Case study questions

Go to a bookstore or library. There are many books designed to help you deal with case study questions. 

Interviewers sometimes ask situational or case study questions that test critical thinking skills. When faced with one of these questions, the best advice is to think of an approach to solving a problem rather than trying to devise an answer. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions Instead, an interviewer is simply trying to see how you analyze the situation. 

As with all types of questions, the best way to handle case study questions is to be prepared. Talk to the counselors at your college career center or speak with a friend who has case interview experience. There are also a number of good books written on the subject. If you feel you need more practice with this type of question, get a copy of one of these titles ... 

Where possible, discuss the activities and case study questions in groups after you have prepared them individually. Discussion helps to broaden the agenda and create confidence in handling the issues. While you are studying this book, think about the logistics issues it raises - in your own firm, or ones that you know well, and in articles in newspapers such as the Financial Times and magazines such as Business Week. Follow up the web site addresses we have included in the text and again link them with the issues raised in the book. 

As w as mentioned earlier, extra rows are provided as can be seen in Figure 1. This gives extra flexibility needed for process design case studies. Often, the set of case studies initially envisioned by the engineer or manager are not sufficient to answer all questions. The extra rows allow intermediate recycles or intermediate flows from or additions to the plant that might not have been envisioned initially. Another value of the intermediate rows is to provide component values at intermediate points in the process. The breakeven value of a proposed purchase stream from another plant would be one use of intermediate component values. 

This is the actual mental function required by the task that failed (see Figure 2.17). In the case study imder consideration the failure was at the Execute Action stage of the stepladder model, since the worker intended to operate the valve for reactor A, so there was no question of failure in the selection of actions. The connection with the task characteristics box indicates the fact that action is a fimction required by the task. 

The purpose of this chapter is to show that improvements in safety, quality, and productivity are possible by applying some of the ideas and techniques described in this book. The fact that error reduction approaches have not yet been widely adopted in the CPI, together with questions of confidentiality, has meant that it has not been possible to provide examples of all the techniques described in the book. However, the examples provided in this chapter illustrate some of the most generally useful qualitative techniques. Case studies of quantitative techniques are provided separately in the quantification section (Chapter 5). The first two case studies illustrate the use of incident analysis techniques (Chapter 6). 

Data gathered in the lessons were used to produce case studies for each of the groups of students because such case studies yield rich descriptions of events that are presented in a chronological narrative that incorporates the researcher s observations. Due to the possible inclusion of such an interpretation of the data, case studies go beyond simple descriptions of the situation and support the analysis of the phenomenon being studied (Cohen, Manion, Morrison, 2000). In order to discuss the research questions, we browsed the original case studies to identify evidence of how the students dealt with the levels of representation. Whenever it is appropriate, such evidence is included in the later sections of this chapter. 

In order to address this research question, we browsed the original case studies to identify evidence of how the students dealt with the levels of representation and of any possible relationship between such students activities and any of the elements of the modelling-based teaching. In the following discussion, the most relevant elements of this teaching are emphasised. 

Coming back to the question of why additives do not show up in LCA case studies, this may be linked now with the various steps in the LCA procedure, especially to the LCI and the LCIA. 

The definition of the cost model is of crucial importance for controlling the behavior of the S N P optimizer. One of the central questions is whether to maximize service level, which usually means using high penalties for non and late delivery, or to maximize profits, which requires the use of realistic sale prices. In the case study scenario, the nondelivery cost levels reflect real sale prices sufficiently close to enable a profit maximization logic. 

Initially, the literature is searched for relevant data on the substance (physical-chemical properties, thermodynamics, incidents, case studies, and so forth). If insufficient data are available, the usual case, a systematic investigation procedure comprising three main subjects must be initiated for the material in question. 

In Chapter 5 the conceptual approach from the previous Chapter will be tested and evaluated and finally applied to a single case study in the Dutch chemical process industry. This exercise is performed to test the conceptual approach in practice. The findings of the case study will be evaluated and will lead to refinements in the conceptual approach. Finally a structured protocol will be derived and applied to the same case study to ascertain if the structured protocol is effective and suitable for practical use and leads to answering the research questions posed in Chapter 1. 

In Chapter 7 the derived structured protocol will be applied to multiple case studies in the Dutch chemical process industry. Three case studies will be conducted to derive the answers on the posed research questions and to confirm or reject the results from the case histories in the previous Chapter. The case studies will be carefully selected so that the outcomes of the analysis are predictable for all three cases. This replication strengthens the generalization and overall validation of all case studies and the research in general. 

The concepts derived in the previous Chapter are applied in practice by means of a case study, describing a pesticide company struggling with the question of how to improve the safety of their operational process further. The control model derived in the previous Chapter is used to analyse both the controlled process and controlling process with respect to its impact on process safety. 

Developed frameworks are applied to the specific industry problem to monthly plan a global chemical commodity value chain by volumes and values. Sub-objectives are to elaborate characteristics and planning requirements for a global commodity value chain in the chemical industry and to develop, implement and evaluate the respective model. Research question 2 is directed to a real industry case study demonstrating the real existence of formulated requirements, showing the applicability of the developed model in reality and evaluating the model using industry data. 

---