Week 1 Assessments
This week you submit:
Academic Integrity Declaration
(Thursday, Day 1)
Collaboration response to Turnitin and
to the Collaboration Forum (Saturday, Day 3)
Collaboration responses to colleagues
(Wednesday, Day 7)
Module Project to Turnitin (Wednesday,
Day 7)
Week 1 Collaboration: The
four Vs and the five performance objectives
Decision-making is the chief role of
operations managers. Operations managers not only make day-to-day decisions to
keep production flowing, but they also make long-term, system design decisions
to continually enhance an organisation’s performance. By translating strategy
into effective and efficient actions, they are able to better ensure the
success of their organisations. In this Collaboration, you will consider how
key operations management characteristics can affect performance objectives.
To prepare for this Collaboration:
Review the Learning Resources for this
week with a focus on the four Vs (volume, variety, variation and visibility).
Reflect on how the four Vs can affect
operations management and operations performance.
Consider how the four Vs impact the fulfilment
of the operations performance objectives, quality, speed, dependability,
flexibility and cost.
To complete this Collaboration:
By Saturday (Day 3):
In a response of approximately 300–500
words, address the following issues/questions:
Analyse the impact of the four Vs
(volume, variety, variation and visibility) on the five performance objectives
of operations (quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost).
Fully justify all your assumptions and
claims using your own experience, the Learning Resources or your own research.
Cite your work using the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
Submit your initial response to the
Turnitin link provided and post to the Collaboration forum.
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Review responses by your colleagues and
make three to five meaningful posts (e.g. reply to a colleague who has a
different opinion than your own).
Your responses should provide evidence
that you have critically reflected on the material by questioning assumptions,
revealing new personal insights and probing and/or posing questions for further
investigation.
Remember to cite and reference examples
from the readings for this week using the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
To access the Collaboration Forum,
click on the "Week 1 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your initial response to
Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 01
Collaboration Initial Response -- Turnitin.
Week 1 Module Project:
Proposal
The main goal of operations managers is
to create and provide goods and services that are better, cheaper and more
responsive to their customers’ needs. They translate strategic concepts into
production processes that provide a valuable competitive advantage to their
organisations. In this Module Project, you will act as an operations management
consultant to an organisation with which you are familiar. You will apply the
concepts of this module to design processes to enhance operations performance
in that organisation.
The Module Project is an integrated and
business-like approach for operations redesign. It consists of four
deliverables (Weeks 1, 3, 5 and 7) that gradually introduce the reader to a
specific operation status, a literature review on best practices, proposals for
improvement and operation redesign and finally a critical evaluation of the
expected outcomes. The final document will be prepared as an action plan for
operations improvement to present to a company’s board.
This week, you will set the foundation
for your Module Project. Take note that this first submission is not
graded; it is designed to provide you with formative feedback. It also is
designed to steer you towards success on the Module Project overall and
especially your final submission.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Select an organisation of interest to
you that you currently work for, have worked for in the past or with which you
are familiar.
Identify a specific process, within
your organisation, where effective operations management could improve
performance.
Briefly describe current practice in
this process and identify major bottlenecks.
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Submit a brief (approximately 500
words) statement in which you address the following:
Briefly summarise your selected
organisation.
Propose at least one specific process,
within your organisation, where effective operations management could improve
the performance of the process.
Briefly describe the current
practice(s) used by your organisation, regarding this process.
Identify major bottlenecks within your
selected process.
Use your identified bottlenecks (points
of congestion or blockages) to explain how your proposal will improve the
performance of your selected process.
This assignment should be prepared and
submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than
midnight your local time.
To submit your Module Project to
Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 01 Module
Project -- Turnitin.
Week 2 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration initial response to
Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Saturday, Day 3)
Collaboration responses to colleagues
(Wednesday, Day 7)
Personal Development Plan to Turnitin
(Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 2 Collaboration: Operations
design: Part 1
Change is constant, and successful
adaptation —to changing customer needs, for example, or a broken
machine —is the hallmark of a successful organisation. Operations
processes are not generally static states; they must be designed to adapt to
many different factors, including change in consumer preferences, change in
material delivery lead time and temporary breakdowns in machinery or
technology. Designing for these kinds of variations can be a challenging task,
but it is a necessary one. In this Collaboration, you will explore designing to
allow for said variations by considering the effect of just one variable –
volume-variety – on operations design.
