Category Archives: Operations Management

Why are Chinese and Indian yarn manufacturers opening US plants ?

An article in the. Wall Street Journal (December 21,2013) titled “A Good Yarn for US workers” describes decisions by the Chinese yarn manufacturer Kerr to open a plant in North Carolina and the Indian Shrivallabh Pitte group to open a … Continue reading

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Centralized vs decentralized last mile delivery models in New York City

An article in the Wall Street. Journal (December 21,2013) titled titled “Delivery goes Hi-Tech” describes Hobsons, a delivery service with its own vans that does 300 trips a day currently, and Postmates, a decentralized service provider that broadcasts request to … Continue reading

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Tracking consumers and adjusting inventory locations to improve retail performance

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Hot at the Mall:Heat Maps to Track Shoppers” (December 9,2013) describes heat sensor technology and cell phone tracking software used by retailers to identify shoppers routes through the store, bottlenecks, and products … Continue reading

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Retail Inventory of “Doc McStuffins” toys and impact

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek titled “This Christmas, Disney’s Doctor is In” (December 9, 2013) describes the quadrupling of retail shelf space for the Disney Toy Doc McStuffins – a toy girl that fixed broken toys, has a medical doctor mother … Continue reading

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The impact of Airbus’s “asset value guarantees” for the Airbus 340

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek titled “Airbus May Need a Plaid Jacket” (December 9,2013) describes asset value guarantees that Airbus provided for buyers of the A 340 – which promised to compensate buyers of resale values were below a specified level. … Continue reading

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Apparel factory fire in Prato, Italy

An article in the New York Times titled “Deadly Factory Fire Bares Racial Tensions in Italy” (December 8, 2013), describes a fire at an apparel factory in Prato that killed seven Chinese employees. The factory had windows that were blocked … Continue reading

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The potential impact of copper concentrate stockpiles in China on copper prices

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “China’s Stock and Ore for Copper Prices” (November 22,2013) describes the over two months of copper concentrate (crushed copper ore) in inventory at China’s new smelters as against the usual two to … Continue reading

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Making apparel in the USA and retail prices

An article in the New York Times titled “That ‘Made in the USA’ Premium (December 1,2013) describes the growth in US manufacturing of higher end apparel but the continued difficulty in domestic production of lower cost items. It cites production … Continue reading

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Amazon’s drone delivery plans within 30 minutes

An article in Bloombergbusinessweek (December 9,2013) titled “Why Amazon’s Going Up in the Air”, describes the announcement of plans to use drones to deliver individual items to customers within 30 minutes of placing their order. The range of these drones, … Continue reading

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Should independent bookstores sell Amazon’s Kindles ?

An article in the New York Times titled “An Offer from Amazon to its Most Bitter Rivals” (November 7,2013) describes an offer by Amazon to independent bookstores to sell Kindles in return for one of two options – a 6% … Continue reading

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