MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 1 Discussion
SCOR Model
The Supply Chain Council was formed to standardize the discussions and management of supply chain operations. It developed the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model to describe, model, and benchmark all operations within a supply chain. You can find information about the latest model (SCOR 11) on the Supply Chain Council Web site.
SCOR 11 differs from the previous model (SCOR 10) by elevating to a level of primary importance a process called “Enable,” which refers to what organizations must do to support the other primary processes. However, for the purposes of our discussion of supply chains, this new process is not of particular interest.
Briefly address each of the following bullets:
Read, from pages 9–12, the sections entitled “The Supply Chain Council” and “The SCOR Framework” in the book Supply Chain Excellence in South University’s online library. Discuss the SCOR model’s five functions (Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return) that are shared by supply chains. Does every supply chain contain all of these five functions?
When producing goods, different production strategies, such as “make to order,” “make to stock,” “assemble to order,” or “engineer to order” can be pursued. However, when providing services (car washing, hair styling, etc.), not all of these strategies can be pursued. An organization cannot really “stock” services (in other words, you can’t have five car washes sitting on a shelf in the same way you can have five cans of soup sitting on a shelf). Do the stages of the SCOR model apply to operations in all of these areas (goods producing vs. service provision, and using any of the production strategies)? Search the Internet for a company and discuss which of these approaches (goods producing or service providing) and which of the production strategies the company’s operations fit in. Support your response on the basis of the SCOR model and your research.
In 2011, Japan experienced an earthquake, resulting in a tsunami. These natural disasters caused a great deal of damage and a significant loss of life. From a supply chain and operations management chain perspective, what were the implications for SCOR processes? Which of the SCOR model’s five processes discussed above would have been impacted by such an event? Should planning for future events like this impact the strategy of a company? Support your response with your research.
The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
Your posting should be about 1 page (400 to 500 words) in length.
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 2 Discussion
Program vs. Project
Briefly address each of the following bullets:
Is the process of designing a new product or service a project or a program? Explain your answer.
What are the different characteristics that must be kept in mind when you are designing for manufacturing (sometimes also called designing for manufacturability) and how do they differ from the characteristics that must be considered when you are designing for customers (sometimes also called “service design”)?
Select a company (other than the one that you analyzed in W1 Assignment 3) that produces a product or provides a service (do not select a company that only sells products or services produced by others, like Wal-Mart). Describe the company and whether this company produces a product or provides a service. Investigate and describe any information you can locate about how this company designs the process to produce its product or to provide its service.
The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
Your posting should be about 1 page (400 to 500 words) in length.
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 3 Discussion
Six Sigma
The importance of quality has now been recognized by businesses for decades. However, there are many philosophies and programs that have been proposed and used in the elusive quest for increased quality. One of the more recent (and more successful) attempts at formalizing the approach to quality improvement is the Six Sigma initiative that was developed at Motorola (and later adopted in many other companies).
Identify a company that uses the Six Sigma quality improvement program other than the ones discussed in the textbook or the lecture pages (also, do not use the same company that you analyzed in W1 project, and that you will be discussing again in W3 project). For this company, answer the following questions:
What element of the organization’s activities did they use Six Sigma to improve?
What caused the company to undertake the Six Sigma initiative?
What were the positive results caused by the implementation of Six Sigma improvement processes?
Were there any problems associated with attempting to implement Six Sigma within the organization (this does not occur in every organization)?
Based on your research about this company and the readings for this week, would you say that Six Sigma is an important area of quality management? If so, why? If not, why not?
The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
Your posting should be about 1 page (400 to 500 words) in length.
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 4 Discussion
Supply Chain Measurement
Briefly address each of the following bullets:
As suggested in the lecture pages for this week, there is a significant difference in measuring the performance of a supply chain from the perspective of the customer and from the perspective of the shipper. Describe the differences between these two perspectives in supply chain design. In other words, how could shippers and customers differ in what they considered a successful supply chain transaction?
How could supply chain partners measure (quantify) the performance of a supply chain? Explain why each measurement suggested is relevant to at least one of the supply chain partners.
Give an example of two or more companies that participate in a single supply chain. Describe which company (or companies) would want to require each measurement that you have proposed. Explain why there would be resistance from at least one of the companies to any suggestion to eliminate each of the supply chain measurements that you have proposed.
The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
Your posting should be about 1 page (400 to 500 words) in length.
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 5 Discussion
Forecast Determination
A company is considering what forecasting method to use for coming time periods. The company has used something of a qualitative (consensus-based) forecasting method in the past, and wants to know if a more formal, quantitative forecasting method would be appropriate for them. Consider the following data from recent time periods:
Time Period
Forecast
Actual Demand
Three quarters ago
225
230
Two quarters ago
240
270
Last quarter
275
295
This quarter
You will determine
?
Briefly address each of the following bullets:
Discuss what method of forecasting you view to be most appropriate given the data given above. Explain why you believe your chosen forecasting method to be the most appropriate.
Select an appropriate value for alpha, and calculate an exponential smoothing forecast for this quarter. Discuss the relationship between the alpha value that you selected and the forecast value that you calculated. In other words, if you had selected a lower value for alpha, how would the calculated value be different, and if you had selected a higher value for alpha, how would the calculated value be different?
Assume that, at the end of this quarter, we could report that the demand for this quarter was actually 275 (just like last quarter). Would this information cause you to rethink the alpha value that you selected? If so, how would it impact the value that you would have selected for alpha?
The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.
After multiple people have posted the alpha value that they selected and the forecast that they calculated, compare your calculated value with those of your classmates. Whose value was most accurate? Why do you think the person with the most accurate forecast had the most accurate forecast?
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and state whether you agree or disagree with their views.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 1 Project
Relationship between Mission and Operations Strategy
Select a company of your choice and create a proposal describing the company. Include answers to the following questions in the proposal:
What line of work is the company in?
What products or services does the company provide?
What is the company’s mission statement?
Why did you choose this particular company? You are welcome to use your own company as long as you can remain objective through the course of the analysis.
From a strategy perspective, what is a corporate strategy?
From a strategy perspective, what is an operations strategy?
What is the operations strategy of the company that you have chosen?
How is the company’s mission statement related to its operations strategy?
Submission Details:
Submit your report in a three- to four-page Word document, using APA style.
Submit it to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.
Name your document SUO_MBA6012_W1_ LastName_FirstInitial.doc.
MBA6012 Operations and Supply Management
Week 2 Project
Project Management Tools
This week’s readings discussed tools that are available for the planning and control of projects. These tools include WBSs, Gantt charts, and PERT/CPM networks.
In this assignment, you will design CPM and PERT networks to meet the requirements of an engineering firm. The firm needs solutions for the following problem:
One of the firm’s existing projects needs to be completed earlier than planned. Use the following data and the critical path and PERT methods to answer the questions that follow. Use the “most likely time” estimate (m) as the time estimate for the CPM analysis.
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