PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

You will have to define an enterprise of your own in order to do the project assignments and to answer some of the questions on the exams. The type of enterprise you select should be something that you will feel comfortable with and perhaps know something about. The following rules apply:

 

1.         You will stay with whatever enterprise you select for the entire course, so give it some thought.

 

2.         The size of the enterprise is a small business (i.e. 25 – 500 employees).

 

3          An assumption is made that you have adequate operating capital and have already recruited all the necessary middle managers.

 

4.         The company must be a for profit organization.

 

5.         You are the Chief Operating Officer and will make all of the relevant decisions.  Project grading will be based on the logic, completeness, and originality of your answers, as well as your ability to defend operating decisions that you have made.

 

6.         You should use the following guidelines when selecting your enterprise (criteria on the exercises may be amended a bit to accommodate your chosen enterprise model):

 

6.1       A manufacturing firm assembling or manufacturing approximately three to six product models, of an item or items having around six to ten different parts.

 

6.2       A service organization providing either an on or off site service, or a combination of both, to approximately three to six commercial clients. (Services of this type are often quite varied, some examples include: operation of in-house cafeterias, grounds keeping and decorative plant maintenance, specialty equipment repair, stenographic services, operation of client data processing facilities, to name but a few.)

 

6.3       A virtual corporation, having no one specific fixed physical facility, operating as an ad hoc organization composed of teams from various companies, suppliers, customers, etc., brought together in a business to business collaborative setting to accomplish some specific project.

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

 

1.         Prepare a table of organization for the enterprise that you have selected.  Start the table of organization with your position as chief operating officer and proceed down through the level of your department heads. 

 

2.         Logically and briefly discuss the key factors you considered when deciding upon your specific enterprise for those factors below that apply to your project:

 

Concept development/idea generation

Product/service concept design

Process selection criteria and approaches (preliminary, final - relate to process spectrum)

Facilitization (new, existing, etc.)

 

3.         Prepare a formal statement of Mission, Goals, and Objectives for your enterprise.

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 2

 

 

1.         Draw a preliminary process flow diagram for your enterprise. (Note the examples in the text)

 

2.         Briefly describe the process diagrammed above.

 

3.         Draw an information flow diagram for your enterprise. (Note the examples in the text.)

 

4.         Briefly describe the information flow depicted above.

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 3

 

 

1.         Assign capacity measures to the process flow chart for your enterprise, using this information:

 

1.1       Identify the limiting bottlenecks and slack elements (excess capacity) within the process.

 

1.2       Compare your firm’s present capacity with anticipated demand over the next year.

 

1.3       Discuss the concept of capacity balance as it relates to your firm (i.e. how do you achieve/maintain capacity balance throughout an annual production cycle?).

 

 

2.         Using the data above, explain how you will adjust to accommodate the following:

 

2.1       A uniform increase of 50% in demand over the next one-year period.

 

2.2       A uniform decrease of 50% in demand over the next one-year period.

 

2.3       An anticipated peak seasonal demand increase of 100% for an upcoming three-month period.

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 4

 

 

1.         Explain how the approaches to production planning listed below relate to your firm:

 

Modulating Capacity

 

Inventory (or Service Delivery) Buffers

 

Managing Demand

 

 

2.         Discuss worker information requirements within your firm.  (Consider both inputs and outputs).

 

 

3.         Relate the following resources to your firm in terms of their level of importance:

 

                        Technology

 

                        Time

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 5

 

 

1          What is the composition of your firm’s quality organization? How are Quality Control activities performed? How does your firm differentiate between the two functions?

 

2.         List and briefly discuss those elements which you will include in the quality measurement process (i.e. “Measures of Effectiveness”.)

 

3.         What elements comprise the “Cost of Quality” in your firm?  Explain.

 

 

PROC 5820, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS PROJECT

 

ASSIGNMENT NO. 6

 

1.         Identify opportunities within your firm to vertically integrate (both forward and backward).

 

2.         Which of these levels would you consider to be the limit to which you could vertically integrate before adversely affecting profitability, manageability, or both?

 

3.         Discuss the “make or buy” decision as it applies to your firm. Include specific information about your approach to outsourcing, its advantages, disadvantages, and risks.

Back to PROC 5820 Gateway Page