To prepare for this Collaboration:
Review the Learning Resources for this
week with a focus on volume-variety.
Select an organisation you work for,
have worked for, or are familiar with.
Identify a key operation from your
selected organisation.
Reflect on the effects of
volume-variety on your identified operation.
To complete this Collaboration:
By Saturday (Day 3):
Briefly describe your selected
organisation and your identified key operation.
Critically evaluate the effect of
volume-variety on the design of your identified operation.
Explain the basis of your evaluation
and justify your reasoning.
Submit your initial response to the
Turnitin link provided and post to the Collaboration forum.
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Review responses by your colleagues and
analyse how the total supply network perspective could possibly force changes
to the current operation design they have presented. Make three to five
meaningful posts.
Your responses should provide evidence
that you have critically reflected on the material by questioning assumptions,
revealing new personal insights and probing and/or posing questions for further
investigation.
Remember to cite and reference examples
from the readings for this week.
Next week, you will continue this
Collaboration by examining the type of layout used in this company or
organisation.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
To access the Collaboration Forum,
click on the "Week 2 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your initial response to
Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 02
Collaboration Initial Response -- Turnitin.
Week 2 Personal
Development Plan: Preparation
How will the subject of operations
management inform your personal and professional development goals?
Throughout this module, you will
consider this very question as you reflect upon the core concepts of operations
management that you are studying. In light of your learning in this module, you
will leverage these concepts to update your future career plans in the form of
a personal development plan (PDP).
For your first PDP submission, you will
submit a brief reflection on how you imagine the content of the Operations
Management module will help you attain your personal and professional goals. Be
aware that this first submission is not graded, as it is designed to
provide formative feedback. However, it is intended to steer you towards
success on the Module Project overall and especially your final submission.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review your Learning Resources from the
previous weeks as necessary.
Reflect on your personal and
professional goals.
Reflect on how the content of this
module will help you attain your goals.
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Prepare a brief submission (maximum of
500 words) about how this module will help you advance your personal
development, focusing on topics of particular interest to you. For this
submission, consider how completing this module will help you advance your
career goals and explain why this will be the case. Regarding an organisation
in which you currently work (or an organisation for which you hope to work),
explain how the function of operations management interfaces with the other
functions of your organisation.
This assignment should be prepared and
submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no later than
midnight your local time.
To submit your Personal Development
Plan to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 2
Personal Development Plan.
Week 3 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration responses to
the Collaboration Forum (Monday, Day 5).
Individual Summary to
Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Wednesday, Day 7).
Module Project to Turnitin
(Wednesday, Day 7).
Week 3 Collaboration:
Operations design: Part 2
There are many important
factors in designing operations processes.
Last week you explored one
of those factors: how to design for variations, specifically, the effect of
volume-variety on an operations design. This week, you will explore another
important design consideration in operations management: the physical layout of
the process. Looking at the physical space of a process raises many interesting
questions. What makes a safe and effective layout? What
considerations are important when making layout decisions? How does the process
need to flow during production? Consider these questions as you complete this
Collaboration.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on effective layouts for key operations.
Review your Week 2
Collaboration.
Review the key operation
from your selected organisation from the Week 2 Collaboration.
Reflect upon the layout of
your selected key operation from the Week 2 Collaboration.
To complete this
Collaboration:
Until Day 5 (Monday):
Engage in a discussion by
posting and replying to each other’s posts (minimum three to five substantive
responses).
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
Individual Summary
By Wednesday (Day 7)
Post a summary of
approximately 250 words of what you have learned during Week 2 and 3. Explain
what you have learned about the relation between volume-variety and optimum
operation design and layout.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Week 3 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your Individual
Summary to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 03
Collaboration Individual Summary -- Turnitin.
