Constructing Teaching Cases – the Good Food Limited case study

1. Constructing Teaching Cases – the Good Food Limited case study • Frederic Adam • Business Information Systems • Accounting, Finance and Information Systems • University College Cork • Ireland • fadam@afis.ucc.ie

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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] ***

5. Complexity of the case MEDIUM HIGH LOW LOW Complexity of Underlying Theories HIGH

6. Objective of Good Food Ltd. • Teaching / showing students [getting them to touch with their fingers] • How to analyse decision needs of people • How to develop dashboard type systems – with emphasis of the key elements: data, computations [elementary modelling], interface. [or programming, data access methods, architectures etc,...]

7. Three distinct areas of complexity: Business Processes Analysis – use of tools Development (eg: programming) Questions asked Complexity of the case (scenario) MEDIUM HIGH LOW LOW Complexity of Underlying Theories / Techniques HIGH No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess teaching

8. Three distinct areas of complexity: Business Processes Analysis – use of tools Development (eg: programming) Questions asked Complexity of the case (scenario) MEDIUM HIGH LOW LOW Complexity of Underlying Theories / Techniques HIGH No absolute positioning – but MUST consider this equation and assess teaching

9. 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.

10. Framework for capturing requirements

11. Conceptual dimension

12. 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.”

13. 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.

14. With specific solutions • Four 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.

15. 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.

16. Maintenance problem • Objective and assumptions • Data collection • Triangulation • decisions

17. Visual factory idea

18. 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

19. 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.

20. Conclusion • The framework for characterising the case gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases Prior Learning Goals of the teacher Theoretical Underpinnings Tools and Techniques Facts of the Case Questions Emergent Outcomes Expected Outcomes Realised Outcomes

21. Conclusion • The framework for characterising the case gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases Prior Learning Goals of the teacher Theoretical Underpinnings Tools and Techniques DESIGN Facts of the Case Questions Emergent Outcomes Expected Outcomes Realised Outcomes

22. Conclusion • The framework for characterising the case gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases Prior Learning Goals of the teacher Theoretical Underpinnings Tools and Techniques Facts of the Case Questions Emergent Outcomes Expected Outcomes Measure Realised Outcomes

23. Conclusion • The framework for characterising the case gives some clues as to the process of using and tuning teaching cases Prior Learning Goals of the teacher Theoretical Underpinnings Tools and Techniques Facts of the Case Questions Emergent Outcomes Expected Outcomes Measure LEARN Realised Outcomes