QSO 690 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of a business development plan. In this program, you have learned that every company or organization has an
operations function, whether it is in the manufacture of goods or the delivery of services. Ultimately, the purpose of operations management is to identify ways
to promote company values that strengthen organizational performance through cost-savings opportunities, customer service improvements, increased
manufacturing efficiency and supply-chain logistics, continued competitiveness within the industry, and long-term sustainability efforts.
This project will demonstrate your ability to assess your selected organization’s or company’s operational processes, and to make meaningful recommendations
that balance business sustainability with quality-driven, lean operations for competing in the global marketplace. You will identify opportunities for improving
business operations and strengthening organizational performance. These opportunities could be related to internal capabilities development, divestiture,
outsourcing, or a combination of the three. In addition, you will examine risk mitigation and the long-range viability of the selected organization or company.
The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final
submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final project will be submitted in Module Nine. Remember that you
final submission will include a conclusion that summarizes the milestone work into a closing section.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
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Assess internal organizational capabilities and limitations for determining business development and cost-savings opportunities
Recommend business best practices that consistently meet customer cost, quality, and satisfaction expectations through utilization of global
benchmarks
Determine opportunities for reducing inventory and infrastructure costs while supporting current business operations
Evaluate current business operations for opportunities to utilize technology for reducing costs, increasing production, and delivering consistently
superior products or services
Assess business sustainability with respect to profits, people, and the planet to mitigate risk and ensure corporate viability
1
Prompt
Select a company or organization that meets the following criteria:
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Must be from the manufacturing, service, IT, or healthcare industries (other industries could be used with instructor approval)
Must be large enough to have multiple product/service lines to consider
Must be in a market that is highly competitive where production costs are always a key concern
Must have potential for and a vision of global expansion
See this list of companies to help guide your selection.
Note: In the absence of a suitable real company, you may use a notional or conceptual company for this assignment as long as it meets the above
criteria. In either case, to avoid any proprietary data issues, the performance data for this assignment should not be real data; however, real data could
be used if it is publically available.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I.
Aligning Resources to Market Opportunities
A. Assess your company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations with respect to its current operations. In your assessment, include
human, organizational, and infrastructure factors.
B. Based on the company’s or organization’s 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.
C. Based on the company’s or organization’s 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.
D. 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.
II. Managing the Quality Imperative for Global Competition
A. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s 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
B. Based on your assessment of the company’s or organization’s 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.
C. 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.
III. Lean Practices in the Workplace and the Supply Chain
A. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to employ lean techniques to strengthen organizational performance while
supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these lean techniques?
B. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to use just-in-time (JIT) practices, such as safety stock, to reduce inventory costs while
supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these JIT practices?
C. Determine opportunities for the company or organization to use optimized production technology (OPT) and theory of constraints (TOC)
principles to reduce costs and increase throughput while supporting current business operations. What is the potential outcome of using these
OPT and TOC principles?
IV. Technology for Competitive Differentiation
A. Evaluate current business operations in one segment of the enterprise to identify performance gaps relative to cost, production, and delivery of
products or services.
B. Based on the performance gaps you identified, describe specific opportunities that would benefit from technology enhancement or technical
solutions. Ensure that your response focuses on using technology to reduce costs, increase production, and deliver consistently superior
products or services.
C. How can the technology you described be utilized to mitigate the performance gap? Ensure that your response focuses on using technology to
reduce costs, increase production, and deliver consistently superior products or services.
V. Sustainability in the Value Chain
A. Assess the sustainability of your company or organization with respect to profits, people, and the planet. You might consider questions such as
these in your response: What are the challenges to sustainability? What sustainable business practices does your company or organization
already employ? Do you see any gaps between current business operations and sustainability?
B. What alternative business practices could the company or organization employ to mitigate risks to business operations while enhancing
sustainability?
