Phase II: Planning and Implementation In Phase II of the Process Improvement Project you will be creating a project timeline to help you implement the proposed solution to the problem statement defined in Phase I. As a project leader, you will need to consider several things before you start the project. The project leader must preplan, plan, and kickoff the project. Planning of the Project As the project leader, write 500-750 words that address these items: 1. Identify which methodologies and strategies you will implement to meet your goals. Provide rationale for why you did not select some of the other methodologies and strategies. 2. Which business functions will be impacted by your action plan? What tactics will you use to manage implementation across business functions? What can you do to enhance collaboration/cross-functionality to ensure the success of your plan? 3. Timeline: Create a timeline to implement the proposed improvement to the problem and identify the critical path components. 4. Communication plan: Using your completed quality tools analysis and stakeholder analysis, create a communication plan for disseminating your action plan to all of the stakeholders. Which strategies do you plan to utilize and why? Your plan should demonstrate how you plan to use formal and informal communication channels to implement the plan. In addition, explain how the communication plan addresses what you are hoping to achieve with your goal. Project Kickoff and Implementation of the Project Successfully improving the value chain requires the willingness of required stakeholders to participate. Imagine you are presenting your project plan in a meeting to all the essential stakeholders for approval. Effective oral communication is essential in the business setting so you will need to present your project plan logically and comprehensively to the stakeholders. Create a PowerPoint presentation (7-10 slides) specifying the problem statement, stakeholders, proposed solution, timeline, and communication plan to implement the project. Record yourself presenting the plan and then post your video using YouTube, Vimeo, or any other video site that allows you to post your video. Be sure to address the "why" and "how" in your narrative. Imagine you are presenting your strategic plan in a meeting with your superior and other essential stakeholders for approval. Phase III: Evaluation In the final step for your plan, state in 250-300 words the metrics you will use to determine project implementation success. Please justify why you have selected those metrics. Include specific metrics that will be used to evaluate the success of the implementation. How long will the project team monitor project implementation? This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. General Project Requirements While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. The problem statement is how Apple is able to provide quality products despite partnerships Apple initially partnered with AT&T to provide wireless service exclusively on AT&T's network with the purchase of Apple devices (iPhone, iPad). This was considered to be partnership effort to maintain quality management strategies and were seen to be important to the possible competitive advantages for each partner. Partnering is essentially to bring in efficiencies of operations and specialization in skills. Partnering for mutual benefit is fundamental to total quality. AT &T was the service providers and Apple was the manufacturers. Each of them had to find a market individually to market their services. Instead if they partnered they would not only be doing a combined effort in marketing but would also be looking at the same market for their products .This was a strategic way to bring in partnership and relationships and is a fundamental tool of quality management systems . Partnering by Apple and AT and T was looked at with great collaboration between the two as it would lead to improvement in products and service modules and models . Both the partners looked at the market definitions that could serve them very efficiently. Apple looked at the inhouse supplier of AT and T for its mobile applications .this partnership also was based on high levels of technology efficiency and so they found that this strategic partnering would enable them to bring in high levels of Interdependent efficiencies .this partnership was a supplier integration. This enabled Apple to nurture improvement and look at constant improvements in the product and services model .this was an ideal suppler partnership where Apple was able to share information about what the market wanted and AT and T could supply the customer needs in an integrated manner .The goal of this partnership was to see that it created a loyal trusting and reliable relationship while promoting the continuous improvement in quality, competiveness and productivity . The partnership was definitely inclined towards a better deal for Apple as the prodcuts of Apple came with ready service providers which were on terms that apple had devised for the service provider. Some of the main reasons for Apple's desire to join strategic alliances are to exploit economies of scales, learn from competitors, manage risk and share costs, all sources of economic value in any industry. One of the most notable and valuable alliances is Apple's alliance with AT&T in production and launching of the iPhone. Apple needed to trust AT&T that it would not share Apple's key technologies with other mobile manufacturers. On the other hand, AT&T had to trust Apple that once the iPhone was created, it wouldn't disband the alliance, and launch the iPhone with another mobile company. The greatest challenge was seen in the implementation of technology tools in this multi domestic strategy. The fact that apple was moving out from computers ot smart phones needed a solid service provider which could support the numerous Apple apps created . Apple's engineering, design, and manufacturing was defined by what it could provide to consumers and together with AT&T it was able to bring in the process of vertical integration and supply chain collaboration. Stakeholder Analysis Complete the interactive "Stakeholder Analysis: Winning Support for Your Projects," located on the Mind Tools website. In Step 2, select the \"Interactive Screen App\" hyperlink. Provide a Power/Interest Grid of your completed chart (using either a picture format or a handwritten document). In addition, provide a summary that includes considerations for all stakeholders. These considerations will form your communication plan in Part II. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. Stakeholders are all those parties who are both internal and external to the organization and who are directly and indirectly benefited by the decisions the a firm makes. The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that: The firm can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape the projects at an early stage. Not only does this make it more likely that they will support the project but it will also ensure that their input can also improve the quality of the project Gaining support from powerful stakeholders can help the firm to win more resources this makes it more likely that the projects will be successful By communicating with stakeholders early and frequently, the firm can ensure that the stakeholders can comprehend the project and support the project. The firm anticipate what people's reaction to your project may be, and can plan the actions that will win people's support. The power interest grid of the stakeholder participation is as follows: This grid brings out how the stakeholders should be communicated, how often and in what format. High power, interested people: these are the people one must fully engage and make the greatest efforts to satisfy. High power, less interested people: put enough work in with these people to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with the message. Low power, interested people: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful with the detail of the project. Low power, less interested people: again, monitor these people, but do not bore them with excessive communication