Note: The 2011 cases are the latest to be added. 2012 cases will be posted in December 2012.
Download the 2012 Call for Academic Cases – Submit by June 1, 2012
View the Quick Topic Spreadsheet of all our Academic Cases available.
2011 - Silo Manufacturing Corporation: SMC – Part A, Part B, Managing with Economic Order Quantity
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Ted Farris, University of North Texas
This two-part case illustrates the use of economic order quantity to manage conflicting performance measures across different silo'd functions in an organization. Part A requires students to assess the costs of various order quantities and quantify the concept of "robustness." Part B emphasizes managing the variables of annual demand, ordering cost, inventory carrying cost, and unit price to achieve strategic goals. The student must determine how to lower ordering costs to compensate for increases in the other variables as well as to help guide Just-In-Time implementation efforts.
This case contains two additional files. To receive the PowerPoint deck and Excel/macro based costing programs please email education@cscmp.org. CSCMP non-members will need to purchase the case before receiving these additional files.
2011 - Megamart Seasonal Demand Planning
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Rodney W. Thomas, Georgia Southern University
The Megamart case study deals with demand planning challenges that retailers often face in categories that have bulky, seasonal, imported products. Historical point-of-sale data on gas grill SKUs is provided for students to analyze and develop an appropriate product flow plan that meets the needs of all retail supply chain stakeholders.
This case contains an additional file. To receive the Point-of-Sale excel file, please email education@cscmp.org. CSCMP non-members will need to purchase the case before receiving the additional files.
2011 - Rocket-Blast, LLC: The Trade-offs of Logistics Cost and Performance Options (Mini-case)
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Robert Precord and John R. Macdonald, Michigan State University
Rocket- Blast, LLC. Is a case designed to facilitate a discussion of trade-offs and cost models associated with different logistics choices presented to the manager of a production facility. As a result of increased cost awareness due to high detention fees, total cost models are considered that need to be flushed out by the student. These total cost models are combined with qualitative considerations to allow the student to come to the best decision with regards to carrier/supplier selection and labor scheduling.
2011 - Manly Terminal: A Global Transportation Hub in Rural Iowa (Mini-case)
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Bobby J. Martens and and Scott Grawe, Iowa State University - College of Business
This case study explores transportation issues faced by a fictional shipper battling rising transportation costs, declining delivery service levels and the resulting unhappy customers. As MAP employees search for solutions, they discover Manly Terminal LLC, a biofuels-based storage and transloading facility located in rural Iowa, which enables modal shifts of ethanol from truck to rail. This case illustrates the key challenges facing Midwestern agricultural shippers and encourages a candid discussion about practical solutions for an impending transportation capacity crisis.
2011 - The Groundhog's New Clothes (Mini-case)
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Matthew J. Drake, Duquesne University, Paul M. Griffin, Pennsylvania State University, and Julie L. Swann
Georgia Institute of Technology
This case integrates professional ethical dilemmas in the context of a quantitative production planning problem. The pedagogical objectives are for students to increase their awareness of ethical dilemmas specific to operations research and management science, understand outcomes and trade-offs of the decisions, and develop the reasoning ability to justify a final solution to the situation. The dilemmas are embedded in a production planning problem that simultaneously gives students practice in technical analysis such as optimization. This emphasizes the role of mathematical models and other forms of quantitative analysis in decision environments that include qualitative concerns such as worker loyalty and environmental responsibility that cannot easily be modeled explicitly.
2010 - Innovative Distribution Company - A Total Cost Approach to Understanding Supply Chain Risk
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Ted Farris and Dr. Ila Manuj, University of North Texas
Illustrates the use of the total cost of ownership concept to analyze and compare two supply chains - one international and one domestic. Students must calculate economic order quantity and safety stock quantities then combine purchase price, shipping costs, and inventory carrying costs to quantify the differences between the two supply chains.
This case contains two additional files. To receive the PowerPoint deck and Excel/macro based costing programs please email education@cscmp.org. CSCMP non-members will need to purchase the case before receiving these additional files.