Module Project:
Literature review
Many researchers have
investigated issues in the field of operations management to document more
effective ways of producing and delivering goods and services. In this step of
your Module Project, you will leverage their work and research the best
practices in operations management for the specific process and industry you
have chosen to analyse. To do so, you will conduct a literature review to
support your work on the Module Project. The sources you review should
represent multiple perspectives and bodies of research on operations
management. These will help you further develop your Module Project draft over
the next few weeks.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Review the Learning
Resources from Weeks 1 and 2.
Reflect upon and
incorporate Instructor feedback from your proposal in Week 1 to inform this
Assignment.
Research academically
credible sources regarding best operations management practices.
To complete this
Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Submit a literature review
(approximately 1,000–1,250 words) in which you address the following:
Based on your selection of
organisation in Week 1, summarise the type of organisation you chose.
Conduct a literature review
of best operations management practices. These practices should be relevant to
your specific type of organisation and its specific processes. Your reviewed
literature must consist of academically credible sources.
Analyse how the practices
depicted in your researched literature are applicable in your selected
organisation and process.
Fully justify all your
assumptions and claims using your own experience, the Learning Resources or
your own research. Cite your work using the Harvard Liverpool Referencing
System.
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Module
Project to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 03
Module Project -- Turnitin.
Week 4 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration initial
response to Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Saturday, Day 3)
Collaboration responses to
colleagues (Wednesday, Day 7)
Personal Development Plan
to Turnitin (Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 4 Collaboration:
Adjusting capacity
Seasonality refers to a
strong relationship of demand for a product or service that varies according to
the time of year.
As you might suspect,
seasonality also has a significant influence on most markets. Because of this
impact, it is crucial that operations managers consider the implications of
seasonality whenever they make capacity decisions. In this Collaboration, you
will explore seasonality’s influence in further detail but do so from the
perspective of an organisation you work for or with which you are familiar.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on adjusting for capacity.
Reflect on the influence of
seasonality on capacity decisions.
Select an organisation you
work for or with which you are familiar.
Consider the impact of
seasonality on capacity decisions made by your selected organisation.
To complete this
Collaboration:
By Saturday (Day 3):
In a response of
approximately 300–500 words, address the following:
Describe a case where demand
seasonality is evident and strongly disturbs the smooth operation of your
selected organisation.
Analyse how this
seasonality can affect capacity decisions.
Support your position with
the Learning Resources, your own research and/or your personal experience. Be
sure to cite and reference all sources of information using the Harvard
Liverpool Referencing System.
Submit your initial
response to the Turnitin link provided and post to the Collaboration forum.
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Review responses by your
colleagues and comment on how capacity decisions can smooth the turbulence
caused by demand fluctuations. Make three to five meaningful posts.
Your responses should
provide evidence that you have critically reflected on the material by
questioning assumptions, revealing new personal insights and probing and/or
posing questions for further investigation.
Remember to cite and
reference examples from the readings for this week.
Next week, you will
continue this Collaboration by considering effective inventory management in an
effort to confront demand fluctuations.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Week 4 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your initial
response to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week
04 Collaboration Initial Response -- Turnitin.
Week 4 Personal Development
Plan: Preparation
How have the concepts you
have explored so far in this module changed the way you think about your
current job? For your second PDP submission, you will submit a brief reflection
on what you have learned in Weeks 1–4 of this module and how it applies to
decision-making in your profession.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Review your Learning
Resources and learning activities from the past 4 weeks.
Review your Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on decision-making in the context of the
following:
Layout
Process technology
Job design
Planning and control
Capacity planning and
control
Reflect on how these
concepts influence your thinking and decision-making.
To complete this
Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
In 500 words:
Critically analyse, using
relevant examples, how the following concepts might influence your way of
thinking, attitudes and decision-making in your current job position (or job
positions that you had in the past). Consider decision-making in the context
of:
Layout
Process technology
Job design
Planning and control
Capacity planning and
control
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Personal
Development Plan to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for
Week 04 Personal Development Plan.
