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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | September 2016 (Revised August 2018)

  United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying?: Case Supplement #1

  Ryan W. Buell, Willy C. Shih and Michael W. Toffel

  This spreadsheet supplement accompanies 617-010 United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying? and is intended to provide students with an opportunity to apply analysis concepts with real operational data.

  Keywords: service; service delivery; service excellence; service management; operating systems; operational complexity; operational disruptions; operational efficiency; operational focus; Air Transportation; Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Air Transportation Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., Willy C. Shih, and Michael W. Toffel. "United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying? Case Supplement #1." Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 617-701, September 2016. (Revised August 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2016 (Revised July 2018)

  United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying?

  Ryan W. Buell, Willy Shih and Mike Toffel

  This case looks at United Airlines when it is facing a decision on whether to shift its aircraft routing to more "out-and-back" routing in order to try to improve its on-time performance. As one of the world's largest airlines, United had a very large fleet and hub-and-spoke network that provided passengers with a wide range of destination choices, but as with any complex system unless everything ran perfectly all the time, it inevitably faced cascading delays and missed passenger connection problems. While out-and-back routing tended to isolate operational issues, more traditional linear routings tended to offer high equipment utilization. The case offers students an opportunity to examine the effects of variability on different routing strategies.

  Keywords: service excellence; service delivery; service management; service quality; service quality competition; services; service operations; airline industry; airlines; operational complexity; operational disruptions; operational effectiveness; operations; operations improvement; operations management; operations strategy; Air Transportation; Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement; Complexity; Air Transportation Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., Willy Shih, and Mike Toffel. "United Airlines: More Out-and-Back Flying?" Harvard Business School Case 617-010, September 2016. (Revised July 2018.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised July 2018)

  Whole Foods Under Amazon

  Dennis Campbell, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett and Christine Snively

  In August 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods was struggling with high costs and faced growing competition from traditional supermarkets offering more organic products. Prior to the acquisition, Whole Foods began rolling out a new order-to-shelf (OTS) inventory management system that many observers believed had led to shortages. For years, store team leaders at Whole Foods were empowered to make inventory decisions and tailor their stores to meet local needs, but the OTS system, and an increasing number of strict rules for purchasing and displaying goods, upset many employees. Should Amazon push Whole Foods to improve performance by emphasizing efficiency and standardization? Or should it aim to maintain a sense of empowerment among employees?

  Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Employee Relationship Management; Acquisition; Change Management; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry;

  Citation:

  Campbell, Dennis, Tatiana Sandino, James Barnett, and Christine Snively. "Whole Foods Under Amazon." Harvard Business School Case 118-074, March 2018. (Revised July 2018.)  View Details

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