Man 4584 Process Improvement Research Paper
MAN 4584 – Process Improvement Methodologies
Assignment Series Project
Week 2 - Assignment 1 This week students need to select a process improvement project to work on during this course. There are four parts to this mini-project that you will do throughout this course (read all four parts due Week 2, 4, 6, and 8 before continuing with this assignment to understand how this breaks down in the coming weeks - link). Students may select something at work (i.e. a process or quality issue that can be pursued to help grow your career) or it may be something that will simply make your life easier at home (i.e. getting ready in the morning/evening for work, cooking a meal, etc.).
1. Select One Process to Map - Do not pick a huge project
as we have a limited amount of time in this class. Do not pick a process that you have no control over as you will be required to implement at least one improvement or change to the process. If you are overwhelmed defining your process, you should reduce the scope to a smaller project. This course is about applying the methodologies to improve a process so select a process you have the fundamental knowledge needed to understand the current process so you can better focus on the required methodologies to improve the process.
2. Assign Ownership and Roles - While this is an individual project, you will need to get family, co-workers, or other stakeholders in the process involved to support you with with completing your assignments. Make sure everyone knows and approves of what you are going to target for your improvement project and when you will need to finish this project. Make sure they understand that there are specific steps you have to follow to meet your course requirements on this project and that you will also need their support to provide you with input in order to complete the assignments.
3. Analyze Process Boundaries – Identify where this process starts and stops, as well as other processes that interface with this process. Make sure you clearly understand your project boundaries or limitations for this improvement project.
4. Map Process - select any of the tools covered in your textbook, supplemental articles, or lecture in the Week 2 lesson. This should be detailed enough that others could follow your process and have the same result.
a. Identify the outputs and customers for the process.
b. Identify inputs and suppliers for the process.
c. Map the tasks and decisions needed to transform the inputs into the outputs for the process.
d. Define customer expectations of performance for this process (translate these objectives into measureable metrics for the process). Include what the current metrics or measures of performance are operating at for this process.
5. Verify Accuracy - Walk through the process definition and metrics with other process owners or stakeholder relative to your selected process. Explain how this process was verified and updated from this feedback.
6. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and experiences while doing this assignment. Generalize what you learned for use in later process improvement projects. Submit Assignment 1 on Sunday at end of Week 2 by 11:55 PM (EST). This submission should be in APA format with all references cited appropriately (see example paper – link – other examples in the lessons).
Assignment Series Project
Week 2 - Assignment 1 This week students need to select a process improvement project to work on during this course. There are four parts to this mini-project that you will do throughout this course (read all four parts due Week 2, 4, 6, and 8 before continuing with this assignment to understand how this breaks down in the coming weeks - link). Students may select something at work (i.e. a process or quality issue that can be pursued to help grow your career) or it may be something that will simply make your life easier at home (i.e. getting ready in the morning/evening for work, cooking a meal, etc.).
1. Select One Process to Map - Do not pick a huge project
as we have a limited amount of time in this class. Do not pick a process that you have no control over as you will be required to implement at least one improvement or change to the process. If you are overwhelmed defining your process, you should reduce the scope to a smaller project. This course is about applying the methodologies to improve a process so select a process you have the fundamental knowledge needed to understand the current process so you can better focus on the required methodologies to improve the process.
2. Assign Ownership and Roles - While this is an individual project, you will need to get family, co-workers, or other stakeholders in the process involved to support you with with completing your assignments. Make sure everyone knows and approves of what you are going to target for your improvement project and when you will need to finish this project. Make sure they understand that there are specific steps you have to follow to meet your course requirements on this project and that you will also need their support to provide you with input in order to complete the assignments.
3. Analyze Process Boundaries – Identify where this process starts and stops, as well as other processes that interface with this process. Make sure you clearly understand your project boundaries or limitations for this improvement project.
4. Map Process - select any of the tools covered in your textbook, supplemental articles, or lecture in the Week 2 lesson. This should be detailed enough that others could follow your process and have the same result.
a. Identify the outputs and customers for the process.
b. Identify inputs and suppliers for the process.
c. Map the tasks and decisions needed to transform the inputs into the outputs for the process.
d. Define customer expectations of performance for this process (translate these objectives into measureable metrics for the process). Include what the current metrics or measures of performance are operating at for this process.
5. Verify Accuracy - Walk through the process definition and metrics with other process owners or stakeholder relative to your selected process. Explain how this process was verified and updated from this feedback.
6. Identify Lessons Learned - Include challenges and experiences while doing this assignment. Generalize what you learned for use in later process improvement projects. Submit Assignment 1 on Sunday at end of Week 2 by 11:55 PM (EST). This submission should be in APA format with all references cited appropriately (see example paper – link – other examples in the lessons).