Product Overview

NoBull, a new, Charlottesville-based vegetarian burger producer, was at a critical junction in its development. While the business had grown substantially over the past year, it faced a number of challenges as it continued to expand it sales outside the Charlottesville region. In particular, as the burgers increased in popularity, the owners were unsure as to whether current production could keep pace with demand. The Raymonds knew that, in order to reach NoBull’s eventual goal to expand nationwide, they had to better understand both NoBull’s current capacity as well as its future operational requirements.

Learning Objectives

The case introduces students to capacity analysis with an easy-to-visualize (and therefore easy-to-understand) process. The small business setting allows students to see the importance of operations when growing a new business. The case is flexible in that questions can be directed to a number of topics including the impact of batch size on capacity, identifying process bottlenecks and process improvements, allocating operator workload, and developing a growth strategy.