OM Analysis Assignment

This assignment will require your group to conduct a comprehensive Operations Management (OM) analysis of an organization of your choice.
Requirements:
1. Your group will select an actual company of your choice. Select a business that you are familiar with, is of interest to you, and where one of the members of your group currently works. Having access to managers and other personnel will be of benefit when doing your topic analysis. All company choices are subject to instructor approval.
2. The research performed must include a personal interview of a key employee who is familiar with the Operations Management of the chosen company. The person that is interviewed should not be a member of your group. A transcript (or recording) of the interview must be included as an Appendix to the final report. The interview must also be included in the list of references, and information used from the interview must be cited within the paper.
3. Include in your report a company overview (ie. the company mission, vision, and strategy, how does the company achieve a competitive advantage, what is their approach to ethics, the environment, as well as sustainability, etc.).
4. Each group will perform an indepth analysis on 3 of the following OM Decisions for their chosen company. These are the OM Decisions we cover in class. Please note: Chapter 10 (Human Resources) is not one of the options because we did not cover it in class.
• Goods and Service Design
• Quality
• Process and Capacity Design
• Location*
• Layout
• Supply-Chain Management
• Inventory
• Aggregate Planning
• Maintenance & Reliability
*The Location decision must be one of the 3 decisions analysed. Information for the Location decision is provided in Requirement 5.
OPMG-4404 OM Analysis Assignment Fall 2021
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IMPORTANT: Application of course material, tools, methods, techniques, etc. as outlined in your textbook is expected for each OM Decision. Your goal is to review and analyze how the company is performing with regards to each of your chosen OM topics. Tie the analysis back to the company’s strategy and competitive advantage discussed in Requirement 3. If you find a performance gap make recommendations to management on how to address it using OM theory and applications. Conversely, if you find that your company is performing well in your chosen OM topics, explain why. Provide specific examples that support your conclusions.
5. Location Analysis Requirements – Use the Factor Rating Method to evaluate proposed locations for your company based on the assumption that the operation wishes to open an additional location in Alberta. Your location analysis section is to include the following:
a. Determine five (5) factors you believe would be reasonable and appropriate for determining the location of your selected operation. You may wish to refer to the textbook at factors affecting location decisions. Your factors should be consistent with the company overview outlined in requirement 3 above.
b. Determine the weight of each factor with the total weight adding up to 100%. Provide justification/rationale for the distribution you are suggesting.
c. Identify three potential locations for your operation within the province of Alberta. You can limit your options to any geographical region within the province provided it makes sense for your business. You should identify the locations on a map and include the map in the appendix of your report.
d. For each of the three potential locations score each location based on a rating scale of your choice (5-point, 7-point, 10-point, etc.). Provide some brief justification/ rationale for both your choice of rating scale and scores for each location.
e. Provide a final recommendation for a selected location based on your quantitative analysis along with qualitative justification and appropriate ties to business strategy, mission, etc.
f. Your group is expected to conduct reasonable and appropriate external research to help justify your choice of potential locations, ratings, etc. Examples of research might include income demographics, age demographics, traffic, etc. Sources of information can include StatsCan, City of Edmonton, etc. You are encouraged to be thorough and creative with your research and you must provide references.
g. Your group is expected to use Excel OM for the Factor Rating Method. The supporting Excel file should be included with your submission.
6. Forecasting – Provide a brief overview of how the company forecasts demand. Which method(s) do they use? Do they use any data analytics, artifical intelligence, etc. to prepare their forecasts? If so, explain how they use them. If not, how would you recommend they use data analytics or artificial intelligence in the forecasting process. Has the Covid-19 pandemic affected how they forecast? Using Excel OM, prepare a forecast using two of the forecasting methods from Chapter 4 with 6 - 12 months of past actuals. What does the error analysis tell you? NOTE: If actual demand information is not available, please consult your instructor on how to proceed. Include the supporting Excel file with your submission