Video Tips – Page 2 – The OM Blog by Heizer, Render, & Munson

Video Tip: 12 New Videos Your OM Students Will Love

Kimberly Gersh, a recent Elon U. grad, talks about her job as a project manager

We are very excited to share with you the newest feature of the text editions that have just been published–12 two-minute videos of recent college grads talking about their new jobs in operations management. These videos are found in MyLab Operations Management and can even be assigned, as each has 2 multiple choice questions attached. The articulate young people presenting can help motivate your own students. And they even each provide tips for how to be successful in the job market and career. Here they are:

Ch. 1: Jeremy Knowles with Genesis Financial Solutions (Washington State U. grad), talking about productivity

Ch. 3: Kimberly Gersh with Little Green Software (Elon U.) on project management.

Ch. 4: Kenzie Schmitt with Coral USA (York College) on forecasting.

Ch. 5: Ari Davis with Soil Co. (Rollins College) on product design.

Supp. 6: Kylie Bertoncello with Siemens Energy (U. Central Florida) on SPC.

Ch.7: Cameron Tinney with BIMBO Bakeries (Niagara U.) on process analysis.

Supp. 7: Gabrielle Sliwinski at Covestro (Robert Morris U.) on capacity planning.

Ch.8: Greg Friedman at JCR Companies (U. Florida) on location analysis.

Ch. 9: Megan Jones at Textron (York College) on facility layout.

Ch.11: Nicholas Kostner at Kryton (U. Northern Iowa) on SCM*.

Ch. 12: Nicholas Delmonico at UMPC (Robert Morris U.) on inventory management.

Module G: Charlie Render at Shutterstock (U. Florida) on data analytics.

Note that I placed an asterisk after Mr. Kostner’s video. All of these short presentations are excellent, but the candor exhibited in this particular one will leave your students with a lasting impression. Please watch a few (or all) and you may very well decide to share these with your classes. (The videos are found in the Multimedia Library, as well as in the Instructor’s Tools— Assignment Manager).

Video Tip: 45 Free Videos to Show in Class

We continue to offer adopters (and students using MyLab) our previous 41 Video Cases that cover Alaska Airlines, Orlando Magic basketball team, Frito-Lay, Darden/Red Lobster Restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe, Arnold Palmer Hospital, Wheeled Coach Ambulances, and Regal Marine. With our new edition, due out Jan. 15th, we have added five additional 6-10 minute videos featuring Celebrity Cruises. We take videos seriously and all of them are created by Jay, Chuck, and me to explicitly match text content and terminology.
Here is the complete list by Chapter (new videos in bold):