C. How can the company or organization implement the alternative business practices while ensuring long-term viability?
3
Milestones
Milestone One: Case Analysis
In Module Three, you will begin the process of creating a business development plan by submitting a case analysis of your selected organization or company. In
this submission, you will assess and describe your organization’s or company’s 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) and strategic
business planning (SBP) goals. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Lean Techniques and Forecasting Analysis
In Module Five, you will continue the process of creating a business development plan for your selected organization or company. To accomplish this, you must
understand how lean practices, continuous improvement throughout the organization, and technological advancements create product differentiation resulting
in a competitive advantage for the company. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Milestone Three: Business Operations Opportunities Analysis
In Module Seven, you will evaluate current business operations for opportunities to utilize project management, technology, and project management tools
along with other techniques to reduce costs, increase production, incorporate sustainability principles, and deliver consistently superior products and services
using quantitative tools and techniques. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.
Final Submission: Business Development Plan
In Module Nine, you will submit your completed final project. In the project, you will assess your organization’s or company’s sustainability efforts, focusing on
how they mitigate risks and how their efforts promote long-term viability. It should be a complete, polished artifact of the three milestone pieces, containing all
of the critical elements of the final project with an APA-formatted listing of all references used in the project. All instructor feedback gained throughout the
course should be incorporated into the final submission. Conclude your plan by applying the knowledge you have gained over the course of the project and
sharing overall insights from your own professional experience as they relate to your company. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.
Deliverables
Milestone
Deliverable
Module Due
Grading
Three
Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric
Five
Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric
Business Operations Opportunities Analysis
Seven
Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric
Final Project Submission: Business
Development Plan
Nine
Graded separately; Final Project Rubric
One
Case Analysis
Two
Lean Techniques and Forecasting Analysis
Three
4
Final Project Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your submission should be 15–20 pages in length and should use double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch
margins. You should use current APA style guidelines for your citations and reference list. At least 10 outside information sources are required, although many
students might find that more are necessary to satisfy the requirements of the project. Please adhere to the SNHU Academic Honesty Policy as you develop this
project.
As necessary, copy and paste any data analysis from Excel into your Word document for submission. You may include your original Excel documents as
supplementary material if you believe this will strengthen your contribution.
Critical Elements
Aligning Resources
to Market
Opportunities:
Internal
Capabilities and
Limitations
Aligning Resources
to Market
Opportunities:
Business
Development
Opportunities
Exemplary (100%)
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
assessment is exceptionally clear,
detailed, and contextualized,
demonstrating a nuanced
understanding of the company’s
or organization’s internal
organizational capabilities and
limitations
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates keen
insight into relationship between
internal organizational
capabilities and limitations and
business development
opportunities
Proficient (90%)
Assesses the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations with
respect to current operations,
including human, organizational,
and infrastructure factors
Identifies appropriate expansion
or business development
opportunities and explains how
opportunities align to current
domestic and global markets,
basing response on the
company’s or organization’s
internal capabilities and
limitations and including political,
economic, social, and technical
factors that affect the company
5
Needs Improvement (70%)
Assesses the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations with
respect to current operations, but
assessment does not include
human, organizational, or
infrastructure factors or is
cursory or inaccurate
Identifies expansion or business
development opportunities and
explains how opportunities align
to current domestic and global
markets, but opportunities are
not appropriate based on the
company’s or organization’s
internal capabilities and
limitations or political, economic,
social, and technical factors that
affect the company
Not Evident (0%)
Does not assess the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations with
respect to current operations
Does not identify expansion or
business development
opportunities
Value
4.8
4.8
Aligning Resources
to Market
Opportunities:
Cost-Savings
Opportunities
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates keen
insight into relationship between
internal organizational
capabilities and limitations and
cost-savings opportunities
Identifies appropriate costsavings opportunities and
