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MGT530-M2C1-Critical Thinking

Description

I need help completing a discussion board post for my Management course (Operation Management). Below are the exact requirements provided by my instructor:

Description:

In this module, you will identify productivity measures and apply the analytical tools that you learned in the first module to a series of problems associated with productivity challenges. One tool you will review is the balanced scorecard.

Learning Outcomes:

Analyze problems associated with the productivity and operations management goals of a business organization.
Recommend solutions to specific problems associated with the productivity and operations management goals of a business organization

Instructions

Operations Management and Factors Affecting Productivity

Maduro Cleaning is a small organization that provides cleaning services to both residential and commercial clients. As a small organization, the owner assigns crews of two, three, or four employees to jobs each morning but the owner does not have a good method of determining a reasonable amount of time that each cleaning should take. The owner decided to keep data on job times and crew sizes in the hopes of developing a productivity measure.

Address the following requirements:

Calculate which of the crew sizes has the best productivity per worker and explain your method.
Evaluate your outcome and the possible reasons that would explain those results.
Project what the productivity might be for a crew size of five and explain your reasoning.

Crew Size Avg: Productivity per Crew

2: 3765 square meters per day
3: 4915 square meters per day
4: 6309 square meters per day

Assignment Requirements:

Your well-written paper should meet the following requirements:

Length: The paper should be Six Pages in length (6), excluding the title and reference pages.
Formatting: Follow academic writing standards and APA style guidelines.
Sources & Citations: Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least Three (3) scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. Proper APA citation is required.
Originality Check: You are strongly encouraged to check all assignments for originality using Turnitin before submission.
Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism is NOT tolerated. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. Assignments with more than 15% similarity to existing work will receive a zero. Repeated offenses may lead to termination.
Grading Rubric: Review the grading rubric to understand how your assignment will be evaluated.
Course Alignment: Ensure your discussion incorporates textbook concepts, principles, and theories, aligning with class lectures and avoiding the use of advanced material not yet covered in the course.
Discuss the concepts, principles, and theories from your textbook. Be sure to cite the textbook and use the lectures provided so that the analysis aligns with the material we’ve covered so far in the course.

Required Readings:

Chapter 2 in Operations Management
Chapter 2 PowerPoint Presentation
McKinsey and Company. (2023, February 13). What is productivity? McKinsey. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from

Recommended Readings:

Conger. (2023, June 19). 9 Operations Management Problems (And a Solution for Each!). Conger Industries. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from

Note: I’ve attached the slides for the relevant chapter, grading rubric, and the book below (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/10efj01b5l2avuyn4n8ih/Operations-management.-14th-ed.-.-McGraw-Hill-Stevenson-W.-J.-14-2021-Mcgraw-Hill-9781260238891.pdf?rlkey=uyb0ukyt4ryrugfn5swrv0kr8&st=vd59j2bj&dl=0).

Instructor Expectations:

Please ensure you dedicate your utmost effort and attention to detail when completing this task. The instructor places a strong emphasis on proper citation and substantive analysis that extends beyond simply answering the questions. Your work should demonstrate depth, originality, and critical thinking by introducing new insights and supporting arguments with thorough research.

The instructor maintains high academic standards and expects students to consistently strive for excellence. Your assignment should reflect the following:

Comprehensive Use of Sources:
- Incorporate textbook theories, concepts, and at least three (3) peer-reviewed journal articles to support your analysis.
- Proper APA citation is essential to demonstrate deep engagement with the material.
Substantial Analysis:
- Move beyond surface-level responses by providing insightful, well-developed arguments.
- Offer unique perspectives and link theories to practical examples to enhance your discussion.
Attention to Detail:
- Ensure your writing is clear, polished, and well-organized.
- Adhere to the required page count and APA formatting guidelines.
Avoid vague terms:
Refrain from using words like “many,” “most,” or “some” unless they are absolutely true and backed by evidence. Ensure specificity in your statements.
Incorporate diverse sources:
Enhance your paper by including citations from various sources such as videos, movies, interviews, or other multimedia resources to enrich your arguments.
Strong introduction and thesis:
- Craft a compelling “zinger” (introductory sentence) and a clear thesis.
- These are crucial for quickly capturing your audience’s interest.
Integration of course learnings:
- Apply what you’ve learned throughout the course effectively.
- Define the problem, conduct thorough research, present your perspective clearly, and maintain focus in your paper.
Enhance your conclusion:
- Summarize key concepts effectively.
- Include a strong quotation or statistic to reinforce your message and create a lasting impression on your reader.