◆ Frito-Lay: Operations Management in Manufacturing (Chapter 1)
◆ Celebrity Cruises: Operations Management at Sea (Chapter 1)
◆ Hard Rock Cafe: Operations Management in Services (Chapter 1)
◆ Strategy at Regal Marine (Chapter 2)
◆ Hard Rock Cafe’s Global Strategy (Chapter 2)
◆ Outsourcing Offshore at Darden (Chapter 2)
◆ Project Management at Arnold Palmer Hospital (Chapter 3)
◆ Managing Hard Rock’s Rockfest (Chapter 3)
◆ Forecasting Ticket Revenue for Orlando Magic Basketball Games (Chapter 4)
◆ Forecasting at Hard Rock Cafe (Chapter 4)
◆ Celebrity Cruises Designs a New Ship (Chapter 5)
◆ Product Design at Regal Marine (Chapter 5)
◆ Building Sustainability at the Orlando Magic’s Amway Center (Supplement 5)
◆ “Saving the Waves” at Celebrity Cruises (Supplement 5)
◆ Green Manufacturing and Sustainability at Frito-Lay (Supplement 5)
◆ Quality Counts at Alaska Airlines (Chapter 6)
◆ The Culture of Quality at Arnold Palmer Hospital (Chapter 6)
◆ Celebrity Cruises: A Premium Experience (Chapter 6)
◆ Quality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (Chapter 6)
◆ Frito-Lay’s Quality-Controlled Potato Chips (Supplement 6)
◆ Farm to Fork: Quality at Darden Restaurants (Supplement 6)
◆ Alaska Airlines: 20-Minute Baggage Process—Guaranteed! (Chapter 7)
◆ Process Strategy at Wheeled Coach (Chapter 7)
◆ Process Analysis at Arnold Palmer Hospital (Chapter 7)
◆ Capacity Planning at Arnold Palmer Hospital (Supplement 7)
◆ Locating the Next Red Lobster Restaurant (Chapter 8)
◆ Where to Place the Hard Rock Cafe (Chapter 8)
◆ Facility Layout at Wheeled Coach (Chapter 9)
◆ Laying Out Arnold Palmer Hospital’s New Facility (Chapter 9)
◆ The “People” Focus: Human Resources at Alaska Airlines (Chapter 10)
◆ Hard Rock’s Human Resource Strategy (Chapter 10)
◆ Darden’s Global Supply Chains (Chapter 11)
◆ Supply Chain Management at Regal Marine (Chapter 11)
◆ Arnold Palmer Hospital’s Supply Chain (Chapter 11)
◆ Inventory Management at Celebrity Cruises (Chapter 12)
◆ Managing Inventory at Frito-Lay (Chapter 12)
◆ Inventory Control at Wheeled Coach (Chapter 12)
◆ Using Revenue Management to Set Orlando Magic Ticket Prices (Chapter 13)
◆ When 18,500 Orlando Magic Fans Come to Dinner (Chapter 14)
◆ MRP at Wheeled Coach (Chapter 14)
◆ From the Eagles to the Magic: Converting the Amway Center (Chapter 15)
◆ Scheduling at Hard Rock Cafe (Chapter 15)
◆ Lean Operations at Alaska Airlines (Chapter 16)
◆ JIT at Arnold Palmer Hospital (Chapter 16)
◆ Maintenance Drives Profits at Frito-Lay (Chapter 17)
◆ Scheduling Challenges at Alaska Airlines (Module B)

If you choose to assign videos for students to watch on their own, there are 4 multiple choice discussion questions for each that can be assigned and graded by MyLab.

Introducing Our Newest Text Editions

Has it been three years already? I guess so, since our newest editions of Operations Management (13th ed.) and Principles of Operations Management (11th ed.) are due out on January 15th! Jay and Chuck and I really excited about all the new features in these books and in MyLab Operations Management. Over the next few weeks we will highlight the changes for you. But today, we want to describe the themes of the books.

About 21 years ago, Jay and I decided to focus on a different well-known company in each edition. We created a series of video case studies featuring the strengths of each firm, and discussed those firms throughout the edition. The covers of each edition, starting with Hard Rock in 2001, also tied the book to that organization. Arnold Palmer Hospital followed, then Darden (Red Lobster/ Olive Garden), Frito-Lay, the Orlando Magic, and Alaska Airlines. As you see, we provide students with a broad coverage of industries, stressing the service sector, as that is where most jobs lie. The idea is to show how important OM is in the real world, with these 45 motivational short films.

With our new editions, we decided to talk about the floating cities called cruise lines. What a vast range of OM issues are faced by the Captain of a vessel with 3,000 passengers and 1,800 crew from three dozen countries! The featured firm, on the covers as usual, is the leader in the “premium” market, Celebrity Cruises, based in Miami. We think the students will really enjoy the five new video cases, which are featured in Chapter 1 (overall use of OM) , Chapter 5 (design of the new ships), Supplement 5 (sustainability), Chapter 6 (quality), and Chapter 12 (inventory). We will take you inside this cruise line for a fascinating look at how operations drives almost every decision on board. Welcome aboard!

Barry in the Celebrity Edge control room on its maiden voyage this week.

Video Tip: Product Design at Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss’ new design lab has created video game-like software that allows designers to build new styles on an iPad, reports Fast Company (Feb. 28, 2018). This allows them to take one of Levi’s styles like the 501 in one of a few basic colors, then use buttons and levers to distress the jeans, add studs, rips, or other design elements. The lab makes the 3D graphics more realistic than other tech on the market. The digital file that the designers produce can be immediately sent to a laser machine, which will produce the design on a prototype of real jeans.

