Assignment: Process Improvement Plan Project
Overview
Project Introduction
Your company has asked you to create a process improvement plan. Your process improvement plan will evaluate an area in which managers are consistently falling short of expectations. Here are a few areas that managers commonly miss the mark on:
• Effective motivation
• Sharing the vision
• Setting effective expectations
• Holding employees accountable
• Helping employees with career development
Select the organization you work for or select another real organization that you are familiar with to create the process improvement plan for.
A thorough process improvement plan provides an overview of the problem, identifies the current processes in place regarding the management concern and why they are ineffective, a proposal for a new process, the goals and objectives of the new process, the resource requirements to incorporate the new process, risks associated with the new process, and finally a plan of action stating how the process can be integrated.
Your plan will include the following key components:
1. Statement of the Problem
2. SWOT analysis
3. Process Proposal
4. Goals and Objectives of the Process
5. Identify the Required Resources
6. Budget
7. Risk Assessment
8. Plan of Action
Each week you will complete one or more of the required elements listed above. Your completed process improvement plan will be a minimum of 15-18 pages and address, in a comprehensive fashion, each of the areas in the list above. Research should be included where appropriate with proper in-text citations and a properly formatted reference page. The expectation is that you will support the information provided in your process improvement plan with a minimum of 10 credible resources.
After each step you will receive feedback from the instructor. You should work this feedback into your final process improvement plan, due in Module 8.
APA format and writing expectations
Excelsior College Library is an excellent resource for APA format and credible sources. Papers must follow APA guidelines.
If you are looking for business resources please see they research guide in the library linked below:
Excelsior College Library: Business Research Guide
Module 1 Statement of Problem
For this assignment you will select the organization you work for or another real organization that you are familiar with to create a process improvement plan for. You should have access to the policies and procedures of the organization that you choose.
Your process improvement plan for this organization will evaluate an area in which managers are consistently falling short of expectations. Here are a few areas that managers commonly miss the mark on:
• Effective motivation
• Sharing the vision
• Setting effective expectations
• Holding employees accountable
• Helping employees with career development
For this assignment you will create a problem statement. In order to do this you will need:
• Provide a brief description of the organization of your choice
• Describe the problem with the current processes and why are they ineffective
• State the current policy and procedure.
• Provide evidence-based examples that show a direct correlation between the processes and the deficiencies in management.
• Consider reviewing David Walonick's article, Organizational Theory and Behavior, that outlines how each management theory has been applied in the real world and the results those approaches had on the organization.
• Determine what ethical, legal, and social issues exist within the current process and whether or not these will be a concern when changing the process.
For additional information on getting started with your research, proceed to the Excelsior College Library "Getting Help Starting Your Research page where you will find the Starting Your Research section. A There you will find several forms of assistance that can help you in completing this section.
You are to submit this assignment in a word-processed 2-3 page well-written APA style paper.
Module 2 - SWOT Analysis
Conduct a SWOT analysis using the information you gathered in Module 1 regarding your chosen process. Review the various readings to identify the structure of a SWOT analysis. This SWOT analysis will be conducted on the current processes in place for your organization that are related to your chosen management issue. You should clearly highlight the weaknesses as you will need to convince the board that the process should be changed.
After completing your SWOT analysis, provide a short one-page summary on how you plan to use your SWOT as a management tool when improving or changing the current policy. You should also be addressing how your management theory will help you apply your SWOT analysis.
This assignment should include:
• A comprehensive SWOT analysis. Clearly highlight the weaknesses as, in Module 8 you will need to convince the board and all the stakeholders that the process does need to be changed.
• A one- page (200-300 word) summary that explains how you plan to use your SWOT analysis as a management tool.
• Using the management theories you selected in the discussion this week and your SWOT analysis, develop a 2 to 3 page business strategy that will help you address the weaknesses that were identified as a result of your analysis
Module 3 Process Proposal
Your process improvement plan will be due in Module 8 of this course. A For this module's activity, you will focus on developing the new process or revising the current process for your organization. Use your SWOT analysis alongside the management theory you choose in the Module 2 discussion to help you develop the new process or complete the revision. Consider the following:
• How can you turn the current process's weaknesses into strengths?
• Is it possible to carry over the strengths of the old process to the new process?
• Does the policy need to be revised or completely redesigned?
• Provide specific evidence that the new process will produce better results than the old process. This could be data related to the old process that points out its inefficiencies, or a discussion of how the new process addresses these inefficiencies.
• You should show a direct correlation between the new or revised process and organizational goals. Will this process help us achieve our mission or vision? If not, how we can justify the implementation of the new process? You should also address whether there are any legal, ethical, or social issues that will arise due to the process being changed.
This assignment should include the following:
• A substantive 3 to 4 page process proposal.
• Specific evidence that shows that the new process will be better than the old process.
• Proof that the new process is in line with the organization's goals.
• The management theories you will be using in order to ensure the new process is efficient.
• A 1 to 2 page reflection on how marketing theories can help you improve your process proposal and how using those theories will help you sell the proposal to the board.
Module 4 Goals and Objectives
For this part of your process improvement plan, determine your process's goals and objectives. Keep in mind that your goals should be specific, realistic, and include a deadline. The board and stakeholders will need to know when the new process or revised process will be fully integrated. This will also help you to stay on track throughout the process.
For this part of your process improvement plan, use what you learned in the module and the discussion to apply depth and critical thinking; go beyond the surface and delve deeper. Really demonstrate the value of the process that you proposed in Module 3.
Highlight what your new process will accomplish, including:
• What do you hope to accomplish by implementing the new process?
• When specifically do you plan to fully integrate the new process? Create a timeline.
