QSO 690 List of Proposed Companies
Manufacturing/Service
John Deere
Harley-Davidson
3M
Campbell’s Soup Company
Ma
iott
Mattel
Nordstrom
Sta
ucks
Krispy Kreme
Hershey
Instruction Technology
Texas Instruments
EMC Corporation
Cisco Systems Inc.
Healthcare
United Health Group
Anthem Inc.
A
ott Laboratories
Organizational Analysis & Design Plan: Project Description and Scoring Guide
QSO 690 Journal Guidelines and Ru
ic
The final project for this course asks you to apply all of the operations concepts that you have learned about to an actual company or organization. This will
involve evaluating a company’s cu
ent operations and conducting analyses using established evaluation tools to offer recommendations that will increase
profits, lower costs, promote differentiation and competitiveness, and improve supply chain activities while leveraging technology and lean processes to
implement long-range goals.
Prompt: Once you have reviewed the Final Project Guidelines and Ru
ic document (in the Assignment Guidelines and Ru
ics section of the course), select a
company or organization that meets the following criteria:
Must be from the manufacturing, service, IT, or healthcare industries (other industries could be used with instructor approval)
Must be large enough to have multiple product/service lines to consider
Must be in a market that is highly competitive where production costs are always a key concern
Must have potential for and a vision of global expansion
See this list of companies to help guide your selection.
Note: In the absence of a suitable real company, you may use a notional or conceptual company for this assignment as long as it meets the above criteria.
In either case, to avoid any proprietary data issues, the performance data for this assignment should not be real data; however, real data could be used if
it is publically available.
In your journal assignment, identify the company or organization you have selected to research for your final project. Be sure to clearly and adequately address
the following:
Justify how this company or organization satisfies each of the four criteria listed above.
Explain how the 10 operations management critical decision areas can be applied to this company or organization.
Outline your initial thoughts on how the final project topics will apply to your selected company or organization.
Once your journal assignment is submitted, you will receive instructor feedback and approval of your selected company. Note that formal approval of your
company is necessary before beginning work on the first milestone assignment for the final project.
http:
snhu-media.snhu.edu/files/course_repository/graduate/qso/qso690/qso690_list_of_proposed_companies.pdf
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ic
Guidelines for Submission: Guidelines for Submission: Submit assignment as a Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-
inch margins. Your journal assignment should be about 250 words in length. Please use essay format for your assignment—that is, avoid using just a bulleted list.
Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (80%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Four Criteria Selects an appropriate company or
organization and offers satisfactory
justification for the decision using the
four criteria
Selects an appropriate company or
organization for final project but does
not adequately justify choice using the
four criteria
Does not select an appropriate company
or organization meeting the four criteria
30
The 10 Operations
Management Critical Decision
Areas
Articulates how each of the 10
operations management critical decision
areas applies to the selected company or
organization
Partially applies the 10 operations
management critical decision areas to
selected company or organization
Does not apply the 10 operations
management critical decision areas to
selected company or organization
30
Application to Selected
Company or Organization
Clearly and thoroughly demonstrates
how each of the final project topics
elates to the company or organization
Partially demonstrates how final project
topics relate to the selected company or
organization
Does not apply final project topics to the
selected company or organization
30
Articulation of Response Submission has no major e
ors related
to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax,
or organization
Submission has major e
ors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that negatively impact
eadability and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical e
ors related to
citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or
organization that prevent understanding
of ideas
10
Total 100%
QSO 690 Milestone One Guidelines and Ru
ic
Overview: In this first milestone assignment for the final project, you will begin the process of creating a business development plan for your selected
organization or company. To accomplish this, you, as an operations management professional, must clearly understand how each systemic element fits into an
organization’s overall operation. You will need to consider the company’s cu
ent processes and get a sense of its leaders’ goals and values. How does the
company cu
ently operate? What are its strengths and limitations? In what kind of sociopolitical and economic environment is the company operating? What
are the available tools for evaluation?
