Behind the Scenes of Writing a Case

How can business leaders play a role in solving society’s biggest problems? How do HBS professors select and write case studies on relevant and current topics? How can manufacturing expertise improve inefficiencies at a mass vaccination site? Willy Shih, Jamie Bonini, and Bita Behgooy discuss Professor Shih’s most recent case study. This case study provides an inside look at how Jamie, Bita, and the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), partnered with Dallas County, Texas, to increase the efficiency of their mass vaccination site. Dallas County residents were waiting upwards of 4-5 hours to receive their vaccine, and the vaccination site was just asked to deliver even more vaccines in a given day. What was causing this problem and could the Toyota Production System help solve it?