1. Deliverables: Submit the following:
a. A Word document containing your answers to the questions listed below.
b. The Word document should meet the following criteria:
i. Be between 2,000 and 2,500 words
ii. All citations must follow APA format guidelines.
iii. Font size should be 12pt, and font should be Times New Roman.
iv. Spacing should be no larger than double spacing.
c. An Excel spreadsheet showing your work in a clear, easy-to-understand manner. Where applicable, please leave the formulas in place.
2. Company Selection and Information Sources for your Project: You must select a company for your report. Please adhere to the following conditions:
a. Your selected company should have a publicly traded stock in the United States.
b. All strategic and operational information used in your report about your chosen company, its customers, suppliers and competitors should be from the company's own website or from reputable media sources. [Please use your own best judgment as to what constitutes a "reputable source"].
c. All financial data used in your report should be from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at its "EDGAR" Company Filings website: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
Questions:
Answer the following questions about your selected company (which we will call SELCO for convenience below):
1. OPERATIONAL STRATEGY: What business is SELCO in? Name its main competitors. Draw an Operations Frontier that shows SELCO's positioning versus its competitors. Choose from any two of these dimensions: Product Price, Supplier Response Time, Product Variety, Product Quality, Time to Market.
2. PROCESS DESIGN: Discuss these process design options in the context of SELCO's business: Should SELCO's processes have a "Functional focus" or "Product focus"?
3. CAPACITY PLANNING: How should SELCO define its "capacity" (some examples could be cars produced per year, customers served per hour, etc.)? How do they specifically manage their Supply/Demand strategy?
4. In this section, answer either the questions on Inventory Management or on Service Management.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT. [Answer this question if SELCO is primarily in the manufacturing or distribution businesses]. Should SELCO use a single-period or multi-period inventory model? If multi-period, should it use a continuous review or periodic review model? Why? How do you leverage their ERP system to manage inventory costs and obsolescence?
SERVICE MANAGEMENT. [Answer this question if SELCO is primarily in a services business]. Describe how SELCO should define its arrival rate, service rate and queue length. Describe some actions SELCO could take to manage the length of its queues and improve their TAT (Turn Around Time)?
5. QUALITY MANAGEMENT: Discuss how you would integrate key elements of the Lean Principles at SELCO to reduce waste and drive continuous improvement.
6. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: Could SELCO's supply chain be subject to the bullwhip effect? Why or why not?
7. TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT: Describe how SELCO could effectively use Big Data to improve their customer focus