Prompt: To complete this milestone, you will submit a case analysis of your selected organization or company. In your submission, assess and describe your
organization’s or company’s internal organization capabilities and recommend strategies for optimizing production based on a detailed analysis of existing
processes, resources (facilities, human resources, equipment/machines, supply chain/inventory), sustainability, and strategic business planning (SBP) goals.
In this analysis, you will need to identify and recommend TQM and ISO 9000 principles and methods that utilize best business practices to ensure that the
company is consistently meeting the customers’ cost, quality, performance, and overall satisfaction expectations. This analysis will necessarily include the use of
global benchmarks to determine opportunities for competitive advantage. Additionally, assess the company’s cu
ent capacity and constraints in meeting
production goals or delivery of service. How does it manage its restraints?
To begin this process, you will need to gather information about the organization’s or company’s cu
ent initiatives and processes, general policies, and stated
goals. Information can generally be found on the organization’s main website, in the annual report and mission statement, and in articles authored by the
company or outside analysts, such as ThomasNet.com, buy/sell sites (e.g., Jim Cramer), and investment companies (e.g., Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, or Vanguard).
As operations management students and professionals, you are encouraged to use your own experience, understanding, and knowledge of business and
industry structure to drive your analysis.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Aligning Resources to Market Opportunities
A. Assess your company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations with respect to its cu
ent operations. In your assessment, include
human, organizational, and infrastructure factors.
B. Based on the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations, what expansion or business development opportunities can you
identify? How will these opportunities align to the cu
ent domestic and global markets? Your response should consider the political, economic,
social, and technical factors that affect the company.
C. Based on the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations, what cost-savings opportunities can you identify? How will these
opportunities align to the cu
ent domestic and global markets? Your response should consider the political, economic, social, and technical
factors that affect the company.
D. Describe the external threat factors in the domestic and global markets that the company or organization should consider when developing
these business development and cost-savings opportunities. Your response should consider the political, economic, social, and technical factors
that affect the company.
II. Managing the Quality Imperative for Global Competition
A. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations and the opportunities you identified, select
total quality management (TQM) means that the company or organization could employ to strengthen organizational performance. Justify your
selection.
B. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations and the opportunities you identified, select an
appropriate series from an ISO 9000 family of standards that the company or organization could employ to strengthen organizational
performance. Justify your selection.
C. Based on the TQM and ISO 9000 benchmarks that you selected, recommend global best practices that strengthen organizational performance by
ensuring quality, cost containment, and customer satisfaction for the company or organization. Justify your recommendations.
This analysis will be incorporated into the final project submission.
Guidelines for Submission: This assignment should be submitted as a 5- to 7-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman
font, and one-inch margins. You should use cu
ent APA style guidelines for your citations and reference list. Note that at least 10 outside information sources
are required overall for this project, although many students might find that more are necessary to satisfy the requirements of the project. Please adhere to the
SNHU Academic Honesty Policy as you develop this project.
As necessary, copy and paste any data analysis from Excel into your Word document for submission. You may include your original Excel documents as
supplementary material if you believe this will strengthen your contribution.
Note that the grading ru
ic for the milestone submissions is not identical to that of the final project. The Final Project Ru
ic will include an additional
“Exemplary” category that provides guidance as to how you can go above and beyond “Proficient” in your final submission.
http:
family.snhu.edu/Resources/policiesandprocedures/COCE/Pages/Academic%20Honesty%20Policy%20-%20College%20of%20Online%20and%20Continuing%20Education.aspx
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ic
Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (80%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Aligning Resources to
Market Opportunities:
Internal Capabilities and
Limitations
Assesses the company’s or
organization’s internal capabilities and
limitations with respect to cu
ent
operations, including human,
organizational, and infrastructure
factors
Assesses the company’s or
organization’s internal capabilities and
limitations with respect to cu
ent
operations, but assessment does not
include human, organizational, or
infrastructure factors or is cursory or
inaccurate
Does not assess the company’s or
organization’s internal capabilities and
limitations with respect to cu
ent
operations
15
Aligning Resources to
Market Opportunities:
Business Development
Opportunities
Identifies appropriate expansion