Parts Emporium, Operations Case = pain
How can a two page case in Operations Management can screw us as hard as this one? WOW!
The case seems very simple when read first as it seems to be very straight forward. Actually, it hides behind a very complex framework and implications.
It took my team about 10 hours to figure it out. Much like the Leadership case, with the only difference that with 80% of our efforts we will be able to pull probably less then 20 points worth of grade for this case (following the 20-80 analysis method).
By the way, this is the definition of this law: "The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes."
This guy, Pareto, obviously Italian observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population.
Here are some life, day to day applications of this guy's law:
1. Work: Twenty percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results.
2. People: Twenty percent of the people you know (friends, colleagues, family) provide you with 80 percent of nurturing support and satisfaction.
3. Business: Eighty percent of the sales are made by 20 percent of the sales team.
4. Focus: Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your success.
5. 10% of wikipedia users make 80% of all edits ->>>> UHHHH... this totally contradicts the whole Operations Management class
6. Look at this Pareto chart :) now this is life under operations analysis!
For the ones who don't know the case I'm talking about, check the link in the title.