This is very different from how jeans are typically prototyped, which involves taking an image and having people manually re-create it on a pair of jeans using sanding and chemical treatments. With this new system, the images are realistic, and the laser turns that vision into reality within 90 seconds, reducing the prototype process to just 3 steps. Previously, with all the drawing, reiterating, and then manually creating prototypes, it took 12-18 steps.

That digital file can also be sent to a manufacturing facility, where an entire season’s worth of jeans can be made using automated lasers rather than manual labor. This creates a much safer environment for workers and reduces the number of harsh chemicals used. Levi’s is trying to phase out, for example, potassium permanganate, which has terrible side effects when inhaled, including sore throat, burning sensations, and labored breathing.

The process could radically speed up the time it takes to bring a new design to market. If a new trend emerges, a designer could whip up a prototype within hours, which could then be produced at scale within months. This is important because there is a lot of waste in the fashion industry, a sizable chunk of which comes from new clothes that were never sold. Between 80 and 100 billion never-worn garments are sent to landfills globally every year!

The Fast Company article includes a very interesting 5-minute video describing the design process. (Click on the photo called Lasers! Gas!)

Video Tip: How Baseballs Are Made

Despite its uncomplicated appearance, the baseball is in fact a precision-made object, and one that has often been the subject of heated controversy throughout its history.

An official Major League baseball consists of a round cushioned cork center called a “pill,” wrapped tightly in windings of wool and polyester/cotton yarn, and covered by stitched cowhide. Approximately 600,000 baseballs are used by all Major League teams combined during the course of a season. The average baseball remains in play for only 5-7 pitches in a Major League game. Each ball must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces and measure between 9 and 9.25 inches in circumference to conform to Major League standards. Your students will enjoy this 5 minute video showing the manufacturing process.

Such uniformity was nonexistent in the early years of baseball’s history, when balls were either homemade or produced on a custom-order basis as a sideline by cobblers, tanners and other small business owners. In 1872, the modern standard for the baseball’s weight and size was established. The production of balls became more consistent during the remainder of the decade, thanks largely to the demands made on manufacturers by the newly formed National League, the first professional baseball league.

At the turn of the century, the baseball had a round rubber core. This gave way in 1910 to the livelier cork-centered ball, which was itself replaced two decades later by the even more resilient cushioned cork model. The baseball has undergone only one significant change since that time, when a shortage in the supply of horses in 1974 prompted a switch from horsehide to cowhide covers.

Video Tip: Innovation and Ingenuity at Work

“Three decades ago,” writes The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 27, 2017), “a historian wrote several laws to explain society’s unease with the power and pervasiveness of technology“. Though based on historical examples taken from the Cold War, the laws read as a cheat sheet for explaining our era of Facebook, Google, and the iPhone. You’ve probably never heard of these principles.

1. ‘Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral’. For example, DDT, a pesticide and probable carcinogen that nonetheless saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in India as a cheap and effective malaria prevention. Today, we can see how one technology, Facebook groups, can serve as a lifeline for parents of children with rare diseases while also radicalizing political extremists.

2. ‘Invention is the mother of necessity.’ In our modern world, the invention of the smartphone has led to the necessity for countless other technologies, from phone cases to 5G wireless. Here is a great 2 minute video to show your class to prove the point.

3. ‘Technology comes in packages, big and small. Steel, oil and rail were the package of technologies that dominated the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in America, just as the internet, mobile phones and wireless connectivity are transforming the 21st century.

4. ‘All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.’ The Cold War led to the buildup of nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them anywhere on Earth. That led to the development of a war-proof communication system: the internet. Many related innovations subsequently seeped into every aspect of our lives.

5. ‘Technology is a very human activity.’ “Technology is capable of doing great things,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said. “But it doesn’t want to do great things—it doesn’t want anything. The point is that despite its power, how we use technology is up to us”.

Video Tip: Walmart Robots Stroll Down the Aisles Taking Inventory

A robot made by Bossa Nova Robotics checks inventory in a Wal-Mart aisle.