This assignment is not just about fulfilling a requirement—it is an opportunity to showcase academic excellence.

Additionally, your performance on this assignment will significantly influence my decision to collaborate with you on future coursework throughout my academic journey.

Name

CT_Rubric_100

Description

100 Points

Rubric Detail
Levels of Achievement
Criteria

Exceeds Expectation

Meets Expectation

Some Expectations

Unsatisfactory

Content

33 to 35 points

29 to 32 points

26 to 28 points

0 to 25 points

Demonstrates
substantial and
extensive knowledge of
the materials, with no
errors or major
omissions.

Demonstrates adequate
knowledge of the
materials; may include
some minor errors or
omissions.

Demonstrates fair
knowledge of the materials
and/or includes some
major errors or omissions.

Fails to demonstrate
knowledge of the
materials and/or
includes many major
errors or omissions.

33 to 35 points

29 to 32 points

26 to 28 points

0 to 25 points

Provides strong thought,
insight, and analysis of
concepts and
applications.

Provides adequate
thought, insight, and
analysis of concepts and
applications.

Provides poor though,
insight, and analysis of
concepts and applications.

Provides little or no
thought, insight, and
analysis of concepts and
applications.

15 to 15 points

13 to 14 points

11 to 12 points

0 to 10 points

Sources go above and
beyond required criteria
and are well chosen to
provide effective
substance and
perspectives on the
issue under
examination.

Sources meet required
criteria and are
adequately chosen to
provide substance and
perspectives on the issue
under examination.

Sources meet required
criteria but are poorly
chosen to provide
substance and perspectives
on the issue under
examination.

Source selection and
integration of knowledge
from the course is clearly
deficient.

15 to 15 points

13 to 14 points

11 to 12 points

0 to 10 points

Project is clearly
organized, well written,
and in proper format as
outlined in the
assignment. Strong
sentence and paragraph
structure, contains no
errors in grammar,
spelling, APA style, or
APA citations and
references.

Project is fairly well
organized and written
and is in proper format as
outlined in the
assignment. Reasonably
good sentence and
paragraph structure, may
include a few minor
errors in grammar,
spelling, APA style, or APA
citations and references.

Project is poorly organized
and written and may not
follow proper format as
outlined in the assignment.
Inconsistent to inadequate
sentence and paragraph
development, and/or
includes numerous or
major errors in grammar,
spelling, APA style or APA
citations and references.

Project is not organized
or well written and is not
in proper format as
outlined in the
assignment. Poor quality
work; unacceptable in
terms of grammar,
spelling, APA style, and
APA citations and
references.

Analysis

Sources

Demonstrates
college-level
proficiency in
organization,
grammar and
style.

View Associated Items
Print

Close Window

Competitiveness,
Strategy, and
Productivity

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or
distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

2-1

You should be able to:
LO 2.1 List several ways that business organizations compete
LO 2.2 Name several reasons that business organizations fail
LO 2.3 Define the terms mission and strategy and explain why they are
important
LO 2.4 Discuss and compare organization strategy and operations
strategy and explain why it is important to link the two
LO 2.5 Describe and give examples of time-based strategies
LO 2.6 Define the term productivity and explain why it is important to
organizations and to countries
LO 2.7 Describe several factors that affect productivity

2-2

Better quality, higher productivity, lower costs, and the
ability to respond quickly to customer needs are more
important than ever, and…

the bar is getting higher

2-3

 This chapter focuses on three separate but related

ideas that are vitally important to business
organizations
Competitiveness
2. Strategy
3. Productivity
1.

2-4

 Competitiveness:
 How effectively an organization meets the wants and

needs of customers relative to others that offer similar
goods or services
 Organizations compete through some combination of
their marketing and operations functions
• What do customers want?
• How can these customer needs best be satisfied?

LO 2.1

2-5

 Identifying consumer wants and/or needs
 Pricing and quality
 Advertising and promotion

LO 2.1

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-6

Product and service design
2. Cost
3. Location
4. Quality
5. Quick response
6. Flexibility
7. Inventory management
8. Supply chain management
9. Service
10. Managers and workers
1.

LO 2.1

2-7

2.
3.

4.
5.
6.
7.

