SURVEY OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The purpose of this term paper assignment is to integrate your study of the Operations Management (OM) field with the other core functional areas of Finance and Marketing.
Project Groups
Project teams will be student self-selected, three to five students in each group. Each project group will complete the entire analysis described in this set of instructions. The groups should be formed not later than September 20. Each group should identify one individual as group leader. This person would be responsible for the overall management of the entire project including delegating/leveraging responsibilities, facilitating cooperative activities of team members, setting deadlines, monitoring progress, maintaining general oversight of the project with respect to the project requirements/specifications, and acting as chief editor of the final report. E-mail me the name of the group, the name of the team leader, and the team members by the 20th.
All members of a project group are equally responsible and accountable for the results of the project, including the development and timely delivery of the final report. Management of the group process is important and is the responsibility of each team. Areas of expertise should be identified, expectations and norms established, responsibilities assigned, and accountability determined. Members of the group are expected to deal with “personnel challenges” internally, but each team member is encouraged and expected to discuss with me, any major problems perceived to compromise the project.
Each team will submit a final report on or before December 6. The final report from each group will be evaluated as a single project, everyone on the team will receive the same group baseline grade. Grades may be adjusted up or down if circumstances warrant.
Content of Integrated Paper Report
The objective of the term project assignment is to encourage you to think purposely and collaboratively about the interfaces of the Operations Management (OM) field with the other core functional areas of Finance and Marketing.
Essentially, the term project paper will identify linkages between and among OM and the fields of Finance and Marketing within a company of the team’s choosing. The paper may optionally address linkages between OM and one other support area such as MIS, Quality, HR, or Engineering. The discussion of linkages will be based on comprehension of our course material, its relevance to practice, and OM linkages to other business disciplines.
Teams should use a combination of OPS301 material, class shared information and discussion, other related books, professional publications (i.e. Wall Street Journal, Business Week), and published scholarly research papers. Internet-based information can be used only if it is from credible sources.
Research and Citations
Research for this project should include, but not limited to, materials from this course and the Marketing and Finance business courses, which may be researched via Roesch Library. A minimum of 5 articles must be cited, including at least 2 articles from scholarly journals. Other articles should be taken from business publications and references to OPS301 material will be expected. The paper’s cited literature must not be based primarily on web sites.
All sources of information should be cited using generally recognized citation guidelines. Be sure to provide citations for all web sites used, too. A complete bibliography must be part of the paper at the end of the written report.
Specific Requirements for the Term Report
The group project deliverables consist of a written report due on or before December 6, 2017. The final report should be at least 12 pages, double spaced, one-inch margins, 11 point font for text and 10 point font for tables, graphs, charts, diagrams, etc. The text of the report must be at least 7 of the total pages.
There should be a lead-off cover page indicating the Project Team name and the names of the team members. The cover sheet does not count towards the total number of pages required for the report. Immediately after, the report should be a one-page Executive Summary. This should be an especially compelling narrative, as it is the one chance you may have to make a good impression on the reader.
Grading Scheme for the Report
The integrated paper is valued at 5% of the course grade. About 80% of the evaluation of the paper will be based on Content while 20% will be based on Style:
Content
-breadth and depth of coverage
-strength of the argument
-logical flow
-creativity, originality
-effective use of research
Style
-conciseness
-organization
-clarity
-grammar, punctuation, spelling, neatness
-interesting, compelling
The report should be “seamless”; it should be of consistent quality throughout and not disjointed.
Outline for the Final Report
SectionPurpose
1.0Executive SummaryA cover sheet with the Project Team name and
team members.
Then, provide an overview of the project.
2.0Organizational Decision MakingDescribe in general how the three core
disciplines of marketing, operations, and
finance are integrated for organizational
level decision making.
3.0Analysis from a Marketing perspectiveProvide examples of how the Marketing area
is impacted by OM.
4.0Analysis from a Finance perspectiveShow how Finance can be impacted by OM;
show how FI influences OM decision making.
5.0Analysis from an Operations perspective Describe ways in which the Marketing and
Finance areas impact OM.
6.0Integration of the core disciplinesDiscuss, in specific terms, how global business
decisions are interactively influenced by these
three core disciplines and how the different
concerns, models, and other relevant tools,
techniques, and analyses from each business field
contribute to global decisions.
Note: this discussion should be more than a summary
or recapitulation of #3-5 above.
7.0Integration of support discipline with OMOptionally, discuss interfaces of one or more
support disciplines with OM.
8.0BibliographyProvide a complete bibliography.