Robots aren’t just for sale in the toy aisle, they’re gliding down them. “Bossa Nova Robotics is sending its shelf-scanning robots out to 50 Walmart stores in a real-world use of technology to help one of the planet’s largest retailers keep its aisles stocked and ready for customers,” writes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Nov. 9, 2017).

The Bossa Nova uses sensors similar to those on self-driving cars to navigate — taking photos of shelves, as well as recording data about products’ prices, locations and if they’re out of stock. The 2 foot tall white robot simply scans, passes information to the cloud, communicates that data to Walmart’s back-end system and relays that knowledge to store associates.

With e-commerce sales growing exponentially each year, brick-and-mortar chains need to operate near-perfectly to retain customers. A lost sale in a physical retail store has always been an inefficiency, but now the stakes are higher. “The information the robot is capturing is whether there’s an out-of-stock, because that is the biggest frustration of shoppers,” said a Bossa Nova exec. “If they don’t have it, you’re going home without it — or maybe you go to a different store.”

The Bossa Nova Robot employs a number of sensors, including light detection and ranging (lidar) technology, a critical element in self-driving cars. Gliding slowly down a store aisle — at about 0.4 meters per second, or a rather lax walking pace — the robot scans its environment with depth sensors to avoid collisions with shelves, or more importantly, people. As soon as a customer gets close, the robot moves out of the way and shuts off its high beams.

Embedded in the article is a short (1.5 minute video) you may wish to show in class when discussing inventory management in Chapter 12.

Video Tip: Why UPS Drivers Don’t Turn Left And You Probably Shouldn’t Either

Vehicle routing problems involve finding the best route between points

It might seem strange, but UPS delivery vans don’t always take the shortest route between stops. The company gives each driver a specific route to follow and that includes a policy that drivers should never turn through oncoming traffic unless absolutely necessary. This means that routes are sometimes longer than they have to be. So, why do they do it?

Every day, along with thousands of other companies, UPS solves versions of the vehicle routing problem (see Online Tutorial 5). In these mathematical problems, you are given a set of points and the distances between them, and you have to find the best route(s) to travel through all of them. Best is usually defined as the route with the shortest overall distance. Vehicle routing problems are used to organize many things, from coping with more delivery trucks in cities and hailing taxis to catching chickens on a farm.

UPS has designed its vehicle routing software to eliminate as many left-hand turns as possible. Typically, only 10% of the turns are left turns. As a result, the company uses 10 million gallons less fuel, emits 20,000 tons less carbon dioxide and delivers 350,000 more packages every year. The efficiency of planning routes this way has even helped the firm cut the number of trucks it uses by 1,100, bringing down the company’s total distance travelled by 28.5 million miles – despite the longer routes. The TV series Mythbusters tested this idea and confirmed that, despite many more turns, the policy of only turning right does save fuel.

Here is an entertaining 1 minute video illustrating the point. You could show it when discussing sustainability (Supp.5) or process analysis (Ch.7).

Video Tip: Robots at Alibaba, China’s Largest Online Retailer

Occupying .7 acres, Alibaba’s warehouse is situated in China’s Guangdong Province

Online retailer Alibaba has opened the largest ‘smart warehouse’ in China manned by 60 cutting-edge robots. These Wifi-equipped, self-charging machines are responsible for moving goods in the warehouse. They send the goods to human workers, who then arrange the products to be packed and posted to customers around the world.

The automated robots, similar to Amazon’s Kiva machines, started working at the warehouse in July, and have helped increase its output by threefold. Each of the machines is fitted with laser detection which prevents them from bumping into each other. Once fully charged, the robot can work 8 hours non-stop, travelling up to 5 feet per second and carry a load as heavy as 1,322 pounds.

Traditionally, a worker could sort 1,500 products during a 7.5-hour shift after taking 27,924 steps; with the help of the robots, the same worker could sort 3,000 products during the same period of time and only 2,563 steps need to be taken. The machines also lift and rotate the shelves, which makes it easier for human workers to reach the goods.

This entertaining 2 minute video can be shown when you are covering robotics in Chapter 7 or warehousing in Chapter 9.