Neglecting operations strategy
Failing to take advantage of strengths and opportunities
and/or failing to recognize competitive threats
Too much emphasis on short-term financial performance
at the expense of R&D
Too much emphasis on product and service design and
not enough on process design and improvement
Neglecting investments in capital and human resources
Failing to establish good internal communications and
cooperation
Failing to consider customer wants and needs

LO 2.2

2-8

 Mission
 Goals
 Organizational strategies
 Functional strategies

 Tactics

FIGURE 2.1
Planning and decision making
are hierarchical in organizations

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.

2-9

 Mission
 The reason for an organization’s existence

 Mission statement
 States the purpose of the organization

 The mission statement should answer the question of

“What business are we in?”

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-10

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-11

 The mission statement serves as the basis for

organizational goals
 Goals
 Provide detail and the scope of the mission
 Goals can be viewed as organizational destinations
 Goals serve as the basis for organizational strategies

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-12

 Strategy
 A plan for achieving organizational goals
 Serves as a roadmap for reaching the organizational destinations
 Organizations have
 Organizational strategies
 Overall strategies that relate to the entire organization
 Support the achievement of organizational goals and mission

 Functional level strategies
 Strategies that relate to each of the functional areas and that support

achievement of the organizational strategy

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-13

 Tactics
 The methods and actions taken to accomplish strategies
 The “how to” part of the process

 Operations
 The actual “doing” part of the process

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-14

 Core competencies

The special attributes or abilities that give an
organization a competitive edge
 To be effective, core competencies and strategies need to be

aligned

LO 2.3

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGrawHill Education.
2-15

Organizational
Strategy

Operations Strategy

Examples of Companies or Services

Low Price

Low cost

U.S. first-class postage

Wal-Mart
Short processing times

McDonald’s restaurants

On-time delivery

FedEx

High performance design
and/or high quality processing

Sony TV

Consistent quality

Coca-Cola

Differentiation:
Newness

Innovation

3M, Apple

Differentiation:
Variety

Flexibility

Burger King (Have it your way”)

Volume

McDonald’s (“Buses Welcome”)

Differentiation:
Service

Superior customer service

Disneyland

Differentiation:
Location

Convenience

Responsiveness

Differentiation:
High Quality

LO 2.4

IBM
Supermarkets; mall stores

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw2-16
Hill Education.

 Effective strategy formulation requires taking into

account:
 Core competencies
 Environmental scanning
 SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

 Successful strategy formulation also requires taking

into account:
 Order qualifiers
 Order winners

LO 2.4

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw2-17
Hill Education.

 Order qualifiers
 Characteristics that customers perceive as minimum
standards of acceptability for a product or service to be
considered as a potential for purchase
 Order winners
 Characteristics of an organization’s goods or services that
cause it to be perceived as better than the competition

LO 2.4

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw2-18
Hill Education.

 Environmental scanning is necessary to identify
 Internal factors
 Strengths and weaknesses
 External factors
 Opportunities and threats

LO 2.4

2-19

1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.
8.

Economic conditions
Political conditions
Legal environment
Technology
Competition
Customers
Suppliers
Markets

LO 2.4

2-20

1.
2.
3.
4.

5.
6.
7.

Human resources
Facilities and equipment
Financial resources
Customers
Products and services
Technology
Other

LO 2.4

2-21

 Supply Chain Strategy
 How the organization should work with suppliers and

policies relating to customer relationships and
sustainability
 Sustainability Strategy
 Work with governmental regulations and interest

groups to achieve sustainability goals
 Global Strategy
 Work with international suppliers/producers and also

with countries where the products and services are sold

LO 2.4

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill
Education.

2-22

 Operations strategy
 The approach, consistent with organization strategy,

that is used to guide the operations function

LO 2.4

Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw2-23
Hill Education.

Decision Area

What the Decisions Affect

Product and service design

Costs, quality, liability, and environmental issues

Capacity

Cost, structure, flexibility

Process selection and
layout

Costs, flexibility, skill level needed, capacity

Work design

Quality of work life, employee safety, productivity

Location

Costs, visibility

Quality

Ability to meet or exceed customer expectations

Inventory

Costs, shortages

Maintenance

Costs, equipment reliability, productivity

Scheduling

Flexibility, efficiency

Supply chains

Costs, quality, agility, shortages, vendor relations

Projects

Costs, new products, services, or operating systems

LO 2.4
Copyright ©2021 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw2-24
Hill Education.

