SiM Journal
Clayton Kunz '02
Issue date: 2/13/01 Section: Features
Our introduction to the Semester in Manufacturing (SiM) began innocently enough. After some obligatory introductory remarks from Professors Jim Bradley and Jan Suwinsky about getting the semester going (Professors: "We have assignments due in two weeks". Students: "Two weeks! Aaagh!!"), we set to one of the most important (or at least unavoidable) aspects of MBA life: spending money.
Professor Bradley called up the website of a company called Timbuk2, which makes bike-messenger bags and the like from its small factory in an industrial area of San Francisco. The unusual thing about Timbuk2, as it turns out, is that its manufacturing is entirely "build-to-order"-that is, rather than buying standard models from existing inventory, consumers can request the exact features of a bag and only then does the company make it.
So we began building a bag, which began as a fairly standard bike bag and quickly progressed into a Frankenstein of add-on features as six rows of enthusiastic SiM-mers shouted encouragement. (Prof. Bradley: "Do we really need the extra cell-phone pouch and reinforced bottom?" Students: "Absolutely!") A few days later, a bright-red bag arrived via FedEx and now serves as our SiM mascot, to be passed around at the end of each day to the student with the best class contributions.
As for the specifics of our immersion, we've since transitioned from the fun of Timbuk2's slick site and endless customization potential to learning the more mundane fundamentals of things like bills of materials and manufacturing resource planning. Our classes will move on from manufacturing basics to a string of factory tours-more on that in later editions-and culminate in a long group project. (Samples from last year: an analysis of maquiladora manufacturing plants entitled "Poor Mexico: So Close to the United States, So Far From God", and the more prosaic title "Why did the Fiero fail?")
Incidentally, for those wondering what happened to all the dry-erase markers that used to be in conference rooms around the school, most met their end late last month as SiM students created and untangled monster process-flow charts on whiteboards as a part of Prof. John McClain's operations management class. Who knew dumpers and dryers were so critical to processing cranberries?
Meanwhile, our favorite marketing frameworks from last semester resurfaced in the SiM strategy core class like underclassmen at Collegetown's newly reopened Bibi Maizoon's. Our first major case analysis involved using Porter's Five Forces to determine why Samsung's attempt to enter the U.S. automobile market just prior to the Asian economic crisis culminated in bankruptcy and the sale of its state-of-the-art car factory to Renault for 11 cents on the dollar. Maybe because they didn't offer any cell-phone pouch options?
Professor Bradley called up the website of a company called Timbuk2, which makes bike-messenger bags and the like from its small factory in an industrial area of San Francisco. The unusual thing about Timbuk2, as it turns out, is that its manufacturing is entirely "build-to-order"-that is, rather than buying standard models from existing inventory, consumers can request the exact features of a bag and only then does the company make it.
So we began building a bag, which began as a fairly standard bike bag and quickly progressed into a Frankenstein of add-on features as six rows of enthusiastic SiM-mers shouted encouragement. (Prof. Bradley: "Do we really need the extra cell-phone pouch and reinforced bottom?" Students: "Absolutely!") A few days later, a bright-red bag arrived via FedEx and now serves as our SiM mascot, to be passed around at the end of each day to the student with the best class contributions.
As for the specifics of our immersion, we've since transitioned from the fun of Timbuk2's slick site and endless customization potential to learning the more mundane fundamentals of things like bills of materials and manufacturing resource planning. Our classes will move on from manufacturing basics to a string of factory tours-more on that in later editions-and culminate in a long group project. (Samples from last year: an analysis of maquiladora manufacturing plants entitled "Poor Mexico: So Close to the United States, So Far From God", and the more prosaic title "Why did the Fiero fail?")
Incidentally, for those wondering what happened to all the dry-erase markers that used to be in conference rooms around the school, most met their end late last month as SiM students created and untangled monster process-flow charts on whiteboards as a part of Prof. John McClain's operations management class. Who knew dumpers and dryers were so critical to processing cranberries?
Meanwhile, our favorite marketing frameworks from last semester resurfaced in the SiM strategy core class like underclassmen at Collegetown's newly reopened Bibi Maizoon's. Our first major case analysis involved using Porter's Five Forces to determine why Samsung's attempt to enter the U.S. automobile market just prior to the Asian economic crisis culminated in bankruptcy and the sale of its state-of-the-art car factory to Renault for 11 cents on the dollar. Maybe because they didn't offer any cell-phone pouch options?