2010 - Breaking Ground in Services Purchasing
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Lisa M. Ellram, Miami University and Wendy L. Tate, University of Tennessee
This case provides an overview of how a purchasing organization can try to gain a foothold in an area of spending in which it has not been involved in the past. The legal group had been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on outside purchases with no meaningful involvement from purchasing, until a new Director came on board and purchasing to participate in the transformation of legal spending.
2010 - Lean at Kramer Sports (Mini Case)
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Steve Medland Instructor, Supply Chain Management and Susan L. Golicic, Colorado State University
Cash flow problems and foreign competition have put employee owned Kramer Sports on the brink of bankruptcy. In response, Kramer has been implementing lean principles in its factory for one year to lower inventory and production costs but has experienced only limited success. Why is Kramer failing to adopt lean when thousands of companies have succeeded at it?
2010 - Chabot Wallpaper Company (Mini Case)
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Rodney Thomas, Ph.D. (University of Tennessee), Assistant Professor, Georgia Southern University
Stephanie Thomas, Doctoral Student, Georgia Southern University
Fashion oriented product assortments are often problematic to supply chain managers due to short product life cycles, high SKU counts, frequent product rotations, inaccurate demand forecasts, and excessive amounts of obsolete inventory. This case provides opportunities for students to implement postponement strategies at a wallpaper company in order to meet customer service and inventory turnover requirements for large retailers.
2009 - Smiths Aerospace - How to manage the transition of supply chain operations to China?
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Remko van Hoek and Mark Johnson, Cranfield School of Management, UK
The case study centers on issues involved in relocating parts of the supply chain to China and centers on pros and cons, as well as implementation challenges in actually moving off-shore. The case helps identify that relocating parts of the supply chain might be harder than often considered and that the case for might not be as straightforward as general thought to be the case.
2009 - Humanitarian Logistics: Getting donated foods from Switzerland to Zambia
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David B. Vellenga, Visiting Professor of Global SCM at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine
and Visiting Professor of Business at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania
This case deals with the shipment of donated baby foods from Basel, Switzerland to Lusaka, Zambia. It highlights the "last mile" challenges that can sometimes be experienced during the transportation of humanitarian goods to less developed regions of the world.
2009 - BP's Procurement and Supply Chain Management
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Arunachalam Narayanan, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Malini Natarajarathinam, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Brandon Winn, Procurement & Supply Chain Management, BP
This case explains the challenges of a procurement and supply chain organization in a leading Global 500 company. Concepts such as sourcing, inventory consolidation, supplier selection and evaluation are discussed in this case. It is well suited for a purchasing or supply chain management curriculum.
This case contains additional files. To receive the files, please email education@cscmp.org. CSCMP non-members will need to purchase the case before receiving these additional files.
2009 - Supply Uncertainty, Demand Planning, and Logistics Management at Goodwill Industries of Oklahoma
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Chad W. Autry, Ph.D., Associate Professor Supply Chain Management, University of Tennessee
Oklahoma Goodwill Industries faces a unique demand planning situation - all of its inventory is donated rather than purchased, which means volume and variety are completely unknown. This plays havoc with the non-profit's logistics and transportation management functions, which students are challenged to address.
2009 - MRO Purchasing Management at Nypro-China
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Amy Z. Zeng, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester
Michael J. Fitzpatrick, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester
This case illustrates the significance and intricacy of MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) procurement and the major problems encountered in managing and analyzing the total spends. Concepts such as vendor information management, supplier selection and evaluation, supply base management, blanket purchase orders, consolidation, and process management are addressed in the case.
2009 - Improving the Effectiveness of the Forward Purchasing Strategy at Jiangsu Aucksun Metal Co., Ltd.
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Amy Z. Zeng, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester
Lindu Zhao, Institute of Systems Engineering
Jing Hou, Institute of Systems Engineering
Aucksun Metal Co. Ltd. is a metal processing and logistics company for the IT industry in China. This case provides students with an opportunity not only to study how a 3PL company operates in China, but also to learn the implementation of the forward purchasing strategy and associated advantages and challenges at the company.
