Assignment:
The goal of operations management is to improve business processes through documentation of the process, analysis of the process and systematic experimentation with new process designs and policies. All of the topics covered in this course are preparation for that task so a natural way to integrate those topics is to complete a business process analysis and improvement recommendations for a real world system. That is your project assignment
So to begin, select a real world business process which you have knowledge about or could observe that is of interest to you. The choice could be a process that have experience with or knowledge of as a worker or customer. Or the process can be one typical of a business or functional area in which you might aspire to work someday. It can be either a product or service process. Ideally, there is some source of customer inconvenience or process inefficiency that you will focus on correcting. .
1. Process Description and Measures of Process Efficiency
Describe the product/service process you are defining including the company and the specific value-added business process within the company. Photos would be helpful. Review chapters1-4 and include an answer to the two key questions: Is the process performing well? How can we make the process better? Estimate items discussed in these chapters including inventory, flow rate, flow time, capacity, utilization, etc (yes, estimate even if you have no data).
Use this document as a guideline for preparing your report, as in type directly in this document. Each page outlines a different task - not all tasks will be equally important on all projects but be sure to document why you made that evaluation and don't skip any tasks. Many of the tasks correspond to topics of chapters of the textbook. Your report should document your activity and summarize your results and reference those terms and concepts from your textbook topics. The guidelines are a minimum and you should have something for each task, the more the better, but do aim for quality over quantity.
2. Process Interruptions and Lean Operations:
Identify sources of process interruptions and steps that can be taken to mitigate the impact or reduce the frequency of these interruptions. Is the process "lean" as defined in chapter 8? Explain your answer. The eventual process improvement you choose in section #8 could be identified here.
3. ProcessFlow:
List the numbered activities and estimated activity times for the steps in process flow . For full credit, diagram the flow as shown in Fig 3.2 using the numbered activity list and adding triangles for queues or inventory buffers as needed. Copy and paste the symbols below from the shapes menu.
4. Process Quality Improvement:
Employ the terms and concepts identify and rank quality issues with your process. Create a Fishbone diagram but instead of a diagram, just create an hierarchical outline as shown below. Then identify in bold (see below) the factors you think could be the most important factors that should be addressed.
5. Inventory:
Describe the inventory systemand inventory items needed to support the process. If possible, break down the inventory items: A category for high value, low usage items, C category for low value, high usage items and B category for those in between. Describe the inventory replenishment issues you think might be the most critical to preventing stockouts or the most difficult to manage.
6. Supply Chain:
Discuss the supply chain vendors and logistics processes necessary to support the process. Who are the primary vendors and what do you believe are the most important factors affecting the vendor selection process for this company. How important are supply chain relationships to the success of your process?
7. Service Systems:
Analyze and evaluate the capability of the process to handle the demands of arriving customers. Use the queueing models appropriate for your system and estimate the calculations for arrival rate, service rates and performance measures like waiting time, number in system, utilization, etc.
8. Process Improvement:
Propose one or two recommendations for process improvement. Do your best to quantify the costs of implementing your solution and the benefits to the firm. Do not propose marketing or new product changes (unless the new product supports a more efficient process). Focus on process changes of the type discussed throughout the text.
9. Other:
There are many other operations management topics covered in your text not listed above. Take a section by section tour through your text and add otheranalysis of your process based on sections of your own choosing that you think are applicable to your process improvement analysis. This section is worth 10% of your project score, so if you leave it blank, your maximum score is 90% even if all previous sections are excellent.