• Specifically demonstrate the value of your process to the organization.
• Explain how your chosen management theories helped you develop the goals and objectives.
In this assignment, you should:
• Compose your work to be 1 ½ pages in length, not counting a cover page or reference page.
• Justify your recommendations by including in-text citations and your references.
• Format according to APA format.
Module 5 (PART 1 of 2) Identifying Resources
For this section of your process improvement plan, you will determine the resources you will require in order to successful integrate the new process. Your resources section should include the following:
• Software
• Hardware
• Real estate
• Training materials
• Downtime due to training
• Hiring new staff
• Employee Payment for training
• Human capital (trainers, management, and new employees)
Be sure to provide rationale for the identified resources. You need to convince the Board and all stakeholders that you do in fact need these resources.
For this section of your process improvement plan, respond to the following questions.
• What would need to be included in the different types of resources that you need to successfully complete this project?
o Time
o Money
o Humans
• How long do you plan to spend fully integrating the process, training employees, and updating all documents?
• Why do you need them?
• Does the company have enough financial resources to allow for the change? Review the organization's financial statements, if it is a public organization, in order to determine whether or not this is feasible. Publicly traded organizations have financial data available to the general public that should help to accomplish this.
In this assignment, you should:
• Compose your work to be at a minimum of 3 pages, not counting a cover page or reference page.
• Justify your choices by using research.
• Format according to APA format.
Module 5 (PART 2 of 2) Developing a Budget
For this section of your process improvement plan, you will be creating a proposed budget. Please review the budgeting template in the resources section of this module. You will need to consider things such as paying employees, supplies, lost time, and training.
Your budget should clearly state the needed resources and how those resources will be used. You should submit your budget in an Excel spreadsheet.
Module 6 - Risk Assessment
At this point you have identified the organization, the deficient process, a proposal for a new process, the needed resources, and your budget. You will now conduct a risk assessment based on this information. What can go wrong when integrating the process? You might consider conflicts between stakeholders. Not everyone will agree with new process. Does your organization have a change management policy or process? If not, what is the risk of proceeding with integrating the new process? Consider this and more as you perform your risk assessment.
After identifying the risks you should provide some details on how you plan to manage that risk. If the risk is a lack of a change management system, then you could provide a strategy to effectively implement the new process without a formal system.
This paper should:
o Be 3-4 pages in length.
o Be supported by research
o Identify the risks associated with the new process
o Include a plan to overcome these risks
o Include an explanation as to how you plan to use your chosen management theories in order to manage the identified risks of implementing the new process. Consider the results that different theories have and whether or not your chosen theory has the most effective approach.
Consider reviewing the following website as it provides various examples of risk assessments.
In this assignment, you should:
• Compose your work to be at a minimum of 3 pages, not counting a cover page or reference page.
• Justify your research by including in-text citations and your references.
• Format according to APA format.
Module 7 Action Plan
In this activity, you will be developing your action plan. Please review the information in the reading section as it provides specific instructions on how to develop your action plan. The information you will be using to develop your action plan the budget, the resources, the goals, the time needed, etc. should come from your previous submissions after you have incorporated the feedback from your instructor.
At minimum your action plan should address:
• What steps are needed in order to complete the plan
• Who is needed to incorporate these changes
• When will each step by completed and when will the project be completed
• What resources (i.e., money, staff) are needed to carry out these changes
• How communication will be accomplished (Consider your audience, communication channels, legal and ethical considerations, etc.).
Consider using this template for your action plan.
You should:
• Include justification from your research for each of the parts of your marketing plan.
• Incorporate graphics such as tables, graphs, charts, etc. to justify your claims.
• Format according to APA format.
Module 8 Finalize Your Plan
Use the feedback provided by your course facilitator to revise and submit the final version of your paper.
Be sure your final plan includes the following key components:
1. Statement of the Problem
a. What is the problem with the current processes and why are they ineffective?
b. State the current policy and procedure.
c. Provide examples that show a direct correlation between the processes and the deficiencies in management.
2. SWOT analysis
a. Provide a mini-SWOT analysis on the current processes.
b. You should clearly highlight the weaknesses as you will try convincing the board and all the stakeholders in week 8 that the process does in fact need to be changed.
3. Process Proposal
a. After identifying the problem you will need to propose a new process.
b. Provide evidence that the new process will be better than the old process
c. Prove that this process in line with the organizations goals.
d. What do you hope to accomplish by implementing the new process?
4. Goals and Objectives of the Process
a. When specifically when do you plan to fully integrate the new process? Create a timeline.
b. Specifically demonstrate the value of your process to the organization.
5. Identify the Required Resources
a. How much will it cost the organization to create this new process?
b. What human resources will we need in order to complete this project successfully?
c. How long do you plan to spend fully integrating the process, training employees, and updating all documents?
6. Budget
a. After identifying the required resources determine your budget.
b. Consider things such as paying employees for training on the new process or the time lost doing evaluations to determine whether or not managers are following the new process.
c. This budget should include not only money, but time as well.
7. Risk Assessment
a. What obstacles will prevent you from integrating the new process?
b. How do you plan to manage these obstacles and risks?
8. Plan of Action
a. Provide the exact steps you will take you fully integrate the new process.
b. After creating your plan of action compile all of these components together into one plan.
The feedback you received each week must be incorporated into your final submission. Your completed process improvement plan needs to be a minimum of 15-18 pages and address, in a comprehensive fashion, each of the areas in the list above.
Research should be included where appropriate with proper in-text citations and a properly formatted reference page. The expectation is that you will support the information provided in your process improvement plan with a minimum of 10 credible resources.