Assignment : OM Course Project: OM as a Competitive Advantage in Your Organization
This project will help you synthesize and apply what you have learned in the Operations Management course to your organization. Keep in mind you will analyze your organization from a leadership perspective. You will assess your organization through a competitive priority lens and evaluate the ten OM decision areas and key processes to develop actionable recommendations to increase your company's competitive advantage.
This should be a 7-9 page paper. Choose an organization (current or past) and complete the following:
1. Describe the competitive priorities of your organization and the product-process strategies used. As a result, what are the key tasks that senior management should focus on doing especially well?
a. Hint: Compete on differentiation, cost and/or response? Process focus, repetitive focus, product focus, or mass customization focus?
2. Refer to the Ten Strategic OM Decisions (page 8, Heizer & Render):
1. Design of goods and services
2. Managing quality
3. Process and capacity design
4. Location strategy
5. Layout strategy
6. Human resources and job design
7. Supply-chain management
8. Inventory management
9. Scheduling
10. Maintenance
Describe how each of the ten OM decision areas is currently addressed.
• 3 - 5 sentences/bullets for each area
Evaluate the decisions made in each of the ten OM decision areas:
• Do they align with the organization's competitive priorities and product-process strategies? Explain why or why not.
3. Describe the operations and key processes of your organization. Describe current-state processes using the following business process maps:
• SIPOC, and
• Detailed process flowchart, swim-lane process map, or value-stream map
4. What specific, actionable recommendations would you present to your company's senior management to improve operations for competitive advantage? Provide a rationale for all recommendations, and consider the following hints:
• Would you present any changes to competitive priorities and/or product-process strategies?
• How would you address any of the ten OM decisions differently?
• Would you change any processes? Highlight any changes and include a future state process map.
• What is the timeline for your recommended actions?
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
• Be typed and double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12) with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.