explains how opportunities align
to current domestic and global
markets, basing response on the
company’s or organization’s
internal capabilities and
limitations and including political,
economic, social, and technical
factors that affect the company
Aligning Resources
to Market
Opportunities:
External Threat
Factors
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description demonstrates
nuanced understanding of
developing business
development and cost-savings
opportunities
Describes external threat factors
in domestic and global markets
that the company or organization
should consider when developing
business development and costsavings opportunities, including
political, economic, social, and
technical factors that affect the
company
Managing the
Quality Imperative
for Global
Competition: TQM
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilization of
global benchmarks
Selects and justifies appropriate
TQM means the company or
organization could employ to
strengthen organizational
performance, basing response on
assessment of the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and
the identified opportunities
6
Identifies cost-savings
opportunities and explains how
opportunities align to current
domestic and global markets, but
opportunities are not appropriate
based on the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations or
political, economic, social, and
technical factors that affect the
company
Describes external threat factors
in domestic and global markets
that the company or organization
should consider when developing
business development and costsavings opportunities but does
not include political, economic,
social, and technical factors that
affect the company, or
description has gaps in clarity or
detail
Selects and justifies TQM means
the company or organization
could employ, but selection is not
appropriate for strengthening
organizational performance, or
response is not based on
assessment of the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and
the identified opportunities
Does not identify cost-savings
opportunities
4.8
Does not describe external threat
factors in domestic and global
markets that the company or
organization should consider
when developing business
development and cost-savings
opportunities
4.8
Does not select and justify TQM
means the company or
organization could employ
6.4
Managing the
Quality Imperative
for Global
Competition: ISO
9000
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilization of
global benchmarks
Selects and justifies appropriate
series from ISO 9000 family of
standards that the company or
organization could employ to
strengthen organizational
performance, basing response on
assessment of the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and
the identified opportunities
Managing the
Quality Imperative
for Global
Competition:
Global Best
Practices
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
best practice recommendations
demonstrate keen insight into
meeting customer expectations
through utilization of global
benchmarks
Recommends and justifies
appropriate global best practices
that strengthen organizational
performance by ensuring quality,
cost containment, and customer
satisfaction for company or
organization
Lean Practices in
the Workplace
and the Supply
Chain: Lean
Techniques
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing lean
techniques and practices while
supporting current business
operations
Determines appropriate
opportunities for the company or
organization to employ lean
techniques to strengthen
organizational performance while
supporting current business
operations and explains potential
outcome of using these lean
techniques
Lean Practices in
the Workplace
and the Supply
Chain: JIT
Practices
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing JIT
practices while supporting
current business operations
Determines appropriate
opportunities for the company or
organization to use JIT practices
to reduce inventory costs while
supporting current business
operations and explains potential
outcome of using these JIT
practices
7
Selects and justifies series from
ISO 9000 family of standards that
the company or organization
could employ, but selection is not
appropriate for strengthening
organizational performance, or
response is not based on
assessment of the company’s or
organization’s internal
capabilities and limitations and
the identified opportunities
Recommends and justifies global
best practices, but practices are
not appropriate for strengthening
organization performance by
ensuring quality, cost
containment, and customer
satisfaction for company or
organization
Determines opportunities for the
company or organization to
employ lean techniques to
strengthen organizational
performance and explains
potential outcome of using these
lean techniques, but techniques
are not appropriate for
supporting current business
operations
Determines opportunities for the
company or organization to use
JIT practices to reduce inventory
costs and explains potential
outcome of using these JIT
practices, but opportunities are
not appropriate for supporting
current business operations
Does not select and justify series
from ISO 9000 family of
standards that the company or
organization could employ
6.4
Does not recommend and justify
global best practices
6.4
Does not determine
opportunities for company or
organization to employ lean
techniques to strengthen
organizational performance
6.4
Does not determine
opportunities for the company or
organization to use JIT practices
to reduce inventory costs
6.4
Lean Practices in
the Workplace
and the Supply
Chain: OPT and
TOC Principles
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates nuanced
