lessons from The Goal and their applicability in Business Operations
University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business I, ______________________________________(print name), pledge that I have taken the test in accordance with the UST Honor Code. OPMT 625: Operations Strategy Instructions: • • • • • • This is an open book, open notes (including internet) test. But it is an individual paper, so you are not allowed to consult anyone in and outside of the class. Please follow page/word limits for each question. Outline or bullet answers are acceptable. Please read the questions carefully and completely. State clearly any assumption that you make. Good luck! Page 1 of 3 Questions for Final Comprehensive Paper (100 points) Purpose: This paper is intended to serve three objectives, (1) lessons from The Goal and their applicability in Business Operations, (2) few specific lessons from Operations subject matter, (3) broad application of some of the tools/concepts learned in this course at your own work (current, past or future). Task: Part I (50 points) Please write a one-page (maximum) personal executive summary on The Goal, and then, answer the following specific questions (maximum two additional pages, plus exhibits if any). In the executive summary, do not merely repeat concepts from the book, but provide your personal take on the book. Questions: 1. What are the different ways to identify bottlenecks? 2. Once bottlenecks are identified, what are different ways to manage bottlenecks so as to improve system capacity? 3. In The Goal, for the boy scout hiking group not to spread too much, Alex’s children suggest use of ropes and drums. What are “ropes” and “drums” analogous to in Operations Management? 4. The Goal indicates that, in traditional cost accounting method, the per unit product cost increases when batch size is reduced, mainly because the fixed cost (labor cost for setup) gets divided by less number of units. Why is this calculation flawed for non-bottleneck resources? What would be a more accurate method to calculate per unit cost? 5. How can the concepts from The Goal be applied in service industries in general? What is the service equivalent of work-in-process (WIP) inventory? Part II (30 points) Please answer the following three questions (each answer not to exceed 150 words) Questions: 1. Take health care as an example of service industry. Compared to manufacturing systems, what is it about the environment of service operations that make them much harder to control, especially in the context of Lean and Six-Sigma Quality? 2. While performing patient flow time comparison in the University Health Services case, when you separate processing time and waiting time for all paths, you find that while the post-triage average processing time improved marginally from the pre-triage processing time, the total average wait time actually became a lot worse after triage was introduced. What was the main reason for this substantial increase in average waiting time? What led to this situation? 3. What were some of the challenges that companies faced on Inventory Management and Supply Chain Management during COVID-19. What are some potential solutions to them? Make necessary specific references to topics covered in class. Page 2 of 3 Part III (20 points) Select any three tools/concepts that you liked in this course. Possible concepts include (but not limited to): Lean Six Sigma, Process Improvement, Analytics & Emerging Technologies, Demand & Capacity Management, Supply Chain & Inventory Management, Product/Service Design, Waiting Line & Queue Management, Production Planning, Global Operations, Social Responsibility/ESG in Operations, Quality Models (e.g. Gap Analysis, Customer Satisfaction, etc.). Do not include The Goal here, since you already answered this in Part I. Suggest how you would be able to use these three tools/concepts at your current (or future) job or work environment. Offer sufficient details but not to exceed two pages for this part, plus exhibits if any. Notes: • Please do not submit a project that has already been done. You may build on it. • You do not need to have results; just outline your thought process. • You may apply all three tools to the same project/idea, or apply them to different ones. Page 3 of 3
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