribution; Accrual Accounting; Accounting; Manufacturing Industry
- August 1997
- Case
Natural Blends, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen, Ramchandran Jaikumar and Karen Krause
Describes the continuous flow process used to generate orange juice concentrate. Production involves several tightly coupled process steps with varying production rates and setup times. Given production constraints and customer requirements, management choices must be... View Details
- June 1997 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Walker and Company: Profit Plan Decisions
By: Robert L. Simons and Ramsey Walker
Ramsey Walker, a second-year MBA student, must decide how to control a family business as an absentee owner. After providing background details on the publishing industry, the case requires the reader to: 1) make a product segmentation decision; 2) prepare a profit... View Details
- March 1996
- Case
New Product Development at Canon: The Contact Sensor Project
By: Joseph L. Bower and Michael Partington
Canon is one of the leading innovators in the world. This case describes the processes by which Canon manages the flow of ideas from basic science to new products, and how it harnesses product innovation to a strategy of diversification. View Details
- August 1995 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Hutton Branch Manager (A)
By: Lynn S. Paine and Jane Palley Katz
The manager of an E.F. Hutton branch office must decide how best to approach a colleague whose aggressive and ethically problematic cash management practices have cost the branch a major institutional client. These practices had been encouraged by top management at... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised February 1996)
- Case
Toy World, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester
A shift from seasonal to level production of toys will change the seasonal cycle of Toy World's working capital needs and necessitate new bank credit arrangements. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details
- November 1994 (Revised November 1994)
- Case
MW Petroleum Corporation (A)
By: Timothy A. Luehrman, Peter Tufano and Barbara Wall
Amoco Corp. is negotiating to sell a wholly-owned subsidiary, MW Petroleum, to Apache Corp. MW owns large reserves of oil and gas comprising many properties at different stages of engineering, development, and production. The proposed acquisition is a large one for... View Details
- October 1994 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
Sport Obermeyer Ltd.
By: Janice H. Hammond and Ananth Raman
The case describes operations at a skiwear design and merchandising company and its supply partner. Introduces production planning for short-life-cycle products with uncertain demand and allows students to analyze a reduced version of the company's production planning... View Details
- June 1994 (Revised October 1999)
- Background Note
Beer Game, The: Board Version
The beer game is an exercise that demonstrates supply channel dynamics. Simulates the flow of material and information in a simplified channel of beer production and distribution, focusing on the linkages among a beer manufacturer, its distributors, a wholesaler, and a... View Details
- January 1994 (Revised May 1995)
- Case
Xerox: Design for the Environment
In 1990, Xerox undertook an "Environmental Leadership Program" designed to make Xerox an industry leader in non-polluting operations, recycling, and products actually designed for the environment. This effort flowed naturally out of the system of total quality... View Details
- December 1993 (Revised June 2000)
- Case
Kochman, Reidt + Haigh, Inc.
By: Richard S. Ruback and Roy Burstin
A small company faces the dilemma of how to finance growth (i.e., internally generated cash flows vs. outside financing sources). An innovative concept positions the company in promoting a niche within the kitchen-cabinet industry and in looking for an optimal way of... View Details
- July 1990 (Revised August 1995)
- Case
Symantec--1982-90
By: Nitin Nohria
As Symantec grew from a small, upstart software development company to a major player in the software development industry, the channels of information flow and the internal communication needs of the company became more complex. The geographically-dispersed structure... View Details
- June 1990 (Revised January 1993)
- Case
Dynatronics, Inc. (Abridged)
By: Thomas R. Piper
Provides an opportunity to evaluate an investment in a new product line in strategic, competitive, organizational, and economic terms. The economic analysis involves an estimation of the relevant cash flows and discounting them at an appropriate hurdle rate. View Details
- September 1988 (Revised December 1998)
- Case
Donner Co.
By: Roy D. Shapiro
The management of a small manufacturer of circuit boards faces a number of production and operations management problems. The first day on this case is used to analyze the production capacity of various stages in the process and to examine bottlenecks and key... View Details
- September 1988 (Revised September 1994)
- Background Note
Note on Process Analysis (Abridged)
By: Roy D. Shapiro
Provides an introductory note to production processes and the use of flow diagrams. View Details