Instructions:
The Process Improvement Project Report is a major individual project that you will complete over a six-week
period, between Weeks two and seven (2-7) of the course. All work will ultimately focus on one key supporting
work process which is in use at your organization (or a previous organization; this assignment will draw from your
own experience either in your present or a past position). Identification and ultimate work to improve a key
support work process will begin in Week #2 with an understanding of the organization’s strategy and the
identification of a core process employed in the execution of the strategy. For our work in the course and your
work in the development your project report we will define a core process as:
Key activity or cluster of minimum essential activities—part of your organizations value chain—which must
be performed in an exemplary manner to ensure a firm’s continued competitiveness because it adds
primary customer-demanded value by transforming an input to the organization’s output.
For example, in banking one may consider core processes to include lending, check processing, payment
processing, and account maintenance. The single manufacturing core process is constituted in the three sequential
areas of purchasing, production, and sales. Any core process will have multiple supporting work processes that
work together to achieve the core process (e.g., lending may be accomplished in multiple work processes,
including application process, approval process, closing process, loan servicing process; production may include
multiple work processes, including research and development process, shift and personnel scheduling process,
project control process, and inventory management process).
In Week #3 you will explore quality. In addition to historical foundation and various philosophies of quality, you
will principally focus on quality tools used in the process improvement project. Weeks #4-6 take you to the center
of your project, understanding the facility or office layout in which your process is used, analyzing and mapping
your specific supporting work process, and ultimately identifying constraints to the effectiveness and efficiency of
your chosen work process and developing resolution to improve the process. Finally, in Week #7, you will engage
in project management, planning, executing and controlling a process improvement project. You will also in Week

7 add your project management section to revised previously submitted sections from each of the week’s #2-6 in

a final process improvement report. The sections to be included in the final report are bolded and designated
below with an asterisk (). New England College of Business MGM401 Operations Management 2 Week #2: Strategy Section – I. Background, Your Organization (Historical Background and Current State)
II. Strategy: A General Overview of Topic (including strategic approaches to competitive advantage, decisions
of operations management in strategy development and core competencies required in operations
management)
III. Strategy: Your Organization-Specific Review*
a. The Balanced Scorecard, an overview
b. Strategy Map
i. Uses for and development of
ii. Graph your strategy map
c. Identified Key Core Process, Description and Diagram
Submit your draft no later than Monday (6:00am, Eastern Time).
Final copy (including revision to all previously submitted sections) will be due Week 7.
Review the rubric to see how this assignment will be graded.
Week #3: Quality Section –
I. Background of Quality: As Movement and History
II. Quality Management Systems, a Review (e.g., Kaizen, TQM, Lean, Six Sigma, etc.),
III. Process Improvement Tools, description and explanation of use in process improvement* (including
Pareto charts, histogram, control charts, statistical process control (SPC), cause-and-effect charts, aka
fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)
Submit your draft no later than Monday (6:00am, Eastern Time).
Final copy (including revision to all previously submitted sections) will be due Week 7.
Review the rubric to see how this assignment will be graded.
Week #4: Workflow Section –
I. Facility layout (explain and illustrate various facility layout strategies, including office, retail, fixedposition, and process-oriented layouts).
II. Explain workflow and describe link with facility layout
III. Describe the basic workflow in area of your chose work process*
a. Develop a basic facility workflow chart
Submit your draft no later than Monday (6:00am, Eastern Time).
Final copy (including revision to all previously submitted sections) will be due Week 7.
Review the rubric to see how this assignment will be graded.
Week #5: Process Section —
I. Description of Core Process
a. Explain core process concept, what it is, how it works, why it is important to monitor, how it
linked with corporate’s strategy
b. Describe your company’s core process
II. Description of a specific supporting Work Process (for the core process)
a. Explain work processes (include explanation of associated training, procedures and
competencies)
b. Describe your chosen supporting work process*
III. Map the chosen supporting work process* (systematic graphical depiction of the sequential steps and
decision points in the work where input is transformed to output). Recommend as a single separate page
in appendices).
Submit your draft no later than Monday (6:00am, Eastern Time).
Final copy (including revision to all previously submitted sections) will be due Week 7.
Review the rubric to see how this assignment will be graded.
New England College of Business MGM401 Operations Management 3
Week #6: Constraints Section –
I. Explain and calculate the 1) design capacity and 2) utilization of the capacity of your chosen work process
II. Explain and demonstrate concept of the theory of constraints (TOC)
III. Analysis of work process problems* (a full description of and explanation of your chosen work process
problems, including any obstacles or constraints)
a. Methodology of analysis
b. Problem identification
c. Problem resolution (including changes to procedures, technology, and competencies)
Week #7: Project Management Section* –
I. Planning
a. Project Definition
b. Personnel Roles and Responsibilities
c. Task Identification, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
d. Task Sequence & Time/Schedule, GANNT Chart
II. Executing
a. Charter Project Team
III. Controlling
a. Progress measurement and reporting system
b. Quality control measuring process
Finalize your Process Improvement Project Report with the following (project management section added to
revised and updated previously submitted section):
I. Executive Summary. (The Executive Summary is a somewhat longer document than an abstract, usually 1-
2 pages. It is, for illustrative simplicity, the Reader’s Digest version of the report! It is meant to be a
device that allows a full comprehension of the report without having to read the whole report)
II. Introduction
III. Strategy
a. Background, Your Organization
b. Strategy: Your Organization-Specific Review
IV. Process Improvement Tools
V. Workflow (Describe the basic workflow in area of your chose work process)
a. Develop a basic facility workflow chart
VI. Supporting Work Process
a. Describe your chosen supporting work process
b. Map the chosen supporting work process
VII. Constraints, Process Analysis
a. Methodology of analysis
b. Problem identification
c. Problem resolution
VIII. Project Management
a. Planning
b. Executing
c. Controlling
IX. Conclusion
X. Reference Page
New England College of Business MGM401 Operations Management 4
General Notes, for all sections:
• Introduction, all academic essays and professional papers open with an introduction. Each weekly section
should have an introduction to immediately inform the reader of the content of the paper. (Refer to
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/2/58/). You’ll note that with your academic essay or
professional paper/report that you will write is intend to persuade readers of an idea based on evidence
(remember, not opinion!). The beginning of the paper is a crucial first step in this process. In order to engage
readers and establish your authority, the beginning of your essay has to accomplish certain business. Your
beginning should INTRODUCE the paper, FOCUS it, and ORIENT readers. Be sure to have a strong thesis
statement (a statement of your position that will be developed in the paper) and clearly “map” out your paper
(outlining the major points you’ll tackle in the paper)!
• Conclusion, all academic essays and professional papers “wrap-up” the report with concluding remarks (refer
to https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/724/04/).
• Citations, in accordance with APA citation guidelines, all research sources must be listed in two places: as intext where source is used and then in an end-of-document reference list. Review APA guidelines for proper
formatting of researched sources. A minimum of three (3) references are required for the final paper.
However, each section will benefit from use of research sources.
• Remember that academic papers are to be double-spaced, use 12-point Times New Roman font, proper page
headers, section and sub-section headings (refer to https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/).
• Appendices are recommended for strategy maps, workflow diagram, process map and project management
Gantt charts.
• The Title Page, Executive Summary, Table of Contents and Reference page(s) do not count towards the report
page length recommendation, 12-15 pages (approximately 2-3 pages/week).