Question: Process Improvement Project
For this assignment select either your own organization (State Farm Insurance) or an organization about which you know enough to review the supply chain processes and identify a process that can be improved in your sphere of influence.
Phase I: Improvement Opportunity
Write 500-750 words on improvement opportunity in your sphere of influence. Address each of the following sections:
Quality Tool Analysis
Identify your problem statement and complete a root-cause analysis. Identify which quality tools you used to identify and vet the problem.
Explain the quantitative and qualitative tools you used and provide a summary of how you arrived at your problem.
Stakeholder Analysis
Complete the interactive "Stakeholder Analysis: Winning Support for Your Projects," located on the Mind Tools website. In Step 2, select the "Interactive Screen App" hyperlink. Provide a Power/Interest Grid of your completed chart (using either a picture format or a handwritten document). In addition, provide a summary that includes considerations for all stakeholders. These considerations will form your communication plan in Part II.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
Phase II: Planning and Implementation
In Phase II of the Process Improvement Project you will be creating a project timeline to help you implement the proposed solution to the problem statement defined in Phase I. As a project leader, you will need to consider several things before you start the project. The project leader must preplan, plan, and kickoff the project.
Planning of the Project
As the project leader, write 500-750 words that address these items:
Identify which methodologies and strategies you will implement to meet your goals. Provide rationale for why you did not select some of the other methodologies and strategies.
Which business functions will be impacted by your action plan? What tactics will you use to manage implementation across business functions? What can you do to enhance collaboration/cross-functionality to ensure the success of your plan?
Timeline: Create a timeline to implement the proposed improvement to the problem and identify the critical path components.
Communication plan: Using your completed quality tools analysis and stakeholder analysis, create a communication plan for disseminating your action plan to all of the stakeholders. Which strategies do you plan to utilize and why? Your plan should demonstrate how you plan to use formal and informal communication channels to implement the plan. In addition, explain how the communication plan addresses what you are hoping to achieve with your goal.
Project Kickoff and Implementation of the Project
Successfully improving the value chain requires the willingness of required stakeholders to participate. Imagine you are presenting your project plan in a meeting to all the essential stakeholders for approval. Effective oral communication is essential in the business setting so you will need to present your project plan logically and comprehensively to the stakeholders.
Create a PowerPoint presentation (7-10 slides) specifying the problem statement, stakeholders, proposed solution, timeline, and communication plan to implement the project. Record yourself presenting the plan and then post your video using YouTube, Vimeo, or any other video site that allows you to post your video. Be sure to address the "why" and "how" in your narrative. Refer to the materials section of Topic 8 for privacy settings when using YouTube.
Phase III: Evaluation
In the final step for your plan, state in 250-300 words the metrics you will use to determine project implementation success. Please justify why you have selected those metrics. Include specific metrics that will be used to evaluate the success of the implementation. How long will the project team monitor project implementation?
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
General Project Requirements: While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.