The case charts the history of MöllerGroup, a longstanding family business in Germany, which designs, manufactures and markets components for the global automotive industry and construction parts for industrial applications. It makes functional parts for mechanical engineering, automotive technology and other sectors.

In 1970 a 3M chemist, developed a new glue that was not very adhesive. Eventually, other 3M colleagues started using bookmarks made with the unsticky adhesive and were soon asking for more product “samples”. As usage quickly spread within the 3M Product Development Laboratory, it became clear that these unsticky notes were a very useful office product. The Post-it® Note was born.

Shiva Plastics Corp. has been invited to submit bids for the production of a number of different injection molding parts. In the past, the company used a simple ‘cost-plus’ pricing strategy based on the raw material cost of a part to determine its bids. However, overall manufacturing costs are uncertain and this pricing strategy has resulted in unexpected losses.