THE WALLACE E. CARROLL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
MD254: e-Service Operations Management
Spring 2003

MD254 Home
Week 12
Inventory Management in Services

Assigned Readings
ECOM, Chapter 7: E-Commerce and Inventory Management
ECOM, Chapter 5: E-Commerce and Purchasing Management
MD254WEBSITE, “Putting the Horse First: B2B Exchanges Failed Because They Got Their Business Models Wrong,” M. Sawhney, CIO Magazine, May 15, 2002 [http://www.cio.com/archive/051502/netgains.html] 

The following [“HISTORY”] articles are not required, but are very interesting, if you want to understand what some of the seminal writing was that influenced the B2B frenzy of the 1999/2000 period.
HISTORY: “Let’s Get Vertical,” M. Sawhney, Business 2.0, September 1, 1999 [http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,13124,FF.html]
HISTORY: “How it Works,” J. Davis, Business 2.0, February 1, 2000 [http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,13416,FF.html] – click on “The Market Maker”
HISTORY: “Making New Markets,” M. Sawhney, Business 2.0, May 1, 1999, [http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,12988,FF.html]


Case Study Assignment
CASE STUDY: “ChemUnity.com,” P. Lehtivaara, C. Cordon, and T.E. Vollmann, Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2002 [How to Obtain: Go to http://www.supplychain-forum.com/archives.cfm, the link to the file is about a third of the way down the page. Click on the link and you’ll get a pop-up window. Then click on “See” within the popup window. A PDF file will be downloaded to you computer, which you can print or save.] ChemUnity.com appears to be one of the few survivors in the B2B procurement service space. Many other services (e.g., Chemdex.com, which became Ventro.com and now Nexprise.com) were set up to do similar things a couple of years back, and failed shortly after they were started.

CASE QUESTIONS
1. What is the value proposition behind ChemUnity.com? How was it operationally going to be carried out (in terms of types of bids that could be made, size of orders, etc., in April 2000)? 
2. Look at the www.chemunity.com site and examine the services that are now provided in 2003. Have they stuck to their original plans? Is the system (in terms of the e-services offered today) now a better or worse system for fulfilling the value proposition behind ChemUnity.com?
3. What was the revenue model in 2000 (i.e., how did they think they would make money)? What is their revenue model in 2003 (HINT: On their website, see “Sourcing Portal for Sellers”)? Do you find this change to be surprising?

RELATED SITE: If you would like to see how these procurement services work, a person who helped build Chemdex.com has archived demos about how Chemdex.com worked. [http://www.dekana.com/borg/index.php?page=chemdex]




Keyword Legend
E-SERV = E-Service: 24 Ways to Keep Your Customers …
ECOM = E-Commerce Operations Management
EOM = E-Operations Management
FITZ = Service Management: Operations, Strategy and Information Technology

Related Readings: For Further Information

e-Services and Web Service Technology for Managing Inventories
Cross, K., “The Wearable Warehouse,” Business 2.0, March 6, 2001.
http://www.business2.com/content/magazine/indepth/2001/02/26/26990

Breiner, A., Food Logistics, “Streamline Inc.: Management System Reduces Order Pick Time,” June 1998.
http://www.foodlogistics.com/archives/1214.html (You may have to register for a free account.)

Breiner, A., Food Logistics, “WMS Provides Ingredients of Recipe for Success,” Food Logistics, January/February 1999.
http://www.foodlogistics.com/archives/1813.html (You may have to register for a free account.)

Songini, M., “Just-In-Time Manufacturing,” Computerworld, November 20, 2000.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV65-665_STO54131,00.html

Fisher, M.L., A. Raman, and A.S. McClelland, "Rocket Science Retailing is Almost Here: Are You Ready?" Harvard Business Review, July-August 2000, p. 115-124.

Abernathy, F. H., J. T. Dunlop, J. H. Hammond, and D. Weil, “Control Your Inventory In a World of Lean Retailing,” Harvard Business Review, November-December 2000, p. 169-176.
http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/prod_detail.asp?00601

Enterprise Resource Planning
Austin, R. D., “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),” Technology Note, Harvard Business School Publishing, 6-699-020.

Austin, R. D., "Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP," Case Study, Harvard Business School Publishing, 6-699-022. 

Baker, S., and Hamm, S., “Enterprise Software,” Businessweek Online, October 25, 1999.

Davenport, T.H., "Putting the Enterprise into the Enterprise Syhstem," Harvard Business Review, July-August 1998, p. 121-131.

Jabobs, R., and D. C. Whybark, Why ERP?: A Primer on SAP Implementation, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2000.
http://www.pom.edu/ERP/

Kalakota, R., and M. Robinson, “Building the e-Business Backbone: Enterprise Resources Planning,” e-Business 2.0, Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, 2001, p. 239-270.

ManufacturingSystems.com
http://www.manufacturingsystems.com/

Related Readings: Traditional (Person-to-Person) Services

Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, Service Management: Operations, Strategy, and Information Technology, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2001, Chapter 14 ("Managing Facilitating Goods")

Haksever, et al., Service Management and Operations, Prentice Hall, 2000, Chapter 19 ("Service Inventory Systems")