Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2
Case Analysis Overview 2
Environmental Background 3
SWOT Analysis: Strengths 3
SWOT Analysis: Weaknesses 3
SWOT Analysis: Opportunities 4
SWOT Analysis: Threats 4
Problems: Flawed Capacity Strategy 5
Problems: Lack of QFD 5
Problems: Management Focused on the "Home Run" 5
Potential Alternative Scenario I: Increase Product Variety 5
Lessons Learned/Conclusion 7
Appendix: Figure 1 ? Growth of Web Purchases & Online Grocery Purchases 8
Appendix: Figure 2 -- Webvan vs. Brick & Mortar Grocery, Order Size & Frequency 9
Appendix: Figure 3 ? Avg Daily Unit Break-Even Analysis 10
Appendix: Figure 4 ? Adding Capacity 10
Appendix: Figure 5 ? Quality Functional Deployment: House of Quality 11
Appendix: Figure 6 ? Potential Changes to Delivery Routes 12
Appendix: Figure 7 -- Marketing-Operations Coordination Model 13
Executive Summary
Webvan was a short-lived Internet grocer that unsuccessfully entered the grocery industry in the late 1990s. The company focused its core capability/strength on highly-automated, capital-intensive and operating systems. However, Webvan showed weakness in its lack of focus on actual customer requirements and needs from a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) point-of-view. Despite typically low profit margins in the industry, the overall size of the ind ...