थे beginning

Well, the objective is given in Management Class - IT section. I have not been active researcher in Operations Management, and I strongly feel that one can't be a real good teacher without active ongoing research in relevant area. However in the likely event that I take this course, I was doing some basic research (or should I rather say 'search'):
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Can India's logistics Industry deliver a better model for transportation?
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The Toyota Way and TPS overview high quality low cost
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McKinsey report | Infra project delays may cost $200 bn.
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What’s The Best Way to Reward Sales People?
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Why Customer Service Is So Bad
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At Wal-Mart, Labeling to Reflect Green Intent
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GM Bankruptcy Seen as Tale of Best, Worst of Assets .
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Dell Plans to Sell Factories In Effort to Cut Costs.
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Toyota Plans Changes To U.S. Manufacturing Operations
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Spitzer Sex Saga Offers MBA Case Study Lessons: I wonder what's happening...
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McDonald's tries home delivery to push China sales: Interesting...in IRCK, researchers did quite a few cases on both the firms and probably on their Chinese operations too.
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Vision and Strategy: DOuble Helix Planning Strategies: Interesting as didn't apparently play with words...
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China Snowstorms Kill 24, Cause Economic Loss of $3 Billion : 'Schwartz (Head of McDonald's China operations) said the storms were causing McDonald's Corp., which has 875 restaurants in the country, ``real challenges in the whole of central China,'' particularly in Wuhan. ``Our average restaurant has 2-3 days supply of products,'' he said. ``Our supply chain manager has been working out a strategy to supply Wuhan if this lasts much longer.'' A real SCM problem...however sales would also be much less, therefore inventory to last longer.
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Microsoft Pushes Virtualization: Another new game...IT + Process together
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EBay's Whitman: An Appraisal: Well, from being rated as the most powerful lady (by Fortune few times, in different order of ranks) to retirement...I did follow it as a researcher and also because I worked with baazee, a firm eBay took over in India as an Associate Director. China operations didn't reach traction, I believe it to be true for India also (the fundamentals of markets are different in India/China than US). So Donahoe becomes the new CEO...
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Ford, Chrysler Designed New Pickups Before $3 Fuel : 'At the Detroit auto show yesterday, Ford rolled out its redesigned F-150, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for 31 years. Chrysler introduced its top seller, the Ram pickup. The companies were completing plans for both new models five years ago, when gasoline sold in the U.S. for an average of $1.52 a gallon. Now gasoline sells for $3.16 a gallon, contributing to a 2.5 percent drop in U.S. auto sales in 2007, the worst showing in a decade. While Ford, Chrysler and General Motors Corp. all are exhibiting fuel-efficient vehicles, they're stuck with decisions made years ago, said John Casesa, managing partner at Casesa Shapiro Group in New York. ``Automakers are struggling to adjust to a new long-term reality of higher gas prices, but they have to sell today what they can make today,'' he said.' Also interesting to note is this comment due to legal changes: '`Russian Roulette' : Also looming over the industry are mounting concerns about global warming and the first revision of U.S. fuel-economy standards in 32 years. On Dec. 19, President George W. Bush signed a law that mandates 35 miles per gallon nationwide by 2020. That's about 40 percent more than current requirements. ``Being a product planner in this environment is like playing a game of Russian roulette,'' said Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced technology at Toyota Motor Corp.'s U.S. sales unit.'
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China's BYD Aims to Sell Hybrid Cars in U.S. by 2010 : As stated in clockspeed, no doubt that we are reaching the inflection point of a new powerful emerging value chain in hybrid technologies in trillion dollar auto sector. 'China's BYD Co., the world's biggest maker of mobile-phone batteries, said it will sell hybrid cars in the U.S. as soon as 2010 as Chinese automakers aim to offset shrinking domestic profit margins by expanding in North America. ``We are the best in battery technologies, and I am sure we will be the best in the automobile industry as well, because electricity will replace gasoline,'' founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today.' Makes sense...and why not? When Tatas came with Nano, one of my colleague asked that it may be the first (branded) product from India, and I could not disagree, at least during post-IR era. Leave aside the zero and fine textiles (moselins), we really don't have any tangible or intangible products. Thanks to Tatas (though I again keep my stand against Singur land acquisition and getting it free, true two are different), the world now knows about one product from India. As I was thinking same about China (of whom we know so less), it shows that there are many like the BYD (or even Lenovo now, and lot many electronics like Hait?)
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Toyota Will Offer a Plug-In Hybrid by 2010 : Toyota's Prius (or even Tata's Nano on a different front or GM's Volt) all exemplify the product design part in operations management (many examples come from Apple i-Phone and iPods as well). They also showcase the clockspeed, disruptive tehnologies (for Nano, in pricing and perceptions), and how it may impact trillion-dollar auto industry in future (as we have seen in telecom industry over last decades). Effectively it means 2.7 kwh yileds 7 miles (around 4.2kms/kwh). Assuming 1 kwh in India costs Rs. 3 (average tariff), it comes to be much cheaper than gas. 'By contrast, G.M. claims that the Volt will be able to hold a charge equal to 40 miles, after a six-hour charge...The Prius starts at $21,100. ' So that's the upfront cost, not much higher than the respective class even in India (well, 20-40% more at most).

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Dell: Confounded by Costs: Siddhartha Paul (of IRCK) focused on this area, and had a few cases. This is a good article on BPR, process Management, Identifying where the problem is, and on the need of continuous restructuring in high clockspeed industries.
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And on 17th Jan'08 came the next quarterly report with improved retail sales: Dell seen back to strong growth: '"Having struggled through the past year, Dell is starting to turn around," IDC said in a statement. "The company's rapid expansion in retail also has helped boost volume and address competition from other leading players."
Dell lost the top market-share spot to Palo Alto, California-based HP in 2006 as consumers bought more laptop computers in stores, where HP had an advantage. Dell last year abandoned its 23-year-old direct-only sales model and started selling PCs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in the United States and Carrefour SA (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) in Europe, among other retailers.
Dell has been expanding in retail, cutting costs and making acquisitions since founder Michael Dell returned to take the CEO position a year ago. HP and Dell appeared to feel the impact of Taiwan's Acer Inc (2353.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) aggressive expansion, including the October purchase of Gateway Inc in the United States. Its PC shipments surged 60.3 percent after the Gateway purchase. Acer held 9.6 percent of the worldwide PC market, up from 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006...Rival researcher Gartner said that fourth-quarter global sales rose 13.1 percent, led by HP. Gartner said that Dell had shown signs of recovery at the end of the year. '
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1. A look at the MIT's course content showed what I need to brush up. The detailed lay-out would surely be helpful again. Manufacturing Strategy as covered by Tangram tech also can give basic ideas. Clockspeed, a new concept to me, is an interesting concept (but old wine in new bottle?). Even Dell at times become its own victim in not able to further milk its unique SCM model (expected anyway). 'For Fine, industries change at different rates, or "clockspeeds," depending on differing opportunities for innovation and competition, as is the case in the animal kingdom. Changing relationships and their causes often seem more apparent, he notes, in fast-clockspeed scenarios such as the current computer industry. However, "all advantage is temporary," Fine continues, "and the faster the clockspeed, the more temporary the advantage."
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We often talk about measurement and importance of it and the right measure. Came across this one in OO Programming: 'Tom DeMarco summarizes the
essence of these sentiments by stating, "You cannot control what you cannot measure"
[DeMarco 87].'. There are various versions of it...you can not manage it...you can not improve it...however I believe this is the oldest original one.