B7532 Advanced Operations Management Week 3

Assignment 1: Discussion—Forecasting and Planning

As companies become increasingly global, responding  rapidly to changing customer needs, technology innovations, and global  competitors becomes increasingly important to a company’s success.  Failure to react in a timely manner to changing environments can hurt a  company’s short-term results and can even threaten its survival.

Using the University online library resources and  valid Internet sites, research a company that is competing in a global  environment and has had to react to a changing environment.

Based on your research, respond to the following:

• What techniques has the company been employing to monitor the  changing business environment? How is the company trying to forecast how  changes in the business environment will impact the company’s processes  and products/services?
• Evaluate the success of the company in reacting to an external  change and analyze how this reaction impacted the company’s performance.

Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Your response should be  thorough and address all components of the discussion question in  detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the  APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation
 

• Respond to feedback on your posting and provide feedback to other students on their ideas.
• Make sure your writing

• is clear, concise, and organized;
• demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and
• displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Grading Criteria

     Discussion Grading Table  Maximum Points    Quality of initial posting, including fulfillment of assignment instructions   16    Quality of responses to classmates  12    Frequency of responses to classmates  4    Reference to supporting readings and other materials  4    Language and grammar  4    Total:  40