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 organizations overall operation. You will need to consider the companys current processes and get a sense of its leaders goals and values. How does the company currently 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 organizations or companys 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 companys current 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 organizations or companys current initiatives and processes, general policies, and stated goals. Information can generally be found on the organizations 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:

1. Aligning Resources to Market Opportunities
   1. Assess your companys or organizations internal capabilities and limitations with respect to its current operations. In your assessment, include human, organizational, and infrastructure factors.
   2. Based on the companys or organizations internal capabilities and limitations, what expansion or business development opportunities can you identify? How will these opportunities align to the current domestic and global markets? Your response should consider the political, economic, social, and technical factors that affect the company.
   3. Based on the companys or organizations internal capabilities and limitations, what cost-savings opportunities can you identify? How will these opportunities align to the current domestic and global markets? Your response should consider the political, economic, social, and technical factors that affect the company.
   4. 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.
2. Managing the Quality Imperative for Global Competition
   1. Based on your assessment of the companys or organizations 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.
   2. Based on your assessment of the companys or organizations 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.
   3. 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.