2008 DSM Manufacturing: When Network Analysis Meets Business Reality
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John R. Macdonald, Michigan State University and Kelvin Sakai, UTi Worldwide Group
DSM Manufacturing has been around for 100 years. In that time, the company has considerably grown in size and is now a global enterprise. With the global expanse, DSM is now facing new challenges, leaving executives to determine what the next steps are in running an efficient supply chain, those that a network analysis will not necessarily address. This case is a great study that will take you through DSM's process.
2008 Carnival Corporation Food Supply Chain
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Dick Verbeek CPIM CIRM CSCP, Supply Chain Skills
Carnival’s senior management gives a mandate toall directors of food operations to implement an overall 20% reduction in their food costs per passenger. This case study outlines a strategic plan that was put in place for the North American cruise industry’s food supply chain.
2008 For Sale Magnets, Inc.
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Beth Anne Whalen, PaloAlto Software
Susan L. Golicic, Colorado State University
This small business has done well in the marketplace, but is considering expansion with major retailers. Doing so requires different processes throughout its entire supply chain.This case examines options, constraints, and supply chain strategies that will facilitate profitable growth for the company
2008 The Clorox Company
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Remko van Hoek, Cranfield School of Management
This case study explains what happened when a growing company added several products to their portfolio to fuel company growth but experienced an underperformance on their products as a result. The CFO strategically came up with better and smarter ways to obtain growth.
2008 Bertelsmann China: Supply Chains for Books (A)
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Stephan M. Wagner, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management,
Viviane Heldt, Katrin Lentschig and Jennifer Meyer
This case focuses on one of the world’s leading media companies to illustrate a widespread problem in the supply chain strategy in extremely fast-growing markets. You will learn about the basic challenges of supply chain strategy in an international context.
2008 Bertelsmann China: Supply Chains for Books (B)
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Stephan M. Wagner, WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management,
Andreas Breiter and Gunnar Froh
This case study is situated in China in the beginning of 2006. Bertelsmann Direct Group, the Chinese subsidiary of the worldwide Bertelsmann AG, is one of the leading book retailers in the country. Supply chain management is essential for success in retailing, which is why Bertelsmann puts a lot of effort into the optimization of its supply chain design. The case provides a thorough analytical process towards the calculation of logistics costs and supply chain network optimization.
2008 Procurement Contract Design Challenges at the Norwegian Railway Company
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Tim Coltman, University of Wollongong, Nidthida Perm-Ajchariyawong, and Timothy M. Devinney
This case study shows how the static approach to contract design fails to deal with problems arising from flawed human biases; illustrates the benefits of a process-based approach that shows how firms can adjust contracts on an ongoing basis and evolve from complete to less complete forms of contract governance; and last, shows that the process mapping activities provide the catalyst for greater collaboration that is critical to new catering contract success.
2008 Jim’s Good Time Creams
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Matthew Waller, University of Arkansas and Nirmal Devarajan
The purpose of the case is to encourage analysis and discussion regarding the application of many fundamental logistics concepts to direct store delivery (DSD) as well as familiarizing the students with typical DSD business processes.
2008 UPS Case
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Remko van Hoek, Cranfield School of Management
Dialog: The Evolution of the Logistics Function Bid Proposal
This case examines the challenges faced, and lessons learned, by United Parcel Service as it made the transition to including 4PLs in its supply chain model.
2006 CPFR Texan Foods
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Chad W. Autry, Ph.D., Associate Professor Supply Chain Management, University of Tennessee
The company has just completed an initial CPFR pilot with mixed results. Angela Preston, a senior inventory manager with experience in the retail industry prior to her current position, truly believes that with the right supplier, right products, and by adopting a process orientation to CPFR, the project will deliver significant benefit to the company. For: Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate Students.
2005 easyInternet Café
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David Menachof, City University
This case offers an examination of the operational and logistics challenges faced by service providers with multiple site locations and addresses the added complexity of managing franchisees. For: Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate Students.