The Operations Management Course Project presents an opportunity to take what you are learning and apply it to your job. The project allows you to earn the grades you need for the course and to come away with a practical project plan that can make a real difference at your workplace. In this project, you will:

1. Identify an area of potential improvement in your organization that would make a real, measurable impact on your business. 2. Apply the tools we are studying in this course to analyze the situation and take steps to design and implement improvements. This will be done in 4 phases which, together, will form your Course Project.

a. Value Stream Mapping and Analysis

b. Building Detailed Agenda(s) for Kaizen or Work-Outs

c. Creating Six Sigma Project Charter(s)

d. Completing an Assessment Scorecard using the PEMM How to Be Successful with your Course Project

The assignment components do not require huge amounts of writing or the creation of lengthy PowerPoint presentations. They do, however, require that you stay on top of the workload in the course and are aware of which components of the assignment are coming due and what steps you must take to what you are learning to your workplace situation.

Keep in mind that this project requires specific real-world data and processes be used. Turning in generic deliverables that do not relate to actual data will be insufficient to earn high marks.

The more you can do to identify a value stream or end-to-end process that you are honestly interested in improving, the more meaningful this project will be to you. You are strongly encouraged to reach out to your professor early in the process to discuss your choice and to clarify the scope and the challenges that must be addressed in gathering the data you need to complete the assignment components.

Keep in mind, the process selected for your project doesn’t have to be huge (like reengineering your entire supply chain). It does, however, have to be something you know about, a process you work with regularly that is a source of frustration or opportunity. Maybe the process is working “well enough” but you know there’s potential to do even better. Maybe it’s broken and a constant source of frustration for your team members or for other departments that are impacted.

Maybe it’s something you feel your competitors are doing better than you are, and you sense you are at a competitive disadvantage. You don’t need to aspire to bring about some gigantic “disruptive innovation” (although if you can do that, that’s great!). Remember, in the words of Jack Welch: “Innovation doesn’t have to be about eureka, it can be about finding a better way every day.”

I work at Ardent Health services in the healthcare finance industry.