Operations
and Quality
Winter 2008 -- Assignments
Class
1 --- Class
2 --- Class
3 --- Class
4 --- Class5
Chapter 1: Operations and Productivity
Chapter 2:
Operations Strategy in a Global Environment
Decision Module
A: Decision-making tools
Quantitative Topic: Decision Trees
Discussion Articles
McGraw-Hill Operations Management Articles: Living in Dell Time
Individual
Assignment 1/ Rapid
Fire Fulfillment
In your
paper address these questions:
·
What
is Zara’s strategy regarding utilization of manufacturing capacity and labor,
and various types of inventories?
·
How
does Zara differ from other competitors regarding how it is organized? Why is Zara
organized the way that it is?
·
Discuss
the advantages and disadvantages of Zara’s strategy and how it differs from
other prevailing strategies?
·
To
what extent does the strategy work and under what conditions would you
recommend that other companies use the Zara model?
Class 2: Products, Services,
and Quality
Chapter 5: Design of Goods and ServicesChapter 6: Managing QualityChapter 7: Process Strategy
Quantitative Topic: Break Even Analysis
Discussion Articles
What Is a Living Wage?
McGraw-Hill Operations Management Articles: Why Service Stinks
Individual Assignment 2/ Breaking the tradeoff
between efficiency and service
In your paper address these questions:
·
What underlying issue(s) create the situation where a trade-off between
efficiency and service is called for?
·
How does variability affect services more than manufacturing
operations?
·
Discuss the logic underlying the various options portrayed in the box
"Overcoming the trade-off"
·
Choose an example from you experience and evaluate it in terms of the
type(s) of variability and using the cost/quality trade-off, the way the
organization in question addressed the solution.
Chapter 4: Forecasting
Chapter 11: Supply-Chain Management
Supplement 11: E-Commerce and Operations Management
Quantitative
Topic: Forecasting
Download
Forecasting Class Spreadsheet Here
Discussion
Articles
McGraw-Hill Operations
Management Articles: Rebounds?
How and Why Nike Recovered from its Supply Chain Disaster
Individual Assignment3/ When your
contract manufacturer becomes your competitor
·
To what extent are contract manufacturers a risk to OEMs?
·
Discuss some of the strategies mentioned in the paper for OEMs to deal
with this risk, and evaluate how effective you think they are.
·
Choose a product that is a "private label" brand made by a
contract manufacturer and contrast it with a "standard brand" product
of the same type along cost, quality, and other dimensions that you feel are
relevant.
Class 4: Lean Production and
Inventory Management
Chapter 12:
Inventory Management
Chapter 16: Just-in-Time and Lean Production Systems
Quantitative
Topic: Inventory Management
Discussion
Articles
From 0 to 60 To World Domination
McGraw-Hill Operations
Management Articles: A
Practical Look at RFID
Individual
Assignment 4/ Fixing health care from the
inside, today
In you paper address
these questions:
·
The article at times emphasizes implementing common problem-solving
processes, rather than common solutions.
Discuss each regarding the pros and cons. Why is the "process" approach more
effective?
·
What are some "negatives" about a "work around
culture" of problem solving? How
does applying some of the TPS concepts address there?
·
The article discusses the Model Line Approach. What is it and describe briefly how you might
apply it at an organization where you work or with which you are familiar?
Note: To anchor the
discussion, read the article Competing on Analytics, by Thomas Davenport, Harvard Business
Review, January 2006.
Class 5: Project Presentations