Variation Is Evil: Reduce It with Six Sigma Your customers want predictability and reliability. Whenever there is a cost, quality, or lead-time variation from specification, it’s a recipe for disaster. Six Sigma is a powerful tool that identifies and isolates the causes of variation. We will examine how it can be used to help your business save money … Read more
Why Quality Matters Option 1 There are a number of resources for both industry professionals and consumers that analyze and publish quality metrics. Examples include: Hospital Compare – published through Medicare.gov, J.D. Power – well known for its car reviews, and Quality Magazine and Quality Digest are two resources used by OM professionals. Locate and post a … Read more
Overview Kaizen events or Work-Outs are one- to five-day rapid improvement events widely used in the deployment of Lean and Operational Excellence. Jack was a huge fan of Work-Outs, which were so named because the focus was on getting the unnecessary work out of the system. These events were NOT just brainstorming sessions, but were … Read more
Overview A core tool in Operational Excellence is Value Stream Mapping. This tool helps stakeholders visualize complex work systems (including material and information flows) and address disconnects, redundancies, and gaps in how work gets done between the beginning and end of a value stream or end-to-end process. • The primary type of value stream is … Read more
Value Stream Mapping Read the Course Project overview on pp. 16-17 of the Course Guide. In preparation for Part A, identify a value stream relevant to your organization that needs improvement. Include specific references to this week’s course materials to support your response. What value does this value stream deliver to the organization or contribute … Read more
Operational Excellence and Competitive Advantage Welcome to the course. Please introduce yourself to your classmates and professor. What are the top 2 operational challenges in your industry? What differentiates the most competitive organizations from the laggards in your industry? What do you hope to get out of this course as it relates to operations … Read more
Week 10 Investment Game WorkroomCOLLAPSE Discussion posts and trading activities for the class will take place in the Investment Game Workroom. Your required activity is outlined below: By Sunday, midnight of Week 10 (2% of Course Grade) Submit a final synopsis on your performance. How did you do relative to your benchmark? What surprised you … Read more
Week 9 DiscussionCOLLAPSE Going Public Locate a recent story from The Wall Street Journal or other reputable news source about a company that has gone public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) within the last year and review their S-1 filing. To locate this, search on EDGAR Company Filings or the investor relations section of their website. … Read more
Welcome to Shark Tank You have a great idea about a new business opportunity. You’ve run the numbers and are confident that with an initial investment of $500,000, you can turn a profit in three years and generate $150,000 in operating income per year. But you realize there are no guarantees. Further, you anticipate … Read more
Putting Cash to WorkLocate and post a recent news story from The Wall Street Journal or other reputable source about a publicly-traded company that has been criticized for its cash management practices and/or the amount of debt it is carrying. What were the criticisms leveled against the company? Was it accused of being too conservative and hoarding … Read more