Question:

Create a Company Analysis Report

Review the following scenario:
Assume that you have recently been hired as the director of continuous improvement of
a company. You are an outside hire with limited history of the firm and personal capital
at the firm, and you are responsible for lean production, total quality management
(TQM), six sigma, and best practice implementation.
Lean production means doing more with less, such as less inventory, fewer workers, or
less space. A recent trade in quality management is lean six sigma (also known as lean
sigma) that integrates six sigma and lean production.
The capacity for which you were hired has existed for three years with a direct line of
report to the vice-president of operations and dotted line of report to the head of
information technology (IT), the chief information officer (CIO), and the director of
internal controls and audit. You are the second person to fill in this position. You have a
team of internal consultants; half of your team has six sigma black belt or equivalent
capabilities with the remainder having a solid understanding of operations and IT. You
also have a budget for two external vendor resources.
You have taken six months to familiarize yourself with the organization and its people,
mission, goals, strategy, and structure. In this time, you have also evaluated current
operations. At the end of this period, you are assigned to deliver a report identifying the
three most promising avenues for achieving best practices within the company. You
have already been told that the company suffers from both aging and complex
information systems and that your recommendation must include a major upgrade of
those systems. The executive officers anticipate major investments in IT over the next
several years. Your best practice implementations, coupled with new technology, must
be measurable in terms of speed, quality, productivity, and efficiency or other key
performance indicators that you identify in your report.
Choose a company with which you are familiar with. You may choose some other firm if
you believe it will be a compelling analysis.
You may choose one area of the company, such as a manufacturing plant or product
design, to focus on if you can make a strong case.
Your recommendations should have the following features.
Repeatable: If you fix three things in a manufacturing plant, you should be able to

tackle the next three in iteration.

Scalable: If they work in one plant, they should work in all of them.
Replicable: Your process for improvement should be repeatable in different, disparate
parts of the organization.
*This is a key initiative at the C level, and your recommendation will reach the board of
directors.
This paper must include the following sections:
AGENDA
Strategic Overview: (1 page)
Provide a brief description of the following elements:
o The company, including its products or services
o Marketing strategy: target market segments, value proposition, market position, and
source of competitive differentiation
o Organizational structure
o Any other relevant facts
Analysis of the Supply Chain: (4 pages)
Analyze the supply chain for your identified company by explaining the following key
elements of the supply chain:
o Identify key inputs, including less tangible assets, such as human resources and
information. How are these key inputs sourced, reconfigured into a product or service,
and delivered to your customers?
o Identify the key processes that add value, and evaluate the supply chain performance
relative to the competition. What are the key inputs for each process? How are these
inputs processed or configured into the final offering for your customers?
o What is the value added at each step?
o What is the role of information technology and e-commerce in serving your
customers?
o What are the key performance measures for evaluating your supply chain?
o Research online sources to explain how the performance on these measures
compares to that of your competitors?
Plan to Improve Operating Processes: (3 pages)
Create a plan for improving the performance of three specific operating processes in
your company. Your plan should address the following:
oIdentify three elements of the supply chain that you recommend as targets for

improvement.
o State the performance improvement opportunity for each element, and indicate how it
will improve process speed, quality, efficiency, and productivity.
o Explain what specific action or change you recommend for each supply chain element
selected.
Explanation of the Results of Performance Improvements Regarding Product or
Service: (2 pages)
Explain the following:
o How will your product or service be improved as a result of these changes to the
supply chain activities?
o How are you altering the specific features or attributes of your product or service?
o Why are these specific changes important to your customers?
o How do these changes enhance the value proposition and competitive position of your
company?
o What lasting capabilities and improvement are you introducing into your company
through these changes?
o How will you measure the scope and impact of your improvements? What are your
key performance indicators?
Assessment of the Impact on Human Resources: (12 pages)
Detail how your plan impacts your companys HR and human capital strategy by
explaining how the organizations structure supports the new process configuration you
are recommending. Your response should address the following questions:
o Are the roles and responsibilities in your organization properly defined and aligned to
enable these changes? Who will perform these new/modified process activities, and
what changes to their jobs do you anticipate?
o Is decision-making authority assigned so that the process changes you propose can
be implemented and properly managed under the current structure? Who will own the
process and the results? Based on the current structure, will they have the authority to
make changes as necessary?
o Are the individuals with the right skills in place to implement these changes? If not,
how will you attract the talent necessary to implement your changes? How will you
retrain the existing employee base? How will you handle attrition? How will you reduce
the risk of impacted protected classes?
Changes:
Explain changes to the compensation and incentives at your company that are

necessary to reinforce your recommendations and increase efforts for continuous

improvement throughout the organization. Explain how your plan motivates employees,
customers, and suppliers better
Write a 1012-page paper in Word format. You may rearrange the above sections if it
improves the quality of this paper. However, all of the areas MUST BE covered.
Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
By WEDNESDAY, December 5, 2012: NLT Thursday