Assignment
Paper 1.
Product and Process Development
For this assignment, look at the company you began analyzing in Week 1 from the perspective of the manufacturing it does or service it provides.
First, discuss the following for your company:
• Summarize the company's product or service that you are analyzing, including a mention of whether or not the company deals only in products, only in services, or if they offer both.
• Summarize the process by which these products are made or by which these services are provided (in other words, what is the process that is being used?). Be sure to mention whether or not changes to this process are needed when new products or services are introduced by the company.
• Assess why the company does or does not outsource the manufacturing of its products or the provision of its services.
Then, complete the following tasks as part of your analysis:
• Diagram the process that is currently in use by developing a process map for how the company manufactures the product or provides the service.
• Justify areas of process improvement for the company based upon the process map.
• Evaluate whether the company is a make-to-order, make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, or engineer-to-order company, explaining what it is about the company that makes them the type of company that you are describing them to be.
Paper 2
Locations/Offshoring/Outsourcing
In this section of the course project, you will focus on location-related decisions taken by the company you have chosen and the company's strategy to manufacture in-house or outsource the functions of the supply chain. This outsourcing may be tied to a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis and determination of core competencies.
Complete the following tasks:
• Analyze the company's decisions and strategy regarding site selection, outsourcing, and offshoring operations.
• Evaluate the impacts of offshoring or outsourcing on quality and the supply chain.
Prepare the deliverables for this week to provide information on the following aspects of the company:
• Locations
• Offshoring
• Outsourcing
Paper 3;
Procurement/Supply Chain
Focus your analysis on the procurement or acquisition practices of the company you selected for the final project and the types of materials that the company uses. Also, analyze where those materials are sourced, how they are delivered, and what the overall supply chain operations of the company are.
Submit a report detailing the following:
• Coordination of acquisition practices with actual product demand
• Procurement practices
• Inventory management (including whether the use of MRP would be appropriate)
• Scheduling of production or service provision
• Supply chain operations.