Operational Analysis

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MBE 510 – Major Organization Project
Overall Description
Each student will create an operational analysis (in the form of a consultant’s report) of a
specific organization that you select. The creation of this overall plan will begin in the first
module and will carry through each module to the end.
You must choose an organization to study and that organization can either be one that
produces goods or one that produces services. You may choose the organization where you
work, but in any event, you must make sure that you have the ability to access information and
resources from that organization, as well as from other sources. You must identify the
organization during the first week of class because it is imperative that you start working on the
project in Module One.
Each week you will research your organization and that research will focus on how the material
covered in that week’s module pertains to your specific organization. At the end of the last week
of the course, you will submit one comprehensive report whereby you address the specific
questions identified in each module.
Think of your paper as a consultant’s report where you will conduct detailed analysis (from an
operations perspective) of your organization in its present form. The last portion of your paper
will be your recommended solutions to alleviate any of the operational issues your found with
your firm. Your solutions must incorporate many of the concepts we have covered in the class.
Your final consultant’s report must adhere to the following:
1) The minimum length of the paper is twenty-five pages of content not to include
appendices, cover pages, figures, other graphics, abstract and table of contents.
2) Your paper should incorporate a minimum of twenty-five sources, fifteen of which must
be peer-reviewed and scholarly.
3) Your paper should be cited using APA formatting.
4) Use headings and subheadings as appropriate.
5) Your submission should be uploaded in Word format.
6) Remember, at the graduate level it is important to not only focus on “what is” but also on
“why it is.” Serious critical reflection and analysis is a must.
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Module 1 Research: Operations Analysis – Introduction, Background
and Strategy
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Describe your organization’s industry (economic, competition, environment, etc.).
2) Identify all of the products or services for your organization.
3) Identify and describe the strategy of your organization to include its mission and vision.
4) Analyze whether the operations strategy supports or does not support the overall
strategy of the organization to create customer value. In other words, do the actions of
the organization seem to be in alignment with the organizations mission and vision.
5) Describe the transformational processes used by the organization.
Module 2 Research: Project Management
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to project
management.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze the organization’s portfolio of projects using the project type matrix and project
lifecycles.
2) Analyze the organization’s use of project management and scheduling tools and
describe how successful the organization has been planning and executing projects.
3) Describe how Goldratt’s critical chain may be used to better manage projects.
4) Analyze how the organization controls projects and if the earned value approach might
improve project control and success.
Module 3 Research: Process Planning and Innovation
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to process
management.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze your organizations transformational process systems and describe the format(s)
used based on our discussion of the different types of systems from the textbook.
Explain if or how those process designs align with the organizational strategy.
2) Evaluate the successfulness of those systems by focusing on things such as capacity
and utilization, as well as efficiency and effectiveness.
3) Make detailed recommendations on how your organization might use process
improvement tools to improve operational successes within the organization. Is business
process reengineering needed or just continuous process improvement? Explain.
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Module 4 Research: Capacity and Scheduling
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to capacity
planning and scheduling.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze your organizations capacity capabilities and describe how capacity is designed,
implemented and monitored. Determine your firm’s capacity utilization rate.
2) Determine whether or not your organization is able to utilize its capacity efficiently and
effectively. Describe in detail how it does so.
3) Identify and describe how your organization manages its capacity and identify possible
bottlenecks. Does your organization manage bottlenecks well? How so? Explain.
Generate a process flow diagram (chart) depicting the complete process flow and
illustrate those bottlenecks.
4) What additional strategies should your organization employ to better manage
bottlenecks. Refer to your process flow chart.
5) Describe your organization’s scheduling processes. Are these processes effective? If
yes, how so? If no, what mechanisms/strategies can be put in place to improve those
scheduling processes?
Module 5 Research: Monitoring and Controlling the Processes
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to monitoring
and controlling processes.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze your organization’s approach to monitoring and controlling processes.
2) Describe how your organization prioritizes its processes to develop key performance
processes.
3) Identify ways in which your firm employs balanced scorecard and strategy mapping
processes.
4) Explain how any of the quality-oriented ISO standards apply to your firm and how your
firm operationalizes these standards.
5) Discuss any process problems your organization has faced and the steps it used to
remedy those process issues.
Module 6 Research: Process Improvement: Six Sigma
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to process
improvement via the concepts of Six Sigma.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze your organization’s approach to the process improvement techniques that may
fall under the realm of Six Sigma. While your organization may not call its process
improvement strategies Six Sigma, is more than likely that your organization does
incorporate many similar tools.
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2) Identify a process within your selected organization where process improvements are
needed. Describe in detail those processes and draw a value stream map demonstrating
the current state of those processes.
3) Using the DMAIC process, identify ways your selected process or processes could be
improved and described those. Draw a proposed value stream map whereby you
indicate how your proposed process improvement strategies will be implemented.
Describe your recommendations in detail.
Module 7 Research: Process Improvement: Lean
Continue the analysis of your organization by investigating your firm’s approach to process
improvement via the concepts and techniques found within the realm of the Lean Management
approach.
Research the following items as they pertain to your organization.
1) Analyze your organization’s approach to the process improvement techniques that fall
under the Lean Management approach to operations management.
2) Describe how (or if) your organization is successful with its implementation on Lean
Principles.
3) Identify and describe ways your organization might use Lean Principles to improve
operational efficiencies and reduce costs.