 Quality-based strategy
 Strategy that focuses on quality in all phases of an

organization
 Pursuit of such a strategy is rooted in a number of factors:
 Trying to overcome a poor quality reputation

 Desire to maintain a quality image
 A desire to catch up with the competition
 A part of a cost reduction strategy

LO 2.4

 Time-based strategies
 Strategies that focus on the reduction of time needed to

accomplish tasks
 It is believed that by reducing time, costs are lower, quality is

higher, productivity is higher, time-to-market is faster, and
customer service is improved

LO 2.5

 Areas where organizations have achieved time

reductions:
 Planning time
 Product/service design time
 Processing time
 Changeover time
 Delivery time
 Response time for complaints

LO 2.5

2-27

 Agile operations
 A strategic approach for competitive advantage that

emphasizes the use of flexibility to adapt and prosper in
an environment of change
 Involves the blending of several core competencies:
 Cost
 Quality
 Reliability
 Flexibility

 A top-down management system that organizations can use to

clarify their vision and strategy and transform them into action
 Develop objectives
 Develop metrics and targets for each objective
 Develop initiatives to achieve objectives
 Identify links among the various perspectives
 Finance
 Customer
 Internal business processes
 Learning and growth

 Monitor results

FIGURE 2.2
The Balanced Scorecard

Source: Adapted from Robert S. Kaplan
and David P. Norton, “Using the Balanced
Scorecard as a Strategic Management
System,” Harvard Business Review
(January-Febrary 1996): 76.

LO 2.5

2-30

 Productivity
 A measure of the effective use of resources, usually

expressed as the ratio of output to input
 Productivity measures are useful for
 Tracking an operating unit’s performance over time
 Judging the performance of an entire industry or

country

LO 2.6

 High productivity is linked to higher standards of living
 As an economy replaces manufacturing jobs with lower productivity
service jobs, it is more difficult to maintain high standards of living
 Higher productivity relative to the competition leads to

competitive advantage in the marketplace
 Pricing and profit effects

 For an industry, high relative productivity makes it less

likely it will be supplanted by foreign industry

LO 2.6

Productivi ty =

Output
Input

Partial Measures

Output
;
Single Input

Multifactor Measures

Total Measure

LO 2.6

Ouput
;
Labor

Output
;
Multiple Inputs

Output
Capital
Ouput
;
Labor +Machine

Output
Labor +Capital +Energy

Goods or services produced
All inputs used to produce them

LO 2.6

Units produced:
Standard price:
Labor input:
Cost of labor:
Cost of materials:
Cost of overhead:

5,000
$30/unit
500 hours
$25/hour
$5,000
2× labor cost

What is the
multifactor
productivity?
LO 2.4

Multifactor Productivity =

Output
Labor +Material +Overhead

5,000 units  $30/unit
(500 hours  $25/hour) + $5,000 + (2(500 hours  $25/hour))

$150,000
$42,500

= 3.5294
What is the implication of an unitless measure of productivity?

LO 2.6

Productivity Growth

Current productivity – Previous productivity
100%
Previous productivity

Example: Labor productivity on the ABC assembly line was 25 units per hour in
2014. In 2015, labor productivity was 23 units per hour. What was the
productivity growth from 2014 to 2015?

Productivity Growth

23 – 25
100% = −8%
25


LO 2.6

2-37

 Service sector productivity is difficult to measure and

manage because
 It involves intellectual activities
 It has a high degree of variability

 A useful measure related to productivity is process yield
 Where products are involved
 Ratio of output of good product to the quantity of raw material
input
 Where services are involved, process yield measurement is

often dependent on the particular process:
 Ratio of cars rented to cars available for a given day
 Ratio of student acceptances to the total number of students

approved for admission

LO 2.6

2-38

Methods

Capital

Technology

LO 2.4

Quality

Management

2-39

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

LO 2.7

Drones
GPS devices
Smartphones
3D printers
Radio frequency ID tags (RFID)
Medical imaging
Artificial intelligence

2-40

Develop productivity measures for all operations

Determine critical (bottleneck) operations

Develop methods for productivity improvements

Establish reasonable goals

Make it clear that management supports and encourages productivity
improvement

Measure and publicize improvements

Don’t confuse productivity with efficiency

LO 2.7

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