Constructing Teaching Cases – the Good Food Limited case

studyFrederic Adam

Business Information SystemsAccounting, Finance and Information Systems

University College CorkIreland

fadam@afis.ucc.ie

Where the idea came from

• Not an existing company• But a patchwork of real elements• First and second hand components• Used in various format since 1995• Grounded in first professional

experience in late 80s sprinkled with the experience of one colleague in the early 90s.

Scenario (see handout)

• Irish subsidiary of MNC• Closure leads to management buyout • Change of context for decision making

and decision support [important things change]

• Food business SME• A couple of products at various stages in

the life cycle• Some key pieces of information – 52 week

rolling plan...• Some help provided – KPIs

Scoping and tuning the case

• “Teaching with cases is not an end, it is means”

• So don’t just pick a case and run with it, hoping for the best

• Teaching with a case responds to a specific objectives

• Also must adjust the complexity• Synchronising the teaching [PH] ***

Complexity of the case

Complexity ofUnderlying Theories

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

LOW

HIGH

Objective of Good Food Ltd.

• Teaching / showing students [getting them to touch with their fingers]

How to analyse decision needs of peopleHow to develop dashboard type systems

– with emphasis of the key elements: data, computations [elementary modelling], interface. [or programming, data access methods, architectures etc,...]

Complexity of the case (scenario)

Complexity ofUnderlying Theories /Techniques

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

LOW

HIGH

Three distinct areas of complexity: Business Processes Analysis – use of tools Development (eg: programming)

Questions asked

No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess teaching

Complexity of the case (scenario)

Complexity ofUnderlying Theories /Techniques

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

LOW

HIGH

Three distinct areas of complexity: Business Processes Analysis – use of tools Development (eg: programming)

Questions asked

No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess teaching

Preliminary teaching• General dashboard / BI material• Sensitisation to key issues

– 3 mile Island• Limited Attention• Performance Measurement• Operator Training• Dashboard Layout

• A tool for capturing requirements (Adam, Frédéric and Pomerol, Jean Charles (2002) Critical Factors in the Development of EIS – Leveraging the Dashboard Approach, in Mora, Gupta and Forgionne (Eds) Decision-Making Support Systems: Achievements and Challenges for the New Decade, Idea Group

Publishing, Hershey, PA, 305-326)• A conceptual framework (Adam, Frédéric and Pomerol, Jean Charles (2008)

Developing Practical Support Tools using Dashboards of Information, in Holsapple and Burstein, Handbook on Decision Support Systems, International Handbook on Information Systems series,

Springer-Verlag (London), 151-174)• Examples of dashboards taken from the web + an

old but good EIS demo from the 90s.

Framework for capturing requirements

Question 1 Who will use this indicator?Question 2 Can it be mapped out to a specific objective at a higher level?Question 3 How frequently will managers need to monitor it?Question 4 What calculation methods are available? What unit of

measurement will be used?Question 5 What data source exists? What should be created?Question 6 How detailed should the analysis presented by the dashboard be?

How can the indicators be broken down to be more meaningful?Question 7 What threshold values should be used to differentiate between

adequate and inadequate performance? What comparisons can be made to assess the company’s performance?

Question 8 How can it be represented for maximum visual impact?Question 9 What action must be taken when good or bad performance is

measured? Is there scope for corrective action to be taken based on the indicator?

Question 10 How will it be monitored / archived in the long termQuestion 11 Is there any potential bias with the methods and data used for

calculations? What incentives may be given to organizational actors?

Conceptual dimension

The question

• “Placing yourself in the position of a business analyst specializing in the development of interfaces for dashboards of information, provide solutions (including sample screens) for the specific problems raised in the case.”

Specific problems

Four pillars:• Reporting on the performance of the firm

with general indicators.• The investigation of the maintenance

problem.• The problem of getting a handle on the

volumes of product returns and trying to understand how to reduce them.

• Ideas for developing a portfolio of new products.

With specific solutionsFour pillars:• Reporting on the performance of the firm with general

indicators – this is the easiest to identify and the best defined in terms of what indicators should be used if students understand the case.

• The investigation of the maintenance problem which is relatively well charted – just a matter of data collection and sound interface

• The problem of getting a handle on the volumes of product returns and trying to understand how to reduce them which requires a lot more vision and which students may not have the requisite industrial understanding to find.

• Ideas for developing a portfolio of new products, which is a high level problem where dashboards can only be of limited help.

Reporting on Performance

• Volumes of sales—the value of sales as they occur, where they occur.

• Respect of formula—the extent to which consumptions of raw material followed expected standards

• Price of components and services—the cost of actually producing the products and the full cost of distribution, including discount, transportation, and so on.

Maintenance problem

• Objective and assumptions• Data collection• Triangulation• decisions

Visual factory idea

Sales returns

• Objectives and assumptions: we need to understand what happens to our product even when it is not in our care.

• Find a way to simulate conditions• True story• Observation is important – but

dashboard can be very useful presentation / aggregation / correlation tool – reputational systems

New products development

• Students’ knowledge of NPD wil make the difference

• Dashboard will involve distributed / web based systems to enable “panel” / “focus group” activities with customers.

• Goes way beyond the dashboard concept => uncharted part of the case.

Conclusion• The framework for characterising the case

gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases

Theoretical Underpinnings

Prior Learning

Facts of the Case

Tools and Techniques

Questions

Expected OutcomesEmergent Outcomes

Realised Outcomes

Goals of the teacher

Conclusion• The framework for characterising the case

gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases

Theoretical Underpinnings

Prior Learning

Facts of the Case

Tools and Techniques

Questions

Expected OutcomesEmergent Outcomes

Realised Outcomes

Goals of the teacher

DESIGN

Conclusion• The framework for characterising the case

gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases

Theoretical Underpinnings

Prior Learning

Facts of the Case

Tools and Techniques

Questions

Expected OutcomesEmergent Outcomes

Realised Outcomes

Goals of the teacher

Measure

Conclusion• The framework for characterising the case

gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases

Theoretical Underpinnings

Prior Learning

Facts of the Case

Tools and Techniques

Questions

Expected Outcomes

Emergent Outcomes

Realised Outcomes

Goals of the teacher

Measure LEARN