Week 5 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration responses to
the Collaboration Forum (Monday, Day 5)
Individual Summary to
Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Wednesday, Day 7).
Module Project to Turnitin
(Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 5 Collaboration:
Inventory management
In operations management,
both capacity and inventory decisions have a major impact on cost and a
customer’s experience. Last week you examined the influence of seasonality on
adjusting capacity. This week you will examine other aspects of supply chain
management, including how to optimise capacity and inventory and the trade-offs
between capacity and inventory.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on optimising capacity and inventory.
Select an organisation with
which you are familiar (preferably a manufacturing firm).
Research how your selected
organisation adjusts capacity.
Reflect on why your
selected organisation keeps inventory.
Until Day 5 (Monday):
Engage in a discussion by
posting and replying to each other’s posts (minimum three to five substantive
responses).
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
Individual Summary
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Post a summary of
approximately 250 words of what you have learned during Week 4 and 5. Explain
the importance of planning and control towards enterprise excellence.
Submit your summary to the
Turnitin link provided and post to the Collaboration forum.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Week 05 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your Individual
Summary to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 05
Collaboration Individual Summary -- Turnitin.
Week 5 Module Project:
Action plan
By applying what you are
learning to an organisation with which you are familiar, you are acting as an
operations management consultant in your Module Project. Your previous Module
Project deliverable was a literature review about research relevant to your
project topic and organisation. This week you will use your research, and your
own creativity, to prepare an action plan for operations improvement to present
to the organisation’s board.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Review your Module Project
work from Week 1 and 3.
Reflect on the Instructor
feedback from your literature review in Week 3 to inform this assignment.
Review your Learning
Resources with a focus on improving operations and developing an appropriate
action pan.
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Based on your specific
organisation selection in Week 1, its business sector and your literature
review in Week 3, in about 1,250 words, prepare an action plan for operations
improvement to present to the company’s board.
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Module
Project to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 05
Module Project -- Turnitin.
Week 6 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration initial
response to Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Saturday, Day 3)
Collaboration responses to
colleagues (Wednesday, Day 7)
Personal Development Plan
to Turnitin (Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 6 Collaboration: MRP
vs JIT/lean planning
In academic literature and
industrial practice, there is debate regarding the effectiveness of
manufacturing resource planning (MRP), which is typically a module of
enterprise resource planning (ERP). Based on what you have read in this week’s
Learning Resources, and your own experiences, do you think prospects such as
just-in-time (JIT) and lean manufacturing processes are effective alternatives
to MRP-based planning? Can these two approaches (the computational represented
by MRP versus the philosophical represented by Japanese practices, such as kanban)
combine to form the ultimate production-planning suite?
As you likely suspect,
there are merits and shortcomings for all of the planning processes noted, with
each having its own ideal application. With this in mind, for this
Collaboration, you will compare two approaches to production planning: the MRP
and JIT/lean manufacturing approaches.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on material requirements planning
alternatives of just-in-time (JIT) and lean manufacturing, and the Japanese
manufacturing practices, such as kanban.
Reflect on the two the
different planning approaches: the computational approach represented by MRP
and the philosophical approach represented by Japanese practices.
To complete this
Collaboration:
By Saturday (Day 3):
In a response of
approximately 300–500 words, address the following:
Compare JIT and lean
manufacturing approaches to MRP-based planning.
Based on your comparison,
explain your position on whether the JIT and lean manufacturing approaches are
efficient alternatives to MRP-based planning. Justify your reasoning.
Evaluate whether these two
approaches (the computational approach represented by MRP and the philosophical
approach represented by Japanese practices) can be combined to form the
ultimate production-planning suite and justify your position.
In working out your
responses to the Collaboration, you should choose examples from your own
experience or find appropriate cases for external sources that you can discuss.
Credit will be given for references you make to relevant examples from your own
experiences, case studies and academic journal papers. Be sure to cite and
reference your work using the Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Review responses by your
colleagues and comment on how the two approaches may combine. You should make
three to five meaningful posts.