understanding of utilizing OPT
and TOC principles while
supporting current business
operations
Determines appropriate
opportunities for the company or
organization to use OPT and TOC
principles to reduce costs and
increase throughput while
supporting current business
operations and explains potential
outcome of using these OPT and
TOC principles
Evaluates current business
operations in one segment of the
enterprise to identify
performance gaps relative to
cost, production, and delivery of
products or services
Technology for
Competitive
Differentiation:
Current Business
Operations
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
evaluation demonstrates
nuanced understanding of
current business operations
Technology for
Competitive
Differentiation:
Technology
Enhancement
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates keen
insight into utilizing technology
for reducing costs, increasing
production, and delivering
consistently superior products or
services
Describes specific opportunities
that would benefit from
technology enhancement or
technical solutions, basing
response on identified
performance gaps and focusing
on using technology to reduce
costs, increase production, and
deliver consistently superior
products or services
Technology for
Competitive
Differentiation:
Performance Gap
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
explanation demonstrates keen
insight into utilizing technology
for reducing costs, increasing
production, and delivering
consistently superior products or
services
Explains how previously
described technology can be
utilized to mitigate performance
gap, focusing explanation on
using technology to reduce costs,
increase production, and deliver
consistently superior products or
services
8
Determines opportunities for the
company or organization to use
OPT and TOC principles to reduce
costs and increase throughput
and explains potential outcome
of using these OPT and TOC
principles, but opportunities are
not appropriate for supporting
current business operations
Evaluates current business
operations in one segment of the
enterprise to identify
performance gaps relative to
cost, production, and delivery of
products or services, but
evaluation is cursory or
inaccurate
Describes specific opportunities
that would benefit from
technology enhancement or
technical solutions, but response
lacks detail or clarity, is not based
on identified performance gaps
or does not focus on using
technology to reduce costs,
increase production, and deliver
consistently superior products or
services
Explains how previously
described technology can be
utilized to mitigate performance
gap, but explanation lacks clarity,
detail, or focus on using
technology to reduce costs,
increase production, and deliver
consistently superior products or
services
Does not determine
opportunities for company or
organization to use OPT and TOC
principles to reduce costs and
increase throughput
6.4
Does not evaluate current
business operations in one
segment of enterprise to identify
performance gaps relative to
cost, production, and delivery of
products or services
6.4
Does not describe specific
opportunities that would benefit
from technology enhancement or
technical solutions
6.4
Does not explain how previously
described technology can be
utilized to mitigate performance
gap
6.4
Sustainability in
the Value Chain:
Sustainability
Sustainability in
the Value Chain:
Mitigate Risks
Sustainability in
the Value Chain:
Long-Term
Viability
Articulation of
Response
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
assessment demonstrates
nuanced understanding of
relationship between business
sustainability and profits, people,
and the planet
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description demonstrates deep
understanding of relationship
between business sustainability
and risk mitigation
Assesses sustainability of
company or organization with
respect to profits, people, and
the planet
Assesses sustainability of
company or organization with
respect to profits, people, and
the planet, but assessment is
cursory or inaccurate
Does not assess sustainability of
company or organization with
respect to profits, people, and
the planet
6.4
Describes appropriate alternative
business practices the company
or organization could employ to
mitigate risks to business
operations while enhancing
sustainability
Does not describe alternative
business practices the company
or organization could employ to
mitigate risks to business
operations
6.4
Meets “Proficient” criteria, and
description demonstrates deep
understanding of relationship
between business sustainability
and corporate viability
Explains how the company or
organization can implement the
alternative business practices
while ensuring long-term viability
Does not explain how the
company or organization can
implement the alternative
business practices while ensuring
long-term viability
6.4
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and organization
and is presented in a professional
and easy to read format
Submission has no major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Describes alternative business
practices the company or
organization could employ to
mitigate risks to business
operations, but practices are not
appropriate for enhancing
sustainability or description lacks
clarity or detail
Explains how the company or
organization can implement the
alternative business practices
while ensuring long-term
viability, but explanation has gaps
in clarity or detail
Submission has major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that negatively impact readability
and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that prevent understanding of
ideas
Total
4
9
100%