Product Life Cycle Data-Set: Raw and Cleaned Data of Weekly Orders for Personal Computers

10 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2017

See all articles by Jason Acimovic

Jason Acimovic

Penn State University, Smeal College of Business

Francisco Erize

Dell Inc.

Kejia Hu

University of Oxford, Saïd Business School

Douglas J. Thomas

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Jan A. Van Mieghem

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management

Date Written: September 22, 2017

Abstract

We provide and describe a data set of N=8935 weekly, normalized customer orders over the entire product life cycle for 170 Dell computer products sold in North America over a three and a half year period, from 2013-2016. Total orders for these products exceeded 4 million units and well over a billion dollars in revenue. While Dell is historically known for fulfilling customer demand with a build to-order approach, the products in this data set were designated as build-to-stock products. There are three elements in the data that, depending on the research application, researchers may want to identify or mitigate. First, some products have seemingly anomalous orders representing one-time purchases from large customers. Second, there are negative values for some products representing order cancellations. Third, end-of-life sales may be significantly influenced by management action. We present approaches for cleaning the data to address these issues.

Suggested Citation

Acimovic, Jason and Erize, Francisco and Hu, Kejia and Thomas, Douglas J. and Van Mieghem, Jan Albert, Product Life Cycle Data-Set: Raw and Cleaned Data of Weekly Orders for Personal Computers (September 22, 2017). Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management Research Paper No. 3042681, Darden Business School Working Paper No. 3042681, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3042681 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3042681

Jason Acimovic (Contact Author)

Penn State University, Smeal College of Business ( email )

University Park
State College, PA 16802
United States

Francisco Erize

Dell Inc. ( email )

1 Dell Way
Round Rock, TX 78682
United States

Kejia Hu

University of Oxford, Saïd Business School ( email )

Douglas J. Thomas

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States

Jan Albert Van Mieghem

Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management ( email )

2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
United States

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