Your responses should
provide evidence that you have critically reflected on the material by
questioning assumptions, revealing new personal insights and probing and/or
posing questions for further investigation.
Remember to cite and
reference examples from the readings for this week.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Week 06 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your initial
response to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week
06 Collaboration Initial Response -- Turnitin.
Week 6 Personal
Development Plan: Career goals
As you explore the more
complex concepts of operations management in this module, it is prudent to
consider how these concepts relate to your career goals. To facilitate this
valuable practice, this week you will continue to reflect upon how the core concepts
of operations management relate to your career goals via your next submission
of your PDP. This week, however, you will focus primarily on the prospects of
supply change management, production scheduling and inventory management.
To complete this Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Prepare a brief submission
(approximately 750 words) regarding how this module will help you advance your
personal development, focusing on topics of particular interest to you. For
this submission, analyse how the following concepts relate to your career
goals:
Inventory management
Supply chain management
Quality planning &
control
Production scheduling (MPS,
MRP)
Alternative methods:
just-in-time and lean manufacturing
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Personal
Development Plan to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for
Week 06 Personal Development Plan.
Week 7 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration responses to
the Collaboration Forum (Monday, Day 5)
Individual Summary to
Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Wednesday, Day 7).
Module Project to Turnitin
(Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 7 Collaboration:
Risk management
Last week, you explored production
planning, control and scheduling methods, including MRP alternatives. As you
compared these various methods, you likely noticed that some methods have
inherent risks for certain types of organisations and/or operational sectors.
Moreover, these risks can lead to operations management failures, but such is
only the case if said risks are not effectively managed, and part of this
effectiveness is knowing the reasons for potential failure.
At first glance, many might
say it is better to avoid these risks altogether, and sometimes this is true,
but there are some risks worth taking. The question is how does one decide
which risks are worth taking and which are not? In operations management,
managers must continually assess risks in order to answer this question and
look for ways to reduce the negative effects of potential failures. As such, in
this Collaboration, you will examine how to avoid and alleviate failure in
operations management.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning Resources
for this week with a focus on risk management.
Research some of the most
common reasons for operations management failure as necessary.
Research on methods for
successfully decreasing the chances of failure.
Until Day 5 (Monday):
Engage in a discussion by
posting and replying to each other's posts (minimum three to five substantive
responses).
In working out your
responses to the discussion question, you should choose examples from your own
experience or find appropriate cases for external sources that you can discuss.
Credit will be given for references you make to relevant examples from your own
experiences, case studies and academic journal papers.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
Individual Summary
By Wednesday (Day 7):
In a short text (250–300
words), reflect on your collaboration activity for Week 6 and Week 7. Summarise
the topics discussed and explain the importance of production planning, control
and scheduling, as well as the operations improvement loop and risk management.
Submit your summary to the
Turnitin link provided and post to the Collaboration forum.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Week 07 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your Individual
Summary to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 07
Collaboration Individual Summary – Turnitin
Week 7 Module Project:
Final submission plan
Over the course of the past
6 weeks, you have acted as operations management consultant to an organisation
with which you are familiar. In order to fulfil this consultation role, you
conducted an in-depth literature review of best operations management practices
and how these practices could benefit your organisation. Following that, you
leveraged this review to develop an action plan for your organisation’s
operations improvement.
This week, you will
complete your last submission of the Module Project by finalising all of the
work done in previous weeks. The final document you will submit is a final
draft of the action plan for operations improvement you began in Week 5. This
plan will be drafted as if it were to be presented to your organisation’s
board.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Review the Instructor
feedback you received on your Weeks 1, 3 and 5 Module Project deliverables.
Reflect on the expected
outcomes of your proposal.
Consider any further
recommendations you could make to improve operations management for your
selected organisation.
To complete this
Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Based on your specific
organisation selection in your Week 1 Module Project proposal, your
organisation’s business sector and your literature review in Week 3 and action
plan in Week 5, complete the final version of your action plan (approximately
5,000 words) for operations improvement to present to your organisation’s
board. In your plan, also address the following:
Critically evaluate the
expected outcomes of your proposal and explain your reasoning.
