Assignment:
My abstract is Starbucks integrates ethics and corporate social responsibility with supply chain efficiency. The company's strategy for its supply chain involves diversification of suppliers to ensure stability of supply. Starbucks also uses its Coffee and Farmer Equity program to select and prioritize suppliers. This program uses criteria for ethical practices, including an emphasis on sustainability. I also want to talk about Quality management. Starbucks also uses the premium character in quality management. The company carefully sources its coffee beans from coffee farmers who comply with Starbucks quality standards. Premium quality service is ensured through servant leadership and a warm friendly culture. In this decision area of operations management, Starbucks implements high quality to align with the firm's premium brand image.
Requirements
I. Scope: The purpose of the Research Project is to provide you the opportunity to thoroughly understand how a particular Operations Management concept has either significantly helped an organization or as a result of the management's ignorance of the topic, significantly damaged the organization.
II. Requirements: You may select any Operations Management topic from the course that you will use as your basis of your research and any corporation that you have an interest in studying. The corporation may be a Multi-National conglomerate or a local business where you may have worked. You are to formulate an argument in either the positive, or negative, based on the performance of the company's management in relation to the course topic chosen. You will be required to turn in a brief Abstract that identifies the concept and company chosen as well as your argument by the date shown in page 2 below. Sample Abstracts are shown in the Appendix. You will then be required to turn in the actual Research Project as defined in Section 3.0 by the date shown in page 2.
III. Research Project Format: The format and structure of the Research Project shall be in accordance with the current American Psychological Association, APA, structure. If you are not familiar with this format, then that will be the beginning phase of your research. Please refer to the sample APA paper on Sakai for guidance and additional information. Points will be deducted if the format does not adhere to the APA structure. The length of the Research Paper shall be a minimum of six to a maximum of ten pages of text. Charts, photos, figures, data tables, etc. are encouraged in order to support your argument and are pages over and above the required pages of text. You will be required to obtain four to six references and shall identify them at the end of the paper. Operations Management Research Project Requirements 52-620-325 Page
IV. Research Content: Use whatever you have learned so far or you can proactively review the various topics in this course in advance, select a concept, tool, technique or topic that you feel a connection with based on your personal interests and/or experiences. Once you have selected a topic, identify a company that has either made significant accomplishments as a result of successfully embracing and implementing the theory and concept discipline or identify a company that, as a result of ignoring these basic fundamental concepts, has left the company in jeopardy, up to and including bankruptcy. The positive or negative impact to the company does not necessarily need to be in strictly financial terms, although in some roundabout way it eventually will lead back to a financial impact. By not observing the concepts and using the tools and techniques presented in this course, companies may have their reputation damaged, product quality diminished, management integrity questioned and more which ultimately impact the shareholders. Other companies have fully embraced the contributions of Operations Management and appreciate the concepts and techniques. As a result, their businesses have flourished and have achieved remarkable success in inventory reduction, cycle time reduction, cost improvement, Supply Chain excellence, profitability and more. Your objective is to analyze the selected company's performance in relation to the course topic selected and draw a conclusion. Develop your argument by providing supporting research material and data drawn from such areas as Annual Reports, periodicals, current news articles, on-line research, etc. You are required to use at least four references and correctly annotate their reference. It is also highly recommended that you use current companies and events in your Research Project that are shaping the business landscape. It is recommended that you include in your project an explanation as to how the Operations concept / topic is supposed to be used effectively by organizations. Then proceed to introduce your selected company and the argument that you will make. I am interested in reading about your knowledge and understanding of the selected Operations concept and to ensure you thoroughly understand what that impact had, and why, on the organization.