Video Tip: Robots and Humans Learning to Work Together in Warehouses

It was Amazon that drove America’s warehouse operators into the robot business, writes Businessweek (April 5-12, 2017). Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva (as we discussed in several earlier blogs) set off an arms race among robot makers and shippers across the U.S. who scurried to keep up with the e-commerce giant. For decades, warehouse operators were focused on the task of loading pallets and shipping them to retailers, who broke up the shipments and routed them to retail locations. Fulfilling online orders, on the other hand, requires shippers to pack boxes with a diverse set of individual items and route them on to customers’ homes.

That shift has given way to what people in the business call collaborative robotics, in which a human warehouse worker toils alongside an autonomous machine.

At the Quiet Logistics warehouse shown in this 1.5 minute video, the robots shorten the distance a warehouse worker travels on a typical day from 14 miles to less than 5 miles. The robots, meanwhile, park themselves directly in front of the shelf that the worker is supposed to pick from, decreasing the risk the human will pick the wrong item. That makes the job easier, and is appealing to employees.

What that means for warehouse humans is an open question. There are almost 1 million people working in the industry recently, up 44% over the past 10 years. The rise of e-commerce has created a need for more hands to pick items and pack boxes. Amazon’s rapid shipping times have taught customers to expect goods on their doorstep in 2 days or less, fueling a warehouse boom as retailers scramble to amass distribution hubs closer to their shoppers.

Logistics firms can have a hard time hiring enough people, particularly during peak shopping seasons. Adding robots should ease some of the seasonal shortages, and may make the work less physically demanding.

Video Tip: Starting Your Semester with the History of OM and the Ford Model T

Many instructors like to start the semester with a bit of OM history (see Figure 1.4). Your students will enjoy this 5 minute video featuring the Ford Model T, which changed the way Americans live, work and travel. Ford’s revolutionary advancements in assembly line automobile manufacturing made the Model T the first car to be affordable for a majority of Americans. More than 15 million Model Ts were built in Michigan, and the automobile was also assembled at a Ford plant in Manchester, England, and at plants in continental Europe.

The Model T was built from 1908 until 1927. It quickly became prized for its low-cost, durability, versatility, and ease of maintenance. Assembly line production allowed the price of the car to be lowered from $850 in 1908 to less than $300 in 1925.

The Model T was offered in several body styles. All bodies were mounted on a uniform 100-inch-wheelbase chassis. The car was mass-produced in only one color—black. The engine was simple and efficient, with all four cylinders cast in a single block and the cylinder head detachable for easy access and repair. The engine generated 20 horsepower and propelled the car to top speeds of 40–45 miles per hour. The engine was started by a hand crank. The transmission, consisting of two forward gears and one reverse, was controlled by foot pedals. Throttle was controlled by a hand lever on the steering column. The 10-gallon fuel tank was located under the front seat. Because gasoline was fed to the engine only by gravity, and also because the reverse gear offered more power than the forward gears, the Model T frequently had to be driven up a steep hill backward.

Video Tip: Watching UPS’s Drones Deliver

A drone-equipped UPS van, seen from above — A drone-equipped UPS van

“Both the drone industry and federal regulators are years away from actual legal drone deliveries in the U.S.,” writes USA Today (Feb. 21, 2017). But that’s not stopping UPS from testing possibilities, both to get the visual of a drone with their logo out in front of the public and to see what works. The firm this week ran a test of a truck-launched drone delivery system for rural areas in Lithia, Fla. The drone-equipped vans would only be used on rural routes, says UPS.

Imagine a triangular delivery route where the stops are miles apart by road. The van-top drone would allow a UPS driver to make one delivery at the lower-left of the triangle, after launching a drone that would autonomously fly and deliver to the top of the triangle. While the drone is making its delivery, the driver would continue to the next stop, make another delivery by hand, and the drone would then rendezvous and recharge on top of the UPS truck.

UPS’ aim isn’t to replace drivers but to make them more efficient by allowing one driver to more quickly and efficiently deliver to several homes near one and other. The drone is fully autonomous. It doesn’t require a pilot. So the delivery driver is free to make other deliveries while the drone is away.

