Application of OM concepts/tools

1. Executive summary (no more than one page)

– Summarize what is the operational problem, what OM concepts/tools have been applied to the

problem, and what are the expected results of the proposed solution.

2. Background information

– Clearly state whether the operational problem is from your own work or from business

articles/cases. If it is from business articles/cases, provide its source (title, author, name of

the journal, date published).

– Briefly introduce the company background (e.g., name, products, business size, location,

internal/external interesting facts, etc).

3. Problem Description

– Describe the operational problem clearly and specifically.

– You should focus on a single OPERATIONAL problem, although you can introduce several other issues

for informational purposes. General management problems are not acceptable.

– The problem may involve either operational decision-making or process improvement.

– This section must include a problem statement starting with, e.g., “This paper considers the

problem of determining …”, “The main problem of the firm is how to …”, etc, either in the

beginning or at the end of the section.

4. OM concepts/tools that can be applied

– Describe what specific OM concepts/tools can be applied to the problem and why they are

appropriate to the problem. This section should make it clear that you understand the

concepts/tools you are about to use.

5. Application of OM concepts/tools

– Choose an OM concept/tool or a set of OM concepts/tools among the ones provided in section 4 and

apply it to propose a solution to the problem.

– In this section you “must show your calculations”, which means that you must use real or

estimated/simulated data in solving the problem or analyzing the process. It is NOT acceptable to

provide only general descriptions of how the concepts/tools can be applied.

6. Analysis of expected results

– Analyze the expected results of the proposed solution.

– You should compare between best and worst scenarios after the implementation of the proposed

solution and justify the proposed solution clearly.

– The expected results may include cost/revenue impact and/or improvement of operational

performance such as throughput time, throughput rate, and inventory. You must be specific to

receive full credit.

7. Conclusion

The meaning of an operational problem will become clearer as you study this course (see the

textbook contents). An operational problem may involve process design and improvement, supply chain

management, capacity planning, inventory management, quality management, project management,

production planning and control, forecasting, facility location and layout, supplier management,

purchasing, distribution, etc.

You are strongly encouraged to find a problem from your own work, so that you may apply to your

work the concepts/tools that you learned from this course. If you choose to find a problem from

business articles/cases, you can find one from any journals/newspapers such as The Wall Street

Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and so on. Or you can surf the

Internet to find an interesting article/case.

The OM concepts/tools that can be applied to your problem may include process flowchart, theory of

constraints, decisions trees, inventory models, six-sigma tools, critical path method, MRP,

scheduling, lean manufacturing, Kanban production control method, forecasting methods, systematic

layout planning, assembly line balancing, factor rating system, centroid method, learning curves,

simulation, waiting line models, work measurement techniques, group technology, mass customization,

etc.