BUSI 3010 Operations management assignment

For this Assignment, you will write a business report, including an executive summary, on lean systems thinking and how to incorporate it into an organizational strategy that includes sustainability and positive social change.

You work as an Operations consultant at XYZ Corporation, and your VP, Yuki Tanaka, has asked that your team write a report for a client company. The company offers both products and services, and company leaders need some information about lean systems thinking as they consider options for their organization. Your manager asks you to deliver the report and demonstrate to the company leaders how they might benefit from utilizing lean thinking in their organizational strategy. The report should first include an executive summary and then consist of two parts—one that describes what lean thinking is and offers some general examples of its use, and a second part that demonstrates how to incorporate lean systems into an organizational culture and strategy.

To prepare for this Assignment:

• Review this week’s Learning Resources.
• Refer to the Academic Writing Expectations for 2000/3000-Level Courses as you compose your Assignment.

BY DAY 7

Submit your report, which includes the following information.

• Executive Summary (1 page)
• Part 1: What is Lean Thinking? (5–8 paragraphs)
  • Describe what lean thinking is and what its key elements are. Provide some examples of how different organizations use it, as well as an explanation of what challenges organizations may encounter when implementing lean thinking. (150–300 words, or 2–4 paragraphs)
  • Explain how lean thinking is applied to product systems. (75 words, or 1 paragraph)
  • Explain how lean thinking is applied to service systems. (75 words, or 1 paragraph)
  • Describe what a lean layout is, including a relevant example of its use in an organization, and explain how a lean layout can help an organization achieve its business outcomes. (1–2 paragraphs)
• Part 2: How to Incorporate Lean Systems (5­–9 paragraphs)
  • Explain how organizations can create and sustain a lean culture. What, if any, differences exist in creating and sustaining lean cultures in product versus service organizations? What about in domestic versus global environments? (75–150 words, or 1–2 paragraphs)
  • In what ways can lean methods create sustainable supply chains? Explain your answer. (75–150 words, or 1–2 paragraphs)
  • Explain how sustainable supply chains can promote positive social change. (75–150 words, or 1–2 paragraphs)
  • What is performance measurement and continuous improvement? How should organizations incorporate both of these concepts into their lean systems strategy? Explain your answers. (150–225 words, or 2–3 paragraphs)

Note: Your report should adhere to the template provided. Be sure to incorporate properly formatted references to a minimum of five scholarly sources to support your work. Use the Week 4 Assignment Template, provided in this week’s Learning Resources, to complete this Assignment.

Refer to the Week 4 Assignment Rubric for specific grading elements and criteria. Your Instructor will use this grading rubric to assess your work.

Hello all and welcome to week 4. In this week the focus will be on lean operations. Please be sure to focus your studies around Ch. 9 in the Wisner book to form a solid basis for your writing and citing of reference materials. To understand the lean concept, understand that first and foremost, lean focused on mitigating wastes in the production stream. In to do this, you have to learn of the specific definition of ‘waste’ in the lean concept. Then you’ll have a common frame of reference for evaluating your production processes. One ‘urban legend’ out there is that since lean ops were made famous in the manufacturing sector, that lean is not applicable to the service sector, or the ‘knowledge worker’. This is false, the concept of ‘waste in the value stream’ is just as prevalent in the service sector as it is on the assembly line. You just have to ‘realign’ the concepts of wastes to your work.
IMPORTANT – note that in all your writings I’ll be looking for SPECIFIC AND DETAILED knowledge from these chapters in to receive full credit for your work. Since you’re in your 4th week of the class, I expect to see some of your knowledge of the concepts talked about in the earlier reading assignments as well, in all of your writings. This will affect your grade.
Deliverables: there are 2 graded elements due this week; Discussion 1 and the weekly written assignment. Detailed information about these assignments, and the links for posting your works, are located in the weekly folders on the left-hand side menu. For the Discussion, notice that it asks 3 questions so be sure the CLEARLY ORGANIZE your narrative around answering those 3 questions. For the Assignment, notice that it is in 2 Parts, EACH asking 4 questions. Notice that the grading rubric has 8 distinct elements to grade so, be sure to CLEARLY ORGANIZE AND LABEL your narrative around those 8 elements. Post one (and only one) APA-style paper for grading of this Assignment. The instructions indicate the need for a summary of 1-page but typically, a summary is a large paragraph, no more than a quarter of a page, that’ll be fine, just cover the key points of your paper.
/regards, Dr. Richard Horne