Business Development Plan 9-1

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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:

 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

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Prompt Select a company or organization that meets the following criteria:

 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.

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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?

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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

One Case Analysis Three Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric

Two Lean Techniques and Forecasting Analysis Five Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric

Three Business Operations Opportunities Analysis Seven Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric

Final Project Submission: Business Development Plan

Nine Graded separately; Final Project Rubric

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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 Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Aligning Resources to Market

Opportunities: Internal

Capabilities and Limitations

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

Assesses the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations with respect to current operations, including human, organizational, and infrastructure factors

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

Does not assess the company’s or organization’s internal capabilities and limitations with respect to current operations

4.8

Aligning Resources to Market

Opportunities: Business

Development Opportunities

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and response demonstrates keen insight into relationship between internal organizational capabilities and limitations and business development opportunities

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

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

Does not identify expansion or business development opportunities

4.8

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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 cost- savings 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

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

Does not identify cost-savings opportunities

4.8

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 cost- savings opportunities, including 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 cost- savings opportunities but does not include political, economic, social, and technical factors that affect the company, or description has gaps in clarity or detail

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

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

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 select and justify TQM means the company or organization could employ

6.4

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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

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

Does not select and justify series from ISO 9000 family of standards that the company or organization could employ

6.4

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

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

Does not recommend and justify global best practices

6.4

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

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

Does not determine opportunities for company or organization to employ lean techniques to strengthen organizational performance

6.4

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

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 determine opportunities for the company or organization to use JIT practices to reduce inventory costs

6.4

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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

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

Does not determine opportunities for company or organization to use OPT and TOC principles to reduce costs and increase throughput

6.4

Technology for Competitive

Differentiation: Current Business

Operations

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and evaluation demonstrates nuanced understanding of 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

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

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

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

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

Does not describe specific opportunities that would benefit from technology enhancement or technical solutions

6.4

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

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 explain how previously described technology can be utilized to mitigate performance gap

6.4

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Sustainability in the Value Chain:

Sustainability

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and assessment demonstrates nuanced understanding of relationship between business sustainability and profits, people, and the planet

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

Sustainability in the Value Chain:

Mitigate Risks

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and description demonstrates deep understanding of relationship between business sustainability and risk mitigation

Describes appropriate alternative business practices the company or organization could employ to mitigate risks to business operations while enhancing sustainability

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

Does not describe alternative business practices the company or organization could employ to mitigate risks to business operations

6.4

Sustainability in the Value Chain:

Long-Term Viability

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

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

Does not explain how the company or organization can implement the alternative business practices while ensuring long-term viability

6.4

Articulation of Response

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

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

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Total 100%