UPS estimates that reducing the distance its truck drive by just one mile per driver per day over one year could save the company up to $50 million. Rural delivery routes are the most expensive to serve, due to the time and vehicle expenses required to complete each delivery.

Here is a very short video your class will enjoy!

Video Tip: Inside Amazon’s New NYC Warehouse

The shelf arrangement makes sense for many small orders that “look” random.

Inside Amazon’s New York warehouse for Prime Now, nothing is organized. Or actually it is, but its driven by a random stocking algorithm. The one-floor warehouse on 34th Street is full of everything marked as currently available on Prime Now, Amazon’s service that has couriers deliver orders within 2 hours.

The 25,000 products aren’t grouped by type. Instead, they’re stashed in cubbies and tracked in a kind of organized chaos. A copy of Hamilton by Ron Chernow, for example, sits next to a box of candy canes or a jar of mayonnaise. Yet it seems to make sense to randomly stock items of similar popularity.

Once an order is placed, warehouse staff remove the products from inventory and bag them. The paper-bagged orders are grouped by their destination — in New York, anywhere in Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Prime Now is available only to Prime members, and so far it’s in about 30 cities. Amazon chooses where to launch Prime Now based in part on which cities have a high proportion of Prime members. The service first launched in 2014 in New York.

This 1.5 minute YouTube video can be shown when you cover warehouse layout (Ch. 9), supply chains (Ch.11), or service technology (Ch.7).

Video Tip: Using Our Five Alaska Airlines Video Case Studies

Barry and Jay filming in an Alaska Airlines cockpit — Barry and Jay filming the videos in an Alaska Airlines cockpit

The Wall Street Journal‘s annual scorecard of U.S. airline performance (Jan. 12, 2017), which ranks major carriers on 7 different measures important to travelers, has just been released. We note that the company we prominently feature in our latest edition, Alaska Airlines, topped the scorecard as the best overall performer for the 4th-straight year, edging out Delta. Alaska also scored 1st in: on-time arrivals, least extreme delays, least 2-hour tarmac delays, and in least number of complaints. It was 3rd in cancelled flights and involuntary bumping, and 4th in mishandled bags.

The Seattle-based airline says its poor baggage showing in the 2016 scorecard drove a deep study of which flights were causing the most mishandled bags. Alaska began bar-code scanning of every bag going on and off planes. It also figured out which cities, which shifts and which flights had the most problems and found delays with bags transferring from other airlines. So instead of waiting for bags to come through an airport sorting system, Alaska now takes carts to other airlines in Seattle and waits for connecting bags at the tails of arriving airplanes.

Here are the 5 short videos we provide free to adopters:

Quality Counts at Alaska Airlines (Ch.6): “If it is not measured, it is not managed,” says one Alaska exec in this case that provides explicit performance metrics.

Alaska Airlines: 20-Minute Baggage Process–Guaranteed! (Ch.7): Students can flowchart the process a bag follows from kiosk to destination carousel after watching this video.

The People Focus: Human Resources at Alaska Airlines (Ch.10): The employee “Empowerment Toolkit” reminds us of Ritz Carlton’s famous customer service philosophy.

Lean Operations at Alaska Airlines (Ch.16): The company’s aggressive implementation of Lean includes its 6-sigma Green Belt training, Kaizen events, Gemba Walks, and 5S applications.

Scheduling Challenges at Alaska Airlines (Module B and Ch.15): Good scheduling of crews and planes means optimization–the perfect fit for our coverage of LP and scheduling.

OM is indeed a centerpiece of Alaska’s success and we think your students will enjoy these videos.

OM in the News and Video Tip: Amazon and the Death of the Cashier?

In Seattle, writes The Financial Times (Dec. 9, 2016), Amazon has just opened a futuristic convenience store that does away with checkout lines and cashiers. Amazon has portrayed its first grocery store as the retail equivalent of a self-driving car. Bristling with sensors and equipped with sophisticated software, it tracks customers’ movements as they lift items off the shelves, so there is no need to ring up the bill when they are done.