Recommend any additional
techniques you could implement to further improve the operations management
excellence of your organisation within your selected sector.
Propose improvements for
other sectors of your selected organisation.
Explain why all of your
suggestions are viable.
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Module
Project to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week 07
Module Project -- Turnitin.
Week 8 Assessments
This week you submit:
Collaboration initial
response to Turnitin and to the Collaboration Forum (Saturday, Day 3)
Collaboration responses to
colleagues (Wednesday, Day 7)
Personal Development Plan
to Turnitin (Wednesday, Day 7)
Week 8 Collaboration:
Operational excellence
Business goals typically
include maximising profits and innovating business practices to ensure a
healthy business in the future. However, many businesses now have an additional
goal of ensuring the health and future of the Earth’s environment. Such is part
of the worldwide ‘green’ movements of many organisations as they attempt to
reduce emissions and waste production and generally reduce their carbon
footprint. Though green practices are still relatively new to business (when
compared to other business practices), they have become of paramount
importance. Because of this, for your final Collaboration, you will examine how
operational excellence can affect sustainable development within an
organisation and how this affects that organisation’s environmental footprint.
To prepare for this
Collaboration:
Review the Learning
Resources for this week with a focus on achieving operational excellence.
Select an organisation you
work for, have worked for or with which you are familiar.
Research methods with which
to achieve operational excellence and decrease an organisation’s environmental
footprint.
Identify which methods are
most applicable to your selected organisation.
To complete this
Collaboration:
By Saturday (Day 3):
In a response of
approximately 300–500 words, address the following:
Analyse how operational
excellence may enable sustainable development.
Explain what methods you
could employ to achieve this operational excellence within your selected
organisation.
Evaluate which methods
would most decrease your selected organisation’s environmental footprint.
Base your answer on your
readings, research and personal experience. Be sure to cite your work using the
Harvard Liverpool Referencing System.
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Review responses by your
colleagues and critically assess the effect of operational excellence on
sustainability for the cases presented.
Your responses should
provide evidence that you have critically reflected on the material by
questioning assumptions, revealing new personal insights and probing and/or
posing questions for further investigation.
Remember to cite and
reference examples from the readings for this week using the Harvard Liverpool
Referencing System.
Ensure that you spread your
Collaboration posts across at least 3 separate days of each week. This will
help maximise the value of your collaboration with colleagues and serve to meet
the learning objectives for each activity.
To access the Collaboration
Forum, click on the "Weeks 08 Collaboration Forum" link.
To submit your Initial
Response to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for Week
08 Collaboration Initial Response -- Turnitin.
Week 8 Personal
Development Plan: Final submission
The main goal of the PDP is
to aid you in the transition of applying the coursework to your workplace.
Since your first submission back in Week 2, you have reflected on a tremendous
amount of this coursework. However, there are likely some readings, assignments
or discussions you have had that resonate more than the others do. For your
final PDP submission, you will submit a brief reflection on the topics of this
module that you identified most with and how you will apply those topics to
your own professional life.
To prepare for this
Assignment:
Review your Learning
Resources from the previous weeks as necessary.
Reflect on your personal
and professional goals.
Reflect on how the content
of this module will help you attain your goals.
To complete this
Assignment:
By Wednesday (Day 7):
Prepare a brief submission
(approximately 750 words) about how this module will help you advance your
personal development, focusing on topics of particular interest to you or those
that you believe will have those most impact on your professional career. For
this submission, the recommended focus areas include:
Further discussion of those
areas of operations management that have most resonated with you.
Description of how you see
the concepts that you have studied applying to your professional experience.
Description of the steps
you might now take to aid you in the transition of applying the coursework to
your workplace (if/where applicable).
This assignment should be
prepared and submitted to Turnitin using the Word (.doc or .docx) format no
later than midnight your local time.
To submit your Personal
Development Plan to Turnitin, click on the "View/Complete" link for
Week 08 Personal Development Plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment